From Becoming Penguin's Major Shareholder to Building an Entertainment Empire

Note that this book is a slow-burn novel, and it will become increasingly exciting as the story progresses.

It starts from 2002, beginning at the Beijing Film Academy, and starting with the H...

Chapter 689 Artist Development Path

"Huh? What happened? Tell me quickly!" Zeng Li's gossip instincts were ignited.

Regarding Yan Po, some say he's incredibly lucky with women, as his ex-wife, ex-girlfriend, and current wife are all stunning beauties. Others say he's a scumbag, that he made his fortune off his ex-wife, cheated on his ex-girlfriend, and is now happily married to his current wife.

First of all, Yan Po was indeed quite lucky.

Yan Po's parents were both artists, and influenced by them, Yan Po loved painting from a young age and dreamed of becoming a painter, feeling that it was something he could do for a lifetime.

So after graduating from vocational school, he chose to go to France in 1990 when he was 21 years old.

In France, Yan Po studied art and design at the Sorbonne University and the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs.

Yan Po spent nearly ten years in France. After returning to China in 2000, he worked for an advertising company in Shanghai. It was in that year that he met Mei Ting.

Yan Po and Mei Ting met at a friend's dinner party. They fell in love and traveled to France together. When Mei Ting was filming in Shanghai, he flew from Beijing to visit her on set. It was very romantic. Three months later, they got married.

In fact, this marriage was not well-regarded from the beginning, and both families opposed it when the two were deeply in love.

After Yan Po got together with Mei Ting, his ambitions changed. He felt that painting was no longer enough to express his emotions, and he developed a strong interest in the media, wanting to pursue a career in performing arts. In short, he felt that since his wife was an actress and a big star, he naturally wanted to take advantage of her and make some money off her.

So he wrote the screenplay for "Aspirin," and to support his dream, Mei Ting invested all of her savings of more than 2 million yuan.

At the time, one of Mei Ting's seniors reprimanded her for this and expressed his disdain for Yan Po. He said that Yan Po was willing to let his wife take risks to invest in his career, and the senior looked down on him, predicting that the day the movie was finished would be the day they broke up.

Mei Ting had tested Yan Po's waters, but at that time they were deeply in love, and although there was pressure, they were willing to share it. It seems she was out of her mind, completely blinded by greed.

As expected, "Aspirin" was a niche art film, and its box office performance was disappointing. Mei Ting's investment did not yield a corresponding return. However, Yan Po was nominated for several awards, including Most Popular Director and Film at the 13th College Student Film Festival.

Yan Po became famous; he became a rising star among Chinese directors and was hailed as a "genius director."

The husband, an artist, became a director, and the wife, an actress; they were originally a perfect pair.

Yan Po himself also felt that it was good for the two of them to be in the same film crew, so they could work together and see each other every day.

But once we actually worked together, we discovered that the reality was not what we had imagined at all, and it wasn't a good thing.

In 2005, Yan Po became the director of "New Marriage Era" with the strong recommendation of Mei Ting and Wang Jinhua. However, because he was a new director and not from a professional background, the producer Zhu Zhibing and the lead actress Liu Ruoying did not trust him.

Perhaps that's why Yan Po was so eager to prove himself. On set, he was critical and nitpicky about Mei Ting's performance, completely disregarding her feelings.

In one of the crying scenes, Mei Ting's emotions were off, so he publicly criticized her: "How can you be an actress? You can't even cry properly. You're not in this scene. Get out of here! Disappear!"

One can imagine Mei Ting's state of mind at the time. Later, during the promotional activities for the drama, Yan Po also expressed his dissatisfaction with his married life, and rumors of their divorce spread like wildfire.

In 2006, Mei Ting officially responded to the public that she and Yan Po had indeed divorced, but the two remained friends.

Yan Po is grateful to Mei Ting, saying, "Without Mei Ting, I would definitely have taken many detours as a director."

But it's a pity that we didn't make it to the end.

Later, Yan Po met Li Xiaoran, and the two began a thrilling love affair.

Why is it so thrilling? Because of this relationship, Yan Po had his tendons severed by someone sent by Li Xiaoran's ex-boyfriend, and he was still alive when the ex-boyfriend ran away to Hong Kong.

"It is said that Mei Ting wanted to promote her husband and pulled a lot of strings to get him the director of the new wedding era. However, he not only did not appreciate it, but also embarrassed Mei Ting on set, making her lose face and even appearing in the media."

Zeng Li was furious when she heard this.

"How can this person be like this? It's one thing to live off a woman, but to criticize someone who genuinely cares about him?"

Qin Hailu shrugged: "He ran into a scumbag. He wanted to live off a woman, had a good reputation, and wanted to prove himself. He's not from an academic background, his family is poor, and he still wants to make a name for himself in this industry. He's delusional."