Chapter 265: Fake dramas must be performed seriously to have box office success

I returned to the company in the afternoon and had a good sleep.

I slept until the sun went down, then got up, washed up, and went down to the fifth floor for dinner. I bumped into Qing Ruo, who brought her bowl over and sat at the same table with me. She smiled and said, "Finally, you've settled it. I'll treat you to a meal some other day."

"Forget it. I've been to the Hongmen Feast, and I'm still scared."

"Is mine also a Hongmen Banquet?"

"I won't even attend the banquet. I need to have a good rest for ten days."

She rolled her eyes at me.

I went back to my room to read for a while. The doorbell rang. I opened the door and saw it was Mr. Cao. I quickly boiled some water and poured some tea for him to sit down.

Mr. Cao blushed and said, "Mr. Wan, I misunderstood. I lack experience in grassroots work and didn't realize this was a strategy. I thought we really weren't going to develop the business."

I smiled nonchalantly and said, "Mr. Cao, there's nothing I can do. I'm sorry to have wronged you. If you had known at the time that this was a strategy, you wouldn't have resigned."

"I have to resign to achieve this result?"

"The other party is not stupid either. They also want to find out whether the company is just bluffing or really going to do it.

Dongli Township isn't far from us, and the company has people from those four villages. If they get under our skin, we'll be in a passive position. This is called acting out a fake show.

For example, when an actor is acting with an opponent, there's a scene in the script where the actor slaps the opponent in the face. It's just a show, but the actor is worried that the opponent won't be able to express that kind of anger, so he actually slaps the opponent. Then, the opponent's expression of surprise, anger, and momentary bewilderment is remarkably real."

Mr. Cao said happily, "I understand what you mean. If I act very calmly, people will think I'm acting."

"Yes, even the people in the company mistakenly believed you were really leaving. Then the feedback would be true, proving that the company's decision-makers were divided, the person in charge had resigned, and Rising Sun was determined to scrap the Bainiao Lake project. You would call Secretary Wei to explain your stance, and even mobilize them to cause trouble. You're leaving anyway. The company doesn't respect you, so you don't have to respect it either."

His face flushed red.

I said, "That's a good call. This drama is real."

Mr. Cao said with some shame, "I was wrong to slam the door, and I went too far with what I said. Please forgive me."

I smiled faintly and said, "Boss Cao, I don't care about any position, and I don't want this kind of corporate life. The only happy life I ever had was the five years I spent with my master.

When they have business, they work on it. When they don't, they let their imaginations run wild, chatting about everything from ancient times to the present, from China to the West. That's the kind of life I yearn for."

He also sighed, "I've wanted to live that kind of life, but, as someone said online, the average Chinese person is only in their 70s. Marry at 30, and pay off your mortgage over 40 years. There aren't many days in your life where you can make your own decisions."

I nodded and said, "Yes. The average worker pays off a mortgage over 40 years. Even for people like us with higher incomes, if we want to buy a bigger house, a nicer car, and upgrade our lifestyle, we still can't save much. Even if we have some extra money and buy a second house, we'll still be living on borrowed money for the rest of our lives."

Having reached Mr. Chen's level, I could have stopped and traveled around to enjoy life, but if I left this position, all I would have left was money, and I wouldn't even be able to help arrange jobs for the children of my relatives and friends."

The two of them were having a great time chatting. Then Mr. Chen called. We had to call it a day, and Mr. Cao got up and left.

When I walked into Mr. Chen's room, he made an exception and poured me tea personally. After sitting down, he stared at me closely, as if he didn't know me.

I blushed because of his stare.

He shook his head, looking incredulous. After a long pause, he said, "Shanhong, you used to consult your master about fortune-telling and feng shui, but you had never experienced these complex, grassroots matters. How come you're so experienced?"

I laughed and said, "I learned it from a book."

"Learned from books? I've only heard people say that if you read too many books you become a bookworm. Good for nothing, even a bit pedantic. That's why many people don't like scholars."

I smiled calmly. "I've read a book about Hu Linyi, a prominent official in the late Qing Dynasty. He was sent by the imperial court to serve as the prefect of Zhenyuan, Guizhou. That's the tourist city of Zhenyuan today."

"Zhenyuan was a remote place at the time, with many bandits. They were divided into several factions. Before Hu Linyi, every prefect didn't last long. They were either demoted or transferred to the most remote areas."

Mr. Chen said, "They didn't suppress the bandits?"

I nodded and said, "Yes, no one has completely eradicated the bandit problem."

"Will Hu Linyi go there to deal with the bandits?"

"No, Mr. Hu doesn't care about these things. He sits in the government office drinking every day."

"Drinking alone?"

"Not really. He went to talk poetry and prose with local gentlemen. Several bandit gangs didn't take the new prefect seriously. Hu Linyi certainly didn't go to suppress the bandits. He even invited a bandit leader to drink with him through local gentlemen and made friends with him.

The bandit leader wasn't afraid, so he just came. Hu Linyi gave him some guns and appointed him to act as his agent to suppress the bandits. When this bandit group had almost finished fighting with others, he started to stir up conflicts with several other bandit groups.

Anyway, his job was to stir up conflict between the bandits, and only when several bandits had fought each other to the bitter end would he lead his team to deal with the last remaining bandit group."

Mr. Chen couldn't stop laughing after hearing this. You just stir up conflicts and then clean up the mess.

I said seriously, "I'm just using an analogy. I'm just learning some methods from the ancients. You can't compare the masses to those ancient people. I'm just finding a way to draw analogies from them."

Mr. Chen said, "Shanhong, you are a very wise person. You have also inspired me. When I recruit people in the future, I should recruit people with practical talents."

I thought about it and said, "It's mainly because this project is special and requires dealing with all kinds of people at the grassroots level. As for other positions, it's better to recruit college graduates. It's just a matter of rotating them more and giving them more responsibilities. That's how we can discover talent."

The two talked for a while, and around nine o'clock, Mr. Chen said, "You should go back and rest."

I returned to the room and just closed the door when Director Shen called and said he would come over.

I said, "Okay. In the Rising Sun."

I took a shower, rested for a while, and then I arrived.

The two sat down to drink tea. Director Shen gave a thumbs up: "Amazing calculation, Director Ding is indeed promoted."

I smiled and said, "Maybe you have some hope."

He hurriedly asked what to do next.

I said, "Four words: hold your ground. With Director Ding in power, Director Pi will continue to pester him. He'll complain everywhere. Director Ding won't be idle either, and will do his utmost to suppress Director Pi, and conflicts will erupt.

You must be a person in the Peach Blossom Spring, not caring about other people's affairs, and we will talk about it when the time comes."

"What kind of situation will this create?"

"Play a game."

Shen Chu understood immediately. Write the word "chaos".

I laughed and said, "It will be a blood transfusion."

He was startled and asked hurriedly, "How can a single word like 'chaos' lead to a blood transfusion?"

I calmly explained to him: The original meaning of the word "luan" is not chaos, disorder, disturbing the enemy, or lack of order. These are all derived meanings.

The original meaning of this technique is to use both hands to organize the scattered silk threads on the rack. Organizing the silk threads means combing them. Untie any knots. If the knots can't be untied, discard those strands or cut them and tie them again.

This means that if there's a knot that can't be untied, it will be discarded and cut. The only thing you need to adhere to now is not to be that thread. Go to work when you should, and leave when you should. Stay away from people like Xiang Sanqiu.

"Which one is towards the three balls?"

"Xiang Dehui, he has three balls connected together."

Director Shen laughed heartily and said, "Your ability to generalize is even better than your ability to guess words."