Chapter 35, Scene 1
[Main Post: Is there anyone better at self-promotion than a certain entertainment company boss? Throwing money around is no, but using trusts to stage a cultural revival at Star Entertainment is yes.]
[1L: Can you stop keeping me in suspense and just tell me already?]
[2L: Is it the entertainment company I'm thinking of, the super popular and super rich one right now??]
[3L: Can I say this? We've been digging for almost a month and haven't found any information. It's obvious something's fishy.]
[4L: What kind of person would deliberately not register their identity at the main planet's household registration office? Is it because they have a criminal record or their money is of questionable origin? It's so hard to guess.]
[5L: plq, the wind direction is disgusting, can the poster please stop keeping us in suspense?]
[LZ: Here it comes! If it weren't for the Xing Sheng Trust scandal last week that leaked a batch of customer information, this person would probably still think they were keeping it a secret.]
In fact, most of the trust information that has been exposed is ignored by everyone, and many of the amounts are so small that there is absolutely no need to set up a trust.
However, one of the trusts, worth 1 billion yuan, was registered just three days before Mr. Qiao, an employee of an entertainment company, released a song. The beneficiary was FANGZHUO, and the beneficiary's age also matched.
The trustee is a Mr. Linqing. Household registration information shows that Mr. Fang is his son. Both of them are registered in Star 2900.
I probably don't need to explain how complicated the background of this planet is. After the explosion of the ancient planet Blue, all the natives of the original African continent migrated there and lived a primitive life for thousands of years. They still haven't entered modern society.
LINQING's registered identity is the chief of a tribe on Star 2900, but the chief of that star must remain single for life, so where does Mr. Fang come from?
Undoubtedly an illegitimate child.
In other words, the chieftain of the 2900-star tribe left a reliable inheritance of one billion to his beloved illegitimate son, Mr. FANG, before his death.
All I can say is that the illegitimate son of a certain tribal chief is really good at pretending. This family trust has already been cancelled; the money left in the family is almost gone, isn't he? Is he frantic with worry?
[118L: This backstory is so absurd it sounds like I'm talking in my sleep... Did you eat some poisonous mushrooms, OP? I suggest you go to the hospital for a checkup first.]
[119L: All the pictures match. The P3 image was probably taken directly from the official website of the local government's household registration department on planet 2908. Only those who don't believe me should get their eyes checked.]
[120L: No, I don't care about anything else, has nobody noticed that this trust has been cancelled now? Does that mean Giant Entertainment burned through 1 billion in a month and is now out of money?]
[121L: nsdd, actually, considering the money-burning situation of Grandma Taizu and the group broadcast, you can see that Brother Fang never considered the returns. He came to the entertainment industry purely for consumption, and his main focus is on spending money for fun.]
[122L: What does "cultural restoration" mean in the main post? I didn't quite understand. Isn't Fang Ge a 2900-star player?]
[123L: You mean the new short drama launched by Giant Entertainment? I'm not being a conspiracy theorist, but when they released the promotional photos last time, I felt something was off. The clothing style looked too much like the border region between Asia and Africa on the ancient planet Earth... which happens to match the household registration information posted by the original poster.]
[124L: ...What about the new short drama? If the company's cash flow is cut off, can it still be broadcast normally?]
[125L: Spending a billion in a month? I wouldn't even dare to spend Happy Beans like that. Has anyone summarized where all the money went?]
[126L: The Great Ancestor's investment alone was at least 400 million yuan, and the group broadcasting alone cost more than 200 million yuan in rent for the live broadcast room and venue. There are also miscellaneous expenses such as office building rent. It's normal that it has just been spent by now...]
But how will Giant Entertainment operate without money? I quite like the short dramas and group broadcasts that Fang Ge (Fang Ge) does.
[127L: Without Fang Ge, Xingyu would be in eternal darkness! I support the top entertainment agencies acquiring Juyu; I want to see them make cards!]
[128L: Given this situation, even if it's broadcast, it'll be a mess. Let's just keep it hidden.]
[129L: I don't want to see a half-finished product at all. Those who love to eat shit are in for a treat...]
[130L: ? ? ? Has the comment section been swayed? Do the people upstairs even have brains? Are you telling me that the illegitimate son of an African tribal chief looks like Fang Ge?]
Furthermore, if the trust only has one billion yuan in total, why spend it all so quickly? Is it because they hate money, or are they allergic to it?
[131L: ... You're the one who didn't even read the main post properly.]
Since he's an illegitimate child, he must have a bad relationship with his family. It's understandable that he wants to quickly squander the money his family left him.
[By spending money quickly to take revenge on their families in a place with such high traffic as the entertainment industry, I actually think this aligns with the main post.]
[132L: Yes, yes, yes, everything matches up. I declare Giant Entertainment a company that opposes the Qing and mourns the Ming dynasties. I forgot the beginning and the end. You have your conspiracy theories, you're right, but I don't believe them.]
[133L: The big fan is spouting conspiracy theories again, haha. The trust has been cancelled, which means all the money has been withdrawn and spent. Speechless. They'll shut up once the card is released, haha. ^^]
[134L: It's quite a pity, at least Giant Entertainment's 1 billion yuan was actually spent on production costs.]
Speaking only personally, I will support the new short drama no matter how it turns out, even if it's based on a thesis defense.
Registering your personal information as an African tribal chief is as niche as changing your WeChat address to Iceland.
Fang Zhuo stared at the original post in silence, taking a deep breath.
Very well, he not only became the illegitimate son of an African chief, but also gained a cheap father with the system's enthusiastic help.
At 9:30 a.m. the next morning, all the props were completed and the entire crew arrived at the set to start filming on time. However, everyone's eyes kept glancing towards Fang Zhuo.
The only one who knew what had happened was Deng Jiaqiang. He patted Fang Zhuo on the shoulder familiarly and joked, "Did someone open your account?"
Fang Zhuo: "Spend less time online."
If we go back to when Deng Jiaqiang first arrived in the Star Federation plane, and heard his employer's understated attack, he would probably have behaved himself for a whole day.
But Deng Jiaqiang has become much bolder now, and said with a grin, "I just heard that your cash flow has dried up, so I'm just checking in."
Fang Zhuo shrugged slightly: "Paying you a hundred more years' salary is no problem."
The production crew's turnover rate returned to normal. The various outrageous rumors circulating on StarNet were already quite different from the actual situation at Giant Entertainment. After receiving personal clarification, everyone stopped paying attention to those messy conspiracy theories.
To help the actors better immerse themselves in the story, Zhang Kaigang arranged for them to have a pivotal scene on the first day: the female lead regaining her identity and returning.
The entire No. 4 workshop was set up as a backstage card space with a silver-white theme. The space was filled with two-meter-high and one-meter-wide quadrilateral prisms, and various silver physical cards were embedded in the center of the prisms.
Cao Mao's team includes a well-known professional illustrator who designed dozens of different card illustrations specifically for this drama.
At this moment, these dazzling cards gleamed under the cover of the multifaceted prism, and the space was as mysterious as a dream core.
Blood soaked through the protagonist's clothes. He had clearly turned the tide and severely damaged the card family that had tampered with the arena and cursed Xu Ci, but he felt no joy in his victory, only endless emptiness.
Stepping into the card space that Xu Ci had created for him with his own blood, his brows remained furrowed.
Suddenly, there was a loud whooshing sound from the depths of space, followed by a violent tremor beneath his feet.
Accompanied by the resounding clang of the kettle, Xu Ci suddenly appeared at the end of the space.
But at this moment, another man appeared beside her, who turned out to be the young master of another major card-collecting family.
The man bowed his head slightly as if making an offering, holding the pot for Xu Ci with both hands.
The two stood side by side, but now there was no place for him.
As Jia Weian gestured from the sidelines to encourage the emotion, Jian Yujing quickly reviewed in her mind the performance method they had agreed upon during rehearsals.
When he looked up again, the despair in his eyes gradually faded.
He couldn't help but kneel heavily on the ground, his expression dazed, repeating the same sentence over and over:
"Xu Ci...you're still alive! You're actually still alive..."
The man next to Xu Ci simply explained, "Miss Xu was cursed by an opponent's card in the arena and had no choice but to do a hundred things for you in order to restore her identity."
"Don't flatter yourself, Yi Xingjue. She didn't come back this time because she wanted this card; she just came to retrieve the weapon stored in the card space."
Tears, which she had been trying to hold back, streamed down her cheeks. As the two people brushed past her, Jian Yujing finally couldn't help but grab their hands.
The roles were reversed, and the other person's cold gaze fell upon him from above.
He simply met that gaze and, for the first time, crushed all his pride as the heir of a prestigious family and presented it to the other person.
They were once mortal enemies in the arena, fighting each other to the death, but were temporarily bound together by a ridiculous curse.
He had suspected that Xu Ci was hiding his identity for ulterior motives, but after finding out everything, he found himself trapped in this relationship.
“I know, Xu Ci, you’re different from them. I knew it was you when you first came to the Yi family.”
"At first, I thought you were hiding your identity to steal the secrets of the aristocratic families, so I deliberately embarrassed you to make you reveal your flaws."
"Later I learned that the Yin family had done something wrong in a large number of arenas, and that you came for the curse. So my family and I devised a plan to eliminate the Yin family."
"The plan succeeded, but when I came back, I found you had disappeared."
"Xu Ci, I know you've never liked me, I've known that from the very beginning..."
He gave a self-deprecating laugh and loosened his grip.
The fabric, as thin as gauze, slid slowly from his palm like a handful of flowing water.
In the end, he didn't manage to catch anything.
"Card".
Jia Weian clapped the clapperboard in his hand.
For newcomers acting for the first time, their performance was quite unexpected.
After all, the entertainment industry is full of people with connections. Some newcomers neither listen to the assistant director nor respect filming opportunities. Compared to them, these little anchors from Juyu are simply too well-behaved.
After the performance, Jia Weian took the group to the monitor and reviewed their performance for them step by step.
It was definitely worth hiring this assistant director.
Fang Zhuo nodded slightly to Zhang Kaigang: "I'll also need Teacher Zhang's help in reviewing the later parts."
Zhang Kaigang laughed and said, "Of course. I must say, these kids have a really good work ethic. I've noticed you always manage to find these kinds of promising talents."
Fang Zhu blinked: "Maybe I'm just lucky."
He walked out of workroom number four, and Jiang Yu, who had just witnessed the entire filming process, suddenly realized:
"So this is the direction our script is going. It seems like what I wrote for Xinghan's side went a bit off... Oh right, Mr. Fang, Ruan Zihan invited me to their set this afternoon to supervise the filming. Should I go?"
"Go on, go see where they spent their money."
Jiang Yu has been traveling quite a lot lately, and once again boarded the spaceship bound for Film and Television Star No. 46.
Fifty million yuan is an overkill for a short drama, but when he arrived at the film set, he found it to be an ordinary school building.
Not to mention the exclusive card elements, even the extras are dressed in the same high school uniform, highlighting an everyday scene.
He initially thought he had come to the wrong film set—the scene seemed more like a teen drama, with two high school students jumping out at any moment, slapping each other and yelling at each other.
Guided by the staff of Xinghan, he arrived at the second floor in a daze, where they were filming a scene where the male lead was fighting a female student from an older grade.
Jiang Yu sat behind the monitor with the director, quietly observing the entire scene setup—
Just like its exterior design, the interior is also a complete replica of a high school classroom.
This place looks like a model room that was directly used as the filming location; they couldn't even be bothered to make any minor changes.
Having joined the entertainment company with President Fang, Jiang Yu is now very familiar with the first and second-tier artists and directors of Xingyu. Although he doesn't know the director next to him, the leading actress and supporting actress in the film he is currently shooting are frequent visitors to the trending searches.
One of them is a top-tier actress, and the other is a rising starlet from Xinghan's own production company. The former's salary alone costs a lot of money, so he now knows where Ruan Zihan's 50 million yuan investment went.
The camera pans up, and Ruan Zihan lets out an angry shout. He then pulls a green card, 'T', from the deck on his desk, holds the card between two fingers of his right hand, and makes an attacking gesture.
The top-tier actress opposite him made the same move. The two of them each held a card, and their hand seals looked a bit like those in an ancient costume drama. They were fighting each other from a distance with their cards.
Both of them looked very intense, their eyebrows furrowed, as they performed a tense battle of wits from a distance.
However, their movements were incredibly stiff. Their lower bodies remained motionless, while their upper bodies only moved their arms repeatedly forward and backward, their fingers gripping the card and pulling at each other as if a magnet in mid-air had attracted their fingertips.
What does that mean? Is this how cards are photographed?
This card is a bit too literal in its meaning.
As Ruan Zihan abruptly handed the card to the girl, the green card slipped from her hand. She then let out a delicate gasp, spun around a few times, and moved into Ruan Zihan's arms with some strange gait.
The camera, which had been stationary during the battle, finally started moving, making a romantic 360-degree turn around them.
The shot ultimately freezes on the two people looking into each other's eyes.
As soon as the shot ended, Liu Lianghua quickly ran to the monitor and checked frame by frame whether her shot had captured any unflattering angles.
Jiang Yu was completely stunned; the entire filming process hit him like a ton of bricks.
Seeing Ruan Zihan walking towards him, he couldn't help but ask, "Mr. Ruan, did you use small green cards as cards in the early stages?"
Ruan Zihan waved his hand dismissively: "Writer Jiang, are you new to this industry? Post-production can be photoshopped, everyone does it this way..."
"The card-drawing weapon system you designed for us was too complicated, so we changed it all to this card-based duel system."
"The entire fighting process can be handled with special effects. I know a film and television special effects company. Nowadays, all martial arts films use special effects and slow motion. You'll understand once you visit a few film sets."
"Oh, by the way, the script you gave me had too few scenes for the female lead and the second female lead. Teacher Yao and Teacher Sun weren't very satisfied. I had someone add a few romantic storylines between them and the male lead. What do you think of our company's screenwriters' work?"
Jiang Yu took the script in shock and discovered that the script he had written yesterday had been completely altered.
The male lead is still the main male lead, but the script notes say that a certain actor requested to add a few scenes, resulting in a lot of strange plot points, and even the logic between them is not very coherent.
As he read the script, several script supervisors gathered around, showering Ruan Zihan with praise.
"Teacher Ruan's performance in this scene was absolutely superb. I think even the director was shocked."
Jiang Yu turned off the script on his personal terminal and, mimicking the tone of those people, began to blindly praise them:
"This script revision is too good. The plot should be changed like this. I think it would be better to add a few more romantic storylines for the male lead."
Ruan Zihan waved his hand with satisfaction: "No, this drama can't accommodate so many people with connections."
Stepping off the set of 46 Stars, Jiang Yu took a deep breath of fresh air.
Only through comparison can he understand just how good his own company really is.
Forget about employee benefits; at least Giant Entertainment is investing heavily in making dramas.
The props and sets were all genuinely exquisite, and everyone involved in the filming never cut corners; instead, they were always worried about where their performances weren't good enough.
Although Ruan Zihan's production team has a strong cast of stars, it always exudes an inexplicable sense of perfunctoriness and routine, as if no matter what they are filming, they have to force themselves into a rigid template.
Jiang Yu rubbed her hair, feeling saddened by the fate of the script she had painstakingly created.
As he returned to the studio on Planet 399 in his spaceship, he saw from afar burly security personnel blocking a group of reporters at the entrance.
Those security guards were familiar faces from the last offline group broadcast competition. They were all over 1.9 meters tall and had muscles all over their bodies. The reporters looked like chicks that could be picked up by one hand in front of them.
Despite this, the reporters eager to capitalize on the hype persisted, remaining nearby with their live-streaming equipment.
"Hello everyone, we have now arrived at Star 399. From the star system registration information, we know that this place is contracted by Giant Entertainment, and they are filming their latest short drama in the studio behind me."
Not wanting to be spotted by reporters, Jiang Yu quickly took two steps away and hid under a huge road sign, then opened the corresponding live stream.
The controversy surrounding Mr. Fang's background is now a hot topic across the entire StarNet. The number of online viewers has already exceeded 100,000 in less than five minutes since the live broadcast started.
The comments section was a mixed bag, with all sorts of opinions expressed.
[Are you crazy? Isn't this event by invitation only? Doing this could lead to a lawsuit. While opening the boxes is illegal, the real people doing this offline are even more disgusting.]
[You think you can just let Brother Fang leave because he cares about his reputation? We support Juyu immediately calling the police and forcibly removing you!]
[Juyu is almost bankrupt, where do all these dogs come from...?]
[A little-known fact: if they maintain the invitation-only system, they'll have to charge a daily fee. Let's see how long Juyu can hold out.]
[Since you enjoy fawning over the illegitimate sons of African chieftains so much, how about we send you to star 2900 to live without internet?]
[...Whether the information is true or not is still uncertain. Tell me, where did the chief get a billion in trust funds? You couldn't accumulate that much even if you sold all 2900 stars.]
[Sorry, you actually managed to collect them. That planet has quite a lot of minerals. Every few years, the natives come out to trade minerals and gems. Don't you big fans feel ashamed? I know you guys are brainless, but you'll say anything to defend yourselves.]
[If Giant Entertainment is broke, it's broke. So many entertainment companies don't have big capital backing, yet they're still operating. I don't understand why Giant Entertainment's fans are so upset about this.]
[Who's actually emptying their bottle and who's breaking down? The comments are so hateful, it feels like they're from a completely different group watching the group's stream.]
[Can you please stop arguing? Just go in and film the whole set, and the truth will be revealed.]
[No, please don't film this! The big fans are waiting for the short drama to air so they can turn things around!]
[Are these conspiracy theories never going to end? And those who believe in the "unlucky" theory are just asking for trouble. Tell me, where does Fang Ge look like someone from ancient Africa?]
[...The big fan is still so fond of whitewashing. The natives of Planet 2900 also intermarried with aliens, okay? Now they look almost identical.]
Come on, I'll stand here and see what other angles you can use to defend this. No one's stopping you from enjoying unfinished short dramas, but trying to turn rubbish into something amazing is quite laughable.
The live stream had only been going on for seven or eight minutes when the security guards began spraying pepper spray to disperse the crowd in a cold and ruthless manner.
The reporters exchanged glances, their eyes darting towards the distant hills—
A row of high windows was opened above the studio, and the scene inside the studio could be captured perfectly from the low hill.
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