Chapter 50 Black Announcement
"About Love" is arguably the most anticipated film of this anniversary holiday season. The plot is quite lighthearted, telling the story of a small escort agency and a large, established escort agency whose cargo boxes unexpectedly connect. Around this strange box, the escorts encounter many amusing incidents along their journey.
This subject matter is very safe and secure, and it naturally attracts a large audience during this period when families are looking for family-friendly entertainment.
But as soon as the movie started, Tavia Yeung frowned in confusion.
No, the number one escort agency in the martial arts world has fallen into such a state of disrepair?
The entire venue was drab and gray, and the security escort agency building looked familiar to the set design of many A-list period dramas, creating a feeling of being surrounded by crowds that were hard to distinguish.
The red lanterns lining the streets looked like they hadn't been changed in months, and the ground was always covered with a layer of greasy water stains.
The wooden frame for the training weapons was a completely modern product. There wasn't a single trace of use on the surface. It looked like the props team just picked the cheapest one from the StarNet and didn't even bother to process it after buying it.
Looking into the street, which has a strong sense of depth, there are no architectural details at all; it's all a blurry, indistinct blur.
If the films produced by Giant Entertainment are infinitely close to reality, then "About Love" is immediately recognizable as a film, and one that is extremely formulaic.
It's not that the production quality is bad, it's just that she just came from a movie theater with 399 stars, and the contrast is too great.
Just as the bodyguards finished packing the boxes and their gleaming leather shoes touched the muddy ground, the movie's theme song finally began to play for the first time.
Despite the disappointments before, Yang Yi believes that Chi Yingying's creative ability is still guaranteed.
Wait, something doesn't seem right.
The atmosphere here is clearly cheerful and relaxed, but this interlude has an inexplicable sense of grandeur and heaviness, which is very similar in style to some of the interludes in "Shadow". However, it doesn't fit the plot at all here.
The background music in the movie "Giant Entertainment" seems to have been born from the plot, with every rhythm point perfectly matching the corresponding scene.
Chi Yingying's song significantly detracted from the film, making the jokes and punchlines in the script seem rather heavy.
That's not all. The rhythm of the next two interludes was finally a little more upbeat, but the quality of the compositions plummeted. The main melody kept repeating the same tune, which was no different from the brainwashing background music on the Yinxi platform.
...Yang Yi really didn't want to watch anymore. She shifted her position from side to side and accidentally made eye contact with the girl sitting next to her.
The girl glanced at the bag Yang Yi was carrying, then leaned closer to strike up a conversation:
"You also just finished watching 'Shadow' this afternoon? I understand you. After watching 'Shadow,' I really don't want to watch any other movies. The quality difference is too big. I'm going to watch 'Shadow' again tomorrow."
"Wow, you're so lucky! You actually managed to snag a 399-star interactive ticket. I heard they even gave out a lot of red envelopes at the event."
Yang Yi nodded in deep agreement and proudly showed the girl the handful of red envelopes she had just grabbed that afternoon.
A sudden "thump" sound came from the screen, interrupting their conversation.
As the savior brought in by the top escort agency in the martial arts world, Ruan Zihan finally appears in the second half of the movie. This time, he plays a famous escort who is experienced and has superb martial arts skills.
This kind of role should be in his comfort zone. A famous bodyguard should be resolute and silent, and should also have a bit of the ruthlessness from years of fighting in the martial arts world.
But Ruan Zihan's performance was completely different. Throughout the entire performance, he had a dazed feeling as if his soul had been struck by lightning, like he was sleeping in class and was suddenly called on by the teacher to answer a question. His eyes would often lose focus while he was acting.
...What happened? Why did both of Xinghan's players regress at the same time?
Yang Yi frowned as she recalled the rumors circulating online about Ruan Zihan's hallucinogenic addiction.
She's afraid her marketing account will get banned, and she's worried about how she'll write any more promotional articles.
And perhaps because she had seen clips of Xinghan's ridiculous short drama, Yang Yi now felt that Ruan Zihan was about to utter a quote at any moment when she looked at his face.
When Ruan Zihan grabbed a young bodyguard by the collar and delivered his lines, Yang Yi had already automatically added the voiceover in her mind: "Your achievements are only for admiration. In my eyes, I am the king."
Emerging from the movie theater on the main planet, Yang Yi didn't feel the relief of watching a good movie. Instead, she felt a deep sense of relief that a long torment had finally ended.
It was already 11 p.m. when she got home. She opened the new discussion section on the StarNet homepage, specially created for the anniversary of the founding of the nation. Sure enough, the number of comments about "Shadow" far exceeded those of other movies.
Where are those PR trolls who kept saying the Giant Entertainment movie would have a terrible ending before its release? Can they come out and perform again? I really want to see it!
[Let me state this upfront: the "Love Journey" hype during the pre-sale is nothing compared to "Shadow," the difference in investment is truly enormous, and this is a clear disparity in pure financial power.]
[I suggest Xinghan check the feng shui; Chi Yingying and Ruan Zihan's performances were completely off.]
[+1, not just Love and Travel, but after watching Giant Entertainment's movies, other movies just seem bland. "The Wrath of the Sea" is supposed to be a pure special effects film, but its visual effects are less than half as good as "Shadow".]
[Can the industry alliance do something? Isn't there an anti-money laundering treaty? I remember it stipulates that a detailed breakdown of production costs must be published on the day a film is released online.]
It's almost time, why haven't the details for any of the eight movies scheduled for this release been released yet? Is one of them involved in money laundering?
[Uh, everyone's probably waiting for Juyu to release the details first, maybe because they're afraid of being humiliated by being instantly killed...]
Breaking news! Latest battle report from the front lines! Giant Entertainment has just released a detailed breakdown, with total production costs reaching 2.992 billion;
"About Love" grossed 822 million, "The Longest Nite" grossed 1.154 billion, "The Vanished Portrait" grossed 975 million, and the others grossed around 600-700 million.
[After reviewing the details, I realized that Juyu's main actors are all newcomers. Aside from their salaries, the production costs for set design, props, and special effects alone are at least five times higher than other companies. This is a clear winner; Juyu won easily.^^]
I remember that the Star Federation government collects a special support fund tax on movie box office revenue. After splitting the revenue with the theaters, the production company can get about 20%-22% of the total box office.
With such a large investment, did Brother Fang already know before filming even started that "Shadow" would gross over 10 billion?
Is it possible that Brother Fang doesn't care about losing a few hundred million?
What you said makes me a little sad, so I've decided to skip the 20 RMB off coupon for orders over 30 RMB when ordering takeout tonight.
[Dude, don't act impulsively!]
[It feels like Shadow's marketing is starting to pick up speed. Why are all the martial arts choreographer accounts I've seen in other shows promoting this movie? Do they even appear in the plot?]
Twenty yuan for a movie ticket is still money. Are there any honest people who haven't received any money from Juyu Entertainment who can tell me if it's good or not?
[It's the first time I've seen so many famous action choreographers in the same production.]
Good seats in all the giant screen cinemas across the Star Federation are almost sold out within three days. Even the newly renovated cinemas on my remote hometown have been revitalized by this movie. If you don't grab tickets now, you won't be able to see it this week... I envy you having eyes that have never seen a shadow play.
[Breaking news!! Juyu Entertainment just released a four-minute highlight reel of Shadow. Are there any content creators who can provide commentary? I'd like to see some analysis to relive the experience.]
Yang Yi's fingers were practically smoking from the effort; she was cutting them.
No film script had ever been so difficult for her to edit.
In the past, every movie had its shortcomings. Special effects movies often had weak plots, and movies with strong plots were usually small-scale productions lacking large-scale scenes. But "Shadow" is different. It is a hexagonal warrior without any flaws.
Yang Yi sat on the stool for a long time, finally managing to produce a bizarre mess.
Although bloggers who edit videos cannot include original footage, they can directly use footage from official rough cuts, behind-the-scenes clips, and trailers. When other plot points are involved, she uses animated stick figures from public stock footage as substitutes.
At 6 PM the next day, during the peak traffic time of the day, Yang Yi simultaneously posted this plot commentary, which was used to smear Juyu, on marketing accounts on three different platforms.
The commentary lasted four and a half minutes, half the length of her previous videos. The main screen displayed movie-related videos, while she herself appeared in the lower right corner to comment.
"Hello everyone, this is Yizai, here to help you avoid any pitfalls for free. There's been a lot of buzz online about Giant Entertainment's new movie lately, with comments asking me to do a review."
"Unlike many people online, I think this movie doesn't deserve its explosive 9.3 rating on Douban at all."
"I'm going to talk about its shortcomings from several aspects, such as special effects and directing. Can you guys help me by typing 'protect' in the chat?"
"First of all, there are a lot of holographic effects in the film, which I think is unnecessary. It feels like pure showing off wealth and has no practical meaning at all."
As Yang Yi read her script without flinching, she stared intently at the realistic plant growth effects on the screen, her gaze unconsciously becoming mesmerized. She quickly snapped back to reality and switched the view again.
"Also, the film is filled with a lot of wide-angle shots of large scenes, which are indeed very impressive, but from a cost perspective, isn't it a bit too wasteful?"
"Director Zhang could have easily replaced these wide-angled scenes with more focused, detailed shots. It seems like his directing skills have declined significantly."
As she was speaking, she suddenly started laughing, and quickly wiped her face hard.
"Finally, there's Tang Zhuolin's performance. This time, the character he portrayed was too different from his previous roles. Judging from the pre-sale box office, his box office appeal is far less than it used to be. Although the character portrayal was very groundbreaking, the audience didn't seem to buy it."
At the end of the video, she took out the gift bag she received at the 399 Star offline movie screening and planned to criticize Giant Entertainment's gift on the spot.
These kinds of souvenirs usually don't cost much, and there's always something to complain about.
However, her expression became increasingly surprised as the video progressed. First, she pulled out a full-size skincare set from a major brand, then a 50ml unisex perfume, and finally a sports watch with the Giant Entertainment logo.
Unable to suppress it, Yang Yi couldn't hide the smile on her face at all.
She initially tried to force a smile, but as the upward curve became more pronounced, she could only cover the lower half of her face and wryly complain with her eyes crinkled:
"The gifts from the self-operated cinema on Juyu 399 Star are not very thoughtful, so don't go there, hehehe."
Laughter dribbled from the corners of his mouth like saliva, and the recording abruptly stopped.
Topics related to Giant Entertainment's films are currently generating huge traffic. This video went viral as soon as it was uploaded to various platforms, accumulating thousands of comments in just a few days.
[A video suspected to show early human left and right hemispheres battling each other has surfaced, with the left brain seemingly focused on making money from a client, while the right brain can't help but chuckle at the prospect of a huge gift.]
[I feel like I'm already blown away by Giant Entertainment's films, but I have to make videos because I've already accepted a commercial order.]
[Didn't the lead writer laugh out loud while writing the draft? Shouldn't you listen to what you're writing? "Feels like pure flaunting," "Large-scale scenes are such a waste of resources"—you must have racked your brains for all that complaining!]
[The facial expressions and the script weren't very well coordinated this time. I caught the main character looking away from the screen several times. I suggest they practice their acting next time.]
[Chinese teacher, now I finally understand what "appreciation in disguise" means.]
[No, no, please stop criticizing Teacher Tang's fans for not buying pre-sale tickets. Most of our fan base consists of uncles and aunts in their fifties and sixties. We don't know how to use the virtual reality app at all; we buy tickets offline directly QAQ]
One of our group members is a super-powerful CEO who booked two screenings, so he can treat everyone to a free second viewing!
[Why are even the marketing accounts switching sides? How come the main contractor has two gift bags? It seems like they're secretly misappropriating the client's funds for a second printing.]
I'm a little curious about how much money Brother Fang paid Old Tang and the other action directors this time. I've never seen these old men promote things so vigorously.
Their combined network covers most of the entertainment industry; these past few days, every time I open the StarNet homepage, it's filled with various celebrities forwarding and promoting their posts.
[Why didn't they include my MC in this forced and unnecessarily吐槽 (tu cao, a Chinese internet slang term for roasting or criticizing) video? Do they know there's really nothing to criticize about the lead actors and screenwriter?^^]
Sitting in the cinema's monitoring room, Fang Zhuo clicked to close the system's live stream.
Since the movie was released, he has come here every day to broadcast for a short time, and he can get some system points as a reward.
The film "Shadow" grossed over 9 billion yuan in just five days after its release.
Based on the current upward trend, it could not only become the box office champion of this most competitive anniversary holiday season in history, but also has the potential to challenge for the all-time box office champion of the entire prime-time period.
Major box office media outlets unanimously believe that the final box office of this film by Giant Entertainment will be at least 26 billion yuan, making it a rare milestone film that achieves both critical and commercial success.
He already had over 10 billion yuan in hand, and now he has received nearly 100 billion yuan in rebates in just five days.
Fang Zhuo opened the system panel and recharged himself with six months of survival time in one go.
The previously somewhat expensive survival days have now only deducted a negligible amount from the account balance, and the system immediately refreshed its notification—
[Host's current remaining survival days: 272]
[Having survived more than the system's recommended healthy survival time of 40 days, the random disease condition does not apply.]
[Company's current reputation value: 65, matching the title 'Renowned']
[Congratulations, host! You have obtained the rare title 'Gu King']
[No mercy, no luck, you are the most ruthless, fastest, and most cunning genius hunter. You fought your way out of a competitive arena where wolves and tigers lurked at both ends. You are the King of Gu.]
[This title is awarded upon winning a commercial competition with an initial capital pool exceeding 5 billion.]
[Investment Target Number Seven: Cen Yanhuai]
[Initial valuation: 5290]
[Current Value Assessment: 6,750,000]
[The return on investment has exceeded 100 times. Based on the settlement results, investment slot number ten has been opened for the host. Please keep up the good work!]
[Investment Target Number 8: Ning Li]
[Initial valuation: 14200]
[Current valuation: 167,000]
[The return on investment has reached tenfold; this section can be freely unbound.]
[Recent livestream earnings: 105 points, two basic medical pills, and one short-term stamina pill]
[Livestream Level Calculation: lv5]
[Reach level 5 to receive a special card reward - Dimensional Employee Card]
[You can transform any carbon-based creature bound to this card into a company employee across dimensions, and you can take that employee with you out of the original world.]
Fang Zhuo opened the system inventory; now he only needed one more blind box to start a ten-pull.
But he didn't intend to strike while the iron was hot and achieve more. Now that he had plenty of funds and time, it was time to cause Ruan Zihan some trouble.
"Shadow" practically emptied the entire prime-time box office. Theaters reacted incredibly quickly, increasing its screening share from 33% to over 55% the very next day, squeezing the survival space of other films to the extreme.
The other seven films generally grossed less than 1 billion yuan in the first five days, and their final box office is expected to be around 3 to 4 billion yuan.
Based on current box office trends, apart from two smaller animated films that can barely recoup their costs, all live-action films have suffered a crushing defeat in comparison to "Shadow".
Based on the box office revenue of these live-action films, they couldn't even cover the pure production costs, let alone marketing and promotion expenses.
The other major companies have relatively strong financial backing and haven't yet shown signs of going crazy online; the directors and lead actors are also in stable mental condition.
As one of the main investors in "About Love", Star Media is relatively small in size among the more than ten companies that have entered the prime-time slot.
Ruan Zihan repeatedly showed his displeasure at roadshow events, and every few hours he would repost a promotional post on his personal account, almost as if he were directly posting a message with a picture saying "Xinghan Media wants to make money".
Having been swindled out of tens of millions by group streaming and then losing everything on short dramas, Fang Zhuo could guess that the other party had few cards left to play.
Fang Zhuo opened the chat interface on his personal terminal and sent a message directly to Jiang Yu: [Where is the person who threw sulfuric acid at Tong Qinglu at the meeting?]
Jiang Yu: [He has been transferred to a federal prison and sentenced to three years and four months.]
[Where are his family members?]
Upon receiving an address on a remote planet, Fang Zhuo immediately piloted his spaceship to a rural hospital on that agricultural planet.
In the Star Federation, where productivity was already highly developed, he didn't know of anywhere more dilapidated than this rural hospital in front of him.
Despite being called a hospital, this place is more like an old, shady underground clinic.
The walls were covered with accumulated brownish-black grime, the nurses looked distracted, and there were only a few makeshift beds for IV drips in the room.
The prisoner's family member that Fang Zhuo was looking for was lying on one of the beds. She was wearing a pair of ill-fitting military green rubber shoes, her face was pale, and her head was shaking rhythmically.
"What do you want from me? I know nothing about my man, I know nothing about anything..."
Fang Zhuo looked around. There wasn't even a fresh air system here, and the air was filled with the smell of medicine that was evaporating due to the stuffy heat.
He took off his coat and draped it over his arm: "That boss didn't pay you much of the balance, did he? If you're worried about retaliation, I have a dedicated security team here."
"Don't worry, that boss won't be able to retaliate against you anytime soon."
"Ten million. I need your husband's chat logs or transaction screenshots with the boss who instructed him to throw acid, or any evidence that can prove the boss's identity."
The prisoner's family member was stunned for a moment, his head still moving rhythmically, and even his lips were trembling.
Fang Zhuo continued to raise the stakes: "Twenty million."
"Big boss, I'll give you whatever records you want."
The family member quickly climbed off the bed, repeatedly making a gesture of prayer with hands clasped together.
Actually, she wanted to agree when the price was raised to ten million, but the big boss raised the price too quickly, and she didn't even have time to react.
She doesn't usually go online and doesn't know who this new big boss is, but she knows that he is much richer than the one who ordered her man to throw sulfuric acid.
The evidence was preserved even more clearly than Fang Zhuo had anticipated.
The screen recording of the chat history the woman gave him also included clips of him clicking into Ruan Zihan's personal information interface. The prisoner had even made electronic authentication for all his transactions and chat history, just in case he didn't get paid after finishing his work for the boss.
"The boss initially paid a deposit of 300,000 yuan, promising to pay the remaining 2 million yuan after the job was done, but so far I've only received 250,000 yuan..."
The woman wiped away her tears: "I communicated with his assistant, and they said that if I released the evidence, they wouldn't even give me the rest of the money. They also told me that if it got out, they would find someone to deal with me."
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry. As you can see, our lives are really hard, otherwise we wouldn't have done such a thing."
With a barely audible sigh, Fang Zhuo sent a message to the security captain, asking him to send a team to this remote planet.
He then asked Jiang Yu to help contact the credit trading department of Haifeng Securities, so that Haifeng could help him lock in all the securities of Xinghan Media circulating in the market in advance.
Xinghan Media is now worth over two billion yuan and appears to be thriving.
Ruan Zihan's personal shareholding accounts for the vast majority of the shares, which means that if he wants to withdraw, he can withdraw more than 1 billion yuan of his wealth at any time.
Now Fang Zhuo wants to turn Xinghan Media's stock into worthless pieces of paper.
By borrowing other stocks from the market through a securities company, selling them, and then buying them back within a specified time, short sellers can profit from the difference in stock price during that period.
Haifeng Securities helped him lock up about 30% of Xinghan Media's shares. In addition to the 90% margin paid to the brokerage, the transaction was worth a little over 1.2 billion yuan.
In other words, as long as this scandal-ridden short-selling report can cause Xinghan's market value to plummet, Fang Zhuo can profit more than 600 million yuan from it.
It's a pity that this money didn't come with a tenfold return.
But turning your opponent's more than one billion into six hundred million in your own hands, isn't that a pleasant thing?
In fact, short selling is not without risk, and the risk is much higher than going long on a stock.
The maximum profit from short selling is only equivalent to the market value of these stocks. However, if Xinghan's stock price rises instead of falling during this period, Fang Zhuo will have to pay for the increase, which has no upper limit, and the potential loss could be astonishing.
Fortunately, he has sufficient funds at hand, so even if Xinghan Media's stock rises against the trend, he has enough capital to cut his losses and leave the market.
This was not the most risky investment Fang Zhuo had ever made.
Yi Dian Dian watched in utter awe as he completed the communication with the securities company and the third-party reporting agency; the little ball of light in her mind transformed into two enormous, blinking eyes.
[Host, your operation is too complicated. I don't quite understand. Are you trying to bankrupt Ruan Zihan completely and then make a quick buck off him?]
Fang Zhuo had already returned to the villa and said calmly, "[That's one way to understand it. It's normal if you didn't understand; perhaps the hosts you bound to before didn't do this kind of operation.]"
Yi Dian Dian was a little embarrassed: [Host, I feel like the rule that the Money Spreading System can only invest in physical concepts is a bit limiting for you.]
Fang Zhuo replied noncommittally, "[Is that so? If virtual investments in the financial market could yield tenfold returns, my assets would probably have been on the Star Federation's rich list months ago.]"
Yi Dian Dian chuckled foolishly: [Then it seems there's some merit to the main system's slightly restrictive policies.]
After finishing his conversation with Yi Diandian, Fang Zhuo received a message from Jiang Yu:
[Mr. Fang, the nominations for the Golden Tripod Awards are out. Our film received nominations for eight awards: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, Best Art Direction, Best Music, and Best Film. We've almost won all the nominations, and we even trended at number one on social media.]
The Golden Tripod Awards are the most prestigious film awards in the Star Federation, held every two years, with the awards ceremony conveniently scheduled for the New Year.
This timing coincides with the anniversary celebrations, so the jury often takes into account outstanding films released during prime time. "Shadow" just happened to catch this wave.
The New Year's holiday lasts for five days, and many people will simply take annual leave and combine it with the more than twenty-day holiday of the Federation Day. This time of year is the time when the entire Star Federation has the most concentrated traffic.
I reckon that in a few more days, the third-party investigation agency will be able to finish writing the short-selling report.
Fang Zhuo replied to Jiang Yu with a message: [Ask the organizers for a few more spots, I'll go too.]
He plans to give Ruan Zihan a big gift at the New Year's Eve celebration—
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