Chapter 834: Showtime
The Little Comparer didn’t think that there was anything wrong with his way of thinking. After all, everyone’s goal was to revive domestically-produced movies. Then, it wouldn’t be a problem to rely on someone like him.
Furthermore, it was indeed tiring for him to work hard on his own. He lacked manpower, money, and everything. However, with Su Yang as his backing, everything would be much simpler.
With Su Yang’s support, the production speed of his movies would increase significantly. If he could support his movie as much as “Wandering Planet”, then their debut movie, “Nezha”, might be released next year!
Thinking up to this point, the Comparer looked at Guo Fan and asked tentatively, “Director Guo, are you interested in animated films?”
Actually, before the Little Comparer started, Guo Fan had already heard some things about him from his friend. He had also guessed that the Little Comparer would be looking for Su Yang to invest in him. Therefore, when the Little Comparer started, Guo Fan did not even think about it and said directly, “Brother Comparer, I’m really not sure about this. However, I’ve known Mr. Su for a long time, and I feel that he should not have any prejudice against animated films. As long as you do well, he should be interested.
“How about this, you don’t worry about it right now since he’s going to be rather busy recently. I’ll ask him when he’s free and introduce him to you.
“Of course, you’d better give me a demo as well so that I can show him something. I feel like this way, your success rate will be much higher.”
The Little Comparer asked, “Is Mr. Su very busy?”
Guo Fan nodded. “He’s very busy. Think about it. After all, he’s the chairman of Jiadian Group and has more than ten subsidiary companies under him. He’s usually very busy.”
Shuiko nodded, indicating that she understood.
It was just that the special effects of “Wandering Planet” were too shocking, so the Little Comparer had already said that he did not bring the demo. So if he brought it out now because of the referral, it would obviously make both of them feel awkward, so the Little Comparer did not take out the clip of “Nezha” that he had brought. He only said that he would pa.s.s it to Guo Fan when he returned.
Just like that, the two of them talked about their experience in the production of the movie. Guo Fan even seriously talked about Su Yang’s achievements in the entertainment industry and his role in “Wandering Planet”. In the end, the two of them parted reluctantly.
Walking out of the theater, Guo Fan wanted to send the Little Comparer downstairs, but the moment he left the theater, he received a call from Zhao Licheng.
“h.e.l.lo, Director Guo. Are you in the office now? I’m in your office, and I want to talk to you about the release of “Wandering Planet”. Why is there no one in your office?”
Guo Fan said immediately, “Oh, right. Mr. Zhao, I was discussing “Wandering Planet” with a friend at the theater. It just ended.”
After saying that, he looked at the Little Comparer. He was about to ask Zhao Licheng to wait for a while and say that he would look for Zhao Licheng after sending off the Little Comparer, but Zhao Licheng had already heard what Zhao Licheng had said. He quickly said, “Director Guo, if you have something to do, you can go ahead first. I can leave myself.”
Guo Fan covered the phone receiver and said, “It’s so rare for you to come here today, let me send you off.”
The Little Comparer waved his hand nonchalantly. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I heard them mention “Wandering Planet”. Your movie is the most important thing right now.”
While the two of them were talking, Zhao Licheng said a few words on the other end of the phone. When he did not receive Guo Fan’s reply, he thought that the signal was bad, so he asked, “h.e.l.lo? Director Guo? Can you hear me? h.e.l.lo?”
Hearing Zhao Licheng’s “urging”, Guo Fan knew that this was a serious matter, so he could only smile apologetically at the Little Comparer. “Then I’m really sorry, Brother Comparer. I’ll treat you to a meal next time.”
“Sure, no problem.” The Little Comparer agreed and said goodbye before heading to the elevator.
Guo Fan put down his hand that was covering the microphone and said to Zhao Licheng, “Okay, Mr. Zhao. I’ll be right there. Please wait a moment.”
…
At the same time, Su Yang, Pan Zhaodi, and Jia Xiaoqian arrived at the elevator after chatting with the people on the list.
Soon, the elevator arrived, and the three of them entered.
The elevator doors closed, and the atmosphere in the elevator was a little heavy. Jia Xiaoqian looked at Su Yang, then at Pan Zhaodi. She wanted to find a topic to chat about.
Before she could say anything, Pan Zhaodi, who had been silent all this while, took the initiative to speak. “Mr. Su, you haven’t returned to the villa recently, it’s almost time for the rental to be paid.”
Su Yang blinked. “Really?”
Previously, Su Yang stayed in the hotel because w.a.n.g Jue installed surveillance cameras in the villa.
Initially, he planned to clean up the villa’s surveillance once it was empty before going back to stay. However, w.a.n.g Jiang, the Clown Sea Serpent, Sanque, Xue Ya, and the virtual servers for the “Wandering Planet” appeared one after the other, causing his return to the villa to be delayed.
Counting the days, he realized that it was indeed time to rent.
At the thought of this, Su Yang looked at Pan Zhaodi. “Let’s stop renting it. I won’t be going back to stay. You can help me choose a villa over the next few days if you have time. After staying in Shanghai for more than a year, it’s time for me to buy a house.”
If the millions of wanderers heard Su Yang’s words, they would probably want to kill him. He had been in Shanghai for more than a year and he already felt that he should buy a house? Is he still human?
However, as one of the country’s top billionaires, Su Yang did have the capital to buy a house in Shanghai. After all, he had the right to buy a house (the big boss of Shanghai had settled the household register last time) and cash. Therefore, he was only short of choosing a house.
Jia Xiaoqian came under Su Yang’s employment a little later. However, she had lived in Shanghai for many years, so she had a certain understanding of the property prices in Shanghai. Now that she saw Su Yang casually intending to buy a house and was asking his secretary to choose it, she felt her worldview being impacted.
‘Do rich people nowadays buy houses so casually?
‘Also, he’s not even looking at them himself. He’s just asking his secretary to look for it instead?
‘Is this house going to be for his secretary or himself?
‘Would he even like his secretary’s choice?’
Compared to Jia Xiaoqian, Pan Zhaodi did not think too much about it. Ever since Su Yang met her, she had a one-track mind. This also led to her being especially serious and responsible in her work. Hence, she treated this as an ordinary task given to her by Su Yang.
Although this mission might involve the unit of “100 million yuan”…
Just as the three of them were discussing the house, the elevator reached the third floor and stopped.
The elevator door opened, and a fat man with a backpack walked in.
The fat man looked like he was 1.8 meters tall. He looked like a small mountain, and he was very muscular. Plus, he had a buzz cut, so he did not look like a good person.
When she saw him entering the elevator, Pan Zhaodi took a step forward and stood in front of Su Yang, blocking him from coming into contact with the fat man.
The fat man looked at her with surprise. His eyes scanned the three inside the elevator, but he did not mind. He found a corner to hide himself.
Su Yang looked at the fat man and then exchanged glances with Jia Xiaoqian. They could tell from the other party’s eyes that he had a good impression of the fat man: he was an honest looking outsider.
One had to know that there were many elevators in the headquarters of the Jiadian Group. Su Yang was currently sitting in an elevator that could only be used by high-ranking management of M5 and above.
The purpose of this elevator was to allow the senior management to make phone calls inside the elevator without leaking the company’s secrets during the conversation. Therefore, unless there was an emergency, normal employees would not take this elevator.
Obviously, the fat man did not have any urgent matters to attend to, and he was definitely not a manager above M5. This was because people of that level would definitely know Su Yang.
In fact… Su Yang suspected that the fat man was not even from Jiadian Group.
After all, although Jiadian Group was involved in many industries, they did not have that many employees. There were only a few hundred people in the headquarters, and most of them were directly led by Su Yang.
Therefore, Su Yang and Jia Xiaoqian were able to guess the fat man’s ident.i.ty with just a small detail. He was an outsider.
Su Yang, who had seen through the fat man’s ident.i.ty, did not say anything. After all, he did not want to talk about any secrets at that moment. Therefore, he only looked at the fat man silently before s.h.i.+fting his gaze away as he waited patiently for the elevator to go down.
As the elevator descended, Little Hus’s voice rang in Su Yang’s ears. “Su Yang! Su Yang! There’s a fragrance!”
Su Yang was stunned for a moment before he took out his phone and typed a few words for Little Deeny to send to Little Hus. ‘Where’s the fragrance coming from?’
A moment later, Little Hus’s voice rang in Su Yang’s ears again. “It’s coming from the fat man’s body. He smells really good, similar to Guo Fan.”
‘Similar to Guo Fan?’
Su Yang pondered for a while.
It was rare for Little Hus to be able to sniff the potential of something or someone of his own accord. In fact, there were only a few instances. However, each time produced a very valuable project.
‘Like Guo Fan… He has a movie that would bring close to five billion yuan in box office sales and more than one billion yuan in profits.
‘So… Does Little Hus mean that this person also has a project of around 5 billion yuan or around 1 billion yuan profit?
‘Am I actually even able to find such a treasure in the elevator?’
At that moment, Su Yang felt that his luck was really bursting!
Just as Su Yang was enjoying himself, the elevator arrived at the first floor.
The door opened, and the fat man walked out of the elevator first. Then, he walked out of the Jiadian Group’s headquarters with an air of indifference.
Looking at his back, Little Hus kept calling out to Su Yang, “Su Yang! Why did you let him go?! A person like him who has that kind of fragrance is very rare!”
Su Yang smiled and typed a message. ‘It’s alright. He can’t get away.’
Then, Su Yang turned to Jia Xiaoqian and instructed, “Find out who that person is and who he met at the headquarters today. Find out with more details.”
Jia Xiaoqian was stunned for a moment before she quickly nodded. “Yes, Mr. Su.”
‘Jiadian headquarter’s building is my “special item” after I added a point onto it. All the defensive measures are super modern. If one doesn’t obtain permission to enter, outsiders would never be able to enter.
‘Hence, since the fat man could come in, it means that he’s a friend of someone in the company. With this relations.h.i.+p, it’s definitely going to be a very simple matter to collaborate with him.
‘So… No rush.
‘After all, I’m a billionaire right now, so a project with a few dozen small goals is worth nothing!’
…
The next 20 days pa.s.sed peacefully.
With the special effect promotional trailer for “Wandering Planet”, all the netizens’ att.i.tude toward “Wandering Planet” changed greatly. Some started to look forward to it, some started to flatter it, and even the more rational ones did not dare to tarnish it.
It was rare for a domestic movie to produce a sci-fi movie that was “suspected” to have the potential of being extremely popular. As long as it was a Chinese person, they would not defame it at that time.
Therefore, with the support of public opinion and the help of the two exciting promotional videos released by “Wandering Planet”, the pre-sales sales of “Wandering Planet” directly broke 400 million yuan. Before it was about to be released, it successfully overtook “The Mermaid” which was said to be emotional.
For example, “From Vegas To Macau 3” and “Journey To The West: The Bone Demon”, which were originally at the second level, had already been crushed to nothingness.
If one day, someone were to say that a movie with almost no celebrities and even the male lead being a part-time actor could crush Guo Fucheng, Gong Li, Feng Shaofeng, Chen Huilin, Fei Xiang, Shen Yang, w.a.n.g Jing, and the rest of the best actors and actresses, no one would believe them.
‘But… The “Wandering Planet” did just that.’
When these compet.i.tors saw the pre-sales for “Wandering Planet”, all of them were envious. ‘400 million yuan! No matter how many movies there were, they could not break 400 million yuan! In the end, “Wandering Planet” just got it so easily…
‘Even Master Xing’s “The Mermaid” has been suppressed!
‘So, what right does it have to have this kind of success?!’
One had to know that Master Xing had 20 years of pa.s.sion. In addition to the popularity of the previous movie, Deng Chao, Luo Zhi, Wu Yifan, and a bunch of other celebrities, as well as the gold medal supporting roles was the reason why there was such a result.
Yet, what does “Wandering Planet” have?
Wu Feng? He’s a B-list movie star. He has been in a miserable state for many years, but only “Wolf Warriors” last year managed to salvage the situation.
Zhao Jinmai? A supporting role in a children’s television series…
Su Yang? He was a part-time actor who had never even filmed a movie or TV show.
The others were not even famous.
So, could such a movie surpa.s.s “From Vegas To Macau 3”, “Journey to the West: The Bone Demon”, and “The Mermaid”?
Even though “Wandering Planet” was gaining momentum, the people in the film industry still could not believe it.
Therefore, before the movie was released, a bunch of so-called industry insiders and compet.i.tors… Bought tickets to “Wandering Planet” in advance and prepared to watch this movie that was praised by netizens.
In fact… There were quite a few people with malicious intentions who were still secretly gloating. They hoped that “Wandering Planet” would be praised too highly, and then the quality would not be able to keep up, causing their box office to collapse.
Therefore, just as the netizens were looking forward to it and the people in the film industry were doubting it, the first day of the Lunar New Year arrived silently…
New Year, China’s most important holiday.
On this day, Su Yang put down all his work and returned to his hometown. After having his reunion dinner with his parents, he put on the plainest clothes in the village the next day and went from house to house to pay his respects…
At the same time, in Shanghai, Beijing, Hangzhou, and other first-tier and second-tier cities, the fierce battle of the New Year movies had officially begun…