Ye Zhou’s throat felt dry as he grappled with the bewildering realization that he had suddenly become wealthy. It took him more than ten seconds for his stunned mind to resume functioning.
“He rounded it up? How much did he add?”
The financial advisor smiled slightly and replied, “Just over 1.2 billion.”
His bold thoughts were confirmed, and Ye Zhou almost cried. His emotions became so complex that he couldn’t express them in words, and even long after the call ended, he still couldn’t recover from the immense shock.
His dazed appearance struck the investor’s representative as the look of someone questioning life after being denied investment.
Clearly having anticipated this outcome, the panic in the representative’s eyes faded with Ye Zhou’s reaction, replaced by schadenfreude and smug satisfaction.
The investor’s representative drained his teacup and sneered, “It’s good for young people to have ideas, but when your abilities can’t support your ambitions, it’s all just nonsense.”
These crude and unpleasant words, dripping with mockery, would upset anyone who heard them.
But Ye Zhou seemed not to hear, still sitting there in a daze, his expression unchanging from start to finish.
Seeing Ye Zhou so dejected, the representative shook his head smugly and said, “Failure isn’t scary. What’s scary is not knowing where you failed. I won’t be hard on you. Just apologize respectfully, go back and persuade Director Sang to abandon that notion, and we’ll consider this matter closed.”
These words finally snapped Ye Zhou back to reality. After a moment, he slowly said, “No need. I’ve already found an investor.”
The representative didn’t believe him at all, thinking Ye Zhou was just saving face. His eyes grew even more scornful.
“Your abilities aren’t impressive, but your mouth sure is tough.” Smiling, he pressed on, “So, how much is this investor of yours willing to invest?”
Ye Zhou calmly replied, “Not much. We’ll start with 700 million.”
The investor’s representative: ??
Before he could react, Ye Zhou glanced at his watch. “Sorry, I have some business to attend to, so I’ll take my leave.”
With that, Ye Zhou strode towards the door without sparing the man another glance.
At the doorway, as if suddenly remembering something, he added, “If your company plans to withdraw its investment, just handle the handover procedures with our finance department. As for the breach of contract penalty, you can transfer it directly to them.”
“Such a large company as yours surely won’t care about this small penalty, right?”
Ye Zhou smiled, waved at the stunned representative, and said cordially, “Goodbye.”
Long after Ye Zhou had left, the investor’s representative remained dazed. He stared at the closed door in disbelief, unable to accept that Ye Zhou had actually walked out.
He glared at the door until his eyes ached, waiting in vain for Ye Zhou to turn around.
The representative stormed out of the lounge, deciding to keep Ye Zhou in suspense by not visiting the set for a few days. He refused to believe Ye Zhou wouldn’t panic without funds in place.
He eagerly anticipated Ye Zhou coming to apologize, determined to teach the young director a lesson about his place in the world.
However, a week passed after their unpleasant parting without Ye Zhou’s apology.
Instead, the representative received unexpected news.
“What did you say? The crew started filming?!” The representative was eating breakfast when he heard this. Shocked, he knocked over his porridge bowl, spilling hot porridge across the table and onto his pajamas. He jumped up, frantically patting at the scalding liquid, looking utterly disheveled.
His reaction was understandable. The call came from a friend, who was the producer sent by the company to the “The Most Beautiful” crew. They were on the same side, which explained the representative’s recent arrogance.
The producer, who had been upset all morning, explained what happened. “This morning, I was blocked outside the studio. My work ID failed repeatedly, and facial recognition and fingerprint scans all showed errors.”
“At first, I thought the machine was broken. I waited for ages, seeing other staff enter easily while I was the only one who was denied access.”
“Later, Director Ye arrived. After hearing the situation, he smiled and told me that the film’s investor had changed, so all Huangtian personnel had their access revoked. He also said that these matters had been communicated to you in advance. What is going on exactly??”
The Huangtian financial representative stammered, unable to form a coherent response. He was stunned by Ye Zhou’s decisive and uncompromising actions.
“Who’s the new investor? It’s just a documentary. Even though it’s Director Sang Huaining, you know his health condition. Ye Zhou will do most of the work, and his industry reputation is poor. The quality likely won’t be high. Besides us at Huangtian, considering our history with Director Sang, who else would invest in this film?”
“Are investors supposed to be philanthropists? It’s obvious that they will lose money. Who else but us at Huangtian would be willing to throw money away like this for charity? Even if it’s for Sang Huaining’s name, he’s getting on in years. He hasn’t fully recovered from his recent illness. I heard from Mr. Wei that he might only have a couple of years left. After that…”
He left the rest unsaid, but the producer understood. After all, this matter had been discussed during company meetings.
Sang Huaining’s health, his ability to continue filmmaking, and his potential to generate future profits for the company had been debated multiple times in Huangtian’s internal meetings.
Given Huangtian’s many years of cooperation with Sang Huaining, he initially proposed a budget of 130 million. Before his severe illness, Huangtian had agreed. But after Sang Huaining’s hospitalization and recovery, Huangtian changed its tune.
They slashed the budget from 130 million to 70 million. Director Sang understood the reasons all too well.
But Director Sang was naturally gentle, and Huangtian’s CEO was his long-time collaborator and friend. When they claimed lack of funds, even suspecting their calculations, Director Sang did not say anything. He accepted the 70 million.
Director Sang planned to budget carefully. If the funds were insufficient, he could figure out a way to raise more money himself. Before filming began, with his niece Sang Yu’s help, he had his house, calligraphy collection, and other valuables appraised. If it wasn’t enough, he was prepared to sell these items to complete the film.
Unexpectedly, even before the film started shooting, there was a problem with casting. Director Sang had planned to personally discuss the matter with Huangtian’s CEO personally, but Ye Zhou intervened.
With Ye “Nouveau Riche” Zhou’s involvement, the previously bleak situation took a dramatic turn, resulting in Huangtian’s current embarrassment.
“Get to the point!” the producer interrupted. “I heard the new investor might be a talent agency called Chenzhou. That’s all I know. Have you heard of this company?”
The Huangtian financial representative quietly repeated the company name, his heart racing as a terrifying thought struck him.
Chenzhou, Chenzhou… Could the ‘zhou’ be… Ye Zhou’s ‘zhou’?
The idea seemed too absurd to contemplate. He shook his head vigorously, trying to dispel the horrifying notion. “N-no, I haven’t heard of it,” he stammered.
Realizing he wouldn’t get useful information, the producer scratched his head irritably. “Come to the set now. I’ll wait for you at the entrance. I’m calling Mr. Wei to find out about Chenzhou and how to resolve this. When he arrives, we’ll talk to Director Sang together.”
As the call ended, the Huangtian representative’s heart sank. He sat frozen at the dining table until his lover’s cry jolted him back to reality, the spilled porridge now dry and crusted on his pajamas.
Recalling the producer’s words, he hastily wiped off the porridge, rushed to change into a suit, and drove to the set.
En route, he silently prayed this was all a misunderstanding – that Chenzhou was just an ordinary company trying to curry favor with Sang Huaining, unrelated to Ye Zhou.
However, these hopes quickly shattered like bubbles.
Arriving at the set, he found not only the producer but also Huangtian’s top executive, Wei Hai.
Upon hearing from Mr. Wei’s secretary that the largest shareholder behind the company Chenzhou was Ye Zhou, he suddenly felt his eyes go dark, his legs almost giving out and collapsing on the ground.
Noticing his reaction, the producer and Wei Hai noticed that something was wrong. Under their interrogation, the financial representative confessed everything about that day’s events.
“…I really didn’t expect it at the time. Ye Zhou, an inconspicuous little director, actually managed to find some investors!” And damn it, the investor turned out to be himself!
While it wasn’t unheard of for a director to invest in their own film, it was extremely rare in the industry. After all, the division of labor among directors in the industry was clear-cut. Besides top-tier directors who could have shares and box office revenue sharing rights, most directors, even though they appeared glamorous to outsiders, were essentially just laborers for capital, much like actors.
Most of the time, their income was not as high as that of actors. With limited income but the need for funds at every step of making a film, even a small-budget film could easily cost millions, and larger-scale films started at tens of millions.
In this situation, for a somewhat famous director like Ye Zhou to want to fund a film out of his own pocket was not impossible, but it was extremely difficult to execute.
True, “Thriller Circus” had been profitable, but if he really planned to use special effects for the female lead in the entire film as he’d claimed, it would likely drain all his resources.
Even if Ye Zhou had the means, was it worth it?
Wei Hai and the producer fell silent after hearing this, the atmosphere growing tense.
Suddenly, a crisp message alert sounded from the Huangtian representative’s phone. With his boss’s permission, he checked it, nearly fainting at the content:
“Hello, this is Xiao Meng from ‘The Most Beautiful’ film crew’s finance department. Please come to the set for the handover. Director Ye asked me to remind you to bring the breach of contract penalty.”
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