Chapter 839: The Dust Settles!
Should he use a special tool to obtain evidence?
Su Yang hesitated.
‘Wouldn’t it be too much of an overkill to use my special item for such a small matter?’
Just as that thought crossed his mind, at the same time, in a mansion far away in Hong Kong, a man with white hair, a thin body, and a handsome face that could be seen when he was young was throwing a tantrum. “Is there something wrong with your brain? Why would you do something like this with Wang Jing and the rest? Don’t you know that this is against the rules?
“How many times have I told you! We just need to focus on the movie instead of coming up with all sorts of silly ideas!”
The man opposite him was a 1.9 meters tall man. He looked at the handsome man with confusion. “What? Me, working with them? No way. I thought they were just joking.”
The handsome man became speechless. He did not manage to catch his breath and was almost angered to death.
He roared, “That’s right! You only just found out that they’re serious and have all been exposed now! If it wasn’t for the exposure, I wouldn’t have known that something like this has happened!”
The burly man scratched his head. “Master Xing, I really thought they were just joking. Also… I didn’t pay a single cent, so it shouldn’t count, right?”
The handsome man, Master Xing, was stunned. Then, he asked, “We didn’t pay anything?”
The burly man was obviously very funny. He chuckled and said, “No, we didn’t. Why don’t you ask the finance department if you don’t believe me?”
Master Xing glared at him angrily. Then, he picked up the phone and called the company’s finance department to clarify.
Very soon, he verified what the burly man had told him. His crew and company had indeed not made any payments regarding this matter.
He then looked at the man. “Did you pay for it yourself?”
The burly man said, “Of course not. You know that I don’t have that much money.”
He took out his phone and showed Master Xing the balance of his account on an app.
After Master Xing finished reading it, he looked at the burly man suspiciously and said, “Let me see what you guys are talking about.”
Then, he ignored the man’s opinion and took his phone to open up the man’s WeChat. He then started to look through the chat records.
Very soon, he found the small group that opposed “Wandering Planet” because this chat box had a red unread icon and a red @ icon.
Master Xing clicked on it and took a look. He realized that in the small group, Wang Jing and the producer of “Journey to the West: The Bone Demon” had been talking about the exposure. They were obviously panicking.
Master Xing then scrolled higher…
It was the two of them who @ the burly man on WeChat. The reason was… To rush him for the payment.
The burly man had promised to pay one-third of the fee, but he ended up not paying after that. Wang Jing had paid the bill first, so he had been asking the burly man to pay back. The burly man would either not reply, or he would send something like “what?”, “what payment?”, “how much is it?”, “that much?”, “I won’t participate then”, etc.
Master Xing was stunned.
He understood the burly man. If he was not a courageous person, he would not have dared to hire the burly man to be his producer. Everyone in the industry knew that Master Xing had a bad temper, and when he acted, he would even scold the producer. In fact, many actors and producers were scolded away by him, but in the end, only the burly man persisted. Isn’t it because he was courageous? However, Master Xing really did not expect for him to actually be so courageous.
‘Is he actually going back on his word?
‘Does he not care about his reputation a single bit?
‘However, if he doesn’t want it, then so be it. At least now, I’ve found an opportunity to solve this problem.
‘Even though I can’t completely deny all involvement, I can definitely reduce my involvement to a minimum.’
Thinking up to this point, Master Xing could not help but let out a sigh of relief. He felt that Wang Jing and the other person were really courageous. ‘They actually dragged him into their group. Don’t they know about his reputation in the industry?’
After complaining, Master Xing returned the phone to the burly man and asked him to take a screenshot and send it to him. He wanted to apologize to Su Yang and explain everything clearly. If Su Yang needed any evidence or help, he could provide it to him.
As for Wang Jing and the others…
He had never even bothered about them.
‘So be it. My reputation in Hong Kong’s entertainment industry was never good to begin with…’
…
Su Yang was surprised when she received the call from Master Xing.
Su Yang was even more shocked when he heard what the burly man did.
‘Such a wonderful person actually exists in this world?
‘This person was either an absolute genius, or an absolute idiot…
‘Come to think of it, this man didn’t spend a single cent, but he managed to get the job done. If he advanced, he could pull “Wandering Planet” down and “The Mermaid” would benefit the most. If he backed out, he could just say that he was just joking and didn’t really want to cooperate.
‘No matter how things turned out, the risk of “The Mermaid” getting in trouble was set to a minimum, while they would gain the most benefits.
‘That’s literally scary.
‘However, whether this person is really courageous or just faking it, it has nothing to do with me. Anyway, with Master Xing’s evidence, I will have all the evidence I need against Wang Jing and the rest of them.
‘Although the burly man says that he did not want to participate, the fact of the matter is that it’s already done, so he can’t escape responsibility. At best, he could only lessen his punishment.’
Therefore, Su Yang accepted Master Xing’s gift without hesitation and handed it over to the reviewers and National Films.
At that moment, the bosses of these two departments had already finished obtaining their bosses’ opinions.
In fact, their opinion was not out of expectations. When they saw that this matter involved manipulating public opinion, the big bosses immediately decided on the terms and demanded a serious punishment to be passed out.
So, on the same day, the reviewers first released a report on how the movies “From Vegas To Macau 3”, “Journey to the West: The Bone Demon”, and “The Mermaid” had violated the rules.
In the announcement, the reviewers believed that the three movies had violated Article 3 of the Movie Management Regulation. They were then fined 100 thousand yuan, 100 thousand yuan, and 50 thousand yuan respectively.
And the producers of “From Vegas To Macau 3” and “Journey to the West:The Bone Demon”, who were mainly responsible, have been disqualified from filming for two years.
Wang Jing and the producers of “Journey to the West: The Bone Demon” were banned from any film-related business for three years. The producer of “The Mermaid” (the burly man) was also banned from any film-related business, but for a year instead.
Other than that, the reviewers also gave a serious lecture to the directors, producers, and main actors of the three movies, and asked them to conduct a thorough examination.
When this punishment was passed on, the whole industry was in a state of panic. Wang Jing and the others were considered famous people in the industry. In the beginning, when the incident happened, everyone thought that the reviewers would cause a huge scene of it, but pass on a light sentence later on. After all, they were the mainstays of the movie industry.
Who would have thought that the reviewers would not show any mercy at all and directly gave him such a heavy punishment!
In this punishment, the fines were just collateral, but it was still a top-level punishment within the fines of the reviewers. The most important thing was that they were forbidden from doing any film-related business. which was practically the killing blow.
This meant that they would not be able to do anything related to movies for the next few years.
This was because as long as they were involved in the production, even if they did not include their name in it, the reviewers would still cut them off directly if they realized these people were involved.
This was a ruthless method that would only be used to handle banned films.
So, no one had expected for them to use such a relentless method that time.
Therefore, everyone knew that Wang Jing and the rest were goners for sure.
After all, this was a punishment on the surface. Behind the scenes, would the reviewers ask for a restriction on their movie’s showtimes? Would they also ask for their movies to be taken down earlier?
Those were all possible.
Therefore, it was not only their futures. Even the futures of their present movies were at risk as well.
Just as everyone was shocked by the severity of the punishment, something even more shocking happened!
Two hours after the reviewers announced the punishment, National Films also issued an announcement.
The announcement mentioned that National Films was in charge of the Imperial Capital Network Department. They wanted to discuss the person-in-charge of Weibo, Zhihu, TikTok and other major platforms.
Due to their interference in the “Wandering Planet” incident, as well as the dissemination of illegal information, they were ordered to rectify it immediately and suspend the popularity rankings for two weeks. The various apps would also be removed from app stores for a week.
Other than that, National Films also requested the Imperial Capital Network Department to deal with the people responsible for this matter seriously. At the same time, they requested that these few platforms be severely fined according to the law.
In the announcement, the National Films also stressed that websites should fulfill their primary responsibility. They should not provide platforms for illegal information dissemination, nor should they interfere with the normal appearance of information and disrupt order on the internet.
The shock caused by this announcement was bigger than what the reviewers had done!
Not long ago, the netizens were still feeling aggrieved… Weibo, Zhihu, and other platforms were clearly indulging in spreading rumors, but in the end, after the matter blew up, they were removed from the trending searches, locked all relevant keywords, and silently dealt with. They were even so arrogant that they did not make any response.
Because, even if they had problems, they could simply say, “We are just platforms, so we aren’t the ones sending out those contents” to avoid responsibility.
Previously, the netizens had been oppressed by the power of this capital. They felt like they were living in the world of the North Koreans. Despite how furious they were, it was useless.
In the end, he did not expect that the country would directly decide on it!
The country believed that they had spread information that was against the law! They also believed that their subsequent removal of the hot searches and locking of keywords had disrupted the normal transmission order of the internet!
This blow from the country was really too satisfying!
This made the initially aggrieved netizens cheer in joy. Even after the holidays, they no longer felt the pain of having to work!
Compared to them, the big shots in the capital industry in China saw more. Through these two punishments, they saw Su Yang’s capabilities.
Behind Weibo was Ali, behind Zhihu was Tencent, and TikTok had a rising powerhouse. Companies of this level all had their own connections and backers. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have been able to escape unscathed every time they tried to get too close to the borderline. Yet… They never thought that they would get wiped clean by Su Yang.
This information that was revealed was just terrifying!
Therefore, before Su Yang could enter the circle of the top tycoons in the country, rumors about him started to spread. People started to ask about his identity and background.
In fact, even these tycoons knew about Su Yang’s capabilities, not to mention the Internet celebrities, marketing accounts, and fake reviewers who were all being sued by Su Yang.
When they found out that Su Yang was so domineering that even those big companies could not suppress him, they no longer held any hope in their hearts. Therefore, they took the initiative to offer a settlement and were willing to compensate him.
Hence, everything was settled with a few phone calls from Su Yang.
After that, just as the people in the movie industry had guessed, apart from the public punishment, the reviewers had also privately arranged to meet up with various cinema operators. The content of the meeting was unclear, but everyone knew that “From Vegas To Macau 3” and “Journey to the West: The Bone Demon” had once again had their showtimes cut. Even the showtimes for “The Mermaid” had also been lowered.
Then, all those showtimes were given to “Wandering Planet”.
Thus, “Wandering Planet” continued to move forward with this perfect opening. Even though the box office had plummeted because of the end of the holiday, after two days of screening, the box office still successfully broke 3 billion. Furthermore, it was advancing step by step toward 4 billion!
This gesture made everyone see the box office beast dominating the entire Chinese film industry.
So many people in the industry refer to “Wandering Planet” as the Chinese version of the Titanic: with quality and unparalleled results that surpass all other movies…
However, those who liked “Wandering Planet” believed that the movie was “Wandering Planet”! It was the first movie in the history of Chinese film science fiction!
After everything calmed down, less than two days later, he posted a Weibo message on the World’s Billionaire List, and it lit up the whole internet again.
Whether or not they were convinced by the World’s Billionaire List, they would often post on Weibo, commenting or reposting the deeds and comments of the top tycoons. This had long made the users who paid attention to it used to it.
The reason why the internet was blown up this time was because their Weibo posts were about Su Yang.
In this Weibo post, Su Yang and the tycoon rankings were released. It included sales, profits, and the development of several other industries. It also included Su Yang’s plans for the entire Jiadian Group.
It was through this election that the netizens suddenly realized that the Jiadian Group had relied on mergers and development to become a giant corporation that spanned across many industries.
He was in charge of the Jiadian Entertainment of the A-list Heavenly Queen Han Yi and the top celebrity Yang Meiyue.
With the number one box office movie in the history of the country, “Wandering Planet”, the number one box office movie on the internet, “Fight The Buddha”, and the number one box office movie in the past five years, “Legend Of Wu Zetian”, produced by Jiadian Entertainment.
It was worth more than 20 billion yuan and had factories all over the country. It was one of the top 10 Chinese-made cars.
It runs a part-time app that has expanded across hundreds of cities across the country: Jiadian E-Commerce Company, which operates Jiadian’s app (formerly a thrift app).
It has developed an app with the number 1 user number in the domestic picture-sharing field and the top 10 users in the social field: Jiadian Technology, which seeks out my app.
Jiadian Technology, which sold the world’s first glass phone screen and earned tens of millions every day.
Other small companies such as finance, health supplements, milk tea, etc.
All of these added together were the real Jiadian Group.
More importantly, Su Yang had absolute control over the Jiadian Group. The value and wealth that these companies had created belonged to Su Yang.
If that was the case, Su Yang’s net worth was simply shocking!
Therefore, after the interview was released, they also asked if they were convinced by the World’s Billionaire List. ‘Last year, Mr. Su ranked 163rd on the World’s Billionaire List. Now then, take a guess, after a year of development, can Mr. Su rank in the top few?