Global Film Emperor

Chapter 288 The Plot Against Lu Ze

"Dong dong dong."

"Please come in."

After receiving Li Shanjun's confirmation, Meng Nixin gently pushed open the office door. She saw Li Shanjun bent over his desk writing something, but she didn't disturb him. She just stood aside and waited quietly.

"It's nothing, come and sit down. What do you need me for? Didn't we discuss the script and project launch today? What results have been reached so far? How's the casting going?"

Li Shanjun didn't look up, continuing to write documents, throwing one question after another at Meng Nixin, hoping to hear good news from him.

"President Li, I wanted to talk to you about this today. Director Bai has already finalized the cast, which are mostly popular newcomers in the company. However, the lead role has been given to Lu Ze, so I notified Lu Ze today and asked him to come over."

This matter piqued Lee Sun-kyun's interest. He looked up, twirling the pen in his hand, leaned back in his chair thoughtfully, took a sip of water, licked his wet lower lip, put the pen down, and gripped the armrests of the chair with both hands.

"So what did he say?"

“I refused, without much hesitation. After reading the script, I expressed my thoughts and said directly that I didn’t want to film it. That’s why I came to you today.”

Lee Sun-kyun wasn't surprised at all; the smile on his lips was somewhat meaningful. He wasn't surprised that Lu Ze refused to star in the movie. Knowing Lu Ze well, he knew that Lu Ze was extremely picky about scripts. Even if the company didn't have a plan for him to pursue high-quality projects, he wouldn't just accept any role and ruin his reputation.

Although the movie "Wrong Love" somewhat diminished Lu Ze's reputation, it wasn't as serious as people thought. After all, "Wrong Love" itself was quite commendable and far from being a bad movie.

At present, Qian Shijia does not want Lu Ze to star in a film with mediocre reviews, or even worse than "Wrong Love," as this is not in the company's best interest.

On the contrary, the company is eager to help Lu Ze rise higher and higher, and make better and better films. In this way, the benefits that Lu Ze's fame brings to Qian Shijia will far exceed the benefits that Lu Ze himself earns. Therefore, even if Qian Shijia increases the profit sharing to 0 to 10 and gives all the profits to Lu Ze, they will still make a huge profit.

To be honest, Lu Ze's performance during this period has greatly displeased Li Shanjun. After the first contract negotiation broke down, Li Shanjun approached Lu Ze again to discuss the matter, but Lu Ze's attitude remained the same: he refused to open a studio outside and kept delaying his personal contract, hoping to wait for a fair contract.

However, this ambiguous attitude aroused considerable suspicion in Lee Sun-kyun, who even suspected that Lu Ze had already found a new agency. This was not impossible; if Lu Ze said he wanted to switch agencies now, many agencies would probably be vying to offer him contracts and sign him.

So he decided not to wait any longer. Lu Ze was unwilling to open a studio, fine, there were plenty of people who were willing to. Recently, Li Shanjun had already reached an agreement with one of the company's artists to open their own studio and cultivate fresh talent for the company.

At the same time, he also took precautions against Lu Ze's potential job-hopping. To him, being the top employee wasn't a big deal; after all, he relied on the company for his livelihood and made money through the company's channels.
Don't think that Lee Sun-kyun's thinking is unreasonable. To put it bluntly, he is just a businessman. He doesn't have artistic sentiments. For him, an excellent actor can be bought with money. As long as he can find a newcomer with top-notch acting skills and talent, and is willing to spend money and pull strings, he can completely reach Lu Ze's current status, or even if he is not quite there.

In this way, the company's reputation may not be weaker than it is now. When that time comes, the company's publicity will not be saying, "Look, I, Lu Ze, am from our company," but rather, "We promoted Lu Ze, and then we promoted XXX. If you have the ability, we don't mind promoting you at all."

Most importantly, if a new top star is indeed promoted, then the money that Lu Ze is unwilling to earn with him will eventually be earned by someone else, with most of it flowing into Li Shanjun's pocket. Li Shanjun already has someone in mind for this person.
Without any attempt to defend himself, Lee Sun-kyun simply didn't want Lu Ze to remain the top star of Qian Shijia anymore. Lu Ze had developed a rebellious streak and was no longer obedient. No agency would tolerate a disobedient artist holding the position of the top star. If he threw a small tantrum, they could appease him because of his status, but if he caused any more trouble, Lee Sun-kyun wouldn't hesitate to show no mercy.

For Li Shanjun, no matter how successful Lu Ze is now, he has already sentenced him to death. He is ruthless and decisive, which is what a businessman should have.

But now is not the time to turn against him, because although the newcomer has entered a big production team as the male lead, he is not famous enough to support Qian Shijia. Li Shanjun still needs to cultivate him vigorously, squeeze the last bit of profit out of Lu Ze, and finally achieve a seamless transition, with the new king replacing the old king, minimizing the losses, and finally kicking Lu Ze aside.

All set. Now, what Lee Sun-kyun needs to do is continue to appease Lu Ze. "You want to wait until the contract ends? Sure, by then, once that newcomer is trained, it won't matter whether you live or die. But right now, don't you still need to create value for the company? The company's most important projects have been approved, and they need you, the pillar of the company, to step up. Is that not enough?"

All he needs to do now is keep his relationship with Lu Ze from collapsing. That's right, in order to prevent their relationship from collapsing, Li Shanjun can't force Lu Ze to film this movie, but if hard tactics don't work, soft tactics will do. As for how to be soft?
The hardest debt to repay in this world is the debt of gratitude. You, Lu Ze, owe someone a helping hand.
"Wait for my news on this matter. I'll talk to Lu Ze again. You go back first and make sure you coordinate with Bai Xiqun's project. As for the other roles, you can take care of them."

"Then I'll be going now, Mr. Li. Don't worry, I will definitely not take such a big task lightly."

Meng Nixin nodded, stood up, straightened her handmade suit, and walked out the door in her expensive leather shoes on the carpet.

Sitting in the chair, Lee Sun-kyun crossed his arms, elbows resting on the armrests. He rubbed his nose vigorously with his index fingers, sighed, and admitted he was feeling mentally exhausted from all the recent busyness. You could call him cunning and treacherous, but he was a businessman after all. Making money! Money! Nobody wanted it!

He took a cigar from the cigar box in the drawer, cut it open with cigar cutters, held both ends of the cigar with his index fingers, smelled it back and forth under his nose, lit it with the decorative cigar lighter, exhaled a thick puff of smoke, picked up the landline, and dialed a number.

"Hello? Second Master, this is Shanjun. Thank you for your concern. I'm doing well at the new company. I'm calling today to ask you for a favor."

"On the cliff edge of Shazhong Road, I patted your head; the wind ate the moon, bite by bite. Ding-a-ling. Ding-a-ling."

The phone rang, interrupting the music playing on the car stereo. After leaving the company, Lu Ze first went to a pet store to buy some cat food. The cripple's food had all expired and he couldn't feed it anymore.

On his way home, Lu Ze looked at the caller ID on the central control screen and his heart sank. After hesitating for a moment, he answered the call from Hu Zhiguang.

"Hello? Mr. Hu, what brings you to call me today? Aren't you quite addicted to taking care of your grandson? Is the child doing well lately?"

"Hey, I'm not your boss anymore, why are you still calling me 'General Manager Hu'? Just call me Uncle Hu. The child is doing well, but his stomach isn't very good; he gets upset even from drinking a little formula. Let's not talk about that. Are you in Shanghai right now? I have something I'd like to discuss with you. Do you have time?"

Well, they've already established a connection. Although Hu Zhiguang had previously said that calling him "uncle" was fine, he had never emphasized it like that before. Back then, he still had some ambition.

Suddenly, Lu Ze felt a tightness in his chest. What was this all about? The once powerful CEO of Rongchuang and General Manager of Qianshijia had become like this? The tone was incredibly enthusiastic, yet there was a hint of caution in the question: Did Lu Ze have time?

"Of course I do, Mr. Hu. If you call me, how could I not have time? Should I go now? Where is the place?"

"Let's go to that teahouse on xx Road. I heard you like drinking tea too. How about we have some together? Can we come over now?"

"No problem, Mingjuyuan, right? Oh, I found it. It's not far, I'll be there in half an hour."

After hanging up the phone, Lu Ze stopped by the roadside, lit a cigarette, closed his eyes and thought for a long time until the cigarette burned out. Ignoring whether the camera could capture it or whether it was immoral, he threw the cigarette butt out of the car window, where it hit the ground and sparked. He then stepped on the gas and the car sped away.

"."

That's all for today. Due to some personal reasons, I'm currently on a business trip out of town. Typing in an internet cafe is too noisy, and I can't stand the environment. I'm not getting any inspiration. I expect to be home in two or three days. Sorry everyone.

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(End of this chapter)