Global Film Emperor

Chapter 314 The Beginning of Chaos

"What the hell have you guys done?! Look at this! Now the internet, the newspapers! It's all about investigating the first media outlet! I don't care if you're throwing money at it or kidnapping that damn editor-in-chief! I want to know who it is in an hour! I'll skin him alive!"

Early in the morning, Li Shanjun angrily summoned Meng Nixin and Feng Changhao to his office. As soon as the two closed the door, Li Shanjun slammed his fist on the table in a rage, pointed at the newspaper on the table, and swore at them, leaving them speechless with their heads down.

"Mr. Li, we've been investigating since last night. The media reporters sent me the phone number, and it turned out to be a bus driver from Guangxi who had no contact with Lu Ze. He didn't make a single phone call that day except to his family. It's almost certain that it was a VoIP call. The reporter said it was a man who called, but we can't rule out the possibility of a voice changer. That's all we can find out."

"Where's the cyber department? What am I paying them to do? Are they just sitting there waiting to breed maggots? Let them investigate the VoIP calls!"

"Mr. Li, the VoIP call went through layers of encryption and VPNs. In the end, our company's people located an IP address in Australia. But the homeowner was an 80-year-old lady. Her grandson accessed a pornographic website and fell into the trap. It can only be said that the other party's prevention measures were extremely good. Not only could our company's PR team not find it, but even the real tech guys couldn't find it either."

Li Shanjun's chest heaved violently. He spun around on the ground with his hands on his hips, but still couldn't quell his anger. He kicked the table hard and continued to curse at Meng Nixin, who had answered him.

"So all you've said is just to prove how incompetent you are? I might as well just support a bunch of beggars! They're all equally incompetent anyway! A million-dollar annual salary lining their pockets, and then they'll apologize when things go wrong? What about the PR department's solution? The copywriting! I need to see the copywriting! I'll see it first, and then I'll release it if I say it's okay! And the legal department, get the hell out of here! All these media outlets and big V's, sue them all! Those in Shanghai, I want them to receive summonses by this afternoon! If you can't deliver them, you can run errands to deliver them!"

Seeing Li Shanjun so angry, Meng Nixin rolled her eyes twice. Seeing Li Shanjun's livid but gradually improving complexion, she forced herself to say something.

"President Li, I actually think this matter can be used as an opportunity and a point of publicity. After all, mental illness is not like drug addiction or infidelity, so it is not entirely a negative news. Perhaps we can establish a high-class persona for Lu Ze. The publicity department is also considering this. Lu Ze already has the title of model worker. Now we can further expand it and establish Lu Ze's image as a drama fanatic. This may not necessarily be a bad thing for Lu Ze."

Hearing Meng Nixin's suggestion, Li Shanjun was so angry that he laughed. He turned his back to them, looked out the window, raised his glasses, rubbed his eyes a few times, and then smashed one of his favorite rare coffee cups on the ground.

"Is this the emergency measure the propaganda department came up with? Tell Tang Wenli to use his pig brain and think carefully about the consequences of doing this. If he can't figure it out, he should pack his things and go home to breastfeed his child! I've realized that my tens of millions of yuan a year isn't supporting a bunch of good-for-nothings! It's supporting a bunch of idiots!"

It's obvious that Minister Tang of the Publicity Department never seriously considered the consequences of doing this. Yes, that's right. Now, admitting that Lu Ze fell ill because of a role is very noble. Such an actor cannot be considered dedicated; he is risking his life. The persona is easy to establish and is an ironclad one. It will be difficult to change people's objective impression of Lu Ze as a benchmark actor in the future.

But anyone who admits to this is a fool. Yes, if you admit it, the public's impression of you will change a lot, but what about the people in the industry? Their impression of Lu Ze will also change! Who would want to hire a mentally ill person into their crew? No matter how big a star or how famous he is, once he's on the crew, he's a bomb that could explode at any moment.

Firstly, the contract stipulates that if an actor is unable to film due to force majeure, they will not have to pay a penalty. In other words, if an actor dies during filming, they will definitely be unable to continue filming, but they will not have to pay compensation. The same applies to Lu Ze's illness. If he has a relapse and cannot film, the investors can only suffer in silence.

If it were an ordinary actor with outstanding skills, the director wouldn't mind using him. If he lost money, he lost money; if he performed well, he made money. But Lu Ze is different. Now Lu Ze's salary starts at tens of millions. If he can't act, more than ten million will go down the drain. Who can do that?

Furthermore, putting aside the issue of salaries, what if Lu Ze had a relapse halfway through filming and couldn't continue? What would happen to the scenes already filmed? Would it be a complete waste? That would mean throwing away half the investment! And what about the other actors? Would you have to increase their salaries and reshoot the entire film? Add Lu Ze's salary on top of that, and you can calculate how much money you would lose.
Therefore, no director would dare to do that. No matter how good or amazing Lu Ze's acting skills are, they wouldn't dare to use him. Otherwise, they would have to treat Lu Ze like a king, afraid that he would suffer some kind of shock. Every morning, they would pray like they were Jesus that Lu Ze would not have a relapse. Who would dare to live such a life of anxiety?
Therefore, the public's impression of Lu Ze is not the most important thing right now. What's most important is the film industry's opinion of Lu Ze. No matter what others say, if Lu Ze can't act, what use is he? Is he just living off his past achievements? But how long can Lu Ze live off his past achievements?
In other words, once this is confirmed, Lu Ze's acting career will be basically over. No matter how much success he achieves, no one will dare to hire him to act. And what value does an artist who can't do anything but act have?

Meng Nixin wasn't in the entertainment industry before, but now he can at least be considered half an insider. He knows a bit about the ins and outs, and he's not stupid. He quickly figured out the key points, his face turned a little red, and he lowered his head and stopped talking.

"Now list out the problems that need to be solved. First, the propaganda department's copywriting—make him revise it immediately! Tell the media to shut up! I don't want any more news or posts to be published now. Then, Meng Nixin, contact Shen Jinghan and ask which psychologist treated Lu Ze back then, and inquire whether Lu Ze's condition is stable now, and whether he has relapsed in the past two years. Get this done right now!"

"I understand, Mr. Lee." The two hurriedly pushed open the door and left. Lee Sun-kyun reached up and ran his hand through his increasingly thinning hair, let out a long sigh to calm his anger, looked at the coffee spilled on his leather shoes, kicked the shards of the coffee cup, loosened his tie, and went into the bathroom in the office.

After the two outside the door separated, they quickly got busy with the things Lee Sun-kyun had told them to do. The company was in complete chaos because of this incident, and even the trainees were affected to some extent. They were not attending classes and were whispering among themselves in the company corridor.

"What the hell are you all doing! Nothing better to do?! If you're so free, don't the hell leave tonight! Rehearse until tomorrow morning! I'm not kidding! Anyone who leaves, pack your things and get out of here tomorrow! Go back to where you came from! What are you all standing there for? Go back to rehearsals!"

Startled by Meng Nixin, the trainees quickly returned to the rehearsal room. The once crowded corridor was now deserted. Meng Nixin looked around before slowly walking towards his office. But as he walked, he suddenly chuckled and quickly covered his face with his hand.
This was undoubtedly the biggest crisis Lu Ze had ever faced. One wrong step could destroy all the efforts of the past six years, reducing them to ashes.

Lu Ze is now completely bewildered. Seeing the numerous news reports about his mental health issues online, he doesn't know what to do. He even skipped the film set today, which is the first time he has missed work in all his years of acting. You can imagine how much pressure this has put on him.

"Ding-a-ling-a-ling-a-ling."

His phone rang; it was a friend from his circle calling. He picked it up, swiped his fingers across the screen, and finally hung up and turned off his phone. He didn't want to answer the phone today, even if it was a friend's concern.

He didn't want to repeatedly admit or deny whether he was sick or not, because it was a topic he never wanted to answer, a secret hidden in his heart known only to a few people.

This matter has been trending since yesterday, with a search engine hot topic index of 130 million. Even the old men and women on the street know that a very talented actor has developed a mental illness. It is estimated that Lu Ze will become a hot topic of conversation among them in the next few days.

That wasn't the main issue; what Lu Ze truly couldn't accept was that someone had linked the previously circulated gossip that Lu Ze was gay to schizophrenia.

The idea that Lu Ze would turn into a woman after experiencing a split personality was so outrageous that it disgusted him. If the company hadn't been handling the matter and telling him to keep quiet, Lu Ze would probably have already snapped back. For a straight man like him, this was worse than swallowing a fly.

After stubbing out his cigarette in the ashtray, Lu Ze reached out and touched the cripple beside him. He got up to pull the curtains open, but hesitated halfway through. He then pulled the curtains back up and turned on the television in the dark room.

"A big scoop broke in the entertainment industry last night, saying it's about the talented actor Lu Ze."

Lu Ze turned off the TV, lay on the sofa, stared at the ceiling, and said something after a long time.

"Disheartening."

"."

(End of this chapter)