Global Film Emperor

Chapter 319 Answer
"Look, the funds are here."

After operating the computer for a while, Feng Changhao stood aside and gave his seat to Lu Ze, but his expression was a little strange, though Lu Ze couldn't quite put his finger on it.

He glanced at Feng Changhao, who was smoking. After meeting Lu Ze's eyes, he smiled, then casually looked away, gazing out the window and flicking his cigarette ash into the ashtray.

Lu Ze felt something was strange. Sitting in his chair, the moment he saw the computer screen, his face suddenly turned ashen. He looked at Feng Changhao again, who was staring at Lu Ze, his expression seemingly unsurprised by Lu Ze's anger.

"Where's the money? Where's the money?!"

"The money is all here. President Yang withdrew his investment and took more than 80 million with him. The rest is all here."

"Boom!"

"Are you bad at counting or am I bad at counting? How much money is this that I don't know? I graduated high school! How much money is this? Over 270 million! Feng Changhao! Don't treat me like an idiot!"

The money doesn't add up at all! The total amount in the account should be 550 million. After deducting the 85 million that Yang Yong took with him when he withdrew his investment, there should still be 465 million left. As for the special effects production, because the technology has now broken through the barriers, but the way of watching movies has not been much innovative, the production has become less difficult than before, and thus the price has dropped a lot.

The Rubik's Cube project quoted 320 million, payable in three installments. So far, only 35% has been paid, or 112 million. There should still be 353 million in the account. Even after deducting actor salaries and crew expenses, there should be at least 320 million left. But now? 270 million! Including Yang Yong's 85 million, the account is now short over 130 million! Where did the money go?
Lu Ze suddenly felt like he had been played for a fool. He slammed his fist on the table and stood up, veins bulging on his forehead. He glared at the Minister of Commerce, with whom he had no prior conflict. Due to his height and physique, Lu Ze looked particularly intimidating, which made Feng Changhao take two steps back in fear.

"Lu Ze, watch your words, okay? What's wrong with you? What? Are you going to hit someone? It's over 270 million, that's right. Doesn't filming cost money? The expenses are clearly written in the accounts, every penny counts! Do you want to see it? If you want to see it, I'll find it for you!"

Feng Changhao pursed his lips. He had anticipated Lu Ze's anger, but he hadn't expected him to go to such an extreme. He felt a little uneasy, but he still gritted his teeth and pointed at the computer, trying to prove that the amount was correct.

"Why don't you watch it? How can a crew that doesn't even go to the filming location spend over 70 million yuan in just over a month of shooting? Did they use it to keep warm? Are you trying to fool me like an idiot?!"

Feng Changhao did not respond. He carefully walked around Lu Ze and sat down in the chair. He found out the expenses of the production crew, then put down the mouse, made room for Lu Ze to sit down again.

Lu Ze slowly flipped through the pages. Suddenly, his anger seemed to be doused with cold water and abruptly subsided. He only felt increasingly cold. He had figured out many things, and now he had finally resolved all the doubts in his heart.

Lu Ze looked at Feng Changhao, wanting to speak, but felt his throat was a little hoarse and he couldn't open his mouth. Suddenly, he gave a self-deprecating smile and pointed to the computer.

"Minister Feng, can you tell me how an explosion scene cost over seven million? I remember it was just cardboard boxes and styrofoam that were blown up, right? These things plus the explosives... how could they be worth over seven million?"

"I'm not a professional when it comes to explosions, how would I know it could cost over seven million? I don't know how it ended up costing so much, but the demolition company charges over six million, they won't do it for less than a penny. Plus the set design, approvals, and networking, it cost over seven million."

"You've been laundering money, haven't you?"

"What? You can't joke like that. Even if you're a company employee, you can't joke about this. It's illegal! Don't mention it now, I'll pretend you never said it."

"Oh, not only did you launder money, you also embezzled, right?"

Lu Ze had figured things out from beginning to end. Apart from feeling stupid, he was utterly disappointed in Qian Shijia. Ever since Li Shanjun took over, the company had really changed, becoming unscrupulous and disgusting to Lu Ze!
Perhaps he wasn't stupid, but genuinely considered Qian Shijia as his home. Even if the adults in the family changed and he lost his head, as long as the name Qian Shijia still stood there, he would consider Qian Shijia as his home. This was something he inherited from the martyrs' family, the root of the Lu family, which can be summed up in one word: loyalty!

In fact, he is the same kind of person as Hu Zhiguang, willing to foolishly guard the Qian Shijia brand for a lifetime.

If Lu Ze's conjecture is correct, then everything makes sense. Taking Qian Shijia's intention to launder money as a premise, we can explain the whole story from the very beginning.

First, if Lee Sun-kyun wanted to launder money, and he owned a media company, what would be the best and safest way? Of course, it would be to make movies.

How is money laundered through movies? It's not by falsely reporting the investment amount, but by colluding with theaters to sell tickets in empty theaters after the movie's release. After all, movie tickets don't come with receipts, so they can report as much box office revenue as they want, which is impossible to verify. And who controls the biggest theater chains?
Rongchuang!

Lee Sun-kyun didn't even need to cooperate with other cinema chains to launder money. He could just operate on his own, increase the number of screenings, and have full theaters late at night with empty seats, but the box office would still be generated. If Lee Sun-kyun wanted to launder 3 billion won, then the box office would be 3 billion won. He decided how much the box office was.

So, back to the movie itself, since it's a money laundering movie, it's best if the director is also one of their own. However, they can't sign the famous director Qian Shijia right now, so they can only sign Bai Xiqun. Bai Xiqun is also eager to make a high-grossing movie, even if it's fake, because it will greatly boost his fame.

As for the script, Lee Sun-kyun initially didn't think too much about it and just picked a script to start filming. However, Lu Ze was not satisfied with the script. Lee Sun-kyun didn't care what he filmed, so he let Lu Ze find someone to write whatever he wanted to film. As for Bai Xiqun, he naturally wouldn't refuse either, because he was also indifferent to what he filmed.

It wasn't until Lu Ze produced such a large script that Li Shanjun had an idea. Rather than laundering money from several scripts, he figured he might as well find a script with a good reputation and launder more money from one transaction, ideally laundering the entire amount at once. Li Shanjun probably laughed out loud when he saw such a high-quality script with such a large investment. In this way, Lu Ze unwittingly became one of the planners of this money laundering operation.

The reason for choosing Lu Ze was even simpler: the film needed a mainstay, and it needed to be one of their own. Lu Ze's participation was just to make the high box office more legitimate. It was for this reason that Lee Sun-kyun gave Lu Ze the right to decide the script, as long as Lu Ze could act in it.

As for these young heartthrobs, they're just there to give them a boost, hoping they can benefit from the success of the high-grossing film. That's why they cast these young actors who haven't even acted before. Otherwise, with a big-budget film costing hundreds of millions, it's fine to bring in one or two young heartthrobs, but who would dare let these kids play around?
After filming began, Lu Ze misunderstood Bai Xiqun's attitude. It wasn't out of jealousy that Bai Xiqun had seized power—perhaps only a tiny bit of that was involved—but rather because he genuinely didn't care and was just going through the motions. Li Jianni, on the other hand, shared the same mindset as Bai Xiqun; she was also just going through the motions. As for reputation? It had already been ruined by neglecting filming while busy attending commercial performances and making money. She was simply throwing caution to the wind.

Her disregard for Lu Ze's anger and her continued self-will only made Lu Ze's heart sink even further. She was very close to Meng Nixin, so she might have received the news. Her daring to disobey Lu Ze, the number one leader, meant that Lu Ze's title as number one leader was essentially dead. This proved that Li Shanjun was going to replace him!

Lee Sun-kyun may be grooming a new leading man, and his current goodwill towards Lu Ze is merely a temporary appeasement policy. Once the newcomer has grown up, he will make a smooth transition and oust Lu Ze. It would be too subjective to make such a conclusion based solely on Lee Jenny's attitude. However, if this film is a money laundering movie, Lee Sun-kyun's insistence on having the then-rising star Lu Ze participate would indirectly confirm the authenticity of this matter.

He was wasting Lu Ze's reputation and value. He didn't care about Lu Ze's reputation at all; all he needed to do was squeeze Lu Ze dry so that he could promote a newcomer in the most economical way. Once Lu Ze had ruined his reputation, he could kick Lu Ze out without any ripples. Therefore, Lu Ze was certain that Li Shanjun was preparing to discard him after he had served his purpose, and he was the donkey about to be slaughtered.

Furthermore, he was not worried that Lu Ze would resist, or at least not be resistant to this money laundering movie. First of all, he had already seen through Lu Ze's loyalty, and during this period he had given Lu Ze a lot of care and freedom, such as giving Lu Ze power and letting Lu Ze choose scripts, etc.

Just as he imagined, if it were before, out of loyalty to Qian Shijia, Lu Ze would probably have kept quiet about this matter and accepted the company's arrangements. He would have just played his role well and not cared about anything else. Then, after the filming of this drama was completed, he would no longer follow the company's arrangements and planned to decide all his future dramas himself.

Lee Sun-kyun probably anticipated this idea, but he didn't care at all, because even if he squeezed Lu Ze's value to the bone, he still couldn't extract the billions of dollars laundered from this money-laundering movie!
On the other hand, lying about investments, for example, claiming to have invested 1 billion yuan, but actually only investing 200 or 300 million yuan, and then just using an explosion as an excuse to cover up where the rest of the money went, since you can't check after the explosion anyway. I say how much money was blown up, that's how much money was blown up. What do you call that?
corruption!

The only person who dared to embezzle more than 50 million was Li Shanjun. For him, the word "withholding" might be more appropriate. So why did he withhold this money? Lu Ze guessed it was because he couldn't bear to part with it.

After all, if this money is considered money laundering, it is indeed a waste of money. Lu Ze even suspects that Yang Yong, or even the other three shareholders, are fake! They are all people arranged by Li Shanjun. At that time, under the pretext of withdrawing investment, he can withdraw a portion of the funds, and no outsiders can find any fault with it.

So how much money did Lee Sun-kyun take? More than 130 million! He was reluctant to spend it, so he kept it all. He wouldn't spend the money anyway, since it was a money laundering movie, so he might as well make do. That makes perfect sense.

In other words, everything from the project's inception to squeezing every last drop of value from Lu Ze was within Li Shanjun's plan. The only thing he didn't expect was that Lu Ze's mental health issues would be exposed this time. After all, he's not a god; he couldn't have foreseen this if he hadn't started it.

Before this, Lu Ze might have remained silent about this money laundering film, but now, even if he hasn't figured things out, he won't compromise. Why? Because he feels uncomfortable! Is he willing to be the villain who takes the fall for others? Wouldn't he feel bad if he became the villain?
But he's only human, and he's bound to be selfish. Compared to sacrificing his own future, sacrificing the future of someone he hates is obviously better, but his conscience won't allow it.

He dared not say that he had never done a bad thing in his life, but he really never thought that he would do such a disgusting job. Even though it was the most appropriate solution given by the company and it did perfectly shield Lu Ze from a storm, he couldn't sleep well now!
He still remembered what Han Tian had told him: that his current situation would also happen to him. If he acquiesced to the money laundering, wouldn't his situation actually happen just as Han Tian had said if it were exposed in the future?

If this were to come to light, it wouldn't be comparable to neutral news like Lu Ze having a mental illness; it would be a genuine scandal. He didn't want to be embroiled in such a scandal, and he was even less willing to bring shame upon the Lu family, which, while not a prestigious clan, still had impeccable lineage! He wouldn't do it; he couldn't do it even if you killed him.

Looking at Feng Changhao, whose expression gradually calmed down, it seemed that he also thought that Lu Ze would choose to remain silent. It looked like Lu Ze had calmed down and wouldn't beat him up.

"Do you think I'd admit it? That I'd turn a blind eye and finish filming this movie? And that I wouldn't beat you up?"

"What do you mean?"

Lu Ze suddenly stood up, grabbed Feng Changhao's collar forcefully, looked at the panicked Feng Changhao, smiled mockingly, then gently released Feng Changhao's collar and smoothed out the wrinkles he had pulled out.

"You're half right, I really won't beat you up. The other half is that I won't choose to stay silent."

He turned around, picked up the knitted trench coat on the table, patted off non-existent dust, put it on, took out a cigarette case from his pocket, pulled out a cigarette, tilted his head slightly, lit the lighter, and held his right hand above the lighter. Even though there was no wind in the room, the flame flickered, burning the tobacco. He took a puff, and the tobacco instantly turned red, then dimmed again.

He stuffed the lighter into the cigarette case, put it in his pocket, exhaled a puff of pale blue smoke, and a smile actually appeared on his face. He glanced at the astonished Feng Changhao again, then turned and walked out.

Perhaps what she loved most wasn't watching Lu Ze smoke, but the manly choices he made while smoking.
He really looked quite handsome at that moment.

Do you know the consequences?

"The consequences? I hate Han Tian, ​​I really fucking hate him, but I made a mistake, I owe him, so I have to pay him back. He'd probably be happy to accept it, and then I can finally get a good night's sleep."

Without turning around, he answered Feng Changhao's question, opened the door, walked out, and then gently closed the door behind him. With a click, the lock and door lock fit together.

He walked out.

Only Feng Changhao, trapped in the room, sat down with a complicated expression, closed his laptop, propped his right elbow on the table, rubbed his forehead, and let out a long sigh.

"crazy."

"."

(End of this chapter)