Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 461 Testing
The Spring Festival should certainly be lively and festive, but then again, it's true that children like the New Year more, while adults are just so-so.

Li Qiutang's family didn't have any relatives in Yanjing, so they had nowhere to visit each other. In addition, setting off fireworks and firecrackers was not allowed in the city, which reduced their enjoyment by more than half.

Li's mother even complained that the gas stove in the city was not as good as the traditional stove in the countryside.

That evening, Li Qiutang spoke with her mother: "Who are you talking to? How many times a year do you go back to the village and use the earthen stove?" Yifei's mother was a little unhappy. It was the New Year, and they were here to set the date. Why were they saying these things?

Li Qiutang knew the reason, of course. It was all because of the house issue. Her mother thought it was Liu Xiaoli who instigated it. In her eyes, Liu Yifei listened to her son and it was entirely Liu Xiaoli's idea not to move to a new house.

"Why are you so fixated on this dilapidated house? Are you only satisfied when you force Yifei to argue with me?"

The mother listened to her son, and in the following days she indeed got along "peacefully" with Liu Xiaoli.

On the morning of the first day of the Lunar New Year, our home welcomed its first guest to offer New Year's greetings.

Yang Mi.

Yang Mi has mixed feelings about Liu Yifei. On one hand, Liu Yifei is one of her few true friends in the industry and a childhood friend; on the other hand, Liu Yifei has signed a 3-year, 3.1 million yuan performance-based agreement with Autumn Pictures, which means that Liu Yifei is essentially her boss's wife.

Although Liu Yifei is most likely unaware of this matter.

Of course, taking money from Autumn Pictures and signing a performance-based agreement doesn't necessarily mean they have to grovel before Li Qiutang and Liu Yifei. Li Qiutang isn't the kind of boss who treats people like dogs.

Our daily interactions remain the same as always, not to mention that they've come to pay their respects for the New Year, so we should be even more polite to them.

"Come in, come in," Li Qiutang welcomed Yang Mi in. "Didn't you go to Hong Kong for the New Year this year? Yifei, Yang Mi is here."

Liu Yifei was watching the Spring Festival Gala rebroadcast with her two mothers while eating sunflower seeds, when Li's father couldn't sit still and went out to see if he could find a game of cards to play.

"Ah, Mimi." Liu Yifei affectionately pulled Yang Mi along and asked her how she would be spending the Chinese New Year in Yanjing this year.

After greeting the two aunties, Yang Mi said, "Kaiwei is still filming in Hengdian, so I won't be going to Hong Kong."

Li Qiutang poured a cup of tea for Yang Mi and said with a smile, "Why don't you go keep him company? He's working alone in another city, and during the Spring Festival, his wife isn't around. He must be so lonely."

Yang Mi said, "I'll go tomorrow. I'll rest at home on the first day of the lunar new year."

After exchanging a few pleasantries, Yang Mi finished her cup of tea and left.

As soon as Yang Mi left, Li's mother asked, "Is she married? Does she have children?" Li's mother did not recognize Yang Mi.

“We got married last year, but we haven’t had children yet. She’s so busy, with so many dramas every year,” Li Qiutang said.

Li's mother said, "I always felt that her face looked strange." She never saw her face that had been operated on normally.

Liu Yifei fell silent, and Liu Xiaoli chimed in: "There are many like that in the acting world; they all do it to make the film look good."

While we were gossiping about others, the phone rang. It was the property security guard calling to confirm my visit.

Li Qiutang replied, "They are our guests, please let them in."

"Who's here?" Liu Yifei asked.

"Wang Zhongjun and Wang Zhonglei's family."

A short while later, three young people, one adult and two children, entered.

They are Wang Zhongjun's eldest son and Wang Zhonglei's son and daughter.

Since their father was unable to visit Li Qiutang, the three children took his place.

Wang Fuye is only two years younger than Liu Yifei, but he didn't join Huayi Brothers; instead, he chose to work in investment. Li Qiutang invited them to sit down. Wang Yuanye was only nine years old and didn't understand anything, so he sat there obediently eating snacks. Wang Wenye was seventeen and a little shrew. Four years ago, when she was thirteen, she dared to criticize Huo Siyan on Weibo, but today it wasn't her turn to speak.

It was obvious that she didn't want to come, but Li Qiutang didn't need to argue with a 17-year-old girl.

The eldest brother, Wang Fuye, clearly came with a mission: "Director, will your company invest in Changchun Film Studio Park next year?"

Why are you still asking about this?

But Li Qiutang wouldn't tell the truth, and laughed it off: "Investing in an amusement park is too much; we can't afford it."

Wang Fuye simply didn't believe that Qiu Tian had such strong financial backing; he wouldn't dare say how much, but she could definitely come up with a hundred or two hundred billion. He didn't expect to get a definite answer from Li Qiutang today, and said, "My dad and the others mean that we can cooperate on the amusement park. The company wants to build an amusement park in Xingcheng, and then we can give you a portion of the shares." Although he didn't want to get involved in Huayi's work right now, he had no choice; being born into that kind of family meant he had to bear certain responsibilities.

Wang Fuye's message was clear: he wanted Li Qiutang to withdraw from the Changchun Film Studio project and switch to Huayi.

But this isn't something you can just quit whenever you want, or go wherever you want.

Li Qiutang laughed and said, "We appreciate Mr. Wang's kindness, but we really don't have any plans to develop an amusement park. Unlike your Huayi, we can't develop so many profitable sectors outside of movies. We struggle with film and television production, hahaha."

Wang Fuye had anticipated that he would be met with a cold shoulder before he even arrived.

"Why don't you stay for lunch? I've eaten quite a bit of your dad's and uncle's food, so you should try some of our cooking too."

"No, I have things to do at home." Wang Fuye got up to say goodbye and left with his two younger siblings.

Before leaving, Liu Yifei deliberately slipped a red envelope into Wang Wenye's and Wang Yuanye's pockets, so that her trip wouldn't be in vain.

After the three Wang siblings left, several more guests came to pay their respects for the New Year.

There were celebrities in front of the camera, such as Shu Chang, Zhu Yawen, and Wu Jing; there were also behind-the-scenes staff, such as Chen Sicheng and Han Yan; and some friends from the business world.

It can be said that no uncultured person comes and goes among its people.

Given Li Qiutang's current status, to put it pretentiously, there are very few people for whom he needs to personally visit to offer New Year's greetings. Even if there are a few, it's usually inconvenient to meet them in person. The company will send gifts before the New Year, and he can simply make a phone call to say hello during the holiday.

For example, right now, Li Qiutang is in her study making a phone call to a leader who sits in the front row. Besides wishing each other a Happy New Year, the two are talking mostly about the development of the film and television industry.

Li Qiutang mentioned the issue of insufficient prestige of mainland Chinese film awards.

“The number of our screens is increasing every day, and the number of films produced is increasing year by year, but the mainland lacks film awards with sufficient prestige. The Golden Rooster Awards have lost their audience base.”

The Golden Rooster Awards are now becoming an assigned task; without it, no city will voluntarily apply to host them.

The 13 Jiangcheng event was a huge joke. When Jiangcheng applied, they said the opening ceremony budget was 900 million yuan. But after winning the hosting rights, the organizers cut the budget to 30 yuan, and the opening ceremony was extremely simple.

Although it is advocated to simplify the gala, the Golden Rooster Awards is, after all, the highest film award in mainland China, and the necessary prestige must be guaranteed. The way the event was held in Wuhan was a real disgrace to the local government.

Logically speaking, such macro-level industrial issues are not something that an "outsider" like Li Qiutang should be discussing, but this leader needed to hear some different voices, and even said that Li Qiutang's suggestions were very good.

The leader said that the organization also wanted to create a high-value film award that matches the current booming development of the industry, but it was very difficult to do. Not only were the policies unstable, but no one was willing to take the lead. Everyone knew that this was a hot potato and no one wanted to do it.

Are the Golden Rooster Awards willing to change? What gives them the right to change? If they don't change, they'll at most get criticized by the audience; if they do change, who knows what kind of trouble will arise?

The Huabiao Awards? They're not market-oriented or audience-oriented at all, so why change them?

The Hundred Flowers Awards? The Hundred Flowers Awards are indeed market-oriented and audience-oriented, but this award is fundamentally not an academic award, and it is not recognized within the industry.

On the first night of the Lunar New Year, Liu Yifei treated her whole family to see "From Vegas to Macau II". Despite how bad it was, the fact that the family sat together and had a good time all night made the ticket price worthwhile.

(End of this chapter)