Entertainment: I am the peak

Chapter 545 Still putting on that face!

Li Qiutang did not attend the bell-ringing ceremony for Lantern Entertainment's listing on Nasdaq.

It's not that he's trying to show off or be a behind-the-scenes manipulator; it's just that he's been too busy lately, and attending the ceremony involves a lot of compliance regulations, which is very troublesome, so he simply decided not to go.

Not going won't affect anything; Li Qiutang remains the actual controller of Lantern Entertainment, and he doesn't even appear on the shareholder list.

On the day of its IPO, Lantern Entertainment's market capitalization reached a peak of $54.67 billion, closing at $47.82 billion.

It's certainly not as good as the Big Six, but it's considered very good among Hollywood independent studios.

Mr. Li's net worth has increased by more than 10 billion.

At this point, you can pretend: "I didn't know, I didn't pay attention because of the time difference."

"Market value is useless; it won't end up in my hands anyway."

"Don't listen to the media's nonsense, there aren't that many."

"What do I need to spend money on? I have everything I need, there's no need to spend any money."

With the listing of Lantern Entertainment, Li Qiutang is now widely regarded as the richest person in the entertainment industry.

What do you mean by Teacher Ma and Old Wang?
Strictly speaking, they are not people in the entertainment industry; it's just that their company has film and television business.

These days, it's popular for entrepreneurs to talk about success, but Li Qiutang never participates in such events.

He also often sent Zhang Zhao to business conferences and forums, as he preferred working on film sets.

That day, Zhang Zhao returned from abroad, bringing with him a box of paper materials and many audio and video files.

During his business trip, he and his team basically traveled all over Europe.

He tirelessly visited and consulted with the presidents, artistic directors, curators, and operations directors of the three major film festivals.

Marco Müller, the retired former president of the Venice Film Festival, was one of the key people Zhang Zhao consulted. Müller was an expert on China, and his experience was particularly useful to Zhang Zhao.

As for the San Sebastián and Locarno film festivals, and even the Toronto, Sundance, and Tribeca film festivals in North America, Zhang Zhao has already made appointments with them and will consult with them one by one later.

Zhang Zhao gained a lot from this trip, and his team and Li Qiutang held two consecutive days of meetings to discuss the results.

“Marc Müller retired from the Rome Film Festival last year, and I invited him to come to China to be our consultant.”

This is wonderful news. With Marco Müller's help, his preparations for the film festival will be greatly enhanced.

“He said he would think about it. It’s clear that he still wants to run a film festival, but we are focusing on Chinese-language film awards and not going international, so he might mind that.”

“It’s alright. Marco Müller’s experience in organizing film festivals is invaluable,” Li Qiutang said. “By the way, I’ll bring a few people over this afternoon for you to meet. I’ve been begging and pleading with them to join our team.”

Such a big undertaking as reforming the film festival requires Li Qiutang and Zhang Zhao to handle everything; they could work themselves to death on the road and still not get it done.

For a long time afterward, the two frequently traveled between Beijing and Xidu, and their team also flew all over the country, keeping them very busy.

You can fly anywhere in the country.

Finally, on the last Monday of March, the Changchun Film Festival officially released its first announcement of the year, declaring the establishment of the Golden Deer Project Pitching Unit starting from this year's festival, and launching the pitching process immediately.

The announcement emphasizes that Golden Deer Ventures focuses on nurturing new talent, covering both art-house and genre films, as well as short and feature films, and welcomes applications from Chinese-language filmmakers across Mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and overseas.

For the first time, the Changchun Film Festival explicitly stated in its project pitching section that it is open to all Chinese-language filmmakers both at home and abroad.

The process of soliciting, reviewing, and finalizing venture capital proposals takes a long time and must be completed before the film festival opens.

The announcement has been issued, but the work has only just begun.

And don't forget, Li Qiutang has two other projects in the works at the same time.

Every drama is extraordinary, and every drama allows Li Qiutang to experience what it feels like to be on the verge of death.

This greatly displeased Liu Yifei. She had been back for several days and had adjusted to the time difference, but her husband hadn't touched her at all.

He's either away on business trips or he only comes back after she's asleep. Liu Yifei even scolded her husband: "All three of my parents are urging me to have a child, but with you like this, who am I supposed to have a child with?"

Li Qiutang also noticed that his wife was in a bad mood. These past few days, he had been acting strangely at home, and Liu Yifei would take her anger out on him.

Liu Xiaoli didn't dare to speak loudly to her daughter.

Commonly known as endocrine disorder.

That night at 10:30, Li Qiutang made a point of returning home early from the "The Wandering Earth" preparatory team.

There was no one in the living room, the bedroom, or the study. Li Qiutang was in the audio-visual room on the basement floor when she saw Liu Yifei watching a movie wrapped in a blanket.

"Watching a movie." Li Qiutang placed the wine and two glasses on the small table, sat down, and put her arm around Liu Yifei. "This equipment cost 70 yuan. It's a real shame that you're using it to watch pirated movies."

"I like it." Liu Yifei leaned against her husband's chest, smelling the familiar scent, which made her feel much more at ease, but she still remained stubborn.

"Have a drink." Li Qiutang got up and poured two glasses of wine.

"Why are you being so solicitous? What good thing is it that you'd like to invite me for a drink?"

"Congratulations to Ms. Liu Yifei on the impressive pre-sale results of the magazine!" Liu Yifei's first job after returning to China was a photoshoot for ELLE, and pre-sales began yesterday.

"I don't even know the pre-sale figures," Liu Yifei said with a laugh, unable to bear watching what was playing on the screen anymore.

In fact, Li Qiutang didn't know either. He only knew that his wife had returned to China to shoot a magazine cover, but he didn't know whether it was available for pre-sale.

"Selling for tens of thousands, Teacher Liu is really capable," Li Qiutang boasted with her eyes closed. "Let's have a drink." Li Qiutang raised her glass.

Liu Yifei pouted and clinked glasses with Li Qiutang.

The two sat close together, watching the movie on the screen in a casual manner, while Li Qiutang's hands were quite restless.

"Stop fooling around, we're watching a movie."

When a woman says no, she means yes, and Li Qiutang doesn't stop.

"Tsk, how annoying." She said, turning over and sitting on her husband's lap, facing him. "What's with this energy at a time like this?"

"It's never too late to get started." With a little effort, Li Qiutang flipped the two over, and Liu Yifei was now lying on the sofa.

"Let's go back to the room. I'm not used to it here."

"Why go back to a room? Just stay here."

The new environment provided a completely different and higher-quality stimulus for the two of them.

Afterwards, Liu Yifei lay in her husband's arms, handed him a glass of wine, and said, "Take a sip and relax."

Li Qiutang held the bowl in one hand and said, "You've been giving me attitude these past few days. Are you still going to put on a bad face?" She applied a little pressure.

The wife winced in pain and let out a soft moan, saying, "It's my fault. Why have you ignored me ever since I came back?"

"I'm busy with work, you know that."

"I know, but I am your wife after all. You should spend some time with me too."

"I'm going to New Zealand in a couple of days. How about I take you there? We can have a few days of fun together."

"No, I have an appointment to discuss the film. Be quiet."

"What film are you going to talk about?"

"I won't tell you." He then got up.

The next day, Liu Xiaoli noticed that her daughter had a rosy complexion, looked refreshed, spoke softly, and even helped her with housework, so she knew that her son-in-law had come home to sleep the night before.

(End of this chapter)