Internet moguls are being held hostage by the entertainment system!

Chapter 312 Giving Wang Zhonglei a Surprise

"Mr. Zhang, this way."

Seeing Wei Feng come out of the private room to greet him, Zhang Zili's heart skipped a beat.

He had his subordinates publish an article smearing Chen Xiu yesterday, which is now trending on Weibo.

As a result, this morning, Wei Feng, Chen Xiu's top henchman, contacted him through his connections in the industry, saying he wanted to invite him for coffee.

Such a swift and unusual turn of events made Zhang Zili feel guilty, and he also wanted to see how Datang Pictures would react to the matter, so he came to the appointment.

Clenching his fist, Zhang Zili silently recited in his heart: "Each serves their own master," and then calmly walked towards Wei Feng, extending his hand to him.

"Hello, Mr. Wei."

"Hello, hello, please follow me."

Zhang Zili followed Wei Feng toward the open-plan private room that was hidden behind a curtain.

As he lifted the curtain and stepped inside, the moment he saw the interior, his forward stride froze, his pupils contracted, and he stared blankly, speechless.

Seeing Zhang Zili's stunned expression, Chen Xiu, who was sitting on one side of the booth, picked up her coffee and said gently, "Good morning, Mr. Zhang!"

"Good morning……"

Zhang Zili answered subconsciously, but his stunned expression did not ease.

Seeing this, Wei Feng, who came in at the same time as him, explained, "I was originally in charge of today's meeting, but President Chen said he wanted to meet you in person, so we came together."

"The article you were in charge of was quite well-researched."

Chen Xiu said what all three of them already knew, and then praised Zhang Zili generously.

“You use very precise words, but you are talking about ambiguous things. Even if I wanted to do something, I couldn’t achieve it through normal channels.”

"However, it can be done through unofficial channels..."

Wei Feng suddenly lowered his voice and immediately switched to a stern face.

Zhang Zili, who was already feeling uneasy, couldn't help but hold his breath when he heard the two talking back and forth, and he started to take a step back.

Chen Xiu glanced down and smiled, "Mr. Zhang, please have a seat! You are a guest today, it's really inappropriate for you to stand all this time."

"oh oh."

Since he was already there, Zhang Zili had no choice but to bite the bullet and sit down to see how Chen Xiu planned to hold him accountable.

The moment he sat down in the booth, Wei Feng sat right next to him, blocking his way out.

Before Zhang Zili could even ponder the meaning behind this move, Chen Xiu cut to the chase: "I've looked at your resume and I'd like to recruit you. What are your thoughts?"

"..."

For Zhang Zili, none of the previous surprises combined were as intense as this one.

Unsure, he stared at Chen Xiu with trembling eyes and asked, "President Chen, are you trying to poach me?"

"Correct."

"But I just blacklisted you yesterday..."

"You said this."

Chen Xiu took out the short essay she had read the night before and placed it on the table.

Upon seeing his own "masterpiece," Zhang Zili's face turned deathly pale, and his voice trembled uncontrollably: "President Chen, this article..."

"It's alright, but you said in there that Yang Mi switched jobs to Datang Pictures for some unspeakable purpose, which is a bit too much. After all, she is still going through divorce proceedings, so it has a bad influence."

"excuse me, I……"

“I understand business dealings and I value your abilities in this area, so I sincerely invite you to join Datang Pictures to be responsible for public relations for the films produced by the company in the future.”

Chen Xiu spoke sincerely and directly, without any attempt to beat around the bush.

However, given the gap between him and Zhang Zili, there's really no need for him to beat around the bush.

Having understood Chen Xiu's meaning, Zhang Zili began to organize his thoughts.

He suddenly received an invitation from Wei Feng this morning. When he arrived, he found Chen Xiu there as well. Chen Xiu also realized that he was the one who had slandered him, but said he didn't care. Then, Chen Xiu even offered to recruit him to the Tang Dynasty...

In this situation, Zhang Zili not only found it unbelievable, but also felt a little admiration for Chen Xiu's magnanimity.

"Mr. Chen, I currently have no plans to leave Huayi..."

Do you know when we received this short essay?

Wei Feng seized the opportunity to speak, continuing to play the role of the stern figure.

Zhang Zili looked at him blankly and shook his head.

“At 9:45 pm last night, which is 5 minutes after you contacted Weibo, your kind of short essays that immediately try to buy trending topics would take an hour from content review to publication. If we wanted to make any response, that would have been enough time.”

Wei Feng's tone was somewhat cold, and his expression showed a hint of impatience.

Seeing that Zhang Zili still didn't understand, he leaned closer, narrowed his eyes, and said in a sinister tone, "Is 'Youth' really that clean? You've written about all of our boss's affairs, which are just ambiguous rumors. Your boss..."

"Mr. Wei, what are you trying to do?"

"What do I want to do? Humph! I just want to tell you, if it comes to playing these low-down tricks, do you think you can compete?"

"Xiao Feng, don't scare President Zhang." Chen Xiu's words were like a spring breeze, which made Zhang Zili's heart, which had been in his throat, slowly calm down.

However, Chen Xiu's next words almost made his heart jump out of his chest.

"Wang Zhonglei lacks courage and responsibility. If I were to wage a full-scale war against him, you would be the first one to be pushed forward to apologize. At that point, would you still be able to continue working in the film and television industry?"

"Mr. Chen, it can't be that bad."

Cold sweat poured down Zhang Zili's forehead, and he unconsciously leaned back.

When he received the task from Wang Zhonglei, he had already considered the possibility of Chen Xiu's retaliation, which is why he dared not write the essay too outrageously. As it turned out, he received the task yesterday, but the threat of retaliation came this morning.

So fast! Even karma doesn't come this quickly!
"Why not?"

Wei Feng continued, his face still cold, "That was just a preview and a summary. The details will be available by noon today. Have you prepared your resume for the new job search?"

"I was just doing my job..."

“Mr. Zhang, you are indeed doing your job, but you also know that whether it’s Mr. Chen or Wang Zhonglei, they can both interrupt your career. In that case, why don’t you find a more powerful boss?”

"..."

Looking at Wei Feng's stern face, and Chen Xiu sitting opposite them drinking coffee and ignoring them.

Zhang Zili had already figured out what it meant to play the good cop and the bad cop, but just as Wei Feng had said, if Chen Xiu wanted revenge, Wang Zhonglei would definitely push him out.

Faced with Chen Xiu's offer to poach him, he couldn't even refuse.

After a long pause, Zhang Zili said, as if deflated, "President Chen, what do you want me to do?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Xiu and Wei Feng didn't even need to look at each other; a shared smile flashed across their eyes.

Having gone to such lengths, they certainly weren't simply after Zhang Zili.

Chen Xiu put down her coffee cup and said, "The films 'Better Days' and 'Youth' are still showing in theaters. Although the target audiences of the two films are different, their screenings in theaters are always limited."

"The performance of Huayi Brothers' other films this year has been mediocre. The box office performance of 'Youth' will directly affect the financial report this year, which Wang Zhonglei must be paying close attention to."

"Using some of my personal scandals for publicity won't affect the movie. It seems more like a smokescreen released for a real purpose. What are your accompanying actions?"

Zhang Zili gasped. He never expected that Huayi's underhanded tactics would be so transparent to Chen Xiu.

As is customary, after a moment's internal struggle, Zhang Zili, who had already decided to become a rogue ninja, offered his pledge of allegiance without much psychological burden.

"Mr. Chen, yesterday, Mr. Wang asked me to contact several regional managers of film companies and ask them to find a way to allocate some of the box office revenue from 'Better Days' to 'Youth'..."

After hearing about Zhang Zili's little trick, Chen Xiu nodded slightly and then gave Wei Feng a look.

Wei Feng understood immediately and said, "Tell me the regional manager you're in contact with, specifically a large movie theater!"

"The person in charge of Jinyi Cinema in Shanghai..."

Zhang Zili wasn't the kind of person who wanted to have his cake and eat it too; since he was already going to sell, he simply sold it off completely.

Wei Feng wrote down all the information he had given him, and after confirming that it was correct, he nodded to Chen Xiu.

Chen Xiu turned to Zhang Zili and said, "Mr. Zhang, let's call it a day! After the movie ends, you can submit your resignation to Huayi. On behalf of Datang Pictures, I welcome you to join us!"

"Thank you."

Zhang Zili grasped Chen Xiu's outstretched hand, knowing that he had already found a new employer.

After he left, Wei Feng, who had already checked the information, asked Chen Xiu, "Boss, how do we handle this?"

“Guangxi started out with on-the-ground distribution, and they should have someone in charge in every film region. Contact Wang Changtian and ask him to send someone to stake out the location. If they catch someone in the act, take photos as evidence, then compile the information and we’ll give Wang Zhonglei a surprise.”

Chen Xiu said calmly that since the other party wanted to play these underhanded tricks, he didn't mind playing along.

……

Huayi, CEO's Office.

"well done!"

Wang Zhonglei got up from the chair with a smile, walked over to Zhang Zili's side, and patted him on the shoulder.

"Xiao Zhang, I've read the article you were in charge of. Although the content wasn't exciting enough, it generated enough buzz. Have you contacted the regional film manager yet?"

"I contacted them, and it's the same old routine: give them an extra 5 points. I expect things will change today."

"well done!"

Wang Zhonglei nodded in satisfaction, and as he gestured for Zhang Zili to sit down on the sofa, he pursed his lips.

"Unfortunately, it's already Sunday, so the box office impact won't be too significant. Have the box office statistics for 'Youth' been released yet?"

"7612 million. Including the preview screenings and the opening day results, the current cumulative box office is 1.46 million, and the estimated box office for the first week is 2.2 million."

"This proves that Director Feng didn't fail this time. How did 'Better Days' perform?"

"1.6 million, cumulative box office 2.9 million, expected to reach 4.5 million in the first week."

Upon hearing this number, Wang Zhonglei's initially pleased face instantly fell.

"Hmph! Chen Xiu is lucky... Hopefully, today's box office will be a pleasant surprise."

"Yes, there will definitely be a surprise."

(End of this chapter)