The Entertainment Industry in Turmoil: Young Actresses All Want to Rise to the Top

Chapter 360 My Clean and Tidy Relationship with Brother Mo

February 27, 2017, the second day of the second lunar month.

The spring chill lingered, but the sky over the capital was a vast expanse of blue.

This day is commonly known as "Dragon Raises Its Head," a day when all things are full of vitality and good fortune is on its way.

In Wangjing, the capital city, a modern building complex is decorated with lanterns and colorful ribbons.

A huge stone stands at the entrance, with five large red characters written on it: Ink Trace Industrial Park.

This is the new headquarters of the Mohen Group, built with huge investment.

The streamlined main building is the most eye-catching feature, with sunlight reflecting off the glass curtain wall and creating a dazzling luster.

At the entrance of the main building, a red carpet stretched for hundreds of meters, with dozens of staff members in black suits maintaining order on both sides.

Outside the venue, media reporters with their long lenses and microphones crowded the area, and behind them were hundreds of staff members from Mohen who were representing the company at the opening ceremony, almost filling the entire open space in front of the main building.

To the left of the main building's entrance is a specially designated open-air tea break area.

Groups of two or three people sat at a table, chatting and laughing.

At the first table on the left, the one laughing the loudest was undoubtedly Cai Huaijun, the general manager of Mohen Video.

Sitting next to him were four people: Sun Zhonghuai, CEO of Tencent Video; Gong Yu, CEO of iQiyi Video; Wang Qing, Vice President of Hunan TV; and Li Hao, Vice President of Tomato TV.

Five people, each holding a glass of champagne, were discussing the copyright of major TV dramas for the second half of the year and the collaboration between online platforms and television stations.

"Old Cai, don't let your dramas clash with ours in the second half of the year."

Sun Zhonghuai smiled and looked at Gong Yu.

"Let's all target the pants together. I'm really curious to see Yang Weidong's expression lately. He's getting really worked up over our targeting, hasn't he?"

Gong Yu laughed along.

Since Shen Mo and Cai Huaijun talked with Sun Zhonghuai and Gong Yu last year, the three families have tacitly started targeting the pants.

In the past few months, all of Kuzi's new dramas and variety shows have clashed with the three major platforms, and he has almost never won.

I heard that Yang Weidong, the general manager of the pants company, has been summoned for talks by Alibaba's entertainment division several times.

Wang Qing and Li Hao, two bigwigs at the TV station, exchanged a glance and both saw the helplessness in each other's eyes.

Outside, they are station directors whom major film and television companies can't even get a meeting with, no matter how much they beg.

But today, for the opening ceremony of the Mohen Group's new location, they had no choice but to set aside their status and come to offer their congratulations.

This is the current status of Inkmark.

And not far from this table.

Chen Zhixi, general manager of Mohen Pictures, and Wang Jing, general manager of Mohen Animation, sat together.

Several people from the film industry were also seated at their table: Zeng Maojun, president of Wanda Pictures; Zhang Qiang, head of Alibaba Pictures; and Zhao Yifang, chairman of Huace Pictures.

"Mr. Wang, I heard that 'Big Fish & Begonia' is planning to be released during the summer season. I wonder if Wanda has any hope of getting a ticket?"

Zeng Maojun took a sip of champagne and asked casually.

Although Wanda was invincible in theaters in 2017, it suffered repeated setbacks in film production. They also wanted to follow in the footsteps of Mohen, a box office lucky charm.

"Mr. Zeng, of course! After the opening ceremony, I think we can discuss this in detail."

Wang Jing raised her champagne glass in a gesture of respect.

In the film industry, connections are still very important. Trying to do everything yourself is not a good choice. She was naturally eager to accept the offer from Wan Da, as she had originally planned to collaborate with them.

Zhang Qiang and Zhao Yifang were looking at Chen Zhixi.

They've been keeping an eye on the movies that Mohen Pictures is going to release this year for a long time.

Wolf Warrior 2, Never Say Die, Sewing Machine Band, Brotherhood of Blades 2, and The Ex-Files.

Of these films, "Wolf Warrior 2" and "Brotherhood of Blades 2" are undoubtedly the most anticipated.

After all, the previous works of both films achieved considerable box office success. Moreover, one is starring Li Yitong and the other is starring Shen Mo, both of which bring a huge following.

Chen Zhixi smiled and smoothed things over with the two, demonstrating her skill as a top producer in China.

It's not that we don't want them to participate, it's just that we don't want them to easily snag a bargain.

Compared to Wang Jing's animated films, which seem to lack box office confidence, her live-action films are clearly very strong.

Leaving aside these two sequels, she is also very confident about the other three.

"Never Say Die" is the second major work by Kaixin Mahua, the company that produced "Goodbye Mr. Loser".

Although "Sewing Machine Band" has a small budget, the script is good, and the female lead is Meng Ziyi, who broke the box office record of "The Mermaid" last year.

The female lead of "Goodbye Ex" is said to have been so popular that she almost threw up from eating mangoes. The plot of the movie is very old-fashioned, but the songs "Decent" and "Say Goodbye When You Want" that Li Yitong commissioned were paired with the movie, and Chen Zhixi was moved to tears.

Zhang Qiang looked at Chen Zhixi and Wang Jing with some envy.

Alibaba Pictures has plenty of money, but faced with the near-incredible blockbuster rate of Mohen Pictures, they have no choice but to lower their proud heads.

Near the steps, a group of middle-aged men were gathered together, and Zhong Lifang sat next to them.

She is the head of Mohen Cinemas, and those around her are the leaders of major cinema chains across the country.

Yi Li, General Manager of China Film New Line; Li Jianping, Chairman of Hengdian Cinema Line; Zheng Wei, President of UME Cinema Line; and Liao Shunlai, Head of Bona Cinema Line.

"Mr. Zhong, I heard that Mohen is preparing to enter the lower-tier market and expand into fourth- and fifth-tier cities?"

Looking at Zhong Lifang in front of him, Yi Li couldn't help but marvel at how daring Mohen was.

Zhong Lifang nodded. "Haven't the markets in first-, second-, and third-tier cities been almost completely taken over by everyone?"

"If I want to increase sales, I have no choice but to target lower-tier markets."

Li Jianping from Hengdian shook his head.

"I think that instead of expanding the meager incremental growth in those fourth- and fifth-tier cities, we should work together to raise prices."

"I think the current ticket prices are a bit too cheap."

Zhong Lifang swirled the red wine in his glass.

"Mr. Li, Mohen doesn't engage in price wars; we compete on the viewing experience."

"Of course, we're not being high-minded; who wouldn't want to make money, right?"

"If everyone raises prices, we at Mohen can follow suit, but as for taking the lead, forget it. In the cinema industry, Mohen is still a latecomer and cannot shoulder such a great responsibility."

Zheng Wei pointed with his finger and smiled helplessly.

"Mr. Zhong, you're really something!"

It's not that they specifically wanted to bring Zhonglifang along; it's just that Mohen Cinemas has been developing quite rapidly lately.

Mohen Cinemas not only has money and is aggressively expanding into lower-tier markets, but it is also making great strides in upgrading its IMAX technology.

Nowadays, when people mention Mohen Cinema, they think of high-end cinemas.

Moreover, he also enjoys the exclusive screening benefits continuously provided by Mohen Pictures.

In 2017, a year of China's box office frenzy, although Zhong Lifang claimed to be a rising star, no one dared to ignore him.

In the middle of the tea break area, a small group of people sat there seemingly unassumingly, but people around them would occasionally glance at them.

The first few tables could be said to represent specific industries, but this table has participants from every industry.

Because they are the heads of top venture capital firms.

Zhao Feng, general manager of Mohen Asset Management, and Chen Jun, director of the strategic investment department at Mohen headquarters, are hosting four "gods of wealth" from the venture capital circle.

Shen Nanpeng of Sequoia Capital, Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital, Zhang Ying of Matrix Partners China, and Xiong Xiaoge of IDG Capital.

The six of them sat together, and they were no longer talking about projects worth tens or hundreds of millions.

Outsiders who hear their conversation might think they're just bragging.

Because they were talking about tracks, ecosystems, certain industries, and predictions about the economic trends of the next ten years.

"Mr. Zhao, it seems that the total amount of funds under Mohen Asset Management has exceeded 150 billion."

Is this newly spun-off "Hard Technology Fund" intended to enter the chip and GPU industry?

Shen Nanpeng looked at Zhao Feng with a curious expression.

In his analysis, the chip and GPU industries do not show much prospect in the short term.

Although he occasionally makes small investments in the two industries, it is still much more conservative compared to Mohen's approach of splitting up a separate fund for investment.

Zhao Feng nodded.

"Actually, everyone is fully aware of what we have done."

"We founded an AI company."

"In our view, the chip and GPU industry is of paramount importance to the development of AI, and we are making early investments in it now."

Zhang Lei smiled to himself.

"Mr. Zhao and Mr. Shen's plan is indeed a bit premature; there's no sign of AI at all right now."

"It's not entirely without problems," Xiong Xiaoge shook her head. "Over there at Gu Ge, there's supposedly a project called AlphaGo that's nearing its final stages."

Zhang Ying raised an eyebrow. "Even if AlphaGo comes out now, it's not too late to invest. When it's released, we can better copy its strategies and decide which sectors to invest in, right?"

"However, compared to that, my bigger purpose in coming here this time is actually to cooperate with Mohen."

As soon as Zhang Ying finished speaking, Shen Nanpeng, Zhang Lei, and Xiong Xiaoge's eyes lit up; they all had the same purpose for coming today.

Chen Jun smiled, turned and waved to someone, "Kelly!"

Kelly Zhang, the CEO of the ice cream cone short video platform, walked over and sat down next to the group.

That is precisely their goal today.

Ice Cream Short Video has seized the market share in the short video field with a precipitous lead.

Before the ice cream cone trend, although there were short video apps on the market, no one expected them to have such a huge impact.

The Ice Cream Cone short video platform has been online for six months and already has over 3 million registered users and over 1.5 million daily active users.

Recently, Ice Cream Cone announced that it will launch its Series A financing round, and the group of people have been eyeing this opportunity for a long time.

Not far from them, several old acquaintances were chatting and laughing heartily.

These are the bosses who have close ties with Mohen: Lei Jun from Xiaomi, Zhang Yiming from Toutiao, Wang Xin from Meituan, Chen Rui from Bilibili, Huang Zheng from Pinduoduo, Mao Wenchao from Xiaomoushu, and He Xiaopeng from Xiaopeng Auto.

Zhang Yiming looked at Kelly sitting at that table and felt endless regret.

"If I had known Kelly was this amazing, I would have kept her around. I was also thinking of making short videos anyway."

Lei Jun laughed, "You can do it now!"

Zhang Yiming shook his head. "Never mind, ice cream cones already take up nearly a third of the market share."

"Even Little Ma's Weishi is being suppressed, how can I compete?"

Wang Xin nodded. "Yes, I didn't expect that President Shen could actually compete with Tencent in burning money. The key is that Weishi couldn't even outspend Ice Cream Cone, which is really impressive."

Huang Zheng looked at them and said, "I have to admire them. It's not just about money. Their marketing tactics for ice cream cones are one after another. They've almost never missed a beat. How can other companies compete?"

"Even the top dog, Kuaishou, has been relegated to second place. And it's only been four months! That's impressive!"

While they were reminiscing, a few meters away at a table, two people were sitting, but there were no outsiders around them.

One is Liang Wenfeng, one of the core members of the original Mohen Asset Quantitative Department, who has now spun off and is now the head of DeepSeek.

The other is Zhang Jianzhong, the former general manager of NVIDIA Greater China. He was recruited by Shen Mo six months ago and is now the general manager of Mohen Technology, focusing on the research and development of domestically produced GPU graphics cards and the construction of computing power clusters.

Their projects are all in their early stages, and they don't yet have much business to collaborate with externally.

Behind this group of business tycoons, several tables became the area where the flashbulbs were flashing most intensely.

Representatives from the Beijing elite circle, including Fan Binbin, Feng Xiaogang, and Chen Daoming, also came today.

Cai Yinong, Hu Ge, Deng Chao, and Sun Li, representing the Shanghai entertainment circle, sat together.

In addition, there are Huang Lei, Sun Honglei, Huang Bo, Liu Shishi, and others who have collaborated with Mohen.

Yang Tianzhen, the CEO of Mohen Media, is skillfully navigating between them.

"Mr. Yang, you must reserve an audition opportunity for me in this year's 'Ink Trace' male lead role."

Hu Ge said to Yang Tianzhen in a half-joking, half-serious manner.

"Look at what you're saying. As long as your schedule is right, we can work together anytime."

Yang Tianzhen laughed so hard she was shaking, but her laughter was perfectly composed.

"We're launching a project this year, 'Joy of Life,' which is arguably Mohen's biggest TV series project this year."

"However, the male lead has already been decided, and our CEO Shen will be starring in it himself. If you don't mind, you can try for the second male lead."

Brother Hu smiled but didn't agree on the spot. Although Shen Mo was now a big star, he wasn't exactly low-profile either, and he was still not very willing to play a supporting role.

Yang Tianzhen saw it, and he looked at Chen Daoming and waved.

"Teacher Chen recently agreed to play the role of the emperor in our drama. In addition to him, several other talented actors, including Wu Gang, have also joined the cast."

Chen Daoming smiled. He saw through Yang Tianzhen's thoughts. "Indeed, this drama is quite good. This is also the first time I've played a role outside of a serious drama."

Hu raised an eyebrow, while Cai Yinong's eyes widened instantly, clearly shocked by the news.

Tsai Yi-nong quickly spoke up, "Has the female lead been decided yet? What does President Yang think of our Tang Ren's Gulnazar?"

Yang Tianzhen smiled and squinted her eyes, "Nazha is very beautiful."

"However, Yitong and Qinxin are fighting quite fiercely for the female lead role!"

Shen Mo, Li Yitong, Li Lin, Chen Daoming, Wu Gang —

Tsai Yi-nong couldn't help but take a deep breath. What kind of lineup is this?

She turned to look at Brother Hu, "I think—"

"Actually, playing the second male lead isn't out of the question, what do you think?"

Hu Ge looked at Cai Yinong, pursed his lips, and said nothing.

Not far away, a group of Mohen's own artists were sitting.

Male celebrities such as Zhang Ruoyun, Zhu Yilong, Li Xian, Zeng Shunxi, and Liu Haoran sat in a group.

What truly captivated employees and the media were the stunning young actresses under the Mohen brand.

Li Qin, Reba, Bai Lu, Meng Ziyi, Wang Churan, Liu Haocun.

Whether I had a scheduled event or was filming on set, I rushed back today.

At this moment, several young girls were gathered together whispering to each other. Their beauty, whether stunning, aloof, sweet, or innocent, was captivating. All sorts of top-tier beauty collided in the air.

"Chu Ran, I heard you've been going to Brother Mo's villa every day lately?"

"Tell me honestly, how far have things progressed between you and Brother Mo?"

Bai Lu linked arms with Wang Churan's, pressing her entire weight onto him.

Wang Churan blushed and shook her head.

"It's nothing, it's the same relationship as before!"

Meng Ziyi laughed and covered her mouth as she looked at her, "Brother Mo is amazing, isn't he! How long did you last the first time?"

Wang Churan's pretty face instantly turned red to the roots of her neck, and she raised her hand to slap Meng Ziyi.

"Sister Meng, if you keep talking nonsense, I'll tear your mouth off!"

"Mo Ge and I are completely clean!"

"Brother Mo said he wouldn't disturb my college entrance exam preparation. He only let me go over so I could focus on my studies. He also offered to give me guidance and cook for me."

"Oh~~!" Dilraba teased, drawing out the last syllable, "Cooking!"

"I'm so envious! I've never had a meal cooked by Brother Mo!"

"Not disturbing the college entrance exam preparation? Looks like I'll be eaten after the exam." Li Qin's face was calm and aloof when she suddenly uttered this sentence.

Wang Churan covered her face with her hands in embarrassment, and stammered as soon as she opened her mouth.

"Sister Xin————"

"Why—why did you come along—"

"Teasing—teasing me—"

Liu Haocun covered his mouth and laughed so hard he was shaking.

"Chu Ran, you're so cute when you're shy!"

"If I were Brother Mo, I wouldn't be able to resist eating you!"

"Hey, aren't some people ashamed when they're eavesdropping?"

A voice filled with mockery suddenly came from the side.

Tian Xi walked over gracefully.

Behind her were the assets of Chenxi Media, including Yang Mi, Zhou Ye, Zhang Ruonan, Zhang Bingbing, Zhu Xudan, and others.

Tian Xi crossed her arms, her big eyes full of smiles, and her signature dimples at the corners of her mouth were full of smugness like a little fox.

"Tian Xiwei! Shut up!"

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