Chapter 1134: Make a Quick Buck?

The capital is a city without regrets, except for its summer.

Entering July, the sun seemed to come alive, growing brighter and brighter, the temperature rising higher and higher. The scorching heat enveloped the entire city. Occasionally a breeze would blow, but it carried only a helpless warmth, draining people of all energy.

Even now, at night, there was little change. Standing by the street, Zhao Fusheng and Wang Zhongjun could still feel the heat waves hitting them.

In fact, both Zhao Fusheng and Wang Zhongjun knew very well that this meaningless conversation was merely to ease their own consciences. When it came to their own interests, neither would show any mercy to the other.

As Zhao Fusheng had said, he was a businessman, and Wang Zhongjun was a businessman too.

For businessmen, friends are few; most are just collaborators. Today's collaborator could easily become tomorrow's opponent.

The business world is no different from the battlefield.

This is the inevitability of fate.

"I hope that one day we won't become opponents," Wang Zhongjun said, looking at Zhao Fusheng, enunciating each word.

Zhao Fusheng smiled slightly. "Neither you nor I are immortals; predicting the future is undoubtedly impossible. Whether as opponents or partners, some things still depend on whether they benefit everyone."

Wang Zhongjun nodded. "Yes, any inference that seems absurd and ridiculous now, when time reaches the next juncture, everyone will eventually find that it's not our inference that is absurd, but that life itself is easily prone to becoming absurd and ridiculous."

Zhao Fusheng was silent. In his previous life, he would have thought Wang Zhongjun's words were too sour and pretentious. But now, after experiencing the most absurd and ridiculous things in this world, Zhao Fusheng had no reason to question this statement.

After all, he had even encountered the matter of rebirth, let alone other things.

In his previous life, Zhao Fusheng was an ordinary person. In this life, he was a genius. The most important quality of a genius is to maintain confidence at all times and in all places, even in front of one's competitors.

Therefore, whether facing Wang Zhongjun or Wang Zhonglei, Zhao Fusheng displayed strong confidence.

Clearly, the Wang brothers bought into it.

Looking at Zhao Fusheng, Wang Zhongjun smiled bitterly. "If it were ten years ago, I would definitely say let's be opponents and have a good contest. But now, I say I hope we remain partners."

"Why?" Zhao Fusheng frowned, somewhat puzzled.

"More friends, more paths," Wang Zhongjun said calmly. "Creating an enemy for no reason is utterly meaningless."

Zhao Fusheng burst into laughter. He suddenly found this eldest Wang brother very interesting.

"A friend of mine said: honest people must walk step by step; only bad people can fool around and still cheat money. We are both honest people, so we must be steady and sure." Zhao Fusheng said to Wang Zhongjun with a half-smile, uttering words the other couldn't understand, then strode toward the restaurant.

Wang Zhongjun probably wouldn't fully grasp this sentence, but Zhao Fusheng still told him in advance, hoping that when Huayi expanded in all directions, he would remember what he had said and not ruin the promising situation of Huayi Brothers.

In Zhao Fusheng's view, it was not easy for a competitive private company to emerge in China. Although he disapproved of certain things and certain people, Zhao Fusheng's heart wasn't that ruthless.

As the two walked toward the restaurant, Wang Zhongjun smiled and said, "Wang Jinghua is about to leave. How about it, do you have time? Let's cooperate?"

Zhao Fusheng was somewhat surprised, amazed that he could mention this matter in such a relaxed tone.

"You warned us before, so we made some preparations," Wang Zhonglei shrugged and smiled, seeing Zhao Fusheng's puzzled expression. "Zhou Xun is about to sign with our company."

Hearing this, Zhao Fusheng immediately understood his meaning.

The advantage of preparing for a rainy day is that with prior preparation, you won't be caught off guard.

Take the matter of Wang Jinghua, for example. Without Zhao Fusheng's reminder long ago, the Wang brothers would not have known in advance about Wang Jinghua's departure from Huayi, nor would they have made any preparations. In the previous life, that was the case: Huayi was unprepared and flustered. If not for the Wang brothers' decisive action in spending heavily to keep the 'Two Bings' and the presence of Feng Xiaogang and Ge You, Huayi might have never recovered.

Now, with Zhao Fusheng's warning, the Wang brothers had long been wary of Wang Jinghua. Apart from the artists signed under her own name, she couldn't take away any of the other artists signed with Huayi Brothers.

Moreover, to prevent Wang Jinghua from pulling any tricks like 'cutting off the fuel supply,' Wang Zhonglei had been aggressively poaching talent in the past two years, even luring Zhou Xun to his side.

To this, Zhao Fusheng could only say that the trajectory of fate remained the same; some people and some things could not be changed by a few words from him.

……

……

Back in the room, everyone was chatting enthusiastically. Although gatherings within this circle were not rare, ones with such broad coverage were uncommon. It was only thanks to Jiang Wen's wide network and prestige that he could invite so many people.

Of course, the meal was also costly. But Zhao Fusheng had already arranged with Ye Jing that, nominally, Jiang Wen was hosting, but in reality, Future Films was footing the bill.

After all, this was to break the ice.

"Old Ye, how about we join forces to make a few New Year films?" Zhao Baogang and Wang Zhonglei were chatting with Ye Jing. Clearly, Zhao Baogang was also very interested in the film market.

Although Xinbaoyuan focused on TV dramas, Zhao Baogang wasn't stupid. He knew how profitable films could be; he just never intended to focus on that market.

In fact, this was the mindset of many investors: typical quick-money mentality, with no intention of making a mark in the film industry. After all, in most people's eyes at the time, the TV drama market had better prospects than films.

Even by the year of the Beijing Olympics, the total annual box office in mainland China was only 4.3 billion yuan, offering little hope. No one would have imagined that just seven years later, China's film box office would reach 44 billion yuan.

Consequently, celebrities and artists always asked for exorbitant fees, desperately demanding high salaries, because they themselves had no confidence in the entire market, let alone their own box office appeal.

In other words, they dared not do what some big-name stars in Europe and America did—enjoy box office profit sharing. Because these people knew how poor their acting skills were and that they had no real box office appeal.

"If you don't make money when you can, you're a fool. Take advantage of the deep pockets, make a quick buck, and get out."

That was the mindset of the vast majority.

So the following year, the mainland film box office plummeted, and many who had confidently believed the spring of Chinese-language cinema had arrived were left dumbfounded.

Zhao Fusheng certainly wouldn't be that kind of person, but he wouldn't reject Zhao Baogang's proposal either. After all, in an era when commercial blockbusters were not yet popular, piling up a bunch of celebrities to shoot a few comedies might indeed, as Zhao Baogang suggested, make a profit.

A businessman who doesn't make money when he can is not a qualified businessman.