Chapter 1232: Another Spring Has Arrived

Facts proved that the power of money could conquer even tech geeks.

Even the people at Blizzard hadn't expected that this internet company from the mysterious East would be so generous, offering fifty million US dollars at once for the three-year Chinese agency rights to World of Warcraft.

To be honest, they couldn't resist such a monetary offensive.

In the end, Blizzard officially agreed to Dong Chenxi's offer, and Future Network Technology secured the Chinese agency rights to Blizzard's World of Warcraft for fifty million US dollars over three years.

As soon as the news broke, the entire domestic gaming circle was shocked.

Was Zhao Fusheng crazy?

At the headquarters of Shengda Technology, Chen Tianqiao couldn't help but exclaim upon hearing the news. He simply couldn't understand why Zhao Fusheng would make such a decision.

Let alone Chen Tianqiao, even Zheng Yao, upon learning the news, specifically called Zhao Fusheng.

"What's going on?"

"It's a promising project, so I'll give it a try."

Their conversation was not complicated. Zheng Yao was well aware that both Dong Chenxi and Dong Guoxiang, like herself, had been with Zhao Fusheng since the very beginning of their venture. They wouldn't casually urge Zhao Fusheng to do something so crazy. Moreover, Zhao Fusheng was not someone easily swayed by a few words.

Even if someone said the guy had a heart of iron, Zheng Yao wouldn't find it excessive.

Zhao Fusheng's explanation was simple: he introduced the prospects of World of Warcraft and ultimately concluded that if handled properly, this alone could become a huge profit growth point for Future Group in the next three years.

With his words, Zheng Yao immediately stopped opposing.

She knew very well that Zhao Fusheng rarely made such judgments, and once he did, it meant he had definitely found a path to wealth.

Of course, besides those from Future Group, there was another person who was utterly baffled: Boss Zhu of The9. He simply couldn't understand why Future Group had suddenly taken an interest in World of Warcraft and spent fifty million to buy the three-year agency rights.

...

...

In this world, many things often start by chance.

If it weren't for the programmer under Dong Guoxiang who liked playing games, he wouldn't have noticed the news about World of Warcraft. If Dong Guoxiang hadn't been bent on achieving something, he wouldn't have been persuaded by his subordinate. And most importantly, if Zhao Fusheng hadn't had an impression of World of Warcraft in his mind, he probably wouldn't have agreed to Dong Guoxiang doing this.

To anyone, spending nearly four hundred million yuan on such an agency right in the current Chinese online game market was a very risky move.

But Future Technology went ahead and did it.

"In the past few days, we've been all over the news," Zheng Yao said to Zhao Fusheng over the phone.

"That's a good thing."

Zhao Fusheng smiled faintly.

"A good thing?" Zheng Yao clearly didn't understand Zhao Fusheng's words. For her, the past few days had been filled with all sorts of news about Future Group—people calling them rich but stupid, accusations of worshipping foreign things, and even rumors that the group's executives were involved in money laundering.

Otherwise, Zheng Yao wouldn't have called Zhao Fusheng; she was genuinely annoyed.

Hearing her tone, Zhao Fusheng knew that President Zheng probably hadn't grasped his meaning. He explained with a smile, "Think about it: the news itself is flying everywhere. Whether intentional or not, even if some are fanning the flames behind the scenes, they're all helping us advertise and boost the company's reputation. When the trailer for World of Warcraft comes out later, those who don't know the truth will naturally understand what's going on."

Zheng Yao frowned, feeling something was off, but since Zhao Fusheng said so, she had to suppress her dissatisfaction.

After hanging up, Zhao Fusheng smiled. He really didn't take this matter to heart.

The internet was relatively unfamiliar to many advertisers. Once they got used to various online marketing models, they would probably understand what to do.

Hype, whether positive or negative, as long as there was exposure, it had an effect.

The most obvious examples were female celebrities like Da Mimi and Fan Liangliang. Regardless of whether the news about them was positive or negative, even a divorce could still make it to the trending topics.

Hype topics, heat, and traffic were not uncommon in later generations. Sister 'A Thousand Miles in One Day' played this game, after all, she had a good husband.

Including the later inspirational actress Zhao Baozi, it was the same. At the beginning of her career, all kinds of news flew around, both positive and negative, constantly flooding people's eyes. If there was no behind-the-scenes push, who would believe it?

What was the key point?

Simple: whether positive or negative news, in the end, as long as you could whitewash and perfectly build your persona, you could safely become a star and make big money.

Entertainment industry artists sell personas, and businesses in the business world are the same.

So regardless of whether they are national enterprises or conscientious enterprises, in the end, they all earn the money from ordinary people's pockets. No matter how nice their words sound, try asking them to sell products at a loss.

Hype, in the final analysis, lies in the word 'hype.'

Zhao Fusheng understood better than Zheng Yao whether such news was good or bad for a company.

...

...

Time passed quickly, and soon the Spring Festival was approaching.

Zhao Fusheng had been in a good mood lately. Future Film had good news one after another: A World Without Thieves had officially passed censorship and was scheduled for release on Valentine's Day. As for Kung Fu Hustle, it had been sweeping domestic box office since Christmas. For a time, many film companies cried wolf.

There was no help for it; Stephen Chow's box office appeal was undeniable. On top of that, Future Film, with Ye Jing putting great effort into promotion and anti-piracy measures, saw the box office break sixty million yuan in a short time. According to the company's estimates, by the end of its run, it might exceed one hundred million.

This news delighted the entire company. Although they had previously speculated that the film might achieve good box office results, no one expected it to explode like this.

Even Fan Baobao cheerfully told Zhao Fusheng that if there was a chance to collaborate with Hong Kong directors in the future, she must be cast.

Zhao Fusheng was helpless. He couldn't tell Fan Baobao that these days, nine out of ten Hong Kong directors were unreliable, and most actors still held a condescending attitude toward the mainland.

But strangely enough, the male lead of the 'substitution case' that Zhao Fusheng remembered hadn't come to the mainland to film, so naturally, the infamous 'Angry Beating of Little White Dragon' incident didn't occur.

Zhao Fusheng didn't feel much about it and had even forgotten the matter. If he hadn't heard 'Thank You for Your Love 1999' on the street, he wouldn't have remembered that this person had done such things in his youth.

But this was actually normal. No one is perfect. Among the stars who became famous in the 1980s and 1990s, which one didn't have a basketful of dark history? Compared to the later young idols and actresses, their luckiest point was that the era they became famous in had a slow rate of information dissemination.

In other words, these people didn't have to worry about their dark histories being exposed. Even if there was negative news, it would only be reported in newspapers for a few days. Over time, it would naturally dissipate without a trace.

But with the advent of smartphones, people's channels for browsing news were no longer limited to newspapers and television. In the internet age, information exploded and spread extremely fast. Naturally, for celebrities, more and more privacy was exposed in the sunlight.

Dark histories and such could hardly be covered up in time.

Of course, if you had money, that was another story. After all, with a few million thrown down, whether it was 'See You Monday' or 'See You Wednesday,' it all turned into 'Never See You Again.'