Chapter 0885 At Loggerheads

In life, one either laughs at others today or is laughed at by others tomorrow. So most of the time, people don't need to be so pretentious—like what you like, hate what you hate, and just live according to your own feelings.

After all, we're just common folk. If a child can grow up healthy after surviving the trials of vaccines, milk powder, and kindergarten, basically, their luck won't be too bad.

Jiang Wen was genuinely angry about Ma Dajun's little trick, but his personality was quite domineering. In his view, Ma Dajun's sneaky methods were utterly beneath contempt, and Jiang Wen disdained to use the same tactics against him.

As for Zhao Fusheng, he preferred to watch the show rather than step onto the stage himself.

To be precise, even if Ye Jing flipped the table and came to blows with Ma Dajun, Zhao Fusheng wouldn't lift a finger to help. Unmoved at heart, Zhao Fusheng had no interest in such boring disputes; in his opinion, arguing was the most tedious way to solve problems.

"Since that's the case, let's go over and sit for a while."

Ye Jing had already made his stance clear, so Zhao Baogang couldn't say much more. He had to tell his assistant to settle the bill and drive them to meet up with Ma Dajun and the others.

They were all celebrities, naturally accompanied by assistants. Ye Jing was supposed to ride in Zhao Baogang's car, but he squeezed into Jiang Wen's car instead. Jiang Wen's assistant drove, with Yu Feihong in the passenger seat. Zhao Fusheng, Jiang Wen, and Ye Jing sat in the back.

"Tell me, what's going on?" Zhao Baogang's car led the way at a moderate speed. Ye Jing glanced at Jiang Wen, then at Zhao Fusheng, and spoke slowly.

As soon as he got in the car, Zhao Fusheng knew what the guy was after. He looked at Jiang Wen, signaling him to take the lead.

Jiang Wen sighed, knowing he could no longer hide things from Ye Jing and Yu Feihong. If he kept them in the dark, they might not even remain friends.

With that in mind, he recounted the whole story to Yu Feihong and Ye Jing, finally saying helplessly, "That's how it is. Ma Dajun probably thought I was rude to him before, so he decided to make things difficult for me. He probably doesn't know about the company the four of us set up."

This was a crucial point. If Ma Dajun knew Ye Jing and Yu Feihong were involved and still did this, it would mean he was deliberately opposing Ye Jing. Otherwise, it was just a personal attack on Jiang Wen.

"Hmph, Ma Dajun is quite interesting."

After a long pause, Ye Jing sneered and said flatly, "I didn't expect he'd be able to trip people up now."

From this remark, one could see Ma Dajun's standing in the Beijing circle.

Zhao Fusheng glanced at Ye Jing and silently bowed his head in tribute to Ma Dajun. From Ye Jing's tone, it seemed he wasn't planning to let the matter rest.

As it turned out, Zhao Fusheng's guess was correct.

When they entered the restaurant, there were quite a few people inside: Zhang Hanyu, Chen Dao, and others were there, along with Gao Zhenhai and the Wang brothers.

Overall, it was mainly the Beijing circle crowd under Huayi Brothers.

"Hey, Fusheng's here."

Wang Zhonglei saw Zhao Fusheng, stood up with a smile, and greeted him. Everyone except Ma Dajun was very warm toward Jiang Wen and Zhao Fusheng.

Ma Dajun and Zhao Fusheng weren't familiar with each other; they just nodded in greeting. As for Jiang Wen, surprisingly, neither of them said a word.

Those around seemed accustomed to this. They called the waiter over to add a few chairs, and everyone sat down again.

At gatherings of film and TV people, the conversation naturally revolved around industry news—new projects, investments. Wang Zhongjun was chatting with Zheng Xiaolong, while Wang Zhonglei took the initiative to talk with Zhao Fusheng, asking if he had any new ad campaigns in the works and whether he might choose Huayi's artists as endorsers.

Before long, the topic turned to Jiang Wen.

"Old Jiang, how's that project of yours coming along?" The speaker was surprisingly Ye Jing.

"Almost there, it's been greenlit." Jiang Wen glanced at Ma Dajun and said flatly.

Zhao Fusheng smiled inwardly—here came the main event.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, a faint smirk curled at the corner of Ma Dajun's mouth. Perhaps emboldened by alcohol, he suddenly felt Jiang Wen wasn't so impressive. No matter how tough a大院子弟 he was, wasn't he still swallowing his pride after being screwed over?

"Is that so? I heard it's invested by China Film Group?" Wang Zhonglei remarked casually.

He really just said it offhand, since Jiang Wen had once approached him about making Huayi the lead investor.

"Yeah, some bastard submitted the script to China Film Group." Unexpectedly, Jiang Wen picked up a glass of wine, tossed it back in one gulp, set down the glass, and cursed.

To be honest, even Zhao Fusheng hadn't expected Jiang Wen to swear so openly in front of so many people.

After all, among those present were several big shots from the Beijing circle. Upon hearing Jiang Wen's words, Zheng Xiaolong's face immediately darkened.

Not just him, even Gao Zhenhai's expression turned sour.

…

…

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the entertainment industry had two strongholds: one in Guangdong Province, and one in the capital.

The capital's performing arts circle was further divided into three factions: one was the People's Art Theatre, i.e., the actors from the Beijing People's Art Theatre. Another was the Beijing Film Studio, i.e., the Beijing Film Academy crowd. And the third was the "Beijing circle," which many later came to know.

Among these three groups, People's Art focused on stage plays, Beijing Film Studio on movies, and the Beijing circle got its start with TV dramas.

The key figures in the Beijing film and TV circle were Gao Zhenhai, Ye Jing, Zheng Xiaolong, and Ye Ying.

The chain of relationships stemming from Gao Zhenhai initially included Ma Dajun and Zhang Yuan; later, the main figure was Miss Xu, who liked to blog. On Ma Dajun's side, there were the Wang brothers and their Huayi Brothers behind them.

From Zheng Xiaolong's line came Zhao Baogang and Ge You.

As for Ye Jing, he was the least famous and most low-key, but he had a good relationship with Jiang Wen.

And Ye Ying—needless to say—was a red aristocrat, a true big shot.

In short, the Beijing circle wielded considerable influence: whoever they promoted became popular, whoever they pushed became hot.

Similarly, this circle shared a common flaw: they were rather exclusive, not easy to integrate into, and they liked to close ranks against outsiders, disliking internal strife.

And Jiang Wen's words were undoubtedly a provocation to Gao Zhenhai, which naturally displeased the big shots.

In fact, if the speaker hadn't been Jiang Wen but one of the younger generation at the table, Zheng Xiaolong might have slammed the table.

Now, everyone was curious: what did Jiang Wen mean by that? What was he trying to do?