Chapter 1378: New Drama

A person is always born crying in the darkness, foreshadowing that life is meant to be filled with tears and devoid of light. This world has never been gentle, so every sleepless night feels like a groundless moan of sorrow.

In youth, I loved to climb high towers; a man with a sword in hand seeks a marquisate three thousand miles away.

Now in middle age, short of breath, dealing with daily necessities, I see all the ways of life come to an end—nothing but a spring river flowing away.

Once upon a time, Zhao Fusheng and Tan Kaixuan chatted and couldn't help sighing: "The loneliest thing is standing in a crowd and finding no face smiling at you; they are even more sorrowful and helpless than you, and the cold wind dries every tear and desire."

At that time, Zhao Fusheng couldn't understand Tan Kaixuan's thoughts, because he thought Tan Kaixuan was just being pretentious—a successful, well-fed person with nothing to be melancholic about.

But now, he finally understood Tan Kaixuan's state of mind.

Every distant place holds a temptation for us, either by its beauty or by its legends. Even if the scenery far away is not entirely satisfactory, we don't need to care, because from the start it was a charming mistake.

The key question is: should we make mistakes or not?

To be fair, Zhao Fusheng himself didn't know the answer.

He now had to admit that he had fallen into an awkward situation.

He had spread himself too thin!

He had held too many trump cards before, coupled with the rapid development of Future Group, which created an illusion in Zhao Fusheng's mind that he could do even better.

Therefore, he didn't deliberately control some things but let the entire company race onto the fast track of high-speed development.

But now, he helplessly found himself facing a difficult choice: whether to continue blooming in multiple areas or to slow down appropriately.

Sometimes, it's easy to run, but not so easy to stop. Often we just keep running, ignoring our surroundings. When we want to stop, we must be careful not to brake too hard, or we might crash and die.

That's exactly the situation Future Group is facing now.

The scale is too large, involving too many industries. Especially Future Investment, after sorting things out, Zhao Fusheng discovered that Future Investment held considerable shares in major companies like JD.com, Tencent Technology, Alibaba, and even Huayi Brothers.

Although the future seems bright, the problem is that these companies will inevitably grow huge. To maintain these shares, Future Investment will need to increase its capital, which is no small amount.

Even if Zhao Fusheng sells some shares of Facebook and Twitter now, he would still face a very difficult situation.

Not to mention, Alibaba is about to go public soon. To maintain the position of a major shareholder, he must increase his holdings. Just this sum of money alone would be enough to crush Future Investment.

"What to do?"

Sitting at home, Zhao Fusheng muttered to himself.

He had only considered this issue in the past couple of days. Previously, he hadn't paid much attention, thinking that selling Facebook shares would solve everything. But later he remembered that Facebook's real rise would take a few more years. In other words, Alibaba's IPO at the end of this year would be the first major test he had to face.

Damn it, I'm really short on money!

Zhao Fusheng sighed, looking helpless.

People say that tycoons are deeply entangled with banks. In fact, it's unavoidable. Sometimes, doing a project requires a huge amount of capital. But the problem is, not everyone, like Li Ka-shing, has the ability to complete a capital raising of tens of billions before a stock market crash. So being short on money is normal.

Zhao Fusheng's current problem is whether to take a bank loan or to shrink the scale of his own industries.

After much thought, Zhao Fusheng felt a bit frustrated. This was probably a happy trouble, because no matter how he chose now, it would still be about making money.

...

...

Since he couldn't think of a solution, he decided to hesitate a bit longer. After considering for a long time, Zhao Fusheng temporarily put the matter aside.

As for Alibaba, after selling Facebook shares to Sequoia Capital, the problem should be temporarily resolved. As for Tencent Technology, Zhao Fusheng didn't plan to increase his holdings for now; the current five percent was enough.

Regarding the shares of JD.com and Huayi Brothers, Liu Qiangdong was still striving hard for the former. As for Huayi Brothers, Zhao Fusheng was already thinking of withdrawing. In another four or five years, Huayi would go public on the ChiNext board, and then he could sell his shares to the Wang brothers.

"Brother, I want to eat meat."

In the evening, Fan Beibei rushed into Zhao Fusheng's arms after school. Even though Fan Baobao and Zhao Fusheng were officially married, she still liked to call him brother. After several corrections that didn't work, Zhao Fusheng just let her call him that.

After all, there wasn't much difference.

"Alright, alright, tonight I'll take you out for meat," Zhao Fusheng said with a smile, picking up the little girl. He said to Fan Baobao, who came in later, "Let's eat out tonight."

"Okay," Fan Baobao nodded. "By the way, a TV drama director called me a few days ago. Tell the company's planning department that I don't plan to take any acting roles for the next three years."

"Well, since you're not pregnant now, why not act?" Zhao Fusheng thought for a moment and said to Fan Baobao.

Fan Baobao shook her head: "No need. Even if I act, it will be in movies. As for TV dramas, I definitely won't act in them."

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then helplessly smiled.

He could understand Fan Baobao. There is a huge difference between movies and TV dramas in every country. It's not just about length, nor that movies are more concise than TV dramas; it's also about an actor's status.

Simply put, movie actors look down on TV drama actors, TV drama actors look down on web drama actors, web drama actors look down on micro-movie actors, and as for micro-movie actors—well, they can only look down on those who make short videos.

Fan Baobao was used to acting in movies, so naturally she was unwilling to act in TV dramas anymore.

That was only human.

"To be honest, if there's a suitable script, you could still act in it," Zhao Fusheng thought for a moment and said to Fan Baobao. "I had Ye Jing buy a copyright earlier. Take a look when you have time. I think you could play the female lead."

"Ah?"

This time, it was Fan Baobao's turn to be stunned, because she hadn't expected Zhao Fusheng to buy a copyright specifically for her. Was he trying to promote her?

"What, a bit surprised?" Zhao Fusheng said with a smile.

"No, what copyright is it that you care so much about that you want me to act in it?" Fan Baobao didn't hide her surprise and asked Zhao Fusheng curiously.

She was genuinely curious. Zhao Fusheng rarely did this.

Zhao Fusheng smiled mysteriously and shook his head: "I won't say for now. You'll know when you see it later."

Seeing him being secretive, Fan Baobao glared at him but didn't ask further.

After all, there were no secrets between husband and wife. He would tell her sooner or later, so she wasn't that curious anymore.

Moreover, Fan Baobao trusted Zhao Fusheng's judgment. If he said a script suited her, then it must be suitable. She had a high level of trust in Zhao Fusheng in this regard.

The couple took Fan Beibei out to dinner.

The next day, Zhao Fusheng went to Future Film and called Ye Jing over.

"Is there any follow-up to the investment in 'Drawing Sword'?" Zhao Fusheng asked Ye Jing.

Ye Jing nodded: "No problem. After our funds were invested, it's enough to support them until the end of filming."

Satisfied, Zhao Fusheng smiled and said, "Good. Contact Mr. Long Yi later; we'll officially invest in filming 'Lurking.'"

Ye Jing was startled, looking at Zhao Fusheng in surprise: "So soon?"

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "If we don't hurry, the female lead will become a mother."

Ah?

Ye Jing was stunned at first, then burst into laughter. He finally understood why Zhao Fusheng was in such a hurry.