Chapter 2183: Building a Persona

Zhao Fusheng was actually very lonely. He didn't have many friends, and Jiang Wen was definitely one of the most important. He cherished every friend he had.

"Thank you."

Jiang Wen finally said to Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng chuckled, not taking it seriously. He was used to Jiang Wen's occasional sentimentality.

That was just the kind of person he was, always liking to do this.

But Zhao Fusheng also understood that this was Jiang Wen's way of expressing his emotions.

Everyone has such habits, expressing their feelings through certain words or actions.

Zhao Fusheng, for example, was the same.

After seeing Jiang Wen off, he stayed home reading documents for a while, then went straight to sleep.

For Zhao Fusheng, the future development of film and television was only part of his career. Although he valued the layout of the entertainment industry, he was even more aware that the development of the entertainment industry had too many constraints.

Policy restrictions and the state of social and economic development all limited the entire entertainment industry.

For instance, if a film or television company produced a movie or TV series that invited an artist from a certain country, if the relations between the two countries were good at the time, it might be fine. But once relations became tense, the work might face the problem of not being able to air.

What did that mean?

It meant that the work could only be sealed away.

In other words, unless the relations between the two countries changed, the work would be completely finished.

But Zhao Fusheng had no choice; such matters were beyond his control.

Although businessmen pursue profits, in the face of the nation and its people, national interests come above all else.

...

...

The next day, Zhao Fusheng didn't have Liu Yiming accompany him out; instead, he went to Future Group alone by car.

"Old Jiang came to see you?"

Zheng Yao asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and nodded: "He's under a lot of pressure, after all, this film is really influential."

Zheng Yao nodded; she could understand Jiang Wen, given the magnitude of the matter.

"Is everything okay now?"

Zheng Yao asked casually.

Zhao Fusheng nodded: "Basically, it's fine. He just thinks that if the film doesn't perform well at the box office, it might affect our company."

"It does have an impact."

Zheng Yao said to Zhao Fusheng with a smile: "To be honest, I'm not optimistic about his film."

Given her relationship with Zhao Fusheng, having known him for so long, she naturally understood the bond between Zhao Fusheng and Jiang Wen. But the problem was, Zheng Yao knew very well that Jiang Wen's films were too distinctive.

What that meant went without saying.

What the market liked and what audiences recognized could only be known after the film's release.

But it had to be admitted that even before Jiang Wen's work was released, everyone knew it would definitely be another Jiang Wen-style film.

"Trust me, Old Jiang will surprise us."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said to Zheng Yao.

He understood Zheng Yao's concerns. After all, the stakes were high. Failure would certainly not affect Zhao Fusheng's personal wealth, but for Future Film and Television, it would be a huge blow.

From a corporate management perspective, Zheng Yao felt that this matter should be handled with caution.

Not everyone, like Zhao Fusheng, was a time traveler who knew the course of history and understood what would happen in the future.

Since the boss, Zhao Fusheng, had said so, Zheng Yao naturally had nothing more to say. She changed the subject and talked about other things.

...

...

After Zhao Fusheng left, Zheng Yao sat in her office thinking for a long time. Finally, she called her subordinates and began to lay out a plan. All companies under the Future system started to create buzz for the film "Let the Bullets Fly."

In Zheng Yao's words, Jiang Wen could afford to fail, but Future Film and Television could not. The former was a personal matter for him, while the latter concerned the entire Future Group.

Naturally, no one objected. Not to mention the personal relationship between Jiang Wen and Zhao Fusheng, but from the company's perspective, this matter was bound to receive everyone's support.

No one was foolish; they all understood what the release of "Let the Bullets Fly" meant.

As long as Future Film and Television's performance continued to rise, the stock price would naturally follow suit.

Soon, discussion posts about "Let the Bullets Fly" began to appear online. Everyone was debating whether Fat Brother's acting was better, or Grandpa Ge's, or whether Jiang Wen's domineering presence was more captivating.

Some were also discussing whether Hong Gu's comeback film, taking on a work from a mainland director, meant she had lost confidence in the Hong Kong film industry.

In short, all kinds of topics began to emerge online.

People are prone to herd mentality.

For example, when one person discusses a certain topic, no one might say anything, and the resonance is low. But if everyone is talking about the same topic, it quickly becomes popular among the general public. Everyone feels that if they don't know about it, they are out of touch with society.

Especially in the Internet age, this is even more true.

One of the conveniences brought by the information explosion is that people can learn what's trending in the world more and more quickly.

And what Future Group needed to do was to make "Let the Bullets Fly" the hottest topic on the entire Chinese internet through the web.

Under such circumstances, once the film was released, it would surely ignite a wave of word-of-mouth acclaim.

Not only that, according to the arrangements of Zheng Yao and Dong Guoxiang, people online began to heavily praise Jiang Wen's status and ability in the Chinese film circle.

From his early acting experiences to later becoming a director and one of the top art film directors, even his past with Sister Xiaoqing was dug up from the internet.

It had to be said that the biggest advantage of this approach was that it quickly spread Old Jiang's fame across the country.

Previously, for many people, Jiang Wen might have just been a familiar actor or director, and some viewers couldn't even tell him apart from his younger brother Jiang Wu.

But now, basically everyone who went online knew that Jiang Wen was a talented, distinctive, and capable director, an excellent actor, and a man of deep loyalty.

Of course, he also had a bad temper and many shortcomings.

But regardless, this persona was established.

Jiang Wen didn't know about this at first. It was only later, when the news fermented and he kept receiving interview requests from the media, that he found out. But by then, even if he objected, it was too late.

In Zheng Yao's words, he needed to submit to the greater good!