Chapter 0777: Unintentional Success

Zhao Fusheng woke up from a slight jolt, opened his eyes, and saw the familiar ceiling. He was dazed for a moment before realizing it was his own bedroom, then remembered he had already returned home.

In his memory, he had gone to the company, chatted with Dong Chenxi for a while about TV series production, then took a taxi back. Shortly after arriving home, a strong wave of drowsiness hit him, and he fell asleep just like that.

Slowly sitting up, Zhao Fusheng looked out the window. The sky had darkened. From the living room downstairs came the sound of Fan Baobao talking with someone.

Shaking his head, he got out of bed and went straight downstairs.

“You’re awake?” Fan Baobao heard the footsteps on the stairs, looked at Zhao Fusheng, and smiled. “When I got back, you were actually sleeping. How could you be that sleepy in the middle of the day?”

“Yeah, sleeping in broad daylight—you’re really something,” said the speaker, who turned out to be Yu Feihong.

“Sis, why are you here?”

Zhao Fusheng was a bit surprised; he hadn’t expected Yu Feihong to show up.

“I went to the Central Academy of Drama today on business and stopped by to see Baobao. I figured I’d sit for a while, but I didn’t expect you to be sleeping,” Yu Feihong said with a smile.

“Don’t even mention it. I spent most of the day drinking with a director—exhausted,” Zhao Fusheng said, rubbing his head.

He glanced at his watch, blinked, rubbed his eyes, and said in surprise, “I slept for almost three hours?”

“What did you think?”

Fan Baobao came out of the kitchen carrying fruit and said to Yu Feihong, “Sis, have some fruit.”

“Thanks.” Yu Feihong took it and smiled. “Baobao is getting more and more beautiful. I think after graduation, a ton of people will be asking you to act in their films.”

“Not at all, Sis, you’re the beautiful one.” Fan Baobao’s face instantly flushed; she clearly wasn’t used to being praised like that.

Shaking his head helplessly, Zhao Fusheng had little interest in the two women flattering each other. He took a bite of fruit and simply turned on the TV.

The news was playing on TV. Though most of it was unfamiliar to Zhao Fusheng, it sounded quite fresh.

“By the way, Fusheng, I heard from Baobao that your company is planning to invest in a TV series?” After chatting with Fan Baobao for a while, Yu Feihong asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng smiled and nodded. “Yeah, a crime drama. The director based it on real people and real events—pretty interesting.”

“Real people and real events?”

Yu Feihong was taken aback, then asked in surprise, “Is that really okay?”

“The people have already been executed by firing squad—what could be the problem?” Zhao Fusheng shook his head.

This wasn’t a joke. “Conquest” was adapted from a real case in Shijiazhuang. The prototype for the crime boss Liu Huaqiang was Zhang Baolin, a notorious gang leader in Shijiazhuang at the time, and the prototype for Liu Huawen was Zhang Baolin’s younger brother, Zhang Baoyi. Many scenes in the TV series “Conquest” revealed place names and building names from Shijiazhuang, all areas involved in the Zhang Baolin case.

In fact, just a few years later, Zhang Baoyi fell into the net for the same crime—one had to say, it was truly speechless.

Yu Feihong didn’t think that much about it; she was just asking casually. After hearing Zhao Fusheng’s answer, she didn’t dwell on the matter.

“Is the investment large?” Yu Feihong thought for a moment and asked Zhao Fusheng.

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then shook his head. “I’m not sure either. To be honest, it depends on the director’s opinion. But I’m very optimistic about this show. I think it should get decent ratings.”

Hearing this, Yu Feihong’s eyes lit up. She blinked and suddenly said, “Then what do you think about us investing?”

Invest?

Zhao Fusheng was stunned, because he never expected Yu Feihong to come up with such an idea.

He wasn’t stupid; of course he knew what Yu Feihong meant by “investing”—naturally, it meant investing under the name of Phoenix Film.

In other words, Yu Feihong thought that since Zhao Fusheng was very optimistic about this TV series called “Conquest,” they might as well get a piece of the pie.

After all, Zhao Fusheng’s eye was evident to all. So far, none of the films and TV shows he had favored had turned out to be misjudgments.

“So, what do you think? Is the idea feasible?” Yu Feihong said to Zhao Fusheng with a smile.

She had just thought of the idea on the spur of the moment. After all, Phoenix Film’s principle was to focus on profitability. If there was a sure thing, they would definitely try to invest.

As the saying goes, “You may plant a flower with care, but it won’t bloom; you may plant a willow without intention, and it will provide shade.” That saying held true. At least at this moment, Zhao Fusheng suddenly felt that Yu Feihong’s suggestion might be workable.

“We still need to talk to Ye Jing about this,” Zhao Fusheng said after a moment’s deliberation to Yu Feihong.

He had originally planned to refuse, but then he suddenly thought about the censorship issues he had considered before and felt that this might actually be a solution.

After all, Ye Jing’s connections and relationships were right there. In a sense, if they could bring him in, this matter might no longer be a problem.

…

…

Ordinary people might be curious about how so-called elites spent their childhoods, but Ye Jing could responsibly say that he was no different from other kids his age—he grew up eating coarse grains and wearing woolen coats just like everyone else.

During the crucial stage when his outlook on life, values, and worldview were forming, what Ye Jing was most exposed to were literary and artistic works that ordinary people couldn’t access, listed as banned books and films. From childhood to adulthood, he had always believed that one should follow three principles in life.

First: never act on impulse.

Second: never forgive any bad person.

Third: be fair in doing things.

If people don’t have to pay the price for the wrongs they do, then society will lose its rules. And once rules cease to exist, social order will become chaotic.

This was a very frightening thing. So although Ye Jing also used his family’s connections to get things done, he always adhered to the rules of this circle.

The reason was simple: if he didn’t follow the rules to make money, others could also break the rules to deal with him.

So the question was: if you do business by the rules, you win some and lose some.

Unfortunately, due to his poor judgment, most of Ye Jing’s investments in the film and television industry had ended in losses.

“Ah, don’t even mention it. In the past few months, I’ve lost another two or three million…”

Ye Jing grimaced and complained to Yu Feihong and Zhao Fusheng, “That bastard Ma Dajun earlier said his film would make money, but after it was released, it lost everything. It’s driving me crazy.”

Clearly, Young Master Ye was in a very bad mood lately.

Zhao Fusheng and Yu Feihong exchanged a glance and smiled in unison. Judging by Ye Jing’s current behavior, the matter they were about to discuss was definitely promising.