Chapter 0889: Launch

"Alright, I agree."

In the general manager's office of Future Film and Television, Dong Chenxi unexpectedly nodded in agreement to Zhao Fusheng's request.

Zhao Fusheng's expression was somewhat strange; he had never expected her to agree so easily to restart the project "Cell Phone." Originally, when he had discussed this with Jiang Wen, he had thought Dong Chenxi might oppose it.

But to his great surprise, after hearing Zhao Fusheng's request, Dong Chenxi agreed directly without even asking for details.

"What, find it strange?"

Seeing Zhao Fusheng's reaction, Dong Chenxi knew that her behavior must have left him utterly baffled.

Zhao Fusheng nodded and said seriously, "To be honest, I thought you would oppose it, because once this movie is made, we'll basically have completely burned bridges with Ma Dajun."

Dong Chenxi smiled. "Listen to yourself—it's not like we could cozy up to them even if we didn't make this movie."

As she spoke, Dong Chenxi tapped the table with her finger. "You've never been involved in the company's management, so you don't know the situation. Think about it—aside from the few projects you brokered with Huayi, do we have any other collaborations?"

Zhao Fusheng was taken aback, then furrowed his brow.

Thinking carefully, it really was the case. It wasn't that Huayi was unwilling to cooperate with Future Films, but rather that the two companies had different business scopes.

Back when Future Films still had an advertising business, its film and television investments were merely casual—just enough to turn a profit. Unlike Huayi, which focused its main energy on film and television resources.

Even now, Future Films' primary focus is actually on investing in TV series; that's how the earlier 'Conquest' came about.

As for film investments, Dong Chenxi is very cautious, always seeking Zhao Fusheng's opinion.

In fact, to date, since Future Films was officially established, it hasn't invested in any film at all; instead, leveraging connections in other areas, it has invested in a few low-budget TV series.

A new company that has just entered this industry, with not very ample funds, should prioritize stability.

The most important thing in the world is balance, and the most important thing in balance is the middle way. What you gain, you lose. What you lose, you gain.

This principle is reflected in physics as entropy, in quantum mechanics as parallel universes, and in Schrödinger's cat as the state between life and death. In business, it manifests as fair trade.

If heaven drops a free lunch for you, hail will follow right behind.

Zhao Fusheng understood this truth better than anyone, after all, he had witnessed too many such things in his previous life.

If this logic held, he was indeed overthinking things.

"Ma Dajun is a director that Huayi is currently heavily promoting. Since he has already unintentionally crossed us, do you think they would apologize to us?" Dong Chenxi said.

Then, she shrugged: "According to what you said, he now knows that he previously sabotaged our film investment, and in your view, the prospects for 'The Missing Gun' are quite good. In other words, we could have made money, but he ruined it. Why shouldn't I target him?"

Zhao Fusheng was somewhat surprised, never expecting Dong Chenxi to say such things. It seemed he had indeed overlooked her growth; as time passed, she was no longer the ordinary fresh graduate but a professional manager in charge of a company.

"Alright, since you've decided, there's no problem." With that thought, Zhao Fusheng stood up and said to Dong Chenxi, "Go talk to Jiang Wen about the specifics. His contract with Huayi expires in July, so it's not appropriate for him to step forward now, but he can afterward."

Dong Chenxi's eyes lit up, her expression extremely excited. "What did you say?"

Zhao Fusheng looked at her helplessly. He naturally understood why she was so excited. That was Jiang Wen—if they could bring him under their wing, it would be a huge achievement for Future Film and Television.

But in truth, Zhao Fusheng wasn't optimistic about Dong Chenxi. After all, not to mention Jiang Wen's lofty ambitions, just thinking about the investment needed for his films was painful.

Budgets simply didn't exist in Jiang Wen's world.

But he wasn't the company's manager after all; weighing pros and cons was still Dong Chenxi's call.

After finishing that matter, Zhao Fusheng called Jiang Wen to confirm that he had handled things on his end, then went home.

Fan Baobao probably didn't know about this, but Zhao Fusheng still had to give her a heads-up. It would be awkward if she accidentally took Ma Dajun's film.

When he got home, Fan Baobao was sitting in the living room reading. Ever since she decided to apply for the People's Art Theatre, she had been working especially hard. In her own words: as a professional actor, you can be unknown, but you absolutely cannot lack professionalism.

Zhao Fusheng didn't comment, but he felt Fan Baobao's idea was correct.

As an actor, if you don't even have basic acting skills and only become famous through green-screen acting or hype, you're not a star—you're a drama queen.

Not getting involved in too many tiresome disputes, making friends you like, going where you want to go—that's the simplest and ideal state of an actor's life.

Although many find it hard to achieve, Zhao Fusheng truly hoped Fan Baobao could do it.

"You're back." Fan Baobao looked up at her man and noticed that Zhao Fusheng seemed in low spirits.

"What's wrong? Didn't you have dinner with Old Jiang?"

Fan Baobao asked curiously.

If she remembered correctly, Zhao Fusheng was having dinner with Jiang Wen, Yu Feihong, and the others. Why was he suddenly in a bad mood for no reason?

There was no helping it—the two knew each other too well. Having grown up together until now, either Zhao Fusheng or Fan Baobao could clearly detect changes in the other's mood.

"Yeah, something happened."

Zhao Fusheng forced a smile and recounted the whole story from beginning to end, leaving nothing out. Finally, he said, "The situation now is that Old Jiang and I definitely can't be friends with that Ma Dajun anymore. We're planning to write a script to really piss off that bastard."

After hearing Zhao Fusheng's words, Fan Baobao immediately expressed her contempt for Ma Dajun with righteous indignation. There was no helping it—although she had previously liked Ma Dajun's works, the problem was that this time, the one standing against Ma Dajun was her boyfriend.

Moreover, she was best friends with Zhou Yun, so she naturally had a good impression of Jiang Wen. If what Zhao Fusheng heard from Jiang Wen was true, then Ma Dajun was a complete scumbag.

For a guy like that, even giving him a good beating would be too light.