Chapter 233 - Already a Joke

No one would have imagined that, even though his surname was Tan.

With a gentle, elegant smile that was neither arrogant nor impatient, Tan Jinqi said, “I don’t think this information is worth spreading. If anything, it makes me have to go through these kind of things, doesn’t it? Especially in this industry… Everyone looks down on those who complain too much. And with Mo Mo around, I’ve got to be a good big brother.”

Director Liu shook his head and sighed. “Your family traditions and attitudes are highly impressive.”

Tan Jinqi immediately relaxed after seeing Director Liu solve the problem.

Director Hou smiled too. “Hey, I wasn’t going to send you just any old student.”

Director Liu was over the moon. “I only met Tan Mo, Professor Zhao, and now Mr. Tan because of you. I’m just worried that I’ve used up all my luck for the year.

“Hey…” Director Hou waved his arms around. “Don’t say such unlucky things. January isn’t even over yet.”

“Yes, yes, I know.” Director Liu relaxed. Whenever anyone said anything awkward to him, he always responded with yes, yes, yes.

“I haven’t talked about the Tan family at all, and I was Jinqi’s teacher. You’ve gotten a good deal here,” Director Hou said jokingly.

Tan Jinqi smiled. “Were you going to wait for your next drama?”

…

Ding Mengfei and the Qi Cheng Film Company didn’t think that Director Liu would’ve reached this kind of conclusion.

The company gave Director Liu one night to think about his decision.

However, he had already responded with his decision that same night. He didn’t even need to think about it. He just needed Tan Mo.

If you want to pull out that much, go for it!

We’ve got the money. That’s how tough we can get. The company pulled out their investment without another word.

Ding Mengfei heard the news the next day and jumped out of her seat. “What is Director Liu doing? Isn’t he planning to shoot his series anymore?”

With the Qi Cheng Film Company pulling out, the other investors were starting to feel worried too.

With the biggest investor pulling out, wouldn’t they suffer a loss if they continued investing in this film? While they were all hesitating about it, someone suddenly said that they’d heard Han Zhuoli say that he had the intention to now invest in the film.

The Qi Cheng Film Company executive Yao immediately went to find Han Xijin.

What Han Zhuoli said didn’t count.

Han Zhuoli hasn’t taken Han Bang’s place yet.

Even though no one took him at his word, Mr. Yao still had the intention of telling on him.

And he was shocked by what Han Xijin said, “Of course my son’s words are truthful. As someone who is part of the Han family, shouldn’t his word count for something?”

Not only that, but once Han Xijin had confirmed the news, people started to get in touch with Director Liu, expressing their enthusiasm to invest in his film.

It was even advertised online.

Han Bang had the intention to invest in Director Liu’s film.

The entire online community now knew that the Qi Cheng Film Company had pulled out of Director Liu’s film, while Han Bang had invested in it, and now it was even more financially secure.

Wasn’t Han Bang worried about the reliability of the new scriptwriter?

Han Bang had enormous skill in investing. He’d never been wrong.

Would this be a misunderstanding if it went wrong?

Yet, in the end, the message kept spreading. It kept on spreading until word got round that the Wei family also had the intention to invest.

Those online watching this unfold were all speechless.

Had there ever been this type of drama?

Two out of the eight big families wanted to invest.

It seemed as if they had all been afraid of investing first. Now the Tan Yue Group stood up and took their spot.

They claimed that they would now be filling the gaps left by the Qi Cheng Film Company.

“Han Bang and Wei Feng are both deeply rooted groups, so please could they give us at Tan Yue a bit of a chance to prove ourselves,” Tan Wenci’s assistant, Zhuan Hepeng said in a public interview.

The people following this drama online watched in amazement.

They’d managed to snag this away?

Hadn’t everyone agreed that this was an unreliable series and a bad investment?

This really seemed like a game now, but it was also different from before.

Now it seemed as if the gods were fighting.

With Han Zhuoli overseas and unable to be contacted, only his words were being spread.

But Wei Zhiqian was in China.

Immediately, reporters swarmed to find Wei Zhiqian.

He’d always been hard to interview.

But, for some reason that no one knew, this time he’d decided to say a few words.

Wei Zhiqian, seemingly speaking to Han Zhuoli, said, “I’m not sure if you purposely spread that the film’s scriptwriter was unreliable just so the Qi Cheng Film Company would pull out. This sounds like one of your schemes.”

With these words, there was no way reporters wouldn’t find a way to contact Han Zhuoli.

They definitely needed another interview.

How exciting!

“No way. There’s no way this has anything to do with us at Han Bang. We just wanted to help out,” Han Zhuoli said.

The Tan Yue Group then said, “You two don’t need to compete for it. We’ve already got it covered.”

So, in the end, both Han Zhuoli and Wei Zhiqian lost out.

However, this matter hadn’t affected their relationship at all.

Back in executive Yao’s office at the Qi Cheng Film Company, his assistant hurriedly ran in. “Executive Yao, Wei Zhiqian seems to be saying that he won’t fight for it. But he did secretly invest a bit in the film.”

Executive Yao stood up so fast that he knocked his chair over.

“How scandalous! He would even lie to his good friend?” Lying to Han Zhuoli that he wouldn’t be investing, yet doing it secretly… What kind of person was he?

“Executive Yao,…” the assistant said hesitantly, “…could it be that someone did this on purpose to ruin the film’s reputation?”

“Are you saying that Han Bang stated that?” Wei Zhiqian had been hinting about this.

The assistant immediately ran towards the executive. Was he insane? If Han Xijin heard him say that, he would slaughter you.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant. There’s another possibility. This film is going to be very competitive, so maybe some of Director Liu’s competitors leaked it?” The assistant rushed to explain.

Executive Yao sat down and thought it over. “That’s true… It could be a possibility.”

“Additionally, you’ve seen the script. It really is quite impressive,” the assistant said. “It seems as if it certainly wasn’t written by an amateur. No one could’ve written a script like this without knowledge of history and culture. Without a consultant, there’s absolutely no way they could’ve produced this script.”

“Also, everyone online is saying that the scriptwriter is also the consultant.” Everyone online has now been talking about this every day.

“The initial perspective was that the team messed up. However, if we change the perspective, we could say that this scriptwriter has high levels of knowledge. There’s no way this could’ve been done by a young teenage girl.”

“You’ve got a point there.” Executive Yao nodded, but then felt that something was off. “How come you didn’t say all this earlier? Now we’ve pulled out!”

The assistant didn’t say anything.

All right then, being an assistant always meant taking the blame.

But your previous attitude was so firm. Would it even have been any use if he had said all this before?

“I’m not sure whether we should still try and contact Director Liu and reinvest?” the assistant asked.

“You try that,” Executive Yao said gravely. “If we don’t succeed at that, our company will become a joke if the series explodes in popularity.”

We’re already a joke. But the assistant didn’t say that out loud.