Chapter 132: Differentiation and the Four Great Actresses

Liu Zhou and Qu He talked about the future development of Under the Banyan Tree for more than two hours.

It was not until Qu He saw that it was almost ten o'clock that he got up and prepared to say goodbye.

But before he left, Liu Zhou said seriously:
“Brother Qu, the position I’m appointing you to is Vice President of Zhoushan Literature and General Manager of Rongshuxia. The previous position is also very important.

You are the person I trust most in the company, so in addition to being busy with your work at Under the Banyan Tree, you should also spend some time on the other two websites.

At the very least, we can't let the inside be a complete mess!"

Later, under the operation of Wu Wenhui, Singularity Chinese Network became very successful. It not only became the number one in the industry, but even occupied more than 80% of the online literature market share at one point.

But it is inevitable that this website is run by him in a way that is impenetrable and like an independent kingdom.

So Shanda Literature wanted to change this situation, but it encountered strong backlash from Wu Wenhui and others, who prepared to leave the website with a large number of people and authors and join Penguin.

At that time, Shanda Group was in trouble, Chen Tianqiao had no interest in running the business and went to Singapore to recuperate. In addition, Penguin was expanding aggressively in the entertainment industry.

This eventually led to Shanda Literature being sold to Penguin, and later renamed Yuewen.

Later, Penguin transferred Wu Wenhui and others away due to strategic choices and fear of their influence.

At this point, the online literature landscape had already been determined, and even if Wu Wenhui and others were unwilling, they had no choice but to accept it.

So in terms of means, Shanda is still too rough compared to Penguin.

Wu Wenhui and his colleagues are indeed very capable in online writing, so Liu Zhou must nip this in the bud from now on and not let them turn Singularity into an independent kingdom.

If that time really comes, Liu Zhou will not be able to help but purge them.

Qu He immediately understood what Liu Zhou meant and nodded seriously:
"I understand. Don't worry. We can take this opportunity to establish the magazine and recruit a group of editors. At the same time, we can also reallocate the work of the editors in the company."

Seeing that Qu He understood what he meant, Liu Zhou smiled and said:

"Okay, do things your way."

Of course, Liu Zhou did not leave all matters to Qu He.

Departments such as the company's human resources, finance, and legal affairs were all recruited by Liu Zhou himself, and he has everything firmly in his hands.

Liu Zhou handed over the professional business matters to Qu He. He believed in Qu He's ability and believed that he would not betray him. After so many years of getting along, Liu Zhou knew that Qu He had the literary character of an ancient scholar-official.

After Qu He left, Zeng Li prepared a bath for herself.

After taking a shower, Liu Zhou hugged Zeng Li and lay on the bed to chat.

"Zhou Zhou, have you finished working on that novel website?"

"When I'm done, you don't have to stay there so often. But when I'm done, you're leaving."

Although Jet Li was the main box office draw in the movie "Hero", Zeng Li was after all the nominal heroine and had quite a few roles.

After "Hero" earned over 2.5 million yuan at the domestic box office and became a big hit overseas, Zeng Li also benefited greatly.

Now the outside world has rated Zeng Li as the top of the four major actresses.

These four beauties were selected by Southern Weekend in 2000 as the four most outstanding female stars in mainland China, including Boss Zhao, Zeng Li, Zhang Ziyi and Master Zhou.

As for Xu Jinglei, who was promoted in her previous life, she was eliminated by Southern Weekend without hesitation.

Besides, as for relying on hard power, Xu Jinglei doesn’t have anything to show for it. Is she going to rely on the TV series “Love is Not Blind”?
Now with Zeng Li's sudden appearance, Xu Jinglei has nothing to do with it at all!

Who in the Southern media doesn’t know that Liu, Zhou and the Beijing circle are not getting along?
So whether objectively or subjectively, Southern Weekend would not choose Xu Jinglei.

At first, Xu Jinglei and people in the Beijing circle didn’t care much, but when the concept of the four major beauties proposed by Southern Weekend became popular all over the country, they became unhappy.

People in the Beijing circle have always said that this selection is biased, but no one would be convinced if any of these four people were replaced by Xu Jinglei.

The Beijing media, which was somewhat embarrassed, could only question the credibility of this selection in a roundabout way.
But ordinary people think that the selection is quite objective, and these four people are indeed the most popular and outstanding female stars since the new century.

Therefore, the saying of these four great beauties has been deeply rooted in people's hearts.

Wang Jinghua is not as arrogant as the Beijing circle. She did not question anything, but took the approach of "touching on others" and forcibly put forward the name of Fan Xiaopang and Li Binbin, and put forward the theory of "Four Dans and Two Bings".

As these two became more and more popular, this statement was gradually accepted by people.

But before that, Boss Zhao was recognized as the leader among the four major actresses. She was indeed the most popular, and she could make a living from "My Fair Princess" for the rest of her life.

However, Boss Zhao was influenced by the military flag uniform, and the box office hit "Hero" starring Zeng Li had a huge influence, which also made her status rise.

Coupled with Zeng Li's previously accumulated popularity in Asia and her national recognition in China, Zeng Li officially surpassed Zhao Laoban and became the leader of the four major actresses.

This is not what Liu Zhou asked Southern Weekend to comment on, but it is now recognized by everyone.

Zeng Li did benefit a lot from "Hero", and it was worth it that she took nearly two years off from working on her films just for this movie.

After Zeng Li finished filming "Hero", she took a break for a while, and then devoted herself to the rehearsal and performance of the drama "Youth". "Youth", an all-star drama grandly created by Zhoushan Drama Troupe, caused a sensation in Beijing as soon as it was performed.

At first, everyone went to watch the drama because of the fame of Zeng Li, Qin Hao and Zhang Tong, but later they found that the quality of the drama was also very good and very interesting.

The play "Youth" was performed for a full twenty shows at the Capital Theatre before it came to an end.

It’s not that the potential has been exhausted, but that the actors can’t take it anymore.

This drama was later performed not only in Shanghai, but also in Guangzhou, Spring City and Chengdu. It was the first drama of Zhoushan Drama Troupe to tour the country.

This not only made Zhoushan Drama Troupe earn a lot of money, but also made the troupe famous in the industry.

Liu Zhou also benefited a lot, not only in the field of drama, but also in the field of novels.

Although the novel "Youth" did not win any awards, it completely shut up those who had been criticizing Liu Zhou for only writing garbage that had no literary or artistic value.

The traditional literary world has truly accepted Liu Zhou. The People's Literature magazine, which published the novel "Youth", even asked Liu Zhou to write an article.

However, Liu Zhou didn't have time, and he was also planning to stop writing, so he refused.

The drama did not add much to Zeng Li's popularity, but it made her acting skills widely recognized in the industry.

But later, because she caught the flu after "Hero" was released, Zeng Li didn't get a suitable film contract for half a year.

Until recently, Xu Ke invited Zeng Li to play the leading female role Wu Yuanying in the martial arts blockbuster "Seven Swords", which he had carefully prepared for nearly two years after "Shushan".

This was Xu Ke's carefully prepared comeback work after the box office failure of "Shushan", so he paid special attention to the casting.

Zeng Li was the heroine he chose, and he even turned down Charlie Yeung who was recommended by the investors.

There are not many good film resources nowadays, and even fewer resources suitable for Zeng Li’s level.

Although the heroine’s role in the movie “Seven Swords” is not very outstanding, she is still the heroine of a big production after all.

Coupled with the good script and the support of a famous director, Zeng Li took on the role.

By the end of September, she will join the group.

"I don't think we need to wait as long this time as we did for Hero. I heard from Brother Jie that Director Xu is also very fast at filming movies. I'll probably be back in a month or two."

"Well, I came to visit you because I missed you."

"Ha ha, alright!"

The two of them didn't do anything physically strenuous, they just fell asleep while chatting.

The next day, Liu Zhou did not go out again, but stayed at home with Zeng Li.

It is still early for the studio to start promoting "The Swordsman", and Zhong Lifang is also in charge of other matters.

As for Zhoushan Literature, Liu Zhou has been in charge there for more than a month, and everything has gotten on the right track. He is also relieved to let Qu He take charge of the work.

So Liu Zhou can also enjoy some time alone with Zeng Li before she goes to film.

On September 15th, "Snow Goddess Dragon" produced by Zhou Shan Studio officially landed on the prime time of Xiangnan Satellite TV.

After the TV series was broadcast on Shonan TV's Jingshi Channel for more than half a month, its ratings increased significantly.

Seeing this, Kang Jianming also sent the TV series to Xiangnan TV, and it was broadcast during the prime time.

Liu Zhou called him to express his gratitude.

The fact that this TV series can be broadcast on satellite TV means it can make money.

When Zhong Lifang was negotiating with Shonan TV, they offered a mere 120,000 per episode for "Snow Goddess Dragon", which could not even cover the cost.

Later, after Zhong Lifang's insistence, Shonan TV raised the price to 150,000 per episode.

This TV series has a total of 45 episodes, and 150,000 per episode only makes 6.75 million, but the investment is as high as 8 million, and it is still a loss.

Seeing that this was the other party's bottom line, Zhong Lifang agreed. Her TV series did seem to lack selling points.

Unless a TV series is a big hit nowadays, it is generally difficult to make money from the first round of sales. The main source of money comes from pre-production advertising and the copyrights for the subsequent second and third rounds.

Now that TV dramas can be broadcast on satellite TV, that also means that in-program advertising can be sold, and if the ratings are good, they can be sold at a high price.

Like Deng Jianguo in the past two years, didn’t he make a lot of money by selling in-film advertisements by relying on the high ratings of the "Ji Xiaolan" series and the "Kangxi Private Visits" series?
"Snow Goddess Dragon" was a ratings dark horse in 2003 in its previous life. It will definitely be a dark horse in this life when it is broadcast on Shonan TV.

In this way, the subsequent second and third round copyrights can also be sold at high prices.

But everything depends on how it performs. On this day, Liu Zhou and Zeng Li sat on the sofa and watched TV series together, which was a rare occasion.

(End of this chapter)