Chapter 127: Cornered

All along, Lu Can and the others had known very little about President Xiao, and they rarely even saw him. Now that they had met him, they realized that Xiao Ran was far more difficult to deal with than Wei Dongling! Just this kind of determination was something Wei Dongling lacked.

Xiao Ran almost wanted to laugh bitterly out loud. He never expected that Fang Ruohai, having lost so miserably before, would still have a chance to turn things around. Moreover, this time his momentum was so strong that no one could have predicted it.

After agreeing to resign, Xiao Ran, Wei Dongling, and Guan Xin watched as those scoundrels left the room, all feeling a sense of powerlessness. Fang Ruohai’s move of cutting off their support had indeed been ruthless, but it wasn’t enough to kill him! Xiao Ran quickly regained his composure and smiled coldly. If he could build something from nothing before, and now he had such a solid foundation, how could he still be afraid of the Fang family?

Wei Dongling, on the other hand, checked the resignation letters. After skimming through them, he sighed in relief: “Ah Ran, it’s okay. Only a few managers left; most of the lower-level staff are still here.”

Hearing Wei Dongling’s words, Xiao Ran and Guan Xin also breathed a sigh of relief. It was fine if the managers left, but if even the talented lower-level staff left, that would be truly disastrous. Then, even if Shadow wanted to do something, they wouldn’t have anyone to carry it out.

Just as they relaxed, Bai Wenjing, Tang Yan, Peng Ge from the Audio-Visual Department, and Ge Wenqiu from the Distribution Department walked into the office with unfriendly expressions. For a moment, Xiao Ran and the others thought they too were going to resign, and their hearts sank. The Distribution and Marketing Departments were the most important—if those two departments left, it would be the end.

Fortunately, that didn’t happen. Bai Wenjing and Ge Wenqiu stormed outside, spitting angrily before cursing, “Ungrateful bastards!”

They then walked up to Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling, and the four of them assured them, “President Xiao, President Wei, don’t worry. We won’t leave the company. It was the company that promoted us, and working here is a hundred times better than working for any Haisen Group.”

Xiao Ran almost took a deep breath to relieve the tension in his heart. Among the managers who had resigned earlier, Lu Can was one whom Xiao Ran had personally promoted, and he had the deepest loyalty to the company. If even he was considering changing jobs at such a time, Xiao Ran truly lost confidence.

Bai Wenjing and the others really hadn’t thought about leaving the company, even though just half an hour earlier, Haisen Company had already sent people to talk to them about it. But they all refused, because they were deeply accustomed to and loved the working environment at Phantom Company. Moreover, it was because of Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling’s favor that they had been able to showcase their abilities.

After Bai Wenjing and the others went back to work, Xiao Ran couldn’t help but ponder. He admitted that Fang Ruohai had done a great job. However, this clearly wouldn’t cause much damage to Phantom Company. In Xiao Ran’s view, there were plenty of talents in the world; if you poached one, he could promote two in their place.

So, he believed Fang Ruohai must have another trick up his sleeve—a trick that was definitely not simple and could threaten Phantom Company! But what was it? Xiao Ran was confused. He closed his eyes slightly and asked himself: If you were Fang Ruohai, where would you start?

What was the best strategy for a film company? Distribution, production, and screening. Xiao Ran suddenly opened his eyes; he thought he knew where the trick lay. In terms of production, Fang Ruohai surely couldn’t do much. But in the short term, the screening business would definitely become Phantom Company’s Achilles’ heel.

“A Dong, quickly contact the boss of Yonggao Cinema!” Xiao Ran was surprised he only mentioned Yonggao Cinema and didn’t ask Wei Dongling to contact Jiahé and Shaw Brothers. “As soon as possible!”

Wei Dongling immediately understood Xiao Ran’s meaning. He jumped up, picked up the phone, and dialed. But as he spoke, his expression gradually darkened. Finally, after hanging up the phone, he said something very disheartening to Xiao Ran: “Yonggao Cinema has been leased to Tianluo Company!”

Tianluo Company was that mysterious newly emerged film company. No one expected it to have secretly signed a two-year contract with Yonggao. This time, it would be very difficult for Phantom Company to intervene, unless Yonggao was willing to break the contract.

Thinking of the other two major cinema chains, Xiao Ran slumped back in his chair, growing increasingly uneasy. Under normal circumstances, Jiahé and Shaw Brothers would hardly lease out to a big company like New Art City. But now, he really had a very bad feeling.

Acquire Yonggao and be done with it once and for all! That damned idea popped into Xiao Ran’s mind. He calculated his available cash—only 300 million—and realized it was impossible to acquire Yonggao, which had a powerful parent company backing it.

“What should we do now?” Wei Dongling was extremely anxious, as if scorched by fire. Although the situation didn’t seem as serious as he portrayed, with his keen insight, he could clearly see that once other theater chains were under control, Shadow Company would likely end up with movies but no places to show them.
“Don’t panic, don’t panic!” Xiao Ran didn’t even know whether he was saying this to Wei Dongling or to himself. At least he was truly in a state of turmoil. He took a deep breath, drank some water to calm himself down, and then said, “There are currently 37 cinemas under the Yinghua Theater Chain. However, five of them are art houses, and the rest are mainstream theaters!”
The Yinghua Theater Chain was actually the Xinbao Theater Chain, which was renamed after being acquired by Shadow Company. As the name suggests, the art houses were specifically set aside by Xiao Ran for the limited release of new and artistic films. The mainstream theaters, on the other hand, showed commercial films.
These numbers were comparable to those of the once-prosperous Jiahe Theater Chain, but Xiao Ran was aware of the gap. Shadow Company was currently transitioning into a distribution company. If it couldn’t even control many theaters, how could it talk about distribution? Most importantly, 32 theaters were likely not enough to support Shadow Company’s rapid expansion.
Around 1991, Hollywood’s computer graphics finally took a crucial step forward, marking the beginning of an era of rapid development. The expansion pace absolutely couldn’t slow down. Xiao Ran gritted his teeth in frustration. He definitely didn’t want Lin Qingxia to continue hiding things from him like this, nor did he want to lag behind Hollywood and face being overtaken.
While deep in thought, An Yuxuan received a call from the Film Association, asking for a meeting that Xiao Ran had to attend. Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling immediately guessed what was going on. Why was the Film Association holding a meeting at such a critical moment? They didn’t know, but Xiao Ran had an ominous premonition.
They rushed to the Film Association’s office. As soon as Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling entered the meeting room, they knew something was definitely wrong. At first glance, they saw Fang Ruohai smiling politely. But after scanning the room, they saw one person who left them completely stunned.
It was… it was Yang Qi! Xiao Ran was so shocked he almost jumped up. His usual cheerful expression vanished, replaced by shock. He frantically racked his brains, wondering why Yang Qi was here. Could it be…

Xiao Ran thought of a possibility and smiled bitterly. He found this game truly interesting. He nodded at Wu Siyuan, the president of the Film Association, then nodded at Pan Disheng and He Guanchang. Glancing around, he noticed that not many people had attended this Film Association meeting—only a few large companies were present.

He walked straight up to Yang Qi. Xiao Ran didn’t even know what to say and struggled for words before finally managing to ask, “Aqi, when did you return?”

“It’s none of your business, Xiao Ran. Remember, we’re no longer friends since last time,” Yang Qi replied, ignoring him completely with a cold expression. “Everyone is waiting for you now. Do you want us to keep waiting?”

Xiao Ran rubbed his nose and awkwardly returned to his seat. He really didn’t understand why Yang Qi was so cold toward him. In fact, he had only rejected Yang Wei back then and hadn’t done anything to wrong her. Yang Qi treating him like this was indeed something worth pondering.

Wu Siyuan sat at the top, while Pan Disheng sat slightly below him. Fang Ruohai sat below Pan, and Yang Qi sat below Fang Ruohai. On Xiao Ran’s side, Jiahe sat at the top. Aside from them, no one else was present.

This seating arrangement was quite interesting—it meant the Film Association recognized Tianluo Company as qualified to stand alongside the current four major companies. Since Fang Ruohai had just taken control of Xinyi City, he was seated below Pan Disheng. The seating order clearly reflected each company’s strength. In any case, Meiying Company was definitely one of the top five companies by now.

History had really changed a lot! Xiao Ran smiled bitterly to himself. What had started as three major giants had evolved into five companies—this was undoubtedly a significant historical shift. It seemed some of Hong Kong’s historical knowledge wasn’t reliable after all.

Yang Qi was almost certainly the behind-the-scenes boss of Tianluo Company. Xiao Ran didn’t know when he had managed to gather so much money to acquire seven medium-sized companies. But from Yang Qi’s attitude, he could guess that from now on, Meiying Company would likely have another enemy.

Wei Dongling and Xiao Ran both realized that today’s Film Association meeting wouldn’t be easy to endure. This could be inferred from the attitudes of Jiahe and Debao—two companies that had originally opposed Fang Ruohai and Tianluo Company from joining, yet now they were sitting calmly at the meeting. The implication was all too clear.

Wu Siyuan glanced at Xiao Ran with a hint of apology in his eyes. Sensing this, Xiao Ran nodded at the honest senior and forced a smile. Since he had come here, he had already prepared for the worst.

“The five of you here probably don’t know why you were invited today!” Wu Siyuan sighed inwardly. It wasn’t easy being in his position—like being tossed around like a clay ball. Glancing at Xiao Ran, he thought everyone present must understand the reason: “We’ve invited you mainly to establish some industry rules.”

Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling exchanged a look, their eyes filled with bitter smiles. What kind of stupid rules? Establishing rules under such circumstances was clearly aimed at Shadow Company. Still, they at least had some sense of morality and didn’t expose everything outright, giving them a slight chance to cushion the situation.

Wu Siyuan smiled bitterly inwardly. Everyone here was someone he couldn’t afford to offend, yet he had to stand in this awkward position and say awkward things: “First, don’t get involved with the underworld. Industry affairs must not be interfered with by underworld elements. As for the companies founded by those three major gangs, suppress them as much as possible.”

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone’s gaze shifted toward Xiao Ran, except for Yang Qi, who remained indifferent. Xiao Ran sighed inwardly. This rule was clearly meant to target him—after all, the film industry was already deeply entangled with the underworld. But when it came to underworld influence, Xiao Ran was clearly the strongest.

However, Xiao Ran didn’t object to this. Preventing the underworld from invading the film industry was also something he wanted to achieve. Now, with the Film Association and the other four major companies joining forces, it was undoubtedly helping him solve the problem. Thinking back, the reason the three original companies hadn’t done this was probably because no one had Xiao Ran’s reputation in the underworld, and also because they couldn’t unite.

Now, the emergence of Fang Ruohai and Yang Qi had clearly changed the situation, at least bringing Jiahe and Debao together. Wu Siyuan glanced around and saw Xiao Ran’s calm expression with no signs of opposition, so he immediately showed relief: “The second point is, don’t force industry insiders to do things they’re unwilling to do!”

Before Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling could realize the implications of this rule, Wu Siyuan quickly moved on to the third point: “As for the third point, it mainly relates to the requirements of the five major theater chains. They believe the local market is already saturated and absolutely refuse to allow any more cinemas to be built!”

Upon hearing this, Wei Dongling almost immediately wanted to slam the table in anger. This was nothing but a blatant declaration banning Phantom Company from building cinemas. And as it stood, Phantom Company was already very weak in the film distribution industry, far behind the other four major chains.

Xiao Ran was well aware of Wei Dongling’s straightforward personality. He reached out and patted his leg comfortingly, then scanned the room with a sharp gaze before suddenly smiling at Wu Siyuan and saying, “Chairman, please continue…”

Wu Siyuan wiped away a cold sweat. He had seen Wei Dongling’s nearly furious expression just now. Thankfully, Xiao Ran had managed to calm him down; otherwise… But he didn’t understand why Xiao Ran could remain so calm.

Not only him, but Fang Ruohai and the others didn’t understand either. Even a fool could see that these rules were clearly meant to crush Phantom Company, yet Xiao Ran could still smile—this was even more incomprehensible.

Perhaps because Fang Ruohai and Xiao Ran were of the same kind, Fang Ruohai could roughly guess Xiao Ran’s thoughts. He believed that if Xiao Ran could stay so calm, it was highly likely he had a way to deal with everything. Arriving at this conclusion, Fang Ruohai frowned.

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