Chapter 134: A Complete Victory

“Wait a moment, Uncle Chu. Which one do you think is most likely to win?” Fang Yuping, who was usually so serious, suddenly grinned playfully and turned to Chu Yuan, saying, “I’m most optimistic about Lin Lingdong. I’ve watched both of his films; he’s definitely qualified.”
“I’m more inclined to think it’s Xiao Ran…” Chu Yuan scanned the crowd below, spotted Xiao Ran, nodded, and smiled. “I’ve always felt I wasn’t good enough and couldn’t keep up with you all. But after watching Xiao Ran’s ‘God of Gambling,’ I realized it’s actually you who can’t keep up with him!”
“Stop talking! There’s going to be a riot!” Fang Yuping joked cheerfully, then lifted the announcement board and declared loudly, “The winner is… Zhang Wanding, for ‘A Fairy Tale in Autumn’!”
Even before the award was announced, Xiao Ran was already extremely nervous. When he finally heard the result, he relaxed slightly, though his expression still revealed disappointment. He hadn’t won the award after all. Thinking that it seemed rare in the history of the Golden Horse Awards for the award to go to someone who both wrote the script and directed the film, he came to terms with it.
After congratulating Zhang Wanding, the last award was soon announced. There wasn’t much suspense regarding Best Film either—it went to “A Fairy Tale in Autumn” once again. The only notable thing was that this time, both Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling, as producers, went onstage to receive the award together.
The reporters below frantically took photos, as it was rare to see the two most important figures from Shadow Company together like this. It would be foolish not to take a few good photos to use as covers.
At this year’s Golden Horse Awards, out of fourteen awards, Shadow Company won nine, achieving an absolute victory. “God of Gambling” was the film that won the most awards, claiming six of them. From any perspective, this success proved that Shadow Company had the strength and qualifications to compete with Golden Harvest.
At the pre-arranged celebration banquet, after Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling congratulated those who won awards, they went aside for a detailed discussion. They were talking about the company’s future development. From any angle, it was time to discuss this issue.
Wei Dongling’s question was straightforward. He asked directly, “Now that the company has officially reached a new level, I think it’s necessary to explore other markets. What do you think?”
“Of course!” Xiao Ran downed the water in his cup as if it were a drink and replied confidently, “We don’t need to compete with those four major companies in the local market. Let them do as they please. We need the mainland market, as well as the entire Asian market. We should also take the opportunity to reach out to Europe and America and see how things go!”
“But aside from the local market, if we aim for both the Asian market, the mainland, and Europe and America, won’t that be too much? It might spread our resources too thin and cause serious problems.” Wei Dongling glanced at Xiao Ran skeptically.

Xiao Ran certainly hadn’t failed to consider it. In fact, he had always had plans and kept adjusting them as circumstances changed. He originally intended to take control of the Asian market before focusing on Europe and the Americas, but now there really wasn’t much time left, and the situation had changed as well.
The involvement of Fang Ruohai and Yang Qi made everything more complicated. Xiao Ran wasn’t sure if he could truly have everything under control. Moreover, the historical differences were growing wider, so he had to seize control of Hollywood as soon as possible.
Strictly speaking, Xiao Ran’s initial idea of acquiring a Hollywood film company was to take control of Hollywood itself, but he had gradually changed his mind. Why not develop Hong Kong into another Hollywood? All the necessary conditions were now in place—the competition among the five major companies could accelerate the development of Hong Kong films, allowing them to capture the American market once they had sufficient technical capabilities.
In his current vision, acquiring Hollywood was merely to gain access to the enormous distribution network held by Hollywood’s distribution companies, especially in North America. Dominating the North American market was a must—only by conquering Hollywood could one conquer the world.
The company indeed didn’t have the strength to do much in Hollywood at the moment, but it could make moves in the European market. Don’t assume that Hollywood films have always been deeply rooted in Europe, or that European films have been consistently struggling.
Before the 1990s, Hollywood’s market share in Europe was far less than that of local films. Films from countries like the UK, France, and Germany had seen rapid development after the war. It wasn’t until the 1980s that they gradually faced difficulties, compounded by Hollywood’s technological advancements, which allowed it to gradually erode European markets in the 1990s.
For Europe today, it was like a series of unguarded cities, and Hollywood’s influence hadn’t yet invaded them on a large scale. As long as Xiao Ran seized the right opportunity, defeating Hollywood’s presence in Europe wouldn’t be difficult.
However, Wei Dongling’s question was indeed on point—the company didn’t have much money, without a doubt. Don’t think that just because Xiao Ran had billions in assets, it meant he could spend it freely; it was all his total assets.
But that’s exactly the problem—Shadow had no money and didn’t yet meet the conditions for going public, making it impossible to raise enough funds for faster expansion. Under normal circumstances, Xiao Ran could have expanded cautiously, but the presence of Fang Ruohai and Yang Qi posed a threat, so he couldn’t risk investing all his funds in market expansion.
The more than 500 million in funds accumulated by Tianxia Fund couldn’t be touched—it was the backbone for Shadow’s future development. Most importantly, Xiao Ran intended to use Tianxia Fund to make money for himself and to raise funds to turn things around when Shadow was in crisis.
“How are the stocks of the companies controlled by the company doing now?” Xiao Ran asked anxiously. “And what about those two plots of land?”

“The stocks, real estate, and properties invested by the Investment Department—even if we sold everything we could—total only about eight hundred million!” Wei Dongling quickly calculated and came up with a figure. “Adding our current liquid funds, we have at most one point four billion in liquid assets!”
“What about borrowing from banks?” Xiao Ran didn’t trust banks, but given the current situation, it seemed the only option was to consider borrowing from them. “If there’s no other way, that’s our only choice!”
Wei Dongling hesitated for a moment before honestly telling Xiao Ran, “By borrowing from banks, we could get two to three billion. And we need to build a movie city, which initially requires an estimated twelve to fifteen billion. Moreover, we need to invest in some projects that can generate huge profits to have even a slim chance of earning two billion in the remaining year or so!”
Two billion! Xiao Ran smiled bitterly. He didn’t even know if that amount was enough to acquire a Hollywood film company. Thinking that Sony spent over three billion dollars to acquire Columbia last year, which equaled nearly three hundred billion in Hong Kong dollars.
How could he earn three hundred billion in just one year? He wasn’t Superman, and this wasn’t the dot-com bubble era either—it was difficult to use digital economies to amass that much money in such a short time.
He did have some ideas for long-term investments, such as Microsoft and Yahoo stocks, but unfortunately, Yahoo hadn’t been founded yet. Still, thinking of Yahoo, Xiao Ran reminded himself to make sure to find the two founders in 1994 and invest in them, so as not to let the Japanese take advantage.
“Bro, so you’re here!” Xiao Han’s lively voice suddenly came from behind Wei Dongling, startling him so much that he jumped up like a rabbit with its tail stepped on. Seeing Wei Dongling’s expression, Xiao Han stuck out her tongue sheepishly and laughed, “Bro, what are you doing? Sister Lin is looking for you! What were you talking about, two billion?”
“Xiao Han, go away!” Xiao Ran was extremely stressed and had no energy to deal with his nagging sister. “A Dong and I need to discuss something!”
Lin Qingxia appeared and said something to Xiao Han, who then skipped away like a child who never grows up. Xiao Ran asked Lin Qingxia, who had just sat down next to him, with a bitter smile, “Why did you bring her here?”
“Xiao Han wanted to see you win an award, didn’t she?” Lin Qingxia replied before curiously asking, “Xiao Han said you were talking about two billion. What’s that?”
“We’re thinking about how to earn two billion in one year!” Wei Dongling smiled bitterly but didn’t hide anything from Lin Qingxia. “It seems very difficult right now!”
“Two billion? Are you crazy?” Hearing this figure, Lin Qingxia wasn’t just shocked but also felt dizzy. “How is it possible to earn two billion in one year?”
“There must be a way!” Xiao Ran murmured to himself. He wasn’t convinced he couldn’t solve this problem with his knowledge. Before, it was hard to get started due to lack of capital, but now that they had everything they needed, earning two billion would be like playing.

Suddenly, he thought of the few things he knew about economics and finance. Once, while browsing a magazine out of boredom in his dream, he had read about Dell’s general development history. There was also Cisco, which was worth considering—Xiao Ran remembered that the company had won numerous awards and had once been the most valuable company in the world.

He also vaguely recalled reading in a film review that Sony acquired Columbia two years later during a period of sharp appreciation in the yen. The article mentioned that due to the significant rise in the yen value, many Japanese businessmen in the U.S. felt an urge to buy everything they saw.

Overjoyed, he almost shouted out loud. Suppressing his excitement, he thought for a moment—Dell and Cisco were suitable for long-term investments, while the yen could be used for short-term trading. With this in mind, his expression became calm: “There are three options. Given the current situation, it’s certain the yen will appreciate within a year or two, so we can invest in it.”

Wei Dongling was stunned. The yen was indeed appreciating, but no one knew if it would keep rising for so long. After hesitating, he asked, “Are you sure there are no problems?”

Xiao Ran smiled. Business was like this—there was risk, and there was profit. “Call Fang Xiaoqiang tomorrow and let him handle these matters. After all, he’s a shareholder of the company!”

“Wait a moment…” Lin Qingxia grew more confused as she listened and couldn’t help but stop them: “What exactly are you talking about? I don’t understand anything at all!”

Xiao Ran smiled slightly, wishing he could hold her hand right then: “We’re discussing the company’s future. We need at least 20 billion to acquire a Hollywood film company, and it must be done by next year. In fact, 20 billion is just the minimum…”

20 billion was indeed the minimum. To build a film empire, that amount was far from enough—many technologies and companies would also be required. Even a fool could see how extremely difficult this was, but Xiao Ran seemed to have no other choice.

A few days later, Guan Xin finally returned from the mainland, bringing approval from the mainland film bureau. The bureau didn’t even require a certain percentage of mainland filmmakers to be involved or any other conditions. However, if the film wanted to be shown in mainland cinemas, at least 50% of the crew had to be mainland filmmakers.

This frustrated Xiao Ran somewhat—it was like using Phantom’s money to support mainland film studios. But thinking about the vast mainland market and the fact that the film bureau wasn’t imposing any difficulties, he was overjoyed.

Now he could be certain that due to his pro-Communist behavior, the mainland clearly had a high opinion of him. Plus, since the mainland needed to cultivate pro-mainland figures outside Yindu, he had struck a bargain.

Without delay, Xiao Ran ordered Chen Kexin to start preparing everything. This was undoubtedly a massive undertaking, involving equipment and transportation, as well as the crew and their allowances. When the budget was presented, even Xiao Ran was shocked—it was as high as 12 million.

One hundred and twenty million is definitely a huge investment for production in this era, but this amount would only cover up to three million for cast and location in the mainland. Transportation alone would cost at least two million, with the rest going toward actual production costs. If you add another two to three million for marketing, as well as expenses for legal matters and insurance, the total investment for this project can reach almost one hundred and eighty million. That’s enough to produce at least five low-budget films like “The God of Gamblers”. However, Xiao Ran isn’t convinced of this. Now is the perfect time to invest heavily, taking advantage of the popularity of Hong Kong films, so that no region or country in Southeast Asia will be able to catch up. In fact, with Hong Kong films yielding ten to twenty times more profits, it’s shameful not to invest heavily—such people truly deserve to lose their market share.
*****
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