Chapter 284: Summit Meeting

“Actually, you don’t need to worry so much. The companies we acquired can still be merged into Shuxiang through share increases, right?” Xiao Ran smiled calmly. To take on News Corp, Shuxiang had spent countless unnecessary funds over the past two years trying to gain control of companies that didn’t really need to be controlled. “Besides, don’t forget—after operating them for two or three years, those companies can earn us at least several billion dollars in total!”
“Only you would comfort yourself like that!” Wei Dongling disdainfully stepped forward and stared at Xiao Ran, clicking his tongue. “If we invested that money elsewhere, we could earn even more in just a few years!”
Xiao Ran felt a bit embarrassed. If it weren’t for his fear of Murdoch, he wouldn’t have had to mobilize such a large amount of capital to deal with News Corp. In fact, News Corp no longer had as much influence as Shuxiang, but Xiao Ran stubbornly believed that someone like Murdoch, if not defeated, might threaten Shuxiang’s existence in the future. After all, in his original timeline, old Murdoch was definitely an extraordinary figure.
“By the way, what do you think Murdoch would do?” Xiao Ran was clearly not as good at business as Wei Dongling, so he didn’t try to interfere recklessly but instead tried to seek Wei Dongling’s advice.
Wei Dongling immediately fell into deep thought. After pondering for a while, he said, “If I were in his advantageous position, the best move would be to acquire that company first to get cash, and then analyze whether to sell it. That way, we could obtain some cash and, most importantly, regain some of the investors’ confidence. After that, we could launch acquisitions against Shuxiang’s companies, which would be much safer!”
“Of course, another option is risky—directly acquiring one of Shuxiang’s companies. In that case…” Wei Dongling thought quietly, “there’s still a chance of success. And if we manage to surprise Shuxiang and make a foothold in the Asian market, investors’ confidence will surely soar!”
Xiao Ran nodded thoughtfully. “It’s simple. No matter what Murdoch does, he’s already attracted by the moves we’ve made over the past two years! He’s determined to get this company. After all, that’s his ultimate goal!”
“In such a situation, he could use it as an opportunity to launch an acquisition against that company in North America. Based on our actions over the years, theoretically, we should be targeting him. But he could then turn his attention to Asia—using a feint to easily confuse us,” Wei Dongling said nonchalantly.
He had great confidence in the plan Xiao Ran proposed two years ago. Although the situation with that company in North America was a minor surprise, they definitely couldn’t let these two men, who had planned everything two years ago, get confused.
Two years ago, Xiao Ran had proposed the most common business bankruptcy scenario—going bankrupt due to excessive debt and insufficient funds. After gathering various investigation materials and analyzing this person, Xiao Ran concluded that Murdoch had never considered giving up on the Asian market, even though everyone knew Shuxiang was the king of media in Asia.

Xiao Ran devised this plan very specifically. He wanted to take advantage of the restructuring opportunity to create an illusion for the whole world, and even for himself. Of course, achieving a level of realism as high as that of Shuxiang Media was no longer just an illusion; the situation at Shuxiang Media was indeed very real. They needed to sell off those television networks they owned, although keeping them under control wasn’t a major issue. The illusion was that once Shuxiang Media acquired all the television networks under ATV, it would become Asia’s leading media company and no longer need any other television networks. Thus, over the course of two years, Shuxiang Media would systematically sell off the television networks of smaller countries, leaving only a subsidiary formed by merging the television networks of countries like South Korea and Japan. And this was the bait, specifically designed to lure Murdoch. If anyone could gain control of this subsidiary, Murdoch would be able to get involved in Asia’s media industry—or rather, anyone who acquired it could do the same. Who could resist such a temptation? Moreover, Murdoch’s News Corporation was being completely suppressed by Shuxiang Media, reaching a bottleneck in its development, and breaking through was crucial. Currently, News Corporation’s debt was approaching 50%, and fortunately, Murdoch had sold some of his assets earlier, reducing the debt to 40%. With a bit more effort and clever tactics from Shuxiang Media, it would be enough to push News Corporation into collapse. In the afternoon, Xiao Ran went to Thinking to work on the post-production. Thinking was truly remarkable—undoubtedly Asia’s leading post-production company, with a huge facility. Upon arriving at the recording studio, Xiao Ran called everyone to start working, and they got busy right away. The issue of sound recording had puzzled Xiao Ran for a long time. What exactly did he want? What should “Reincarnation” be like? All these were closely related to sound recording. A typical example was the gun sound effects in Hong Kong movies, which were often made very loud and intense. Yet filmmakers often overlooked the fact that sound effects are deeply connected to the film itself. What Xiao Ran appreciated more was the gun sound effect in “Very Sudden”—it wasn’t intense but rather realistic, creating an indescribably clever harmony with the film’s theme. Especially in the final scene, the subdued gun sounds managed to highlight the more intense gunfight and subtly tied in with the theme. This was what Xiao Ran wanted. Perhaps it was precisely because of his expertise in these technical aspects that he was able to direct such classic action movies even before directing “True Nature”—at least technically, he was far above average. But what would “Reincarnation” be like? As a director, Xiao Ran certainly knew what he wanted to express. However, this led him to realize that the action scenes—those two scenes involving reverse driving and bullet time—were not in line with the film’s overall style.

Finally, it was time for editing. Xiao Ran stared at the footage, lost in thought. As he had expected, the film’s style was utterly inconsistent. It was hard to describe what style “Reincarnation” itself had—it was both like an intense action movie and a meaningful art film. Everything, from the visuals to other aspects, perfectly matched this style.

The problem arose with the reverse-driving chase scene—it was simply too grand in scale and didn’t fit the film’s style. That was one thing, but the real issue was bullet time. Bullet time was used in the final scene where the two characters were in mid-air, holding each other’s arms while shooting at each other.

What was the problem? It was too flashy! Such a scene definitely didn’t suit the film’s pure and essential style. It would be more suitable for a movie like “The Legend of the Car God.” But should they just cut out that scene?

For that scene, Xiao Ran used 120 top-tier digital cameras, controlled by computer, before sending it to Infinite Vision for final editing and processing. Cutting it out would not just be a pity—it would be a complete waste.

Since Zhang Yaozong hadn’t seen that scene yet, Huai didn’t know what Xiao Ran was struggling with. But he found Xiao Ran acting strangely, as if trapped in some kind of pain. “Bro Ran, you’re not like this usually. You should be decisive.”

Zhang Yaozong’s words acted like a beacon, guiding Xiao Ran. He stood up firmly, gritting his teeth and saying, “Cut that scene and replace it with another set of shots we took!”

During filming, Xiao Ran already had a hunch. Though bullet time was extremely tempting, he decided to shoot another set of scenes—scenes that were straightforward and free of bullet time.

After hesitating for a moment, Xiao Ran wondered if he should cut out the reverse-chase battle scene as well. After some thought, he decided to keep it. There were no explosion scenes in that scene, nor anywhere else in the film.

July 1st hadn’t arrived yet—but it would be here soon. Even Xiao Ran and Wei Dongling, who were always in the midst of chaos, began to feel nervous. Though their opponents posed no real threat to Phantom, the tension was still very palpable.

That day, since Xiao Ran didn’t need to work on the film’s post-production, he quickly summoned Fang Xiaoqiang back. To his surprise, when Fang Xiaoqiang arrived on the vast balcony (reminiscent of that in “A Taste of Heaven”), Xiao Ran was utterly astonished.

In his opinion, Fang Xiaoqiang should have theoretically arrived only at noon. Wei Dongling, apparently having heard that Fang Xiaoqiang was back, hurried to the balcony as well. The company employees were shocked to see the three board members together in such a rare sight, thinking the trio was planning some major deal.

Under the sunlight, along with the monkeys and the help of Zhang Yan and Liu Xi, the three of them started doing something utterly pointless and completely unexpected by everyone else. Xiao Ran stared in amazement at the still-thin Fang Xiaoqiang, saying, “Xiaoqiang, how did you get here so fast?”

“Ran Ge, I warn you—don’t call me Xiao Qiang anymore!” Fang Xiaoqiang glared fiercely at Xiao Ran through gritted teeth. Zhou Xingchi’s Xiao Qiang was now well-known across all of Asia, so how could he not be frustrated? What angered him the most was that originally, in the script of “Tang Bohu Meets Qiu Xiang,” the cockroach wasn’t called Xiao Qiang. Those screenwriters didn’t dare use the name of one of Shadow’s directors as a joke, so they used Xiao Ming instead. When Xiao Ran heard this, he was stunned at first—was that adorable Xiao Qiang really gone? Immediately, he had someone change Xiao Ming back to Xiao Qiang, thus giving rise to the world-famous cockroach hero! The outcome, of course, was predictable. Fang Xiaoqiang now wished he could change his name right away, but his parents wouldn’t allow it, so he had to continue using it reluctantly. Xiao Ran suddenly remembered a xianxia novel he had read years ago. The protagonist in that book was named Xiao Qiang—was the author hinting at Xiao Qiang? Of course, that was a digression. Fang Xiaoqiang looked at Xiao Ran gloomily and said, “I just bought a plane recently, that’s why I came so quickly!” “You guys really have a lot of spare money—spending it on stuff like this all the time!” Xiao Ran clicked his tongue, pretending to be envious. Given his status, such an expression was obviously annoying, so both of them gave him a punch. Of course, Wei Dongling and Fang Xiaoqiang’s main assets came from Shadow, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have other investments. Those investments could also earn them a fortune. Just like Xiao Ran, aside from Microsoft stocks, had hundreds of millions in cash and about three billion in investments. After chatting casually for a while and sitting down, Fang Xiaoqiang finally said with a smile, “Ran Ge, are you planning to take action this time? I can’t wait to fight Soros and see who’s stronger—him or me!” It wasn’t surprising that Fang Xiaoqiang wanted to compete with him. In the West, the most famous leader of a private investment firm was Soros, the most renowned speculator. In the East, over the years, under Xiao Ran’s guidance, Fang Xiaoqiang had fought countless battles, earning billions in profits for Shadow and solidifying his status as Asia’s top speculator. A showdown between these two great masters from East and West felt like a battle atop Mount Hua, or like the decisive fight described in Gu Long’s novels—no wonder Fang Xiaoqiang was so eager to take on Soros. Of course, no matter who won, they wouldn’t dare claim to be the best in the world. After all, there were countless skilled individuals out there. But if they won, they would undoubtedly become the most famous financial speculators of their time. Xiao Ran nodded silently. To deal with Soros, he had invested a lot of effort in Fang Xiaoqiang, ensuring that this man, who had once matched Soros in strength, could play a decisive role in the financial crisis. He was even willing to risk losses to nurture him.

Today, no, this year is the moment for Fang Xiaoqiang to give it his all. This time, Xiao Ran won’t be able to help at all except with funds. As mentioned earlier, actions like selling off the television station and equity in the oil company are part of Xiao Ran’s efforts to raise funds for this year’s battle. In fact, he even asked the three listed companies—Hutchison, Mingxuan, and Dongli— to gradually issue more shares into the market to raise funds. In reality, not only these three flagship companies but also other listed companies under various groups have done the same, especially those controlled by Shuxiang. This way, they can raise funds while also making it more difficult for Murdoch to make acquisitions—so why not do it? So far, Shadow has been able to mobilize $40 billion in funds within a day. However, doing this on a regular basis would surely cause severe market turmoil. Given Shadow’s relationships with major banks, raising several hundred million more dollars within a week is definitely no problem. By then, one-third of the required funds will already have been raised.