Chapter 37 - Investment Gap

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

“An investment company?” Chu Yang asked.

“That’s right, an investment company. Look, you have money now, and you don’t know what to do, which means you can do anything you want, no? Then, can’t you just go invest? Invest in any industry you like. This way, not only can you can try new things, but you can also make money, right?”

Hearing Chu Yang toss the question back to her, Tao Yan explained the reason for her suggestion.

“You’re right. Since I don’t have a direction, I can just look for one. I can just invest in one or two companies that I’m interested in, and the fun will then come to me,” Chu Yang was quite interested in this proposal.

That being said, Chu Yang was not planning on setting up an investment company any time soon. After all, he hadn’t invested in many companies and did not currently need a company to manage them.

“You are really my dearest.” The frustration in Chu Yang’s heart disappeared immediately after hearing Tao Yan’s suggestion. He hugged Tao Yan and kissed her fiercely.

“You bad buy,” Looking at Chu Yang who was hugging her, Chu Yan felt very happy. The atmosphere between the two made her feel contented.

…

At this moment, in a film and television base in Haoyu City.

Many lights were shining on a piece of ground in the film and television base. In the middle of the ground, a man and a woman were hugging each other. The woman was bleeding while she was in the man’s arms, who was wearing a painful expression.

Outside the ground, a man wearing glasses was watching the scene calmly. This middle-aged man was the famous director of Haoyu City, Ma Yong. He was currently directing his masterpiece of the year.

“Stop, Qingzhou, what’s with your acting? Your emotions are not in place, and your expression looks fake. Let’s take it from the top again,” After watching the performance of the two actors on the ground for a while, the middle-aged man berated the actor loudly. His tightly furrowed brows indicated the irritation he was feeling.

The actor stood up and was about to say something before he was interrupted by the assistant director.

“Let’s stop for a while, let’s stop for a while. Qingzhou, take a break and adjust your emotions, it’s true you were not in character just now. Everyone, take a break.” The assistant director waved at the male actor.

Following the assistant director’s order, everyone at the venue dispersed. There was a hint of exhaustion in everyone’s eyes.

Then, the assistant director turned around, flung a shoulder on the director’s shoulder, and led him further away.

“Old Ma, is there something troubling you? You’ve been like this for 50 scenes today. I watched Qingzhou’s performance from the side, and it wasn’t as bad as you said. There were some scenes that I didn’t think needed to be filmed again.”

“Sigh.” Ma Yong sighed deeply and pulled the assistant director to the small stools around and sat down.

“The production team is in trouble now. The investors that were originally interested in investing suddenly withdrew their funds,” Ma Yong told the assistant director the bad news that he had just received today.

“What’s going on? Who withdrew their funds? Why so sudden?” the assistant director immediately stood up from the small stool, looking very shocked.

After all, investments in such a big film project must have been negotiated for a long time before it was decided. Normally, there wouldn’t be any changes, but now, there was actually an investor who suddenly pulled out. This was obviously a very serious matter.

“It’s Yueming Film Company.” The director said these simple words.

“Yueming Film Company? Isn’t that the company that was recently under the scrutiny of the government? Didn’t they release the news a few days ago that that was just a rumor?” The assistant director knew who the investor that had decided to stop investing at the last minute was.

“There was originally nothing wrong, but Yueming Film Company might have offended someone and got involved in a tax evasion case. They are now targeted by the local censorship department. Currently, they can’t even protect themselves, which is why they called me this morning and told me that the follow-up investment funds that were originally agreed upon might not be disbursed,” Ma Yong explained.

“How much was the follow-up investment amount Yueming Film Company agreed on originally? I’ll see if the few of us can work together to make up for it.” Hearing that the withdrawal of Yueming Film Company’s investment was a foregone conclusion, the assistant director immediately expressed his thoughts to Ma Yong.

“Yueming Film Company’s original investment was 30 million. If it was just a small amount, would I still be so worried? If it were just a few million, we could’ve made up for it, but 30 million! We’ll have to sell everything we have just to barely make up for it. We still have to live, you know,” After Ma Yong heard the assistant director’s words, he sighed heavily once again.

“Then, is it possible to get the other investors to increase their invested amount? We just need to make up this 30 million, we can give them a little more shares perhaps?” When the assistant director saw that his proposal could not work, he immediately came up with another idea.

“It won’t work. I came up with this idea as soon as I got the call from Yueming Film Company. I asked the other investors, and their representatives all said that their company’s working capital was not enough, and they were unable to increase the investment. Even if they could, they could only increase the investment by a few million. It’s far from enough,” Ma Yong immediately rejected the idea.

“Is there really no other way?” Seeing that Ma Yong had refuted the two ideas he put forward, the assistant director squatted on the ground in pain.

“There’s no other way now. I can only hope that we can find a new investor to invest in this movie this month. Otherwise, I’ll mortgage my real estate to raise this 30 million,” Ma Yong thought for a while and said with some determination.

“Then let’s wait and see. Maybe there will be a turnaround within this month. Don’t put your real estate up for mortgage just yet,” Hearing that Ma Yong was planning on selling his real estate, the assistant director immediately became anxious and comforted him.

“We don’t have another choice, do we?” Ma Yong sighed on the spot.

“There will be a turnaround eventually. Alright, let’s go back to filming. Don’t reveal this news to the public for now. Otherwise, it will affect the crew’s morale,” the assistant director said to Ma Yong.

“Do I need you to teach me this? Am I the director or are you the director? You have to know your place,” When Ma Yong saw that his assistant director was actually giving him orders, he raised his voice but whispered to him.

“Haha, of course you’re the director, Director Ma. Besides you, who else would dare to compete for the position of the director?” The assistant director said to him with a smile before the two of them walked back to the filming ground.

…

“Come shopping with me tomorrow,” Tao Yan was having dinner with Chu Yang. Chu Yang was already full, so he just watched Tao Yan eat.

“Sure. We’ll go anywhere you want tomorrow,” Chu Yang, who was sitting at the side, immediately agreed when he heard Tao Yan’s suggestion. In his free time, Chu Yang didn’t mind fulfilling some of his woman’s requests.

“Prepare your wallet for tomorrow. I want to buy a lot of things,” Tao Yan was very happy to see Chu Yang agree so easily, but she still said these words arrogantly.

“Haha, don’t worry, I’m at least capable of fulfilling your requests. You’d better eat quickly now, or the food will get cold. Look at how long you’ve been eating now.”

Looking at Chu Yang laugh, Tao Yan was a little intoxicated. This man seemed to be good at everything. It was a pity that he didn’t belong to her completely. Thinking of this, Tao Yan sighed again in her heart.

“Leave the bowls here for now. Tomorrow, when we go shopping, the housekeeping company will come over to clean up,” Chu Yang said to Tao Yan after she finished eating.

Tao Yan stopped cleaning up the table upon hearing her words. She agreed to Chu Yang’s suggestion. After all, she didn’t want to wash the dishes either.

“Next, should we go and rest?” Chu Yang said with a smile while looking at Tao Yan..