After The Vicious Cannon Fodder Was Reborn

Chapter 45: Unintentional Actions & Truth Coming To Light

Tao Mu's cooperation plan referred to the cooperation plan between director Rong's new movie "Gun King" and his FlyNews website.

Although FlyNews was still a completely new thing in the eyes of the public, since it had been launched online it had spread very rapidly among the college students in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and China's first- and second-tier cities in the past half month.

Tao Mu actually didn't know this director Rong, and he didn't have any opportunity to cooperate with him in his previous life either. So finding director Rong this time was just to help Gou Rixin vent any negative feelingswhether or not Gou Rixin's wire accident was caused by Xiong Zheng, Yu Mei cheating on him with Xiong Zheng was an indisputable fact.

Tao Mu didn't want to see this guy, who not only took his brother's woman but also took his brother's role, gain fame and success. While Xiong Zheng took Gou Rixin's role as the second male lead in "Gun King" in his last life, in the end he didn't get any waves. However, things couldn't be calculated like that.

So Tao Mu wrote a draft plan overnight, and directly found and paid a visit to the hotel room booked by director Rong in H Town. In a forceful but polite manner, he analyzed in detail with director Rong that if "Gun King" used Xiong Zheng, who was involved with the former male second lead's girlfriend as well as also possibly being responsible for deliberately creating a wire accident to take away the male second lead from the former actor, what kind of crises and risks would be brought to the reputation of the crew?

Unless deliberately creating hype, no crew would want trouble during filming. This would distract the actors and staff, and no one could guarantee the quality of the shooting. Moreover, if the audience paid too much attention to the media gossip of a film crew, it would inevitably affect the impression of some fans of the film.

What was more, the taint that Xiong Zheng might be carrying on his person was not just as simple as media gossip.

With director Rongs status in the film industry today, if he wanted to create hype, the best way was naturally to hype up gossip that would not lead to a scandal, such as the male lead and female lead developing a romantic relationship outside the film. Of course, creating hype of the male number one lead and the male number two lead not getting along and often fighting with each other on the set was also very in line with the main selling point of Hong Kong media gossip. However, this kind of hype required them to have the same status in the entertainment circle. If the difference was too great, the crew would be too lazy to create hype and even the actors themselves would not agree.

All in all, no matter what kind of hype, it obviously had nothing to do with Xiong Zheng, who had never appeared in a serious role apart from acting as another's martial arts body double.

Director Rong cherished his reputation and naturally would not allow a stain on the reputation of the crew because of a mere martial arts body double. However, he would also not have any good impression of Tao Mu approaching and threatening him like this.

So next, Tao Mu took out the publicity plan he designed overnight, and explained to director Rong what kind of publicity effect would be obtained if "Gun King" cooperated with FlyNews during filming.

"In fact, college students as an age group can be regarded as the main audience of China's movies. Because they have time, money, and the need to watch movies. So if the film "Gun King" can be known among the college students in China, director Rong can imagine that even if only one-fifth of the students enter the movie theater, "Gun King" will definitely get a box office result just with these students. What's more, the registered users of FlyNews are not only college students, but also many netizens in the age group of 18 to 35. Director Rong should know how much purchasing power is represented by consumer groups between 18 and 35 who have internet access in China currently."

Towards Tao Mu's bait, director Rong was, in truth, very excited. However, like all old-fashioned people, he also had doubts about new things like FlyNews. So he didn't quite believe in the effect that Tao Mu depicted. This was also the reason why he wanted to discuss this again with Tao Mu after he kicked Xiong Zheng out of the crew.

This time Tao Mu presented not just a draft but a relatively detailed plan. From the early stage to the later stage of the publicity plan, it described the progress layer by layer until the climax.

Tao Mu had lived ten years in the future. In these ten years, he could be said to have completely gone through all stages of China's media development from newspaper-based television media to online self-media. And he himself had fully enjoyed all the effects that the Internet self-media could exert when it focused on staining a person's reputation.

It could be said that being reborn ten years ago, including on a global scale, no one should be more familiar with how to use online media to create hype than Tao Mu. So now he easily painted a very desirable picture for director Rong. He didn't even need to include any of the previous hype cases that had been regarded as classics by the industry people. Just the simplest, most common and crude publicity routine was sufficient to deal with someone like director Rong who had "no knowledge and experience".

Sure enough, after listening to Tao Mu's publicity plan, director Rong immediately became enlightened. Publicity routines were like a hole pricked in a paper window of a dark room. If no one spoke or did anything, then everyone was blinded in darkness. But so long as one person pierced a hole in the window, everyone would be able to see the light leaking in from the hole.

Especially in the Hong Kong entertainment circle full of gossip and paparazzi reporters who talked with pictures every day. Therefore, director Rong had a very high acceptance of these plans mentioned by Tao Mu. What was more, Tao Mu didn't actually come up with anything newit was not his own film, so there was no need to waste too much energy on it. So he decided to be lazy and used the existing methods of those Hong Kong paparazzi to compile a qualified serial plot, which must have a climax, a reversal, and a face slap. Finally, it must also forcibly sublimate the themedrawing all public discussion and publicity to the film "Gun King".

The method was rather overused, but the most important thing was the publicity platform of FlyNews. Tao Mu directly dumped the data on current registered users and daily visits to FlyNews in front of director Rong, telling him in the most scientific way, even if only one-fifth of the users were attracted by this operation and walked into the movie theater, just how much box office they could get.

Many thanks to this simple era that had not yet been tampered with false data and flooded by water army traffic. In short, as soon as director Rong saw the data thrown by Tao Mu, he felt that the cooperation with FlyNews to promote his film was particularly reliable and attractive.

As everyone knows, the efficiency of the Hong Kong entertainment circle has always been relatively high. Finishing an entire movie in half a month seemed an incredible thing in later generations, but it was a common thing in the Hong Kong entertainment industry. Director Rong was a typical Hong Kong person, and his efficiency was naturally very high. He instantly called the male and female lead of the movie and asked them to come to his room to discuss creating hype.

Although Tao Mu's publicity plan was rather clich, looking at it together with the background data of the new platform of FlyNews, if it worked properly, the publicity would not be bad at all. The male and female leads discussed with their respective agents, and finally agreed to cooperate with the promotionafter all, when they signed the contract to join the crew, the contract had stipulated that they must cooperate with the crew on promoting the movie. Moreover, towards this hype routine of faking a romantic relationship between the male and female leads, they could not have been any more familiar.

Even their agents were very optimistic about this publicity model, and even wanted to discuss with Tao Mu about a long-term cooperation between FlyNews and their management companies. However, the specific cooperation model and publicity costs depended on what effect this publicity could achieve.

So the two sides hit it off. Tao Mu, while venting his anger for a good brother, also managed to attract the first paying project for FlyNews!

But after all, no matter how sharp the tongue wss, it could not represent actual action. So the first thing Tao Mu did when he left the hotel room of director Rong, was to call his brother Xiao Qi, who was far away in Beijing, and announce the establishment of FlyNews Entertainment. As for the first project after the establishment of the FlyNews Entertainment Department, it was to create hype for the movie "Gun King".

Regardless of his past and present life, Tao Mu was a person with a very strong executive action. He announced the establishment of FlyNews Entertainment in the last second, and immediately dug up talents in the next second. The well-connected brother Xiao Qi recruited two paparazzi reporters who were almost unable to find any work in Beijing and sent them directly to H Town. As for H Town, Tao Mu also successfully recruited Mr. Zhang Fei, the dragon tattoo fellow who was particularly gifted in such things as tracking and stalking people. After a day of hasty training, he let them loose to "candidly photograph" the male and female leads of "Gun King" at a private meeting in the hotel and then posted them to the FlyNews Entertainment account

That's right, Tao Mu not only established the entertainment department of FlyNews in just one day, but also registered an official account for FlyNews Entertainment on his site. As soon as the thread was posted to the top, it immediately attracted the attention of many netizens.

After more than half a month of fermentation, the competition for school beauty and hunk had now entered a white-hot stage. Many netizens spending their free time on the Internet now constantly canvassed for votes from their relatives, friends, or lovers. Suddenly there was news that had nothing to do with the competition. Of course, everyone was even more curious.

After clicking in and taking a look, aiyo, it was actually the gossip news of Hong Kong's A-list stars. In an instant, the mentality of melon eating possessed by all netizens was immediately stoked. With the help of certain behind the scenes people, the gossip spread quickly across the Internet. Even the print media and TV media followed up and entered the crew to interview the male and female leads about the truth of the news.

According to the agreement, of course the male and female leads refuted the rumors, righteously saying that they were just ordinary good friends, and there was no ambiguity at all. That day they entered the hotel room together, it was just to practice lines, and there were not only the two of them in the hotel room, but also director Rong and the two screenwriters. It was completely not like what the paparazzi reported. Director Rong and the two screenwriters also refuted the rumors for the male and female leads and strongly condemned the paparazzi for taking sneak shots regardless of the celebrity's privacy. And by the way, they also stated that the male and female leads were both unmarried and unattached young people, even if they had some good feelings towards each other because of filming, it was completely normal.

So a few days later, FlyNews Entertainment captured the intimate behavior of the male and female leads chatting and laughing on the set, and even feeding each other from their lunch boxes. As usual, the male and female leads clarified that they were just filming, though they could not deny that the other was a very attractive person..

All in all, after a lot of speculation, the existence of "Gun King" and the male and female leads were soon publicized throughout the Internet. Director Rong and the two leads were very satisfied with the effect of this promotion, and they only had to wait for the film to be released to see how much box office this attention could be converted into.

Tao Mu had also successfully obtained the first fee for FlyNews since its establishment.

Expectedly, seeing that despite FlyNews just going online, it had now already become a hot topic, the Weibo platform, which was also regarded as a big dog among the Internet platforms, couldn't sit still any longer. Although their publicity planners did not have Tao Mu's brain and ten years of experience, they could still learn.

From plagiarizing the school beauty and hunk selection activities, to now also immediately establishing Weibo Entertainment. They then copied FlyNews' hype model for "Gun King" by also choosing a crew for publicity.

With "Gun King" as an example, other crews were also very jealous of the discussion and attention that "Gun King" had received on the Internet and in real life. Some people directly contacted FlyNews for cooperation, while some people preferred the Weibo platformalthough the two major social platforms were new things, and it seemed that FlyNews had more tricks up its sleeve at the moment. But after all, Weibo was launched half a year earlier than FlyNews and was also backed by capital, so its strength seemed stronger than that of FlyNews.

Just like the publicity model adopted by FlyNews, Weibo could not only publicize on their network platform, but also contact TV stations for broadcast. This interlocking mode immediately attracted many crews to cooperate.

So after FlyNews promoted "Gun King", Weibo immediately promoted the crew "Fires of War".

As a competitor, though Tao Mu did not think that the publicity methods of Weibo Entertainment at this time would be more superb than his, he still paid attention to their movements.

However, what he did not expect was that an issue soon made itself known to his eyes.

As an important project for Weibo to fully copy FlyNews, "Fires of War" was similar to that of "Gun King", as they both were of gunfight themes. Because the main publicity hotspot of "Gun King" was that of the male and female leads dating each other outside filming, when Weibo promoted "Fires of War", the publicity focused instead on the fighting scenes and the professionalism of the actors.

So in an interview with a reporter from Weibo Entertainment, the male second lead Hong Kong actor said seriously: "In fact, when we made this film, it was really hard work. Because the director required us actors to personally perform the fight scenes as much as possible when shooting. So in many shots it was us personally performing instead of body doubles. I remember that once we were going to shoot an explosion scene, and we had to jump down from the top of a building which was more than six meters high. Of course, I didnt need to perform this myself and used a stand-in instead. But did you know that the fastening of a wire suit actually had some problem? Fortunately, the props team discovered it in time, otherwise it would have gone very wrong. The one who was my stand-in at the time, I still remember his name was Da Xiong or something, his face turned really pale. Really, if you think about it, falling from a height of more than six meters..it's too dangerous. It's really hard work."

In the hospital of H Town, because the doctor said that Gou Rixin's current situation was basically stable and he could be transferred safely. Tao Mu, Gou Rixin's mother, and the martial arts brothers were gathered in front of Gou Rixin's hospital bed, watching TV while packing up the things.

As a result, they saw such an unexpected plot twist!

Da Luo, who had always been more impatient, couldn't sit still immediately: "Tao Mu, the Da Xiong he mentioned, isn't that Xiong Zheng?"

Tao Mu frowned. Before he could speak, his phone suddenly rang. Tao Mu took out his cell phone and saw that Zhang Fei called.

"Brother Mu, guess what I found?" On the other end of the phone, Zhang Fei said excitedly: "It turns out that Xiong Zheng, that bastard, and the props master in charge of Da Gou's wire suit know each other. My friend told me that the reason why Xiong Zheng was able to enter the crew was because the props master introduced him to the casting director. These two bastards lied to us and deceived us!"

"Not bad." Tao Mu held the phone and looked at the TV with scorching eyes: "Maybe we can call officer Yao and have him look into it again. Find the props master for another chat."

With the situation having reached this point, there was really nothing left to talk about.

When the props master saw that the police came to his door again, he knew that he couldn't hide it anymore. Dejected, he frankly confessed: "Before the incident, Xiong Zheng bought me a drink, gave me 20,000 yuan, and asked me to be in charge of Gou Rixin's wire inspection. I felt a little strange at the time because us martial arts body doubles and stuntmen have our own rules. Except for those who play alone, all wire suits are checked by their own team. Gou Rixin's team already has so many people, and his wire suits are usually inspected by Da Luo. There was no need for me at all. But on the next day, it turned out that Gou Rixin's brothers were all still drunk and did not come over, so as promised I took the initiative to take charge of Gou Rixin's wire inspection."

"I also don't know what's going on. When I checked, the wire suit was obviously no problem. But when it was on Gou Rixin's body, it actually slipped. I was very scared at the time, so I found Xiong Zheng and asked him what was going on, if he did anything."

"Xiong Zheng told me that I don't need to care. Its Gou Rixin who was just unlucky. He also told me that I must not talk nonsense outside. He said that Da Luo and the others are very domineering, and they were originally angry because of this. If I let them know it was because of my negligence, then there would be no way for me to survive."

Officer Yao and another policeman on the scene looked at each other and asked, "What did Xiong Zheng do to the wire suit?"

"I don't know either." The props master was also particularly puzzled: "When I checked, everything was fine. There obviously was no problem. Who knew that something would happen?"

On the other side, Xiong Zheng was also watching the interview with the crew of "Fires of War" on TV, and he knew it was not good. Who could have imagined that after FlyNews launched such a huge publicity plan in order to appease director Rong, Weibo also followed suit. And fine, if they wanted to follow the trend then just follow the trend, but just why did they have to interview the crew of "Fires of War"?! What's more, the interview just had to focus on this thing!

Xiong Zheng had originally thought that he had concealed everything, but now, all the dirty tricks he played were now spread out under the sun.

Xiong Zheng didn't know why he was so unlucky. It should have been something that had gone completely unnoticed. But now, everyone and their mother knew about this. Xiong Zheng guessed that even if the police had no evidence to arrest him, Gou Rixin's brothers would still not let him off. And this time, it definitely wouldn't just end with a beating. So he hurriedly packed his luggage, planning to temporarily leave H Town to avoid the wind.

In fact, Xiong Zheng really was unlucky. In the last life, he learned from Yu Mei that Gou Rixin was valued by a Hong Kong director who wanted him to be the second male lead. He was very unhappy at that time. So he planned secretly and finally came up with such a trick, which would not only directly kick Gou Rixin out of the game, but also paralyze Gou Rixin.

At that time, he also ran to director Rong and recommended himself. Although director Rong was not satisfied with Xiong Zheng's appearance, he didn't have any criticism for Xiong Zheng's martial arts skills. The role of the male second lead required absolute martial arts skills, so the usual filming method of letting the actor pose in front of the camera while the body double performed the actual combat scenes simply could not workmoreover the crew had already started filming at that time, and temporarily recruiting someone to join the crew was not realistic. After all, there were few martial arts stars in the circle. Either the image did not meet the requirements, or the aura did not meet the requirements, or the scheduling did not work, or the salary could not be agreed upon.

So in the end, director Rong had no choice but to use Xiong Zheng. At that time, Yu Mei and Xiong Zheng had hooked up as well so she wanted to break up with Gou Rixin. In addition, seeing that Gou Rixin would never stand up again in this life, she immediately packed up her luggage and went to Xiong Zheng without hesitation.

Because no one had insured Gou Rixin in the previous life, there was no incident of Yu Mei absconding with the money. And with the IQ of Gou Rixin and his brothers, they also couldn't have guessed that Xiong Zheng was responsible for this matter. After all, Xiong Zheng had carried out the scheme in a very concealed manner. By the time the "Fires of War" crew finished the post-editing and began to promote the film, it was almost a year since the incident. The disabled Gou Rixin had already followed his mother back to his hometown a long time ago, and his gang of brothers had broken up and scattered. Even if there were some suspicion, after that moment had passed, no one would pursue the matter any longer.

Only Da Lu could not swallow this down, running into the film crew where Xiong Zheng was filming, and beating Xiong Zheng up when he got off after a night scene, directly shattering Xiong Zheng's knee. Although he avenged his brother, Xiong Zheng also called the police and arrested him for this incident, and Da Luo had to spend more than three years in jail.

And Yu Mei, this woman, had long been dumped by Xiong Zheng. It could be said that everyone had no good ending in the previous life.

In this life, Xiong Zheng had calculated everything, but he had not calculated the variable that was Tao Mu. Not to mention the series of changes brought about by the rise of FlyNews. In the end, all his schemes and calculations fell short.

Back to Tao Mu's side, after learning that Xiong Zheng did indeed do something to the wire suit, in addition to the confession given by the props master, he concluded that Xiong Zheng must have been in contact with the wire suit. So he suggested to officer Yao to take the wire suit as evidence to extract fingerprints.

Because of the previous reports given by insurance companies and the conclusions given by people in the industry, no one doubted that there were any unnatural problems with the wire suit so they did not think to verify if the wire suit itself had any issuesafter all, Gou Rixins case had been defined as a civil case this whole time, ao it was not as if they could use the same means that would be used to investigate a criminal case.

As a result, all kinds of confessions obtained from various sources could now prove that Xiong Zheng had something to do with this matter. Officer Yao immediately reported to his superiors and took the wire suit to the forensic department for inspection.

Finally, Xiong Zheng's fingerprints were extracted at the link where the wire suit was loosened. Because Xiong Zheng's fingerprints were extracted during the test done on the fastening links of the wire suit, the report from the forensic department positively verified everyone's speculation. Xiong Zheng was indeed suspected of committing the crime.

From a civil case to a criminal case, officer Yao immediately applied for the arrest of Xiong Zheng. In the end, the police caught Xiong Zheng who was just about to escape from H Town at the train station.