Has Big Shot Fallen in Love Today?

The next day, Gu Jiahui’s secretary booked the tickets.

This trip included Gu Jiahui, Sheng Tang, and Ke Fei, as well as Gu Jiahui’s secretary and Sheng Tang’s assistant, Ai’ai.

Everyone bought first-class tickets.

Sheng Tang sat next to Gu Jiahui and slept throughout the flight.

Gu Jiahui’s morning meeting was canceled at the last minute.

When the plane landed in Beijing, Zheng Weiwei’s assistant picked them up and arranged for them to stay at a hot spring resort hotel.

The celebration party was held at the hotel that evening.

Zheng Weiwei invited friends from the film industry as well as journalists from several well-known media outlets.

Sheng Tang brought her black cocktail dress.

This little dress was a recent purchase, and it was her first time wearing it.

As soon as she arrived at the hotel, Zheng Weiwei came to find her.

At that moment, Ke Fei and Gu Jiahui were both in Sheng Tang’s room.

"...You didn’t bring a makeup artist, did you?" Zheng Weiwei smiled and took her hand. "Take your dress and come over to my place to get ready."

Zheng Weiwei had booked a presidential suite and had her personal makeup artist.

Although she used this as an excuse, Gu Jiahui and Ke Fei both knew she had something to discuss privately with Sheng Tang.

Sheng Tang took out her cocktail dress and followed Zheng Weiwei.

The makeup artist hadn’t arrived yet, so Zheng Weiwei and Sheng Tang sat in the living room of the suite, chatting casually.

"...Did you know, when estimating the movie, I thought the box office share would at most be two billion. The market for female-oriented films is too small," Zheng Weiwei said.

Sheng Tang replied, "Sister Zheng, you’re too modest. You had films that surpassed eight billion in box office earnings a few years ago."

"That film was different; the subject matter was different from ’Who Fears Who in the Workplace,’" Zheng Weiwei laughed. "I didn’t just make a random guess; I had market analysts conduct research."

Sheng Tang smiled.

"If it only surpassed two billion, wouldn’t you be losing money?" Sheng Tang laughed. "I remember the investment for our film was 1.2 billion."

This 1.2 billion covered both the early shooting and subsequent promotional expenses.

Zheng Weiwei is great at marketing; it’s said she spent fifty million, almost blanketing the market.

But Zheng Weiwei laughed heartily.

"Not that much," she said quietly, then smoothly changed the subject.

Sheng Tang felt a tremor in her heart.

She understood Zheng Weiwei’s hint.

Movies in the early stages indeed had a role in money laundering. For example, publicly claiming an investment of two billion but only spending millions to legitimize the capital.

Now, regulations are stricter, and such blatant actions are unlikely. However, legal tax evasion must be considered.

How to legally evade taxes?

Simply inflate the costs a bit and underreport the profits.

Zheng Weiwei’s film recovered six million given to Feng Yanqiu; eight million in upfront payments to Wen Yu, two million each to Sheng Tang and William.

No matter how you calculate it, the early shooting cost wouldn’t reach seventy million; hence, the promotional expenditure, though true gold and silver were spent on ads, what was spent on variety shows and interviews, Zheng Weiwei wouldn’t detail publicly.

Thus, the financial accounts here cannot be plainly explained to Sheng Tang.

When she estimated the box office share to be two billion, she felt it would be immensely profitable.

Now the box office reached ten billion in the first week, and later would undoubtedly make up another ten billion. The total box office reaching twenty billion when it goes off-screen is highly expected.

Zheng Weiwei’s earnings from a single film would be astronomical.

No wonder Zheng Weiwei was so pleased.

Thinking of this, a glint appeared in Sheng Tang’s eyes.

Seeing Sheng Tang’s understanding, Zheng Weiwei smiled too: "I came looking for you not just for this talk; I have something to discuss with you."