After almost finishing the tour of the Wanlong Association’s headquarters, Zeng Jin couldn’t help but voice the question that had been on his mind to Cheng Gang.
“Brother Cheng, someone as capable as you—are there many like you in the Wanlong Association?”
He had long speculated that there were at most a hundred or eighty black-clad men at the top of the organization, but it was just a guess.
So he wanted to get a clearer picture.
Cheng Gang smiled a little awkwardly at the question. “Mr. Zeng, you flatter me. I’m nothing special, just an ordinary member in the company. There are plenty of brothers stronger than me.”
“Oh?”
Zeng Jin raised an eyebrow. “Plenty? How many exactly?”
Cheng Gang thought seriously for a moment. “Well… quite a few. I’m not exactly sure of the number, but definitely a lot.”
He truly didn’t know the exact count.
There were still large numbers of core members scattered in other regions, with branches, projects, and outposts spread out everywhere. Cheng Gang wasn’t in charge of personnel, so he only had a rough idea and could only answer vaguely.
But how many is “a lot”?
A hundred? Two hundred?
For a large organization, having over a hundred well-trained black-clad men was already terrifying.
That number alone would make them dominant across the entire province, arguably invincible anywhere. The heads of local gangs and factions were mostly street-level thugs, nowhere near the level of these professionally trained operatives.
No matter how many street thugs they had, they couldn’t match such high-caliber enforcers.
Yet, judging from the subtle expression on Cheng Gang’s face, the number might be even higher?
Could it be five hundred?
Impossible.
It wasn’t that Wanlong couldn’t afford to maintain five hundred black-clad men—it simply wasn’t necessary.
Zeng Jin shook his head, thinking he was overthinking it, and didn’t press further. Instead, he followed Cheng Gang up to the top floor—to Liu Yutong’s office.
By then, quite a few people had already gathered inside.
Lin Muyang, CEO of Longkan Vision, the prominent lawyer Zhao Tianyi, Yu Xin, Yun Cheng, Zhang Dalong, and even the singer Xue Qian were all present.
They were in the middle of discussing the joint crackdown by industry competitors on Longkan Vision.
“Director Liu, according to the plan drafted by Lawyer Zhao, we’ve completed the net closure.”
“The undercover tech personnel we planted in several competing platforms have been uploading large amounts of exclusive copyrighted film and TV content. Once these were put online on their platforms, the viewing numbers skyrocketed. Some top series even saw pirated views exceeding tens of millions.”
“Our legal department, after securing the evidence, sent out cease-and-desist letters demanding takedowns and compensation. We currently have over a hundred lawsuits underway, with total damages exceeding five hundred million yuan. And we’ve basically won all of them, applying for asset preservation and freezing part of their assets.”
“But they’ve been pushed to the brink.”
“Right now, Longkan Vision can’t obtain network broadcast rights for any mainstream variety shows. Whether it’s the established hit shows or the new weekend prime-time programs this year, we’re completely excluded. The variety section on our platform is suffering a severe shortage of content, and daily active users have dropped by nearly eight percent in the past week.”
“And that’s not even the worst part.”
“We started focusing on producing our own web dramas last year. A few have already wrapped filming and are awaiting review, and two more are in post-production. But suddenly, the censorship bureau blocked all our submissions. The official reason for rejection was that the content didn’t meet regulations.”
“But the same themes, the same level of explicitness, were passing reviews just fine not long ago. I made some inquiries and heard that several of the platforms’ major shareholders are connected to a few influential young masters in the capital. It seems they used their connections at the bureau to deliberately choke us…”
“…”
After Lin Muyang finished explaining, Xue Qian also shared the difficulties their side was facing.
“Besides what Lin told you, our media company is running into some trouble too.”
“Huang Guotai has officially sent a notice stating that none of our artists are allowed to participate in any self-produced variety shows anymore. Whether it’s the long-running classic ‘The Big Camp’ or the phenomenally popular new show ‘Upward’ launched just last year, our artists’ names have been completely removed from the lineup.”
“At first, it was only Huang Guotai. But then even Litchi and Blueberry, those satellite TV stations, followed suit. Although no official documents were issued, when our people tried to coordinate with them, all they got were vague evasions and endless delays until nothing came of it.”
“Now, in the entire company, not a single recognizable artist can get on any mainstream satellite TV variety show. It feels like we’ve been completely isolated from the industry, and it’s a huge problem.”
This era isn’t like the future. The popularity, national reach, and buzz-generating power of variety shows back then were on a whole other level—far beyond what later times could compare to. Especially for young artists, without exposure on variety shows, their careers would take a serious hit.
Only a handful of top-tier stars and big-name actors could afford to skip variety shows without suffering consequences. But that’s just a small minority.
“…”
After quietly listening to the challenges they were facing, Liu Yutong couldn’t help but think, “No wonder the entertainment industry is so murky.”
All because they refused to pay a few hundred million, they got so worked up they even dragged in connections from the capital—blocking reviews and blacklisting artists.
She picked up her teacup and took a sip.
But when you break down the problem, it wasn’t as complicated as Lin Muyang and Xue Qian made it sound.
There was only one core issue: the review channel for web dramas and related content had to be cleared.
They couldn’t let the bureau keep blocking them.
If the lifeline of self-produced content was strangled, video streaming sites would be left with only one option: buying copyrights. But many high-profile copyrights had long been cornered by a few leading platforms working together. If this kept up, these sites were heading for a dead end.
This knot had to be untied at its root.
As for Xue Qian’s side, their problem was the easiest to fix.
Not allowed to appear on variety shows?
Perfect.
She never liked squeezing around the same table with others anyway.
If they wouldn’t let her artists on those shows, then she’d just create a variety show even hotter than those old stalwarts.
When that time came, those TV stations would probably be begging her to send their artists over.
