Zhang Weijian was quite confused.

He didn't know why, all of a sudden, there was a lot of noise online demanding justice for him.

They were saying things like, why is it that he got blacklisted for the same act of hitting someone, while Xie Tingfeng is "getting away scot-free".

Is it just because Zhang Weijian doesn't have a godmother named Wong Ming Chuen, a godfather named Zeng Zhiwei, or a real father named Xie Xian...

Zhang Weijian didn't know whether he should step up and clarify.

On one hand, he wasn't exactly "blacklisted"; it's just that he couldn't make it on the mainland. His big northern expansion plan—being in projects like "Xiao Yu'Er and Hua Wuque" and "Number One in the World"—had been cut short.

But actually, he still took on quite a few roles.

Especially in 2008, he was in several productions in a single year.

There just wasn't a place for him on the mainland. The Xiangjiang entertainment circle itself wasn't doing well, so he fell to the point of revealing his past marriage negotiations with Vivian Chow to keep his popularity.

On the other hand, he had a very good relationship with Xie Tingfeng.

Otherwise, they wouldn't have hit someone together, right?

In fact, Zhang Weijian's godmother is Deborah, who is Xie Tingfeng's biological mother.

However, Zhang Weijian had to explain to Xie Tingfeng that this press release wasn't bought by him, and he had no dissatisfaction with Xie Tingfeng having a lot of resources.

Xie Tingfeng was also willing to believe him.

After all, with incidents of beating someone, taking the fall in court cases... now multiple scandals about him were emerging, clearly someone wanted to take him down hard.

Even if Zhang Weijian was dissatisfied, he wouldn't go to such extremes.

Xie Tingfeng also didn't suspect Zhang Baizhi.

They had already reached a divorce agreement. He made quite a few concessions, leaving both kids to the other side.

Zhang Baizhi wanted the two kids not because of her kindness.

For her, these kids were a continuous source of money.

Moreover, Xie Tingfeng didn't think Zhang Baizhi was behind his troubles, because Zhang Baizhi was having an even harder time than he was now.

Drug use, promiscuity, infidelity, pathological lying, speaking without thinking, making bewildering statements on programs, being a diva, creating personas...

Like not sleeping for three months straight to film.

Then not eating or drinking and sleeping for 16 days straight afterward.

Men are just machines for making babies, and who the baby daddy is doesn't matter.

In one show, she presented as a vegetarian, but in another, she ate meat with gusto on camera.

She played the victim during the divorce, while actually, she owned five luxury homes in Xiangjiang where land is extremely precious...

And had a garage full of millions-worth of luxury cars.

At first, Zhang Baizhi suspected that Xie Tingfeng was stirring up trouble, but they quickly realized Xie Tingfeng was blown up too.

The most effective way to clear suspicions was to suffer together.

Both of them had a lot of scandals.

The big deal was that back in the days, the Xiangjiang entertainment circle naturally had a high-class aura; good and bad were blindly adored by mainland fans.

And then, it was mostly print media, not like how fast online media spread now.

Now, Xiangjiang's entertainment scene was in decline.

People like Wong Ming Chuen, Xie Xian, and Yang Shoucheng, when brought to the mainland, might not be known by anyone.

Zhang Baizhi's godmother Hong Tai had already broken ties with her long ago.

They couldn't even defend or counter the backlash because much of the evidence was traceable.

After all, back then, the moral bottom line in the Xiangjiang entertainment circle wasn't that high, drug use, cheating, and nightclubs were the norm.

These actions were considered signs of having personality and could even help them attract fans.

However, when put into Inner Entertainment, it's unequivocally black history.

Nobody knew what cards the other side had left to play.

The safest PR strategy was to give it the cold shoulder, commonly known as paying to suppress the trending, letting it fade as much as possible from public view.

After Xie Tingfeng and Zhang Baizhi left, the intensity of the scandal increased.

However, this rise had its limits.

Because not many people were following the matter itself, and it was almost going against local authorities.

Basically, it stayed within bound limits.

The thing that made public opinion reach its peak was insider information from the movie industry, saying Mrs. Hua planned to make a film out of this scandal.

Make it a... film...

Qi Hao was stunned for dozens of seconds upon hearing this, then realized it was the work of Zhanqi Laiden.

This guy's methods were always puzzling.

Sometimes they were even incomprehensible.

For example, this gravestone smashing incident, even if it was wrong, it was done by local officials, and even if addressed, it shouldn't be handled outside the law.

Making it into a movie before the issue was resolved... for a moment, you couldn't tell whose face was being slapped.

Anybody with a bit of wisdom like Zheng Zhi's wouldn't make such a fundamental error.

Mrs. Hua's side would also hardly err.

So, when this news broke, it left people bewildered.

But the key point is, Mrs. Hua's side couldn't easily refute it publicly; now online sentiment was outrageously excited, when hearing Mrs. Hua was going to make such a movie, it drew in praise, even making the stock price rise for several days.

If they refuted it, the stock price would crash again for several days.

Watching like a mute eating bitter herbs, unable to speak out.

The Wang Brothers could only brace themselves to meet with relevant departments for tea, clarifying Mrs. Hua absolutely didn't plan to make this incident into a movie, and the public hype about the gravestone smashing wasn't driven by her.

To avoid suspicion, Zhanqi Laiden didn't let his own people off the hook either, and quite a few "industry insiders" suggested that Zhonghao Entertainment seemed interested in making films, and they might have even started studying scripts already.

And because it reached the stage of discussing whether to shoot a film, the investigation moved forward quickly and was soon properly resolved.

Local authorities used excavators and other equipment to demolish the monument and closed the Friendly Garden, attracting a massive crowd of onlookers from all around who witnessed the event.

There was another interesting aspect.

The out-of-town internet users who came to witness didn't linger locally, adhering to the principle of resolutely not eating or drinking anything local, and after paying respects at the dilapidated anti-Japanese Lishi Cemetery, most left the same day.

So, the matter was pretty much settled.

In fact, Zhanqi Laiden's group was not the main force in this event.

They didn't even issue any press releases.

Not leaving any leverage for criticism.

The main actors were still some social figures and Lishi descendants...

Zhanqi Laiden and his team at most presented more information, ensuring it wouldn't get drowned in the sea of the internet, preventing everyone from being misled by the locals' excuses.

Then, they presented some summaries to educate everyone on how these foreign-worshipping dogs usually package and convey their opinions.

Like the national studies master Yu Dan who vouched for Yi Lin.

This person, praised fervently as the seventy-fifth descendant of Confucius and called the "female Confucius" by Neon citizens, was actually an empty-headed fool full of mistakes.

In her interpretation, "The Analects" was entirely filled with chicken-soup-for-the-soul logic, a type of self-indulgent strong-arm of public sentiment.

Yu Dan immediately screamed to sue the netizens.

Qi Hao couldn't help but admire Zhanqi Laiden's fighting spirit.

He couldn't just let these people work for nothing.

So he approved another sum of money.

Although what these people were doing wasn't for him, he had plenty of cash anyway.

Even Sina was envious of the money he had.

Mr. Cao gave him an antique painting when he got married, reportedly worth millions.

Hoping Qi Hao would fund Weibo.

Since Weibo was launched, Sina's stock price hadn't fallen much, but its cash flow wasn't very strong.

Plus, Weibo and Sina operated independently.

So they couldn't perpetually have the already cash-strapped Sina subsidize Weibo.

Despite Weibo's current dominance, its position isn't very stable.

Last year was the 3Q War, a "celebrity product" clash between Penguin and 360.

This year kicked off with the Weibo Battle.

First was Weibo's New Year's Greetings.

In 2011, all major Weibos displayed a festive and cheerful atmosphere of bidding farewell to the old and welcoming the new.

Behind Weibo's New Year's Greetings was the rivalry among the four major portal websites.

Sohu Weibo not only had New Year's greetings but also launched a Weibo matchmaking service.

Penguin Weibo capitalized on the Spring Festival Gala, collaborating with CCTV and Capital TV.

NetEase Weibo's New Year's event was called Weibo Book Compilation, inviting users to summarize 2010 and then selecting some to be included in a book they were about to publish.

Then, there were various efforts to attract celebrities to post on their Weibo.

Sharing life and work.

Aside from the big four, numerous smaller ones also emerged rapidly.

MySpace Ju You Wang focused on "Happy Girls," launching an independently operated Weibo platform 9911, attracting many musicians and fans, and gaining fame for a time.

Despite their various tactics, it's essentially summed up in one word: "burning money"!

Burning money, but not making money!

The fervor of Weibo, aside from gathering a large audience for websites, has yet to develop a mature profit model, which remains an essential issue for Weibo's future development.

As for the future...it remains speculative.

Before they can attract venture capital, what they need most is to rely on their abilities to continue surviving.

Penguin is the most comfortable; they have plenty of cash.

NetEase is also quite strong, with Ding Lei being a leading figure in the Chinese IT industry, a top-level Internet veteran.

Most anxious are Zhao Chaoyang and Mr. Cao.

Zhao Chaoyang is a veteran.

Back in 1999, Sohu was recruiting a COO, and after several rounds of interviews, there were only two candidates left, one of whom was Jack Ma, but Zhang Chaoyang chose the other candidate.

The rejected Jack Ma later founded Ali.

The one who was chosen was Gu Yongqiang, who later left Sohu to start Youku.

Mr. Cao is even half a head shorter than Zhang Chaoyang.

However, he has close ties with Donghao Venture Capital, whose boss, Qi Hao, is a celebrity and was early on brought aboard by Sina Weibo.

Now, investing in Sina Weibo through Qi Hao is very convenient.

"Your demand is too large, with a funding gap of several billion US dollars, I can't fill that."

Currently, a lot of Qi Hao's investments go through banks.

Debt is a normal part of business operations, even considered a healthy state.

However, he's not in real estate, and letting him owe banks tens or even hundreds of billions, he really doesn't have that kind of ambition.

The main thing is, Tongzi hasn't given the word.

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