Chapter 440: Engagement

Tencent's Weibo had simply come too late. Before its arrival, Xingchen's Weibo had already had a swift accumulation of its user base through the popularity of those VIPs and celebrities. As a result, it would be difficult to overthrow it with everyone now having already adjusted to it.

You want those VIPs with several million fans to shift over? Impossible. There's too much at stake for them here.

You want the exact same content that already appeared on Xingchen Weibo to appear on a completely empty Tencent Weibo? Even more impossible. Content is the most difficult thing to accumulate. This was why in his previous life, however mighty Tencent was, it had still not been able to defeat Douban, to defeat Baidu Knows. These entities possessed content that had been accumulated over many years.

In much the same way, it was presently just as unable to shake the position of Xingchen Weibo.

In terms of its user base, Weixin would profit no matter what when before it had been zero. As Xingchen also had no intention whatsoever of entering a bitter and protracted battle of life and death with QQ in going all out at this juncture, Xu Tingsheng was not at all anxious about this.

He explained his thoughts to Hu Chen, telling him that Xingchen had no need to respond to Tencent's counterattack in any way.

"Some celebrities just opened accounts there," Hu Chen called again half an a hour later, "Do we intensify this or deescalate?"

Intensifying referred to specifically targeting the enemy. All the celebrities who had opened accounts on Tencent would have their accounts on Xingchen terminated at once. While this would lead to much censure and even lawsuits, it would definitely be effective. Those people would definitely be unwilling to let go of their millions of fans, for all this had to be accumulated over the long term as well. It was not like if they moved to another site, their fans would all move over with them.

Presently, with Weibo having appeared prematurely and the importance of maintaining internet popularity correspondingly having arisen early on, they would naturally have to weigh the potential consequences of doing so.

Deescalating referred to sitting back, doing nothing and simply observing the situation.

Xu Tingsheng recalled the situation in his previous life. It seemed that the same kind of thing had happened then. He said, "Let's just wait and see. They will come back on their own. Also, we should keep from overly antagonising Tencent for the time being. Right now, the longer this drags on, the better it is for us."

……

One week, the first week of the year 2006.

<Endless> had earnt 22 million at the box office, surpassing <Crazy Stone> with a lead of 3 million. In this first week, the victory had gone to <Endless>, to Tianle and Jin Datang. Still, virtually everyone was well aware that it would not be long before Jin Datang had to polish the shoes of Huang Yaming.

<Endless> was on a downward trend at the box office, plummeting alongside its wretched, terrible reputation. As for <Crazy Stone>, it was continuing to rise day by day despite the New Year holiday having passed. Now, perhaps the only thing that could restrict this movie which had forged a miracle despite its low cost of production might be the total number of screenings.

The cinemas were already working to improve this as a major change was in the works. The following week, it would be very likely for <Crazy Stone> to come up tops over <Endless> in terms of the total number of screenings.

Some began yelling the slogan of <Crazy Stone> surpassing a hundred million in the box office. One must know that this was not an era in which box office records gushed out like a spring. Such would only come in a decade or so. For this movie which had cost a mere four million to produce to achieve a hundred million in the box office would be nothing short of a miracle in this day and age.

Meanwhile, Jin Datang had ceased further comment on Weibo. He could already care less about that bet and having to polish someone else's shoes. For him, this war was already a matter of life and death. With 60 million having been invested into <Endless>, they needed at least 250 million in the box office to break even…

Right now, this figure was in the midst of gradually drifting away from him.

Movies were usually screened for 20 to 35 days. Most of the time, those which were not all that remarkable would have more than half of their income entering in the first week. Moreover, this batch of movies had been screened for the first time during the New Year period.

In contrast to Jin Datang's silence, Huang Yaming and the main team of <Crazy Stone> began frequently appearing on various media channels. Even as the cast gained popularity, as an extremely young, bold, interesting and discerning producer, Huang Yaming's fame was really not any inferior to theirs at all.

He was the favoured child of the media, the new royalty of the movie industry.

As more and more women paid attention to him, his former philandering ways also came to the attention of more and more people. Yet, when Huang Yaming could now finally look forward to having young female artistes crawl into his bed…it was like he had suddenly become celibate.

Because of the queen-level Ye Qing, the philandering Tan Yao had changed his ways.

Formerly a philanderer too, Huang Yaming had changed. Who could it be for?

"Of course it's because of you," Huang Yaming naturally said in response to Tan Qingling's query.

It was because of this very woman that the former devoted youth had turned philanderer. Yet, it was also because of her now that he was renouncing those ways?

In a moved yet sorrowful, troubled tone, Tan Qingling said, "Thank you. It's just, do you know? Actually, the more successful you become, the more I come to lack confidence in myself. I feel insecure everyday, with no sense of security…I can't fall asleep everyday for fear that you might leave me at any time."

In saying all this, Tan Qingling seemed not to consciously realise at all that the one who had previously left all of a sudden and inflicted grievous harm had been naught but she herself.

"What would you like me to do then?" Huang Yaming asked.

"You, don't you have any suggestions?"

"I'll listen to yours."

"Okay, alright then. I'd like, I'd like…how about we get married? Would you be willing? I'm afraid of missing out again. I want to be with you forever. Two people holding hands from senior high till the end of our days-what a beautiful story, isn't it?" Tan Qingling asked softly in a perfectly calibrated shy yet anticipatory voice, sounding like she had only managed to muster up her courage with much difficulty.

Once, after their university entrance examinations when the two had been closest, thinking that this meant forever, Huang Yaming had actually really naively asked that Tan Qingling bring him to her house to meet her parents. He had also mentally prepared to meet them in that capacity.

At the time, Tan Qingling had only found this laughable.

Now, however, it was her who was bringing this up, the matter of their engagement. Perhaps the next step would be marriage. In her eyes, besides still being head over heels to the point of infatuation with her, the current Huang Yaming was already not much related at all to his previously ordinary self.

The current Huang Yaming was already more or less amongst the ranks of high society as he was steadily walking the path of a tycoon.

Tan Qingling had witnessed all this with her own eyes, and she yearned for it all. She looked forward to being called Lady Boss at Bright Brilliance, looked forward to appearing alongside Huang Yaming at parties, at film festivals, on the red carpet…

And perhaps there would be even more.

This satisfied her both her material and vainglorious sides to a very high degree. It was something the minor boss who owned a BMW could never give her no matter what.

Actually, that BMW had already come to amount to pretty much nothing in Tan Qingling's eyes over the past two years. This was also why she had so resolutely come back to look for Huang Yaming.

She wanted to capture this man, being very confident of doing so too. She had seen him hiding in a corner before, dazedly watching as she got off from someone else's car. He had been so infatuated it was laughable.

Therefore, however successful this man became, however much he changed, he would still be utterly within the grasp of her, Tan Qingling.

"You know, we're both still in university," Huang Yaming sounded quite taken aback.

"Oh, you're unwilling…it's okay," Tan Qingling said, sounding like she was forcibly repressing her tears.

"No, don't be like this," Huang Yaming considered it, "How about, give me time to think about it?"

"…Alright," Tan Qingling said gently, "Yaming, I'll wait right here, for you to marry me."