Huayu: This director is pretty strong.

Chapter 174 The Bandit's Red Carpet: Harvey's Trump Card and Political Correctness

The following afternoon, the official red carpet ceremony for the main competition in Venice took place on the Lido Island.

The sunlight fell on the 200-meter-long red carpet, making it blindingly white.

Both sides were crowded with photographers and media from all over the world, the sound of shutters clicking incessantly, flashes constantly sweeping across the air, and the air filled with a metallic sheen.

The Hollywood film crew arrived first.

The male stars wore custom-made tuxedos, while the female stars trailed long skirts, flashing well-trained smiles at the camera.

The entire process is elegant and refined, but upon closer inspection, it reveals a rigid, assembly-line-like quality.

Chen Yan's nanny van was parked at the entrance to the red carpet.

The car door opened, and he got out first, wearing a well-tailored dark gray suit without any extra embellishments. Standing at the edge of the crowd, he exuded a calmness beyond his years.

He turned around and reached his hand into the car.

Lin Qingqiu took his hand and walked down.

She wore a minimalist black halter dress, no jewelry, and her hair was casually pulled back, revealing a section of her slender, fair neck.

She didn't deliberately put on an expression; her eyes and the corners of her mouth were very subtly closed. The emptiness that came from being hollowed out in the movie had already been reflected in her everyday expression.

In this dazzling arena of fame and fortune, she made all the sequins and diamonds around her seem to float in comparison.

Zhao Xiao was the last to get off the bus.

He was wearing a slightly oversized old suit, which Su Wan had temporarily found at a local secondhand store.

The tie was tied crookedly, and the edges of the shoes were worn white.

Standing at the edge of the red carpet, he first looked at the dense array of cameras in front of him, his fingers already reaching for the cigarette pack in his pocket.

"Don't smoke."

Chen Yan said in a low voice.

Zhao Xiao withdrew his hand and continued walking forward.

The three of them walked the red carpet side by side, and almost all the cameras that were originally chasing after Hollywood stars turned to them.

Last night, word-of-mouth for "Thunder" spread throughout the media circle, and everyone wanted to put this team from the East on the front page.

"Director Chen, over here!"

"Lin, look here!"

English and Italian mingled together, pouring in from both sides of the red carpet.

Zhao Xiao walked on the far right, his steps swaying from the old injury.

He was not used to being surrounded and scrutinized; his arms were stiff, and he felt as if he had been pushed onto a stage.

In order to get a good position, a tall French photographer put half of his body over the police line, and his lens was almost in front of Zhao Xiao's face.

Zhao Xiao stopped and turned to look, but said nothing.

Those eyes, which had roamed the mining industry and the underworld, fell upon the other person.

The photographer's hand holding the shutter trembled slightly, the lens slumped down, and he took a half step back.

The surrounding noise paused briefly, only to be quickly filled by another burst of camera shutters.

This untamed spirit stood out starkly amidst the polite formalities and rhetoric.

Chen Yan noticed, but didn't stop Zhao Xiao. He simply quickened his pace and led the two of them calmly to finish the rest of the journey.

At the end of the red carpet, Marc Muller was already standing on the steps waiting.

"Chen, you are definitely the stars tonight."

He hugged Chen Yan, his tone warm and just the right amount.

Following closely behind, the owners of several top European independent film production companies also gathered around.

"Mr. Chen, I am the distribution director of Gaumont Pictures. We are very interested in the European rights to 'Thunder'."

"Director Chen, have you considered a Sino-French co-production for your next film? Funding is not an issue."

Once the situation turns around, capital moves faster than anyone else.

Chen Yan handled the situation calmly, and casually pushed Su Wan forward, letting her take over the subsequent copyright negotiations.

After walking several dozen meters of red carpet, the positions had already changed.

At the same time, Harvey sat in front of the monitor in his hotel suite, watching Chen Yan surrounded by a crowd on the screen, and twitched the corner of his mouth to the side.

He picked up the landline on the table and dialed a number.

"Let's do it."

Five minutes later, the website of La Repubblica, Italy’s largest left-wing newspaper, removed the headline and replaced it with a 5,000-word in-depth investigative report.

The title is displayed in bold, blood-red font at the very top of the page.

A Golden Lion nominee from the East: A film starring real criminals, a moral decay at the Venice Film Festival?

The article thoroughly investigated Zhao Xiao's criminal record.

From his early years of illegally mining coal, to using explosives to destroy a rival's mine, to instructing his subordinates to cause serious injury and imprisonment, each charge was accompanied by a translated copy of the judgment from a local Chinese court.

At the end of the article, the author raises the bar, questioning whether those sitting in the screening room could still stand up and applaud such a performance. He then directly targets Chen Yan, accusing him of sending a thug to the highest stage of international cinema for the sake of art, and demanding that the Venice Organizing Committee give the public an explanation.

When this report reached Shuicheng, it immediately caused a stir.

Subsequently, more than ten mainstream European media outlets, including the French newspaper Le Monde and the British newspaper The Guardian, reprinted the article simultaneously.

Harvey's PR team was constantly pushing public opinion forward, and they also hired a large number of online trolls to post on major film forums, urging human rights organizations and women's rights groups to put pressure on the film festival organizing committee.

A moral manhunt specifically targeting Chen Yan's film crew has begun to tighten.

The next morning, at 6:30, the fog on Lido Island had not yet dissipated.

The door to Chen Yan's room was pushed open, and Su Wan rushed in, pale-faced, clutching a stack of newly printed Italian newspapers, without even bothering to put on her coat.

Something's happened.

She slammed the newspaper onto the bedside table, her voice trembling.

Chen Yan was already awake and was sitting in a single sofa drinking black coffee.

His gaze fell on the front page, where Zhao Xiao's enlarged photo in prison uniform was at the very top. The rim of his cup paused briefly at his lips.

"Harvey has made his move."

Su Wan quickly explained the situation.

"The entire European media is now condemning us. The area downstairs from the hotel has been blocked by protesters, and several extreme animal rights and human rights organizations have put up banners demanding that Thunder be disqualified from the competition."

She paused for a moment before continuing.

"Ten minutes ago, Marc Muller's assistant called. Two main sponsors threatened to withdraw their funding, and the organizing committee is holding an emergency meeting. They want you to come to headquarters at 10 a.m. to give a reasonable explanation, or they will treat it as a withdrawal from the competition."

Chen Yan put down his coffee cup, got up and walked to the window, pulling back the heavy blackout curtains.

The street below was filled with crowds and banners, and flashes of light danced in the fog, illuminating each face clearly.

"explain?"

He looked downstairs and said, "In the face of political correctness in Europe, any explanation will be seen as a cover-up."

"So what do we do?"

Su Wan bit her lip. "Should we hide Lao Zhao, or issue a statement saying we knew nothing about it?"

Chen Yan turned around and glanced at her.

"Ignorance is stupidity, knowledge is evil; both paths are blocked."

After he finished speaking, he picked up the encrypted satellite phone on the table. "Harvey thought that by holding Zhao Xiao's criminal record, he could stand on the moral high ground and suppress him, but he forgot that this is 2000, and I have memories of the future."

"Su Wan".

He walked to the table and handed her the phone.

"Contact Pierre and have him use all of Gaumont Film's connections in North America to find an independent journalist named Ronan Farrow. If they can't find Ronan, they should contact the editor-in-chief of the Hollywood investigation section at The New York Times."

Su Wan was taken aback.

"Why would you want to see an American journalist?"

Chen Yan shoved the phone into her hand.

"Harvey loves to play moral judgment, so let's expose all his cards. We'll feed them the list and clues about how he used auditions to sexually harass actresses, forced them to sign confidentiality agreements, and even used gangsters to threaten victims over the past ten years."

Su Wan's breath hitched for a second.

"Go and do it."

Chen Yan raised his hand to straighten his suit collar. "At 10 a.m., notify all the media. I will hold a press conference to answer all their questions about ethics in person. By the way, I'll also ask on behalf of Hollywood."