Zhou Xiaofeng's book, Fate: Zhang Yimou the Lonely. [Photo/China Daily]

As Zhou explains in the book, Zhang Weiping did not invest any of his own money in Keep Cool or any of the subsequent movies for which he was listed as the top executive producer. He essentially pocketed gains from the movies without any financial risk. The first－and only－movie he truly invested in, was 2011's Flowers of War, which brought their tension to the fore.

Zhang Weiping claimed to the public he invested 650 million yuan in the movie, but Zhou shows that only 128 million yuan went into the production of this "Rape of Nanking" epic, or no more than 200 million yuan if marketing expenses were included. By inflating the cost, Zhang Weiping could avoid paying dividends or even promised salaries, says the book.

Zhang Yimou fears dealing with strangers and he believes in the age-old honor system. As Zhou analyzes, he would naturally be attracted to the articulate and emotive Zhang Weiping, who, when drunk, would hug the director in tears and say things like "You're dearer than my blood brother!".

The book says that Zhang Weiping did not pay Zhang Yimou the fees for Hero (2002), The House of Flying Daggers (2004), Riding Alone For Thousands of Miles (2005), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) and A Simple Noodle Story (2009) until April 2010, totaling 11,536,400 yuan.

That means, the director's decadelong contribution to Zhang Weiping's company would average about just 1 million a year.

As a matter of fact, when the director was revealed to have almost no income for 2000, the year that would determine the financial penalty for having his first unregistered child, much of the country laughed it off as a joke.

Zhang Yimou's misplaced trust has tentacles of ramifications. Because Zhang Weiping was for a long time the only non-family member with knowledge of the director's secret, he offered to help obtain birth certificates for the unregistered children. After their split, it was found all three certificates were fake, writes Zhou.

Zhou says her book is just the tip of the iceberg because she doesn't want to force Zhang Weiping into a tight corner, but she has more "dynamite" locked up that would automatically explode in the producer's face if "something bad" were to happen to her.

Zhang Weiping, who hasn't produced any movies since he fell out with the director, issued a statement, saying Zhou's book is all "fabrication and lies for the sake of promoting it", and added he would take legal action.