Chapter 251: 《langya Bang》
Sheng Ning was taken aback and looked at the Kiwifruit senior executive who spoke, raising an eyebrow: “What does Manager Zhang mean by that?”
“Oh… don’t misunderstand, I just heard that your collaboration with him this time was quite pleasant.”
Manager Zhang quickly smiled and added: “The Film and Television Department has been fighting for the exclusive broadcasting rights to Ghost recently, right? If your relationship with him has really improved, you see…”
“I have nothing to do with him.”
Sheng Ning refused without thinking, her attitude neither cold nor warm: “Manager Zhang should try someone else.”
Everyone: “…”
The leading General Manager Gong frowned, smiled and smoothed things over: “Haha… no problem, no problem. Since Little Sheng isn’t familiar with Chi Ye, we’ll think of other ways… but we need to move fast. I heard Ku Ying got Shang Youshu, and the copyright competition for Ghost is indeed fierce.”
Everyone in the room fell silent upon hearing this.
The significance of Ghost representative is not just a modern idol drama, but Chi Ye’s first “sequel” after Xing Ni.
In other words, this is a project destined for success from the moment it was greenlit.
Of course, the definition of “success” varies for different people. For the three major platforms, making money equals success, which doesn’t mean the drama’s performance will definitely be a massive hit.
Even immortals can’t achieve that, so their only goal is to make money.
After this little interlude, the atmosphere in the meeting room was slightly awkward, but soon, as the discussion continued, this atmosphere gradually dissipated.
Sheng Ning sat in the corner, listening to the usually “high and mighty” Kiwifruit senior executives discussing how to “please” a male artist, and couldn’t help feeling a ridiculous sense of absurdity.
But in an instant, she realized something else.
You’re getting better and better…
At this rate, will you attend Screaming Night next year?
……
Back when Chi Ye was still a wannabe, he attended Screaming Night once. It was also because of that Screaming Night that his relationship with Jin Xia took a step further, and it was the first time he truly saw Sheng Ning in person offline after rebirth.
Afterward, events like Rise Screaming Night, Chicken Feet God of War’s rise to fame in one battle, Chi Ye’s back-glance divine photo, and more occurred.
But at that time, Kiwifruit’s attitude toward Chi Ye was very obvious: blatant targeting and hostility.
So… ever since Chi Ye’s Circulation aired and made some splash, he almost never attended Screaming Night again.
This year he received an invitation, but he didn’t even look at it and just tossed it to Keke to handle.
Similarly, Penguin’s Starlight Awards received the same “treatment”.
And before, neither Penguin nor Kiwifruit cared much about Chi Ye’s attitude—I’m such a big platform, the mainstream stage in internal entertainment circle, and you’re not willing to come? If not willing, then don’t come.
Remember, you’re begging us, not us begging you!
But as the saying goes, things change over thirty years. Chi Ye’s career development speed far exceeded everyone’s imagination. In less than a year, he leaped from “struggling in the second tier” to unrivaled top streamer, and then to male lead with solo nearly 2 billion box office.
Xing Ni exploded big, two movies exploded big, album exploded big…
Chi Ye’s star journey after leaving Yue Na became so smooth that it left everyone dumbfounded. Now many in the industry are privately inquiring whether Chi Ye consulted a master.
Otherwise, why does he have this “career luck”?
Penguin is one of them.
“Are we sure we want to ‘reconcile’ with Chi Ye? I don’t care about Yue Na, but mainly Xiao Zhan is our own promoted artist. Reconciling with him won’t make him one of our Penguin system people.”
The person in charge of Penguin Video’s Content Department smoked a cigarette, furrowed his brows, and lectured the colleague who said the above: “You still don’t get it.”
“We are first and foremost a company, and a company needs performance and to make money. Now Chi Ye can help us make money, so why not cooperate with him?”
“The main issue now is that Ku Ying and Kiwifruit are fighting over Ghost’s exclusive broadcasting rights… We had conflicts with Chi Ye before, so our chances aren’t great.”
“Hmm…”
The colleague thought for a moment before saying: “Actually, it’s not really a conflict, right? To be precise, Chi Ye was also our promoted artist before… right?”
Toward the end, he uncertainly looked at the person in charge.
Person in Charge: “…If you put it that way, I won’t argue with you.”
Chi Ye was previously a newcomer heavily promoted by Rise, famously the imperial clan in the industry. Though not yet at the level of Penguin’s crown prince, getting three Penguin ancient idol dramas in a year… that level of resources would make anyone’s mouth water.
Unfortunately, the old Chi Ye is history. If everything had developed normally, they wouldn’t have noticed Chi Ye, and he certainly wouldn’t have his current performance.
“…Have you sent him those notebooks? Has he replied?”
“Not yet… I feel like he’s not very interested in these scripts.”
The person in charge gave a sideways glance: “You didn’t send some junk to fool him again, did you?”
“Of course not.” The colleague hurriedly said: “This time we’re sincere, gave him lots of big pies with top investments, let him pick… isn’t that enough?”
“…Any costume dramas?”
The person in charge suddenly asked.
The colleague was stunned: “You…”
“Everyone else is eyeing Ghost, but I think Chi Ye is the key… Since he became popular, he hasn’t done a single ancient idol drama. Get a few high-quality scripts, offer him better treatment, and I think there’s a chance he’ll agree.”
The person in charge made a sharp decision.
The colleague opened his mouth, wanted to speak, but felt the person in charge was right, and sank into thought: “Chi Ye is the key… yeah, that’s true.”
……
“What? You mean I can write whatever, and they’ll invest?”
Two days later.
Chi Ye received the Golden Eagle Festival invitation announcement for the second time. After just finishing a phone call with Teacher He, he got the message brought by Keke.
—Kiwifruit said that as long as it’s a TV series script he writes, Kiwifruit will invest, and provide whatever resources he wants, but didn’t mention a word about Ghost exclusive broadcasting rights.
What does this mean?
Chi Ye was surprised and a bit suspicious.
“What else could it mean? Smart people.”
Keke’s little face wore a smile. Recently, she felt her career had reached a peak.
Girl’s big explosion not only represented Chi Ye successfully entering the film circle, but also Chi Ye “breaking the ice” with the outside world.
—At least in the drama circle, at this point, he seemed to finally get the treatment an unrivaled top streamer deserves.
No, this is higher treatment than “previous” unrivaled top streamers.
Because he has enough autonomy, even able to bargain with the capital behind the three major platforms.
—Who would dare imagine!
Two years ago, she was an unknown little assistant, but in just two short years, she completed a triple jump… um cough cough, she doesn’t have the surname Gao, but her status in the industry now is very “high”.
“What about Penguin and Ku Ying?”
Chi Ye didn’t notice Keke’s emotional fluctuation and turned to ask about the other two major platforms.
“Penguin didn’t say they’d invest in your scripts, but the projects they offered are of good quality… all resources that other young actors fight over desperately. And… they did this without communicating with Yue Na. I heard they argued several times.”
“Oh, Yue Na still wants to bite the master?”
Chi Ye is always ” merciless in words” toward Yue Na, as venomous as it gets.
However, Penguin Video now having a falling out with Yue Na over him finally made him feel his “growth” for the first time.
Hmm… not bad. If one day he can make Yue Na shut down with one sentence, that would be even better…
“What about Ku Ying?”
“Ku Ying has no reaction.”
“Oh, then no reaction it is.”
Chi Ye didn’t pay much attention to Ku Ying’s “little temper”. He picked a few notebooks from his mailbox and gestured to Keke: “What do you think, should I take them?”
“Hmm…”
Keke glanced at the names of these scripts. She’s usually very busy, but no matter how busy, as long as it’s something Chi Ye assigns, she’ll handle it personally one by one.
For example—picking scripts.
These current scripts were basically pre-screened by her for Chi Ye, so she knew the general genres and plots.
“Chi Ge, are you going to do a costume drama?”
Chi Ye paused, then nodded: “Time to break through. Sticking to modern outfits all the time, the audience will get tired of it.”
“…If you’re taking an ancient idol drama… yeah, no problem. If you don’t take one in these few years, in a couple more years, it’ll feel like no chance to shoot anymore.”
“What do you mean?”
Chi Ye gave a sideways glance.
Keke: “I mean, Chi Ge, in a few more years you’ll be an international superstar, probably won’t do TV series anymore.”
“Good talk, penalty: eat ten pounds of blue cheese.”
Keke: “…”
“By the way, this blue cheese is really hard to eat. I truly can’t bring myself to eat it.”
Chi Ye shook his head. The team had actually prepared blue cheese for him.
But perhaps because of the “guidance” from Empress Dowager before, plus that pungent smell, he gritted his teeth and tried a few times, found it really hard to swallow, and finally gave up decisively.
What a pity this opportunity, couldn’t make Pliers suffer.
“Chi Ge, for ancient idol dramas, there are a few good quality ones. Looking at cast lineup and investment… all big IP adaptations. Should I reply?”
Keke had already picked out a few desired targets and looked at Chi Ye.
Chi Ye didn’t speak, but looked at her too.
Keke was stunned. She should be the one who truly understands Chi Ye the most now, so seeing this expression, she instantly realized something: “Chi Ge, you… want to write it yourself?”
“Yeah.” Chi Ye nodded: “Was a bit directionless at first, but Kiwifruit said they’d provide resources no matter what script… so I think I’ll write a few for fun.”
Write a few, for fun?
If it were another actor saying this, Keke would scoff, but if it’s Chi Ge…
“Communicate with Kiwifruit people. I’ll check my schedule and give them a message.”
Chi Ye made his decision.
For cooperation to last long, both sides need to have a clear sense of each other’s position. Since Ku Ying is a bit unreliable now, he naturally won’t put all his eggs in one basket.
As for the so-called investments from Kiwifruit and Penguin, he actually doesn’t think much of them… though he doesn’t have as much money as the two platforms now, not even in the same league, his own small coffers are quite full, and his projects, especially TV series, aren’t short of investment.
What he cares about are the platforms’ other resources, like profit shares, marketing expense reimbursements, and broadcast schedules, etc.
Kiwifruit, as the only profitable platform among the three major platforms with the highest quality members, actually has a bigger stage than Ku Ying.
Hmm, borrowing Big Shot and Magic City Fortress’s words, Xing Ni previously lifted Ku Ying to a height it didn’t deserve.
Just don’t know if others realize this.
……
Ku Ying didn’t realize.
After learning that Chi Ye Studio hadn’t responded to their Ghost exclusive broadcasting rights issue for a long time, they got very angry, followed up several times, and then… then they got the news that Chi Ye is writing his own script, with Kiwifruit investing.
“What does Chi Ye mean by this?!”
Ku Ying’s newly appointed president frowned: “Did he forget who helped him back then?!”
The person in charge below, who had deep contact with Chi Ye before and had a good personal relationship, hesitated to speak.
In the end, still didn’t say anything.
Ku Ying Platform differs from Kiwifruit and Penguin. Kiwifruit and Penguin rarely “change leaders”, but Ku Ying Platform, having been incorporated into the Alibaba system, and Alibaba being the “I invested in you, you’re mine” style.
So, over time, it created the current work-clock-punching, just muddle along and get by atmosphere.
For example, Ku Ying. Before Alibaba investment, their drive and momentum were top-notch, but after finding the sponsor, they suddenly found that no matter how they did, as long as surface data looked good, someone had their back.
No money? No problem, big entertainment layout, someone gives money.
Losses? No problem, as long as user acquisition data looks good, next year’s funds arrive as usual.
Ku Ying’s internal personnel changes are extremely frequent.
Leadership changes don’t happen in the other two major platforms within five years, but at Ku Ying, almost one a year.
This year, they changed to a new handsome, and this new leader’s style is very tough. He wants to get Ghost’s exclusive broadcasting rights, but now it seems the situation isn’t great.
“Didn’t you have contact with Chi Ye before? Go talk to him, tell him we’re his ‘own people’. Isn’t this a bit too heartless?”
The new leader was getting anxious now. Chi Ye Studio not replying to him, and news of cooperation with Kiwifruit… if they lose Ghost, his newly appointed achievements would be a stain.
The person in charge, facing the new boss’s order, could only nod no matter how much it grated inside, but still gave a heads-up: “Hmm… Manager Wang, you’ve heard about Chi Ye’s personality. I think we shouldn’t act too superior…”
“Am I acting superior or is he? He’s just an artist acting all high and mighty, and I still have to smile at him?”
The new leader was very dissatisfied with the person in charge’s attitude and waved his hand: “Isn’t Golden Eagle about to start? You go this time, explain the stakes to him. One must not forget one’s roots.”
Person in Charge: “…Got it, I understand.”
“Right, remember to talk about his new project… is it a costume drama? What’s it called?”
“…Langya Bang.”
