Chapter 109: The Choice for the Male Lead

"I can come up with five million, but if I invest five million and you only give me thirty percent of the profits—the total investment for this movie shouldn't even reach ten million, right? Isn't this profit distribution a bit unreasonable?" Ren Man countered.

Xu Heng, however, said nonchalantly, "I wrote the script, so I am the core of this movie's production. Without your five million, there's someone else's five million, or my own five million, or I could take out a loan—a five-million-yuan loan. But without my script, even if you invested another five million, you wouldn't be able to film this movie. Isn't that the logic? Senior Ren Man."

Ren Man pondered for a moment and continued to ask, "Then what is your expected box office for this movie?"

"Three hundred million," Xu Heng gave a relatively conservative figure.

However, upon hearing this number, Ren Man's expression suddenly turned cold. She stood up and said coldly, "I still need to consider this matter."

"No problem, take all the time you need, Senior," Xu Heng smiled. "But my movie will start filming by the end of this year at the latest. If you miss this window, you won't have another chance to get involved once the movie starts making money later."

Hearing this, Ren Man picked up her bag and turned to leave without a word.

After she left, Jiang Mengyuan asked cautiously, "Senior, did your talk fall through?"

Xu Heng took a sip of his pearl milk tea and nodded calmly, "Yeah, it fell through."

It was clear that Ren Man did not believe his estimated box office.

Three hundred million?

What a joke. This year, Feng Xiaopao's *Assembly* was so popular, and it only barely reached 250 million at the box office; even that was already the ceiling for domestic box office.

Moreover, Feng Xiaopao was a veteran in the industry with seniority and connections. How could Xu Heng, a fresh-out-of-the-factory newbie, compare to him?

Three hundred million, ha. Ren Man estimated that no matter how well this movie was filmed, it would only make thirty million at most.

Spending her energy and time on a niche movie without much benefit, Ren Man would rather film a micro-movie for her graduation project.

The coal-boss senior was quite proud and arrogant; she felt insulted after just a few minutes of talking to Xu Heng and left in a huff.

Xu Heng didn't care; having one less investor didn't matter, and having one more wouldn't change much.

"Are you going to make a movie?"

"Yeah."

"Making a movie must cost a lot of money, right?"

Jiang Mengyuan's inherent impression of movies was that they burned money; just inviting a few stars to help out would cost several million.

Xu Heng was still a sophomore; in her view, he definitely couldn't come up with that much money to make a movie. That woman just now was probably an investor interested in Xu Heng's movie, so now that the investor had run off, didn't that mean Xu Heng couldn't make the movie?

She twisted her two fingers together in a tangle: "If you're short on money, Senior, I can ask my dad for some."

Xu Heng was stunned for a moment, then chuckled lightly: "We've only been dating for a few days, and you're already planning to sell out your dad? If we get married, wouldn't you have to transfer your entire family's assets to my account?"

"Mar... mar... marry! Senior, it's still too early to talk about... about marriage. My parents won't agree, at least not until after we graduate from college..."

Xu Heng tapped her little head speechlessly: "I meant that I don't need you to ask your dad for money. I have the money to make this movie. If I let my girlfriend give me money, wouldn't I be a kept man?"

"Oh~" Jiang Mengyuan pouted while holding her head.

What's wrong with being a kept man? Anyway, her dad only had her as a daughter, so the family assets would definitely have to be inherited by his son-in-law in the future.

She thought that after she married Xu Heng, her dad would surely slowly hand over the family assets for Xu Heng to manage, and then when they had a son in the future, the assets would be passed on to him to inherit. By then, the Old Jiang family's business would become the Old Xu family's business.

Jiang Mengyuan's thoughts drifted far away; she even went through what her and Xu Heng's children would be named in her mind.

Xu Heng didn't notice her expression, and even if he had, he probably wouldn't have guessed she was thinking of something so outrageous.

His focus was now on the follow-up processing for *Love is Not Blind*.

Since the investment talk with Ren Man for *Love is Not Blind* had fallen through, he would have to look for another director and film crew.

The production team for a movie was easy to find; general filming bases, like the ones in Hengdian, were everywhere.

The troublesome part was the movie's cast.

If the female lead was to be Liu Yiyan, who should be the male lead? Should he choose Wen Zhang?

That wasn't very realistic. *Struggle* had just been released this year, and Wen Zhang was at the peak of his popularity. Trying to get him at this time would definitely require a fee of at least a million, if not several million.

That would greatly increase the movie's cost.

Xu Heng didn't have much liquid capital on hand at the moment.

With *Three Kingdoms Kill* and *Ultraman Duel* being developed in parallel, both needed money. He could spare at most ten million for the *Love is Not Blind* project.

Spending one-fifth or even one-tenth of his budget on a popular young actor was not a rational move.

Xu Heng chatted with Jiang Mengyuan about this problem and asked her which male celebrity in the entertainment industry she liked.

"How about choosing Hu Ge?"

Jiang Mengyuan basically didn't watch TV; the only thing that had some impact on her was *Legend of Sword and Fairy 1*, which was a huge hit two years ago. Her classmates were all watching it, so she followed the trend and watched a few episodes.

Later, she fell into the *Legend of Sword and Fairy* trap and couldn't stop; she played the *Legend of Sword and Fairy 4* game three or four times during her summer vacation alone.

And in the *Legend of Sword and Fairy 1* TV series, the person who left the deepest impression on her was Hu Ge. Just as boys who watched *Legend of Sword and Fairy* couldn't forget Miss Liu, girls who watched *Legend of Sword and Fairy* also paid more attention to the handsome guys.

"Hu Ge..." Xu Heng rubbed his chin.

If he remembered correctly, Hu Ge had been in a car accident last year and almost died; his booming career had suffered a major blow because of it.

After making a comeback in June this year, he wouldn't be able to get any TV series roles for a long time to come.

It was thanks to the *Legend of Sword and Fairy* side giving him a hand and letting him star in *Legend of Sword and Fairy 3* that he returned to the public eye.

At this point in time, Hu Ge was still at a low point. If he asked him to film a movie, he should be very willing, and his fee wouldn't be too outrageous.

After all, for Hu Ge, who had just returned from the brink of death, his only thought was to be able to film more TV series, and since the status of movies was even higher than TV series, Hu Ge had no reason to refuse.

It was just that would it be too difficult for Hu Ge to play a sissy?

Xu Heng didn't dwell on this question for long, because Hu Ge himself had said in front of the media that he was someone who pursued breakthroughs in his screen image and was happy to challenge himself.

If what he said was true, then Hu Ge naturally wouldn't be resistant to "Wang Xiaojian," who was the complete opposite of the "Li Xiaoyao" image.

Thinking of this, Xu Heng basically settled on the male lead in his heart; all that remained was to go and discuss cooperation with Hu Ge's agent and the Tangren company.

But before that, he still needed to continue to increase the popularity of both himself and Liu Yiyan in the circle.