Chapter 111: The Senior is Wealthy and Generous

300 million... If she could truly reach this goal, she would become the first female director in the country to break 100 million in box office revenue.

Perhaps even the annual domestic box office champion, surpassing Transformers.

Ren Man was born in Suzhou Shi, Jin Sheng. Her father was a villager in his early years, possessing nothing but brute strength, but when the era of reform and opening up arrived, the young father caught the wave and became a worker at a state-owned coal mine.

At that time, her father was unwilling to spend his whole life being mediocre at the coal mine, so he racked his brains to make money.

Later, relying on the then-illegal practice of speculation, he purchased coal from the mine at a low price and resold it at a high price to factories in developing cities, earning enough capital.

Later still, he used this money to contract a small coal mine in Suzhou Shi. As time passed, the coal mine business grew better and better, and he gradually became a well-known local coal tycoon.

Yet, as the daughter of a coal boss, Ren Man had ambitions completely different from her old father.

She did not want to inherit the massive coal mine at home.

Her greatest dream was to become a director as famous both domestically and abroad as Li An.

Regarding this, her coal boss father did not say much; on the contrary, he was very supportive of his daughter's dream.

The coal boss father felt that his generation had all grown up in the countryside, having only money but no culture. Since the family had finally produced a college student, he had to let his child see the world and pursue the more trendy industries of today's society.

Moreover, the coal business would not last long. Over the past twenty-plus years, the coal boss father had gradually discovered the increasingly sluggish coal market.

But he was old and lacked the energy to continue struggling in big cities; he figured his life would likely stop at the coal industry, so he was very supportive of his daughter's desire to transform the family's industrial structure and earn money in other emerging industries.

When Ren Man was a junior, her father helped her open a personal entertainment company in Modu and gave her a significant amount of capital to develop the company.

Over the past year or so, Ren Man had invested in many movies and TV dramas, but unfortunately, most of them lost money, flopped, and yielded nothing.

If things continued this way, not to mention whether the company could make money, Ren Man's own confidence would be completely exhausted.

However, it was such a coincidence that she met Liu Yiyan at this time.

When Liu Yiyan's "The Wind Rises" became a hit across the country, Ren Man had heard her name, but she did not know they were students at the same school.

It was only when a tabloid reporter exposed Liu Yiyan's school one day that Ren Man learned this popular new star was a junior two years below her.

Liu Yiyan was a talent worth molding; Ren Man had never doubted her own judgment.

Thus, she found Liu Yiyan, wanting to sign her to her company.

After all, if one couldn't make it in the film and television circle, one could start from the music circle; the music circle was considered the most basic and simplest entry point into the entertainment industry.

The typical routine was: singing—becoming a hit—starring in an idol drama—becoming a bigger hit—starring in a low-budget movie—increasing popularity—starring in a high-budget movie, with the billing changing constantly according to the level of fame.

If one could successfully cultivate a hit artist from one's own company, it could lay a foundation for a movie's box office.

Ren Man felt that Liu Yiyan was that artist who could become a hit.

But what Ren Man did not expect was that Liu Yiyan refused her invitation, even under the premise that the conditions she offered were relatively loose and superior.

Ren Man was very puzzled, but Liu Yiyan patiently explained to her that her songs were all written with the help of her friends, and her friend was also preparing to open an entertainment company, so she would definitely sign with her friend's company when the time came.

Hearing this, Ren Man felt both emotional and disappointed.

She discovered that the business world was really not as easy to navigate as her father said. Her own business acumen was not bad, but every opportunity she set her sights on was snatched away by others in advance.

No one who could survive in the capital circle was simple.

At the time, after Ren Man learned that Liu Yiyan could not sign with their company, she prepared to leave.

But Liu Yiyan called her back, told Ren Man about her friend's plan to shoot a movie, and said that her friend's movie lacked a director. Since the senior was from the directing department, she must have some understanding of this aspect, so she wanted her to help recommend someone.

A movie?

Ren Man frowned and asked her what type of movie it was and if she could show her the script.

At this time, Liu Yiyan had no ulterior motives and never thought about the problem of the other party copying the script after reading it; she very naively took out the script for "Love is Not Blind" and showed it to Ren Man.

Love is Not Blind.

A very strange name.

One couldn't tell what story the movie wanted to tell from the title at all; it seemed to be related to men and women breaking up.

Ren Man browsed through the script with curiosity, and after finishing it, her expression was pensive.

At this moment, her mood could only be described in one sentence.

A pleasant surprise!

All that effort was not in vain!

A new vista of hope!

"I want to buy this movie script. Junior Liu, can you help me convey my thoughts to your friend?"

Liu Yiyan couldn't make up her mind about such things; first, she personally didn't really want Xu Heng to sell this script, and second, she was not the creator of the script.

That was why the subsequent events happened.

Liu Yiyan told Xu Heng about Ren Man's thoughts, and after learning about it, Xu Heng asked her to pass a message back, for Ren Man to come to Jinling to meet with Xu Heng in person, and so on.

And the most important driving factor among them was still Xu Heng's fame.

Yes, Xu Heng's speed of becoming famous was too fast; in just one week, the original song he wrote had already become a hit in every street and alley.

One could hear "Decent" in almost every clothing store on every pedestrian street.

Plus, Xu Heng had also created "The Wind Rises" back then and had recently written a new song for Liu Yiyan.

It was hard not to believe that such a talented and capable person would become even more popular in the future.

Thus, Ren Man found Xu Heng for the second time and agreed to look at his extremely unequal contract.

Actually, from Xu Heng's perspective, his contract was not unequal at all.

If "Love is Not Blind" were filmed and promoted normally, the box office floor would be 300 million; getting a 30% share would be 90 million, and after setting aside other expenses, he would still get at least 60 or 70 million.

Calculated based on an investment of 5 million, this was nearly ten times the profit!

If it weren't for the fact that the senior's... ahem, if it weren't for the fact that Ren Man had a company and a team, he would never have shared so much profit with her.

Ren Man brought the contract with her. After the two reached an agreement, she took out the contract from her bag. Xu Heng spent half an hour looking it over and found no problems, so the two finalized the project cooperation for "Love is Not Blind."

Ren Man stated that Xu Heng could interfere with the casting of the movie, but he could not practice nepotism by inserting unrelated friends without acting skills into the crew.

Xu Heng nodded and agreed: "I already have preliminary candidates for the male and female leads; the rest, including the second male lead, second female lead, and other supporting roles, still need to be considered slowly."

"If that doesn't work, we can hold an open casting call and let some actors with ideas come audition; we'll review them ourselves," Ren Man suggested.

"Won't that be too expensive?" Xu Heng asked hesitantly.

Ren Man waved a hand dismissively: "I'll cover this expense; money is not an issue."