Chapter 1154: Astonishing Changes

ps. There were a few bugs in the previous chapters. Ye Zhining's mother, who is also the empress dowager, should have been called Fang Yitian, but since she married into the family, taking her husband's surname is acceptable, so there's no need to dwell on it.

Main text:

"It smells really good."

Gao Liang held up his phone, filming the lotus root soup boiling in the pot.

"This lotus root looks delicious."

"Nonsense, Luo Bao's cooking skills—how could they be bad?"

"Being family with Luo Bao is truly wonderful; we can always enjoy delicious food."

"Is this lotus root soup going on the menu? I want to try it."

"In this weather, even if JD delivered it to your door, it would have gone bad by now."

"Luo Bao used to run a restaurant in New York, and she cooked personally, but unfortunately, she doesn't have that opportunity anymore."

………………

The fans in the livestream were drooling, but they could only watch through the screen.

To avoid everyone continuing to suffer from wanting something they couldn't get, Gao Liang chose to turn off the livestream after the lotus root soup came out of the pot.

"It's mealtime now, everyone should go eat. Staying in the livestream will only make you hungrier." This was what Gao Liang said before turning off the livestream.

The fans were just about to say it didn't matter, they just wanted to watch Luo Bao's food to go with their meal, but then the livestream ended, leaving them feeling helpless.

However, Gao Liang couldn't care less about all that; she rubbed her hands excitedly and sat down in her seat.

The lotus root soup had already been taken out of the pot, and its aroma filled the entire room.

Moreover, this fragrance wasn't like hot pot's— the kind that sticks to you and won't wash off. Hers was a fresh, natural scent.

Gao Liang was confident that this dish called "Returning to the Phoenix Pond Praise" lotus root soup would definitely cut through greasiness and be perfect for health cultivation.

"Everyone, have a bowl first— the nutritional value of the soup is highest at this time." Miss Luo Quan stood by the table, continuously serving a bowl of soup to each person nearby.

Besides the soup, there were also some lotus root, lotus seeds, and flower petals, all added in small amounts to try to restore the texture it had when first served.

"This soup is truly fresh— if you use it to soak rice, it's simply a delight!" Su Yu took a big sip, her expression happy as she began to comment.

However, although she had that idea, using it to soak rice would be putting the cart before the horse— one must drink it directly to truly enjoy it.

"I added a little seasoning to this soup; after drinking it, you might feel a bit younger, so don't be too surprised when you wake up tomorrow morning."

Miss Luo Quan finished speaking, then raised her bowl and took a big sip herself.

Everyone present knew about the spiritual energy revival, so they weren't surprised by Miss Luo Quan's reminder.

"Wouldn't it be too exaggerated to directly return to youth?" Wen Xia's eyes were full of curiosity and anticipation.

Among those present, she was the one most obsessed with age.

As soon as she heard this soup was good for the skin, her heart instantly burned with enthusiasm.

"You'll know tomorrow morning when you wake up— anyway, it's definitely only beneficial, with no downsides." Miss Luo Quan spoke mysteriously, selling the idea, which made Wen Xia even more excited, and she opened her mouth to eat a large piece of lotus root.

On the other side, Li Xiaomiao was deeply versed in the principle of not speaking while eating or sleeping.

Such delicious food is a gift from heaven— how could one be distracted at a time like this? So she buried her head and ate big mouthfuls, occasionally adding a large piece of fish-flavored shredded pork.

The boss said that with her body type, she would basically have to say goodbye to red-braised meat, twice-cooked pork, and stewed meat in the short term; eating them again would easily cause the fat she had just lost to rebound.

So even if she wanted to eat meat, she could only eat white meat, such as chicken breast.

Of course, tonight belongs to everyone being happy, so she made an exception and had a serving of fish-flavored shredded pork.

While rewarding her five viscera temples, Li Xiaomiao felt she was truly fortunate to have met a boss like this— a great person who not only helped her lose weight but also occasionally treated her to such delicious food.

If life could continue like this, even if she only lost one jin per day, she would be very satisfied.

After the big meal ended in a cheerful atmosphere, Miss Luo Quan returned to her room and began by reviewing the company's work achievements across all aspects during this period.

Steady progress, development has been quite good.

Additionally, she had already obtained the novel adaptation rights she purchased from Penguin, since Penguin was already planning to adapt Douluo Dalu and Doupo Cangqiong into animations, so Miss Luo Quan chose another relatively popular IP— "Dragon Clan."

The first few parts of this novel were not serialized online; they were mainly sold as published works. However, thanks to its exciting content, this book has become one of the best-selling youth fantasy works in recent years.

For countless middle school students, this book carries countless beautiful and moving experiences.

The only regrettable thing is that the protagonist in the book is too unfortunate— he fails to protect his little monster, cannot obtain his Nono senior sister's promise, and cannot save his Chu senior brother.

Judging from the content serialized so far, Dragon Clan is a complete tragedy from beginning to end, and no one knows how many fans' tears it has wrung out.

But precisely because the characters in it are vivid enough and the battles are passionate enough, it has received such immense popularity.

Remember when the fifth part chose to be serialized online earlier, it even created several records— unfortunately, Chiang Nan started writing and then just collapsed the fifth part, falling into a long hiatus.

Not long ago, it did resume updates, saying it wanted to restart the fifth part to make up for those regrets.

But as of now, the content hasn't changed much from before— it's just added some Chu Zichen and Xiao Longnu material.

It has made up for it, but not by much.

This level of scratching through a boot is definitely unable to satisfy fans, and combined with Chiang Nan's own reasons, he is now in the situation of "failing to maintain his later integrity."

Of course, setting aside these factors, the first three parts of Dragon Clan are still very classic. In the absence of better options, adapting Dragon Clan into an animation is actually a very good choice.

Moreover, the author doesn't describe life at Cassell College much; the main focus is on emotional entanglements between characters and dragon slaying.

Miss Luo Quan feels this is completely unnecessary to make the pacing so tight— some college life could be appropriately added.

Simply put, it's padding, but reasonable padding.

This way, the episode count of the Dragon Clan anime could be significantly increased— three parts combined could easily reach a hundred episodes.

Divided into five or four seasons for broadcast, it should be able to gain considerable popularity.

With Penguin's help in facilitating connections, Miss Luo Quan's subordinates have already contacted Chiang Nan and basically finalized the details of the adaptation contract.

It's not that Chiang Nan doesn't value his own IP; it's just that Miss Luo Quan's side offered too much.

Actually, Dragon Clan previously had comics and games— the former was still decent, with high popularity on the website.

As for the game, after being popular for a period, it became half-dead, described as a next-generation open-world game, but essentially just a reskinned pay-to-win mobile game.

Afterwards, Jiang Nan took another of his works to be adapted, with the lead role played by the then-top traffic star Lu Han.

This work became very famous, titled *Night Shanghai Fortress*, and everyone knows what happened afterward.

After suffering consecutive setbacks, coupled with the new book being on hiatus, Jiang Nan himself was quite anxious inside.

Even the little four next door made a fortune from the *Tiny Times* movie, while he was still struggling to make ends meet relying on manuscript fees.

It's not that he doesn't earn much, but compared to others' incomes of several billion at the drop of a hat, he is indeed far behind.

Now someone has proactively come to the door wanting to adapt the work; although it's not a film, the revenue from animation is actually not bad either.

Moreover, if the animation becomes popular, there might still be a chance to adapt it into films or TV dramas in the future.

By then, the *Dragon Clan* novel IP might just soar to fame, becoming a national-level IP is not impossible.

Even if it still flops, at least the copyright fees currently received are very generous; to be frank, Bilibili is truly generous, offering a price he finds hard to refuse.

The only thing that's somewhat unpleasant is that the animation will make considerable changes to the novel's plot.

Including but not limited to:

In the first part, Boss Lao Tang did not die, but instead fled during the battle at the mountain gorge reservoir.

In the second part, Xia Mi also did not die; Chu Zhi'ang's knife did not directly stab her to death, and then she was brought back to the academy, ultimately choosing to cooperate with humans under the influence of her companions.

In the third part, the Genji brothers and the little monster Eri also did not die; they joined the protagonist's group to defeat the White King Hol Leftge, and then resumed control of Japan's Eight Snake Branches.

………………

After listing the main directions of change one by one, Jiang Nan was directly dumbfounded.

How is this an adaptation? It's basically a rewrite—no one who should die has died, and a happy family reunion ending—can that still be called *Dragon Clan*?

And Luo Quan's response is also very reasonable and well-founded:

"Bilibili's users are mostly minors, and animations are mostly watched by minors; you having so many deaths every season—how can that work? Will it even pass review?

Besides, your book has already made so many people cry; the animation shouldn't be so ruthless—give these characters a happy ending, isn't that better?

Nowadays, no one likes that overly tragic, suffering-heavy style; a universally happy, perfect ending is the true way."

Jiang Nan, with a bitter face, continued to ask: "Then does the dragon slaying still happen? Or are you going to make peace with those death-row inmates like zombies? Is the White King not going to be killed either?"

"Dragon whiskers don't count as people, and moreover Hol Leftge belongs to scum, lacks human rights, and must be killed!" This is Luo Quan's answer, which directly left Jiang Nan speechless.

Although hearing such changes, *Dragon Clan* would become a pure feel-good power fantasy from head to toe.

But after thinking, this book was never really a literary masterpiece to begin with; put bluntly, it's still a commercial work.

Nowadays, customer supremacy prevails; catering to the market seems not to be a bad thing at all.

Moreover, Jiang Nan himself truly wants to give some characters in the book a good ending; otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to reboot the fifth part.

After repeated consideration, Jiang Nan finally agreed to Luo Quan's change proposal, and at the same time, as the author, he also put forward a request: "That is, please trouble yourself to model Chen Mo Tong to look good, don't make it too ugly just because of the female fist."

Jiang Nan would only dare say such things behind closed doors to Luo Quan; now, with female fist factions rampant on Weibo, and many female readers of his books, saying this might get him drowned.

Luo Quan patted her chest and said: "Rest assured, in this book, everyone's looks must be maxed out; have you ever seen an ugly character in my Unreal Engine?"

"That really seems to be the case." Jiang Nan, upon being asked this, realized it was indeed true.

Besides, the modeling team at Unreal Studio is world-renowned for being countable on one's fingers—handsome and delicate, having created countless familiar characters like Tifa, Jil, Ada Wong, Sylvanas, etc. —none of whom are not goddesses in the gaming circle.

Is Jerusalem in the 3D area just falsely famous?

If it's with such technical level to model the characters in *Dragon Clan*, then it's indeed still very much worth looking forward to.

Therefore, although Luo Quan clearly stated she would make very large modifications to the original work, Jiang Nan still ultimately signed the contract.

On one hand, the money is indeed sufficient; on the other hand, the cooperation partner is a high-quality company.

Previously, Bilibili's adapted and introduced animations were one flop after another, nearly becoming industry tombstones.

But since Luo Quan took over, she has completely reversed the two-year decline, directly making Bilibili's animation section flourish, with popularity more than tripled compared to before.

If *Dragon Clan* can seize this opportunity to shine brilliantly, then his long-held wish might just come true.

So both sides hit it off immediately and happily signed the contract.

Jiang Nan had no other demands, only that Chen Shi Jie must be modeled beautifully.

This also counts as one of his obsessions, often teased by fans; Luo Quan expressed full understanding.

As for the adaptation of *Dragon Clan*, Luo Quan knows that after the news is released, she will definitely be attacked by many original work purists.

Some people like the grand reunion ending, while others prefer the emotional fulfillment brought by character deaths.

The reason *Dragon Clan* has deeply penetrated people's hearts is actually because of its imperfection.

Just like people's youth, it's always filled with regrets.

Because of regrets, it's worth remembering.

*Dragon Clan* is such a story, and Luo Quan, relying solely on her own preferences, wants to forcibly make it perfect.

Many people support this, and opponents will certainly not be few.

But since it's an adaptation, it's impossible to copy the original work verbatim.

Compared to those film and TV works that butcher the original beyond recognition, Luo Quan feels her little bit of selfishness should still be understandable.

After all, she just wants those deeply ingrained characters to live on, and it's not like in one of Jiang Nan's books where the male lead watches the female lead being NTR'd right in front of him.

Literary youths always like to come up with such things, but Luo Quan is not literary; she simply dislikes sad tragedies.

NTR and such—give her a hard pass, she is a steadfast pure love warrior.

The situation is roughly like this: the contract is signed, payment will be arranged on a selected day, and then Unreal Studio can begin production on *Dragon Clan*.

Recently, Unreal Studio has had no tasks, so it can fully devote itself to the production of *Dragon Clan*.

If the animation becomes popular, in the future it can also be adapted into an open-world game, deepening the world setting, directly built into a *Dragon Clan World*, making it a true Oriental Harry Potter.

Of course, this beautiful vision currently still seems a bit premature.

After all, she has only just obtained the copyright; whether original fans like her plot arrangements is still unknown; hoping that after this news is released, those who scold her will be fewer, after all, this time she is not in the right, and it's not easy to talk back.

If really impossible, then later just learn from Jia Zong—turn a blind eye for peace.