Chapter 557: Sky-High Pay: “Journey Through Mountains and Rivers”

After the grand finale of "Record of Chasing the Wind," all of Xiao He's upcoming works scheduled for the second half of the year had been fully released.

Now, aside from some events and advertisements, he basically had very little exposure left. However, there was no doubt that this final play, "Record of Chasing the Wind," was enough to sustain his heat for a very long time.

Moreover, the excellent results brought by "Record of Chasing the Wind" also proved Xiao He's ability to single-handedly carry a drama. Combined with the undeniable box office appeal of the male lead in "No Bait," Xiao He had now clearly become the hottest star within the industry circle.

Liu Rulan's development in Beijing was progressing smoothly. Old Zhong had also heard about Xiao He taking the initiative to help save the day, which surprised him greatly. However, he couldn't very well brush aside the face of Xiao He and the others, so he put even more effort into the award judging.

Apart from that, there were all kinds of scripts and collaboration invitations.

Forget Liu Rulan not being able to look through them all; even He Wenming, who helped Xiao He handle his announcements, almost couldn't keep up. He and his young assistant worked overtime to sort through this pile of collaboration offers.

It was only when he looked that He Wenming was truly astounded.

Let's not even talk about the script invitations. How Xiao He had performed within the industry over the years was clear to those in the know. Collaboration offers from various directors had never stopped coming, and those were still considered normal.

But when it came to advertisements and other announcements, it was simply dizzying.

When Xiao He saw this document, his eyes also felt a bit dizzy.

An eight-figure quote for a single season as a permanent cast member?

That exaggerated?!

What happened to the promised industry winter?

"Ahem, this is just our private preliminary estimate," He Wenming coughed lightly and explained. "Due to the impact of the variety show salary cap order, their quoted price is directly at the maximum limit, which is less than ten million. The rest is our preliminary estimate based on the profit-sharing they proposed."

Although the industry had been forced to adjust and impose restrictions on variety show salaries a long time ago, as the old saying goes, for every policy from above, there's a countermeasure from below.

As long as the on-paper salary meets the standards, then the rest of the money would naturally enter the artist's pocket in other forms, such as variety show broadcast profit-sharing, advertisement profit-sharing, and so on... In any case, this matter was much more complicated.

For now, they could only give Xiao He a rough estimate based on the show's performance after broadcast.

After all, if Xiao He really were to join this variety show, the heat and traffic would definitely not be lacking. Xiao He brought his own topics, his fans were also very strong, and this would be Xiao He's first permanent variety show. Just the show being popular would be enough for the variety show to make a huge profit. So this money would only be more, not less.

Even so, Xiao He was still astounded. "This is really too crazy."

No wonder some people, while filming dramas, suddenly switched to doing variety shows. He really wanted to earn this money too!

"Actually, we didn't originally consider variety shows either," He Wenming said helplessly. "But they're offering way too much, so Manager Liu wants you to consider it yourself."

In the past, variety show offers like this would generally be directly screened out by them. They wouldn't even pass through his own hands; the threshold would be blocked at the young assistant's level.

However, because there was a previous incident where a variety show invited Xiao He to film a preview trailer, the team now goes through the collaboration content more rigorously to confirm the final purpose and basic requirements of the collaboration.

So, upon looking at the content this time, it was astonishing—a huge investment.

The variety show's name is "Journey Across Mountains and Rivers." It's an S+ variety show project from the Fruit Platform, focusing on friends gathering, relaxed wandering, enjoying scenery together, and eating delicious food.

The reason for inviting Xiao He as a permanent member this time is also because Xiao He is young, has many athletic skills, his personality is quite good, and he knows quite a few people. Therefore, the production team feels Xiao He offers extremely high value for money.

Yes, even with such an astronomical salary, they still feel Xiao He offers extremely high value for money!

And the people who proposed Xiao He as a candidate were, quite coincidentally, two individuals: one is Qiu Hua, the host of "Daily Happiness," and the other is the boy band idol Liang Cheng, whom Xiao He once helped out.

Qiu Hua needs no further explanation. He has collaborated with Xiao He several times and has a very deep impression of this young man. He also thinks Xiao He is a very good person with great stamina, which would be a huge asset during travel, making him a very suitable travel companion.

As for Liang Cheng's matter, it's more complicated. Due to the resource opportunities Xiao He and the others provided earlier, Liang Cheng participated in the detective program "Ace Reasoning" and became explosively popular overnight, successfully transforming from a low-tier celebrity idol into a variety show comedy star. The other members of his team no longer dared to bully him.

This time, Liang Cheng was invited as a permanent guest on "Journey Across Mountains and Rivers" in a comedic role.

To ensure the guests have topics to discuss among themselves and avoid it feeling like strangers playing house, the production team allows the invited permanent guests to each recommend one more person.

So Liang Cheng, who already felt grateful towards Xiao He, decisively submitted Xiao He's name.

Looking at it this way, Xiao He's interpersonal relationships are surprisingly quite good.

However, wanting Xiao He to participate in a variety show is naturally not easy.

If it weren't for this salary making even Liu Rulan's heart flutter, He Wenming probably wouldn't have even presented the invitation to Xiao He.

But...

Xiao He glanced at it and fell into hesitation.

To say he wasn't tempted would be a lie.

Recording a season of a variety show, a travelogue at that, just responsible for eating, drinking, and having fun along the way, while getting paid so much money—isn't this even more enjoyable than a business trip vacation?

Moreover, the timing perfectly connects with the wrap of "Super Spacetime Confrontation." He could hand over the rest of the year to the production team for traveling everywhere, which would also count as relaxing.

Xiao He was rarely this conflicted.

"I'll consider it," he finally gave a conservative answer. "Are there any good scripts during this period? If there are, show them to me first."

After the Bai Ming Award, Xiao He's career should usher in a new peak.

But so far, the scripts he's received are only Director Yang Li's "Red Journey on the Snowy Ridge" and the emergency rescue project "Let the Mistake Slide."

That shouldn't be right. Where are the good scripts?

Where are the other production teams?

Why haven't they shown up?

Xiao He felt a bit strange and somewhat puzzled.

The Award-Winning Actor trophy hasn't even warmed up in his hands yet. If he runs off to record a variety show, no matter how you look at it, it's a pity, completely wasting his current Award-Winning Actor heat.

"There are scripts too, but now your status and position are different, so our requirements are higher. Production teams that can immediately connect after 'Super Spacetime Confrontation' are even fewer and farther between."

"After all, it's almost the end of the year. There are indeed relatively fewer production teams starting work at year-end."

He Wenming explained while pushing over another pile of documents. "You can look through all of these. It's just that personally, I feel if there aren't any suitable scripts at the moment, it's best not to join a production team for now."

He took an extra look at Xiao He, hesitated for a moment, but couldn't help asking, "Aren't you planning to rest at all?"

If Shu Han received this variety show offer, he would definitely have accepted. After all, Shu Han has been quite busy this year too. It's rare to have a business trip vacation period with such a high salary... Although there might be some loss regarding the Award-Winning Actor trophy heat, as long as Xiao He maintains a relatively high level of topic discussion and heat during the variety show, then the residual warmth of the Award-Winning Actor award could continue into the variety show.

In the domestic entertainment industry, sometimes winning awards isn't important; exposure and heat are what make more money.

So He Wenming really couldn't understand what Xiao He was thinking.

Xiao He was taken aback. He looked at He Wenming, thought for a moment, then answered, "Perhaps it's because I view acting as more important than my own life?"

Although his current global influence had long since accumulated enough retirement points, and his life wouldn't be in danger, he had been continuously drawing prizes, with considerable spending back and forth. So Xiao He wanted to film more works while he still had the drive and influence, to live a more carefree life in the future.

He Wenming, however, misunderstood Xiao He's meaning and was filled with deep respect. "So that's how it. It seems the reason you could achieve your current success in such a short time is still because of sufficient passion."

Truly worthy of being the new Award-Winning Actor who won an award in three years and swept the global box office. This kind of drive and passion is just like theirs back in the day—

He Wenming thought of the memorable years working with He Jinnian and couldn't help but sigh with emotion. "I understand."

Youth, it's really wonderful.

Xiao He: ?

Did you misunderstand something?

The corner of Xiao He's mouth twitched. He looked at He Wenming and ultimately chose to remain silent.

Forget it, better to look at the other scripts first...

Fortunately, this matter didn't leave Xiao He conflicted for too long.

Because someone, before Xiao He could make a decision, first settled Xiao He's upcoming schedule.