Chapter 488

Li Zhibai was in pain.

Very painful.

Not because of anything else, but because he had never realized that there were so many strange people in the entertainment circle where he had stayed for so many years.

In order to find a suitable producer and director for *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, Li Zhibai didn't know how many people he had seen this month.

Because there are no professional brokerage companies for producers and directors in China, like them, if they want to find a producer and director for a project, they can only be introduced through video platforms, film and television companies, and friends around them.

Li Zhibai had filmed many plays himself and could be considered to know some production companies and friends. However, the people introduced by these acquaintances were one after another making him feel stunned.

The people he met on the set before, if nothing else, were very strong in terms of professionalism.

This also gave him an illusion, feeling that everyone was at least very reliable in their own professional field.

But he didn't realize that the projects he participated in before were at least A-level productions in this industry, and the people who could participate in this project were the best talents in various fields.

People with poor business levels wouldn't even have the opportunity to know him.

This caused his cognitive bias toward this industry.

Li Zhibai said to Lu Yan He: "No, I still can't be like you, pulling a group of people to do this myself. I don't have that much ability. I have to find a production company to do it together. If they suppress me, let them suppress me. For the first work, I'll take it as paying tuition."

Lu Yan He was surprised that Li Zhibai would choose to compromise.

"Okay," Lu Yan He also supported Li Zhibai in doing so, "Actually, if you go to them to do it, you can save a lot of effort."

Li Zhibai's doing *Nineteen Years of Crime Records* this time was still very different from Lu Yan He's doing his project. Li Zhibai's success as an actor before couldn't make others trust his ability as a producer. And the failure of the film version made his bargaining power have a shortcoming.

If Li Zhibai wanted to pull a good team to do this drama, relying on his own strength, he couldn't do it for the time being. Then he could only choose to take a step back, compromise a bit on his own interests, and thereby reach cooperation with others.

Finally, after some negotiations, *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, with Li Zhibai as the producer, signed a cooperation agreement with Lighthouse Video. Lighthouse Video would buy the broadcast rights, and the subsidiary production company would undertake the production. Li Zhibai, Lu Yan He, and Yan Liang all invested as individuals and served as joint producers.

Li Zhibai played the villain in this drama, and the male lead of this story, the policeman, was played by Jiang Jun under Lu Yan He's recommendation. This was also mainly because Li Zhibai's salary had already accounted for more than half of the actor's salary budget, and the salary of the other male lead couldn't be too high. After weighing, Jiang Jun was the most suitable.

Finally, Jiang Jun could get the consent of Lighthouse Video to play the male lead of this drama, and there was another very important reason: he was the male lead of *Squid Game*. In the industry, Jiang Jun belonged to the list of male stars waiting to explode.

The drama version of *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, which had been tossed for a long time, finally had formal progress.

Lu Yan He felt more and more that his filming *Love Letter* was really the result of the right time, the right place, and the right people. Thanks to the help of Luo Yuzhong and Liu Bige, otherwise, with his three-legged cat kung fu, maybe even starting the machine would be enough.

Not every actor has the ability to organize a game and code a plate.

However, for actors at the level of Lu Yan He, Jiang Yuqian, and Li Zhibai, they actually have the resources to participate in the production link.

Lu Yan He also felt this was a good thing. Especially for actors like Jiang Yuqian, who seemed to have passed their peak popularity, if they just waited, waited for scripts, and waited for others to come to them, maybe after waiting and waiting, this market would completely eliminate them.

Any top actor must have the ability to do projects himself. This ability doesn't mean he has to do it himself, but that he can organize it.

Just like Jiang Yuqian found Ye Luo to do *Phone* together.

Li Zhibai didn't find such a person, so he could only agree to the conditions of Lighthouse Video and rely on the power of Lighthouse Video.

But this wasn't a bad thing. Eat rice one bite at a time. Li Zhibai experienced the production of this drama *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, and he had his first experience.

He would know what kind of people are needed for a drama to be made from nothing, what links need to be experienced, and what the twists and turns are inside.

He would also recognize talents in various departments and various types of work in this process.

When Li Zhibai has the opportunity to do a second film and television project in the future, no matter whether he has the ability to organize it himself at that time, he will be more confident than this time, and know more clearly what he has to face and what he has to do.

A person's growth is accumulated bit by bit like this.

At this time, Miao Yue told Lu Yan He that she finally decided to take on the adaptation work of the *Rouge* drama script.

Lu Yan He was a bit surprised, but not unexpected.

A challenging script adaptation, with Miao Yue's soft-outside-hard-inside personality, the possibility of refusal was really not great.

"Then what about your own script?"

"Move it back. My own script can be written at any time, but the drama adaptation of *Rouge*, if I don't take it, I feel that I will regret it every time I think of this thing in the future."

Lu Yan He of course supported the decision of his classmate.

He knew Miao Yue's ability.

She might not be able to give a successful drama adaptation, but she would never be perfunctory, and she would never change it randomly.

"Feeling like you are a magnet, slowly attracting the people around you to your side."

Li Pengfei rarely returned to Yuming, and when eating with Lu Yan He, he teased.

Lu Yan He asked with a smile: "Then when will you be attracted to my side?"

Li Pengfei asked: "Do you have anything you need me to do?"

Lu Yan He: "You suddenly ask me if I have anything you need to do now, of course I can't answer."

Li Pengfei: "I mainly don't know what I can do by your side. I don't have any particularly outstanding ability, what can I do."

"I don't need you to come and help me do anything special, just... before when we were in high school, we saw each other every day. After going to university, you are not in Yuming, and I am busy filming, and we see each other less even during winter and summer vacations," Lu Yan He said. "If we can work together, we can see each other often."

Li Pengfei: "You have the nerve to say, every winter and summer vacation you are filming, not resting once."

"Before, except for winter and summer vacations, I had to go to class, so the play could only be arranged to be filmed during winter and summer vacations," Lu Yan He said. "This situation should improve a lot in the future."

"But I will graduate soon, and there will be no winter and summer vacations," Li Pengfei complained. "However, no matter what I do after graduation, I will definitely return to Yuming."

"Why are you so sure you return to Yuming?"

"Zijun wants to stay in Yuming, if I don't return to Yuming, where do I go?" Li Pengfei said. "Didn't Chen Siqi buy a house in Lingyang District, and the *Jump Up* editorial department will work there in the future?"

"Right, I forgot."

Li Pengfei: "My name is still on the first issue of *Jump Up*. I am a founding member. Will your office hang my photo up?"

Lu Yan He: "... You can ask Chen Siqi yourself."

"Forget it." Li Pengfei shrugged his shoulders, "Be low-key in doing things."

Lu Yan He: "Do you want to return to *Jump Up*?"

"Return to what, if I were interested in that place, I would have stayed back then," Li Pengfei said. "I am a person who hates reading so much, you expect me to do a magazine well? Nonsense, my dad doesn't dare to think so."

"Did your dad ask you to go back and take over?" Lu Yan He asked.

Li Pengfei: "I don't do the taking over thing; that's my brother's business. I have already told you my life goal: do nothing, live happily, rely on my dad to raise me in the first half of my life, rely on my brother to raise me in the second half of my life, avoid brothers fighting, company internal strife, have a happy and beautiful life, how good."

"Every time you say this, I will feel that you don't enjoy such a beautiful life so willingly; you just don't want to have any possibility of fighting with your brother."

Li Pengfei laughed.

He put his hands on the back of his head and leaned back.

"If I hadn't known you, I might have just mixed and waited for death like this."

"How could Xu Zijun let you mix and wait for death like this?" Lu Yan He said, "She is the real reason you are unwilling, don't say it's me, I don't have that much ability."

Li Pengfei sighed long.

"Damn it, we haven't seen each other much in these years, how are you so clear about what I'm thinking in my heart?"

"If you have to see each other often to know what you are thinking, then this friend would have been gone long ago."

The two looked at each other and laughed.

For a moment, both of them had the feeling of returning to the third year of high school.

"Let's organize a class reunion sometime," Li Pengfei said. "Everyone hasn't seen each other for a long time."

In the past few years, the high school class has actually organized several class reunions, large-scale ones that all classmates will be notified of, but because they are all during winter and summer vacations, Lu Yan He couldn't participate every time.

Lu Yan He nodded and said okay.

He said again: "However, why did you suddenly think of organizing a class reunion? I haven't seen you interested before."

Li Pengfei said: "It was Li Cui who called me a few days ago. He mentioned to me that Jiang Haitian's dad died in a car accident half a year ago. I didn't even know about this. Jiang Haitian never told me. When I was in high school, I played quite well with him. Later, when I went to university, although I didn't contact him often, I didn't break contact. I felt quite uncomfortable in my heart. Before, there were clearly some classmates who were close and had good relationships, but slowly everyone drifted away. I still hope to have such an activity so that everyone can gather often, at least understand each other's recent situation, and if anyone needs help, they can know in time."

Lu Yan He showed a look of surprise.

He just realized that it turned out that Li Pengfei said he wanted to organize a class reunion, and there was such a motivation.

"So that's how it is."

"Yeah."

Li Pengfei laughed and asked: "By the way, do you still remember Mei Ping?"

"Of course I remember, she was very active in the class," Lu Yan He said.

Li Pengfei said: "She seems to be getting married soon."

"Ah? Getting married? So fast?" Lu Yan He was shocked.

Getting married, for their age, seems to be a very distant thing. Lu Yan He didn't expect it to happen to his peers around him so quickly.

"Yeah," Li Pengfei said, "Didn't expect it, right? I was also shocked."

Lu Yan He and Li Pengfei are not single, but they haven't thought about getting married so early.

"Will you and Chen Siqi consider this thing recently?"

"We just agreed to rent a house together after graduation."

Li Pengfei: "You two rent a house together? Why not buy it directly? With your two's economic strength, you could have afforded it long ago, right?"

"Because the social security hasn't been paid for enough years, so there is no qualification to buy a house," Lu Yan He said. "Unless you buy it in a place like Lingyang District, it's not restricted there."

Li Pengfei: "Uh, okay. If you say it out, others might not believe it; you two are actually still renting."

"What's wrong with renting? The place where I live with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang now is still rented," Lu Yan He said.

"It's mainly that it doesn't conform to our ordinary people's cognition of you big stars," Li Pengfei teased. "In our minds, you have already lived in that kind of big mansion."

Lu Yan He: "Living in a mansion is also meaningless, at least I feel it's meaningless now, such a big house, just living one or two of us, empty."

"You think just one or two of you live there? Butler, chef, security, cleaning... people who live in mansions generally have a professional logistics team," Li Pengfei said.

Lu Yan He was surprised and asked: "Is it so exaggerated?"

"What's exaggerated about this? If you have money, you always try every means to improve your quality of life, right? Isn't making money for spending? If you don't improve your quality of life, what are you making this money for? Take it and put it in the bank to become numbers?"

Li Pengfei's words made Lu Yan He fall into deep thought.

"I must admit that I have always had a concept of not wasting money no matter how much I earn."

"This is not waste."

"Indeed." Lu Yan He nodded.

Li Pengfei: "Yan He, don't forget, Chen Siqi is a girl who grew up pampered. Don't use your idea of saving money on her."

Lu Yan He: "I didn't say that money should be saved. Of course I saved it when I had no money before, but now it's gone, right?"

"That's fine."

Actually, in that place of Ziyuanqiao, there are people who go in regularly to do cleaning.

Lu Yan He and the three of them often go out to film, and the house is empty many times.

When signing the contract with the intermediary, besides the confidentiality clause, there was also a clause that the intermediary would be responsible for the daily cleaning and management of the house.

However, these are generally done when the three of them are not there, so Lu Yan He generally didn't realize this.

Spend money to buy services.

This is a very normal thing.

Lu Yan He knew that he had a bit of "ordinary family" thinking mode before.

Actually? He himself had already started to enjoy the convenience of "spending money to buy services," but he still thought he was in a state of being as self-sufficient as possible.

His eating, wearing, living, and traveling are all handled by Chen Ziyan, Wang Biao, and their entire team.

It is said to be assistant service at work, but many things in Lu Yan He's life are also handled by Wang Biao.

Whether it is work or life, he has long been separated from the general public's mode.

This sounded an alarm for him.

Not because of anything else.

It is when acting, the "ordinary person state" he thought of might not be the real "ordinary person state."

Lu Yan He, who reflects on himself from time to time, wrote this down in his memory notebook.

Two days later, he saw the broadcast trailer for the third season of *Friends* online.

This season, Zhang Lan joined and became one of the protagonists of the third season of *Friends*.

However, this season experienced another big change; the director changed.

Bai Jingnian left Jingtai and went to Arctic Light Video, filming *My Own Swordsman* written by Lu Yan He.

The director of this season of *Friends* changed to Yu Yao.

Lu Yan He also didn't know what style Yu Yao's previous directed works were.

From the trailer, Zhang Lan's scenes are not many, basically on par with the other five major protagonists, and she didn't do anything to steal the limelight, which made her first appearance receive much better audience feedback than Chen Ziliang in the second season.

However, the story of the third season seems to continue the dog-blood style of the second season.

From the trailer, Zhou Zhixi played by Bo Jin even suspected she was pregnant, and it might be Hu Fan played by Yan Liang.

This segment in the trailer was unsurprisingly hotly discussed on the hot search.

The drama *Friends*, after two years of fermentation, can now basically be deservedly called the drama with the largest long-tail effect.

The thickness of the audience base exceeded many people's imagination.

The number of people paying attention to the plot direction and character progress of this drama reached an exaggerated magnitude.

Especially after the reputation collapse of the second season, the third season changed directors again. Now the drama fans of *Friends* have a posture of scolding Jingtai until the end of time.

However, no matter what, the heat of the third season of *Friends* is still riding high; just a trailer came out, but it suppressed the heat of all the TV dramas being broadcast.

This is the power of the drama king.

"The data of the trailer can be synchronized to those previous advertisers, telling them that their doubts can be completely dispelled. Even if *Friends* doesn't have Lu Yan He and changed directors, it is still the drama that receives the most attention and expectation from the audience."

Xu Bin said to Hu Siwei.

Hu Siwei nodded.

The heat of the third season trailer really made everyone feel relieved.

At least, the audience's expectation for *Friends* is still there, and they are not uninterested because of the reputation failure of the second season.

After Hu Siwei nodded, he didn't leave Xu Bin's office immediately.

"What's wrong?" Xu Bin looked at Hu Siwei and asked: "Do you have anything else to say?"

Hu Siwei thought about it, as the producer of *Friends*, he felt he still needed to say it.

"Director Xu, although the heat of the trailer is high, the voices of skepticism are very loud. If the controversy continues like this, it may affect the ratings," Hu Siwei said. "Are we really not going to invite Bai Jingnian back to direct the fourth season? The actors all reacted that the filming of this season... is much worse than before."

Xu Bin frowned.

"The controversy of the second season was also very big, and the final ratings were still stable. This shows that controversy will not affect this drama."

Hu Siwei shook his head, "On the video platform, the rebroadcast rate of the second season is a full one-third less than the first season. Especially the segments where Chen Ziliang appears, on the video website, 62% of the audience skipped directly."

Hu Siwei didn't say these data to Xu Bin for the first time.

Xu Bin also knew it long ago.

"You are inviting Bai Jingnian back to direct the fourth season now, isn't that lifting a rock to hit your own feet?" Xu Bin said angrily.

Back then, Bai Jingnian left because he felt he wasn't valued in Jingtai, and he left in anger.

Hu Siwei said: "Director, you have already seen the materials for the third season. Compared with the first two seasons, it is visibly getting worse. If we have to wait until the third season is scolded by the audience before going to invite Bai Jingnian back to direct, that is really lifting a rock to hit our own feet. Going to invite him now when the third season hasn't been broadcast yet, at least we still hold a little initiative."

Xu Bin: "I don't believe only he can direct *Friends*. If he is so capable, how did he emerge only at *Friends*? He filmed so many plays before, why didn't they have any splash?"

Hu Siwei: "... If he didn't have ability, how could Lu Yan He and Arctic Light Video invite him back to direct *My Own Swordsman*?"

Xu Bin's face was gloomy and ugly.

Hu Siwei continued: "To be honest, I can say now that the reputation of the third season will be worse than the second season, and the ratings may not be stable. If we can't invite Bai Jingnian back to direct, it's hard to say whether the fourth season can be filmed."

"What do you mean?"

"Yan Liang and Wen Minglan haven't signed the contract for the fourth season yet," Hu Siwei said. "At that time, after the first season ended, we only signed the agreement for the second and third seasons with them. They are the two actors most dissatisfied with the third season, and they even had conflicts with the director on the set, and their opinions on filming were very different."

Xu Bin's face was even uglier.

"They... had expressed such meaning before. If *Friends* doesn't make changes, they will also consider leaving."

Xu Bin, who was just high-spirited because of the good trailer data, couldn't be high-spirited anymore.

"Minglan and I have reached a consensus. If they continue to film *Friends* in the current way, we would rather not appear."

Yan Liang said to Lu Yan He on the phone.

"At that time, they even arranged for Minglan and me to sleep together after getting drunk."

Yan Liang had never told Lu Yan He about this before, so that Lu Yan He now felt a kind of shock and incredulity.

"Both of us were angry, and then they deleted this plot and rewrote it," Yan Liang sighed. "Now they are making *Friends* more and more like a dog-blood drama. Before, when we filmed the first season, you said *Friends* would become a state of life that many young people yearn for. I feel they are not filming a state of life that everyone yearns for, but are deliberately creating conflicts."

Lu Yan He: "Have you seriously talked to them about this? Who arranged for this plot to happen in the script?"

Yan Liang: "Isn't it someone in Jingtai who suggested it, saying that only if the plot is richer and more unexpected, will it have topics, and the screenwriter will write according to such opinions. Anyway, the current director and screenwriter won't go against the people in the TV station."

Lu Yan He: "..."

"I just feel it's a pity. Such a good story and characters, such a good first season, it wouldn't be wrong to film it according to it, but it was made into this look by them," Yan Liang was very angry. "Wasted the script and characters you wrote."

Lu Yan He: "It's okay, Yan Liang, if it really doesn't work, we won't act in the future."

Yan Liang: "I should have not acted with you after filming the first season."

"That's not it, the second season is still watchable if you delete Chen Ziliang's part," Lu Yan He said.

Yan Liang was still on fire, but when he heard Lu Yan He say this, he immediately laughed.

"Sigh." Yan Liang laughed and sighed again.

No matter what, a series that could have become a classic work has embarked on the road of dog tail continuing the sable, which is always sighing and depressed.

Lu Yan He asked: "Are you about to wrap up?"

"Soon, the director is finishing up, my scenes should be finished in three or four days," Yan Liang said. "After wrapping up, there is no rest, and I have to cooperate with the promotion of the third season of *Friends*. This time I really don't want to cooperate. If I don't hold back and accidentally say something I shouldn't say, it will be annoying."

Lu Yan He said: "Haha, with your cautious personality, you won't. When you come back, you can promote it, but you will still have time to have a meal with us. By the end of December, I will go to film *Love Letter* again."

Yan Liang said: "I will go to observe then."

"Then? You don't need to cooperate with the promotion of *Friends* then?"

"I didn't sign a promotion period of up to a month with them; just cooperate with what should be cooperated." Yan Liang's dissatisfaction with Jingtai could be felt across the phone.

However, Lu Yan He didn't expect that just as the third season of *Friends* was announced to be broadcast, Arctic Light Video suddenly contacted Lu Yan He, saying they wanted to broadcast *Squid Game* at the end of December.

Although one is a TV drama and one is a web series, broadcasting at the same time, in this era where everything is data-driven, obviously has the suspicion of fighting in the ring.

Lu Yan He was very shocked and asked them, is the post-production of *Squid Game* finished so quickly?

Arctic Light said that *Squid Game* is their most valued project, and they have been working overtime to do it, just to catch up with the winter vacation time.

For this kind of subject matter, middle school students are an audience group that cannot be underestimated.

*Squid Game* is also a short drama series; the original version has only nine episodes, each episode is sixty minutes.

The script written by Lu Yan He was changed to twelve episodes in total, and each episode filmed is about fifty minutes.

Arctic Light is preparing to let *Squid Game* take the daily broadcast mode, finishing in twelve days.

Lu Yan He was a bit puzzled. For this kind of short drama, you either release all episodes in one breath, or you broadcast weekly. What's going on with daily broadcast?

However, video platforms naturally have their own considerations, and Lu Yan He won't intervene to adjust these things.

*Squid Game* is finally going to be launched, and Lu Yan He is also nervous.

Mainly because Lu Yan He himself doesn't know why this drama is so popular—

So, he is afraid that he wrote the script and didn't write out the truly attractive parts of it.

But it is an indisputable fact that this drama is a big hit.

Lu Yan He will never question why a work is so popular with the audience; he will only ask himself, have you figured out the reason why it is liked by everyone?

Lu Yan He laughed, patted Huang Kai, and said, "Hurry up and go up to receive the award, don't worry about comforting me."

Arctic Light Video released the trailer for *Squid Game* three days after the trailer for the third season of *Friends* was released.

It was also at this time that Lu Yan He knew why Arctic Light Video wanted to make *Squid Game* into a twelve-episode daily broadcast mode, because the international streaming broadcast party of *Squid Game*, maxine, will launch all episodes at once on the day the last episode is broadcast in China.

Lu Yan He: "..."

He thought there was some special reason for the twelve-episode daily broadcast.

It turns out it was just this.

If the third season of *Friends* is highly anticipated based on the first two seasons, then *Squid Game* has long been expected because it was written by Lu Yan He and is a battle royale subject matter like *Seventeen Layers* at the beginning of the project.

The scheduling of these two dramas, which seemed to be fighting in the ring, made everyone excited as if they had been beaten with chicken blood.

Everyone loves to watch fighting in the ring.

Especially—

The intersection of these two dramas is on Lu Yan He.

The gossip media directly took the title: Avenger Lu Yan He.

No one forgot the conflict between Lu Yan He and Jingtai on the drama *Friends*.

This is not something that can be whitewashed by him and Jiang Lan being on the same stage for a "great reconciliation."

In fact, that time on the same stage was just on the same stage.

After that, Lu Yan He didn't cooperate with Jingtai on any plays.

With Lu Yan He's current output, and the frequency of cooperation with Arctic Light Video, the problem can be seen very well.

What is Lu Yan He's real attitude toward Jingtai, everyone has a scale in their hearts.

Whose broadcast results will be better, the third season of *Friends* or *Squid Game*?

At this time, actually, not many people are particularly optimistic about *Squid Game*. After all, the latter is a new drama, and the former is a drama king accumulated for two seasons. Even if the reputation of the second season of *Friends* collapsed, the basic plate is still there.

Of course, with the configuration and current data of *Squid Game*, it certainly won't be bad, and it will certainly be a hit.

Especially since it will be launched on maxine—

With Lu Yan He's past record, compared to the results of *Squid Game* broadcast in China, everyone actually wants to see more whether *Squid Game* can continue to be a hit overseas.

This time, Lu Yan He didn't appear in *Squid Game*.

Can Lu Yan He's "success miracle" be replicated?