Chapter 490: Applauding Your Self-Awareness (7,000-character update!)

In a small room.

Lin Suyang and Li Zhibai sat facing each other.

Li Zhibai rubbed his face vigorously.

Seeing this action, Lin Suyang sighed immediately and said, "Can you stop messing with your face? Brother, we make a living with our faces."

Li Zhibai put his hands down, looked at Lin Suyang, and said, "Brother Yang, do you think I'm asking for trouble?"

"Learning to be a producer isn't asking for trouble; suffer a little when you're young, and enjoy life when you're older," Lin Suyang said. "Let's be honest, all the shows coming to you now are idol dramas, right? Shows like *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, unless you make them yourself, no one else will come to you. Being your own producer has this benefit: you don't have to wait for others to send you scripts. It's quite good; just bear with the fatigue."

"This isn't just fatigue..." Li Zhibai said, sporting two listless dark circles under his eyes. "The problem is, neither of them is willing to compromise. What can I do?"

The two people Li Zhibai said were unwilling to compromise were the original author, Liu Jiazhen, and the screenwriter, Qin Yiwen.

Ever since reaching a cooperation agreement with Lighthouse Video, Lighthouse Video hadn't been ambiguous and immediately arranged for their signed A-list screenwriter, Qin Yiwen, to start working on the adaptation of *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*.

However, before the script was even written, Liu Jiazhen and Qin Yiwen had never reached a consensus on the direction of the adaptation.

"Knock, knock, knock."

Liu Jiazhen knocked and entered.

Li Zhibai called out "Liu Laoshi."

Liu Jiazhen walked in looking depressed and said to Li Zhibai, "Zhibai, can we really not change the screenwriter? Why do I feel like the screenwriter you found is particularly unreliable? She insists on adding a lot of scenes to my original story that I didn't write. Actually, I'm not against her adding some original content, but you can't change the tone of the original characters. This is inherently a very serious, dark-style suspense crime story; you insist on adding comedy and funny elements to it—isn't that just messing around?"

This wasn't the first time Li Zhibai had heard these words.

He had acted as a mediator for these two until 2:00 AM last night and still hadn't settled it, and they started a meeting early this morning.

The meeting hadn't lasted ten minutes before Liu Jiazhen and Qin Yiwen started arguing again.

Li Zhibai really didn't want his head to be buzzing anymore, so he had just escaped.

Now he had been tracked down by Liu Jiazhen.

Li Zhibai looked at Lin Suyang for help. He really didn't know what else to say; he had said everything he could eight hundred times, and his mouth was about to smoke.

Lin Suyang finally managed to stabilize Liu Jiazhen and sent him out, and then Qin Yiwen came in.

"Zhibai, does Liu Jiazhen have to stay here and point fingers at the script? If it has to be filmed one-to-one according to the original work, then why hire me as a screenwriter?" Qin Yiwen crossed her arms. "His original novel only has so much volume; if we don't enrich the details and add some things, it will be finished in five episodes. Can our show be filmed like that? I know this show has a very serious theme, but when can serious themes not have some funny comedy elements interspersed? In the past two years, which show hasn't put some such elements in? If you let the audience's spirit be tense from beginning to end, who would want to watch it?"

Li Zhibai looked at Qin Yiwen with listless eyes, then looked at Lin Suyang.

Lin Suyang started working on Qin Yiwen.

After Lin Suyang finally coaxed Qin Yiwen away, Li Zhibai sighed deeply and said, "This producer job is really not meant for humans; there are too many messy things."

Lin Suyang: "Since you chose to be a producer, you have to hold on, adapt, and not give up halfway."

Li Zhibai: "I must have had water in my brain to insist on learning to be a producer from Yan He. Produce my foot; being a star is comfortable."

"How good it is; others want to do it but don't have the opportunity. Look, among the actors between twenty and thirty, how many have the opportunity and resources to be a producer? You can count them on one hand," Lin Suyang persuaded earnestly. "This shows that the platform and investors recognize you, which is why they are willing to give you this opportunity. Do you think this is something anyone can do if they want to? Look at the other artists I manage; they are all still struggling to go further and maintain their popularity. An artist, as long as you haven't become an investor with the initiative, you can't escape the fate of being chosen by others, no matter how popular you are."

Li Zhibai: "Of course I understand the logic."

"You understand the logic, but when you complain, you don't recognize anyone," Lin Suyang squinted at him.

Li Zhibai looked at Lin Suyang in disbelief. "Why are you so vicious too?"

Lin Suyang: "Maybe because everyone has discovered that this is the only way to tame you."

Lin Suyang admitted it without hesitation.

Li Zhibai: "Sigh, people aren't what they used to be."

Lin Suyang pursed his lips with a smile.

Lin Suyang and Li Zhibai had been working together for almost a year. After getting along for this year, Lin Suyang had only one feeling: Zhou Ping'an was a big fool for choosing Ma Zhiyuan over Li Zhibai.

Encountering an artist like Li Zhibai was a blessing accumulated from a past life; Zhou Ping'an didn't cherish it well and still did so many messy things.

In the past, Li Zhibai in the media and on camera was difficult enough to deal with, and of course, he was about the same in real life. He had a big temper, needed to be stroked the right way, and when he started chirping, you'd want to blacklist him.

But besides that?

Such a lazy person never stuttered at work. Even if he complained until your ears grew calluses, his muttering wouldn't become negligence in his actions.

He was also a person of true feelings; after getting along for a long time and becoming familiar, he would treat you as one of his own.

Lin Suyang had never said anything, but for some work opportunities, he would take the initiative to bring along other artists Lin Suyang managed.

As for the work Lin Suyang arranged for him, Li Zhibai was actually a very easy person to talk to. As long as you laid it out for him—this one had to be taken because of personal favors, that one was a good opportunity, and another one, although the opportunity was average, the producer was great, so building a good relationship was a good thing—Li Zhibai wouldn't throw a tantrum and refuse.

This was a person who completely exceeded Lin Suyang's expectations.

Li Zhibai never hid anything from him. Sometimes, Lin Suyang heard from other places that someone was contacting Li Zhibai to discuss cooperation on some project. At first, Lin Suyang was quite nervous, worried that Li Zhibai would bypass him to take these jobs, just like Ma Zhiyuan did before. But basically, for the projects Lin Suyang heard about, Li Zhibai would hand them over to him shortly after, some saying he wanted to take them, others saying he didn't want to take them and asking Lin Suyang to find a reason to refuse.

Lin Suyang gradually set his mind at ease. He really wasn't an agent who managed everything strictly and rigidly; he wasn't the kind of agent who had selfish motives and used artists. Because of Ma Zhiyuan's matter before, he was really so angry that he almost lost hope in this industry. After meeting Li Zhibai, Lin Suyang sighed that sometimes, don't blame the environment for being bad; it's just that you met the wrong people.

Later, Li Zhibai also trusted him more and more. Besides some work matters, Li Zhibai also found him to handle other things. For example, *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, which had little to do with him.

During the production process, Li Zhibai always called him over, like a child acting shamelessly, and when he encountered a headache, he would shout "Brother Yang."

Lin Suyang couldn't help but scold him while still trying his best to help him solve it. Even if everything he did couldn't get a commission from Li Zhibai. Li Zhibai's producer work had nothing to do with his role as an agent.

After soothing both sides, Lin Suyang said to Li Zhibai: "Coaxing both sides like this is not a long-term solution. We need to reach a consensus on the script as soon as possible to start creation. Let's think of a way to get the two of them to reach a consensus."

Li Zhibai waved his hand and said: "Let's not talk about this for now. I sent a message to Yan He, asking him to help me think of a way. You look at this first."

He took out an agreement from a plastic stationery bag in his bag.

"What is this?" Lin Suyang asked.

Li Zhibai said: "I'm really annoyed being this producer; I can't handle it. I overestimated myself. You come and help me."

Lin Suyang opened it and saw it was actually the producer contract for *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*.

"The pay isn't much, the budget is limited, just treat it as helping out," Li Zhibai said, crossing his hands behind his head. "Help me."

Co-producer, salary 500,000 yuan, no share in any subsequent profits.

Lin Suyang was stunned.

For an agent of his level, he could earn about 2 million a year. When Li Zhibai was doing well, with a high commission, it could reach 4 or 5 million.

For a position like co-producer, this was the first time Lin Suyang had received an invitation.

Salary 500,000 yuan—

This was certainly not a small amount. Lin Suyang himself was an agent; he knew very well what the proportion of personnel expenses in a film usually was.

There were nearly eight or nine co-producers for this film, and Lin Suyang could guess that he was definitely one of the ones getting more.

Lin Suyang looked at Li Zhibai unexpectedly.

"You're finding a roundabout way to help me earn extra money."

Li Zhibai said: "What extra money? You have to help me do a lot of things. I don't want to do this crappy producer job anymore. I'm on a pirate ship this time, so I have to finish it."

Lin Suyang smiled, pushed the agreement back, and said: "I don't need this agreement to help you do these things. You are my artist; if you can develop well, I will benefit, so there's no need to calculate it so clearly."

Li Zhibai frowned. "Take it. It's not like I'm paying your salary myself; Lighthouse Video is paying you, so don't refuse it."

Lin Suyang was stunned and smiled. "Okay, then I'll sign it."

"Also, there is a college student role in this show. I think it's quite suitable for Chen Jing. Didn't you say before that he wanted to try being an actor? This college student role doesn't have many scenes, but it has a lot of room for performance. You can let him try it," Li Zhibai said.

Lin Suyang looked at Li Zhibai seriously, and after two seconds, nodded.

"Okay."

Lu Yan He took time to go to Lighthouse Video.

Seeing Li Zhibai's listless expression, he couldn't help but laugh for nearly a minute before he could stop himself.

"Where are Brother Jiazhen and Teacher Qin?"

"Just had an argument, now they've both gone back," Li Zhibai said.

Lin Suyang brought a bottle of mineral water to Lu Yan He.

"Thank you."

Lu Yan He took it and thanked him.

He asked Li Zhibai: "Regardless of what the two of them think, what about you? What are your thoughts on adapting this show into a web series?"

Li Zhibai: "Actually, I think Teacher Qin's adaptation idea makes sense. This isn't a movie; we can't tell a story so concisely, especially since the original story has such a miserable tone. I also hope to intersperse some segments that can soothe people's emotions and add some funny parts, of course, without affecting the tone of the main storyline."

"I actually quite like the gloomy atmosphere of the original work," Li Zhibai said. "But if it's filmed as a show, if it's that gloomy from beginning to end, it might be high-end, but as an audience member, I wouldn't be able to watch it."

Lu Yan He nodded and said: "Okay, I understand what you mean. I'll go work on Brother Jiazhen."

Hearing Lu Yan He say this, Li Zhibai hesitated and said: "Don't go work on Teacher Jiazhen; I'll do it. I just wanted to ask you how to do the work. You have a good relationship with him, so don't let things get unpleasant because of this."

"It won't come to that," Lu Yan He said. "Actually, Brother Jiazhen is a very easy person to communicate with. He is particularly wary of others changing the style and adding elements not in the original work because the movie version was done that way before, and it ended up being a mess. Brother Jiazhen is a novelist and doesn't understand film and television production. So, having suffered a loss in this regard, he will feel that such practices are problematic. I'll go explain it to him clearly, explain it to him from the perspective of film and television creation; he is not a stubborn person."

Li Zhibai finally understood what Lu Yan He meant.

"I'll go with you," Li Zhibai said. "I'll also observe and learn."

Just as Lu Yan He said, Liu Jiazhen was not the kind of writer who wouldn't allow others to change a single word of his original work.

He was just once bitten, twice shy.

"Teacher Qin Yiwen is a very experienced screenwriter. Although she is very young, she has already created several very good works. Brother Jiazhen, you can go look at the works she has adapted in the past."

Lu Yan He said to Liu Jiazhen, "Just now I went to understand what Teacher Qin's adaptation idea is, and I roughly understand why you are unwilling. It's probably because Teacher Qin's adaptation idea is similar to many practices in the movie version, making you worry about repeating the same mistakes, right?"

Liu Jiazhen sighed and nodded.

"You know what I'm thinking," Liu Jiazhen said. "It's not that I'm unwilling for her to make innovative adaptations, but at least don't change the overall main storyline and style. Otherwise, readers will definitely still feel cheated."

Lu Yan He: "They won't. Teacher Qin is best at maintaining the core and theme of the original work while adding some new things to give the audience a sense of freshness. Because many people are already very familiar with the story of *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, and Zhibai plays the murderer, as soon as he appears, everyone knows he is the murderer. At this time, the adaptation of the show must make some adjustments to keep the audience expectant and fresh. Teacher Qin wants to add some such elements and innovative content to the script, one is to make the story richer, and the other is to use these funny comedy elements—of course, this must be arranged in appropriate places—to form a strong contrast. When the final painful emotion reaches the audience's heart from the show, the audience will be more touched."

Liu Jiazhen looked at Lu Yan He suspiciously.

Seeing this, Li Zhibai said: "Liu Laoshi, although I am the producer and lead actor of this show now, I am first a reader. I read the first script of the movie version—not the crappy thing that was finally aired—and I liked it very much, so I bought your original work to read."

He crossed his hands nervously.

"As a reader, I know very well what the theme and core elements of this story are," Li Zhibai said. "I definitely won't let these most critical parts change, but just as Yan He said, your original novel is very popular and a bestseller, and secondly, it was adapted into a movie version, and many audiences have seen it and know what the story is like. If we want to make the adaptation of this show still look good and fresh to audiences who know the story, we must make some relatively large adaptations."

"Teacher Qin doesn't want to turn the whole story into a funny comedy. If that were her idea, let alone you opposing it, I would definitely be the first to disagree," Li Zhibai said. "She won't modify the characters' personalities to make them funny or weird, and it won't be a parody, but rather, on this basis, add some daily and relaxed segments."

"How can this be added? This is actually easy to turn into a mess, isn't it?" Liu Jiazhen asked.

Li Zhibai: "For example, when the police are searching for my tracks, aren't there many segments of investigation? In those places, you can actually use people in the most ordinary, mundane environments to add some hooligans and ruffians who refuse to cooperate and are arrogant, but don't expect that they will kick an iron plate and immediately change their faces to beg for mercy, something like that."

Liu Jiazhen was silent for two seconds and asked: "Is this what Teacher Qin said? She only adds these contents in these places?"

"That's right," Li Zhibai nodded. He had already heard that Liu Jiazhen's attitude had loosened.

Lu Yan He also looked at Liu Jiazhen with a smile. "Shall we write the script for the first episode according to this idea first and let you take a look?"

Liu Jiazhen took a deep breath and said: "Okay then."

After finally resolving the conflict between Liu Jiazhen and Qin Yiwen, Lu Yan He and Li Zhibai went to have dinner nearby.

"You're treating me tonight," Lu Yan He said. "Running all the way here, treat me to something good."

"Eat whatever," Li Zhibai hooked his arm around Lu Yan He's neck, his tone relaxed for the first time in a long while.

"I found that you're really different after becoming a producer. When you talk about these things, you have a whole set of theories, and you worked on Liu Jiazhen's ideological work so quickly."

"I told you long ago that he isn't that kind of stubborn person," Lu Yan He laughed. "Do you know how annoying it is to be a producer now?"

"It's really annoying. When I was acting, I didn't have so many messy things. Every day, I just went to the set, acted, and could leave. It was easy," Li Zhibai said. "I didn't expect that just writing a script, and the script hasn't even started to be written yet, there would be so many troubles."

"Think about it, a project with a production cost of nine figures, a crew, from beginning to end, from the director to the field staff, involving hundreds of production personnel, how could there be no trouble?" Lu Yan He said. "Anyway, filming on a set, it's impossible not to encounter some trouble, not to encounter some problems. All producers and directors told me this."

Li Zhibai: "Then aren't you annoyed?"

"Annoyed, but being annoyed is useless," Lu Yan He said. "Unless you don't be a producer and just be an actor, then you can just manage your own acting."

Being an actor well, choosing to be a producer at this time, of course, is because he has more ideas and hopes to have more initiative.

Lu Yan He didn't know if Li Zhibai would be willing to persist, or if he would choose to give up after trying the hardships of the producer position.

For them, especially for them personally, transitioning to be a producer is really a hard job.

They are still so young now, there is no need to consider the transition at all.

They can completely live a comfortable life for another seven or eight years, and after they have accumulated more age, social experience, and connections, they can start planning for their transition.

Lu Yan He knew that if it weren't for his producer work, Li Zhibai probably wouldn't have had this idea so quickly.

Of course, there was another major reason. At that time, Li Zhibai wanted to act in the movie version of *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*, but was rejected by Ruyi Pictures, who wanted Chen Ziliang. Looking back now, Ruyi Pictures probably regrets it to the point of turning blue, but being rejected at that time probably stimulated Li Zhibai quite a bit.

Li Zhibai said: "Whether I do it in the future, we'll see. Since I've started this time, I can't give up halfway. I have to bite the bullet and do it."

Lu Yan He laughed.

"It's not easy for you to say such things. I really should let Yan Liang hear it too."

"Get lost," Li Zhibai squinted at him. "In your eyes, I don't have any wonderful qualities, right?"

Lu Yan He: "People are valuable for their self-awareness. Applauding your self-awareness."

They hadn't eaten together for a while.

Since Li Zhibai returned from filming, he had been busy with *Nineteen Years of Crime Records*.

Originally, both of them were not on set and had relatively free time.

Li Zhibai said: "The Lingyun Awards also invited me to participate. Do you think you have a hope of winning an award this time? If there's no hope, I'm too lazy to go; it's meaningless."

Lu Yan He asked curiously: "Invited you to present an award?"

"Yeah," Li Zhibai said. "I haven't won an award myself, not even nominated. Asking me to present an award, what kind of award am I presenting? It's not justified."

"That's also valuing your influence," Lu Yan He laughed. "Isn't that quite good? You should go. You can also meet many people. Then, when you make the *Nineteen Years of Crime Records* show, don't you need to find many actors? Now it's just you and Teacher Jiang Jun, and there are still many roles without actors."

"Can those who act in movies look down on TV shows?" Li Zhibai questioned. "I found that those who mix in the movie circle really have their noses held high and look down on TV shows."

"What kind of people are those? Among the people I know, there aren't many like that. Don't be influenced by their prejudices," Lu Yan He said. "Look at Sister Bige, she can be considered the top movie actress, doesn't she still act in TV shows? She acted in the first season and has to act in the second season."

"That's you guys. Let me tell you, it's because the team you usually collaborate with is too good, and you have few opportunities to meet those monsters and ghosts," Li Zhibai said. "Of course, I'm not qualified to say I've met many, but I have met a few. Oh my, they acted in a few movies, um, and acted in a big director's movie, and they want to walk with garlic stuck in their nostrils."

Lu Yan He asked: "You met them when filming a TV show?"

"Yeah."

"Then don't talk about it. If he has the ability, don't come to act in TV shows," Lu Yan He said speechlessly.

Even if the contempt chain of movies being higher than TV shows still exists in the industry, not many people would put it on their faces so obviously.

Only the most superficial people would put on such airs.

Li Zhibai: "Haha, I also squeeze them like that."

Lu Yan He: "You're also not afraid of offending people."

"I'm afraid of a fart. Since I was a child, who have I been afraid of?"

"Forget it, aren't you afraid of Meng Li continuing to pester you?" Lu Yan He asked.

Li Zhibai: "... Why do you suddenly mention that lunatic when we were talking well?"

"Then you're bragging, bragging as if you're really not afraid of anything," Lu Yan He complained.

Li Zhibai: "Who's bragging? You're deliberately looking for trouble."

Lu Yan He laughed.

"Laughing at a fart."

Lu Yan He: "You're the fart."

"Damn," Li Zhibai cursed. His phone suddenly rang. He picked it up, looked at it, and put it down again.

However, shortly after, the phone rang again.

This time it was a call.

Li Zhibai frowned and said very irritably: "Why is it endless?"

Seeing this, Lu Yan He asked: "Who is it? A harassment call?"

"Yeah, a harassment call." Li Zhibai put down the phone and hung up directly.

Lu Yan He: "Then be careful, don't let people recognize you as Li Zhibai, and then leak your number, that would be troublesome."

"Won't happen," Li Zhibai pointed to the phone. "It's not a stranger, I know them, they just keep pestering me, very annoying."

Lu Yan He was stunned, looked at Li Zhibai in surprise, hesitated for a moment, and asked: "A woman?"

Li Zhibai nodded. ===== CHAPTER 491 =====