Chapter 559

Before D19 had a chance to respond, "Variety" had already magically obtained and published the news.

"D19 has begun negotiations with Lu Yan He's side regarding the sequel to 'The Mist'."

Once the news was exposed, the matter hit the trending lists of many social media platforms.

Currently, the global box office for "The Mist" was approaching two hundred million dollars.

For a horror film, this was a very good box office result.

In addition to his immense popularity, Lu Yan He had truly gathered a group of fans globally because of this film, and they were beginning to express their love for him with significant volume.

"Friends" had even become a regular in the top three of Maxine's global total viewership rankings for series in recent times.

One series and one film had pushed Lu Yan He's popularity to its peak during this period.

The Ransen convenience stores spread across the world had uniformly posted Lu Yan He's endorsement promotional images in their storefront windows.

By the week of filming the final two episodes of "Friends," everyone gathered together, and whether they were reading scripts or filming, there was a sense of reluctance to part.

This sense of reluctance was actually quite strange—it wasn't the first time they had gathered and separated, nor was it that they wouldn't be filming later, but everyone felt reluctant.

Even Lu Yan He felt the same.

He thought about it and felt that the reason for this reluctance was because the creative atmosphere of the "Friends" crew was the most special and best one he had ever encountered.

Everyone would read the script and rehearse, grinding for a few days to polish a script that was only forty minutes long in total, and then finish filming it over Thursday and Friday; this had gone on for several weeks.

There was no crew in the country that did it this way.

It couldn't be done, and it wasn't realistic.

Only a sitcom with twenty-minute episodes dared to do this and could do this.

But the benefits of filming this way were obvious.

In the words of the audience, in this show, these people were like real friends who spent every day together; that subtle sense of familiarity between people was completely different from the texture of many other shows. They were like living in front of the camera.

A sitcom about friendship giving the audience this feeling was actually just like many variety shows; watching it season after season, you became familiar with them, familiar as if they were a friend by your side. At a certain point, you felt close to them when you saw them and wanted to laugh; if they said a word or two, you could instantly understand the meaning behind their words, or the intention behind a certain look or micro-expression—

In this show, after everyone made sufficient preparations before filming, they surrendered themselves to their characters during the actual shoot. Or rather, in this show, everyone actually integrated a part of their real selves into the characters they played. If serious dramas required actors to completely cast themselves aside, then in a sitcom, actors were largely using their own personalities to shape the personality of the character.

Of course, this was also why many actors who came out of sitcoms were not accepted by the audience when they acted in other dramas later.

But then again, in a film and television environment like China's, the future career paths for actors coming out of sitcoms were actually quite broad.

Because China's film and television environment was large enough and tolerant enough; once an actor had fame and fans, they could actually continue to trial and error frequently, even until ten or twenty years later when they couldn't act in mainstream dramas, there were still web movies and low-budget dramas they could act in.

Compared to Hollywood, actors coming out of Chinese sitcoms actually had many more development options.

But this was also just for now.

As the domestic film and television environment became more orderly and the barriers between each other became higher, it might be very difficult for actors coming out of sitcoms to achieve a qualitative leap again.

Unless they were as famous as Jennifer Aniston—but in essence, she hadn't really shaken off the "sweet girl/silly sister" type, and to this day, she still hadn't broken into the "acting school" circle, which is to say, the "Oscar" circle.

On the day of the wrap-up on Friday, Lu Yan He was filled with emotions.

He said, "Perhaps apart from 'Friends,' it will be hard for us to encounter another crew where we can use three days to rehearse, polish, and get familiar, and then use two days to film. The filming over these past two months has made me feel particularly fulfilled; every scene was acted with a sense of stability. I can say that this is the most comfortable drama I have ever acted in."

After he finished saying this, everyone was applauding and cheering.

With the reunion and resurgence of "Friends," no matter what everyone in the crew was thinking inside, on the surface, not a single person would deny Lu Yan He's authoritative position in "Friends."

It was also because of Lu Yan He that everyone was given an iron rice bowl they could eat from for many years.

It wasn't just the main creators making money from "Friends"; everyone else was also earning several times the market salary for their respective positions.

Now, the average viewership rating per episode of "Friends" was stably breaking 3, and there would be generous bonuses later on.

Who wouldn't be happy?

At the wrap-up banquet, everyone drank very happily.

Lu Yan He also drank a little with everyone, but not too much.

He still had to rush back to Huiziyuanqiao that night.

Bai Jingnian and the others mentioned the upcoming "Cohabiting Men and Women."

Yin Xincheng heard this and immediately asked, "Can I act in it?"

"The budget for this show of ours is relatively small; we can't afford your salary, so we're planning to find newcomers," Hu Siwei said with a smile. "We can't afford the salaries of famous actors."

At this moment, it was impossible for Yin Xincheng to say he would lower his own salary—that wasn't up to him; when it came to salary, the agency had the final say. If he lowered his salary to act in this show, the company would suffer the loss. Which agency would be willing to do that?

Actors who truly had the ability to film for a "friendship price" were those who already had a certain amount of leverage and could bring in enough income from other aspects to make the company shut up.

"Come and make a cameo then," Bai Jingnian said.

Everyone nodded and said no problem.

While chatting and laughing, Yin Xincheng suddenly picked up the small pot in front of him and said very sincerely, "Everyone, during the filming of this show, I caused trouble for everyone because of some personal matters. I am very sorry, and I would like to solemnly apologize to everyone here again."

After he finished speaking, he downed the whole pot.

"Don't drink so fiercely!" Hu Siwei almost jumped up and snatched the wine pot from Yin Xincheng's hand. "Alright, slow down, stop drinking, sit down and rest for a while. Everyone understood your situation at the time, so don't keep it on your mind. Just don't disappear suddenly in the future; if there's anything, just say it directly."

Yin Xincheng's tears flowed down, which gave everyone a start.

Bo Jin stood up, walked over, and supported his shoulders, saying in a gentle tone, "It's already fine."

Yan Liang also got up to comfort Yin Xincheng.

Seeing that Yin Xincheng was already surrounded by several people, Lu Yan He did not get up to comfort him.

Regarding that incident with Yin Xincheng, Lu Yan He had actually already let it go—there was certainly dissatisfaction at the time, but after that period passed, because the incident did not lead to serious consequences, the feeling of dissatisfaction had passed as well.

Most importantly, it was Yin Xincheng's subsequent performance. After that, he never caused any more trouble. It could also be seen from his performance on set that he regretted the terrible impact he had caused that one time, and he was very professional afterward. Whether it was rehearsals or filming, there was never a time when Lu Yan He arrived and Yin Xincheng wasn't already on set.

After the wrap-up banquet ended, Lu Yan He said goodbye to everyone and prepared to return.

Zhan Yun suddenly came to find him.

"Yan He, is it convenient now? There's something I want to tell you."

Lu Yan He was a bit surprised and nodded.

Zhan Yun: "We were filming the whole time, and I didn't want this matter to affect our filming, so I thought I'd tell you after we finished. I didn't expect you to be in such a rush to leave tonight."

Lu Yan He said with a smile, "Because I have something to do early tomorrow morning, I have to rush back tonight."

Zhan Yun nodded.

"My contract with my current agency is about to end," Zhan Yun said while looking around to confirm no one was near, her voice also lowered. "Neither my agent nor I intend to renew with this company; we want to leave and are currently in contact with several agencies. Your agent, Chen Ziyan, opened a high-end agency, and I would like to ask you to help me make an introduction."

Lu Yan He realized; so it was for this matter.

"Alright," Lu Yan He nodded. "Then let me know when you return to Yuming, and I'll arrange it."

"Thank you," Zhan Yun nodded with a smile. "But the fact that I don't intend to renew hasn't been made public yet, so please keep it a secret for me."

"Understood," Lu Yan He said.

At this time, Zhan Yun looked at Lu Yan He with some surprise and curiosity, asking, "Aren't you curious why I want to terminate my contract with my current agency?"

Lu Yan He said, "If you didn't volunteer to say it, I won't ask. Based on my own personal experience, every artist has some messy business with their agency; it's just like marriage—some can drag it out and keep going, while others can no longer be stitched together and have to separate."

Zhan Yun's eyes widened, and she said in surprise, "Your metaphor is too spot-on. No wonder you write scripts so fast; you really just come up with these on the spot."

"After you finish 'Friends,' do you have any filming plans?" Lu Yan He asked an extra question.

Zhan Yun said, "Before 'Thirty Days' starts filming, I'll take a break; this period has been too tiring. And after the wrap-up, there's a lot of work I accepted earlier that hasn't been completed yet, so I might not be able to rest immediately. I still have to pay off my debts first. 'Friends' is too popular—actually, it's also because of this point that I had irreconcilable conflicts with my current company. Can you believe it? They almost made me go to a livestream room to promote a problematic product. Fortunately, I discovered it in advance, otherwise, I would have crashed directly."

Lu Yan He was a bit surprised.

"Ah?"

"Yeah," Zhan Yun nodded. "I'm not exaggerating at all. If you search for that product online, you'll see it. Many people are scolding it; it's a skincare product, and many people say it ruined their faces after applying it, and they all attached photos."

"Why would they do this?" Lu Yan He didn't understand and was very surprised. "In your current situation, you can completely accept some normal commercial work; you don't need to go earn that kind of black-hearted money, right? I'm not saying that if you didn't have it, you could go earn that black-hearted money; I mean, since you can earn money normally and safely, why would they settle for second best?"

"Who knows? Maybe someone behind that product made some kind of 'asshole deal' with a high-level executive at the company," Zhan Yun complained very unhappily. "In short, I will definitely not renew with this company again, otherwise, who knows when I'll be screwed to death by them."

Lu Yan He nodded, "For your company to do this kind of thing, it's indeed too unscrupulous."

"Alright, that's the matter," Zhan Yun said. "I'm done."

Lu Yan He: "Then I'll be going."

"Yeah."

After Lu Yan He told Chen Ziyan about Zhan Yun's matter, Chen Ziyan was quite surprised.

"Zhan Yun is interested in our company? She is currently at the height of her popularity; there must be no shortage of agencies wanting to fight for her. Why would she be interested in us? We aren't some big company, and usually, we mainly do service projects; we almost have no artists signed to full management contracts."

Chen Ziyan's agency was more like a value-added service agency.

They didn't provide basic services, only value-added services—for example, formulating comeback plans for you, which was what they did most now.

And the reason for this positioning was because when Chen Ziyan first started this agency, she was limited by the resources in her hands and the situation of the entire industry. If she acted like a traditional agency to manage artists, she could basically only sign newcomers and couldn't sign big stars.

And in the artist management business, signing a hundred newcomers isn't as profitable as signing one big star.

Currently, the only artist Shihu had signed to a full management contract was He Jiang, the actor who played Lu Xiucai in "My Own Swordsman."

That was a fresh graduate Lu Yan He discovered at a performance school.

Popular actors like Zhan Yun would almost never consider an agency like Shihu. For a popular first-tier star like Zhan Yun, the company needs to provide her with a complete team to manage her affairs; a few people wouldn't be enough. From logistics personnel consisting of assistants and drivers to technical teams consisting of makeup, wardrobe, etc., there also had to be specialized legal, public relations, publicity, and so on...

For a first-tier star, just supporting their own team, to exaggerate a bit, costs tens of millions a year.

The team isn't just those few people who follow them around all year.

Shihu's current company strength actually couldn't provide such complete service content for an artist. It was actually more like an intermediary, helping some artists connect with resource parties they couldn't contact themselves. Or helping some washed-up artists provide an opportunity for a comeback.

Just like this time with "The Birth of an Actor," Shihu had very deep participation.

Among the actors who participated in this show for acting PK, several were found and recommended by Shihu.

Zhan Yun taking the initiative to contact them made Chen Ziyan fall into deep thought.

Should Shihu adjust its scope of operations based on the current foundation?

In almost no more than a few seconds, Chen Ziyan had thought it through.

Yes.

Zhan Yun's current popularity and heat had already made her one of the most popular actors in the country. If you talk about status, it might indeed not compare to those film queens and big stars, but no matter what the event, Zhan Yun was definitely an invited guest of honor. Her popularity and heat were second to none in the country.

Even Wen Minglan, whom Chen Ziyan personally managed, couldn't compare to her.

Moreover, Zhan Yun had an agent she had worked with for a long time, and they would come over together. It could be imagined that Zhan Yun herself definitely had a team she would bring over; at most, there would be a few gaps that needed to be filled on their side.

Zhan Yun didn't need Shihu to supplement many basic services for her; she only needed Shihu to provide her with resources in a few key areas, such as scripts, business, public relations, and publicity—

Coincidentally, these were all things Shihu was best at now.

Lu Yan He's contract with Star Entertainment was also about to expire.

So, taking advantage of the fact that "Friends" was finished and there was a break during the Spring Festival Gala rehearsals, he went to Star Entertainment's company with Chen Ziyan.

Having not been here for a long time, Lu Yan He walked through the main door again, and as soon as he showed his face, he attracted the attention of many people.

Back when Lu Yan He was still in the Fengzhi group, he often came to the company because he needed to practice singing and dancing. Later, Lu Yan He became an actor, especially after following Chen Ziyan, he rarely appeared at the company again.

The news of Lu Yan He coming to the company quickly spread through the company's various group chats.

Consequently, in the company's public areas, there appeared several times more people than usual, shuttling back and forth with documents. They all hoped to have the opportunity to see Lu Yan He with their own eyes. Especially many people who had newly joined Star Entertainment and hadn't seen Lu Yan He yet.

This time, the person meeting Lu Yan He was not Vice President Ma Zhongquan, but Executive President Hong Qi.

Not long after Lu Yan He entered the company, someone had told him that although Hong Qi was the president of the company, he was actually not the actual controller of the company. Behind Star Entertainment was a second-generation heir, and establishing this company was also to please their girlfriend. But after so many years, no one knew who this second-generation heir was, or who this girlfriend was.

Lu Yan He had very little experience dealing with Hong Qi; the few times he had, it was just a brief encounter.

Hong Qi's attitude toward him was quite enthusiastic, even though Lu Yan He wouldn't be renewing with Star Entertainment later.

Based on Lu Yan He's not-so-deep understanding of Hong Qi, Lu Yan He felt that Hong Qi was actually quite a magical existence. Clearly the executive president of Star Entertainment, he seemed not to care about the specific affairs of the company, handing almost all power to several vice presidents—if he wanted to, those powers could be completely taken back into his own hands.

However, to say that he had lost control of Star Entertainment was not the case. Whether it was some signs presented from Chen Ziyan's side or the attitude expressed by Vice President Ma in his words, they all clearly pointed to one point: Star Entertainment had never been out of Hong Qi's control.

"Although the contract is ending, we can still continue to cooperate in the future," Hong Qi said.

Lu Yan He knew that Hong Qi was also a shareholder of Shihu.

He nodded.

Hong Qi: "When you were under Ma Zhongquan and Zhou Ping'an before, you suffered quite a few grievances. Ziyan told me all about these. Fortunately, you met Ziyan later. I have actually been paying attention to how you have been able to walk step by step to where you are today over these years. I think Ma Zhongquan and Zhou Ping'an should be regretting it so much their guts are turning green."

As he said this, he curled the corners of his mouth and smiled.

This way of speaking...

Lu Yan He always felt that Hong Qi was also like someone gloating and eating melon.

"However, the two of them have indeed made quite a few contributions to Star Entertainment," Hong Qi said. "Moreover, because the future development focus of Star Entertainment is to be an idol artist company, actors and singers will all have studios opened for them, no longer managed uniformly by the company; each studio will have long-term cooperation with Shihu."

Lu Yan He was a bit surprised.

"This is... Shihu is going to become a partner of Star Entertainment in the future?"

Chen Ziyan: "When I wanted to start Shihu, Hong Qi told me about this plan. In the future, Star Entertainment will specifically establish another agency for actors and singers. Star Entertainment will gradually transform to build an industrial chain for idol artist management, from artist packaging to involvement in related industries, completely revolving around idol artists."

Lu Yan He realized.

So that was it.

Star Entertainment had always said it wanted to build the country's top idol artist agency; now it seemed it didn't just want to be an "agency" company.

It wanted to build an industrial chain belonging to idol artists.

This was a huge project; no wonder Star Entertainment wanted to dismantle and move the management of actors and singers out.

Hong Qi said to Lu Yan He, "Yan He, I don't know if you're interested."

"What?" Lu Yan He was stunned.

Hong Qi said: "If we at Star Entertainment specifically establish another agency that doesn't include idol artists, would you be interested? Come and be a partner in this company of ours?"

"An agency... can also have partners?"

Lu Yan He's understanding of the word "partner" came from legal dramas.

Only law firms had partners.

Because the profession of a lawyer has particularity, every lawyer has their own clients in their hands. Law firms must use the partner method to keep these lawyers who have client resources in their firm.

However, do agencies need partners? At least in the country, Lu Yan He rarely saw such an existence. Lu Yan He looked at Chen Ziyan with some doubt, only to see Chen Ziyan also looking at Hong Qi with doubt.

Chen Ziyan said: "Hong Qi, you didn't tell me about this before."

"I also just had a sudden idea when I saw Yan He just now," Hong Qi said. "Yan He has his own film and television production company and has such great appeal in the industry. Do you mind?"

Chen Ziyan: "This isn't a question of whether I mind; you should have told me in advance instead of pulling a surprise attack."

Hong Qi: "I said, I also just had a sudden idea."

He wore a confident smile on his face.

Lu Yan He said with a smile, "President Hong, you had a sudden idea, but this matter also needs consideration for me. I will discuss it properly with Sister Ziyan after I go back. Since this matter is not the focus of our discussion today, let's get back to business."

Hong Qi looked at Lu Yan He with some surprise, seemingly not expecting that Lu Yan He would "back" Chen Ziyan like this, it was obvious—

He would definitely not refute Chen Ziyan's attitude on the spot.

Since Chen Ziyan expressed "dissatisfaction," he would not pick up the topic, even if it was a very tempting benefit.

Lu Yan He came to Star Entertainment today to conduct the "breakup negotiation" before terminating the contract.

During the contract period, many of Lu Yan He's work and income distributions needed to be confirmed clearly with Star Entertainment, so that when the time came to separate, there wouldn't be any sudden trouble.

Both sides had legal and financial personnel on site to compare various agreements, calculate accounts, and communicate.

They didn't need to participate in the specific matters, so they sat on the side chatting.

When Lu Yan He said "let's get back to business" while chatting, it actually meant one thing: this topic ends here, we won't talk about it today.

Chen Ziyan also looked at Lu Yan He with some astonishment.

Unknowingly, Lu Yan He had actually started to have the ability and the sensitivity to stand in front of her at critical moments and help her turn the situation around.

Hong Qi picked up his cup and took a sip of tea.

"President Hong, the company recently signed Liu Zhiyin; are you planning to build her into the 'Number One Sister'?" Lu Yan He asked.

He was still very concerned about Liu Zhiyin.

"She's done for," Hong Qi shook his head. "She wasted too much time in South Korea before, and after returning to the country, several years of time didn't allow her to achieve a breakthrough. Although she is very popular now, she is already almost thirty years old; not reaching the peak by this age, there is only a downhill road to walk in the future."

Hearing Hong Qi's judgment, Lu Yan He's heart sank.

"You should actually have Fu Li, whom Zhou Ping'an signed, change her track and let her be an idol artist," Chen Ziyan said. "Her basic conditions are the best I've seen in these years. She wants to be an actor, but the company has Jiang Yuqian and Zhang Lan, who have always viewed her as a threat and suppressed her, not letting her rise. Minglan has risen now, and you have signed Meng Li; for Fu Li to get ahead, it's harder than ascending to heaven."

Hong Qi: "That's Zhou Ping'an's business; why should I bother with him so much? Let them do as they please."

Lu Yan He felt even more strange in his heart.

What exactly was Hong Qi's attitude toward Star Entertainment, toward Ma Zhongquan and Zhou Ping'an?

"Lu Yan He came to the company today."

As soon as Zhou Ping'an arrived at the company, he heard this news.

His brows furrowed subconsciously.

Nowadays, Lu Yan He had become the worst stain on his resume—because everyone knew it was he who was blind and buried Lu Yan He for several years.

Zhou Ping'an nodded, entered his office, and gave instructions: "Is Fu Li in the company today?"

"Yes, she has an acting class today."

"Have her come to me after she finishes her class."

"Okay."

Twenty minutes later, Fu Li came over.

"Brother Ping'an," Fu Li was still wearing that usual pure-looking smile.

Ever since Zhou Ping'an knew that this woman had really bullied her classmates in school, he couldn't look directly at this seemingly pure smile on her face.

"You went to audition for 'The Birth of an Actor' before and didn't pass. Lu Yan He came to the company today."

"Ah," Fu Li had actually heard about it long ago, but she still subconsciously feigned an expression of surprise as if she had just heard it.

Zhou Ping'an said: "He is a person who is easily soft-hearted; you can see if you can find an opportunity to strive for this show."

Fu Li was stunned.

"Originally, the best way for this matter was for you to get on good terms with Yan Liang and let Yan Liang recommend you, but you didn't manage to handle Yan Liang, so you can only go try your luck yourself."

Fu Li bit her lip lightly and said, "Okay."

After saying it, she remembered to add: "Thank you, Brother Ping'an."

"In addition, I have accepted a drama for you," Zhou Ping'an said. "It's a web movie, but it's the female lead."

Fu Li was stunned upon hearing this.

A web movie...

Web movies had appeared for many years, and among them, there were those with online box office sales of forty or fifty million, which were good results. However, for an actor, web movies were indeed too low-class; anyone who wanted to develop well wouldn't go act in web movies.

Fu Li didn't expect Zhou Ping'an to have accepted a web movie for her.

"Brother Ping'an, a, a web movie?"

"After that incident of yours came out, basically no crew is willing to use you," Zhou Ping'an said. "You can't just stop acting forever."

Fu Li's eyes turned red instantly.

"Can I only act in web movies from now on?"

"Use the web movie to test the waters first; as long as your performance in the web movie is not bad and the feedback is okay, of course, you can still go back to acting in long dramas," Zhou Ping'an comforted her a little. "Now it's just using this drama to transition for a bit."

Fu Li reluctantly took the script handed over by Zhou Ping'an.