Chapter 598

"Huai Qian accepted *Night Visit to Little Master Cheng* very quickly," Chen Siqi put a piece of lobster meat into Lu Yan He's plate. "We originally thought he would hesitate for a while because this play has strong literary qualities, a large amount of dialogue, and the plot conflict is not very big. It belongs to the more experimental plays in the Jump Up Theater, so the cost control is even lower, and the remuneration given to him is basically not much higher than *The Vortex*. We even thought he would refuse."

Lu Yan He knew the story *Night Visit to Little Master Cheng*. This was a short story written for *Jump Up* by the traditional literary writer Teacher Ma Chao. It tells the story of a young writer who, in order to collect material for his next novel, contacts a Peking Opera star who was once very popular. As a result, he happens to run into the former apprentice of this star who also comes to visit him. The two have a fierce dispute over the adaptation of a play, which involves old grudges from the past, and finally ends unhappily.

The role Huai Qian is looking for in this play is the apprentice of the star.

In this kind of play, the content is all in the interaction between the two people. The actor's performance is extremely important and also shows skill.

And its theme is destined to be difficult to become popular and be warmly liked by the audience. After all, it is too literary—

But Chen Siqi and the others also left a share for this type of play in the design of the Jump Up Theater.

Internally, they all believe that although the threshold is a bit high, stories with actually very good content can be made at least two to three times a year.

"Maybe one of them will become popular, and the audience will like it," Chen Siqi said. "This is something no one can say for sure. When we did *China in the Classics*, who could have imagined that such a cultural program could also have a large group of loyal viewers?"

Lu Yan He nodded.

"This is very good," he said.

Chen Siqi: "Now it depends on the results of *Intern* next week. If the viewership rating can still be stable at above 0.6%, Yuehu TV and Beijiguang Video will have enough confidence to demand a price increase in the investment promotion negotiations held the week after next. In this way, we can also increase the production budget for each subsequent play, and we don't have to break one dollar into two to use like we do now."

"*Intern* stars Yan Liang, right?" Lu Yan He asked.

"Yes," Chen Siqi nodded. "The actress who plays Yan Liang's female boss is named Yan Yuling. She was recommended by Liu Zi and is a colleague she once worked with. She has acted in stage plays, and later returned to the family to raise children. I have already watched the play *Intern* in advance. Her acting skills are very good, but she does not have an agency yet. I have already recommended her to Sister Ziyan. I also asked the Jump Up Theater to sign an additional three-play contract with her, packaged together, with a total remuneration of 100,000."

In order to save money for the Jump Up Theater, Chen Siqi and the others have also thought of many ways. In situations like Yan Yuling, an actor with absolutely no fame but good acting skills, Chen Siqi will directly sign several play contracts in one breath, a package price, to save money on actor remuneration.

Chen Siqi also doesn't think this treats people too badly. The selling point of the play *Intern* is Yan Liang. It is conceivable that once the play is aired, as the female lead of this play, Yan Yuling will receive great attention. The potential benefits this brings to her are far from what a remuneration of tens of thousands of dollars can compare to.

In the market, business is business.

Lu Yan He understood what Chen Siqi meant.

Chen Siqi telling him now is also to give him a heads-up in advance.

Lu Yan He went to Yuehu and met with the leaders of Yuehu TV to confirm the cooperation on several important subsequent projects.

One is the second season of *The Birth of an Actor*, one is the play *Chinese Paladin*, and the other is the Jump Up Theater.

Judging from the two plays *Girl's Adventure* and *The Vortex* that have already aired, this theater did not explode with viewership ratings like *Friends* or *My Own Swordsman* right from the start, but it also exceeded the performance of Yuehu TV in the same time slot previously.

The key is that the investment cost of Yuehu TV in the Jump Up Theater is much lower than the investment cost in the corresponding time slot in the past.

The copyrights of the plays in the Jump Up Theater are all with Linghe. However, because the exclusive window time left for Yuehu TV for the plays in this theater is only 24 hours, and after 24 hours, it will be launched on Beijiguang Video, so in fact, the purchase price of Yuehu TV is much lower than that of Beijiguang Video.

Every time the Jump Up Theater launches a new one, it will drive the audience's clicks and views of the previous plays—

In this regard, traditional TV stations cannot achieve it.

It is also impossible to say that these plays are played in rotation 24 hours a day.

Yuehu TV is very satisfied.

The 24-hour window period, getting the viewership ratings of the first wave of audiences, is also enough to help this theater drive the viewership ratings of the TV station.

Xu Senjin, the head of Yuehu TV, received Lu Yan He very enthusiastically. Not only did he personally invite him to dinner, but he also specially signed an agreement with him, mainly an agreement to hire Lu Yan He as a creative partner of Yuehu TV and provide program ideas for Yuehu TV, without any substantive work requirements, for a period of three years, with an annual remuneration of 1 million—

Lu Yan He originally did not want to sign.

There is no free lunch in the world.

Lu Yan He also understood why Xu Senjin wanted to sign such an agreement with him. To put it bluntly, it was to bind Lu Yan He to Yuehu TV for a long time and establish a friendly cooperative relationship.

1 million a year is already a huge sum for ordinary people, but for a creator like Lu Yan He who has made amazing achievements in films, TV series, and variety shows, it is actually too little.

If Lu Yan He were willing, there are plenty of platforms outside willing to add a zero at the end to cooperate with him.

But Lu Yan He does not like to receive blank checks—

Money is easy to pay back, but favors are hard to pay back.

In this matter, the 1 million that seems to have no requirements and is close to being given away for free affects the normal business negotiations of many of his future projects behind the scenes.

However, Xu Senjin dispelled his concerns with a paragraph.

"Yan He, we all know that such an agreement doesn't even count as icing on the cake for you. However, from *Friends* to the Jump Up Theater, including *The Birth of an Actor* which is about to air its last episode, in less than a year, you have injected fresh blood into our Yuehu TV, and also made our continuously declining viewership ratings and advertising revenue usher in huge growth," he said sincerely. "Therefore, this is not about our future cooperation, but for the achievements you have brought to our Yuehu TV in the past six months, we unanimously believe that there should be some expression."

Lu Yan He thought for a while and said: "Director Xu, since this 3 million is used to pay for my creativity, why don't we do this? In the name of me and Yuehu TV, use this 3 million to establish a screenwriter bonus project to fund young directors and screenwriters in this industry who may not have found work for the time being, how about that? 100,000 for each person, a total of 30 people can be funded."

Xu Senjin was stunned.

Lu Yan He said seriously: "Director Xu, I am very grateful for your intentions towards me. However, please also understand me. This agreement will not be signed. I am a person who cares about one point of harvest for one point of cultivation. I will not fight for one point less of the benefits I should fight for, but for this kind of remuneration, if I accept it, I won't be able to sleep at night. Therefore, using it to fund young directors and screenwriters who are still strapped for cash in this industry, maybe among the future masters, there will be someone who, because of this funding, can stay in this industry and usher in his opportunity."

Xu Senjin smiled suddenly.

"Okay, since you say so, I won't persuade you anymore. Anyway, this is our station's intention towards you. How you want to use it, we will listen to you."

In the third week of May, after the previous two plays opened up the reputation for the Jump Up Theater, *Intern* finally ushered in the first play starring a currently popular actor.

Yan Liang has three plays under his belt: *Friends*, *Gold Rush*, and *The Summit*. In terms of reality in the TV series circle, he is in an absolutely top position.

With his current popularity and ability to carry a show, everyone has extremely high expectations for the viewership results of *Intern*.

At this time, the last episode of *The Birth of an Actor* was aired.

This actor competition variety show, which had gone through three months of broadcasting and triggered huge discussions and viewing enthusiasm across the country, achieved a good result of 1.26% in the viewership rating of the last episode.

The results of variety shows are more reflected in online video broadcasting platforms. Being able to achieve a viewership rating of 1.26% is already the highest peak among all variety shows on local TV stations in the past two years.

In this episode, Peng Zhixing specially took half a minute to introduce the Jump Up Theater and focused on introducing *Intern*, which will be aired on Sunday.

As a result, this episode actually became the episode that the audience complained about the most since the broadcast of *The Birth of an Actor*.

Mainly because there were too many advertisements in this episode.

There were three trailers for other film and television dramas alone.

A 30-second trailer for *Intern*, a 1-minute trailer for *Love Letter*, and a trailer for another TV series about to be aired on Yuehu TV.

However, complaints are complaints, but the effect is still very obvious.

The three plays were on the hot search that night—

These are all natural hot searches, not bought.

Moreover, especially *Love Letter*, this is the first time the trailer for this film has been released in the country. The fans who have been looking forward to it for a long time can finally get a glimpse of the real thing.

However, in this version of the trailer, there are still no shots of Zhang Ruozhi.

Just like the "cold treatment" towards her at the Xitu'er International Film Festival, Wan Qingqing and the others greeted the domestic media at that time to weaken the relevant reports on Zhang Ruozhi—the media itself had a good relationship with Linghe Company and Lu Yan He. After hearing that Zhang Ruozhi was about to take the college entrance examination and knowing their intention, they were very cooperative. In this version of the trailer, there is not a single shot of Zhang Ruozhi.

It is already late May, and the college entrance examination is imminent. At this time, neither Lu Yan He nor Chen Ziyan wants any mistakes to affect Zhang Ruozhi's college entrance examination.

And the news released by the crew itself before was that the male and female leads of this film were Lu Yan He and Chen Bige. Hardly anyone knew that *Love Letter* had a hidden female lead.

On Sunday, *Intern* started airing.

Yan Liang also fully demonstrated his current appeal as an actor in this play.

One minute after the broadcast, the real-time viewership rating rushed to 1.1%. After five minutes, it fell back slightly and slowly dropped to 0.8%. After that, the viewership rating stabilized and began to rise slowly again.

*Intern* tells a workplace story.

The style is relaxed and comedic.

Even the parts where Yan Liang is at odds with his female boss at the beginning and frequently has conflicts and friction are shot very comically.

Lu Yan He and Chen Siqi basically kept laughing for the first half hour and never stopped.

"The watchability of *Intern* is the best one in the Jump Up Theater so far," Chen Siqi commented. "It's too funny."

Lu Yan He also nodded and said: "Yan Liang is suitable for this play. I was a bit worried at first, thinking that he used to act in more serious, bitter, and deep roles. I didn't expect his style to be inexplicably suitable for this young intern with a bit of a repressed personality."

"In the past, for this type of theme, if it were a young male intern, it would definitely lean towards being young, handsome, and having the hormonal attraction of youth to the female boss. But in this play, it doesn't go in this direction," Chen Siqi said. "The funniest thing is that he has to endure everything in front of his boss and still accompany her with a smile, while the hysterical state of going crazy in private is too realistic. This can definitely resonate with working people."

Lu Yan He searched for real-time trends online.

"You're right."

"Hmm?"

"Many people say they empathize with *Intern*," Lu Yan He said. "The discussion of *Intern* on my homepage is very high. Many media people I follow seem to be watching it."

Recommend the old book *I Became the Scandalous Heroine Overnight*