Chapter 601: The Director Wants to Resign

"Were those two people just now actors from 'The Silent Staircase'?" Hu Siwen asked.

Lu Yanhe nodded. "Yes."

"The two of them... they came to find you, right?" Hu Siwen said. "I saw them standing at your door from far away; I don't know what they were talking about."

"I don't know if they were here to find me either; let's not worry about them for now." Lu Yanhe asked, "Brother Siwen, have you decided which platform to sell 'Co-ed Roommates' to?"

Hu Siwen nodded and said, "That's exactly what I came to discuss with you; I want to hear your opinion."

Lu Yanhe fetched a bottle of mineral water for Hu Siwen.

Hu Siwen said, "I want 'Co-ed Roommates' to broadcast simultaneously on three video platforms and two television stations."

This statement from Hu Siwen left Lu Yanhe completely bewildered.

"How did you suddenly... come up with this idea?"

"I had a serious discussion with Old Bai, then contacted various platforms to deeply discuss the planning for 'Co-ed Roommates'," Hu Siwen said. "To be honest, in order to control production costs initially, we didn't cast any stars for this drama; given our current market environment, that was still somewhat risky."

"It's also an experiment." Lu Yanhe waved his hand, feeling Hu Siwen didn't need to keep emphasizing the word "risky." "What reason made you finally decide you want so many platforms broadcasting together?"

"On one hand, they aren't very optimistic about the broadcast performance of 'Co-ed Roommates,' so the procurement price keeps staying low; even with Old Bai directing, under current rules, everyone still values actors more," Hu Siwen briefly explained his reasoning. "If five parties broadcast jointly, although each party's procurement price will drop significantly, the total combined could still reach around three million per episode. Moreover, the main reason is that if we sell exclusively to a single platform, since they aren't optimistic, they won't be willing to allocate corresponding promotional resources. I've watched the finished cut of 'Co-ed Roommates' many times; I believe our content has no issues. The main problem we need to solve is how to let more viewers see this drama, know it's airing, and then click in to watch."

Lu Yanhe listened to Hu Siwen's judgment, nodding occasionally.

"Broadcasting on a single platform, if that platform doesn't allocate better promotional resources, it's easy for the show to sink. But if we broadcast across five platforms simultaneously, the combined promotional resources from all parties will definitely exceed what a single one would provide, plus the audience reach will be larger, giving us a better chance to become a hit."

"But launching simultaneously on five platforms also faces one problem: the audience will be relatively scattered. With an already small viewer base split across five platforms, the data for each individual platform will look even worse."

"However, 'Co-ed Roommates' doesn't have star leads to begin with, so there weren't many fans or viewers who would support it before the broadcast anyway," Hu Siwen said. "Even if we aired on a single platform alone, we'd still essentially be starting from zero."

Lu Yanhe understood Hu Siwen's thinking.

Generally speaking, many platforms nowadays are quite unwilling to accept non-exclusive broadcasts.

However, 'Co-ed Roommates' is clearly an exception.

Based on the current situation, everyone isn't optimistic about the market performance of 'Co-ed Roommates,' yet because Bai Jingnian is directing, and having previewed the episodes and seen the content itself, they feel this drama still has the possibility of replicating the explosive success of a situational comedy, plus the fact that this drama is produced by Linghe—

On such small projects, they are certainly still willing to try some new things together with Linghe.

Lu Yanhe said, "If the various platforms aren't willing to put up sufficient promotional budgets ourselves, then we at Linghe will handle the promotion ourselves."

"But if we do that, wouldn't we be investing another chunk of cost into promotion?"

"That's normal," Lu Yanhe said. "I haven't seen the full episodes of 'Co-ed Roommates' yet, but if we all agree the drama's quality is solid and the platforms aren't willing to take the risk, I'd rather they give us a lower procurement price but a higher revenue-sharing percentage, and we handle the promotion ourselves."

Hu Siwen hadn't expected Lu Yanhe to immediately share this same viewpoint.

"I support your idea of not broadcasting exclusively on one platform. 'Co-ed Roommates' lacks star leads to attract a fixed fanbase that could drive the viewership ratings; basically, we can only rely on how many casual viewers our surface-level promotion can attract. Therefore, multi-platform joint broadcasting is the suitable model for 'Co-ed Roommates'." Lu Yanhe quickly expressed his opinion, then added, "However, I feel that since 'Co-ed Roommates' is a pilot-type project, we shouldn't fear failure. If we can't even carry out normal drama promotion, how can we know whether the experiment of such a project ultimately succeeded or failed?"

Hu Siwen nodded, falling into deep thought.

Lu Yanhe asked, "Brother Siwen, the first season of 'Co-ed Roommates' is already finished filming; whether we make a sequel depends on the first season's broadcast performance. Apart from this drama, do you have any new ideas?"

Hu Siwen said, "In the second half of the year, I'll lead the 'Co-ed Roommates' team to produce three dramas for the 'Jump Up' theater. Regarding 'Chinese Paladin,' our team's current skill level is relatively limited and can't quite keep up; it will mainly rely on Luo Dao's team. We've only arranged for two people from our side to follow the production crew and learn some production management experience."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"This year I signed several photography majors graduating this season, and I plan to discuss with Luo Dao about sending them to the 'Chinese Paladin' set as assistant cinematographers to learn through practical experience," Hu Siwen said. "Other crew positions are easier to manage, but cinematographers are the most scarce resource; it's purely a personal technical skill where good or bad is immediately obvious. Moreover, the importance of cinematography to a film or television project goes without saying; a good cinematographer is essentially the second director on set, and many directors themselves started as cinematographers. Therefore, good cinematographers are competed for by too many companies and basically divided up among major firms. I'm thinking that if we cultivate our own, it will be more convenient for us when developing future projects or participating in others."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

Linghe's biggest shortcoming right now is its lack of foundation, so personnel across all areas cannot yet reach a level matching the company's positioning.

But if we hire external help for every single project, first, the people themselves are unstable; second, we might not find suitable candidates; and third, hiring from outside always means paying inflated prices.

In this regard, Hu Siwen, an old hand who led teams at Jing TV for so many years, is someone Lu Yanhe trusts deeply in his judgment.

After leaving Lu Yanhe's room, Hu Siwen directly checked into this hotel.

It was too late; he planned to sleep here tonight, visit the 'The Silent Staircase' production crew tomorrow, and then leave.

The 'The Silent Staircase' production crew employed three people signed to Linghe, one of whom was an old subordinate Hu Siwen had recruited from Jing TV, currently serving as an assistant producer on 'The Silent Staircase'.

As a result, before Hu Siwen had even entered his room, he received a phone call from this old subordinate.

"Brother, you've come to Jinkou?"

"Oh, your sources are so well-informed?" Hu Siwen laughed. "I was planning to contact you tomorrow."

"You came to Jinkou without telling me in advance; I could have picked you up."

"What's there to pick up? I took a taxi from the train station and reached the hotel in twenty minutes."

"So you're at the hotel now? Henglong?"

"Yes, how did you know?"

"Our production crew is staying at this hotel too. You probably haven't had much dinner yet, right? I know a decent barbecue spot next to the hotel; shall we go grab some skewers?"

"Look what time it is." Hu Siwen checked the time; it was eleven o'clock at night, which was still acceptable.

For people in this industry, staying up late is an essential skill.

"Alright then."

Hu Siwen's old subordinate was named Xin Pingqing.

Previously at Jing TV, he wasn't a formal employee either, having always worked there under a labor dispatch arrangement.

His ability was second to none; there was nothing to criticize.

Therefore, as soon as Hu Siwen decided to join Linghe, he contacted him immediately.

Previously, Xin Pingqing mainly worked on Hu Siwen's projects, serving as a "project manager" for Hu Siwen on several occasions, possessing rich experience.

During this filming of 'Co-ed Roommates,' Xin Pingqing also served as an assistant producer.

When Xin Pingqing originally came over, Hu Siwen had promised him that he would promote him in the future, giving him the opportunity to independently lead and manage production projects.

Previously, while working at Jing TV, due to his labor dispatch status, unless he encountered some benefactor or some opportunity fell from the sky, even working until retirement would never have allowed him to independently oversee a film or television project.

Therefore, Xin Pingqing followed Hu Siwen here.

Hu Siwen valued Xin Pingqing quite highly.

Because Xin Pingqing was indeed reliable and solid in his work.

The two of them ran into each other and went together to a barbecue restaurant.

Halfway through skewering, Xin Pingqing suddenly said, "Brother, Director An wants to join our Linghe; do you know about this?"

"An Jian?" Hu Siwei heard this, nodded, and said, "He mentioned it when we were discussing this drama with him before."

Xin Pingqing asked, "Then is there any chance he'll join our Linghe?"

"It depends on how well this drama turns out," Hu Siwei said. "If it's filmed well, Linghe is currently short on directors, so we might sign him too; he's also a very experienced senior director."

Xin Pingqing's face showed hesitation.

"What's wrong? Do you have a conflict with him?" Hu Siwei found this strange.

Why would Xin Pingqing suddenly care about An Jian's affairs?

Xin Pingqing said, "It's not that I have a conflict with him; it's that I received an anonymous letter this morning."

"An anonymous letter?"

"Didn't he direct two TV dramas before? The credited Screenwriter for both those dramas was also him," Xin Pingqing said. "The letter claims those two scripts were actually written by someone else, and he plagiarized them to pass them off as his own scripts."

Xin Pingqing took out this letter and placed it in front of Hu Siwei.

Hu Siwei frowned, picked up the letter, and read it from beginning to end.

"There's no evidence, nor does it say whose work was plagiarized—"

Xin Pingqing nodded. "Yes, my first reaction was that someone is deliberately slandering him. Who accuses someone of plagiarism like this? There should always be reasonable and evidence-based proof. I originally didn't want to pay attention to it, but upon hearing he might want to join Linghe, I felt I had to tell you about this."

Hu Siwei asked, "Have you talked to An Jian about this situation?"

"Take an anonymous reporting letter with no direction or evidence whatsoever and talk to An Jian about it? Do you think I'm too close to him?" Xin Pingqing shook his head. "He might even think I'm threatening him. This person has a paranoid personality; after interacting with him these past few months, he's not very easy to deal with."

Hu Siwei said, "If someone hypes up this matter, it won't just affect whether he joins Linghe; it will also impact the drama 'The Silent Staircase'."

Scandals can always devastatingly affect everything and everyone related to them; the past can defile the present, and the part can defile the whole.

He added, "If such things happen again in the future, tell me immediately."

Xin Pingqing nodded. "I originally intended to investigate it myself before reporting to you."

Hu Siwei said, "Regardless of whether this matter is true or false, the fact that the anonymous letter was delivered to your room indicates someone wants to stir up trouble. We must guard against this immediately, especially by preparing contingency plans in case someone exposes it online. You must know that in this era, everything tends to get leaked online."

"Okay, Brother, I understand."

Hu Siwei looked at the anonymous reporting letter in his hand, his brows slightly furrowed.

"Knock, knock!" Suddenly, someone knocked on the door.

Lu Yanhe was brushing his teeth, preparing to go to sleep.

Hearing the knock, he felt somewhat puzzled.

It was so late; who would come to find him without prior notice?

Lu Yanhe walked to the back of the door and looked through the peephole.

It was actually Director An Jian.

Lu Yanhe opened the door in surprise.

"Director An, is there something urgent you need with me so late at night?"

An Jian's expression was also not very good.

He asked, "Yan He, sorry to disturb you so late, but I have an urgent matter that I must tell you about."

Lu Yanhe looked at An Jian puzzledly. "What matter?"

An Jian took a deep breath. "I can no longer serve as the director for 'The Silent Staircase'."

'The Silent Staircase' was scheduled to officially start filming tomorrow.

At this moment, An Jian suddenly proposed he could no longer serve as director.

"Why? Director An, our drama starts filming tomorrow; you suddenly saying you can't direct now is a bit—"

Although shocked, Lu Yanhe remained quite calm as he looked at An Jian, waiting for an explanation.

An Jian took an envelope out of his pocket.

"This was found stuffed into my room after I returned tonight."

Lu Yanhe felt somewhat surprised and took it into his hands.

"What is this?"

"You'll know once you read it; I don't know how to explain it," An Jian sighed.

Lu Yanhe had no choice but to take the letter out of the envelope.

It was a sheet of A4 printed paper.

Everything on it was in printed typeface.

It followed a very standard official document format: FangZheng FangSong_GB2312 font, size three, with line spacing of 30 points.

The letter's content was short but full of threats:

If you continue to serve as the director of 'The Silent Staircase', the matter of you deceiving your friend out of their script and plagiarizing others' creative achievements will be exposed online.

Lu Yanhe froze.

"Deceiving someone out of their script?"

An Jian sighed. "There was once a Screenwriter who collaborated with me; those two dramas of mine were actually co-written by him and me. However, due to some incidents that occurred at the time, in order for those two dramas to be broadcast smoothly, his name was omitted from the final Screenwriter credits. He himself agreed to this; at the time, he made certain statements and took some problematic stances. If his name had appeared in the main creative staff list, neither of those two dramas could have been broadcast."

Lu Yanhe looked at An Jian somewhat puzzledly and asked, "If he himself agreed to it, how did the current situation arise?"

An Jian's expression became somewhat gloomy. "Not long after our second drama was broadcast, he passed away. Later, his son somehow learned about this situation and insisted that I had stolen his father's script, causing his father to die in depression. In reality, his father had signed a declaration voluntarily waiving credit, but his son insisted that declaration was not signed voluntarily by his father, believing we had deceived him. He even sued us, but because there was a commitment letter for voluntary waiver that had been notarized at the time, he lost the lawsuit."

Lu Yanhe frowned. "If that's the case, then this matter simply doesn't align with the facts. Why, after receiving such an anonymous threatening letter, would you resign as director?"

"Look at that letter again."

"Hmm?" Lu Yanhe froze, lowered his head again, and took another look.

Deceiving a friend out of their script, plagiarizing others' creative achievements...

At first glance, this might seem to refer to the same matter, but upon closer inspection.

Deceiving away, plagiarizing.

Friend, others.

Script, creative work.

If it were the same matter, why use different words to say it twice?

Lu Yanhe looked at An Jian with confusion.

"Plagiarism?" he asked. "Your script involves plagiarism?"

"The script I co-wrote with him back then did indeed have such a situation in the part he was responsible for," An Jian said, lowering his head and sighing. "When we discovered this, the drama had already aired, making further modifications or adjustments impossible. Yet, because of the credit attribution, the blame fell on me."

Listening to this, Lu Yanhe felt extremely surprised, while also finding the whole matter strangely convoluted.

However, he understood what An Jian meant.

Though he temporarily did not know whether it was true or false.

"Was this matter not exposed at the time?" Lu Yanhe asked.

Generally, plagiarism cannot be kept hidden.

If An Jian truly had a plagiarism scandal, Chen Siqi and the others should not have chosen him to direct "The Silent Staircase."

An Jian said, "After we confirmed the plagiarism existed, we contacted the plagiarized author, explained the relevant circumstances, and agreed on a compensation plan."

"If that is the case, then who delivered this anonymous letter to your room?" Lu Yanhe asked.

An Jian said, "I don't know. However, quite a few people knew about this matter back then; many in our company were aware. It could be someone who bears a grudge against me, unwilling to see me make a comeback, so they slipped this anonymous letter into my room."

Lu Yanhe nodded. "That is possible."

"This drama has attracted much attention. Being given the opportunity to direct it is something I truly cherish, and I never imagined I would one day collaborate with you," An Jian said. "But if I continue directing, and if the person behind this refuses to let me go, many things will be dug up. So much time has passed since the incident occurred that many things can no longer be clearly explained; it is a tangled mess. In the end, it will bring a very terrible impact to this project. Therefore, after serious consideration, I must resign as director. I am very sorry for bringing you so much trouble because of this matter."

Lu Yanhe remained silent for a long while, saying nothing.

He knew that at this moment, An Jian no longer serving as director was the safest option. Although in the story An Jian had just told, An Jian did not actually have any real problems, in the film and television industry, instability itself is the problem.

Lu Yanhe said, "Director An, if you resign now, filming starts tomorrow, and there will be no director on set."

An Jian: "I know, but if I continue directing and this person really digs up these matters later to hype them online, the negative impact on this drama will be even greater."

At this moment, Lu Yanhe's phone chimed; it was a message from Hu Siwei.

Just when everyone was about to go to sleep, such a matter suddenly arose.

The production team had to convene an emergency meeting.

Chen Siqi, who was now personally in charge of the Jump Up Theater, also joined online.

"Who delivered the anonymous letters to Brother Siwei's and Director An's rooms? Can we find out?" Chen Siqi's first reaction was, "Can we figure out this person's motive?"

Xin Pingqing said, "I have already communicated with the hotel and reviewed the surveillance footage. We can only see a silhouette, but the person covered themselves tightly with a mask and hat, so we cannot identify who it is."

"Can't Director An recognize them either? Since this person knows so much about Director An's past, they should be an old acquaintance of Director An," Chen Siqi said.

An Jian shook his head. "I didn't recognize them. I don't know who it is."

Lu Yanhe glanced at An Jian, then withdrew his gaze and said to Chen Siqi, "For now, let us first discuss tomorrow's filming. Tomorrow is the first day of production. If the director suddenly resigns, even if these matters are not exposed, all sorts of speculation will surely arise within the production team, affecting the atmosphere."

Chen Siqi said, "We truly do not know what impact this matter will cause later. Before it is resolved, we cannot gamble with a project. Since Director An has also proposed withdrawing from this project, I think what we need to consider now is who to find to save the situation."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's gaze turned toward Lu Yanhe.

Lu Yanhe: "..."

"Let me state clearly first: I cannot be the director," he said. "My familiarity with this drama in the early stage was entirely from an actor's perspective. If you make me take over as director halfway through, the resulting drama will lose the god's-eye view, which will severely affect the overall quality of the entire series."

Hu Siwei asked, "Among the directors collaborating with the Jump Up Theater, is there anyone who can come immediately to save the situation?"

Chen Siqi: "I have already sent messages to them and am currently making urgent confirmations. I will pull together a list for everyone shortly. But even if we can immediately find a director to save the situation, they cannot go directly to the set and direct without knowing anything. We must at least give them one day to familiarize themselves with the situation. They might not even be familiar with the script."

Lu Yanhe asked, "Otherwise, should we notify everyone now to suspend the start of filming?"

"Suspending the start of filming is also an option," Chen Siqi nodded.

Xin Pingqing said, "But if we suspend filming, President Lu, you are about to fly to Malaysia to join the crew for filming 'Tropical Rainy Season,' followed by 'Chinese Paladin.' The earliest this drama could resume filming would be October."

Lu Yanhe's schedule was also a very difficult issue to coordinate.

"The broadcast schedule and pre-roll advertisements for 'The Silent Staircase' are mostly finalized. If we miss the broadcast slot, we will have to pay liquidated damages to the advertisers," Xin Pingqing added.

Chen Siqi: "There is another method."

"What method?" Lu Yanhe asked.

"Ask Director An to continue directing, but without credit," Chen Siqi said. "Use a pseudonym."

The others looked at each other in dismay.

Seeing that many people are worried, let me clarify: although "Pick a Day to Become Famous" is indeed in its middle-to-late stages, there is still (not a short) period of time before it concludes.

I am simply tired of writing it. In fact, writing a story of a completely different genre alongside it has given me new motivation to write "Pick a Day to Become Famous." Perhaps you can see this from these two chapters.

Furthermore, the main storyline of this book was originally Yan He's background story, but there were too many people complaining, so I could only move the career storyline to the front. Once I have written enough of it, I will post an announcement telling everyone that the background storyline is coming next; those who do not wish to read it can simply stop reading after that point.

Additionally, many people have been asking about "Childhood." I did not want to reply earlier because I did not want to spoil anything, but let me say it all at once: when "Childhood" appears, it will be around the time this novel is nearly finished, and it is tied to the background storyline.

I may write poorly, but I truly have no intention of perfunctorily dealing with you.

Holes that are dug must eventually be filled.

Also, I do not feel that "One Night" had a rushed ending. For a long novel, unless you comprehensively provide an ending for every single event, there will always be the regret of "many things left unexplained." To speak honestly, the main storyline of "One Night" has already reached its conclusion with a very clear beginning, development, climax, and resolution. As for the lack of side stories, that is indeed true; within my lifetime, I will strive to update a few side stories for it.

Finally, the old segment: I recommend my old book, "I Became the Scandalous Female Lead Overnight." Do not ask me why I keep promoting it; it is because if I do not hang it at the end of the article, the new subscriptions for this novel are only in the double digits. If I hang it, it can reach triple or even quadruple digits. I worked hard writing a long novel of over three million words, so naturally, I hope more people will see it. I am satisfied with this book.

As for those I am not satisfied with, have you ever seen me recommend them? (Bows)