Chapter 918: August

Just at this moment, the American magazine *Variety* suddenly reported:

*Moon Legion*, directed by Liu Bige, is currently in talks with Yan He, strongly inviting him to participate in this film.

Once the news broke, fans across the globe were in an uproar.

Is it real or fake?

Is it even possible?

Back home, many people also sent messages to Yan He to confirm the truth of the news.

Yan He didn't know how to answer for a moment.

He hesitated for a while, then gave Darren Wilson a call.

Not long after, Darren Wilson responded to the matter through the channels of *The New York Times*:

Yan He has indeed received an invitation to perform and is currently discussing the possibility of appearing with Liu Bige. If a suitable creative direction can be found, the possibility of him appearing is not ruled out, but one thing is certain: Yan He will not appear in the film as a member of the Moon Legion.

"Why don't you want to join the Moon Legion? Generally speaking, actors who participate in the *Moon Legion* film are all aiming to become a member of the Moon Legion," Li Zhibai asked Yan He.

Yan He said, "I don't want to be tied too deeply to it. On the other hand, the Moon Legion is, to some extent, the American mainstream. Many people view it as the embodiment of the U. S. military. I think it's better if I don't play a role in it."

Li Zhibai showed a look of surprise.

"I've discovered that your sensitivity in this regard is truly strong. If it were me, I wouldn't even think of these issues; isn't it just a sci-fi movie?"

Yan He: "In reality, it might be that I'm overthinking it, because as you said, it's just a sci-fi movie set in the interstellar era. But once you truly stay in the United States for a period of time, you will realize what kind of significance this IP holds in the hearts of Americans, just like *Journey to the West* and *Romance of the Three Kingdoms* are to us Chinese. If you ask whether they are our mainstream, it's a bit far-fetched, but if you say they aren't, honestly, it's just because they were created in ancient times. If they were set in the contemporary era, like *Moon Legion*, it's really not certain. To look at it from another angle, could you accept a foreigner playing roles in these works?"

Li Zhibai thought for a moment and nodded.

"Understood."

Yan He added, "Regardless of whether I act in *Moon Legion* or not, I think you can go audition and see if you can land an important role."

"Didn't you just say that one shouldn't go and play a role in the Moon Legion?"

"The characters in this movie aren't all from the Moon Legion. Liu Bige intends to set up a planet with Chinese culture as its background in the one he is directing. The entire story will take place on this planet, so a large number of Asian actors will be needed, and it will certainly be dominated by Chinese actors."

Li Zhibai understood and nodded.

"Even if I appear in this one, I won't continue to participate in subsequent *Moon Legion* films, but there are some roles that aren't impossible to continue appearing in the sequels," Yan He said. "*Moon Legion* will definitely be able to help you further expand your popularity in Europe and America. For your current stage, *Moon Legion* is a great place to 'shear the wool'."

"That could work," Li Zhibai laughed.

Yan He: "The auditions for this movie should be held domestically."

"Can't Jiang Yuqian act in it?" Li Zhibai suddenly remembered.

"Liu Bige should have already gone to talk to her about her role. Liu Bige is going to write a role for a tribal princess, and he wants to invite Sister Yuqian to play it. To be precise, there are two princesses; Sister Yuqian plays the elder princess, and there is also a role for a slightly younger princess that Liu Bige wants Wang Jing to play," Yan He said. "These two princesses will also be characters in the main plot."

"Has the script been written yet?"

"Not yet, it's still in the conceptual stage," Yan He said. "Currently, we are proposing various plot development ideas centered around the character Liu Bige designed for me."

"Damn, that's awesome, the story line is being developed directly around your character."

"Boraie insisted that I participate before he would support the ideas Liu Bige proposed, so it had to be this way. I couldn't possibly go and play a stereotypical villain."

"Hmm, that's true," Li Zhibai said very seriously. "If others knew that a movie like *Moon Legion* was tailoring roles and story lines for you, they would probably be so jealous their eyes would turn red."

Yan He: "That's also a matter of the right time, the right place, and the right people. If it weren't Liu Bige directing, and if *Godless* hadn't been a box office smash, there's no way this would have happened."

Li Zhibai nodded.

"By the way, I haven't even told you yet, I'm currently working on *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop*, and I want you to make a cameo, appearing as Yan He."

"Sure, when?"

"Whenever, just shoot a scene when you come to visit the set," Li Zhibai said. "We want to do a bit of a nod to the movie *Love Letter* in this show."

"Alright," Yan He nodded.

Zhang Ruozhi and him in the same frame again in *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop*?

And a nod to *Love Letter*?

Yan He laughed.

He asked, "Then in this show, am I appearing as Huai Jingshu, or as Yan He?"

"Of course it's Yan He, isn't Huai Jingshu already dead?" Li Zhibai asked.

Yan He thought for a moment and said, "It's not impossible to make up for the regrets in *Love Letter* in a parallel universe like *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop*."

"Huh?" Li Zhibai asked, "How to make up for it?"

Yan He said, "For example, I still appear riding a motorcycle, and then, in *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop*, using the tone of Zhang Ruozhi's character, she gives me a reminder not to ride a motorcycle in places that are too dangerous. It would be a design similar to that. In *Love Letter*, didn't Huai Jingshu die because he was speeding on the mountain?"

Li Zhibai nodded, "Understood, but isn't that riding the coattails of *Love Letter* too much?"

"What does that matter? She and I are in the same frame again, do I still care if it's riding the coattails of *Love Letter*?" Yan He said with a smile. "It's fine. Actually, being able to give everyone a shot like this in another show is quite good. If the regrets of *Love Letter* can bring everyone a little comfort in this way, why wouldn't it be a good thing?"

As the second drama series Li Zhibai has produced and controlled since *Flying Over the Grass*, *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* itself has also received a lot of attention.

Yuehu Station, in order to snatch the exclusive broadcast rights and the exclusive broadcast window for this show, directly offered a package price for two other dramas produced by Li Zhibai's family.

Of course, the prerequisite was to sell *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* to them.

There were really quite a few television stations competing for *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop*.

Ever since the concept of the television window period was played out by Yan He's dramas, the previous first-tier satellite channels all seemed to have found a way to survive again, and advertisers returned.

Of course, it cannot be compared to the grand occasion when television stations monopolized the channels; there will never be such a grand occasion again.

However, this gave several first-tier television stations space to seek transformation in the cracks.

And besides television stations, video platforms fought fiercely to compete for this show.

Produced and starred in by Li Zhibai, and the first television drama for *Love Letter* lead actress Zhang Ruozhi.

Just from the two leads, this show had the quality of a blockbuster.

Even if it didn't explode, given the commercial value of the two actors, the advertising revenue of this show would definitely not make the platform lose money.

Dramas starring the two of them are the kind that can make advertisers bring money in sacks.

In the end, it was Arctic Light Video and Icefield Video that won the show.

These are actually considered routine operations—

The appeal of the five words "Li Zhibai starring" makes it very normal to achieve such commercial performance.

What was more unexpected was that Maxine and HP, two overseas streaming media companies, actually took a fancy to this show as well.

The performance of *Flying Over the Grass* on HP was indeed quite good, but to be fair, it hadn't reached the level where they would pre-order *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* before it even started filming.

Tang Mu White from HP flew to China in person to talk to Li Zhibai about purchasing the show.

"We plan not only to promote this show in the Asian region but also to promote and publicize it in the European and American regions," Tang Mu White said. "Currently, although Maxine's user base in the Asian region is higher than ours, you also know that Maxine has at least 2-3 Korean, Japanese, and Thai dramas of the same type launched every month. I can promise you that not only will we promote this show according to global broadcast standards, but in the week it is launched, HP will not launch a second drama focusing on the romance genre."

Li Zhibai indeed did not expect Tang Mu White to give such a promise.

However, this promise was very valuable.

Li Zhibai didn't just care about the purchase price—under Yan He's influence, Li Zhibai now also cares very much about the other treatment a show can receive.

If *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* can achieve good viewership results on HP, then for Li Zhibai, it will have a boost beyond just the acting fee.

*The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* sold the overseas streaming broadcast rights to HP for 600,000 USD per episode, totaling 9.6 million USD.

This 16-episode Chinese drama, before it even started filming, had already recovered its production costs and started making a profit through the pre-orders of these broadcast platforms.

Not only that, domestically, *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* also drove the sales of two other dramas produced by Li Zhibai's company, no longer facing the predicament of being "unsellable."

In the evening, Li Zhibai and Yan He were playing games together in the house at Ziyuanqiao, and he said to Yan He, "I now finally feel how much pressure you are usually under."

Yan He was a bit surprised, "What's going on?"

"A project, everyone is optimistic about it, offering high prices, everyone fawning over it, but you know very well in your heart that this is all because your past achievements, your current fame, and your commercial value are endorsing this project," Li Zhibai said. "You invisibly walked onto a path where you can only succeed; you have no way to bear the consequences of failure. So much money has already been spent by others in the early stages, they've paid the bill. If it fails, of course, you won't lose money, you'll still be making money, but you know how much loss you've caused others, and you also know that for your next project, everyone's trust in you won't be as high, and they might not even dare to buy your shows anymore. Even if they do, it definitely won't be at such a high price. But the problem is, you aren't just yourself, you are also responsible for many people, and others will also suffer losses because of you."

Yan He smiled.

Listening to these words from Li Zhibai, Yan He felt quite emotional in his heart.

Once upon a time, this was not a problem Li Zhibai would have considered at all.

Even when making *Flying Over the Grass*, Li Zhibai didn't worry about these things.

Yan He knew why Li Zhibai had become worried and burdened with the *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* project.

Because that was his family's company.

The success or failure of *The Hundred Dollar Coffee Shop* affected his family's company.

Once the person bearing the consequences is no longer mainly oneself, the psychological burden immediately skyrockets.

They are all such people.

Yan He smiled without a word.

After finishing the game in his hand, Yan He then said, "You're just not used to it, it's not that you can't carry it."

As time entered August, besides attending the promotion before the release of *Cloud 3*, Yan He finally recorded a VCR with Li Zhibai and Yan Liang, announcing that they would hold a concert at the end of the month.

The concert will be held at the end of the month. Besides the live audience, those who didn't buy tickets can also watch the live broadcast online on Arctic Light Video and Icefield Video.

This concert will only be held once. It will have solo parts for each of the three, as well as performances by the three of them together. Not only that, they will also bring several new songs to the concert—

All of them are new songs created by Yan He.

At a time when several of them have already achieved huge success on the path of actors, in fact, few people will notice that the three of them have another identity, which is singer.

Rumors about this concert had circulated before, but because there were no updates for a long time, everyone forgot about it and assumed it was fake news.

No one expected that a bombshell piece of news would suddenly drop from the sky—

The concert thing was actually true.

And they were only holding one!

Their fans were stunned—

Following that, they began to roll up their sleeves, determined to get tickets for this concert.

What surprised Yan He, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang was that there were also many people around them in the entertainment industry who came to ask them for tickets, wanting to attend their concert. Some wanted to come themselves, and some had family members who wanted to come.

The number of tickets reserved for friends and family by Yan He and the others was completely insufficient.

And the tickets put on the ticketing platform for public sale were sold out in ten seconds once the ticketing opened.

It was like a hot knife through butter.

And to prevent scalpers from speculating, the tickets sold to the public all required real-name purchasing and entry, and could not be transferred.

Under these circumstances, those with money and those with connections still found it hard to get a ticket.

For a time, tickets for friends and family became even more precious than gold. ===== CHAPTER 919 =====