Chapter 52: Li Jie Finally Becomes a Hit

As time entered August, after the original film of *Painted Skin* passed review, Wei Jin sent people to Hollywood to produce the special effects, accompanied by a group of talents in the field of special effects.

For this special effects production, Wei Jin found an old-school North American special effects company—Digital Domain.

The company was established in 1993 and its fame in North America was second only to Industrial Light & Magic; one of its founders was none other than the well-known director who filmed *Titanic*, James Cameron.

However, after the production of *Titanic*, Cameron developed a strong interest in documentaries, so he simply disappeared from commercial films to focus on shooting documentaries and left Digital Domain.

And Cameron's good friend, another founder, Stan Winston, left the company one after another and even established his own special effects company.

With the departure of the two major founders, coupled with the decline in the company's business volume, Digital Domain had been losing money for these years, and the current head, Scott Ross, was already seeking opportunities to sell the company.

After William from a North American investment company made contact with them, both parties already had a preliminary intention to cooperate, and this post-production special effects work could be regarded as a professional test before the cooperation.

Wei Jin already planned to establish a special effects company domestically, and this cooperation with Digital Domain was a great opportunity to train his team.

This post-production would last for about three or four months, and this batch of special effects talents would observe and learn throughout the process; for this, a hefty commission was specially paid, just hoping they could bring back something useful.

Regarding the equipment for special effects production, Wei Jin could only pin his hopes on the connections of Summit Entertainment to see if they could scavenge a batch of second-hand equipment; one must know that North America controlled high-end manufacturing equipment very strictly.

At this moment, Wei Jin was holding Ceng Li, comfortably curled up on the sofa watching TV; today was the premiere day of *World's Number One*.

After this drama premiered in Taiwan, the response was quite good, and it was successively test-broadcast on several local channels in Mainland China, with very eye-catching test-broadcast results.

Finally, under the mediation of several major investors, Shanghai, Anhui Province, Jiangsu, and Chongqing joined forces to secure the premiere rights, with the four stations broadcasting it simultaneously on August 5th.

Currently, domestic television stations followed the "4+X" policy, which was introduced in 2004, meaning a TV series could be broadcast on at most 4 satellite TV channels and several terrestrial channels at the same time.

The production side offered a price of 800,000 per episode, and the four TV stations joined forces to secure it, which was not too outrageous; the total investment of the project was 30 million, and the first-round broadcast rights were sold for 32 million, so the subsequent ones could all be counted as profit; Wei Jin's premium investment also made a small profit.

In addition, Hairun also notified Wei Jin that *Drawing Sword* had been secured by CCTV for exclusive broadcast rights and would be broadcast in September; the first-round broadcast rights for this drama were sold at a price of 650,000 per episode, for a total price of 19.5 million.

The total investment for this drama was only 16 million, and currently, the first-round broadcast rights alone had already achieved profitability; the subsequent second and third rounds would be pure profit.

Wei Jin knew the long-tail effect of this drama; it would be rebroadcast and re-aired countless times, so this wave of investment was a massive profit.

"Li Jie, I couldn't tell that your cross-dressing look is actually quite good-looking; you brought the costume back, right?"

Wei Jin looked at Shangguan Haitang who had just appeared, having some indescribable thoughts, and his hands holding Ceng Li began to get restless.

"Change into the costume in a while; I want to witness the prowess of Heroine Shangguan."

"You were like this on the *Painted Skin* set; how do you have such a hobby?"

Ceng Li's face turned a bit red, and her breathing was rapid; clearly, Wei Jin's hand techniques were excellent.

That night, Wei Jin saw the highly skilled Shangguan Haitang as he wished and enjoyed a happiness that Guihai Yidao had never experienced.

The premiere results of *World's Number One* were quite eye-catching: Anhui Province Satellite TV's premiere was 2.3, Jiangsu TV was 2.1, the lowest, Chongqing Satellite TV, also had 1.8, and the highest, Shanghai Television, even reached 2.8.

One must know that with the development of the internet, it was already very difficult for TV station ratings to be as exaggerated as they were a few years ago; programs that could break 1 basically wouldn't be cut, and those breaking 2 were barely considered high-quality works.

And *World's Number One* created a result of breaking 2 on the very day of its premiere, and the media even boldly predicted that the highest rating might break 4.

As the plot unfolded, the ratings of *World's Number One* indeed climbed steadily, unstoppable, becoming the existence that dominated the screen in the summer of 2005, with high influence and discussion—stickers of the drama had already appeared at the entrance of elementary schools.

Less than a week after airing, the rating of Anhui Province Satellite TV had reached 3.5, Jiangsu TV also soared to 3.2, the usually mediocre Chongqing Satellite TV even exaggeratedly broke 3, and Shanghai Television was even more incredible, directly becoming number one in the same time slot, with ratings breaking 4.

That Department Head in charge of purchasing at Shanghai TV also called Wei Jin to express his gratitude, because at first, Shanghai TV didn't intend to participate; it was Chen Zhiming who used personal connections to drag this Department Head Chen to attend the screening meeting, and finally participate in the first-round broadcast. Who would have thought that what was originally thought to be a favor would actually bring such a blockbuster TV series to the station; Department Head Chen seemed to have already seen the leaders' praise for him at the year-end TV station meeting.

A hit TV series added a lot to the actors; after all, this era was still an era where works spoke for themselves.

The one who benefited the most from *World's Number One* was naturally Ceng Li; the character setting of Shangguan Haitang was originally very good: witty and resourceful, holding a feather fan and wearing a silk scarf, elegant and romantic, captivating all living things.

Seemingly a refined gentleman in a chaotic world, but actually a peerless beauty, gathering the spiritual essence of heaven and earth, elegant and unparalleled, proficient in medicine, divination, and astrology.

Dressed in men's clothing, with red lips and white teeth, heroic and spirited, not inferior to men, it was simply stunning, not to mention that her romantic subplot in the drama was also particularly moving.

This drama was definitely a highlight for Ceng Li, and it also gained her countless fans.

And one must know that 2005 could be considered the first year that Huaxia opened up to the androgynous style; a large number of girls cut their hair short, wore androgynous outfits, and advocated for female independence and freedom; the appearance of Shangguan Haitang perfectly matched the vision of independent women in the hearts of the audience.

Of course, the other actors also had varying degrees of improvement; Huo Jianhua's Guihai Yidao, Gao Yuanyuan's Liusheng Piaoxu, Chen Farong's Su Xin, all left a deep impression on the audience, and Teacher Li Jianyi's Eastern Depot Chief was even hailed as the strongest eunuch in martial arts dramas.

In short, *World's Number One* was a hit, and Ceng Li was even more of a hit; to what extent? After the TV series aired, Wei Jin had to move out of his own home.

The reason was none other than that it had been exposed that Ceng Li lived here, and several times when Wei Jin returned home, he was almost discovered by the paparazzi lurking around.

He thought that moving out temporarily would solve everything, but he didn't expect that the relationship between Ceng Li and Wei Jin would still be dug up.

The actress originally scheduled to play Shangguan Haitang, after seeing the popularity of *World's Number One*, exposed that she had been "snatched" from the role; for a time, the media was collectively excited—what great entertainment material, another day of double the revenue.

Consequently, many media outlets dug into various details and finally discovered that Ceng Li joined the crew after Wei Jin's "romantic investment," so who led the snatching? Wasn't it obvious? For a time, news that "Wei Jin spent millions in premium investment just to boost a woman to the top" flew everywhere; following June, Wei Jin once again made the entertainment headlines.

This wasn't the end; the media also discovered that there was another female star in the *World's Number One* crew who had once been rumored to be in a scandal with Wei Jin: Gao Yuanyuan.

Now the media was even more excited; the plots of "love triangle," "abandoning the old for the new," "changing affections," and "two women fighting for one man" were simply too explosive.

And the subsequent media interview with Gao Yuanyuan pushed this event to a climax.

"If I really had a relationship with him, why would I be a supporting role?"

Gao Yuanyuan's original intention was to explain the matter, but how could the media let go of traffic? After it was reported, it became:

"Romantic director abandons the old for the new; only hearing the new person laugh, not seeing the old person cry."

"Doesn't love the kissing girl, only loves the heroic heroine."

"."

Seeing the news, Wei Jin was also left between laughter and tears, only able to sigh that the unscrupulous media really had no integrity, but in his heart, he did feel a trace of guilt toward Gao Yuanyuan... However, soon, another piece of news quickly caused shock in the industry, diverting public attention.

"Internal conflict suspected to have appeared within Huayi..."

"Well-known agent may part ways with Huayi Brothers..."

"."

A newbie author writing a book for the first time, kneeling and begging for collections, follows, reading, and recommendations, thank you everyone. A newbie author writing a book for the first time, kneeling and begging for collections, follows, reading, and recommendations, thank you everyone.

(End of this chapter)