Chapter 648: Unconventional Short Drama Investment

Jin Li said with a wry smile: "I still have to participate in Director Chu's films in the future. This isn't a one-off deal, so it can't be calculated like that."

Qi Guanmingzhu thought for a while, but still said: "He ultimately took huge advantage of you. It's because you're a good person that you didn't really haggle with him."

Sui Lingfang agreed with this point very much.

She felt that Jin Li was too hasty when reaching the promotional cooperation agreement with Chu Chenliang.

The two of them just decided it over the phone without saying anything about signing a gambling contract.

That was the critical period when Jin Li was waiting for her college entrance exam results to be released. At that time, other brands wanted to bet on Jin Li in advance and specifically signed gambling agreements with her.

Jin Li perfectly completed the tasks and obtained high benefits.

If she had also signed a gambling agreement with the *Dawn* production team at that time, the money she obtained might not necessarily have been less than 30 million.

But Sui Lingfang also knew that the entire entertainment circle... no, it should be said that the entire China is a society of human relationships, and it is impossible to easily buy everything with money.

If everything could be done with money, then China wouldn't be China.

Sui Lingfang looked at Jin Li and said: "If the amount in the envelope didn't exceed 50,000, I would have just donated it for you, but since there is a 3-million-yuan check, how do you plan to handle it?"

Jin Li said without thinking: "Donate it as well."

Before Sui Lingfang could say anything, Qi Guanmingzhu was stunned first.

"Donate it all, 3 million? You're not keeping any for yourself?"

Jin Li smiled gently: "Not keeping any."

Her eyes were calm and indifferent.

"Money is an external object; it's enough to use. I have no pursuit of material things. Instead of keeping it in my hands and letting it sit in the bank, it's better to use it in more meaningful places."

Qi Guanmingzhu couldn't help but give Jin Li a thumbs up. "Awesome!"

Sui Lingfang glanced at her; it seems Pearl doesn't know that Jin Li makes regular donations every month.

If she knew the amount of her monthly donations, perhaps she wouldn't be surprised about donating 3 million.

After all, this amount of money is just Jin Li's monthly donation amount, sometimes even a lot more.

After Sui Lingfang left, Qi Guanmingzhu chatted with Jin Li about other things.

"You donated the money like that; did you keep any money in your bank card? Didn't you say before that you wanted to make investments? You can't do investments without money."

Jin Li nodded and said: "Don't worry, I always have money in my bank card. I don't touch large-scale investments either, only small-scale investments that can be achieved with a few million."

Qi Guanmingzhu thought of something and said: "Speaking of which, short dramas have been quite popular recently. Have you ever thought about investing in one or two short dramas?"

Jin Li shook her head: "No one has come to me specifically to mention short dramas. I know the short drama market is very hot and has already formed a very mature market.

The long drama model is different from the short drama model. Directors who can shoot long dramas might not necessarily be able to shoot good short dramas. There is no good script, no good production team.

"If one truly wants to enter the game, producing a disposable video that only takes a week to film is simply too cost-ineffective."

Qi Guanmingzhu pondered for a while and nodded.

"That's true. If you really want to enter the short drama market, you should also make boutique horizontal-screen short dramas."

Jin Li asked curiously: "Why did you bring up short dramas? Do you have a relevant script?"

Qi Guanmingzhu hesitated and said: "I have a friend... okay, I'll show my cards to you. Actually, this is a friend from my former company.

She used to be my assistant. We spent half a year together, and she left a very good impression on me; she was hardworking and capable.

But because my former employer paid her too little, and her family had some problems, she resigned and went back to her hometown.

When she left, she said she was going to the film and television city to find opportunities, to see if she could find a odd-job, or be a coordinator, a field manager, or something.

A few days ago, she found me and sent me a script, asking if I was interested in investing. I found out that she had actually become a screenwriter; this was so unexpected for me."

Jin Li asked with interest: "The script she sent you, do you think it's very interesting?"

Qi Guanmingzhu nodded: "Interesting, it's a bit like *Beauty's Schemes*; a beautiful face is swapped onto an originally ugly person's face, while the originally ugly person gets a beautiful face.

Because of the difference in faces, the fates of the two people have also undergone earth-shaking changes."

Jin Li said: "It sounds like there's no innovation. Is the highlight the moment the truth is revealed?"

Qi Guanmingzhu shook her head: "No, the highlight is actually the personalities of the two female leads; she made a contrast.

It's no longer the originally ugly face being insidious, cunning, and vicious, but the originally beautiful face being willful and arrogant, and after swapping to an ugly face, continuing to be willful and arrogant.

And the person who originally had the ugly face is very kind. After swapping to a beautiful face, because of her kind nature, everyone who knew her face before was greatly changed, and thus fell in love with her."

Jin Li became interested when she heard this.

"You mean, the person who originally had a beautiful face had a very willful personality, but this face was swapped onto another kind-hearted person, making those who had bad feelings about this willful person instead change their views, and even fall in love with someone they didn't like before?"

Qi Guanmingzhu nodded: "Yes, but this plot design makes me feel it's good.

In addition, the willful woman previously had followers because she had a beautiful face, but since she swapped to that ugly face, those followers could no longer tolerate her and left her.

She originally thought that the other woman would also be hated by the group of people who hated her before, but she didn't expect that those aristocratic sons would all fall in love with her.

This made her very broken, and in the end, she went to kill the woman who originally had the ugly face, but was killed in return by the people who used to hate her."

Jin Li: "So throughout the whole story, only the person with a willful personality is abused?"

Qi Guanmingzhu shook her head: "Not exactly. The kind woman gradually discovered that those who were good to her were good to her because she had this face, so they would try to understand her inner self.

If she didn't have this face and swapped to the original ugly face, those people wouldn't talk to her at all, let alone understand her inner self.

Therefore, the ending of this story is that the kind woman didn't choose those aristocratic sons as her destination, but married the fishmonger who helped each other in the market before."

Jin Li was thoughtful.

"This ending is quite unexpected."

Qi Guanmingzhu shook her head again and said mysteriously: "No, this is not the final ending."

Jin Li: "Hmm?"

Qi Guanmingzhu: "The final ending is that the person with a willful personality was killed by someone who used to look down on her, just to protect that kind woman.

And the kind woman didn't choose the aristocratic son with a wealthy family background, but married an ordinary fishmonger. However, because the face she swapped for was too beautiful, the fishmonger was terrified all day long.

He thought his wife would despise the poverty of the family and elope with those romantic and handsome sons.

This beautiful wife became his burden. He became more and more afraid, and finally one day, he smothered his wife with a quilt in his sleep.

Two swapped faces, two different personalities, swapped positions, but neither ended well."

Jin Li pondered: "If they hadn't swapped faces from the beginning, then the kind-hearted woman might have lived a stable life with an ordinary fishmonger.

And the willful woman could also have married her own followers, even if she married someone who didn't love her, she could still live a life of luxury.

This is not just a matter of swapping a face, but also related to personal character and whether one can grasp opportunities when they arise."

She smiled: "The script you mentioned is very interesting. Your friend came to you for investment, so do you want to invest?"

Qi Guanmingzhu hesitated for a moment and said: "I'm not sure.

Investment requires 1 million. I can give her this 1 million, but I'm not sure if this kind of script has a market?"

Jin Li: "Then invest."

Qi Guanmingzhu: "Ah?"

Jin Li: "Only by shooting it will you know if there is a market. As long as the script is a good script, then it has the value of being shot.

As for the market, there will naturally be audiences to judge. Even if it doesn't become popular when it's shot, it will be discovered later.

I think this drama can also join the copyright co-creation plan, which can be given to those editing bloggers for free use without time or clip limits, but the income generated by their videos needs to be paid to this drama. Maybe there will be unexpected surprises."

Qi Guanmingzhu smiled: "Listening to you, you are quite optimistic about this drama, so I have a bottom line in my heart.

I won't eat alone either. She asked me to invest 1 million, so I'll split 500,000 for you. If there is any profit, we will split it fifty-fifty."

Jin Li pondered: "It feels a bit wrong. You took out 500,000 for me to invest. Are you trying to take advantage of my luck?"

Qi Guanmingzhu laughed: "Yes, you finally found out. Otherwise, why would I mention this drama to you?"

Jin Li also smiled and said: "You don't need to be so roundabout next time. If you see any good projects, just call me. If I'm interested, I will invest. Even if I don't participate in the investment, I will give you my thoughts."

Qi Guanmingzhu spread her hands: "I know you don't care about these, but for the projects I invest in, you must also join, so I can feel at ease."

Just on the third day of their song change practice.

*Fashion Trends* finally agreed to Chenxi Entertainment's conditions and was willing to sign a magazine sales split contract to pay for the right to sell Jin Li's magazine photos through e-commerce channels.

Originally, *Fashion Trends* also put forward a request, hoping that Jin Li could come to their headquarters again to shoot a set of 10 photos.

Just shoot one set.

But this request was rejected by Chenxi Entertainment without hesitation and didn't even reach Jin Li's ears.

Sui Lingfang is not stupid.

A singer said: "I specifically checked her schedule today. She was still participating in Fang Fei's event appearance in the morning, and was photographed eating in the cafeteria at the company at noon. She should be staying at Chenxi Entertainment."

But even without Jin Li's exclusive photos, Jin Li's appeal is enough to allow advertisers to participate in another round of bidding.

*Fashion Trends* is just too greedy.

Or they think Jin Li's personal charm is not as good as the charm of her and Gu Cheng together.

But no matter what they think, Chenxi Entertainment will not agree to let Jin Li return to shoot.

One is that there is not enough time. Tomorrow Jin Li and the others will participate in the *I Am a Singer* King of Songs competition, and Jin Li has no time to take photos at all.

In addition, even if they really want to shoot another set, *Fashion Trends* also needs to re-sign a contract with Jin Li and pay another remuneration.

Chenxi Entertainment doesn't want to make *Fashion Trends* cheap for nothing.

After all, the sales right of the e-commerce version of the photos is not something Chenxi Entertainment begged *Fashion Trends* to sign.

Seeing that Chenxi Entertainment refused to make concessions, *Fashion Trends* stopped persuading, but secretly bought hype, spreading the news that Jin Li would be on the cover of the September issue of *Fashion Trends*.

They want to create momentum in advance to make up for the lack of explosive points.

Suddenly, many public accounts began to share Jin Li's outfits, Jin Li's face shape, and Jin Li's temperament... these were all bought by *Fashion Trends* with money, and have nothing to do with Jin Li.

This wave of treatment made other stars in the industry very envious.

Jin Li's luck, why is it so good?!

Some stars discussed it privately, including Lian Baozhi and her manager Lv Shanjie.

When Lv Shanjie visited Lian Baozhi in the production team, she mentioned that *Fashion Trends* took the initiative to buy hype for Jin Li, and sighed:

"This is the first time I've seen a fashion magazine buy hype for a star, just to let this star's popularity rise a little bit, so that everyone pays attention to the cover magazine she released in September.

Jin Li's luck is too good. She seems to have never bought hype for herself. It's always others buying it for her. Whether it's black material or good material, there are people doing promotion for her."

Lian Baozhi suddenly thought of something and said: "This should be because of accumulating blessings."

Lv Shanjie was stunned. "What did you say?"

Lian Baozhi said: "I heard that Jin Li donates a lot of money every month, but she never makes it public, and those reporters don't reveal it either."

She hesitated and said: "Do you think it's because Jin Li donates every month and has accumulated a lot of blessings, which is why her career is so smooth?"

Lv Shanjie's eyes were blank. How would she know about such metaphysical things?

Lian Baozhi suddenly gritted her teeth and said: "Sister Shan, why don't I donate money too!"

Lv Shanjie just wanted to reply "You have too much money to burn, and you are also not interested in making money like Jin Li?", but when the words reached her lips, she couldn't say them no matter what.

As if saying it out loud would destroy her own artist's blessings!

To put it bluntly, Lian Baozhi's words stunned her a bit.

Could it be true, as her own artist said, that Jin Li has done too many good deeds, which is why her career is so smooth.

After a while, she hesitated and said: "The money you earn, you can spend it however you want, but you have to reserve a pension fund in advance.

Beauty fades and love is late. Stars ultimately rely on their faces to eat. You don't have that ability yet, to let fans chase you from youth to old age."

Lian Baozhi smiled and said: "Thank you, Sister Shan. Don't worry, I save money every month.

I also plan to go to the Daoist temple to worship when I have time. It feels like it might really be useful."

And Jin Li, who was discussed privately by many artists, had already taken a plane with Qi Guanmingzhu to the recording site of *I Am a Singer*.

After getting off the plane later, they have to go to the scene for rehearsal immediately.

This is the first rehearsal, and there will be a second rehearsal tomorrow before the broadcast.

Every star's rehearsal time is very tight.

During the rehearsal process, many people already knew in advance who the guests invited by other contestants were.

Only Sister Meng Ze, the guest she invited to help sing was late to arrive.

Sister Meng Ze planned to hide Jin Li and Qi Guanmingzhu until the very end, and even had to hide them when they came for rehearsal.

Only after it really started broadcasting would she let other contestants know.

Un-huh.

Let them be shocked into expression packs! ===== CHAPTER 649 =====