Chapter 128: Hanging a Name?

After settling the joining matters of Cai Yinnong, Cai Yinnong asked again:

"Wu Dao, can I bring a few people into the company?"

Wu Yuchen's heart stirred upon hearing this, and he asked: "Who are they?"

"It's Director Li Guoli from my current company, and an actor, Li Yapeng."

Wu Yuchen thought to himself: 'As expected,' and then said: "Cai Zong, forget about Li Yapeng."

Cai Yinnong actually thought quite highly of Li Yapeng, but Wu Yuchen rejected him directly, which left her with nothing much to say, and Li Yapeng didn't look like he wanted to follow her honestly before either.

"However, I am very welcome to Director Li Guoli; his 'Stock Crazy' was filmed really well!"

Wu Yuchen wasn't being polite. Li Guoli could be considered one of the first batches of Hong Kong film and television people to have contact with the mainland. In '93, he filmed a co-produced movie, "Stock Crazy," starring Pan Hong and Liu Qingyun, which won the double Best Actress award for Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers.

It was a pity that it was critically acclaimed but not commercially successful. Later, Li Guoli basically focused on filming TV dramas. Hong Kong people like him wouldn't be overly obsessed with any art awards; what can make money is the foundation.

Come to think of it, inviting Cai Yinnong has such a good benefit: buy one get one free. Because Li Guoli and Cai Yinnong have an unclear relationship, it was precisely because of this that he strongly supported Cai Yinnong in founding Tang Ren Film and TV, which had a series of classic TV dramas like "Chinese Paladin."

In his past life, the 'dead girl' Yu Zheng and Cai Yinnong tore each other apart, directly exposing her background on Weibo, which allowed Wu Yuchen to understand clearly.

However, this doesn't concern Wu Yuchen. Being able to bring an Li Guoli over is a benefit for Qiji Film and TV.

Inviting Cai Yinnong to join this time means that Wu Yuchen basically won't have to worry too much about management matters in TV drama production for the company in the future, which can save him a lot of energy.

……

After school started, Wu Yuchen returned to school to attend classes, which led to a few teachers joking that it was rare to find him settled in school for a while now.

He and Chen Er walked on campus, occasionally attracting the attention of some freshmen. The current Wu Yuchen can be called the biggest celebrity among the students at Tao Jingying—Berlin Best Director and 70-million director, one hand with awards and one hand with box office; how could this not attract the attention of others?

"Brother Chen, I think you can change your profession to be a star now~" Chen Er joked.

"Heh, it's okay to have fun once or twice, but being a star is just glamorous in front of people; there isn't that much autonomy, and don't you still have to listen to our command?"

Hearing Wu Yuchen say this, Chen Er also laughed. In their directing department, it was always said that actors were just puppets in their hands.

Seeing that there were freshmen whispering about them, Chen Er asked:

"Brother Chen, have you gone to see this year's freshmen?"

Wu Yuchen shook his head: "No time, and no interest."

"I heard that the freshmen of the '96 acting class were waiting for you to tutor them when school started, but they didn't wait for you after waiting left and right; quite a few were especially disappointed."

Wu Yuchen laughed upon hearing this. Last year, when the freshmen started school, he had a whim and ran to the '96 acting class to show off once. Later, this matter naturally spread.

At the very beginning, the students of the '96 acting class were still a bit resentful, but with the various achievements Wu Yuchen had made over the past year, his status rose steadily. Now, no matter who in the '96 class sees him, they call him 'Teacher Wu.'

And Chen Kun had already obtained the opportunity to participate in "My Brothers and Sisters" and "Cherish Our Love," and Zhao Wei also became the female lead of Qiong Yao's TV drama "My Fair Princess." These things were all seen by others in the school, and they felt that they were all inseparable from Wu Yuchen. The '97 acting class that just entered naturally envied this after knowing, hoping that Wu Yuchen would visit them once, so they could climb up the relationship.

Wu Yuchen shook his head with a smile. He was still quite interested in these fresh, tender future stars last year, which was why he had this move, but he had long lost this interest now.

And the '96 class had Huang Huang Xiao Ming, Chen Kun, Zhao Wei, Yan Danchen, Zu Feng, and others; they could still arouse some of his interest, but who is in the '97 class?

Oh, it seems there are Huang Haibo and Hai Qing, and a Li Jie who played Lin Pingzhi...

"Hello, Teacher Wu!"

A crisp voice interrupted Wu Yuchen's thoughts. He turned his head to look and saw it was Yan Danchen and Zhang Jiabei, so he nodded with a smile.

He sized up Yan Danchen: "Danchen, why have you gotten so much darker?"

"Teacher Wu, I ran to the Northwest to film a movie during the vacation; I was tanned for two months and became like this..."

Wu Yuchen thought to himself that it should be "Carrying Dad to School," which won her the Best Child Actor award.

"Good, enduring hardship and working hard is the fine tradition of actors!"

He gave Yan Danchen a thumbs up, which made her happy.

However, the next moment Wu Yuchen smiled: "Danchen, but your crew's food should be pretty good; why is your little face still so chubby?"

Yan Danchen's little face slumped a bit upon hearing this: "Teacher Wu, I will definitely lose weight as soon as possible..."

"It's okay, it's okay; actually, it's pretty good like this. The little round face is especially cute; I want to pinch it just looking at it, hahaha!"

This made Yan Danchen's face turn red instantly, quite shy.

"Alright, I was just joking with you; goodbye!"

After Wu Yuchen left, Yan Danchen said with a crying face: "Even Teacher Wu thinks I'm fat; no, I'll start losing weight tomorrow!"

Zhang Jiabei hugged Yan Danchen's arm and smiled:

"Didn't you say you couldn't lose it before? I think you should stop losing it; didn't Teacher Wu say it's especially cute! Hahaha~"

After Wu Yuchen and Chen Er returned to the dormitory and sat down, they saw Chen Er hand him a script, laughing: "Brother Chen, this is the script I just finished writing; do you have time to help me take a look?"

Wu Yuchen took the script and said: "Finally wrote it? I've seen you writing this book for a year."

"Brother Chen, I don't have your talent, and my brain isn't as flexible as Old Wu's; I have to polish it slowly." Chen Er said modestly.

Chen Er's personality belongs to the type of 'slow work produces fine products.' He polished a short film script for a whole year until now.

Wu Yuchen smiled and didn't speak again, opening the script to read. It was a story about a person who was forced by life to commit a crime and escaped the law.

Sure enough, it was Chen Er's first work in his past life, "Criminals," starring Xu Zheng and Huang Yi. This 30-minute short film was crowned with the title of "Tao Jingying's Best Student Graduation Work" at the time and has circulated in the world for many years.

Actually, it was a bit over-praised, which led many people to feel it was just so-so after watching it. But as a student graduation short film, it was already very, very good, with a high degree of completion and a lot of Chen Er's personal style.

But because of the subject matter, it belonged to a banned film, only played inside Tao Jingying, and wasn't sent to any awards, which was a pity.

Wu Yuchen looked up and saw Chen Er looking at him with expectation, and said with a smile:

"I think it's very good, and the script is written very maturely; I won't give you any random suggestions.

How about this: like Old Wu before, I'll invest 150,000 yuan for you. You've participated in the construction of the crew before; this time, do a good job planning and pull the crew together."

Before, Fatty Wu, Wu Shixian, had gone to film a short film called "East 22nd Street," telling the stories of two ordinary people on the same small street. At that time, Wu Yuchen invested 150,000 in him. Fatty Wu is now taking the short film he filmed to America to participate in a film festival, hoping to win an award.

Chen Er cast a grateful look at Wu Yuchen: "Thank you, Brother Chen; I will definitely not let you down!"

Wu Yuchen patted him: "Don't be a stranger, but I have to remind you: your script's story line and character relationships are much more complex than Old Wu's, and I guess you want to use multi

Chen Er nodded upon hearing this, keeping Wu Yuchen's instructions firmly in mind.

In fact, besides the two of them, Wu Yuchen had also invested in Old Jia.

Speaking of Old Jia, after Wu Yuchen gave him a sum of money at the time, he took the money and filmed "Xiao Shan Going Home" with a group of people.

But the effect of the filming left the group very disappointed, especially with "Car 44" as a precedent. They were both crews from the same film group, just with different directors, but the levels of the two films were worlds apart, which also made everyone realize the importance of a director.

Although everyone didn't say anything hurtful, Jia Zhangke wasn't a fool; he could tell from their reactions while watching the film, and naturally, he felt a blow to his heart.

Later, he found Wu Yuchen and wanted him to evaluate whether he was truly suitable to be a director. Wu Yuchen didn't say much, just helped him send the film to the Hong Kong Independent Short Film Competition, where it won the Gold Award for Narrative Film, which greatly encouraged Old Jia.

And later, after Old Jia brought out the script for "Xiao Wu," Wu Yuchen invested another 400,000 in him. Now he had already taken the crew back to his hometown in Fenyang, Shanxi.

Wu Yuchen didn't invest money in them for the sake of profit; just out of classmate friendship, he had to lend a helping hand, as they had contributed a lot when he was filming "Car 44." Moreover, this bit of money didn't mean much to him now, and he didn't mind helping those who had helped him.

After returning home, Wu Yuchen saw his father, Wu Jianping, reading a novel intently. He leaned over to look: "The Golden Age."

Seeing Wu Yuchen return, Wu Jianping held up the book in his hand, sighed, and said, "Wang Xiaobo is truly a pity; he was still so young!"

Wang Xiaobo, who was 45 this year, died suddenly of a heart attack.

Like Haizi, Wang Xiaobo was not widely recognized during his lifetime, but immediately became a myth after his death. While alive, many of his works were considered "pornographic" novels and could only circulate at various street stalls. But within just one month of his death, the National Museum of Modern Chinese Literature held a high-level seminar for him, and his novel collection "The Age Trilogy" and essay collection "My Spiritual Homeland" were immediately published, quickly selling out, being reprinted, and selling out again...

Wu Yuchen actually quite appreciated Wang Xiaobo. He had congenital heart valve insufficiency, so he always lived very tiredly—tired in the physical sense—but a romantic soul lived in his sickly body.

"Dad, you should also pay more attention to your health and go to my mom's hospital for regular check-ups."

"Hey, your dad is in good health!"

Wu Yuchen shook his head inwardly; people are all like this, not learning their lesson until they feel pain. But fortunately, in his past life, his parents really didn't have any major illnesses, so he didn't have to worry too much.

At Miracle Film and Television, Wu Yuchen sat down with Cai Yinong, Kang Honglei, and others. Wu Yuchen asked Cai Yinong with a smile:

"Cai Zong, you've watched it for a day today; what do you think?"

Throughout the whole day today, Wu Yuchen and Cai Yinong had finished watching the newly completed "Years of Passionate Burning."

"It's exceptionally good! It has such a sense of the era, it's very realistic; I even shed tears several times in the middle! Director Kang is truly talented!" Cai Yinong said this sincerely.

Kang Honglei smiled embarrassedly: "This is actually mainly because the script was written well; it would be the same if someone else filmed it. If you want to talk about talent, Wu Dao is the impressive one!"

Wu Yuchen waved his hand: "Director Kang, it's not certain that someone else could film this flavor. Don't be humble."

"Wu Dao and Director Kang are both top-notch! With you here, our company's future is absolutely bright!" Cai Yinong gave a thumbs up.

"Alright, alright, let's stop flattering each other. Now there's a problem at hand: in this era where even good wine fears a deep alley, we must find a good platform to broadcast the TV drama. Cai Zong, Director Kang, do you two have any opinions?"

Kang Honglei shook his head. He had only been responsible for filming before and had never been exposed to such negotiation matters, nor was he good at them.

Seeing this, Wu Yuchen looked at Cai Yinong again: "Cai Zong, the 'Beijing-Hong Kong Love Line' you were responsible for before was able to be broadcast on CCTV. Do you still have connections in this regard?"

If the TV drama could be sent to CCTV for broadcast, that would absolutely be the best platform.

Cai Yinong pondered for a moment and said, "Wu Dao, I can only say I'll try. The 'Beijing-Hong Kong Love Line' was able to cooperate with CCTV smoothly because it caught up with the major event of Hong Kong's return. I can invite the people I know before to come and watch the film. Given the quality of our drama, I think there should still be some hope."

Wu Yuchen nodded: "That's fine, leave this matter to you, Cai Zong. If CCTV really doesn't work out, we can also try Beijing Satellite TV."

Cai Yinong hesitated for a moment and then said, "I do have an idea, I don't know if Wu Dao and Director Kang would mind."

"What is it? Cai Zong, feel free to speak; we're all our own people." Wu Yuchen asked curiously.

Cai Yinong said, "When I was in Hong Kong, TV dramas actually didn't look at who the director was, but at the producer. The producer's brand is much more useful for a TV drama than the director. So I'm thinking, could we add your name, Wu Dao, as the producer? That way, whether it's CCTV or other TV stations, they will pay more attention."

Wu Yuchen was stunned. Should he hang his name as a producer and use his reputation to attract TV stations?