Chapter 351: Yi'an

March, Hengdian

The TV series "The Beauty's Scheme," produced by Yi'an Investment and filmed by Yu Zheng Studio, officially commenced production.

The director of the series is Wu Jingyuan, who previously worked with Tang Ren, participating in projects such as "The Legend of Sword and Fairy," "New Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio," and "The Legend of the Condor Heroes."

Later, Yu Zheng brought him over for a collaboration on "Locking the Autumn," which went well, and now they are collaborating again on "The Beauty's Scheme."

This is now the standard practice at Yi'an.

In the past, when Yi'an was still in its developmental phase, it sought to bind or recruit every director and screenwriter with some ability.

Even some behind-the-scenes staff were personally poached by Yan Li, the boss.

Now, times have changed; Yi'an's status and strength are no longer what they once were, and its approach has shifted.

Aside from a few core creators who are signed and bound, secondary directors and screenwriters are more accustomed to project-based cooperation.

The reason is that the former often have fame and industry influence, offering soft benefits; binding them benefits the company, and they possess a degree of irreplaceability, preventing rivals from poaching them.

The latter may have some recognition within the industry but are virtually unknown to the general public, and are mostly replaceable, with ample alternatives available.

Thus, under these circumstances, many talents who once made Yi'an desperate for recruits now fail to meet the signing threshold, and Yi'an works with them mostly through project-based cooperation.

This is the advantage of a company growing large: it directly accesses the entire industry, and its talent reserves and coordination capabilities make small and medium-sized companies envious.

Without exaggeration, if Yi'an now targeted Tang Ren, it could drain half of Tang Ren's talent within a short time.

But it's unnecessary; given Yi'an's current scale and its control over Tang Ren's distribution lifeline, Tang Ren won't easily defy Yi'an.

Except for a few core individuals, as long as their schedules allow, Yi'an can directly assign others, and at most, assign some roles to Tang Ren's actors.

Tang Ren's directors and some teams are also willing to come to Yi'an—more money, better prospects, and often, even when faced with Tang Ren's own productions, they prefer to work with Yi'an.

"The Beauty's Scheme" boasts impressive investment and cast, making it a project under industry attention, and many media outlets attended the launch ceremony.

As screenwriter and producer, Yu Zheng was full of determination.

With consecutive TV dramas—"The Imperial Harem of the Great Qing," "Crimson Snow," and "The Last Princess"—though none became a massive hit, their performance was consistently solid, and Yi'an has heavily supported him; online, he is already called Yi'an's number-one producer.

Yu Zheng finds this title appealing—not just as an honor, but because it relates to tangible benefits.

Yi'an's IPO has long been a public goal; actions by Huayi Brothers nearby have set an example for everyone, and Yan Li has subtly hinted at this within the company.

Yu Zheng is also a senior figure at Yi'an with some accomplishments, and he certainly holds a share of the original equity.

In Yu Zheng's mind, only Fan Xiaopang and Ning Hao could overshadow him; Deng Chao and Wang Ou are on equal footing with him.

Deng Chao is the top male star, with celebrity aura, high popularity and recognition, which can help promote the company's stock.

Just as Huayi Brothers promotes Huang Xiaoming and Li Bingbing as celebrity shareholders, Yi'an's female artist is Fan Xiaopang, and the male artist will likely be Deng Chao.

Wang Ou also has considerable fame; as the company's first artist, he is virtually an elder statesman, and given his relationship with Yan Li, he certainly receives some preferential treatment.

When Yu Zheng says he's on equal footing with them, he's just being polite, since his studio is a joint venture and inevitably affected by others.

But Yu Zheng hasn't given up; Huayi Brothers and Yi'an are different.

At Huayi Brothers, the largest shareholder is clearly Feng Xiaogang, and considering Li Bingbing's situation, they will likely prioritize promoting Huang Xiaoming.

At Yi'an, aside from Yan Li, no one can surpass Fan Xiaopang, and even Fan Xiaopang is merely one card in Yi'an's deck—the company's true core is undoubtedly Yan Li.

This is the greatest difference between Huayi Brothers and Yi'an: because the Wang brothers at Huayi lack sufficient fame and strength, they need a celebrity strategy to boost stock prices.

Yi'an also needs one, but with Yan Li as a business celebrity, the importance of the celebrity strategy is somewhat diminished.

To many, even Fan Xiaopang combined with all other Yi'an figures cannot match Yan Li.

Thus, it's foreseeable that Yi'an's celebrity shares may not be as "generous" as Huayi Brothers', and Yan Li holds absolute authority in this regard.

If Yu Zheng performs well and gains Yan Li's approval, the boss might generously increase his original equity share.

At Huayi Brothers, the most original shares were held by Feng Xiaogang, followed by Zhang Dahu.

The reason is that Zhang Dahu is the core of Huayi Brothers' TV drama business.

Yu Zheng feels that although he cannot match Zhang Dahu's seniority or stature, within the company, he still has a chance to rival Zhang Dahu and become Yi'an's representative in TV drama production.

Of course, Yi'an now has many strong figures in TV drama development; for Yu Zheng to outshine them all, he needs real, tangible achievements.

Therefore, Yu Zheng takes "The Beauty's Scheme" very seriously, aiming to create a super-hit like "The Legend of Lu Xiaofeng."

To boost morale and generate momentum for the project, Yu Zheng made bold statements at the launch ceremony.

"They say I'm the screenwriter who understands women's stories best—I don't like that label, but I won't deny that in the past two years, my dramas centered on female leads have performed the best."

"I don't pay attention to criticism or controversy; I only care whether my dramas succeed, whether audiences love them, whether the company profits, and whether the actors become famous—that's enough."

"I've prepared this drama for a long time, and it's the largest-budget project I've ever directed; I believe it will become a new peak in my career."

"I've made a military pledge to Boss Yan: 'The Beauty's Scheme' will definitely be a hit; if the company loses money, I'll personally bear the loss."

"..."

As Yu Zheng chattered away to the reporters, Zhao Ke couldn't help nudging Qin Lan.

"Sis, aren't those remarks a bit arrogant? Won't this spark backlash if it gets out?"

"You don't understand."

Seeing Huo Siyan chuckled: "Old Yu is deliberately stoking publicity, drawing attention. Who cares about those generic lines? Netizens and media love eye-catching statements."

Qin Lan also nodded: "When your brother-in-law first started directing, he was constantly making bold claims and arguing with others."

"Later, when Yi'an grew powerful and Weibo emerged, this tactic became less common. Yu Zheng's personality... is tenacious and unafraid of controversy, so he picked up this style. If you dig through news from a few years ago, you'll find Yu Zheng's words carry echoes of your brother-in-law's old style."

Zhao Ke thought back and chuckled: "Your brother-in-law's become so steady now—I'd almost forgotten the old Feng-Diao showdown."

Liu Yun appeared out of nowhere: "Back then, Yan Li was even more arrogant than Yu Zheng."

Yu Zheng merely ranted and blustered; Yan Li directly provoked Zhang Dahu, the most powerful figure at the time, openly berating him and giving the public plenty of entertainment.

Unfortunately, Yan Li now upholds his status—or has no worthy opponents—and rarely steps down to fight; he's also continuously cultivated and deepened his image as a business elite.

As a result, people like Zhao Ke, who aren't close to him, have fuzzy memories of Yan Li's 【youthful recklessness】 persona.

"Speaking of which, there's a funny story: recently, Zhang Dahu said he was making 'The New Journey to the West.' Reporters interviewed him and subtly brought up 'The New Three Kingdoms,' probably trying to provoke controversy—but your brother-in-law just ignored him."

Li Xiaolu recalled something and shared it with a laugh; Qin Lan smiled upon hearing it.

I know about this—back during the Jin Gu battle, now with the Four Great Classical Novels, Zhang Dahuizi wanted to stir up another wave of hype, but your brother-in-law looked down on him, thought his status was too low and would drag down his own prestige, so he had Old Wang from the TV department step in, which made Zhang Dahuizi furious.

"Furious? He didn't just get furious—they say he smashed up his office."

Seeing Huo Siyan works at Huayi, same company as Zhang Dahuizi, and she's well-informed, knows some rumors.

Smashing the office might be exaggerated, but Zhang Dahuizi was indeed furious.

After all, what's more devastating than someone who once tried to hitch a ride on your fame now looking down on you?

What made him break was that it was an acknowledged fact—even he himself had been half-heartedly trying to hitch a ride this time, but Yan Li, that bastard, didn't play fair, and his plans fell apart.

"Wait another two years, maybe Lao Yu will even clash with Zhang Dahuizi."

Seeing Huo Siyan sighed. Though Wang Decai from Yi'an also serves as producer, he now leans more toward company management; people see him as an executive, not a producer.

Among Yi'an's producers, the most prominent and publicity-seeking is Zheng.

Qin Lan shook her head: "I doubt it'll take that long."

It's just that Zhang Dahuizi has too much seniority, while Zheng still lacks depth—otherwise, they'd already be clashing.

Last year, Zhang Dahuizi's adaptation of "The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber" performed mediocly, showing signs of decline, while Zheng has been steadily rising.

The person climbing up the mountain and the god descending can avoid conflict—if they meet, friction and tension are inevitable.

"Enough, stop gathering—get back to work. I've got an interview; after that, we'll all get together. Once filming starts, you'll all be busy."

Qin Lan didn't dwell on it—it had nothing to do with her. She clapped her hands and assigned tasks to everyone.

This time, she was also listed as producer and invested in the drama through her company, Mountain Wind Pictures.

After all, publicly, Qin Lan had no connection to Yi'an—even though everyone knew, it was still technically improper.

So she made a small investment, brought capital into the project, and naturally became producer with some degree of influence.

Notably, the Mountain Wind Pictures Qin Lan founded, besides collaborating with Qin Lan Studio—which holds her agency rights—also signed one artist: Zhao Ke from the Teddy Sisters.

The Teddy Sisters: Ma Yili and Li Xiaolu are under Chengtian; Seeing Huo Siyan and Liu Yun are under Huayi; Xiong Naijin, after struggling at Huayi, went to Yinghuang; Ying Cai'er is with China Star; Gan Wei is with LeTV; Yang Mi is with Yi'an.

Only Zhao Ke and Qin Lan were independent—not quite solo, since Qin Lan had previously been under a Hunan TV subsidiary, and Zhao Ke was with an independent agent.

After the Bloggate incident, Qin Lan didn't want to be dragged down by a company, so she terminated her contract and founded Qin Lan Studio.

She never intended to expand aggressively—just a small team to manage her personal entertainment affairs.

But her agent, Sister Lü, thought it was a waste for Qin Lan to have such great resources and only run a tiny studio; spurred by this investment in "Beauty's Heart Strategy," Sister Lü convinced Qin Lan to establish Mountain Wind Pictures.

Qin Lan provided funding and connections, holding 85% of the company; Sister Lü handled management and operations, holding 15%.

Not long after Mountain Wind was founded, Zhao Ke came to join Qin Lan.

Most of her resources had always come from Qin Lan; joining Qin Lan's company deepened their bond and tied their interests closer.

They're sisters, but since Zhao Ke gives Qin Lan part of her earnings, it's obvious who Qin Lan would rather give her resources to.

Besides Zhao Ke, Sister Lü planned to poach talent from her old company, determined to grow Mountain Wind into something big and strong.

Qin Lan herself wasn't very invested—even Zhao Ke's contract was short-term, with lenient termination terms, so her sister wouldn't be held back by this half-hearted venture.

She left everything else to Sister Lü's management—when resources or connections came, she'd allocate them to the company; if none came, she waited. Whether it grew or failed didn't matter—she only needed a studio.

Still, while she didn't care about Mountain Wind, she cared deeply about "Beauty's Heart Strategy."