1978 Synthetic Writers

Chapter 559

Of course, Dai Jun is also a character who can understand things.

A man can bend and stretch.

Who can resist money, right?

He was also very decisive. In this day and age, who doesn't have great courage to go into business? He quickly led his men with a huge sum of 300,000 yuan to "Seahorse".

They arrived travel-worn and found the place, only to be stopped by the old man at the gatehouse. "Who are you people?" he asked.

"Hello."

Dai Jun, his face full of obsequiousness, pulled out a business card from his pocket and handed it over respectfully. "I am the manager of 'Dailuoli Toilet Cleaner'. I'd like to come and talk to Comrade Jiang Xian about investment. Could you please put in a good word for us?"

"Huh?"

The old man was fine when he heard the first part, but when he heard the words "labor substitute", his eyes widened in anger and he waved his hand.

"roll roll roll."

"???"

Dai Jun and the person he brought with him, who was selling "Lao Li Toilet Cleaner," looked at each other, both a little bewildered.

"Sir, we're here to invest."

"piss off."

The old man grabbed his plastic slippers, pointed them at Dai Jun's nose, and started cursing: "You dare to call yourself a 'labor substitute'! You've got some nerve! Don't think I don't know, I've found out everything. It was your bunch of bastards who came here that morning to cause trouble, making a scene at our door. Let me tell you, only our leader stopped them that day, otherwise you would have been in big trouble."

Well, you've got the nerve to come here? What? You dare cause trouble? Don't think I'm any better just because I'm old. If all of you come at me together, I can take you down. I used to chop down Japanese devils when I was young, I can handle a bunch of you bastards now.

Are you coming or not? Are you coming or not?

"No, sir, you've misunderstood. We're not here to cause trouble."

Dai Jun was forced to retreat by the old man, and as he retreated, he explained with a mournful face, "I have already taught a lesson to the people who came the other day. This time we are here because we sincerely want to talk business with Comrade Jiang Xian. You see, we have brought the money with us."

"Tui!"

The old man was not intimidated by the sugar-coated bullets of capitalism. "So what if you have a little money? Who cares about your stinking money? You're making a mess of our place, so get out of here, you hear me? If you don't get out, your old man is going to break his vow today."

Seeing that the old man had rolled up his sleeves and the atmosphere was tense, Zhu Hong, who had rushed over upon hearing the news, quickly stopped him.

"What's wrong, Uncle Liu? What happened? Please calm down, what's going on?"

"Junior leader."

When Grandpa Liu saw that it was Zhu Hong, his expression immediately changed. He quickly put his plastic slippers back on and respectfully reported:
"These guys, they called themselves 'labor substitutes,' and then I realized, weren't they the same 'labor substitutes' who caused trouble the other day? I'm old Liu, but my memory isn't bad."

"Leader! Leader!"

Dai Jun recognized Zhu Hong and rushed over, his face full of grievance. "Boss, it's common for business deals to fall through. We can't let this ruin our relationship. Besides, we came here with sincerity. Tell me, we haven't even entered the door yet, and we're already being chased away by your unit's gatekeeper."

Fuck you.

Grandpa Liu's temper flared up again. "Speak! Speak freely! Even if I get fired today, do you think I'll still mess with you?"

"This, this, this"

"Alright, alright, Uncle Liu, please stop talking." Zhu Hong stopped Uncle Liu from continuing to shout.

Seeing this, Dai Jun, as if he had won a victory, straightened his chest and prepared to walk into the courtyard, but was stopped by Zhu Hong.

"Who let you in?"

"W-wasn't that agreed upon?"

"We agreed that we weren't letting you in now."

Zhu Hong glanced at them and said, "'Labor substitutes,' right? Register first and come back tomorrow."

"Register?"

Dai Jun was dumbfounded. "Register what?"

"Of course we need to register, isn't that obvious?"

Grandpa Liu sneered, "Who is our Director Jiang? He's so busy every day, do you think you can just see him whenever you want? Besides, too many enterprise cadres and factory leaders have come to visit Director Jiang these past two days, seriously affecting his creative work. Appointments are required, and visits must be made in batches!"

"Then we'll take turns, when will it be our turn?" Dai Jun asked hurriedly.

"Your time will come, so why all the nonsense?"

Grandpa Liu waved his hand: "Go get a number!"

have to.

Dai Jun registered indignantly, feeling a surge of resentment. What kind of crappy organization is "Haima"? They get all cocky over the slightest bit of sunshine, what's with all the showing off? What, just because they made "Stories from the Editorial Department" they think they're so great, okay? They really are impressive.

Alas, when you're under someone's roof, you have no choice but to bow your head.

Since he's now begging Jiang Xian to advertise for them, he has no choice but to humble himself.

"Director Jiang!"

"Little Dragon! You've come at the perfect time."

At Tuanjiehu, with Zhu Hong's special permission, Zheng Xiaolong finally met Jiang Xian, who had been in seclusion for many days. As soon as he saw him, Jiang Xian grabbed his arm, placed several paintings in front of his face, and picked one out:
"Take a look, what do you think of this drawing?"

"This is?"

Zheng Xiaolong held it and examined it for a while, feeling as if an electric drill was drilling into the head of a little person sitting on a spring.

"This was drawn by my daughter."

Jiang Xian said with a proud look, "This is an astronomer sitting in a chair, observing the universe with a telescope."

"Wow, it's so lifelike!" Zheng Xiaolong quickly praised it, secretly glad he hadn't said something like, "This electric drill drawing is really good."

"And these too, these were all drawn by my daughter."

"Let me see."

Zheng Xiaolong remained outwardly calm, but inwardly he found it strange. Jiang Xian was known for his low-key nature. Take the Mao Dun Literature Prize and the Lu Xun Literature Prize, for example. Other writers who won them would probably be eager to show off their achievements, but Jiang Xian had won several and didn't seem to care much at all.

But right now, just these few paintings have made him this proud.

Sigh, is this what it's like to be a father?
Zheng Xiaolong, who was not yet married, thought about it and pondered it over.

He put himself in her shoes. Although the drawings were indeed abstract, they were full of childlike innocence. And thinking about it, these were drawn by a child who was only a few years old, which made them even more remarkable. If his daughter had drawn them, he, as her father, would probably be just as proud as Jiang Xian.

"Xiao Long, please don't take offense."

When Zhu Lin came over to pour water, she smiled and said, "Your teacher Jiang has been busy handing in assignments these past few days."

"Hand in homework?"

Zheng Xiaolong didn't understand, "What homework do you need to hand in?"

“Peking University asked him to submit his graduation novel, and these drawings are illustrations from his novel,” Zhu Lin explained.

"Ouch."

After listening for a moment, Zheng Xiaolong thought for a moment and asked, "Does it mean that Director Jiang draws illustrations for his novels every year?"

“Yes, otherwise why would he be so happy?” Zhu Lin replied with a smile.

"That's great!"

Zheng Xiaolong's eyes lit up after hearing this. "A novel co-authored by a father and daughter—that's so meaningful! Teacher Jiang, is it finished? Can I take a look?"

"Let's wait and see. There will definitely be opportunities in the future." Jiang Xian kept Zheng Xiaolong in suspense, not handing him the novel. "Tell me about your situation first, Xiaolong."

"Oh, that's it."

Zheng Xiaolong gathered his thoughts and said, "Teacher Jiang, the main reason I came here today is to talk to you about the contract for the remaining episodes of 'Stories from the Editorial Department.' Since CCTV has decided to broadcast it, why don't we sign it as soon as possible to avoid wasting time negotiating episode by episode? What do you think?"

"Ah."

When this topic came up, Jiang Xian immediately switched from being a doting father to his usual calm and composed demeanor.

Logically, he should have smoked a cigarette right now, but for his daughter's health, he avoids it as much as possible. He wasn't a heavy smoker to begin with, so it's not that he's too addicted to quit.

"I understand. You mean we should just finish discussing this TV show?" Jiang Xian said.

"Correct."

Zheng Xiaolong nodded.

He came here because his superiors forced him to. After all, given the current broadcast pace of "Stories from the Editorial Department," if they were to buy each episode one by one, who knows what price "Haima Film and Television Creation Center" would have to raise for them in the end.
Let's just negotiate a fixed price to avoid any unforeseen complications.

"The script for 'Stories from the Editorial Department' has a total of 24 episodes. You haven't finished filming yet, so there might be more or less later on. It's uncertain. Let's just go with 24 episodes for now. If there are more, we'll make up for it; if there are fewer, we won't let you get a refund. Is that okay with you?"

"can."

Jiang Xian had no objection to this.

After all, the conditions offered by CCTV were already quite generous.

With 24 episodes, if they're missing, "Seahorse" won't refund the money; if they're too many, they'll just add more money. This way, no matter how "Seahorse" films "Stories from the Editorial Department," they won't lose money.

"We've drafted a plan here for now, what do you think?" Zheng Xiaolong handed over a copy of the plan.

Jiang Xian glanced at the screen and saw that "Stories from the Editorial Department" had already aired up to episode 10. Jiang Xian's asking price for episode 10 was 165,000.

CCTV was clever; they set a price of 2.35 million yuan for the remaining 14 episodes, bringing the average price to around 168,000 yuan, which is higher than the price for episode 10.

To be honest, Jiang Xian was quite satisfied with this number.

The total production cost of "Stories from the Editorial Department" was only about 600,000 yuan. If this plan is signed, the TV series will earn "Haima" more than 2 million yuan.

It has only been established for a short time, yet it has already achieved such a brilliant result, which is very impressive in the entire Chinese film and television industry.

Seeing that Jiang Xian had been looking at it for so long, Zhu Lin also came over to take a look at the proposal. When she saw that it was an astronomical figure of more than two million, she was shocked and wished she could agree on the spot for Jiang Xian.

But Jiang Xian's reaction was beyond her expectations. He calmly pushed the proposal back and shook his head at Zheng Xiaolong, who was looking on with anticipation.

"I'm afraid that won't work."

"no?"

Zheng Xiaolong had anticipated this outcome and quickly began to persuade him:
"Teacher Jiang, although 'Stories from the Editorial Department' is doing very well now, many TV series also have high ratings at the beginning, but as the plot unfolds and the pacing loosens, the ratings will gradually drop."

As you've probably noticed, the quality of the middle episodes of "Stories from the Editorial Department" has declined somewhat compared to the beginning, especially the part about the nanny. It wasn't as engaging as the initial episodes, and the reviews weren't as high. Given this situation, the fact that we at CCTV are still willing to pay an even higher price shows that we have very high hopes for your television series.

Zheng Xiaolong was referring to the recent episodes of "Stories from the Editorial Department," specifically the story of Wei Ren's "The Little Nanny."

The story is about a true story published by the editorial department of "People's Guide" magazine, which tells the tale of a domestic helper named Orange being abused by her employer. The story has caused quite a stir in society.

After seeing the report, Mi Jihong, a young woman who also works as a nanny, contacted the editorial department of "Human Guide" magazine, hoping that the editors could help her find an ideal employer.

After the publicity, people flocked to the place, and the employer who eventually hired Mi Jihong soon regretted it. It turned out that Mi Jihong was lazy, gluttonous, and unreasonable. In the end, she was kicked out by Ge Ling and Li Dongbao, who came to visit her home.

Even by today's standards, this story seems absurd, because such instances of nannies bullying their employers are rare, making you wonder what the screenwriter was trying to convey.

It's worth mentioning that there's a similar character in the TV dramas "I Love My Family" and "It's Not Easy for Anyone," who is lazy, mean-spirited, and cunning.

What's most interesting is that both dramas were written by people from the Wei Dynasty.

Wei Ren's writing style is similar to Hai Yan's. He wrote a piece called "The Inner Monologue of a Criminal Police Captain and a Murderer," which won the first Golden Shield Literature Award, a literary award sponsored by the editorial department of "Woodpecker."

Because of this novel, Wei Ren, who was just beginning to make a name for himself, was successfully transferred to the editorial department of the magazine "Woodpecker".

But for some reason, he seemed to be holding back a fire, and couldn't help but want to satirize those working in the nanny industry, which made the episodes of "The Little Nanny" in "Stories from the Editorial Department" less exciting.

There's no way around it. The multi-screenwriting model is an advantage of "Hippocampus" production, but it also has its flaws. The uneven quality of screenwriting skills is ultimately a major weakness of the drama "Stories from the Editorial Department".

"Xiaolong, it's not that I'm asking for an exorbitant amount, but right now, rather than focusing on ratings, I think we should talk more about commercial value." Jiang Xian steered the conversation away from "The Little Nanny," and said, "Do you know how much commercial investment 'Stories from the Editorial Department' has received recently?"

"Ok?"

"Let me put it this way, there's a company in Yantai that makes watches, called 'Polaris,' do you know it?"

"I know."

Zheng Xiaolong recalled that many people would have a standing clock in their living room, which would chime once on the hour, making it look very classy. At that time, "Polaris" was the leader in this field.

The advertisements preceding CCTV's evening news program are all provided by them.

"Well, their boss sent someone to bring over a clock that's taller than a person the other day, and asked us to put it in a prominent position in the editorial department, so that the actors would perform around this North Star clock as much as possible. Guess how much they paid me?"

"How many?"

"one million."

"Take the young master?!"

Upon hearing the number, Zheng Xiaolong nearly crawled under the table.
(End of this chapter)