Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 343 Unexpected meeting with parents
Just like last year, ArcLight held its annual meeting before the Chinese New Year.

However, this year's annual meeting is much more lively than last year. After all, the scale of Arclight has expanded a lot.

The special prize is still 100,000 yuan, which is equivalent to more than a year's salary for most ordinary employees. What's more, you can also customize other wishes of the same value.

With Yang Chaoyue’s example in mind, everyone was looking forward to it.

“What if I win the lottery this year and want to switch careers and become an actor?”

At the annual meeting, Liu Jun asked jokingly. Executives like them did not participate in the lottery, they were just there to watch the fun.

Meng Bai on the side said calmly: "Don't worry, you are not a child anymore, you don't know your own conditions. Xiao Yang is born beautiful, she depends on her face to make a living."

Liu Jun smiled. Indeed, the girl named Yang Chaoyue was good-looking enough even in the entertainment industry. Especially as she got older, her childish face gradually became more beautiful.

If she can really make her debut successfully, then her experience will be quite interesting.

After a casual thought, Liu Jun didn't care much about a little girl. He turned to look at Meng Bai and said, "CCTV has confirmed that the broadcast time of "Peace Hotel" will be after the Spring Festival, following the urban drama "The Matchmaker", as the opening drama of the eighth channel."

Meng Bai nodded in satisfaction after hearing this. Although strictly speaking, only the dramas on CCTV1 can be called CCTV's "New Year's Big Drama". But for Arc Light, which has just started its TV drama business, being able to be on Channel is already very impressive.

"What about the website?"

"It was released simultaneously with CCTV, and the frequency was the same as TV, one episode a day, five episodes a week." Liu Jun said: "Unfortunately, our episodes were a bit short, only 40 episodes, and it was finished in two months."

"40 episodes is not a short time." Meng Bai said nonchalantly, "The audience's pace of watching dramas is getting faster and faster now. It's basically the limit to be able to follow a drama for two months."

Because TV dramas are paid by the episode, producers always try to stretch the episodes. If the main plot is not enough, they use the side plots, and if the side plots are not enough, they use the memories. If all these are used up, they add some slow motion.

Especially for costume dramas, everyone wants to shoot seventy or eighty episodes.

There are many dramas here that were originally of good quality, but because there are too many episodes, the audience will start to complain about being too long and boring after following them for a while.

ArcLight started out as a web drama, and even now when making TV series it still retains many of the habits of web dramas, the most typical of which is the small number of episodes.

This is actually Meng Bai's prediction about the future direction of the film and television market. As the pace of society becomes faster and faster, and the audience's time becomes more fragmented, they will instinctively choose works with smaller scale and faster pace.

For example, the web drama "Detective Chinatown" recently filmed by Arclight is an attempt, and the first season has only 10 episodes in total.

It is short and concise, and easy to adjust. If the word-of-mouth response is good, the second and third seasons will be launched to add content, which is a bit similar to the model of American or British TV series.

"I remember you said before that there are plans for a spy war drama this year. When do you plan to start preparations?" Liu Jun asked.

"Don't be in a hurry. Let's wait and see how Peace Hotel goes." Meng Bai said, "Huace has given us a list of films they have approved for this year. We can ask the project department to study which ones are worth investing in."

"it is good."

The two were chatting in the audience, and the host of the annual meeting on the stage had already announced the start of the lucky draw.

As small prizes were drawn one by one, the employees who didn't win any prizes gradually became nervous.

"... Now I'm going to announce that the winner of this year's special prize is No. 0278!"

"yeah--"

As the host announced the results, a certain area in the audience suddenly erupted in noise.

Meng Bai turned around and looked at the place where the cheers came from. "Which department is that?"

"Mr. Meng, this is the position in the screenwriting department." The head of the administrative department sitting behind him hurriedly stood up and introduced.

"That's good. At least it's not your administrative department this year." Meng Bai joked.

The head of the administration department gave a wry smile upon hearing this. Well, the front desk was indeed under the jurisdiction of the administration department.

The winner of the special prize is a young man from the screenwriting department. Judging from his employee number, he has been with ArcLight for more than a year.

"Hello, Mr. Meng. My name is He Yihe, and I am currently a B-level screenwriter in the screenwriting department."

On the stage, a young man wearing glasses and slightly plump excitedly introduced himself to Meng Bai.

"He Yihe?" Meng Bai recalled, "I remember that you were responsible for several episodes of this season's Detective Chinatown, right?"

"Yes." Seeing that the big boss actually remembered him, He Yihe said excitedly: "I am responsible for the two episodes of "Hotel Horror" and "The Sky That Can't Be Reached Again"

Meng Bai looked at him in surprise. These two episodes were highly praised in the entire "Who's the Detective Season 3". He didn't expect that they were produced by the same person.

"The quality is good." Meng Bai said with a smile: "Do you have any wishes? Or do you plan to take the bonus directly?"

He Yihe hesitated for a moment, then mustered up the courage to say, "Mr. Meng, I actually have an idea for a story that I'd like you to hear. I wonder if it's appropriate."

“Is it about the show too?”

"Well, the genres are somewhat similar, both are script-killing themes, but I think they are more suitable for making a movie." He Yihe finished speaking, and then hurriedly added: "But this is just an idea I have at the moment, and the script only has a framework and is not yet completed."

"It's okay, don't worry." Meng Bai patted his shoulder and said, "Well, you should summarize and perfect your ideas first, and then tell me when you come back after the New Year."

"Yes, okay, Mr. Meng, thank you."
-
"call--"

At Beijing North Airport, Meng Bai parked the car, took a deep breath of cold air, and then exhaled a breath of white air.

As the Spring Festival approaches, there have been several snowfalls in northern Beijing. The green belts along the road are covered in white, adding a bit of the festive atmosphere.

Meng Bai walked into the terminal and found a seat at the airport pick-up area. He answered messages on his phone and occasionally looked up at the flight information on the electronic sign.

After the annual meeting of Arclight, there were no new projects to prepare, so except for the department responsible for the publicity of Peace Hotel, everyone else relaxed their work.

The boss Meng Bai naturally had less things to do. Just then he received a call from Meng's parents and rushed to the airport.

When he went home for the Spring Festival last year, he invited Meng's parents to come to northern Beijing to celebrate the festival this year.

The old couple thought that they had only heard their son say that his company was very big in the past few years, but they had never seen it in person. With the Chinese New Year just two or three days away, the couple decided to come this year.

Meng Bai arrived on time, so he didn't have to wait for long before he heard the notification that the flight had landed. After waiting for another ten minutes, he finally saw Meng's father and mother come out.

"I thought you were going to bring a lot of bags." Meng Bai took a small suitcase from Meng's mother and joked.

"Hey, do you think we are stupid?" Mother Meng said, "A plane ticket costs thousands of dollars, what is worth air transporting?" Father Meng snorted and laughed, "Forget it, your mother originally packed four large boxes, but they were overweight, so she had no choice but to have someone take two of them back."

Mother Meng rolled her eyes and said, "You're the one who talks too much, right? If I don't talk, I'll forget what's wrong with you."

Father Meng strode forward, pretending not to hear.

After putting the suitcase in the trunk, Meng Bai drove slowly out of the airport.

"It was more than 20 years ago, before you were born, when my company had to travel for business, and I had to go to Beijing and the north several times a year. Yes, at that time, you had to get a certificate to enter Beijing, which was very troublesome..."

Along the way, Father Meng looked at the scenery of the capital outside the window and talked about the history of his youth.

"Then I will accompany you to walk the road of youth again in the next two days." Meng Bai said.

Mother Meng, who was sitting in the back seat, waved her hand and said, "No need. Just do your own thing. Your father and I can go around by ourselves."

"Are you two sure? Jingbei is much bigger than Blue Island."

"No matter how big it is, it's still in China. We are not old, how can we get lost?" Mother Meng didn't take the small capital seriously at all. "By the way, where are we going?"

"Did you two have lunch before boarding the plane? Then let's go home and drop off our things. I'll show you my house. I'll take you out for dinner in the evening."

"Okay, you can make the arrangements now that we are at your place."

"Wow, you are so arrogant, old lady. Are you going to give me the capital with just this one sentence?"

"Tsk, so many weird words."

Mother Meng patted Meng Bai's head gently, and then seemed to remember something: "Hey, has Ziyi returned to Northeast China? If not, call her to go with you in the evening."

"How would I know? Don't you have her phone number? Just ask her directly." Meng Bai said, "But she might be filming on the set, not necessarily in Beijing North."

Before in Blue Island, Mother Meng and Meng Ziyi had a very harmonious relationship, so naturally she had her contact information.

"Hey, Ziyi... Happy New Year, are you in Jingbei now... Well, your uncle and I came here to celebrate the New Year this year, so I wanted to ask if you are here..."

The two women, one big and one small, chatted for nearly twenty minutes before finally ending the call.

Putting down the phone, Mother Meng said cheerfully, "What a coincidence. Ziyi said she just finished filming and happened to be in Jingbei right now. I asked her to have dinner together tonight."

Meng Bai naturally had no objection and responded casually.

After getting off the airport highway, it wasn’t long before we reached his villa area.

Looking at the greenery that was out of place in the outside world, as well as the exquisite surrounding scenery and courtyards, the old couple finally felt their son's current wealth.

"We're here, let's get off."

Meng Bai parked the car in front of the courtyard gate. He had to go out later and was too lazy to go into the garage.

"Ok?"

Coming down from the driver's seat, Meng Bai saw a blue BMW parked not far away and couldn't help but let out a light exclamation.

"What's wrong?" Mr. Meng, who had just got off the car, saw him standing there in a daze and asked casually.

Meng Bai came back to his senses, shook his head to indicate that it was nothing, and at the same time he started to think secretly in his mind.

He knew the car, it belonged to Li Qin. Since the car was here, she must be here too.

Because she knew the password to the door, the girl would come over from time to time when she had time, under the pretext of giving him a "surprise".

Now that's good, we've finally been caught red-handed.

Meng Bai couldn't help laughing when he thought about how flustered and surprised the girl would be when she saw Meng's father and mother coming in.

Ready to watch the fun, Meng Bai dragged his suitcase, opened the door of the villa, and walked in with the old couple.

After taking a few quick steps through the corridor and looking at the yard in front of them, both Meng's father and mother's eyes lit up.

"This courtyard is nice." Mother Meng looked at the courtyard with great interest. The swing, the flower bed and the small pavilion were all to her liking.

"It looks good, doesn't it?" Meng Bai raised his voice. "I told you that our house has been renovated a long time ago. I will buy you a villa halfway up the mountain in Blue Mountain. The yard and land there are much bigger than this one."

He had mentioned it several times before, wanting to move to a new house for the old couple, but they had never agreed.

It was the same this time. After hearing what Meng Bai said, Meng's mother rolled her eyes at him and said, "You have no place to spend your money, right? What about a villa halfway up the mountain? If you want a yard, there are plenty in your grandmother's village. You can build one easily on dozens of acres of land."

"That can be the same thing."

Meng Bai replied, but he was too lazy to argue and directly greeted the two of them: “Okay, Mom, it’s cold in the yard, come in.

Meng's father and mother followed him into the house. Before the old couple could look around the room, they heard brisk footsteps coming from the second floor.

The next second, a beautiful girl in a white dress and long hair came down the stairs and jumped out.

“Meng…Ah!”

Li Qin, who wanted to give Meng Bai a "surprise", suddenly saw two strange middle-aged men and women looking at her with shocked expressions, and the bright smile froze on her face instantly.

"Crack!"

Meng Bai, who had been prepared, took out his mobile phone and took two photos to keep as a dark history for "threatening" in the future.

Two minutes later.

In the living room on the first floor, Li Qin, with a ruddy face and slightly lowered head, sat obediently on the sofa.

On the other side, Meng's father and mother looked at the girl in front of them with a smile.

"Let me introduce you, these are my parents."

"Mom and Dad, no, uh, hello, uncle and aunt." Li Qin greeted nervously: "My name is Li Qin, I'm Meng Bai's... friend."

(End of this chapter)