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

Chapter 414 Best Friend
“Beep, beep, beep…”

Just as she put the soup on the stove, Li Yitong seemed to vaguely hear the electronic sound of password keys coming from the door.

"What's wrong?" Jin Chen, who was about to steal a bite, saw her listening attentively and couldn't help asking, "What are you listening to?"

"It sounds like the sound of a door opening."

Li Yitong said this, then without looking back, she said "watch the fire", and ran out impatiently.

"Oh, silly girl."

Jin Chen looked at her back, shook his head and sighed, then pretended to observe the progress of the fire.

"Click!"

Meng Bai opened the door, and before he entered the room, he saw a slender figure jogging out of the room and then throwing herself into his arms.

The two hugged each other silently at the door for a while, until Li Yitong felt something slowly growing, and then they stepped back and separated.

Glancing down, she said jokingly, "It seems that our President Meng has been very well behaved recently."

Meng Bai raised his eyebrows: "It's because I know that Boss Li is coming back, so I'm taking this time to recuperate."

"Tsk, Mr. Meng is really old now. He used to be on call at all times, but now he even needs to conserve his energy. Sigh..."

"Ha, it's so funny. I don't know who it is who always cries and yells 'no', 'don't', 'please' and so on at the end."

Meng Bai walked into the room and closed the door while mocking, then threw his coat into the closet at the door. He then walked forward a few steps and picked up the blushing Li Yitong upright.

"Well!"

Li Yitong let out a small cry of surprise, and quickly put her arms around Meng Bai's neck, and her long legs subconsciously climbed around his waist.

"Now you dare to take the initiative to ridicule me, right? Fine, then I'll satisfy your request."

"Hey, wait a minute there's... um!"

Li Yitong was about to say in a panic that there were other people around, but she immediately melted into the fierce verbal battle and was only thinking about responding.

A woman's weight of more than 80 kilograms was nothing to Meng Bai, who had been keeping fit all year round. He simply carried her into the house and pushed Li Yitong against the back of the sofa.

Just as he was about to lean over, Meng Bai suddenly felt a figure appear at the edge of his vision. He turned his head and saw Jin Chen "covering" his eyes with his five fingers spread out, looking at him with a strange smile on his face.

Seeing that Meng Bai noticed him, Jin Chen quickly waved his hand: "It's okay, you guys go about your business, just pretend I don't exist."

"Then why don't you get out?" Meng Bai said mercilessly, "Are you standing there intending to apply to join the online game?"

Li Yitong, who heard the voice, was awakened from her confusion. She sat up with rosy cheeks and tidied her hair. Hearing Meng Bai's words, she couldn't help but pat him lightly and said angrily: "What are you talking about!"

"That's right. He just stood there silently, like a ghost."

Meng Bai rolled his eyes, but did not stand up——

It wasn't until Li Yitong tidied her hair and clothes and stood up that his emotions subsided a little. He glanced at Jin Chen standing at the kitchen door and asked, "Why is there a third person here?"

"Hey, Boss Meng, can you please be reasonable? Today is supposed to be a girls' gathering." Jin Chen complained, "You are the 'third party'!"

"Why are you talking about my man?" Li Yitong stood on Meng Bai's side without hesitation.

"Wow, this woman is really..."

Jin Chen was fed a lot of dog food, and his face was full of a painful mask expression.

Meng Bai was naturally not really angry when he was disturbed. He and Jin Chen had known each other for many years. They were acquaintances at least, and he knew that she had a carefree personality.

The two girls went into the kitchen and worked busy for a while before they brought out the finished product.

Of course, Li Yitong’s cooking skills are just entry-level at best, and she hasn’t had much opportunity to tinker with it in the past few years as an actress, so she only cooks simple home-cooked meals.

But no one cares about this. After all, at this time, it is not about how the food is cooked, but who cooks it that matters.'

Three people, four dishes and a soup. Meng Bai went to the wine cabinet and took out two bottles of red wine. A simple and warm dinner was ready.

"Come, let me get you a drink first."

How could three Shandong people not toast when they were having a meal? Just after a few bites, Jin Chen took the wine glass on the table and said, "First glass of wine, congratulations to our Tongtong for the successful completion of the new play!"

Li Yitong had been filming "The Undocumented Crime" in Harbin some time ago. Except for coming back on the Spring Festival to celebrate the New Year with Meng Bai, she had never left the crew and only returned to Beijing yesterday.

The completion of the new drama was indeed worth celebrating, and the three of them drank a glass without hesitation.

After filling up the glass, Li Yitong raised the cup again: "The second glass of wine is to congratulate our classmate Daxi for finally terminating his contract with the company and regaining his freedom!"

Meng Bai held the empty cup and looked at Jin Chen: "Is your contract finally expired?"

"Yeah." Jin Chen pursed his lips, and a complicated expression flashed across his face.

To be honest, the relationship between her and Tang Ren was actually a mess. One side felt that she had done her best, while the other side felt that she had been wronged. In the end, the problem was solved in the worst way for both parties.

But no matter what, I am finally free now. Thinking of this, Jin Chen regained his smiling expression and stood up to fill Meng Bai's glass with wine: "Hehe, I have to ask Mr. Meng to take care of me in the future. If there is any supporting role you don't want, please introduce it to me. I am very cheap."

"Oh, I didn't realize that our classmate Daxi could be so flexible."

"Well, it's just a way to make a living, it's not shabby." Jin Chen smiled brightly.

Li Yitong, who was standing by, naturally had to help her bestie: "Didn't you promise last time that if there was a suitable project, you would recommend it to Daxi?"

"Is there? When?" Meng Bai touched his chin.

Li Yitong's eyes widened: "How dare you say no! You asked me to..."

She was about to describe the scene of that day, but then she remembered that there were other people around, so she stopped halfway.

"Go on, what's wrong with you?" Jin Chen asked with interest.

Now she doesn’t care whether it is recommended or not, she is more curious about what happened to her best friend “that day”.

Fortunately, Meng Bai had remembered it by now, and it seemed that there was indeed such a thing, probably about something like "The Fall of the Elf Princess". Since he had said it himself, he would not break his promise. He thought about several projects he had seen recently: "Xiaotangren Culture is preparing a new drama recently, called "Amazing Girl", which follows the dual female lead route. I will ask the crew to contact you later to see if you are suitable."

At the beginning, Xiaotangren Culture broke through the siege in the field of youth films with a fresh and clean style film "The Best of Us" and became a dark horse in the film and television market that year.

At that time, the film and television market was booming, and Xiaotangren Culture, which held the IP of the "Zhenhua Trilogy", was also favored by the capital market. After two rounds of financing, the valuation rose to more than 10 billion at its highest.

ArcLight was the first to invest in Xiaotangren Culture, and followed suit in the two subsequent rounds of financing. It now holds more shares than the founder Zhu Zhenhua, becoming the largest shareholder.

Speaking of which, the dramas produced by Xiaotangren later, including "Hello, Old Time" and "Secret Love in the South", etc., were of good quality. Although the results did not surpass "The Best of Us", they were still acceptable.

The only problem is that the output is too low, almost one drama a year.

This year is a rare year of high productivity for them, and they started two projects at once. The first one is the movie version of "The Best of Us", which was given to Zhu Xudan by Meng Bai as a bet gift.

There is another one, which is the movie "The Great Girl" he just mentioned.

Meng Bai had roughly read the script outline of this project before. The overall routine was a bit similar to the "The Golden Years" that he had given to Li Qin before. Both were stories about two girls who were classmates and best friends and grew up with each other.

In recent years, with the rise of feminism and the increase in female audiences, film and television works have gradually tilted towards women.

First, various fantasy and ancient costume dramas became a big hit, followed by contemporary sweet dramas, and then the rise of BL double male protagonists became the new traffic code.

Especially since the huge hit of "Guardian" last year, the two leading actors, Zhu Yilong and Bai Yu, instantly became top stars, and it also attracted many film and television companies to invest in it, and they began to launch danmei projects.

Of course, there are also some smart ones who feel that the competition on this route will be very fierce in the future, so they simply switch to a similar but undiscovered track with two female protagonists.

But no matter whether it is a normal male and female protagonist, or two men and two women, in short, they are all aimed at the huge female audience group.

This is also why Arc Light Films has had more and more male fans in recent years - even a team like Noon Sunshine, which is full of "straight male style", went to shoot "Ode to Joy", leaving Arc Light alone to stick to the "criminal investigation suspense" field dominated by men.

Of course, as a mature capitalist, Meng Bai would definitely not give up the female audience market. He just allocated this type of project to new labels such as Tianqi Entertainment or other funded companies.

Whether male or female audiences, only those who can give him gold coins are “good audiences”.

Back to "The Wonderful Girl", the two heroines of this drama, "Lu Ke" and "Shen Siyi", have been classmates since middle school. Later they became rivals in love, and then became colleagues after the plot began. They can be considered good friends for many years.

Lu Ke is gentle and kind, while Shen Siyi is rational and straightforward. They complement each other but are different.

In terms of the character settings, Jin Chen and "Shen Siyi" are quite suitable, so there should be no problem.

Although it would be fine to just give her a "minor supporting role", after all, it was Li Yitong who personally asked Meng Bai for the role, so it would be embarrassing not to give her the role of the female lead.

Jin Chen was naturally very satisfied with this, and quickly picked up a piece of shrimp and put it in Meng Bai's bowl: "Thank you, Mr. Meng, come, let's eat something delicious!"

"No..." Meng Bai looked at the shrimp in the bowl, "Girl, you're using my family's food to thank me. You're really good at business."

"Then I don't have anything else to thank you for now."

Jin Chen said something flattering with a bitter face, and then patted his chest: "How about Teacher Meng, which piece do you like? I'll give you these 80-plus kilograms!"

"Hey, hey! I'm still here, okay!" Li Yitong said dissatisfiedly while knocking on the table.

Jin Chen spread his hands: "I am just expressing my sincerity."

"Sorry, I'm not interested in tree branches." Meng Bai said calmly from the side.

"Tree, branch?"

Jin Chen was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously looked down at himself, and his face turned red instantly.

"I, I'm a branch? Are you kidding me?"

Jin Chen said, lifting up his clothes to reveal his flat belly: "See? I have a standard fitness body. It's good to have abdominal muscles!"

"You call that abdominal muscles?" Meng Bai glanced at her and snorted, "Yours is just skinny. Besides, who looks at a girl's abdominal muscles first when looking at her figure?"

"..."

Jin Chen was speechless. She really couldn't refute this. But...

"Hehe, isn't your boss Li similar?"

"What does it have to do with me?"

Li Yitong raised her eyebrows and pretended to casually puff out her chest.

Well...it is indeed slightly better, but only slightly better.

Being a little tipsy, the two began to argue about their bodies. Fortunately, they had not drunk much and were sober, so they did not start to compare themselves directly, which disappointed some people who were waiting to watch the fun.

After a long quarrel, the two girls sat back in their seats. Jin Chen thanked him seriously again, and Meng Bai waved his hand: "It's okay, I'll put your account on Boss Li anyway, and I'll get it back later."

"Oh, that's fine, just remember whatever you want."

Li Yitong rolled her eyes at her best friend's behavior of "betraying" her without hesitation, but she remembered another thing.

"From what you just said, the two female protagonists of this drama are also best friends. Otherwise, let Daxi and I shoot together."

"This... is not impossible."

Meng Bai thought about it and realized that Li Yitong's image was indeed similar to the other female lead "Lu Ke". In addition, she and Jin Chen were friends, so maybe some sparks would come out when they acted together.

"Okay, I'll ask Little Sugar Man to give you a copy of the script later. It just so happens that you two have worked together before."

In the third part of Xiaotangren Culture’s “Zhenhua Trilogy”, “Unrequited Love in the South”, the female lead was played by Li Yitong, so it can be regarded as their second collaboration.

Li Yitong and Jin Chen were both very happy about this. After all, they had known each other for so many years but had never had the opportunity to work together.

"Thank you, Boss Meng!"

Jin Chen raised his glass: "This is to congratulate the movie for its 5 billion box office success, and to wish our new drama will also have high ratings!"

(End of this chapter)