Abstract Art Award Winner

Since things had already come to this point, Zhou Le felt there was no need to refuse.

After all, Bilibili has been incredibly popular in the last two years, and these cross-border and cross-industry collaborations are indeed more likely to break out of their niche.

After agreeing, Zhou Le got busy again.

I'll have to wait a day or two for Bilibili to finish the lyrics and music before I can practice. But I'm not in such a rush for the Spring Festival Gala. There are only two rehearsals left. As long as I can do a good job with the opening and the duet with Li Ronghao, that's enough.

There is virtually no chance that either of these programs will be canceled.

However, with "Joy of Life" about to air, Zhou Le still needs to appear on variety shows and promote it on his own account.

On the one hand, it is the most promising TV series adapted from male-oriented content, and on the other hand, Tencent has been very kind to itself, helping with behind-the-scenes public relations work during several major controversies.

In the past, when Jiaozi and Guo Fan made movies, Tencent invested in them. When they signed me, they offered me their best resources and let me choose first. They even got me a copy of the copyright for "The Three-Body Problem".

Zhou Le isn't worried about the fans of the original work; his main concern is creating some buzzworthy topics.

So after thinking it over, he first contacted Guo Qiling.

"Qi Ling, have you personally come up with a promotional strategy for 'Joy of Life'?"

"No, Brother Le, this is too difficult. If they write a script and I follow it, I can do a little bit, but I really can't think of any particularly good ideas to do myself. The few topics I've come up with so far are just adapting some songs based on the content of 'Joy of Life' or putting on costumes and making everyone dance."

"These are all too ordinary. But you can keep these for now and work on them after the TV series airs. I have a topic idea here, I wonder if you'd be interested?"

"Brother Le, I've always admired your creativity, tell me about it."

"I want to create a buzz around your personal relationship with the character you played, specifically mentioning that you opened several companies to prepare for this film."

As soon as he finished speaking, Guo Qiling started shouting on the other end of the phone: "This is great! We're making short dramas and running MSN to make a name for ourselves on the internet, but creating this kind of topic is like binding me and Versace together."

When I actually do business in the TV series, the platform can coordinate with the chat to include comments related to "President Guo" or "President Fan." And when I appear as the company owner, they can quickly associate it with Versace. This isn't just useful in the show; it will definitely be useful when I appear on variety shows too.

"That makes sense. Let's collaborate on a video tomorrow, a video of you as the boss for a day. We can have a meeting, visit the set, and capture your boss-like demeanor."

Later, I'll arrange another interview for you, using this topic as a starting point. You can combine these two things in your presentation, and you can also promote our company at the same time.

"no problem."

After making the arrangements, Zhou Le called Wu Jing again.

"Hey, what's Jing-ge busy with these days?"

"What else could I be busy with? Filming 'The Wandering Earth,' of course. I was tricked by Guo Fan into filming the first one for a month or two, but I ended up being the male lead in the second one. What's up? Is there something you need?"

"Brother Jing, I have a TV series that's about to air, and we need to promote it. Could you come and film a video for it?"

"Sure, what kind of film do you want?"

"It's related to martial arts, after all, I'm considered a master among them."

Wu Jing thought for a moment and said, "That's perfect. Let's invite my senior brother too. He's been in Beijing recently."

"Which senior brother? Brother Jing, I remember you have quite a few senior brothers."

"Zhao Wenzhuo, of course. Li Lianjie doesn't have time to deal with this with me, and besides, he's not feeling well lately, so I don't want to bother him."

Moreover, Zhao Wenzhuo hasn't had many resources lately. Since we're from the same school, I can help him out. Previously, I mainly didn't have many good scripts.

"Okay, can we reschedule for the day after tomorrow?"

"If there's no problem the day after tomorrow, I'll contact him."

After agreeing on the schedule for tomorrow and the day after, Zhou Le contacted the actor who plays Teng Zijing.

Whether in the original novel or the TV series, the character Teng Zijing is quite good, and the character will definitely become a hit.

When the other party heard that Zhou Le wanted to take him on a promotional trip, he immediately agreed and said that although he was not in Beijing at the moment, he could buy a ticket for the next available flight and arrive around nighttime.

“Okay, then let’s make a video together. I’ll write the script first.”

So Zhou Le spent an afternoon writing the copy.

When the other party arrived that evening, they went directly to Guo Qiling's place, where Guo Qiling had already set up the scene beforehand.

It looks like a scene from the evening news broadcast.

While getting their makeup done and costumes on, the other person took the script written by Zhou Le and started memorizing it intensively.

Half an hour later, the two of them also sat behind the news station.

"The following is a report on the work of Comrade Teng Zijing during his tenure as Secretary of Baling County."

"In the spring of the fourth year of the Qingli era, Comrade Teng Zijing was appointed as the chief administrator of Baling County after organizational adjustment during his participation in political affairs."

"In the second year of taking office, the county presented a good situation with efficient and smooth government operations, harmonious and stable social situation, accelerated release of development vitality in various regions, and breakthrough progress in key tasks."

"The renovation project of Yueyang Tower, which he led, has been fully completed."

"Based on the existing regulations, the functional layout will be expanded, and the classic discourses and poems of past sages on people's livelihood governance and the harmony between mountains and water will be engraved in the middle of the building, forming a landmark carrier that integrates historical heritage and governance practice."

The two of them continued talking, one sentence at a time.

Actually, this has little to do with "Joy of Life" itself; it's mainly about the name Teng Zijing.

Zhou Le had talked to the original author of the novel back then. The original author was simply too lazy to come up with a name, so he just used this one.

But now it's perfect for going viral.

Although I'm not the main character in this video, I wrote the script myself, so I guess I did my part in promoting it.

After filming the video, Zhou Le looked at it and then had the company's post-production team do some simple editing to turn it into a collaborative video, which was then released.

Soon, fans clicked in. "No, guys, who understands this? This is the first time I've heard colloquial Chinese and I have to look up the classical Chinese translation."

"Notice on Issuing the Layout of Proposals for Urban Governance and Construction by the Tengzijing County Party Committee" (Administrative Department [2019] No. 145)

"My grandfather told me to turn up the volume, saying that Teng Zijing is a remarkable person, a good official."

"An investigation has revealed that during his tenure as the Prefect of Baling County, Teng Zijing deviated from feudal values, lost his ideals, and engaged in vanity projects and political achievements projects. He was investigated by the Censorate for serious violations of discipline and law, and has now been transferred to the Court of Judicial Review for handling."

Content that can be widely disseminated on the internet must be both novel and interesting.

This video is clearly a prank, but those who have seen it have to admit that the official document is indeed well-written.

But when they saw that Zhou Le's name was listed below the final text, they were relieved.

Suddenly, many people started using the meme.

Someone turned this video into an animation.

Some people have also discovered this new track and started using other classical Chinese articles and poems to create similar content.

Zhou Le also handed over the account to the studio, allowing employees to use their accounts to comment on the videos in the form of official approval documents.

By the next day, the video had already garnered over ten million views.

Likes, shares, and comments have all exceeded one million.

The most popular comments were from acquaintances, but Zhou Le still pinned the official account of "Joy of Life" to the top.

After getting up, Zhou Le went straight to the company, where the filming was already prepared. The two of them first went to the gym to work out for more than an hour, and then began filming Guo Qiling's daily life as the boss.

Although websites that specialize in checking company information show that Zhou Le is the biggest boss, internally, Zhou Le only participates in profit sharing and some decision-making; Guo Qiling is responsible for most of the management.

From the start of the morning, my schedule was packed with activities: working out, having breakfast, attending meetings with various departments, and visiting the set.

In the evening, they met with the reporters they had arranged to meet, and Guo Qiling gave an exclusive interview.

"When I first received the script, my first thought was how to embody the character. Later, Brother Le gave me a suggestion: instead of trying to become the boss on a spiritual level, it would be better to actually have that identity in reality."

During the conversation, Guo Qiling mentioned Zhou Le several times. In fact, these answers were not in the original script, but Guo Qiling felt that Zhou Le was the one who led him to do this, and it would be inappropriate to leave Zhou Le out in order to promote himself.

It is also inconsistent with his way of dealing with people and things.

Moreover, in the drama, although Fan Sizhe has a strong business talent, he only truly succeeded because of Fan Xian.

After the interview, the reporter was given a large red envelope as a travel expense, and the reporter said that he would definitely edit the video carefully and try to include all the best parts.

Then Zhou Le looked at Guo Qiling and said, "Actually, you didn't need to say those things. I don't care about that. As long as I get the money, that's fine. Besides, you're the one who's really busy with the company's affairs."

"Brother Le, if we didn't have to talk about those things, I would rather not accept this interview. And what's wrong with letting me ride your coattails for a bit? There are way more people who like you than I do."

"Haha, that's true. I told people to raise their hands if they like me, and the earth turned into a sea urchin."

Guo Qiling laughed heartily: "Brother Le, do you know why everyone likes to be around you? It's because you always manage to come up with these inexplicable jokes. Although they are really inexplicable, they are also really hilarious."

"But Brother Le, do you think there's anything I can still improve in? Because now that I've fully entered the entertainment industry, I can't keep using the same old tricks I had at Deyun Club to interact with everyone."

Zhou Le thought for a moment and said, "Well, once the company is up and running, you don't really need to hold back. Sometimes you should just say what you need to say. But right now you're a bit like lettuce in a hamburger, neither crisp nor soft."

Guo Qiling suddenly realized: "Brother Le, do you mean I should make these two emotions more obvious, on the one hand to make my persona more prominent, and on the other hand to make friends with people I should make and completely cut off from people who are not worth associating with? Is that what you mean?"

Zhou Le shook his head: "Wrong, what I meant was that I want to eat some junk food tonight. Do you know which burger place in Beijing is pretty good?"

Guo Qiling: "."

"You're really unpredictable, Brother Le. I think I know you pretty well, but I can never guess what you're going to say next."

"Haha, stop talking about that, let's go eat a burger, I'm starving."

But after searching online for a long time, they finally ended up at KFC.

"When I was little, although I went to some places with my parents, we were relatively poor, so the things I came into contact with were all around me."

Back when I was in junior high school, a classmate told me that he had gone on a trip to Beijing with his parents and found that the cheapest restaurants outside were KFC and McDonald's.

At the time, I really couldn't understand it, because I probably only ate there once or twice a year. Although there was one in my city, I always felt that it must be very expensive inside whenever I passed by the door.

But after I came to Beijing myself, I realized he was right. Sometimes, if you haven't seen it for yourself, you really can't understand what life is like for those rich people.

Although Guo Qiling has not experienced this firsthand, he has had similar experiences.

"I'm pretty much the same. When I was little, I didn't understand anything and always thought that everyone's parents were so strict. But later I realized that my dad was only like that with me."

Besides, my stepmother had a younger brother, and it wasn't until then that I realized my dad could actually be very kind to his own children, which is why I came up with that idea.

"If I stay with Deyun Club, I will always be Guo Degang's son."

"Yes, your decision to come out was the right one, and it's been quite successful, hasn't it?"
"Yes, Brother Le."

After finishing our KFC meal, it was time to say goodbye.

"When you finish that video, remember to send a copy to my studio. They're using my account right now, so we can release it together as a co-creation, which will give you more traffic."

"Okay, then Brother Le, you can do it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow I have to go and film a video with Brother Jing and Zhao Wenzhuo. It's already arranged, and I reckon it'll take all day. Saito Asuka will be here the day after tomorrow, and I'll take her to the company for a tour first."

It just so happens that Bilibili's New Year's Eve gala is being recorded in Beijing this year, so we'll probably have to go there too. We only have two or three days left, and rehearsal time will be very tight.

"Okay, then feel free to contact me anytime if you need anything." (End of Chapter)