Restart life

Chapter 546 0534 [Crippled?]

When Chen Guiliang flew back to the capital, his buttocks hurt... ah, no, it was the inside of his thighs that hurt.

The leather was worn raw from riding horses.

This guy was clearly addicted to riding. The day after the bonfire party, he rode for another three or four hours, galloping freely and having a great time.

He limped out of the airport, and many passengers recognized him along the way.

"Isn't that Chen Guiliang?"

"Oh dear, Old Master Chen!"

"What's wrong with his leg? He walks with a limp."

"It's not exactly a limp, more like a sprained ankle."

"..."

Tao Xue walked silently ahead, acting as if she didn't know this person.

They had just left the airport by car when related posts began to circulate on Weibo.

The more normal explanation is that Chen Guiliang sprained his ankle; the more extreme explanation is that he fractured his bone; and the most outrageous explanation is that he got foot cancer.

Then a bunch of people started arguing about whether "foot cancer" actually exists.

Even Bian Guanyue was tagged multiple times by Weibo fans, who called her with concern to ask, "Did you break your leg?"

"Who told you that?" Chen Guiliang was completely confused.

Bian Guanyue said, "It's circulating on Weibo."

Chen Guiliang said, "Don't believe it."

Tao Xue, sitting next to him, exclaimed, "Senior, he deserved it! He was dancing with a female celebrity, and she was really pretty!"

Bian Guanyue said, "That's exactly what they deserved."

Chen Guiliang: “…”

Tao Xue added, "I have video evidence. I'll send it to you via Bluetooth when I get home."

“We can send it now,” Bian Guanyue said.

Tao Xue said, "Data usage is very expensive."

Chen Guiliang complained, "You really are thrifty and good at managing a household."

Just after I hung up the phone, Chen Zhixi called again, saying she had something important to discuss.

Chen Guiliang invited her to his home, mainly because he was in a condition where it was inconvenient to go out these past few days.

After walking a few steps into the house, Bian Guanyue saw his pathetic appearance and couldn't help but cover her mouth and laugh.

"Senior, turn on Bluetooth quickly!" Tao Xue said impatiently.

Bian Guanyue said, "Just play the video."

The two girls got together to watch the footage from that night and jointly condemned Chen Guiliang for being too intimate with the actress while dancing.

Chen Guiliang lay on the sofa, protesting his innocence, saying he was drunk and knew nothing at the time.

A short while later, Chen Zhixi arrived.

The woman was quite surprised and asked as soon as she arrived, "Mr. Chen, why are you still living here? Why don't you move to a bigger villa?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It's been changed."

Then he introduced her to Bian Guanyue: "This is Chen Zhixi, the producer of ByteDance Pictures. She's from a wealthy family, a third-generation rich woman. Zhixi, you know Tao Xue, this is Bian Guanyue."

"Hello."

"Hello."

They looked each other over and seemed to hit it off immediately.

After the girls chatted for a while, Chen Zhixi glanced at Chen Guiliang's leg and asked, "I heard you broke your leg in a horse-riding accident?"

Chen Guiliang was speechless: "Fine, another way of putting it."

Chen Zhixi said, "I have handed over the production work of 'Silk Road Dust' to others. I will be fully responsible for 'Lost in Thailand'."

“You guys discuss work-related matters at ByteDance. I don’t handle these details,” Chen Guiliang said.

Chen Zhixi said, "President Chen, if you say you won't concern yourself with the details, then you really should. I'm a self-taught producer, and you've really messed things up with 'Silk Road Dust.' I've already increased the budget twice because of your filming method. Do you know how much the final cost might be?"

"How much?" Chen Guiliang asked.

Chen Zhixi said, "Over 100 million!"

Chen Guiliang nodded: "It's alright."

Chen Zhixi said, "The cost of 'Palace' was 50 million, and the cost of 'Empresses in the Palace' was 70 million. Our 'Silk Road Smoke and Dust' cost over 100 million, and the actors' salaries were not even a high percentage. It's all newcomers, has-beens, and second- or third-tier actors! To be honest, I strongly disagree with the costumes and props you're asking for. Right now, the clothes should be colorful and appealing to the audience, and it's also low-cost." Chen Guiliang said, "Don't overly cater to any particular type of audience."

“That’s terrible, this is going against the market.” Chen Zhixi shrugged.

Chen Guiliang said, "As long as we don't lose money, that's fine. If we're going to do something, we should do the best."

Chen Zhixi said, "Have you ever thought that if we all make high-quality films like this, what good will it do if the film becomes a hit? The company won't make much money, but it will make those new actors famous."

"If they become famous, you should raise their salaries, right? If you keep suppressing their salaries, can the actors resist the temptation? Sooner or later, they'll be poached. If their salaries rise to market prices, our production costs will increase significantly, and our profits will be even lower, or we might even lose money!"

"Moreover, who can guarantee that every high-quality production will be a hit? There are many well-made dramas now, but they just don't become popular. Doing this will only lead to losses sooner or later."

Chen Guiliang said, "Actors' agency contracts are not just for one or two years. They get paid less for the films produced by our company, and then they take on roles outside the company for market rates once they become famous. If they want to switch companies, they can do so when the contract expires. But if they breach the contract and switch companies before the contract expires, all platforms related to me will blacklist them!"

This approach seems domineering and would likely draw criticism as an unscrupulous capitalist.

However, if ByteDance continues to produce high-quality dramas, many actors are genuinely willing to take on roles for lower pay.

It's like giving yourself a makeover, increasing your market value before taking on acting roles. You can come back when the company needs you, as long as you don't fill their schedules and leave them enough room to take on other roles.

This requires striking a balance; otherwise, it could easily lead to all the actors switching jobs.

But from another perspective, wouldn't people switch jobs if they were offered extremely high pay?

Huanrui Century, once the most powerful company in the next few years, has seen all its contracted artists leave. Especially those who opened studios within Huanrui, who made ridiculously high profits, have to give it all back after a single failed bet.

You can't refuse to sign a performance-based agreement; if you don't, someone else will. If you don't sign, you won't get enough resources.

Chen Zhixi said, "Boss, your online platforms are all open, so why are you making films and TV shows in such a closed, small-scale way? We could do what you do with your open online platforms: sign some promising artists and let them open their own studios. Once we figure out a formula, we can just make a few hit shows and ByteDance will experience explosive growth."

Chen Zhixi began to share her thoughts: "I've recently been studying low-budget hit dramas from the past few years, and there are actually only two formulas. I won't mention Yu Zheng's formula, I know you'd definitely look down on it. The other formula is 'big IP + popular stars + colorful and cheap costumes and props.' With so many IPs that the company has bought, it can easily mass-produce them."

Chen Guiliang was aware of all this, but he didn't want to dampen Chen Zhixi's enthusiasm: "How about this, you can sign some studios and film according to your method. However, those studios cannot use ByteDance's name for promotion."

“I know you value your reputation,” Chen Zhixi said with a smile, “We can have ByteDance open a separate subsidiary and sign all those studios into that subsidiary.”

It's uncertain whether Huanrui Century can survive in this timeline. Many of their intellectual property rights, such as "Zhu Xian" and "The Lost Tomb," were snapped up by Chen Guiliang.

However, there were some IPs that Chen Guiliang didn't like, and he didn't buy them even though he knew they had the potential to become huge hits. It seems that Huanrui bought up all of these IPs.

Furthermore, Huanrui has a long-term partnership with Hunan TV, so it should be able to make a success of this to some extent.

The two founders of H&R Century Pictures were former real estate developers. Their application of real estate thinking to film and television production was like a max-level character entering a newbie village – a classic case of the IP-driven era in the Chinese film and television industry, arguably the root of all evil!
Ultimately, just like those real estate developers, when the tide of capital receded, they were left with a mess and were brought back to their original state.

Chen Guiliang's agreement with Chen Zhixi now means he's taking a two-pronged approach—

One of its pillars is ByteDance Pictures, dedicated to creating high-quality content.

One leg is a subsidiary of ByteDance Pictures, which operates on the "capital + IP + celebrity traffic" model. Moreover, truly super classic IPs will never be allowed to be polluted by these guys.

After finishing their business, Chen Guiliang lay on the sofa to recover from his injury and played on his phone.

The three women chatted and ate snacks. Chen Zhixi didn't ask about the relationship between Bian Guanyue and Tao Xue; she had seen this kind of thing many times before.

Chen Zhixi complained, "Pan Yueming's ex-wife is really stupid. She thinks we don't know what she's doing. We found out about her dirty deeds last year!"

Bian Guanyue asked in surprise, "Pan Yueming got divorced?"

“They’re divorced, but they didn’t announce it,” Chen Zhixi said. “I was Pan Yueming’s agent for two or three years, and his ex-wife never even knew what I did. She didn’t care at all, never communicated with me, and even wanted to replace me so her agent could manage Pan Yueming!”

Chen Guiliang chuckled.

Chen Zhixi, probably having been upset these past few days, was still complaining: "This woman is out of her mind. She's only interested in this industry and that industry, desperately trying to get in. Now everyone's playing the capital game. You, an outsider, are better off following the capital!"

“You just said she didn’t know,” Tao Xue said.

Chen Zhixi said, "Pan Yueming didn't want a divorce. Before going to the Civil Affairs Bureau, I told her that I was a producer at ByteDance Pictures and that I could get resources from ByteDance Pictures. But the woman actually looked down on ByteDance Pictures because we haven't independently produced any film or television dramas yet, we've only invested in one, 'Love is Not Blind,' with Perfect World."

Chen Guiliang wasn't interested in this kind of gossip and continued scrolling through Weibo while sprawled on the sofa.

Bian Guanyue and Tao Xue, on the other hand, had expressions of watching the drama unfold, chatting animatedly with Chen Zhixi.

Taking the opportunity, Chen Zhixi tried to get closer to the two boss ladies, embellishing their stories with various anecdotes from the industry—why would she gossip like that? Her goal was to attract Bian Guanyue and Tao Xue's attention.

Chen Guiliang posted a video of more than ten seconds on Weibo with the caption: "I made a cameo appearance in my own TV series 'Silk Road Smoke and Dust.' Do you think I'm handsome as a little nobleman from Wusun?"

"Damn it, he's neglecting his duties and going off to act again. Why has the sixth volume of 'Those Things About the Ming Dynasty' been discontinued?"

"Your clothing is wrong. Why do barbarians wear their robes with the right side overlapping the left?"

"Damn, my wife is watching the anime 'Silk Road Dust' and she insists on making me watch it with her."

"..."

Chen Guiliang soon posted another Weibo post, this time a video of himself riding a horse in costume.

Promoting the TV series was secondary; the main reason was to show off. He thought he looked especially cool when riding a horse.

(End of this chapter)