A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 15 Jianghu
Late March in the capital is the time of winter-spring struggle, with the old folks saying things like "cats for two days and dogs for two days," meaning the weather warms up and then freezes again. But in Taipei at the end of March, the daytime temperature is generally stable at around 20 degrees Celsius, making for a very comfortable temperature.

Lin Jianlu ran ten kilometers in one go after getting up early. After returning to the hotel, he took a shower and ate at the hotel restaurant. Then he went back to his room. Around eight o'clock, he picked up the phone and started making calls.

The first call was to Sylvia Chang.

Sylvia Chang was slightly surprised, but also slightly pleased. "Good morning, Ah Lu!"

"Sister Aijia, Mr. Duan told me yesterday that the results were pretty good and he's considering having me shoot a few more music videos to increase the follow-up promotion. Actually, I've already prepared the story scripts in advance. For the song 'Fairy Tale,' I plan to make it into a short film, or a micro-movie. I've been thinking about it and I'd like to invite Ms. Liu Ruoying to play the female lead in my music video. Everyone says she's an artist in your company, so I wanted to ask you if she's suitable?"

Zhang Aijia paused for a moment, then immediately replied, "Sure, of course no problem!"

It's not just no problem. The album "Cold to the End" is so popular, and the song "Fairy Tale" is so outstanding. Since Rock Records is planning to make a music video, it's clear that they intend to promote it as a major project. The song is already in the top ten of the Golden Melody Chart. With the music video giving it a boost, it has a good chance of taking first place.

And once the music video became a hit, Liu Ruoying, who played the female lead, naturally gained popularity!

She became famous because of her role in "Siao Yu the Girl". Her first album, "The Beauty and Sorrow of Siao Yu the Girl", was a good start to her singing career. Unfortunately, she didn't follow up. Her second album flopped almost silently, and she suddenly faded into obscurity. But if she catches the wave of Lin Jianlu and "Fairy Tale", she might just rise again.

This means Lin Jianlu wants to take Liu Ruoying out to dinner.

As her manager, of course, I agreed without the slightest hesitation!
I'd even be willing to act for free!

However, after twenty years of navigating the world of entertainment, Zhang Aijia immediately came to her senses after making that promise...

"That's great! Thank you, Sister Jia. I'll report this to President Duan and have the company talk to you about it!"

"Uh...okay!"

"You go ahead and do your thing, I'll hang up now!"

Okay, before Zhang Aijia could say anything, the phone was hung up.

Actually, there's not much to say—of course, I'm Liu Ruoying's manager, so calling me is no problem at all. But please, Liu Ruoying is with Rock Records. They could have easily told Lao Duan directly, or even just spoken to Liu Ruoying first, without going through me.

We're all friends, we know each other so well, and he's clearly trying to help me out, so how could I not be happy?

But she still made that call to herself, sticking to the same old routine.

Sigh...it seems he chose Lao Ge?

However, she didn't know that after hanging up the phone with her, Lin Jianlu immediately dialed the number again. When the call was connected, she said the same thing, "Good morning, Sister Ge, this is Alu."

Um, we're going to shoot another music video, and we're planning to make "Ten Years" into a short film. I wanted to ask you if you have any suitable actresses to recommend, preferably ones who won't mind that it's just a music video...blah blah.

After making two phone calls, okay, all done.

Lin Jianlu wasn't in a hurry to find an agent while he was in mainland China. Many people had expressed interest, but he didn't agree to any of them. The reason was simply that he felt he wasn't earning enough money in mainland China right now.

He plans to prioritize making money from Hong Kong and Taiwan, at least for the next two years.

Moreover, his expectations are relatively low; he might be able to retire after earning money here for two years. As for Hong Kong and Taiwan, he agrees with Lao Duan's assessment that he definitely needs to sign an agent, and both of them are clearly excellent agents with amazing connections and abilities. Just as Lao Duan said, choosing either one would be good, and there's no wrong choice—but, please, how am I supposed to know if you're being petty? What if I choose one and end up offending the other?

Forget it, I'll just give one favor to each person and then not choose any of them!
Even if they are petty, they won't offend anyone. If they are that petty, they might as well quit the underworld, because they would have enemies everywhere!

Jianghu, wherever there are people, there is Jianghu!
Having spent a lot of time in the live streaming industry in my past life, I've been forced to take sides a lot, so I'm quite experienced.

With the matter settled, Lin Jianlu felt relieved and took out paper and pen, intending to write an outline.

Actually, Lin Jianlu originally wanted to shoot music videos for three songs.

The music video for "Fairy Tale" in the original timeline is absolutely amazing. It's a masterpiece of music video production in the Chinese music scene. You can just copy it and use it to attack mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong – it's a sure-fire hit!

"Ten Years" is a love story, and this song is also deeply poignant. Lin Jianlu doesn't remember what the original music video was about, but that's okay. He wrote a script with the same story himself.

This music video is also suitable for Hong Kong, Taiwan, and mainland China. The subtle, melancholic yet not overly sentimental tone of love that Chinese audiences love is just perfect. A killer feature!

The third song is "Bei'er Shuang" (Super Cool). Its so-called music video is unimportant and has no story. What Lin Jianlu actually wanted was a dance similar to Psy's "Gangnam Style" that he choreographed himself! He wanted to use this electronic dance music style and that dance to try and penetrate the Japanese and Korean markets across languages!

Make money, don’t be shabby!
However, with limited funds, and as a newcomer with his first album, no matter how promising he is, it's impossible to give him a large budget to shoot music videos right away!

So in the end, no matter how much he saved, the money he managed to squeeze out from the recording budget was only enough to support the filming of the first single, "Cold to the End," and the music video for "Super Cool."

To put it bluntly, for both songs, he only needed to pose. For the former, he could strike various poses, such as a sentimental face, a deep affectionate face, or a heartbroken face. For the latter, as long as he and his team practiced the dance, it was easy to film, with a low chance of making mistakes, and it saved on film.

But if you were to start filming a music video like "Fairy Tale" and "Ten Years," which has a script, a story, and a female lead, even if it were filmed in mainland China where labor costs are low, it wouldn't be something you could make for just tens of thousands of yuan!

He demanded a high-quality feel, so he used film stock!

Old Duan already knew about these things through Xue Zhongding's mediation.

Squeezing out money from recording sessions to shoot two music videos definitely required his approval.

But things are different now than they were two or three months ago. Mainland China is projected to sell over three million boxes, Taiwan is sure to have sold over a million, and Hong Kong sales reached 17 in two weeks, now estimated at at least 20. Singapore has already surpassed 6, Malaysia over 3, and even Japan has shipped over 10. And this is before data even arrives from Peninsular Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, and other places! —With Lao Duan personally involved, the budget certainly won't be skimped on this time!
So, take a picture!
It would be "Fairy Tale", "Ten Years", and "Mistake in the Flower Field".

Moreover, since the first two poems have storylines and female protagonists, let's not favor one over the other. Let's also write an outline for "The Flower Field Mistake" and slowly develop a story.

I just started writing and came up with an idea: I'm planning to use the opera troupe setting from "Farewell My Concubine" and the ideas from Wu Lun's "Far Away," and maybe even incorporate the sense of alienation from "In the Mood for Love"...

"The Flower Field Mistake" is originally a Peking Opera.

Before he could even write a few lines, the phone in his newly changed hotel room suddenly rang.

"Hey?"

"Hey Lu, this is Chen Shuhua. Let's go out for tea and a chat!"

(End of this chapter)