Huayu: A master director who debuted as a singer

Chapter 116 Invitation from the Film Crew

After Zheng Hui arrived in Guangzhou, he did not meet with Fan Binbin because of other circumstances.

Before coming, he made a special long-distance phone call with Li Zongming.

Over the phone, Li Zongming explained in detail his previous operations and subsequent plans.

The editorial, written by state media, successfully elevated Fan Binbin's contract termination lawsuit from an entertainment gossip to a social event of universal significance.

Next, Li Zongming should strike while the iron is hot and accept interviews from one or two truly influential and in-depth television media outlets, such as CCTV's "News Investigation" or "Oriental Horizon".

This kind of interview is a follow-up that the whole society is paying attention to after the editorial.

In order to create the most pitiful image of Fan Binbin, Li Zongming had Fan Binbin's mother come from her hometown in Shandong to Guangzhou to live with her daughter and face the media with her.

In the subsequent interview, when asked about his future plans, Fan Binbin...

She would say that because she was scared by her previous company, she has her mother be her agent for now, and if she can't find a suitable agency later, she will continue like this.

Don't overstate things; just touch on the point.

The image of a weak little girl, terrified by capitalism and forced to seek refuge with her mother, leaps off the page.

This will not only arouse stronger sympathy and protective instincts among the public, but will also force film and television companies that have designs on her to consider the pressure of public opinion when signing contracts, and they will not dare to impose any unfair terms.

Zheng Hui's appearance was clearly extremely inappropriate at a time when this public relations drama centered on family ties and the vulnerable was unfolding.

On the one hand, he is so famous that all the previous tragic build-up about losing everything and having nowhere to turn instantly becomes a joke.

On the other hand, his relationship with Fan Binbin is currently quite awkward in private.

The two have never officially confirmed their romantic relationship, yet they have crossed the line and had a physical relationship.

If he were to approach Fan Binbin's mother at this moment, under the watchful eyes of an elder, he would easily be exposed on the spot.

Therefore, it's best for him to stay out of the picture for now. Once this charade is over, Fan Binbin has calmed her mother down and sent her back to her hometown, then the two can meet privately.

Upon arriving at Guangzhou Station, Zheng Hui, wearing a hat and sunglasses, was followed by Lin Dashan carrying a bag. As the two walked out of the bustling crowd, they saw Chen Jianguo waiting at the exit.

"Boss! Over here!" Chen Jianguo quickly came to greet him.

"Let's go back to the company first." Zheng Hui nodded, and the three of them got into the Jinbei Haishi van. Lin Dashan drove straight to their destination.

Pushing open the company's door, you are greeted by a bustling scene. The office space has been rationally planned, with a wide open area on the outside, neatly divided into several cubicles, and two separate offices further inside.

Inside the cubicle, three or four young employees were busy. A girl was quickly jotting something down with a phone receiver tucked under her shoulder, while two other young men were checking delivery slips in front of several high stacks of documents.

Upon hearing the door open, several employees instinctively looked up.

Seeing Chen Jianguo walk in with a handsome man, and considering the man's face behind the sunglasses and the fact that their company sold Zheng Hui cassette tapes, they could easily guess who this person was.

The short-haired girl's eyes widened, and her hands involuntarily stopped moving. The other two young men also had expressions of ecstasy on their faces.

Zheng Hui! A superstar singer who's incredibly famous! He actually appeared right in front of me.

Although they knew the company sold Zheng Hui's cassette tapes and that Zheng Hui was the legal representative of the company, they only thought it was a mainland-registered company that distributed them. They never expected to actually see Zheng Hui himself at the company.

Several people were so excited that their cheeks turned red, and they seemed ready to rush up for autographs at any moment. But when they caught a glimpse of their usually stern-faced supervisor, Chen Jianguo, and thought of Zheng Hui's status as the big boss, they froze on the spot, one foot already halfway out.

No one dared to act rashly; they could only desperately suppress their inner turmoil and stand up, both reserved and excited.

"Zheng Hui—oh no, boss!"

"Hello boss! We all really love your songs!"

Seeing their eager yet hesitant expressions, their excited yet incoherent manner, Zheng Hui smiled and nodded at them: "Yes, thank you all. You've all worked hard. Do you need any autographs?"

The employees nodded vigorously. Zheng Hui took a pen and wrote artistic signatures on the notebooks they brought. None of them had any special requests for any inscriptions.

After signing his name, Zheng Hui followed Chen Jianguo into a private office at the far end.

The office desk was piled high with ledgers and summary documents. Chen Jianguo closed the door behind him, not even bothering to pour water for Zheng Hui, and quickly pulled out a report from the pile of documents on the desk and handed it to him.

"Boss, look! The market is booming!"

Zheng Hui took the report and quickly scanned it with his eyes.

"We contacted Swan Publishing House and urgently placed an order for an additional six million cassette tapes with several tape factories under Swan's name and those they were affiliated with. All of them have now been produced."

"Of these six million boxes, the White Swan Publishing House directly took two million boxes as a distributor, distributing them to Xinhua bookstores and education system channels nationwide."

"The remaining four million boxes, according to the previous agreement, will be divided equally among the four major wholesalers, one million boxes each. The payment was settled in full three days ago, totaling twelve million in cash."

"Boss, these four million boxes are simply not enough to sell!"

Chen Jianguo's voice was filled with excitement: "The news that you sold over 800,000 CDs in Hong Kong in just two days has reached the mainland. Now, every record store owner in China knows that your album 'Half a Lifetime' is selling like hotcakes in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and they're all as excited as if they've been injected with adrenaline!"

"The phones of those four major wholesalers have been ringing off the hook today! Everyone's asking them for goods! Even two million boxes wouldn't last more than a few days, let alone a million!"

"The most outrageous thing is Lingnan Radio; from number one to number eleven, it's all your songs! 'Stubborn' and 'Half a Lifetime'."

The songs from those two albums dominated the entire charts!

The radio station staff said they'd never seen anything like it in all their years of operation!

An unprecedented situation means an unprecedented level of market enthusiasm.

Zheng Hui put down the report and asked, "Have any new orders been placed?"

"I'm done!" Chen Jianguo nodded emphatically. "At noon, I had an emergency phone call with Mr. Li Zongming and President Wang. President Wang immediately decided to have Swan Publishing House place an additional order for four million cassette tapes with the tape factory! He said the publishing house would advance the money to ensure market supply!"

Zheng Hui nodded. President Wang is about to take office as the director of Zhujiang Film Studio. This will be his last achievement in office. He has the guts to do so. He will go over and make the payment in the next couple of days.

He asked about something else: "What about the other thing I asked you to do? How's the apartment search going?"

"Found it!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Jianguo ran to his desk, took out a brown paper bag from a drawer, and handed it to Zheng Hui.

"Boss, I found a few people who traveled all over Guangzhou, then I selected some and went to check them out. Finally, I took these photos and brought them back for your reference."

Zheng Hui took the paper bag and poured out the photos inside.

The photos show detached houses along the street, including arcade buildings in the old town and modern buildings in the new town; the locations all look good.

Zheng Hui flipped through the pages one by one, and stopped when he saw one of them.

The photo shows an eight-story building with clean tiles on the exterior. The design was quite modern for the late 1990s. Most importantly, it also has a row of sizable street-front shops on the ground floor.

"Where is this?" Zheng Hui asked.

"Tianhe District, Tiyu West Road"

Chen Jianguo immediately explained, "This building is in a very good location, right next to Tianhe City Plaza. It was originally built by a Hong Kong boss as his headquarters, but during last year's financial crisis, his funding dried up, and the building became an abandoned project and was taken over by the bank."

"I went to see it specifically. The main structure and exterior walls are completed, but the interior is still unfinished. It has eight floors in total, with a building area of ​​more than 3,100 square meters."

What's most remarkable is that the building was designed with elevator shafts in mind, and the elevators themselves are already installed—imported Mitsubishi elevators.

It has an elevator, a good location, and a large enough area.

Zheng Hui had already made up his mind. The Tiyu West Road area would be one of the most central business districts in Guangzhou for the next twenty years, with huge potential for appreciation.

"What about the price?"

"The economy is sluggish right now, especially in commercial real estate, where prices have been falling. Banks are eager to sell and liquidate their assets, so their asking prices aren't high."

The entire building was priced at 25 million, which works out to less than 8,000 yuan per square meter.

At 8,000 yuan per square meter, including a fully furnished exterior and an imported elevator, this price seems like a steal in today's world.

"That's it."

Zheng Hui took out the photo separately and handed it back to Chen Jianguo.

"Go talk to the people at the bank in the next couple of days. It would be best if you could get the price down a little, but it doesn't matter if you can't."

The key is to thoroughly investigate the building's ownership, land use rights, and the previous Hong Kong owner's debts to ensure all procedures are clean and there are no legal disputes.

"Let me know once everything is verified. I'll come over to make the payment and sign the contract."

"Okay, boss!"

In the evening, after dealing with his media relations, Li Zongming arrived at the White Swan Hotel.

Zheng Hui is now living here. The rental house he used to live in has been given to his employees. That neighborhood is too crowded and noisy, so it's not suitable for him to live there anymore.

Since he's not short of money, he's staying at the White Swan Hotel, which has foreign-related qualifications.

He booked a private room at the hotel's Chinese restaurant to treat Li Zongming to dinner.

As soon as he entered, Li Zongming said with a smile, "Boss, with you back, the owners of record stores in Guangzhou are finally saved. If they don't restock, their stores will be torn down by impatient fans."

"Brother Zongming, you've worked hard." Zheng Hui poured him a cup of tea. "You handled Binbin's situation very well."

-

Li Zongming sat down, took a sip of tea, and said happily, "Now, in the eyes of the people across the country, Binbin is an honest, dutiful, filial, and pitiful good girl."

Zheng Hui nodded, satisfied with the result: "Are there many production teams contacting her now?"

"Too much, far too much!"

Li Zongming took a document out of his briefcase and handed it to Zheng Hui: "Since that editorial came out, many film crews that were previously hesitant have sent us invitations like snowflakes."

"Look at this, Hunan TV produced a youth idol drama called 'Youth on the Move,' and they want to invite Binbin to play the female lead."

Zheng Hui took the document, glanced at the title of the drama, and shook his head.

"Youth on the Move"? Of course he remembered that show.

This drama was a bold attempt at mainland idol dramas at the time, aiming to compete with idol dramas from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan.

The main actors, Li Binbin and Fan Binbin, along with Ren Quan and Pan Yueming, were all at the peak of their looks at the time.

Unfortunately, the show made a lot of noise but ultimately failed to deliver results and was not a success.

The reasons for this are twofold: firstly, the script itself was somewhat unsuitable for the local context; secondly, and most importantly, the actors simply couldn't let loose.

Mainland actors of that era often appeared awkward and shy when filming intimate scenes in idol dramas. Even though it was a youth idol drama, the kissing scenes were filmed like they were on the execution ground, completely lacking the heart-fluttering chemistry between the leads.

Furthermore, Fan Binbin is currently cultivating a pure and innocent image, and immediately casting her in an idol drama with numerous kissing scenes would create a conflict in her character, making it counterproductive. Zheng Hui also doesn't have a penchant for cuckoldry, so casting her in that role would be pointless.

"Turn this role." Zheng Hui put the documents aside.

"Turn it down?" Li Zongming was taken aback. "Boss, this is a Hunan TV drama, the female lead! Hunan TV is really hot right now. Being in their drama will greatly help Binbin's popularity."

"A failed idol drama won't help her much. Believe me, mainland directors these days don't know how to make idol dramas or train actors. This show won't get good reviews after it airs, so there's no need for us to get involved."

Looking at Zheng Hui's eyes, and thinking about how he wanted to apply to the Beijing Film Academy to become a director, Li Zongming figured that his statement that idol dramas couldn't be made in mainland China was probably not unfounded. He nodded and said, "Okay, then I'll turn them down tomorrow."

He paused, then pulled out another document, his expression becoming much more serious.

"Boss, besides these idol dramas, there's another very important invitation."

"It's CCTV. Zhang Jizhong's new version of 'The Smiling, Proud Wanderer' sent an audition invitation, wanting Binbin to audition for the role of Yue Lingshan."

The Smiling, Proud Wanderer!

Zheng Hui's eyes lit up; this was the real opportunity!

The Zhang Jizhong of today is not the same as the later Zhang Jizhong who would hold open auditions at the drop of a hat, keeping actors on the run, purely for the sake of attracting attention and generating buzz.

The 1999 version of "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" was Zhang Jizhong's first attempt at producing a Jin Yong drama. He was determined to create a classic that could surpass those of Hong Kong and Taiwan.

Therefore, Zhang Jizhong during this period was relatively serious and pure in his casting choices.

He hadn't yet learned the shameless trick he used later when filming "The Return of the Condor Heroes," which involved bringing out actresses like Jiang Qinqin and Zhou Xun for auditions in turn, essentially creating free buzz for the production team.

The auditions we're doing now are proper auditions.

If you can succeed, we'll use you; if not, we'll find someone else.

Although Yue Lingshan is not the female lead Ren Yingying, her character is outstanding and complex.

From the innocent and adored junior sister in the early stages to the tragic character who was manipulated by Lin Pingzhi and suffered a miserable fate in the later stages, the character's transformation is extremely dramatic, which is a great test of acting skills and makes her particularly memorable to the audience.

More importantly, the character's persona overlaps to some extent with Fan Binbin's current innocent and pure public image.

Moreover, this drama does not conflict with "Young Justice Bao". Filming for "Young Justice Bao" will begin in the second half of the year and will be completed by March or April of next year at the latest.

This version of "The Smiling, Proud Wanderer" will not wrap up filming until September next year, with a shooting period of six months, which is more than enough time.

"I have to go to this audition."

Zheng Hui made the decision: "Brother Zongming, no matter what it takes, we have to get this role. Whether it requires money to bribe officials or other resources, just let me know."

"Leave it to me, don't worry," Li Zongming readily agreed.

Having decided to take the role, Li Zongming's mind was already racing with calculations.

Fan Binbin's advantage lies in the fact that his face perfectly matches the description of the junior sister in Jin Yong's novels, but his disadvantage is that his acting skills have not been honed through formal training, and his performance based solely on auditions is probably not enough.

Having worked in the media and film industries for many years, he knows that this matter requires external support.

He plans to start using his connections in Beijing tomorrow to build relationships with Zhang Jizhong's core team, adopting a humble approach and first establishing goodwill.

Of course, having connections alone wasn't enough; he also needed to spread the word within the industry and, through the media, convey a message to the production team: Fan Binbin is currently the most popular and well-liked young actress in mainland China, and using her would guarantee a smooth start to the promotion of "Swordsman".

With the backing of external connections and her own good looks, he didn't believe the production team would reject a junior sister who was both beautiful and well-behaved.

Seeing Li Zongming's expression, Zheng Hui picked up his teacup and drank his tea with peace of mind.

Li Zongming is a seasoned veteran in the business. He doesn't need to waste his breath explaining the intricacies of human relationships and the exchange of interests within the circle. As long as you give him a target, the other party will pave the way for him smoothly.

"Then let's wish our junior sister a resounding success." Zheng Hui smiled and raised his teacup.

Li Zongming also picked up his teacup and lightly clinked it against his, his eyes radiating confidence.

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