I was in my final year of high school, and my deskmate found out I was writing a novel!

"Hello Mr. Ye, this is Zhang Chi. We discussed the collaboration on 'Joy of Life' over the phone before. Our team has carefully reviewed your published 300,000+ words and outline, and even prepared a plot alignment plan. We'd like to arrange a face-to-face meeting with you. Are you free these next couple of days?"

Zhang Chi's tone remained polite, without the slightest hint of urging.

After all, people in the industry know what that idiot did before.

Ye Feng replied into the phone, "I'm free tomorrow morning, shall we talk at your company?"

The next morning, Ye Feng deliberately didn't drive the Ferrari. He felt it was a bit ostentatious. The car was just a big toy he bought, and he really didn't intend to use it to show off.

Upon arriving at the conference room, Zhang Chi and his screenwriting team were already waiting. A thick stack of documents was laid out on the table, with a plot comparison table of "Joy of Life" on top.

The left side lists the "original chapters", and the right side is marked with the "corresponding plot of the first season of the TV series". Even key moments such as Fan Xian's entry into the capital, the poetry gathering at Prince Jing's mansion, and the assassination in Niulan Street are circled in red.

"Mr. Ye, please have a seat."

Zhang Chi stood up and handed over the documents.

"After reviewing your work, we found that the more than 300,000 words you have published just cover the part about 'Fan Xian's poetry duel in front of the palace.' Combined with the more than 500,000 words of manuscripts you have on hand, it is just enough to fully support the main storyline of the first season of the TV series."

Ye Feng flipped through the benchmarking table, secretly surprised—Huace had indeed done its homework, even marking details like "Chen Pingping meets Fan Xian on a rainy night" in his drafts.

"How would you like to change it?"

What he cares about most is the degree of adaptation, since there have been too many cases where haphazard adaptations have resulted in TV series and novels having completely different storylines.

Zhang Chi immediately handed over another document.

"These are our adaptation principles: First, the core plot will not be deleted or altered. Famous scenes such as the assassination in Niulan Street, the poetry duel in front of the palace, and the first meeting between Fan Xian and Lin Wan'er will be restored 1:1."

Secondly, the characters' personalities remain true to the original work. Fan Xian's "unruly" nature, Lin Wan'er's "lively" personality, and Chen Pingping's "profound" character are all based on the descriptions in the original novel, and these are all easy to film without needing to be changed.

Third, add appropriate side quests, but never let them overshadow the main storyline—for example, you could add some everyday life scenes of Wang Qinian to make the character more three-dimensional, without affecting the main storyline's progress.

Ye Feng put down the documents, his tone softening slightly: "The more than 500,000 words of manuscript I have on hand just happen to be up to 'Fan Xian leaving the capital to investigate Ye Qingmei's old case,' which corresponds very well to the ending of the first season of the TV series."

But there's one condition: I must attend the script discussion meetings, and any plot adjustments must be communicated to me beforehand.

"That's natural!"

Zhang Chi nodded immediately.

"We originally wanted to invite you to be our scriptwriting consultant, to hold script meetings twice a month, where you could offer suggestions for revisions at any time. Regarding the copyright fees, our proposed plan is a 'base fee + revenue sharing' arrangement: an initial base fee of 800 million, with an additional 1 for every 50 million views achieved. What do you think?"

This number exceeded Ye Feng's expectations, but it wasn't something he could agree to on his own; the website had to intervene—they were the professionals.

"I am personally very satisfied with this aspect, but you will need to discuss the specifics with the website."

When it was noon, Huace invited them to have lunch at the park's canteen.

Zhang Chi's colleague, Sister Li, who was in charge of casting, even came over to talk to Ye Feng about the role.

"Mr. Ye, do you have an ideal candidate in mind for Fan Xian? We've compiled a few shortlists; could you please review them?"

Ye Feng thought for a moment: "We don't need someone with too much popularity. The key is to be able to portray Fan Xian's 'contradictory nature'—he appears carefree on the surface, but he secretly holds a strong sense of fairness and has a touch of youthful spirit."

"By the way, I saw there's a poll on Weibo. We can definitely refer to that. I think the netizens' choices for the actors are pretty good."

Sister Li quickly took out her notebook and wrote it down.

"Okay, that's certainly one of our preferred guidelines, but we still need to consider the specific circumstances. You know, there are some artists these days... we have to ensure the drama gets released."

Ye Feng understood what the other person was saying. After thinking about the actors who were selected, he felt a chill run down his spine.

No way, no way, is someone's house going to collapse again?

After they finished signing the contract, Zhang Chi saw them to the door.

"We'll send you the initial script outline to your email next week. After you review it, we'll have our first script meeting."

Ye Feng naturally agreed, since the offer was indeed generous. With this money, plus the royalties from his two books this year, he could easily afford to look at some small villas!

The house we live in now is obviously too small. It's convenient, but we need to prepare for the future.

He doesn't know if housing prices will continue to rise, so he wants to settle the housing issue if he can, especially since, given the current situation, the two of them are very likely to stay in Shanghai.

Miaomiao is no longer being stubborn. After all, she has her own career now. If she really goes back, what will happen to the company?

Don't underestimate this online store; its monthly turnover is now close to one million, especially in cross-border e-commerce, where it's really profitable!

If it weren't for Ye Feng and Su Miaomiao's persuasion, Li Hongmei would have already decided to drop out of school and start her own business, because it's really too lucrative!

A keyboard that costs around 1,000 RMB in the country will start at 300 USD there!

With external forces involved, the value doubles!

Moreover, there are a lot of people buying individual parts there, mostly to DIY themselves. People there like it, and after-sales service is very convenient because these parts rarely have problems. Even if there are problems, you can just return or exchange them. The manufacturer will cover any issues with the products.

Moreover, with various commemorative videos circulating on foreign websites, coupled with Lao Duan's various low-cost jokes, publicity was not a problem at all.

But then, Miaomiao started lying down~

It's not that she's just lying around, but she's completely uninterested in company matters now, and she's not as dedicated to making videos as she used to be. Now she's focused entirely on her novel!

After getting used to it over this period of time, Miaomiao's typing speed has increased rapidly, and she can now type more than 8,000 words a day!

"Hehe, Ye Feng, look at all those recommendation votes!"

"Impressive! Keep up the good work!"

"Of course! Look at their comments, they're all praising me and even giving me tips to update more. Oh well, I'm just trying to improve the quality of my novel!"

As she talked, she started to get sentimental, but the few comments in the comment section really did fill the emotional value, praising Miaomiao to the skies. She does nothing but sit there and write all day long. Don't ask, it's all for the readers!