Huayu: The young actress is heavily dependent on me

As we left Ms. Xu Xiaodan's home, the motion-activated lights in the hallway hummed and lit up overhead.

Chen Li took a few steps and noticed that the footsteps behind him were getting farther and farther away. When he turned around, he saw Bai Mengyan standing at the corner of the fourth floor, staring blankly at a faded community notice on the wall.

He turned and walked back, raising his hand to gently pat her on the head:

"What are you thinking about? Have you lost your mind?"

Bai Mengyan suddenly snapped out of her daze, blinked, bit her lower lip with her canine teeth, her expression a mix of gratitude and embarrassment:

"Boss, I always thought you just wanted me to be your assistant, to order takeout for you, carry your luggage, connect you with resources, and do odd jobs and run errands for you... I never expected you would come all the way to find Teacher Xu just to get me a spot in actor training."

Her voice trailed off, and her eyes even started to redden. She quickly lowered her head, pretending to tidy up the empty gift box in her arms.

"That's Yao Chen's acting training class! Small class sizes, personally supervised—I feel like I'm dreaming..."

"Of course, you're the leading comedic actress in our future company." Chen Li said casually, one hand in her pocket, as if discussing what to have for lunch the next day.

"If we don't train you early on, where will the fun come from? We're counting on you to perform at the company's annual party in the future."

Bai Mengyan was so taken aback by his description of her as the "comedic leading lady" that she almost dropped the gift box. Her face flushed red, but this time, unusually, she didn't get angry.

She has been by Chen Li's side for almost a year, from the interview room at Fan Bingbing's studio to the filming site of the "Undyed" MV, from the crew of "So Cute Us" to the negotiating table at the headquarters of Tencent Video. The boss always complains about her, but he takes her with him to every truly important occasion.

She just didn't say it, but she remembered it all.

Thinking of this, she tilted the gift box upwards, her prominent canine teeth bulging from the corner of her mouth. She silently added to herself:

I'm definitely not slacking off these next few days. I'll make coffee on time and update the schedule every day. Let me show you what a perfect assistant is.

Chen Li had already turned and gone down the stairs, her voice drifting up from the floor below:

"Then hurry up, the car is still waiting downstairs."

......

Two days later, in Shenzhen.

In late March, Shenzhen already had the humidity of early summer, and the glass curtain wall of Tencent Binhai Building reflected a dazzling white light under the sun.

Chen Li led Yangyang Jin and Bai Mengyan through the lobby. The elevator stopped on the 18th floor, where Wang Yi, the head of the purchasing department, was already waiting at the end of the corridor.

"Teacher Chen, this way please." Wang Yi warmly shook hands and led the three into a small conference room.

The window faces Shenzhen Bay, where the sea shimmers in the afternoon sun, but Chen Li's gaze immediately falls on the open folder on the conference table.

The cover features the Tencent Video logo, with the project codename written on a sticky note next to it.

Hilarious Pampered Concubine: My Lord, I'm Waiting for You to Divorce Me.

"Director Wang, is this the IP address we mentioned on the phone earlier?" Chen Li asked directly after taking a seat.

"Yes." Wang Yi pushed the folder towards him.

"After Yuewen acquired Yunqi Academy last year, they packaged a batch of medium-sized online novel IPs and offered them to us. This is one of them, originally titled 'Hilarious Pampered Concubine: My Lord, I'm Waiting for You to Divorce Me,' by author Fan Que. We did an internal evaluation and felt it had the potential to become a sweet romance drama, but it's not a major project."

He paused, his tone frank.

"As you know, Mr. Chen, Tencent Video's investment in self-produced dramas this year is mainly focused on top-tier IPs like 'Ghost Blows Out the Light'—several leading production companies, including Enlight Media and Kungfu Pictures, are vying for this project. In comparison, we don't have much energy to dedicate to incubating a medium-sized IP like 'The Eternal Love' from scratch at the moment."

He was referring to the core direction of Tencent Video's self-produced drama strategy in 2015.

At the beginning of this year, Tencent Video announced the "Awakening of Insects Plan," which plans to sign and provide key support to 100 high-quality projects within the year, providing comprehensive support to original creators from content source IP, scripts to resources and funding, and building the largest original video platform on the entire network.

However, the priority of internal resource allocation is very clear—top-tier IP self-produced dramas have received a large amount of budget and production resources.

Projects like "Hilarious Pampered Concubine" are the type that the platform is willing to outsource to external teams for production.

"The original novel is a time-travel romance, and the female lead's dual personality setting is somewhat novel in the web series - a modern real estate saleswoman travels to ancient times and goes from bickering with the Eighth Prince to developing feelings for each other. It is a standard template for a sweet and lighthearted romantic comedy."

Wang Yi flipped open the plot summary and pushed it in front of Chen Li.

"But the script isn't finished yet; it's just a concept. The internal rating is B+, which isn't high. My idea is to find a production-capable team to lead the project and handle everything from early development to post-production."

Chen Li leaned back in his chair and flipped through the folder page by page.

The first season of "The Eternal Love" premiered exclusively on Tencent Video in July 2017, and its viewership exceeded 7 million within 18 hours of its release. Ultimately, with a production cost of around 2000 million yuan, it generated billions of views, becoming a phenomenal hit in the sweet romance drama genre.

In March 2015, the copyright had just been acquired by Tencent, and no one realized how much of a splash this seemingly insignificant sweet romance IP would make in the future.

He closed the folder, his tone calm and even:

"Director Wang, I've looked at the basics of this IP—time-travel romance, dual personality, bickering lovers—it's not exactly a top-tier IP. But the romance drama genre is a necessity in the online drama market, and the audience profile is clear."

"Young women, college students, and white-collar workers have a high willingness to pay and strong user loyalty. According to the backend data of 'So Cute Us,' more than 70% of our paying users are from this group. If I were to manage this project, I could make it a benchmark in the sweet romance genre."

Wang Yi's eyes lit up, and he leaned forward:

"Mr. Chen, to be honest, this project isn't rated very highly internally. But the success of your last drama speaks for itself—a budget of less than 300 million yuan, 7 million views, and an 8.2 rating on Douban. Tencent has a very high opinion of your production capabilities and cost control. If you're willing to take on this project, we can offer a relatively low copyright licensing fee."

He opened a note tucked inside the folder; it had a number written on it:

"When Tencent acquired this IP, the copyright fee wasn't high to begin with—in early 2015, the price of online novel IPs hadn't been inflated yet, and for a mid-sized sweet romance novel like this, the copyright fee was only in the hundreds of thousands. We discussed it internally, and if you were willing to take it on, the copyright licensing fee could be reduced to an even lower level, leaving the bulk of it for your production budget."

That's true.

Although the copyright fees for online literature IPs had already begun to rise in early 2015, it wasn't until the second half of the year that they were truly driven to exorbitant prices.

For mid-tier IPs like "The Eternal Love," which are not written by top-tier authors or have top-tier viewership, the copyright fees are not high.

Tencent is willing to license the show at a low price because they value Chen Li's production ability to make the show a success. The platform earns money from the traffic and membership conversion after the show airs, not from the copyright fees.

Chen Li glanced at the numbers on the note and quickly did some mental calculations.

The copyright fee was indeed kept low, but the production cost of this series itself wouldn't be too high either.

The effect achieved with over 20 million in his previous life was already sufficient. If he takes control from the beginning in this life, he can reduce the cost even further.

The price of the penguin was basically a half-sale, half-gift deal, transferring the project risk to him while also handing him control over the project.

"Director Wang, I can accept this price. I have one condition—my team will be in charge of the script, casting, production, and post-production. Tencent will be responsible for the broadcast resources and homepage recommendation, while I will oversee the production aspects myself."

Wang Yi nodded almost without hesitation:

"No problem. We were looking for a reliable team to undertake this project, and it would be best if you were willing to take full responsibility."

He paused, then added with a smile,

"To be honest, Mr. Chen, this project isn't considered a major internal project. Tencent's main focus this year is 'Ghost Blows Out the Light' and several S-level self-produced dramas. But we all know that the sweet romance drama genre has potential, and it's worth having a glimmer of hope. 'Your Name' is the biggest plus—with a director who has 7 million views directing it, even if the budget isn't high, the final product won't be bad."