Chapter 489, "The Squid Game," is scheduled for release (8,000 words update!).

Li Zhibai was in great pain.

It was extremely painful.

It wasn't for any other reason than that he had never realized that in the entertainment industry where he had been for so many years, there were so many strange and eccentric people.

In order to find a suitable producer and director for "Nineteen Years of Crime Records", Li Zhibai has met with countless people this month.

Because there are no professional talent agencies in China that specialize in producing and directing, people like them who want to find producers and directors for a project can only do so through video platforms, film and television companies, and introductions from friends.

Li Zhibai had acted in quite a few films and knew some production companies and friends. However, even the people introduced by these acquaintances surprised him more and more each time.

The people he met on set before were all extremely professional, to say the least.

This gave him the illusion that everyone was at least very reliable in their own professional field.

But he didn't realize that the projects he had participated in in the past were all at least A-level productions in the industry, and the people who could participate in these projects were the best talents in their respective fields.

People who lack professional skills won't even have the chance to get to know him.

This led to his misconceptions about the industry.

Li Zhibai said to Lu Yanhe, "No, I still can't be like you and pull together a bunch of people to do this. I don't have that much ability. I have to find a production company to do it together. If they put pressure on me a little, so be it. Consider this my first work as tuition."

Lu Yanhe was surprised that Li Zhibai would choose to compromise.

“Okay.” Lu Yanhe also supported Li Zhibai’s decision. “Actually, if you go to them to do it, you can save a lot of trouble.”

Li Zhibai's approach to producing "Nineteen Years of Crime Records" differs significantly from Lu Yanhe's approach to his projects. Li Zhibai's previous success as an actor prevented others from trusting his abilities as a producer. Furthermore, the failure of the film version weakened his bargaining power.

If Li Zhibai wants to assemble a good team for this drama, he can't do it on his own for the time being. Therefore, he'll have to compromise on his own interests to achieve cooperation with others.

Finally, after some negotiations, "Nineteen Years of Crime Records," produced by Li Zhibai, signed a cooperation agreement with Lighthouse Video. Lighthouse Video will buy the broadcasting rights, and its production company will produce the series. Li Zhibai, Lu Yanhe, and Yan Liang all invested in their personal capacities and served as co-producers.

Li Zhibai plays the villain in this drama, while the male lead, a policeman, is played by Jiang Jun on Lu Yanhe's recommendation. This is mainly because Li Zhibai's salary already accounts for a large portion of the actors' salary budget, and the salary for the other male lead cannot be too high. After weighing the options, Jiang Jun is the most suitable choice.

Ultimately, another crucial reason why Jiang Jun was able to obtain Lighthouse Video's approval to play the male lead in this drama was that he was also the male lead in "Squid Game." Within the industry, Jiang Jun is considered one of the rising stars.

The long-awaited TV adaptation of "Nineteen Years of Crime Records" has finally made official progress.

Lu Yanhe increasingly felt that his success in filming "Love Letter" was truly a result of perfect timing, location, and people. He was fortunate to have the help of Luo Yuzhong, Liu Bige, and a few others; otherwise, with his mediocre skills, he probably wouldn't have even been able to get filming started.

Not every actor has the ability to organize and distribute content.

However, actors of Lu Yanhe, Jiang Yuqian, and Li Zhibai's caliber actually have the resources to participate in the production process.

Lu Yanhe also thought this was a good thing. Especially for actresses like Jiang Yuqian, who seemed to have passed their peak of popularity, if they just kept waiting, waiting for scripts, waiting for others to come to them, they might be completely eliminated by the market in the meantime.

Any top-tier actor must have the ability to manage their own projects. This doesn't mean they have to do everything themselves, but rather that they can organize and coordinate the process.

Just like Jiang Yuqian found Ye Luo to work on "Telephone" together.

Since Li Zhibai couldn't find such a person, he had no choice but to agree to Lighthouse Video's conditions and rely on Lighthouse Video's power.

But this wasn't necessarily a bad thing. One step at a time, Li Zhibai gained his first experience by working on the production of the TV series "Nineteen Years of Crime Records".

He would know what kind of people are needed to create a drama from scratch, what stages it needs to go through, and what the twists and turns are.

He will also get to know talented people from various departments and jobs during this process.

When Li Zhibai has the opportunity to work on a second film and television project in the future, whether or not he has the ability to organize it himself at that time, he will be more confident and have a clearer understanding of what he needs to face and what he needs to do.

A person's growth is accumulated little by little in this way.

At this point, Miao Yue told Lu Yanhe that she had finally decided to take on the adaptation of the TV series "Rouge".

Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised, but not unexpected.

Given Miao Yue's seemingly gentle yet strong-willed personality, it's unlikely she would refuse such a challenging script adaptation.

"What about your own script?"

"Let's postpone it. I can write my own scripts anytime, but if I don't take on the TV adaptation of 'Rouge,' I feel like I'll regret it every time I think about it in the future."

Lu Yanhe naturally supported his classmate's decision.

He knew Miao Yue's abilities.

She may not be able to deliver a successful TV adaptation, but she will never be perfunctory or make random changes.

"It feels like you're a magnet, slowly attracting everyone around you to your side."

Li Pengfei rarely returned to Yuming, and he had dinner with Lu Yanhe. He made a joke.

Lu Yanhe asked with a smile, "Then when will you be drawn to my side?"

Li Pengfei asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

Lu Yanhe: "If you suddenly ask me now if there's anything I need you to do, of course I can't answer."

Li Pengfei: "I mainly don't know what I can do by coming to your side. I don't have any particularly outstanding abilities, or what I can do."

“I don’t need you to do anything special for me, it’s just… we used to see each other every day when we were in high school, but after we went to university, you weren’t in Yuming anymore, and I was busy filming, so we rarely saw each other even during winter and summer vacations,” Lu Yanhe said. “If we could work together, we could see each other more often.”

Li Pengfei: "How dare you say that? You're always filming during winter and summer vacations, you never get a break."

“Before, we had to attend classes during winter and summer vacations, so filming could only be scheduled during those vacations,” Lu Yanhe said. “This situation should improve a lot in the future.”

“But I’m graduating soon, and I won’t have any more winter or summer vacations,” Li Pengfei complained. “However, no matter what I do after graduation, I will definitely go back to Yuming.”

How can you be so sure you're going back to Yuming?

“Zijun wants to stay in Yuming. If I don’t go back to Yuming, where will I go?” Li Pengfei said. “Didn’t Chen Siqi buy a house in Lingyang District? Will the editorial department of ‘Jump Up’ be working there from now on?”

"Yes, I've forgotten."

Li Pengfei: "My name was even in the first issue of 'Jump Up'! I was one of the founding members. Will you put my photo up in your office?"

Lu Yanhe: "...You can ask Chen Siqi yourself."

"Never mind," Li Pengfei shrugged. "One should keep a low profile."

Lu Yanhe: "Do you want to go back to 'Jump Up'?"

“Why would I go back? If I were interested in that place, I would have stayed,” Li Pengfei said. “You expect someone like me, who hates reading so much, to do a good job with a magazine? That’s bullshit. Even my dad wouldn’t dare to think that way.”

"Did your father ask you to go back and take over his job?" Lu Yanhe asked.

Li Pengfei: "I won't take over the business; that's my brother's business. I've already told you my life goals: to do nothing, live happily, rely on my dad for the first half of my life, and rely on my brother for the second half. This will avoid sibling rivalry and internal strife within the company, allowing me to have a happy and fulfilling life. Isn't that great?"

“Every time you say that, I feel that you are not so willing to enjoy this wonderful life, and that you just don’t want any possibility of fighting with your brother.”

Li Pengfei smiled.

He put his hands behind his head and leaned back slightly.

"If I hadn't met you, I might have just been living a life of idleness and waiting to die."

“How could Xu Zijun let you just drift along like this?” Lu Yanhe said. “She is the real reason you are unwilling. Don’t even mention me, I don’t have that much ability.”

Li Pengfei let out a long sigh.

"Damn, we haven't seen each other much in the past few years, how do you know so much about what I'm thinking?"

"If we have to meet often to know what you're thinking, then we'd be friends long ago."

The two looked at each other and smiled.

For a moment, they both felt like they were back in their senior year of high school.

"Let's organize a class reunion sometime," Li Pengfei said. "It's been so long since we've all seen each other."

In the past few years, the high school class had actually organized several reunions, the kind that all classmates would be notified, but because they were all during winter and summer vacations, Lu Yanhe was never able to attend.

Lu Yanhe nodded and said, "Okay."

He added, "But why did you suddenly decide to organize a class reunion? I've never seen you interested before."

Li Pengfei said, "A few days ago, Li Cui called me and mentioned that Jiang Haitian's father had been in a car accident and passed away half a year ago. I didn't even know about it. Jiang Haitian never told me. We were pretty good friends in high school, and even after we went to university, although we didn't keep in touch often, we didn't completely lose contact either. I feel really bad about it. There were some classmates who were very close to me before, but we gradually drifted apart. I still hope there can be an event like this so that we can get together more often, at least to catch up on each other's lives, and to know in time if anyone needs help."

Lu Yanhe looked surprised.

He then realized that Li Pengfei had this motive behind organizing the class reunion.

"So that's how it is."

"Um."

Li Pengfei smiled and asked, "By the way, do you still remember Mei Ping?"

“Of course I remember her, she was very active in class,” Lu Yanhe said.

Li Pengfei said, "It seems she's getting married soon."

"Huh? Getting married? So soon?" Lu Yanhe was stunned.

Marriage seemed like a very distant thing for people their age. Lu Yanhe never expected it to happen so soon to his peers.

“Yes,” Li Pengfei said, “You didn’t expect that, did you? I was shocked too.”

Lu Yanhe and Li Pengfei were not single, but they had never thought about getting married so soon.

"Have you and Chen Siqi considered this recently?"

"We just agreed on the idea of ​​renting an apartment together after graduation."

Li Pengfei: "You two are renting a place together? Why don't you just buy one? With your combined financial situation, you could have afforded one long ago, right?"

“Because I haven’t paid enough social security contributions, I’m not eligible to buy a house yet,” Lu Yanhe said. “Unless I can buy in a place like Lingyang District, where there are no purchase restrictions.”

Li Pengfei: "Uh, okay. People probably won't believe it if I told them, but the two of you are actually renting a place."

“What’s wrong with renting? Li Zhibai, Yan Liang, and I are still renting where we live,” Lu Yanhe said.

"The main problem is that it doesn't fit our perception of you big stars," Li Pengfei joked. "In our minds, you've already been living in those big mansions for a long time."

Lu Yanhe: "Living in a mansion is meaningless, at least I don't think so now. Such a big house, with only one or two of us living there, it's so empty."

“Do you think it’s just one or two people living here? There’s a housekeeper, chef, security guard, cleaner… people who live in luxury homes usually have a professional support team,” Li Pengfei said.

Lu Yanhe was surprised and asked, "Is it that exaggerated?"

"What's so exaggerated about that? If you have money, you'll always try your best to improve your quality of life. Isn't the point of making money to spend it? If you don't improve your quality of life, what's the point of making this money? Just put it in the bank and let it turn into numbers?"

Li Pengfei's words made Lu Yanhe fall into deep thought.

"I have to admit that I used to have the idea that no matter how much money I earned, I shouldn't waste it."

"This is not a waste."

“Indeed.” Lu Yanhe nodded.

Li Pengfei: "Yan He, don't forget that Chen Siqi is a girl who has been pampered since childhood. Don't apply your idea of ​​saving money to her."

Lu Yanhe: "I didn't say that money should be spent sparingly. Of course I spent money sparingly when I didn't have any, but I don't have any now, right?"

"That's fine then."

-

Actually, people regularly go in to clean the area around Ziyuan Bridge.

Lu Yanhe and the other two often went out to film, so the house was often empty.

When I signed the contract with the agency, in addition to the confidentiality clause, there was also a clause that the agency would be responsible for the daily cleaning and management of the house.

However, these things are usually taken care of when the three of them are not around, so Lu Yanhe usually doesn't realize this.

Paying money to buy services.

This is a perfectly normal thing.

Lu Yanhe realized that he had previously had a "normal family" mindset.

In reality, he had already begun to enjoy the convenience of "paying for services," yet he still believed that he was in a state of being as self-sufficient as possible.

Chen Ziyan, Wang Biao, and their entire team took care of all his needs, from food and clothing to housing and transportation.

Although he was described as an assistant at work, Wang Biao handled many of Lu Yanhe's personal matters as well.

Whether it's work or life, he has long since deviated from the norm.

This served as a wake-up call for him.

It's nothing else.

When he's acting, what he perceives as his "normal state" may not actually be his "normal state."

Lu Yanhe, who constantly reflected on himself, wrote this down in his memory notebook.

-

Two days later, he saw the trailer for the third season of Friends online.

This season, Zhang Lan joined the cast and became one of the main characters in the third season of Friends.

However, this season has undergone another major change: the director has changed.

Bai Jingnian left Beijing and went to Aurora Video to film "My Own Swordsman," written by Lu Yanhe.

This season of Friends has a new director, Yu Yao.

Lu Yanhe also didn't know what style Yu Yao's previous directorial works were.

Judging from the trailer, Zhang Lan's role is not very large, basically on par with the other five main actors. She doesn't do anything to steal the spotlight, which earned her a much better audience response for her first appearance than Chen Ziliang in the second season.

However, the story of the third season seems to continue the melodramatic style of the second season.

Judging from the trailer, Zhou Zhixi, played by Bai Jin, even seems to be pregnant, possibly with Hu Fan, played by Yan Liang.

Unsurprisingly, this clip from the trailer became a hot topic and trended on social media.

After two years of development, "Friends" has now become the show with the greatest long-tail effect.

The sheer size of the audience base exceeded many people's expectations.

The number of people following the plot and character development of this drama has reached an astonishing level.

Especially after the disastrous reception of the second season and the change of director for the third season, fans of "Friends" now seem determined to criticize the Beijing TV station endlessly.

However, no matter what, the popularity of Friends Season 3 is still far ahead of the competition. Just the release of a trailer has overshadowed the popularity of all the TV series currently airing.

This is the power of a drama king.

-

"We can now share the trailer data with our advertisers and tell them that their doubts can be completely dispelled. Even without Lu Yanhe and with a different director, 'Friends' will still be the most anticipated and watched show by audiences."

Xu Bin said to Hu Siwei.

Hu Siwei nodded.

The popularity of the third season trailer certainly put their minds at ease.

At least, viewers still have expectations for Friends and haven't lost interest despite the poor reception of the second season.

After Hu Siwei nodded, he did not leave Xu Bin's office immediately.

"What's wrong?" Xu Bin looked at Hu Siwei and asked, "Is there anything else you want to say?"

Hu Siwei thought about it and, as the producer of "Friends," felt it was necessary to speak out.

“Director Xu, although the trailer is generating a lot of buzz, there’s also a lot of criticism. If the controversy continues like this, it could affect the ratings,” Hu Siwei said. “Shouldn’t we invite Bai Jingnian back to direct the fourth season? The actors have all said that this season’s filming… is much worse than before.”

Xu Bin frowned.

"The second season was also very controversial, but the ratings still remained stable. This shows that controversy does not affect the show."

Hu Siwei shook his head, "On video platforms, the rerun rate of the second season is a full third less than that of the first season. In particular, the scenes featuring Chen Ziliang are skipped by 62% of viewers on video websites."

This wasn't the first time Hu Siwei had shared these data with Xu Bin.

Xu Bin already knew about it.

"Aren't you just shooting yourself in the foot by inviting Bai Jingnian back to direct the fourth season?" Xu Bin said, somewhat annoyed.

Bai Jingnian left in the first place because he felt that he was not valued or respected in Beijing and Taiwan, and he left in a fit of pique.

Hu Siwei said, "You've already seen the footage for the third season. Compared to the first two seasons, it's visibly worse. If we wait until the audience criticizes the third season harshly before bringing Bai Jingnian back to direct, we'll really be shooting ourselves in the foot. By inviting him now, before the third season even airs, we still have some control."

Xu Bin: "I don't believe that he's the only one who can direct 'Friends.' If he's so capable, why did he only make a name for himself with 'Friends'? He's directed so many movies before, how come none of them made a splash?"

Hu Siwei: "...If he wasn't capable, why would Lu Yanhe and Aurora Video have invited him back to direct 'My Own Swordsman'?"

Xu Bin's face was gloomy and unpleasant.

Hu Siwei continued, "To be honest, I can say now that the third season will have a worse reputation than the second season, and the ratings may not be stable. If we can't get Bai Jingnian back to direct, it's hard to say whether we can even make the fourth season."

"What's the meaning?"

“Yan Liang and Wen Minglan haven’t signed contracts for the fourth season yet,” Hu Siwei said. “After the first season ended, we only signed agreements with them for the second and third seasons. They were the two actors who were most dissatisfied with the third season. They even clashed with the director on set because of significant differences in their opinions on filming.”

Xu Bin's face turned even uglier.

"The two of them... had expressed this sentiment before, saying that if Friends doesn't make any changes, they will consider leaving."

Xu Bin, who had just been beaming with pride because of the great data from the trailer, suddenly lost his composure.

-

“Minglan and I have reached an agreement: if they continue to film ‘Friends’ in the same way they are now, we would rather not appear in it anymore.”

Yan Liang said this to Lu Yanhe on the phone.

"They even arranged a scene where Minglan and I got drunk and slept together."

Yan Liang had never told Lu Yanhe about this before, so Lu Yanhe was now in a state of shock and disbelief.

“We both got really angry, which is why they had to delete that part of the story and rewrite it,” Yan Liang sighed. “Now they’re making Friends more and more like a melodramatic soap opera. When we were filming the first season, you said that Friends would become a lifestyle that many young people aspire to. I feel like they’re not filming a lifestyle that people aspire to, but rather deliberately creating conflict.”

Lu Yanhe: "Have you seriously discussed this with them? Who arranged for this kind of plot to happen in the script?"

Yan Liang: "It was suggested by someone in Beijing TV that the richer and more unexpected the plot, the more topics it would generate. So the screenwriter wrote according to that suggestion. Anyway, nowadays, directors and screenwriters won't go against the wishes of people in TV stations."

Lu Yanhe: "..."

"I just feel it's a real shame. Such a great story and characters, such a great first season, a sitcom that you could have made without making a mistake, and they've ruined it like this." Yan Liang was very annoyed. "They've wasted the script and characters you wrote."

Lu Yanhe: "It's alright, Yan Liang. If it really doesn't work out, we'll just stop performing from now on."

Yan Liang: "I should have stopped acting after filming the first season with you."

"No, even if Chen Ziliang's parts are cut from the second season, it's still watchable," Lu Yanhe said.

Yan Liang was still angry, but when he heard Lu Yanhe say that, he immediately laughed.

"Sigh." Yan Liang smiled for a moment, then sighed again.

Regardless, it's always disheartening and frustrating that a series that could have become a classic ended up being a poor sequel.

Lu Yanhe asked, "Are you almost done filming?"

"It's almost over. The director is wrapping up. My scenes should be finished in three or four days," Yan Liang said. "After filming wraps up, there won't be any rest. I'll have to cooperate with the promotion of Friends Season 3. I really don't want to cooperate this time. If I can't help myself and accidentally say something I shouldn't, that would be quite annoying."

Lu Yanhe said, "Haha, with your cautious personality, it won't happen. When you come back, even if you're busy with promotions, you'll still have time to have a meal with us. I'll be going to film 'Love Letter' again at the end of December."

Yan Liang said, "I'll go and observe it then."

"Then? You won't have to cooperate with the promotion of 'Friends' anymore?"

"I didn't sign a month-long promotional contract with them. I just cooperated where I was supposed to, and that was it." Yan Liang's dissatisfaction with Beijing and Taiwan was palpable even over the phone.

-

However, Lu Yanhe did not expect that just as the third season of "Friends" was announced, Aurora Video suddenly contacted him, saying that they wanted to put "Squid Game" on the air at the end of December.

Although one is a TV series and the other is a web series, their simultaneous release at the same time, in this data-driven era, clearly suggests a power struggle.

Lu Yanhe was shocked and asked them, "The post-production of 'Squid Game' was completed so quickly?"

According to Aurora, "Squid Game" is their most important project, and they've been working overtime on it to make it in time for the winter break.

For this kind of subject matter, middle school students are a significant audience group.

"The Squid Game" is also a short series, with the original version consisting of only nine episodes, each sixty minutes long.

The script written by Lu Yanhe was revised into twelve episodes, with each episode being about fifty minutes long.

Aurora Studios plans to air "The Squid Game" daily over twelve days.

Lu Yanhe was a little confused. Why would you release the entire series at once or broadcast it weekly? Why broadcast it daily?

However, the video platform naturally has its own considerations, and Lu Yanhe will not interfere to adjust such things.

Lu Yanhe was quite nervous as "The Squid Game" was finally about to be released.

The main reason is that even Lu Yanhe himself doesn't know why this drama became so popular.

Therefore, he was afraid that when he wrote the script, he wouldn't have captured the truly captivating aspects of it.

But the fact that this show became a huge hit is undeniable.

Lu Yanhe would never question why a work was so popular with the audience; he would only ask himself, "Have you figured out why it is so popular?"

If you haven't figured it out, then you're actually unqualified as a creator.

Aurora Video released a trailer for "The Squid Game" three days after the trailer for the third season of "Friends".

It was at this time that Lu Yanhe learned why Aurora Video had made "The Squid Game" a twelve-episode daily broadcast format: Maxine, the international streaming provider of "The Squid Game," would release the entire series at once on the same day the final episode aired in China.

Lu Yanhe: "..."

He thought there was some special reason for the twelve episodes being broadcast daily.

So that's all there is to it.

If the third season of Friends gained attention based on the first two seasons, then The Squid Game was anticipated from the very beginning because of its screenwriter Lu Yanhe and its battle royale theme, similar to The Seventeen Floors.

The scheduling of these two dramas, which seemed to be competing against each other, excited everyone like they were on steroids.

Everyone loves watching a fight.

Especially—

The intersection of these two dramas lies in Lu Yanhe.

Some media outlets, eager for a quick fix, headlined it: "Lu Yanhe, the Avenger."

No one has forgotten the conflict between Lu Yanhe and Beijing TV in the TV series "Friends".

This is not something that can be covered up by him appearing on stage with Jiang Lan and having a "grand reconciliation".

In fact, that time they shared the same stage was just that—a shared stage.

After that, Lu Yanhe did not collaborate with Beijing TV on any more dramas.

Given Lu Yanhe's current output and the frequency of his cooperation with Aurora Video, it's already quite clear that there's a problem.

Everyone knows in their hearts what Lu Yanhe's true attitude is towards Beijing and Taiwan.

Which will perform better in the broadcast: Friends Season 3 or The Squid Game?

At that time, not many people were particularly optimistic about "The Squid Game." After all, the latter was a new show, while the former was a hit show with two seasons under its belt. Even if the second season of "Friends" had a poor reception, its core fanbase was still there.

Of course, given the production quality and current data of "Squid Game", it will definitely be good and will surely become a hit.

Especially since it will be launched on Maxine—

Given Lu Yanhe's past achievements, people are actually more interested in seeing if "Squid Game" can continue to be a hit overseas than in terms of its domestic broadcast performance.

This time, Lu Yanhe is not in "The Squid Game".

Can Lu Yanhe's "miracle of success" be replicated?

-

A minimum of 6,000 words will be guaranteed, with an extra 2,000 words as bonus chapters.

The extra chapter event lasted for a whole week, which is quite unbelievable.

I really did try my best.

I recommend reading my old book, "I Became the Scandalous Woman Overnight".

(End of this chapter)