Chapter 99: Showing off

Charlie thought of something deeper, "It seems that Lu Sheng wants to focus on training Hu Xiaoxiao."

In the past, due to Hu Xiaoxiao's contract and the company's desire to maximize profits, they inevitably wanted to suppress her and not give her too many good resources. However, when a person possesses great value, then she has the strength to be at the table.

Lu Sheng may have previously been dissatisfied with Hu Xiaoxiao for challenging the company's rules, but Hu Xiaoxiao has demonstrated through her own merit that the company's investment in her is worthwhile and the returns are enormous. She and the company can achieve a win-win situation.

In the face of huge interests, all rules can be put aside.

Ah Wei reminded his boss again, "Ever since Mr. Qiu came back from vacation, he and Mr. Lu haven't been getting along very well."

Charlie nodded. "During Mr. Qiu's vacation, Mr. Lu managed the business in an orderly manner and performed outstandingly, which satisfied the board of directors. Mr. Qiu sensed the crisis and naturally wouldn't treat Mr. Lu well."

As the general manager, Mr. Qiu would of course worry that the deputy general manager would usurp his position.

The board of directors, however, supports the formation of factionalism, encouraging the formation of competing factions within the company. Competition leads to progress, and progress brings profit to the company.

The board of directors doesn't want to see employees become complacent and sit back and wait for death. Too much unity among employees is not good for the board and shareholders. They need employees to have a sense of crisis, so that they will do everything they can to bring benefits to the company.

So whether it was the open or covert struggles between President Qiu and several vice presidents, or his struggle with Linda, the board of directors supported him.

Charlie felt that he should also give Hu Xiaoxiao more time. No matter what contract Hu Xiaoxiao signed, it wouldn't affect him much, and he wouldn't get paid more or less because of it. But if the ratings of his series weren't good, it would definitely affect his salary, and he might even be fired.

He just needs to deliver good results and satisfy the board of directors, and the rest has nothing to do with him.

Charlie decided that if the broadcast of "The Grandmaster" could help him make a comeback, he would allocate resources to Hu Xiaoxiao.

As for the others, those without value, no matter how loyal they are, are useless pawns.

"The Grandmaster" continues to be a hit and its popularity is getting higher and higher.

Especially when Zhou Bijun appeared later, her heroic martial arts and neat skills made people watch it vividly and excitedly.

Since martial arts films became popular, there have been many male actors who came from the martial arts industry, and many of them are good at fighting. However, there are not many female actors who came from the martial arts industry, and the few who do appear are not pretty enough.

Zhou Bijun is the first one who is beautiful, good at fighting, and has an excellent temperament, which is particularly refreshing to the audience.

According to data from a market research company, the TV station found that in the series "The Grandmaster", the scenes in which Zhou Bijun appeared had the highest ratings.

The ratings of "The Grandmaster" soared, and before the series was even halfway through, it completely overshadowed the rival drama "The Legend of the Condor Heroes" from Baozhu TV.

The happiest person was Charlie, who finally felt a sense of pride.

After being suppressed by Baozhutai's martial arts films for so long, it is finally his turn to show his power.

He immediately called the screenwriting department and said, "Prepare the next martial arts film now. Ask the other screenwriters to put down their current work and focus on the new martial arts script."

The director of the screenwriting department has also been closely following the response to The Grandmaster and asked, "Are we going to continue filming with the original cast?"

Charlie, considering all the issues, declined, saying, "If it's the same cast and it's the same martial arts theme, there's too much overlap and it'll cause visual fatigue for the audience. You guys write the script first and find the specific actors. I'll decide after The Grandmaster finishes airing."

Actors who perform well will be retained, while those who perform poorly will be replaced.

Before hanging up, Charlie named another screenwriter, "The screenwriter who changed Zhou Bijun's storyline must come on board. His revised scenes are excellent, even better than the original script. In the next drama, I plan to still use Hu Xiaoxiao as the heroine. Let him write the heroine's scenes, and refer to Hu Xiaoxiao for her image."

"The screenwriter you mentioned is Yao Wenlong. He was the one who edited Zhou Bijun's scenes. There's no problem using him again. He's quite capable, after all, he graduated from CUHK. I'll have him specifically write the female lead's scenes. As for the male lead, which actor do you plan to use?"

After much thought, Charlie finally said, "Mingxu, keep using Mingxu."

Mingxu has experience in filming martial arts films, which have received good ratings. This time, he and Hu Xiaoxiao have a good understanding of each other, and their images are a good match. We can consider giving them another chance to work together.

After hanging up the phone with the writing department, Charlie called Mingxu and asked him to come over. He planned to give Mingxu a heads-up and get his opinion on the new play.

Charlie has even greater ambitions for the new script.

Who knew that before Charlie's ambition was revealed, he was almost scared to death by Mingxu.

When Charlie saw Mingxu, whom he hadn't seen for a long time, his blood pressure suddenly rose higher than the ratings of "The Grandmaster".

"Mingxu! Have you gone to be a pig? It's only been a few days since we last met, and look at you, you're so fat you could be slaughtered!"

Mingxu still had a candy in his mouth and didn't care about Charlie's outburst. He said, "I don't have any dramas this year. It won't be too late to lose weight when filming starts next year."

Although Mingxu had gained some weight, he was still a normal weight for an average person. However, when he was in the camera, the camera magnified his face and figure, making him look fatter. To make matters worse, he was very tall, so even a little weight would make him look like a burly man in the camera.

Charlie's forehead was darkening. "What do you mean next year? You'll be joining the group in two or three months!"

It was Mingxu's turn to be startled, the candy nearly getting stuck in his throat. He chewed it up, swallowed it, and asked, "What do you mean, I'll be joining the crew in two or three months? Charlie, I already told you, I'm taking a break until next year before I start acting."

He just finished filming one movie this year and has to rush out another one. Even Zhou Paopi is not as exploitative as him.

"Things have changed. You'd better lose weight right now." Charlie suppressed his anger and told Hu Xiaoxiao that "The Grandmaster" had good ratings and he decided to let him and Hu Xiaoxiao partner up again.

"There's no need to rush to start filming in two or three months. We can wait until next year," Mingxu said.

"Do you know what it means to strike while the iron is hot? Wait until next year? You won't even be able to enjoy the northwest wind next year." Charlie wants to release a new drama while the drama is still popular, so that he can save a lot of publicity investment.

He suffered a great loss in the promotion of "The Grandmaster".

Charlie was considering whether to invest more in the new play, both in the production team and in publicity.

However, in order to convince the company to agree to increase investment, the prerequisite is that the ratings of "The Grandmaster" cannot fall and must maintain its current popularity.