Chapter 377 So that's how it is
The school gate was completely blocked after school.
Lu Yanhe stepped out of the crowd, using sunglasses and a hat to conceal himself and avoid most of the glances that might follow him.
Zou Dong stood at the school gate waiting for him.
On a clear, rain-free day, the September sunset is so magnificent it looks like something out of a movie.
A rich, thick twilight color spreads out, and many moments when you look up, you might mistake it for a watercolor painting.
Chen Siqi stood in the twilight, looking at him with a gentle smile.
Seeing her smiling like that, Lu Yanhe couldn't help but laugh as well.
Zou Dong looked at the two young men in front of him and silently stood aside.
Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi got into the car.
"When are you going back to Jiangguang?" Lu Yanhe asked.
Chen Siqi said, "My flight is tomorrow at noon."
Lu Yanhe said, "That's perfect. I don't have classes in the third and fourth periods tomorrow morning, so I can take you there."
Chen Siqi: "I can just call a car myself, there's nothing to deliver."
Lu Yanhe: "Anyway, nothing else matters."
Chen Siqi: "Okay then."
Chen Siqi asked, "You don't have anything else going on this month, right? You can finally get some rest?"
"Yeah, pretty much. I just need to go record the last day of 'The Days of Youth' and get together with everyone for a meal," Lu Yanhe said. "I don't know when I'll be able to recover properly and not have to walk so unsteadily."
Chen Siqi smiled and said, "This is good too. You exhausted yourself before, so now you can take a good rest and not have to do any appearances. Isn't that great?"
Lu Yanhe said, "You yourself are busy with so many things every day, and you still criticize me."
Chen Siqi: "No matter how busy I am, I'm not as busy as you."
Just as Lu Yanhe was about to speak, his phone rang.
It was a phone call.
What surprised Lu Yanhe even more was that the person who called was He Yunlan.
When Lu Yanhe was recording "City Travelogue", he met this civil servant who worked in the tourism department of Jiangzhi and received a very warm and considerate reception from them.
That was the contact information we exchanged back then, and we even added each other as friends.
Later, the Jiang Zhi episode aired and received a very good response.
Lu Yanhe and He Yunlan would exchange messages during holidays. Although they didn't contact each other often, they never lost touch.
"Brother He." Lu Yanhe answered the phone.
He Yunlan smiled and said, "Did I disturb you?"
"No, it's convenient," Lu Yanhe replied.
“Yiyi and I came to Yuming. I saw on the news that you came back from Venice. I wonder if you’re in Yuming? If you are, I’d like to invite you to dinner,” He Yunlan said. “Tonight.”
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised.
This was a sudden invitation... But, based on his understanding of He Yunlan, He Yunlan certainly didn't intentionally choose this time of day to invite him; it must have been a spur-of-the-moment decision.
“Siqi—my girlfriend—and I are having dinner together,” Lu Yanhe said. “Brother He, you didn’t tell me you were coming to Yuming sooner, so I could have made arrangements earlier. Wait a moment, I’ll book a place and have someone pick you up. Where are you?”
“No need to be so polite. You book the place and send me the address. We can come by ourselves. No need to pick us up,” He Yunlan said. “Besides, the roads will definitely be congested at this time. It’s convenient for us to take the subway.”
Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "Okay, then I'll send you the address."
After hanging up the phone, Lu Yanhe said to Chen Siqi, "I'm sorry, I agreed to have dinner with someone else without your permission."
Chen Siqi understood perfectly, knowing that Lu Yanhe had agreed immediately because the other party was special.
"Who is Brother He?" Chen Siqi asked.
“I met He Yunlan when I was filming ‘City Travelogue’ in Jiangzhi. He works at the Jiangzhi Tourism Bureau. He was the one who arranged the filming. I received a lot of help from him there. He and his wife came here and invited me to dinner,” Lu Yanhe said. “This is the first time they have come to see me, so I have to do my part as a host.”
Chen Siqi: "Oh, it's them. I've seen your episode, I know them."
Lu Yanhe: "Do you want to go? If you don't want to go, I'll come find you after I finish eating with them."
Chen Siqi: "Go ahead, why wouldn't I want to go?"
She added, "You've already told them that you're with me now and we're going out for dinner. If I don't go, it'll seem like I have a problem with them."
Lu Yanhe: "...Ah, right, I forgot."
-
Having not seen He Yunlan and Liu Yiyi for a long time, Lu Yanhe's feelings were somewhat different upon seeing this handsome young couple again.
I used to be a little envious, but now... well, he's not bad either.
"Brother He, sister-in-law," Lu Yanhe greeted them with a smile, "When did you arrive?"
He Yunlan smiled and said, "We just arrived this morning. We have some work to do. Our flight back is at 11 p.m. tonight, so we didn't mean to bother you."
“This is not bothering you at all, Brother He. You’re too kind. I’ve always hoped to invite you back to Yuming so that I can express my gratitude,” Lu Yanhe said. “You have to tell me every time you come to Yuming. If you come without telling me, I won’t greet you when I go to Yuzhi.”
He Yunlan then gave a helpless smile and said, "I'll definitely tell you later."
Lu Yanhe asked, "Brother He, is there something you want to tell me? You didn't even plan to contact me in the first place."
He Yunlan nodded and said, "I just happened to hear that you're preparing a martial arts sitcom called 'My Own Swordsman'?"
"Yes." This news had already spread all over the internet.
Lu Yanhe didn't know why He Yunlan suddenly brought this up with him.
He Yunlan said, "I heard it from a friend in the tourism department. I heard that your drama is planning to build a real set, such as the Tongfu Inn, right?"
Lu Yanhe nodded. "We do have this idea for now. What's up, Brother He?"
He suddenly realized something and paused, "Brother He, you could be—"
He Yunlan nodded, "I hope to build this inn in our Jiangzhi."
Liu Yiyi smiled slightly and added, "The last episode of 'City Travelogue' brought a lot of attention to Jiangzhi, and the number of tourists increased significantly during holidays, which greatly boosted the tourism economy of Jiangzhi. You've been to Jiangzhi, so you know that the scenery there is very pristine. The construction over the past two years has also been carried out entirely under the premise of preserving its original ecology. Yunlan was very excited when he heard that you were going to build a guesthouse on location, saying that if you could build this guesthouse in Jiangzhi, perhaps you could take advantage of the popularity of the TV series to make Jiangzhi known to more people."
Lu Yanhe realized what was happening.
It turns out that He Yunlan came for this reason.
-
Collaboration between film and television dramas and local cultural tourism is not a new thing. In fact, many local cultural tourism sites have even hired film crews to shoot films and television dramas with local customs and traditions as the background.
However, Jiangzhi's cultural tourism sector is hampered by its remote location, inconvenient transportation, and insufficient funding, making it unable to successfully implement this model.
The reason why He Yunlan received the "City Travelogue" team so solemnly was because many film crews come to a place to shoot this kind of thing and collect money from the local cultural and tourism authorities, but "City Travelogue" did not receive a penny. They came for the city after they had genuinely learned about it.
This gave He Yunlan an opportunity.
Subsequent events proved that this program did indeed make Jiang Zhi famous.
Jiang Zhi's reputation is slowly growing.
However, Jiangzhi isn't the only place doing this kind of advertising. Other places are doing the same. Beautiful scenery, simple and honest people, pristine natural environment… Heaven knows how many places across China are using similar slogans in their advertising. And how many people will believe that Jiangzhi isn't a city of fabricated photos or a city whose videos have been edited?
He Yunlan has been working hard to use his own strength to make Jiangzhi a more widely known city, promote tourism, and drive the development of the entire city.
It has been effective, but many difficulties remain.
At that moment, he suddenly heard the news.
"Many places are vying for it, wanting to build Tongfu Inn there." These are his friend's exact words.
He Yunlan knew that if Jiangzhi were to compete with other places, the conditions they offered would definitely not be as good as those offered by others.
However, he knew Lu Yanhe.
“If it were for my own sake, I wouldn’t have the nerve to come to you, but this is for Jiangzhi. I’d like to ask for your help to see if we can build this inn in Jiangzhi,” He Yunlan said. “If the production crew can really come to Jiangzhi to film, I will do my best to ensure the filming of this drama.”
Lu Yanhe noticed that although He Yunlan seemed calm, he was probably still uneasy about his request, and even a little embarrassed.
This request is definitely not a good thing.
He Yunlan himself said that if it were other places' cultural and tourism sectors, they could actually offer better support conditions.
Lu Yanhe did not answer immediately, but remained silent for a long time.
He was considering the feasibility of this.
Building Tongfu Inn in Jiangzhi is tantamount to filming the entire drama in Jiangzhi.
However, after filming is complete, Tongfu Inn can remain in Jiangzhi. If the show becomes popular, it might attract a large number of viewers to visit Jiangzhi and take photos.
However, "My Own Swordsman" is not just a simple story about Tongfu Inn.
What if we built a Qixia Town in Jiangzhi?
The thought flashed through Lu Yanhe's mind, but he immediately put it down.
Building a guesthouse isn't difficult, but building a small town is something that can't be done with just tens of millions of dollars.
Lu Yanhe came to his senses and said to He Yunlan, "Brother He, I wrote 'My Own Swordsman,' but the development of the series is handled by Aurora Video, which is not up to me. Of course, from my own perspective, I would very much like to have the series filmed in Jiangzhi, and I also really like this city. I can't give you a definite answer today; I also need to communicate with the people at Aurora Video."
He Yunlan showed gratitude, nodded, and said, "Okay, I know this is quite difficult, but it's a very good opportunity for Jiangzhi."
Lu Yanhe said, "Actually, Brother He, Jiangzhi has beautiful scenery. There are so many fantasy dramas now. Jiangzhi can take the initiative to contact various film and television production teams and invite them to film in Jiangzhi. In this way, everyone can see the beautiful scenery in the films and television dramas and become interested in Jiangzhi."
He Yunlan sighed, shook his head, and said, "I've thought about this before, but it's not that simple. Putting aside other things, I've heard from people in other places that many film crews come to their area to shoot, and end up ruining the environment."
Lu Yanhe: "Huh?"
“These production companies are quite shrewd now. They know that our region wants to leverage the influence of film and television dramas to revitalize local cultural tourism, so they make all sorts of demands on us. When we try to manage things for them, they find it troublesome and disruptive to filming. They even threaten not to film here anymore. I heard all this from friends in other places,” He Yunlan said. “That’s why I’ve been hesitant to agree. Some production crews have come to inquire, and I always ask them to sign an agreement to comply with environmental protection regulations. But when they see how many requirements there are, they stop coming. Of course, it’s also possible that they think we’re trying to extort money from them, because the agreement includes a lot of clauses about how much money they have to pay if they damage anything. They have many other options; there’s no need for them to come here.”
Lu Yanhe realized what was going on and understood what had happened.
“I knew that ‘My Own Swordsman’ was your show, which is why I had this idea,” He Yunlan said. “After all, I know you, and you understand what my original intention was.”
Lu Yanhe nodded, "Of course, of course, I don't want filming a movie to have a bad impact on the filming location."
He Yunlan said, "After 'City Travelogue,' several other program teams have come to Jiangzhi, but none of them have shown the same respect for this place as you have."
Lu Yanhe smiled.
"At that time, we were all newcomers and it was a newly created program. We were already very flattered to receive your hospitality and care."
He Yunlan said with some helplessness, "Unfortunately, not everyone has a grateful heart."
He Yunlan's listless expression suggested that she had experienced something unpleasant.
Chen Siqi had been listening without interrupting, but now she said, "Brother He, has Jiangzhi considered building a film and television shooting base? Yan He told me that your area has a lot of natural scenery, and it's very well preserved. If a film and television city can be built in a suitable development area, it can also be developed as a tourist attraction, just like Langhua now, where many people go to check out their film and television base."
“Building a film and television base requires too much money. We’ve talked to them, but we couldn’t reach an agreement,” He Yunlan said. “It’s hard to achieve a balance between development and protecting Jiangzhi’s natural environment. But I don’t want to ruin Jiangzhi’s most precious things for the sake of economic development over the next ten or twenty years.”
Lu Yanhe nodded, “Indeed, the natural scenery in many places has been overdeveloped, but Jiangzhi still retains a lot of its original state, and there is even a primeval forest, although I have never been inside. What impressed me most about that place was the green fields, shrubs, and flowers covering the mountains and plains, with blue skies and white clouds stretching as far as the eye could see, a true green ocean.”
He Yunlan said, "Tongfu Inn can be built in our main urban area without affecting other places or damaging the environment. There is still a lot of wasteland in our main urban area that can be developed."
Upon hearing this, Lu Yanhe said, "No wonder, you can even build a guesthouse based on the Tongfu Inn."
He Yunlan nodded: "In short, if we can build Tongfu Inn in Jiangzhi and you come here to film this movie, I will do my best to ensure the success of your entire filming."
Lu Yanhe was willing to help He Yunlan with this matter.
Unfortunately, he didn't know which other places were competing for the Tongfu Inn, but he had been to Jiangzhi, explored its land on foot, and genuinely loved its customs and culture. He hoped to use his own strength to make it a better place.
-
After dinner, Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi first took them back to their hotel before going to the hotel where Chen Siqi was staying.
Chen Siqi asked, "Would you help them?"
"Yes." Lu Yanhe nodded.
Chen Siqi said, "If the decision has already been made regarding the Northern Lights video and Jiang Zhi wasn't chosen—well, you know, even the Northern Lights have to consider many factors in this kind of matter, what would you do?"
"Brother He came to see me today, which actually reminded me of something. If they are unwilling to use Jiangzhi as the filming location for 'My Own Swordsman,' then I have other dramas to film there. When signing contracts with Aurora Borealis or other platforms, I should include this requirement in the contract. I will only cooperate if they agree to this requirement."
Chen Siqi looked at Lu Yanhe with some surprise and asked, "Isn't this a bit too much of a sacrifice?"
Lu Yanhe blinked confidently and said, "It's only a sacrifice if adding this clause makes the filming impossible. Why would a clause that others would agree to be a sacrifice?"
After a moment's thought, Chen Siqi realized that Lu Yanhe's current situation made it unlikely that any platform would reject him because of the filming location.
Sometimes, that's just how people are. The more money you have, the more money you can make; the more successful you are, the easier it is to achieve even greater success, because everyone will help you, everyone will become your support, and everything you do will be smooth sailing.
-
The next day, Lu Yanhe went to school from the hotel.
After class, I returned to the hotel, picked up Chen Siqi, and took her to the airport.
At noon, he met with Jiang Zixin, the producer of "My Own Swordsman", at Suxin Restaurant and had lunch together.
Chen Ziyan also came.
Lu Yanhe specifically invited Chen Ziyan to come.
Only Chen Ziyan could handle this.
Jiang Zixin originally thought it was just to discuss filming matters, but unexpectedly, Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan came to discuss the filming location.
This was something she hadn't anticipated.
She said, "I really can't make this decision myself. Ziyan, Yanhe, I also have to report it to the leaders and see what their opinions are."
Chen Ziyan nodded.
Jiang Zixin said, "Actually, I also have something I want to tell you."
"Hmm?" Lu Yanhe asked, "What is it?"
Jiang Zixin said, "Zhang Lan from your company contacted us and wanted to play the role of Tong Xiangyu."
Zhang Lan is one of the three "top female stars" at Xingyu Entertainment, on par with Jiang Yuqian.
Moreover, she is a "number one sister" with whom they have a very bad relationship.
Even Lu Yanhe knew that Zhang Lan had tried to snatch several roles from Jiang Yuqian, some successfully, some not. But this was enough to create a significant grudge between Zhang Lan and Jiang Yuqian. Zhang Lan had even approached Lu Yanhe before, wanting to collaborate and discuss scripts. Lu Yanhe verbally agreed, but because of Jiang Yuqian, he didn't really take it seriously.
Lu Yanhe never expected that Zhang Lan would suddenly take a liking to the role of Tong Xiangyu.
In fact, actresses of Zhang Lan's caliber really don't need to act in ensemble dramas like this—the projects she usually stars in are all major productions of a level no lower than "My Own Swordsman," making her a true leading lady.
Even after "The Golden Era," Jiang Yuqian's two subsequent dramas received lukewarm responses, which somewhat affected her career. Zhang Lan, on the other hand, maintained her position through consistent output and even began to surpass Jiang Yuqian.
Lu Yanhe has indeed grown up; instead of immediately saying no, he asked, "What do you guys think?"
Jiang Zixin shook her head and said, "Our initial assessment is that Zhang Lan is not quite a good fit for the role of Tong Xiangyu, but she is also from Xingyu Entertainment, so we would like to ask for your opinion."
Chen Ziyan said with a smile, "This role was decided a long time ago. It's up to you to decide; we won't interfere."
Jiang Zixin said with a smile, "Yan He is the screenwriter, so let's ask him for his opinion and see if he thinks it's appropriate."
Just as Lu Yanhe was about to speak, Chen Ziyan interrupted him again, saying, "Oh dear, Yanhe is indeed the screenwriter, but when did our drama become a matter of the screenwriter's decision alone? Yanhe has already suggested his candidates for three roles, so you can decide the rest. Otherwise, it will seem like Yanhe decided the entire drama. Thank goodness, Yanhe doesn't have that kind of ability."
She wouldn't budge no matter what, and Lu Yanhe naturally sensed something was amiss. He guessed that Chen Ziyan must have her reasons for saying that, so he stopped talking.
As soon as Chen Ziyan finished lunch and got into the car, she rolled her eyes in a way that Zou Dong could see in the rearview mirror.
"I didn't want to offend anyone, so I wanted to use you to reject her." Chen Ziyan said angrily, "What a joke."
Lu Yanhe said, "It's indeed inappropriate."
"You think they rejected Zhang Lan because they thought she wasn't suitable?" Chen Ziyan said. "It's purely because she's also from Xingyu. 'My Own Swordsman' already has someone like you who has a core position and influence on this project. If you two join forces, everything Northern Lights does will be passive, extremely passive. They will absolutely not allow this situation to occur. Such a big project cannot be hampered or led by the nose by you. This lineup was impossible from the beginning."
Lu Yanhe then realized what was happening.
"So that's how it is."
(End of this chapter)
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