Chapter 499 Someone Threw Money at Me (8,000-word update!)
Filming for "Love Letter" was completed three days before the Lunar New Year, despite the tight schedule.
The entire crew erupted in excited cheers the moment Lu Yanhe announced the wrap-up of filming.
Of course, the reason they were so excited was that they could go home for the Chinese New Year.
Since it was Chinese New Year, although Zhao Yuheng's original New Year's Eve dinner was no longer needed, Lu Yanhe still asked Zhao Yuheng to give everyone the red envelopes he had prepared for New Year's Eve, one to each person as usual.
Lu Yanhe was particularly moved.
"This is my first time directing. Now that the movie has wrapped up, I still feel like I'm dreaming. It feels like I just finished making this movie without even realizing it." He said with a smile, "Unlike being an actor, I found that sometimes I don't feel like I'm actually doing anything as a director. For every specific task, I have to ask everyone to do it. I'm only responsible for making requests. I think everyone has complained about me in their hearts."
Everyone present laughed.
"But it seems that's how it is to be a director, at least that's how I feel. You have to make demands, you have to be meticulous, and you have to demand that everything that appears on camera be up to the standard I want, from the actors' performances to the changes in lighting. Otherwise, once you feel that you can make do with something a little bit, it's not just a little bit anymore."
Lu Yanhe took a deep breath.
“I am especially grateful to have met everyone on my directorial debut. It is because of your help that we were able to complete this film together. I know many people say that film is the art of the director, but only those who have directed know that a film cannot be completed by the director alone,” Lu Yanhe said firmly. “Our filming has come to a close. We still need to do post-production, then release the film, and then we may go to film festivals and attend many award ceremonies. This is not the end of our gathering. Let’s meet again in the future!”
Chen Bige put a hand on Zhang Ruozhi's shoulder and said, "Tsk tsk, Ruozhi, look at how eloquent you are."
Zhang Ruozhi smiled shyly.
She said, "The director seems to be good at everything he does."
"You're right, he really is a prodigy." Chen Bige laughed. "After filming wrapped, you went back to school?"
"Yes." Zhang Ruozhi nodded. "I'm in my second year of high school."
Chen Bige considered for a moment, "So it's possible that the movie will be released around the time you're in your final year of high school? Or right after you finish the college entrance exam?"
"Maybe," Zhang Ruozhi nodded.
"Will you apply to a performing arts school?" Chen Bige asked.
Zhang Ruozhi acted in "Love Letter," so it's only natural that she would become an actress in the future.
She shook her head and said, "I don't have that idea right now."
Chen Bige: "That's good too. Study hard, like Lu Yanhe. If you can get into a good university, you'll have many more options in the future. Don't worry about missing out on opportunities. If you really want to be an actor in the future, come find me or Yanhe, and we'll help you find opportunities."
Zhang Ruozhi, flattered and shy, hummed in response, "Thank you, sister."
Chen Bige looked at Zhang Ruozhi's shy appearance and touched her face affectionately.
"Also, you must be careful not to let some boys trick you into marrying you too early," Chen Bige said. "You'll meet many excellent men in the future, you know?"
Zhang Ruozhi blushed with embarrassment.
-
Finish work, pack your things, pack your luggage, and go home.
During the Spring Festival travel rush, all kinds of tickets are hard to buy.
When Lu Yanhe returned to Yuming, weary from his journey, it was already the 29th day of the Lunar New Year.
Yan Liang has already returned to his hometown.
Li Zhibai also went home.
Lu Yanhe will still go to Chen Siqi's maternal grandparents' house for the Chinese New Year this year.
They don't have to perform on the Spring Festival Gala this year, so they'll sleep there for one night.
Since there weren't any unfamiliar relatives visiting, spending the Lunar New Year at Chen Siqi's maternal grandparents' house was quite comfortable; there was no discomfort from having to exchange pleasantries with strangers.
Chen Siqi's cousin Jiang Huadong was also funny. He secretly slipped her a stack of his photos and said, "Brother Yanhe, could you sign each of these photos for me? My parents are usually so stingy. They're really stingy with my allowance. I'll sell your autographed photos to my classmates to supplement my allowance."
And the thief was so self-righteous.
After the New Year, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, Lu Yanhe returned to Yuming with Chen Siqi.
Chen Siqi is still staying at the hotel and refuses to go back.
That year, instead of traveling abroad for vacation, they spent a few days resting together in a hotel.
Both of them were really tired and needed to rest.
On the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, Lu Yanhe took Chen Siqi to attend their high school reunion.
More than thirty students came, a large and impressive group.
Many of them I haven't seen for three or four years.
This was organized by Li Pengfei and his friends. Back in high school, Lu Yanhe wasn't very close to many of his classmates, and he maintained contact with the few he was truly close to. Meeting everyone this time, Lu Yanhe felt an even deeper sense of warmth than during his school days.
Perhaps that's just how people are; when they meet again after being apart, they always feel a sense of "reunion after a long separation."
They went back to No. 13 Middle School together and took a group photo at the school gate.
The school was deserted, except for an old man who guarded the gate.
The old man saw them taking a group photo at the school gate and asked them who they were.
They said they were students who graduated four years ago.
The old man immediately smiled, but when asked if he could come in and have a look around the school, he shook his head firmly and said, "No way."
This is a very principled old man.
The classmate pushed Lu Yanhe forward and said, "We really are graduates of No. 13 Middle School. Look, here's Lu Yanhe, an outstanding graduate of our school, a big star. You must know him, right? I'm not kidding you!"
The old man saw Lu Yanhe and chuckled, "It really is."
Everyone thought they could finally go in, but the old man said again, "Even Lu Yanhe can't go in! There's no one else in the school right now, so nobody can go in!"
So everyone had no choice but to let it go.
It's rare for Yuming to have such a sparsely populated place.
Many people went back to their hometowns for the Spring Festival and haven't returned yet.
They ended up going to a karaoke bar and sang until the early hours of the morning before heading home.
-
The Spring Festival has come to an end.
Another year has passed.
Senior year has come to its final semester.
Since they didn't have classes anymore, they didn't need to go back to school so quickly. Lu Yanhe first looked at some apartments with Chen Siqi, planning to rent another place near Ziyuan Bridge.
The houses near Ziyuan Bridge all have similar layouts, but the rents have increased significantly—Lu Yanhe suspects they're being ripped off.
After all, now the whole country knows they're definitely not short of money.
In fact, given their income, it's quite unbelievable that they would choose to live here.
Although the houses here are expensive, they are still only affordable for ordinary people. In the eyes of real estate agents, with Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi's current net worth, they should have already moved into a top-tier neighborhood that you can only catch a glimpse of in a TV drama.
This place can only be described as a high-end residential area.
Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi picked and chose, but in the end, they were not satisfied with the houses, but with the prices.
The agent was incredulous when he learned this.
"The houses here are in high demand; they can be rented out very quickly once they're put on the market."
“We can pay for two years in advance, and the rent here isn’t cheap either. I don’t believe you can rent it out so quickly,” Lu Yanhe said. “I’ve lived here for almost four years, and I know that there are always some apartments in this neighborhood that are vacant for years and can’t be rented out.”
intermediary:"……"
I almost forgot that this person is also a regular resident of this community.
"The rent is indeed a bit higher than when you rented it, but the whole market is going up, it's not just our area that's going up."
The agent's tone also sounded somewhat aggrieved.
He thought to himself that it was only slightly more than the market price.
After some final haggling, the price was reduced considerably, and both parties signed the contract with satisfaction.
As they were leaving, Lu Yanhe muttered to Chen Siqi, "I still feel like we got ripped off. He didn't seem to care at all when we signed the contract."
Chen Siqi said with a smile, "If he really hadn't made any money, he wouldn't have signed with us. It's good enough."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
Once the house was rented, Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi started another project: renovation.
The rented apartment only has the basic structural elements, not the soft furnishings.
Therefore, they also need to purchase a lot of things.
Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi spent three days browsing furniture markets, buying pots and pans, and other miscellaneous items before finally getting the house ready.
Even after everything was set up, we couldn't move in right away. The furniture needed to air out. Of course, it just so happened that Chen Siqi was also going back to school.
The house they rented was next to the house owned by Lu Yanhe, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang. This was building number seventeen, and that was building number eighteen. They were right next to each other.
Li Zhibai and Yan Liang were astonished to learn that Lu Yanhe and Chen Siqi had rented a house next door.
“Damn, we thought you were about to move away and we’d be separated from you forever,” Li Zhibai said.
“That’s an exaggeration. Even if I didn’t rent in Ziyuanqiao, but somewhere else, it’s still in Yuming. How could we be in two different places?” Lu Yanhe said. “We can still meet up often.”
“Given the nature of our work, even if we live in the same house, we rarely see each other more than a few times a month, let alone if we don’t live together,” Li Zhibai said. “Especially when it comes to playing games, if we didn’t live together, it would be difficult to make plans to play a game together. Of course, if you live next door, it’s fine. If I open the window and call you, you’ll hear me.”
Li Zhibai's face showed visible joy.
Lu Yanhe then realized that Li Zhibai and Yan Liang had been secretly disappointed for quite some time because he might be moving away soon.
But these two people had never mentioned it to him before.
While it's true that friendships don't necessarily require living together and spending every day together, these three have been living together since they were fifteen, almost seven years now. After such a long time, separating isn't something that can be done easily. None of them would say things like "I'll miss you" in a clingy way; for boys, such direct emotional expression is almost impossible. But these words are unspoken; they are understood implicitly.
“This deserves a proper celebration,” Li Zhibai said immediately. “I think we should go out for a meal.”
Yan Liang: "Let's have a meal together. It's rare that the three of us are all here now, even though we haven't joined the crew."
"When will you be joining the crew? Is there a schedule?" Lu Yanhe asked.
Yan Liang shook his head and said, "Not for this year yet. I filmed several dramas last year, so I won't be joining any new productions in the first half of this year. I'll probably be recording a variety show as a regular guest."
“I’m still reading the scripts. I have a lot of scripts in reserve right now, so I’m not in a hurry to join the production,” Li Zhibai said.
Lu Yanhe: "So am I the only one who's been working like a dog this year?"
"You go ahead with your work," Li Zhi said with a smile.
"Who told you to make so many sequels?" Yan Liang also said.
In fact, Lu Yanhe doesn't plan to film many sequels, just one called "The Seventeenth Floor".
The main reason is that the films "Burning Fire" and "Mist" occupied his schedule this year. "Burning Fire," in particular, took nearly three months to film.
Of course, this is related to the fact that this movie is a blockbuster with many large-scale scenes, which are indeed difficult to film.
Moreover, during these nearly three months, Lu Yanhe didn't have scenes every day. However, after filming so many dramas, he was finally able to film at a normal pace.
-
Lu Yanhe has some action scenes in "Burning Fire", but not many.
This is primarily an Eastern fantasy film, constructing a world of magical techniques.
Lu Yanhe is currently the only main actor whose costume design has not yet been finalized. This is because he was filming "Love Letter" and did not have time to attend the costume fitting for the new production.
Lu Yanhe went there that day.
To Lu Yanhe's surprise, the styling alone took him over an hour. From hair to makeup—this was the role for which Lu Yanhe's makeup and styling took the longest. Lu Yanhe was almost numb from sitting so long; he practically needed to take a nap.
In the movie, Lu Yanhe's identity is that of a student at a magic academy.
They told him that his look was already quite simple, without any special effects makeup.
Some actors have special effects makeup, and the makeup time starts at three hours.
That's what fantasy blockbusters are like; they feature many "non-human" beings.
Lu Yanhe glanced at some of the other actors' promotional photos and got a general idea of the characters' styles in the film. It was a period fantasy film with strong Eastern elements. Indeed, it had the feel of a classic Chinese blockbuster; it was obvious at first glance.
However, the quality of the costumes and styling immediately reveals the production team's dedication. Period dramas are among the easiest genres for viewers to discern in terms of production quality; how much effort was invested and what standards were met are readily apparent.
Fortunately, the film "Burning Fire" did not become one of those poorly made industrial films.
Wanrenhai followed.
Since Lu Yanhe decided to take on the role in the film "Burning Fire", he has talked with Wan Renhai many times. They have met in person and chat online. They have become quite familiar with each other.
The director, who chose a name that sounds somewhat "creepy," is actually a very amiable and funny person.
Wanrenhai scrutinized Lu Yanhe's appearance for a long time, raising several issues and asking the styling team to redo Lu Yanhe's look.
These are all very detailed aspects.
In "Burning Fire", Lu Yanhe plays Li Wushang, a character who is like a "growing" teenager, just like the characters in every epic or legendary story.
In many stories, such a character is often the protagonist from the first-person perspective.
However, in "Burning Fire", the first-person protagonist is a man seeking revenge, the character played by Shang Yongzhou.
However, Lu Yanhe still has a lot of screen time. In "Burning Fire," it's almost the same as in "Road to Glory." The two of them can practically be considered the two male leads of this movie.
Moreover, if "The Road to Glory" features two characters appearing in parallel within a main storyline, then in "Burning Fire," the first half is essentially a storyline where each of them has their own path, sometimes intersecting and sometimes separating, each carrying half the main burden.
However, because Lu Yanhe had never starred in a commercial blockbuster, and the box office performance of his past films had consistently been in the hundreds of millions, his salary was much lower than Shang Yongzhou's, and he didn't receive a share of the box office revenue. Shang Yongzhou, on the other hand, did.
That's why Chen Ziyan told Lu Yanhe that he absolutely had to make a blockbuster film.
An actor who doesn't aspire to join the club of top-paid actors can, of course, continue making their own films without worrying about their market position or image. Take Lu Yanhe, for example. He could easily continue making films like "Late Spring" and "The Road to Glory," raking in hundreds of millions at the box office. Compared to their production costs, that would be a massive hit, a miracle, and Lu Yanhe's fame would continue indefinitely.
However, if Lu Yanhe wants to join the club of top-paid actors, he must have starring roles in films that gross over 1 billion, 2 billion, or even rank among the top 20 highest-grossing films in film history. Box office performance is always an actor's biggest asset in negotiating their salary, not industry shock or surprise, nor the number of awards they've won.
The film project "Burning Fire" is one of the top projects in China. There's not much to say about Lu Yanhe choosing it; the director is good, the script is excellent, the production company is genuinely investing in improving the production quality, and Shang Yongzhou is acting alongside him, so he doesn't have to shoulder the burden of box office pressure alone.
Even if such a big-budget film project fails, the blame won't be placed directly on him.
It may not be the most honest or impressive thing to say, but that's just how it is.
Chen Ziyan also had to consider the possibility that a major film might fail. For an actor, it wouldn't be fatal, but it would certainly be a significant setback, even for an actor of Lu Yanhe's caliber. It was too risky for Lu Yanhe to star in such a big film for the first time. Casting Shang Yongzhou as the lead actor would allow Lu Yanhe to reap substantial benefits if the film succeeded, given his role and the character's setup. If it failed, Lu Yanhe wouldn't be the first to bear the blame.
If she were to voice these inner thoughts, it would make her seem less trusting of Lu Yanhe and less upright, as if she were calculating interests so clearly, wanting to gain the benefits while avoiding the drawbacks—but in reality, this is the standard for an agent to secure projects for their artist.
Shang Yongzhou took on the lead role himself; it wasn't someone else who tricked or forced him into it.
Every actor who takes on a leading role must bear the responsibility.
Chen Ziyan was simply weighing the pros and cons.
-
“I was actually quite surprised that you were willing to act in ‘Burning Fire’.”
That evening, Wanrenhai had dinner with Lu Yanhe, and that's what Wanrenhai said to Lu Yanhe.
“I was worried that you wouldn’t like this kind of blockbuster,” Wanrenhai laughed. “You’ve acted in so many art films before.”
“That’s because I didn’t get any good blockbuster scripts like ‘Burning Fire’ before.” Lu Yanhe also gave a little commercial praise. “I’m willing to act in any type of movie, but sometimes the scripts that come to me are really not good. They’re so perfunctory that even if you were to direct them, I feel powerless to salvage them. I don’t know why so many commercial films come to me with scripts like this.”
Wanrenhai smiled.
“Although everyone uses the term ‘blockbuster’ to describe ‘Burning Fire,’ there’s actually a very important reason why I wanted to act in it. Director, I’ve always been interested in fantasy stories set against the backdrop of traditional Chinese culture. Just like martial arts works, it creates a world that may not exist in reality—I’m referring to things like light-footed kung fu and martial arts.” Lu Yanhe laughed. “Creating such a world based on reality is like when I was a child and saw something like one of the world’s top ten unsolved mysteries. I naturally have that kind of curiosity and longing for a new world that can’t be found in the real world. Moreover, I’ve always felt that Chinese-language films haven’t had a representative fantasy film, so after seeing ‘Burning Fire,’ I felt a kind of excitement that I’d been waiting for a long time.”
This is indeed an exaggeration of his true feelings.
But in essence, there was no lie; this is how Lu Yanhe views "Burning Fire".
He wouldn't have taken the role if he didn't think the movie could be made well.
Wanrenhai said, "These kinds of movies, especially those with production budgets like these now. In the past, the technology wasn't mature enough, so I felt it was impossible to make them. Now that the technology has finally matured and our domestic market has grown, it can probably support such a large investment, so I dare to do it."
Even directors are afraid of failure.
Lu Yanhe laughed.
He could also understand Wanrenhai very well.
It wasn't until I became a director myself that I realized how much pressure a director faces when a film fails.
When he was an actor, he had never faced this issue so directly. Even with such a small budget for the film "Love Letter," Lu Yanhe frequently faced problems such as needing to increase the budget for specific shoots, or a scene not being filmed smoothly potentially causing problems for the following days' schedules. These were just the specific issues; the most terrifying thing was the pressure of "what if the film flops and doesn't sell at the box office?"
"I'll let the losses slide"—that's what Lu Yanhe really thought at the time. He figured he could just lose the money himself, or even pay back all the investors out of his own pocket (this was a naive idea, but that's what he thought then, to soothe his anxiety). What Lu Yanhe feared most was failing the auction and betraying everyone's trust.
Chen Bige is the lead actress in this drama. If a leading role in a drama flops, it will affect Chen Bige's reputation. Not to mention, so many people came to help. Money can pay off debts, even if it means selling everything you own, but these favors, these trusts others have placed in her, are impossible to repay.
If Love Letter is like this, let alone Wanrenhai.
If he makes a good film, great; if he makes a bad one, no film company will dare to hire him for the next four or five years.
That's how serious it is.
-
Before Lu Yanhe joined the filming of "Burning Fire", Zhong Benshuo came to see Lu Yanhe in high spirits.
"The Squid Game" has been airing on Maxine for over two months and its popularity remains high.
Maxine's stock price soared as a result.
The global success of "The Squid Game" exceeded everyone's expectations, including Jong Bon-seok's own.
Zhong Benshuo couldn't help but feel a sense of wonder at how prescient he had been in valuing and befriending Lu Yanhe. He had long forgotten that there were actually some unpleasant things between him and Lu Yanhe.
Zhong Benshuo came here this time to inquire about the progress of the second season of "Squid Game" from Lu Yanhe.
The overseas streaming rights for the first season of "Squid Game" were not authorized by Lu Yanhe, but by Aurora Video. The rights to the first season were not held by Lu Yanhe, but by Aurora Video. However, according to information Zhong Benshuo knows, Lu Yanhe will share the rights to the second season of "Squid Game" with Aurora Video. This means that Lu Yanhe can influence which streaming service licenses the second season to.
Zhong Benshuo was well aware of how good the relationship was between Lu Yanhe and HP. HP had snatched the short film "Night Run" from them. Several of Lu Yanhe's subsequent films were also pre-ordered by HP, leaving Maxine with nothing to do with them.
If a show like "The Squid Game" were to be released by another company before its second season, Jong Bon-seok could simply send his resignation letter to his boss's email address.
Lu Yanhe quickly figured out Zhong Benshuo's purpose for coming.
In fact, Zhong Benshuo still doesn't understand Lu Yanhe enough. If Maxine hadn't caused such a huge commotion, and given the success of the first season, Lu Yanhe wouldn't have rashly changed the platform for the second season.
Switching to a different platform means abandoning the foundation of your previous success. After all, while many people have accounts on two platforms, many others only watch shows on one platform.
Just like after J.K. Rowling partnered with Warner Bros. for the first Harry Potter film, other companies were undoubtedly vying for the sequels with lucrative contracts—the sequel development rights remained with J.K. Rowling, not Warner Bros. However, instead of switching film studios, Rowling collaborated with Warner Bros. on eight films and also created the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them series.
Why can many people with bad relationships still continue to cooperate? Because they share common interests.
The same applies to the relationship between Lu Yanhe and Zhong Benshuo.
But Lu Yanhe didn't intend to put Zhong Benshuo at ease so quickly.
He just stammered and wouldn't say for sure that the second season would be given to Maxine. He only said that the script hadn't been written yet and he hadn't considered it.
To Lu Yanhe's surprise, Zhong Benshuo quoted an extremely outrageous number.
“This isn’t for ‘The Squid Game,’ it’s for you, Lu Yanhe, alone,” Zhong Benshuo said. “As long as you agree to give Maxine the rights to the subsequent broadcasts of the ‘Squid Game’ series, Maxine will pay you a creative service fee of 50 million US dollars.”
Fifty million US dollars, that's about three hundred million RMB.
Even Lu Yanhe was taken aback by this number.
Is this... the dizzying feeling of being showered with money?
“Yan He, you’ve always known how sincere Maxine is about wanting to work with you,” Zhong Benshuo said. “This creative service fee isn’t just for securing the broadcasting rights to ‘Squid Game’; it’s also to show you how much we value you. I’ll say it again: if you’re willing to tailor a drama specifically for Maxine, you’ll receive treatment that’s unique in the world, treatment that no other place can offer.”
Lu Yanhe: "..."
He looked at Zhong Benshuo, hesitated for a long time, and really wanted to ask, "Is Maxine really that rich?"
Of course, Lu Yanhe knew that the money these streaming platforms were paying was extremely extravagant.
In both the world before and after the time travel, streaming media seems to play the role of a "big spender"—not that they are unsophisticated, but that they spend money as if it weren't money at all.
Amazon offered Phoebe Waller-Bridge, the star and writer of "Fleabag," a three-year deal with an annual salary of $20 million. Most remarkably, Amazon renewed her contract even though she didn't produce any shows for Amazon during those three years.
Not to mention, the two Knives Out sequels brought "007" Daniel Craig a whopping $100 million in salary.
Sometimes, Lu Yanhe had wondered when he could sign such a contract himself.
Unexpectedly, without any warning, Zhong Benshuo arrived with this agreement.
It's practically a money-giving agreement.
This $50 million does not include the normal procurement costs for the sequel to "The Squid Game." It's called a "creative service fee," which is basically a check Maxine wrote to Lu Yanhe as a gesture of goodwill.
Lu Yanhe silently took a deep breath to avoid appearing too "naive," remaining calm, unmoved, and as steady as Mount Tai.
“Mr. Zhong, I admit that you and Maxine are indeed very sincere.”
Lu Yanhe looked at Zhong Benshuo and said slowly and deliberately, "But before we officially begin preparations, we're not in a hurry to decide who will get the sequel to 'The Squid Game'."
Zhong Benshuo finally asked the question.
"Yan He, what exactly do you want?" Zhong Benshuo said, "We can't let 'Squid Game' fall into someone else's hands."
Lu Yanhe blinked, his face revealing no attitude or emotion, only a polite, social smile: "Let me think about it carefully, and you should also continue to think about it carefully. We'll discuss this issue later."
(End of this chapter)
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