Chapter 616 Returning Home, the Three Reunite
"I suddenly feel quite regretful," Chen Ziyan said.
Zou Dong and Wang Biao pushed the luggage cart in front, while Lu Yanhe and Chen Ziyan followed behind.
The airport was crowded, so Lu Yanhe had to wear sunglasses and a fisherman's hat to cover himself up and avoid being recognized and causing a commotion.
Lu Yanhe no longer naively believes that he will cease to be a star once he goes abroad.
It must be acknowledged that the popularity of several shows on streaming platforms, as well as the global release of "The Mist," has greatly increased his international profile.
Especially the movie "The Mist" -
This fully demonstrates why Chen Ziyan insisted that Lu Yanhe take on commercial films.
The film's global promotion and marketing of Lu Yanhe, along with its successful screenings, effectively brought Lu Yanhe into the public eye many times, making him memorable to many people who didn't know him before.
Lu Yanhe asked, "What's there to regret?"
“This movie isn’t about you,” Chen Ziyan said. “Otherwise, I would have done everything I could to win you a Best Actor award for this movie.”
Lu Yanhe: "It's quite a pity, Huang Tianlin's camera language is really good."
"The key is that he didn't use particularly advanced equipment to shoot these scenes, and his budget for this film wasn't very high either. It was all thanks to the cooperation of various departments that he was able to create such high-quality shots. When the film is released, if the production budget is announced, it will definitely shock many people."
“He didn’t burn money, but he burned time.” Lu Yanhe shook his head. “My scenes in this movie would have been filmed in three to five days in other productions, but he insisted on making me film for eleven days. However, it’s worth it to film his movies, even if it requires more time.”
Chen Ziyan nodded, "Perhaps, he really can become a calling card for Malaysian cinema in the world in the future."
"I'm really looking forward to seeing what the final cut of the film 'Tropical Rainy Season' will look like," said Lu Yanhe.
“I talked with Yuan Hai for a long time. He actually saw the value of ‘Tropical Rainy Season’. He is a very visionary person. So far, he has not sold the overseas distribution of ‘Tropical Rainy Season’,” Chen Ziyan said. “He hopes to find a powerful company to help ‘Tropical Rainy Season’ win awards.”
"Hmm?" Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised. "Does getting into the four major international film festivals require a distribution company to pull strings behind the scenes?"
“That can happen, but international film festivals generally have their own selectors and selection channels, so it’s not necessarily necessary to find a powerful film company to handle it,” Chen Ziyan said. “Take the film ‘Tropical Rainy Season,’ Huang Tianlin’s first film, which received such good reviews at the Toronto International Film Festival, and this is his second feature film, with you in it, it’s definitely already on the international film festival’s selection list. There’s no need to rely on other distribution companies. I think he was referring to the two more influential awards seasons in Europe and North America.”
Upon hearing this, Lu Yanhe thought for a moment and said, "Sister Ziyan, do you think we should introduce him to Green Valley Film Company in the United States?"
Midoriya previously handled the North American distribution of "Road to Glory" and also helped Lu Yanhe secure the Best Supporting Actor award during awards season. Although he didn't ultimately get a nomination for a more influential award, he did solidly help him get many nominations, making him known to European and American media and film critics.
This year, Midoriya also acquired the North American distribution rights for "Love Letter" for $6 million.
They will consider whether to pursue an awards season based on the reception after the film's release.
Both collaborations were quite pleasant, which is why Lu Yanhe said those words to Chen Ziyan.
Chen Ziyan nodded and said, "I've already recommended it to him and given him my contact information. Let's see how they talk it out. We weren't involved in the production or behind-the-scenes work of 'Tropical Rainy Season,' so it's not appropriate for us to take the initiative to interfere. However, I suggested to him that we hope to be able to handle the distribution of this film in China."
Lu Yanhe was somewhat surprised: "Agency? Do we have distribution channels?"
“We don’t have that, but the company we work with does,” Chen Ziyan said. “Although this film is a Malaysian film and cannot be considered for domestic awards, it has received a lot of attention because of your participation. I hope that this film can be properly distributed and not sold to a mediocre film company and ruined.”
Does he agree?
“He wants you to be deeply involved in the film’s promotion,” Chen Ziyan laughed. “He’s not willing to suffer any losses.”
“That’s normal.” Lu Yanhe nodded. “Deep involvement in the promotion, yeah, I think this movie is good, worthwhile, and I’m willing to do it too.”
Chen Ziyan: "Let me tell you first that Huang Tianlin's contract in China will be signed with Shihuolai, so I am inclined to believe that you can deepen your cooperation with him in the future. I think that the two of you working together will be a win-win result."
“I think so too,” Lu Yanhe nodded.
"Are you really not bothered at all by his attitude towards you?" Chen Ziyan asked.
“If you interpret his attitude as him saying one thing but meaning another, you might be able to accept it a little better,” Lu Yanhe laughed. “If he really was targeting me, looked down on me, and didn’t want to cooperate with me, of course I wouldn’t have any reason to go out of my way to please him. It’s just a feeling, I guess. Saying this might make me seem shameless, but from the first time I met him, I’ve kind of thought of him as a child throwing a tantrum.”
"Then you shouldn't say that to his face in the future. If he hears it, he'll probably explode," Chen Ziyan laughed.
"You've only known him for two days, and you already know his personality?"
"We just met, but we've known each other for more than two days. And after talking with Yuan Hai so much, I've gotten to know Huang Tianlin's personality to some extent. He's actually a very sensitive person, very perceptive of whether others respect or look down on him," Chen Ziyan said. "Yuan Hai told me yesterday that the reason Huang Tianlin gradually stopped competing with you was because he realized that you didn't look down on him as a new director as he had assumed, and that you actually respected him quite a bit."
Lu Yanhe: "Yuan Hai really understands me. On my first day here, he gave me a heads-up, especially worried that I would fall out with Huang Tianlin."
Chen Ziyan: "Huang Tianlin is lucky to have met someone with a soft personality like you. If it were someone with a stronger personality, like Bige, he might have refused to act after only a few days of filming."
Lu Yanhe: "As long as it doesn't involve matters of principle, Baozi's personality is quite good."
“Just make sure you’re comfortable with it,” Chen Ziyan said. “Everyone has a different personality, so there’s no need to try to fit everyone into one mold. But don’t be all smiles on the surface but feel guilty inside, or feel guilty on the surface but regretful inside and won’t back down.”
“Okay, my mentor.” Lu Yanhe smiled.
Looking at the smile on Lu Yanhe's face, Chen Ziyan was momentarily lost in thought and sighed, "Time flies so fast, it's already been a year since you graduated."
"Yes, I'm almost twenty-four years old."
I've been in this world for almost six years now.
Lu Yanhe turned his head to look at the bustling airport.
Sometimes, Lu Yanhe felt that the airport was truly the place in the world where time seemed to stand still.
Whether it's day or night, this place is always bustling with people; you can see all sorts of people here.
However, you will never feel lonely or lost here, because everyone who comes here will have a flight that will take you to the place you want to go.
You have a place in your heart.
-
On June 14th, several news items from the entertainment industry were released in succession, attracting widespread attention.
First, after Lu Yanhe finished filming "Tropical Rainy Season" and returned to China, there were many fans at the airport to greet him. Lu Yanhe reiterated that he did not want everyone to come to greet him.
Secondly, Star Entertainment Agency issued an announcement that it will renew the contracts of its signed artists Li Zhibai and Yan Liang, and will establish studios for them respectively to explore new agency cooperation models.
Third, Meng Li had broken up with her boyfriend of several months and appeared at the recording of the program "Director, Please Advise" looking gloomy, seemingly suffering from a serious heartbreak.
...
This time, with Lu Yanhe back, it was a rare occasion that neither Li Zhibai nor Yan Liang had any work assignments.
Not long after Lu Yanhe returned to Ziyuan Bridge, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang also returned one after the other.
"You're finally back," Li Zhibai said with a smile.
Lu Yanhe was sitting on the living room carpet, eating a takeout meal that had just arrived.
"Why are you eating at this time? Didn't you have lunch?" Yan Liang asked.
"I didn't want to eat airplane food, so I've been waiting to come back to eat it," Lu Yanhe said. "I've been craving it so much."
"What are you eating?" Li Zhibai asked, then walked over and saw that it was a cold dish.
He didn't care about hygiene; he simply reached out, grabbed a piece of beef, and ate it.
"Wash your hands," Yan Liang said, sounding somewhat disgusted.
Lu Yanhe laughed, "Don't let me catch bacteria from you."
Li Zhibai ignored him and said, "It's delicious! Share some with me, I'm hungry too."
After he finished speaking, he went to the kitchen to get bowls and chopsticks without waiting for Lu Yanhe's reply.
"Yan Liang, do you want him?"
"No," Yan Liang said. "You should eat less too. You've worked so hard to build up some muscle; don't let it become too bulky."
Li Zhibai: "Hey, Lao Lu just got back today, can we not worry about gaining weight today?"
Yan Liang showed a helpless expression.
Hearing the two bickering so familiarly, Lu Yanhe laughed.
"Have you two been trying to control your weight lately?"
"It's not just about controlling weight, Yan Liang is like a madman. Whenever he's not working, he drags me to the gym or to do exercise training." Li Zhibai lifted his T-shirt, revealing a muscular physique with six-pack abs. "Look at my abs, tsk tsk, I think they're cool."
Lu Yanhe: "..."
Yan Liang said, "Isn't this all to be in the best possible condition for filming 'Chinese Paladin'?"
Lu Yanhe: "It's alright, I played a scholar in it, haha."
The character Liu Jinyuan, whom he portrays, doesn't have such high requirements for physique and energy.
He just needs two months to lighten his tanned skin back to its original color.
Li Zhibai: "I strongly suspect that you deliberately reserved this easiest role for yourself."
Lu Yanhe: "Who told me to be the screenwriter? If you're so capable, why don't you write a character for yourself that doesn't require so much hard work?"
Li Zhibai: "How hateful, what an ugly face."
As he spoke, he shoveled almost half of the cold dishes into his bowl.
Lu Yanhe: "..."
Yan Liang laughed and said, "Your face is uglier."
Li Zhibai: "Go to hell."
-
It was a rare occasion for the three of them to meet.
Lu Yanhe then inquired about Li Zhibai and Yan Liang's contract renewal with Xingyu.
“We teamed up and negotiated with them together,” Li Zhibai said. “Simply put, we were bound together. Either we both got our demands met and we both renewed our contracts, or neither of us did.”
Yan Liang: "After your contract with Xingyu expires, among the male actors in Xingyu, only the two of us can influence Xingyu's stock price. If one of us stays and the other leaves, Xingyu can still withstand it, but if both of us leave, the stock price will definitely plummet, which will affect the market's perception of Xingyu. So, after we figured this out, we joined forces to negotiate with the company."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
There are only a handful of young male actors who can truly gain platform recognition, carry a drama series, and be recognized by advertisers who are willing to invest in commercial deals. Li Zhibai and Yan Liang are two of them.
If Star Entertainment loses all its members, it will undermine the stock market's confidence in the company in the short term.
Therefore, the initiative is completely different when two people negotiate with the company separately versus when they negotiate together.
Li Zhibai said, "From now on, Xingyu will have priority in selecting top-tier film and television projects."
Lu Yanhe: "Actually, you should have had the right to choose first."
“But they prefer to give it to other actors in the company,” Yan Liang said. “In their eyes, we can get roles from outside on our own and don’t need the company’s resources to support us, so they would rather train other people.”
"If we follow their logic, why bother signing with them? We can just go solo," Lu Yanhe complained.
In reality, neither Li Zhibai nor Yan Liang's popular film and television projects in recent years were particularly anticipated as big-budget productions from the outset. Li Zhibai himself has been criticized for consistently starring in idol dramas; while he's popular, his work lacks sophistication, which is another matter. Even Yan Liang, who consecutively produced two high-quality, critically acclaimed hit dramas, *The Gold Rush* and *The Mountain Peak*, faced skepticism from the outset. The latter, in particular, was initially rejected by director Ma Zhiyuan, only becoming a success after airing.
But an actor can't always be looking for dark horse projects.
Especially for actors of their caliber, dark horse projects are just a side project; the norm should be big-budget, high-profile projects with the potential to become "kings of dramas."
These kinds of projects often involve several investors. For example, Lu Yanhe's involvement in "Phoenix Terrace" and "The Golden Era" are both projects of this type. In such cases, the selection of the main actors is often influenced by different investor forces.
However, in the past few years, neither Li Zhibai nor Yan Liang have participated in any of the top-tier projects that Xingyu has been involved in; they have mostly worked on external projects.
Whether they ultimately want to act is one thing, but at least they should have the right to choose.
Otherwise, even if they work hard and become famous, and land a role in an overseas production, the production company will still owe Xingyu a favor, and they'll have to repay Xingyu in the end.
Because their agency is Star Entertainment. That's how the game works in this industry; nobody will think it's your personal choice. Even if the company didn't play any role in your decision-making process, in other people's eyes, it's as if your company supported them.
This has to be repaid.
As a result, the newcomers that Star Entertainment wanted to promote used the opportunities they had obtained through the exchange to act in those dramas, while they didn't even have the opportunity to choose projects that their own company was involved in. It's a joke.
-
Lu Yanhe smiled and looked at Li Zhibai.
"So, during your negotiations with the company this time, you had quite a bit of dealing with Zhou Ping'an, right? Are you able to communicate normally now?"
Li Zhibai: "Is there anything I can't communicate with him about?"
“Okay.” Lu Yanhe nodded, not wanting to expose Li Zhibai’s stubborn vanity—for a long time before, Li Zhibai would curse whenever Zhou Ping’an was mentioned. “By the way, has Ma Zhiyuan retired from the entertainment industry?”
“He went to do live-streaming e-commerce,” Yan Liang said. “Zhou Ping’an wanted him to act in those vertical short dramas, the kind that are really melodramatic, but he refused no matter what. So he contacted a live-streaming platform himself and started doing e-commerce.”
"Zhou Ping'an agreed to let him do it himself?"
“Zhou Ping’an doesn’t care about him at all now. He just asked the company’s legal counsel to review the contract and confirm that he received all the money he was entitled to. He’s too lazy to care about anything else,” Yan Liang said. “Zhou Ping’an also found two more trainees from the company and wants to push them onto the path of acting.”
“He’s now managing you, Mengli, and Chenghai all by himself. Chenghai’s showing some promise, right? Why isn’t he satisfied?” Lu Yanhe asked, puzzled. “Can’t he just get Chenghai promoted to the top tier first?”
"He's probably worried that Yan Liang will leave one day, and Cheng Hai might not be able to rise again, so he's taking advantage of the current favorable situation to quickly cultivate new talent," Li Zhibai said. "Isn't that what everyone outside is saying? He let Lu Yanhe go, and then there was Ma Zhiyuan. Ma Zhiyuan faded into obscurity, but then there was Li Zhibai. Li Zhibai went to someone else, and Yan Liang rose again... He's incredibly lucky. He's probably tasted the sweetness of success. With more people under his command, even if some leave in the future, there will always be a few left."
Lu Yanhe and Yan Liang couldn't help but laugh.
"But speaking of which, Zhou Ping'an is really lucky, I think he's lucky too." Li Zhibai clicked his tongue in admiration. "How can he always have someone to keep him busy? Seriously, he's never short of popular stars. Look at Meng Li now. Of course, the two of them are a perfect match. After Meng Li came to him, she was constantly creating romantic rumors and appearing on various variety shows. After finishing the dating show, she's going to be on 'Director, Please Advise.' She's so popular, it feels like she's never off the trending topics."
Lu Yanhe joked, "Maybe he saved the world in his past life."
-
I'd like to recommend my new book, "The Demon-Slaying Sword." I've tried promoting it online, so please give it your support.
(End of this chapter)
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