Pork belly stir-fried with sauerkraut, her real name is Jian Xiaojun.
This name is virtually unknown in the entertainment industry. If you ask anyone in the industry about her, they will probably just shake their heads blankly.
However, when her representative works are mentioned, many people will suddenly realize, "Oh, her!"
During her freshman year of college, Jian Xiaojun faced her first financial crisis as a young person due to her extravagant spending. As a child from an ordinary family, she couldn't very well ask her parents for money again. In order to earn some extra pocket money, this college student wrote several screenplays and submitted them to screenplay websites.
Because of her immature writing style, these scripts went unnoticed. It wasn't until two or three years later that a notorious shrew in the entertainment industry, known for his ruthlessness, recognized their talent and bought one of her scripts for three thousand yuan.
The script was called "The Mute Woman".
The film *The Mute Woman* remains legendary to this day. From the director and screenwriter to the lead actors, they were either greenhorns just starting out or complete unknowns at the time. Yet, this group of people put together a film that went on to win awards and nominations at both the Film Awards and the Golden Dome Awards!
It's been almost two years since filming "The Mute Woman." I wonder how Jian Xiaojun is doing now.
Shang Yechu initially wanted to ask his assistant to contact Jian Xiaojun, but then he thought that inviting her would be a big deal, and that if he asked his assistant to contact her, he would not be sincere. So he asked his assistant to draft an itinerary, leave compensation, and travel expenses, and planned to make a detailed plan before inviting her.
When "The Mute Woman" aired, it was during the National Day holiday in 2017, and Jian Xiaojun had just graduated from university. It's been a year and a half since then. I guess she's found a job and become a corporate slave by now.
After the celebration banquet for "Happiness Street" ended, Shang Yechu finally had some free time. Instead of going home, she went somewhere else.
————
At Ji Juntao's home.
Today is also a rare day off for President Ji. Shang Yechu hasn't had a proper time with this old baby for a long time and misses her very much, so she takes every opportunity to come and see her.
Shang Yechu had a key to Ji Juntao's house and went in without notifying him. After waiting in the living room for a while without anyone coming out, he idly opened a novel website and started reading.
As Shang Yechu had predicted, since the airing of "Happy Street," numerous novels on various online novel platforms featuring supernatural and rule-based themes have appeared. Fanfiction of "Happy Street" has also sprung up like mushrooms after rain. During the period when "Happy Street" enjoyed soaring box office numbers, supernatural and rule-based novels on various websites experienced an explosive growth.
These fanfictions range from stories of time travel into the streets, solving puzzles and wreaking havoc, to tales of the Fourth Calamity descending and providing entertainment, to stories of leading a group of ghosts in infrastructure development and building an anti-capitalist highway. There are also some rather bizarre ones, like time travel into a movie and falling in love with Ye Xiaochu. Shang Yechu read them, laughed it off, and that was it.
Qingping Entertainment has always been adept at seizing opportunities, and of course, it wouldn't let such a golden opportunity slip by. While Shang Yechu was traveling around doing roadshows, Qingping Entertainment partnered with Fanfan Novels, the leading online novel platform, to launch a writing contest themed "Strange Tales of Rules," offering exceptionally generous rewards.
From then on, the genre of "Strange Tales of Rules" was officially named.
Online novel authors are among the most adept at capitalizing on trending topics. Taking some male-oriented websites as an example, some fast-paced authors can see a breaking news story yesterday and start a new book on the same theme the next day, updating around 40,000 words a day. While the quality is inevitably uneven, the promise of high rewards will always attract talented individuals. Given a large enough pool of authors, one or two rising stars will eventually emerge.
The power and wisdom of the masses are boundless. Soon, the setting for the theme of supernatural tales with rules was no longer limited to commercial streets, but expanded horizontally, rapidly spreading to zoos, schools, mountain villages, and other places, greatly enriching the subject matter. The elements that were deleted or ambiguous in the film "Happiness Street" were also unearthed by various interpretations, becoming ingredients in these works.
The genre of supernatural tales based on rules has seen a surge in popularity, with a veritable flood of talented writers. Sure enough, in this writing contest alone, three to five exceptionally outstanding works won prizes from Qingping Entertainment. One writer, in particular, was recruited by Qingping Entertainment with a hefty sum and secured a permanent position.
These excellent works have also greatly contributed to the success of the film "Happiness Street, Please Come In!". While the box office for most films during the Spring Festival season has been lackluster, "Happiness Street" has maintained a remarkably stable performance.
Interestingly, the various interpretations circulating online have imbued "Happy Street" with a layer of mystery, and many of the online novels derived from and expanded upon it have also taken a metaphorical approach, enriching the genre's diversity. Some follow the mindless, feel-good route, others the youth romance route, and still others the passionate anti-oppression and resistance route. Compared to the singular pursuit of horror and suspense, this development path is much healthier.
Shang Yechu was also reading these novels. However, not for entertainment, but to buy IPs.
There are actually quite a few good scripts and big IPs in the entertainment industry. Many of these also feature female protagonists. The problem is that these scripts with female protagonists are mostly romance, palace intrigue, or rather unrealistic workplace stories. They suffer from severe homogenization and are difficult to adapt into films. Shang Yechu browsed various websites every day like a broken record, hoping to find a suitable script.
Fortunately, because the protagonist of *Happiness Street*, Xiao Ye, is female, it has somewhat influenced the development of the "rule-based supernatural tales" genre. Currently, there are quite a few works in this genre with female protagonists. However, they have too much of a web novel feel, making them quite difficult to adapt.
If "Happy Street" is indeed going to be made into a film series, it will inevitably need to acquire other works for adaptation. These works could be bought, absorbed, and adapted.
Shang Yechu spent a long time browsing, like filling a shopping cart, putting the novels that seemed somewhat interesting into the bookshelf, planning to read and select them one by one when she had time. Just as she was busy with this, she heard footsteps, and when she looked up, she saw a figure coming down from upstairs.
The person who arrived was not Ji Juntao, but a rather handsome young man. He had a delicate appearance, a slender figure, and was at most twenty-five years old.
As soon as the handsome young man saw Shang Yechu sitting on the sofa, he rushed downstairs, serving her tea and water, and even bringing her several plates of snacks and fruits, as if he were serving his second aunt who had come to pay New Year's visits.
Shang Yechu wasn't used to being waited on, so she was a little embarrassed: "Thank you, Xiao Ka."
The young man smiled and said, "Sister Ye, I'm Xiao Tong."
"Changed again?" Shang Yechu felt a little embarrassed: "I'm sorry, Xiao Tong. Where's Lao Ji?"
"Aji will be downstairs soon," the boy said with a smile. "I'll go wash two pears for you."
As they were talking, Ji Juntao, wearing a bathrobe and yawning, came downstairs. Upon seeing the child poking around in front of Shang Yechu, he was initially pleased, then frowned: "Ye, you're here. —Why didn't you ring the bell to let me know?" The last part was a light scolding of the child.
"Alright, alright, go wash the pears." Afraid of delaying things, Shang Yechu waved the boy away and then reached out to Ji Juntao, "Come here."
Ji Juntao strode over and sat down next to Shang Yechu: "Oh, reading a novel?"
"You're clearly looking at my future script," Shang Yechu corrected. "Have you read the scripts submitted to the company this year? I've read them all—and after reading them, I feel like our domestic entertainment industry is doomed."
“I don’t have time to watch it; it’s all the subordinates who watch it.” Ji Juntao shook his head repeatedly. “Ancient romance dramas, modern romance dramas, fantasy romance dramas—idol dramas have been made from birth to death. We finally got a decent period drama script, but it was snatched up by Meta Pictures.”
Ji Juntao turned his neck: "Ouch, I've been working non-stop lately, and my cervical spine is acting up again."
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