After The Vicious Cannon Fodder Was Reborn

Chapter 205: Preparation

Tao Mu's cameo role in the drama was a domineering CEO of a film and television company. According to the plot setting, after the website created by the male protagonist was on track and made some small successes, he learned that his old company, one of the most influential fashion magazines in China, was going to hold a charity gala. The protagonist tried his best to get an invitation and took the heroine with him to the gala. And it was there he met a certain film and television CEO. Then, after gaining the appreciation of the CEO, the male protagonist, who was already struggling with funds, finally got his first financing since he started his business.

In Tao Mu's original setting, all the plot points of the script were fictional and any similarity was a coincidence. However, in order to make "Fashion Storm" more realistic and connected to the hotspots of current affairs and to make the audience feel more immersive, Director Xiong Bao forced the screenwriters to change most of the fictional Fashion Storm props into those of real brand businesses, constantly interspersing hard and soft advertisements in the plot. At the same time, it could also achieve the satisfaction of both sponsors and audiences.

So Director Xiong, who had tasted the sweetness of doing so, simply and directly replaced the identity of the film and television CEO with Tao Mu himself. So this plot point became and Summer Star Entertainment jointly holding a charity gala. The male protagonist did his best to get an invitation, and successfully chatted with CEO Tao at the charity gala (the topic of conversation being that "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood", which was produced by CEO Tao, was a very good drama), and then achieved the appreciation of the bigwig Tao Mu, successfully getting the first financing for his website.

The adapted plot not only fit perfectly, but also closely followed the real hot spots in current affairs. And as Director Xiong himself promised, he indeed also promoted the charity gala and "The Great Wall of Flesh and Blood".

And what "Fashion Storm" could get was a large number of A- and B-list superstars, influential figures in the fashion industry and advertising industry, as well as various business bigwigs making cameo appearances in an idol drama

That's right, when Tao Mu started to prepare the project plan for the charity gala, he had already made a plan for it to be broadcast live on . To this end, the technical department of also specially purchased a server expansion, and made other technical preparations.

On the other side, , Summer Star Entertainment, Longteng Entertainment and Xiaoheng Capital split up and used their respective company's personal connections to invite famous people from all walks of life to participate in the charity gala. Of course, when Tao Mu sent the invitation letter, he also mentioned that some of the video clips would be included in the TV series "Fashion Storm"for example, the red carpet part and guest introductions. Specially asking permission in the letter if they could agree to this cameo appearance.

Tao Mu had a wide range of personal contacts and connections, and the A-list superstars he could invite included all the actors of the "Black and White" crew, plus the big names he met when he went to Zhou Yanqing's concert before. Needless to say, the other three companies have even stronger backgrounds.

If this plan could be successfully implemented, it was conceivable that the guest actors of "Fashion Storm" this time would be the most valuable and influential "extras" in the country. In every sense.

So even if had been secretly finalizing the procedures for invited guests and the overall charity gala preparations. There were still many entertainment media who had heard news from various channels. This indirectly led to the search index of "Fashion Storm", charity gala, invited guests, etc. skyrocketing.

That man who could stir up a bloody storm in the entertainment industry was once again at the center of the whirlpool and became the focus of everyone's attention.

In the end, the time for the charity gala was finalized at 8 o'clock in the evening on September 9th.

During this period, had been busy preparing for the various processes of the charity gala, and to finalize the itinerary of all the guests and performers. Fortunately, the four organizers possessed very strong contacts and connections in all walks of life. Although the work was cumbersome and required communication with all parties, everything still went very smoothly.

In contrast, Yan Sheng's idea of preparing an idol drama to support Shen Yu as the male lead did not go so smoothly.

With the lesson learned from the movie "Jianghu" that started high but went downhill, investors in the industry have all heard of Shen Yu's flashy operation of dragging down the entire movie just by the power of himself. Besides, Shen Yu's reputation was very bad now. Although there were still many die-hard fans, his impression among passers-by was really bad and was also boycotted by some feminists. Compared with Shen Yu being entangled in scandals and black materials, this was actually more troublesome. Because these feminists would really come up with all kinds of ways to resist everything related to Shen Yu.

The reality of "Jianghu"s performance at the box office before was ironclad proof.

Therefore, although Yan Sheng had a good reputation in the industry and was also deeply loved and trusted by producers and investors, no one was willing to spend money to invest in this idol drama supervised by Yan Sheng. No director was even willing to take over this idol drama. In the end, Yan Sheng had no choice but to take out most of his savings and invest it into this idol drama himself.

However, this decision was firmly opposed by his childhood friend and business partner.

Zeng Yiheng thought that Yan Sheng's brain was simply flooded with water. Just look at the extent in which Shen Yu's reputation and popularity had fallen! The fact that it hadn't dragged Yan Sheng down was already their greatest luck. Yet Yan Sheng was still imagining that Shen Yu could make a comeback?

"What on earth are you thinking? You aren't really bewitched by Shen Yu, are you?"

In Yan Sheng's studio, Zeng Yiheng, who never wanted to comment on Yan Sheng's view of love and his other half, couldn't resist it any longer. For the first time, he expressed his strong dissatisfaction with Shen Yu: "At the beginning, we agreed to stay away from Shen Yu and make good friends with Tao Mu and Li Xiaoheng. In the end, what did you do? Just because you slept with Shen Yu, you went ahead and offended Tao Mu again and again. I won't say anything more about this. But now you actually want to flush your acting career down the toilet?"

"Do you know what your decision will mean? It will mean that you will have to put all the company's liquidity on a male protagonist who has no audience at all. And the most important point is that this male protagonist is not only riddled with negative news and scandals, he does not even possess a speck of acting skills and professional ethics. By going ahead with this decision, aren't you just wasting your money?"

Zeng Yiheng really couldn't understand why Yan Sheng became like this: "Who was it that told me that he likes acting the most and that he will regard acting as his lifelong career. Now, you are going to give up your career for a street rat?"

"Yiheng!" Yan Sheng interrupted with a livid face, and his tone was not very good: "Don't say that of Xiao Yu. He is my lover after all. And he is not as bad as you say. You are just biased, he's actually a good person. At least he doesn't have bad intentions."

"There are too many people in this world who don't have bad intentions. The ones who really have bad intentions are the few, alright?" Zeng Yiheng sneered, looking at Yan Sheng with great disappointment: "I didn't expect that the young master of the Yan family, who always had high standards of himself, would have such low requirements for his other half."

Yan Sheng was rendered speechless. He was reluctant to blame Shen Yu, but it didn't mean that Yan Sheng didn't know what Shen Yu did. He was also disappointed in Shen Yu. However, the two of them were together after all. As a man, Yan Sheng's family education and cultivation did not allow him to commit irresponsible actions. After all, Shen Yu only had him now, didn't he?

Zeng Yiheng looked at Yan Sheng sitting depressed on the sofa with a tired look on his face. He didn't want to say anything anymore. He took a deep breath and said reluctantly: "As a man, I can understand how you want to help your other half when he is in trouble. But Yan Sheng, we can't treat our money and career as a joke. Moreover, in Shen Yu's current state, I don't believe he can take on the heavy responsibility as the male lead. Whether in terms of acting skills or other conditions, he can't take the lead, and he can't bring in the TV ratings. So towards the decisions of the other investors and directors, you have to understand.

Yan Sheng nodded absentmindedly and then saw Zeng Yiheng take out a script from his briefcase and handed it to Yan Sheng.

Yan Sheng asked in confusion, "What is this?"

"You have acted in movies since your debut, but you haven't taken on many TV dramas in recent years. However, everyone knows that if you want to increase your popularity, TV dramas are the best platform. If you want to be a producer, the risk of making movies is too high. So it is also a good idea to begin with TV series instead. You think idol dramas are easy to make, but have you ever thought it through, since the launch of "Fashion Storm", whether it is the industry or the audience, everyone's eyes are on it. So if the idol drama produced by you fails to reach the same level, or the comparison is even more tragic, have you ever thought about what those media reporters and your fans would think?"

Yan Sheng fell silent. He looked at the script that Zeng Yiheng had given him and found that it was a historical drama. The story took place during the Emperor Qianlong period. The lines were exquisite, the rhetoric was gorgeous, and the background was also profound. With Yan Sheng's rich experience in reading scripts, just flipping through the beginning and looking at the end, he could conclude that this was a very good script indeed.

Zeng Yiheng opened his mouth and said, "If you want to become a producer, then the first TV series we make must also be a critical success. If it's this kind of script, it will also be worthy of your film king title. The entertainment industry is a very realistic circle, even if you are an A-list superstar, you still can't make a mistake. Otherwise, there will be many up-and-coming stars that will surpass you."

Zeng Yiheng couldn't help but nag and continued: "I finally managed to pick this script after a long time. I also finally got the screenwriter to finalize the adaptation rights. Originally I wanted to use it to support a newcomer of the company. Now you got it cheap. When the news of you playing Emperor Qianlong spread, it will definitely be the biggest news in the field of TV dramas this year. Moreover, if you personally act and produce the drama, it will definitely attract reliable investors and directors. At that time, you can arrange a good role for Shen Yu. We'll see if it could whitewash some of his black materials."

Yan Sheng noticed that Zeng Yiheng circled a name with a red pen on the character sheet of the script, raised his eyebrows and asked, "Fucha Fu Heng?"

Zeng Yiheng hummed and explained patiently: "Fucha Fu Heng is the younger brother of Empress Yuan. He has made outstanding achievements in history and was deeply favored by Emperor Qianlong. He is a character with a very good image. The most important thing is that this character does not have much of a sense of presence. Not as many fans as Huo Qubing, Wei Qing or other historical figures. Many young people have never heard of this person. His sense of presence is not even as good as He Shen in the late Qianlong period. Give this role to Shen Yu, if he plays it well okay, let's hype this character's achievements in history and help the audience feel a sense of substitution. Naturally, Shen Yu can rely on this role to shine. If he doesn't play it well, then it's just a side character, and it's not a big deal to delete this role at that time."

In any case, Zeng Yiheng would not let Yan Sheng repeat the same mistakes.

Yan Sheng smiled. He knew that Zeng Yiheng pretended to speak in a casual and easy tone, but he could tell how much effort he put in behind the scenes. So he was very touched and could only pat his good brother on the shoulder, conveying his emotions with more than words.

Zeng Yiheng waved away Yan Sheng's paw impatiently. If it wasn't because he was worried about his childhood friend's lower half directing his brain, he wouldn't have even bothered to help pave the way for Shen Yu.

Seeing Zeng Yiheng angrily leaving the office, Yan Sheng smiled and took out his mobile phone to relay the good news to Shen Yu.

Shen Yu, who was lying on the bed while eating snacks and watching a k-drama, answered the phone and said coquettishly: "You're finally not busy. Then play games with me for a while. The guys in my dormitory play Aion, no one is playing "Purple Cloud" anymore."

Shen Yu has a very special feeling for the online game "Purple Cloud". He only became popular overnight when he played the leading role of the drama "Purple Cloud". And later, it was possible to have a common topic with Yan Sheng so smoothly because the two often played this game together.

It's a pity that in the past year, fewer and fewer players were playing "Purple Cloud". Most people climb over to DOTA and Aion or something else. It made Shen Yu feel particularly sad.

In the previous life, after Shen Yu and Yan Sheng made their relationship public, in order to commemorate the online game "Purple Cloud" which brought them together, Shen Yu also bought the copyright of this game.

It's a pity that in this life, Shen Yu was "expelled out" by the Shen family, and there was no film and television company to make money for him, and because of his bad image, he couldn't even receive endorsements and acting roles now. He himself was powerless to do anything and could only pin all his hopes on Yan Sheng.

"There are really fewer and fewer players playing "Purple Cloud" now. If one day, "Purple Cloud" stops serving because there are too few players, let's buy this game, okay?"

Yan Sheng, who had always been obedient to whatever Shen Yu said, suddenly hesitated for some reason after hearing these words.

Thinking of what Zeng Yiheng said to him before, Yan Sheng didn't answer Shen Yu's question directly, but mentioned the script: "..Xiao Yu, would you like to act with me, even if it's not the male lead?"