After returning home, Wen Ying carefully compiled the three novels she had published in magazines and sent them to Yuan Fenghui’s email.
Unexpectedly, the next day she received a call from someone claiming to be Yuan Fenghui’s assistant.
“Classmate Wen, Sister Yuan read your works and said you have great potential. She asked me to coordinate with you about the MV story script. Are you free today? Can you come to the Music Academy?”
Li Mengjiao’s album was being produced in Rongcheng, and the place with the most complete recording equipment wasn’t an external studio but the Rongcheng Music Academy!
Professor Fang’s territory.
Wen Ying wasn’t surprised.
Professor Fang had close ties with Hunan, so it was normal for both sides to share resources.
The MV story script Yuan Fenghui invited Wen Ying to write was for the lead single of Li Mengjiao’s album, the only song requiring an MV. The company was investing heavily in its production, and before the album’s release, the content was strictly confidential. So, Yuan Fenghui’s assistant didn’t rashly send the song to Wen Ying, instead asking her to come to the Music Academy in person.
“Of course, no problem!”
Wen Ying agreed readily, hung up the phone, grabbed her backpack, and headed out. She arrived at the Music Academy before nine o’clock.
Revisiting familiar ground, Wen Ying felt completely at ease.
After so much time, the school’s security team had forgotten her and let her in again. Following the directions given by Yuan Fenghui’s assistant, Wen Ying spotted a few familiar faces from a distance.
Professor Fang, Pan Li, Xu Mei, and Fu Jing.
When Pan Li saw Wen Ying, her blood rushed to her head. What was Wen Ying doing at the school?!
“Professor—”
Pan Li looked pitiful.
Professor Fang’s brows furrowed then relaxed, comforting Pan Li, “What are you afraid of? She’s probably here to see Li Mengjiao.”
Not mentioning Li Mengjiao was fine, but once mentioned, Xu Mei and Fu Jing’s expressions turned subtle.
Wen Ying, carrying her backpack, greeted Professor Fang naturally, ignoring the other three.
Originally, she might have greeted Xu Mei for Qin Yi’s sake, but now that they’d broken up, without Qin Yi, what was Xu Mei to Wen Ying?
In relationships, one must know what to keep and what to let go. Caring about everyone would make Wen Ying’s life exhausting.
Wen Ying had already moved on from Xu Mei and Qin Yi’s relationship, but Xu Mei hadn’t. Seeing Wen Ying’s coldness, Xu Mei bit her lip.
Fu Jing muttered quietly, “She’s acting pretty cocky!”
What’s there to be proud of?
In front of Li Mengjiao, wasn’t Wen Ying’s status just like her own beside Xu Mei?
Yuan Fenghui’s assistant approached with documents.
“You must be Classmate Wen, this way, Sister Yuan is waiting for you.”
After Wen Ying followed the assistant away, Pan Li gave a dry laugh, “Producer Yuan really has no airs, so friendly to Li Mengjiao’s friends.”
Did a capable producer need to curry favor with Li Mengjiao like that?
Pan Li instantly looked down on Yuan Fenghui.
Professor Fang coughed lightly, “Alright, don’t meddle in others’ business, let’s focus on our own work.”
Pan Li wanted to compete with Wen Ying, but wasn’t Professor Fang also competing with Yuan Fenghui? It’s just that Professor Fang cared about face and wouldn’t easily admit it.
Initially, Professor Fang was quite dissatisfied with Xu Mei, feeling Xu Mei was the leftover pick after Yuan Fenghui and Huang Yongjuan chose, but on second thought, the more this was the case, the less she should half-heartedly produce Xu Mei’s album.
If Xu Mei’s album wasn’t done well, others wouldn’t recognize Professor Fang’s ability. In the industry, Professor Fang would forever rely on her husband’s connections to get by, never earning the industry’s respect!
Professor Fang adjusted her attitude, taking Xu Mei’s album production seriously again, having Xu Mei produce the album in Rongcheng rather than Hunan, because Rongcheng was Professor Fang’s turf, where she could mobilize the greatest resources to craft Xu Mei’s album.
The first thing Professor Fang did was apply to Mr. Guan for an increase in the album’s production budget!
The reason was quite legitimate: Xu Mei was the annual champion of Super Girl, deserving better treatment than the runner-up and third place. This treatment should not only be reflected in the company’s internal status but in tangible terms, Xu Mei’s album budget should be the highest among the three!
When assigning producers, Mr. Guan had already shortchanged Xu Mei, feeling somewhat guilty toward her. Besides, having already hired Professor Fang as the producer, showing goodwill for ninety-nine steps, he wasn’t about to falter at the last one. Mr. Guan approved Professor Fang’s request, increasing Xu Mei’s album production budget.
Xu Mei’s album had a budget 300,000 yuan higher than Li Mengjiao’s and Zhang Yangning’s albums.
300,000 could buy a fully paid elevator apartment in Rongcheng.
It’s unclear how Mr. Guan placated him, but Huang Yongjuan had no objections. Like Professor Fang, Huang Yongjuan was an externally hired producer, focused on doing their assigned job well, not caring which newcomer the company tilted resources toward.
To put it bluntly, whether Huang Yongjuan’s production of Zhang Yangning’s album had an extra 300,000 in funding didn’t significantly impact the final quality!
Could an extra 300,000 instantly elevate a producer’s skill?
Professor Fang’s thinking still carried an outsider’s naivety, not on the same wavelength as Huang Yongjuan, who didn’t even bother voicing an opinion.
Surprisingly, Yuan Fenghui didn’t make a fuss with Mr. Guan either, tacitly accepting the increased budget for Xu Mei’s album.
Professor Fang saw this as Yuan Fenghui’s self-aware compromise.
…
“Abundant funding is, of course, best.”
Fearing that news of Xu Mei’s increased album budget might reach Li Mengjiao through others, Yuan Fenghui simply explained it to Li Mengjiao herself.
Today, not only was Wen Ying invited by the assistant to the Music Academy, but Li Mengjiao’s parents were there, along with Wang Shuang, who came to join the fun. Yuan Fenghui’s explanation was more for Li Mengjiao’s parents, “But 300,000 in funding doesn’t do much to improve the album’s quality, it’s not 3 million!”
If Mr. Guan agreed to increase Xu Mei’s budget by 3 million, Yuan Fenghui would flip his desk.
With 3 million, so much could be done: hire a better MV director, use a better recording studio, better sound engineers, more promotional channels… only when these factors collectively improve would the album undergo a qualitative leap.
300,000?
That number was meaningless.
Li Zhentao caught the nuance.
On the day of song selection and producer assignment, Li Zhentao wasn’t present, never expecting his daughter Li Mengjiao, a naive soul, to luck out and pick Yuan Fenghui as her producer.
Whether Yuan Fenghui was good or bad was hard to say now, but from Li Zhentao’s perspective, Yuan Fenghui was undoubtedly very capable.
The controversy Yuan Fenghui stirred in Taiwan was proof.
An incompetent producer couldn’t cause such a commotion.
The idol boy band member fell out with Yuan Fenghui over profits, fearing her retaliation afterward, so they had to hammer her in the media, ensuring she had no chance to recover.
That was a sign of fearing Yuan Fenghui.
If Yuan Fenghui lacked ability, why would the band member fear her?
As Yuan Fenghui explained, Li Zhentao nodded along, “Releasing an album is Mengjiao’s wish, we as parents couldn’t dissuade her, so we can only support her idea. Whether it’s 300,000 more or less doesn’t matter, with Teacher Yuan’s ability, this funding gap can easily be bridged.”
Knowing Li Zhentao was being polite, Yuan Fenghui was still quite pleased.
Li Mengjiao herself didn’t care.
Let alone an extra 300,000 in budget, even 3 million, if Professor Fang’s “stinking dog poop” wasn’t cleared out, Li Mengjiao wouldn’t want to work with her!
Producer Yuan was great, Producer Yuan was even inviting Wen Ying to write the MV story script.
Li Mengjiao had already spotted Wen Ying following the assistant over, waving vigorously, “Wen Ying, over here!”
Wang Shuang didn’t know about this yet.
“You called Wen Ying too? If I’d known, I’d have called Xie Qian and the others.”
More people would make it livelier.
“What do you know, Wen Ying’s not here to hang out.”
Li Mengjiao didn’t say much to Wang Shuang, sidling up to Wen Ying, suppressing her excitement, whispering, “Last night, Teacher Yuan finished reading your novels and said she wants to work with you, you really surprised her.”
Yuan Fenghui’s recognition of Wen Ying was quite high.
Though Wen Ying was currently just a small writer for youth magazines, if she kept going down this path, she could easily make a name for herself in writing.
Some skills can be trained, but some truly depend on talent.
“Thanks for recommending me to Teacher Yuan.”
Wen Ying pinched Li Mengjiao’s cheek, and Li Mengjiao giggled.
Yuan Fenghui had the assistant take Wen Ying aside, the assistant very formally presented a confidentiality agreement for Wen Ying to sign. Not just Wen Ying, anyone coming to watch Li Mengjiao record the album had to sign it, including Li Mengjiao’s parents.
“If your story script is adopted, we’ll pay you according to the contract. Even if the script doesn’t pass, we’ll pay you a small effort fee.”
The story script was to write a story for the lead single of Li Mengjiao’s album, how to present the story visually would naturally be the MV director’s concern, Wen Ying just needed to write the story well.
For a 2000-word story script, Yuan Fenghui was willing to pay 2000 yuan.
If it didn’t pass, Yuan Fenghui would give Wen Ying a 500-yuan effort fee.
Wen Ying, as a major shareholder of ‘Shrimp King,’ certainly didn’t lack 2000 yuan, but the price Yuan Fenghui offered was much higher than the manuscript fees from *Aige* magazine. 1000 yuan per thousand words was already the top rate magazines could offer authors.
Wen Ying definitely couldn’t get that now.
*Aige*’s editor invited her to write a serialized novel, quoting her 120-150 yuan per thousand words, the exact price depending on the quality of Wen Ying’s manuscript. This rate wasn’t low for a newcomer, a sign of the editor’s confidence in Wen Ying.
2000 yuan, compared to the entire album’s production costs, was negligible, but it was definitely not a small amount.
Even if they didn’t hire Wen Ying, hiring an industry insider to write a newcomer’s MV story script, a few thousand yuan would already be a lot. Most times, MV directors just threw something together during filming, as long as the visuals were beautiful, fans’ expectations for MV stories were low anyway. So Yuan Fenghui’s payment to Wen Ying was not low at all, perfectly respectable in the industry.
Wen Ying was quite satisfied.
She didn’t lack 2000 yuan, but earning 2000 yuan through writing versus earning 2000 yuan selling crayfish meant something entirely different to her, the option of the script not passing and taking 500 yuan effort fee to leave? Wen Ying didn’t even consider it!
