After waiting in the studio for over half an hour, Li Mengjiao and Yun Chen finished their recording work for the day.
Yuan Fenghui was still talking with the show’s host. Li Mengjiao rushed over like a gust of wind, giving Wen Ying a big hug. If Wen Ying hadn’t been steady on her feet, she’d have been knocked over by this goofball.
“You guys are finally here!”
Li Mengjiao had a ton to say, but glancing around, she realised they were still in the studio. The TV station staff and Miracle Group’s entourage were mingling, and who knew if someone passing by was eavesdropping?
Swallowing her words, Li Mengjiao greeted Xie Qian and Wang Shuang, then pulled Wen Ying outside.
“Come on, let’s go wait for Teacher Yuan outside.”
The Miracle Group had also finished recording.
Li Mengjiao’s attention was mostly on Wen Ying. Meanwhile, the Miracle Group’s leader, Yu Tianlin, quietly assessed Wen Ying, Xie Qian, and Wang Shuang after spotting them.
Wen Ying’s sweet, round face was charming but posed no threat to the Miracle Group.
Wang Shuang, when not acting like a goof, looked like a delicate, manga-style teenager to outsiders. The Miracle Group had a member with a similar vibe, who had a huge personal fanbase. Compared to him, Wang Shuang was still green and young. Even as Yuan Fenghui’s new talent, he posed little threat to the group.
Yu Tianlin sized them up quickly, making a “combat strength” judgement, then focused entirely on Xie Qian.
Despite Xie Qian doing nothing notable, just standing there quietly, his appearance and aura were striking. He looked about seventeen or eighteen, though maybe he was just baby-faced and actually in his early twenties?
Xie Qian gave Yu Tianlin a stronger sense of crisis than Yun Chen did.
“Tianlin-ge, this…”
One of the Miracle members was a bit rattled.
Yuan Fenghui had left Taiwan in low spirits, yet not only had she not faded away, she’d scouted such promising talents!
“No rush. Let’s have someone look into it first.”
As the leader, Yu Tianlin carried authority within the group, calming his teammates’ unease.
Sure, good-looking newcomers weren’t rare in the industry. No idol star who made it big was unattractive. Taiwan’s entertainment circle was small, and the Miracle Group’s members couldn’t claim to be the best-looking male artists there.
At their level, looks mattered, but they weren’t everything.
Yun Chen’s rise came from *The Princess’s New Clothes* smashing ratings, with half its success due to quality and the other half luck.
Could Yuan Fenghui really have the luck to produce another show like *The Princess’s New Clothes* to promote new talent?
No way it’s that easy!
No need to scare themselves!
Producing a hit show with massive ratings isn’t that simple!
Even if a show does blow up, if you look for flaws, you’ll find them.
When *The Princess’s New Clothes* first aired, Pan Li watched every episode, intent on finding faults to criticise its values and plot boundaries. By 29 September, with 25 of its 32 episodes aired, Pan Li hadn’t found issues with its values or boundaries.
In other idol dramas, by episode 25, the leads would’ve gone through meeting, falling in love, misunderstanding, and breaking up. If there’s nothing left to film and they need to stretch the show, they’d repeat the “misunderstanding, breakup, reconciliation” cycle a few times. But in *The Princess’s New Clothes*, the leads hadn’t even started dating by episode 25. Was that reasonable?
A drama where the leads don’t fall in love—can you even call it an idol drama?!
Yet *The Princess’s New Clothes* was an idol drama, and the leads not dating didn’t stop them from radiating charm and gaining fans, nor did it stop female viewers from going wild for Yun Chen. Pan Li was furious—why didn’t this show follow the usual formula? At this rate, the leads probably wouldn’t even be together by the finale.
No issues with values, no problems with boundaries—Pan Li’s fault-finding came up empty.
This plan flopped, leaving not just Pan Li but even Professor Fang disappointed.
*The Princess’s New Clothes* had broken a 4.0 rating, and Hunan TV was holding a celebration tomorrow. Both Li Mengjiao and Yuan Fenghui had reaped huge benefits from the show’s success.
And Xu Mei?
She didn’t even make the performance list for yesterday’s National Day gala!
That was a slap in the face for Professor Fang.
Fang didn’t want to be tied to Xu Mei forever, but Guan Zong tightly controlled the popular talents signed this year, leaving Fang no chance to work with them. To make a name in the industry, Fang had to rely on Xu Mei.
As Wen Ying’s trio met up with Li Mengjiao, Cao Shao, Professor Fang, and Guan Zong were also gathered.
With Yu Tianlin joining the project, Guan Zong indeed wanted to get involved, as expected.
Cao Shao’s stance softened. With Yu Tianlin as the male lead, the budget would at least double. If Guan Zong was eager to chip in, Cao Shao didn’t refuse after some thought.
“Yu Tianlin’s status is clear. The Miracle Group rarely does idol dramas now; he’s aiming for films.”
That was the intel Guan Zong had gathered.
Wanting to do films wasn’t surprising. The entertainment industry has a hierarchy—film stars outrank TV stars. Who among TV veterans doesn’t dream of the big screen?
But it’s easy for film stars to do TV, while TV actors struggle to break into films. Low-budget arthouse films want skilled actors, and Yu Tianlin’s acting didn’t meet the mark. Big-budget commercial films want bankable stars, and Yu was stuck in the middle.
If Yuan Fenghui were still managing Miracle, she’d have arranged for Yu to connect with the film industry.
So why was Yu, who wanted films, taking an idol drama? Everyone in the room could guess why.
Yu Tianlin didn’t want to see Yuan Fenghui succeed!
Conveniently, the three people in the room shared that sentiment, so they teamed up.
Yu Tianlin’s participation was great. His and Miracle’s fame justified raising the budget. A top idol star wouldn’t lower his fee, no matter his reasons for joining—the full pay was non-negotiable.
The only disagreement among the three was how to revise Zhang Guangzhen’s script.
Cao Shao and Professor Fang prioritised preserving Xu Mei’s screen time, while Guan Zong cared less about screen time and more about the show making money.
Cao Shao reminded them, “We need to give an explanation to Boss Jin. He’s coming to Hunan tomorrow.”
Boss Jin was the foolishly rich coal tycoon, the project’s biggest investor.
The original budget was 15 million, with Cao Shao putting in 3 million and Jin 12 million.
Now, with Yu Tianlin’s involvement, the budget doubled to 30 million!
Cao Shao gritted his teeth and upped his investment to 5 million. Guan Zong also offered 5 million, meaning Jin would need to cough up at least 20 million.
Twenty million wasn’t pocket change, so Jin was coming to Hunan to meet Yu Tianlin in person.
“Screenwriter Zhang is also flying in tomorrow.”
How to shoot the show and revise the script needed a proper discussion among the key players.
Thinking of *The Princess’s New Clothes*’s 4.0+ rating, Guan Zong was full of expectations for Zhang Guangzhen’s script.
Professor Fang hesitated, “*The Princess’s New Clothes* didn’t just have one writer…”
Cao Shao and Guan Zong chuckled, “A young girl just got her name on the credits. You think she’s more experienced than Zhang Guangzhen?”
Both thought Fang was overthinking. But Fang, recalling *Teen Idol*’s hot sales, suspected Wen Ying’s role in *The Princess’s New Clothes*’ script wasn’t just a name in the credits.
