Deng Yaomei unconsciously twisted the hem of her clothes.
“Wen Ying, can I really be in the first batch of viewers?”
Deng Yaomei was thrilled to be invited but also a bit worried.
Wen Ying had said this was an internal screening, and they needed to give feedback to Tianjiao Company. Deng Yaomei feared she wouldn’t have any useful opinions or that she might accidentally leak the plot.
Deep down, Yaomei felt quite inferior. She used to be a housemaid, and now she was just a junior employee.
When she was a housemaid, Wen Ying didn’t look down on her and became her friend.
As a junior employee, Yang Xi didn’t disdain her and often taught her how to work.
She was friends with the smartest people, yet she remained the same clumsy self.
Could she really belong in a setting like this?
Before Wen Ying could encourage Yaomei, Yang Xi rolled her eyes, “Come on, it’s just watching TV. Haven’t you watched TV before? Dramas are made for people to watch. What TV station would dare say they don’t want viewers like you?”
Deng Yaomei watched TV all the time.
When she first came to the city as a housemaid, she didn’t even dare turn on Chen Li’s TV.
Later, after getting familiar, Chen Li watched dramas with her. Especially after Deng Hao started kindergarten, Deng Yaomei had plenty of free time besides housework and binged all the popular series from recent years.
Deng Yaomei’s favourite show was *Princess Pearl*. While others focused on Little Swallow and Ziwei, Yaomei paid attention to the maid Jin Suo, feeling a kinship with her.
Not in looks, of course, their appearances were worlds apart… she meant their situations.
Housemaids and maids did similar work, didn’t they?
Jin Suo was treated like a sister by Princess Ziwei, and Yaomei was treated like family by Chen Li and Deng Shangwei. Both she and Jin Suo had found kind “employers.”
Seeing Deng Yaomei’s timidity, Yang Xi was the first to get annoyed. How could her subordinate be so spineless!
Yang Xi didn’t like watching TV, especially sappy romantic idol dramas. Her family didn’t watch TV either. Her limited viewing experience came from watching the *Young and Dangerous* series on a TV and DVD player at a delinquent girl’s house when her parents were away.
*Young and Dangerous* taught Yang Xi to be loyal to her crew and to be sharp and tactful. Being a delinquent was fine, but being a fool was not—fools died fastest in *Young and Dangerous*!
Yang Xi wasn’t thrilled about being called to be a viewer, but seeing Yaomei’s cowardice, she had to suppress her impatience and play the part.
When the boss speaks, what can a junior employee do?
Yang Xi strode confidently into Tianjiao’s office building.
To anyone unaware, she looked less like a viewer and more like a debt collector!
Deng Yaomei followed closely behind Yang Xi.
“What are you scared of? If it weren’t for the college entrance exam today, I’d have brought more people to watch…”
The “viewers” Yang Xi referred to were her former crew of delinquent girls.
Yang Xi had dropped out before finishing high school, and today was the college entrance exam day for those girls under her.
Wen Ying really wished those delinquent girls could have come.
Idol drama viewers are mostly underachievers, after all!
“Hurry up, let’s go watch. Teacher Yuan said it’ll be hard work for you today, and she’s treating you all to a big meal afterward.”
Li Mengjiao wasn’t worried at all. For her first drama, she was brimming with confidence.
She was genuinely self-assured: even if her acting wasn’t great, Wen Ying’s script was bound to be good. A compelling story meant the drama was already halfway to success!
Today’s event was a novel experience for the four boys led by Xie Qian.
Xie Qian never watched idol dramas.
Wang Shuang and Tang Yifeng didn’t either.
Geng Xiao had watched dramas with his mum, making him the most experienced of the four.
Wang Shuang, who hadn’t seen the final cut, reassured his reluctant friend as they walked, “This drama’s definitely not bad. I was the producer, after all.”
Xie Qian gave him a look.
That might fool Geng Xiao and Tang Yifeng.
Producer? More like the crew’s errand boy, earning 2,000 yuan a month, half of which was thanks to Wang Jun’s influence.
Whatever, Wang Shuang had been doing well lately, so Xie Qian didn’t bother exposing the slacker.
Yuan Fenghui arranged everyone in a large office, with the playback equipment already set up.
Today’s viewers weren’t just Wen Ying and the other teens but also Li Mengjiao’s parents, Qin Xianming, and Wang Jun.
Since the company’s founding, aside from Li Mengjiao’s dairy endorsement deal, it had been burning cash with no returns. To produce their first drama, besides shareholder funds, they’d secured external investments and bank loans.
With so much money spent, Qin Xianming and the others, even if they didn’t care for idol dramas, had to care about the quality of the company’s “product.”
Given Li Mengjiao’s current popularity and the tight promotional tie-in with Hunan Satellite TV, selling the drama to them wouldn’t be hard. The key was how much it could fetch and whether the company could profit.
Quality would tell!
As Wen Ying entered the office, Wang Jun waved her over, “Sit here!”
Wang Jun saved the seat next to him for Wen Ying, ignoring his own son, Wang Shuang.
“Uncle Wang—”
“Sit down quick, you’re the screenwriter. I might not understand the plot later and need to ask you.”
Young people’s love stories baffled Wang Jun.
He was another victim of watching dramas with his wife.
When there’s a misunderstanding between the leads, something that could be cleared up in two sentences, the drama drags it out with them refusing to explain.
One keeps saying, “Listen to my explanation,” while the other covers their ears, saying, “I won’t listen, I’m so disappointed in you”… absolute fools. If Wang Jun had dated a girl like that back in the day, no matter how stunning, he wouldn’t have wanted her!
“One slap would fix all that nonsense!”
Wang Jun, with his wife absent, spoke freely.
“Uncle Wang, don’t worry, this drama definitely doesn’t have those kinds of scenes.”
Due to Li Mengjiao’s age restrictions, the leads never officially date from start to finish. The male lead isn’t the “listen to my explanation” type, and the female lead isn’t the ear-covering kind.
“Alright, everyone’s here, let’s start watching. We’ll watch for two hours, then take a break. Today, we aim to get through most of it!”
The original script by Teacher Zhang Guangzhen was 13 episodes. After Wen Ying’s revisions and expansions, it grew, and after filming, the final cut became 28 episodes, each 45 minutes, with no ads and skippable intros and outros. Two hours could cover about three episodes. Yuan Fenghui planned for the internal viewers to finish it over two days.
At the start of the screening, Wang Jun was restless, and Yang Xi was yawning.
Tang Yifeng sat upright but kept grabbing grapes from the tray by Xie Qian’s hand.
Yuan Fenghui had prepared fruit for the viewers.
Sure, Li Mengjiao looked good on screen.
But lately, her face had been plastered on TV and bus stop posters, and everyone was almost tired of seeing her.
The story began from Li Mengjiao’s perspective. Her character, “Xiao Meng,” was a dreamy girl. With strict, nagging parents who constantly pushed her to study, Xiao Meng complained to her friend:
“I don’t like my parents. I wish I was adopted!”
Xiao Meng not only wanted different parents but also dreamed of being a rich heiress, so she wouldn’t need to study hard for university and could spend endless money doing nothing.
Hey, this opening’s kind of interesting.
Yang Xi herself was adopted and had had such dreams, imagining her wealthy biological parents coming to claim her… she’d make sure to extort a fortune to secure pensions for her great-grandpa, second grandpa, and grandma!
Sadly, no rich parents ever showed up. Now that Yang Xi could earn her own money, she’d stopped having those dreams.
