Xu Mei had been at Jiaxin for so long without seeing the new boss, and at first she felt a bit uneasy inside, but gradually she stopped worrying.
Gong Sheng lived up to his past as a broker, somehow pulling strings to find two teachers for Xu Mei, one to systematically teach her vocal music, the other to teach her acting. The two teachers were very strict, tormenting Xu Mei to death and back during lessons, but they were genuinely experts in their fields. After just over a month of classes, it was hard to measure how much her acting had improved, but Xu Mei could feel for herself that her breath control when singing had become much steadier!
Jiaxin was investing so much in her training that whether she saw the boss or not did not matter any more~
One day Gong Sheng suddenly told Xu Mei to pause her lessons, saying the boss was meeting with the investor and she should join them.
Xu Mei’s popularity was still decent, so seeing her would give the investor more confidence in Jiaxin.
Xu Mei rushed to the company and was led by Gong Sheng into the big boss’s office, which had always been empty. She found Xie Qian sitting behind the desk, and Gong Sheng introduced him as “President Xie”. Xu Mei’s mind went blank.
President Xie?
Was not this Xie Qian, the classmate of Li Mengjiao and Wen Ying?!
After more than a month of acting classes, it was not for nothing. No matter how shocked Xu Mei felt inside, she kept her expression steady on her face.
But when she met the investor Mr Jin, Xu Mei could not hold it together!
A high school student as the new boss was one thing, but the investor turning out to be the upstart coal boss Mr Jin!
Mr Jin’s last investment in a production was “Love’s Cruise”, with Yu Tianlin as the male lead, which had clashed with “Galaxy and You” just a month ago, and Yu Tianlin’s rubbish cruise ship had sunk soon after!
At first Xu Mei had been set to star in “Love’s Cruise”, only to be schemed out by Yu Tianlin. Thinking back now, it was actually a stroke of luck, but was not Mr Jin part of the crowd with Cao Bo and Manager Guan? Now he was suddenly becoming Jiaxin’s investor, and Xu Mei’s heart started to drum.
Mr Jin was rather forthright and did not shy away from mentioning past matters. After shaking hands with Xie Qian, he smiled at Xu Mei. “I have a connection with Miss Xu. We failed to collaborate last time, but now we have another chance. Seeing Miss Xu makes me happy. Investing in Jiaxin’s project this time was definitely the right choice!”
“You flatter me.”
Xu Mei tried her best to squeeze out the most natural smile.
Mr Jin was not one to follow the script. He explained seriously to Xu Mei. “I am not just saying empty words. Miss Xu was about to star in “Love’s Cruise” last time but pulled out midway. No matter the reason for pulling out, Miss Xu ultimately avoided that flop that got halted halfway! Now Miss Xu has left that unreliable company and jumped to Jiaxin, following a new boss for a fresh start. It is both luck and good judgement. I even want to borrow some of Miss Xu’s good fortune.”
As expected, no one who became a boss was simple. Cao Bo and his lot always thought Mr Jin was an outsider who knew nothing, pulling all sorts of little tricks when Mr Jin invested in “Love’s Cruise”, smug about their cleverness.
They never stopped to think that when running a coal mine business, one had to deal with so many people. Not everyone in coal made it big, and Mr Jin was definitely no fool.
The female lead of “Love’s Cruise” failed to get promoted.
The male lead completely fizzled out.
Manager Guan and Liang Dan stirred up a mess, with Liang Dan’s prestige on Hunan Provincial TV taking a major hit.
Only “silly rich” Mr Jin actually made a tidy profit.
No matter how bad the reputation, ordinary people could not vent their anger on Mr Jin’s head!
And Mr Jin’s words, while seemingly praising Xu Mei, were in fact also boosting Xie Qian. Xu Mei was quite surprised. Mr Jin, with his wealthy investor status, was still fawning over Xie Qian. What sort of background did Xie Qian have?
A high school student, yet already owning a film and TV company.
Even the coal boss was fawning over him.
This was not something a simple “family has money” could explain.
Xu Mei snapped out of her daze, her smile shifting from polite to sincere. “Then I will shamelessly accept your praise. Joining Jiaxin is indeed the best choice I have made so far!”
Xu Mei was over the moon from Mr Jin’s few words of praise, but Xie Qian and Gong Sheng felt hardly any ripples in their hearts.
All the hustle in the world was for profit. Mr Jin was willing to invest in Jiaxin’s project not because of Xie Qian’s charm, but because Jiaxin’s project could help Mr Jin make money.
Last month Mr Jin had already used an intermediary to make contact and inquire about Jiaxin’s movements, but Xie Qian had not given Mr Jin timely feedback.
It was not that Xie Qian looked down on the coal boss’s cash, but at the time Xie Qian had no project worth presenting. Taking Mr Jin’s money would have been like holding a hot potato.
After all, Mr Jin knew Xie Jinghu, so he knew Xie Qian’s background. Xie Qian suspected that Mr Jin’s so-called “investment” was not aimed at him at all, but more like using him as a bridge to connect with the Xie family.
Xie Qian did not want to bring any trouble to his uncle Xie Yuping!
Now that he was willing to accept Mr Jin’s investment, it was because the situation at Jiaxin had changed.
It started with inviting Zhang Guangzhen to revise Jiaxin’s script. Xie Qian was not too satisfied with the two versions Zhang Guangzhen revised, so he simply paid handsomely to have Zhang Guangzhen write an original script, agreeing from the outset to let him have free rein without restricting the genre.
Last week, Zhang Guangzhen finished the first draft of the script, and it truly gave Xie Qian a surprise.
This time, Zhang Guangzhen did not write an idol drama script. He wrote a story about ordinary families in Shanghai’s alleyways.
Set against the backdrop of Shanghai’s old alleyways, the joys and sorrows of several families amid changing times were vividly portrayed by Zhang Guangzhen. Writing big eras through small characters, the plot’s dramatic tension was full to bursting!
As soon as this script came out, it received a very high internal rating at Jiaxin. After showing it to Producer Xu at Oriental Channel, Producer Xu became even more enthusiastic towards Gong Sheng.
“Our channel needs scripts like this!”
Nonsense.
Could a Shanghai TV station not need a TV series set in Shanghai?
If this drama was produced and aired on Oriental Channel, it would have the advantage of time and place, just needing the right people~
Zhang Guangzhen used to only write idol dramas because they had short production cycles and the Cinderella story had a template. Zhang Guangzhen could churn out a script in a week, purely to make quick money.
Now that Teacher Zhang had fame, he cherished his reputation more and refused to write rubbish again. Still smarting from the humiliation of “Love’s Cruise”, and with Jiaxin not limiting the genre, Zhang Guangzhen’s creative passion was fully unleashed, and he wrote exceptionally well!
With this script in hand, Xie Qian had full confidence when accepting Mr Jin’s investment.
But before formally greenlighting the project, Xie Qian still had to make it clear to Mr Jin that if the drama was produced well, the reputation would be great and selling the rights could make money, but if Mr Jin wanted to use it to promote some little lover, Xie Qian bluntly said there were no suitable “roles”.
Mr Jin covered his embarrassment with a big laugh. “Ah, people only learn after taking a loss! After last time I have seen the light. I am not a professional, so I will not meddle in the specific filming. I will just provide the money, and how it is shot is entirely up to Jiaxin.”
Oh, so no stuffing in the little lover this time?
Mr Jin had only brought a few assistants this time, no women by his side, showing he truly had no intention of pushing people into the crew.
Only then did Xie Qian take the initiative to extend his hand. “Then let us wish both sides a pleasant collaboration in advance!”
Mr Jin shook hands with Xie Qian, feeling a bit excited inside.
Xie Qian was actually willing to take his investment!
Eh, why was he getting excited?
He was delivering money to the door, Xie Qian should be the one fawning over him. Yet it felt like he had to fawn and go along to even hand over the money. Something seemed off… Could it be due to Xie Qian’s aura?!
Good grief, this was just a high school student.
He had heard Xie Qian’s grades were exceptionally good.
Mr Jin suspected it was the natural suppression of an illiterate by a top student, and a wave of sadness welled up in his heart for his own inadequacies.
