Chapter 9: A Proper Supporting Role
In the eyes of Zheng Shirong and Dong Li, Shen Yan displayed a bit of the fearless boldness of a newborn calf confronting a tiger... Well, actually, it was more like an attitude of not caring at all about who liked him or not... On second thought, that’s not quite right—Shen Yan was still very polite. Not enough to make them look at him with new respect, but he did inspire some fondness.
Zheng Shirong flipped through the script and said, "The younger brother of the female lead in the 'Good Wife' segment is yours!"
Shen Yan immediately responded, "...Thank you, Director Zheng..."
Dong Li cut in, "Have you seen 'The Complete Ji Gong'?"
"A little..."
"Didn't finish it?"
Shen Yan scratched his head, "It’s too long. I just skimmed through it. The parts that left an impression were 'Flying Peak,' 'Cricket Fighting,' and 'The Eight Demons Temper Ji Dian'..."
"Here, this is the script... you can go back now."
"Okay."
Taking the script, he bowed in thanks and left the office.
Shen Yan quickly skimmed the script... well, it was more of an outline than a full script.
As for "Good Wife," it perfectly fit the three classic elements of costume dramas: the mean mother-in-law, the blindly filial husband, and the virtuous wife, followed by a moment of sudden enlightenment... This type of story basically continued the plot of "Peacock Flies Southeast."
According to reading comprehension, "Peacock Flies Southeast" tells the story of Jiao Zhongqing and Liu Lanzhi, a couple forced apart who then commit suicide together. It denounces the cruelty of feudal rites and praises the couple’s genuine love and spirit of resistance...
But the story is actually very simple: Jiao’s mother forced Jiao Zhongqing to divorce Liu Lanzhi, and Jiao Zhongqing agreed.
Ancient Chinese Confucianism promoted filial piety, and blind filial piety was a product of that era.
"Good Wife" follows this same path... The male lead is even named Dong Zhongqing!
The younger brother of the female lead, played by Shen Yan, is most likely a useless character relying on his sister’s support.
In this kind of plot, the brother’s value is quite low... he’s purely a prop!
But for a newcomer like Shen Yan, it was already good—he had lines, a character, a proper supporting role.
...
Let’s take stock of the current situation.
"Lianhua Tower" is about to be serialized, and the manuscript fee will be paid next month.
At 220,000 characters, calculated at 300 per thousand characters, that’s 66,000 yuan, and after tax, about 53,600 yuan remains.
The next two works, "Auspicious Pattern Lianhua Tower: Fleeting Joy" and "Auspicious Pattern Lianhua Tower: Slow Tune of Yangzhou," together add up to 340,000 characters.
Short-term earnings from this book should be around 120,000 yuan.
Long-term earnings would be from royalties and copyright sales...
But Shen Yan couldn’t count on that for now!
Even for "Phoenix Song," publication would only begin after the serialization of "Kunlun" ended...
And copyright sales? Even less likely!
"Lianhua Tower" belongs to the wuxia genre.
He couldn’t quite recall the exact year, but for a long period, wuxia dramas and films experienced a decade-long slump.
During that time, Bu Feiyan tried twice: once collaborating with iQIYI to develop "Heavenly Bureau," with director and lead actor chosen, but it fell through. Later, she produced "Chronicles of Heavenly Dance," which unfortunately was useless!
Many people said wuxia was outdated... but what was really outdated were the self-righteous domestic screenwriters.
"Ting Xue Lou" had terrible screenwriting; they couldn’t handle even the romance-heavy characters created by Cang Yue. After drastic changes, the story still used outdated concepts from the 1940s and ’50s, like the vengeance for a father’s murder and the clash between good and evil, concepts even Shaw Brothers rarely used anymore...
In the original timeline, "Lianhua Tower" only got approved in 2022!
As for Phoenix Song’s works...
"Kunlun" helped to extinguish Song;
"Blue Sea" had already broken away from traditional wuxia shadows and entered fantasy realms.
"Spirit Flying Scripture" is another story; clearly, Phoenix Song lost heart and the work collapsed.
Shen Yan was quite open-minded; serialization itself was a temporary measure.
The way forward for plagiarism was still through online novels!
"Supreme One" was going online in about a month...
Currently, this novel had already topped the new book charts!
Judging by the current situation, its annual income should be no less than 500,000 yuan.
Taking Xue Hong as a reference: he returned to Qidian from Digital Web in ’09 and wrote "Chronicles of Leisure"...
"Chronicles of Leisure" was poorly written and barely successful, yet still earned 700,000 yuan annually!
In ’09, the highest earner was Wo Chi Xi Hong Shi, with 2.2 million yuan annually...
Oh, at this stage, it was still difficult for web authors to become fabulously wealthy; it wasn’t until ten years later, when advertising and copyright sales started to soar—yes, just a year later...
With some effort, relying on plagiarism as a career, earning millions annually was still quite probable.
Yes, the future looked bright...
Besides income, expenses also needed to be accounted for.
In the short term, Shen Yan needed to buy a few clothes and a pair of shoes.
He also needed to buy a new laptop.
The Hasee Elegant Q was cheap but problematic—battery life was less than half an hour, basically unusable without power, and it lacked a webcam and wireless card...
Shen Yan needed a slightly higher-end model!
He planned to spend 4,000 yuan to buy one at Zhongguancun.
Once back in Beijing, he would go!
...
Three days later, he was joining the crew for "National Anthem."
Although he wasn’t sure how many people would be sharing the room, there should be Wi-Fi...
Long-term plan...
Should he keep renting?
He was about to start shooting "National Anthem," and after that, "Living Buddha Ji Gong"...
He probably wouldn’t need to rent anymore!
After these two productions wrapped, he planned to buy a house back home and renovate his grandparents’ house as well.
As for what came next...
Where else could a plagiarism artist work?
He’d just stay at home...
The "Chen Qing Biao" says: "Without my grandmother, I wouldn’t be here today; without me, my grandmother wouldn’t have lived out her days. Mother and grandson depend on each other, so I could never abandon her!"
Yes... that settled it!
...
"National Anthem" was a mainstream drama, considered an expanded version of the 1999 film "National Anthem" produced by Xiangxiang Film Studio!
It was exclusively planned, produced, and filmed by Changsha Radio and Television Station, in cooperation with Yunnan Radio and Television and Hunan Radio and Television and others...
Such dramas were usually broadcast on CCTV.
Actors were typically chosen from serious drama performers, but... serious drama actors lacked mass appeal or audience recognition...
So, director Gong Ruofei brought in Wen Zhang.
Wen Zhang had been very popular in recent years, starring in TV dramas like "Struggle," "The Aristocrats," and "Dwelling Narrowness," and films like "Wait and See" ("Double Donkey Chronicles"), winning numerous awards!
He had strong backing from Beijing circles, quality resources, and a likable image...
Most importantly, he had starred in "Embroidered Uniform Guard" and had a close relationship with Zhang Li!
Gong Ruofei specifically asked him to play Nie Er...
The screenwriter of this drama was Yuan Zidan, who later collaborated multiple times with Daylight Entertainment on works like the first and second seasons of "Ode to Joy," "Welcome," and the highly rated 9.6 drama "When the Mountain Flowers Bloom..."
Why was she chosen as the screenwriter? And why was her first drama such a major production like "National Anthem"?
Because her father, Yuan Keping, was a national first-class screenwriter and a member of the Hunan Provincial Dramatists Association, as well as vice president of the Hunan Provincial Guyu Drama Literary Society!
Yuan Keping was truly impressive, with representative works like "National Action" and "Like a Flowing River"...
Of course, this had little to do with Shen Yan; in the "National Anthem" crew, he was just part of the ensemble cast!