Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 449 Zhou and Liu's Visit

After staying on the set of "Liu Luoguo" until nearly noon, Zhang Yan and Chen Hong returned to the Yuanmeng Building.

As the two were about to walk up the stairs to the cafeteria on the basement floor, the young woman on duty at the front desk rushed over and said, "Mr. Zhang, Mr. Chen, Zhou Xingchi's assistant just came by and said he would like to arrange a time to visit you, Mr. Zhang."

Zhou Xingchi has been in Tianjin for four days now. He should have paid a visit to Zhang Yan, the local bigwig, long ago, but for some reason, he has delayed until now.

Zhang Yan looked at Chen Hong: "Are you interested in meeting this comedic genius with me?"

Chen Hong shook her head and said, "Forget it, I'm a bit tired after all this morning. You can see him yourself."

He paused, then added, "If they're asking for investment, it's best not to agree—this film was invested in by Xi'an Film Studio, and the two sides have just fallen out. If we take over now, we'll definitely offend people."

"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."

Zhang Yan was naturally interested in "A Chinese Odyssey," after all, it's a movie that is still considered a classic and constantly mentioned even 20 or 30 years later.

But it's unnecessary to offend Xi'an Film Studio for the sake of "A Chinese Odyssey". Although Xi'an Film Studio is not as good as Beijing Film Studio and Shanghai Film Studio as a whole, it is a major force in the mainland film industry, and Zhang Yimou is a representative of it.

Tell the front desk to inform the other party to come over at 5 pm – if they get along well, they can have dinner together in the evening; if they don't, they can use the excuse of having an appointment in the evening to send the guest away early.

Then Zhang Yan and Chen Hong went to the restaurant for lunch.

After seeing Chen Hong off in the afternoon, when Zhang Yan returned to his office, he saw Wang Luyao waiting at the door, dressed in her finest attire.

She wore a long, flowing silk dress that flowed like water, with her waist and abdomen tightly cinched, making her impressive bust appear even fuller and more alluring, with large swaths of milky white skin peeking out from the deep V-neck.

Seeing Zhang Yan return, she used her right hand, gloved with a thin silk glove, to adjust the jeweled crown on her head, and gracefully extended her other hand to Zhang Yan.

Zhang Yan rolled his eyes, then obligingly kissed her hand, before saying irritably, "I wanted you to play the daughter of the Mao family in 1993, not the one in 1893—what are you trying to achieve by doing this?"

"Hee hee~"

Wang Luyao lifted her skirt and twirled around gracefully, laughing, "We just wanted to try out this outfit since we hired a Russian fashion designer."

As she spoke, she winked and said, "Don't you want to give it a try?"

Zhang Yan mentally reviewed the official business he needed to handle and found that there was nothing urgent that he couldn't avoid. So he decisively pulled Wang Luyao into the office and locked the door.

A few minutes later, Zhang Yan's complaint came from the lounge: "How the hell do we untie this damn thing!"

…………

3pm.

Wang Luyao pouted as she gathered the torn dress together. After hesitating for a moment, she threw it into the trash can, then opened the wardrobe with practiced ease and searched for a change of clothes.

Zhang Yan leaned against the headboard with his arms as he watched her toss spare clothes onto the bed one by one, and casually asked, "I heard you want to promote Li Xiaoran to star in 'The Age of Glory'."

"Yes, I feel she has a lot of potential."

Wang Luyao sat back down at the foot of the bed, picked up a towel and cleaned up the signs of the fight for Zhang Yan, then continued, "And I found that this girl is a little insecure at heart, so she doesn't have much ambition, and she's quite obedient."

At this point, she added, "That Wang Yan is different. Don't be fooled by her current eagerness to get closer to us and her impatient attempts to throw herself into our arms. She's still thinking about marrying into a wealthy family."

Zhang Yan was also deeply impressed by Wang Yan, after all, this girl really dared to use underhanded tactics—he had many scheming women around him, but he had never seen one who dared to stand out like this before.

"Forget about throwing yourself into my arms."

Zhang Yan said, "Actually, I don't really like her type either."

As he spoke, he pinched Wang Luyao's heart.

Wang Luyao chuckled: "She is indeed rather flat-chested. What if it were Li Xiaoran instead?"

Zhang Yan hesitated for a moment, then shook his head and said, "Forget it, why bother with so many women? I'm not an emperor, why would I need a harem to save face?"

As the number of women around him gradually increased, he neither took the initiative nor refused them. Since Li Xiaoran herself did not show any such inclination, there was no need to force her into prostitution.

"Hehehe~" Wang Luyao covered her mouth and laughed, "I'm afraid the young actresses don't think that way. They all say that you are like Tang Monk's flesh, and if they take a bite, they can ascend to heaven in broad daylight."

Just then, the landline outside rang. Zhang Yan put on his coat and went out to answer it. It turned out that the script for the 'crossover martial arts' series had finally been completed.

"Have Cao Fang bring it to me in fifteen minutes."

After hanging up the phone, Zhang Yan returned to the lounge to get dressed. Seeing Wang Luyao still leisurely picking and choosing, he asked, "Are you planning to stay here, or..."

Wang Luyao pointed to the handbag hanging on the headboard: "I don't have anything to do this afternoon, so I'll just stay here and have some peace and quiet to read the script."

"You should act well."

Zhang Yan said, "The character design and plot were both repeatedly discussed and refined by Liu Zhenyun and me. If this character is played well, there is a high probability that he will become popular."

"I know."

Wang Luyao nodded solemnly. She was now focused on replicating Chen Hong's path, and becoming a sensation through a TV series was the most important step in that process.

Of course, recruiting newcomers is also a very important part of the process.

This wasn't just to please Zhang Yan; it was also a way to maintain unity within the dance department. Saying it was a sudden ascension was a bit of an exaggeration, but Zhang Yan was indeed quite generous in this regard and rarely showed any ruthlessness.

Meanwhile, Zhang Yan put on his trousers and returned to the outer office. He unlocked the door, sat down behind his desk, and pretended to be busy with official business.

Not long after, Zhang Yadong's wife, Cao Fang, delivered the new script.

Zhang Yan spent some time flipping through it. This version was changed from an ensemble drama that incorporated many martial arts novels to an ancient suspense drama centered on the male and female protagonists.

The plot has elements reminiscent of "Chu Liuxiang" and "Lu Xiaofeng", with the addition of some comedic elements, making it more similar to "Young Justice Bao" overall, but the main character also has a lot of action scenes.

After reading the script, Zhang Yan's first thought was Zhang Weijian, but Zhang Weijian's style was too exaggerated and didn't seem to fit the drama well.

He closed the script, tapped his fingers lightly on the table, and pondered whether to continue revising the script to match Zhang Weijian, or to give the opportunity to someone else.

At that moment, the front desk called to say that Stephen Chow and Liu Zhenwei had arrived.

"Let them come up."

Zhang Yan temporarily put the script aside and waited for Stephen Chow and Liu Zhenwei to arrive.

Shortly after, there was a knock on the door. The staff opened the door and, after receiving Zhang Yan's permission, let Zhou Xingchi and Liu Zhenwei in.

Only after the two entered did Zhang Yan stand up from behind his desk, extend his hand to them, and say, "I've heard that Mr. Zhou and Director Liu have come to Tianjin, but I didn't expect that we would only have the opportunity to meet today."

Upon hearing this, Liu Zhenwei visibly tensed up. He grasped Zhang Yan's hands with both of his and explained in broken Mandarin, "It's not that we don't want to visit Mr. Zhang, but the production crew can't afford to be delayed even for a day right now. So we can only come to visit you after we've settled the crew's issues."

That's obviously not true.

No matter how busy you are, you still have time to visit the local bigwigs.

In fact, the two decided to pay their respects to the temple only after confirming that the film crew was coming to Tianjin—mainly because Stephen Chow felt that if they weren't filming in Tianjin, there was no need to deal with a local tyrant like Zhang Yan.

However, in front of Zhang Yan, Zhou Xingchi behaved himself, even unconsciously clenching his legs together while sitting on the sofa, just like a middle school student meeting the headmaster.

The two men complimented Zhang Yan almost the entire time, and showed no intention of soliciting investment.

Zhang Yan, however, couldn't resist his curiosity and took the initiative to ask how they had fallen out with Xi'an Film Studio.

Liu Zhenwei and Zhou Xingchi exchanged glances, and Liu said awkwardly, "The main problem is that we couldn't reach an agreement on the compensation, which is a common issue in co-productions."

Judging from their secretive manner, it's clear that things aren't that simple.

Zhang Yan leaned back and said in an unquestionable tone, "It's understandable that there's a difference in treatment, but it's definitely not good for both sides to get along so well. I hope you two can guarantee that similar situations will not occur again during the filming in Tianjin."

(End of this chapter)