Rebirth: An Outlier in the Entertainment Industry

Do you know any good restaurants nearby?

Huang Yiliang fastened his seatbelt and glanced at the flammable material in the rearview mirror.

He'll be staying at the Communication University of China for another four years, so it's essential to befriend someone as shrewd and resourceful as Yi Ran; you never know when that might come in handy.

"There are plenty of good restaurants near our school, but we're sure to be full right now. Let's go somewhere a bit further away!" Yi Ran suggested.

Huang Yiliang nodded knowingly.

It's peak dining time now, and the good restaurants around the school are definitely packed with students.

"Let's go to a restaurant I know!"

Most of the restaurants Huang Yiliang knew were near his home, and it took him more than half an hour to get there.

"Give me half a signature roast duck, braised pork ribs, a steamed yellow croaker (without scallions), a stir-fried vegetable dish, and a serving of your signature braised beef brisket."

Huang Yiliang skillfully ordered: "Oh, and rice too, a portion for three."

Wu Hao also ordered a stir-fried pork with shiitake mushrooms and a stewed beef tendon with potatoes.

"What do you want to eat?" Huang Yiliang asked Yi Ran.

"Whatever."

Yi Ran added somewhat reservedly, "You've already ordered so much, it's enough for the three of us."

He didn't even need to look at the menu; just by looking at the restaurant's facade and decor, he knew the food there must be expensive.

Huang Yiliang chuckled.

Yi Ran was clearly unaware of his appetite, and waved to the waiter to order an extra serving of braised ribbonfish and a serving of stir-fried prawns.

"Wow, Brother Liang, are you two really that rich? This meal must have cost at least three hundred yuan!"

Yi Ran swallowed hard, and Liang Zi became Brother Liang just like Wu Hao.

"This is just to treat you! We usually eat in the cafeteria too." Huang Yiliang skillfully handed Yi Ran a cigarette.

"Hehe, thank you for spending money, Brother Liang."

Yi Ran wasn't a pretentious person to begin with, and the three young men quickly started bragging about everything under the sun.

"Damn it! Mouse, so you're not even from our school. You keep calling me 'senior' so smoothly, I always thought you were a freshman at our Communication University of China."

Wu Hao chuckled: "I'm from the Beijing Film Academy, majoring in directing. Aren't you honored to meet my good friend?"

"What good friend? It's a brother, a half-brother." Yi Ran's eyes were practically glowing with excitement.

"Hey Hao, I mean, Hao-ge, how about you take me to visit your school sometime?"

obviously,

The fact that the Beijing Film Academy produces beautiful women is well-known throughout Beijing, at least among university students in the city.

"This is a minor issue. We'll continue setting up our stall at the Beijing Film Academy in a couple of days..."

Wu Hao hadn't finished speaking when

Yi Ran patted his chest and shouted, "I'll go through fire and water for you, Brother Hao! Quickly save my phone number, and remember to call me when the time comes!"

Huang Yiliang shook his head speechlessly.

However, there are indeed relatively few forms of entertainment available nowadays.

Young people go to internet cafes for watching movies, listening to music, and other things, but internet cafes don't have many games.

They do indeed have excess energy and a short temper.

When checking out,

Yi Ran thought that Huang Yiliang would definitely not be able to finish all the dishes he ordered, but he found that Brother Liang's appetite was indeed quite amazing.

Huang Yiliang returned home to find himself alone.

Huang Haidong is incredibly efficient at any project that can generate money or recruit people.

He had already bought a plane ticket and flown to Shenzhen when it was just getting light in the morning.

This guy left Huang Yiliang several phone numbers, saying he was a good friend of Huang Yiliang from Beijing Dance Academy and Peking University.

'Nini', 'Sissi', 'Feifei', 'Wenwen'

These are clearly girls' names.

Ah,

What decent person would only know female students from another school?

Huang Yiliang deeply admired him, but also deeply despised him.

He had barely sat down in the yard when his phone rang; it was the furniture store delivering goods.

Huang Yiliang wasn't used to sleeping on the sofa bed in the living room, so he tidied up the storage room he had cleaned up a couple of days ago, planning to put a small bed there to use as his bedroom.

After tidying up his desk by himself, he also moved the computer from the living room to the desk.

It wasn't that he was worried Huang Haidong would check his computer's browser history; the main problem was that Huang Haidong had absolutely no awareness of cybersecurity and often downloaded Japanese adult films to his computer.

Nine out of ten of these video files are infected with viruses; be careful they don't leak important files from his computer.

Next year, the national network bandwidth will be greatly upgraded, and then we'll buy Huang Haidong a new computer so he can watch videos online.

Right now, due to bandwidth limitations, all online videos are choppy and buffering like a PowerPoint presentation, making them unwatchable.

Benefiting from bandwidth upgrades, next year will be a year of explosive growth for various video websites, with Tudou.com, Funshion.com, PPTV, PPS Video, and other video websites launching one after another.

However, this is not what Huang Yiliang cares about; starting early does not guarantee victory.

The theory that a pig standing in the right place at the right time can fly does not apply to him.

Of course, it's still important to seize opportunities. Only a fool would let go of something that offers twice the results with half the effort.

Internet companies are never competing on flashes of inspiration, but on who has the most resilience and the longest lifespan.

"Do you want to create a video website?" Zhou Mengdie suddenly asked.

Huang Yiliang was startled; he was still somewhat unaccustomed to Zhou Mengdie's presence.

"Zhou Mengdie, could you at least 'squeak' before you speak? Ghosts can scare people to death."

"Oh—! I thought you'd get used to me!" Zhou Mengdie protested softly, "See, I've gotten used to you."

Huang Yiliang: '......'

Zhou Mengdie, a girl, was forced to submit to a man's body. Thinking about it, she was really quite pitiful.

"What do you want to ask?" Huang Yiliang asked gently.

Zhou Mengdie: "Make a video website!"

"I have no money!" Huang Yiliang said irritably.

Video websites are extremely expensive to set up, both in the initial stages and during their development.

The key issue is that in this era of rampant online piracy, the future of video websites is bleak. They all eventually became cannon fodder, happily picked up by later internet giants.

"If we don't have start-up capital, we can make money by making movies!" Zhou Mengdie suggested excitedly.

Huang Yiliang was too lazy to even roll his eyes.

"Won't!"

This time it was Zhou Mengdie's turn to roll her eyes. She was so self-righteous!

If you don't know how, go learn! You're a directing student.

"You can't, but I can!" Zhou Mengdie said weakly.

"Heh heh—! What use are you? Your abilities don't compare to mine."

It's not that Huang Yiliang is unwilling to make movies, it's just that making movies is a very troublesome thing.

The script was relatively easy.

But assembling a filming team,

Formal filming,

Post-production

These are all time-consuming and laborious tasks.

Not to mention that after the film is completed, there's still the need for film promotion and finding distributors.

Most importantly, after a movie is released, you don't immediately receive your share of the box office revenue. It's normal for theaters to delay payment for a year or two.

What Huang Yiliang lacks most is time.

He'd be better off going to a telecom agent to sell PHS phones; those are sure to be incredibly profitable this year.

"Then we can write songs, release records, or sell lyrics and music directly. Yes, we don't need to make movies; we can make money by selling movie scripts!" Zhou Mengdie's thinking was very unconventional.

Huang Yiliang speculated that she was no more than twenty-five years old when she died.

"Hmm—! That's a way to make money. If you're saying that, can you really remember song lyrics and movie scripts?" Huang Yiliang couldn't help but be a little skeptical.

"I remember it, I remember it perfectly, I've got it all covered."

Zhou Mengdie danced excitedly in Huang Yiliang's mental world. "Do I have to tell you about my system?"

"What do you want to eat this afternoon?" Huang Yiliang asked abruptly.

"Huh?" Zhou Mengdie was a little unaccustomed to Huang Yiliang suddenly being so nice to her.

"How about spicy chicken? You didn't order any for me at lunchtime."

"Damn it, I can't handle spicy food, get another one!" Huang Yiliang regretted it; some women you just can't be too nice to.

"Then ice cream!" Zhou Mengdie suggested as a compromise.

"no problem!"

"Could you add my name to the songs and movie scripts?" Zhou Mengdie seemed somewhat obsessed with this.

"No problem!" Huang Yiliang agreed readily. "As long as you don't have to split the money, I'll use all your name."

Although these internet programmers are also just copycats.

However, it's a problem to plagiarize someone else's work and then sign your own name on it.

Huang Yiliang felt very ashamed.

"That--!"

"Don't talk anymore, let me rest for a bit, let me catch my breath, okay?"

Huang Yiliang suspected that Zhou Mengdie must have been a chatterbox in the past.

"I'm bored!"

"Shut up! If you're bored, think about which songs and scripts to use. Don't go too far; make sure they fit the aesthetics of this era." Huang Yiliang said, then lay down on the rattan chair and fell asleep.