Chapter Thirty Two Phone Calls

  "Li Pang" is naturally Li culture, he calls no surprise, just Yang Bing this guy how suddenly thought of him, they have not been in touch for some time.

  Yang Mi's name literally means "Yang to the power of three", her mother's surname is Yang, her father's surname is Yang, and coincidentally she also has the surname Yang. Yang Mi is an actress, and has been one since childhood, when He Mu was still riding his family's donkey running wild all over the place, little Yang Mi had already shared the stage with Zhou Xingchi and Liu Xiao Ling Tong.

  "Hey, what's up?" He Mu called Yang Pi back. They met at the beginning of this year during the Beijing Film Academy entrance exam. They were partners in the short sketch performances for both the first and second rounds of exams. During the exam period, He Mu even asked Yang Pi to teach him how to sing because his vocal skills were not good. The two became more familiar with each other, although they didn't spend much time together, their relationship was still quite close. Yang Pi was also the only person among that year's examinees who could be considered a friend of He Mu's. However, after Yang Pi got in and He Mu did not appear on the scene for the third round of exams, they lost contact with each other.

  "Hey, Old He, you're really not considerate at all. It's been so long and you didn't even bother to give me a call to ask how I'm doing. You had to force me to take the initiative to contact you." The unique tone of Yang Wei came from the other end of the phone.

  Yang Wei is a native Beijinger and a hutong girl, with a sharp tongue. He Mu smiled and said: "You're so busy, how can I bother you?"

  Yang Mi was indeed very busy, before the art exam, she had already confirmed to join Zhang Jizhong's version of "The Legend of the Condor Hero", playing Xiao Dongxiang Guo Xiang. He Mu was running errands in Xiangshan at that time, coincidentally, he met Yang Mi on set. In order not to let this old friend see his embarrassing self, he basically didn't dare appear in front of the main cast. Later, he drifted to Hengdian, unexpectedly, this guy came over and filmed "New Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio" with Hu Ge, which made He Mu not dare to go out for several days. Maybe later when school was about to start, she finally calmed down a bit.

  "Oh, don't flatter me, this is what they mean by 'remaining silent until making a shocking sound'. I just saw you on TV and confirmed that you're still on earth, so I'm calling to ask about you." Yang Wei had just watched the entertainment news broadcast of "The Young Yang Family Generals" press conference and recognized the actor playing Yang Qi Lang as He Mu, with whom he had taken exams together and had a good relationship, so he called to get in touch.

  Two people chatted freely, and it can be said that they have re-established contact. From now on, when mentioning each other, they can say "he's my friend." In the entertainment industry, having a "friend" is a good thing, whether it's just for show or a genuine friendship. Having one more friend means having one more path, so making friends is also an essential course for artists.

  He Mu Tian Sheng has a strong sense of affinity and is very popular among friends, so he believes that in this circle, his friends will become more and more numerous, and his path will also become wider and wider.

  Then call Li Pang, Yang Wei is a friend in the circle, this is a lifelong friend.

  He hadn't even finished speaking when he heard Li Wenhua's excited voice: "Got it! I got the agency rights!"

  Needless to say, Li Jun's trip to the south was not in vain. He found the author of "Thirty" and obtained the publishing rights for "The Days of Living with Sister Kong". Li Jun couldn't hide his excitement and pride: "Fortunately I went early, if I had gone a step later, it would have been taken by others!"

  Originally, before Li Culture, there were publishers who had spotted the potential of this popular online romance novel and intended to publish a physical book. Their negotiations had also reached the final stage, but then Li Culture suddenly appeared out of nowhere, visiting over 30 companies, first expressing his infatuation with and fondness for the book, and indicating that he could handle the publication and promotion of the book, and was very confident that it would become a bestseller.

  Although Li Wen Hua and the author discussed many views and feelings about the book "Air Stewardess", many of which coincided with the author's thoughts, making San Shi certain that Li Wen Hua was his loyal reader and a kindred spirit. However, when it came to the issue of agency rights, he began to be evasive and ambiguous, after all, the previous one was an official state-owned publishing house, while Li Wen Hua's Tian Di Xuan Huang was just a new company without any book publishing experience, which one is more reliable is obvious at a glance.

  To persuade San Shi to change his mind, Li Wen Hua had no choice but to entice him with benefits. He promised to pay an advance of 100,000 yuan in royalties, and if the actual royalties didn't reach 100,000 yuan, then the 100,000 would be considered his. If the royalties exceeded 100,000 yuan, the excess amount would still be paid to him. Currently, the price of a romance novel is around 20 yuan, with the author's royalty accounting for about 10% of the sale price (new authors usually don't exceed 10%). This means that an author can earn about 2 yuan in royalties from one book. If the royalties reach 100,000 yuan, then the book sales must reach 50,000 copies.

  50,000 copies have already reached the bestseller standard, which means that Li Wen's promise to make this book a bestseller is quite tempting. Before 2005, there were not many successful cases of online and offline sales, only a few people like Murong Xuecun and Hei Baiyu had achieved both fame and fortune.

  But still, at thirty, he was determined to hold on to his dream of becoming a bestselling author. He seemed confident that his book could reach the bestseller list. So Li Wen Hua came up with a bold plan: he promised to sell the movie, TV series and play adaptation rights for "Living with an Air Stewardess" within three years at a price no less than 1 million yuan; if it didn't reach 1 million, he would make up the difference himself.

  The temptation of 1 million was irresistible, and even 30 couldn't stop it. As a result, the shell company Tian Di Xuan Huang finally obtained the publishing agency rights for the popular online novel "Living with an Air Stewardess", but...

  "But Li Jun, aren't you worried? What if you can't sell it within three years?" He Mu asked anxiously.

  "Isn't it you too!" Li Wenhua chuckled, "I've thought about it, in three years' time, you little rascal should have made a name for yourself in the film and television circle, and gotten to know some directors and producers. At that time, you can introduce me to them, and with my abilities, I'll naturally be able to convince them to buy the adaptation rights."

  Although Li Wen Hua's idea was a bit idealistic, it was indeed the fastest way to break the company's predicament. "It seems that I have no choice but to work hard for the next three years," He Mu said helplessly.

  ……

  The next day, Liu Shishi quietly left Hengdian with a big backpack full of snacks. It's likely that they won't see each other again until around New Year's Day. He Mu continued to stay and film the TV series. The acting wasn't difficult and didn't require much attention to detail, so it was just a matter of going through the motions. Life started to become a bit dull and uneventful, until the arrival of Yang Qilang's "girlfriend" stirred up some waves.

  There are two emotional scenes in the play "Qī Láng". One is Liáo Guó's spy Xiǎo Lín, and the other is Shān Zhài Wáng's daughter Dù Jīn'é. However, both roles were played by the same person, whose name is Liú Xiǎo Jié. Hé Mù called her "Xiǎo Jiě Jiě" (Little Sister Jiě), but later changed to "Xiǎo Jiě Jiě" (Miss Jiě). Although Miss Jiě was two years older than Hé Mù, she looked much younger than him.

  Miss is an actor of Nanjing Literature and Art Group, a military identity. She has played several plays before, but none of them were main roles. This time her role in the play is considered heavy in her acting career. Unfortunately, less than a week later, Liu Xiaojie's character Xiaolin died, and her first identity also ended there. It will probably take until after New Year's Day to see her appear again as Du Jinniang. Thus another actress who got along with He Mu left.

  He Mu got along well not only with the female actors, but also with several other male actors in the play, such as Chen Long, Yuan Hong and Li Dongxue, who have already called him brother. Because Yuan Hong and Hu Ge are iron brothers, Hu Ge is no longer as cold to He Mu as he used to be, but it's not particularly close either. However, this is enough for He Mu, the relationship is not too distant or too close, as long as it doesn't affect the filming.

  Time is approaching New Year's Day, the crew doesn't have a holiday, but filming has progressed to the plot conflicts of Yang Liu Lang, Chai Jun Zhu, Yang Ye, Pan Ren Mei and the Emperor, temporarily without Qi Lang appearing, so He Mu has two days off.

  At this time, Li Bao called him back, and Datang also asked him to go back and rest. He Mu took Xiao Mi and flew back to the capital, and first went to Tiandi Xuanhuang alone.

  To appear formal, Li Wen Hua rented an office as the company's headquarters. The place was small and the rent was low. He also found two student workers to help him with things, making it seem like a proper business.

  "Speak up, what brings you to find me?" He Mu asked, sitting in Li Wen Hua's boss chair.

  "It's like this, 'Stewardess' (the shortened title of 'The Days I Lived with a Stewardess') has already entered the publishing process. Since the publisher is only responsible for helping us pass the audit and obtain an ISBN number as well as contacting the printing factory, all the related investments for this book are borne by our company, including printing costs and publicity, so our money isn't that abundant..." Li Wenhua said hesitantly.

  "Just say it straight." He Mu didn't get angry about the money, actually, for every major expense of the company, Li Wenhua would inform him in advance. First, the company's registered capital was 100,000 yuan, and 30% of that, or 10,000 yuan, had been paid to the author in advance. There were also long-term office rental fees, employee salaries, and other miscellaneous expenses totaling around 50,000 to 60,000 yuan. The printing cost of a book was roughly less than 1 yuan (including the profit of the printing factory). Even if all the remaining money was used to print books, they could only print more than 700,000 copies, which was far from Li Wenhua's ideal number.

  So Li Jun had to pinch pennies, being frugal to the extreme. "It's like this, I wanted to find a pair of book models to take some photos together, but because of financial issues, I couldn't afford to hire any models, so then I thought of you."

  Book model is a promotional model for a book, mainly taking photos. It appeared many years ago and was popularized by Qiao Xuan, the queen of romance novels. The combination of handsome men and beautiful women's photos with elegant and sentimental words became one of the characteristics of Qiao's best-selling books.

  Li Jiong is imitating Rao Xue Man, but also making some changes. He wants to take a set of photos and turn them into a beautiful bookmark, called "Co-habiting with the Flight Attendant Bookmark". Each bookmark has a picture of the male and female protagonists' emotional journey on the front, and the back has a summary of classic quotes from the book. When the book is sold, each copy comes with a bookmark. Although it increases the cost, it's very eye-catching. Since "Flight Attendant" can be read for free online, their physical book must have unique features and highlights that are different from the online version in order to achieve high sales.

  After listening to Li Wen Hua's entire plan in detail, He Mu also thought it was pretty good, but he still shook his head helplessly, this job he really couldn't do...

  (ps: The first volume is almost finished, and it will soon enter 06. By the way, our recommended votes are quite powerful, with nearly over 100 votes every day. However, Lao Fo still wants to ask: Can you give a bit more strength!!!)