After Reuniting with My Aloof Movie Queen Childhood Friend - Chapter 23

Inside the Yeye office, Wu Buxing had stayed awake all night, anxiously awaiting Ji Youyi’s arrival, looking like a completely different person compared to a day ago.

Yesterday at noon, the final cut of the drama had already been sent for review. Guo Chang went to S-City to accompany the censorship process, while Wu Buxing sat leisurely in his office, sipping tea and quietly waiting for the good news.

It wasn’t long before the phone rang, but it wasn’t a celebratory call. On the other end, Guo Chang’s voice was frantic. “It’s ruined.”

Wu Buxing grew anxious and pressed for details. “What do you mean ruined? Shouldn’t it have been a sure thing?”

Wu Buxing’s confidence hadn’t been entirely blind.

When Thousand Gold Bone had just finished filming, he happened to cross paths with a high-level executive from Filmily.

During the shooting period, he had heard that people in the industry bought and sold credits. Thus, he had Ji Youyi edit together several spectacular clips to use as product demonstrations.

When he treated the executive to dinner, he brought the clips along. However, the other party didn’t even look at them, telling him directly. “I’ve been in this position for so many years. I still have this much say. I can push your drama’s rating up a notch and set the price at this figure.”

He made a gesture with his fingers that made Wu Buxing’s eyes go wide.

“This is just the baseline. Once it airs, you’ll earn even more from the revenue split. If you want a drama to perform well, you also have to consider the schedule and publicity. Have you ever seen a revenue-share drama make it to the main recommendation slot?” The executive smiled meaningfully. “Actually, as long as you want it up there, it can happen.”

After finishing the meal, the executive left with a suitcase full of cash. Having received this reassurance, Wu Buxing was utterly delighted.

He didn’t hurt too much over the money. Once the news spread that Filmily was planning to purchase the drama at a high price, people looking to buy credits flocked over like sharks smelling blood. Offsetting the costs between both sides, he had actually made a profit.

The only part that stung was when Ji Youyi threw a fit and absolutely refused to add a writer’s credit, which caused him to make a little less money. Fortunately, writers’ credits didn’t sell for a good price anyway.

As it turned out, that writer who failed to buy a credit was now the only person unaffected by the disaster.

Every single bit of past dirt on Guo Chang and Quan Xinrong had been dug up completely. Not only were they thoroughly blacklisted by the industry, but they also had to serve time in prison.

The high-level executive from Filmily reportedly wept and begged to kneel before Chairman Lin, only to be dragged away directly, facing a prison sentence starting at ten years.

The purchasing director was suspended pending investigation, and the drama sent over by Yeye was rejected and sent back.

Regarding the reason for the rejection, Filmily’s official stance was actually quite polite.

The staff member handling the liaison put it subtly. “There’s nothing wrong with the drama itself. However, you should conduct a proper self-inspection of your subtitles. Having typos in every single episode is a bit too exaggerated. No platform would buy it like this.”

Wu Buxing didn’t understand at first, thinking Ji Youyi had intentionally messed up the post-production.

It was only after hearing from Wen Yang that a vice president from Filmily had visited the set that he realized his scheme of selling credits had been exposed.

Why hadn’t such crucial information been reported immediately? If he had known earlier, he definitely wouldn’t have done it!

Furious, Wu Buxing slapped Wen Yang on the spot, then hurriedly called Ji Youyi, inviting her over with immense urgency.

Now, he was deferentially pulling out a chair for her, eagerly pouring tea, his face breaking into a radiant smile as he showered her with warm greetings.

Ji Youyi didn’t take the bait. She simply toyed with the cup in her hand. “My new drama just started filming today. I couldn’t get time off and wasn’t originally going to come. But since you said you’d compensate for all losses, I terminated my contract with them. The penalty fee was one million yuan.”

Wu Buxing’s smile stiffened for a moment before instantly blooming into an even more brilliant grin. “Terminating your contract? That is truly a loss for their crew. I’ll go back and have a proper talk with them on your behalf, they’ll definitely be reluctant to let you go! But Director Ji, why don’t you look at our company’s project first and see if you’re willing to take it on?”

He eagerly flipped open the latest project proposal for Thousand Gold Bone for Ji Youyi, specifically pointing out two lines.

[Producer: Ji Youyi]

[Director: Ji Youyi]

Ji Youyi gave an “umu” sound. “You want me to be both the director and producer? That’s quite exhausting. How will the compensation be calculated?”

Discussing work using a project that had already finished filming, both of them were playing dumb while fully understanding the situation.

Wu Buxing had long anticipated that Ji Youyi would demand an exorbitant price, but he had no choice. He could only ask with a forced smile, “How much would you like to set it at?”

Ji Youyi extended two fingers, snipping them like crab claws. “Two million.”

“Impossible!” Wu Buxing nearly jumped out of his seat. Two million was enough to shoot another drama entirely!

Ji Youyi shrugged and stood up to leave. “If President Wu thinks I’m too expensive, then go find someone else. Anyway, this project is simple, anyone can do it.”

But it really wouldn’t work with anyone else.

Filmily’s words amounted to an ultimatum. Either change the credits back, or don’t even think about selling this drama for a single penny.

Not only would Filmily refuse to buy it, but absolutely no other platform would risk offending Filmily to purchase it.

Filmily was intent on crushing this drama completely, leaving it to rot in Wu Buxing’s hands.

Wu Buxing had seen the rumors online and only then realized that the relationship between Ji Youyi and Meng Xingshu was extraordinary. Learning today that she also had connections within the platform, he dared not be negligent.

If your background is this powerful, why on earth did you come to shoot a drama for a tiny, broke company like mine when you have nothing better to do?

To experience ordinary life? If you had said so earlier, wouldn’t it have been fine if I just knelt down to keep you happy?

He thought she was a soft, defenseless target with no backing, but now that he had squeezed her, he discovered she was a nuclear bomb!

His heart was filled with unspeakable bitterness, yet his face still had to employ every method to coax Ji Youyi to stay. “Director Ji, please have mercy. It’s really not that I’m unwilling to give it, but the company simply doesn’t have that much liquid cash. All our money was invested into this drama beforehand, and now that the drama hasn’t been sold, how can we pay you such a high fee?”

“True.” Ji Youyi agreed. “Then I won’t take a flat fee…”

Just as Wu Buxing’s heart was about to burst with joy, he heard Ji Youyi continue, “I want a revenue split. 10%.”

His joyful heart instantly shriveled into agony, and he shouted, “No way!”

Ji Youyi raised an eyebrow, playing with her cup at a leisurely pace. “I’m doing this out of fear that you’ll lose money, kindly sharing the risk with you. Your drama has been through too many ups and downs, it’s a small production without an IP base and has no traffic stars. It likely won’t sell for a good price. Normally, a mid-sized revenue-share drama earns about four million. At 10%, you only need to give me 400,000. Of course, if President Wu insists on giving me a flat rate of two million, I have no objections.”

Two million or 10%, these two numbers were things Ji Youyi had thought out on her way over.

She knew Yeye’s financial capacity was limited and didn’t actually want that much. She merely wanted to present Wu Buxing with an “anchor,” forcing him into a comparison between the “flat rate” and the “revenue split,” thereby causing him to overlook the specific price points.

By the time he finally chose one of the two options, he would subconsciously reference the original numbers and provide a similar answer.

But in reality, Ji Youyi was so strapped for cash that even if Yeye dug its heels in and insisted on only giving 100,000, she would have no choice but to sign.

Sure enough, as the negotiations dragged on to the end, when Ji Youyi stood up with an impatient look as if about to leave, Wu Buxing blurted out. “Revenue split! I’ll give you a revenue split. Eight percent!”

The vast majority of directors in the television market were merely employees hired by capital, receiving a fixed salary with rarely any split. Even if they did, it generally wouldn’t exceed 5%. Yeye being willing to give her 8% was an unexpected pleasant surprise.

Wu Buxing had likely calculated for ages, and when he figured that 8% of 25 million equaled two million, he still felt his choice was quite cost-effective.

Ji Youyi crossed her arms, her eyes downcast slightly as if deliberating for more than ten seconds before clicking her tongue lightly, appearing somewhat reluctant. “Fine then.”

This unenthusiastic demeanor made Wu Buxing feel even more comfortable, further convincing him that he had made the right decision.

After both parties peacefully signed the contract, Wu Buxing offered to treat Ji Youyi to dinner.

Having secured the money, Ji Youyi couldn’t be bothered to look at him for another second. She had him call a car to send her back to D-City, while she bought a piece of bread to munch on while rushing to her afternoon interview.

Upon returning to the Thousand Gold Bone crew, Ji Youyi’s time spent working as a mere laborer was drastically reduced. Aside from running to S-City to negotiate purchase and publicity with the platform, the production crew itself also needed to handle marketing.

Previously, after completing post-production, Ji Youyi had set aside 300,000 yuan for publicity. She went to look into the price of buying trending topics and decisively backed off.

Topic marketing was too expensive, but even the finest wine fears a deep alleyway, they couldn’t afford not to market it. Ji Youyi discussed it with Li Zhulan and decided to spend the money on operating their official account.

Currently, the materials prepared by the Thousand Gold Bone crew’s account primarily consisted of behind the scenes clips and stills. Being too conventional made it difficult to break out of their circle. Ji Youyi planned to pull the three leads together to shoot some short videos to fill the gap.

Indeed, the actors who would be the most expensive asset in any other medium to large production happened to be the cheapest in theirs.

The most enthusiastic among them was Li Zhulan. Although Ji Youyi had mentioned that writers could work online, the moment she hung up the phone, she bought a ticket to rush to D-City. She insisted on paying out of her own pocket, but Ji Youyi forced her to hand over the invoices for reimbursement.

The second female lead, Li Anran, lived in D-City to begin with, and expressed her unconditional cooperation. Ji Youyi only needed to call, and she would arrive at any time.

On the other hand, the Yeye side began to put on airs.

Wen Yang’s agent disagreed, saying that since Wen Yang had just finished filming a female lead role, her market value was different now. If they wanted her to participate in drama promotion activities, they needed to pay extra, five thousand yuan a day.

Ji Youyi was angered into a laugh and called Wu Buxing directly. “We’re shooting promotional videos for free to advertise your company’s drama, and your people are unhappy about it? Do you think I have nothing better to do than to mess around! One thousand a day, take it or leave it! If the female lead doesn’t come, I’ll just shoot the second female lead all the same. When the time comes, don’t come asking me why the official account only promotes the second female lead!”

Wu Buxing apologized repeatedly, called the agent over for a severe scolding, and lost no time in sending Wen Yang over to D-City.

It was already eight in the evening when the four of them met up. Ji Youyi rode in Meng Xingshu’s car to pick everyone up. The moment they crossed paths, Wen Yang’s eyes welled with tears.

Good heavens, every single person in this crew was a crybaby.

Ji Youyi smiled and stepped forward, wrapping Wen Yang in a hug. “Teacher Wen, this isn’t right. We don’t have this scene in our script.”

Standing at 168 cm, Wen Yang lowered her head and let Ji Youyi hold her while she wept.

“Yangyang,” Ji Youyi called her softly, gently patting her back, which was so thin it felt like skin and bones. “You seem to have gotten even thinner. Is your company still not letting you eat, making you drink coffee all the time? How can your body take this?”

Wen Yang didn’t answer, only crying silently.

Ji Youyi turned her head and shot a look at Li Zhulan.

Li Zhulan didn’t understand. Clutching her laptop, she returned a blank look, but Meng Xingshu pulled out a tissue and handed it over.

Ji Youyi gave a grateful mouth-shape of “thank you,” took the tissue to wipe Wen Yang’s tears, and joked, “Look at you, girl. It’s like you’re coming home to find your mother after being wronged outside.”

The moment those words were spoken, Wen Yang’s tears fell even faster.

Ji Youyi was only joking, but to Wen Yang’s ears, it felt incomparably apt.

Wen Yang was the eldest daughter in her family, with two younger sisters and a younger brother beneath her.

From childhood to adulthood, her family’s primary concern was always her youngest brother. She was accustomed to shrinking into a lonely corner, unnoticed and uncared for. When she suffered grievances, there was no one to tell, and when she was beaten or scolded, she didn’t dare utter a sound.

Previously, without any point of comparison, it had been fine. Ever since leaving the crew and returning to her company to run around for business, she would frequently miss Ji Youyi.

When she was exhausted, when she was scolded, when she was publicly humiliated by her agent, or when she was hit by her boss, she would always think of Ji Youyi. She would remember the way she smiled at her, stroked her head, and wiped away her tears.

Just like right now.

“Mother.” She didn’t know what a “mother” was; her biological mother was simply not someone who could listen to her accounts or embrace her grievances.

She merely wanted to return to Ji Youyi’s side.

She buried herself against Ji Youyi’s shoulder and cried for five minutes before gradually stopping. Sniffling, she stood up straight and apologized, “Director Ji, I’m sorry for delaying everyone’s time. Let’s go shoot.”

Li Anran, holding up her phone, teased, “It’s no delay at all. Haven’t we already started filming? We’ve been filming for several minutes now. We even caught Teacher Meng in the shot. Teacher Meng, can this part be broadcast?”

Before Meng Xingshu could speak, Ji Youyi scared the young girl. “It can’t be broadcast. Do you know how expensive a major movie queen’s appearance fee is? Our crew is so poor, how could we afford it? Watch out, or Starling’s legal department might knock on your door tonight.”

“It’s fine, it can be broadcast.” Amusement glinted in Meng Xingshu’s eyes. “The legal department prioritizes handling rumors. If anyone’s door is getting knocked on, it’ll be Director Ji’s.”

Her gaze landed on the joined hands of Ji Youyi and Wen Yang, and her smile faded slightly. Opening the front passenger door, she asked Ji Youyi, “Shall we go?”

They still had a shooting schedule tonight.