Great Power Reclamation

After seeing Wei Jiang and the others off in the afternoon, Ye Mao began to write. The outline of the story was that after several special forces retired, they went to Africa to join the mercenaries in pursuit of their ideals.

Later, due to internal strife caused by exclusion, Hong Bin became the leader of this team. Then he summoned his retired comrades and formed a team composed entirely of Chinese people.

This team was highly disciplined and fought bravely, and soon became a well-known mercenary team throughout Africa, known as the "Wolf Warriors".

While taking on missions to earn money, they often protect Chinese expatriates free of charge and are known as the patron saints of the Chinese people.

Later, for some reasons, they moved to Asia and did many heroic things.

They are all hot-blooded men, so naturally they will have love, but this love is more complicated, because they have been to so many places, so naturally there will be many stories, some sad, some beautiful.

The reason why I want to write about mercenaries is, firstly, because of Grandet and his men, and secondly, Ersha also wants to join, so how could Ye Mao not help him?
Besides, the Jin sisters seemed to be interested as well, so they decided to come together.

As for the protagonist, Ye Mao thought for a long time but couldn't think of a suitable person. The main reason was that the protagonist had to act opposite the Jin sisters, and he was not so willing to do so.

What should I do if the pigs I have raised for so many years are taken away by others? After all, people in this circle are very emotional, and many of them change their wives for each movie they star in.

Ye Mao wasn't really worried that the Jin sisters would change their hearts, but there were cases where some guys turned their fake into real life when filming passionate scenes.

I thought about it for a long time but couldn't come up with any result. Finally, I decided to call them and ask for their opinions. After all, the acting together has to be pleasing to the eye.

Unexpectedly, as soon as the call was connected, before I could finish my words, Jin Ping on the other end started shouting:
"What star should we choose? We want you. If you don't act, we won't act either. We won't be women for others in any situation."

These words made Ye Mao feel so comfortable. This was what he called his woman. Ouyang Xue and the others couldn't do that when they were performing Journey to the West.

It’s not that Ouyang Xue and the others are not loyal, but compared to these two girls, their feelings are naturally not as deep.

Many things are afraid of comparison. If Ye Mao abandons them again, they will never be able to do it again even if they kill him.

Since they said so, Ye Mao simply put himself into the role of the male protagonist. You know, when anyone writes something, they will involuntarily bring their own personality into it.

Now that he was writing the male protagonist as if he were himself, he could write even more smoothly. Before he knew it, he had been writing from the evening until noon of the next day. When he stopped writing, he realized that he was starving.

Liu Ling and Ouyang Xue had already known his habits. When he was immersed in writing, no one dared to disturb him.

Ouyang Xue went to school in the morning, and Liu Ling, who was a graduate student and had more flexible courses, stayed with him the whole time.

Ye Mao stretched lazily, feeling as if he was drained of energy and in urgent need of energy replenishment.

Seeing him stand up, Liu Ling quickly brought the food over. It was hot beef buns fresh out of the pot, and a big bowl of fried liver.

Ye Mao was like a starving ghost, gobbling up all the food in no time.

Liu Ling had known his habit for a long time. Every time he got into the state, he would forget everything and would not eat or drink or sleep.

In fact, every time this happens, Liu Ling and Ouyang Xue feel very distressed, but there is nothing they can do. It is just like entering a state of meditation. Once it is interrupted, the train of thought will be gone.

So, every time Ye Mao did this, one of them would stay with him, ready to hand it to him whenever he wanted to eat or drink.

After watching him finish eating, he handed him a glass of water. Ye Mao gulped it down in one breath. Then he wiped his mouth and let out a long sigh.

"Did you finish writing?"

Liu Ling stood behind him and gently massaged his shoulders and cervical vertebrae. Ye Mao leaned back, rested his head on her, and nodded with a satisfied look on his face.

Liu Ling couldn't help but reveal a proud smile: "My little man is really amazing."

Ye Mao was unhappy: "Where is it small?"

Liu Ling patted him with her hand and said coquettishly: "You are getting worse and worse."

Ye Mao laughed loudly: "I'm not bad, and my shelf life is still long."

"Will you let your two brothers play roles?"

Ye Mao nodded: "Everyone can participate in this film, I won't be afraid of too many people."

Liu Ling was curious: "It's true that there are movies with multiple male protagonists, but isn't that a bit too much? What exactly are you writing about?"

Ye Mao smiled and handed her the manuscript. Liu Ling had high literary attainments and often gave him some pertinent suggestions, so when Ye Mao finished writing the manuscript, he would give it to Liu Ling as soon as possible.

First, he can give suggestions, and second, he can correct typos and punctuation marks. He is a careless person and often makes jokes about these little things.

Liu Ling opened the first page and was stunned. The title was:

"mercenary!"

This kind of thing has never been filmed in China before, after all, it involves many sensitive issues. If you are not careful, it will not be shown at all.

But thinking about his background, he didn't say anything. Wasn't Journey to the West also released outside first? These things are not difficult for him.

As he watched, the usually calm Liu Ling's expression became excited at times, and he gritted his teeth at times. It seemed that he was getting into the situation, otherwise there wouldn't be such big changes in his emotions.

It was not until she finished reading the last page that she sighed:
"This is the best script you've ever written."

Ye Mao disagreed: "I used to do adaptations, okay? I never had a chance to show my talent!"

Liu Ling looked at his little man with a smile on his face:

"Can't you be more modest? Although you are indeed excellent, shouldn't you let others say this?"

Ye Mao lit a cigarette and took a deep puff:
"You have to have confidence in yourself. If you don't think you are good enough, why would others praise you? Admiration comes from performance, not modesty."

Liu Ling was helpless about Ye Mao's character. This guy was always flamboyant. If he was expected to keep a low profile, that would be impossible unless he fell asleep.

It's just that I'm asleep, and even what I say in my sleep might sound like bragging.

In fact, this kind of character is somewhat disadvantageous in China where Confucian culture is prevalent. After all, people have been taught since childhood to be reserved and introverted.

Maybe it will get better when he's older.

After watching it, Liu Ling discussed the actors with Ye Mao. Ye Mao also suggested using newcomers as much as possible, as the entertainment industry today is mostly populated by traffic stars, who are not suitable for this kind of film.

On the contrary, those novices with certain military qualities are more likely to express what Ye Mao wants to express.

Liu Ling could naturally understand Ye Mao's idea, but she suggested using a few veteran actors. After all, there are so many roles, it is impossible for all of them to be young people.

Ye Mao had never thought of this and adopted it immediately. The two of them discussed who would be the most suitable person to use.
Ye Mao immediately thought of Li Yunlong. That actor was so good, he brought a grassroots leader in the war years to life. Yes, and Wang Wen, who could not only portray any role vividly, but also created long monologues that were thought-provoking.
The two of them thought of a few more ideas. Of course, this was just thought. After all, whether the other person had the schedule and was willing to act in his movie was still an unknown.

Even though Ye Mao is now very famous in this circle, he has only starred in adapted dramas and does not have any original scripts of his own.

Moreover, because he is relatively low-key and has never accepted interviews from reporters, the entire film and television industry only knows his name, but few people actually know him.

Therefore, he wanted to invite these veteran actors right away, but it was hard to say whether they would give him the honor. He had to rely entirely on director Ning Shui.

Ye Mao even had an idea, which was to make a blockbuster movie.

What is the concept of a blockbuster? It means that the scenes are grand, and there is nothing that is not used, such as planes, cannons, tanks and warships.

Add to that the huge cost of special effects production, and the investment in this film will be an astronomical figure.

Although Ye Mao filmed Journey to the West, he had no idea about cost accounting because he was just a screenwriter. Even if he did some work as a director, it did not involve money issues.

This requires professionals to come up with a budget.

Ye Mao was an impatient person, so he quickly called his two partners and told them his plan.

Both of them were stunned, and Ye Mao didn't say anything for a long time.

6◇9◇Book◇Bar

Grandet swallowed hard, and asked in a dry voice:

"Mr. Ye, do you know how much it will cost if we shoot according to your plan?"

Ye Mao shook his head. He really didn't know. He looked at Ning Shui. Ning Shui took a breath of cold air, then sucked her teeth and muttered:
"Brother, if you do this, I can't keep up with you!"

Ye Mao asked curiously: "What's going on between you two? It's just a movie, isn't it? Why is it like this?"

Grandet said excitedly: "Brother, is this a movie? This is a bottomless pit. Do you know how much these 127 special scenes cost?"

"Do you know how much it costs to mobilize more than a thousand people? Do you know how much it costs to fire blank rounds with those weapons?"

Seeing that he was talking so clearly, Ye Mao asked curiously:

“Do you know all these costs?”

Grandet didn't say anything. He picked up his cell phone, opened the calculator, and started calculating, while also writing down each number with a pen.

Ye Mao and Ning Shui both stretched their heads out to observe curiously. Queting Grandet was muttering something.

"1200 extras, compressed into ten days, a total of..."

"Li Yunlong... Wang Wen..."

"All kinds of blank ammunition, all kinds of weapons, including airplanes, artillery, tanks..."

At the end, Grandet handed him a total.

"The total is 361342687.43. This number is the result of minimizing the cost. No one else would come up with this number."

"Fuck!"

Ye Mao looked at Grandet with admiration. He was worthy of his reputation! He believed it without Grandet saying anything.

Others are stingy and don't spend money, but he is so stingy that he saves money that shouldn't be spent to the extreme. Who can compare with such a person?
Needless to say, this kid will definitely be my butler in the future, and no one can stop him!

Originally, Ye Mao planned to name the company Three Idiots Company, so that he could bring two brothers to play together. But he didn't expect that on a whim, two more brothers would join.

At this point, he no longer wanted to hide anything, so he patted Grandet on the shoulder:

"Isn't it just 400 million? This amount of money is really nothing to me. Go for it boldly. As long as it's a matter of money, don't worry. I'm here for you."

He looked at Ning Shui again: "You decide on the actors. I already have five. You can study the script and make cuts or additions as appropriate. This is not a movie. I am planning to use it to win an Oscar!"

Ning Shui burst into tears all of a sudden. She originally wanted to borrow some light and then do the rest by herself.

As a result, things suddenly turned around and he became a big director with hundreds of millions of investments, but the key is that he was only responsible for spending money. Where can you find such a thing?
At this time, there were no domestic films with an investment of hundreds of millions, let alone several hundred million. Ning Hao was confident that such a big production would win an Oscar.

In fact, Ning Hao is somewhat disdainful of the current Hollywood. They are just blindly pursuing special effects and big productions, and many films don’t even have content.

What's the point of watching a movie like this other than just for fun?
But Ye Mao's story is different. Not only does he write about a group of retired soldiers who became mercenaries, but their loyal hearts did not change.

It also deeply analyzes the real situation of those poor countries in Africa and Asia.

The film also depicts human nature and human heart in a very vivid way, which not only touches people but also shocks and makes them think deeply.

In the end, Grandet and Ning Shui unanimously decided to only take 5% of the shares in the future, which was enough.

Ye Mao had no connections either, so he told them his original plan, and the three of them finally decided after discussion.

The company was officially renamed the Three Idiots Company, with Ye Mao holding 40%, the Two Idiots holding 10% each, and Grandet and Ning Shui holding 5% each.

The two of them had no objection and started to act. Ye Mao transferred 400 million to the company account without any hesitation.

Now Ning Shui and Grandet became like spinning tops, so busy that they couldn't stop at all.

It would be very difficult for a new company that has not made any films to form a crew!
After all, big names won’t play with you, and those who can play with you are basically marginal people who are slightly better than extras.

After all, this circle is the most realistic. It would be difficult to run a business by relying on Ning Shui alone.

As expected, when Ning Shui started calling people to make appointments, they politely declined without even learning more about the company.

The most impolite one was Li Yunlong, who directly questioned Ning Shui:
"Have you become arrogant after directing a few films? Do you think that as long as you are the director, every artist can come and go at your will?"

Ning Shui hung up the phone without hesitation. He would never have any dealings with this person again. Naturally, he also had his own pride.

Wang Wen was very polite when he spoke, and waited patiently for Ning Shui to finish speaking before telling him that he didn't have time. He would definitely cooperate when there was another opportunity.

Ning Shui naturally tried to persuade him, but when he just mentioned Ye Mao's name, Wang Wen said straightforwardly:

"Let me see the script, I'll come find you now."

Wang Wen came over quickly. He was going to play a drug dealer who was shrewd and powerful. He often clashed with the government army and did many evil things. (End of this chapter)