Age of Legends

Chapter 358 Rules
Sometimes people's brains freeze up and they talk nonsense. Jiang Rong feels that this is happening to her right now, and the root of the problem is that she doesn't understand Zhang Chen's situation.

Jiang Rong can be said to be quite lucky. After interning and trying her hand at Wang Bowen's program, she began her meteoric career. From "The Rising Star" that stirred up Fuzhou in early spring, to "A Bite of Fuzhou", to large-scale cultural festivals and exhibitions, to "Emotional Mediation Room", and now to the highly popular "Seven Days' Promise".

Jiang Rong participated in all of these productions, even becoming one of the main creators. She also learned how to use a non-linear editor from Chen Xiao. Now she is an assistant, producer, and even a technician. The opportunities for career growth she has gained are something many people don't experience even after ten years.

She was also aware that she might have initially thought that Wang Bowen was the one hosting everything behind the scenes, but only after getting to know the situation better did she realize that it was all Zhang Chen's creative idea.

So much so that she wasn't surprised that Zhang Chen's college entrance exam essay was published in the newspaper; on the contrary, upon reflection, it seemed quite natural.

Even those who score a perfect score on their college entrance exam essays might not be able to produce the kind of creative content that the media can create, achieve such a large impact, or even make it onto the CCTV-Sofres rankings. Therefore, only she knew that compared to that, Zhang Chen's college entrance exam essay was merely a small achievement.

But that's precisely the problem.

If Zhang Chen were a senior like Wang Bowen, she would only consider herself to have met an excellent mentor and benefactor. But if Zhang Chen were a wealthy, domineering CEO, her gratitude towards him would turn into admiration, and she wouldn't even refuse if he wanted to do anything to her as a woman.

However, Zhang Chen was a boy who had just finished the college entrance examination and had just gotten rid of his high school student status. Strictly speaking, it would be more appropriate to call him "brother".

This left Jiang Rong unsure how to face him, feeling a sense of disconnect due to the difference in their age and social status.

So, her mind was in complete turmoil, filled with wild thoughts. She wondered if she was slipping into a dangerous situation, and she began to regret not inviting Yang Xiaole and the others along. She really should have. Perhaps then she wouldn't have made such a foolish mistake.

After tilting his head, Zhang Chen smiled and said, "Are you out of breath? You're talking nonsense."

Jiang Rong seemed to have found a reason immediately and nodded quickly, "Ah...yes, that's right, the hot pot is getting hot, and the room is a bit small, so there's a lack of oxygen."

Indeed, the one-bedroom apartment is only a little over 40 square meters. After deducting the bedroom and kitchen, there's only a living room of about 10 square meters. Not to mention that the windows are half closed, and the heat is rising up, making Zhang Chen feel a bit stuffy.

Jiang Rong went to the window, pushed open the remaining half of the glass, and walked back in her slippers. To echo her previous statement, she took off her shirt and then sat down in front of Zhang Chen.

Her figure, accentuated by her fitted knitted dress, was laid bare before him, causing Zhang Chen to momentarily freeze in his tracks.

High bun, fitted sweater, thick black. The quality of this outfit is off the charts. It's practically overflowing with gold.

Zhang Chen quickly stopped, thinking to himself that he didn't mean it that way, and wondered why he was being told to take off his clothes so easily.

Jiang Rong had originally put on a shirt to avoid any awkwardness between the two of them in the small room, but she had just made a foolish mistake by taking it off. When she sat back down facing Zhang Chen, she was busy preparing the condiments in front of her with her sleeves rolled up, but her earlobes were gradually turning red and hot.

So the two of them silently dealt with the hot pot and dishes in front of them, sorting the vegetables, adding meat, and having a conversation that was so devoid of any substance that it made the air feel a little awkward.

"This bok choy is all heart."

"Haha, Ito-Yokado only sells these small bok choy, since white-collar workers buy them mostly because they appreciate fine things, even though they're expensive..."

"Yes, yes, this is the layout of this supermarket. But this plant looks like it's been gnawed by insects."

"Oh, how did it get eaten by bugs... I was really careless when I chose it. Well, let's just throw away these leaves then." Jiang Rong said, breaking off the vegetable leaves and throwing them into the trash can. The two women exchanged glances, looked at each other, and then looked away.

Awkward, trying to find a topic of conversation...

Zhang Chen stared at the bowl in front of her: "What kind of sesame oil is in your bowl? It smells quite nice."

"Right!" Jiang Rong nodded immediately, as if she had finally gotten her wish in a game of musical chairs. "It smells good, right? It's sesame oil. Sesame oil smells even better. By the way, don't you want a dipping sauce? It's too spicy without it. A dipping sauce can neutralize the spiciness. It's good for your health and helps to clear heat..."

"Give me some then."

"Bring your bowl over here." Jiang Rong held the oil bottle with both hands, focusing on adding ingredients to Zhang Chen's bowl.

But at this moment, both of them felt a kind of exertion, like they were sweating while eating a hot pot.

Jiang Rong knew things couldn't go on like this, so she quickly scooped up the blanched mutton slices, tossed in four slices, gave three to Zhang Chen, and finally scooped one for herself. At that moment, Zhang Chen asked seriously, "By the way, have you thought about what to do with the studio next, how to develop it?"

Jiang Rong opened her almond-shaped eyes slightly. Zhang Chen's words made her think. In fact, she had thought about it before. She tentatively said, "If we continue with the current model and production equipment, we can maintain the momentum of the second season of 'Seven Days' Agreement.' Oh, right!"

Jiang Rong remembered something, got up, put on her black socks and fabric slippers and went to the locker by the door. She took out a long piece of paper from her black boat bag, then came over and placed it in front of Zhang Chen.

"This is the final payment from the station, but it wasn't deposited into the studio's account; instead, it was paid by check. It's a final payment of 96 yuan. Originally, the provincial station was going to use it as a security deposit for the final quality inspection. But we are the content provider, and given the previous issues with Meng Lihui and Wu Yue, they were afraid of losing our trust, so they settled this final payment ahead of schedule."

Zhang Chen nodded. To prevent problems with the program, TV stations often retain a portion of the final payment to the production team for quality control or as leverage in negotiations. This payment often takes a long time to be received and is frequently unreliable; this is one of the station's methods of manipulating the production company.

The reason they were able to deliver so smoothly is most likely because they produced a record-breaking variety show on a provincial TV station and hoped to continue their collaboration, which is why they were so quick to agree.

"The total advertising revenue for the program was 660 million yuan after tax. After the provincial TV station took its share, we received 260 million yuan. With some subsequent long-tail revenue, we can finally get about 300 million yuan," Jiang Rong explained the program's revenue.

In Zhang Chen's opinion, this amount of money wasn't much. Moreover, the majority of it went to the TV station's share. Not to mention the production costs they invested. Although the provincial station would provide a production fee, it wasn't much, and the equipment Zhang Chen spent nearly a million on was a real investment that the provincial station wouldn't reimburse.

Zhang Chen didn't need them to reimburse him, since these were production materials belonging to their studio.

Jiang Rong saw Zhang Chen clutching the final payment check and just chuckled: "Look, we put in the effort, painstakingly produced the product, but the lion's share still went to us. If it weren't for this 960,000 yuan final payment, according to the TV station's usual practices, we would have only received a maximum of 1.6 million yuan in the initial payment. That includes the money we paid out of our own pockets to buy equipment. In other words, even after working our butts off to create a program that made it into the top 20 of the time slot, we could only get a little over 800,000 yuan, less than 1 million yuan."

"Don't you think it's a bit disillusioning?"

Jiang Rong didn't understand what Zhang Chen was trying to say, so she could only say, "Isn't this how it's always been when making a show?"

Zhang Chen put the check down on the table, tapping his knuckles lightly on the surface as he gazed at her: "It's always been this way, so it's right? Why... can't we rewrite the rules?"

(End of this chapter)