Entertainment: I just want to be the boss behind the scenes

Chapter 344 New Year's Drama

Li Qin is very panicked now.

She had been promoting Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace for some time, and it had finally come to an end. Knowing that Meng Bai had returned to Beijing, and she had no schedule today, she came over to give him a surprise.

Unexpectedly, the original "short separation makes the heart grow fonder" turned into "meeting the parents".

What she is most worried about now is whether it will leave a bad impression on Meng Bai's parents. After all, for many older generations, going to a man's house for no reason is not something a decent girl would do.

The atmosphere in the room was a little awkward. In the end, it was Mother Meng who spoke first to break the silence: "Um, Xiao Li, right?"

"Yes, Auntie." Li Qin responded obediently.

"You said you are Meng Bai's friend, so how come you live with him?" Meng's mother asked with a frown.

Li Qin waved her hands quickly: "No, no, I, I am..."

She couldn't think of any suitable excuse for a moment, so she stammered a few words and looked at Meng Bai while stroking her hair.

Li Qin: Save me! Save me! Save me...

Meng Bai couldn't help but want to laugh. Seeing the girl's originally cold face now filled with a panic expression, he stretched out a finger and shook it.

Li Qin felt ashamed when she saw this. She naturally understood what the other party meant. This bad guy actually took the opportunity to "blackmail" her.

But the situation was urgent, so she could only agree for now.

Seeing this, Meng Bai's smug smile flashed across his face. He walked forward a few steps and stood in front of Li Qin, blocking her mother's gaze for a while.
"A few friends had a party at my place before, and Xiaoqin left something here. Since she had time today, she told me she was coming to get it. I thought she would leave soon, so I didn't tell you."

Li Qin on the side also nodded quickly: "Yes, Teacher Meng told me that he had something to do today, so I came to get it myself. I was delayed on the way, so it was a little late, but I didn't expect to run into my uncle and aunt."

"Is that so?" Mother Meng said with a dry laugh.

How should I put it? This reason sounds ridiculous, but there is no need to expose it.

And no matter whether it was true or not, the relationship between this girl and his son was definitely more than just ordinary friends.

Thinking of this, she softened her attitude and said softly, "Did you find the thing?"

"Found it, found it." Li Qin looked at Mother Meng gratefully and walked down the stairs.

After saying that, she quickly stood up and said, "Well, uncle and aunt just came from Blue Island, I won't disturb you two to rest, I'll leave first."

"Hey, why are you in such a hurry to leave? Since you are Meng Bai's friend, you are not a stranger. It's just right for us to have dinner together in the evening." Mother Meng greeted.

"Ah, this..."

Li Qin blinked and wanted to agree, but she felt that today was not a suitable opportunity.

After hesitating for a while, she finally gritted her teeth and waved her hand, saying, "Thank you, Auntie, but I have something else to do here, so I won't bother you anymore."

"Is that so?" Mother Meng didn't force her to stay, but just reminded her: "If you go to Blue Island someday, come and visit us at home."

"Okay, okay, I will." Li Qin said, "Then I'll go first. I wish uncle and aunt a happy new year in advance!"

After saying that, she bowed slightly to the two of them, then glanced at Meng Bai and walked out quickly.

"I'll go see her off." Meng Bai said, and then followed her out.

He took a few quick steps, turned the corner of the courtyard, and caught up with the other person in front of the corridor.

"Why are you walking so fast?"

Li Qin looked back when she heard the voice and was relieved to see that only Meng Bai came. Then, she looked straight at him and said, "Why didn't you tell me that uncle and aunt were coming?"

"I didn't know you would come here today." Meng Bai looked at her with amusement, "You deserve it! You always like to make surprise attacks, so now you'll behave yourself."

"..."

Li Qin pursed her lips in a somewhat depressed manner.

Seeing the girl's depressed expression, Meng Bai reached out and hugged her: "Okay, it's okay. My parents are very easy to talk to. I'll explain it to them later. Don't worry."

Surrounded by the familiar breath, Li Qin's panic finally settled down.

"By the way, are you going home for the New Year?" Meng Bai changed the subject.

"I probably won't be able to go back until New Year's Eve, as we have a promotional program to record tomorrow." Li Qin said.

"Oh, yes, your drama Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace is going to be released soon, right?"

Because "Peace Hotel" will be aired after the New Year, he specifically learned about the opening dramas of the major satellite TV stations, including Dragon TV's "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace".

"I remember your drama will be aired after the New Year." Li Qin regained some spirit. "How about it, are you ready to be defeated by me?"

"You're just a minor supporting role ranked below 8th, what does this have to do with you?" Meng Bai said sarcastically.

As the sister work of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" has been targeted by many actresses in the circle since the project was announced.

Although Zhou Xun had been chosen to play the female lead early on, the other supporting female roles were also fiercely contested.

Look at the cast - Zhang Junning, Tong Yao, Xin Zhilei, Li Chun, Chen Haoyu, Zhao Ke, Chen Xiaoyun...

Basically, they are those actresses who have been lingering in the second, third, and fourth tier in the circle for many years and have always been semi-famous.

After all, the TV series “The Legend of Zhen Huan” created a scene of “one drama becomes popular, and all the actors become famous”. So this time, everyone is hoping to rise to a higher level in the circle by relying on this drama.

Li Qin's character in the play is called "Han Xiangjian", the daughter of Han Ati, the leader of the Hui tribe. She is born with a fragrant body, a strong character, a stunning appearance, and is the most favored among the six palaces.

This role doesn't have many scenes, but the character design is good and it is particularly suitable for her cool image.

Speaking of which, this drama has a strong cast and the audience base of its predecessor, and it is indeed one of the main competitors of "Peace Hotel".

However, based on his many years of experience as a producer, Meng Bai feels that it will be difficult for this drama to replicate the success of "The Legend of Zhen Huan".

"Why?" Li Qin asked puzzledly.

"One is the production team. Your director this time has basically shot urban dramas before. This is the first costume palace drama. Although the screenwriter is the author of the original novel, although novels and film and television dramas both tell stories, they are still different after all."

Meng Bai said: "Another point is that most of the actors are here to become famous through this drama, which will inevitably cause a separation between the actors' individual performances and the overall plot. If I'm not mistaken, the atmosphere in the crew must have been quite tense when you were filming."

Li Qin recalled it and it seemed to be true.

Knowing that this resource is great, almost every actor tried his best to show himself, which resulted in the filming not being smooth.

The first game was an unintentional effort, but it unexpectedly became a masterpiece. The sequel wanted to replicate the success, but it became very deliberate.

But even so, Li Qin still thinks it's not a big problem. Even if it's not as popular as "The Legend of Zhen Huan", it won't be that bad.

"How about it, Mr. Li, do you want to make a bet?"

"What are you gambling?"

"Let's bet on which of the two dramas has the higher ratings." Meng Bai said with a smile: "Whoever loses will agree to one of the other's requests."

Li Qin pouted: "Didn't you just force me to make a request?" "So, I'll give you a chance. If your show wins, this request will be cancelled."

"Row!"

Li Qin agreed with full confidence.

No matter what, "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" has a strong cast and audience base, so it won't perform worse than a spy drama with a weak cast.

The two of them stayed together for a while. Li Qin was worried that he would be out for too long and Meng's parents would worry too much, so she urged him to go back quickly.

After watching Li Qin drive away, Meng Bai turned around and went back into the house.

"Tell me, what's going on with this girl?"

As soon as he entered the door, Mother Meng frowned and said to him.

"Didn't they say it themselves? They are good friends." Meng Bai was already accustomed to this. He sat down next to Meng's mother and said with a smile.

"Stop smiling at me."

Mother Meng said loudly, but seeing that he looked like a dead pig that was not afraid of boiling water, she sighed helplessly and said, "Okay, I can't control you anyway, so you can do whatever you want. But I tell you, I can bring one daughter-in-law back to me. If you dare to say 'I want both', I will beat you to death first."

After saying that, she stood up and went to pack her luggage. When she passed by Father Meng, she patted him and said, "Your son is just like you, he is always troublesome."

Father Meng: What does it have to do with me? I have been an honest person for most of my life, and I didn’t even dare to say a word for the past half day, okay?
Mother Meng: I’m scolding you because you don’t speak!

Being used as a punching bag, Father Meng secretly muttered a few words while his wife was not paying attention. When he raised his eyes, he saw Meng Bai looking at him again.

"I have the same attitude as your mother." Father Meng spread his hands, "You can only have one daughter-in-law, it's up to you."

Looking at the old couple, Meng Bai muttered to himself: I am a single person, okay? I can talk about the "daughter-in-law" thing after ten years.
-
On New Year's Eve, Meng's parents went to watch a live version of the Spring Festival Gala. After the show, the old couple only stayed in Beijing for two days before returning to Landao to start their annual routine of visiting relatives.

However, this year, everyone asked one more question when they met: "Lao Meng, I heard that you went to CCTV to watch the Spring Festival Gala. How did you feel?"

Every time this happened, Father Meng would wave his hand and say, "Oh, it's boring. The stage is so far away, and you can only watch the big screen if you sit there. It's better to watch TV at home."

In a word, it is both pretentious and low-key.

At the same time, this year's Spring Festival movies have also begun to compete for the box office.

In addition to Wang Baoqiang's "Journey to India", there are five other movies in this year's Spring Festival - "Operation Red Sea", "Monster Hunt 2", "Journey to the West: The Women Kingdom" and the annual "Boonie Bears".

The most popular one here is naturally "Monster Hunt 2". After all, the previous film was the first domestic film with a box office of over billion yuan and the annual champion of that year.

Later, "Journey to the West: The Women Kingdom" and "Journey to the West: Conquering India" also gained considerable popularity thanks to their cast and gimmicks.

However, what no one expected was that the first to break out of the siege was the quietly released "Operation Red Sea". In just one Spring Festival holiday, the cumulative box office exceeded 15 billion.

This scene reminded everyone of "Wolf Warrior 2017" which was released in the summer of 2 half a year ago. Both films are military action films, and the theme is also the overseas evacuation of Chinese citizens.

It’s just that "Wolf Warrior 2" is more inclined to individual heroes, while "Operation Red Sea" is more of a group drama, but they both follow basically the same routine.

This has caused many people in the industry to think, could this type of "military action film" be the next trendy genre?
Believe it or not, it is foreseeable that in the coming year, there will be a large number of movies with similar themes released.

Next to Operation Red Sea is Monster Hunt 2. This movie was quite popular during the Spring Festival holiday, but as word of mouth deteriorated, its box office performance also plummeted.

As for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons", it was just as Meng Bai had expected. With Wang Baoqiang's appeal and the gimmick of his first directorial debut, the film grossed 5 million yuan in seven days during the Spring Festival. Not only did it recover the cost, but it also made a lot of profit.

However, as the box office grew, the film received a lot of criticism, and its reputation was almost as good as last year’s “masterpiece” “Chasing Dreams in Show Business.”

That is to say, Wang Baoqiang has always had a good public image, and last year's "divorce incident" added some sympathy to him, which prevented the audience from scolding him too much. However, the consensus online is that he is not capable enough to be a director.

The filming of "Detective Chinatown 2" ended before the New Year. Wang Baoqiang happened to come back to promote the movie, but he unexpectedly received a lot of negative reviews.

Chen Sicheng told Meng Bai that Baoqiang has been a little autistic recently.

"He's not afraid of being scolded," Chen Sicheng said on his phone, "He just feels ashamed that he worked so hard for so long and ended up making a bad movie."

How should I put it? The fact that he knows how to feel embarrassed shows that at least his attitude is serious.

It is better than those people who don't feel ashamed after making a bad movie, but instead blame it on the audience for not appreciating it.

However, Meng Bai didn't pay much attention to this movie. He put it aside knowing that the investment was not a loss.

Like the film market, with the start of the new year, the opening dramas of the new year on major satellite TV stations also began to be broadcast one after another.

According to the new film trailers released by various TV stations before the holiday, this year's TV drama market is similar to the film market, with all of them being big productions with strong lineups.

"Win the World" on Jiangsu Satellite TV, "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" on Dragon TV, "The Legend of Phoenix" on Mango TV, "Moscow Operation" on Zhejiang Satellite TV... and "A Different World" on CCTV-1 and "Peace Hotel" on CCTV-8.

The main character of "Win the World" is the female lead Fan Qiaoqiao, and the production team is also the team of "The Legend of Wu Mei Niang".

Not to mention "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace", which has a strong cast and is based on previous works. Both the audience and the industry believe that it will be the first hit of the new year.

As for "Phoenix Prisoner", in one sentence, the producer is Yu Zheng. As a hit-making machine in the field of TV dramas in recent years, no matter how the reputation is, every drama produced by Yu Zheng is absolutely popular.

"A Different World" is an orthodox drama produced by CCTV. This kind of purely main-theme work is generally not included in discussions.

The remaining "Moscow Operation" and "Peace Hotel" are actually somewhat similar, both of which are TV series produced by online drama teams.

The former is the team that produced the hit online drama "Yuzui" two years ago, not to mention the latter, the top-tier Arclight Film and Television in the online drama field.

Seeing these two dramas appear in the list of "New Year's Dramas", many people suddenly realized that the online drama team, which was once considered synonymous with "shoddy work", has actually developed to the point where it can compete with traditional TV drama teams.

Speaking of which, judging from the popularity of the early publicity, "Peace Hotel" is still slightly better than "Moscow Operation".

After all, Arc Light has fans accumulated from more than a dozen popular works. Although the leading actors Qin Hao and Qin Lan are not top-tier stars, they are still well-known.

In addition, this is Meng Bai's second spy drama as a screenwriter after "The Disguiser", so many viewers are paying attention to it.

As for the results, it’s not that we have no chance of competing.

Competition where there is a huge gap between the strong and the weak is not as interesting as one where the gap is small.

The dramas released at the beginning of 2018 are not weak, and the audiences and fans are very interested in the competition between them.

In everyone's opinion, what will follow will be a fierce battle between dragons and tigers.

Unexpectedly, before the competition even began, the two most popular dramas, "Win the World" and "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace", suffered a "dimensionality reduction attack".

Just two days before the premiere, "Win the World" suddenly announced its withdrawal and postponement.

The reason was that two "Qin fans" wrote a letter of complaint of more than 7,000 words and handed it to the leaders of relevant departments, accusing the drama of "slandering the emperor who unified the six kingdoms as a rapist, and that the Great Wall was built with the funding of Ba Qing, and that the plot is seriously deviating from historical facts."

Faced with such "iron-blooded" fans, Jiangsu Satellite TV could only swallow its anger and quickly pulled in "Mr. Love" starring Jin Dong to take over.

But this is not the end. On the second day after "Win the World" was withdrawn from the schedule, the highly anticipated "Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace" also announced its withdrawal and postponement.

However, it was not reported, but failed to pass the review because the number of episodes was too long and the content was deleted.

(End of this chapter)