Entertainment: 1990

Chapter 94 Something is wrong

Driving my newly purchased Xiali to the "Economic Development Zone One-Stop Service Center", I found that Deputy Director Shen of the Management Committee had been waiting for me for quite some time.

When filming "Tianjin Wei" before, Zhang Yan had dealt with this Deputy Director Shen a few times, but at that time the Deputy Director was quite aloof and basically only interacted with Yan Xiaoming.

But this time was different. Deputy Director Shen was very enthusiastic, calling Zhang "Brother Zhang" repeatedly, as if the two were old friends.

This is not surprising, after all, Zhang Yan's "inspection" was personally approved by the mayor, so the management committee naturally attached great importance to it.

Since the staff were so welcoming, Zhang Yan originally planned to say a few kind words first, but as soon as he entered the service center, he couldn't help but frown.

Seeing Zhang Yan frown, Deputy Director Shen quickly asked, "Brother Zhang, is there something wrong with this service center?"

"Well, I'd like to offer a somewhat immature opinion."

Zhang Yan pointed to the service counter and said, "Could you remove the glass from this service counter and replace it with an L-shaped table like those at hotel receptions? The chairs also need to be lowered. Since we're in the service business, we should act like we're providing service. This condescending attitude through the glass..."

"Makes sense!"

Deputy Director Shen immediately chimed in, "This is our dereliction of duty. How could we treat foreign investors as ordinary people?"

This person...

Forget it, that's the prevailing attitude now. Let alone foreign investors, any foreigner who comes here gets preferential treatment.

Although he found those words somewhat offensive, Zhang Yan patiently offered some more suggestions.

For example, covering wooden benches with warm-toned upholstery can create a cozy and simple atmosphere; promotional slogans hanging on the walls should be in multiple languages...

After picking out seven or eight places, he simply drew a concept diagram, with the standard summarized in eight words: warm and tidy, elegant and appropriate.

After hesitating for a moment, he couldn't help but add a note below, indicating that if this model works well after the trial, it can be promoted to internal services to create a "convenient government service center".

Upon seeing this suggestion, Deputy Director Shen was visibly taken aback for a moment, and then his eyes began to dart around.

However, at this moment, the vice mayor, who also serves as the director of the management committee, and the secretary-general of the municipal government arrived. They were very impressed with Zhang Yan's concept drawing and his suggestion.

Deputy Director Shen was instructed to immediately rectify the situation.

At lunchtime, the vice mayor in charge of publicity also arrived. Three vice-ministerial level officials were serving Zhang Yan alone, which made him both tremble with fear and feel elated.

But this time he absolutely refused to drink so much anymore.

During the casual conversation, Zhang Yan brought up the idea of ​​bringing a film crew to Tianjin to shoot a movie. At first, when he heard that it was an art film about marginalized people, Vice Mayor Chen, who was in charge of economic affairs and external publicity, hesitated.

Upon hearing that it was a story about the capital, their attitude immediately changed to one of wholehearted welcome.

He even handed the matter over to his secretary on the spot, telling Zhang Yan to contact the other party at any time if he encountered any problems.

Although I didn't black out this time.

But after leaving the table, Zhang Yan still felt dizzy. Fortunately, he had notified Wang Zhongqi in advance, and Wang Zhongqi drove him back to his rented house.

Needless to say, the evening will be a banquet for the magazine's leaders.

The next day was spent at the television station and the flour mill.

When toasting with Deputy Director Ma, Zhang Yan made a point of mentioning that he wanted to set up a record company affiliated with the TV station, but he didn't say that he wanted to make it big and strong, only that it was for Chen Hong's career development in film, television and music.

This was the norm at the time, so Deputy Director Ma readily agreed, saying that a symbolic fee would suffice.

Zhang Yan naturally refused, determined not to let the station suffer any losses—the affiliation fee didn't matter; his main goal was to maintain a relative antagonism, so that they wouldn't have to run into trouble with the TV station later when they made money.

…………

After drinking four times in two days and going through all sorts of social interactions, Zhang Yan returned to the capital on the third day.

After arriving in Beijing, he made a point of getting a bath and a haircut, all in anticipation of the interview on "Economic Half Hour" the next day.

The original plan was for Zhang Yan to meet with the CCTV staff in the morning, and then go together to the "Hair Messed Up" production team for actor auditions.

Before the appointed time even arrived, Guan Hu called.

"Brother, something seems off." "How so?"

Zhang Yan felt confused. It was just an audition, and the person being interviewed wasn't even the lead actor. What could possibly go wrong?
"Xu Fan and Jiang Shan just had a huge argument, and it looks like they're about to come to blows!"

"What the hell?"

Zhang Yan was completely confused and asked, "Aren't they good friends? And why would they specifically go to the audition venue to argue?"

"Jiang Shan was supposed to play the third female lead, so I specially arranged for her to come over today to pick up the script and also to show CCTV how our crew auditions—who knew Xu Fan would come too, and the two of them even got into an argument."

Zhang Yan then realized that it was Jiang Shan who had taken the initiative to play the third female lead, but what was there to fight over between the first and third female leads?

“I can’t really explain what happened either, but there’s definitely something going on here!” Guan Hu suggested, “Brother, why don’t you come and take a look first? We can’t let them fight in front of the CCTV reporters.”

"Can't you let them go back first?"

"Then they have to listen to me too!"

Just then, Guan Hu asked in surprise, "Hey, Sister Yujuan, what brings you here? And who is this...?"

After a moment, Guan Hu explained in a low voice, "I told Wu Yujuan a couple of days ago that someone had already played the role of the mistress, but Wu Yujuan still brought a young girl and said that we should take a look at her and maybe she would be more suitable."

I just sent them upstairs. With outsiders around, Xu Fan and Jiang Shan should behave themselves a bit.

Brother, I think they're all after you. To find out what's going on, you'll have to get involved yourself.

Zhang Yan guessed that this matter was most likely related to him, but he didn't seem to have provoked Jiang Shan recently.

After meeting Xu Fan once during the filming of "Da Sa Ba", we basically haven't been in contact.

What on earth are these two up to?

Although he was completely baffled, Zhang Yan wouldn't feel at ease until this potential problem was eliminated.

So he hurriedly went downstairs, called Wang Xiaozhen from CCTV, and postponed the interview by an hour, changing it to a face-to-face meeting in the audition room.

Beep, beep~
Just as he hung up the phone, he heard several car horns behind him. Zhang Yan turned around and saw that Dou Wei had parked his car on the side of the road.

Di~
Dou Wei honked the horn again and waved through the car window, saying, "Let's go, get in!"

"Which vehicle should we get on?"

Zhang Yan said irritably, "I have a lot of things to do. If you want to drink, go find someone else."

"You bastard!"

Dou Wei was displeased: "Didn't you say you wanted to start a record company? I finally found a good talent for you at the National Conservatory of Music. If this is your attitude, then I'll recommend you to someone else!"

"A promising talent from the National Conservatory of Music?"

Zhang Yan asked in bewilderment, "Didn't you say last time that the promising young singers of pop music from the Central Conservatory of Music and the National Conservatory of Music would be poached by song and dance troupes before they even graduated? How come they've found suitable candidates in just a few days?"

"This one is different. This girl has no problem with her skills and even has some creative ability. It's just that she's too ugly. She's been rejected by the song and dance troupe several times."

Generally speaking, song and dance troupes have much more lenient requirements for singers' appearance than for dancers and hosts. If someone can be rejected because of their appearance, how ugly must they be?

Although a singer's voice is the most important quality, if it's too ugly, it will definitely affect their future development.

And speaking of my first signed artist, I chose an ugly one...

“If you don’t have time, then go to the National Conservatory of Music and take a look yourself later—the girl’s name is ‘Han Hong’, and she is a senior in the vocal music department.”

Han Hong?

"Dawn Breaks," "That Sea," "The Heavenly Road," and "Beautiful Myth."

A string of song titles flashed through Zhang Yan's mind, and he immediately changed his mind. So what if he's ugly? Being ugly makes it easier to concentrate and focus on his career!
Zhang Yan instinctively wanted to get in the car, but then remembered that there was still a mess he needed to deal with, so he had to suppress his impulse and said to Dou Wei, "Okay, I will definitely take your recommendation seriously. I will go to the National Conservatory of Music to take a look later. If it is suitable, I will reserve the person in advance."

(End of this chapter)