Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

Chapter 80 A Thousand Reluctances

I left Sohu and boarded a plane back to Shanghai.

The intense negotiations over the past few days have left Zheng Nan exhausted, and she felt a bit airsick as soon as she finally relaxed.

"Take your medicine and calm down." Ding Xiu used his hand to soothe Zheng Nan's breathing.

He took a sip of water, took a deep breath, and after a few minutes, his nineteen-year-old body returned to normal.

"Dealing with big companies is exhausting," Zheng Nan complained.

"The joy of struggling with others is endless. Isn't life all about dealing with different people?" Ding Xiu shared his life experience with his nephew.

"I'll work hard and finalize the script for the web series as soon as I get back." Zheng Nan clenched her fist, cheering herself on.

Enduring hardship and toil now is all for the sake of endless blessings later.

"Are you confident that you can create an urban drama that's distinct from the web series 'Hilarious Men'?" Ding Xiu asked with some concern.

When they first started talking, Sohu only asked Zheng Nan to produce a new web series. But as the talks progressed, Zhang Chaoyang suddenly demanded that the subject matter be limited to urban dramas.

"Yes." Zheng Nan was very confident. In his previous life, when he was a security guard, he watched a lot of movies and TV shows to pass the time and copied them down!

"It's good to have confidence, but don't push yourself too hard. You can wait until you have more options later."³

Currently, we can only cooperate with Sohu, so there are many restrictions.

Once they've developed, they'll have more choices and fewer restrictions.

"Sohu won't last long under Zhang Chaoyang's leadership." Zheng Nan's words sounded like a complaint, but they were actually a statement.

Through these few days of interaction, Zheng Nan's deepest impression of Zhang Chaoyang was that he was stingy.

That's right, a man worth billions is stingy!

Why did Zhang Chaoyang limit web series to urban themes? It's all for the sake of attracting investment!

If Zheng Nan were to film an ancient-themed movie, Sohu would have difficulty attracting investors, so they directly limited the filming subject matter.

Zheng Nan was certain that of the ten million yuan that Sohu contributed, eight million yuan was obtained through investment promotion, and Sohu contributed at most two million yuan.

With such a stingy boss, it's no wonder that Sohu couldn't retain its top executives or farms in its previous life.

As soon as Zheng Nan returned to the company in Shanghai, she received a call from Da Peng.

"Well, Shasha's right next to me too. Mr. Liu told us something—" Dapeng continued, still a little embarrassed.

"Is there going to be some scenes for you two in 'Lady Laughs'?" Zheng Nan guessed immediately.

"Yes." Da Peng was an honest man; he felt that he and Yu Shasha had taken advantage of Zheng Nan in this matter.

"This has nothing to do with the two of you. This is a collaboration between me and Sohu." Zheng Nan sensed the difficulty in Da Peng's words and explained a few more words.

After speaking frankly and explaining the pros and cons, both Dapeng and Yu Shasha breathed a sigh of relief.

Right now, Da Peng and Yu Shasha aren't even considered third-tier celebrities; they still really need some opportunities.

"When will the third season of 'Hilarious Men' start filming? Mr. Liu asked us to go and assist you, so we can learn a lot," Da Peng asked.

It was Zheng Nan who suggested to Liu Chun that they hire the two to assist them.

After all, Zheng Nan was only nominally the producer of "Laughing Lady," which took over the "Laughing Man" project. The specific filming content and plot of the film were to be controlled by Da Peng and Yu Shasha.

To ensure the quality of the "Hilarious" series and not disappoint fans, Zheng Nan suggested that the two of them learn from him for a period of time.

In fact, Zheng Nan had a lot of confidence in the two of them, especially in the greenhouse.

Da Peng is definitely talented; otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to produce the original version of "Men's Diary".

The only difference now is that with the success of "Hilarious Men" as a precedent, it has added a bit of difficulty for the studio.

"I'll contact you when I'm done here." Zheng Nan's plan was to take the two of them to see the play "..." before the Shanghai Theatre Academy started classes.

The third season of "Hilarious Men" has been filmed.

Then I took leave to focus on filming a new web series project.

"Okay, I'll wait for your call."

I had just hung up the phone when another call came in.

When Zheng Nan looked up, he saw that the caller was Zhuang Xinyan, the singer he had been looking forward to.

"Hello Director Zheng, I am Zhuang Xinyan." Zhuang Xinyan spoke with a thick Hokkien accent.

"Um, you don't speak Mandarin?" Zheng Nan had always communicated with Zhuang Xinyan via text message before, this was the first time she had called.

But Zheng Nan remembers that when he listened to Zhuang Xinyan's cover, he didn't notice the accent at all.

Could it be that for people who can sing, speaking and singing are two separate systems?

"She can speak Mandarin, but it's not always accurate." Zhuang Xinyan spoke much better this time, but she still had an accent.

Zhuang Xinyan is only nineteen years old. She has not received professional articulation and pronunciation training. She speaks with a natural Hokkien accent, and her speech is unclear, with no distinction between retroflex and alveolar consonants, and her nasal sounds are indistinct. She also speaks softly and enunciates lightly.

"You've arrived in Shanghai?" Zheng Nan asked.

"Yes, but I'm lost—" Zhuang Xinyan said somewhat flustered.

A girl who had just turned nineteen came to Shanghai alone from Fuzhou. Even though she knew that Zheng Nan was not a bad person and would not lie to her, she still felt a little uneasy.

"Didn't I give you the address? Why didn't you take a taxi here?"

"Taking a taxi is so expensive." Zhuang Xinyan, who hasn't debuted yet and is still earning money, couldn't bear to spend the money on a taxi.

"I'll reimburse you—"

An hour later, Zheng Nan met 19-year-old Zhuang Xinyan downstairs at the company.

My first impression was that she was a very young and shy girl.

"Hello, I'm Zheng Nan." Zheng Nan took the initiative to speak, closing the distance between the two.

"I know, I've seen your 'Hilarious Men' show, it's very funny. I'm a fan of yours, that's why I dared to come," Zhuang Xinyan said softly, her head down.

Zheng Nan was surprised that nineteen-year-old Zhuang Xinyan was so shy and introverted, a stark contrast to her deep voice.

"Let's go eat first. After we eat, I'll show you around my company. If you're willing to sign a contract, we can go to the recording studio this afternoon. I've written a song especially for you."

Writing songs is Zheng Nan's trump card for recruiting singers.

Zheng Nan simply doesn't believe that any singer could dislike a good song.

"Could you reimburse my travel expenses before I arrived?" Zhuang Xinyan asked slowly after a long silence.

"————, I definitely can." Zheng Nan felt he couldn't handle Zhuang Xinyan on his own, so he quickly shook Aya over.

When Aya arrived, it was easier for girls to communicate with each other, and Aya quickly started chatting with Zhuang Xinyan.

Zhuang Xinyan wasn't so shy when facing Aya. After visiting Zheng Nan's company, she smoothly signed a contract with Sennan Entertainment.

The details of the signed contract were basically the same as those of Chen Li's contract.

"Welcome to the Sennan Entertainment family." Zheng Nan said immediately after Zhuang Xinyan signed the contract.

"Boss, what about the song you wrote for me?" Zhuang Xinyan asked timidly.

"Yes, the song you wrote for them," Aya chimed in.

"Here you go." Zheng Nan handed over the lyrics and music that she had prepared beforehand.

Zhuang Xinyan glanced at the song title with curiosity: "Ten Thousand Reluctances".

>