This producer has no bottom line.

The story framework of the second season is completely different from that of the first season.

Wang Duoyu is no longer fighting alone; he now has a partner—a character who is even more unlucky and useless than him, but whose mouth is even more foul.

Two parallel storylines unfold: one follows Wang Duoyu as he continues to be relentlessly beaten in the game world, while the other follows a new character's independent storyline. The two characters converge in the sixth episode, and then team up to conquer the challenges in the latter six episodes.

Luo Hongming turned to the third page, where the description of the new character was only one sentence:

"He is the opposite of Wang Duoyu. At least Wang Duoyu would struggle, but he has already given up."

give up.

Luo Hongming pondered these two words, recalling how he sat on the dormitory rooftop all night after finishing his final exams last month.

It wasn't because I failed a course, it was because I didn't know what I could do after graduation.

The Department of Language Communication, to put it bluntly, is a broadcasting and hosting major, but he has neither a deep voice nor standard Mandarin, and he doesn't have the kind of formal face that TV stations want.

What can it do?

Voice acting for Hiyori? You wouldn't even get a job for that.

He closed the outline, closed his eyes, and lay down for a while.

The bed at 350 was so hard it hurt my bones. I could hear the clattering of keyboards from the internet cafe next door, and someone outside the window was cursing in their local dialect.

But Luo Hongming slept very soundly; poor people always slept especially well on the night they saw the rope.

At 8:30 a.m. the next morning, he appeared downstairs at the Sohu Building on time.

Ren Pingsheng was already at his workstation, with two contracts spread out in front of him, one stamped and the other blank.

"sit."

Luo Hongming sat down, and Ren Pingsheng pushed the blank copy over to him.

"Internship contract, three months, with a one-month probationary period."

Luo Hongming picked it up and glanced at it. The terms were very simple: Party A was the Sohu Video Innovation Content Planning Team, and Party B was Luo Hongming. The monthly salary was two thousand yuan, with no social security or housing fund.

In Yanjing, that amount of money was barely enough to survive.

"Is there a problem?"

"no."

Luo Hongming signed the contract, and Ren Pingsheng took it away.

"Have you finished reviewing the outline?"

"I've finished watching it."

Tell me about it.

Luo Hongming took out several A4 sheets of paper from his bag. They were covered with annotations, the handwriting was small but neatly arranged.

"The first question is, the new character and Wang Duoyu are supposed to be partners, but they go their separate ways for the first six episodes. Viewers might not know they'll team up until the sixth episode. Won't this lose some viewers who came specifically for Wang Duoyu?"

Ren Pingsheng glanced at him. "Your suggestion?"

"Let them meet in the first episode, even if it's just for ten seconds, a single glance, and the audience will know they'll have further interactions later."

Ren Pingsheng remained silent, waiting for him to continue.

"The second question is that the new character is written as someone who has given up, but if he's depressed from beginning to end, why would the audience want to watch him? There must be a motivation for him to get moving again, and this motivation can't be passion or friendship, because that doesn't fit the overall tone of the show."

"So what do you think it should be?"

Luo Hongming hesitated for a moment.

"money."

Ren Pingsheng leaned back in his chair.

"Go on."

"He gave up everything, but not the desire to make money. Because he was truly poor, so poor that even giving up was a luxury, he wasn't rekindled in his fighting spirit, but rather forced to move forward, only to find himself next to someone even worse off than himself."

"Two unlucky souls who despise each other but have no choice but to team up—this kind of relationship is much more real than any kind of mutual appreciation."

Ren Pingsheng tapped his finger twice on the table.

"Have you discussed these things with your roommate?"

"It was a group chat of four people; they talked in the QQ group until 2 AM last night."

"Have Liu Hao and Song Ming's things sent over today."

"It's already been sent, this morning at seven o'clock."

Ren Pingsheng opened his email and, sure enough, there were two new emails.

Instead of looking at it on the spot, he took the USB drive out of the drawer and plugged it into the computer.

"Get to work. This is the first draft of the script for the first three episodes of season two. You'll be responsible for the storyboard draft. No need to draw, just write descriptions. Mark the number of shots and estimated duration for each scene."

Luo Hongming took the USB drive and sat down at the empty workstation next to him.

Xiao Lin leaned closer and whispered, "Ping Sheng, is he alright?"

"If it doesn't work, change it."

Ren Pingsheng spoke softly, but loud enough for Luo Hongming to hear.

Luo Hongming didn't turn around; he had already opened the document and started reading.

At noon, Sister Zhao went to the cafeteria to get her lunch. She brought back an extra portion and placed it on Luo Hongming's table.

"Eat up, the cafeteria food isn't great, but it's filling."

"Thank you, Sister Zhao."

Sister Zhao patted him on the shoulder, as if he were her own son.

At 2 p.m., Ren Pingsheng finished reading Liu Hao and Song Ming's works.

Liu Hao's cuts are cleaner and more rhythmic than Luo Hongming's, but they lack that quirky edge.

Song Ming's jokes are indeed funny, but they vary in quality; out of ten, only three are actually usable.

That's enough. We don't need everyone to be a genius; we need parts that can work together.

He sent Luo Hongming a message: "Have them come next week."

Luo Hongming replied instantly: "Received."

At four o'clock, Dapeng came over.

He stood behind Luo Hongming for a while, but Luo Hongming was so engrossed that he didn't notice that the screen was filled with densely packed storyboard text descriptions, written in extremely detail, even marking the number of steps the actors took.

Da Peng patted the back of his chair.

Luo Hongming turned around with a start and stared blankly for a second when he saw Da Peng's face.

"Hello, Peng...Brother Peng."

"Oh, you know me?"

"Who doesn't know Wang Duoyu?"

Da Peng's lips curled up slightly. He liked this answer.

"I heard you're going to act opposite me?"

Luo Hongming glanced at Ren Pingsheng, but Ren Pingsheng didn't look up, so he had no choice but to nod reluctantly.

Dapeng circled around him, looking him up and down.

"Thin, pale," Da Peng counted on his fingers, "quite a contrast to me."

"It's this face..." He leaned closer to look, "Too serious. Won't he be too reserved when playing a comedic role?"

I also think that Luo Hongming is very honest.

Da Peng chuckled, then turned to Ren Pingsheng and said, "This kid's pretty honest."

Then he plopped down next to Luo Hongming and crossed his legs.

"Let me tell you, to act in this kind of play, you need to have a thick skin. You need to start practicing now. Make funny faces in front of the mirror for ten minutes every day, until you feel like throwing up. That'll be about the beginning."

Luo Hongming nodded attentively, as if listening to a professor's lecture.

"Also, don't let Ren Pingsheng's quiet demeanor fool you; when he's filming, he's like a tyrant. If he tells you to have deadpan eyes, you have to have deadpan eyes; if he tells you to be expressionless, you have to be expressionless. Don't argue with him; you can't win."

"Um."

"I was nearly killed by him in the first season, but it turned out really well, so just bear with it."

Ren Pingsheng interjected from the other end: "Brother Peng, are you helping me or sabotaging me?"

"I'll help you," Da Peng stood up, "giving the newbie a heads-up beforehand, so they won't end up like me wanting to quit."

As he left, he casually grabbed a half-empty bottle of water from Luo Hongming's table and took a sip.

"By the way," he turned to Ren Pingsheng, "what's the name of that new character? You said yesterday it wasn't decided yet."

Ren Pingsheng looked at Luo Hongming.

What do you think?

Luo Hongming thought for a few seconds.

"How about calling him Wang Dachui?"