This producer has no bottom line.

I glanced at the time in the bottom right corner of the screen.

October 16th, 1:12 PM.

There are fifteen days left until Alex officially takes over the content center.

Ren Pingsheng replied to Chen Lin's email and arranged to meet at Perfect World on Monday afternoon.

I didn't make an appointment at a coffee shop; I went directly to the other party's company.

Visiting someone's home implies humility. But Ren Pingsheng doesn't care about humility. What he lacks right now is time, not face. There are still fourteen days until November 1st, and every day is burning with anxiety.

Over the weekend, he pulled up all the backend data for the JX3 (Sword Net 3) series.

The site garnered 1.2 million views in 48 hours and surpassed 2 million views in 72 hours. It also redirected 34,000 new registered users to the official JX3 website, with a 41% retention rate the following day.

Two copies of this data were printed, one for Guo Weiwei and one to be taken to Perfect Time and Space.

At 2 PM on Monday, Ren Pingsheng stood at the entrance of the Perfect World building.

The receptionist notified Chen Lin, and five minutes later a woman in her thirties came out of the elevator. She had shoulder-length short hair, wore a gray suit jacket, and walked with a confident stride.

"Mr. Ren, I've heard so much about you."

"Mr. Chen, you're too kind. Just call me Pingsheng."

Chen Lin smiled and led him inside, not to the conference room, but to her own office.

Once the door is closed, there's no need for pleasantries.

"I'll be frank," Chen Lin said, bringing over two glasses of water and sitting behind her desk. "I've seen the data from your collaboration with JX3, and it's very impressive."

"How did you see it?"

"Guo Weiwei posted a screenshot in an industry group last week. Although the image was heavily blurred, everything that needed to be seen was visible."

Ren Pingsheng cursed inwardly; Guo Weiwei's ability to quietly amass wealth was completely at odds with his baby face. But then he thought, it wasn't all bad. Guo Weiwei sharing data in the group was essentially giving him free credit endorsement.

"So, what did Mr. Chen want to talk to me about?"

"Jade Dynasty 2 has been online for almost a month. The data is not bad, but it has not met expectations."

Chen Lin pulled a table from the folder and pushed it to the center of the desktop. Registered users, daily active users, and paid users were plotted on the same graph.

Registrations are increasing, daily active users are decreasing, and the paid subscription rate is stable.

A classic case of starting strong but ending weak.

"We've spent a lot of money on traditional channels, including Zhou Xun's endorsement fee, a prime-time slot on CCTV, and posters in internet cafes across the country, totaling eight figures."

Chen Lin's finger touched the declining line of daily active users.

"But the cost of acquiring young users is getting higher and higher. The 15 to 25-year-old group doesn't watch TV shows or browse portal homepages; they spend their time on Baidu Tieba, QQ groups, and Youku."

Ren Pingsheng didn't respond, waiting for her to finish speaking.

"I need content that can resonate with this group of people. I have the budget, but I don't know what kind of content to make."

"How it's made depends on what effect you want."

"Registration conversion".

"Then we can't shoot about the brand's flaws, we have to shoot about content."

Chen Lin's eyes lit up. "Specifically?"

Ren Pingsheng did not answer immediately, but instead asked a question in return.

"Mr. Chen, have you considered collaborating on short dramas similar to those in JX3 (Sword Net 3)?"

Chen Lin's fingers paused on the table for a moment.

"I've considered it."

"But it was rejected?"

"Teng felt that the tone of 'Zhu Xian' was not suitable for comedic content."

Ren Pingsheng understood. Teng He, the man who pointed at Zhou Xun's poster and said "Tianlong has already lost." He looked down on the approach of "Unexpectedly," thinking it was lowbrow stuff.

But Chen Lin clearly didn't think so. As someone in the marketing department, she was much more sensitive to data than the producers sitting on the platform.

"Mr. Chen, would you like to hear the truth or just polite words?"

"The truth."

"The problem with Jade Dynasty 2 is not the wrong promotion channels, it's that your content is too pretentious."

Chen Lin did not speak.

"Zhou Xun's endorsement is indeed top-tier, but young users don't buy into that. What they want isn't admiration, but resonance. If you show a college student earning 2,000 yuan a month Zhou Xun wearing an ethereal red dress saying 'Zhu Xian awaits your challenge,' his first reaction won't be to want to play the game, but rather to feel that the game has nothing to do with him."

Chen Lin's lips twitched slightly.

"So what is your proposal?"

Ren Pingsheng placed the printed data on the table, then took out a sheet of A4 paper from his bag, the same type as the one he had shown to Guo Weiwei.

"Instead of making a sequel to 'Unexpectedly,' we'll create a completely new project, a modern-day story, where the protagonist is an ordinary person addicted to online games. Each episode will be five minutes long, with twelve episodes per season. Your game will be integrated into the plot, not just a random pop-up."

Chen Lin picked up the paper and read it twice.

Who owns the IP address?

"It's in my hands."

"You're still with Sohu, right?"

"It won't be like that next month."

Chen Lin put down the paper and leaned back in her chair. She sized up Ren Pingsheng for a few seconds; her gaze wasn't one of suspicion, but rather of assessing his worth.

How much will it cost to produce?

"Seven hundred thousand, three-month cycle."

"Cheaper than giving it to JX3?"

"JX3 is exclusive, you are not."

Chen Lin raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean?"

"It means this project can accommodate product placements from multiple brands, and Jade Dynasty is one of them. The less money you pay, the different benefits you receive."

"How exactly are they divided?"

"Zhu Xian has the rights to product placement and co-production credits, but not exclusive broadcasting rights."

Chen Lin quickly did the math. Spending 700,000 yuan on a co-production with deep product placement, and if the content could replicate the data performance of JX3, the customer acquisition cost could be reduced to one-fifth of that of traditional channels.

No matter how you look at it, this is a win-win situation.

"I need to report to Mr. Teng."

"I understand, but I also need a timeframe."

"One week."

Five days.

Chen Lin looked at him, stood up, and extended her hand.

Five days.

After leaving the Perfect World building, Ren Pingsheng took out his phone.

Two unread messages.

The first message was from Guo Weiwei: "The data from the 72-hour period is out, and the operations team is crying and begging for a budget increase. I'll give you a formal reply next week."

The second message was posted by Sister Zhao, and it only contained six characters:

"Alex came and rummaged through the closet."

Ren Pingsheng stood by the roadside, clutching his phone, the October wind rustling the roadside trees.

Alex couldn't wait until November 1st.

He put his phone back in his pocket and hailed a taxi.

"Master, Wudaokou."

As the taxi merged into the traffic, Chen Lin was standing at the entrance of Tenghe's office on the nineteenth floor of the Perfect World building.

"President Teng, Ren Pingsheng, the short drama producer at Sohu, is leaving the company."

Teng He lifted his eyelids from behind the screen.

"What does this have to do with me?"

"He has two orders from game clients and is about to receive his third."

Teng He's fingers stopped on the keyboard.

"Who is the third one?"

"us."