Chapter 310 - Moon Like Frost
In the chaotic food stall, two middle-aged men were sitting together and drinking. One of them was Li Heng, who had sent Xia Wanyuan a script. Sitting beside him was the original author of "Moon As Frost", Yang Jiu.
"Old Yang, I'm sorry. Perhaps I shouldn't have let you come to Beijing to earn a living back then." Li Heng drank a mouthful of wine and looked at the blurred lights in front of him. He felt suffocated.
"If not for you back then, I would have starved to death. I've never blamed you. All these years, I don't know what I've been persisting in. In the end, there's no place for me to settle down in this prosperous capital city."
In the early years, Yang Jiu was also a very popular online novel author. He had earned a lot of money and bought a house in Beijing. It could be said that he had established his roots in Beijing.
Over the years, IP adaptations were popular. Yang Jiu was a stubborn person. He had seen too many examples of adaptations that had been destroyed. He did not want his blood and sweat to be ruined by others and had rejected many chances.
A few months ago, when they were discussing cooperation, the investor had said that he would definitely respect the novel and the author's opinion. However, when Yang Jiu received the revised script, he realized that his novel was in a mess. It had completely changed.
He would rather not have money than let those people defile his work like this. Hence, he terminated his contract with the investor at that time. Of course, he also paid a large sum of compensation.
Yang Jiu calculated that after he sold the house, he could fill in the final payment. Then, he would bring his family back to his hometown in Nanjing. During the years he had been in Beijing, he would treat it as a dream.
"Alright, this toast is to you, Brother Li. Let's meet again someday." The thirty-year-old man, Yang Jiu, had bloodshot eyes as he raised his glass at Li Heng.
The clinking of glasses was the sound of parting flute and dream breaking confusion.
He staggered back to his house. His virtuous wife was waiting for him at the door. Yang Jiu felt guilty. If he didn't take it so seriously, his wife wouldn't have to follow him everywhere now. However, he couldn't convince himself to cater to those investors.
"Ah Rong, I want to sell the house. Let's go back to our hometown in Nanjing."
"Okay." His wife nodded. She had a gentle smile on her face, but her eyes were filled with worry. "As long as we're together, there's nothing to worry about. I'll go and pack my luggage."
"I'm sorry, I…" Yang Jiu choked as he looked at his wife's back. He suddenly wondered if his persistence had any meaning.
He had clearly turned a blind eye to it so that his wife and children would not have to wander about. Was it really worth it to make my family suffer with me for that little bit of faith in my heart?
Yang Jiu did not sleep the entire night. The ashtray on the balcony was already filled with ashes.
The sky gradually lit up. Yang Jiu sighed and took out his phone to find the investor's number.
If he was alone, he would not bow down to the capital even if he had to eat sh * t. However, he had family and he could not let them suffer with him.
With trembling hands, Yang Jiu hesitated a few times before finally deciding to make a call.
However, before he could make the call, Li Heng called.
"Hello." Yang Jiu, who had not slept the entire night, sounded tired.
"Old Yang! Quick, get ready. See you at Time Cafe at ten o'clock. Xia Wanyuan has agreed to accept our script!!!" Li Heng was extremely excited over the phone. "Don't forget! I'll go and prepare the documents first. Bye."
Yang Jiu was still a little stunned when the call was hung up. He didn't expect Xia Wanyuan to accept his script, but no matter what, this was a turning point.
Once the main lead was confirmed, he could start to pull in investments. This meant that he had a chance to catch his breath.
He had watched the drama "The Long Ballad" before, and he was certain that if Xia Wanyuan acted as his main character, she would definitely play this role well.
His wife was still packing when she saw Yang Jiu excitedly changing and washing up.
"Honey, don't pack for now. I'll go out for a while and wait for me to come back." Then, Yang Jiu left the house.
In Time Cafe, even though they had already seen Xia Wanyuan's shocking beauty on television, Li Heng and Yang Jiu were still stunned when they saw her standing in front of them.
"Hello, I'm Xia Wanyuan."
"Hello, I'm Li Heng. He's the author of 'Moon Like Frost', Yang Jiu." Xia Wanyuan's cold voice woke them from their daze and they hurriedly introduced themselves.
"I've seen your script. It's written very well. When will we be on set?"
"Huh?" Li Heng and Yang Jiu were shocked. They had never seen such a straightforward actor before. She entered the production team just like that?
"It's like this. We're a small production team, and the investors haven't arrived yet, so we can't start for the time being." After knowing that Xia Wanyuan was going to act in "Moon As Frost", Li Heng sent emails to some film companies. Some of them already had intentions of investing, but they didn't have the time to finalize the details.
"No investors?" Xia Wanyuan frowned slightly.
Yang Jiu's heart sank when he saw Xia Wanyuan's expression. Even he felt that asking Xia Wanyuan to act in a drama where their funds had yet to gather was making her suffer. He thought this cooperation could not be negotiated.
"Although we lack money, I…" Li Heng still wanted to find other reasons to persuade Xia Wanyuan.
"I can be an investor." Xia Wanyuan interrupted Li Heng. "50 million? 100 million? How much do you need? Just give me a detailed report."
"...….."
Until Xia Wanyuan left the coffee shop, the two of them still seemed to be in a dream.
"Did she just say that she wanted to invest?"
"Mm."
"She also said that you will personally write the adaptation of the script, right?"
"Mm."
"I think she must be a god sent by the heavens to save us."
"Mm."
————
After confirming her cooperation with the production team of "Moon As Frost", Tang Yin rejected the other scripts.
"What? Xia Wanyuan rejected our script?" The director of "Above the Moon Palace" was in disbelief. If not for the fact that Xia Wanyuan had attracted a lot of fans and had the gimmick of elegance, such a big production like his would never have been acted by Xia Wanyuan.
I didn't expect this little celebrity to be so ungrateful? Not only did she reject my script, but she even turned around and chose a small production team that was not even fit to carry shoes for "The Moon Palace". Isn't this clearly slapping my face?
"She don't know what's good for her. Forget it. Let's not calculate anymore. The Bai Lian that came to the audition last time, inform her to come over."
"Alright."
There had been many opinions online about Xia Wanyuan's upcoming drama. Over the past few days, the production team of "Above the Moon Palace" had followed Xia Wanyuan's Weibo. Everyone guessed that Xia Wanyuan was going to act in "Above the Moon Palace".
A group of anti-fans was jealous of Xia Wanyuan's good resources. Many passers-by were also somewhat puzzled. How could Xia Wanyuan receive such good resources?
Soon, the official Weibo account of "Above the Moon Palace" began to announce the actors. What was surprising was that Xia Wanyuan was not included.. This triggered everyone's discussion, and many haters took the opportunity to appear.