Chapter 163: Leeching Editors
Translator: Lonelytree Editor: Millman97
There were not that many people there, but they were concentrated at one spot. When Ye Shuang arrived, she could hear the sound of an argument. When she got closer, she realized that the center of the crowd was rather chaotic.
Two girls were fighting, and it was a full-on girl fight with hair pulling and face scratching. There was a man trying to stop the fight, but he was no match for the powerful female. He not only failed to stop the fight but was scratched instead. His hair was a mess, and his glasses were titled to the side. Ye Shuang wiped the cold sweat that was forming on her forehead. She had thought that the quality of students here would be higher since it was a famous school, but it looked like that was not true either. She quickly messaged Xiao Zhu Hou, asking him to change the location.
There was no reply to the message, and the fighting girls’ screams completely covered all sound there. “If you dare to steal other woman’s man, then you have to be prepared to face the consequences. Little b*tch acting pure‽”
Ye Shuang could see that the girl who was cornered was flustered did not seem to know what was happening. The man tried to stop the fight but was injured again. Finally, he screamed, “Enough!”
When the scream left the man’s lips, Ye Shuang identified it as the voice of Xiao Zhu Hou, who she heard on the phone earlier. Little Brother Ye, on the other hand, did not know who he was, and he was shocked by what he saw. “These are the students of this famous university‽”
After a pause, he asked, “Are the rest of them not going to do anything‽”
Ye Shuang wiped the sweat that had reformed on her brow. “It probably just started or else there would be a bigger crowd and we wouldn’t have seen this.”
As she said so, there were others who came to break up the fight, and they were followed by guards in black uniform. They probably came over when they heard there was fighting.
The aggressive girl was soon apprehended. When the guards had theirs hands over the girl’s arms to pull her back, she used her legs to try to kick at the other girl. “B*tch, you wait! I’ll be back!”
“You again‽” One of the security guards sighed when he saw the girl. Then he turned to look through the crowd. When he saw Xiao Zhu Hou, the helplessness on his face increased. “Your girlfriend comes to the university to create trouble and threaten the safety of other students every two or three days—do you know how bad that is?”
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry…” Xiao Zhu Hou apologized profusely, but the helplessness was reflected on his face as well.
“Oh, a repeated offender.” Little Brother Ye nodded and then turned to pity Xiao Zhu Hou. “With a girlfriend like that, life is going to be hard for this brother.”
Reality was stranger than fiction. Ye Shuang thought being a dork was as bad as it was going to get, but the reality was even worse than she thought. The guard quickly hauled the troublemaker away and dispersed the crowd. A few of the girls, who were probably friends with the assaulted girl, carried her to the medical room. Xiao Zhu Hou lowered his head to grab his phone when Ye Shuang dragged the confused Little Brother Ye over. “Xiao Zhu Hou?”
Xiao Zhu Hou was startled. He lifted his head and was shocked to see a beautiful girl standing before him. He thought about it and was reminded of the female voice on the phone. “You’re Ye Shuang‽”
Little Brother Ye was equally shocked. “This unlucky brother is Xiao Zhu Hou‽”
Xiao Zhu Hou was embarrassed, knowing the two had probably witnessed the fight. “We’d better go somewhere else.”
Ye Shuang noticed the curious gazes the crowd kept tossing their way.
Xiao Zhu Hou nodded and brought them to a different shop. This time, he did not dare dine outside but selected the most secluded spot there was to sit down. After they ordered their drinks, just as Ye Shuang was about to say something, Little Brother Ye curiosity got the better of him. “What was that love triangle earlier‽”
When he finished, Ye Shuang kicked him under the table. The boy had the uncanny ability to poke at other people’s wounds at the most unsuitable of times. Xiao Zhu Hou chuckled mirthlessly. “The attacker is my girlfriend, and the attacked is my classmates. My girlfriend is studying at a normal university. She probably worries that I’ll look down on her due to her education, so whenever a member of the opposite sex tries to approach me, she thinks that I’m cheating on her…”
“You’re right. Your girlfriend looks normal and has a normal education—no wonder she’s afraid of you abandoning her.” Ye Shuang did not mind mocking people either.
Actually, Xiao Zhu Hou was not that handsome. He had the presence of a bookworm, but he was the student of a famous university, and that added plenty to his future potential. Some might say that the degree might not be as important as ability and while that had a kernel of truth to it, it did not mean that those with excellent degreed did not have ability. Based on probability, the chance of graduates from famous universities getting high positions was still higher than the masses. The latter would have one or two with immense talent among several hundreds of them.
Otherwise, why would everyone fight to enter famous universities? Everyone could have left high school to focus on training their ‘ability’.
Xiao Zhu Hou did not know how to answer, and the drinks came just in time to save him from the awkwardness. He picked it up to drink, but Little Brother Ye threw in another jab. “I’m impressed you’re able to stomach such a personality, why didn’t you break up? Is this true love‽”
“I… Erm, don’t know how to say.” Xiao Zhu Hou had considered breaking up but whenever he brought this up, the girl would threaten to kill herself. There was this one time when the school admin was involved to negotiate the situation.
Telling Xiao Zhu Hou to answer a history-related question was easy, but even a research student at famous university was powerless before this kind of shrew. This was the mistake of his youth. With everyone egging him on, he found a girlfriend, but she refused to let him go when he managed to get into Fudan. It was not easy to broach the topic of breaking up now.
“Let’s move away from personal problem!” Seeing how tense the atmosphere was getting, Ye Shuang quickly changed the topic. “Let’s talk about the cooperation.”
Speaking of his own expertise, Xiao Zhu Hou felt better and calmer. “You want to buy the rights for the Nan Bei Dynasty’s Oligarchy of Nobility? I already have a contract with the company, so my word cannot be finally. You still need to get the company to say yes.”
“Buying the rights is one thing, but the main thing is I wish for you to cooperate with us.” Ye Shuang nodded. “I haven’t told you in detail before, but I’m looking for a scriptwriter, and the contract will be offered by Tian Mo Media.”
“Tian Mo‽” Xiao Zhu Hou’s hands shook. Entering the field of scriptwriting was notoriously difficult. Big companies were uninterested in the scripts of outsiders and preferred to work with known scriptwriters. Unknown writers had no way of reaching the higher ups, so their works were often left to rot and decay. The starting point for most scriptwriters was to become a ghostwriter for other known writers. The scriptwriter would provide the genre, scope, frame, and character, and then the project would be handed to the group of creative writers to come up with the plot. In the end, these ghostwriters would not have the chance to put down their name. All they could do was wait for their time to come.
Why didn’t the ghostwriters go it alone‽ Sure, but how were they going to do that‽
Companies rarely paid attention to outside scripts, and they would not have time for an unknown writer.
However, the cooperation suggested by Ye Shuang was different. She was a direct representative of Tian Mo Media. The contracted writer could skip the red tape and get to the heart of production directly. There was no worry of being left to the side, and he would not need to worry about the middlemen—editors—sucking him dry. Of course, there was a prerequisite to all this—a quality script or story.
“You can provide the novel, and Tian Mo will find people to edit it into a script, but the fee of editing will be taken out from your bonus, like 100 for 1,000 words. Based on the general length of current scripts, let’s say there’s 30,000 words in the end, the fee would be 3,000.” Ye Shuang took a sip of her drink. “If you have mastered how to write a script, then of course, you can provide the script directly. Personally, I don’t think it’s hard. As long as you can learn the necessary skills and format, I believe it can be learned within three months.”
Xiao Zhu Hou listened patiently. “How about the bonus? How is that calculated?”
“Five to ten percent of the sponsorship amount will be your bonus. The actual number will be confirmed during the contract,” Ye Shuang explained. “In other words, the better the script, the more faith it will garner in the sponsors and the higher your pay.
“However, if no one’s interested, the whole script can be considered a waste of time. I suggest you hand over a general frame to the sponsors before you start writing. That way, you can gauge how it will go over with the sponsors, but if you have confidence, you can hand in a full script. If it’s really good, perhaps you might get paid instantly…”
Basically, after Ye Shuang got the rudimentary agreement from Xiao Zhu Hou, she could add him to the list of interested writers. Ye Shuang would gather all the names first before going to the company.
Even though Tian Mo Media had been suppressed by Miao Yi over the past few years, it was an established company. The name was enough to convince some people, useful for garnering cooperative partners.
Xiao Zhu Hou was interested in the contract, but he said that he needed the final permission from the company. Therefore, after a brief conversation, making sure of Xiao Zhu Hou’s interest, she added his name to the storage of talents.
Before they parted, Ye Shuang asked, “By the way, did you receive the invitation to the annual symposium?”
“Hmm? I did…”