บท 25: Still Too Young
บรรณาธิการ: Henyee Translations
Meng Lang had no knowledge of this rating incident online. Even if he did know, he wouldn't care.
The shooting went on. Balala the Fairies was almost completed and he had to hurry up to finish the last bit, before it started snowing in Jiangchuan.
It was almost New Year and all members of the crew were in high spirits.
The shooting was almost over. Lin Xue, one of the main actresses of the show, had finished all her scenes as Yan Lili, and was the first main actress to leave the crew.
Yang Yuqing and Li Nana were the next ones to leave.
Blue Fairy and Moon Fairy had left.
Tao Mi was the last one to leave…
On the last day, Meng Lang didn't organize some "after party" like all other shows, because New Year had just passed and Chinese New Year was coming, which made everyone rather busy.
Of course he could hold one, but it wasn't necessary.
Entering 2015, Thunderbird Studio, which was located in Zhonghai, was going to start its winter vacation as well.
By then, they were still half a month away from finishing the special effects of Balala the Fairies.
"No! You have to finish it before the 8th day of the lunar year. Otherwise, I'll have a lot of trouble with my schedule!" Meng Lang prompted.
Thunderbird found themselves in an awkward situation. The person in charge gave Meng Lang the latest update on Wechat, then said resentfully, "Director Meng, please cut us some slack! Creating special effects isn't setting up building blocks. We can't do it that fast!"
"I'll pay you more!"
The other side sent him a "rich dude, please be my friend" meme.
"It's not about money…"
"I'll pay extra! I'll cover your overtime!"
"Well… all right!"
As much as the programmers wanted their holiday, they surrendered to reality.
With enough money, one could get anything done!
Meng Lang was in a hurry, mainly because he had heard some news from CCTV-14.
The broadcasting schedule after the Chinese New Year hadn't been decided yet!
This was great news!
If a show could start broadcast on the first day of the new lunar year, it would be great news for the show, be it the message it sent or the actual viewing rates.
After this time period, the show probably wouldn't be broadcasted until early March when school started.
If they could hand the TV channel the completed work, they would have a chance to take that first time slot. Time wouldn't wait and that was why Meng Lang was in such a rush.
…
Programmers were such amazing creatures!
The work would take them at least half a month on a normal schedule. However, four days after Meng Lang made the request, they handed him the completed show on the 8th day of the new lunar year.
"Thank you so much for your hard work!"
Meng Lang shook hands with their boss, who had big dark circles under his eyes, and he had great respect for these people who had skipped their sleep to have the work done.
He decided that ditching IT for directing was the most correct choice of his life.
Just look at those receding hairlines… They were hopeless!
"You're welcome. I'm glad we didn't delay your schedule. Director Meng, if there's no further questions, we're done here. No one will be there to answer your phone calls during the holiday if you want anything retouched…"
"Don't worry about it! Just enjoy your vacation. The special effects are fantastic. I have no problem with them at all."
After leaving Thunderbird, Meng Lang left for Shangjing right away to visit the National TV Channel.
The schedule of the children's channel still hadn't been determined yet.
Here came his chance!
The big boss who had set Meng Lang up with CCTV-14 was quite influential, so much so that even the National TV Channel couldn't underestimate Meng Lang, a "petty" director.
The discussion went well.
Before he mentioned the influential man's name, the children's channel wouldn't take anything other than "exclusive broadcasting rights" at a price of a mere 50,000 per episode.
Once the name was mentioned, Meng Lang had the bargaining power.
In the end, CCTV-14 bought the first-round broadcast rights at 100,000 per episode.
Not exclusive!
After leaving the National TV's building, Meng Lang sent Mr. Tao a message in the taxi.
"I did it!"
Mr. Tao was confused at first, but after Meng Lang told him about the offer CCTV-14 had made, Mr. Tao saw what he meant.
Great job.gif —
Thumbs up.jpg —
This guy had so many memes stored in his phone!
Venting his sarcasm over Mr. Tao's stash of memes in his head, Meng Lang typed, "Well, Mr. Tao, I've left a great opportunity for you. You have to show me some sincerity with the price you offer me."
"We're too good friends to talk about money…"
"What else are we going to talk about?"
"Stop acting so familiar, you old man!" thought Meng Lang, finding the suggestion a little upsetting.
Mr. Tao wouldn't give a straight answer to Meng Lang's suggestion. He made an excuse, saying that he had no right to make the decision and that he had to ask the director of his TV station first before giving Meng Lang an answer.
That attitude pissed Meng Lang off.
Who had been the one that wouldn't leave him alone?
Now that he had finally talked the National TV out of taking the exclusive broadcasting rights, Mr. Tao started to act like a normal TV channel personnel again!
It was as if Meng Lang (or Balala the Fairies) was a married man who loved his wife (aka CCTV-14) dearly before running into a third woman (aka Jiangchuan Children's Channel). The latter two hit it off immediately and with the homewrecker's instigation, Meng Lang divorced his wife, then tried to marry the other woman. However, this woman then told him, "Oh my, I can't make a decision like that. I'll have to ask my parents (aka the director of the channel)!"
Who the hell did Mr. Tao think he was?
Meng Lang was so pissed that he wanted to pick up a 40-meter long machete and cut Mr. Tao, who was still in Jiangchuan, into pieces.
"We're this close to getting a marriage certificate, and you're telling me that I'm not the father of the child!
"I hope your mother gets double-charged for her groceries from now on!"
Luckily, Meng Lang was still in Shangjing, or Mr. Tao wouldn't live until the next morning.
…
Balala the Fairies was finally scheduled to be broadcasted on the first day of the new lunar year!
That man was indeed as influential as he was said to be!
Without him, Meng Lang wouldn't be able to get into the TV channel's building, let alone having the show broadcasted on that day.
Meanwhile, Penguin started showing Blazing Teens and had received over 10 million hits for a single episode!
That was fantastic!
It was nothing compared with the "hit shows" that had hits over 100 million, but both Meng Lang and Penguin were satisfied with the data.
He had no idea how real the 100 million hits were, but he did know that his 10 million hits were very genuine.
After all, it cost a lot to hire people to create all those hits, and as a "new" director, Meng Lang didn't have that sort of money.
With the good news came the bad news.
Mr. Tao seemed to have a guilty conscience, for he had stopped sending emojis, nor was he willing to reply.
He repeated the same thing over and over again.
"We'll talk after you come back to Jiangchuan…"
Meng Lang was rendered speechless.
He realized that he had walked into Mr. Tao's trap, tricked by his "kind" demeanor.
Had he known this was going to happen, he would have agreed with the National TV and given them the first round exclusive broadcast rights.
With that "exclusive", he would have been able to sell the show for 200,000 an episode at least, if not 500,000!
What about now?
In order to cut losses, Meng Lang spent the next few days flying around the country with the completed work.
Whatever happened, Mr. Tao's business could wait. His top priority now was to sell Balala the Fairies to more TV channels aside from CCTV-14.
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