Rebirth 1983: Building My Business Empire-Chapter 547 - 530: Venturing into Television Dramas

Su Heyuan’s engagement party was a small affair hosted by Su Hu for family and friends. The charity gala would be attended by many social elites, and lots of media outlets were expected to show up; it would be Lu Jiaxin’s first appearance in the social media spotlight.

Zong Shimeng made a point of calling her up to advise that it would be best to prepare an extra gown for the gala, just in case of unexpected incidents.

Zong Shimeng recounted, "I once went to a banquet where a waiter got bumped by a guest, and the drinks accidentally spilled all over my dress. Luckily, I had brought an extra set, otherwise it would have been quite embarrassing."

Lu Jiaxin thanked her with a smile and then asked, "Will there be a place to change at the gala?"

Zong Shimeng, drawing on her experience, replied, "There is a place to change. But make sure to have your female bodyguard accompany you if you go to change; it prevents the uninvited from barging in."

"Jiaxin, you’re quite wealthy now, and not just those men looking for shortcuts but even some of Hong Kong’s young masters want to marry you, so you must be careful at these events."

"I’m not trying to scare you, but there was a rich heiress who got taken advantage of while changing clothes. It became a huge scandal, and after that, the girl settled abroad and never returned."

Lu Jiaxin thought that sounded about right. In some places on the Mainland, if a girl was mistreated by a man, due to ignorance, she might still marry him even knowing it was a trap, which is simply inhuman. Thankfully, such occurrences all but disappeared as society progressed; otherwise, just hearing about it could raise her blood pressure.

"Did that bastard get punished?"

Zong Shimeng explained, "It turns out that guy was also a pawn; the mastermind was an admirer of the girl’s fiancé. She wanted to ruin the girl’s reputation and then marry her fiancé. In the end, the guy got five years in prison, and the woman was sentenced to twelve years."

Lu Jiaxin chuckled, "So I have to be wary of both men and women?"

Zong Shimeng indeed believed that, since both were highly sought after: "Just have Miao Na stick close to you and don’t give those people a chance."

Lu Jiaxin found it amusing, "Sister Shimeng, to those who know, I’m going to a charity gala, but to those who don’t, it might as well be a battlefield!"

Zong Shimeng laughed, "Actually, socializing is its own kind of battlefield, albeit one without visible smoke from gunfire."

Lu Jiaxin wasn’t interested in such battlefields. She had no need for society wife networking and would attend only those banquets that were useful or meaningful to her in the future.

When Nie Zhan returned in the evening, Lu Jiaxin even asked him if he had ever encountered anything peculiar at parties: "Today, Sister Shimeng told me about some incidents at banquets. There are people who fake accidents for compensation, those who wheedle their way in with an invitation to seek investments, and others with ulterior motives hoping to latch onto a wealthy patron."

Nie Zhan gave it some thought and replied, "At high-end receptions, those with impure intentions or looking for sugar daddies can’t get in; otherwise, those who let them in would be blacklisted. As for investments, if the project is good, there are plenty of takers and no need for methods that would repulse people."

Lu Jiaxin recalled what Tian Pengyu had said and laughed, "That’s not always the case. Like with making movies, sometimes there’s a great script, but if the screenwriter is unknown, no one invests. That’s when you need someone with a good eye to spot such talents."

Nie Zhan chuckled, "What now, you’re planning to make another movie?"

Lu Jiaxin shook her head, "No, this time I want to make a TV series, a melodramatic saga full of love, hate, and wealthy family drama."

Hearing the description, Nie Zhan lost interest.

Lu Jiaxin said with a smile, "You don’t like it because you were born into a wealthy family. For us ordinary citizens, we love to watch the melodramatic stories of love and hate within the rich families."

Thirty years later, such plots are still not outdated, much less now. Of course, both male and female characters have to be handsome and beautiful; that’s what makes it pleasing to the eye.

Nie Zhan had a deadpan expression: "Wealthy families don’t have that many love and hate intrigues."

Lu Jiaxin chuckled, "Just your Nie Family could be turned into a TV drama. Hmm, when the time comes, the second female lead could be modeled after your love-brain mommy."

Well, Nie Zhan had nothing to say to that.

When Lu Jiaxin said she was going to do something, she did it. The next day she started writing the screenplay. Although she had watched many Hong Kong dramas and brushed through popular Japanese and Korean idol dramas in her previous life, like the last time, she only wrote an outline for the script. For the specific content, she still planned to find a professional screenwriter to write it.

After finishing the outline, Lu Jiaxin went to find Tian Pengyu.

Tian Pengyu thought the outline was good and the story was complete, but the content was too much and not concise enough: "A two-hour movie can’t cover all this. Boss, a lot of content here will have to be cut down when the time comes."

"This is a TV drama script, not a movie script."

Tian Pengyu started to read it again, seriously, "Boss, why don’t you write the whole script yourself?"

Lu Jiaxin replied, "It won’t cost much to ask a gold-medal screenwriter to help write it. By the way, hasn’t our company trained two batches of trainees? How are they doing now?"

Tian Pengyu immediately praised the two batches of trainees they had recruited, saying the students were not only good-looking but also hardworking: "Some have already cameoed in movies several times, and directors have praised them as being spirited. Boss, shall we not invite outsiders this time and just use our own company’s people?"

Lu Jiaxin wasn’t going to be led into a trap: "Important roles have to be cast based on fit. If an actor or trainee from our company is suitable, then we will definitely use our own. If not, we still have to look outside."

The lead female character in this script is a young heiress from a wealthy family, whose family owns a jewelry store and a clothing factory. Although she is capable of running the company well, her father, favoring sons over daughters, plans to leave it to his illegitimate son. The story revolves around the family, from their power struggles and emotional entanglements to how the company resists the tides of time and industry life cycles in order to reform and continue.

What could Tian Pengyu say but agree with whatever the boss said: "Okay, I’ll contact the two editors we’ve worked with before right away, as their soap operas are very well-written."

The cast for the boss’s work definitely has to be the best, otherwise it would tarnish the reputation. Screenwriters need to be top-notch, the director has to be good at soap operas, and costumes and props must be top-quality too...

With that in mind, Tian Pengyu asked, "Boss, what’s your budget?"

Lu Jiaxin hadn’t really thought about it, and said, "You handle it yourself. Oh, and like last time, TV dramas involving professional knowledge must be overseen by experts."

She didn’t want her TV drama to become a joke. Like many plots in later generations that were not rigorous enough or purely imagined, the shows ended up being relentlessly criticized by professionals.

Tian Pengyu said with a smile, "Of course, we can’t pretend to know things we don’t."

Their company’s movies up to now only had "Legally Blonde"’s costumes and jewelry provided by Green Forest and Five Auspicious, personally handled by the boss’s wife, naturally enjoying a different kind of treatment. However, for this TV drama, the costumes and jewelry wouldn’t be a concern either.

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