Huayu: This producer has no bottom line.

Chapter 7 Is the Roc superfluous?

Dapeng still didn't come to the company the next day.

I took three days of annual leave, citing personal matters as the reason.

Ren Pingsheng did not contact him proactively; he had been dealing with another matter for the past three days.

Gong Yu gave him personnel authority over the project team, but didn't give him many options.

Innovation projects are essentially testing grounds with uncertain prospects, and anyone with a bit of experience won't jump into the pit.

He doesn't need much.

The first person they contacted was Xiaolin.

Xiaolin is obedient and doesn't pick and choose tasks; she's a qualified helper.

The second one is Sister Zhao.

Sister Zhao worked as a director at Sohu for eight years and was able to coordinate and handle things from all sides.

More importantly, she is already 42 years old, with elderly parents to care for and young children to raise, and still has 20 years left on her mortgage.

The biggest advantage of this type of person is their stability.

When you talk to them, their reactions are completely different.

Xiao Lin agreed almost instantly, his eyes shining, and he said he would work with Brother Pingsheng.

Mu Qiang is unstable, but sufficient.

After hesitating for a long time, Sister Zhao asked a very practical question.

"After the transfer, whose performance evaluation will be based on?"

"With General Manager Gong."

The following afternoon, both of them signed their job transfer applications.

The third candidate is currently vacant; that position is reserved for Dapeng.

Three days later, Dapeng returned.

There was no change in his face; he still had that same carefree, laughing expression.

He made a special trip to Ren Pingsheng's new workstation and left a bag of things there.

"These are local specialties from Pingyin, which I brought for you."

Ren Pingsheng opened the bag, inside were six rose petal cakes. It seemed he was going to Jinan for another three days on a "business trip".

"Sit down." Ren Pingsheng pulled over a chair.

Dapeng didn't sit down; he leaned against the partition with his hands in his pockets.

"I heard you're a team leader now?"

"Um."

"Did General Manager Gong order it personally?"

"Um."

"You're quite something, kid," Dapeng clicked his tongue, "You've really changed a lot in just a few days."

Ren Pingsheng didn't banter with him.

"Brother Peng, I need to film something, but I'm missing an actor."

Da Peng pulled his hand halfway out of his pocket, then stuffed it back in.

"What is it?"

"Web series are short, with each episode lasting five to eight minutes, and each season has twelve episodes, totaling less than two hours."

"What about the subject matter?"

"Hilarious, a story about an unlucky guy who gets transported into a game world and gets thoroughly thrashed in every episode."

Da Peng tilted his head. "It sounds similar to 'Deba De,' both are for laughs."

"It's different. 'Debade' is about telling news stories as jokes, and the audience laughs and leaves. What I want to do is make the audience addicted and want to watch the next episode after they've finished laughing."

"Is there a script?"

"have."

"show me."

Ren Pingsheng took out a few sheets of A4 paper from the drawer and handed them over. These were the outlines for the first three episodes that he had worked on over two nights.

Dapeng took it and stood there watching it for five minutes.

He didn't laugh, but Ren Pingsheng noticed that he went back and rewatched a scene from the second episode twice.

The protagonist died thirty-seven times in the game's dungeons, and each time he revived, he was instantly killed by the same monster. In the end, he broke down and shouted to the sky, "I want to see the game planner!"

"This 'I need to see the planner'..." Da Peng looked up.

"Yes, that's exactly what you mean."

Dapeng put down the paper and remained silent for more than ten seconds.

"You want me to play that unlucky guy?"

"Um."

"Why me?"

"Because you're not afraid of being ugly."

Da Peng raised an eyebrow.

"The worst thing about comedy is having an idol image. You've been doing 'Deba De' for two years, and you've done all sorts of embarrassing things in front of the camera. You've already toughened up your skin. But there's a problem with 'Deba De' that you should know better than I do."

Da Peng didn't reply, and the smile on his face disappeared.

"The ceiling for stand-up comedy is too low," Ren Pingsheng said. "You need a character, a character that makes people think of your face as soon as they hear your name."

These words hit Da Peng's sore spot: viewership follows the show, not the person.

If Sohu stops "Deba De" one day, he will be nothing.

But Da Peng did not agree on the spot.

"I'll think about it." He folded the script, stuffed it into his pocket, turned around, took a few steps, and glanced back.

"Oh, by the way, would you like some soy milk? I'll go buy some."

"Add sugar."

Ren Pingsheng sat back down at his workstation, now understanding the situation.

In the afternoon, Ren Pingsheng went to Changyou.

Changyou's office space is much more luxurious than Sohu Video's, and it earned more than 5 million yuan in Q2.

Ren Pingsheng contacted a mid-level manager in Changyou's marketing department who was specifically in charge of "Tian Long Ba Bu". His surname was Wang, and they had met before when they were promoting the expansion pack.

After a few perfunctory pleasantries, Ren Pingsheng went straight to introducing his new job and explaining his purpose, presenting his proposal.

"The player-transmigration drama of 'Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils' has been developed by Changyou to cover production and promotion costs, and Sohu Video has provided the production team and broadcast channels."

Director Wang flipped through the proposal, his brows furrowing and relaxing intermittently.

"Isn't this type of implant... a bit too soft?"

"Of course not," Ren Pingsheng said. "When the audience laughs, they also remember the game's world view, which is a hundred times better than hard advertising."

Director Wang pondered for a moment, then asked, "What's your budget?"

"Six hundred thousand."

"Six hundred thousand? For twelve episodes?"

"right."

Director Wang looked up at him, his expression somewhat subtle, probably thinking that the number was either too cheap or too frivolous.

"We spend more than that on banner ads on GG in a month."

"So this is a deal that you can't lose no matter how you calculate it. If it works well, you can use the data to brag to your boss. If it doesn't work well, the trial and error cost of 600,000 is not even a fraction of the marketing budget."

Director Wang tapped his fingers twice on the cover of the proposal.

"I need to go through some procedures; please give me a week."

"Three days."

"..."

"I'll contact Lao Li in three days. 'The Deer and the Cauldron' is in the closed beta testing phase, and its budget shouldn't be any less than yours."

"You could just change the script and ask Kingsoft for help. JX3 is launching next month, right? It's a must-have."

"Okay, three days..."

After leaving the swimming pool, Ren Pingsheng bought two cups of soy milk at the convenience store downstairs, one sweet and one salty.

When I got back to the company, Dapeng was at his workstation organizing the script for the talk show "Deba De".

Ren Pingsheng placed the salty soy milk on his desk and took the sweet one back to his workstation.

Dapeng stared at the cup of soy milk, not moving for a long time.

"Don't you know I drink sweet drinks?"

"I know, let's try something different today."

Da Peng looked at him for two more seconds, then suddenly laughed—the kind of laugh that comes from being seen through.

"You little brat!"

"Brother Peng," Ren Pingsheng said to the computer screen without turning his head, "I've basically finalized the production budget with Changyou. It's enough for twelve episodes. I can arrange your payment through a labor cooperation agreement."

Dapeng's hand stopped on the mouse.

"How many?"

"One thousand five hundred per episode, twelve episodes for eighteen thousand."

Dapeng almost spat out his soy milk.

"Are you trying to fob me off like a beggar?"

"Brother Peng, how much is your appearance fee for 'Debade' now?"

Da Peng was speechless. He was paid a base salary plus performance-based pay; the concept of appearance fees didn't exist for him at all.

To put it bluntly, he was just a kept man, doing whatever Sohu told him to do, without any right to negotiate a price.

"Eighteen thousand is quite a lot, and this is only the first season," Ren Pingsheng turned his chair around. "If the data is good, the price will go up in the second season. Once you have a representative work, the price offered to you will not be the same as it is now."

Da Peng didn't say anything, but he picked up the soy milk, inserted the straw, and took a sip.

"Let me see the script again, the complete version."

"It's not finished yet. We'll film three episodes to test the waters first. If the data is good, we'll move on to the next one."

"You're taking it one step at a time, like squeezing toothpaste..." Da Peng muttered, but instead of saying he'd think about it, he asked another question.

"What's this unlucky guy's name?"

Ren Pingsheng paused for a moment.

In my previous life, the protagonist of "Unexpectedly" was named Wang Dachui, and the protagonist of "Greetings, Your Majesty" was named Qin Zhan.

But he didn't want to use either of those names; he wanted a new name.

A name that sounds unlucky, funny, and memorable to the audience after hearing it just once.

"What's your name?" Da Peng asked again.

Ren Pingsheng looked at Da Peng's face: round face, small eyes, naturally comical.

"Wang Duoyu"

"Fish...which fish?"

"The one that can swim."

Da Peng paused for a moment, then burst out laughing.

"Okay, it really is unnecessary."