Chapter 26: Departure

Brother Yan wanted to repay kindness with kindness, but unfortunately, there was no opportunity.

Since Zhang Wuchou wasn't interested, so be it. There is a saying: "Drop the savior complex and respect the destiny of others." It’s quite true.

He bought two cartons of Soft Zhonghua cigarettes, then thought about it and added two more. After all, one can never go wrong with being generous in礼 etiquette.

Shen Yan continued his routine of working on set during the day and writing at night. Wen Zhang had left the production, so Shen Yan now had to go to an internet café to upload his manuscript. Fortunately, it didn't have much of an impact. His efficiency had improved, and he could easily manage 4,000 words per hour.

*The Sovereign of All Ages* had already reached 100,000 followers. Barring any accidents, it was guaranteed to be a "featured" work on its first day. However, getting more subscriptions would be difficult—or rather, basically impossible. After all, even *Battle Through the Heavens* hadn't managed to break ten thousand first-day subscriptions. Come to think of it, the first novel on Dianniang to break ten thousand individual subscriptions was *Dragon Domain*, and the first to average ten thousand was *A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality*. As for the first to break ten thousand on day one... who knows? The best first-day record was definitely *Circle of Inevitability*, with 180,000!

Shen Yan planned to release ten chapters on the first day. He needed to maintain a daily update rate of 10,000 words, so ten chapters—30,000 words—was already pushing his limits.

Additionally, when Wen Zhang left, he had given him another 20,000 yuan. It was quite generous; Wen Zhang had only been on the set of *National Anthem* for 50 days, and Shen Yan had only collaborated with him for 45. By that logic, 10,000 yuan for the final month should have been enough, but Shen Yan was poor, after all. At this stage, Wen Zhang hadn't become arrogant yet, and his personality was quite decent. Or perhaps he just enjoyed the feeling of being the "big brother," and Shen Yan was very respectful toward him, so he just handed over 20,000 yuan. He even promised to help Shen Yan get a good role in the *Snow Leopard* production. It made sense; having been a subordinate for so long and unable to call the shots at home, it must have been stifling.

...

At the internet café, he uploaded his saved drafts to the draft box. *The Sovereign of All Ages* went live. Shen Yan copied a launch announcement from online, then uploaded ten chapters at once. Looking at his remaining drafts, he had another 100,000 words—enough for ten days. He casually opened Youku to see if there were any original short films. Well, at this time, Youku's focus wasn't original content, but advertisements. He decided to check Tudou instead.

Tudou, which developed rapidly in its early days, was essentially the predecessor to creator platforms like Bilibili. It was the UGC (User-Generated Content) model. At this stage, many videos were simply reposts by users. Later, under the combined influence of copyright regulation, user attraction, and capital struggles, UGC video sites gradually transformed into platforms centered on copyrighted content. The entry of BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) accelerated the integration and mergers of the entire industry, leading to the formation of the three major video platforms: Tencent, iQIYI, and Youku. All three burned money on content—either buying it or producing it themselves—and relied on ads or user subscriptions for profit.

Back then, Tudou had many famous "UPs" (creators): Li Hongchou, Professor Yi Xiaoxing, Laoshi, and Ao Changzhang were all on Tudou. The Professor started on Mop, and Ao Changzhang started on Tieba, but at this stage, they all coincidentally made Tudou their main base. Unfortunately, even as a famous creator, it was hard to make money because the platform didn't have enough to pay them. As Wang Wei said in 2011, "The reason we fell behind is simple: Youku spent 150 million last quarter, while we only spent 35 million in total."

Could self-produced dramas work? Not a chance. At this time, video sites were primarily playback platforms. Sohu even spent 300 million dollars to bundle a bunch of American dramas, including 30 million on the Fox show *Revolution*. The kicker was that the show wasn't even valued in North America! It wasn't until foreign dramas were banned that they started producing their own.

After a rough browse, Shen Yan had a plan. Yes, he still wanted to make self-produced short dramas.

...

The *National Anthem* production started on February 26 and wrapped on April 29. It wasn't bad—a full two months of shooting. As director Gong Ruofei put it, it was "telling a war story through a literary lens." There were relatively few war scenes, given the background was from the 1931 Nakamura Incident to the 1935 release of *Children of Troubled Times*. The July 7th Incident marked the beginning of China's full-scale resistance against Japanese aggression. At the time, the Republic of China forbade the discussion of anti-Japanese topics. Before the Xi'an Incident, Chiang Kai-shek strictly prohibited "anti-Japanese" propaganda to implement his policy of "internal pacification before external resistance." Any media or individual openly promoting "anti-Japanese" sentiment faced severe crackdowns, punishment, or even arrest. Therefore, media and the public had to use substitutes, like "XX" for Japan or "Anti-X" for "Anti-Japanese," to evade censorship. The release of *Children of Troubled Times* actually faced significant hurdles, but it was released in the end. Oh, and "March of the Volunteers" was the theme song of *Children of Troubled Times*. Later, the Chairman commented that "March of the Volunteers" was worth two divisions of troops.

*Young Heroes*, *Bloody Xiangxi*, and then *National Anthem*—Gong Ruofei was definitely a top-tier director for Hunan TV. Unfortunately, such dramas didn't "align" with audience aesthetics. Gong Ruofei later shot *Legend of the Great River*, which failed to air on satellite TV. Later, Zhang Li's screenwriter Zhang Ting shot *The Great River*, which had a story essentially identical to *Legend of the Great River*, but it didn't help much. Even Zhang Li was considering filming *Jiangshan Bu Hui* and *Wu Dong Qian Kun*. In an interview, he said, "It's a hard metric, there's no way around it. Even tough-guy dramas have to hook female audiences, like those 'fujoshi'..." When a reporter asked if he understood fujoshi, he replied, "I have to learn." Heh.

...

In his room, Shen Yan packed his things and said goodbye to Zhang Wuchou.

"Uncle, I'm heading out!"

"...Shouldn't you say goodbye to our assistant director?"

"Yeah, I'll go in a moment."

Shen Yan nodded. Regardless of anything else, he only got into the *National Anthem* production because Cui Weidong introduced him, so he definitely had to express his gratitude. Usually, when a casting middleman introduces someone, they take a cut. Cui Weidong had introduced Shen Yan as a favor to his second uncle, so Shen Yan had to show his appreciation. That’s how human relations work.

"...Remember to buy two cartons of cigarettes!"

"I know, I already did!" Shen Yan opened the plastic bag he was carrying: "Two cartons of Soft Zhonghua!"

"...I heard Assistant Director Cui likes antiques and relics..."

Shen Yan rolled his eyes: "Uncle Zhang, look at how much money I have in my pocket. Can I afford antiques?"

"I was just saying..."

"Alright, I'm off to find him. Hopefully, we'll see each other again!"

Zhang Wuchou nodded: "I'll walk you out."

"...Sure."

As they walked and chatted, Shen Yan asked, "What are your plans after this, Uncle Zhang?"

"Going to Hengdian... A friend of mine said they need actors who can speak Japanese over there..."

"Wow, you can speak Japanese, Uncle Zhang?"

"I've learned a little bit..."