“Dad, it’s me,” Tan Jinqi greeted his father.
“What the heck? Why is it you?” Tan Wenci’s attitude immediately took a 180-degree turn.
When the rest of the people in the room heard that, they could barely bring themselves to believe that the man on the other side of the phone was the chairman of a successful company.
They also couldn’t help but wonder how far apart their father’s love was for Tan Mo and Tan Jinqi.
Tan Jinqi was utterly speechless by his father’s cold tone, yelling at his father in his head to not embarrass him in front of outsiders.
“Dad, Momo is next to me,” Tan Jinqi said in front of everyone else. “We are having a meeting at Kefeng Films, but Mr. Wu, the manager of the drama business division here at Kefeng Films, thinks that it’s a bad idea for me to direct the drama since this is my first time directing one.”
“Well, he’s not wrong,” Tan Wenci said, which shocked the rest of the crowd once again.
“He also thinks that since Momo has no experience either, so it’s best if they hire a well-established scriptwriter to write the script while Momo will assist him,” Tan Jinqi added.
“What a load of crap!” Tan Wenci roared. “Does he think ‘Legend of Wei and Jin’ is a sh*tty drama?”
Just as Manager Wu thought that Tan Wenci was a person with whom he could reason with because of how the father reacted to his son’s complaint, the father’s attitude took a sharp turn upon mentioning Tan Mo.
“The story is Momo’s idea, and the script was written by Momo as well! Why should they hire another one to write the script? Are they asking Momo to be the assistant? Since when is Momo not a well-established scriptwriter? If he thinks that is the case, then he should ask Liu Runlin and see if the famous director agrees with him or not!”
Tan Jinqi didn’t need to say another word.
“Are you guys still at Kefeng Films?” Tan Wenci asked.
“Yes,” Tan Jinqi replied.
“Wait there! I’ll head over there right now!” Tan Wenci scolded. “Do they think I built this empire just to see my daughter get bullied?”
“Dad!” Tan Jinqi quickly stopped his father, worrying that if he was even a second late, the father would have already stormed into the building. “Momo mentioned that if the drama is a bust, our family will cover all the costs.”
“How is that a problem? We can do that,” Tan Wenci replied, agreeing to it without a hint of hesitation.
“Mr. Wu also doesn’t believe that Momo can represent our whole family. That’s why I called you.” Tan Jinqi finally got to explain the whole situation to his father.
“Is this why you are calling me? Of course, Momo can decide on such a trivial matter.” Tan Wenci had already guessed that Tan Jinqi had turned the speaker on. There was no way he would embarrass his children in front of outsiders.
Of course, he sincerely thought that it wouldn’t be a problem for Tan Mo to decide on the matter.
“Mr. Tan, do you know how much the drama is going to cost?” Manager Wu couldn’t help but ask.
“Of course I do! Isn’t it just $600 million? That’s not even a lot!” Tan Wenci yelled as he rolled his eyes back. “Why would I not know how much the cost of my son’s drama is going to be? Initially, I was thinking of covering the rest of the funding, but now, it seems like your company is looking down on my son and daughter. Son, if that’s the case, I’ll just fund the whole thing myself.”
“Who says we are looking down on them?” Wei Zhiqian’s hurried voice suddenly came from the door.
Everyone quickly turned around. Indeed, Wei Zhiqian was standing by the door.
“What the hell are you guys doing? Do you know how hard it was for me to land this project? Is this how you guys handle things?” Wei Zhiqian scolded his employees and turned to address Tan Wenci. “Mr. Tan, forgive me for my employees’ incompetence.”
“Whatever!” Tan Wenci scoffed. “All I have to say is that Momo can decide for the whole family!”
After the father hung up, Manager Wu finally had a grasp of how important Tan Mo was to her family.
What the young lady had said wasn’t something out of arrogance or a bluff.
“I have a lot of confidence in the drama’s success,” Wei Zhiqian stated. “To be more precise, any scripts that are written by Tan Mo will definitely be a hit.”
“Sir!” It was then the employees remembered they had to greet their boss.
Wei Zhiqian nodded and turned to Manager Wu. “Even if the drama is a bust, I’ll be covering the loss with my money.” He was saying that there was no need for the Tan Family to bear the responsibility. “I have a lot of trust in the abilities of Momo and Jinqi. It would only be a one in a million chance that the drama would fail.”
The rest of the people in the room were shocked. They couldn’t believe that their boss had so much confidence in the Tan siblings’ abilities, to the point where it would almost take a miracle for them to fail.
“I’m the one who recommended Momo and Jinqi here. I’m also the one who suggested we take on the project. Thus, I’ll also take full responsibility if anything happens,” Wei Zhiqian said as he glanced at the manager. “But if this drama is a huge success, will you be able to pay the price?”
Manager Wu tilted his head, unable to understand why he should pay the price if the drama was a hit.
“You’ve been skeptical of their abilities as a director and a scriptwriter from the start. You think that they won’t be able to produce a good drama and that if they were to lead the whole thing, it would definitely fail,” Wei Zhiqian said, knowing what the manager was thinking. “Momo mentioned that if the drama is a bust, she’ll cover the losses. But if this drama is successful, then it would only mean that you, the person who opposes them, were wrong all along. It would mean that you made a wrong decision. Tan Mo has insisted on being the sole scriptwriter without a team and is willing to pay the price if that decision is the wrong one. What about you? What price will you pay for your wrong decision?”
At that moment, Zhou Jingan, who was standing next to Wei Zhiqian, reported, “Two days ago at 7:35 p.m., Mr. Wu and scriptwriter Xue Yuanfei had dinner at the Clear Moon Club with a few other people in the filming industry. During the dinner, Mr. Xue invited a few famous female influencers to entertain them. In the past nine dramas that Mr. Wu participated in, five of the scripts were written by Mr. Xue. Three of the five dramas resulted in a flop because of too many unneeded plots and too many scenes for the extras. The ratings for these three dramas are our all-time low. As for the other two, one of them did great in the first half, but according to a statistic done by a viewer, the main characters only appeared for a mere three minutes per episode in the latter half. Most of the scenes were focused on the side characters. The other one is even worse. The drama was decent in the first 30%, but the rest was just derailed from the main theme. The viewers also questioned the moral principles in that particular drama as well. It’s not as simple as having too many scenes for side characters anymore. According to a survey, 80% of the viewers agree that they will see who the scriptwriter is before watching the drama. All of them agree that they will not watch any dramas that are written by Xue Yuanfei. From my investigation, the reason Mr. Wu insists on having another scriptwriter write the script for the Broken Continent is that the scriptwriter you are planning to use is Xue Yuanfei. You agreed to let him write the script when you guys were having dinner at the Clear Moon Club.”
