"I understand all that, and I'll cooperate. But I do hope your company puts a bit more heart into promoting 'Love Letter'." Jing Yu said with a smile, throwing in a light reminder.
Fang Xin's expression stiffened slightly at that.
After all, Yuzhou really hadn't expected 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' to blow up. The promotional strategy had just been standard procedure.
But somehow, that standard rollout resulted in a film with a box office exceeding one billion. Yuzhou had made a huge profit.
Now, facing Jing Yu—a true film investor—there was a subtle sense of guilt, like they'd profited unfairly.
Still, Jing Yu wasn't the petty type. Honestly, even if any other distributor had handled 'Trust & Betrayal', it likely wouldn't have done better than Yuzhou did. A newcomer in the film industry, directing an old-school Great Zhou-style wuxia flick—it was natural for any reasonable businessman to be cautious.
"You don't need to worry about that, Mr. Jing Yu. We're partners now, after all." Fang Xin responded quickly.
Yuzhou's earnings came from a profit-sharing model on the film. After seeing the potential in 'Love Letter' and Jing Yu himself, of course, they weren't going to slack off.
No one in their right mind turns down profit.
"Actually, Mr. Jing Yu... it might be a bit early to bring this up, but..." Fang Xin's eyes narrowed slightly.
She began cautiously probing to see if Jing Yu had any interest in producing additional arcs from 'Rurouni Kenshin'.
Aside from discussing 'Love Letter''s upcoming promotion, Fang Xin's main goal today was to show goodwill—and if Jing Yu was planning a 'Rurouni Kenshin' film series, she wanted to secure further collaboration.
But—
Jing Yu fell into a moment's thought and didn't give a direct answer. For him, producing films wasn't just about money or gaining fans—it was also about promoting the works he loved from his past life.
To him, 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' was a masterpiece, no question. But the other arcs, if adapted to film, would inevitably fall short by comparison.
"I'll think about it when the time comes. Right now, I don't have any such plans." Jing Yu deflected casually.
A flicker of disappointment passed through Fang Xin's eyes, but she quickly recovered her composure.
Since the discussion had gone this far, there was no point overstaying.
She got up and took her leave.
Jing Yu sank back into his chair and let out a long breath.
This past week, ever since 'Rurouni Kenshin: Trust & Betrayal' hit theaters, he had been completely worn out.
Various events, appearances, promotions—he had to be present for everything. He even ran four fan meetings across three cities.
And just as things were finally calming down, 'Love Letter's promotion cycle was about to start.
"How'd the conversation go?"
Cheng Lie walked in.
Jing Yu gave him a general rundown of the meeting.
Cheng Lie nodded. "Exactly. For 'Trust & Betrayal', I'd say most of the audience turnout was thanks to our own efforts. Yuzhou's involvement? Meh. But at least they've come to their senses with 'Love Letter'."
Then he looked seriously at Jing Yu. "One more thing—while you were talking with Fang Xin, Minister Meng gave us a call."
"Minister Meng?" Jing Yu raised an eyebrow. "What did he want?"
"He wants to discuss something with you. I asked him a few questions, and he didn't hide it—he's hoping to buy another script from you. Something like 'Dragon Zakura'."
"No way I'm selling that!" Jing Yu rejected without a second thought.
There was no need for him to let these TV stations handle everything.
Even without their involvement, he could still make movies and survive just fine. Once Great Zhou's internet platforms began to rise, his scripts would be much more impactful as online dramas.
Selling scripts at this stage would be a net loss for him.
Giving away high-quality, market-tested scripts from his past life without any conditions? He wasn't crazy.
"Yeah, with Meng's experience, he probably expected you to refuse. That's why he also said: if you firmly turn him down, he'd like to meet you tomorrow morning at Dijin Restaurant, near Yunteng HQ," Cheng Lie added quickly.
At that point, Jing Yu basically understood.
"So... Yunteng agreed to my proposal from before?"
Previously, Jing Yu had told Meng Yu that even though he'd left Yunteng, they could still collaborate.
The new model would be: Jing Yu produces the shows himself, and Yunteng would only receive limited broadcast rights during the contract period. All other rights would remain entirely with Jing Yu.
Basically, it was the same system his previous world's production companies used when licensing TV shows to networks.
That model wasn't unheard of in Great Zhou—it was already common among smaller stations with less production power. Those stations couldn't afford to own copyrights, but buying broadcasting rights at a lower cost reduced risk. Both sides benefited.
However, the major networks didn't typically accept that. They had money, talent, and the capacity to absorb a flop. Why give up control?
"Looks like they did." Cheng Lie hesitated a bit.
"But… Jing Yu, are you still interested in doing television?"
It was a fair question.
Many stars who rose through TV—whether as actors, writers, or directors—would shift to film once they reached a certain point. And once they found some success in the movie industry, few ever went back.
Take Liu Yifei in Jing Yu's original world—even if she didn't accomplish much in film, she never stooped to doing TV again. The infamous tax-dodging Fan might have bombed in theaters, but even she stayed hot doing dramas. Gu Tianle went full-time into movies and never looked back.
If 'Trust & Betrayal' had failed, returning to TV might've been a decent fallback.
But now that the film was a huge success, would Jing Yu still want to shoot dramas?
"Why not?" Jing Yu smiled at Cheng Lie.
In Great Zhou, the divide between film and television wasn't as stark as it had been in his past life. While movie professionals did hold slightly more prestige, it was only by half a tier.
"Money from movies counts, but money from TV doesn't?"
A lot of the works Jing Yu could adapt weren't suited for film at all.
Take 'Slam Dunk' or 'Clannad', for example. He had definite plans for those. But the stories were too long to fit into a movie. As a full TV series, they'd likely span two, maybe even three or four seasons.
Though he had separated from Yunteng TV, Jing Yu never planned to abandon the TV space—he just didn't want to keep working under a network.
"Is that so?" Cheng Lie's eyes lit up.
While he'd left Yunteng TV to work with Jing Yu, he still held deep feelings for his former company. For post-production on 'Trust & Betrayal' and 'Love Letter', he'd even outsourced some tasks to old colleagues at Yunteng TV, paying them standard rates to earn some extra cash.
And seeing Yunteng TV get crushed by the "Big Six" again—yeah, that stung a little.
"So about that meeting with Minister Meng…"
"I'll give him a call myself. Tell him I'll be there tomorrow morning as planned," Jing Yu said.