Huayu: Starting by piggybacking on the fame of "Fairy Mom"

Chapter 91 The Divergence of Time

Jiangcheng, Times Records.

Chen Minghua arrived at the office early in the morning.

He has been in high spirits for the past six months, and in the last two months he has been beaming with joy.

Since signing Liu Qianqian's album, the branch's performance this year is expected to surpass that of the headquarters, showing a strong momentum to establish its own independent business.

He had just sat down when two small figures peeked in through the door.

"Uncle Chen, the script!"

Zhou Xiaobai's voice arrived before he even entered. He tossed his hand, and a thick file folder flew over.

Liu Qianqian, who was following behind, said arrogantly: "We've been working hard for a month for your diversified company. You should bring more people to sell in the park then."

After signing a record deal with Zhou Xiaobai and Chen Minghua last year, Wang Shuzhen pointed to a pile of Buddhist cassette tapes at the orphanage and revealed, "Their branch is having a tough time right now, with no decent performance. They've even started selling these. Your collaboration is a win-win situation. To survive, they'll definitely do everything they can."

Zhou Xiaobai inquired privately and found that it was indeed as Wang Shuzhen had said—company employees had even gone to Jiangcheng Park to sell Tai Chi instruction DVDs to elderly people.

Afterwards, Zhou Xiaobai even teased Chen Minghua, saying, "Your business is really diversified; if one thing doesn't work out, another does."

So Liu Qianqian's statement wasn't without reason.

Chen Minghua hurriedly caught the document bag, both amused and exasperated: "We were just serving the people, helping them avoid detours and being scammed!"

Liu Qianqian wrinkled her nose and snorted, "I've watched the 7 o'clock news quite a bit, and the reasons are so high-sounding." In order to avoid detours in the future, she followed Zhou Xiaobai and paid a lot of attention to current affairs and policies.

Zhou Xiaobai chimed in, "You guys are a record company, after all. There are tons of Buddhist sutra tapes from you at the orphanage. Don't tell me that monks who chant sutras are singers."

Before Chen Minghua could reply, Liu Qianqian added, "Uncle Chen, the English practice tapes that our school's junior high students received, I think you guys were the ones who made them, right?"

Chen Minghua opened his mouth, then hesitated awkwardly for a long time before retorting seriously, "You two little rascals, are you ganging up on me? If it weren't for companies like ours taking care of people's livelihoods, would you have to spend several times more money to listen to Buddhist scriptures or buy English tapes? It would break your hearts."

Liu Qianqian didn't hold back and continued to expose their secrets: "So, have you switched to making pirated goods now?"

Zhou Xiaobai had mentioned the piracy issue to her privately, and she immediately became agitated—it was damaging her own interests, and she said she would settle accounts with Chen Minghua.

Just as they were about to act, Zhou Xiaobai stopped them—that's how record companies operate these days, and there's no stopping them. They'd already pointed this out during the contract negotiations, so they wouldn't dare go too far. Besides, they're still eyeing their next album.

Finally, Zhou Xiaobai made the final decision: pirated versions can also collect popularity points, and they spread even further, with effects no less than the original versions.

"There was no other way before!" Chen Minghua wasn't angry at all, but rather cheerful. "Now that we have the little singer Xixi, and this album 'Liu Yifei,' we won't have to do those jobs anymore."

In commemoration of their self-titled album, which flopped, the two friends decided to go all out to achieve success—and the album is still called "Liu Yifei".

"Hehe, good to know. We'll take you flying in the future, why don't you take a look at the script first?" After Zhou Xiaobai finished speaking, he pulled Liu Qianqian to rummage through the drawers for snacks.

Regarding Chen Minghua's "no choice," Zhou Xiaobai had heard Wang Shuzhen mention it before: Chen Minghua's ancestral home is Yangcheng in Guangdong Province. He studied in Jiangcheng when he was young, and later returned to his hometown to join Era Records.

Unfortunately, the tides of time swept away the old guard, and he was reassigned to the Jiangcheng branch.

Nominally a promotion, but in reality a demotion, leaving him to guard Jiangcheng, a place with a barren entertainment industry.

Chen Minghua was speechless after hearing this, and stopped paying attention to the two little ones rummaging through the drawers.

He quickly pulled out a script, which was illustrated and easy to understand.

The more I looked, the brighter my eyes became. I put down this one and opened another...

Half an hour later, he praised excitedly, "Xiao Bai, your music video idea is really great! How is your brain structured?"

He was telling the truth. Nowadays, music videos are basically just pop stars' headshots floating around, or handsome men and beautiful women flirting with each other; there's practically no storyline at all.

"Of course, otherwise how could it be worthy of these songs?" Zhou Xiaobai said smugly, pulling out the script for "Learning to Meow." "Look at this scene," he said, "it emphasizes the little girl's adorable antics, her sneaking snacks, her panic when her mother catches her, and focuses on the interaction between mother and daughter. Then it uses a cat silhouette to create a twist—it turns out all the sneaking snacks were actually her way of secretly preparing cat food for the kitten..."

The original music video provided by the system mainly focuses on the warm and sweet interactions of a couple's daily life.

But this is a children's song album, and if we use that kind of setting, it won't fit the image.

Perhaps ten years from now, when Liu Qianqian has grown up, we can film another version.

Therefore, some of the music videos in this album are direct copies, while others borrow successful elements from the video library that have stood the test of time.

In particular, he remade the music video for "Learn to Meow".

"Wonderful!" Chen Minghua had only glanced at it briefly, but after Zhou Xiaobai's explanation, he slapped his thigh and exclaimed, "This plot and the song 'Learn to Meow' are a match made in heaven! The innocent and carefree atmosphere of the song, and the coquettish feeling of 'meow meow meow,' are all brought to life by this mother-daughter interaction. It's both heartwarming and has a delightful twist."

The more he talked, the more he felt that this was tailor-made for Liu Qianqian, and he couldn't help but praise her: "Especially this adorable 'caught eating' look, Qianqian would definitely be perfect for it, her little expressions can melt the hearts of the audience... You must have put in a lot of effort..."

At this point, he suddenly stopped speaking, glanced up casually, and then smiled—beside the cabinet, Liu Qianqian was like a little kitten looking for food, stuffing snacks into her mouth.

The laughter startled Liu Qianqian, who looked bewildered. She then pouted and clutched the snacks tightly to her chest...

Ignoring her possessive expression, Chen Minghua asked with concern, "Qianqian's mother... doesn't know the situation yet, right? What about the scenes where the mother and daughter are on stage together...?"

"Don't worry, that's one of the reasons I came to see you today." Zhou Xiaobai's expression turned serious. "The album will be released nationwide in a few days. As long as we get through these few days, it won't matter if we find out later."

Chen Minghua was puzzled, but didn't ask any further questions. He changed the subject: "When do you plan to shoot the music video? You said before that you would let me know."

"How's it going at the end of August?"

"This... is a bit late." Chen Minghua shook his head with difficulty. "Your music video has a storyline, which is already quite difficult to film. Besides, the roles still need to be auditioned and selected."

He paused for a moment, then spoke of practical considerations: "Given the current brainwashing momentum of 'Little Apple,' Li Jun and I discussed it privately, and we were originally planning to start filming the music video ahead of schedule."

But the time Zhou Xiaobai mentioned is actually later than the originally planned early August.

With this complete music video script in front of him, another thought popped into his head—maybe these music videos will sell even better than the albums themselves.

These are all solid achievements!

If you don't make money early, why wait until late?

He looked at Zhou Xiaobai, waiting for him to give an explanation.