BHBF Chapter 94.1

Boss, He’s Becoming a Father (Arc 4) Chapter 94.1: Playful Son (10)

Although the reporters were called over by Ying Siyi, they were absolutely ruthless when it came to seizing big news.

Shao Yu’s words at this moment caused an uproar among the reporters, and Ying Siyi’s expression visibly cracked.

Shao Yu glanced at the reporters, displaying the qualities of a sycophant, and said, “Siyi, have you been working too hard lately and are you seeing things? This really isn’t Tian Tian; Tian Tian’s nanny is taking care of her.”

But offering her such words of comfort only put her in an even more awkward situation.

The reporters were excited. This was big news! Ying Siyi had always cultivated a virtuous wife image, but now she didn’t even recognize her own daughter, completely backfiring on the spot. They were already imagining how explosive the interview would be once it was published.

Ying Siyi couldn’t think of a good solution for a moment, and could only laugh awkwardly and say, “Shao Yu, don’t joke around.”

She tried to wink at Shao Yu, but Shao Yu acted like a typical clueless guy, completely oblivious to her signals, just like the most clichéd scene in a movie: “Siyi, what’s wrong with your eyes? Are you sick? You’re blinking so much.”

Ying Siyi was already cursing in her heart, but she forced herself to hold back and could only repeatedly emphasize, “You’re joking with me. How could I not recognize my own daughter?”

Shao Yu smiled tolerantly and said, “You used to see your child only once every month and a half, so it’s normal that you don’t recognize her. Don’t blame yourself for it.”

Forget about feeling guilty. She didn’t feel any remorse for not recognizing her own daughter. She only hated that Shao Yu was completely oblivious to people’s feelings. She even felt more and more that leaving Shao Yu was the right thing to do, and secretly vowed to give this sycophant a good beating when she got back.

At this moment, some reporters almost shoved their cameras into Ying Siyi’s face to capture her embarrassed expression as soon as possible, while others began asking Shao Yu questions.

They didn’t care at all about the filming progress of Shao Yu’s crew; they only wanted to find out what happened today.

When asked by reporters whose child this was, Shao Yu patiently explained, “There’s a little girl character in my drama, and this is the child actress.”

As they were talking, the girl’s biological mother happened to be standing not far away, and Shao Yu even pointed her out to the reporters.

The reporters then asked, “You cast your son in ‘The Haunted House,’ but why didn’t you cast your daughter in this drama, which clearly has a role?”

Some reporters even asked Shao Yu if she favored sons over daughters.

When asked this question, Shao Yu was not angry. Instead, he explained, “My daughter is still young. Unlike her brother, who is five years old and already has his own ideas, I will fully support her in whatever she wants to do when she gets older.”

After asking a few more questions, the reporters then set up their cameras and microphones and aimed them at Ying Siyi.

“Ying Siyi, Shao Yu said you used to see your child once every month and a half. Is that true?”

“Ying Siyi, have you really forgotten what your own daughter looks like?”

Ying Siyi quickly defended herself, explaining how busy she was with work, firmly denying that she only saw her child once every month and a half, and saying that she often video chatted with her child.

But someone else spotted Shao Yi and asked, “Did your mother really only visit you once every month and a half before?”

Shao Yi couldn’t lie, so he nodded on the spot.

“Does your mother video chat with you often?” the reporter asked again.

Shao Yi shook his head.

Ying Siyi quickly said, “The child is still young and doesn’t know what the video is.”

She looked at Shao Yi with a warning in her eyes and said, “Didn’t your dad often show you pictures of your mom on his phone?”

Ying Siyi took advantage of the child’s ignorance and blurred the fact that Shao Yu took the child to watch his mother’s drama into a video call between mother and child.

Shao Yi, as expected, didn’t understand those things and said, “Dad used to take me to watch Mom’s shows often. Dad said that Mom might not remember what I look like, but he said I should remember what Mom looks like.”

The original owner never cared about his wife’s estrangement from their children, and even said such hypocritical things because he loved his wife too much.

At this moment, children speak without restraint, but for the reporters, it’s a feast for the eyes; they’ve already come up with headlines: “Shocking: A Good Mother Doesn’t Recognize Her Children!”

Ying Siyi felt that today was absolutely terrible. She wanted Shao Yu and Shao Yi to help smooth things over, but Zheng Mei, who had been watching the drama unfold, suddenly called Shao Yu over.

With the script at stake and the other side pressing for an answer, Shao Yu could only give the reporters an apologetic look before leaving with his child, leaving Ying Siyi to face the situation alone.

Even though Ying Siyi planned to bribe reporters with a large sum of money afterward, she had called in far too many reporters in order to maintain her image as a virtuous wife and loving mother. These reporters belonged to different media outlets, and by trying to cover up one leak after another, she simply couldn’t silence everyone.

Despite Ying Siyi’s best efforts to prevent it, today’s incident was still posted online, drawing widespread ridicule. Although her agent was full of blame, she immediately brought up news of Ying Siyi fainting from exhaustion while filming in the past, attempting to portray Ying Siyi as overly dedicated.

Ying Siyi’s fans, however, have been brainwashed by this.

However, many netizens were not convinced and instead mocked, “No matter how dedicated you are, you can’t be as dedicated as Shao Yu. Look at the cast and crew of ‘The Haunted House’. He is the director, lead actor, producer, and post-production director. He even did the music himself. And Shao Yu is so busy that he didn’t forget about his child.”

Even though her agent tried her best to reverse the situation, Ying Siyi’s reputation was still damaged by this incident.

“You should behave yourself for a while and focus on filming. Netizens are forgetful; once the show airs, they’ll forget all about this.” The agent was very clear-headed. As long as Ying Siyi’s show became a hit, all these things wouldn’t matter.

Ying Siyi nodded. She was also holding her breath. She had always filmed idol dramas and had never received a role in a large-scale historical drama like this before. Therefore, she dared not be half-hearted anymore and spent three months working on the set.

Shao Yu didn’t pay much attention to the online comments. He neither kicked her when she was down nor offered any explanation. Instead, he seemed to shut himself off and focused on filming his new drama.

Shao Yu’s new drama is still self-directed and self-acted. It’s not that Shao Yu has a particularly strong desire to perform, but rather that he can’t find a particularly suitable actor for the time being, so he can only continue to act himself.

Zheng Mei’s new script is still a female-centric story, but perhaps because of her previous failures, she put extra effort into this script. Although it is not a serious drama in the strict sense, she has put in a lot of effort, researched a lot of history, and consulted many historical experts. Therefore, her script can be said to rationalize the characters’ motivations as much as possible within the framework of historical facts.

Even Shao Yu, after reading the script, had to praise its integrity. It not only respected historical facts but also created a variety of vivid characters. Shao Yu felt that if such a script were given to a sincere production team, even if it could only be 80% accurate, it would definitely be a hit.

When Shao Yu was filming “The Haunted House,” he was very frugal. However, when filming “The Splendor of the Great Yan Dynasty”, he spent a lot of money on costumes and props. Gu Jiaying’s dress as empress and the dress she wore when she ascended the throne were specially made by hand. The other clothes were also made with exquisite fabrics. Shao Yu is rich now, so he made sixty sets of clothes for the female lead alone. He wasn’t stingy for the other female supporting characters, thus preventing the shabby situation where everyone wore the same clothes until the finale.

Besides costumes, Shao Yu also invited experts to join the crew for other props to ensure that the style of that era was restored as accurately as possible.

The crew filmed for three months, and everything went smoothly until everyone finished filming. After filming ended, Shao Yu started editing again.

Although Shao Yu knew that TV stations and major platforms all charged based on the number of episodes, he cut a story that could have been stretched into sixty episodes into thirty.

Zheng Mei was well aware of the current market situation and was worried that Shao Yu would suffer losses as a result.

“For my first TV series, I plan to sign a performance-based agreement,” Shao Yu said.

Instead of choosing a fixed price to sell at, he opted to charge based on market performance. The worse the market performance, the less money the series would make; the better the market performance, the more money the series would generate.

While it’s possible to earn a lot, there’s also the risk of losing everything.

Zheng Mei hesitated for a moment, after all, this was her chance to turn her career around.

Shao Yu said, “In today’s TV dramas, having a distinctive character is enough to make a small hit. In our drama, every character has something to explore, plus the plot is smooth, the pace is fast, and the logic is rigorous. What are you worried about?”

Spurred on by Shao Yu, Zheng Mei gained more confidence and stopped saying discouraging things.

The people from various TV stations who came to sell the show weren’t without vision. After the screening, each station was vying to acquire the rights to the show, but they shared Zheng Mei’s opinion and preferred to have Shao Yu cut out more episodes.

It’s not that they want to spend more money, but TV stations also need to make money. In order to improve ratings, they will try to extend the length of good dramas, and they will cancel dramas that are of poor quality, regardless of the money they have already spent on purchasing them.

Shao Yu’s dramas are of visibly high quality, so they naturally want to maintain their viewership ratings for as long as possible.

However, Shao Yu had already set a condition for the agreement: no editing. Some TV stations, for profit, edited the scripts haphazardly behind the production team’s back, causing the plot to become chaotic. Shao Yu would never allow such a situation to happen in her dramas.

Ultimately, Hunan TV secured the exclusive premiere rights to “The Splendor of the Great Yan Dynasty” with a high base price and high revenue sharing agreement.

On the other hand, the online streaming platforms also chose a video website with a relatively fair revenue sharing structure and relatively accurate data to sell exclusive online streaming rights.

Even though he hasn’t received his share of the profits yet, the high base prices offered by the two platforms have already allowed Shao Yu to recoup half of the production costs.

The reason why Hunan TV is spending so much money is because it lost the competition for Donghua Films’ production of “The Reign of Yuan and Ming”. “The Reign of Yuan and Ming” was acquired by Hunan TV’s rival, Vegetable TV. Therefore, Hunan TV must win “The Splendor of the Great Yan Dynasty” to compete.