Chapter 30: The Five-Million Deal Is Done! Now Let’s Discuss Ten Million!

"I'm under a lot of pressure to secure a release slot for a film, and my superiors are feeling the heat too. To put it simply, that movie is a real headache..."

"Is that what you want me to let Fifth Brother know?"

"Also, there is a formidable competitor right now—a film called *The Emperor's Shadow*."

"Understood."

"How you convey this is up to you."

"I understand."

Ma Xun and Ye Quanzhen had discussed the *Princess Pearl* situation at length. However, one must not forget that Ye Quanzhen was still working as an undercover agent. Passing this information to Long Wu was of critical importance.

"What about other matters?" Ye Quanzhen asked, looking somewhat shy. "You will certainly become my Sixth Prince, but..."

Before she could finish, Ma Xun cut her off: "The top priority right now is the *Princess Pearl* project. You must handle He Xiuqiong."

Ye Quanzhen felt a surge of gratitude and nodded solemnly. "Please rest assured, Your Highness!"

...

Ma Xun, of course, was in no rush. He could see that Ye Quanzhen still had some internal reservations. Regardless, there would be plenty of time in the future.

The immediate focus was how to make money. This era was truly incredible, and Ma Xun didn't want to waste a single second.

The "talent show" he was planning to launch had its profit potential hidden in those four words: "pre-roll advertising." Simply put, these were commercials inserted into the television program or aired immediately before or after it. Often, these ads didn't belong to the television station itself, but rather to the production company. This model was more commonly seen on regional stations. Ma Xun had chosen to utilize this model because of Hunan Channel 2.

Usually, for dramas featuring such pre-roll ads, the drama itself was provided to the station for free or at a very low cost, with the production company making its profit from the advertising revenue. Naturally, all of this had to be negotiated before filming began.

In this day and age, producing films and television shows came with many constraints. To make a film, one had to negotiate with state-owned studios—a practice known in the industry as "buying the studio seal." To produce a television show, one had to negotiate with a television station, as only they held the right to produce television content. The good news was that since everything was negotiable, all kinds of business models were on the table.

Ma Xun remembered a big player in the mainland’s private television production circle: Deng Jiankuo. In the future, this guy would become notorious for his big mouth and his utterly unscrupulous methods of grabbing attention. Well, "utterly unscrupulous" was putting it mildly. But at the present moment, he was indeed an industry heavyweight. In his most successful year, he sold over 100 million yuan in pre-roll advertising alone.

Wait. Let me rethink that.

Ma Xun suddenly realized something. Deng Jiankuo wasn't supposed to rise to prominence until next year, thanks to the show *The Chronicles of Emperor Kangxi's Micro-visits*. Without that show, he wouldn't have made it.

And the reason he was able to sell over 100 million in ads was simple: he sold the dramas to television stations at low, or even ultra-low, prices.

And me... I'm offering them for free!

By accident, I’ve become the pioneer! No wonder Ye Quanzhen didn't understand at first. The concept that "free is actually the most expensive" simply didn't exist in this era! Even with the Hasbro example, nothing like this had been done in our country yet!

Ma Xun couldn't help but laugh as he thought about this. It turned out he was simply too far ahead of his time to be understood. But this also meant he could run wild in this era!

Of course, for now, he was just setting up a talent show. It was a small-scale production, so the costs wouldn't be too high. As he thought about the talent show... Ma Xun couldn't help but think of Bingbing. Would she still be able to land the role of Jinsuo?

Forget it. Why think about that now?

The talent show would likely kick off next year, but that didn't stop him from selling it now. Don't misunderstand; this was standard practice even in the future. It was just business solicitation.

Ma Xun intended to call Sun Donghai, but to his surprise, the guy called first.

"Brother, the word from CCTV is back! Haha... it was much faster than expected! You guessed everything right!"

...

At CCTV, two men walked out of the main entrance. One of them was clearly quite agitated.

"Brother! Damn! Holy cow! 5 million! I haven't made that much money in all my years in the garment business!" Sun Donghai was so happy he spilled his own secrets. It was normal, really; in a physical business like clothing, as soon as you made a profit, you had to pour it back into inventory.

Ma Xun rolled his eyes at him. *Look at you, acting like you've never seen the world!*

He then said, "This is only the beginning. We still have the rights to many Hong Kong films in our hands."

Sun Donghai was so overjoyed that he had lost all sense of proportion, but hearing this, he felt even more convinced that his brother was a visionary. "Exactly! No wonder we bought so many copyrights back then. Brother, you're absolutely brilliant!"

Now, it was time to bring up the other matter.

"Buddy, I’ve made contact with another channel."

"What channel?"

"You know about the Qiong Yao dramas, right?"

"Of course I do! Who doesn't know about Qiong Yao dramas these days? Wait... don't tell me you're planning to produce a Qiong Yao drama? I can't handle that stuff, man. It's so overly sentimental that whenever I'm in the bathroom, I make them turn off the TV, otherwise, I can't even get anything done."

"Damn! You really are something else!"

Sun Donghai laughed heartily. He was in such a good mood that he was saying whatever came to mind. Fortunately, Ma Xun was there to get down to business.

"It’s not that we’re filming it, and I wouldn't know how to anyway. I’ve learned that they might be planning a small event before the series starts filming. You know about talent shows, right?"

"Oh, I've heard of them."

"They want to hold a talent show to cast actors, but the project is still in the research phase on their end. I just got the news early..."

Before he could finish, Sun Donghai gave a thumbs-up. "Brilliant!"

The guy had no idea that this project was actually cooked up by Ma Xun himself—and it didn't even exist yet. But as Ma Xun had said, it was "still in the research phase." It wasn't exactly a lie; at most, it was a bit of a hustle.

Then, the next step...

"You know, they're in the business of making TV shows, so a program like this will likely be outsourced, but we’ll handle the pre-roll ads. And as for the station that airs it..."

"Brother, I get it!" Sun Donghai interrupted again. "Is this what you mean? I’ll make the money from the ads, and the broadcasting station will be Hunan Channel 2, so now, we need to leak this news!"

*Hey, look at you, actually getting the hang of jumping the gun!*

Ma Xun put on an expression of "the student is ready" and asked, "Not bad. So, who do you think we should leak this news to?"

"Bai Daqing!" Sun Donghai exclaimed in high spirits.

Ma Xun nodded. Correct answer; he deserved a compliment. In fact, he had been nudging him toward this all along. The goal was to feed the news to Bai Daqing, who had dared to act as an agent for their previous ads. Now that this advertisement opportunity was even bigger, let's see what he was really made of.

And after leaking the news...

"This is going to be a variety-style show. Based on three to four episodes and bringing in some celebrities, the production cost will be at least 10 million. Plus, this is Hunan Channel 2 we're talking about."

He was still nudging Sun Donghai, and the guy finally caught on.

"It’ll take at least 15 million to be eligible to participate in this project!" Sun Donghai had learned to drive a hard bargain.

Ma Xun felt a bit helpless but nodded anyway. "12 million should be enough. Don't set the bar too high."

Sun Donghai laughed out loud. He knew it was just about inflating the perceived cost.

"Good brother! We’re officially dealing with eight-figure businesses now. Amazing!"

Seeing the guy getting carried away, Ma Xun had to reel him back in. "You have to make it clear that this project isn't set in stone yet; it’s just a statement of intent. If it doesn't happen in the future, don't blame me."

The more he said that, the more Sun Donghai felt the project was legitimate. He laughed and agreed immediately.

As for this "eight-figure business," it wasn't actually as unreliable as it seemed. Many people might not understand the true situation at Hunan Television at the time—which was that Channel 2 was incredibly powerful. There was a classic, long-running, and much-criticized show in China called *Happy Camp*. Few people knew that the show was created specifically to challenge a variety show on Channel 2 called *Lucky 3721*.

That was the truth. It showed just how high the ratings were for Channel 2. Many people cursed that Station Manager Ouyang, and he likely had plenty of skeletons in his closet. But Ma Xun knew that this man had achieved the "highest praise" possible: a normal retirement. Only those who truly understood the system and the entertainment industry knew the weight of those four words. Put it this way: countless powerful people dreamed of such an end!

Back to the point: in a regional station with such high ratings, was asking for 10 million as a base for pre-roll ads on a variety show really that expensive?

*Doing a Jiaqi impression again...*

In truth, this variety show was just the beginning. Ma Xun’s real target was the big fish: *Princess Pearl*. Even though there was no sign of it yet, if Ma Xun could land that, a 10-million-yuan deal would be nothing.

In any case, he would take it one step at a time, bluffing his way forward.