FWTS ### Chapter 145: Overseas Serialization (Part 1)

As the New Year approaches, Fei Ning is getting busier and busier. In a city like Ruicheng, which lacks large office buildings and university campuses, a board game café is only busy during two periods: the winter and summer vacations. Normally, it's almost deserted, with only a few customers on weekends. However, during these two periods, it is packed every day.

Fei Ning loves the atmosphere of the board game café and also enjoys this kind of "business" model: being busy for three months each year and then having the rest of the time to wander around freely. During this period, Fei Ning won't be wandering around or attending events featuring various celebrities, so naturally, he won't be acting as Hou Muyun's "driver" anymore. Thus, Hou Muyun had to drive himself to Shanghai this time.

Recently, although Hou Muyun hasn't driven much, he has driven more than before. His driving skills have unconsciously improved by one point, reaching level 8, demonstrating the power of his perceptive nature and keen observational skills.

Upon arriving in Shanghai, he first went to the music studio. The sign was already up, and there were significant changes. The equipment had arrived, and the necessary staff had been hired. Initially, the staff were "borrowed" from Shi Fifteen's studio. Now that new people have been hired, the borrowed staff have "retired," although two or three of them still help out occasionally.

Generally, an artist's studio has three main roles: assistant, publicist, and manager. However, Hou Muyun's career path differs from most artists, so he only has an assistant, without a dedicated publicist or manager. In some sense, Hou Muyun himself takes on these roles.

Xiaopang, the assistant, is different from typical artist assistants. He isn't like a manager-type assistant, as he doesn't need to plan Hou Muyun's career or schedule his gigs; nor is he a caretaker-type assistant, as he isn't around Hou Muyun most of the time. So, what is he then? According to Boluo, Xiaopang is more like a logistics assistant, helping Hou Muyun, the hands-off boss, clean up various follow-up tasks.

Recently, Xiaopang has been busy at the studio, gradually transitioning from a board game café instructor to an assistant. With the help of Boluo and others, he has even developed a bit of a "manager" aura. Xiaopang is quite versatile and has made quick progress.

Speaking of which, although all the staff positions have been filled, the studio members are still just three people. Xiaopang is quite helpless about this, and so are the other three members. Hou Muyun himself also feels helpless—talent is hard to find!

In fact, these three members have connections in the industry, but they are currently hesitant to recruit anyone for Hou Muyun. The reason is simple: although Hou Muyun offers good salaries and conditions, he seems unreliable. To date, they only know that Hou Muyun established this studio mainly to make songs and possibly to score a TV series in the future. That's it.

With such a studio, the three of them dare not risk inviting their friends. Besides, the studio has been established, but no opening ceremony has been held yet, and there hasn't been any real work. These days, the three of them have been handling trivial matters without any serious tasks.

If the three of them were unambitious, staying in such a studio would certainly be comfortable—getting paid to do nothing. But they are not like that; they have talent, ambition, and drive. Otherwise, Liu Zhuo wouldn't have introduced them.

Finally, the boss arrived. But he quickly left again! After strolling around the studio and chatting with them briefly about how things have been going recently, he left them with a parting statement: "Be prepared to stay up late tonight," and then he left! 

What on earth is this!

After leaving the studio, Hou Muyun ran to Qingtian Film Company. Yes, he actually ran because the studio wasn't far from Qingtian Film, and given the traffic in Shanghai, running was clearly faster. When he arrived at the building's entrance, he was neither out of breath nor flushed, walking inside as if he were taking a leisurely stroll.

This visit to Qingtian Film wasn't for anything specific, mainly just to attend a meeting, check on the progress, and discuss the filming start date. As for the actors, all the necessary contacts had been made. With Chu Qing personally involved, they had secured a considerable number of actors. For those they couldn't secure, they were negotiating while also reaching out to other suitable candidates.

The locations and shooting sites were settled very smoothly, with the primary filming location in Xiangshan and over a dozen additional locations. Extra sets and "city building" were progressing swiftly and smoothly. In this regard, neither Hou Muyun nor the production team needed to worry at all, thanks to the Chu Feng Group! This business group had subsidiaries specializing in real estate and tourism, holding leading positions in the industry.

For Hou Muyun, the most important reason for attending this meeting was to find out how much additional investment would be needed. Chu Qing provided an approximate figure, initially estimating the first additional investment at around 20 million yuan! The figure was undoubtedly daunting, and it was specifically noted as the initial estimate of the first additional round of investment!

However, Hou Muyun remained relatively calm, knowing that his share would only be 2 million yuan. As for how to sell the series and make a profit after filming, Hou Muyun didn't have the energy to think about it now! Wasn't this all about being willful? Chu Qing was willful, and obviously, so was Hou Muyun! 

He decided to invest first and worry later! Considering the investment and the initially planned cast, Hou Muyun decided to go all in. This was the first TV series adapted from his novel and his first script, and he had always planned to invest heavily in it. Now, with someone else willing to invest even more, why not? What could make him happier than this?

The latter half of the meeting had little to do with Hou Muyun, but he stayed and listened attentively. Through these meetings, Hou Muyun had gained a good understanding of the production team and Qingtian Film, or rather, Chu Qing. He had developed trust, admiration, and even a bit of gratitude for having entrusted the script to Qingtian Film.

The main reason? Willingness to invest!

The meeting concluded with decisions on the costume fitting and filming start dates, both scheduled for after the New Year, given that the holiday was just a few days away and the final actor list needed confirmation.

The meeting ended around 6 PM. Hou Muyun stayed at Qingtian Film for dinner and then took a walk to digest the meal, heading to the nearby Qiyue Group.

"Overseas serialization of the 'Nine Heavens' manga?" This made Hou Muyun think of a certain possibility, which, as it turned out, wasn't far off.

Hou Muyun’s visit to Qiyue Group was to the comic department, where he met Chen Yixin. Chen Yixin was delighted, excited, and thrilled. Without waiting for Hou Muyun to sit down, he got straight to the point: "Xiao Hou, do you know which magazine wants to serialize the overseas version of 'Nine Heavens'?"

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