Chapter 56: [Fourth Bonus Chapter]

The one who couldn't bear to watch the cosers being so tormented—was Sang Yu.

She couldn't take it anymore.

Help.

Stop peeking inside, all you little consorts / emperors / eunuchs / imperial guards up on stage—don't make eye contact with them.

Fine. DOH's cosplay outfits only lasted through the opening ceremony; for the actual matches they changed into fresh, cute black short-sleeves.

Sang Yu could finally watch properly...

Not so!

It was impossible to shake off.

She checked her phone again: #DOHOpeningCeremonyShenanigans#, #GoldenRiceLadleTeamCosers#, #AuroraEntertainmentNewDramaPalaceOfEarthlyTranquility#.

It was trending.

Sang Yu had lost her ability to immerse herself.

Especially now, when there was no match on—during the intermission—she decided to do something productive to distract herself.

The motion-capture actors for *I'm Putting on a Show in an Infinite-Flow Livestream* had been decided?

Let me see.

The preliminary contestant list for *A Bite of the Immortal Realm Continent* was out?

Let me see.

*I Went to Demon University and Became a Purchasing Agent for Human-World Specialties* had started casting?

Oh, so that one was on the final step of assembling its production crew.

Progress was a bit faster than the other crews.

Congratulations.

*On the Feasibility of an Artist Development Department*

Oh?

Aurora Entertainment really didn't have an artist department.

To be honest, Sang Yu's mysterious "cleanliness obsession" about not signing people was acting up—she always felt that celebrities would all get canceled eventually.

Having someone destined to collapse inside the company—Sang Yu just felt it was dirty, yeah.

Sure, once they collapsed, the company could terminate the contract, but it just felt different.

In the cultivation world, if you broke an oath you'd be struck by lightning. If only there were that kind of lightning in reality too—how convenient that would be.

So she'd shelve it for now.

*Palace of Earthly Tranquility*'s art team was ready.

...

Seeing that one line, Sang Yu swiftly scrolled past.

Would it ever leave her alone?

Sang Yu switched to another app.

[President Sang, promise me—this shenanigans competition has to keep happening, every single year, okay? I love watching it, I want to watch it every day!]

[It truly lives up to the name 'shenanigans competition'—the opening ceremony alone dropped a thunderbolt of a show]

[Those of us who both read *Palace of Earthly Tranquility* and follow esports are laughing so hard we can't breathe...]

[Wait, do they even have authorization?]

[A big event like this definitely has it, but genuine book fans are probably hurting]

[I'm a book fan and I'm fine, because their cosplay attitude was good. I've seen Douyin influencers start cosplaying with wigs that weren't even combed out, which felt awful, but I personally don't think DOH was disrespectful]

[I trust Aurora's adaptations. This time was probably for drama promo anyway, and they didn't deliberately uglify anything, so it's fine]

[Compared to DOH, the other teams were too conservative, but no worries—next competition will probably be a spectacle of splendor, everyone competing to outshine each other!]

Sang Yu looked at that last comment.

"..."

She didn't dare imagine that kind of future.

Too much of a challenge.

Sang Yu fidgeted restlessly for a while, and felt much better once the matches officially began.

Since the amateur competition had gone first, there was feedback to draw on, and everyone now knew what the audience loved to watch, so they'd paid attention to it.

The pro players' mechanical skill was higher, and the effect of the antics was doubled.

Skill + fun + innovation.

So good to watch...

We're doing this again next year!

·

No cosplay allowed next year.

·

After *Golden Rice Ladle* finished, everyone was still craving more.

Some netizens, in high spirits, dug out Aurora Entertainment's backlog of IPs for a stroll—other clubs, why not pick one to cosplay?

Hehehe!

Netizens really were all fun-loving trolls by persona.

The players of the other clubs... actually looked. After all, the results were plain to see.

DOH was too cunning—pulling stunts at the shenanigans competition itself.

All to win President Sang's favor.

They couldn't fall behind!

Rummaging through the backlog.

*Palace of Earthly Tranquility*—taken, skip;

*I Went to Demon University and Became a Purchasing Agent for Human-World Specialties*—oh, this one could work, cosplay as demons.

*I Inherited a Shabby Little Zoo*—President Sang, I'm a little tiger, rawr~

*The Mysterious Wish Shop*—that new-Chinese style, too proper, no room to play.

*Beauty Comes True System*—the female lead of this one... next.

*A Cultivator Transmigrates to Modern Times and Becomes a Rural Influencer*—let's look at this one, oh oh, a theme about farming with spiritual power?

Next then.

...

CatastropheApproaching.JPG

Sang Yu sensed no danger. She glanced at the time—it was already past eleven.

This hour was simply perfect for getting a little barbecue. Sang Yu decided to go forage for food.

Lately she'd picked up a hobby again: watching rural bloggers' videos.

—Actually, there was nothing special about them; they just filmed everyday life, working and cooking, but watching them was incredibly relaxing.

Oh, some were touching too—like people who, after making money from self-media, took their elderly family members or the village elders to see Tiananmen.

It moved Sang Yu so much that she donated some more money to poor villages.

Sang Yu had been burned on donations before.

The number of times she'd been burned nearly exceeded her number of investments.

For example, donating money to some organization, only for them to skim off a hefty "handling fee";

Donating to individuals, only for the village bullies to rob them clean—and they didn't dare call the police, because the bullies had local power;

Sending books, stationery, daily necessities—those got seized too, some kept for personal use, some listed straight onto secondhand apps.

They'd rather sell at a loss than leave things for the people who truly needed them.

Sang Yu bought agricultural products to support farmers, but even in tallying each household's quantities, people would fudge the numbers.

In short, only sponsoring tuition fees was relatively trouble-free.

This time...

Buy agricultural products, then. Risky, yes, but for farming villagers it was the simplest way to convert goods to cash.

After buying, she'd filter out some premium selections and distribute them gradually as company and film-crew perks—they'd definitely get used up.

Right, strictly speaking this wouldn't count as official perks; the company's gifts and fruit all came from dedicated partner companies.

...

Call them randomly dropped bonus gifts, then?

Sang Yu's mind flashed, drifting a bit off course—

She suddenly recalled a title in Aurora Entertainment's backlog, also a story with a rural blogger as the protagonist.

What was it called?

*A Cultivator Transmigrates to Modern Times and Becomes a Rural Influencer*.

How about... not filming it in the long-drama format? It suited a short-drama adaptation better.

The same format as those rural bloggers—scroll, flip, one video after another. Wouldn't that be immersive?

Sang Yu had previously had a poor impression of short dramas.

Because the short dramas Ms. Liu Ping listened to always made people clench their fists.

One simple face-slapping plot could stretch across fifty or sixty episodes.

Just when things were finally about to get satisfying, the female lead took out a family photo to prove she was the chairman's granddaughter—only for the female villain to snatch it away.

She finally snatched it back—only for the photo to get soaked in water, and of course the female lead's face was the part that became unreadable.

The female lead tried calling the chairman directly—but grandpa was in a coma.

The man finally woke up; surely he'd now acknowledge his granddaughter, right?

The chairman was old and muddled and couldn't remember anything.

...

Back then Sang Yu had only overheard a bit of it and nearly gave herself internal injuries. That face-slapping process was dragged out way too long.

By her standards as a writer of novels, it was unqualified—but tons of people loved it.

Sang Yu didn't get it either; probably it just attracted a different audience.

Still, she thought the short-drama format—a few light minutes per episode—was convenient viewing.

Short dramas really were like Douyin.

So for that book *A Cultivator Transmigrates to Modern Times and Becomes a Rural Influencer*...

That rural-influencer theme felt perfectly suited to short drama, like it would take to the soil.

How about it?

Film it that way.

Mainly, Sang Yu wanted to watch it herself.

Though the rights would have to be purchased again.

In the film and TV industry, the rights for satellite TV dramas, web dramas, short dramas, and films were actually divided up quite finely, priced by category.

Buy them again, then.

Sang Yu didn't mind.

Assistant Yin Rong pressed his lips together.

Right, she wouldn't mind. Ahem, no problem—he'd help President Sang make the arrangements.

The original novel of *A Cultivator Transmigrates to Modern Times and Becomes a Rural Influencer* was written recently, so the setting was current.

Preparation wouldn't be too troublesome. It would probably go online earlier than the long dramas.

Yin Rong silently recited in his heart: among the previous backlog titles, whether filmed as long dramas or movies, President Sang had always delegated authority to the people below.

This change—presenting it in short-drama form—was absolutely more suitable than the original long-drama plan.

As expected,

you had to hand it to President Sang...

As for the previous plans,

naturally they could be overturned and redone.

·

The author of *A Cultivator Transmigrates to Modern Times and Becomes a Rural Influencer* was a young man named Yuan Jiang, from the countryside.

He'd just graduated from university. With the job market so grim, he'd originally planned to go into self-media, but the rural-blogger track was too saturated—it was hard to carve out a space.

So he chose to save the nation by a roundabout route.

He lived in the countryside; his family farmed. His knowledge of farming wasn't expert-level, but he had a farmer's wisdom.

He also had experience studying rural bloggers—none of that research would go to waste; it could go straight into the novel.

Then give the protagonist a cheat ability.

Wasn't that everything ready to go?!

Back then, his novel made the rankings, praised as authentic and grounded. Once people could actually get into it, the royalties followed.

And because of that book *Rebirth: I'm a God-Level Tycoon in Showbiz*, the entire ranking list's copyrights got bought up.

His was chosen by Aurora Entertainment too.

Yuan Jiang was ecstatic.

After graduating, he hadn't stayed to work in the big city; instead he'd returned to the village to do farm-support work (even if his original intention was making money).

But everyone in the village supported him. Whether it was filming material or writing novels, whatever Yuan Jiang did, they'd back him.

His parents grumbled aloud but worked hard all the same.

Striving to make the home look nicer.

After the copyright fee came in, the once-hazy hopes turned into: "I knew that Yuan Jiang boy had a clever head on him."

That made Yuan Jiang deeply content.

And now...

President Sang wanted to buy the copyright again?!

?

Because the long drama was being changed to a short drama?

Gulp.

Yuan Jiang swallowed hard. Could he—could he not take the copyright fee, and instead ask President Sang—

Could this short drama... be filmed in his village?

Actually, the place described in his novel had a real-life model—the household by the village entrance whose family had moved away.

A three-story self-built house, with a big front courtyard and a few cherry trees, and beyond that a grain-drying ground.

Behind the house was another big yard with jujube trees, a chicken coop, and a river—walk upstream along the river and there was a pig farm.

It was all abandoned now.

But it was definitely authentic!

Yuan Jiang had a bit of selfish motive.

The agricultural products that appeared in the story were all things his village or the neighboring villages could make, and if they could be sold...

The drama itself would be the best product promotion.

But after mustering his courage, Yuan Jiang was restless—after all, asking for more after already getting an inch felt like pushing his luck.

Finally, the reply came.

·

President Sang: "Sure. But since it's about supporting farmers and selling goods, why don't we launch it on both Douyin and Short-Drama TV?"

As everyone knew, one of the strongest sales platforms today was Douyin.

That platform seemed to be doing short dramas too.

Sang Yu felt she was a genius.