268: What is destined to happen will happen eventually, what is not destined to happen will depend on your father

"OK, no problem."

After finalizing the profit-sharing method, Ye Su followed the investment precautions he had researched beforehand and stipulated an upper limit for traffic acquisition costs, stating it could not exceed 70% of the total revenue, with any excess to be borne by Guang Yu Theater itself.

Furthermore, after the short drama went live, Guang Yu Theater had to provide Ye Su with an admin backend dashboard, where he could see detailed metrics such as view counts, paying audiences, and recharge amounts.

Finally, Ye Su specifically stipulated that if "After Rebirth, I Choose to Become the Empress Myself" became a hit after its release and Guang Yu Theater wanted to film a sequel, he would retain the right of first refusal for a 40% profit share.

As for the investment cost for the sequel, it would depend on how much higher the production cost of the second part was compared to the first.

"Very well. If Mr. Ye has no further questions, we will draft the contract according to the terms we just agreed upon."

"Sounds good."

Seeing that less than ten minutes had passed since Ye Su walked in, and he had already finalized an investment of five hundred thousand into the short drama—it seemed as easy to him as spending fifty yuan.

Zhang Quanqiang cursed Ye Su's inhuman wealth in his heart while scurrying off to draft the contract for him.

With only the two of them left in the meeting room, Mr. Wang smiled and began making polite small talk to avoid an awkward atmosphere:

"Mr. Ye, you look quite young. If someone didn't know any better, they'd probably think you were still a college student."

Hearing Mr. Wang's flattery, Ye Su couldn't help but scratch his head in embarrassment: "I actually am still in school; I won't graduate until next year..."

Since he would need his ID card to sign the contract later, Ye Su couldn't hide his age even if he wanted to, so he had to admit the fact that he was still a college student.

"Uh..."

Upon hearing that Ye Su was still a college student, Mr. Wang felt surprised and awkward.

So it wasn't that he looked young; he was actually just very young.

Has society really developed to this point?

A college student not studying at school, but running out to invest in short dramas.

Not only did he invest 500,000, but the watch he was wearing was a Patek Philippe worth over a million!

Sure enough, if it is meant to be, you will have it; if not, rely on your [Old Man].

In Mr. Wang's eyes, Ye Su was now a thoroughbred rich second-generation heir, taking his family's money and squandering it on ordinary people like them.

Mr. Wang had made up his mind to latch onto this golden thigh; even if it wasn't for future cooperation, it was good to know a rich second-generation heir.

Dealing with all sorts of people in society all day, that little bit of awkwardness naturally didn't affect Mr. Wang.

Quickly speculating about Ye Su's family background in his mind, Mr. Wang kept the smile on his face and continued with the polite social pleasantries:

"You college students nowadays really have flexible minds. You're already involved in various investment projects before graduating, unlike us back then, who only knew how to flirt with female classmates at school all day."

"Haha." Ye Su was gradually getting used to these social conventions and responded with a smile:

"My academic qualifications aren't enough, so I have to get in touch with various industries early to have a way out in the future."

You don't know what kind of environment your family has, but don't you have any idea yourself?

A watch alone costs over a million; do you still need to look for a way out?

What, if you don't work hard, you'll have to go home and inherit several hundred million?

Every word Ye Su said precisely stepped on Mr. Wang's sensitive points, making him distorted with jealousy.

Even so, the smile on Mr. Wang's face didn't fade in the slightest as he continued to chat with Ye Su:

"Regardless, Mr. Ye, this is what I call young and promising."

"What young and promising? I'm just a newcomer to the industry. If there's anything I don't understand in the future, I'll have to learn a lot from you, Mr. Wang."

"I wouldn't call it learning; we're just exchanging ideas."

The back-and-forth pleasantries between the two made the atmosphere in the meeting room extremely harmonious.

Just as Ye Su was about to run out of things to say, Zhang Quanqiang finally walked into the meeting room with the drafted contract.

"Mr. Ye, the contract has been drafted. Please take a look and see if there are any issues."

"Okay."

Naturally, one had to be careful when it came to contracts.

Ye Su didn't bother with the social niceties of trust; after taking the contract, he reviewed it line by line and word by word.

After confirming there were no issues, he signed his name and pressed his fingerprint on it.

"Happy to work with you!"

"Happy to work with you."

With things progressing so smoothly, Mr. Wang and Zhang Quanqiang stood up one after another and happily shook hands with Ye Su.

"You were born in '04!"

After shaking hands, Zhang Quanqiang saw the ID number on the contract, exclaimed in surprise, and looked up at Ye Su with a shocked expression.

"Yes."

"At this age, you wouldn't happen to still be a college student, would you?"

"Yes, I am." Ye Su nodded.

Receiving Ye Su's affirmative reply, Zhang Quanqiang's surprised reaction was exactly the same as Mr. Wang's when he heard the news just now.

Seeing Zhang Quanqiang's reaction, Ye Su muttered internally:

Why do they act like they've seen some kind of animal whenever they hear I'm a college student?

Is it really necessary for both of them to act like this?

Not wanting to dwell on this topic, Ye Su asked about the casting:

"By the way, when are we casting for this short drama?"

"The first draft of the script has been approved, and the screenwriter will finish the final version by tomorrow at the latest.

Our work schedule is to finalize all the actors on Wednesday and thursday, and the ancient costume scenes at the Bay Area Film and Television City have already been secured.

We expect to start filming on Saturday. Since it's an ancient costume drama, the filming period is tentatively set for nine days.

Once all scenes are filmed, it will be handed over to the post-production department, and we will strive to launch it on major platforms by the end of this month."

Hearing Mr. Wang's schedule, Ye Su couldn't help but click his tongue:

Good grief, listening to them, from finalizing the script to the short drama going live, it probably wouldn't even take a month in total.

He had only heard that the short drama industry was cutthroat, but he hadn't expected it to be this cutthroat.

However, Ye Su understood.

In the current short drama industry, the main focus is racing against time.

Especially now that content homogenization is severe, whoever can launch the same type of short drama faster than others can be the first to capture the initial wave of traffic.

The fast get it, the slow miss out.

Those who are a bit slow to react and act can only watch others eat meat while they follow behind to drink the leftover soup, or perhaps not even get a sip of soup at all.

This industry status quo made Ye Su feel the cruelty of social rules firsthand for the first time.

"May I ask what the casting process is like?"

Guessing that Ye Su was a rich second-generation heir from a prominent family, Mr. Wang and the other gave him enough patience and explained tirelessly:

"I will notify the companies of those short drama actors and have them call people over for auditions. In the end, it will depend on which actors the director is more satisfied with."

Ye Su was a little surprised: "Don't you recruit actors from the public?"

"The industry generally doesn't do that because it's too troublesome. It's more convenient to just contact talent agencies or professional agents."