Volume Two: Shadows of the Past Chapter Sixty-Eight: You Want to Make an Anime?

Jingyu Live was one of the hottest streaming platforms in China. Jingyu Live Co., Ltd. was also a subsidiary of Jingrun Entertainment Co., Ltd.

The person currently responsible for managing Jingyu Live was Jingrun’s executive president, Wang Lu.

That day happened to be the day Wang Lu was reviewing Jingyu Live’s monthly data reports. Seated in his office, he examined the platform’s latest figures.

As he studied the reports in his hands, Wang Lu’s brows drew tightly together. Although the platform’s recent figures were satisfactory and showed a steady upward trend, Wang Lu was not satisfied. He still felt that Jingyu Live’s popularity was growing far too slowly—nowhere near as quickly as that of the other major streaming platforms.

With that thought in mind, he summoned the person in charge of managing Jingyu Live.

“Who is currently the most popular streamer on our platform?”

The manager thought for a moment before replying, “Well, if we’re talking about the most popular streamer, it should be Xiaoxuan from the singing section. She’s beautiful, has a sweet voice, and is basically the number-one female streamer on Jingyu Live.”

Wang Lu nodded. “I see. Pull up her profile and some photographs. I want to see what she really looks like. Don’t give me any beauty-filtered or retouched photos.”

“Uh, about that…” The manager looked troubled. What young woman these days would release an unfiltered, unretouched photograph of herself?

Then he suddenly thought of something and hurriedly said, “President Wang, Xiaoxuan should be streaming right now. Why don’t we go to her channel and take a look?”

“Fine.” That would work too. He could see how effective her livestream was.

The manager quickly opened Jingyu Live on the computer, went to the singing section, and clicked on the most popular room. “President Wang, look. This is Xiaoxuan.”

Seeing the beautiful female streamer on the screen, whose voice was equally lovely, Wang Lu nodded with some satisfaction. He was just about to speak when a line of information on the screen caught his attention.

He immediately turned to the staff member beside him. “Didn’t you say Xiaoxuan was the most popular streamer on our platform?”

“That’s right.”

“Then why is there another channel with a higher viewer count?” Wang Lu asked, pointing to the channel popularity rankings displayed on the screen. The channel in first place had surpassed Xiaoxuan’s by a considerable margin.

“What? This is happening?” The manager was equally confused. He quickly clicked into the most popular channel.

After glancing at its name, he said doubtfully, “Chen Jing’s channel? Who is this? I’ve never heard of him.”

He was just about to honestly admit to President Wang that he had no idea what was going on when he turned around and saw Wang Lu staring at the computer screen with his eyes wide open, utterly motionless.

In Chen Jing’s channel, Chen Jing had just finished singing a song. The viewers immediately began flooding the chat with questions.

“What’s the name of this song?”

“Exactly! It was so good, but we still don’t know what it’s called. Brother Jing, hurry up and tell us…”

Only when Chen Jing saw the questions did he remember that he had become so absorbed in singing that he had forgotten to tell his fans the song’s name.

“This song is called ‘Love Is Long, Paper Is Short.’” Chen Jing smiled. “What do you all think? Is it good?”

When he saw the chat fill with the same two words—“It’s good”—Chen Jing smiled faintly.

“Since you all like the song, then it’s time for me to start advertising. Ahem!”

After coughing twice, Chen Jing put on a solemn expression and said, “During the May Day Golden Week, the film I acted in, ‘SPL: Kill Zone,’ will officially hit theaters. I hope everyone will support it when the time comes. ‘SPL: Kill Zone’ is an action crime film. It’s a must-see for men, and I guarantee you’ll enjoy it.”

Watching Chen Jing advertise his film with such solemn sincerity, the fans in the channel burst out laughing.

“That was a smooth move. Singing on a livestream just to advertise your own movie—who else can do that?”

“Haha. A composer who can’t act and make movies isn’t a proper singer…”

The viewers teased him with straight faces. Many more, however, were hoping Chen Jing would sing the previous song again. They had heard only part of it, and naturally, no one felt satisfied.

Chen Jing readily agreed and sang it once more. Afterward, he chatted with his viewers and fans about making the film, repeatedly steering the conversation back toward his movie from time to time.

Once they had talked enough, Chen Jing sang another new song for everyone. After receiving another round of praise, he launched into another advertisement. Then he checked the time. He had been streaming for nearly an hour, which was probably enough.

“All right, everyone. It’s about time for me to end today’s stream. I’m not sure when I’ll be streaming next, but I’ll post an announcement on Weibo once I’ve decided. That’s all for today. See you next time, everyone. Bye-bye!”

“Ah! Don’t go, Brother Jing! Sing one more song!”

“Yeah, don’t leave. I haven’t had enough yet.”

“Big brother, don’t go…”

Ignoring the viewers’ pleas, Chen Jing immediately ended the stream.

When he stepped out of the room, he was surprised to find that Lin Xi and Lin Zitan were still there.

Looking at the two of them sitting on the living-room sofa, Chen Jing asked, “You two haven’t gone home yet?”

Lin Zitan waved her phone at him. “We were just checking how your livestream performed.”

Chen Jing sat down beside Zitan and asked with a smile, “And how did it do?”

“Not bad. The popularity of your channel just rose to number one.”

“Oh? Number one?” Chen Jing looked surprised. He had been so focused on streaming that he had not paid close attention to the rankings.

Lin Zitan was about to say something when Lin Xi interrupted them.

“By the way, there’s something I need to tell you. Director Zhang Qishan’s film, ‘Blood Battle at Ancient Mountain Ridge,’ is also premiering during the May Day holiday. I just checked the holiday release schedule, and there are quite a few films competing with us.”

Chen Jing immediately became interested. “Oh? Director Zhang’s movie is premiering during May Day too? Then we’re competitors. Wait, I also acted in his movie. Doesn’t that mean I’ll be competing against myself?”

“Hehe. If both movies become huge hits, then you’ll have secured a place for yourself in the film industry, A-Jing,” Lin Zitan said dreamily.

Ignoring her innocent fantasy, Lin Xi shook her head. “I wouldn’t call it a competition. It’s possible they don’t even consider us worth competing with.”

If she did not believe in Chen Jing’s abilities, even Lin Xi herself would have looked down on his film, ‘SPL: Kill Zone.’ After all, no one could reasonably believe that a movie made by a newcomer and completed in less than a month could create much of a stir.

“Hah… It’s not a bad thing if they look down on us. That way, they won’t target us. We can just work quietly and let the results speak for themselves.” Chen Jing was remarkably open-minded.

Lin Xi, however, was not so optimistic. She sighed. “Actually, I think it might have been better to release it at another time. The competition during the May Day holiday is simply too fierce. Besides, we rushed through production, and our promotional campaign hasn’t been strong enough.”

Chen Jing flashed her a broad grin. “Don’t worry, Sister Xi. I can’t promise we’ll be number one at the box office, but I’m confident we’ll definitely rank among the top three.”

Seeing the confidence in his smile, Lin Xi was infected by it. She gave him a calm smile in return. “I hope you’re right.”

Chen Jing shrugged and changed the subject. “By the way, Sister Xi, can you find any good animation studios?”

“Hm? What do you need an animation studio for, A-Jing?” Lin Zitan asked curiously.

Lin Xi frowned. “Are you planning to produce an animated series?”

Chen Jing nodded. “I’ve been thinking about it. For now, I mainly want to see whether we can find a really good studio.”

“Are you thinking of a long-running series or an animated feature film?”

“Both, I suppose.”

Lin Xi pondered for a moment before speaking. “Animation really is a massive market. Unfortunately, China’s animation industry is currently at a low point, so the market has long been dominated by American animated films from Disney and serialized Japanese animation. Under those circumstances, reclaiming a share of the market won’t be easy.”

“Why not give it a try? Everything depends on people. Whatever happens, someone has to be willing to make the attempt. We can’t keep watching those Americans and Japanese bastards take our livelihood away from us.” This was Chen Jing’s true motive. He genuinely did not want China’s animation market to remain dominated by American and Japanese companies. He wanted to take it back.

“All right. I’ll keep an eye out for you. An animation studio shouldn’t be too difficult to find.”

“It doesn’t necessarily have to be a large studio. As long as it has plenty of potential, that’s enough. It doesn’t matter if the staff is small. If we’re short-handed later, we can always recruit more people.”

Lin Xi nodded. “All right.”

Afterward, Lin Xi and Chen Jing discussed several more details concerning the film’s release. By the time they finished, it was already past nine in the evening.

“We’ll be going now, A-Jing. See you at the company tomorrow.”

Chen Jing walked the two women to the door and smiled as he said goodbye. “See you tomorrow.”

The following day, Chen Jing arrived at the company early. After breakfast, he did not return to his office right away. Instead, he went to look for Ling Ruohan.

When he arrived at Ling Ruohan’s workplace, she was naturally nowhere to be seen. It was only a little after eight, and she might not even have gotten out of bed yet.

However, Ling Ruohan was not the person Chen Jing had come to see today. He was looking for Gu Tao and Li Qingwei.

That’s right. After two months of training, Li Qingwei had finally met Chen Jing’s requirements. In other words, he had finally passed Teacher Yuan Mengru’s examination.

According to Li Qingwei himself, he had finally mastered his great skills and was ready to leave seclusion and battle on behalf of his boss across the land.

In fact, the moment he passed the examination, Li Qingwei had excitedly contacted his boss. Unfortunately, Chen Jing’s film had been in the final stages of production at the time, so he had asked Li Qingwei to wait.

After that, Chen Jing disappeared and returned to his hometown for a while. The meeting they had promised kept being postponed until now.