Lu Chen: The Mad Genius Of Creativity

“No problem.”
Lu Chen shook his head.
“Alright, that’s settled then. I’ll briefly explain the rules. Tomorrow, after you meet with these companies, you can choose the one you’re satisfied with.
If the negotiations fall through, according to the show’s rules, you can assign the script to any company you want. However, the maximum price they can offer will be 500,000.
That said, I believe with competition among these companies, someone will offer a good price. The details will depend on your discussions tomorrow.
The show won’t take a single penny from the transaction—our only requirement is that the drama includes the Godlike Writing Contest logo during its broadcast.”
Lu Chen nodded. It seemed this competition was genuinely striving to support the screenwriting industry in Longguo.
“By the way, there’s one more thing I need to tell you.”
Hong Tao suddenly appeared a bit embarrassed.
“Go ahead, Director.”
“It’s like this. Initially, eight companies were bidding, and five were selected for priority negotiations. However, three companies have since withdrawn from the bidding.
Specifically, Guangxian, Xinli, and Youku.
It’s likely because of what Chen Sicheng said on stage earlier, which made them reconsider. So, in the end, only five companies will be negotiating with you for the script.”
After finishing, Hong Tao glanced at Lu Chen, only to find that the latter showed no change in expression. Lu Chen calmly nodded.
“Got it, Director.”
Hong Tao was slightly stunned and chuckled awkwardly.
“Lu Chen, don’t take Chen Sicheng’s words too seriously. Every judge has their own perspective, after all.”
“I understand, Director.”
“Good. I’m glad you see it that way. Let’s exchange contact information so I can notify you tomorrow.”
“Sure thing!”
After exchanging numbers, Lu Chen took his leave. He hailed a random cab downstairs and headed back to his rented apartment.
During the competition, Lu Chen rented a place in the heart of the city. The environment was nice, though it was a bit far from the venue.
In the car, sitting in the backseat with nothing else to do, Lu Chen checked his emotional value. It was still at 8 million, without any change.
“Looks like emotional value can only be gained during the competition.”
“This is a bit troublesome—it reduces my ‘income’ streams.”
Lu Chen smacked his lips. He had already decided how to spend the 8 million.
First, he’d spend 1 million to further enhance his physique. Next, he’d use 2 million to upgrade his negotiation aura!
The system described it in a very mystical way—It claimed the aura would increase his negotiation authority by 50%!
Just in time for tomorrow’s negotiations, so it was worth exchanging for it.
As for the remaining 5 million, Lu Chen decided to save it for now. After all, the next round of the competition would require this money to exchange for scripts.
From his exploration of the system, Lu Chen discovered that the most expensive items weren’t lifespan or physique upgrades.
But scripts!
For example, Breaking the Ice, a show about drug raids in a rural village, cost 3 million emotional value to exchange. Meanwhile, Nirvana in Fire cost a whopping 6.3 million! It was entirely out of Lu Chen’s budget.
But what shocked him the most was the script for the universally acclaimed political drama—In the Name of the People!
Its exchange price was a staggering 7 million emotional value!
The kicker? Even with the emotional value, Lu Chen couldn’t buy it.
The script was currently locked. The reason for the lock was even more ridiculous—The host’s current reputation is insufficient for this exchange.
“Do I need my personal reputation to match the script’s level?”
Lu Chen was speechless. It must be another one of the system’s quirky rules…
But on second thought, it made sense. The level of this drama was simply too high!
It could be said to be unparalleled in its genre—an absolute classic!
If the next prompt for this competition ended up being something related to realistic themes, and Lu Chen brought out this drama…
The level of shock it would create would be far beyond the likes of Breaking the Ice, a story centered on a single drug-dealing village. It would probably cause a nationwide uproar from top to bottom. Thinking this through, it seemed reasonable for the script to remain locked for now.
In summary, the hotter the drama, the higher the emotional value required! Which was fair enough. Therefore, Lu Chen decided to reserve 5 million as a safety net.
After all, he had no idea what kind of prompt the competition would set next…
If the prompt turned out to be expensive, and he couldn’t exchange for a script, he’d be screwed!
With 5 million, he figured he’d be adequately prepared.
With that thought, Lu Chen closed the system panel. He took out his phone to check his WeChat messages.
As expected, there was a long list of unread messages.
Feeling overwhelmed, Lu Chen chose to ignore them for now. He opened Douyin instead, intending to relax by watching some videos.
And the first thing he saw?
The viral clip of Yan Gelin and Chen Sicheng arguing on stage.
Lu Chen was speechless.
“Looks like I’ll be trending today, at the very least!”
Curious, Lu Chen opened the trending list.
He glanced at the hot search section!
Lu Chen was dumbfounded on the spot!
Out of the top ten trending topics, six were related to him!
The rest were a string of related topics all about him!
Lu Chen took a sharp breath! He had anticipated that Breaking Ice would get some buzz, but he hadn’t expected it to be this explosive!
“Guangxian, Xinli, Youku—they really lack vision!”
Lu Chen chuckled sarcastically.
As for the remaining five companies.
He wasn’t very familiar with Huanyu, so he reserved judgment.
Aiqiyi, a powerful online entertainment platform, was well-funded.
Jiaxing? Wasn’t that Yang Mi’s company?
A company that primarily produces period dramas and romance—what business did they have with Breaking Ice?
Jiaxing was off the table!
If they took it on, it wouldn’t be a good start, but a complete disaster!
Then there was Huayi Brothers…
Honestly, Lu Chen wasn’t fond of them. Despite being a big company, they didn’t have the best reputation. He instinctively felt resistant.
The one he had the most confidence in was Daylight Entertainment. Their reputation was excellent, and their productions were of consistently high quality!
Among the five, they seemed the most suitable.
“Let’s see what price they offer tomorrow.”
Lu Chen wasn’t in a rush to make a decision, he’d wait to see how the negotiations played out.
After returning to his apartment, feeling utterly exhausted, Lu Chen collapsed onto his bed and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
_____
Meanwhile, online, the buzz continued to intensify!
Especially Chen Sicheng’s infamous six-point critique, which had sparked a massive uproar. The backlash wasn’t just about his nitpicking of the story itself, but more critically, his outright dismissal of the story’s audience appeal and popularity.
It was like saying to people who loved eating rice.
“Rice isn’t that great, not many people eat it!”
This kind of arrogance, dismissing others’ preferences, naturally provoked strong resistance from many netizens.
One such netizen was Song Xiaoling. She loved the story of Breaking Ice, especially the character Lin Yaodong, who had completely captivated her!
As a small, relatively unknown Douyin cosplay streamer, Song Xiaoling often uploaded personal cosplay videos. Unfortunately, her videos didn’t gain much traction, and her follower count grew very slowly. Now, she wanted to cosplay characters from Breaking Ice
To support Lu Chen.
The problem? Most of the key characters in the story were middle-aged men!
The only notable female character was essentially a minor role with little impact.
Cosplaying her would be pointless. Just as she was feeling stuck,
Her father came home. Looking at her father’s somewhat lean figure and his rimless glasses, she realized his appearance and demeanor bore a striking resemblance to Lin Yaodong!
Without hesitation, Song Xiaoling decided to have her father cosplay!
Unable to resist his daughter’s enthusiasm, her father reluctantly agreed to the shoot.
With Song Xiaoling’s makeup skills, her father donned a traditional Zhongshan suit and cleaned his glasses.
He fully transformed into Lin Yaodong.
After four long hours of repeated filming, the video was finally complete!
It featured the iconic scene of Lin Yaodong making a phone call, delivering the classic line—”Uncle Dong is happy you called…”
Once the video was done, Song Xiaoling eagerly edited it.
The final product left her thoroughly satisfied! She felt her father genuinely captured Lin Yaodong’s essence.
Confident, Song Xiaoling uploaded the video to her account. She was sure the video would go viral!
But over an hour passed, and the views barely surpassed 200.
Although the comments were positive, The numbers simply weren’t going up!
Disheartened, Song Xiaoling couldn’t help but feel disappointed. She had hoped the video would blow up…
But then she reminded herself—her primary goal was to support Lu Chen. Even if just one person appreciated it, it was worth it!
Late at night, Song Xiaoling gave up on waiting and went to bed.
The next morning, she woke up eager to check if the video had reached 1,000 views.
What she saw in the analytics left her jumping up in excitement!
The video hadn’t just gone viral.
It had absolutely exploded!!!