Warm Springs Inn was called Warm Warm House. It was located at the foot of the mountain on the edge of town. Fortunately the road was good to drive on. Following the navigation, turning left and right, it took two hours to get there.
The inn was not big. It did not look like a high-end luxury hotel. On the contrary, it looked more like a homestay. There were two lanterns hanging at the entrance, and the overall decoration style was very Japanese.
The details inside also proved this point. The woodblock prints, Maneki-neko, tatami mats, and the boss lady squatting down to take slippers for people, all showed the bloodline of this inn.
"Meow ~~" A Japanese Bobtail cat was lying at the counter, which was the prototype of Nyanko-sensei in Natsume’s Book of Friends.
Jian Jing couldn't help touching her phone, "Are there any cat treats for sale?"
She wanted to buy love with money.
"Oh~" The boss lady smiled and said fluently in Chinese, "You can use this to play with it for a while." She handed over a cat teaser wand.
Jian Jing threw away her luggage and squatted on the ground to tease the cat.
Kang Mu Cheng funny yet helpless, sighed, "Do you want me to help you take your luggage upstairs?"
Jian Jing didn't even turn her head back, "You can leave it there, I'll take it myself."
While the two were talking, one of the sliding doors in the corridor opened, and Xu Scriptwriter poked his head out. Seeing them, he smiled, "You came?"
It was not appropriate to play in front of them, so Jian Jing put back the cat teaser wand and got up to nod at them.
Xu Scriptwriter enthusiastically introduced, "The boss here is an old acquaintance in the circle. After retiring, he opened this shop. Every time we finish a project, we have to come here to drink, take a hot spring bath, and nurture our health."
Jian Jing looked at him. She could only see his face full of red light, and really didn't know where he needed health preservation.
"How have you been recently, Jingjing?" Xu Scriptwriter met her eyes, smiling and asking, "Demon 2 has been selling well recently, broke 1 million, congratulations, congratulations!"
Jian Jing smiled slightly, very modestly, "Just lucky."
Xu Scriptwriter shook his head and said sincerely, "You made steady progress." Alright, let's not talk about work for now. The hot springs here are natural water. Hurry up and soak in it to warm up. We'll eat after that."
Kang Mu Cheng looked around and said, "This place is quiet."
"Yeah, the air is good, the scenery is good." Xu Scriptwriter winked at them, implying, "The hot springs are also good, much better than hotels."
Jian Jing didn't understand.
Xu Scriptwriter continued winking, "Do you have any recommendations for the cast of Season 2?"
"I do have some." Jian Jing misunderstood his meaning and quickly said, "But I'm just casually mentioning it. The final casting is still up to you guys."
Xu Scriptwriter chuckled, "Heh."
Kang Mu Cheng, however, understood it. He patted Jian Jing on the shoulder, "Go put your stuff in the room first."
Jian Jing: "?"
She was inexplicably driven away.
After making sure Jian Jing went upstairs, Kang Mu Cheng lowered his voice and said to Xu Scriptwriter, "Jingjing is still a young girl, don't let her get involved in this kind of thing."
"She's not that young anymore." Xu Scriptwriter didn't think so. "Mr. Kang, let me say something unpleasant. If Jingjing wants to develop well in the circle in the future, she has to have a say. If you don't let her get involved, people won't take her seriously."
Kang Mu Cheng's brows furrowed.
If it wasn't for the common experience of escaping to Yuhui Villa, Xu Scriptwriter's words were a bit suggestive. If handled improperly, it could drive a wedge between his and Jian Jing's relationship.
But he knew Xu Scriptwriter was really considering Jian Jing.
It was already a trend to adapt popular novels into TV dramas. Novelists like Jian Jing would definitely become more popular in the future. She couldn't listen to the director like in Demon Season 1 anymore. That way people wouldn't think she was easy to communicate with, only that she was easy to bully.
By then, arbitrary adaptations would damage the IP value, and her value would also be diminished.
"Most importantly, it's not like Jingjing would lose out." The bottom line of the entertainment industry was probably the lowest of all industries. Xu Scriptwriter took it very lightly. "It's a consensual thing."
Kang Mu Cheng endured it, but couldn't help it, "You guys are too messy."
Xu Scriptwriter laughed. Mr. Kang is so serious.
On the other side, Jian Jing discovered there were more guests at the inn than she had imagined. She thought there would only be people from the crew, but who would’ve thought there was a pretty older sister next door.
The lady came over kindly to greet her, "You are Teacher Jian, right? I'm Zhang Xi, nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you." Jian Jing glanced over her face.
This guest had mature and elegant features. Light makeup and red lips, those full lips were very characteristic, leaving a very deep impression.
Well, just pretend to forget her name as soon as you hear it, let's call her Ms. Red Lips for now.
Ms. Red Lips handed over a very cute box of cookies and lifted her hair with a gentle smile, "I made these cookies myself, hope you like them."
"Uh, thanks." Jian Jing was confused about why her popularity suddenly became so good.
But one shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. She accepted the gift and exchanged a few pleasantries before sending Ms. Red Lips away.
Five minutes later, there was another knock on the door.
This time it was Zhao Meng's assistant, bringing her snacks and drinks, and meaningfully probing, "Teacher seems to have a lot of guests here."
Jian Jing was still a little confused, "I thought it was just the crew today."
"It's normal for an inn open for business to have guests coming." The assistant said, "If it's too noisy for Teacher, just ignore them."
Jian Jing raised her eyebrows.
The assistant was about to say something more, but was deterred by her expression and hurriedly said goodbye.
Jian Jing briefly tidied up the room and went downstairs, still thinking about the cat.
The cat was being held in a boy's arms.
He was very tall with fair skin. His features seemed to have minority ethnicity, with deeper eye sockets, very white teeth, and a very distinctive face.
Seeing her come over, the boy asked, "Do you like cats too?"
Jian Jing stopped in her tracks and asked, "'Too'?"
"I thought you came for it." The boy lifted the cat in his hand, raised his eyebrows, "Didn't you?"
Jian Jing had already sensed the vigorous hormones of the young boy and immediately rejected, "No."
The boy was stunned for a moment, then quickly resumed his composure, shrugging, "Sorry, my mistake."
Jian Jing nodded at him and walked away.
Director Huang's treat for this meal didn't seem to be easy to eat.
She found Director Huang's private room and joined the tea drinking and snacks eating activity.
The tea was flower tea, the snacks were wagashi, mizu yokan, and daifuku.
They all looked good.
They didn't taste good.
Fortunately, the boss lady brought over some fried food and pancakes. She specially made Jian Jing a cup of matcha milk tea.
Jian Jing took a sip of milk tea and said to Director Huang, "There are a lot of people today."
Director Huang laughed, much more amiable than when they met last time, "For this meal, there's just you, Old Xu, Mr. Kang, and our Producer Sun."
Producer Sun was a slender middle-aged woman who had tattooed eyebrows. The blush on her cheekbones was a bit heavy, giving a sharp feeling. But when she spoke, she was very gentle, "I think we should make a toast first today and communicate a bit. Teacher Jian, feel free to speak up if you have any thoughts."
Jian Jing tilted her head to look at Kang Mu Cheng.
He understood and got straight to the point, "We're not working together for the first time, so let's skip the unnecessary pleasantries. Let's talk about the contract first."
What everyone was most anxious about was the contract for the second part. Although the sequels were included when signing the first part, it was only a vague "priority consideration" and nothing specific was settled.
Producer Sun said, "The previous contract mentioned that we have the priority right to sign, theoretically the price fluctuation does not exceed 10%."
Kang Mu Cheng laughed.
For the first contract, it was Jian Jing at a disadvantage. If Demon 2 didn't sell well, they could just not buy it. But if it sold well, only allowing 10% increase would be too disadvantaged.
However, at that time Jian Jing was not confident about Demon 2, plus other factors, they still signed the contract.
"As of last night, the sales volume of Demon 2 was 1.28 million." His tone was flat.
Producer Sun paused, then said, "Making it an IP benefits both parties."
The two sides officially entered business negotiations.
Jian Jing found it boring and whispered to Xu Scriptwriter, "What did those people come for?"
"Looking for opportunities, of course." Xu Scriptwriter laughed, "The response to Season 1 was so good, everyone wants a piece of the pie. If they can't get regular roles, guest roles will do. You'll see how lively it gets later."
Jian Jing looked thoughtful. So that's why Xu Scriptwriter mentioned this as soon as they met. It seemed the competition for these roles was much more intense than she thought.
She looked at Kang Mu Cheng again. On the way here, they had already discussed that they would probably have to sell the IP of Demon.
She wrote books too slowly. Writing TV series scripts was much faster since there were many people working together. They had to come up with a plan that everyone could accept this time, to make the pie bigger.
Sun Producer represented Feiniao Entertainment, also the producer of Demon. Their TV dramas were mostly suspense and crime series, so they hoped to make Demon into a series. Both Kang Mu Cheng and Sun Producer knew this well.
What the two parties were haggling over was how to divide the pie.
After a cordial and friendly discussion, they finally reached an agreement: the adaptation rights of "Demon Doctor" would be exclusively and fully authorized to Feiniao Entertainment. No matter if Jian Jing wrote a third or tenth installment in the future, they would all go to Feiniao, for a period of eight years.
Apart from the one-time $800,000 she could get this time, she could also receive an additional payment for each installment, no less than $200,000 and no more than $500,000, depending on the sales volume.
A real golden goose.
In addition, she would participate in scriptwriting and have veto power. If the drama's content did not meet her requirements, she could reject it and ask for modifications. The same went for casting.
At the same time, Jinwu would invest in the production of the Demon series.
That meant Demon would have not only one daddy investor, Feiniao Entertainment, but also a stepmom(?). There was also a possibility of other stepmoms outside.
No, not just a possibility, but a certainty.
Xu Scriptwriter secretly revealed that other investors had also recommended their favorite actors and wanted them to play a role in the drama. This was the so-called "bringing investment into the crew".
Jian Jing: The gossip smells so good.
She didn't expect to be able to eat gossip from the front row one day.
After reaching an agreement, Kang Mu Cheng and Sun Producer started signing the contract. Of course, they were signing a letter of intent today, not the final contract, but the copyright was the foundation for work to start. If nothing unexpected happened, it would not change.
Everyone could now start discussing the script for the second season.
Director Huang said, "I've read it. Changes will definitely be made. Jian Jing, the main storyline is about the demon and the hunter, right? Future stories should all revolve around these two characters."
Jian Jing nodded.
Xu Scriptwriter said, "Then it's easy. Let's outline it first."
Just as they were discussing enthusiastically, Sun Producer went out for a moment then came back, bringing in a person and laughing, "Let me introduce Xue Zhe, get to know each other."
The boy who held a cat waved hello cheerfully to everyone, "Hello everyone, I'm Xue Zhe."
"Xiao Xue has been developing well recently. That popular Sweet Song he acted in was a big hit." Sun Producer seemed to owe someone a favor by bringing Xue here for an introduction, and had no other intentions.
Xue Zhe smiled slightly and was very polite to everyone present: "Hello Director Huang, Scriptwriter Xu, Teacher Jian."
Jian Jing had only seen similar gatherings in entertainment industry novels, never expecting to participate in one someday. She fell speechlessly silent.
However, this was just the beginning.
Not even 10 minutes after Xue Zhe sat down, there was a knock on the door. A boss-looking man came in smiling, "Am I late?"
Sun Producer said, "Not at all, Boss Wan, please take a seat. This is our Director Huang."
After Boss Wan sat down, the lady who had greeted Jian Jing earlier, Miss Hong Chun, accompanied him.
Jian Jing used her fork to pick up an orange slice, thinking, money was hard to earn and no one had it easy.