Chapter 198 – She was an old lady with principles! (2)
Meng Yan nodded, then started saying, “There is something that is on my mind. I’m not sure how to say it. It’s sort of complicated.”
“Then make it simple.” That was, indeed, curt and simple.
At that very moment, Meng Yan felt that Lin Yiyi and Ms. Lin Ping were very similar to each other.
They were both so straight forward that it was difficult for others to handle.
“Alright.” Then, he took a look at her and said, “I hope that Xiying can withdraw from My Classmate.”
Lin Yiyi, “……”
No build up. He had cut straight to the chase. She wasn’t ready for that yet!
Meng Yan had prepared a long speech, but under Lin Yiyi’s impatient look, he figured he’d keep it as simple as possible. In a way that he did not realize, he was affected by his ex-wife’s “directness”.
“Something happened recently and I felt that her continued participation in this show would negatively impact her.”
If it was anything else, he would not have interfered, but the fact that he was able to stand strong in the entertainment circle for so many years was precisely because of his sharp instinct in this field.
This scandal that Zhang Xiying was in has to do with the new star Yu Yi.
Yu Yi was a very popular star with a lot of fans. That, on top of Zhang Xiying’s marital status, made the scandal between the two of them a disaster.
The news had been suppressed for now but that didn’t mean it had disappeared completely.
Fans from both sides were tearing at each other. Zhang Xiying’s Weibo page had collapsed from all the taunts and abusive words from Yu Yi’s braindead fans.
Even Yu Yi’s Weibo comment section was like a disaster zone after a hurricane had passed.
At this time, the best thing to do was to keep the two of them apart.
Lin Yiyi had an idea what Meng Yan was talking about.
She, too, was someone who was halfway into the entertainment circle. As naïve and inexperienced as she was, she still had an idea.
Except that…
“Does Zhang Xiying know that you want her to withdraw from the production?”
With her head resting on her palm, Lin Yiyi thought through the matter on a high-level: Production had already begun. If Zhang Xiying was to back out now, she would have to pay an astronomical amount for breaching the contract. Zhang Xiying’s compensation had gone up to 500,000 yuan per episode. My Classmate has a total of 38 episodes, she was paid a lump sum of 19 million yuan. The penalty for breaching the contract was 3:2, so she’d still have to pay back 12.7 million yuan, along with other losses incurred by the production team.
For example, if the team had already completed one episode, she’d need to compensate the payments of all of the actors along with the director as well as all the other workers. If ten episodes had been filmed, that amount would be increased by ten folds!
The biggest problem was that if Zhang Xiying resigned right now, they didn’t have anyone lined up to take her spot. The amount incurred by the delay would be difficult to estimate.
Lin Yiyi could very well just be ruthless and ask for an astronomical amount such as 20 ~ 30 million yuan or even more.
The finance team on Xinri’s payroll was pretty mighty. They could easily come up with some unimaginable amount.
Meng Yan was well aware of that. He sighed and said through gritted teeth, “I will pay the penalty.”