Perfect Superstar.

This episode of 'Celebrity Interview' took nearly 70 minutes to record. That means over a third of the footage will be cut and won't appear on TV. But that's okay, one performance of 'When You're Old' alone made this episode truly memorable.

After the interview, Mu Rong even felt a bit reluctant to end it.

She has supported hundreds of episodes, and very few have left her with this kind of feeling. Perhaps to make up for the lingering regret, Mu Rong specially invited Lu Chen to a nearby café by the TV station.

She wasn't alone; accompanying her was the deputy director of the Variety Channel program team from Capital City TV Station.

Deputy Director Zhu was a burly northern guy with a straightforward personality and a booming voice. Director Zhu certainly wasn't hanging around for small talk, he had his eyes set on the upcoming drama 'Autumn in My Heart'.

More precisely, it was Beijing TV Channel 2 that was quite interested in this TV play.

Actually, ever since Lu Chen announced on his blog that 'Autumn in My Heart' was going into shooting, with Chen Fei'er starring as the heroine, a lot of parties had shown interest in this weekend drama.

There were TV stations, advertisers, middlemen, and mostly entertainment agencies.

The former came to ask about pricing, the latter wanted to get involved somehow.

Although Lu Chen was a complete newcomer to the film and TV industry, having Chen Fei'er as a golden brand meant that even if the drama turned out to be a flop, it would still attract a lot of attention, and there were plenty willing to place bets on it.

Currently, China's film and TV industry is huge, with the number of episodes shot every year climbing steadily to an astonishing level.

But at least 90% of these TV plays can't be broadcast on top provincial or central TV stations. Many local city stations won't even accept them, so they end up online, trying to make some money through streaming clicks.

Even the powerful online media platforms only promote high-quality productions.

So for someone like Lu Chen, who was originally outside the industry and just starting out, suddenly whimsically writing scripts and starring as the male lead in a self-produced TV play, that's truly unbelievable.

Yet this kind of "recklessness" turned out surprisingly well, making many people envious and jealous.

Ultimately, Chen Fei'er was the key.

'Autumn in My Heart' was Chen Fei'er's TV play debut!

Simply relying on her name saved tens of millions in promotion and hype costs, so it was completely natural for Beijing TV Channel 2 to be interested. In fact, the fact that they were even reaching out to Lu Chen during the 'Celebrity Interview' program was already rather restrained.

But Director Zhu really came to the wrong person.

Lu Chen was the primary driver behind 'Autumn in My Heart', but when it came to investment, marketing, and sales, he had handed everything over to his sister, Lu Xi.

So when Director Zhu cautiously inquired about pricing, Lu Chen could only give him Lu Xi's contact information.

Selling a TV play to a TV station is very complicated.

Usually, prices are calculated per episode, ranging from hundreds of thousands to over a million yuan. Many factors influence the price, the script, actors, director, subject matter, and so on.

The rights can be sold for multiple channels to premiere, or exclusive premiere rights, which have different prices.

If the premiere ratings are high, rerun prices can be very lucrative. Many shows don't make money on their first airing but earn a fortune through reruns.

However, more often than not, many TV plays are pushed onto stations, half sold, half given away, and still fail to find a home.

So although Lu Chen couldn't promise Director Zhu anything, he remained very polite.

After all, they might still end up having to ask for help.

Director Zhu himself was somewhat aloof, his interest in 'Autumn in My Heart' wasn't that great. Without Chen Fei'er's involvement, it wouldn't even have caught his attention.

These days, many TV plays are being made, but few turn out to be quality or commercially successful.

Beijing TV's Variety Channel, not only faces competition from peer channels but also competes internally for resources with other channels under the same station.

Besides the boss-level Channel 1 satellite station, Channel 2 (variety), Channel 4 (lifestyle), Channel 5 (film and TV), and Channel 8 (youth) all have fixed TV play slots. The channels internally rank their programs based on performance.

The higher the performance, the greater the rewards and resource allocation.

Therefore, outsourcing program production is very common to save costs and improve efficiency.

But cutting expenses can never compare to increasing revenue, a good show or a high-rating TV play can bring huge profits. This isn't like decades ago; TV stations have long since completed internal reforms and developed mature competition mechanisms.

Although the variety channel ranks second within Beijing TV, it's closely chased by Channels 4 and 5, creating a strong sense of crisis.

Director Zhu naturally faces enormous pressure.

Buying a flop or buying a hit show could mean the difference between losing or securing his position.

So he didn't put on airs with Lu Chen. Even if he couldn't get much information from him, he wasn't disappointed, he just wanted to build a good relationship, so that if the time came to make a move, he could get a head start.

Under these circumstances, combined with Mu Rong's cooperation, the communication between both sides went very smoothly.

On the evening of November 15th at 8:30 PM, the new episode of 'Celebrity Interview' aired punctually on Beijing TV's Variety Channel.

This episode attracted a massive wave of attention from Lu Chen's fans.

Lu Chen had already posted an announcement on his blog and that very night the program was simulcast on Whale TV.

The result? The song 'When You're Old' became an instant hit!

This new song by Lu Chen had never been heard before. As a song written for his mother, it struck a deep emotional chord in countless listeners, touching their hearts. The clips of him singing and playing guitar were widely shared across blogs.

In China, songs praising and reminiscing about mothers are not uncommon, but most carry a preachy, official "main melody" tone, so they rarely become popular beyond government or social group performances.

This made 'When You're Old' all the more precious. Its lyrics were simple and easy to understand, the melody gentle yet beautiful, and it demanded little vocal skill, making it easy for others to cover.

With its folk-style guitar and heartfelt emotion, many music critics hailed it as one of Lu Chen's best works, strongly recommending it on blogs.

Within the pop music circle, people once again saw Lu Chen's talent.

He seemed to have an endless flow of musical inspiration, always able to produce beautiful and captivating works. Handsome as he was, he never relied on looks to get by, he relied on his songs!

Someone even listed all of Lu Chen's works on a forum, including his own albums and songs he wrote for others. Not a single one was mediocre; any could easily be the lead or second lead track on an album.

What's most shocking is that so far, every officially released Lu Chen original song has made it onto the Original Soundtrack charts, a record in itself.

Certainly, there have been singers or musicians more outstanding than Lu Chen in Chinese pop music history, but none whose work maintains such consistently high quality.

Many marvel that the future of pop music belongs to Lu Chen.

Such praise might seem excessive for Lu Chen at this point. Some admire him, some envy him, some dismiss him, and some even harbor grudges!

But the storms online don't affect Lu Chen, for now, he simply has no time to pay them any mind.

On November 16th, Lu Chen left Capital City with Li Feiyu and arrived in Jinling.

They were there to attend the opening ceremony of 'Autumn in My Heart''s filming!

…

Over 300 kilometers away from Jinling, in Ningyuan City's Kaiyuan residential complex.

In building 7, room 201's spare bedroom, Meng Meng sat propped against the headboard, flipping through her textbook.

Her bone marrow transplant surgery had been very successful, with no significant rejection reactions. Combined with her previously good physical fitness, she was discharged soon after to recuperate at home and continue follow-up medication treatment.

According to the doctors, barring any accidents, her leukemia could basically be considered cured.

Thanks to advances in science and medical technology, what was once a death sentence is now treatable. Even a few years ago, bone marrow transplants had high relapse rates.

Today, with new drugs and methods, as long as funding isn't lacking and the match is successful, cure rates are very high.

For this family, that was the best possible outcome!

Only one thing was slightly frustrating for Meng Meng, due to her illness, she had fallen behind in school and would likely need to repeat a year before she could take the college entrance exam. Otherwise, she couldn't hope to get into her ideal university.

Meng Meng's grades were average, but she still wanted to work hard to attend college.

Even if it was just an ordinary university.

Suddenly, the door opened, and two girls wearing masks came in.

"Meng Meng, we came to see you!"

Meng Meng's face lit up, it was her best friends.

She had felt very bored staying at home, especially since she couldn't go out for a while, and her mother forbade her from using any electronic devices, even her phone was confiscated.

So the happiest moments were when her classmates and friends came to visit.

This time, the friends didn't bring flowers or fruit, but instead handed her a thick stack of printed papers.

Curious, Meng Meng asked, "What's this?"

Her friends smiled, "You'll see when you look!"

Meng Meng flipped open the top page and immediately saw the printed title.

'Autumn in My Heart' / Author: Lu Chen.

She widened her eyes in disbelief. "This is... Brother Lu Chen's novel?"

Her friends nodded, "That's right! They're about to start filming the TV play, and Lu Chen himself will be the male lead, with Chen Fei'er as the heroine. When you're better, you'll get to watch it!"

Meng Meng held the script tightly in her hands, longing to recover quickly.

She believed that the TV play based on Lu Chen's novel would definitely be wonderful!

(End of chapter)

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