Super Zoo

The moment he finished speaking, the male protagonist teleported in an instant, taking advantage of the Jiao Shou's moment of distraction to escape the range of the Wolf Fang Club's attack.

"You must be joking, right? Don't tell me we haven't had animals before?" Jiao Shou, clutching the Wolf Fang Club, stepped toward him with a fierce glint in his eyes.

"Seems like we really haven't, given how tight the budget is and how expensive it is to rent animals, they never really appeared!"

A burly man suddenly stood up and said angrily, "Even if we didn't have animals, our special effects team could create them with CGI. Everyone knows our unexpected special effects are the best!"

The entire meeting room fell suddenly quiet.

Everyone, including Jiao Shou who was pursuing the male protagonist, turned around at the same time, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Isn't that so? Isn't the unexpectedness of special effects one of our biggest selling points?" the burly man asked assertively.

Jiao Shou finally calmed down.

If even the shameless head of the special effects team could survive so brazenly in the world, then why should he be fixated on brutally killing the male protagonist, this unfortunate guy?

"Okay, okay, let's continue with the meeting. Share your ideas in detail, why did you think of adding animals?" Jiao Shou put down the Wolf Fang Club and asked the protagonist calmly.

The audience of 'Becoming Lu Yu,' mainly young people, tend to be more compassionate, and animals are actually a good gimmick that could align with the aesthetic preferences of Becoming Lu Yu's audience. So the overall direction wasn't wrong.

In fact, animals had appeared in the show before. There was an episode with a cat which saw quite impressive view counts.

But filming with animals can be quite challenging in practice. Unlike actors, animals won't simply follow a script to perform, and many animals inherently fear crowds. Even domestic pets may behave shyly or aggressively around strangers, so a few short shots with animals may not be a problem, but it's clearly impossible to have them play important roles throughout an entire scene.

The problem is, just adding a few short animal clips fundamentally won't change the status quo of the show and won't be enough to create a buzz.

Constant innovation and the addition of new elements are the biggest challenges for all web series. Audiences experience aesthetic fatigue and we must find new elements and tricks before they get bored, otherwise, a web series could rapidly rise to fame and fall just as quickly.

"This idea came from a video I saw last time, Jiao Shou, do you remember the Blue Wave Knight? You even left a comment on it," Baiker said.

"Huh?" Jiao Shou thought to himself, how can I possibly remember? I leave hundreds of comments online every day, with all sorts of bizarre names like Blue Wave Knight Ultraman and Giant Lobster on the internet, how could I remember them all? Besides, my memory has deteriorated, so it's quite normal for me to not remember.

"The video of that guy riding a fish all over the place in the Yangchuan City Reservoir!" Baiker continued to remind him.

"Oh..." Jiao Shou nodded heavily: "I still don't remember."

Baiker: "..."

However, the female protagonist turned out to be one of Yangchuan City Zoo's fans, she pulled out her phone, connected to wifi, and showed Jiao Shou a few videos published by 'Taoyuan Interests.'

"Huh, this does look interesting..." Jiao Shou's eyebrows raised.

...

After receiving the call, Suming immediately rushed back to the zoo.

The call from the team of 'Becoming Lu Yu' had come directly to the office of the zoo director. Mrs. Tong picked up and the person on the line expressed their wish to visit the zoo's leadership in person to discuss the possibility of cooperation.

"Could it be a scam?" Mrs. Tong said uncertainly. Her phone often received fraudulent messages and calls from people claiming to represent some famous TV program saying she'd won a prize.

"Probably not." Suming guessed that no scammer would be bold enough to make a house visit, and besides, he recalled having had brief interactions with Jiao Shou, the director of Becoming Lu Yu. Once the other party arrived, everything would become clear.

Suming didn't watch web dramas much, especially since starting his business; he rarely went online when it wasn't necessary. He only knew that 'Becoming Lu Yu' was a very popular web series and had only seen a few episodes, which he found quite fresh.

Considering the potential for collaboration, Suming took the time to look it up online.

It was unexpected: he knew the web series was popular, but he didn't realize it was through the roof. The two seasons released on the official website had accumulated over 2 billion views, and it was impossible to count the hits on various pirate and reposting sites;

The total number of followers for several of the main creators on Weibo had surpassed the ten-million mark long ago. Just the director Jiao Shou alone had nearly seven million followers.

"I remember that sunset run, the last of my fleeting youth..."

"That's when I'll get a promotion and a raise, become the general manager, step up to CEO, marry a tall, rich and beautiful girl, and reach the pinnacle of life. Just thinking about it gets me a little excited..."

These were phrases even Suming, who was practically being washed out by the times, soon to join the ranks of uncles, knew by heart—what more, they were classic lines in this web series.

Suming silently shut down his computer, overcome with frustration. "I completely chose the wrong profession, I should have gone into showbiz!"

In search of some consolation, he searched for Jacky and discovered that the old guy didn't even have a Weibo! That made him feel somewhat better.

Suming leaned back in his swivel chair, legs crossed, clueless about what on earth the show's crew had in mind for their cooperation.

If he wasn't wrong, it wasn't for his good looks and talent. He wasn't old enough to do a talk show memoir, and if it was to be a personal interview, it should be someone like Become Lu Yu, not Jiao Shou.

So that left only one possibility: animals.

"Mrs. Tong, please return their call and tell them we'd be delighted to have them visit the zoo," Suming said to Mrs. Tong.

No sooner had Suming agreed to a meeting to discuss the possibility of future cooperation than the production team took a red-eye flight and arrived at the zoo.

After the zoo had closed, a black business car sneaked in, and three men in black stealthily got out—looked like they were committing a burglary. If Suming hadn't been notified beforehand, that car wouldn't have made it half a mile in the zoo and the people inside would have been stung into pig-headedness by wasps.

Jiao Shou himself, along with two members of the production team, made their way directly to Suming's office. Suming, having not left work, was waiting in his office. After a brief introduction and small talk, they jumped straight into business.

"Mr. Su, here's the situation. We're hoping the zoo can provide some professionally trained animals to help us shoot an episode of Jiao Shou," Jiao Shou said straightforwardly.

Suming nodded, "What are the specifics?"

Seeing that Suming didn't come back with any modest platitudes, Jiao Shou felt even more confident and explained, "On my way here, I saw the concert you planned for Jacky. To be honest, it was incredibly striking. If it weren't for my friends in the industry, I would have thought it was all post-production visual effects. I hope the zoo can provide animals with a level of training no less than the animals in that concert. Of course, it's fine if they're a little less skilled, but the bottom line is they must be able to cooperate with the shooting."

In Jiao Shou's view, for the zoo animals to be trained to the level of that concert was already an unbelievable feat. Surely only a very special few animals could achieve that standard; not all animals were capable of such.

Suming didn't directly answer Jiao Shou's question. During the last concert, his spiritual power wasn't nearly as developed as it was now, and the animals had less contact with the spiritual power as well. If he was willing, he could offer animals to act in the performance with both a greater quantity and better 'acting' skills than last time.

He thought for a moment and smiled, "Forgive my bluntness, but I've seen your show and I can say it's incredibly popular. I don't know why you suddenly came to me, because if the animals don't perform well, it wouldn't be of much benefit to your show; yet, if they perform too well, they may easily steal the spotlight from the main characters."

Jiao Shou pondered for a moment, probably deciding whether to be completely frank. After a short pause, he stroked his bald head and gave a wry smile, "Mr. Su, since we need to cooperate, I won't keep anything from you. Web series have their own difficulties. After two seasons, although we've built up a fan base, many have started to feel aesthetic fatigue. Professionals have analyzed that for a viral web series like ours, if there are no new elements introduced, by the second half of the third season, it will start to decline."

He looked up, his eyes alight with something called 'dreams,' and earnestly said to Suming, "My entire team and I have put a lot into this series, but I believe that this series is just a starting point. I'm treating it like my own child, not like a pig to fatten and sell."

Raising pigs means fattening them up to sell and make a quick buck, while raising children means hoping for them to grow up strong.

Suming nodded slightly. Young people, especially young entrepreneurs, often share common topics and experiences, which makes it easier to be open and honest. Suming also hoped for more forthrightness and less deceit in future cooperation.

"As for the animals, you can rest assured. I promise that the animals who perform this time will definitely be stronger and more numerous than those at the last concert!"

Jiao Shou's eyes lit up, but Suming then asked, "But have you thought about the script?"

"I had some rough ideas on the way here, but the script isn't shaped yet. The Fox Immortal project at the zoo is really popular, and there are enough foxes. I was wondering if we could center the story around that?" Jiao Shou asked.

"The Fox Immortal isn't out of the question, but..." Suming paused before continuing, "Recently the Fox Immortal has sparked some controversy, and I'd rather not have the foxes exposed on the screen again too soon."

"That's fine; we don't have a script yet, so it's open for discussion," Jiao Shou said.

At that time, another production team member chimed in at the right moment, "Mr. Su, may I ask how the zoo charges for such a collaboration?"
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Jiao Shou also looked at Suming with a questioning gaze. Jiao Shou's series was well-known, but just like Suming's company, it faced hefty expenses despite its large operations—as outsiders might imagine, the budget was not as generous and often had to be squeezed.

Moreover, Jiao Shou had more ambitious plans for the future, which would require a significant amount of money.

"No charge..." Suming began with a slight smile. Not waiting for Jiao Shou and the others to ask in confusion, he continued, "However, I have my conditions."