Administration Building.
Ding Yue returns to the Principal’s Office with his secretary, Wen Ruohan.
"Student Wen Ruohan, please could you go to the supermarket and get me some snacks, and buy a cup of bubble milk tea on the way."
Ding Yue gives Wen Ruohan a task, finding something for his secretary to do.
"What snacks would you like, Principal Ding?"
Wen Ruohan asks, blinking her eyes.
"Anything is fine. See if there’s something you like as well and buy it." Ding Yue shrugs in response.
What snacks to get isn’t important. What’s important is having snacks to eat later.
Otherwise, if you’re watching the food documentary ’A Bite of Xia Country’ and your stomach is growling, and no snacks to eat while you drool, wouldn’t that be torturous?
Zhu Youzhao, the department head of the Film and Television Academy, will be bringing the first episode of the documentary they made for Ding Yue soon.
After all, this film is funded by Ding Yue, letting the team from the Film and Television Academy showcase their talents in production, so Ding Yue will definitely want to watch and review it as soon as possible.
Because no one understands better than Ding Yue what ’A Bite of Xia Country’ should look like to be considered an exceptional work.
So when reviewing ’A Bite of Xia Country’ later, Ding Yue will need some snacks.
By the time he has finished watching it, it will be lunchtime, so he must have his mother cook him a delicious meal. Otherwise, he’ll still be craving food.
"Well, Principal Ding, I’m off."
Wen Ruohan dashes out of the office to the supermarket downstairs to get snacks for Principal Ding.
Before Ding Yue could tell Wen Ruohan to report back after buying the snacks, she has already bolted out.
So Ding Yue picks up his phone and sends two red packets to Wen Ruohan and a message on Whatsapp: "If it’s not enough, report back."
"Principal Ding, two red packets equates to 400 yuan; do we need to buy so many snacks?" Wen Ruohan quickly replies to the message.
"Buy what you think is appropriate."
Just after sending a message to Wen Ruohan on Whatsapp, someone knocks on the office door.
Ding Yue was expecting that it might be Zhu Youzhao.
After all, the Teaching Building of the Film and Television Academy isn’t far from the Administration Building; it’s just a few minutes’ walk.
Sure enough, Zhu Youzhao opens the office door and walks in, and behind him are four students.
These four students are likely the core members of the documentary-making team of the Film and Television Academy, because Ding Yue asked Zhu Youzhao on the phone to bring the students over.
"Good morning, Principal Ding."
After Zhu Youzhao enters, he greets Ding Yue, and the other four students also respectfully greet Ding Yue.
"Hello, everyone. Please sit."
Ding Yue motions for the five of them to sit on the sofa. After all, he’s not a particularly strict principal and treats teachers and students equitably.
The teachers and students of the entire school also know this.
"Principal Ding, I’ve brought the nearly completed first episode of the documentary." As Zhu Youzhao speaks, he prepares to hand the USB Drive in his hand to Principal Ding.
Ding Yue gestures: "No hurry, Director Zhu, introduce these four students first."
Wen Ruohan has not returned with the snacks yet, so Ding Yue isn’t eager to watch the first episode of ’A Bite of Xia Country’ produced by the Film and Television Academy.
The name of the food documentary ’A Bite of Xia Country’ was suggested by Ding Yue.
Without a doubt Zhu Youzhao accepted Ding Yue’s suggestion, and not only did his team shoot and produce the food documentary, but they also named it ’A Bite of Xia Country’.
"Principal Ding, I’m Tang Yuanhua from the Film and Television Academy’s Film, Television Shooting and Production Department."
The first student begins his self-introduction.
Ding Yue slightly nods his head and looks towards the student beside Tang Yuanhua.
"I’m Meng Hao from the Drama and Film Directing major."
"I’m Sun Kaiding from the Drama and Film Directing major."
"Principal Ding, I’m Shen Ling from the TV Program Production major."
The three other students also introduced themselves one after the other.
These four students come from three different film and TV majors. Being selected as core members of the "A Bite of Xia Country" crew means they must be outstanding in their respective majors.
Ding Yue has no doubt about this.
Because among the dozens of majors in the university, there are always one or two exceptional students in each - thanks to the learning ’BUFF’ Ding Yue provided them with.
However, in some less popular majors, there might not be any especially outstanding students.
"Tang Yuanhua, Meng Hao, Sun Kaiding, Shen Ling, it’s your first time doing practical work with this documentary film, isn’t it?"
Ding Yue casually chatted with the students.
Since it was their first practical operation, Ding Yue decided to lower his expectations for their production of the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country".
However, Ding Yue thought, with the film academy’s outstanding students and teacher team, the produced "A Bite of Xia Country" should still meet a certain standard, right?
The four students nodded in response to Principal Ding.
"Director Zhu, how much is the estimated cost of the first episode of ’A Bite of Xia Country’ we’re about to watch?"
Ding Yue curiously looked at Zhu Youzhao and asked.
"Principal Ding, we haven’t calculated it yet. We applied for a budget of 6 million yuan for the shooting of this documentary, which is to cover five episodes in all," Zhu Youzhao reported.
million yuan for five episodes, that means one episode costs one million two hundred thousand yuan. For a team like Mist City Arts and Science University, the cost is quite high.
After all, this is not a professional team from the National Television Station (NTS).
If Ding Yue remembers correctly, the ’A Bite of Country Z’ documentary on Earth in his past life had a total cost of 4.5 million yuan for seven episodes.
The team from Mist City Arts and Science University film academy is shooting five episodes, which means their costs are even higher than ’A Bite of Country Z’.
Seeing that, Ding Yue believed that his film academy’s production team should be able to produce a satisfactory work.
Ding Yue was slightly looking forward to it.
He hoped that Wen Ruohan could quickly return with the snacks and bubble tea, so he could start watching the film academy team’s work.
Wen Ruohan finally returned. When she arrived at the office door, she lightly kicked it open with her foot.
Both of Wen Ruohan’s hands were holding large bags of snacks and she could not open the door.
"Principal Ding, I’m back." Wen Ruohan wheezed as she entered the office carrying two large bags of snacks.
Seeing this, Tang Yuanhua and Meng Hao quickly came over to take the two large bags of snacks from Wen Ruohan’s hands.
Ding Yue also got up from his Principal’s chair to help and put the snacks aside: "You bought so much? Didn’t you consider whether you could carry them all?"
Ding Yue was the one who asked Wen Ruohan to buy snacks, but he didn’t expect her to buy so much; two large bags filled to the brim!
Wen Ruohan giggled, then winced when her arm ached from carrying the heavy bags.
Thankfully Big White was not present, otherwise hearing Wen Ruohan’s cry of pain would wake him up, and then he would want to come and treat Wen Ruohan’s ailment.
"Director Zhu, you set up the projector to play it, plug the flash drive into my computer," Ding Yue gestured to Zhu Youzhao to prepare to play the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country".
In the meantime, Ding Yue took out snacks from the two large bags, and handed some to Tang Yuanhua, Meng Hao, Sun Kaiding, and Shen Ling.
Ding Yue wouldn’t be able to finish this many snacks by himself.
In the bag on his left hand side, Ding Yue found his favorite bubble tea.
The projection screen hanging on the left wall slowly descended.
In a moment Ding Yue could sit on the sofa next to the floor-to-ceiling window on the right, facing the projection screen, snacking while watching the sample of the first episode of "A Bite of Xia Country".
Ding Yue rubbed his hands together, starting to feel a bit excited.