Chapter 35

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Zhang Tan now spends his mornings with the project team and returns to the office in the afternoon. Actually, there isn't much else to do. The production company, considering his involvement with the team, generally doesn't assign him other tasks.

Even following the team in the morning is quite relaxed. Director Li has said he can freely arrange his time, which means he can come or not, but Zhang Tan considers the negative impact. As a newcomer, he shouldn't give the impression of being lazy; instead, he should be seen as diligent and eager to learn.

Moreover, he genuinely wants to understand the production process of an anime. Watching from the outside and participating personally are entirely different.

After waking up from his nap, the surroundings were very quiet, with only the hum of the air conditioner. Zhang Tan habitually glanced at the opposite corner, but no one was there. Luo Ming didn't return for lunch today.

He stretched, got up from the folding bed, tidied up, and went to the bathroom to wash his face, refreshing himself. He wandered around the hall, where everyone was busy with various tasks: some were drawing, some were making 3D models, and others were crafting anime character figurines... Zhang Tan couldn't help but stop to watch.

"Is it good?" Suddenly, the producer looked up and asked with a smile.

"..." Zhang Tan said, "Very skillful, I'm impressed."

The person in front of him was Liu Dawen, whom Zhang Tan knew. His position was a figurine designer. In his hands was a multi-armed anime character, not yet finished, but the fierce and evil beauty was already evident, which is why it caught Zhang Tan's attention.

On his desk were many figurines, some completed, some half-finished, some discarded, some human, some animal, some cute, some fierce...

"Ah~~" Liu Dawen sighed and threw the almost finished fierce figurine onto the table.

Zhang Tan asked curiously, "What's wrong? Is it broken?"

Liu Dawen nodded, "Not done well, look here..."

He took the figurine back and pointed out the flaws to Zhang Tan.

There were several issues, not just one.

Zhang Tan said, "If you hadn't pointed them out, I wouldn't have noticed. It should still be usable."

Liu Dawen looked at him and sighed, "If I had never seen the sun, perhaps I could endure the darkness."

His pretentiousness made Zhang Tan's hair stand on end.

"Do you want it? I'll give it to you." Liu Dawen handed the figurine to Zhang Tan.

"Isn't that a bit too much?"

"It's fine, take it. Otherwise, I would have destroyed it."

Zhang Tan took it and played with it. The figurine was small and fit perfectly in one hand.

He asked, "Which anime character is this?"

Liu Dawen picked through the figurines on the table and said, "I designed it myself."

"Amazing, thanks. I'll go now."

"Hey, Zhang Tan, come here, come here~~~"

Liu Dawen mysteriously called Zhang Tan back, looking around nervously, as if afraid someone would hear.

Zhang Tan: "?"

Liu Dawen looked around again, confirming no one was paying attention, bent down, and took out his work bag. He mysteriously pulled out an extremely sensual figurine, winked at Zhang Tan, and whispered, "Is it exquisite?"

Zhang Tan had to admit, "It's fiery."

Liu Dawen was very satisfied and said proudly, "This is my Aliz. You are the second man to see her true form."

"Ah? Really?"

"Really, I've never shown her to any other man."

"I feel honored."

Liu Dawen stared at him for a moment, confirming he wasn't being sarcastic, and then showed him the full view.

"Perfect, right?"

Zhang Tan: "Perfect. She's called Aliz? She doesn't look like an Eastern face. Why does she have a foreign name?"

Liu Dawen was taken aback, seemingly not having thought about it.

"You raise a good point. Perhaps I should give her a Chinese name. Since you're a screenwriter, you're good at naming. Any good suggestions? It should have a backstory and depth, not something like Zihan."

Zhang Tan pondered for a moment and said, "I'm good at naming. Look at her, wearing a phoenix robe, elegant and fiery, seemingly high and mighty, but her eyes are full of compassion, clearly a friend to humanity. There's a name that fits her perfectly."

Liu Dawen was very interested.

"What name?"

"Fengjie!"

...

After naming Liu Dawen's goddess "Fengjie," Zhang Tan returned to the office, closed the door, and wanted to laugh.

He placed the fierce and terrifying figurine on his desk and put another one next to it.

The second one was a "gift" for naming Aliz. It was a fiery female character, with a nine-head body, wearing a black tight-fitting pants, showing a slim waist, a towering chest, a face of beauty, a rebellious gaze, a black long robe, and a long sword, both sexy and dangerous.

He admired them on his desk for a while until someone knocked on the door, and he quickly put them away.

If someone caught him admiring such sensual figurines in the office, they would surely think he was a pervert.

"Come in."

The person who entered was Liu Dawen.

"Zhang Tan, I think the name Fengjie is great. Now that she has a name, she needs a character profile. Do you have time? Can you write one for Fengjie?"

Zhang Tan, recalling a certain person, blurted out, "She is independent, confident, and loves learning. She taught herself English..."

After dismissing Liu Dawen, Zhang Tan decided to do some real work. However, as soon as he opened his email, he received an exciting one.

The Pay Slip!

Thinking about it, he had been working at Pujiang Film Studio for over a month. He opened the pay slip, which had many categories: basic salary, project bonus 1, project bonus 2, monthly bonus, total payable, housing fund, pension fund...

Zhang Tan quickly focused on the basic salary: 8000.

This wasn't surprising, as it was agreed upon when he joined. This basic salary was average to below average in Pujiang, a big city.

The project bonuses surprised Zhang Tan.

Project bonus 1: 7800.

This was the bonus for the "Tianyu Mountain" project. Zhang Tan wrote a pet character and helped Luo Ming write a few episodes of the script. Getting 7800 yuan in bonus exceeded his expectations.

The big bonus, however, was project bonus 2.

This project was naturally "The Lantern Bearer."

30000.

Zhang Tan specifically counted the zeros: 30,000 yuan exactly.

The monthly bonus was 4800.

Zhang Tan was rated as an excellent employee this month and received the highest monthly bonus.

So, in total, his first month's salary at Pujiang Film Studio was 50600 yuan.

He made a new cup of tea, played some intense music, and felt happy. After a while, he calmed down.

First, this salary couldn't compare to his pre-transmigration days, when he didn't receive a salary but took a percentage of the project.

When his scripts were made into movies, he received a share of the box office according to the agreed ratio.

He also wrote TV series, for which he received a per-episode fee, not a percentage.

After his first nomination for Best Screenplay, he earned 200,000 yuan per episode, with an annual income of over ten million yuan.

Screenwriters and writers both work with words, but screenwriters earn significantly more than writers.

In the literary field, screenwriters are the highest-earning group on average.

Compared to this, a monthly salary of over 50,000 yuan isn't much.

Second, the reason Zhang Tan earned over 50,000 yuan this month was because he worked on two projects, especially "The Lantern Bearer," which brought in 30,000 yuan. It seemed like a lot, but it was actually very little. Writing 20 episodes of the script only earned him 30,000 yuan. Of course, this was related to his reputation and the fact that the project was a comic adaptation, which wasn't very difficult, so the script fee was naturally low.

Thinking about this, as a screenwriter, his future earnings depend on projects. Without projects, a monthly salary of 8000 yuan would make life in Pujiang quite difficult.