Chapter 147: Three Hundred Thousand Income

Chapter 147: Three Hundred Thousand in the Bank

Back inside the house, Meng Fan took screenshots of his chats with the seven liaisons from today, uploaded them along with the provided materials to his live-streaming assistant, and then set up his laptop, iPad, and television, casting different categories to each. He even activated the virtual projections from his black-tech headset and running shoes.

In an instant, the living room transformed into something resembling a starship command center, filled with screens and holographic displays, radiating a palpable sense of high-tech wonder.

Immersed in this environment, Meng Fan’s inner adolescent fantasy was fully unleashed.

After playing around for a good ten minutes, he finally calmed down and began to organize and arrange his content in earnest.

By now, Meng Fan had grown accustomed to the virtual projections of these black-tech products, no longer suffering from the eye strain he had experienced at the start.

The black-tech products, especially the live-streaming assistant, possessed a distinct advantage: a sophisticated artificial intelligence that proved invaluable in helping Meng Fan extract relevant information from the massive influx of conversations, documents, videos, and images.

Including the sets Qin Jiu had helped secure yesterday, there were eight groups of hand-drawn posters in total. Once Meng Fan had sorted through them, he arranged them by deadline, grouping similar styles together, before beginning a second pass of refinement and summarization.

After the second pass, Meng Fan selected the first set of posters to draw, carried his black-tech gear into the study, and positioned the headset’s virtual display where he could see it by simply lifting his head. The live-streaming assistant continued to leverage its AI to analyze and extract the remaining data.

Although Meng Fan was certain that with his current artistic skills, anything he produced would pass muster with the clients, this was his first batch of work and he was being paid for it, so he felt compelled to treat it with the utmost seriousness.

These eight sets of posters would net him a significant sum. If he handled this first batch well, repeat business would follow, and he could complete the "Scatter-Wealth Boy" task on his own. For Meng Fan, the sense of achievement was immense, even without the system’s rewards.

Of course, no matter how great the sense of achievement, it paled in comparison to that "Luck +1" divine attribute.

The first set he tackled was for a TV drama promotional poster. The show was an adaptation of a web novel, and as luck would have it, it was one of the few historical web novels Meng Fan had actually read. It told the legendary story of a lowly jailer from the Six Fan School who, through a series of twists and turns, found himself stepping into the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty.

Meng Fan glanced at the cast list; to be honest, it was quite mediocre, with several leads he didn't recognize. But as he scrolled down, he found a pleasant surprise: over a dozen veteran actors were involved. After reviewing some stills and clips, he realized the production quality was actually quite decent.

As it turned out, Meng Fan’s eye for talent was sharp; the show would later receive rave reviews upon release, standing out as a breath of fresh air among male-oriented novel adaptations. It was only a pity that the production team was a bit strapped for cash, relying entirely on word-of-mouth for promotion.

The main reason he chose to start with this set was his familiarity with the source material. Combining the stills, videos, and relevant documents, scenes from the novel he had read long ago surfaced in his mind.

During the coordination phase, the client mentioned that the screenwriter was the original author, ensuring the plot, character personalities, and main narrative arc were highly faithful to the book. This allowed Meng Fan to create his work based on his own understanding of the novel, integrated with the existing materials.

The black-tech virtual display constantly projected the information he needed; it was incredibly convenient to just look up while drawing, which significantly boosted his efficiency.

The production team requested ten posters. Even though ten would have been sufficient, Meng Fan’s status as a fan of the original work led him to draw two extra as a gift.

Even though this set paid the least of the eight.

Twelve pieces, completed in about three hours—four per hour, all of high quality. The speed was comparable to his previous simple illustrations, a testament to the transformation brought about by his god-tier artistic skills.

After a short break and a bite to eat, he resumed drawing.

The second set was for a low-budget film, also set in the Ming Dynasty. The cast was decent, and the lead actor was someone Meng Fan quite liked. As for the quality of the film itself, judging by the materials at hand, it was quite average—at least in Meng Fan’s opinion.

But regardless of the film's quality, the hand-drawn posters he provided had to be top-notch.

The set consisted of eight pieces, and Meng Fan drew exactly eight.

He finished after two in the morning. These twenty posters had been a significant drain on his energy, and sleepiness finally washed over him.

Over the next two days, aside from two basketball games, Meng Fan spent almost all his time at home drawing posters, even skipping three classes.

On the afternoon of the next day, the Animation Department faced their final opponent in Group A—the toughest nut to crack: the Art History Department of the School of Arts and Humanities, the favorite to win the championship this year.

At the start of the match, the two teams were locked in a stalemate. By the fifteen-minute mark, the Art History Department had managed to pull ahead by a mere 3 points, and by the end of the first half, the gap was only 6 points.

In the second half, everyone expected Meng Fan to start bombarding the basket with full force, yet he didn't even step onto the court.

In the end, the Animation Department lost the game by fifteen points, but still advanced to the final four as the second-place team in Group A.

As Senior A-Ning had said, just making it to the final four was enough. Furthermore, by entering as the second seed, they would face the Industrial Design Department—already confirmed as the first seed of Group B—rather than the actually stronger Sculpture Department.

The key was to hide their true strength.

Meng Fan rolled his eyes at this; it was as if they actually knew what his true strength was!

He slipped away as usual after the game, skipped his run, and returned home. He checked each of the eight completed sets of posters one by one, and once satisfied, sent them off to the respective liaisons.

Then, the waiting began.

Although he knew for certain they would pass, Meng Fan was still a bit nervous. In his mind, this was his first serious attempt at making money.

Before this, the last time Meng Fan had "seriously" earned money was probably when he was a child, tricking Meng Caihui out of her lucky money by convincing her that pistachio shells were beautiful seashells brought from the beach.

About ten minutes later, the first liaison transferred the remaining balance to Meng Fan, informing him that the production team was extremely satisfied and expressing their gratitude along with a desire for future collaboration.

Soon, the second team followed, then the third... Within about three hours, all eight production teams had transferred the remaining balances. Everything was approved; not a single payment was delayed.

Including the initial deposits, these eight sets of posters brought Meng Fan a total income of 305,000 yuan!

The two largest sets paid 60,000 and 50,000 respectively, while the others included two at 40,000, three at 30,000, and the smallest at 25,000.

Some sets had fifteen pieces, some eight, but most were between ten and twelve. On average, each poster fetched over three thousand yuan.

If one were to be pedantic, this wasn't the absolute top-tier price.

However, for Meng Fan to do a month’s worth of work for a typical studio in just over three days—it was truly staggering.