Chapter 73 Chapter 73 Teacher Fang wasn't investing in electricity...
Fang Xin's hand pointed vaguely to the bridge not far away, and his gaze lingered on the ever-flowing bridge surface for a long time.
Seeing that Fang Xingu's hands were pale and bloodless, Jing Yitong instinctively cupped his fingertips and felt a chill under his palm. He then took Fang Xingu's hand and put it in his coat pocket to warm it, before leading him to sit down on a bench by the river.
Fang Xin sat obediently and quietly beside Jing Yitong, feeling his hand wrapped in Jing Yitong's warm palm.
Jing Yitong turned her head to look at him and smiled gently: "Then let's not be parallel lines, it's better to keep walking together like this."
Fang Xingu lowered his head, feeling his face getting hot: "...I didn't say I wanted to leave with you."
Jing Yitong looked at the shimmering river surface: "I'm planning to go back to Beijing tomorrow. What about you? Are you still staying in Jiangcheng to film the music video?"
“We’re not filming anymore. Only the music video for ‘Parallel Parallelism’ is being filmed here. I’ll go with you tomorrow.”
Jing Yitong turned to look at him: "Are you coming with me again? If you're not in a hurry to go back to Beijing, you can stay in Jiangcheng for a couple more days."
Fang Xin squeezed his hand hard and said angrily, "Isn't it good that I want to go with you? You just said you didn't want to be parallel lines with me, but it was all just empty talk. But it's too late for you to back out now, I've already stuck with you."
Jing Yitong put his arm around his shoulder, pulled him close and shook him: "Alright, alright, I wish I had a little tail like you following me around."
Fang Xingu snorted, and the two of them sat together on the bench, enjoying the warm sunshine of early spring.
The dense bushes formed a protective circle, keeping the cold wind at bay. The warm sunlight streaming down from the sky made people feel lazy, and Jing Yitong yawned, clearly feeling a bit sleepy.
Fang Xingu turned her head to look at him: "Are you tired?"
Since the release of "Water Eats Sand", Jing Yitong has been working non-stop. When she has a little free time, she has to practice the piano. This morning, she could have slept in a little longer, but she changed her schedule at the last minute and came out with Fang Xin Gu to shoot a music video.
Jing Yitong twisted his neck to refresh himself, but an exaggerated cracking sound came from his shoulders and neck. He hissed, "I am a little sleepy."
Fang Xingu stood up, moved behind Jing Yitong, and gently massaged Jing Yitong's shoulders to help him relax his tense body: "I'll give you a free massage as payment for shooting the music video today."
Jing Yitong closed his eyes and enjoyed the moment, saying, "I can't tell whether my appearance fee is more expensive or Teacher Fang's personal service is more expensive."
Fang Xingu massaged the shoulders with great effort: "Of course you're the one who benefits, okay? I've never served anyone like this before."
Jing Yitong pressed his advantage: "This massage is a bit dry, let's play some music."
Fang Xingu cleared his throat, and perhaps because he had just listened to the complete version of "Love Without Limits" yesterday, he subconsciously started humming along.
After he finished singing it, he realized something was wrong: "Alright, now you've made even more money. Do you know how much it costs outside to hire me to sing a song?"
Jing Yitong laughed: "So stingy, you won't even let me take advantage of you?"
As the two were chatting, Jing Yitong's phone suddenly beeped a series of times. He opened it and saw that Song Kan had sent him a series of messages.
Jing Yitong didn't try to avoid Fang Xingu and directly opened the chat box with Song Kan.
Song Kan: Damn, who sent this mad dog, Jiang Zhou? Before, because of the traffic issue, his rumors and gossip didn't get much attention and not many people paid attention. When we contacted him privately to see if there was some misunderstanding, he just pretended to be dead and didn't say anything.
Song Kan: As a result, he suddenly started a live broadcast just now, saying that the crew of "Water Devours Sand" not only played him for two months and wasted all his hard work, but also plagiarized the storyboards he had drawn before, and even many of the efforts that his team had made before were taken by the crew, causing them heavy losses.
Song Kan: But it's strange, the storyboard sketches he posted on his live stream are exactly the same as those in the movie... Now many netizens have been swayed by him, and we are dealing with this urgently. You should also watch Jiang Zhou's live stream and think about how to respond. [Video Link]
Fang Xingu didn't notice what Jing Yitong was fiddling with on his phone at first, until he heard Jiang Zhou's accusatory voice in the video. He stopped his massage, leaned down next to Jing Yitong, and listened to Jiang Zhou's summary of the "crimes" of the "Water Devouring Sand" crew.
After the video finished playing, Fang Xingu looked strange: "I feel like what he said makes sense, especially the storyboard manuscripts for those scenes. I actually saw them in the movie. To be honest, I thought those scenes would definitely become classics."
Jing Yitong raised a question: "But who can guarantee that the manuscript that Jiang Zhou is showing now wasn't drawn by him after the movie was released, based on the movie? Moreover, several of those similar storyboards are actually common movie shot techniques."
Jiang Zhou might be able to fool some ordinary viewers, but Jing Yitong is a professional actor, and he had previously taken some courses in directing and had been exposed to storyboard drawing methods, so he quickly saw the problem.
However, there were one or two coincidentally identical shots, but based on the evidence Jiang Zhou has provided so far, there is no way to definitively prove plagiarism.
Fang Xin sat back down next to Jing Yitong and said with concern, "That's true, but even I, who am half in the industry, had some doubts about whether 'Water Devours Sand' really plagiarized the work of Jiang Zhou's team. If it were other netizens, they would probably have completely believed Jiang Zhou's nonsense."
Jing Yitong rested his chin on his hand in thought: "Indeed, I'll ask Director Han first."
Jing Yitong contacted Han Gaocen, the director of "Water Eats Sand". Han Gaocen had just received the news and was in a panic. He repeatedly assured him: "Yitong, don't worry. I spent more than a month drawing the storyboards for 'Water Eats Sand' myself. Not a single one was drawn by someone else, and there is no issue of plagiarism."
Fang Xingu couldn't help but interject, expressing his doubts: "That's not right. Director Han took more than a month to complete the storyboards, but Jiang Zhou only took over this job for less than half a month. How could he have completed so many storyboards?"
And which director starts working on storyboards as soon as they take on a job?
Jing Yitong nodded in agreement: "Yes, I now suspect that the producer who insisted on recommending Jiang Zhou to be the director might also have some issues."
Otherwise, how could Jiang Zhou, who had disappeared for many years, have gotten such a good opportunity?
It's important to know that "Water Eats Sand" was a big production from the start. Such a production team was clearly aiming to create a blockbuster. In such a team, the appointment of every important role and position, whether in front of or behind the camera, had to be carefully considered before the best candidate was chosen.
For example, Jing Yitong, whom the production team went to great lengths to acquire, is a young actor with acting skills, awards, and box office appeal. Similarly, the screenwriter of "Water Eats Sand" is a well-known figure in the industry who has produced countless excellent works.
Even Jing Yitong only got the opportunity to replace the original investor in "Water Devouring Sand" because one of the initial investors suddenly ran out of funds and could no longer support the investment in "Water Devouring Sand" and had to withdraw in a sorry state. He naturally became one of the investors in "Water Devouring Sand".
Therefore, Jiang Zhou, being sandwiched in this team, is somewhat outmatched.
Admittedly, Jiang Zhou was once a well-known up-and-coming director, but he was blacklisted after Shen Shiyun's death, and his career plummeted. More importantly, his directing style was completely incompatible with "Water Eats Sand". Even if Han Gaocen hadn't taken over the project, Jing Yitong could have named two or three directors who were more suitable than Jiang Zhou to direct it.
Initially, Jing Yitong wasn't an investor, and his words weren't as assertive as they were later. So when he first discovered that the director had cast Jiang Zhou, he only expressed a slight doubt.
It wasn't until he became an investor that Jing Yitong became arrogant. He brought in Han Gaocen, who had just been nominated for an international A-level award, and then decisively kicked Jiang Zhou out, even at the cost of paying a penalty for breach of contract.
Fang Xingu and Jing Yitong were talking quietly. When Han Gaocen heard Fang Xingu's voice on the other end of the phone, he felt it was a bit unfamiliar and couldn't recognize whose voice it was. He casually asked, "Yitong, who are you with?"
Fang Xingu awkwardly greeted him: "Hello, Director Han, I'm Fang Xingu."
Han Gaocen visibly choked for a moment before replying, "Hello, Teacher Fang."
Jing Yitong wanted to continue discussing the current situation with Han Gaocen, but Han Gaocen became noticeably hesitant. Jing Yitong glanced at Fang Xingu without making a sound and guessed Han Gaocen's concerns: "Director Han, don't worry, Xingu is not an outsider."
Han Gaocen chuckled dryly, "Haha, that's for sure. Teacher Fang booked so many screenings for us online, so he's practically a half-investor in our film."
Jing Yitong raised an eyebrow and corrected, "Teacher Fang isn't interested in investing in the movie; he just wants to invest in me."
Fang Xingu was amused by his smug tone, but because there were outsiders present, he felt an indescribable sense of embarrassment and annoyance. He nudged Jing Yitong and said, "Let's get down to business. You guys have to go on a roadshow this afternoon. Someone will definitely cause trouble later. Think of a solution quickly."
Jing Yitong then regained his composure: "Director Han, could you please organize your storyboard manuscript? I will provide several copies of the contracts between the production team and Jiang Zhou, and then we'll see who is lying."
.
Similar to Fang Xingu's speculation, someone did indeed bring up this issue on stage during the roadshow that afternoon.
Fortunately, Jing Yitong and Han Gaocen were well-prepared and handled these issues with ease. The audience and media below the stage, seeing how calmly they dealt with the situation and how solid the evidence they presented was, began to wonder if they had been misled and whether Jiang Zhou was just trying to ride the wave of popularity.
Although many "sober-minded people" still felt that the incident was too coincidental and suspected that it was a public relations strategy by "Water Devours Sand", because the "victim" Jiang Zhou disappeared for a period of time, netizens just assumed that his true colors had been exposed and quickly forgot about the incident.
During this period, Fang Xin and Jing Yitong returned to Beijing together. After recording the piano accompaniment for "Parallel Parallelism", Jing Yitong immediately set off for Guangzhou to start filming.
Jing Yitong left in a hurry. At first, Fang Xingu didn't even realize what his departure meant, because Fang Xingu was also very busy during this period. In order to meet the album's schedule, he was doing several tasks at the same time, including vocal recording, instrument recording, and shooting music videos. He even started some mixing work.
He works until late at night every day before he can go home, but when he gets home, he takes a shower and falls asleep immediately. The next morning, he has to continue this high-intensity work.
It wasn't until a week after Jing Yi went to Guangzhou that Fang Xin finally finished recording "Silence Has a Voice".
Fang Xin recorded "Silence Has a Voice" on and off for nearly a month, and only with great difficulty, under the dual guidance of Jing Yitong and Wang Jinxu, did he find a satisfactory balance.
In the recording studio, after Fang Xin sang the last chorus of "Silence Has a Voice," he repeatedly confirmed with the recording engineer that everything was perfect before announcing the official completion of the recording of "Silence Has a Voice," which also meant that the vocal recording of the entire album was successfully completed.
Fang Xingu excitedly packed his things to go home after get off work. The sound engineer, who had been tormented by Fang Xingu's intermittent work for more than a month, was finally able to complete the task and was obviously in a very good mood, humming a song under his breath.
Fang Xingu immediately sensed something was wrong and asked, "We've been recording together for so long, I thought you'd hum a few lines from my album, but you're humming 'Love Without Limits' instead?" He hadn't recorded "Love Without Limits" in this studio last time.
“They’re all your songs,” the recording engineer said with a grin. “I’ve been watching a drama with my girlfriend these past few days. That one called ‘I’m the Only One Who’s Ecstasy’ is really popular lately, and it’s quite good. Last night, my girlfriend and I watched the finale at a super-fast speed. The plot was already pretty heartbreaking, but the background music was your theme song. My girlfriend and I just burst into tears.”
Fang Xingu smiled and said, "I'm relieved to hear you say that. It seems the theme song this time should be pretty good."
The sound engineer raised his voice: "Not only is it good, this show is a hit! Your theme song is amazing too. I can hear people using your song as background music whenever I casually browse short videos. It's no wonder it's produced by Teacher Fang."
Fang Xin waved his hand, not taking credit: "I was only responsible for singing this theme song. The lyricist, composer and arranger made much greater contributions than I did."
Fang Xingu felt that some songs are so catchy that anyone can sing them, and "Love Without Limits" is one of those songs.
The sound engineer thought Fang Xingu was being too modest, clicked his tongue twice, and didn't argue with him anymore. The two of them went home happily.
Since the voice recording was finally finished, Fang Xin didn't want to do any other work today, so he returned home at seven o'clock in the evening, which was quite unusual for him.
It was already dark when Fang Xingu opened the door. Looking at the warm-toned lights inside, he felt a softening in his heart and subconsciously said, "I'm back."
But the only response he received was silence.
Fang Xingu was stunned for a moment before he remembered that Jing Yitong was not at home. He had gone to Suizhou to film a movie, and he had forgotten to turn off the lights when he left home that morning.
Oh right, this isn't even his house, it's Jing Yitong's house.
Fang Xingu moved in brazenly, and even when Jing Yitong, the homeowner, wasn't there, he shamelessly stayed there, habitually calling it "home."
Fang Xingu found it increasingly amusing. He sat down on the sofa, silently surveying the empty surroundings, and felt that this place could hardly be called "home" anymore.
How can a place be home without Jing Yitong?
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