Ji Yan listened to Ning Wei's version of "Leap" many times, almost to the point of playing it on repeat.
The song "Blue" had always been on his playlist, and adding "Leap" to it felt quite novel to Ji Yan.
However, he was unaware that, unseen by him, fans had already started shipping him with Ning Wei – the two seemed to have no connection on the surface, but their interactions related to their works were far more than once.
For Ning Wei, a person with a low-key, introverted, and even somewhat socially awkward personality, what he showed was already a very obvious arrow.
Many fans believe that the connection created through their work is more appealing than deliberately crafted romantic moments—the two music lovers appreciate each other, and although they rarely express their admiration directly, their unconscious covers of each other's works are even more touching.
"I'm super excited to see Ji Yan and Ning Wei work together."
"Looking forward to it +1, looking forward to the duet versions of 'The Traveler' and 'Leap' by the two of them."
"Aww, my idol, hurry up and stick it on!"
...
Ji Yan was focused on packing his things, waiting to join the filming of "Young Love Poems".
The filming location was chosen in a mountain village in N City, which is a very remote area of China. It is surrounded by mountains, and the transportation and living environment are quite inconvenient. So Ji Yan prepared a lot of things for this trip. To be precise, Ying Jie forced him to prepare them. There was cooling oil, ointment, and insect repellent, since there are supposedly a lot of insects there. There was also a big box of snacks, clothes, and shoes.
Ye Ying knew that Ji Yan would have to endure hardship this time, so she even lifted the restriction on his snacks.
"Sister Ying, you look just like my mom."
Ye Ying glared at him: "My son is much more obedient than you."
To some extent, this is why Ji Yan doesn't harbor much hatred towards the Ji family. He at least spent a pleasant childhood with his adoptive parents, and Ji Qing always took good care of him. However, the Ji family couple passed away very early, and the Ji brothers rarely received care from their elders.
This may be the source of their unhealthy personality.
Before going to N City, Ji Yan called Ji Qing. He didn't tell her what movie he was going to film, since the "Youthful Love Poems" crew required confidentiality. He only told Ji Qing that he was going to leave A City for a few months.
Ji Qing talked to him on the phone for a long time, and in summary, it was nothing more than eating well, staying up less at night, and keeping a good mood. His concern for Ji Yan was so meticulous that even Ji Yan's sister-in-law couldn't stand it. However, this was Ji Qing's long-standing habit, and he couldn't change it even if he wanted to.
The sister-in-law even secretly told Ji Yan that after the brothers' relationship returned to normal, Ji Qing's condition visibly improved. He used to sigh a lot, but now he looks much happier.
Ji Yan was thinking that after filming "Youthful Love Poems" was finished, he must go home for a while, be a lazy bum, and spend some time with his brother.
...
Ji Yan already knew that the filming location of "Youthful Love Poems" was very remote, but when he actually arrived, he found that the filming location was much more remote than he had imagined. He took a plane, then a train, and then a car. When he arrived at the filming location, it was difficult to drive the car. In the end, he had to borrow a tractor from a local villager to finally get to the film set.
The rattling sound nearly knocked him apart.
Ji Yan himself came from a small town and spent some time in the countryside when he was a child, but compared to the countryside here, his hometown could be considered prosperous.
The crew has completed the basic preparations, and most of the staff are in place. The filming location is very remote, so almost the entire crew is staying at the homes of local villagers—it's more than three hours away from the county town, so the round trip time is obviously not enough.
Zhu Shuguang chose this filming location because the stars here are more beautiful than in other parts of China, and the scenery is also very picturesque.
"Young Love Poems" used Su Pan, Zhu Shuguang's go-to cinematographer. Su Pan has collaborated with Zhu Shuguang for many years and his control over the film's camera is considered top-notch in the industry. Many directors in the film industry are cinematographers by training, possessing rich visual language, but their control over the script is somewhat lacking. Su Pan is no exception. He tried to shoot a short film himself, but unfortunately, the story was too stream-of-consciousness, and the pacing was inconsistent, resulting in a poor reception. So he returned to his old profession.
Su Pan has worked with Zhu Shuguang and Li Xiang, but she has worked with the former more often. After all, many of Li Xiang's works follow a commercial route, while Su Pan herself is more suited to shooting at a slower pace.
...
After joining the crew, Ji Yan first met with Zhu Shuguang, screenwriter Qin Zhen, and all the staff members, big and small. Then he was led to his dormitory—a large house that had obviously been carefully cleaned up, but still looked very dilapidated and old. Because he was the lead actor, the crew arranged for him to live in an old local school building. There were few houses nearby, and the students mostly studied in the towns and counties at the foot of the mountain, so the old school building was rejected.
Ji Yan moved in with his new assistant Xu Zhou, and He Qing, the second male lead of the movie, shared a room with him.
Xu Zhou is the new assistant arranged by DW Entertainment for "Yi". Because "Yi"'s schedule is getting busier and busier, Xiao Qiao is simply not able to handle it all by herself. In addition to Xu Zhou, DW Entertainment has also hired a special stylist to take care of "Yi's" outfits. In the company, "Yi" now enjoys the treatment of the number one star.
Of course, even though the albums "Mist" and "At 23" were quite successful, DW Entertainment remained true to its frugal nature. The stylist was actually shared by all the artists in the company, and each person had half an assistant. Xu Zhou came to N City with Ji Yan this time, so Xie Mingxuan and the others could only get 0.333 Xiao Qiao each.
Fortunately, Yi is not a particularly meticulous person. The organizers usually take care of the details of the performance. Xiao Qiao's main task is to keep track of the members' schedules and living conditions. Ye Ying also takes on some of these responsibilities.
Xu Zhou came with Ji Yan, and Xie Mingxuan and the others had no objections. In Fang Yu's words, they were all Ji Yan's creditors now, and they had to arrange for someone to go and supervise him to do his job properly.
The 8 million yuan that Ji Yan transferred to Ji Yu was not entirely his income; part of it was lent to him by his teammates. Although the sales figures for "At 23" were amazing, after deducting production costs, MV shooting costs, and promotional expenses, what the members received was still not enough for Ji Yan to pay off his debts.
But he had had enough; he simply couldn't understand the point of Ji Yushi repeatedly transferring money to him.
He felt he had explained things clearly enough, so why did those people still act like they couldn't understand human language?
No matter how much wealth the Ji family possessed, or how extravagant Ji Ruan's lifestyle was, as long as they didn't bother him, Ji Yan could simply ignore them.
But these people kept doing it, and Ji Yan felt that his patience was completely exhausted.
He was never going to bother with any games about brotherhood; that kind of thing simply didn't exist between them. That kind of brotherhood belonged to Ji Ruan.
Ji Yan felt that among the Ji family members, Ji Wei might be able to understand some of their language.
So before joining the cast of "Young Love Poems", Ji Yan had no choice but to call the other party and ask him to keep his younger brothers in check.
"You should understand what 'restoring the original state' means, right?" Ji Yan's tone was already very impatient. "I don't need to explain it to you again and again, do I?"
Ji Wei remained silent, so Ji Yan had no choice but to tell him that he did not plan to attend the anniversary of the Ji family couple's death.
"Why?" Ji Wei asked.
“Because they don’t know that Ji Ruan and I were switched at birth, I mean, while they were still alive,” Ji Yan said. “Then I don’t need to disturb them and make them restless even in the afterlife.”
"Ji Ruan has been a very good younger brother to you all these years. There is no need for him to be influenced by me. I think he doesn't need to stay abroad. It would be good for him to come back."
After a long pause, Ji Wei sighed, "I wish I were still your brother, I really wish I were."
“I have an older brother, and he has always been very good to me.” Ji Yan smiled. “To be honest, I am very grateful to the Ji family for this. If I hadn’t stayed at your house for a while, I wouldn’t have realized how good my brother is to me.”
"I will make them stop bothering you."
"You guarantee it?" Ji Yan asked the question twice. "I don't really believe it, because you said the same thing last time."
“You can try to accept it again, even just once. They have already changed.” Ji Wei is not the type to dwell on things, but he can’t treat Ji Yan the same way he treats his subordinates and business partners.
Ji Yan smiled upon hearing this: "Precisely because I've experienced it once, I've realized how terrible it is to acknowledge you as family. I don't want to suffer a second time. To be honest, I don't hate you that much, but I don't want to continue hating you either."
Ji Wei could only remain silent, but he ultimately did not try to persuade Ji Yan again.
...
On this day, Ji Wei made a rare trip back to the Ji family's old residence. He had returned once before when the "real and fake young master" incident caused a great uproar, but he never stayed long after returning home.
Ji Wei is a workaholic, and knowing he's busy, Ji Yushi and Ji Xuekong usually don't bother him.
But today, Ji Wei patiently sat down and called his two younger brothers to his side: "Tell me, tell me exactly what you did after Ji Yan came back."
Ji Yushi and Ji Xuekong were both quite afraid of their older brother. Since Ji Wei had asked, they recounted everything that had happened since Ji Yan returned to the Ji family. With each additional story they told, Ji Wei's brows furrowed even deeper. In the end, even he rubbed his forehead, amused and exasperated: "You guys..."
Ji Wei had also criticized Ji Yan because he had heard Ji Xuekong mention that Ji Yan was not coming home at night. He also knew that it was normal for Ji Yan to be unaccustomed to home life after being brought back from outside, but not coming home at night was not a good habit and could easily lead people astray. Ji Wei didn't care much about other things.
Regarding the household registration, Ji Wei mainly considered Ji Ruan's feelings and the possibility that the two might not get along well at first. Ji Wei planned to wait until their relationship improved and they recognized each other's identities before changing it. After all, with the Ji family's wealth, they could afford to support not only two younger brothers, but also two hundred.
Can……
"Others laugh at your brother, and you join in the laughter? Is this how I raised you? Is this how your parents raised you when they were alive?"
"You always talk about being poor, but even if they were poor, they still raised Ji Yan. Who gives you the right to laugh at them?"
"You're short of that little bit of money? So what if he spends a hundred million?"
After all, Ji Ruan had been raised by them for over 20 years, and Ji Wei didn't mind spending money on him. He even knew that Ji Ruan wasn't the type to be very talented in art, but that didn't matter. Even if he wasn't talented, the Ji family was enough to make him enjoy life for the rest of his life. This was Ji Wei's reason for striving as the older brother.
Ji Wei couldn't understand why Ji Yushi and Ji Xuekong were so harsh on Ji Yan.
Ji Wei sighed: "Forget it, there's nothing we can do now."
Ji Yan doesn't want to come back, doesn't want to be his younger brother, can he force him to?
He looked at Ji Yushi and Ji Xuekong: "Let's call Ji Ruan back another day and divide the property in advance. Give him a portion, and we'll divide the rest among ourselves. Ji Ruan won't be part of our family anymore. That's how we can make a living."
Ji Yan said everything was the same as before, but Ji Wei knew that was impossible.
"elder brother!"
Ji Wei shook his head: "Then you should think of a better way, or you can go to your parents' gravestone and say that although their biological son is gone, they have taken very good care of the one who is not their biological son."
I can't say it.
"I will draft a statement to tell Ji Ruan not to post vague statements again next time."
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