Whenever the "Wings" come to karaoke together, "Blue" is Ji Yan's must-sing song. He will only choose another song after his friends have protested countless times, but usually he will immediately switch to "Blue" after only one song.
Just how much do you like it?
Fang Yu and the others may complain, but whenever Ji Yan chooses "Thorn Jungle" or "Love Letter to the Earth," they will automatically grab the microphone and sing along.
Singing karaoke requires belting out your own songs, but there's another principle: you can't sing songs by "Yi" (a popular Chinese singer), especially during busy creative periods. The more you sing your own songs, the more likely you are to experience visual fatigue.
However, on their way to the restroom, they would occasionally hear people singing "Is It Black or White" or "The Future" from other private rooms. For the members, this was also a happy moment for them.
When singing karaoke, Lu Wei's voice has the biggest advantage—Xie Mingxuan usually lowers the pitch of a song as much as possible. Ji Yan and Fang Yu's breath control is not as stable as Lu Wei's. At such times, they often feel that Lu Wei is like someone with superpowers. Not only is he full of energy, but he can also sing from beginning to end. Ji Yan is only strong at the beginning. Towards the end, he feels like his voice is broken. He can only drink water while clapping for Lu Wei.
There's one thing about the current KTV that Ji Yan is very dissatisfied with.
The KTV had actually set up a so-called AI evaluation function. As long as that function was turned on, Ji Yan's score was the lowest among the four people. He felt that the so-called AI was just artificial stupidity in this situation.
"It's because you're too bad, Teacher Ji. Don't blame the AI."
Ji Yan: "..."
hehe.
After trying several songs, he defeated 33% of the singers nationwide. Ji Yan was furious and decided to sing "Is It Black or White" directly. The entire "Wing" team was assigned to sing according to the original lyrics.
Then, the AI displayed: "Congratulations, you have outperformed 63% of the audience nationwide, ranking 7th in our store."
Members: "..."
The entire process of handling protests and complaints is streamlined.
Ji Yan was quite satisfied. It turned out that he wasn't bad at all; the bad thing was the trash system.
...
After finishing karaoke, the members of "Wings" continued to work on their new album. The song "Dawn" was finally finalized after Xie Mingxuan and the others participated in the discussion. Ji Yan then needed to come up with the lyrics.
Lyrics were also a troublesome task, but it was the last part that needed to be tackled, and Ji Yan was willing to spend more time on it.
"Teacher Ji, candy."
"Teacher Ji, would you like some ice cream?"
"Teacher Ji, a Coke."
When the group of people are creating together, Ji Yan's mouth is never idle. His friends always feed him in various ways. This period is also when the apartment has the highest stock of snacks. Although the four of them don't like to go out, the delivery has never stopped. Ji Yan has the fewest deliveries among them. He doesn't need to buy them. He just needs to eat and drink for free.
"What words can express feelings and describe someone who is very excited?" Fang Yu suddenly asked.
"Excited?"
“It’s not that intense.” Fang Yu flipped through the dictionary and searched online. “I feel like a hopeless illiterate.”
Ji Yan wholeheartedly agreed with this.
When I'm not writing songs, I have no idea how limited my vocabulary is. But once I want to write something, I think of one word, but I write down another.
The members of "Yi" made a pact to read books together and write book reviews when they had some free time. After all, they were still young and had good memories. Their current literary skills might be enough to handle the creation of the previous few albums, but if they wanted to write something better, that would be far from enough.
...
Ji Yan occasionally browses Weibo.
Before he paid attention, he might not see any news about "Super Flying Man" for ten days. But once he started paying attention, he felt that the amount of "Super Flying Man" on his Weibo homepage was a bit excessive.
Moreover... Ji Yan believed it wasn't his imagination. During the promotional period for "Super Flying Man," marketing accounts would frequently put his name together with Ji Ruan, even though he actually had nothing to do with the movie.
Ji Yan glanced at the box office results of "Super Flying Man" and found that it wasn't particularly good. It had been ten days since its release and had grossed a total of 260 million yuan. Compared to the film's production cost, this result was basically on par with the film's domestic box office, which was considered a decent profit. However, during the summer movie season, the film's box office performance was only average. The top two films on the box office charts had an average daily box office of over 100 million yuan.
The movie's rating is around 7.5. In summary, it's a popcorn movie without too many surprises, but not too bad either. It's okay to watch if you want to kill time.
Ji Yan thought that using his own name was the limit of the marketing for "Super Flying Man". However, on the day the movie's box office officially broke 300 million, a marketing account actually published an article that comprehensively compared Ji Yan and Ji Ruan's performance in the two movies, "Young Love Poems" and "Super Flying Man".
This marketing account is clearly a fan of numbers. At the beginning of the article, it "sets aside the subject matter" and talks at length about how Ji Yan's collaboration with top domestic directors resulted in "mediocre" box office results, while Ji Ruan's participation in "Super Flying Man" had an average cast, but its "super high" box office results were enough to prove Ji Ruan's eye for choosing films.
Ji Yan: "..."
He really had nothing to say.
He could imagine that the person who wrote this article must be an even more desperate illiterate person than himself. If he had come to this point, why didn't he find a factory job?
The truth is, "Super Flying Man" didn't earn much at all. Its domestic box office revenue was quite modest, less than $40 million. A portion of its overseas box office revenue went to theaters, and a large sum was spent on domestic marketing and distribution. On the surface, "Super Flying Man's" box office figures seem much better than "Boyhood Love Poems," but in reality, the film's profits were probably even lower than "Boyhood Love Poems."
This time, Ji Yan did not choose to criticize.
Well, everyone can brag, but whoever loses out and cries knows best in their heart.
Overseas media have reported that the investment for "Super Flying Man" was raised by Ji Ruan personally.
Ji Yan had initially guessed that the money included assistance from Ji Yushi and Ji Xuekong, but he had just received a call from Ji Wei saying that neither Ji Yushi nor Ji Xuekong had any funds flowing overseas for the time being, so the investment in "Super Flying Man" was probably paid for by Ji Ruan alone.
Just as Ji Yan was about to marvel at how rich Ji Ruan was, Ji Wei said, "The portion allocated to him last year definitely didn't reach this amount."
Where does the money come from?
“It might be—” Ji Wei sighed, his tone somewhat dejected, “His income after his debut was all in his own hands, while his expenses were handled by the Ji family.”
"It could also be..."
Ji Wei didn't say it explicitly, but Ji Yan understood.
It seems that Ji Ruan has been making other plans ever since he was recognized and returned to the Ji family.
Ji Wei and the brothers Ji Yushi and Ji Xuekong were unaware of this matter. Of course, perhaps they knew but chose to ignore it, since Ji Ruan was their younger brother whom they had personally raised. They had protected Ji Ruan's growth, allowing him to freely pursue his passions and live a happy life under the protection of his older brothers.
No one wants to admit that their upbringing was a failure, nor does anyone want to admit that they are a bad older brother.
Ji Yan didn't pay much attention to the final box office results of "Super Flying Man," but the benefits this movie brought to Ji Ruan were obviously not enough. Domestic marketing accounts would occasionally promote that Ji Ruan was noticed by some big overseas director because of the "success" of "Super Flying Man," but unfortunately, no official overseas media reported on this.
The marketing tactic of exporting and then reselling domestically is too outdated. These days, celebrities don't like to use it anymore, and even if someone does, audiences aren't stupid, so only a limited number will buy into it.
The era of a single foreign blockbuster dominating the market is over. If the past trends in the film market were followed, a film like "Young Love Poems" would never have been able to gross more than 100 million yuan.
Works that treat the audience like fools will be proven wrong by the audience's actions, showing them who the real fools are.
Of course, thanks to "Super Flying Man", Ji Ruan's activities in China have increased.
He's good-looking enough, and despite his scandals, the fashion industry seems to favor him. He's been seen at several recent fashion events, as well as a few overseas events. In contrast, Ji Yan isn't enthusiastic about these kinds of events at all. Even if a brand invites him to an event, he won't show up more than once in ten. Plus, his increasingly silly image is quite different from the cool and mature charm favored by the fashion industry. To uninformed people, this is clear evidence that he's been rejected by the fashion world.
Naturally, the press release arrived again.
Ji Ruan's taste has won high praise in the fashion industry, but Ji Yan has been rejected by the fashion world. Ji Ruan has attended a certain fashion show, but Ji Yan has never been favored by the fashion industry.
Ji Yan: "..."
Sorry, he's very famous, he just doesn't have time to go.
He is a magnanimous person, but at this moment he couldn't help but complain that when "Yi" was not well-known, Ji Ruan's fans kept saying that he was using Ji Ruan to promote himself, but they could not provide any evidence.
But now, "Yi" is famous enough, and the person who's been using him to stir up trouble is Ji Ruan. If you want to find evidence, you can find a lot of it online.
Ji Yan didn't even want to laugh at her, because he felt that Ji Ruan's behavior was really pathetic and there was absolutely no need for her to do so.
Even though some fans are still desperately trying to deny that he was creating hype, do they really not know the truth? The answer is probably no.
Ji Yan has always believed that a healthy relationship should be established between idols and fans. Idols should support their fans' love, whether through their works or actions, rather than using their fans as weapons after making mistakes. Even if fans repeatedly brainwash themselves into believing that their idol is not wrong, deep down they are still clear-headed, just choosing to be blindly devoted.
"Should this be called sunk cost?" Fang Yu asked.
"How come Teacher Fang has suddenly become so cultured?" Lu Wei couldn't help but complain.
“I’ve always been very cultured, thank you.” Fang Yu glanced at him. “I’m a highly educated person. You can’t ignore my talent just because I’m handsome. That wouldn’t be fair to my talent.”
Ji Yan, Lu Wei, and Xie Mingxuan: "..."
silence.
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