A grand feast for the Chinese entertainment industry

Chapter 18 What a pity
Filming will officially begin soon.

Strangely enough, despite having to do many takes right away, Lin Jianlu wasn't nervous at all. He quickly integrated his pre-planned ideas with Zhang Aijia's understanding and guidance of the character, and things started to go much more smoothly—he really wasn't nervous at all.

What outsiders would never know is that he is already content with his modest wealth.

He had calculated that even if he did nothing and just let the album "Cold to the End" sell a few more times, the royalties from the album sales in various places would make him financially independent!
Yes, financial freedom!
Just from the fact that sales in Taiwan exceeded one million copies, he could receive the maximum royalty of 15%, which would bring him an income of up to NT$2700 million, which is easily more than RMB 600 million!
We'll take a share from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and even the domestic market! Even if the cassettes are cheap domestically, we estimate sales of 300 million copies! That'll be four to five million in revenue!

With this added on, the income will definitely exceed ten million RMB!
In 1996, he had a net worth of 1000 million RMB, which, in his own opinion, meant he was already financially independent.

So, it doesn't matter how well the work turns out from here on out.

He didn't have any higher ambitions.

Therefore, he didn't really care about many of the promotional trips to Taiwan. He just treated them as opportunities to see the lives and customs of people in Taiwan in this era. He didn't care whether his agent was a top-notch one or not. Since two people were vying for his attention, he would choose neither of them. He just wanted to avoid offending anyone and prevent anyone from messing with him after he retired. He didn't need them to help him get any resources or anything like that.

And now, music videos are the same. Sylvia Chang directs, and whatever she says goes, so it's fine as long as it's roughly the same – there's no ambition or drive anymore.

Just treat it as a job and do it step by step.

"Cut! Please, Ah Lu, kiss me a little harder. You don't need to be so afraid of hurting me!"

Uh... although this job is somewhat erotic and a little exciting.

Originally, there was no kissing scene. The most extravagant scene was the female lead kissing the male lead on the cheek, but Sylvia Chang still decided to add a kissing scene to avoid having to film it again if needed during post-production editing.

Her lips were cool and moist.

Was this your first kiss?

"Uh...no, I dated a boy before, and we kissed."

"That's not fair! It was my first kiss!"

"Oh...really! You're so handsome, have you never dated a girl?"

Zhang Aijia, who was listening nearby, burst into laughter and directed, "Aying, kiss him! Teach him how to kiss!"

…………

Filming took three and a half days.

There were no other gains, not even much experience in kissing. It was just an extra small scene outside the script, with a kissing shot. It wouldn't be appropriate to actually hug and kiss her, would it?

However, I did get to know Liu Ruoying better and better.

Once we got to know each other, she actually talked quite a bit, unlike the shy and evasive people she had been when we met a few times before.

On the last afternoon before wrapping up filming, Su Huilun suddenly came to visit the set and asked enthusiastically, "Wow, I heard you two are practicing kissing? Is Ah Lu getting any better at it? Do you want me to teach you?"

Her words, along with her expression and tone, were clearly flirtatious.

Speaking of which, Lin Jianlu has been in Taiwan for almost two weeks now. Although she has been mainly out promoting her work, she has indeed interacted with many artists and producers from Rock Records and has gradually become familiar with them.

However, Lin Jianlu would certainly not feel embarrassed by a joke of this level.

"come!"

Su Huilun actually came over, hugged him tightly, and kissed him directly.

Then, while kissing, she glared at him, realized something was wrong, and quickly pulled away, somewhat annoyed. "I thought you'd be incredibly shy, but you're not shy at all!"

"cut!"

Lin Jianlu wasn't shy at all; on the contrary, it made Su Huilun a little embarrassed.

I actually kissed Lin Jianlu in front of so many crew members! And this wasn't even her scene. When I came to my senses, I felt a little ashamed—I felt like I'd been tricked by Lin Jianlu!

After hesitating for a while, we finally got down to business.

As another shot was finished, she ran over again and handed over a few pages of sheet music. "My producer, Teacher Bao, really likes this song. He said it would suit me perfectly, so the company spent money to buy the Chinese cover rights and is preparing to make it the title track of my new album. How about you help me write some lyrics?"

Lin Jianlu's reputation as a talented singer-songwriter is well-known within Rock Records. During this promotional trip to Taiwan, the company has positioned him as a creative talent and handsome man. However, perhaps because everyone felt they weren't very familiar with each other before, even though he has gradually become acquainted with many of the company's singers in the past ten days or so in Taiwan, no one has yet taken the initiative to ask Lin Jianlu to write a song. Unexpectedly, Su Huilun will be the first.

This was inevitable. It was only a matter of time.

Lin Jianlu took the sheet music and was a little stunned after scanning only two lines. This was "Lemon Tree"!

He covered this song countless times in his past life, just by doing live streams! So, if someone asks him to write the lyrics, does that mean the song hasn't been given to anyone else to write lyrics for yet?

Of course, even if you're just pretending, you still have to watch it seriously first, at least once. Liu Ruoying quickly came over and leaned on Lin Jianlu's shoulder to watch along with him—there are only two shots left, neither of them are difficult to shoot, and filming will be over soon. Even Zhang Aijia won't urge you anymore.

Just to be on the safe side, I still asked again, "Didn't you get someone else to write the lyrics? There are so many people in the company who write lyrics!"

Su Huilun replied, "No! Teacher Bao said you're really good at writing lyrics, so he sent me directly to you to borrow some of your talent and popularity! If you become famous, you'll have to treat me!"

That's a relief! "The melody is great! It'll be a hit!"

He also teased her a bit more, saying, "If you become famous, just teach me how to kiss again!"

"Write lyrics, you're such a talented person! Is three days enough? My album recording schedule is a bit tight."

Lin Jianlu remained silent, pretending to gesture with the sheet music for a while, as if deep in thought. Suddenly, she nudged Liu Ruoying with her elbow, "Help me get a pen!"

"Wow……"

Everyone was a little surprised.

Before Liu Ruoying could leave, a stagehand handed her a pen.

Lin Jianlu immediately stood up, squatted down, and leaned on the stool, casually asking, "Whose song is this?"

"A German band called Fool's-Garden."

Su Huilun was staring at him with wide eyes. To be precise, all the people in the crew were looking at him with some surprise. Even Zhang Aijia was not in a hurry at all, watching from a distance with her arms crossed.

"never heard of that!"

Lin Jianlu casually replied and began to write.

Swish, brush, brush.

Just kidding, he might not know the lyrics by heart, but he could at least recall them without much trouble—the key is that after pretending to act for so long, he stopped pretending to furrow his brow and ponder over revisions. Too tiring.

Creating a persona of a great genius, with claims of quick wit and eloquence, isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Write.

There are countless examples like this in the music industry.

It was written in just a few minutes, and as I was about to send it over, they asked, "Do you want me to arrange the music?"

"Uh……"

Su Huilun hesitated for only half a second before saying, "Yes!"

Rock Records operates on a model where production is handled by small studios. Bao Xiaosong, the older brother of producer Bao Xiaobo, is a music arranger in their team, so his skill level is definitely high. However…

He is Lin Jianlu!

The album "Cold to the End" contains eleven songs, each with a unique and exquisite arrangement. Ordinary fans may not understand them or even notice them, but in fact, before the CD was officially released, Rock Records had already broken down and thoroughly studied the arrangement of every song on the album.

He asked me directly, how could I possibly refuse?

So Lin Jianlu put the score away again, lay down, and continued writing quickly.

This time, even Zhang Aijia couldn't resist. For a moment, Lin Jianlu was writing rapidly while lying on the stool, and Liu Ruoying, Su Huilun, and Zhang Aijia were all leaning over his head to look down at him.

Writing arrangements is much more complicated and slower than writing lyrics, but it only took him about ten minutes to finish. The entire sheet music was covered in his flying lines, even obscuring the original score. He casually shoved it into Su Huilun's arms, saying, "Show this to your producer. If he doesn't think it's suitable, he doesn't have to use it. It's okay."

Su Huilun took it immediately. She was already very familiar with the melody, but she couldn't quite understand the arrangement. Her focus was only on the lyrics—while she was watching him write, she had already tried humming the new lyrics in her mind.

Feeling that the lyrics were truly beautiful, she unconsciously began to hum them softly while holding the manuscript.

"On a lonely afternoon, when the wind makes every tree seem to dance, I remember yesterday you wore blue, and you said that being too focused on love can easily lead to loneliness. I don't understand what that meant..."

Liu Ruoying looked at Lin Jianlu, who had stood up, with a complicated expression.

Sylvia Chang sighed inexplicably, "The lyrics are so beautiful! It's a pity I'm married! Sigh..."

As she said this, she turned her head and glanced at Liu Ruoying.

(End of this chapter)