It's been 10 days since the release of "Lost Wings", and its total cumulative number of sales had reached 1.19 million.
In this world's Huaxia, copyright presence was quite strong. So, for the full ten days, although there'd been an outflow of more than 1 million CDs, there wasn't a single MV for "Lost Wings" on the internet. It wasn't until the officials took the initiative to make the MV public that this MV finally appeared before everyone.
As said before, Yang Jiyao was a director who is very good at manipulating colors. As a female, she was more considerate of delicate touches and was better able to grasp the subtle differences between different color hues and saturations compared to male directors. This was her defining characteristic and strength.
The advertisements produced by Yang Jiyao were all rich and dense in color. Under her directing, any two strong colors that usually conflicted would always spark a beautiful image, giving off a fashionable atmosphere.
This time, after the MV for "Lost Wings" was announced on the media website, it immediately attracted the eyes of countless fans.
As soon as the MV was opened, a field of mysterious lights would appear on screen. The blurred colors and complex sense of rotations made the whole city seem as if it was separated by a thin layer of frosted glass, making it appear beautiful and illusory, as if removed from reality.
It was under this fascinating light and shadow contrasting effect that a handsome young man slowly approached from a distance. He was wearing a red jacket. His legs were thin and straight, and his posture was straight. His slightly wavy hair was fixed to one side with an invisible clip to reveal a good half of his beautiful face. As he walked towards the camera step by step, the 'da da' sound of his footsteps was the only melody in the moment.
When he abruptly stops, the sound of faint breathing would come from the speakers.
The camera would then change again to reveal the youth's delicate and perfect right side. In the corner of his highly curved eye, the brilliant cinnabar color was similar to a flame, dazzling you. The starry sky seemed to be reflected in those clear and bright eyes, shimmering as he stared at you quietly. Then he... slowly closed his eyes.
In that instance, a spark of flame blazes out from the edge of the cinnabar pattern at the corner of his eye!
BOOM!
A pair of flame wings gradually appeared on the left side of the screen, the colors magnificent and gorgeous and seemed to overshadow all the flames in the real world.
Then, everything returned to darkness.
And the opening for "Lost Wings" slowly rang out.
The main part of the MV told a story. Two playmates who grew up together supported each other and came to strive hard in the big city. They succeeded together, but one of them became enticed by the materialistic world.
Disagreements, conflicts, and quarrels bred, and then a cold war ensued.
One was drunk on luxury, while the other silently guarded their original aspirations.
However, ten years later, the former friend died unexpectedly, and suddenly, the picture shattered, returning everything to its purest time.
In the first half of the story, Rong Xu wore a red jacket, occasionally appearing in the middle of the story narrative. He didn't have many shots, but in all the scenes where he appeared, every scene was exquisite and gorgeous. Whether it was the scene composition or the young man within the composition, they are both impeccable and could only be admired by others.
But after the picture suddenly shattered, he wore a clean white shirt and no longer sported that flamboyant appearance.
Human regrets, grievances, and extravagant desires were all purely displayed within this song.
After all the lyrics had been sung, the Rong Xu in the white shirt appeared from the right side of the screen, while the Rong Xu in the red jacket appeared from the left side. They walked towards each other, and then, at the midpoint, suddenly burst into flames and vanished.
In the center of the screen was a youth wearing a long, black outfit.
His eyes were tightly closed with his head hanging down, tightly embracing himself.
Behind him, a pair of flame wings lit up.
The sound of the music stopped abruptly, and the pair of wings also burned into thousands of sparks, disappearing from sight.
Here, the MV ended.
—
B City, a high-end apartment.
The noise in the kitchen was extremely loud, and Rong Xu was concentrating on cooking, so he didn't hear the faint sounds of singing coming from the balcony. Of course, the sound was also deliberately lowered by the man, and with the space of the living room between them, it was impossible for the sound to reach Rong Xu's ears.
The brilliant sunlight shone on half of the man's handsome and profound face as he lowered his eyes to stare fixedly at his cell phone screen.
There were only two options on the phone screen: replay and exit.
Qin Cheng stared at the completely dark screen. Only after a long time did he move. First, he exited the video. Next, he opened up Weibo and clicked open Rong Xu's Weibo homepage, quickly locating the purchase link for "Lost Wings". Then, without hesitation, he clicked to buy directly, and finally chose the quantity…
[520] [1]
He looked at this number very seriously, and only after examining it for a while did the man contentedly press the purchase button and pay for it straightforwardly. After doing all this, he once again opened the video website from before, stared at the video calmly, and then silently pressed the "replay" button.
The MV returned to the beginning and started playing again.
When Qin Cheng saw the two actors, he was expressionless. However, when he saw the young man, his face still appeared paralyzed, but his fingers squeezed the phone tightly. Once the boy disappeared, he immediately switched to his expression that reflected a heart void of fluctuations.
In this manner, Qin Cheng watched the MV calmly, watching it again... and again!
And again, and again!
... Why must those two actors exist!
Not long afterwards, Qin Cheng exited the video and sent a text message to his agent: [Find someone to help me edit this video. Cut out all the scenes in "Lost Wings" that he's not in, and then send it to me tonight.]
Xu Jin: [... My several million annual salary is earned by helping you do this kind of thing? ]
Qin Cheng: [Waiting for your email. ]
Xu Jin: [...] Damn, I can't stand this kind of life anymore! ! !
After sending the text messages, Qin Cheng looked earnestly at the MV another two to three times. Soon, he received a notification that his CDs have been shipped. Seeing this notification, he was slightly stunned. He then clicked on Ali Ma Ma, selecting the CD purchase link, direct purchase, and in the purchase quantity option, he entered —
[1314] [1]
En, buy it again~
After that, Qin Cheng watched the MV three more times before reluctantly closing the video and putting down his phone.
Rong Xu turned off the noise coming from the range hood and went to place all the dishes onto the dining table. Before he could say anything, the man entered the kitchen very conscientiously to help him place the rice bowls. Upon seeing this, Rong Xu was stunned, and then he subsequently smiled, and said: "I thought you were resting in your room. You just returned to Huaxia. Don't you need to fix jet lag and get some sleep?"
Qin Cheng raised his line of sight to look at Rong Xu. His eyes were deep as he calmly said: "It's okay. It's not very serious."
The two sat at the dining table and began to eat.
Rong Xu made a very simple 2 dishes and 1 soup, directly using only the ingredients they had on hand. It couldn't be considered perfect in color or flavor, but when ingested, the taste seemed to have improved, maybe... it tastes better than before?
Rong Xu scooped himself a bowl of soup, still maintaining the good habit of not talking while eating. He didn't speak, and Qin Cheng was also silently not speaking. Like this, the two of them ate in silence. The man's gaze flicked across the youth's face from time to time, wanting to speak. But, looking at Rong Xu's face which sported an expression of not wanting to speak...
Qin Cheng: "..."
At this time, neither Qin Cheng nor Rong Xu noticed that the phone, which was muted and flipped upside down on the tatami, was shining continuously. Before, Qin Cheng was watching the MV with his other cell phone, so he never noticed that this cell phone was constantly flashing message notifications.
Since an hour ago, the Weibo account for "Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing" had received thousands of comments!
[Holy crap, Tyrant! Divinely rich! Front row, take a photo with this wealthy tyrant as a souvenir!]
[Local tyrant, are you still missing a leg pendant[2]? The kind that's graduated college with an English level 6 ~\(≧▽≦)/~]
[Terrifying! I saved a month's rations to finally donate 600, but I didn't expect this girly[3] to directly donate 1.01 million...Huh, the girl is also part of the ChengRong party? Wow, I feel so close to this tyrant. We are all in the ChengRong Party 233333]
Correct, just an hour ago, when many gals were going to donate, they suddenly realized: the donation event was already over!
[How can this be? Wasn't it still four hundred and nineteen million just then? The current upper limit goal is 5.2 million, and there was still 1.01 million needed. How did it suddenly end like this? Is there a bug in the crowdfunding system? ! ]
Because of fans' enthusiasm, the boss fan in charge of the fundraising event had readjusted the upper limit of the donations from 1 million to 2 million, followed by 3 million, and 4 million. The current upper limit was 5.2 million.
Before the launching of this event, no one could have imagined that Rong Xu, who only had only 8 million Weibo followers, could actually raise more than one million in donations.
However, the reality was just this. For instance, while raising the first million, one tyrant fan directly donated 300,000. She posted the donation figure on her Weibo which attracted countless fans to spectate and take photos.
Although there are not many of these tyrant fans, as long as there is one, they could be equivalent to 10,000 ordinary fans!
Many passers-by collectively sighed: [Rong Xu has so many local tyrant fans...]
The crowdfunding project on Weibo didn't show the specific details of each fan's donation, only generally stating that "xxx has contributed their love to the xx charity project". If the amount wasn't stated by the person themselves, no one would know exactly how much someone donated.
This crowdfunding did indeed show a ranking list, but this ranking list wasn't ranked according to how much money one donated. It was ranked in chronological order. The netizen at the very top gave the latest donation, while further down is the second-to-last donation, third-to-last donation... in that order.
Thus, when the fans discovered that they had already collected 5.2 million in an instant, everyone thought it was a bug in Weibo. The boss fan quickly contacted the crowdfunding service officials and asked them to resolve this bug. But unexpectedly, after a round of thorough investigation, the official staff told the fan: [The data is normal and there is no bug.]
The boss fan immediately went to provide evidence, saying: [But, we have fans who can prove that in the last second, there was still 1.01 million left before the upper limit. However, in the next second, it suddenly capped at the upper limit of 5.2 million. This must be a bug, did it forget to count an extra 1 million for us?]
The official staff replied again coldly: [There is no bug. ]
No matter how the fans asked, the official staff only had one answer: There's no bug.
Well, okay then, since you said there is no bug, does that mean they received a donation of 1.01 million in a flash? What a joke! Are you trying to say that someone directly donated more than one million?
Just when the fans decided to collectively go ask Weibo's crowdfunding site for an official statement, the second-to-last girl who made a donation suddenly spoke out: [Huh? What happened? I remember that after my donation, the total amount was only 4,182,421. How did it suddenly become full? ]
At this moment, Rong Xu's fans had even more solid evidence ——
[Weibo Crowdfunding, look, see? The other person already said that after she finished donating, there was still more than 1.01 million left[4] Can you explain why there was a sudden addition of more than 1 million? This must be a bug! Quick, fix this bug!]
Perhaps some people were wondering why Rong Xu's fans insisted on fixing the bug and refused to just increase the upper limit? The reason was, though the event was so lively it seemed that all passersby and netizens strongly supported them, Rong Xu's fans knew that there must also be a bunch of sunspots hiding on the side, just waiting for them to make a mistake so that they could take the opportunity to smear Rong Xu.
How could this kind of bug appear! If they pretended to have found nothing wrong and didn't ask to fix the bug, the sunspots would immediately say: [Rong fans are faking this! Clearly, there was only around four million, but with a bug, they got more than five million! They can even fake this, they must have mastered some kind of shady technology. Maybe even the more than four million was diluted with water[5]! ]
Therefore, the bug must be fixed, and they must not let the sunspots catch a flaw.
The fans hurriedly tagged (@) "Weibo Crowdfunding", leaving messages under the official account's Weibo to ask them to fix the bug. This incident grew bigger and bigger, such that many other projects also currently engaged in crowdfunding had paused, worried that they would also encounter a bug.
At this point, the crowdfunding officials finally couldn't sit still and directly issued an announcement indicating that all given data was normal. There was really no bug. At the same time, customer service was also secretly arranged to search for a leader fan and, instead of arrogantly relying "there is no bug", they politely and generously answered: [There truly was no bug that appeared. Your[6] data is all normal.]
The boss fan immediately tossed out evidence: [Then you tell me, why did this fan say that after her donation, it was still more than one million short of the limit?]
The customer service representative was almost to the verge of crying without tears: [After her, wasn't there still one more person?]
The boss fan asked in reply: [Correct, there is only one person, so how is it possible it reached the upper limit all at once? Don't tell me that this person directly donated more than one million yuan]
The customer service representative replied aggrievedly: [...Is it not possible?]
Big fan: [...]
And so, there was this scene.
The boss fan very tactfully posted an announcement about this matter on Rong Xu's Fan Group Page. Previously, all the fans had been angrily asking Weibo Crowdfunding to fix the bug and not to play dead. But, after seeing this announcement, they all fell silent.
A minute later, the Weibo of this terrible tyrant was identified!
Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing, one person donated 1.01 million!
One person, 1.01 million!
[One million...in my old hometown, I could buy a house _(:3」∠)_]
[I can buy two houses in my hometown! ]
[Holds myself shivering. Unexpectedly, there's also a wealthy fair maiden who likes Rong Rong as much as I do. Who similarly mengs the ChengRong CP]
Very quickly, someone recalled one particular thing: [Yi? If I remember correctly, is this Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing the one who previously took a photo of Rong Rong's sleeping face?]
As soon as this sentence was dropped, the fan circle once again boiled over!
Not only were they a wealthy fair maiden, but they also had a photo of Rong Rong's sleeping face!
The number of Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing's fans began increasing at a speed visible to the naked eye. Clearly, during the morning, the number of her fans had fallen to around 800 real fans and 2,000 Water Army fans. However, in just one hour, the number of total fans had exceeded 10,000 and was even rising rapidly!
By the time the said wealthy fair maiden on every fan's mouth picked up their phone, it was already one in the afternoon.
Tens of thousands of messages prompted this brand new Apple cell phone to immediately crash, and it took a few minutes before it slowly returned to normal.
Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing opened their Weibo in bewilderment. When he found that countless fans were yelling in unison "DaDa, are you still lacking a leg pendant", the said fan's mouth twitched: "..."
Entering the bedroom with his cell phone, Qin Cheng carefully checked through Weibo again and finally understood the whole story. Meanwhile, in the room next to him, Rong Xu received a call from Luo Qian just as he returned to his bedroom and didn't even have time to rest.
Luo Qian seldom called Rong Xu because her main task was to manage fans and take care of Rong Xu. As long as Rong Xu is on vacation, she basically wouldn't contact Rong Xu at all. But right now, she actually made a phone call during his break.
Rong Xu quirked an eyebrow and answered the phone. He had just smiled and said, "Xiao Qian, what's the matter?" before hearing on the other side of the phone Luo Qian gasping for breath and saying in a rush: "Xiao ... Xiao Xu! Just now, a fan directly donated one million to your charity event! Um, actually, more than 1.01 million to be precise! Now, the fan circle's exploded, and it's influence is huge. Presently, many passerby netizens and fans of other fan circles are discussing it. I'm worried that some will say this person was arranged by ourselves to gain hype. I've already contacted Brother Luo. Do you want to take a look and see if we need to pay attention to it?"
A pair of eyes widened slowly, and after a while, Rong Xu steadily asked: "Sis' Xiao Qian, are you sure it's one million and not one hundred dollars?"
Luo Qian froze for a second, and after a bit, she didn't know whether to laugh or cry as she said: "How could I be mistaken about this sort of thing. Xiao Xu, I've even contacted the crowdfunding official staff, and they gave me a definite reply. It's true, it's true, it's true, it's true...your fans really donated one million to support your cause!"
Rong Xu: "..."
Shortly after, Rong Xu asked calmly: "What is she called?"
With so many things compacted together, Luo Qian's brain was already spun dizzy, so she suddenly forgot the other party's name for a brief period. She faltered for a duration before she said, as if waking from a dream: "She's called Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing... Yes! It's Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing."
His expression suddenly froze, his straight eyebrows furrowing slightly as the youth repeated the name. In the next moment, he opened his eyes wide and said in a low voice: "It's her?!"
In the room next door, Lotus Seed Paste and Orange Stuffing: "AHCHOO..."
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[1]UM QC BOI. HOLY CRACKERS. That's a lota money… … Anyways, 520 sounds like "I Love You" and 1314 sounds like "For Eternity, A Lifetime"
[2] A lackey
[3] Remember, they still think this account belongs to an avid female fan
[4]QC filled in the rest of the donation amount, more than 1.01 mil. The author refers to the amount as 1.01 mil as a rounded value, not the exact value.
[5]Dilute with water: impure/faked
[6]您 nín (vs the usual 你 nǐ): 您 is a polite/honorific 'your'