SA Chapter 59 (Part 1) – Ripping Apart Sunspots

The timeline in the story has somehow caught up to us, and it’s almost May. In part 2, we will finally get to see QC’s perspective again!

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The third day’s box office broke 1.2 billion!

On the third day after the release of Black Clouds, the crew held a grand celebration. Rong Xu and Yu Siyu were both present. Together with Director Liang, they held the small hammer and smashed the huge ice sculpture that was carved into the shape of “1200000000”.

At the celebration party, Director Liang did not skimp on his praises. He first thanked each member of the crew, and then said with a smile: “Those songs? Of course, they were all sung by Rong Xu himself. When he auditioned, he already sang very well. This was one of the important reasons why I chose him.”

Although this statement did not exactly state all the facts, it was also not a lie.

Soon, media reporters began paying more attention to Rong Xu, and some reporters stood up to ask aloud: “Excuse me, Rong Xu, do you have any intention of releasing “Lost Wings” as a CD single? Will this song be first introduced in the movie^[1], or did you only want to sing it for the movie?”

With the release of Black Clouds in the past two days, the audience had become more and more concerned about “Lost Wings”.

Songs like “Black Clouds”, “Heaven’s Marquee”, and “Norwegian Canyon”, Ling Xiao had sung them all before and had released albums for them. But “Lost Wings” was a novel song. 

Huaxia has done a great job of protecting copyrights and combating piracy. At present, any fan who wanted to hear the song “Lost Wings” had to go to a movie theater and watch the movie. No sources could be found on the Internet.

Additionally, Zhao Chuyun had also started the “Lost Wings” promotion. She didn’t tell fans at first that “Lost Wings” would be released as a CD single. Clearly, even the MV had been made and the CD was already in the process of being finalized. But, Zhao Chuyun still patiently waited, provoking the audience’s strong interest in this song.

This was a method of controlling promotional supply and demand. If it was said at the beginning that this song would be available as a CD, then no one would take it as a big deal. But now that there was no news about this song’s release, people would be nervous and seek it out.

Desiring but unable to obtain, it was that kind of mentality. The more you are unable to obtain it, the more you would desire it. Zhao Chuyun had a good grasp of the music enthusiasts’ psychology.

  Rong Xu naturally had private communications with Zhao Chuyun since long ago, and now that three days have passed, it seemed that it was also time to add fire to this wave of promotions. 

Thus, everyone saw the youth raise the microphone and say with a smile: “Recently, someone really did discuss with me about this song’s release, but the specific details of the situation cannot be announced yet.”

The reporters were immediately excited and asked one after another about Rong Xu’s news on “Lost Wings”.

The celebration party ended successfully, and Director Liang invited everyone out for a meal. At 8:30 in the evening, Luo Zhentao drove Rong Xu home.

The bustling neon lights rendered most of the sky a charming rose-red. Now that it was almost May, Rong Xu opened the car window, and the oncoming night breeze scattered the hair on his forehead to reveal a delicate and beautiful face. He squinted slightly, quietly watching the obscure lights outside the window while at the same time sobering himself up.

He was already an adult and naturally couldn’t use the excuse of being underage to deny drinks anymore.

Rong Xu’s birthday was spent with the crew of Ambush. At the time, it happened that the movie was in its final stages of completion and everyone was extremely busy, so they didn’t have time to celebrate his birthday. Rong Xu also didn’t care too much. After eating cake together with everyone, it could be counted that he had completed his coming of age ceremony. 

He also received several text messages sending blessings from Tang Menglan, Ye Qiao, and Dong Zheng, as well as from Madame Qin and Qin Cheng. Uncle Rong naturally did not send him a message, but the Steward Duan had called to wish Rong Xu a happy coming-of-age.

However, tonight, Rong Xu only drank half a glass of red wine. Director Liang knew that he had finished recording “Lost Wings” and was about to release it, so of course, he would not let him drink more. Drinking hurts the throat, it is better for a singer to drink less.

“Recently, my head and hands have been very busy and I won’t have much time to spend with you and the crew. How about hiring an assistant for you? It just so happens that your fan club and Weibo both do not have anyone managing them. You can let the assistant help you manage them.”

Rong Xu withdrew his sight and said: “Okay, Brother Luo.”

“Sure, then I will go to the company tomorrow to find you a good seedling.” 

After a pause, Luo Zhentao hesitated before saying: “Recently, many teams have sent me notices, including TV dramas and movies. There are also lots of advertisements. At present, I think you can take on an advertisement endorsement and then a drama. Do you want to take a TV drama series or a movie? “

Rong Xu replied without hesitation: “Then, a movie.”

Luo Zhentao nodded: “Okay. There are several movie notices that were very good, I will send them tomorrow for you to look at.”

“You don’t need to send me artistic films.”

Hearing this, Luo Zhentao was stunned. Coincidentally, it was a red light, and he stepped on the brakes before looking back at Rong Xu in surprise. The visual in the back seat was a little dim, so he could not see the youth’s expression, only a pair of calm and gentle eyes.

“Why do you not want artistic films?”

Looking at the world of film, there has always been the saying: artistic films are for professional judges, commercial films are for common audiences.

Certainly, it’s true that every year there would be some high box-office artistic films that could receive both awards and win the box office. But, those were ultimately few in number. For example, during the previous year, Huaxia’s artistic film market bombed. The highest box office artistic film then was Hope, directed by Pang Huang. It’s total box office was only 900 million, which wasn’t even as good as the three-day box office for Black Clouds.

However, it is difficult for commercial films to win awards because most award committees enjoyed good content and depth. For some difficult judges, they even felt that the more the audience disliked a movie, the more they should be awarded because a real movie was only appreciated by a small number of people.

Regardless of how much scolding this sort of viewpoint received, the overall situation was still like this. Basically, good-selling movies rarely won awards, and most award-winning movies didn’t sell well. Huaxia only had Qin Cheng, Wen Xuan, etc who could obtain both awards and win the box office, but they only accounted for a small percentage of people.

Listening to Luo Zhentao’s words, Rong Xu smiled slightly and calmly said: “I’m still young, it’s too early to win awards, I need the box office more.” 

Glancing at a neon sign outside the window, Rong Xu’s sight dropped as he said lightly: “I need the box office in order to prove myself. There is nothing bad about making commercial films, I enjoy it very much.”

Luo Zhentao was dumbfounded for a moment.

He could not say the words “the box office for Black Clouds is already so terrifying, is that not enough to prove yourself” because everyone knew that though the box office number for Black Clouds may have been related to Rong Xu, but even without Rong Xu, the box office would definitely still not be bad.

Rong Xu performed well and could push the box office of this film higher, but even if Rong Xu had performed poorly, the box office of this film would still definitely land in the top five of this year.

Thinking of this, Luo Zhentao laughed aloud: “Then, I will send you the scripts of the three commercial films. But Xiao Xu^[2], don’t mind those sunspots. You definitely have credit in allowing this movie to obtain such a high box office number. Your performance was spectacular, and many film critics have given you a high score. I think you can get a few award nominations for this role.”

The corner of his mouth slightly lifted, and Rong Xu raised his eyebrows: “Best Newcomer?”

  Luo Zhentao joked: “How is best newcomer enough, only the Golden Phoenix Award Best Male Lead is proper!”

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