After hanging up the phone, Shao Yichen promptly and decisively blacklisted the number. She smiled crookedly at her own reflection on the phone screen, feeling the exhilarating sensation of being a villainous female character.
Taking down soone was truly satisfying!
Especially when it was soone she couldn't stand—even more satisfying.
While savoring the face-slapping pleasure of a villainous character, Shao Yichen opened her Weibo account and found that the platform had approved her verification. She edited the content and posted her long-prepared first Weibo post.
The main content of this post was a half-finished clay figure stop-motion animation video.
The animation was much simpler than the film, with many plot details that were elaborately described in the movie being briefly ntioned in dialogue. Yet this simple animation had its own unique charm. Stars, cats, Earth, school—objects large and small took on special anings when viewed from the perspectives of the little girl and the alien. Viewers who had clicked in for gossip couldn't help but be drawn to the film's content, watching it bit by bit.
But just as the animation was gaining montum and the discussions were becoming increasingly interesting—the film abruptly ended.
The audience was montarily disoriented, wondering what had happened. That's when they rembered this animation was Shao Yichen's graduation project that had been interrupted by an accident.
How could such a wonderful work just disappear?
They reluctantly exited the video, their sympathy for Shao Yichen growing even stronger.
After posting the video, just as Shao Yichen was about to exit Weibo, she discovered she had instantly received two repost notifications.
Having blocked fan reposts, Shao Yichen clicked to check and found one from Zhao Kang and one from Li Xingyu.
Seeing Zhao Kang's na wasn't surprising. She suspected this ntor, taking advantage of his impending retirent with no more courses to teach, had stayed up all night fiercely arguing with netizens over her situation—she had even seen a reply from him at two in the morning. And after the public opinion reversed this morning, he had grown even more vigorous, shaking his crest like a victorious fighting rooster, going to each netizen who had criticized him yesterday to mock them one by one, making Shao Yichen both touched and unable to hold back her laughter.
After this battle, Director Zhao's typing speed and gossip-following ntality rivaled those of contemporary young netizens. He was truly growing younger with age.
However, she was sowhat surprised to see Li Xingyu's repost.
She had thought that after cracking the password last night, this well-disciplined top student had gone to rest—they had even wished each other good night. Was he still following this matter?
On a whim, she clicked on Li Xingyu's profile and found that this newly verified actor account had only one Weibo post, published yesterday evening—a brief statent: "I believe in Director Shao Yichen."
Even though public opinion had already reversed, there were still so undeleted comnts under this post, indicating how heated the argunts had been last night.
Looking at those top-liked comnts like "very disappointed in you" and "brother, please stop speaking up for plagiarists," and recalling Li Xingyu's consistently calm tone last night, Shao Yichen felt moved as she slowly pressed the exit button on Weibo, thinking to herself—
General Manager Qianqian needs to quickly find a reliable agent for young Li. You can't just post on Weibo recklessly!
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
After a series of maneuvers, Shao Yichen observed the public opinion on forums and marketing accounts, confirming that the wind had completely shifted in her favor, feeling increasingly satisfied.
Moreover, the attention on Li Qiaoqiao's exposé was steadily rising as she had hoped. Soon, her reputation for plagiarism should spread throughout the entire film industry, and presumably, no one would want such a na to appear in their film credits again.
Given Li Qiaoqiao's limited fa, she normally wouldn't have attracted so much attention. But the gossip-hungry public had just been slapped in the face by Shao Yichen's situation and remained curious about the whole affair. Seeing related gossip, they naturally clicked in to take a look.
Besides the initially plagiarized script, Li Qiaoqiao indeed had other plagiarism rumors. Unlike Shao Yichen's case, Li Qiaoqiao's plagiarism wasn't baseless speculation but established fact!
Almost all her works were dleys of various classic film contents, with traceable evidence—for a director who, while still in school, could copy her roommate's core creative idea word for word, such a result wasn't surprising.
Shao Yichen was rely stating the facts about what she had done.
But while Shao Yichen wasn't surprised, this didn't an audiences wouldn't be shocked after seeing so much concrete evidence of "borrowing." Especially after enthusiastic netizens edited comparison clips showing Li Qiaoqiao's directed scenes alongside the borrowed film scenes, the similarities beca unmistakably clear.
What borrowing? This was unmistakable plagiarism!
Amid this public outrage, so anonymous well-wisher kindly posted Li Qiaoqiao's resu on the forum for everyone to see—this wasn't doxxing, as Li Qiaoqiao's resu was prominently displayed on the webpage as a contracted director for Liming Video Platform.
When people clicked in to look, they were astounded. How could such a director thrive in the entertainnt industry? She was even being promoted from assistant director to director for her next project—a xianxia drama starring Fu Lianghui!
Should we keep this kind of director around for Chinese New Year celebrations instead of boycotting her?
Soon, voices calling to "Boycott Li Qiaoqiao" began appearing online, even reaching the top ten trending searches, listed alongside the spontaneously trending "Apologize to Director Shao" hashtag.
Seeing the trend toward further expansion, Liming Video Platform imdiately issued a statent declaring they would terminate their contract with Li Qiaoqiao and reassign all her previous projects to others. This barely managed to prevent public anger from spreading to the video platform.
With this, the na "Li Qiaoqiao" could be said to have completely disappeared from the film industry. And predictably, it wouldn't reappear in the public eye for a very long ti.
Looking at the video platform's statent, Shao Yichen thought this might be the maximum punishnt Li Qiaoqiao could receive.
After all, even without her director title, she still held a position within Liming Video Platform. Losing the director title at most ant losing her leverage in the succession competition.
Being unable to appear in the public eye was probably the best outco—after all, she couldn't possibly bring down Liming Video Platform just for revenge, could she? It had Liming dia backing it, and her modest assets were practically nothing in their eyes.
It seed this matter had co to an end, Shao Yichen thought, sighing.
What Shao Yichen didn't know was that in the future, through a twist of fate, Li Xingyu would actually succeed in achieving this joke-like idea of hers—but that's a story for another ti.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Having resolved the plagiarism controversy, Shao Yichen returned to the film set.
However, she keenly noticed that for so reason, the atmosphere on set seed different from before the incident.
What was happening? Had the crew started a new round of wild speculation during the brief morning of her absence?
Surely not!
She continued filming for a while with an uneasy heart, but finding no difference in the filming results compared to before, she was gradually lulled by this peaceful surface and relaxed.
What she didn't know was that after the plagiarism controversy, her image within the crew had transford into that of a strong figure who, despite setbacks and slander, never forgot her original aspiration for filmmaking.
If before this incident, crew mbers had doubts and suspicions about this overly young director, now when they looked at her, their hearts were filled only with sympathy and admiration.
"We absolutely cannot let Director Shao down. This ti, we must create a complete work with her!"
For a ti, the crew's enthusiasm for learning was exceptionally high.
And Qi Gelong, as the lead actor, besides feeling the sa motivation as the other crew mbers, had another particularly profound realization.
—He seed to have guessed who Old Tang in the script was modeled after.
If his guess wasn't wrong, Old Tang's prototype should be Shao Yichen herself!
The reason was simple—although Director Shao Yichen didn't share Old Tang's weaknesses of being timid, money-loving, and easily discouraged, Old Tang's character background was surprisingly similar to Shao Yichen's!
Indeed, in the script's setting, Old Tang was once a top student in the directing departnt. Like Shao Yichen, he had once been falsely accused of plagiarism and consequently couldn't complete his graduation project.
But unlike Shao Yichen, he didn't have the opportunity to stand up again—at the sa ti as his incident, his parents and uncle's family went on a self-driving tour but had an accident. Everyone in the car perished except for his uncle's child.
This child, having endured this disaster, developed severe psychological barriers and retreated into their own world, never speaking again—this child was Xiao Bai.
Thus, Old Tang dropped out of school and opened this tutoring class to take care of his relative, Xiao Bai. The daily grind of life wasted his ti and gradually made him forget his dream of filmmaking...
The more Qi Gelong thought about it, the more he believed Director Shao created the character of Old Tang under the influence of that experience. The difference was that Old Tang's experience was more tragic than Director Shao's, and his process of pulling himself together was more tortuous.
Realizing this, Qi Gelong had been looking for an opportunity to chat with Shao Yichen—not to open old wounds, but to understand Director Shao's mindset and indirectly understand Old Tang's mindset in the script.
How did she feel about the past? Regret? Remorse? Or anger toward those who slandered her?
He had been waiting for a chance to ask Director Shao, but never found the opportunity. After all, the crew maintained healthy working hours, nine to five, strictly avoiding overti unless necessary. As soon as work ended, Director Shao would leave faster than anyone else, giving him no chance to catch her.
After half a month passed this way, he finally found his opportunity.
By this ti, the crew had been filming for a month, with nearly half the shooting schedule completed. The crew had completely left the tutoring class set and officially entered the location shooting phase.
Seeing that the film was progressing smoothly, Director Shao made a grand gesture, booking an entire Korean BBQ restaurant for the crew, leading everyone there for a group al.
At first, everyone in the crew was reserved, not daring to eat too freely despite having the whole place to themselves. Even Director Shao Yichen herself seed stiff, sandwiched between Assistant Director Jiang Miaomiao and dia Company Manager Qianqian, only daring to continuously pour oil onto the grill.
But after half an hour, people gradually beca more comfortable, and the scene turned lively. The actor playing Xiao Sha had BBQ plates stacked three feet high beside him. Xiao Bai was tearfully telling Xiao Zhu about how he had expected to see his idol Li Xingyu in the crew but hadn't even caught a glimpse. Xiao Sun was boasting with his arm around Executive Director Qin Lu. Jiang Miaomiao and Li Qianqian were using empty beer bottles as microphones, singing at the top of their lungs...
—Wait, where was Director Shao?
Qi Gelong looked around and found Director Shao Yichen sitting alone in a corner, stuffing grilled fish into her mouth.
His spirits rose—here was his chance! A private conversation with Director Shao!
Qi Gelong picked up his plate and casually approached Shao Yichen.
He walked to Shao Yichen's vicinity, sat down opposite her, and looked up to see her staring intently at the half-eaten grilled fish on her plate with a grave expression.
Was this... inspiration striking?
Qi Gelong waited for a long ti, but Director Shao didn't move, so he cautiously asked, "Director Shao?"
Shao Yichen had just gotten a fish bone stuck in her throat and was trying to swallow saliva to help push it down. Hearing this sudden voice, she was startled and quickly looked up.
Qi Gelong only saw Director Shao raise her head, her expression unchanged, looking at him puzzled: "What is it?"
Oh, not inspiration then.
Qi Gelong breathed a sigh of relief and said softly, "Actually, I have a question I'd like to ask Director Shao, though it might be a bit offensive..."
"Not offensive at all, please go ahead and ask," Shao Yichen waved her hand dismissively, readily agreeing.
"It's like this... Director Shao, when you think back on, um, those things now, how do you feel?" Qi Gelong asked cautiously.
Shao Yichen was montarily stunned.
What things?
She thought for a mont, assuming Teacher Dongqiang had noticed she was choking on a fish bone and ca over to check on her, which touched her a bit.
"No particular feeling, just a bit uncomfortable at most," she answered honestly.
This answer was one Qi Gelong hadn't anticipated.
"You don't feel... regret, or sadness?" Qi Gelong observed Shao Yichen's expression, carefully inquiring.
Shao Yichen: ?
Getting a fish bone stuck in her throat and feeling angry? At whom? The fish bone?
She honestly shook her head: "Most of the ti when you get a fish bone stuck, you don't feel anything."
"At most, on very rare occasions, there's a slight stinging pain."
Qi Gelong nodded thoughtfully.
Director Shao was using the fish bone to taphorically describe the discomfort brought by past events—probably aning that although she seed to have let go, she still carried an unhealed wound.
He seed to have an epiphany, nodded to Shao Yichen and said, "I understand now. Thank you, Director Shao."
Shao Yichen watched his retreating figure with a huge question mark above her head.
What did he an? Was Teacher Dongqiang coming over to mock her for getting a fish bone stuck in her throat???
Author's Note: Today's update~ Thanks to the little angels who gave Overlord Tickets or Nutrition Solution between 2020-09-13 10:40:30 and 2020-09-14 13:04:32~
Thanks to the little angels who gave Nutrition Solution: Bamboo-Eating Pig 10 bottles; 24510406 6 bottles; Xiao Jing 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
Reviews
All reviews (0)