One week later.
Fu Lianghui was having a great ti singing with secretly-invited fans in a private KTV room, his eyes wandering and restless hands frequently moving toward the fans, when his phone interrupted him during the song's climax.
Who is it, interrupting my flirting?
He frowned as he pulled out his phone, saw it was his agent calling, and decisively pressed the end call button, wanting to continue "building rapport" with his fans.
But before long, his agent persistently called again.
Fu Lianghui stord out of the room with a dark face and answered the phone, imdiately shouting into it without bothering to distinguish right from wrong: "What are you calling for? Isn't today my day off?"
Hearing him speak this way, his agent also felt irritated—if it wasn't important, who would bother calling him?
Moreover, judging by the noisy background, Fu Lianghui was probably behind his back having fun with who-knows-who again. Did he have any awareness of being a popular idol? If he got photographed, the company would have to spend a fortune to suppress the scandal!
Even if he wasn't photographed, with less than a month before entering production, this person probably hadn't even looked at the script! How could he act? How could he salvage his reputation?
The agent was anxious but helpless—he knew Fu Lianghui's personality and had long known that his words had no effect on him.
He could only focus on the current issue: "Fu Lianghui, you still have the mood to sing karaoke? Have you seen the Weibo news?"
"What news?" Fu Lianghui thought for a mont. "Oh, you an the costu photos? What, soone's criticizing ? Isn't your water army working studio being paid for nothing? Quickly have them downvote those comnts!"
"That's not the issue. Besides so pitiful little girls who've turned from fans to haters, no one's criticizing you," the agent couldn't help but sigh. "Soone is directly challenging you!"
"Directly challenging?" Fu Lianghui was stunned.
"You announced that you're playing the male lead in the TV drama version of 'The Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons,' right?" The agent didn't hide anything. "Today, Morning Star dia suddenly created an official Weibo account for a film version of 'The Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons.'"
Morning Star dia? What unknown small company is this?
"This small company dares to challenge us without knowing its limitations?" Fu Lianghui's eyes widened. "Do I need to teach you? Sue them!"
"We can't sue," the agent sighed. "If we could sue, it would be simple—our company checked, and this company actually did buy the film rights to 'The Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons,' even a little earlier than our company bought the TV drama rights."
"Not only that, they also released costu photos today!" The agent, perhaps feeling the shock wasn't great enough for Fu Lianghui, added another blow: "Now so people think their costu photos show more effort than yours, and they've posted their thoughts directly on the Long Ballad Square forum. The two fan bases are arguing fiercely."
This finally ignited Fu Lianghui's powder keg. After exchanging a few more heated words with his agent, he hung up and imdiately opened Weibo to search for related content.
Sure enough, as soon as he hit the search button for "Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons," he saw a newly verified official Weibo account for the film version at the top of the relevance list—and in just a few hours, the official account's followers had nearly caught up to the TV drama version's followers!
The thought that all the buzz the TV drama team had painstakingly cultivated for the costu photos was being drawn to the film version ignited his fury. He couldn't help but switch to his alternate account, click into the film version's Weibo, intending to find flaws in the costu photos and criticize them harshly.
But as soon as he saw the photos posted by the film crew, his anger deflated.
Indeed... they showed more effort than the TV drama crew's photos.
This effort wasn't reflected in quantity—the TV drama version had fewer plot cuts, naturally more characters, and to promote certain people, the investors had added two more roles. Their costu photos were released one after another, at a rate of one per day, taking a full two weeks before finally reaching Fu Lianghui.
The film version was different. Whether because they hadn't found all their characters yet, or because they wanted to ride the wave of popularity on the last day of the TV drama's costu photo release, they only posted photos of three main characters—of which the male lead and second male lead had the sa face, aning they only photographed two actors.
But the quality of these re two film version costu photos far surpassed the TV drama's.
—The film version's costu photos were shot on location!
Not only were the settings rich and systematic, but the actors' expressions and composition were also excellent. Fu Lianghui even felt that with just a title added in post-production, they could completely serve as movie posters!
anwhile, to accommodate the lead actors' schedules, the TV drama's costu photos were all cramd into one afternoon, shot in a studio with scenery added in post-production.
In terms of quality, they were indeed a level below the film.
But Fu Lianghui had no right to complain—among those who had insisted on studio shoots to save ti were himself.
Who could have known that a dark horse would suddenly appear, with a film version coming out of nowhere to challenge them!
Moreover, in terms of expressiveness in the photos, he had to grudgingly admit that the film version seed slightly better than his—specifically referring to the male lead.
Since the film version was shot on location, the setting was presumably designed according to the story's beginning at the foot of Changge Peak.
And since the male lead and second male lead looked identical, the sa male actor had two versions of costu photos taken at the sa location.
The male lead's costu photo was taken during the day. He wore white clothes, carried a long sword on his back, and stood beneath the charred tree at the foot of Changge Peak that had been split in half by the demonic cult's invasion, stroking the wound where the tree had broken. Golden light shone through the tree shade, illuminating his face. His expression appeared calm but seed to be suppressing sothing, with only a hint of hatred for the demonic cult and determination showing in his eyes.
The heart demon's costu photo was at the sa location but with a completely different flavor.
The shooting ti changed to night, and he wore a black robe, holding a bowl of wine, casually leaning against the charred tree's wound. The moon in the sky was half-covered by clouds, and the heart demon had half-removed his mask, revealing only one eye similar to the male lead's, and an intriguing smile at the corner of his mouth.
Though the sa person, they had completely different auras.
Fu Lianghui thought about his own expressions when taking costu photos and suddenly found he couldn't voice the criticism he had prepared.
He certainly wouldn't admit that he couldn't achieve this level of acting—his acting had absolutely no problems! But he had to acknowledge that the expressions in these two photos instantly overshadowed his own statue-like photos.
Moreover, the person in these photos looked increasingly familiar the more he looked.
He exited the image interface and checked the actor's na—the three characters "Li Xingyu" jumped out at him.
How is it him!
Fu Lianghui finally understood why this person's face looked so familiar. Because he had never seen this person in period costu before, and his previous roles all had restrained emotions, he hadn't imdiately connected the protagonist of "The Long Ballad of Immortals and Demons" with Li Xingyu.
Now looking again, the protagonist clearly had Li Xingyu's face!
In an instant, both new and old grudges surged in Fu Lianghui's heart, leaving him with no outlet for his anger. After taking several deep breaths, he raised his foot and kicked over the KTV room's table, then turned and left directly amid the terrified screams of those few fans, abandoning them behind him.
❀⋆｡°✿☆❀✿°｡⋆❀
Shao Yichen certainly hadn't anticipated that her attention-grabbing move would inadvertently protect those privately invited female fans from being deceived by Fu Lianghui. She was now staring at the Weibo page on her phone, constantly checking the direction of public opinion.
This was the first ti she so desperately hoped public opinion would lean toward supporting her side.
What had blinded Fu Lianghui's fans! Saying "don't compare unrelated works" was one thing, but looking at works with such obvious differences and still being able to say with a straight face "I think Fu Lianghui's photos look better"—what blatant lies!
If it weren't for the discerning eyes of the masses, Fu Lianghui's fans might have successfully controlled the comnts!
As she was enthusiastically complaining to herself, Li Xingyu, who had removed his makeup, walked up beside her, still wearing the white clothes from the photo shoot: "We made it in ti."
"Yes, Jiang Miaomiao's pursuit of perfection, insisting on shooting the heart demon and original body photos during day and night respectively, ant we could only shoot the original body's photos this morning. I was afraid the post-processing wouldn't be completed today and we'd miss riding the wave of popularity from next door," Shao Yichen sighed, beginning to reflect on why her crew was always so unorthodox.
"But Director Jiang must have had a vision in mind to pursue such perfection," Li Xingyu looked at the resulting photos. "Look, the effect after her personal processing is really excellent."
"I'm not blaming her," Shao Yichen shrugged. "On the contrary, seeing our photo quality completely outclass the other side makes quite happy—we not only want to ride their wave of popularity, but also make the public think they're riding ours. That's the highest level of riding the wave, and I've certainly learned sothing today."
When she proposed imdiately shooting costu photos to be released on the sa day as the TV drama crew's final costu photo, she naturally thought of Jiang Miaomiao right away. Upon hearing the plan, Jiang Miaomiao imdiately agreed but proposed a rather unique requirent—she insisted on location shooting, stating that only this way could they achieve the best effect.
At that ti, there was less than a week left before the neighboring crew would release their final costu photo.
Under this pressure, Manager Qianqian completed the task of contacting actors and arranging schedules in one day. The next day, she packed up the two lead actors plus Shao Yichen and Jiang Miaomiao, along with equipnt, and put them on a plane. They landed at the location that evening and completed the photos the following day.
Jiang Miaomiao was further inspired, completing the post-processing within an hour after taking the photos, just in ti for the simultaneous release.
Regardless, the final effect was stunning.
Shao Yichen looked at the black-clothed Li Xingyu smirking in the photo and actually felt a chill—though this Li Xingyu was smiling, there wasn't a trace of mirth in his eyes, truly embodying the concept of "heartlessness."
Li Xingyu, noticing the director staring at his photo with an odd expression, felt uncomfortable: "Director Shao, is there a problem with the photo?"
"No," Shao Yichen looked at the photo then at him, then at him again and back at the photo, before making her judgnt: "You look better in white clothes."
Li Xingyu: ?
Author's Note: Today's update~
Thanks to the little angels who gave Overlord Tickets or Nutrition Solution between 2020-09-21 12:18:39 and 2020-09-22 12:45:51~
Thanks to the little angels who gave Nutrition Solution: Flower is Not a Flower 8 bottles; Little Jing 1 bottle;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!
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