The talk between the divorced couple did not last longer than five minutes. In that short span of time, Mo Fang tried to hint about the songs and inquire why he went back to the show business. But the man only replied to the latter."I have to work in order to feed me," he laughingly said. "Since I have left on a whim months ago without explaining to the crew, I know I won"t be accepted anywhere. I have to find other means to get income..."
"You are kicked out," retorted the woman in her mind. She wanted to threaten him into stopping what he was doing. But shame got into her because when she used that way to divorce and requested Liu De to block him so he would no longer be able to stay as a producer, she never thought of what would happen to him after.
"He is a man heartbroken by the divorce. He might fall into depression."
"The money he earned is split in half to compensate me for the emotional damage from the "domestic violence."
"If he loses his job as a producer and can no longer mix in the industry, how will he survive? Or where will he go?"
… None of these ever came to her mind.
So now that he brought the topic up, she felt a bit of embarra.s.sment in her heart.
How should she continue the conversation?
Mo Fang found herself saying not long after, "Zheng Xiang… Can"t you find another job? Anywhere else but in this industry?"
Jiang Li sported a blank look that stayed in his face for almost a minute. Then he puzzledly blurted out, "This is my livelihood now. Why would I?"
"Yeah why would he?" a moment later, her mind also asked her. She couldn"t find the answer to it so she couldn"t speak for quite a while.
Jiang Li patiently waited for her, and the same gentle look did not disappear. But when more than a minute pa.s.sed, he glanced down on his wrist.w.a.tch and read the time there. "I"m sorry, Miss Mo. I have to be back in the studio in two minutes and it"s quite a distance from here. I"m glad to see you doing well. Goodbye."
The man stood up and pointed a finger at his wrist.w.a.tch while wearing a helpless look on his face.
"Wait!" The woman tried to stop him. She couldn"t let him go yet! But it seemed he was really in a hurry since he only turned his head for a short while without pausing his steps.
In just a few large strides, he disappeared from her sight.
…
Mo Fang did not completely give up and frequently tried to intercept Jiang Li whenever she could. However, never did she manage to tell him her purpose in seeking him out.
When she got fed up with the situation where she either couldn"t say it or he would have to leave due to appointments to others, she made up her mind to just resort to threat. Yet she also never managed to do that, seemingly forgetting about it once the moment of truth arrived.
How hard would it be to spout a few words in front of him? It should not be that difficult. But she could tell for herself why hse couldn"t. Now, all she knew was each day the restlessness in her heart grew the more the release date of her sweetheart"s alb.u.m approaches.
The uneasiness she was feeling kept growing that it was starting to affect her job and life. She would frequently fell into deep thoughts and bore the heck out of the people surrounding her, including Liu De.
But thankfully for the male lead, he was busy with his drama and recordings so also couldn"t pay much heed about the abnormality of the woman.
One time she could no longer stand the weird feeling in her heart she sent a message to him through texts, "Zheng Xiang, withdraw from the entertainment world. Please do it for me."
Not even a minute later, she received a reply, "This is his manager, Fan Jing. You are so shameless. Please don"t contact my talent again."
The chunk of text made her dumbfounded. And even though she should have suspected if it was her ex-husband who sent it, she unconsciously believed it was not him.
Her unusual state persisted. And before she knew it, the date she dreaded arrived.
…
The alb.u.m for the artist Andrew C. who would be the one singing the emotional and sad love songs which Jiang Li wrote months ago successfully made it at least at the same time as Liu De"s alb.u.m release.
Yet for a few hours, there was no unrest or unusual activities online.
Most talks were about the two historical dramas about to air three days from then on. Both garnered many interests as one was starred by two S-listers and produced by an award-winning director, while the other had its script written by a famous figure abroad who had already won several international literature and scriptwriting award. The lead actor was also a bigshot.
Both teasers were very interesting and pleasing to the eyes, although there were some similarities since the two stories were both historical and about intrigues in the military and the palace.
Probably the good thing that happened for Jiang Li was that many noticed him in the teaser due to the color of his hair.
One commented in ZHK"s official site, "The one playing the general has a strange hair color. Why didn"t he dye it black or brown?"
The original post received quite the number of replies.
"Why do you care that much? It"s good as long as the face is handsome!"
"I agree. Handsome for the win!"
"Fools! I care because he"s an oddity ruining the solemn atmosphere at the scene."
"It"s odd because of the hair, but other than that, everything"s okay. His fighting and commanding scenes are awesome by the way, at least more believable and appear more natural than in the other drama. Who"s the actor?"
"It"s the first time I see him."
"Hey, that"s my idol, Jiang Li. He"s a popular singer!"
"Popular? Never heard of him. And he seems unprofessional because he acted without knowing what kind of drama he"s playing at."
"Will you stop, whoever you are. The fact that you and the other haters only know how to comment on his hair is making me believe you guys are hired water army! The glistening blue hair is due to the awesome skill of the director, alright!"
The director who was sneakily checking the webpage but kept his silence: … For the sake of hype, I won"t clear up this misunderstanding.
When the middle-aged guy scrolled down more to check on other news, he got surprised to find many praising and requesting more photos of the beautiful Selena Tang who was not really one of the cast members. And even though a lot were criticizing Jiang Li for his hair, a lot more were commenting about his face.
"Look at this kid. It seems he never showed his whole face before when singing so when he does, it contributed a lot of hype to the drama." Director Fu clicked his tongue as he accepted the cup of coffee his a.s.sistant director pa.s.sed to him.
The man then dragged a stool and sat on it before joining him in reading. The director gave him a cold glare and hid the screen of his phone. "Why are you looking?"
Laughing awkwardly, the a.s.sistant shook his head. "Sorry, just curious. By the way, director, you seem to be not aware. Actually, Mr. Jiang has shown his face on his music video two weeks ago so this is not really the first time that the people saw it."
"Oh?"
"How is it the same? It"s the first time they will see him in an ancient warrior costume. And the news that he will be acting as a major supporting character in his first movie should be shocking enough. Pull up your phone and look. It seems this man has quite the large following. At least comparable to B-list actors." The one who spoke was a producer who happened to be eavesdropping.
"Well, he"s lucky," grunted the director whose left cheek spasmed for a moment after he remembered the writer requesting to directly give the role to him.
Even now, he had yet to figure out Selena Tang"s reason for recommending Jiang Li. The two didn"t seem to be in a relations.h.i.+p despite the latter"s obvious show of affection and interest towards the icy woman.
The interest of the director in Jiang Li"s matter did not stay for long. The man continued checking the news and the comments online until he put his phone away to start working.
As for the matter about the similarities in the music of the two established and reputable music artists from rivaling companies, the one who found out about it only managed to finish drafting the article around noon.
There was no actual rivalry between the two artists. However, the moment one of the critiques pointed out about the exact melodies and started to share their observation with the world, that was when the two music labels official websites began to be flooded with inquiries and all sorts of comments.
At that moment, a huge controversy was born. Who copied whom? Between Liu De, a very popular actor who recently started to dabble on music, and the singer who had built up a strong career for five years, which one of them was the plagiarizer?