diymy Chapter 77 Strange Online Friends
Chapter 77 Strange Online Friends
This year's Lunar New Year's Eve is destined to be a lively day.
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon won Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards ceremony held in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles.
When the news reached China, it sent the entire Chinese-language film and television industry into an uproar.
This martial arts film, which received a lukewarm reception in China and was criticized by many viewers for its "sleep-inducing fight scenes," has surprisingly generated such a strong response overseas.
With a global box office exceeding two hundred million US dollars, it struck a chord deep in the hearts of every film and television company.
In an instant, martial arts scripts were snapped up, and countless production companies were eager to replicate Li An's legend.
However, amidst this celebratory atmosphere, the Beijing entertainment circle exhibited an eerie stillness.
This didn't surprise people in the industry.
Just three days ago, a small media interview that came without any prior warning was like a depth charge, shattering everything Ye Daying had painstakingly built.
That day, Tan Lin sat in front of the camera and said everything.
From how Ye Daying instructed him to steal Lin An's script ideas and alter the authorship, to how he later used his connections to poach actors, cut off equipment, and bribe the media to smear him, to the clinic being vandalized... everything was revealed in the interview.
The entire process was excessively honest; the reporter asked every question, and the person answered them without question, as if they were out of control.
He even confessed that Ye Daying had instructed him to send people to follow Lin An, plant spies on set, and fabricate scandalous news.
The news caused a public uproar.
If the previous online posts were just baseless speculation, then Tan Lin's confession has ripped away all the fig leaves.
The outcry spread from online to offline, with students from various universities hurling insults at Ye Daying and film and television forums being flooded with protest posts.
Several film and television companies issued announcements stating that, "due to strategic adjustments," they are suspending all cooperation with companies under the name of Ye Daying.
Projects that had already started filming were halted, scripts in preparation were withdrawn, and signed actors terminated their contracts one after another.
Everyone in the film and television industry knows that Ye Daying's career is over.
……
……
Dengshikou, Building 14.
Lin Yuan looked at the news in the newspaper and slowly exhaled a breath of stale air.
Even though he knew nothing about the film and television industry, he knew that this matter was over.
"Old Lin, do you think the boss has finally made it?"
Lin's mother's voice drifted over from the kitchen doorway.
She carried a bowl of freshly washed strawberries to the coffee table, put down the fruit plate, and her gaze fell on the newspaper.
Lin Yuan smiled and said:
"When has he ever suffered a loss?"
Lin's mother clicked her tongue and sat down next to her husband, her tone carrying a hint of reproach mixed with an indescribable pride:
"The child I gave birth to will naturally be good."
Lin Yuan's lips curled up slightly, but he did not refute.
In the kitchen, Lin Meng was munching on corn.
Laughter from her parents came from the living room. She perked up her ears, puffed out her cheeks, and looked up.
"Sis, are Mom and Dad secretly eating something delicious again behind our backs?"
Lin Yi leaned against the stove, holding an apple in her hand, the peeler spinning rapidly between her fingers.
She glanced at the foolish little sister, her tone indifferent:
"Your brother made a lot of money, and they're happy."
Lin Meng blinked and stopped chewing.
A moment later, her dead memories began to return, and her eyes suddenly lit up:
"My older brother said he'd treat me to something delicious when he makes a lot of money!"
Lin Yi's hands didn't stop moving, and another section of the thin apple peel drooped down.
She said expressionlessly, "If you want to eat good food, you'll have to go to Shanghai."
"Shanghai?"
He's currently filming in Shanghai.
Will he go home for the Chinese New Year?
"He probably won't reply, but if you miss him, you can call him."
Lin Meng's eyes darted around, and as if she had thought of something, a sly smile slowly spread across her face.
Lin Yi could tell at a glance that she was thinking of having the New Year's Eve dinner all to herself.
Too lazy to even comment on her foolish younger sister's thought process, she cut the peeled apple into even crescent-shaped pieces and placed them in a white porcelain plate.
Lin Meng tiptoed and reached out to steal it.
Lin Yi turned around with the plate in his hand, expressionlessly avoiding her outstretched hand, and walked towards the kitchen door.
"Sister—!" Lin Meng cried out in a drawn-out, coquettish tone.
Without turning his head, Lin Yi pushed open the kitchen door, walked through the corridor, and arrived at the door of Lin An's bedroom.
The door was ajar, and Lin Yi knocked twice.
"Please come in."
Lin Yi pushed open the door and entered.
The room was very simply furnished, with only an air mattress, a desk, and a computer.
Doraemon sat at the table, his back to the door, staring intently at the computer screen, his round hands constantly tapping on the keyboard.
Lin Yi walked over and placed the white porcelain plate on the table.
Doraemon turned his head, his eyes curving into two crescent moons:
"Thanks."
Lin Yi waved his hand, glanced at the code on the screen, remained silent for a few seconds, and then said:
"The matter of Ye Daying should be considered closed."
Doraemon paused, then gave a somber "Oh."
Lin Yi glanced at him, took out a piece of paper from his pocket, unfolded it, and confirmed that the numbers on it were not blurry. He then took out a silver-gray flip phone and placed it on the table.
"His phone number," she said.
Doraemon blinked, glanced at the phone on the table, and then looked up at her.
He muttered, "Didn't you tell me to stay away from him?"
Lin Yi thought for a moment, then sighed and said, "He's definitely not a good person; following him often gets us into trouble..."
She paused for a moment, her eyes softening:
"But he's also a gentle person; no matter what trouble he gets into, he always solves it himself."
Doraemon pursed his lips, gave a strong "hmm," picked up the note, and carefully put it away.
……
……
"According to what I've heard, he's going to be arrested. I don't know exactly how many years, but it'll be enough to make him suffer a lot."
On the phone, Ji Tao's voice was very low, but the excitement in his tone was impossible to hide.
Shanghai, Chedun Film and Television City.
Lin An leaned against the hotel windowsill, phone to his ear, his eyes calm as he said:
"Given his status, there's still a lot of room for maneuver in this kind of thing."
"That's enough."
Ji Tao thought he was dissatisfied, so he tried to comfort him:
"After this incident, he can no longer work in the industry, and no one will help him anymore. You are out of danger."
Lin An neither confirmed nor denied, and then said:
"What about the rest of the Beijing elite?"
Ji Tao replied, "Just play dumb. With such strong public opinion these days, who would dare to cause trouble? Do they really think the higher-ups have no say?"
Lin An was relieved to hear this.
"What about you over here?" Ji Tao asked.
"Everything went smoothly, and we can start operating the machine tomorrow."
With funding and the support of the power company, setting up a sitcom set couldn't be simpler.
Unlike the previous factory shoots, this time the filming location was moved directly to a proper apartment.
The set was almost a one-to-one replica of the scenes from the original Love Apartment.
Lin An sighed, "You still need power."
Ji Tao laughed and scolded, "Isn't that obvious?"
"This is a profound truth, how can it be considered nonsense..." Lin An snorted, too lazy to pay him any attention, and said indifferently:
"I'll hang up now if there's nothing else. Arrange the cleanup work and come over as soon as possible. If you don't come back within a week of the machine being turned on, I'll deduct your salary."
"That little bastard is so ruthless..." Ji Tao muttered to himself, reminding him:
"Besides 'iPartment,' you should also keep an eye on 'Blind Shaft.'"
"Is the Central Academy of Drama urging them to hurry up?"
No, not at all.
"Then why are you in such a hurry? The Qing government collapsed a long time ago, you have nowhere to go."
Ji Tao was speechless. Once the crisis was over, this guy started talking in such an annoying way. He's not even human!
……
……
Lin An hung up Ji Tao's call and casually tossed his phone onto the hotel bed.
He walked to the desk, pulled out a chair, and sat down.
The laptop was a new one I got after arriving in Shanghai. It had a silver-gray casing and was quite heavy, more than twice as thick as the thin and light laptops of later generations.
While waiting for the system to load, Lin An took out the balance pointer from his pocket.
The pointer stopped steadily on the white end, indicating that the "luck" was not over yet.
It's quite durable... It must be because of the overwhelming bad luck I had recently... Lin An exhaled a breath of stale air and turned his gaze to the computer screen.
The desktop is very clean, with only a few system icons and a newly created folder.
Lin An double-clicked to open the folder.
There were more than a dozen documents inside, with filenames densely packed together:
The outline for *iPartment*... The first draft of the script for *Blind Shaft*... The English version of *Triangle*... Concept art for *Kung Fu Panda*... Storyboard for *Big Dragon's Prison Break*...
He glanced at them, but didn't open any of them. Instead, he opened the browser.
The IE icon spun several times on the screen before slowly popping up the homepage.
Lin An typed a few words into the address bar, and the page redirected.
QQ registration page.
In 2001, Tencent had been established for only two years and its user base had just surpassed one million.
Lin An couldn't remember when he registered the number in his previous life, probably around 05, when a friend dragged him into it.
The nicknames used back then were incredibly varied, such as "Melancholy Prince," "Crystal Love," and "I'll Love You Ten Thousand Years." Looking back now, I could dig three bedrooms and a living room out of the ground with my toes.
He filled in the information and clicked register.
A string of numbers popped up on the screen.
After Lin An wrote it down, set a password, randomly selected an avatar, filled in a nickname, and was about to close the window when a friend request popped up.
System notification: User "Hyacinth" has requested to add you as a friend.
Lin An was stunned for a moment.
In its early days, QQ couldn't possibly be a bot account.
He hovered his finger over the mouse for two seconds before finally clicking "Agree".
The dialog box popped up quickly:
Hyacinth: Hello!
As expected, it's an unconventional username... Lin An typed a reply:
[The fish inside is finished: Hello!]
As soon as Lin An typed those two words, the balance syringe on the table began to spin quietly.
The pointer stopped between the black and white lines.