Actually, Su Yang did not have many friends added on his social media. Other than two or three relatives who were of the same age as him and some classmates who were close to him in high school and middle school, the rest were friends, colleagues, and classmates he had met during his university days.
After all, he had just been using his phone not too long ago, hence he did not socialize much. Thus explaining the lack of people added on his social media.
However, whatever Su Yang lacked in numbers had been compensated by quality. All of his added friends were either close to him or more active.’
Therefore, whenever he posted something on WeChat, it would instantly explode.
His middle school classmate, the one who sold pens at his hometown’s stationery store, replied with a series of question marks.
After that, the classmate replied again. ‘When did you start making movies? Weren’t you supposed to be studying in Shanghai?’
Su Yang’s high school classmates, on the other hand, were all stunned and left comments such as ‘Are you a movie director now? Or are you a producer?’, ‘It seems like the city life agrees with you’ or ‘Awesome! You’re Jiujiang’s pride and joy!’. “Actually, Jiujiang is a small province filled with people who were less cultured. They have no idea what a movie producer actually does. All they know is… producers are people who seem to be associated with the entertainment industry, that alone is enough to amaze them.’
Su Yang’s high school classmates were more accepting. They sent messages such as ‘You’ve made a move?! Impossible!’, ‘Are you pulling my leg? Did we have to produce a movie for one of our holiday projects?’ and ‘My other classmates are producing their own video over the holidays, yet I’m here writing my thesis. My life sucks…’
As for those who were more familiar with Su Yang such as Qu Xiaomeng, she received the news with a much more normal reaction. She only sent a congratulatory message.
‘Based on her intelligence, I doubt she knows how hard it is to make a movie…’
Su Yang’s WeChat post successfully attracted a lot of attention. Some of his classmates had even clicked into the link Su Yang shared and watched the movie.
They realized that the first part of the movie was well-made and the scenes were beautiful and concise. Plus, Su Yang’s name had also appeared at the beginning of the movie, hence the news spread to the other students of Shanghai University discreetly.
The students in the university loved to gossip and were second only to women in their forties. Very soon, more and more students found out about how Su Yang had produced a movie over the holidays. Shanghai University has always been filled with talented people, including young celebrities who were already popular before they had graduated, such as Li Xianhe.
However, the amount of people who were as capable as Su Yang who had actually produced a movie during his first year of university was very rare.
Of course, most of the students have very little idea what a producer or editor actually does. However, as the news spreaded, there would be experts who knew exactly what it was. Therefore, these experts would constantly explain that a producer is different from a director, they were people who supervised the directors and studio managers instead.
Thus, when the students realized the truth, they found it… even more awesome!
Being a director was already impressive enough! But to be able to actually supervise the directors and studio managers was even more impressive!
Those who knew a thing or two about the industry were curious, so they tried to find out more about the movie. After they were done researching, they were shocked to find out that Su Yang was the boss of the production company! Plus, he owned 100% of the company’s shares!
After that, they dug deeper and realized that Su Yang’s company had produced the film all on its own. His company was literally the equivalent of the judge, jury and executioner of the movie.
What’s more, Su Yang had complete control over the company.
Hence… Su Yang was not only a producer, but also the mastermind behind the movie!
Not long after Su Yang’s friends had spread the news about Su Yang filming a movie, many gossipers dug up other past rumors and spreaded it again. Su Yang’s friends soon found out that it was Su Yang’s company that had invested in the movie with Su Yang being the boss behind it.
Thus… Su Yang had turned from being the producer of the movie into the investor of the movie in a flash!
This made Su Yang an even bigger legend!
Qu Xiaomeng was the slowest to react amongst all his friends, or rather, she did not have the concept of making a movie or investing in one. She did not know what those 2 roles ensued. She only felt that her classmate was very capable and forgot about the matter instantly.
Hence, after replying to Su Yang’s WeChat post, she continued to eat her fried chicken while watching a movie. That’s right, her weight-loss plan had failed for the umpteenth time.
As she watched, her phone rang. She picked it up and saw the words’ Qu Xiaoming ‘on the screen.
She placed her phone face down and continued to watch her movie in peace and quiet.
However, ten seconds later, her phone rang again.
She picked it up and saw that it was still Qu Xuan who had called her.
Qu Xiaomeng placed her phone face down again, she could not be bothered to talk to him.
However, Qu Xuan kept on calling her non-stop until Qu Xiaomeng finally lost her patience and was no longer in the mood to watch her movie. In the end, she picked up the phone in exasperation and shouted, “Qu Xiaoming! If you don’t give me a reasonable explanation for your incessant phone calls, I’ll send your exes’ names to the FindMe app! I can’t wait to see how you’re going to seduce girls next time!”
Qu Xuan panicked when he heard that and said, “Hang on, I have a legit reason for calling you.”
Qu Xiaomeng was so angry that she took a few deep breaths. The clothes on her chest were also moving up and down rhythmically as she breathed.
She said, “Go on!”
Qu Xuan said, “Have you seen Su Yang’s post?”
Qu Xiaomeng said, “I did. What of it?”
Qu Xuan said, “He’s made a movie!” Qu Xiaomeng’s tone was full of disdain. “So? What’s it got to do with you? It’s not like you’re the one who filmed it. Look at you, when have you ever been the successful younger brother as he is?!”
Qu Xuan was speechless.
He said, “You’re becoming more and more like our mom.”
With that, he hung up.
Qu Xiaomeng smiled smugly and felt very pleased with herself. ‘Finally, after all this time, I’ve managed to get one over my younger brother!
At the thought of this, she took a look at the movie “The Lion’s Roar” from many years ago which was being played on the television. She thought to herself. ‘Apart from my personality, increasing my voice seems to be pretty useful!’ Just as she was deep in her thoughts, her phone rang again. She picked it up and realized that it was still her brother who had messaged her.
She opened up her WeChat and saw that they were all screenshots of someone else’s conversation and some pictures that included details of Su Yang’s movie. ‘From the looks of it, it seems that Su Yang is the mastermind behind the movie and had invested in it.
‘Furthermore, he was the one who was responsible for editing and producing the movie.’
Qu Xiaomeng’s mouth slowly gaped open. She only had one thought in her mind. ‘Is he that awesome?’
She clicked on Su Yang’s post and realized that there were more than ten likes and comments from their mutual friends.
For example, Li Runze commented. ‘What’s so great about making a movie? Let’s conduct an experiment together instead’
‘Hmm… he seems to be in disagreement.
‘However, other than Li Runze, most people had left positive comments such as ‘You’re amazing!’, ‘Are you still hiring actors?’, ‘I wish you all the best!’, ‘Please introduce me to some female celebrities’ and ‘Are you still short of staff? I’m quite good at my job.’. ‘Oh… the last comment is from a guy.
‘Of course, there’s my congratulatory comment right on the top of the comments section.’
Qu Xiaomeng thought about it before she liked the post.
‘Everyone who knows Su Yang personally or even heard of him are shocked with what he did.
‘After all, producing a movie is different from singing and songwriting. The latter two could be done single handedly, but the former had to be done in a team and would take a long time to prepare and plan. ‘Plus, the amount of capital required was different. Singing, songwriting and painting can mostly be done without capital, all that’s needed is the person’s mouth or hands. At most, they would need some props to complete their tasks. However, that’s nothing compared to the huge amount of money that’s needed to be invested in producing a movie.
‘Even though they do not know how much money is needed to make a movie, they would probably know that it was an amount that they could never hope to accumulate, unless they sold their house and everything else they had.
‘In other words, the requirements for entering the film industry are very high. It’s not something that a commoner could ever hope of getting involved in.
‘Furthermore, we’re merely students in a normal university instead of being in a university that majored in filmmaking or cultural arts, hence there was no way we could receive any knowledge or be involved in that industry. ‘Therefore, of course they would be thrilled to find someone of such caliber from within their midst.’
‘Eventually, people would continue sharing his post and talk about it. All so they could share the amazing news within their circle of friends.
‘Many other students have even shared Su Yang’s movie with the caption ‘This is my friend’s (classmate) movie that he invested and produced himself. Please come and support him.’
‘After all, we live in a society where people love to show off. Who in their right mind would pass up on such a great opportunity? ‘Because of all this, Su Yang has unknowingly become famous all of a sudden’
At this time, Su Yang was still clueless about everything that was happening. Instead, he was on the phone with Li Zijun. “Did you get the data?”
Li Zijun was speechless.
“Boss, it takes some time before the actual data comes out. Furthermore… it’s only been an hour. You’re being too anxious.”
Li Zijun was laughing hysterically whilst Su Yang rubbed his nose and felt slightly embarrassed.
“To be honest, even though I am the boss of several companies and have invested in projects that are worth millions, this is the first time I’ve had such a strong sense of participation with a particular project.
‘So, I can’t help but feel slightly anxious.
‘However, Li Zijun is really talented.
‘Although this is her first project, she is completely calm. Judging by her noise in the background, I think she’s actually watching something on the television.’
In truth, Li Zijun was not as calm as Su Yang had imagined. She was also very nervous and was worried that the movie would fail.
Watching television was one of her ways to ease her anxiety.
Plus… she wasn’t even focused on what was being played on the television.
The both of them had an intense discussion before hanging up the phone call.
Not long after Su Yang had hung up, he received a WeChat message from Li Zijun.
When he opened the message, he found that there was the account and password to gain access to the backstage area of iQIYI Productions.
Clearly, Li Zijun knew that Su Yang would continue to be nervous and excited. Hence, she sent Su Yang the account so that he could be updated at all times.
When Su Yang received the account number, he quickly got Little Deeny to login.
Su Yang was dumbfounded when he saw the data…