Chapter 324

The *I Am a Singer* production team has yet to make any response regarding Luo Quan's withdrawal from the competition. It is estimated that no one on the team could have imagined that a guest who was collaborating perfectly well yesterday would suddenly announce her withdrawal today.

Aside from the director, it is likely that none of the staff or those in charge understand why this happened.

Several other guests also posted on Weibo to express their shock, especially Kong Yue, who wrote in her post:

"Luo Quan's talent and gift are the greatest I have ever seen in my life. In these four episodes, she brought everyone too many surprises, but her sudden withdrawal is truly unexpected. (PS: I also really cannot understand why the production team cut out her suona performance.)"

"I look forward to having more opportunities to collaborate with her in the future. Who knows, maybe everyone will be able to see us perform on the same stage at this year's Mid-Autumn Festival Gala."

Besides the guests, what the general public is more concerned about is whether Luo Quan's unilateral withdrawal will result in a breach of contract.

In fact, these worries are unnecessary.

When signing the contract, Luo Quan did not sign a long-term contract for the entire season.

In fact, no guest on *I Am a Singer* signs a long-term contract, because no one can guarantee they definitely won't be eliminated. Guests can choose whether or not to participate in the recording of the next episode, and the appearance fee is paid episode by episode.

Luo Quan's withdrawal quickly caused a huge uproar on Weibo.

Those who pay closer attention to Weibo all know why Luo Quan did this this time; the fuse was definitely that her footage was cut for no reason. All that talk about "limited energy" is just an excuse.

Soon, someone commented below:

"Is she that temperamental? She withdrew just because a few shots were cut?"

"What do you mean 'a few shots were cut'? This was a performance Luo Quan specially prepared. They cut it without even saying a word; who could put up with that?"

"To put it bluntly, Luo Quan coming to this show is a condescension. It was one thing that she had little screen time in the previous episodes, but to cut so much this time—the whole entertainment industry knows only your show could pull something like this."

"After all, it's a national-level variety show; our Luo Quan can't afford to climb such a high branch. From now on, let's go our separate ways!"

"Not a Luo Quan fan, but I think the production team should give celebrity guests enough respect. It is the guests who make your show, not the show that makes the guests."

………………

Even on Weibo, Luo Quan received support from the vast majority of people this time. Everyone felt that the production team's editing was truly disrespectful to Luo Quan, and that withdrawing was perfectly fine.

On the Bilibili side, there wasn't a particularly huge reaction because most of the male fans don't watch this variety show. Now that they've heard she withdrew, they are cursing the production team while also being quite happy, feeling that Luo Quan will have time to livestream for them on weekends in the future.

At the same time, in a conference room at Mango TV.

The leader slammed a palm heavily onto the table, almost roaring: "Who told you to act on your own authority and let Luo Quan withdraw!"

Director Zheng clearly did not expect the leader to be so angry: "Leader, Luo Quan's presence in the production team has already affected my overall planning. If we continue to let her mess around, the show's viewership will only continue to drop."

"I thought you were sensible." The leader really wanted to slap this director he had personally promoted: "Even if the viewership for this season drops to zero, it is impossible to let Luo Quan withdraw. Do you think she is one of those washed-up singers we invited before? That you can arrange her however you want?"

Director Zheng wiped the sweat from his forehead, continuing to be stubborn: "The show and she were originally in a mutually beneficial relationship. Without her, we can invite other big names..."

The leader interrupted him directly: "How much bigger of a name do you want?

The station head had to pull a huge favor from someone else just to get Luo Quan's private email address and talked to her nicely to secure the collaboration. Otherwise, do you think you could have invited her? This is a truly big name who is famous internationally; you can't find anyone in the entire Chinese music scene who can be compared to her!"

"But…………"

"But my ass!" The leader rudely interrupted Director Zheng's defense: "The station head is already very dissatisfied with the impact this has caused. Before things get any bigger, you call her right now. Whether you apologize or beg her, you must get her to cancel the withdrawal!"

"I apologize to her?" Director Zheng's tone rose: "I, a dignified…………"

Before Director Zheng could finish bragging, a single sentence from his superior made his body tremble.

"If you don't want to do it, I can find someone else, including for the position of director of *I Am a Singer*."

All along, Director Zheng had considered himself the greatest contributor to *I Am a Singer* becoming a national hit, because it was he who was inspired by a music variety show from South Korea and proposed this plan to the station.

He was the one who planned the entire variety show from its initial lack of attention to its current national-level status.

Originally, he thought that anyone in *I Am a Singer* could be replaced, except for him. Only now did he realize that no one is indispensable, and who gets to stay is just a matter of a single word from the leader.

"I... I'll call her right now." Director Zheng didn't want his years of hard work to be snatched away by someone else. Even though he had just had an argument with Luo Quan, he had to call her immediately to apologize.

Saving face is a small matter, but losing his position as director would be like losing his life.

He hurriedly found the most recent call with Luo Quan in his contacts and dialed it.

After a "beep," the AI prompted that the user you dialed is powered off.

Director Zheng's heart turned cold. If Luo Quan had really just turned off her phone, there wouldn't be this prompt. This situation meant that Luo Quan had already blocked him!

"She blocked me." Director Zheng glanced at his superior, feeling uneasy.

"You..." The leader pointed at Director Zheng, his face full of annoyance.

Being blocked means Luo Quan is not just ordinarily angry this time. In this situation, she clearly doesn't want to have any further dealings with the production team. He could only report to the station head and let him solve it.

The leader stood up and walked toward the conference room door. Director Zheng asked him anxiously: "What... what should I do next?"

The leader sighed: "Plan the next episode of *I Am a Singer* well."

Director Zheng breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that this matter would eventually be handled with a heavy hand but a light touch.

But before he could thank his superior, Director Zheng heard the bad news.

"Because that will likely be the last time you direct *I Am a Singer*."

Hearing this, Director Zheng felt cold all over, as if he had fallen into an ice cellar…………

On her dormitory bed, Luo Quan was comfortably propping up her bright, long legs; her skin, like congealed fat, appeared even smoother under the illumination of the incandescent lamp.

She was laughing while watching the new drama Wen Xia was acting in when a call came in.

"Hello? Station Head Li…………"

"We didn't argue. I just feel that my ability is a bit small and I'm not up to the standard of *I Am a Singer*…………"

"I'm really not being sarcastic. Please don't take action against Director Zheng…………"

"Go back? Forget it, let's leave it at that. I have a lot of competitions at school recently, and my counselor specifically named me to participate, so I really don't have the time………………"

"I'm really not angry. We'll collaborate again if there's an opportunity in the future………………"

"Alright, alright, definitely next time. Wish you good health, bye-bye."

Generally speaking, when a girl says she is really not angry, the problem is definitely very serious.

Of course, Luo Quan is still somewhat different from most girls; she basically says whatever is on her mind directly.

However, this time the station head took the initiative to call and ask, so he must still care about her feelings. So, complaining or anything like that is out of the question, lest it add to his troubles.

This is a matter of emotional intelligence.

As for what kind of outcome that Director Zheng will have, that will depend on his own fortune.

After withdrawing from the competition, Luo Quan suddenly felt much more relaxed.

Previously, with the show on her plate, she had to go to bed early every Friday, and on Saturday, before the sky was even bright, she had to get up to catch a flight to rehearse for the show. It was a full day of recording, and the next day she had to catch a flight back. Her originally happy weekend time was occupied by seven or eight tenths like this.

Now, without the burden of the show, Luo Quan felt that her whole body was much more energetic.

Especially after knowing that the subject teacher was going out for study tomorrow afternoon, the originally fully-booked afternoon was now empty, and she could slack off for a whole day on Monday, which made Luo Quan even happier.

There is no happiness greater than knowing on a weekend night that there are no classes next Monday.

If there is, it must be that there are no classes on Tuesday either.

Of course, although there were no classes, it was impossible for Luo Quan to lie in the dormitory for a whole day.

The submission for the preliminary round of the Shangyi Music Competition officially begins tomorrow. Having prepared for so many days, some seniors in the composition department already had drafts, but they were only drafts; after all, not everyone can compose as fast as Luo Quan.

Most contestants had only created a melody at this time, and the completion level was very low, just waiting to slowly enrich the content of the piece after passing the preliminary round.

After all, this competition will last for two months, and the finals will not be held until early November, so the time is still relatively abundant.

This is the first campus competition Luo Quan participated in after entering Shangyi. Although it is not her professional specialty, she has absolute confidence in winning a good ranking.

Besides this, there is another matter she is more concerned about, which is that the *Lord of the Rings* crew is nearing the end of filming.

The filming speed of this huge-investment epic was much faster than most people imagined. It wasn't that Director Ford wasn't diligent, but that the filming was indeed going relatively smoothly.

For movies with a large number of outdoor scenes like this, encountering rainy days often means stopping filming for a day, and the weather in New Zealand has been good for the past few months, with very few rainy days.

On the other hand, after being inspired by Luo Quan, Director Ford decided to add more special effects to the movie, so many scenes were turned into post-production computer production.

Although using computer production is not necessarily faster than filming real scenes, who told Director Ford to be rich? He directly hired a large special effects company to be fully responsible for all special effects scenes of *Lord of the Rings 1*.

I heard it was called something like Industrial Light & Magic. Luo Quan doesn't know much about this, but since it could be favored by Director Ford, it must be at the top level in the industry.

In short, when the real-scene filming started, the special effects side also started production simultaneously. Dual-thread work greatly shortened the film's production process.

Now, the real-scene part can be completed in less than a month, and the special effects are also more than half finished. *Lord of the Rings 1*, originally scheduled to be released next year, was also forcibly brought forward to the end of the year, just to catch up with next year's Oscars.

However, Director Ford stated in an interview that he did not have high expectations for next year's Oscars.

He participated in the modification of the script for the *Lord of the Rings* trilogy throughout. Although the scenes in the first part are beautiful, they are still slightly insufficient compared to the big scenes in the next two parts, so it is unrealistic to want to win too many awards.

However, although he said so, this is the first part of the entire series after all, so it's impossible to say he didn't put in the effort. Director Ford's arrogance in the industry is also well-known.

However, his arrogance is usually before filming the movie. When the movie is really filmed, he will suddenly become humble again.

But those who know him know that this is his usual means of covering up, just to create a contrast.

Previously, several of his movies with explosive word-of-mouth were all said to be: "filmed ordinarily, didn't have high expectations."

As a result, after the release, which one didn't have a box office of hundreds of millions or even one billion US dollars?

So much so that after this was said, no media believed him anymore.

The media has been constantly reporting on the filming progress of *Lord of the Rings*, and the outside world has high hopes for this super blockbuster with a total investment of over 600 million US dollars.

For so many years in Hollywood, it has been filled with various sci-fi commercial blockbusters, but there are very few movies that can be called classics. Everyone is looking forward to a movie that can shock the world.

To be honest, Director Ford, who carries so many expectations, is under great pressure. Even as a veteran director, even with so many successful movies, before the movie is actually premiered, he is full of worries about gains and losses.

Nearing the end of filming, his daily sleep time is still less than six hours. Either he is out guiding the filming, or he is staying in the room checking and editing the previously filmed materials. If he is slightly dissatisfied, he will directly redo it.

On the contrary, the ones Luo Quan filmed before were basically one-take, because the scene filmed at that time was too beautiful, even with Director Ford's nitpicking eyes, he couldn't find many places worth modifying.

Therefore, Luo Quan became one of the few actors who was not notified to redo.

Of course, during this period, Luo Quan still contacted Director Ford many times.

The filming of the first part basically had nothing to do with her, but she could help a lot in other aspects, such as the music she is best at.

After learning that *Pirates of the Caribbean* had asked Luo Quan to compose a soundtrack, Director Ford didn't have many thoughts at first.

He knew that Luo Quan was very talented in music, but no matter what, she was just a pop singer, not a composer.

But after listening to *He's a Pirate*, Director Ford discovered that he had a huge misunderstanding about Luo Quan. A musical genius was by his side, and he didn't know it!

PS: Thanks to book friend L224 for the book coins, thank you!