Chapter 49: Chapter Fifty-Five: Ling Er and Mei Na

This girl thinks of herself as the mainstay of climbing the social ladder.

Looking at her day by day, carefree and clueless, she actually has such a shrewd little scheme.

Of course, Chen Ci doesn't guarantee his idea is correct; maybe he's overthinking, but it's interesting nonetheless.

Chen Ci raised his hand and pressed twice on her forehead: "Go to sleep."

"Brother-in-law..."

Chen Ci suddenly felt inspired: "Na Zha, let me give you a nickname."

"A nickname... what is that?"

"It's a term of endearment that only the closest people can use, like your sister Mao Mao, and Ling Er..."

Upon hearing that, Na Zha immediately understood and quickly nodded: "Mm-hmm, brother-in-law, I want one too."

"Then from now on I'll call you Mei Na."

Na Zha blinked: "Mei Na?"

"Yes, beautiful Na Zha."

"Oh, that sounds nice."

At the same time, Na Zha added in her mind: "It sounds better than Ling Er..."

"Then it's happily decided."

"Mm!"

"Can you sleep now?"

"Mm-hmm..."

"Sigh~"

Chen Ci secretly sighed, raising a child is really a skill, even Mei Na is this old now.

Every word and deed must be attended to, for fear of causing some bad influence...

After over two hours of flight, the outside sky had been completely shrouded in darkness.

Mei Na slept sweetly the whole way, and Chen Ci also enjoyed watching her absolutely beautiful sleeping face.

Finally the plane landed, arriving at the destination, yet Mei Na still showed no sign of waking up.

Helpless, Chen Ci could only poke her cheek: "Mei Na, get up."

Although this woke her up, she seemed not fully awake.

Struggling to open her sleepy eyes: "Mei Na... who are you?"

"You tell me."

Mei Na seemed to understand, but was still a bit dazed.

"Go back home and sleep some more."

"Oh..."

It's so late, Chen Ci didn't want to disturb Xiao Tong, so he only had Pang Zi pick him up from the airport.

Pang Zi took the luggage, while Chen Ci supported the swaying Mei Na until she got into the car.

"I'll be away for two days; is everything still going smoothly?"

Pang Zi said while driving: "Master Ci, I was just about to tell you about this—Lao Zhao and Shi San got in touch with Zhang Jie,"

"What did he say?"

"He's quite willing, but there might be some issues with the contract; he hasn't terminated it yet. Logically, to film a movie, we need Shang Teng's approval."

"They've even signed up for 'Happy Boy,' yet they still care about this."

Pang Zi chuckled: "That's true, and there's another matter."

"What's up?"

"Yesterday, Master Ci, while you were on the plane, Midi approached us."

"The Midi Music Festival? It already happened this year, didn't it?"

Yeah, as the most well-known music festival in China's rock scene, this year's edition has already taken place.

But due to well-known reasons, next year's has been postponed indefinitely.

"It's the Midi Music School."

"A school?"

"Their headmaster heard we were going to make a rock movie and proactively reached out to us."

"What do they want?"

This Midi Music School is very famous in the rock circle, after all, the Midi Music Festival originally started from this school.

Many band members also have some connection with this school; it can be considered a emblem of the rock scene.

"They say they want to collaborate and promote rock music."

Chen Ci chuckled: "Is that what they're saying?"

"Yeah, and they said they're willing to provide venues and actors."

"Actors?"

They came to us proactively seeking collaboration; I guess this school isn't doing so well either.

That's right; nowadays rock is in a slump, the old rock stars can't stir things up, and the new ones aren't showing promise either.

Given the situation, how many parents are willing to send their kids to learn rock?

Besides, they're mostly adults who once dreamed of rock, spending money on training and getting certificates just for the sake of pilgrimage and hobby.

"By the way, they also said that if we need to contact famous band members, they can help."

"Oh?"

This is kind of interesting, huh. When Chen Ci was writing the script, he planned to pull this sentimental move, saving himself the trouble of going around asking people.

"Specifically, we'll wait for Master Ci to go and discuss it with them."

"Sure, let's find a time tomorrow to meet them."

At that moment, Na Zha slowly woke up, opening her eyes with difficulty: "Brother-in-law, what are you talking about……"

That night, at around one or two a. m., Ning Hao finally got a chance to rest.

As he told Chen Ci, making a movie is indeed a very complicated thing.

Every aspect must be considered, especially for some people, even a pigeon flying by could have its reason.

But it's so late, Ning Hao still couldn't sleep.

Since he'd made the promise, although he himself had no hope for this script, he still had to give a reply.

What caught his eye was the weird name "Sewing Machine Band," and Ning Hao forced himself to focus.

He had some understanding of music from his early years, and he once earned his first pot of gold by shooting MVs for people.

Do bands really call themselves that?

Ning Hao was deeply skeptical, but then he thought of his earlier film "Crazy Stone," which also didn't make much sense.

Maybe it's just a nonsensical-style band.

With such a thick script, he definitely couldn't finish it in one night, so Ning Hao planned to read just the opening few scenes before going to sleep.

The opening was a band performance, followed by an elementary student's speech, introducing the glory of the Broken Guitar Band—could only say it was ordinary and as expected.

"Huh, Broken Guitar?"

Late at night, Ning Hao felt a bit dazed, thinking he'd misread it, flipped back to the front page and took a look—it really was "Sewing Machine Band."

Moreover, the Broken Guitar Band, along with the lyrics of their song "My Sky" in the story, gave Ning Hao a feeling of faint familiarity with some name.

Continuing on, Chen Ci even drew storyboards for the stage, and later erected a big guitar statue for the Broken Guitar Band, which looked quite professional.

Then the camera turned, the main character appeared—a band manager.

Ning Hao instinctively thought the main character must be that elementary student who gave the opening speech.

Then……

"Kind of interesting……"

The main character sought investment, but ended up pulling in fifty thousand autumn pants.

So far, the pacing in the script is fine, but how the filmed effect turns out depends on the director and actors.

Almost done, Ning Hao was about to go to sleep, but couldn't help flipping another page.

The main character received a video; the sender was a fan of the Broken Guitar Band, who spent fifty thousand to have the main character promote his concert.

Yo, this is getting into the main plot; Ning Hao could see at a glance that everything before was just groundwork.

Now that we're at the main plot, Ning Hao decided to keep flipping ahead.

"'Broken Guitar Band—just have him break it up!'"

Seeing this line, Ning Hao couldn't help laughing for the first time in the late night.

This line also shows some comedic chops; Ning Hao realized he'd still underestimated that rich second-generation.

Further on, it gets to the story's main conflict: rock is dead, and the big guitar statue commemorating the Broken Guitar Band is also to be torn down……

Seeing this, Ning Hao's yawns came one after another; he could barely keep himself awake.

Up to this point, the characterizations and main conflict of the two protagonists, Chen Gong and Hu Liang, are fine.

The comedic payoffs are also okay; Ning Hao even repeatedly pondered some of them.

Without realizing it, it was already almost five thirty a. m., the sky was about to brighten……