Chapter 586: You Will Be Attacked by All

"Good heavens, don't pull these messy stunts next time. If something goes wrong, forget about your extreme fans; Zhou Jianhui would skin me alive."

Qian Jiang, rushing over upon hearing the news, wiped sweat from his brow and even blurted out a dialect he hadn't spoken in over twenty years, showing just how terrified he truly was.

After disinfecting and bandaging to prevent infection, Zhou Yi stood up from the chair, hopped around a couple of times, felt fine, and grinned: "Didn't realize your ancestors were from Henan, Old Qian."

Although he jumped out of the car quickly, Zhou Yi's right leg still suffered some abrasions.

It wasn't serious, but it wasn't the kind of scratch that would heal automatically if the doctor arrived a little late; the blood bar from the scrape caused as the vehicle tipped over was actually quite considerable.

Qian Jiang, with a forehead full of cold sweat, rolled his eyes irritably: "My mother used to be from Henan."

To prevent people from spreading rumors, the moment Qian Jiang learned the news, he immediately instructed the Warner staff to tell the crew not to leak this incident. Fortunately, nothing serious happened; otherwise, he didn't dare imagine how the media and public opinion outside would have exploded.

Although only after arriving at the scene did he realize he might have been making a mountain out of a molehill.

The entire crew was in high spirits; after a brief moment of panic, everything returned to calm. Jiang Wen, Tang Yan, and Yang Mi, who had almost been hit, even had the mind to joke and imitate Zhou Yi's confident demeanor and actions before driving, showing they didn't take it to heart.

"I can't tell."

"If you could tell, that would be a ghost story."

Now that the heart that had been hanging in his throat was back in his stomach, Qian Jiang finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Be more careful in the future. Don't let the National Symphony Orchestra clear their schedule only for you to end up in the hospital again."

At Zhou Yi's request, he specifically contacted the National Symphony Orchestra for the arrangement of the song "In the Blink of an Eye." After much back-and-forth and comparing schedules, both sides finally reached an agreement, clearing their schedule specifically to participate in this song.

To some extent, it was because Zhou Yi's face and influence were significant enough.

After all, in this era, the National Symphony Orchestra hadn't had internal conflicts yet; their schedule was truly packed, their strength was formidable, and they were incomparable to the batch after the 2010s.

"Also, people from Huayi and Taihe Media contacted me, wanting to invite you to write the theme song for 'A World Without Thieves'?"

As the two largest investors in 'A World Without Thieves', Qian Jiang was quite surprised that they came knocking to invite a theme song.

'A World Without Thieves' had a total investment of only thirty million RMB; it wasn't a big-scale, big-production epic like 'Hero'. Asking Zhou Yi to sing the theme song?

Did they lose their minds?

Leaving other things aside, according to current international conventions, with Zhou Yi taking off in film scoring thanks to 'Pirates of the Caribbean', could 'A World Without Thieves' afford his two million USD scoring fee?

Even giving a discount because they were compatriots and there was a resource exchange for the female lead role, similar to Jet Li starring in 'Hero', the price would at least have to be over 1.2 million USD; 换算一下，that's over 9.8 million RMB, buddy.

But the result was that when Qian Jiang saw the first quote, he looked as if he had seen a ghost and found it hard to believe.

Because the other party really quoted that price.

One-third of the total investment?

Are they joking?

"Ah, Feng Xiaogang did approach me to talk about it before, but I didn't agree immediately. What did they say?"

Zhou Yi, who had moved around a bit and felt no discomfort, took the towel to wipe his hands, while the crew's medical staff very conscientiously withdrew from the dressing room, leaving the space for the two of them.

"Taihe and Huayi each put up 600,000 USD, totaling 1.2 million USD."

Qian Jiang shook his head: "Although I know this price is already considered an above-standard sincerity and treatment domestically, in fact, it still doesn't match your worth in the field of film scoring."

If it were before and he hadn't proven himself in the scoring field, that would be one thing, but Zhou Yi had proven himself.

Although the plot of 'Hero' received mixed reviews, it was undeniable that 'Xiang Wang Xing' really put in great effort during the early promotion, directly boosting the early box office data and exceeding expectations;

The subsequent 'Pirates of the Caribbean' was even more heavyweight, a true global blockbuster, with the theme song 'He's a Pirate' echoing across the globe, becoming Zhou Yi's global blockbuster in the field of film scoring.

'Pirates of the Caribbean' was also the work that truly elevated Zhou Yi's status in the film and television scoring field; Disney executives began to change, and several people who strongly advocated inviting Zhou Yi to compose the theme song completely won the struggle and rose to power—

Robert Iger, a Disney executive who had publicly expressed gratitude and optimism for Zhou Yi, advanced further based on the impressive achievements of 'Pirates of the Caribbean', with prospects of becoming the helmsman of the giant that is Walt Disney.

It's just that Zhou Yi currently doesn't do full film scores, only writing theme songs (promotional songs); otherwise, doing a full score like Hans Zimmer, charging 4 million USD plus royalty shares, no one would object.

"So what is your opinion?"

Zhou Yi rubbed his chin, thought for a moment, and then asked.

Qian Jiang raised one finger and made a huge demand: "My psychological price is 1.5 million USD, plus royalty shares. Although follow-up royalty shares in the domestic film and television drama field are currently almost non-existent, it is at least an attitude; I just don't know if they will agree.

"Considering the other party does have sincerity to befriend you and the reality of the domestic environment, we can酌情 reduce it by 100,000. Any lower and I wouldn't recommend it; that would damage your star image. Having Fan Bingbin as the female lead is not enough for you to lower your own worth to help out."

Why had Dragon Phoenix never mentioned asking Zhou Yi to write a song for 'New Police Story'? It was because having mixed it in Hollywood, he was very clear about Zhou Yi's current star status in scoring.

If he really asked for 1.4 million USD plus royalty shares, Zhou Yi would definitely give it, but that would waste the favor Zhou Yi owed him in the past; it wasn't worth it. He would rather invite Zhou Yi for a cameo at the end of the film with this discounted friendship price, as that would bring greater revenue to the movie.

After all, the opportunity only comes once.

As for the fact that the total investment of 'A World Without Thieves' is only thirty million RMB, that has nothing to do with Qian Jiang.

"Small investment" must have the awareness of a "small investment"; it's not that selling misery will make Zhou Yi come over to help. You, Huayi and Taihe, have no special bond with Zhou Yi; giving you a discount is already being very accommodating. Remember, Fan Xiaopang's female lead role was essentially obtained by trading the unlucky Song Ke as a gesture of goodwill.

"Alright, I'll leave it to you; I trust you."

Zhou Yi nodded, and Qian Jiang immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

He was truly afraid that Zhou Yi would get carried away by heat of the moment, confused by the sugar-coated bullets Feng Xiaogang set up; looking at it now, his mind is still quite clear.

After chatting about some work details, Zhou Yi finally pushed open the door of the dressing room and walked out. Outside, Jiang Wen, unable to restrain his itching hands, was still watching the filmed footage, while the director Ning Hao stood motionless at the side like a student—

Very well-behaved.

"Surname Jiang, you want to seize power again, right?"

"Get lost; I'm just checking what kind of stuff you shot."

Jiang Wen, with a calm expression, put down his "work" without changing his face, glanced at his leg, and asked: "What? Is the leg reattached?"

"Get out of the way."

Zhou Yi lifted his foot and placed it on the table nearby: "When has my leg ever had a problem? I told you, my agent is making a mountain out of a molehill."

Jiang Wen chuckled lightly, shook his hands, stood up from the director's seat, and walked over to him, his words carrying hidden meaning: "You kid, whether it's making a mountain out of a molehill or not, don't you think I know?"

Surprisingly, contrary to his curiosity about preparing these, Zhou Yi had originally shown him the album proposal.

Due to his sensitivity, he immediately took an interest in the song title "In the Blink of an Eye," and after reading the lyrics, he directly became suspicious.

Although Zhou Yi repeatedly claimed the inspiration came from Su Wu herding sheep, who was he? A thousand-year-old fox playing a Liaozhai story; does your Su Wu herding sheep cover ten years of moonlight?

Su Wu herding sheep meant he stayed there for nineteen years before returning to Han!

Combining this with the other songs on side A of the album, he almost instantly guessed who this child was mourning.

Unless Zhou Yi claimed to be illiterate and unable to calculate time.

"What do you know? How could I know nothing?" Zhou Yi asked with a wicked smile.

"You will be attacked by the masses; the public opinion climate these years is not very good."

Jiang Wen, who had just lifted his rear and sat on the table, flicked his hand, looking at the half-grown child before him with a hint of mockery in his eyes.

For him, who was forty this year, the twenty-two-year-old Zhou Yi was indeed just a half-grown child.

"Ring-ring-ring!"

As the two stared at each other, a series of urgent phone rings immediately interrupted their conversation.

"If you have the ability, spray me until I quit the entertainment industry; I don't care. If you don't have the ability, they can only watch."

Zhou Yi shrugged noncommittally, glanced down at the caller ID, pressed the answer key, and turned to leave—

"Hello? Yanzi? What do you need?"

Zhou Yi walked out of the director's studio with one hand in his pocket; bathed in sunlight, his shadow grew ever longer and thinner.

Jiang Wen, watching him leave, narrowed his eyes slightly; after a short while, he sneered, turned his head to glance at the camera, and shook his head again.

……………………

"What? They want more money?"

Huayi, Chairman's Office.

The two Wangs and the decision-maker from Taihe Media both frowned upon hearing Warner's reply.

"At most 1.4 million US dollars; 1.5 million is impossible."

After a long pause, the Taihe executives gave their bottom line, which directly provoked Huayi's opposition—

"What kind of joke is this? 1.4 million US dollars converts to over 11 million RMB. Zhang Yimou's 'Hero', with such a huge investment, only required 7.2 million RMB. Is this slaughtering a pig? Does his one Chinese song require one-third of the film's total budget?"

"That is because that person surnamed Han personally went to talk to Zhou Yi, and for this, he owes Zhou Yi a favor. Why don't you try looking too? Anyway, he is also one of the nominal producers."

One sentence from the Taihe executives immediately silenced the two Wangs from Huayi.

"This ten-plus million is truly just a matter of one song for Zhou Yi; no, it's not even half of one of Zhou Yi's songs. Fan Bingbin's song alone earned over 23 million from existing ringtone shares; do you have any temper?"

The two Wangs: "..."

"Song Ke went in; he still has some money in the company, so consider it an apology. Let Song Ke suffer a bit..."