Chapter 801: What Does It Mean to Be Thorough?

The filming of *Farewell My Concubine* is going quite smoothly.

Whenever Luo Mo has free time, he goes to the Siheyuan to visit his master, under the pretext of: reporting his progress to his artistic mentor.

It is very cold now, and Luo Mo does not want the old man to go out frequently.

For many elderly people in poor health, winter is the hardest time to endure.

Once they make it through the winter, the following few months usually pass by smoothly.

Tonight, the old man is in high spirits and even specifically walks into the study to write a piece of calligraphy for Luo Mo.

——*Farewell My Concubine*.

After Luo Mo and Xu Chujing leave, Tong Qinglin lies on a recliner and says to Liu Gongming, who is pouring him hot water: "Old Six, are you all very worried about my health?"

"Master, how can you call it worry? This is concern. You will surely live to be a hundred years old; there is nothing to worry about." Liu Gongming hands over the hot water, his face full of wrinkles smiling.

He adds: "Some time ago, I went to see a very accurate master, and that master said that our sect would face a change, and that when our elder reaches 120, there will be a hurdle."

"Stop spouting nonsense." Tong Qinglin glances at him and scolds him with a smile: "I know my own body best, let alone 120 years old!"

He takes a sip of hot water and says: "As for you all, don't worry about me. I haven't seen *Farewell My Concubine* yet, and I haven't seen little Luo get married."

"And you too, at your age, even your junior brother has beaten you to it."

"Besides, in our line of work, there are many stubborn old fools."

"Each and every one of them relies on their seniority, ready to kick the bucket at any moment, yet they dare to say anything and criticize anything they find displeasing."

Hearing this, Liu Gongming smiles and nods.

Many people are truly imposing once they reach a certain age.

The elderly are the hardest to provoke, especially those who were once prominent.

Yet you really don't dare to go against them.

One reason is the vast age gap, and the other is that if you curse back, you might actually curse them to death...

"Your junior brother sings a song and incorporates some Opera, and they all start jumping around."

"Now that he's filming a movie, and Cheng Dieyi even has those elements in it, who knows if someone will come out to spit on it again."

"I must be here, I must be here..." The old man repeats this sentence continuously, and then, without realizing it, falls asleep on the recliner.

Liu Gongming sits to the side and tucks the blanket in tighter for his master.

Time passes, and Luo Mo and Xu Chujing have added another task.

——Participating in the Spring Festival Gala.

Xu Chujing's "Unforgettable Tonight" is now considered a staple of the Spring Festival Gala.

And Luo Mo is now also invited to the Spring Festival Gala every year.

After all, his solo performances often represent the Peak Value of viewership ratings.

With him, at least the peak viewership is guaranteed.

Since the rehearsals and Live Broadcast of the Spring Festival Gala are in Beijing, Luo Mo thinks about it and accepts the invitation.

But he has one Requirement.

He must decide what song he sings himself.

Luo Mo will send the Demo of the song to the General Director; if the director thinks the song is OK, he will perform it at the Spring Festival Gala. If they think the song is not good, he will not change the song, and he will just sit out this year's Spring Festival Gala.

He no longer needs the Spring Festival Gala at all; rather, it is the Spring Festival Gala that needs him.

If he doesn't participate in the Spring Festival Gala, he can still eat a hot reunion dinner.

If he participates in the Spring Festival Gala, he can only go home and reheat cold leftovers...

The General Director of this year's Spring Festival Gala is named Sheng Gong.

A director who specializes in directing galas.

He directed the Spring Festival Gala once six years ago, and the results were decent.

Luo Mo is not familiar with him; since his debut, they have had no collaboration.

Sheng Gong has always admired Luo Mo.

He likes Luo Mo's Chinese Style songs, and he also likes the films *Dying to Survive* and *Nirvana in Fire* that he made.

Honestly, it is rare for a celebrity to openly make demands to the Spring Festival Gala's directing team.

This is equivalent to making demands not only to the directing team but also to CCTV and the Review Department.

But he is the golden boy of CCTV and the Review Department.

Sheng Gong himself does not mind this.

He even feels that such a demand from Luo Mo shows his confidence in his own song!

But when he receives the song Demo, he is momentarily dumbfounded.

"This... this..."

"This is very difficult to handle!" he thinks to himself.

He hasn't even listened to the song yet, but just by looking at the song title, he feels it is tricky.

"This song is equivalent to blatantly promoting his new movie *Farewell My Concubine*!" Sheng Gong thinks to himself while looking at the song title.

Luo Mo's new film *Farewell My Concubine* is currently in production, and this matter is receiving much attention.

And *Infernal Affairs* has already been successfully scheduled for this year's Spring Festival release and is already undergoing preliminary promotion.

With Luo Mo's current popularity, any major move he makes will certainly be reported.

Plus, *Farewell My Concubine* is a work he directed and starred in himself, and Xu Chujing will also participate; it can be said that even the smallest bit of gossip can reach the top of the Hot Search!

Sheng Gong can only be considered half a person in the entertainment industry, but he is also aware of the movie *Farewell My Concubine* that is currently being filmed.

Although the Spring Festival Gala has long since lost its former glory, on the surface, it is not a place where celebrities can privately advertise or promote themselves.

Doing it on the sly, however, is not much of a problem.

Everyone turns a blind eye, and the matter passes.

Some of the songs Luo Mo wrote for the Spring Festival Gala before actually had a hint of promotion to them, but they were all within an acceptable range.

But the song sent this time—the song title alone is a no-go!

In short, he definitely cannot make the final decision.

"How about listening to the song first?"

"The song title, well, it can be changed!"

Harboring this mindset, General Director Sheng Gong clicked on the Demo sent by Luo Mo.

He put on his headphones and closed his eyes.

After a while, he suddenly opened his eyes, and instead of leaning back in his chair, he sat up straight.

"This isn't right!"

"Why is the intro so long!"

He checked and saw he had already been listening for 40 seconds, yet he hadn't heard a single vocal!

"Did Luo Mo send the wrong file?" Sheng Gong thought to himself.

He mistakenly thought Luo Mo had sent the instrumental track over.

This kind of mistake made him feel that the people at Luo Mo Studio were not very careful in their work.

Sheng Gong has a relatively good temper; if it were some other General Director with a bad temper, they would feel this was a great disrespect to the Spring Festival Gala and to themselves.

He glanced at the total duration and was stunned again.

"Over six minutes? This song is over six minutes long?" This was something Sheng Gong hadn't expected.

The Spring Festival Gala generally does not give a solo stage such a long performance time.

But if it's Luo Mo... hehe, we can make an exception!

After all, his stage represents the Peak Value of viewership ratings.

Who wouldn't want the Peak Value time to be a little longer?

This made Sheng Gong click play again.

If it really is over six minutes, perhaps the intro is just that long; who knows, maybe there's a one-minute intro?

He guessed part of it right.

Because the intro is not just one minute, it is a full one minute and twenty seconds!

You have to know, some songs have a total duration of just over three minutes...

Such a long intro really whetted Sheng Gong's appetite.

However, when he heard Luo Mo's singing voice, he still felt that all his expectations were met, and he felt amazed.

This vigorous singing style, this domineering and passionate musical style... not many men can handle it, especially middle-aged men!

It is so masculine!

As soon as the singing started, this masculinity came rushing toward him!

If the beginning of the song let him hear dominance, then later in the song, he heard tenderness.

For the whole song, he actually, without realizing it, put it on Loop for three times in one go.

It fits the aesthetic of men in his age group perfectly!

After listening to it three times, he closed the song and let out a long breath.

"For this song, the current title is the best one."

"The song was created specifically for this theme."

"It's impossible to change it at all!"

Sheng Gong asked himself a question at this moment.

For a song like this, are you willing to miss out on it?

The answer is—no!

Since he cannot make the decision himself, then let CCTV and the Review Department have the headache!

The next day, Luo Mo received a reply from this year's Spring Festival Gala General Director, Sheng Gong.

He expressed that he liked the song very much, but based on the special nature of this song, he could not make the final decision alone and needed to hold a small meeting.

Regarding this, Luo Mo felt it was normal.

Honestly, if it weren't for the sake of Tong Qinglin, he wouldn't care whether this song made it onto the Spring Festival Gala or not.

Songs performed by him personally have never lacked popularity.

In the past, many songs would become popular across the country as soon as they were on the Spring Festival Gala, becoming household hits.

The additive effect it can provide now is certainly not low, but it is definitely not as exaggerated as it used to be.

These past few days, the promotion for "Infernal Affairs" has been in full swing over in Hong Kong.

Luo Mo himself doesn't even need to go.

In this movie, there are four Best Actor-level Actors alone.

Having them run the promotions is completely sufficient.

Moreover, Hong Kong Actors have one good point, which is that they don't mind the hard work when it comes to their jobs.

They are very willing to run promotions for the movie.

Next week, these people will all have to rush to the Mainland, first to conduct a small-scale promotional tour in the Mainland, and then to go together to participate in the recording of some variety shows.

As of now, regarding the two films *Infernal Affairs* and *Farewell My Concubine*, netizens only know the titles and do not know much about the specific content of the films.

Judging from the announced cast, both sides are very strong.

As time passed, the normal filming of *Farewell My Concubine* was already seven or eight-tenths complete.

The remaining part, it is estimated, will have to wait until after the New Year.

Because the set construction work has not been completed, and the construction team also needs to go home for the New Year.

At two o'clock in the afternoon, *Infernal Affairs* released a song-version trailer across the entire internet.

This trailer is somewhat similar to the re-release trailer released for the 20th anniversary of *Infernal Affairs*.

Many netizens opened the trailer at the first opportunity.

As the screen begins, an audio shop appears.

One sees Liu Jianming, played by Hua Jiaqun, wearing a white shirt and a black suit, walking into the shop.

The bullet comments came sweeping in.

"Hahaha, Qunzai looks very handsome!"

"Yo, he feels quite high-spirited!"

"Not bad, much more handsome than in *Peerless*."

One sees Liu Jianming bending down, looking at the dazzling array of audio equipment and record players before him.

Many of the things in here are old items; placed in the present, they count as "antiques."

During the filming process, the Prop Department also put in a lot of effort to collect these things.

He looked for a long time.

Then, in the Mandarin version of the trailer, he stopped bending down to pick things out, stood up, looked around, and said, "Excuse me... is anyone here?"

"What is it?" A man stood up from the side; it was Chen Yongren, played by Luo Mo.

He had specifically grown a beard, and with the aging makeup, he looked much more weathered.

In the bullet comments, many netizens exclaimed: "What kind of head-swapping magic is this?"

"Eh? Is he playing an old man this time?"

"Damn, I have a hunch, it's Plastic Surgery Level Acting again!"

"He looks a bit weathered."

"Speechless, he still feels very handsome and has a lot of charisma!"

Seeing someone in the shop, Liu Jianming said, "Nothing, nothing, I want to try that machine."

"What kind of speakers are you using?" Chen Yongren asked.

"None, do you have any good recommendations?" he asked.

Chen Yongren walked over, pointed to one, and said, "This one, standard Hong Kong-made goods, over ten thousand."

He leaned over to pick it up and added, "With over a thousand in local cables, it compares to European goods worth over a hundred thousand."

Upon hearing this, Liu Jianming smiled.

Chen Yongren continued to introduce: "The treble is sweet, the midrange is accurate, the bass is deep; in a word, it's transparent!"

After he finished tinkering, he patted Liu Jianming on the shoulder and said, "Come, come over and listen."

The two then sat together on a small sofa.

However, unlike the smartly dressed Liu Jianming, Chen Yongren was dressed plainly, and his hand was wrapped in bandages and a plaster cast, as if he had just been injured.

The next moment, a melodious song began to play in the trailer.

A large number of netizens watching the trailer immediately recognized that this was Xu Chujing's voice!

However, it seemed to use a singing style similar to Bel Canto?

The original singer of this song on Earth is Tsai Chin.

Many young people might be a bit unfamiliar with her, but in that era, she was truly famous throughout the country.

The song "Your Eyes" is still listened to by many people to this day.

And the song played in *Infernal Affairs* is one of Tsai Chin's representative works, called "The Forgotten Time."

The singing echoed in the shop.

"【Who is it, knocking at my window.】"

Chen Yongren and Liu Jianming sat together, and he continued to recommend: "How strong the stereo effect is."

"【Who is it, plucking the strings.】"

Liu Jianming closed his eyes and leaned his head slightly back, as if experiencing it in an immersive way.

"Do you feel it? It's just like it's being sung right in front of you!" He was still enthusiastically recommending it.

By the end of the recommendation, he himself had sunk into the music, eyes closed, looking intoxicated.

Liu Jianming, however, opened his eyes at this moment, pondered for a moment, and stood up on his own.

"Come, try this. Since you're listening to old music, this kind is good." He took something from the shelf and handed it to Chen Yongren.

Chen Yongren first looked at it with confusion.

The next moment, the singing started again, and Chen Yongren on the screen had a slightly dazed and surprised expression.

"【Who is it, knocking at my window.】"

"How is it?" Liu Jianming asked with a smile.

"It's really not bad," Chen Yongren replied.

He hadn't expected that the effect would actually become much better!

The audience watching the trailer also felt it was quite magical.

They also clearly heard the difference between the beginning and the end.

The Singing continued at this moment, but the visuals were no longer of the shop, instead showing some empty scenes.

They were just some key scenes in the movie that did not feature any characters.

For example, the rooftop, the elevator, and so on.

Just like that, everyone listened in one breath to "Forgotten Time" as performed by Xu Chujing.

Not to mention, this song was very comfortable to listen to!

After watching this special trailer, netizens started a heated discussion in the comments section.

"Looking at the trailer, the two of them get along very harmoniously!"

"They must be playing partners this time; I just don't know if Luo Mo will stab himself or stab Qunzai."

"I have only four words—making friends through music!"

"Not bad, I can feel the thick bond of brotherhood even through the screen."

"This must be the beginning of a friendship!"

(End of this chapter)