Chapter Eighteen: A Regret

Filming officially began soon after.

Strangely enough, despite having to redo many takes at the start, Lin Jianlu remained completely unflustered. He quickly synthesized his own prior understanding with Zhang Aijia’s interpretation and guidance of the character, and from then on, things progressed much more smoothly—he truly was not nervous in the slightest.

What outsiders could never know was that he had already reached a comfortable level of wealth.

He had calculated it himself: even if he did nothing else from that point on and simply let the album "Cold to the Bone" continue selling casually, the combined royalties from sales across various regions would already grant him financial freedom.

Yes, financial freedom!

Just from selling over a million copies in Taiwan alone, with a capped 15% royalty rate, he could earn as much as 27 million New Taiwan dollars, which converts to well over 6 million RMB.

Add in royalties from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and mainland China—where even cheap cassette sales were projected at 3 million units—he could easily earn another 4 to 5 million RMB.

Altogether, his income would definitely surpass ten million RMB.

In 1996, having a net worth of ten million RMB was, in his eyes, financial freedom.

Therefore, from then on, no matter how the work turned out, it no longer mattered to him.

He had no higher ambitions.

Because of this, most of the promotional tours around Taiwan were actually trivial to him. He simply treated them as opportunities to observe the local lifestyle and culture. Whether his agent was capable or not was irrelevant; since two agents were vying for him, he chose neither, so as not to offend anyone. After retirement, he only hoped no one would cause trouble for him—he did not expect them to pull any strings or resources for him.

The same applied to the music video. Directed by Zhang Aijia, he let her decide how to shoot it. As long as it was not far off, that was good enough—he lacked ambition and drive.

He treated it as just another job to complete.

“Cut! Come on, Ah Lu, kiss a bit harder. You don’t need to be so afraid of hurting her!”

Uh... despite the job having a slightly sensual and exciting aspect.

Originally, there was no kissing scene at all. The most extravagant shot was the heroine kissing the hero’s cheek, but Zhang Aijia decided to add a kissing scene just in case they needed it during post-editing.

Her lips were cool and moist.

“Is this your first kiss?”

“Uh... no, I’ve kissed a boy I dated before.”

“That’s not fair! I’m a virgin in that regard!”

“Really? You’re so pretty, haven’t you dated any girls?”

Zhang Aijia laughed heartily nearby and directed, “Ah Ying, kiss him! Teach him how to kiss!”

...

They filmed for three and a half days.

No other gains, not even much experience with kissing. Beyond the script, they just added a small scene with one kiss. Of course, they didn’t just make out wildly.

However, he did grow closer to Liu Ruoying.

As they became familiar, she talked more and was no longer as shy and evasive as during their previous meetings.

On the last afternoon before wrapping up, Su Huilun suddenly came to visit the set, warmly inquiring, “Wow, I heard you two have been practicing kissing. Ah Lu, have you gotten better? Want big sister to teach you?”

Her words, expression, and tone were clearly teasing.

By this time, Lin Jianlu had been in Taiwan for nearly two weeks. Although mostly out doing promotions, he had interacted multiple times with various artists and producers from Rock Records and was gradually becoming familiar with them.

Yet, he was certainly not awkward with this kind of banter.

“Come on!”

Su Huilun actually came over, hugged him, and kissed him directly.

Then, while kissing, she widened her eyes, realizing something was off and quickly pulled away, somewhat frustrated. “I thought you’d be shy, but you’re not!”

“Tch!”

Lin Jianlu’s lack of shyness made Su Huilun a bit embarrassed.

She actually kissed him in front of so many crew members, and this wasn’t even her scene. Thinking it over, she felt somewhat ashamed—she felt like she’d been tricked by Lin Jianlu!

After some hesitation, she got down to business.

Seeing they had finished another shot, she approached again and handed him a few pages of sheet music. “My producer, Teacher Bao, really likes this song. He says it suits me well. The company bought the Chinese cover rights to make it the lead single for my new album. Would you help write the lyrics?”

Lin Jianlu’s reputation as a gifted songwriter was well-known within Rock Records. His promotional image in Taiwan was that of a talented creative type, also handsome! However, perhaps because they hadn’t been very close before, even after more than ten days in Taiwan, though he had become acquainted with many singers from the company, no one had yet approached him to write songs. Unexpectedly, Su Huilun was the first.

It was inevitable—only a matter of time.

Lin Jianlu took the sheet music and paused after glancing at just two lines—it was “Lemon Tree”!

In his past life, he had covered it many times in live streams!

If she came to him to write lyrics, could it be assumed no one else had been asked yet?

Of course, to keep up appearances, he still gave it a serious look, at least reading through it once before responding. Liu Ruoying soon came over and leaned on his shoulder to look as well—they only had two shots left to film, both easy, and they were about to wrap. Even Zhang Aijia was no longer pressuring them.

To be cautious, he asked, “Has no one else been asked to write lyrics? The company has many lyricists!”

Su Huilun answered, “No! Teacher Bao said you’re so good at writing lyrics, so it was decided to come straight to you to borrow some of your talent and popularity! If it becomes a hit, you have to treat me!”

That was reassuring. “The melody is nice! It will be a hit!”

He also teased, “If it hits big, teach me how to kiss again!”

“Write the lyrics, great talent! Is three days enough? My album recording schedule is tight.”

Lin Jianlu said nothing, feigning deep thought as he gestured over the music. Suddenly, he nudged Liu Ruoying’s elbow, “Help me get a pen!”

“Wow...”

Everyone was a bit surprised.

Before Liu Ruoying left, a staff member handed him a pen.

Lin Jianlu stood up on the spot, crouched down, and leaned on a chair, casually asking, “Whose song is this?”

“A German band called Fool’s Garden.”

Su Huilun widened her eyes watching him. In fact, many on set were surprised, even Zhang Aijia, who stood not far away with her arms crossed, watching calmly.

“Never heard of them!”

Lin Jianlu casually replied and began writing.

Brush, brush, brush.

Joking aside, he couldn’t claim to have the lyrics memorized, but recalling them was no problem—after all, he had been pretending to ponder and revise for a while, but stopped the act. It was too tiring.

Playing the part of a great talent renowned for quick wit and spontaneous creation wasn’t a bad thing.

He wrote.

Such cases were common in the music industry.

Within minutes he finished and was about to hand it back, then asked, “Do you want me to arrange the music too?”

“Uh...”

Su Huilun hesitated only briefly before saying, “Yes!”

Rock Records operated with small studios responsible for production. Her producer Bao Xiaobo’s older brother Bao Xiaosong was the arranger on their team, and he was definitely skilled. But...

He was Lin Jianlu!

On the album "Cold to the Bone," each of the eleven tracks had unique and exquisite arrangements. Ordinary fans couldn’t understand or even notice, but before the CD was officially released, Rock Records had already thoroughly analyzed every arrangement.

He even volunteered to do it—how could he refuse?

So Lin Jianlu took back the sheet music and bent over it again, writing quickly.

This time even Zhang Aijia couldn’t help but watch. For a moment, Lin Jianlu crouched on the chair writing rapidly while Liu Ruoying, Su Huilun, and Zhang Aijia all leaned over his head to watch.

Arranging music was far more complex and slower than writing lyrics, but it took only about fifteen minutes. When finished, the entire sheet music was covered with various lines, even obscuring the original notes. He casually handed it to Su Huilun, saying, “Show this to your producer. If it’s not suitable, no problem.”

Su Huilun took it eagerly. She was quite familiar with the melody, but couldn’t read arrangements well, so her focus was on the lyrics. As she watched him write, she had already begun humming the new words in her heart.

The lyrics were truly beautiful. Holding the sheet music, she unconsciously hummed softly—

“Alone in a lonely afternoon, when the wind makes every tree want to dance, I remember you wore blue yesterday, you said being too focused on love leads to loneliness, what does that mean, I don’t understand...”

Liu Ruoying watched Lin Jianlu rise with a complex expression.

Zhang Aijia sighed strangely, “The lyrics are so beautiful! Unfortunately, I’m married! Sigh...”

As she spoke, she glanced at Liu Ruoying.