209: Chapter 209 Holy crap! This person seems to be someone I know from the past.

On the screen was a hand-drawn storyboard.

In the center of the image was the back of a woman in ancient costume, standing in a courtyard with falling snow, with a waning moon in the distance.

Although the composition was extremely minimalist, the cold and desolate atmosphere had completely permeated through.

"This is the first version, I made the design based on the line in the lyrics, 'wolf-tooth moon, the person is haggard.'"

Jiang Cheng reached out and pointed to a few details on the screen.

"In addition, I plan to choose a dry landscape courtyard as the main scene. It doesn't need to be too complicated, since your budget is limited after all."

Lu Li stared at the screen for a few seconds and nodded slightly.

This idea was simply right up his alley.

After all, before the bonus came down, although he and Shen Qingxue still had a little money on them, if every detail in the MV was exquisite, that little money really wouldn't be enough to burn.

Shen Qingxue was also watching, her gaze lingering on the image for a long time before she spoke.

"What about the costumes? What style do you suggest?"

"I haven't finalized this yet, but my idea is not to use those particularly complicated ancient costumes; being too heavy would overwhelm the person instead."

"Mmm... It's best to have a slightly simpler style, with cyan-gray or moon-white as the main colors, just to unify with the tone of the scene."

As she spoke, Jiang Cheng pulled out another piece of paper from the side, which had sketches of several sets of costumes drawn on it.

The lines were still casual, but the cut and color matching could be clearly understood.

"Anyway, when you guys buy clothes later, it'll be fine as long as the cut and color matching are similar to this. If it's custom-made, I guess you guys don't have that kind of money anyway."

Hearing this, Lu Li silently gave her a thumbs-up.

Although Jiang Cheng's words stung a bit.

But I have to say, a talent, this is definitely a talent.

It was completely to his taste, because the money saved like this was truly spent where it mattered most.

Shen Qingxue watched for a while, then glanced at Lu Li.

"What do you think?"

"What opinion could I have? Just go with it!"

Next, the few of them went through the entire storyboard of "hair like snow" from start to finish.

Jiang Cheng explained the composition of each frame in great detail, from camera movement to shot transition.

Even the direction from which the light came was marked.

Lu Li listened very attentively, occasionally putting forward his own thoughts, while Shen Qingxue added details on the side.

The three of them cooperated unexpectedly smoothly.

After about an hour or so, the first version of the plan was basically finalized.

Just at this moment, the sound of a door opening suddenly came from downstairs, accompanied by footsteps.

"Did you make an appointment with someone else?"

Lu Li asked casually.

Jiang Cheng raised her head, glanced toward the doorway, and then casually explained to Lu Li and Shen Qingxue.

"No, it should be my boyfriend. He heard you guys were coming today and insisted on coming along to take a look. He's helping out with the lighting."

She paused and added another sentence.

"Oh right, actually he's also a singer, just not very famous. You guys probably haven't heard of him."

Lu Li nodded and didn't take it to heart.

"A singer? Not famous?"

That was probably one of those niche musicians who released a few original songs on music platforms with dozens or hundreds of plays.

Actually, he also admired these people quite a bit, purely generating electricity for love, persisting in that little dream in their hearts.

Lu Li's gaze fell back onto the screen, continuing to look at the details on Jiang Cheng's storyboard.

The footsteps got closer and closer, stopping at the doorway.

The door was pushed open.

A young man stood in the doorway, wearing a light gray cotton-linen shirt with his sleeves casually rolled up to his forearms, carrying four cups of coffee in his hands.

He was of medium height, on the slender side, and wore a pair of thin-rimmed glasses.

In terms of appearance, it couldn't be said to be breathtaking, but it was very pleasing to the eye, the kind that looks better the more you look at it.

Someone had come. Lu Li also subconsciously looked up, and then his entire body froze instantly.

His gaze locked onto the other person's face, his pupils contracting slightly.

"Wait?!"

"Holy shit?!"

"No way, bro?!"

This face...

"My goodness! Xu Song?!!"

Lu Li's brain went blank for half a second at this moment.

The boy in the light gray shirt at the doorway had facial features that precisely hit the person in Lu Li's impression.

But soon, Lu Li also noticed something was wrong.

This wasn't quite right. Although they looked very much alike, if you looked closely, you could still see obvious differences.

It was just that the first glance just now had truly shocked him.

But thinking about it carefully, it did make sense.

If it really were the original person himself, he would have long since taken off writing songs, and no other person would even think about getting a piece of the action.

Lu Li took a deep breath and gradually calmed down.

What a false alarm, to think he saw an old acquaintance.

"Lu Li? Lu Li?"

Shen Qingxue's voice came from the side, carrying a hint of confusion.

Lu Li came back to his senses and turned to glance at her.

"Hmm? What's wrong?"

"What are you looking at? He's greeting you."

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, his gaze falling back onto the boy at the doorway.

He was indeed holding up a cup of coffee and handing it toward his side, with a smile at the corner of his mouth and a somewhat puzzled expression, obviously having called him twice already.

"Ahem, sorry, I zoned out."

Lu Li quickly stood up, took the cup of coffee, and swept his gaze across the other's face again quickly.

"You are... Jiang Cheng's boyfriend?"

"Right, my name is Xu Ran."

The boy smiled, walked in naturally, and distributed the remaining cups of coffee to Jiang Cheng and Shen Qingxue.

"I heard from Jiang Cheng that two big stars were coming today, so I insisted on coming along to take a look. I'm not disturbing you guys, am I?"

"Not at all, not at all."

Lu Li took the cup of coffee he handed over, held it in his hand, and couldn't help glancing at his face again.

"Oh right, what did you say your name was just now?"

"Xu Ran, Xu as in the characters for words and noon, Ran as in nature."

The boy looked at him somewhat strangely.

"What's wrong? Is there... something wrong with this name?"

"Nothing."

Lu Li shook his head and took a sip of coffee as if nothing was wrong.

"I just think you look a lot like someone I know."

"Really? Then we sure are destined."

Xu Ran didn't ask further and sat down next to Jiang Cheng.

Lu Li lowered his gaze, but the ripples in his heart stirred up a little again.

Like, way too alike.

Not only were the facial contours similar, even the voice was at least eighty percent similar.

He couldn't help glancing at Xu Ran again.

The latter was tilting his head and talking to Jiang Cheng. Not knowing what was said, Jiang Cheng smiled and patted his shoulder.

"What are you looking at?"

Shen Qingxue's voice came from the side, a little lighter than before.

Lu Li withdrew his gaze and turned to meet her eyes.

"It's nothing."

Lu Li smiled.

"I just feel... Jiang Cheng's boyfriend looks quite familiar, maybe I've seen him somewhere before."

"You know him?"

"I don't know him, maybe he just looks like an acquaintance of mine."

"Oh..."

Shen Qingxue gave him a suspicious look and didn't ask further.