0713: You who shine in the parallel world

Although she was already internally reciting her thoughts on traditional Chinese culture, Guoguo still managed to force a forced smile: "What do you want the organ for? Do you want to join 'The Phantom of the Opera'?"

Guoguo's joking tone made Yu Yu's smile deepen. With a slightly exaggerated surprise, he turned to look at his teammates beside him, clapped his hands, and said happily:

"Look, we really have a tacit understanding with the production team. I just mentioned the organ, and our director immediately thought of 'The Phantom of the Opera' instead of any other work that incorporates the organ. This shows that the production team was prepared to bring 'The Phantom of the Opera' from the beginning, or more precisely, its theme song 'The Phantom of the Opera'."

Guoguo's smile froze.

How could she overlook how perceptive and shrewd Yu Yu, who on the surface seemed to like to slack off and do nothing, was in reality?

In fact, in the adapted version of "Investigation", X-Part and the second half do incorporate some elements of "The Phantom of the Opera", but they do not intend to use this version on Chen Chusheng's team.

The reason is simple: they are not the show's main candidates. If they threaten the show's plans, the show will intervene and control the score if necessary.

Besides manipulating votes during the voting process, simplifying or "disrupting" the stage is the most common way to exploit information asymmetry. Because unless the production team says so, the brothers have no way of knowing what the production team has reduced or added to their stage performance.

So the moment Yu Yu mentioned the organ, she naturally thought of their real Plan A, "The Phantom of the Opera." If someone else were less perceptive, they might not have noticed the meaning behind it at all, but for Yu Yu, wasn't this blatantly a case of protesting too much?

“Indeed, it’s quite a coincidence. When we were designing it, we thought about including ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ which just happened to overlap with your ideas. It seems that musicians are in sync in many ways.” Guoguo said, making a prelude to her rejection while thinking about how to fool them.

Yu Yu maintained a smile on her face, showing no impatience at being brushed off: "But then? At this point, there's bound to be a 'but,' right?"

The others also pretended to listen attentively.

Seeing that they weren't taking the bait at all, Guoguo felt a little helpless and embarrassed, as if they had just been watching her act alone. But the fact that she was able to sit in the head of Director Pi's team at such a young age showed that she had some quick wit and adaptability.

"However, as Yu Yu said, there's always a 'but.' It's easy to get the singing rights for 'The Phantom of the Opera,' but we really can't get the adaptation rights. Brothers, if you think we can even get the adaptation rights, you're giving us too much credit."

“We can use the Chinese version as a song for the performance, but we can only sing it as it is. We can’t change it, we can’t add it to the X-Part, and we certainly can’t cut it together with other works.”

Guoguo's tone of helplessness sounded like she was genuinely heartbroken that her good musical stage ideas couldn't be realized and brought to the big screen. Music director Chen Weilun sat quietly to the side, pretending not to hear.

She was telling the truth, or rather, part of the truth.

Hunan TV did not have the adaptation rights to "The Phantom of the Opera," and it was almost impossible for them to obtain it. So, the idea was rejected by the production team in less than five seconds.

However, just because they can't use it openly doesn't mean they don't have other means.

For example, a qualified tailor can "borrow" some classic melodies, then electronically remix them so that even his own father, Webber, wouldn't recognize them at first glance. Add some other "ingredients," and a vaguely similar "Under Investigation" is ready.

Yu Yu could more or less guess what the production team was thinking. He knew that Hunan TV really couldn't get the adaptation rights to "The Phantom of the Opera," but since he could think of "The Phantom of the Opera" as soon as he mentioned organ fruit, it meant that the production team didn't intend to give up on this trick.

Secretly copying a melody and then electronically remixing it, to casual viewers and laymen, the electronically synthesized organ and the slightly familiar melody as a base is what they imagine opera to be. The sudden addition of opera to pop music sounds quite sophisticated at first glance.

However, in Yu Yu's view, relying entirely on electronic devices to fake string music in an attempt to perform an opera loses the support of a live symphony orchestra and fails to bring out the full potential of modern music equipment.

Moreover, even if Yu Yu were given a sewn-up piece for free, he wouldn't give it a second glance.

Moreover, the musical "The Phantom of the Opera" itself has been the subject of numerous plagiarism and borrowing controversies. Given Yu Yu's intolerant nature when it comes to music, even if the musical has a profound influence and high musical achievement, he is not particularly fond of it.

The production team racked their brains and came up with a bunch of excuses just to avoid handing over the version they thought they had revised so well. Ironically, the production team treated what Yu Yu disdained as a treasure.

The other brothers present probably didn't know that Yu Yu had uncovered the production team's secrets with just one sentence, making things much easier from then on; the pace of the show was now in Yu Yu's hands.

“That is indeed a bit of a pity.” Yu Yu sighed dramatically. “Although I know Lord Webber and it wouldn’t be difficult for me to get the adaptation rights to ‘The Phantom of the Opera,’ it would inevitably raise suspicions of using my connections. Our song isn’t ‘X-Song,’ ‘The Phantom of the Opera’ isn’t the focus; ‘Under Investigation’ is. So let’s stick to our own ideas.”

During Yu Yu's battle with the production team, Wang Yuexin, who acted as a ruthless thumbs-up machine and straight man, kept saying "yes" and nodding her head, when she suddenly realized that something was not quite right.

Wait a minute, what did Xiaoyu just say?

The show's producers couldn't get the copyrights, but he knew the original author and could easily get them? Although Grand Duke Alaric's noble rank and status are indeed higher than the non-hereditary knighthood bestowed by the Queen of Britain, is it really okay for him to shamelessly slap the show's producers in the face like this? Hahaha!

Compared to the others, Chen Chusheng remained relatively calm. He turned his head to look at Yu Yu and almost burst out laughing. The others, however, were different. They slammed their fists on the table and yelled. His uncle even jumped up and took a couple of steps.

This is quite a show of force, but Yu Yu isn't flaunting his network of connections. Instead, he's implying to the production team that the power behind him is beyond their imagination, so they'd better behave themselves from now on.

Yu Yu flexed her fist slightly and continued, "The Phantom of the Opera doesn't have the copyright, but 'Under Investigation' does, right? After all, judging from the clips released yesterday, the song has already shown signs of being adjusted to fit the rhythm of singing and dancing."

Guoguo paused for a moment. Indeed, this was not like a pure vocal song, where the clips shown were the original and unchanged. She could still make a fuss about copyright—if the production team said they didn't have the copyright, how could they verify that they really didn't have the copyright?

However, "Under Investigation" is different. They changed the song into a dance performance, so the clips released were already modified.

She could only nod: "Don't worry, the arrangement copyright is definitely there."

Guoguo was cautious; she only mentioned the music arrangement copyright.

She remembered that Yu Yu had just mentioned lyric copyright, so it seemed they were planning to add their own compositions to the lyrics. If all else failed, the production team could wait until the day before the red card assessment to tell them that the song couldn't have lyrics added and didn't have lyric copyright.

Yu Yu seemed not to notice that Guo Guo only mentioned the arrangement copyright, and he was truly relieved when she said that there was no copyright issue.

"Great, that makes things easier. Where's the organ?"

“The pipe organ…it’s a bit difficult to get. The instrument you want is too big and relatively niche. We’re not sure if we can get our hands on it, and even if we do, we’re not sure if it will have the desired effect on stage,” Guoguo said with difficulty.

"That's alright, I can find a suitable pipe organ. I'll trouble the production team to help me with the performance on stage." Yu Yu waved her hand.

Since he had already said so much, Guoguo couldn't stop him anymore, as that would be too obvious as targeting him.

“It seems you really want to add opera elements,” Guoguo wasn’t foolish enough to ask them if they could write opera music. Yu Yu dared to ask, and he definitely could. “Then what about your dance parts?”

"We plan to reduce the dance portion and incorporate it into the stage movements," Yu Yu said.

"Shortening it? Adapting a dance is a huge undertaking..."

“It’s okay. I mentioned it to John last night, and he’d be happy to help us shorten and simplify the dance. It’s a piece of cake for him.”

"..." I almost forgot that He Zhancheng shared a dorm room with them, and he was also very close to Yu Yu...

These guys who came out of the 07 Super Boy competition are really difficult to deal with.

As the meeting ended and Guoguo watched Chen Chusheng's team leave, she couldn't help but pinch the bridge of her nose. She thought of Zhang Yuan's team, which had just finished their meeting. Don't let Zhang Yuan's usual introverted nature fool you; when it comes to the stage, he's incredibly meticulous and serious, with ideas that are no less insightful than Chen Chusheng's or Yu Yu's. Moreover, his team's overall strength is considerable, and they also have Xu Liang, a veritable walking copyright library.

Based on the entire day's meetings, if Chen Chusheng's team really manages to create these two stages, they are absolutely guaranteed the MVP of the second performance, and Zhang Yuan will also be able to squeeze into second place.

How can Su Xiaoding be eliminated now? Is it possible for the winning team, which finishes first overall, to also face elimination?

It seems... that works too, as it would generate more dramatic conflict and discussion.

Even so, allowing Chen Chusheng and Zhang Yuan to occupy the top two spots is not good for the three captains who were originally designated. We need to think of other solutions.

The first performance had just ended and the second performance hadn't even started yet, and the production team was already considering how to adjust the rules for the third performance.

However, no matter how hard they rack their brains behind the scenes, it doesn't really concern the guys for now. After the group meeting to determine the direction, they started to work intensively on the preliminary arrangement preparations.

There are more than two weeks to prepare for the second and third sessions. During this period, five days after the meeting ends, the seven people who have been re-employed will reunite in the secret escape room to celebrate Chen Chusheng's birthday together.