Chapter 611: Unified Opinion and Loyalty

It was already three or four o'clock when Chi Jingyuan returned to the dormitory. In the silence, he changed his shoes much more lightly. After washing up, he walked in quietly and found that Wu Sehun was still awake. He was lying on the bed with dark circles under his eyes and was tapping his phone quickly. Judging from his eyebrows illuminated by the light of the phone, he was not in a good mood.

Judging from his appearance, if I guessed correctly, he should have a conflict with his girlfriend.

However, he has been dating this girlfriend for several months. Based on Chi Jingyuan's understanding of him, it is almost time for the passion to dissipate.

After Chi Jingyuan walked into the room, he glanced at him, but did not communicate. He lay down on the bed directly and flipped through his phone. Just when he was about to go to bed, his hand suddenly shook. He received another text message so late.

The light in the dark night was a little dazzling. Chi Jingyuan squinted his eyes to see the sender. It was Ming Jingnan who sent it.

"Thank you (smiley face)."

Just now, Zhou Ziyu said that she would go back to the dormitory after get off work and stopped sending text messages. According to the time, it is estimated that Twice should have just returned to the dormitory not long ago.

I actually had time when I was in the practice room before I got off work, but Ming Jingnan picked this time to send a text message. I don’t know if she noticed Zhou Ziyu’s movements before and deliberately staggered the time.

Chi Jingyuan typed a few words to reply to her: "Why are you not sleeping so late?"

He could actually guess what Ming Jingnan was thanking for. It was probably because he had added a lot of parts to her just now, which made her, who was originally ranked last, jump to third in the length of the singing segment.

It might also be that she was thanking Chi Jingyuan for praising her and designing a special action for her bridge.

Although I know, it’s meaningless to say it directly.

"You know (wink)..."

Ming Jingnan was also very smart. She didn’t continue what Chi Jingyuan said, and she playfully exposed him.

"Mina xi, are you talking about the distribution of parts and the praise you just gave for singing a good bridge?"

Chi Jingyuan didn’t feel embarrassed at all, but asked back.

"Hmm (pursed lips)."

"It's not really a compliment, I'm just telling the truth. One of the parts of Like OOH-AHH that impressed me the most was your two bridges."

"Really?"

"I gave it to you because I think you're really suitable for singing bridges. Do you think it's because you smile beautifully?"

Half-lying on the bed, Ming Jingnan was covered with a quilt, looking at the message on the screen. She grinned, revealing her teeth, and her curved glasses looked very beautiful.

She read the message twice again, and the noise next to her disrupted her train of thought. Ming Jingnan glanced to the side, then retracted her gaze and smiled quickly replied:

"Hehe... Now I suddenly have some hope that it's because of the reasons behind."

"That's a pity... Okay, don't think too much, go to bed."

"Good night."

...

On February 1, Chi Jingyuan returned to the crew to work as usual.

The crew of "Signal" has been on the right track. Both the staff and the actors have been running in well with each other. In addition, the performance has been gratifying for two weeks. Although it is a bit tiring during the shooting, the atmosphere of the whole crew is very good, and most people are talking and laughing.

Just two days of shooting, on the 2nd, Chi Jingyuan got off work a little earlier, but this time he did not go to JYP, but went directly back to the dormitory.

"Finally, let's discuss the situation of the songs in this album. If you have any opinions, please confirm them quickly. I will report to the company tomorrow. The songs included in the third album will be determined soon."

When Chi Jingyuan came back, the others were already waiting for him in the dormitory. After a little tidying up, all nine members of EXO gathered in the living room of the dormitory and sat on the sofa. Some people simply sat cross-legged on the ground. When the manager Li Chenghuan saw that everyone was there, he clapped his hands and presided over this private meeting of the members.

As EXO's debut time has become longer and its popularity has exploded, becoming the new pillar of SM Company, their voice in their own activities and comebacks has gradually increased. The company now refers to the members' own suggestions in many aspects.

For example, when selecting songs for the third album, the company gave up the right to choose some songs, and the opinions of EXO's own team would play a very critical role.

This time they gathered together to discuss this matter, but the members present were all familiar with each other, and it was far less formal than the company meeting. They all sat loosely in slippers, and some people directly opened two bags of snacks and chatted while eating.

"Heaven must be included. My brain is about to explode because of writing lyrics." Park Chanyeol started with a somewhat urgent attitude.

In addition to Chi Jingyuan, there are several members in XO who have been trying to write songs, but some of the things they made before were not favored by ordinary companies. This time, out of consideration for the market, Park Chanyeol and Kim Jongdae have songs that they participated in writing lyrics for included in the candidates.

"Your song should be fine... Put aside the included songs first, and unify the opinions on the title song first." Lee Seung-hwan interrupted him with a frown, and directed the focus of the discussion to the title song.

Kim Junmyeon held a cup of coffee, lowered his head and flipped through the information and said: "This time, we will use two main songs. "Monster" has been confirmed to be the first main song. Which other song do you think is more suitable?"

After the third album comeback plan was proposed, many production meetings have been held. The format of this review has been determined before. This time, EXO's third album will not be released monthly in four months like last year's second album, which was so impressive. Instead, it will return to SM's usual routine and release two albums every two months in the form of original and reprinted versions.

However, SM company did not give up. This time, both the original and reprinted versions will use the form of two main songs. Just for the song selection, hundreds of songs that meet the style were purchased from the music library and outside for selection.

"We have discussed it almost last time. Among the remaining candidate songs, there are only a few songs with main song quality and good performance."

"Fire", "Lucky One", and "Miss", "Lotto"..." Bian Boxian also flipped through the information and read out the names of several candidates one by one.

In fact, they don't need to look at the information. They have listened to these songs many times when they were selecting them, and many people can sing them.

"I think "lucky one" is good, this style is superb." Do Kyung Soo raised his hand and expressed his opinion directly.

Bian Baekhyun's eyes lit up, and he also echoed "I think "lucky one" too."

"I think "lucky one" is average... I like "Missing" the most. The sound source of this song must be very good. It's really nice." Kim Jong Dae is a loyal fan of lyrical songs. After saying that, he couldn't help humming a few words: "Missing you, missing you..."

"I like "fire"..."

They have actually discussed this topic many times in private, but everyone likes different styles, and they have never reached a unified opinion.

"Jingyuan, what do you think?" Kim Junmyeon looked at Chi Jingyuan.

When it comes to music, EXO members still believe in Chi Jingyuan's professional ability and vision. In this regard, Chi Jingyuan's suggestions are very important.

"Me? I don't care. Anything is fine."

Just after putting a potato chip in his mouth, his name was called. Chi Jingyuan swallowed his food and answered vaguely.

"Don't be casual. "Monster" is the title song that has been confirmed. Among the other candidates, "Fire" and "Miss" are both your own songs. Among them, "Fire" was proposed by you to be included in the collection. Give me some suggestions."

Seeing Chi Jingyuan's lazy and unserious look, Bian Boxian complained a little dissatisfiedly, glanced over here, then stood up and walked over to take a bag of unopened potato chips from his feet without hesitation and sat back.

"'Fire' is not my own song."

Hearing this, Chi Jingyuan quickly swallowed the snacks, coughed and emphasized seriously: "'Fire' is a song written by producer Jiang Xiaoyuan. I only participated in the arrangement and lyrics. It can be regarded as a second work at most..."

Last year, Ji Jingyuan provided the comeback mode, designed some promotional plans, and participated in determining the overall style for the second regular album. Several self-composed songs were included, including "Spring Day" and "Boy with Luv", which are high-quality hits.

However, he did not participate as deeply in this year's third album as last year.

First, last year's second album emptied his song library.

Ordinary songs are easy to make, but high-quality songs are not unlimited. He has only so much inspiration in the past two years, such as "Boy with Luv", which has only two songs.

Second, because Lee Soo-man has communicated with him that his solo project should officially start in the second half of this year or at the end of the year, so he has to keep a few songs for inclusion, but the title song has not been settled yet and he has no inspiration.

Despite this, Chi Jingyuan still made a lot of efforts in song selection this time. In addition to recommending the unique style of "fire", he also brought out three self-composed songs including "Miss", but the other two may not be selected by the company because of their average quality.

"Then you wrote "Miss", right?"

"Hmm..." Chi Jingyuan was asked, put down the potato chips in his hand, raised his eyes and thought seriously, and then said: "In fact, among the title songs, I am most optimistic about "Miss", but this song is too lyrical. In terms of style, it does not match the theme style of our comeback this time. It is not very suitable as the album's main song. In addition, the company intends to let us test the overseas market this time. Kpop lyrical songs are not popular in the English-speaking area..."

"In fact, this song is particularly suitable for the title song of our winter album, but the styles of the songs included in the third album this time are too strong, so I recommended it to neutralize it and take care of fans who don't like too explosive styles. Moreover, all dance music will affect the sound source results. I think at least the sound source results of "Miss" should be good."

"I recommend "fire" because the style is unique. If it is matched with excellent choreography, it will be more suitable for European and American fans... As for other songs, "monster" is actually very good as the main song. Its style is groundbreaking in Kpop dance music and the quality is very high. So I don't care if the other main song is "fire" or "lucky one". But if I really have to choose..."

Speaking of this, Chi Jingyuan felt that all the members around him were looking at him, but he didn't feel nervous at all. He picked up another potato chip and put it into his mouth: "Fire, "lucky one"... It's a bit ordinary. After listening to the whole song, I think there are only two sentences that are more eye-catching. It's not as good as "lotto." "

Hearing his words, several members around nodded slightly, obviously influenced by him, and even Do Kyung-soo, who liked this song very much, was not so persistent.

"By the way." At this time, Do Kyung-soo remembered something, poked him and asked, "What was the name of the song you asked me to record a demo last time."

"Answer" Chi Jingyuan gave the answer after a brief recollection.

"I think this song is pretty good, and it's a boy band dance song."

"It's too late to talk about this now, it's already this far." Chi Jingyuan thought about it and shrugged.

"In fact, I think the song we wrote the lyrics for is also quite suitable for the main song." Jin Minxi made a suggestion next to him.

"Oh?" Hearing this, Chi Jingyuan became interested and asked, "Brother, how is the progress of your song?"

This is a task given to them by the company and Kenzie, to write lyrics for a song provided by the new musician PDOGG, but due to the style, Chi Jingyuan did not participate much and left the work to other members, and then he didn't pay much attention to it.

But this song is very good. Although he did not participate much in writing the lyrics, he contributed to the arrangement, and the quality of the final product must be checked by him.

"I was just about to tell you that it's basically done."

"That's great, show it to me later." Chi Jingyuan nodded and asked casually, "What's it called?"

"Blood and Sweat, we spent a long time thinking about the name, what do you think?

"Well, isn't it a little exaggerated? Even if the debut is not very smooth, it won't be 'Blood and Sweat', right?"

"As for artistic techniques, it's fine as long as the fans like it..."

"Okay... let's put it this way. ”

Finally, all the members of EXO reached a consensus in a friendly atmosphere.

The quality of last year's second album was too high. In addition to several hit title songs, all the songs in the album were excellent. A huge amount of resources were invested in promotion, and a novel and special comeback model was adopted. In addition, the gimmick of competing with Big Bang for the top spot created an album that is difficult to surpass in the history of Kpop and is almost a milestone.

Although SM also gave a lot of resources this year, and it was very supportive to take out hundreds of songs from the music library, it seems that both the model and the songs are a little bit inferior compared to last year. Both the company and the members of XO have this feeling.

But this is the reality. It is not so easy to have a hit song of good quality, such as "Roar" and "boy with luv》Songs like this can only appear every few years in the entire K-pop.

It’s okay if it’s a little weak, Chi Jingyuan thinks it doesn’t have much impact.

EXO today has long passed the period when they couldn’t play without good songs.

At this time, they can really do it easily, and no matter what song they release, it will be popular. If the debut song "MAMA" that was extremely despised at the time was released now, it would not only not get more than a dozen No. 1s, but at least it would sweep the music industry for a while.

Even now, "MAMA", a song that was poorly evaluated at the time, has been worshipped by fans. For the sake of being in the ranks of the ‘greatest debut songs’, if the listeners of 2012 read today’s comments, they would have the illusion that they were not listening to the same song.

And in fact, the quality of the songs in the third album is already very high. There are several songs of the title song level alone, especially “Monster” and “Miss”. Ji Jingyuan thinks that the quality is very high. Not to mention how jealous other small companies would be after seeing such song resources, even other groups within SM are very jealous of EXO’s treatment.

Anyway, he is still looking forward to this comeback... It should be much better than Twice’s “Cheer Up”.

…

Another two days of filming schedule, on the afternoon of the 4th, Ji Jingyuan asked for half a day off and left the crew and returned to the company.

However, this time he did not return to the old building in Cheongdam-dong. Since yesterday, the office space of most SM employees and the office space of all the artists who debuted under the company have officially moved to the new building in Samseong-dong. Ji Jingyuan will go to see the new building and the environment of their new practice room of EXO today, and by the way, attend the final production meeting of the third album.

SM's new building is in a very good location, and it is also very convenient for transportation in Gangnam District. After exiting Exit 6 of Samseong Subway Station, turn left to SM COEX where they often hold some activities, and then walk for ten minutes to the new building SM Communication. Coincidentally, the new building and the old building are actually very close to each other, and it takes less than ten minutes to walk.

The three main activity venues are very close to each other, and they are all in Gangnam District where every inch of land is valuable. SM's wealth is undoubtedly revealed.

After Chi Jingyuan came down from the parking lot, he looked up at the new building. He didn't count how many floors there were for a while, but the decoration of the exterior wall looked very good. The whole building is still the same sea blue glass wall as the old building. The bottom two floors are floor-to-ceiling windows made of tempered glass, and you can vaguely see some decorations and figures inside.

"The first floor is a cafe and restaurant, currently only for employees and artists within the company to eat." The assistant who was waiting for him at the door welcomed Chi Jingyuan in. Seeing him looking to the side, he also introduced very enthusiastically: "However, the company has plans to open the restaurant on the first floor to the public in the future. At the same time, the basement will be opened as a gift shop, which will also be open to tourists and fans in the future. However, the first floor and above are the internal areas.

"Wouldn't it be easy for fans to squat?" Chi Jingyuan asked casually while looking at the interior decoration.

"Artists and employees will have special passages, and they don't have the same door as tourists." The assistant replied, and then said with a smile: "But for stars like Jingyuan who are too popular and have too many fans, there may indeed be more people squatting for meals. "

Not in a hurry to go up, Chi Jingyuan smiled and walked around with his assistant.

The decoration is stylish and exquisite, and the walls with bright and warm colors are very comfortable to look at. The bright lighting makes the whole floor comfortable and dazzling.

Many places also display various SM artists' peripherals, pictorials, wallpapers and other things that represent the entertainment company culture. Chi Jingyuan also saw his peripheral dolls and large posters of him and EXO hanging on the wall.

When passing by the bathroom, did you go in and take a look? Even the bathroom is decorated with marble patterns and gold edges, full of strong ins style.

No matter where it is, the decoration, lighting, lining, and even the atmosphere, the new building is several levels higher than the old building. Moving from the old building to here to work is like EXO moving from the narrow trainee building to the new building. Changing from a cramped dormitory to their current large apartment of several hundred square meters is like a spiritual sublimation.

Finally, I said goodbye to the Blue Sky and White Cloud practice room where the air conditioner broke down from time to time.

After walking around, Chi Jingyuan couldn't help but feel relaxed. With a feeling of relief, he followed his assistant into the elevator.

Although the decoration of this building is good, it can't make Chi Jingyuan feel amazing. After all, he has seen too many good places. Not to mention anything else, this place is much worse than his home.

But no matter what, it is a happy thing to improve the working environment and say goodbye to the old building where the elevator often squeaks.

"Our XO practice room is on the fifth floor, and the practice rooms of other artists are also concentrated on the 5th and 6th floors. ”

“Each group of artists has a different practice room. Ours should be the largest one… In addition to the exclusive practice room, there is also a large public practice room for external work such as filming…”

The elevator stopped on the fifth floor as the assistant introduced it. After Chi Jingyuan walked out, he looked to the left under the guidance of the assistant. From a distance, he saw the door of the practice room with the EXO nameplate with black background and white letters.

But when he got closer, he saw that the door was not closed, and there was a burst of laughter and playful sounds coming from inside.

Chi Jingyuan walked to the door and was about to go in. It seemed that he heard his footsteps. A figure leaned out from inside and saw him at a glance, then his eyes lit up and laughed.

Dear!