November 1st, Brooklyn, New York. While Leon was still on the plane back to the East Coast last night, Monteith posted an apology statement on social media.
Due to an overdose of drugs, he was still in a trance when tweeting.
Some of the words were incoherent, but he managed to express his willingness to repent.
He first admitted that he attacked Taylor in a fit of insanity and praised her current boyfriend as the most talented male singer of the 21st century, a musical miracle led by God's hand.
Entertainment media didn't expect the reversal to come so quickly. After just two days of enjoying the traffic, the carnival was declared over.
The ten-thousand-word articles targeting Taylor that had just been edited became scrap paper before they could even be published.
In the office, Leon chatted with Taylor while flipping through the Tokyo performance plan.
"Honey baby, no words can express my current mood!" Taylor exhausted all intimate terms, her emotions infectious even through the phone screen.
"I prefer more direct ways of expression."
"Wait until I return to New York next week; you'll have a whole day to personally feel my current mood." Taylor giggled charmingly. "You can't go out that day! You must stay with me all the time!"
A whole day?
Leon's smile froze instantly upon hearing these words.
His brain was dancing with excitement, but his kidneys were silently protesting.
Taylor successfully survived the second crisis of her career; the last one was the shocking "Kanye West VMA Incident" in the entertainment industry.
Back then, the inexperienced Taylor chose the cold treatment.
When entertainment media compared her with Beyoncé and belittled her as worthless, she could only endure silently.
Now she finally experienced the thrill of slapping faces at light speed, but she still didn't know exactly what method Leon used.
Leon intentionally described the process of tormenting Monteith vaguely, avoiding the overly violent parts.
It turned into an absurd little story of the current boyfriend forcing the ex-boyfriend to kneel with his personal charm.
"You're going to Tokyo tomorrow, right? Do you need me to provide you with some guides? I know where to find the best sushi restaurants!" Taylor was immersed in happiness, every syllable tasting sweet.
"I might not have time to spend on entertainment. Besides promoting songs, I have some other work to attend to," Leon said.
Japan is where Sony headquarters, the parent company of Columbia Records, is located. It is also the second-largest record sales market in the world, reaching $2 billion annually.
Against the backdrop of the rise of streaming media, Japan is an absolute outlier—physical record sales are six times that of digital music.
This is inseparable from their stubborn and conservative character.
Not only is the market size considerable, but Japan also has good achievements in avant-garde rock and experimental music. The rebellious Street Jesus has a large group of fanatical fans in the island nation.
Therefore, Stringer attached great importance to this trip.
Besides promoting new songs, Leon also had to settle some private matters on the Tokyo trip.
Sony Interactive Entertainment agreed to open its copyright library to Ready Player One, but the licensing fee had not yet been settled.
Japan is harsh on copyright protection to a perverted degree. The Japanese Agency for Cultural Affairs is even considering extending copyright protection to social media—users sharing lyrics on social media would also constitute infringement.
Depending on the severity of the violation, one could be sentenced to up to two years in prison and fined up to 2 million yen.
However, this bill was ultimately declared dead before reaching the draft submission stage because it was too ridiculous.
Excessive IP protection has also fostered the greedy nature of most Japanese companies in IP licensing, which is well known in the global film and entertainment industry.
In Japan, the most profitable game companies don't make money from games; the most popular manga doesn't make money from physical books; the huge profits generated by IP licensing allow Japanese companies to get used to making easy money.
Take the God of War series as an example. Shuhei Yoshida asked for $100,000 per minute for Kratos.
The final charge is based on the appearance time in the final cut of Ready Player One, with the excess time calculated separately.
As for the cash cow Spider-Man, Sony even asked for a sky-high licensing fee of $500,000 per minute. Such a price was too ridiculous for Leon.
Leon planned to meet with Sony Interactive Entertainment executives during this Tokyo trip to fight for some room on the licensing fee.
"Alright, my dear workaholic." Taylor hummed softly. "Then don't forget to bring me a gift. Tokyo has many weird and cute souvenirs that are hard to find in New York and Los Angeles."
"Weird and cute souvenirs? Is it what I think it is?" Mentioning weird souvenirs, Leon's mind uncontrollably went astray.
This was the instinct of a businessman. As the founder of the Wicked Angel brand, he still admired Japan's achievements in adult culture.
"What are you thinking of?" Taylor deliberately lowered her voice, like a cunning little fox.
"Nothing, I'll remember, honey."
"Bye~ Call me when you get off the plane."
Just after hanging up the phone, Leon received a message from Sean. Monteith had arrived in New York as agreed.
Sean described on the phone: "This guy is like a zombie with only a shell left. His head is swollen as big as a basketball, and he can't even speak a complete sentence..."
Injected with a large amount of mixed contraband, unless Monteith was Wolverine, he couldn't recover in such a short time.
"Get some ice cubes to sober him up. I'll be right there."
Leon took Bonnie, and Jorge drove them to the headquarters of Lion's Den Media.
When they arrived at the studio, Monteith's appearance was even more miserable than Sean described on the phone.
The tooth extraction torture didn't show immediate swelling yesterday, but after a night of rest, every white blood cell in his body was mobilized, resulting in severe subcutaneous hematoma.
With the bridge of the nose as the dividing line, the lower half of his face was swollen like a hippo.
Under the continuous effect of a large amount of stimulants, he was mentally confused, sobbing with his head hanging down like a madman.
"You really did a number on him... This guy doesn't need makeup to act in The Walking Dead." Bonnie took a deep breath. "With the way he looks now, he might as well go straight to hell."
Leon shrugged. "He might really not make it to Christmas this year. Every cell in this poor junkie's body has been corroded by drugs."
Under Sean's coordination, everyone from editors to handymen at Vibe magazine sprang into action.
Stimulated by buckets of ice water and slaps, Monteith gradually regained control of his language system.
The moment he looked up and saw Leon, the stress response instantly evoked yesterday's nightmarish memories, showing typical PTSD symptoms, his body shaking violently.
"Looks like I'd better not stay here."
Leon turned and left the interview scene, standing in the corridor to light a cigarette, handing one to Bonnie.
"Tim called this morning. He wanted to ask when you plan to release the third promotional song."
Bonnie took the cigarette and puffed heavily like a man.
"Now is not the best time," Leon said.
In this week's Billboard Hot 100 chart, the top two spots were still occupied by his works.
Old Town Road didn't top the chart strongly as expected, still trailing We Don't Talk Anymore by a narrow margin.
Leon wasn't surprised by this result. Old Town Road had all the characteristics of new-era pop music, born for the soil of streaming media.
Such promotion methods couldn't reach music fans who didn't like scrolling through social networks or weren't used to listening to songs on streaming platforms.
However, with the current savage growth of social networks, Old Town Road was expected to stay on the Billboard longer than We Don't Talk Anymore.
Considering that his two works were still dominating the list, Leon cancelled the plan to release the new song Blinding Lights at the end of October.
To maximize benefits, he had to wait at least until the heat of the first two songs subsided a bit, otherwise, he would fall into the embarrassment of competing against himself.
"Tim hopes you can complete the creation of the entire album after the Christmas holiday and strive to release the new album early next year," Bonnie said.
"What does he think creation is? Just because I need it, those inspirations will crawl into my head?" Leon exhaled a puff of smoke, curling his lips.
He wanted to release the new album early next year more than anyone else, but unfortunately, releasing songs was limited by inspiration refreshes.
Adele and Beyoncé had both confirmed that there would be no new albums in the first half of next year, and it was even unknown whether they would release new albums for the whole year.
In this situation, Columbia Records would pour all promotional resources into Leon's new album.
For this reason, he even considered buying two songs from Max Martin to make up the numbers and speed up the progress of the new album, which was a standard operation in the circle.
Even creators who were seemingly chased by God to be fed couldn't guarantee that every work was written by their own hands.
Leon still held two "Inspiration NTR" chances—opportunities to rob inspiration from others' brains.
But using them to rob musical inspiration wasn't very suitable—inspiration refreshed once a month, and once the Inspiration NTR chances were used up, they were gone.
Looking at the current music scene, he really couldn't find any singer worth robbing inspiration from. The benefits of using Inspiration NTR on business or movies would obviously be greater.
After the time it took to smoke two cigarettes, Leon poked his head into the studio for a look.
Monteith sat upright in front of the camera, holding his head and confessing into the microphone: "I admit... there was an element of jealousy when I said those things that hurt Taylor. I was jealous of the success Leon Smith achieved. I hated seeing them walking on the red carpet together. I hated seeing them in the headlines every day..."
"This jealousy drove me crazy, and under the influence of drugs, I lost control."
The Vibe reporter asked according to the script: "What about your slut-shaming of Miss Taylor?"
"Still blame those damn drugs!" Monteith looked remorseful. "I want to sincerely apologize to Taylor! I even said my mom was a bitch when I was high!"
Driven by the desire to survive, Monteith added some improvisation, speaking even more brilliantly than the script Sean prepared for him.
If he hadn't been ruined by drugs, maybe he could have really become a top actor.
Seeing this scene, Leon, leaning on the door frame, couldn't help laughing out loud.
"Let's go."
At twelve o'clock noon, Leon rarely skipped his lunch break. While biting into a pizza, he stared at the Tesla K-line trend on the computer screen.
Like all novices who just learned to trade stocks, the urge to check the K-line trend was uncontrollable, and even a popular singer with hundreds of millions of wealth was no exception.
Ring ring ring—The landline on the desk rang, and Leon answered.
Miranda at the reception desk said, "Mr. Leon, I'm very sorry to disturb your lunch break. There is a lady here to see you."
"Ms. Megan."
Megan Fox?
This woman's sudden visit surprised Leon a bit. More than a month ago, the two had just had a big fight over the casting issue of Ready Player One.
But Megan's temper came fast and went fast. Her character wasn't as aggressively flashy as her appearance suggested.
This was completely opposite to Amber Heard, who looked pure and gentle on the outside.
"Quickly invite Miss Megan to my office."