📰'Screenwriter Su Yan signs with Aozora TV; new drama to premiere in July.'
📰'Leaving the Big Three for Aozora TV—why did Su Yan make such a move?']
📰'Departing from a top-tier network to work with a first-tier one—has Su Yan miscalculated?'
📰'Talent in writing doesn't mean wisdom in career decisions. Aozora's influence is a tier below Sakura TV. Will Su Yan fade into obscurity?'
📰'Too proud, too young—he'll regret this one day.'
The moment Aozora TV announced its collaboration with Su Yan, both the media and the television industry exploded with interest.
After all, Su Yan had built a massive following from his previous three dramas, and any news remotely related to him pulled in noticeably high views.
Some reporters even tracked Su Yan down at the filming base in Hudu.
Back when he worked at Sakura TV, Su Yan typically avoided the press to steer clear of trouble.
But now? He welcomed every reporter who approached him.
After all, every interview meant more exposure for 'Your Lie in April'.
Thanks to those interviews, drama fans across Xia Nation gradually learned more about the new series.
A music-themed drama.
The male lead is a piano prodigy.
There's romance involved.
And most importantly—it's a heartwarming, healing story.
Also, Su Yan himself would once again play the male lead.
However, the female lead would not be Gu Qingyuan this time.
Although Gu Qingyuan had collaborated with Su Yan on three consecutive projects, she was best suited to the cold and elegant "ice beauty" roles.
Kaori Miyazono, the female lead of 'Your Lie in April', was clearly a vibrant and bubbly character.
Sure, a skilled actress could adapt her style…
But Gu Qingyuan had one serious flaw—she didn't know how to play the violin.
Even if the show didn't require professional-level violin skills from its actors, trying to act like a violinist as a complete beginner? Impossible. You had to at least know how to play.
So Gu Qingyuan was immediately ruled out for the role.
Still, after three dramas together, she and Su Yan were friends now. Though she couldn't be Kaori, Su Yan did offer her a key supporting role: Igawa Emi.
After all, Emi's intense piano showdown with the male lead in the original story was iconic—and had plenty of screen time.
Though Gu Qingyuan didn't play violin, she had learned piano before college. While her skills weren't strong, they were more than enough for filming purposes.
Even though 'Your Lie in April' didn't have a huge budget, it was still a B-tier production. Hiring some popular idol stars for supporting roles—like Sawabe Tsubaki and Ryota Watari—wasn't a problem.
Even Takezawa Kayano and Qiu Junlin agreed to make cameo appearances as middle-aged characters.
Once this casting news was shared through interviews, Su Yan's fans got excited.
["Wait, are you telling me Su Yan the Sadist can actually play both piano and violin?"]
["He said during an interview that he's pretty skilled at both, and he'll be providing much of the piano and violin dubbing for the characters himself. If he dares to say that publicly, he must be confident."]
["For real? In the Xia Nation, most music-themed dramas use professional musicians for background tracks. If the music's not good, it totally pulls you out of the story. Is Su Yan implying he's as good as a pro musician?"]
["Why is that so shocking? In 'An Ancient Love Song', the guzheng and flute played by the leads were also dubbed by Su Yan himself. Didn't you think those performances were full of emotion? He plays ancient instruments, so why not modern ones too?"]
["Wait—what?! Was the music in 'An Ancient Love Song' Su Yan's own performance? That music made me cry multiple times!"]
["You call yourselves fans but know nothing? I'm not sure how good he is at piano and violin, but he was the composer and lyricist for 'Rurouni Kenshin's' theme, as well as 'Emptiness', 'On the Wall', and 'Reversal' from 'An Ancient Love Song'."]
["It's all in Sakura TV's official records. Honestly, he may be good-looking and a solid actor, but his musical talent is just as impressive as his writing skills."]
["No way. I only knew he was the actor and screenwriter. He composes music too?"]
["So… his looks are his least impressive trait?"]
["After hearing all this, I think I'm falling for him. But judging from how all his dramas end in tragedy, he's probably a gloomy guy—not my type."]
["Eh, not true. I've got a high school classmate who works at Sakura TV—they said Su Yan's super cheerful and well-liked. A sunny, outgoing guy! Why he only writes tragedies though… nobody knows."]
["Sunny? Outgoing?? Bro, you're gonna kill me from laughter. You're trying to inherit my bank account with less than 3,000 yuan in it?"]
["Been scrolling all night without laughing, and then BOOM—'sunny, outgoing boy' got me. LOL."]
["He said in the interview that this drama is a pure music-romance story—touching and healing, no angsty nonsense. How believable is that?"]
["Yeah… no. I don't buy it."]
["If it were any other genre, I'd worry. But with a music drama, how angsty can it get? At worst, they lose a music competition. Not that deep, right?"]
["Now that you mention it, I can't think of any tragic-ending music dramas in Xia Nation's TV history."]
["Either way, I've already penciled 'Your Lie in April' into my July must-watch list."]
["Y'all fake fans. When 'An Ancient Love Song' and 'Rurouni Kenshin' ended, you said you were blacklisting Su Yan. Now that his new drama isn't even out yet—no posters, no cast photos—you're all ready to binge it."]
["What can I say? Every time his shows make me want to die, and then… I still come crawling back. Maybe I'm just an M."]
["Same. The same."]
Su Yan's frequent media interviews helped 'Your Lie in April' gain major visibility even before production wrapped.
And that gave the casting team a big advantage.
The Xia Nation had no shortage of young actors. And not all of them were fixated on landing roles in massive productions that ranked top-three in viewership each season.
Aozora TV was still a major national station.
Su Yan was red-hot in the industry right now.
As a screenwriter, he was clearly A-tier.
As an actor who had starred in three hits, he was firmly B-tier.
Naturally, a drama starring him caught the attention of many celebrities.
Even though the 'Your Lie in April' production offered lower pay in favor of higher quality, that didn't matter much. For actors, the most important thing was exposure.
Fame leads to commercial gigs, endorsements, and more than makes up for lost salary.
So by mid-April, the supporting cast auditions for 'Your Lie in April' were in full swing.
Popular idols, singers trying to cross into acting, variety stars—they all came to audition.
With so many qualified candidates, Su Yan and Shinozaki Ikumi quickly settled on the supporting cast.
Only the female lead—Kaori Miyazono—remained uncast.
The character needed to be cute, energetic, have a recognizable face… and also be skilled at the violin.
That was the tricky part.
Su Yan spent two whole days fretting over it.
Casting Kaori Miyazono was the final piece before the production team could be finalized.
"Honestly, this role isn't easy to cast," said Shinozaki Ikumi.
"There are plenty of stars who can play piano. But violinists? They're rare."
Several actor profiles were spread out on Su Yan's desk.
"These actresses are way too old," Su Yan said after reviewing them.
"I mean, I'm 21 playing a 15-year-old middle schooler. With makeup, that works. But someone in their 30s trying to pass as a teenager? That's not acting anymore—that's just impossible."
Shinozaki Ikumi wasn't surprised.
"Well, there's one more option," she said, pulling out a file.
Su Yan opened it and was greeted with a photo of a beautiful young woman.
"Shen Liqian," he read aloud.
"We… can't afford her, can we?"
He paused and tried to recall what the original body's memory knew about her.
"True," Shinozaki Ikumi nodded. "She's only twenty now, but she debuted at fifteen and has already starred in six dramas and two films—all six dramas were A-tier."
"One of them ranked #1 for the season, two others ranked in the top three. Her movies didn't do as well—combined box office under 200 million. Still, by reputation alone, she's a first-tier drama actress in Xia. Though she's not the most influential among them."
"That was her status a year ago, anyway. Since starring in the A-tier fantasy romance 'Pear Blossom'—which flopped with an average rating of just 2.87%—she hasn't had any new projects."
"'Pear Blossom' aired on Sakura TV," she added.
After some backstory, Su Yan finally understood.
'Pear Blossom' bombed, and Akasaka Yoshitoki, along with his producer Sano Noriko, pinned the blame on Shen Liqian, even accusing her of diva behavior.
To cover their own failures, they needed a scapegoat—and Shen Liqian was it.
But Shen Liqian wasn't the quiet, submissive type. During a live broadcast interview, she directly called out Akasaka Yoshitoki, Sano Noriko, the director, and even the screenwriter of 'Pear Blossom'.
She followed the script, obeyed all the production team's demands—yet when it flopped, it was all her fault?
Of course, there were consequences.
The flop already hurt her reputation, and offending Akasaka Yoshitoki made things worse—he used his industry influence to blacklist her.
No surprise that even Zhongxia TV and Hudu TV avoided working with her. No one wanted to offend Akasaka.
In the end, Shen Liqian hadn't gotten a single offer from any Big Three production in the past year.
"That's why, when she heard about the casting conditions for 'Your Lie in April', her agent reached out to me directly," Shinozaki Ikumi said.
"She was paid 8 million yuan for 'Pear Blossom'. But now, she's willing to do 'Your Lie in April' for 4 million."
In the Xia Nation's TV industry, actor salaries were tightly controlled.
Main cast salaries generally didn't exceed a third of the total budget.
Compared to Su Yan's previous world, where top-tier actresses earned outrageous sums, Xia's pay scale was still within reason.
But even here, 8 million for a 12-episode drama came out to 700,000 per episode—comparable to 30+ million per drama in Su Yan's previous world.
"She hasn't worked in a year. Does she still have star power?" Su Yan asked.
"Of course. 'Pear Blossom's' flop was due to poor direction and a bad script. Her fans know it wasn't her fault. The diva rumors were total fabrications."
"She still ranked 16th in the most recent popularity rankings for drama actresses—even without releasing anything new. But if her hiatus stretches longer, her popularity will nosedive. That's part of why she contacted us and lowered her asking price."
"She sees the potential in you," said Shinozaki Ikumi. "If your 'An Ancient Love Song' could break 4% in midnight viewership, then 'Your Lie in April' could do even better. A successful comeback could restore her career and attract attention from major producers—including the Big Three."
"Also, like you, she's clashed with Akasaka Yoshitoki and been blacklisted. You two are basically comrades-in-arms."
Su Yan was tempted.
He couldn't afford 8 million—but 4 million was doable.
After all, as the boss and male lead (Kosei Arima), Su Yan wasn't paying him. Paying himself would just mean moving money from one pocket to another—plus taxes.
So if Shen Liqian took 4 million, that meant lead salaries were just one-fifth of the budget. Not bad.
"Does she really play violin?" Su Yan asked.
"Absolutely. Her agent was proud to say she's the best violinist among all actresses in Xia."
Shinozaki Ikumi opened her laptop and played a video.
It was the final round of a national youth violin competition held five years ago.
At just fifteen, Shen Liqian had placed seventh in the country.
That performance had caught the attention of talent scouts—and launched her acting career.
"Not bad," Su Yan murmured as he listened.
He had never played violin himself, but his system-given Violin Mastery skill allowed him to instinctively assess her level.
She was already close to professional violinist caliber.
A shame, really, that she chose acting instead.
"Not bad?"
Shinozaki Ikumi blinked, baffled.
That was five years ago—she ranked seventh nationally in a youth competition!
Su Yan's casual, top-tier-sounding judgment was just a bit too natural… like he was better than her or something.