Frankly speaking, Andy has never been so tired. Even when he stayed in the study and typed day and night for several days in a row, he was not so tired.
It's not easy to trick someone, especially someone so intelligent. Even though he'd already prepared reasonable answers to some of the questions, Ellen DeGeneres still managed to extract some truth from him. For example, he'd discussed his past self-destructive behavior and his views on homosexuality. Fortunately, he managed to fool her with a variety of awkward moments and shameless cuteness, and the taping of "The Ellen Show" ended with Ellen and the audience laughing.
Alan also admired Andy's humor and wisdom, especially when he expressed his views on homosexuality, "I may not agree with the way you live, but I am willing to defend your right to live a life different from mine!", which earned him a big hug from Alan.
After exchanging phone numbers with Allen, they left the recording room. A brand-new silver-gray Bentley Flying Spur had been waiting for a long time outside the CBS Los Angeles branch building. Joseph quickly walked up to Andy and opened the door. Andy got in, took off his coat, and took a sip of water from the car's refrigerator. He let out a long breath, leaned back in his seat, and slightly closed his eyes as he recalled what he had said during the recording. Only when he realized there were no mistakes did he relax.
Don't say you're not nervous. Don't really think you can just jerk off and have everyone kowtow to you. That's fiction. It would be strange if he wasn't nervous on his first television appearance. Fortunately, his first appearance went off without a hitch, thanks to his deliberate and unconditional praise of the host, Ellen, several times, so she wouldn't deliberately give him a hard time. After all, he does have quite a few dark pasts.
Regardless, today's goals were all achieved: book promotion, image building, whitewashing his past, and his screen debut. He sipped his water and silently pondered this. While he desperately wanted to clear his name from all his past, he also knew that haste makes waste. Furthermore, underage drinking and sexual assault weren't easily forgotten, especially with his current popularity. The unscrupulous media's vulgar rehash of his past made the process even more difficult.
At present, we can only use the halo of success to dilute the stains on him. After all, people are tolerant of successful people. If you don't believe me, look at Steve Jobs. He has more black history, which makes Americans even more unforgivable. But then, Uncle Joe, God Joe, who cares about his rudeness, stinginess, treachery and cold-bloodedness.
Therefore, Andy attaches great importance to his identity as a writer. Now these novels, "Dark Tales", "The Hunger Games" and "Inception" are his stepping stones to open up the situation. He agreed to be on the show in order to make his new books more widely publicized and to make the halo of a genius writer around him more solid, so that even if he makes any mistakes in the future, people can look at him more tolerantly.
During the recording process, Andy was most proud of his various little jokes and showing off his soul poison. To be honest, he didn't really know that he could be cute without any shame, but the audience liked it, and all kinds of hilarious moments kept the show in a joyful atmosphere.
Andy's thoughts were interrupted by the ringing of his cell phone. "Hello, I've finished recording the show and am on my way home. Yeah, it went pretty well. I'd be surprised if I wasn't nervous. It's mainly because Alan is a nice guy and didn't ask any awkward questions. Oh, and please don't connect me to any more shows. Okay, I won't listen to your excuses. It's settled. I'm hanging up."
After hanging up the phone, without giving Carl on the other end a chance to fool around, he called the game company again to inquire about the situation and reiterated his emphasis on the quality of the game.
"Time is not a problem. What I need is an exquisite game that will impress players. Slow work makes fine work! What? You don't know what slow work makes fine work means. Well, it just means that things that are produced over time will be excellent!" Andy rolled his eyes and hung up the phone. He played with the phone in his hand and thought for a while.
That's all we can do for now.
Looking out through the car window, watching the endless stream of cars and all kinds of passers-by, I stretched out my hand and clenched it into a fist.
The future is in my hands!
After the broadcast of "The Ellen Show", Carl began to follow up on the promotion of the novel "The Hunger Games". He was very determined to hold on to Andy's thighs, even if it meant kneeling and licking her, because Andy gave him not only financial rewards, but more importantly, dignity and status.
Thinking of how I looked at the CAA agency representative with contempt as he left his office awkwardly a few days ago, I couldn't help but smile smugly.
Now he is the target of various Hollywood film companies. Andy's novels are selling well, and even a fool can see the value of them, especially the first volume of "The Hunger Games", which is considered to be the most valuable IP.
As soon as Carl walked into the Scholastic Publishing building, he saw Mac Miller coming towards him with a big smile on his face. He nodded expressionlessly as a greeting, and ignored Mac Miller's outstretched hand. Seeing that the other party awkwardly withdrew his hand, he walked towards the elevator without any pause. Listening to the other party's compliments along the way, Carl's mouth corners couldn't help but curl up slightly, and his fat body felt a lot lighter. He didn't care at all how angry Mac Miller would be because of his arrogance, and he didn't care how the other party felt. When Andy fell to the ground before, the other party's face was even uglier.
McMiller looked at Carl who walked into the meeting room, and the flattering smile on his face slowly disappeared. His face flushed red due to the over-suppressed anger. His hands clenched into fists tightly, but soon they became like a deflated ball. He smiled bitterly and sighed, thinking about his attitude towards Carl in the past. Perhaps this was retribution.
The conference room was soon filled with people. Elton Bull, the president of Scholastic Publishing in Los Angeles, was very optimistic about the prospects of "The Hunger Games". In his heart, he even compared this series with the "Harry Potter" series that he was responsible for publishing. He knew very well what such a series would bring to the publishing house and to him, so he decided early on to personally handle the publication and promotion of this novel.
"Mr. Carl, these are sample book reviews sent by major newspapers. Please take a look and see if there is anything that needs to be improved." Elton Bull handed Carl a stack of documents and said with a smile.
Carl took the document without any expression on his fat face and looked through it carefully. Now, anything related to Andy could not be treated carelessly by him.
"A super-bestselling novel of thriller, adventure, fantasy and young adult romance! -----The Wall Street Journal".
"Stephenie Meyer, the author of Twilight, and Stephen King, the master of horror, read this book day and night without sleep and became crazy and addicted! -------The New York Times".
. . . . . .
After reading through them one by one, Carl handed the documents back to Elton Bull with a smile, and said with great satisfaction: "Andy is right. Professional matters should be left to professionals. Thank you to the publishing house and Mr. Elton for your efforts."
Elton was very pleased to hear Carl's compliment and replied with a smile: "This is what we should do. Our service tenet is to satisfy our customers."
After exchanging a few compliments, the two began to discuss the next promotional work.
"Mr. Carl, do you think we can have Mr. Andy Smith appear on a few more talk shows to promote the novel? The novel's sales were greatly stimulated after it was broadcast on 'The Ellen Show'." Elton Bull listened to his subordinates introducing various promotional plans, and suddenly said to Carl beside him.
Carl's fat face twitched slightly, and he replied sternly, "I'm very sorry, Mr. Elton. Aside from the "Ellen Show" and "Saturday Night Live" he agreed to earlier, Mr. Andy Smith has turned down all other TV appearances because he's working on a new novel and simply doesn't have the time."
Looking at Elton Bull's disappointed expression, Carl cursed Andy's willfulness in his heart. He knew that Andy's new novel had been completed a few days ago, but Andy disagreed to appear on the show, and everything was useless. He really couldn't understand Andy's idea. It was so tempting to go on a talk show, increase exposure, and become a star that everyone admired. Why didn't Andy cooperate?
Andy, who was playing with two Doberman pinschers that had been delivered a few days ago on the lawn of the villa, suddenly sneezed, rubbed his nose, cursed inwardly, and continued to play with the two puppies.
He was delighted to see the Dobermans chasing after him. Their pure bloodlines naturally commanded a high price. Andy named them Quicksilver and Witch, a male and a female. The puppies scurried around him, showing great affection. Andy was delighted, petting Quicksilver and then the Witch, who kept jumping on his calf. The puppies were all a little over three months old and sturdy. They were curious about their new surroundings, sniffing fallen leaves on the lawn and scratching at the dirt with their paws.
The flowers blooming in the bushes aroused the little guy's interest. He put his nose close to them to sniff, and sneezed at the stimulation of pollen. After sneezing, he seemed to feel a little indignant, and barked at the flowers.
"Haha..." Andy couldn't help but laugh at the two puppies' funny moment. This made him feel for the first time in this time and space that he wasn't alone anymore, even though they were just two dogs. This emotion was very subtle. Perhaps it was the incredible nature of time travel that made Andy subconsciously always maintain a sense of vigilance. This was very stressful, and the lack of security made him very distressed.
But since he had the company of two little Dobermans, he no longer woke up in the middle of the night. The superposition of souls made his five senses overly sharp, and any strange noises at night prevented him from sleeping. Now the arrival of the bodyguards and the company of the puppies have greatly relieved his tense nerves.
As he became more successful, he still wanted to interact with strangers deep down in his heart, especially on the night after recording "The Ellen Show". He could hardly sleep because his secret was discovered in his sleep. All kinds of torture, blood draws, and biopsies made him feel terrified.
In fact, this is also normal. When you have a secret that determines life and death, no one can face it calmly. You can only bear it by yourself, slowly increase your capacity to accommodate this nightmare, and then lock it in the deepest part of your memory until the moment of death to finally be freed.