Chapter 645 - 571: The Direction of Editing

Chapter 645: Chapter 571: The Direction of Editing

Phoenix. Chen Yu’s home.

Chen Yu leaned against Lexi’s belly, listening to their baby’s heartbeat, his own heart filled with happiness.

"Thank you for going through all this."

Chen Yu rose and gently pulled Lexi into an embrace.

’I’ve been running all over the place lately,’ he thought. ’I haven’t been there for Lexi enough.’

"Oh, stop. I’m not that fragile," Lexi said understandingly. "Besides, I know your work is important. You’re doing it for our family."

Chen Yu had read in parenting magazines that hormones could cause major mood swings and even drastic personality changes during pregnancy.

Lexi, however, seemed to be fine. If anything, she had become even more understanding.

’Not that she wasn’t understanding before, of course.’

After a few more tender moments, Chen Yu got up and went to his study to deal with work.

His trip to Athens had been a complete success.

At least, it had been for him.

Bolt had broken the world record and won a gold medal.

Liu Xiang hadn’t run into any trouble in his final race either, and he’d even broken the world record again.

12.86 seconds!

That was the new world record for the men’s 110-meter hurdles.

The record holder was Liu Xiang, from China.

His goals had been met, so naturally, the trip was a success.

Chen Yu had sent Liu Xiang back to China ahead of him.

Having achieved such an incredible result and made a name for himself worldwide, it was now time to reap the rewards and cash in.

Bolt, too, had returned to Jamaica.

Before leaving, Bolt had mentioned wanting to switch to training for the 100-meter dash. Chen Yu didn’t turn him down; they would discuss it all once Bolt arrived in the United States.

The O’Neal trade was urgent, which was also why Chen Yu had skipped his meeting with Old King and rushed back to the United States.

He had arranged to have dinner with the Kolangelos, father and son, that evening. They would discuss it then.

For now, he had to deal with the show.

Filming for "Dream Big" had already concluded.

Chen Yu had only found out about the incident with Durant and Owen after it was already over.

In his study, Chen Yu brewed a cup of tea and reviewed the footage from the show.

The incident had occurred, and it had been resolved.

Owen had apologized, and Kobe himself had stepped onto the court, leading Durant and Owen to win the game.

Seven people had chosen the special challenge, but in the end, only two completed the task.

Durant and Oden.

Then, according to the rules, the production team used a large prize wheel to decide who would win the final prize of 100,000 US dollars.

Durant’s bad luck hadn’t dissipated yet. Lady Luck was not on his side; she chose Oden.

The key issue now was how to edit the incident with Owen.

The way it was edited would affect the show’s final presentation.

For example, by leaving out certain clips, they could easily portray Owen as a reckless little punk who didn’t think about the consequences.

Conversely, they could also edit it to focus on a redemption arc, showing him realizing his mistake and atoning for it.

The first episode of "Dream Big" was scheduled to air on September 4th, so there was still time for adjustments and reshoots.

Ernest’s take was to edit it according to what happened, with a bit of creative editorializing to paint Owen as the villainous kid.

His defiance of the production team and his sneaking away had given Ernest quite a scare.

Los Angeles is a huge city, and many parts of it aren’t particularly safe. If something had really happened to Owen, the show would have been finished.

It was impossible for Ernest not to be angry.

Chen Yu was angry too, but after calming down, he felt that course of action was inappropriate.

On a show with this much attention, it was no exaggeration to say that a slightly biased edit could lead to Owen being torn apart by the public. A perfectly good kid could be ruined.

Besides, if they actually did that, the show itself could open itself up to criticism.

Someone could sue them for biased editing, for not presenting all the content.

Owen wasn’t like Beasley. Beasley was a real punk who had maliciously slandered the entire show.

Chen Yu hadn’t made a final decision yet.

Before making that decision, Chen Yu first wanted to understand whether Owen was a genuinely rebellious punk or if his actions were justifiable.

First off, Chen Yu wanted to understand why Owen, who had been playing well and showing great chemistry with Durant one day, would suddenly sneak off the next, leaving behind such words.

’There had to be a reason, right?’

There was a lot of footage, and Chen Yu watched it carefully.

A 12-year-old kid isn’t that complicated; he wears all his emotions on his face.

Chen Yu discovered that after meeting Durant on the first day, Owen was very happy. He didn’t just accept Durant’s arrival; he was enthusiastic about it, proactively chatting with Durant about many things during dinner.

When Old Owen came home, the two of them listened to music and talked basketball together.

But on the second day, Chen Yu keenly noticed a change in Owen’s mood. He seemed to harbor a trace of hostility toward Durant.

His expression only softened a little when Durant bought him sneakers.

Chen Yu figured the problem must have started that night.

Chen Yu exited the folder and looked for that day’s filming material, such as the individual interview footage with Old Owen and the others.

After watching it, an idea began to form in Chen Yu’s mind.

First, Owen had gotten a beating.

That much was obvious.

The production team hadn’t filmed why he was beaten, but Chen Yu picked up some clues from the interviews with Owen’s sister and Old Owen.

Owen’s sister was very unhappy with her brother’s actions, thinking he had gone too far.

Then there was Old Owen’s interview.

On camera, Old Owen stumbled a few times before finding his rhythm. As if recalling a fond memory, he said with a smile, "Kyrie is a good kid. After his mother passed away, I tried my best to make it up to them, wanting to give them all my love."

"But that event still changed them."

"Kyrie became much more mature. I remember when he was five, he would take the initiative to comfort me, telling me not to be so sad. That was really incredible."

At this point, Old Owen’s smile vanished. He wrung his hands in frustration and said, "But I think I might have been too strict with him. Or rather, there was a problem with my methods. I’m talking about when it comes to his basketball training."

Old Owen began to reflect on himself.

Chen Yu listened in silence, almost able to visualize Owen’s upbringing.

His mother’s premature death had forced him to mature. He carved marks on the doorframe, dreaming of making his father proud, of fulfilling the dream his father never achieved—getting into the NBA, and even making the Celtics who had rejected his father regret it.

From the age of four or five, when other children were still playing and watching cartoons, Owen was already training hard.

Incredibly rigorous training.

He forced himself to persevere because he understood why his father was so demanding.

But that life was incredibly difficult to endure.

Starting at age six, he played one-on-one against his father, and he kept losing for six straight years.

He was bound to have days of frustration.

So when an opportunity presented itself, on some strange impulse, Owen wanted to get a little revenge on his father.

This led to his strange dream of wanting Durant to defeat Old Owen.

In one segment of the interview, Old Owen also discussed this one-on-one match.

He understood his son held some resentment against him, but he was still disappointed.

"I wasn’t angry because I lost the one-on-one. I was angry that he chose to do it that way. I want him to defeat me himself, not ask for help. That’s why I was disappointed."

This was likely the reason Old Owen had punished his son.

On top of that, Old Owen had spent the entire dinner lavishing praise on Durant.

These events changed Owen’s opinion of Durant.

Durant went from being a cool, rich, and famous friend with amazing skills who bought him good food, to the object of his hostility—the person who got him punished by his father, the person his father compared him to, praising Durant for being better.

’Deep down, he was jealous of Durant!’

That was likely when the idea of getting revenge on Durant first took root in Owen’s mind.

Durant later refusing to take him to the Staples Center and then scolding him during the game only added fuel to the fire.

But he didn’t realize just how much Old Owen loved him.

Even Chen Yu was moved when he watched the footage from the airport.

Old Owen had probably regretted punishing his son the moment he did it.

But after years of strict training, this close father-son pair had forgotten how to communicate.

This was where a mother’s presence, as a buffer, was truly missing.

After watching all the footage, Chen Yu had begun to form a personality profile for Owen in his mind.

He was a mature, smart, and sensible kid.

But that didn’t stop him from being rebellious and stubborn.

Often, he knew the right way to do things and could do them well, but he was simply unwilling—too willful, even when he knew what he was doing was wrong.

And after making a mistake, his attitude about admitting it was extremely poor.

Just plain stubborn and argumentative.

One could only say that growing up in a single-parent household, Owen had developed significant personality issues.

After watching the rest of the footage, Chen Yu came to a decision.

He couldn’t edit the show according to Ernest’s vision.

It would be damaging to both Owen and the show.

Audiences didn’t want to see a show maliciously targeting a 12-year-old kid, and it would damage the show’s reputation.

After all, the show’s original purpose was to be uplifting, to hope that these kids would become better and better.

’We’ll shoot some new content, give Owen a chance.’

At the same time, Chen Yu decided to compensate Durant.

This was because Ernest had mishandled the situation.

He hadn’t consulted Chen Yu at the time, making the decision on his own.

After Owen ran off to find Kobe, Kobe had contacted the production team immediately.

In other words, Ernest already knew Owen’s situation around five or six o’clock, before the game even started.

But he hid this from Durant, telling him that his mission would be a failure if Owen didn’t come back.

His goal was simply to see more conflict and to capture more of Durant’s emotional fluctuations.

Chen Yu felt that Ernest had been out of line.

Therefore, Chen Yu decided to compensate him by giving him the one hundred thousand US dollars.

’What a good kid,’ Chen Yu thought. ’His dream is to buy his mother a house. I have to honor that devotion.’

Chen Yu opened his laptop and wrote an email explaining his decision.

At the end of the email, Chen Yu considered adding a few words to reprimand Ernest.

The show was so popular now, and that guy was racking his brain trying to create more explosive moments. He hadn’t gone completely off the deep end, but his way of handling things was sometimes truly problematic.

’It’s probably also because I’ve been too busy,’ he reflected. ’I haven’t been keeping a close enough eye on many things.’

After a moment of thought, Chen Yu decided against it.

Replacing the head director would mean going through a new breaking-in period.

’I’ll just have to keep a closer eye on things myself.’