章 8: Chapter 7: After Disaster Survivors_1
The class group chat is just the tip of the iceberg.
Compared to the small class group, the campus forum of Qin Continent Art Academy is even livelier at the moment—
"Newcomer season has officially begun, everyone go support Senior Sun Yaohuo's new song, titled 'Life Like A Summer Flower'. Here are the links to the song on various streaming platforms."
"This song is surprisingly good."
"As a composition student, I'm here to support the senior as well. By the way, the senior is lucky, the composition of this song shows real depth."
"Both the composition and arrangement are done by this guy called 'Xian Yu'. This bloke is truly deserving of the title 'Maestro'."
"Composition department, download and support Senior Sun Yaohuo. Ps: Not to put a gold patch on our department, but this song, the Maestro nailed it."
"Looking forward to the charts at 12 noon tomorrow, wondering where 'Life Like A Summer Flower' will rank."
"Don't worry, given the quality of this song, the ranking won't be bad."
"Who is this Xian Yu? I've never heard of him before."
"Company: What do you require from the singer? Maestro: Just needs a mouth."
"As a student of the vocal music department, I don't mind being a tool, I just want to deliver excellent work under the guidance of the Maestro."
"A bunch of night owls, why aren't you sleeping yet?"
"The long night is coming, I will start watching tonight until I rest. Just like this, every night."
"Night your head, if you don't sleep, you're waiting to drop dead."
"..."
The newcomer season every November is a feast for the music department students.
If there happens to be an experienced peer at the feast, that's even better.
As a result, many alumni didn't even listen to the song, just downloaded 'Life Like A Summer Flower' because Sun Yao Huo is a graduate of Qin Art.
...
7:30 the next morning.
After getting up and rinsing, Lin Yuan had breakfast in the cafeteria, then calmly made his way to the classroom.
The first class hasn't started yet.
But Lin Yuan had already started reading.
However, the atmosphere this morning seemed different from usual. Instead of quietly playing with their phones as usual, the classmates around him were chattering about something.
Lin Yuan frowned slightly.
Because this directly affected Lin Yuan's reading efficiency.
Of course, the topics these classmates were discussing also inevitably seeped into Lin Yuan's ears as their conversations deepened.
"Have you listened to 'Life Like A Summer Flower'?"
The person who asked this question was sitting in the row behind Lin Yuan.
"Of course, I stayed up until 2 am for this newcomer season, listened to the song and even downloaded it. Now this song is so popular on the campus forum." A girl mourns over her dark circles under her eyes.
"The song is indeed good, the level of composition is high, worthy of the term 'Maestro' we give to people in our line."
An eyeglasses-wearing guy nodded proudly.
"Wake up, not every composer deserves the honor of 'Maestro', with your level, even if you include your song as a gift to those newcomer singers, they wouldn't want it."
"I admit the composition of this song is remarkable, though the style of this song is not to my taste."
"Nonsense, a fan of electronic music like you wouldn't appreciate folk ballads."
"..."
So they are discussing 'Life Like a Summer Flower'.
Seeing everyone's discussion, it seems that the song was well-received?
Lin Yuan's eyebrows slowly relaxed, and he instantly forgave his classmates for disturbing his studies.
Just now that little girl said she had downloaded the song. With one song worth one dollar, the company takes 80 cents, the tool person gets 5 cents, and he can finally split 15 cents—
Lin Yuan suddenly felt that the girl who contributed 15 cents to him, despite sporting huge panda eyes, was quite pretty.
...
As the first day of the newcomer season, November 1st is destined to be a special day.
Today.
All entertainment companies in Qin involved in the newcomer season won't be at ease until they see the newcomer chart officially open at noon.
Even when the newcomer chart is revealed.
If the performance of the company's newcomers does not meet the psychological expectations of the major entertainment companies, this low-pressure atmosphere might last for a whole month—
Until the end of the newcomer season.
This tense and nervous atmosphere seems to be even more pronounced in Starlight Entertainment. When everyone came to work this morning, even the greetings between colleagues seemed much softer than usual.
Especially the departments related to music!
Mainly because the company has not been performing well in promoting newcomers in recent years, and the high-level executives are very dissatisfied.
The big boss has vented his anger more than once for this reason.
Because of this, a considerable amount of the department's quarterly bonus has been cut. Therefore, in order for everyone to have a better life, everyone in the company genuinely hopes that the company can make a comeback this year.
Plus there's a rumor in the company:
Chief Manager Zhao Jue has pledged before the higher-ups that a newcomer from the company must rank in the top three in the newcomer chart this year, otherwise she will voluntarily step down.
This is a big deal.
If the pledge is not fulfilled and Zhao Jue is indeed demoted by the higher-ups, it would be a major personnel change in Starlight.
After all, Zhao Jue has a lot of power.
And as the main character of the rumor, Zhao Jue has locked herself in her office since the morning, lying on the chair with her eyes closed.
She has fallen into a state of self-isolation, not daring to look at her mobile phone or her computer, because she has no confidence in this year's newcomers.
"Beep beep beep beep..."
Midnight eventually arrived.
Today, the sound of the alarm seemed extraordinarily sharp and grating. It yanked Zhao Jue out of her state of seclusion.
"Let's do this."
Zhao Jue opened her eyes, heaved a sigh, took a deep breath, and then switched on her computer.
She wasn't the only one.
The entirety of Starlight Entertainment, even the whole music-related industry at this moment, had their full attention directed at the freshly updated official chart:
The Newcomers Chart.
When they saw the first name on the Newcomers chart, everyone simultaneously gave a similar sigh – a kind of strange similarity in their emotions –
First place on the Newcomers Chart:
"It's Love", Singer: Qian Xingyu, Composer: Li Ran, Company: Sand Sea Entertainment.
Downloads: 88.5k.
In past years, various big companies would engage in a life-or-death struggle for the first position on the Newcomers Chart.
But this year was different.
The "newcomer" Qian Xingyu was too much of an anomaly.
He made his debut just a month before the newcomer season by starring in the first drama of his life, rapidly gaining immense popularity and a substantial fanbase to boot.
Who could compete with such a "newcomer"?
All anyone could do was sigh: "With a trump card like Qian Xingyu, Sand Sea Entertainment is likely to hold the top spot all month."
Zhao Jue also sighed.
With envy and jealousy.
Then, she decided to check the results from the bottom up.
The Newcomers Chart only showed the rankings of the top one hundred, so it wouldn't take too much time to look through all one hundred names.
As for Starlight's newcomers not making it to the top one hundred?
What a joke, Starlight Entertainment is one of the top entertainment companies in Qin Continent. They have the privileged advantage of early resources. If a newcomer under the massive resources of Starlight Entertainment doesn't enter the top one hundred, such a level of talent definitely needs to pack up and leave.
Zhao Jue isn't so bad at her job.
At the seventy-third rank, Zhao Jue saw the name of the first new artist at her company, which caused her brow to twitch a little.
In the fifty-fifth position, Zhao Jue saw the second name from her company, which deepened her frown.
When she reached the twelfth spot, Zhao Jue had already seen the names of eight company artists.
The eleventh spot did not belong to anyone in the company.
Therefore, only two names remained.
Did this mean Starlight Entertainment had managed to nab two places in the top ten this year?
Biting her lip, Zhao Jue started to check the names in the top ten, only to discover the ninth name belonging to the ninth newcomer from her company.
Now, there was only one left.
Eighth place... Seventh place... Sixth place... Fifth place...
Finally.
Zhao Jue found the name of the tenth artist.
Third place on the Newcomers Chart:
"Life Like A Summer Flower", Singer: Sun Yaohuo, Composer: Xian Yu, Company: Starlight Entertainment.
Downloads: 33k.
Zhao Jue's eyes widened in surprise, locking onto the third place on the Newcomers Chart. She let out quick, sharp breaths, feeling a hint of narrow escape from peril:
Top three!
It's actually top three!
As the chief agent, Zhao Jue, of course, knew Xian Yu was the stage name used by Lin Yuan. What she hadn't expected was that in the end, Lin Yuan–the one who had almost driven her off a cliff, would actually be the one to pull her back from the edge.
Fate indeed works in mysterious ways.
No longer caring about the rankings of others, Zhao Jue's smile returned with a newfound confidence. "Nobody can tear me down from now on. As long as I keep Lin Yuan in the top three, I won't be demoted!"
The consequences of demotion are extremely severe.
She still has to pay off the mortgage on her private villa at home.
Suddenly standing up from her seat, Zhao Jue dialed a number quickly: "Get in touch with a few music platforms immediately. I need their homepage recommendation slots, the highest level that Starlight can get!"
"Alright... Congratulations, Ms. Zhao."
It seemed that the person on the other end knew what had happened.
Zhao Jue chuckled, "Thank you. You guys in the resources department need to step up your support too. After all, this is only the initial ranking."
The initial ranking does not represent the final ranking.
The fight will go on for another 29 days.
But once a big company like Starlight has the top three spot on the first day, there's basically no chance of capsizing. If worse comes to worst, they still have the "Nine for One" strategy as a safety catch.
What's Nine for One?
Naturally, it's about allocating resources from the other nine songs and giving as much exposure as possible to "Life Like A Summer Flower". This is a strategy that many small companies employ when they have one song exceeding expectations.
Generally, Starlight wouldn't need to use this strategy. After all, Starlight is not just any small company.
Having made the first call, and as if she thought of something else, Zhao Jue made another call: "Ol' Zhou, does the composition department still need more people?"
"Stop messing around, Little Zhao."
A stiff male voice came over the phone: "The company forced me to recruit a bunch of newbie composers all for the sake of Newcomers Chart. Is this a numbers game? Don't give me more trouble, my department is already overstaffed."
Zhao Jue smiled: "Not even Xian Yu?"
Suddenly, the attitude on the other end did a swift 180-degree turn: "Ms. Zhao, where is Xian Yu? I can personally sign him on. Our composition department has been short of people lately!"
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