“Hanyang!” Meiqi’s tone became somewhat sharp. She scanned the whole room and said, “An unknown junior can write such a quintessential song. What about you? How many fine works have been written by you this year? Last year you wrote 20 excellent songs, but this year? You just wrote less than 10 songs in the major part of this year. Is this because you slack off in work or because your inspiration has dried up?”
Meiqi’s words made all the songwriters present drop their heads helplessly.
Some of senior songwriters retorted angrily.
“You’re wrong. If high-quality songs can be produced on a large scale, why do you still need us?”
“That’s right, we have never been idle in the company.”
“Director Mei, you know the difficulty of making fine songs. We really tried our best, but this kind of songs is still uncommon.”
The instance they spoke, Meiqi softened her position slightly. She could not do anything with them on account of their backgrounds. Those words only warned others. So Meiqi sighed softly and said, “I know. I’m just a little anxious to see that a person can write such a good song.”
This remark made other songwriters active.
“Elder sister Mei, Hanyang is just like winning the lottery. It’s reasonable for him to write a good song occasionally.”
“That’s right. Every songwriter present has more than three masterpieces.”
“Furthermore, no one has heard of Hanyang before and nobody knows where he comes from.”
“Ho ho, I’ve seen so many songwriters like him. Each of them wrote a relatively great song by accident, gaining popularity. The next song, however, will expose their weaknesses. We all concentrate on qualification. A songwriter without three high-quality songs isn’t a true songwriter and one can’t be called senior songwriter without 10 masterpieces. Director Mei, it’s just a song written by a nobody, you’d better not take it for granted.”
The crowd chatted for a while. What they said did reveal their bitterness and showed their seniority, inevitably mixed with some sarcastic remarks about Hanyang in the meantime.
“All right, all right, let’s stop this topic. Since everyone is so confident, I am waiting for your excellent songs.”
Meiqi clapped her hands and smiled, saying, “Let’s talk about a few recent events. First, Xu Ruoyu’s album is ready. She’ll participate in a commercial performance in the Harbour City in Eastern tomorrow and launch a press conference the day after tomorrow. This album will be on sale on the 15th. I wish Ruoyu a success.”
While speaking, Meiqi smiled. She took the lead and clapped her hands, making the people burst into thunderous applause.
Meiqi’s scanned the whole room, and suddenly she saw Zi Yan, who was indifferent, and Zhou Fei, who was seemingly defiant.
Deep in her eyes flashed a sneer and she said “Oh, by the way, it seems that Zi Yan’s album is almost ready as well. There will be a commercial performance in Victoria Harbor tomorrow and a press conference the day after tomorrow. Her album will be on sale on the 15th. I also hope that Zi Yan’s album can sell well.”
Meiqi also take the lead to clap after finishing speaking. But this time she clapped slowly and did not seem to mind.
Moreover, the applause was nearly halved, which was thin to the point of non-existence.
Xu Ruoyu leaked a mocking smile seeing this.
It seemed that people in the company were all perceptive. They knew she, Xu Ruoyu, was the one that the company intended to make great efforts to cultivate. While Zi Yan, ho ho.
She sneered inwardly, staring straight at Zi Yan with provocation.
Zi Yan ignored, but Zhou Fei was going to explode soon.
Especially when she heard others’ whispers, like “A washed-up star” and “Aren’t these two comparable with each other? Xu Ruoyu must win”.
.
A series of comments made Zhou Fei’s face sink down.
Seeing Zhou Fei’s expression, Meiqi smiled faintly and clapped her hands. “All right, today’s meeting is over. Let’s go to work.”
After the meeting, people left in succession.
In front of the conference room.
“Zi Yan, you’re really courageous.” Xu Ruoyu gave out a false smile and said, “Don’t you get yourself into trouble that you release your album on the same day as me?”
“Trouble?” Zi Yan’s expression was glacial as always. She cast her eyes on Xu Ruoyu and replied coldly, “I don’t think so.”
Having finished her words, Zi Yan took the lead to her office. Zhou Fei mercilessly glared at Xu Ruoyu, saying dismissively.
“Don’t you know how you get the resources?”
Even left no chance for Xu Ruoyu and other people to refute, she strode out directly.
“You!” Xu Ruoyu choked with anger.
Although people almost knew that she was Li Cheng’s “toy”, no one would taunt her face to face. After all, “hidden rules” were everywhere and people were used to them.
It was her manager who laughed scornfully and shouted, “I indeed don’t know where you get the confidence as a washed-up star!”
After hearing what she said, Zi Yan, not far ahead, froze with anger in her eyes. But she didn’t say anything at last but left coldly.
The pressure of work and those sarcastic words exhausted Zi Yan both physically and mentally. She was desired to have a rest, leaving the life of intrigue. However, she could not. The obsession in her heart kept her going.
Even when returning to the restaurant for dinner at night, Zi Yan smiled less than usual.
The album was about to be released. In these days, Zi Yan seemed to be under more and more pressure.
At nine o’clock in the next morning.
Still in the conference room of Royal Entertainment Company.
There were more people at the conference room than yesterday. Just like yesterday, they were sitting in chairs quietly listening to a song.
“Now our relationship is ambiguous anyway, so you don’t have to feel embarrassed to find a match. People who have paid line up to discuss on experience…”
After the song was played several times, Meiqi turned off the music.
“It’s another masterpiece. This song called Ambiguity was still written by the person named Hanyang. How do you feel after listening?” Meiqi said slowly.
“Er… Why it’s the pick of songs again?” A senior songwriter said doubtfully, “Did he wrote this before?”
“I think so. It seems that the person is somewhat talented for he produced two masterpieces.”
“The two masterpieces, however, don’t mean anything. Maybe he wrote hundreds of songs and picked out two of them.”
“I think so…”
However, on the third day, namely on the 14th.
At nine o’clock in the morning, there were more people in the conference room, including all the songwriters in the company.
“Like the waves crashed into the hills. How long can you hold on? He may only praise you and then return. How long can the delicate and charming flowers last before you come? Or was broken by the poet and sad to change the song…”
“It’s another fine song.” Meiqi was solemn, frowning sightly and saying, “There appeared three masterpieces in three days. I can imagine how popular his concert will be tomorrow. In the meantime, Xu Ruoyu’s song will be released. As a song of the same period, being defeated by others also shows the company has no strength! Do you understand?”
“What can we do? We’re also very desperate!”
“Exactly. Hanyang must be another name of a famous songwriter. Otherwise, how could it be possible for him to produce three songs of such high quality?”
“Yes, all of the masterpieces were created with painstaking effort. These three songs have definitely been polished for a long time.”
“…“
“Enough!” Meiqi thumped on the table, frowned and said, “I give you another month. If you can’t create songs of the same grade, you know what the consequence is!”
“Moreover.” Meiqi scanned the songwriters present and said slowly, “I’ve already communicated with top executives about this matter. They only said that our company doesn’t feed idle persons. I think you understand what it means. Today’s meeting is over!”
Many songwriters went out, sighing. It was acknowledged that it was difficult to produce fine songs.
A good song not only depended on its quality, but also was related to market’s direction and fortune. Who could create songs of the same grade as those three songs within a month?
The meetings in these three days let all the people in the company talk about this matter.
“Have you heard the three really nice songs sung by Qianqian?”
“I’ve heard them many times, which let me cycle them. Cool.”
“Do you know since these three songs were all written by a person named Hanyang, elder sister Meiqi held three meetings in three consecutive days. She was angry and upbraided the company’s songwriters.”
…
Not only the ordinary employees of the company talked about it, but other singers were affected by it.
In Zi Yan’s office.
“Elder Sister Yan, I find those three songs’ views and comments has surpassed many previous popular songs. As a song of the same period, I think we’ll be greatly affected.” Zhou Fei said with a sigh.
“Nothing can match.” Zi Yan nodded with deep agreement. The level of the songs even convinced Zi Yan.
“However, Xu Ruoyu is more affected. The company gives her so many resources but nobody expected that a talented songwriter appeared. The effect of her songs will be much less under the comparison, so we have an opportunity to surpass her.” Zhou Fei thought for a while with a flash of excitement on her face.
“Mmm.” Zi Yan gently nodded. She had two goals of this album. One was let her former fans see the news that Zi Yan returned; the other was to defeat Xu Ruoyu, whose mocking was vivid in her mind.
“Well, I don’t know who’s Hanyang. He’s really talented.” Zhou Fei shook her head, glanced at the clock and said, “Elder Sister Yan, we have to prepare for the press conference.”
“Okay.” Zi Yan nodded and walked out of the office with Zhou Fei.
On the other side, Zhang Han and Mengmeng were watching cartoons on the first floor of the restaurant, which gave the place a wonderfully homely character. But at this time, two special guests were about to come to the restaurant.
“Lord Tang, here we are.” Scorpion drove in front of the restaurant and said coldly.
