Accompanied by cheerful music, Xu Lan started singing the words of the first verse,
“Knowing that loving you has no result, I’m still crazy for hoping you will give me sweetness. I’m powerless and you’re out of my reach. All fantasies are written into the song. I want to fly with you, fall with you, have empathy with you and have fun with you. I’m desired to do a lot of things with you, but only miss you.”
The lyrics completely struck a chord in Xu Lan’s heart. In her view, love was sweet and romantic. Unfortunately, it backfired. Since Wei Chengdong’s family was in poor condition, Xu Lan’s parents did not agree to the marriage. Although she knew that they had to undergo a lot of hardships, she struggled to continue to be in love with him.
The lyrics and melody seemed to tell the love she expected in her mind. The future she pursued was written in the song. She still had many things to do and hoped to try them all in the future.
After she finished this line, Wei Chengdong took the microphone and began to sing,
“I profess the love across the screen and the ambiguity is like honey surrounding my heart. I’m spellbound by your dalliance and willing to give up everything just for your beauty. I even didn’t introduce my ex-girlfriend to friends but always mentioned you…”
Wei Chengdong had a deep understanding of this song. He knew that this song was about an online love story, in which although the hero realized his love would end indecisively, he still fell madly in it for he was fascinated by his lover and wanted to describe this feeling through his fantasy of love.
After finished singing, the two were silent for a moment, enjoying the feeling brought by the song.
“Thump, thump, thump…”
Suddenly struck a sound of knocking, which brought them back to earth.
Wei Chengdong walked to open the door and saw a take-out man who was breathless in the doorway.
“Oh, elder brother, I’ve called you many times. Why didn’t you answer? I came up on foot!”
“Ah?” Wei Chengdong’s face became red. Seeing the take-out man with tears, he felt a little guilty and said awkwardly, “I’m really sorry, my cell phone just ran out of power and turned off. It was my fault for forgetting charging it, I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”
“Hey, come on, remember to give me a good comment.” The take-out man waved his hand and turned to leave.
“Okay, okay, I’ll do it.” Wei Chengdong nodded repeatedly.
Wei Chengdong took a whole-chicken set and put it on the computer table, saying, “Let’s eat it first and have a look at the contract.”
“Okay.” Xu Lan replied with a smile.
The two checked the contract while eating the midnight snack which improved their living standards.
“Full copyright transfer? Isn’t it? Am I right?” Wei Chengdong almost gushed out the mouthful of chicken steak he had just eaten.
Songs of full copyright transfer were still very rare. Generally, the songwriters would sign sharecropping contracts, especially the songwriters who could produce such a masterpiece.
“Yes, you’re right.” Xu Lan did notice the following information and said painfully, “Look at the following items, this song costs 200,000 yuan!”
“Ah?” 200,000 yuan?” Wei Chengdong froze. Then his face was permeated with bitterness and he said, “We, we don’t have 200,000 yuan!”
They had only about 120,000 yuan in savings after struggling for several years. Although their monthly salary was relatively high, they could not make up their living expenses and music expenses!
As known to all, living in a fast-paced city, earning 5,000 yuan a month was not enough to do anything at all. They only just managed to survive because food, clothing, housing, and transportation all cost money.
“Then what should we do? Why don’t… I borrow money from my friends?” Wei Chengdong said hesitantly. He really didn’t want to give up this song.
“Your friend? Forget it. Even if you borrow from them, we also don’t have enough money,” Xu Lan said, shaking her head.
His friends were not affluent men and were all ordinary people, who could lend him three or five thousand yuan. However, it was impossible for them to lend him about 100,000 yuan at once.
“Oh, my parents don’t have much money either. They can give me some money but it’s still not enough.” Wei Chengdong stopped eating the chicken steak, wearing a sad look.
“My parents will definitely not give me money.” Xu Lan made a wry mouth. Her parents did not like Wei Chengdong and it was absolutely impossible for her to ask for money. Definitely impossible.
After thinking for a while, Xu Lan compressed her lips and said, “Why don’t, why don’t we contact Mr. Hanyang first? Ask him if he can make an exception for us?”
“How, how can he make an expectation?” Wei Chengdong said with a wry smile, “The price was clearly marked. Moreover, in my opinion, this song is really worth it.”
“I don’t mean to bargain with him.” Xu Lan sighed softly and said, “I mean that we can contact him and ask if we can pay in installments, just like buying an apartment. We give the down payment and then pay him the rest within this year.”
“Well, just ask him, I’ll add him as friends.” Wei Chengdong’s eyes brightened.
He found Hanyang’s QQ account on the mailbox and added him as friends. He suspected that Mr. Hanyang might rest considering the time, but Hanyang passed his application after two minutes, which made Wei Chengdong’s heart beat faster.
He glanced at Xu Lan and opened the dialog box under her gaze, typing a sentence,
“Hello, Mr. Hanyang. We have appreciated your song and it’s really great.”
“Mmm.”
“By the way, what’s the name of this song?” Wei Chengdong asked.
The title of this song?
Zhang Han was astonished, glancing at the email. He found that he had forgotten to change the file name to the title of this song, so he answered,
“Wasted Love.”
“Wasted Love? This title also has an artistic conception. Mr. Hanyang is really talented. Thank you for your song and thank you for giving us this opportunity.” Wei Chengdong typed excitedly.
“You’re welcome.”
“Get to the point.” Xu Lan found Mr. Hanyang was not interested in chatting, so she said to Wei Chengdong.
Wei Chengdong nodded, feeling a little embarrassed and helpless. Finally, he typed some words in the dialog box,
“Mr. Hanyang, your song is very, very good and it’s also worth the price of 200,000 yuan, but we don’t have enough money now. We can make up about 150,000 yuan if borrow money from others. So can we give you 150,000 yuan first? I’ll give you the rest of the money in six months. Okay?”
Having sent out this passage, both Wei Chengdong and Xu became nervous.
They focused on the screen unblinkingly, being eager for Hanyang to grant their request.
The two counted the seconds and could even hear their own heartbeat after waiting for a few seconds. Eventually, a message came from the dialog box. They froze for a while and then became thrilled. At last, appreciation mingled with admiration and other complicated emotions. The changes of their mood were just because of the words Hanyang typed on the screen,
“So just give me 100,000 yuan.”
The few simple words, in their view, revealed that Mr. Hanyang was a natural and unrestrained songwriter who regarded money as dirt.
What he typed made Wei Chengdong and Xu Lan excited. They had never expected Mr. Hanyang was such a generous and easy-going man.
“No!”
Xu Lan calmed down and glanced at Wei Chengdong, saying in a dignified tone, “Although Mr. Hanyang is so generous, we can’t do this. As you said, the song is worth 200,000 yuan. Let’s pay 100,000 yuan first and give another 100,000 yuan within half a year.”
“Okay.” Wei Chengdong nodded heavily and typed back a passage, explaining their intention that they insisted on paying 200,000 yuan.
Zhang Han smiled after seeing this and answered,
“Whatever.”
This song was finalized casually. Zhang Han, however, had a request that the song he wrote should be published on the internet the next day.
After all, Zhang Han just wanted to enrich his music library.
At the same time, in a warm-toned apartment, a young beautiful girl named Meidou was lying lazily in bed, holding a cell phone and wearing a high-quality headset, listening to the latest popular songs while humming.
All of a sudden, the phone rang. Meidou turned on it with curiosity and suddenly sat up,
“Wow! How fast he is.”
Seeing the email sent by Hanyang, she clicked in a hurry. After seeing the title of the song, she was slightly shocked,
“9420? A name with pure numbers? It’s very special, why isn’t it called ‘Love You’? However, it sounds good and attractive. Listen to the song first! Ha, ha, ha.”
Meidou opened the accompaniment and other documents amusedly.
After glancing over them several times, she could not help recording it with software and tried to sing it again to appreciate it.
She knew it was a fine song, but she was afraid that she could not sing it well.
“Hum, the annotation says I should sing it in a sweet and reedy voice. Ahem, then I’ll lower my voice.”
She cleared her throat and began to sing along with the accompaniment,
“Walking hand in hand in the street of happiness, we snuggle to each other when the breeze slowly blows. The eyes with love are filled with enthusiastic. This love is like a burning fire and the hot flame is like a blooming rose. Regardless of the time, we continue to intoxicate…”
“About us… uh-huh, I just want to say… uh-oh, uh-oh, in a nutshell… gee, gee, is to love you… al, al, fly with me… al, al, nature is a matchmaker… day by day, we are all suited to each other!”
After finishing the song, she listened to it quickly.
She gradually became stunned while listening, then she widened her mouth and said with an incredible look,
“Oh, my god. My voice can be so sweet!”
In Shang Jing City.
In a well-decorated large room, Dongtian, a musician, was staring at his computer screen, with his stereo playing the accompaniment sent by Hanyang. After a while, he installed the equipment and sang in a low voice,
“I wanna see you again, all day and night. The hustle and bustle blindfold my eyes. Would you talk about that day one more time? The girl holding a box, and the sweating guy. And I know all those summers won’t come back just like you and me…”
After finished singing, he was totally absorbed in the song. He was silent for a while and finally spit out a few words, “Bridge of Peace…”
On the other side of Shangjing City, in an apartment, Xue Ge, the musician, was singing a song affectionately,
“Maybe I can still see your news on the Internet, maybe the songs I sang are saved in your cell phone, maybe our love was buried in your heart and became a secret, maybe we think of each other at the same time. I have told myself several times that our love has become a memory…”
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