Chapter 14

In the end, Sister Fang had to step in and contact Director Shao’s staff again before Qiao Yanli could re-add the contact with the avatar of green mountains and clear waters.

Only after asking did he learn that the other side had questioned how fast he claimed to write songs, assuming he was deliberately playing a prank.

Qiao Yanli did not know whether to laugh or cry at that.

He knew that for some singers, songwriting was an agonizing process. They might not finish a single track in ten days or two weeks, often needing the dead of night to find inspiration, with some even preferring to write on the toilet, relying on all sorts of bizarre rituals. But for him, the process had always been smooth. Once inspiration struck, it flowed naturally from his fingertips; he could write anytime, anywhere.

Just like when he wrote web novels, his typing speed started at six to seven thousand words an hour. Readers often called him a tentacle monster^[1] or a typewriter come to life because of his massive daily word count.

Meanwhile, other authors with equally thorough outlines and chapter breakdowns would nurse a cup of tea and a cigarette all day just to squeeze out three thousand words.

But could anyone really blame him for that?

He did not understand why others struggled so much either!

Director Shao was said to have an eccentric temper. Every actor who had ever worked on his set remained tight-lipped about it afterward. As for the crew around him, it went without saying; rumors constantly circulated about staff members breaking down under his bizarre, demanding requests.

The theme song Director Shao wanted this time had stumped many people. According to Sister Fang, numerous singers in the industry had submitted tracks only to be rejected. Even Heavenly King Xu^[2], who had collaborated with Director Shao before, failed to meet his standards. It was easy to imagine how difficult things must be for the crew.

So Qiao Yanli took the initiative to say: 【I can give it a try first. You can make your decision after you hear it.】

The other side hesitated for a long time, perhaps persuaded, before finally sending over the requirements.

Supreme Good Like Water^[3]: 【A relatively pessimistic song. The theme needs to be deeply despairing, completely devoid of hope, yet simultaneously filled with hope. Figure it out yourself.】

Q: 【Anything else?】

Supreme Good Like Water: 【You haven’t signed a confidentiality agreement yet, so I can’t disclose anything else to you.】

Q: 【…?】

Supreme Good Like Water: 【Is that not enough? You can’t write it from just that?】

Qiao Yanli set his phone down, stared blankly up at the twinkling constellation of stars for a while, and then picked it back up.

Q: 【I’ll give it a shot.】

After heading inside, his mind remained full of the client’s bizarre brief: what did it mean to be full of hope yet filled with despair, and how was he supposed to write a complete song knowing nothing about the actual subject?

Countless scattered thoughts flashed through his head, yet he could not grasp a single coherent spark of inspiration. Even after returning to his room, he was still turning it over in his mind.

To understand Director Shao’s vision, he even pulled up one of the director’s past films to watch.

“Xiao Qiao.”

Tu Sheng pushed the door open and walked in to find Qiao Yanli with deeply furrowed brows, doodling and scribbling across a blank sheet of paper. A film was playing halfway through on the tablet before him, though it clearly had not captured its viewer’s attention. Whatever Qiao Yanli was doing, he had not even noticed Tu Sheng enter.

“Director Yang just came by to tell us that we’re heading to an art museum tomorrow to fulfill Shen Fei’s dream.” He asked curiously, “What are you writing?”

Qiao Yanli finally snapped out of his daze and paused the movie.

“Nothing much,” he said. “I’m writing a song.”

“Writing a song?” Tu Sheng asked enthusiastically. “What kind of song? Can I hear it?”

Gathering the messy drafts in front of him, Qiao Yanli said dejectedly, “I haven’t figured it out yet.”

“What kind of song are you trying to write?”

Qiao Yanli described the client’s brief to him. Upon hearing it, Tu Sheng fell silent as well.

He said dryly, “The way you singers think is… truly twisted.”

Qiao Yanli: “…”

No, I’m not the one who’s twisted.

Tu Sheng knew nothing about songwriting. Even though he wanted to help, there was nothing he could do, so he could only offer a few words of encouragement.

Before leaving, his eyes accidentally caught what was on Qiao Yanli’s tablet, and he chuckled. “Are you watching 《The Oak Tree》?”

“You’ve seen it too, Teacher Tu?”

Tu Sheng burst out laughing. “You didn’t recognize me? I actually played a role in it.”

Qiao Yanli genuinely had not noticed. He dragged the progress bar toward the end, and to his surprise, he really did find Tu Sheng’s name in the credits.

He had played an extremely minor character with only a couple of brief appearances and a single line of dialogue. It was an early film of Director Shao’s, made so long ago that Tu Sheng had still been a fresh-faced youth at the time, looking quite different from how he did now. Unless he pointed it out himself, average viewers would rarely notice.

“This is a Director Shao movie, after all!” Tu Sheng’s interest was piqued, and he boasted with relish, “Back then, I hadn’t been acting long and was still doing bit parts across various sets. The actor for this role had a sudden emergency, so they needed a replacement. I was just an extra on set, but Director Shao needed someone on short notice. Because my age was about right, he pointed at me to give it a shot, and who would’ve thought I’d actually get it!”

For an extra drifting between film sets, landing a speaking role in a major director’s film was a tremendous achievement, something worth bragging about for a very long time.

“You have no idea how strict Director Shao has always been. No telling how many people he made cry on set.” Tu Sheng lowered his voice to gossip. “Watching it with my own eyes back then scared me to death. For a long time after that, I didn’t dare audition for any of his movies.”

Qiao Yanli looked thoughtful.

He had heard a little about Director Shao’s temper and personality, but since he had little contact with the film and television industry, he had never looked into it deeply.

Thinking about the client’s brief, and wanting to better understand Director Shao’s mindset, he asked curiously, “What else?”

Gossiping was human nature, and seeing how interested he was, Tu Sheng’s enthusiasm grew.

Right under the watchful eye of the room’s surveillance camera, the two of them secretly traded gossip.

…

Early morning.

Xiao Yu pushed open the door with utmost caution, stepping lightly for fear of making too much noise and disturbing the person inside.

He was Director Shao’s assistant, responsible for taking care of his daily routine. A month ago, progress on the theme song for Director Shao’s film had stalled, failing to produce a single satisfactory track. Ever since, Xiao Yu had been walking on eggshells, terrified of making a mistake and drawing the director’s wrath.

As soon as the door swung open, clear, melodious singing drifted out from within. Director Shao was reclining on a cane chair, his eyes narrowed and his brow relaxed, clearly in a very good mood.

The moment he heard the singing, Xiao Yu breathed a sigh of relief.

Yesterday, he had spotted a song trending on the hot search and played it a couple of times, never expecting Director Shao to overhear it. He had braced himself for another explosive outburst, only for Director Shao to ask who was singing instead.

Consequently, ever since last night, Qiao Yanli’s song had been playing on repeat throughout Director Shao’s residence. The director had likely been so pleased with it that not only had his temper flare-ups dwindled, but he had even instructed Xiao Yu to contact Qiao Yanli’s studio, seemingly planning to invite him to sing the movie’s theme song.

I wonder if Qiao Yanli can pull it off… Xiao Yu thought absently.

Suddenly, a chime rang out.

It was the notification sound from a phone.

Director Shao immediately picked up his phone.

It was his chat screen with Qiao Yanli. The young man had sent over a demo.

Director Shao’s good mood vanished without a trace, his brow instantly furrowing. He had stern features to begin with, and the moment his face hardened, it struck fear into anyone looking at him. When he actually lost his temper, even actors who had worked with him multiple times would shrink back three Li in terror.

Even though he had thoroughly enjoyed listening to Qiao Yanli’s song over the past two days, that did not mean he was satisfied with Qiao Yanli as a person.

The issue stemmed from yesterday when he contacted Qiao Yanli, only for the other party to boast shamelessly that he could write a song in a matter of hours.

As a fellow artist, he firmly believed that meticulous work yielded fine craftsmanship. In his own filmmaking, he constantly strove for perfection, fiercely disapproving of trading quality for speed, and held nothing but contempt for the slipshod, thoughtless movies flooding the market.

Even though he had agreed to let Qiao Yanli give it a shot, deep down he had never believed Qiao Yanli could produce anything that would satisfy him.

Tapping on the file, he grumbled angrily to his assistant, “Young people these days are simply too impetuous. They clearly have talent, yet they refuse to apply it properly, thinking of nothing but taking shortcuts. It’s only been one night; what kind of decent song could he possibly write!”

Having already listened to him complain the previous night and understanding the whole story, the assistant merely nodded in meek agreement, not daring to chime in for fear of stoking Director Shao’s anger even further.

The demo contained only the instrumental track without lyrics, which could only be written once the movie’s plot was known. It opened with a piano melody, sparse and delicate, yet already conveying a profound and desolate loneliness.

Heavy, solitary, and filled with boundless despair.

Director Shao scoffed coldly. “I knew it. Nothing special.”

Then, a violin wove its way in. It retained the somber, sorrowful undertone, yet the collision of the two instruments brought forth an unexpected nuance. It was as if a tiny, fragile spark had flared to life, only to be smothered by earth-shattering frost and snow, tiny yet struggling fiercely to burn.

Listening from the side, the assistant marveled inwardly.

He did not understand music theory, knowing only whether something sounded good or bad. But Qiao Yanli’s composition undoubtedly fell into the category of sounding exceptionally good.

Over the past two days, Xiao Yu had been surfing the web and secretly keeping up with 《Ideal Times》, keeping close track of the shifting online opinions. He had long known that Qiao Yanli was talented, capable of writing his own songs and singing with remarkable emotional resonance. Even so, he had never imagined that in just a single night, Qiao Yanli could produce such an outstanding piece of music.

Sadly, it still failed to pass the exacting Director Shao’s standards.

Then again, that was only to be expected. Heavenly King Xu had collaborated with Director Shao several times, yet the song he submitted this time had still earned him a brutal chewing out from Director Shao. The director’s standards had always been perverse in their severity, and as his assistant, Xiao Yu bore the brunt of it, wondering when this dark cloud would finally pass.

Pitying himself in his heart, Xiao Yu also wondered whether Qiao Yanli would finish the song. If he ever released it, Xiao Yu would gladly add it to his playlist.

Before he realized it, the track finished playing.

Xiao Yu felt an itch to listen to it once more, but he did not dare bring it up.

Seeing Director Shao’s tightly furrowed brow, he took the initiative to pull out his phone and asked, “I’ll go contact Qiao Yanli’s studio and turn him down.”

Director Shao suddenly whipped his head around, his eyebrows bristling as he glared furiously at him. “Turn what down?!”

“Huh?” Xiao Yu was a little bewildered. “Aren’t you dissatisfied with it?”

Director Shao’s brows arched even higher, his gaze growing sharper with displeasure.

“When did I ever say it wasn’t good?!”

“Huh?!”

“Go contact Qiao Yanli’s studio right now, get the contract signed, and tell him to finish this song as fast as he can.”

Xiao Yu was left even more dumbfounded.

Finding his lingering presence an eyesore, Director Shao shot him an even more irritated glare. Only then did Xiao Yu snap out of it, clutching his phone as he scurried outside in a frantic rush to find the legal team and draw up the contract.

Xiao Yu gripped his phone tightly, desperately holding back the exclamation threatening to burst from his mouth.

Whoo-hoo!

Freedom!

Qiao Yanli is awesome!

Only after he left did Director Shao pick up his phone, tap the screen, and replay the demo.

The familiar piano music echoed through the room once more.

Director Shao listened to it once, then listened to it again.

He grumbled under his breath, “Just one night… He just got lucky. Hmph!”

By the time he finished his sixth listen and started the seventh, Xiao Yu, who had just dashed out, tiptoed back in and held a phone out in front of him.

Director Shao scowled and glanced down-

One of the trending searches read: #Qiao Yanli and Tu Sheng Caught Red-Handed#

Director Shao said, “What is this?”

Puzzled, he tapped on it.

Beneath the topic was a video, a clip from last night’s episode of the variety show 《Ideal Times》 where Qiao Yanli and Tu Sheng were huddled together, gossiping about him.

It was nothing more than how awful his temper was, which was already common knowledge.

The funniest part was that both of them had gotten so carried away that they completely forgot they were on camera. Tu Sheng had been gesticulating wildly as he gossiped until he suddenly realized the camera was pointed right at them. Both of them turned in unison, their expressions freezing in an instant.

They looked just like students caught slacking off by their homeroom teacher.

The comment section below was a sea of “hahahaha.”

The subject of the gossip, Director Shao: “…”

Director Shao puffed his beard and glared: Did they think he wouldn’t… he…

The music still playing drifted into his ears.

…Forget it!