Chapter 321: Celebration Banquet

“Cheers!”

As soon as Zhang Lan raised her glass, the others followed suit.

The two new songs released by the Music Studio had both been well received. For a newly established studio like theirs, it was an excellent start.

Halfway through the meal, the basement door was suddenly knocked on.

“I’ll get it.”

Hearing the knock, Zhang Lan quickly ran to the door.

“Xiaorou, what took you so long?”

Seeing Shen Rou standing at the entrance, Zhang Lan immediately took her arm affectionately.

“Sorry, I got caught up with some work and ended up running late.”

Shen Rou tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and apologized with a hint of guilt.

That morning, Zhang Lan had invited her to come by after work to celebrate. But in the afternoon, President Chen had assigned her the task of collecting information on club members. Wanting to finish it quickly, she ended up working overtime.

Of course, the overtime wasn’t done at the company. President Chen had made it clear that, aside from positions that required night shifts, no one was allowed to work overtime.

So after getting off work, she had gone to a Nanhe Coffee Shop, finished her task there, and then rushed over.

“Come on in.”

Hearing her explanation, Zhang Lan didn’t press further. She pulled Shen Rou inside with a joyful smile.

“Xiaorou, the two songs we uploaded to the music platform are doing really well! One of them has already made it into the Top 100 of the New Song Chart. It’s currently at number 96, and its popularity is still rising. It might climb even higher!”

“How about that? As a shareholder in our Music Studio, you’re about to start making money in your sleep.”

Seeing Zhang Lan’s excitement, Shen Rou couldn’t help but feel happy too.

But it wasn’t the prospect of passive income that made her smile.

What truly made her happy was that her good friend was finally chasing her dream of making music—and doing it successfully.

Back in school, she had known how passionate Zhang Lan was about music. Now, seeing her finally stepping onto that path and doing so well, how could she not be thrilled?

When they reached the dining table in the center of the basement, the other members of the Music Studio greeted her warmly.

As Zhang Lan’s friend and an investor in the Music Studio, she naturally deserved their respect.

“Come, let’s toast to our investor!”

Zhang Lan raised her glass with a cheerful shout.

The rest of the team lifted their glasses as well.

Shen Rou smiled and joined them, though since she had an online class later that night, she opted for a soft drink instead of alcohol.

Zhang Lan didn’t push her to drink. She knew Shen Rou’s personality, and she also knew she had class later.

“Xiaorou, besides the two songs we’ve released, we already have ideas for new ones. I believe we’ll be creating again very soon.”

“Congratulations, that’s great news!”

Shen Rou offered her heartfelt congratulations.

A hotpot meal, a celebration.

The evening soon drew to a close. Seeing that it was getting late, Shen Rou left the basement and returned to her dormitory. After taking a shower, she began preparing for her online class.

Because of her involvement with the Music Studio, Zhang Lan no longer lived in the dorms. Shen Rou was now the only one left there.

But come July, when her internship ended, she would have to move out too.

After all, the school dorms weren’t a permanent arrangement.

It was about time to start looking for a new place.

Shen Rou thought to herself that if she waited until moving day to start searching, it would be cutting it too close.

She glanced at her phone. It was almost time for class, so she sat down at her desk, turned on her computer, and waited.

She was currently studying German. Whether or not she’d use it in the future, learning another language could only be a good thing.

…

The next day.

NNG Gaming Club.

Yao Beiguo sat nervously in the lounge. He was here to apply for a supervisor position, but he had already been waiting for over half an hour with no word.

After such a long wait, he was beginning to lose hope.

Sigh…

Yao Beiguo let out a helpless sigh. This was already the sixth gaming club he had applied to. The previous five had all rejected him.

Their reason? He lacked the necessary skills.

But why did they say that?

It was because he had worked at four different gaming clubs, and all four had eventually failed—either going bankrupt or being sold off due to poor performance.

But was the club’s failure really his fault?

When he joined those clubs, their performance was already subpar.

He had believed that his arrival could turn things around, that he could breathe new life into the struggling teams.

But the club owners, seeing that the business wasn’t profitable, had already made up their minds to pull out.

Without financial backing, the clubs couldn’t recruit stronger professional players. With weak team members and no resources to improve, the clubs inevitably declined further.

All four clubs had collapsed for essentially the same reason. Bankruptcy or transfer was only a matter of time.

He had tried to save them all, but every attempt ended in failure.

Still, was it entirely his fault?

As a club manager, he did bear some responsibility.

But definitely not all of it.

When it came time to assign blame, the owners—who held the ultimate authority—were never held accountable.

Down below, the professional players and coaches had all fallen silent, turning into invisible shadows in the room.

In the end, all the blame for the failure was pinned on him—the manager.

It was precisely because of this that all five clubs he interviewed with had rejected him.

They claimed he lacked the necessary skills, but the real reason was clear: he had overseen the downfall of four gaming clubs in a row. It was considered bad luck.

Sigh.

Now, standing in front of the tightly shut door of the meeting room, Yao Beiguo already knew what the outcome would be.

What he couldn’t understand was, if they were going to reject him, why not just say it outright? Why leave him hanging here for over an hour?

He was tempted to just walk away.

But deep down, he still held onto a sliver of hope.

Time ticked by, minute after minute.

Just as Yao Beiguo was starting to grow restless, the meeting room door finally swung open.

A middle-aged man in a suit walked in, wearing an apologetic expression.

“Sorry about that. There was an emergency meeting, and I completely forgot about you.”

“No worries. Work comes first.”

Yao Beiguo forced a smile and stood up, facing the man who had just entered.

“So… about the interview result?”

“I was just getting to that,” the man said. “After some discussion among our management team, I’m very sorry, but you don’t meet the requirements for our club.”

His tone was apologetic, but the smile on his face showed no trace of regret.