8 Chapter 7: After Disaster Survivors_1


    Trantor: 549690339


    The ss group chat is just the tip of the iceberg.


    Compared to the small ss group, the campus forum of Qin Continent Art Academy is even livelier at the moment—


    “Neer 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 tforms.”


    “This song is surprisingly good.”


    “As aposition student, I’m here to support the senior as well. By the way, the senior is lucky, theposition of this song shows real depth.”


    “Both theposition 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 ising, 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 neer 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 ssroom.


    The first ss hasn’t started yet.


    But Lin Yuan had already started reading.


    However, the atmosphere this morning seemed different from usual. Instead of quietly ying with their phones as usual, the ssmates around him were chattering about something.


    Lin Yuan frowned slightly.


    Because this directly affected Lin Yuan’s reading efficiency.


    Of course, the topics these ssmates 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 neer season, listened to the song and even downloaded it. Now this song is so popr on the campus forum.” A girl mourns over her dark circles under her eyes.


    “The song is indeed good, the level ofposition is high, worthy of the term ‘Maestro’ we give to people in our line.”


    An eyesses-wearing guy nodded proudly.


    “Wake up, not everyposer deserves the honor of ‘Maestro’, with your level, even if you include your song as a gift to those neer singers, they wouldn’t want it.”


    “I admit theposition 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 bads.”


    “…”


    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 rxed, and he instantly forgave his ssmates for disturbing his studies.


    Just now that little girl said she had downloaded the song. With one song worth one dor, thepany 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 neer season, November 1st is destined to be a special day.


    Today.


    All entertainmentpanies in Qin involved in the neer season won’t be at ease until they see the neer chart officially open at noon.


    Even when the neer chart is revealed.


    If the performance of thepany’s neers does not meet the psychological expectations of the major entertainmentpanies, this low-pressure atmosphere mightst for a whole month—


    Until the end of the neer 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 rted to music!


    Mainly because thepany has not been performing well in promoting neers 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 thepany genuinely hopes that thepany can make aeback this year.


    Plus there’s a rumor in thepany:


    Chief Manager Zhao Jue has pledged before the higher-ups that a neer from thepany must rank in the top three in the neer 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-istion, not daring to look at her mobile phone or herputer, because she has no confidence in this year’s neers.


    “Beep beep beep beep…”


    Midnight eventually arrived.


    Today, the sound of the rm 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 herputer.


    She wasn’t the only one.


    The entirety of Starlight Entertainment, even the whole music-rted industry at this moment, had their full attention directed at the freshly updated official chart:


    The Neers Chart.


    When they saw the first name on the Neers chart, everyone simultaneously gave a simr sigh – a kind of strange simrity in their emotions –


    First ce on the Neers Chart:


    “It’s Love”, Singer: Qian Xingyu, Composer: Li Ran, Company: Sand Sea Entertainment.


    Downloads: 88.5k.


    In past years, various bigpanies would engage in a life-or-death struggle for the first position on the Neers Chart.


    But this year was different.


    The “neer” Qian Xingyu was too much of an anomaly.


    He made his debut just a month before the neer season by starring in the first drama of his life, rapidly gaining immense poprity and a substantial fanbase to boot.


    Who couldpete with such a “neer”?


    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 Neers 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 neers not making it to the top one hundred?


    What a joke, Starlight Entertainment is one of the top entertainmentpanies in Qin Continent. They have the privileged advantage of early resources. If a neer 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 herpany, which caused her brow to twitch a little.


    In the fifty-fifth position, Zhao Jue saw the second name from herpany, which deepened her frown.


    When she reached the twelfth spot, Zhao Jue had already seen the names of eightpany artists.


    The eleventh spot did not belong to anyone in thepany.


    Therefore, only two names remained.


    Did this mean Starlight Entertainment had managed to nab two ces 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 neer from herpany.


    Now, there was only one left.


    Eighth ce… Seventh ce… Sixth ce… Fifth ce…


    Finally.


    Zhao Jue found the name of the tenth artist.


    Third ce on the Neers 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 ce on the Neers 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 vi at home.


    Suddenly standing up from her seat, Zhao Jue dialed a number quickly: “Get in touch with a few music tforms immediately. I need their homepage rmendation slots, the highest level that Starlight can get!”


    “Alright… Congrattions, 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 bigpany like Starlight has the top three spot on the first day, there’s basically no chance of capsizing. If worsees 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 smallpanies employ when they have one song exceeding expectations.


    Generally, Starlight wouldn’t need to use this strategy. After all, Starlight is not just any smallpany.


    Having made the first call, and as if she thought of something else, Zhao Jue made another call: “Ol’ Zhou, does theposition department still need more people?”


    “Stop messing around, Little Zhao.”


    A stiff male voice came over the phone: “Thepany forced me to recruit a bunch of newbieposers all for the sake of Neers 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. Ourposition department has been short of peopletely!”