Chapter 32: Your Influence Is Too Strong

Chapter 32: Your Influence Is Too Strong

Chen Feng left the company, but he still didn’t go home. Instead, he wandered around outside for the whole day.

First, he went online and quickly scanned the news.

As expected, Q Music had already started building hype.

On Q Music’s official page, a female silhouette appeared.

Beneath the silhouette were the words, “A mysterious newcomer’s debut single is about to be released. The strongest newcomer in history, a newcomer so strong it’s hard to believe she’s new. All eyes are on her. Stay tuned and listen to the celestial voice.”

Chen Feng, of course, recognized this silhouette. The photo was taken at the Q Music headquarters just the day before yesterday when he accompanied Zhong Lei.

A big company indeed, fully equipped in every aspect.

However, the advertising copy from Q Music slightly surprised him. It was as inflated and flamboyant as ever.

Fortunately, it was Zhong Lei. She could really handle it.

If it were a weaker newcomer, they would truly be set up for a fall.

It wasn’t that the Q Music operations staff, led by Ma Tianhua, had bad intentions. This was just their consistent style—loving grandeur and boasting, never knowing what modesty or humility meant.

Blame it on this era being so restless.

If you don’t hype things up enough, the audience won’t buy it.

Apart from the front-page banner on the Q Music app, entries related to Zhong Lei frequently appeared in many other interfaces throughout the app.

Truly worthy of a B-tier resource. Such intensity was really fierce.

Seeing this overwhelming promotion, Chen Feng couldn’t help but think to himself, if B-tier is this strong, what must A-tier be like?

He figured it out quickly.

Although these resources looked intimidating, they were all actually within the scope of Q Music’s internal channels.

To put it bluntly, for these resources, Q Music didn’t spend money externally. The costs were all advertising fees within their own channels.

So, the content of A-tier resources wasn’t hard to guess: Q Music would use costly external resources.

In the eyes of ordinary users, that would mean all kinds of overwhelming press releases, or various armies of fake commenters whose authenticity was hard to distinguish, or even having the singer appear on major variety shows with the new song to build momentum.

That level of resource was, of course, not something Zhong Lei had now.

Hierarchy exists everywhere, always.

By the time he returned home, it was already past eight in the evening. The light in Zhong Lei’s room was still on. From inside came occasional soft humming, accompanied by two or three guitar chords.

Just from the initial listen, Chen Feng felt chills run down his spine.

Indeed, fierce!

It had only been two days since she came back, and she had already started writing songs.

Moreover, the chords she was playing already vaguely carried the flavor of “Night Has Grown Deep.”

Given a few more days, she would probably be able to develop the entire accompaniment for “Night Has Grown Deep.”

There are two modes for writing songs: one is writing the lyrics first, then composing the music; the other is composing the music first, then filling in the lyrics.

Zhong Lei could do both, which showed her accumulated skill had reached a considerable level.

Chen Feng took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

“Huh? What’s up?” After waiting a moment, Zhong Lei opened the door, looking slightly surprised.

She was wearing pajamas again, her hair slightly damp, looking a bit lazy.

Even though she wasn’t wearing any makeup, a good-looking person looks good no matter what.

Chen Feng turned his face away slightly, not wanting to look too much, and said, “I’ve been gathering inspiration outside these past two days. I wrote two more songs. I feel they really suit you.”

Zhong Lei was taken aback. “Ah? Two? I was wondering where you ran off to these past two days. So you went to write songs? And two at once.”

As a porter who had just started on this path, Chen Feng really didn’t dare look Zhong Lei in the eye.

After all, this was the original creator.

He continued looking to the side, his gaze drifting into Zhong Lei’s room, and replied, “Yes, two. I feel one of them suits you especially well. The other is actually not bad either. Can you lend me your guitar so I can play them for you?”

For anyone professionally involved in the music industry, their instrument is basically a forbidden zone; they would never let others touch it casually.

Everyone’s playing habits are different. For example, something as seemingly simple as a guitar: those screws that might seem meaningless to an outsider, if adjusted even slightly, can change the tension of the strings and subtly alter the guitar’s tuning.

Some people pluck the strings heavily, so they need the strings looser; some have a lighter touch, so they need them slightly tighter.

Chen Feng’s request, if placed in ancient times, would be somewhat like a flirtatious man asking a maiden, “Let me play with your feet.”

But after hesitating for a few seconds, Zhong Lei still agreed to Chen Feng’s seemingly overstepping request.

Fifteen minutes later…

Chen Feng’s fingers slid across the strings, playing the final note.

The music echoed repeatedly in the small room.

He looked at Zhong Lei, feeling somewhat nervous, unsure how she would react.

He had first played and sung “Monotony,” and the second song he played and sang was “Night Has Grown Deep.”

Zhong Lei was an insider. She could tell at once that the melody of “Night Has Grown Deep” was closely related to the tune she had just been humming.

So Chen Feng really couldn’t figure out what Zhong Lei was thinking, nor did he know if she would think he had plagiarized her.

Zhong Lei was sitting upright, her hands clasped together and resting on her legs.

Her eyes were closed, making it unclear whether she was deep in thought or savoring the music.

A long time passed before she finally opened her eyes.

Chen Feng asked, “So, what do you think?”

Zhong Lei first took a deep breath.

Chen Feng held his breath, his heart in his throat.

Suddenly, she gave a thumbs-up. “Amazing! You are too amazing!”

Her eyes were shining with strong light again, the look of someone delighted to find a kindred talent.

This meant she hadn’t realized the problem at all.

Chen Feng thought inwardly, Huh? Even though the outcome was good, it was somewhat different from what he had expected.

He scratched his head. “Ha, it’s… it’s alright. Just average amazing.”

“In such a short time—forget the songs for a moment—just talking about the progress in your playing skills, it’s really terrifying, you know? I started learning piano at four, began learning various instruments at seven, studied under many teachers, and had many classmates. But I’ve never seen anyone improve as fast as you have with the guitar. It’s only been a bit over a month, right? Your playing skill already gives me a feeling of great skill appearing effortless and natural. You are truly a genius!”

Zhong Lei exclaimed with genuine admiration.

Chen Feng’s old face flushed slightly.

A bit over a month?

You’re overthinking it.

Strictly speaking, I practiced hard for nearly two years in total within the dream, averaging over six hours of practice per day. That’s equivalent to ten years of hard practice for an ordinary person, okay?

You say my skill appears effortless and natural, which just means you clearly see that my skill ceiling is right here, doesn’t it?

He continued forcing humility. “I wouldn’t call it genius. It’s alright, just alright.”

Zhong Lei shook her head. “Don’t be modest. Going back to these two songs, actually, I don’t really have the qualification to evaluate you now. But I can still say for sure that the quality of these two songs is definitely not lower than ‘Dullness.’ Especially the second song, ‘Monotony.’ This really is the perfect song I’ve dreamed of!”

Chen Feng seized the opportunity to press forward. “You like ‘Monotony’? I intended this one for you to sing.”

“Actually, I like both. But if I can only choose one, I choose ‘Monotony.’ It’s a pity our money hasn’t come back yet, or I’d really want to buy both songs from you, sigh. You should sell one, at least to earn some more cash back, so we won’t be as hard up as when we went to Yucheng.”

Chen Feng nodded. “Then it’s settled. ‘Monotony’ is yours.”

“Mm!”

With the matter settled, Chen Feng finally gathered the courage to probe further.

“By the way, it seemed like you were humming a tune in your room earlier? Have you already started creating?”

Zhong Lei blushed slightly with embarrassment. “Yes, but my skills are still too immature. You might not believe it, but the tune I was humming just now was somewhat similar to your first song, ‘Night Has Grown Deep.'”

Chen Feng continued probing wildly. “Is it a coincidence?”

Zhong Lei shook her head. “No, it definitely isn’t a coincidence.”

Chen Feng started to feel uneasy.

But Zhong Lei didn’t notice Chen Feng’s shifting gaze and continued speaking on her own.

“It must be that I’m influenced too deeply by your musical style! So much so that my inspiration involuntarily drifts closer to yours. I’ve decided, no matter how ‘Dullness’ and ‘Monotony’ turn out in the end, I can’t casually sing songs you’ve written anymore.”

Chen Feng silently gave a thumbs-up.

You really are something else.

You found a great explanation for me.

Can’t be helped. My, Old Chen’s, influence really is just that strong.