Chapter 9: One Rejection After Another

Chapter 9: One Rejection After Another

He took three or four half-days off from work, here and there, and kept going to the cultural and creative industrial park. He pushed himself to visit company after company for talks.

Unfortunately, he kept hitting walls everywhere.

People simply didn’t give him a chance to play the guitar. They only briefly asked if he had formal musical training or if he had any previous representative works.

Chen Feng didn’t want to lie. He honestly admitted he hadn’t studied music and had no representative works. And then, that was it.

There was nothing Chen Feng could do about it. Fake things couldn’t become real, and real things couldn’t be faked.

He truly didn’t have any arts-related educational background or work experience. Lying wouldn’t help, and he believed what he had done before had nothing to do with the songs he wanted to sell.

What I’m selling to you is the song, not me as a person. Why do you care what I did before?

What does it matter if I had previous works or not?

Did everyone have a representative work before they wrote their first song?

If a creator hasn’t produced any work yet, you just ignore them?

Then where am I supposed to get that first work from?

But he knew complaining and blaming fate was useless. Perhaps this was just reality.

Facing reality, accepting reality, and then overcoming it—everyone had to go through this.

…

Five minutes later.

“Mr. Chen, I’m really sorry. I know you have songs to sell, but the director is really busy. He’s on a business trip recently, and none of us here know much about judging music. So, please come back another time.”

The receptionist girl at this music production studio smiled sweetly and spoke very politely, but she just wouldn’t let him in.

“No, even if your director isn’t here, surely there must be someone who handles song submissions? My request isn’t high. Just listen to me play once. Is that so difficult?”

At that moment, a middle-aged woman walked over from the side. She looked like a small team leader. “Sir, our company has a public submission email. If you have confidence in your work, you can record a demo and send it to us. We have dedicated staff who review submissions regularly.”

Chen Feng was really at a loss.

He had never sold a song before and didn’t know the industry practices.

First, with his singing skills, the quality of any demo he recorded would definitely not be great.

Second, his songs didn’t come from a proper source. He only had those two. What if he foolishly handed them over and someone copied or adapted them? Who could he turn to for justice then?

“Alright, I’ll go then.”

Seeing that the matter couldn’t be settled, Chen Feng didn’t persist any longer. He turned around and took the elevator downstairs.

Chen Feng looked back at the building unwillingly.

Then he shook his head, took out his notebook, and drew a line through one company’s name on the list.

Originally, he had written down more than ten company names in the notebook. Now, only the last one remained unmarked.

This company was called Reed Studio. It wasn’t large in scale, but its business scope covered multiple areas including artist management, music production, and album release.

As a small company, being like a sparrow small yet complete in all vital organs, it relied precisely on its sole artist, the popular female singer in the country, Lu Wei.

Chen Feng hadn’t originally wanted to come to this company.

Lu Wei debuted very early. Although she was still young now, just twenty years old, she was already very famous.

In fact, Chen Feng might know Lu Wei better than she knew herself. In the future biography of Zhong Lei, Lu Wei was mentioned many times.

For a long time, Lu Wei and Zhong Lei were considered two shining stars of equal brilliance. But later, perhaps because she became famous too early, or perhaps because she was held back by her overly privileged family background, she lacked some life experience. Her talent dried up prematurely, and she eventually fell behind. She was only popular for twenty or thirty years, failing to establish her own unique school of artistry and instead became a foil to Zhong Lei.

But right now, Lu Wei was not only younger, but also incredibly popular, even able to single-handedly support a company.

Chen Feng also knew from future biographies that her background was extraordinary and intimidatingly deep; any elder from her family could easily be a “sensitive word.”

Because of his unpleasant experience dealing with Zhong Lei, Chen Feng subconsciously thought Lu Wei would be even more difficult.

So he had absolutely no hope for this company.

But now he had no choice left. Chen Feng turned and headed to another building, going straight to Reed Studio.

The office of Reed Studio didn’t look impressive. There wasn’t even a receptionist at the entrance.

Chen Feng peeked inside. A young woman holding a folder happened to walk towards him.

She looked at Chen Feng, then at the guitar bag on his back.

“Hello, sir. How can I help you?”

She was very polite, which Chen Feng had expected. After all, while he wasn’t devastatingly handsome, he at least had a reliable, honest-looking face. A second look might even find him pleasant.

Chen Feng smiled. “I’d like to speak with the person in charge of your company. I have a song I want to sell to your company.”

The woman was startled and didn’t know how to respond.

“You’re here to sell a song?” At that moment, a woman with a full-figure and long hair walked over from the side.

She wore a very tight-fitting blazer that clearly outlined her figure.

The woman who had spoken to Chen Feng earlier quickly turned and bowed slightly. “Hello, Sister Rou.”

Sister Rou waved her hand. “Go attend to your work. I’ll handle this.”

The woman quickly lowered her head and hurried away.

Sister Rou crossed her arms and turned to Chen Feng, a slightly teasing smile on her face. “Hello, sir. I am Lu Wei’s manager, and also the general manager of this company, Zheng Rou. Could you please repeat that? You are here to sell a song?”

As she spoke, her eyes drifted lightly toward the guitar bag on Chen Feng’s back. Seeing the characters “Chang Jiang” (“Yangtze River”), the corners of her mouth curled into a meaningful arc.

By this point, Chen Feng already knew the answer.

He really wanted to turn and leave right then. But since they hadn’t kicked him out yet, he might as well say a few more words.

Maybe… just maybe, it would work?

Chen Feng nodded. “Yes, this is my heartfelt work. I have great confidence in this song.”

Zheng Rou suddenly laughed. “Didn’t you know before? Our Reed Studio never accepts songs from outside. Our Lu Wei never sings songs written by others. All her songs are written by herself. Thank you.”

Chen Feng was taken aback. “Ah? Is that so?”

This truly was unexpected for him.

In the future music database, Lu Wei sang many songs written by others.

But Chen Feng didn’t pay much attention to Lu Wei and wasn’t familiar with her career development path. He thought she had always been this way.

Now he knew: in her early years, Lu Wei only sang songs she created herself.

He had come ten years too early.

Chen Feng felt quite reflective. Lu Wei’s approach seemed like taking responsibility for her work, but in reality, she was depleting her creative talent prematurely.

A person’s talent probably had limits.

Lu Wei was considered brilliant, but only about a talent that comes once every ten years. There was still a gap compared to Zhong Lei, who possessed astonishing talent seen once in a hundred years and ultimately became one of the top hundred in a millennium.

So, in the middle and later stages of her artistic career, as her inspiration dried up, Lu Wei could only turn to singing others’ works.

This was probably the exact reason Lu Wei fell behind in the competition with Zhong Lei.

But the current Lu Wei was still at the peak stage of creative inspiration, which could last for several more years. So her manager, Zheng Rou, certainly had the capital to be proud.

“Then I’m really sorry to have bothered you. Goodbye.”

Seeing that nothing could be done, Chen Feng decided to decisively withdraw.

The more walls he hit, the stronger his resistance became now. His mental resilience grew day by day.

When he was first rejected, Chen Feng would feel disappointed and awkward. But after it happened many times, he became numb inside.

Now, from the very beginning, he held no hope, so naturally, there was no disappointment.

“Wait a moment.”

Just as Chen Feng had turned around, a clear voice came from behind.

Chen Feng turned back.