Chapter 102

  The sun is shining brightly.

  It's been a month since the highly-anticipated draft ended. The entertainment topic has been filled with new explosive points, and people have gradually stopped mentioning the students who were once known to every household on the street. Even the advertisements on both sides of the subway have changed, no longer featuring the energetic face of Xin Rong.

  That's the rule of the entertainment industry, if you don't have enough topics and exposure, no one will remember you.

  "So I must invite Shi Dongning to make this album for me?" Luo Fei casually pulled down the sun visor and adjusted his hair in front of the mirror on it.

  Li Jin gave him a glance - although Lu Fei was the runner-up in the competition that ended a month ago, his development momentum was even stronger than the champion. The layout he had set up for Lu Fei before the competition ended played a good role. Countless business performances, award ceremonies, charity events, as well as opportunities to make guest appearances in famous directors' movies, kept him exposed enough. In this month alone, he released two singles, and both radio and online charting achieved good results.

  But this is still not enough.

  Li Jing deeply knew that the success of those two songs was only because the competition had just ended, Luo Fei's popularity hadn't declined yet, and the public still had a good impression of him. As for the songs themselves, they didn't have enough popularity or classic value. But in this era, the music industry is not doing well, and good songs are quickly snatched up by big-name artists, so it's not possible for an idol singer to sing them.

  Since they can't get a good song readily available, they have to start from scratch and tailor-make one for Luo Fei. Li Jin is someone who either doesn't do something or does it to the best of his ability, so naturally, he finds out where Shi Dongning lives and comes to visit him.

  After the final, Shi Dongning was questioned for giving Luo Fei a low score at a critical moment. With his temper, he didn't respond at all and instead hid away, as if isolated from the world. Li Jin had to use a lot of effort to find out that he was hiding in a villa on the outskirts of the city.

  Half an hour after leaving the city, a elegant villa area suddenly appeared in the desolate suburbs.

  Lou Fei sat up straight and pointed to a distant place, asking: "Is it there?"

  "It's just there." Li Jin turned the steering wheel, and the car followed the small road, turning in.

  Shi Dongning's villa was at 3rd row 12C, Li Jin directly stopped the car in front of Shi Dongning's courtyard and said to Luo Fei: "Get down and knock on the door."

  Luo Fei responded with a "yes" and obediently got out of the car to press the doorbell. The doorbell rang three times, and the image on the video intercom appeared, showing Shi Dongning seemingly busy doing something, without even giving them a straight face, his eyes looking down, saying: "Real estate agent, right? The door isn't locked, come in."

  "Teacher Shi," said Rong Fei, "we are not real estate agents."

  In the room, Shi Dongning's movements stiffened for a moment, then he raised his head and asked in confusion: "Luo Fei?"

  "Teacher Shi, and me." Li Jin squeezed forward, "If the door isn't locked, we can go in directly."

  The villa had a small yard, separated from the street by an iron gate. Li Jin pushed open the iron gate, and Shi Dongning was already standing at the door to greet them. Seeing them, Shi Dongning's surprise was one in a million, but couldn't hide that little bit of delight, saying: "How did you find this place? Come on in." He stepped aside to let them pass, looking inside, but then furrowed his brow in some embarrassment, "The room is messy, don't mind."

  Li Jin smiled slightly and stepped inside, but as soon as he entered the house, he was stunned.

  The room wasn't messy, but the furniture was covered with white cloth. In the middle of the living room were several cardboard boxes, each filled with things neatly arranged by category. Connecting this to Shi Dongning's words just now, Li Jin had already guessed seven or eight tenths of it.

  "Is Teacher Shi going to sell his house?" he asked.

  Shi Dongning invited them to sit down, but the sofa was piled high with things, where could they sit? So they had to temporarily move some of them to the floor. As for the tea leaves used to entertain guests, they couldn't be found for a while, Shi Dongning was extremely embarrassed, and could only use plain water as a substitute for the time being.

  "Yes," he said as he poured water, "move into the city to live, it's more convenient for transportation."

  Li Jinqi got up to take the water, just smiled and didn't say much. Luo Fei, this fool, took a sip and echoed, saying yes, yes, yes, the traffic in the city is indeed convenient, three steps out of the door is the supermarket, no need to worry about midnight hunger without a place to buy night snacks.

  Shi Dongning had been in contact with Luo Fei for more than half a year and knew that this kid looked clever but was actually an idiot inside, so he didn't bother to argue with him. He leaned forward and asked Li Jin: "The competition just ended, and Luo Fei is now in the period of consolidating his popularity, shouldn't he be very busy? How can you afford to waste his prime time by bringing him here?"

  "Not just today, I've cleared out the schedule for the next three days." Li Jin said straightforwardly, "Teacher Shi, I'd like to ask a favor of you, to personally produce Luo Fei's first album."

  "Me?" Shi Dongning's hand with the water shook slightly, and then a bitter smile appeared on his face. "Li Jin, are you kidding me? You're inviting me? Don't forget, if it wasn't for the finals when I intentionally lowered Luo Fei's score, Luo Fei would have been the champion by now."

  "What's the point of being a champion, Teacher Shi? You and I both know what's going on. Even if you don't lower the scores, the show will have other arrangements. By doing this, you're just being used by others." Li Jin glanced at Ruo Fei, who pouted at him.

  The cause and effect, right or wrong, have been clearly explained by Li Jin to Luo Fei after the fact. Although Luo Fei still feels a bit awkward in his heart, he trusts Li Jin and believes that Li Jin will not harm him, so he adjusts himself and turns over this page.

  It was Shi Dongning... Li Jin looked at the man's expression and felt that he seemed to still not be as calm as Luo Fei, it had been a month already, but whenever this matter was brought up, his expression remained stiff, as if he was suppressing a sense of self-blame.

  Li Jing smiled in her heart and asked, "Why does Teacher Shi want to sell his house?"

  "Hmm," Shi Dongning suddenly realized and smiled, "Why ask when you already know?"

  "Shu Mu promised you that as long as you intentionally lower Ruo Fei's score during the finals, he would give you a sum of money to fill the hole in your workshop." Li Jin put down the cup on the tea table and said calmly, "You knew clearly that he just wanted to use you to shift the media's attention and transfer the audience's resentment towards him to you, but for the sake of your workshop, you still agreed."

  This was something that Luo Fei had never heard of before, and upon hearing it, he immediately straightened his back. His first reaction wasn't about how Shi Dongning compromised, but rather that Xiao Mu was so despicable.

  Shi Dongning looked at him and guessed his thoughts, feeling a little comforted in his heart, but also more self-reproachful: "The music studio is my years of hard work and dreams. Because this studio exists, I and many other musicians can create music freely without worrying about anything. If the studio disappears, then many people's dreams will be shattered too. So I think, since Luo Fei is definitely not going to win the championship, I'll play the villain instead. At least it has some value, but I didn't expect being a villain would feel so bad..." He forced a smile at Luo Fei, "You can say I'm selfish, I accept it, I really am a selfish person."

  "No, Teacher Shi, you..." Rong Fei hastily said.

  "Why are you still selling the house now?" Lí Jǐn interrupted him, "Shū Mù doesn't need to go back on his word for this matter, is it... that the money he gave wasn't enough?"

  "It's enough, but just enough to fill the gap in the studio." Shi Dongning said, "Others say I'm a genius in music, but they don't know that I'm a complete fool in other aspects. Especially finance, I don't understand and am too lazy to manage it, so I leave everything to the accountant to worry about. On the day of the final, the accountant disappeared with all the company's funds. Li Jin, do you know? It was all of it. Now I'm just one step away from bankruptcy, and the little money Shu Mu gave me is just a drop in the bucket. If I don't sell the house, what else can I do?"

  Li Jinyu's eyebrows slightly furrowed as she pondered, "So you're saying that on the day of the finals, your accountant disappeared with all your assets... did you report it to the police?"

  Shi Dongning nodded.

  But it's useless, in the end, even if the murderer is caught, half of the money will be gone.

  "Something is fishy." Li Jin had an implication, "Could it be... someone behind the scenes..."

  "I never make random guesses about others." Shi Dongning cut him off decisively. "Without evidence, I won't arbitrarily speculate about others."

  Li Jin lost his words and smiled apologetically, saying: "Teacher Shi doesn't have to rush, a thousand gold scattered will return, what belongs to you will eventually come back to your side. The most important thing now is to get through this current predicament." He took out a file folder from his bag, opened it, and handed it to Shi Dongning, "This is the 'Producer Cooperation Plan' newly launched by Yige Company, mainly inviting senior music producers in the industry to cooperate with us to create albums for our singers. The first producer we want to invite is you."

  Shi Dongning changed his sitting posture and showed great interest: "How can we cooperate?"

  "There are many ways to cooperate, but since the studio is having a hard time now, I think, as a cooperative company, can Art Song Company invest in the studio and help it get through the difficulties first?" Li Jin proposed.

  "This isn't a small amount, has Qin Yige struck it rich?" asked Shi Dongning.

  "After the game, Director Qin went to the United States and hasn't returned yet. Currently, all major and minor matters of the company are being handled by Bai Fuming." Li Jin smiled and said, "I've already discussed this with him beforehand. This sum of money will be considered as the production fee for Luo Fei and Qi Yi Chen's album. We'll pay it first, and we also hope that Teacher Shi won't decline, can take extra care to help our artists produce a debut album that is both well-received and profitable."

  The cost of producing an album is far from being that expensive, but the company is willing to spend so much, which shows their sincerity. Shi Dongning was deeply moved and his lips trembled for a moment before he hoarsely said: "This... I naturally won't decline."

  Li Jinxiao smiled and glanced at Luo Fei, who laughed even more happily, blurting out: "That's great, now Teacher Shi won't have to sell his house!"

  "You just said that the city has convenient transportation and many supermarkets to buy midnight snacks, didn't you?" Shi Dongning teased him after calming down.

  "It's also foggy in Keshi City." Lu Fei retorted, stretching his neck.

  The three of them burst out laughing, and it was settled just like that.

  To release an album, Luo Fei and Shi Dongning still have a lot to work on. So Li Jin left Luo Fei at Shi Dongning's place for three days, asking Shi Dongning to start from scratch with music theory and cramming common sense. He took the lead and continued to rush back to the company.

  Just as I walked out of Shi Dongning's house, the phone suddenly rang.

  Li Jin took out her phone and saw the number, a smile as sweet as honey spread across her lips.

  "Hello?" He pressed the answer button and said softly.

  "Busy?" The voice on the other end was as gentle and soothing as ever, the familiar tone transmitted through electromagnetic waves into my ears, making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

  Li Jin's smile deepened as he replied, "I'm done."

  "So you still remember what we're going to do next, right?" The voice on the other end also carried a hint of laughter.

  "Remember." Li Jin took out the key and walked towards the car door while saying, "We are going to..."

  Come to an abrupt end.

  The rest of what he was going to say he completely forgot, and it didn't need to be said anyway.

  A pure black Lexus sedan slowly stopped in front of him, the window rolled down, revealing Li Yiheng's smiling face.

  "Aren't you getting on the bus?"

  On the phone, within arm's reach, he held his mobile phone and spoke to himself.