"Is this... a theater?"

  After riding for about twenty minutes, Li Qian had just stopped the car when Xie Bing jumped out of the back seat. Dazed and confused, he looked up to see the sign that read "Daming Lake Theatre", and was somewhat stunned.

  Li Qian parked the car, locked it up and came back to call her, "Let's go, I'll take you to a play!"

  Xie Bing dazedly followed Li Qian forward, and when they were about to enter the door, she even deliberately raised her head to take a look, no mistake, it was indeed called "Daming Lake Theater"!

  Li Qian brought himself here... to listen to opera?

  Upon entering the theater's main gate, on the left is the ticket booth, while on the right is a teahouse.

  Li Qian and they just entered the door, turned their heads to look over, and Chu Bingbing was already waving at them to come over.

  Li Qian then called out to Xie Bing and led her over, still looking somewhat bewildered.

  Cao Tian and his wife Cao Linna, as well as his third concubine Chu Bingbing were all present. By Cao Linna's side stood a boy around ten years old and a little girl about seven or eight years old, whom Li Qian had met before and knew to be the children of Cao Tian's wife and second concubine. Apart from them, there was one more person, which made Li Qian slightly surprised.

  Of course, it was also known before.

  As soon as Li Qian brought Xie Bing in, several people stood up. Cao Yun naturally just nodded, but his wife Cao Linna was a typical lady with good manners and never lost her courtesy. She greeted Li Qian and then looked down at the two children. At this time, young Cao Bo'er had already led his sister to bow respectfully and called out "Uncle Li!"

  Li Qian responded with a laugh, first saying "good" and then greeting Cao Linna and Chu Bingbing one after another. However... it was a bit awkward to address them, so he separately called them "sister-in-law" and "little sister-in-law".

  Then he turned his head to look at Professor Wang Huaiyu and nodded: "Hello, Teacher Wang!"

  No wonder, this familiar person is Professor Wang Huaiyu of Shandong National Art Academy. He was the one who played the piano for Wu Xing's demo recording before. It was Fu Zhenbang from Lao Dou Records who found him to do it. That's when Li Qian knew that he had a very close relationship with Cao Yun, and they were good friends in private.

  And also later from Cao Ting's mouth, Li Qian knew many of his interesting stories.

  For example, Wang Huaiyu is good at playing the piano and violin since childhood, but he is best at suona and sheng. Moreover, it is said that his level of blowing suona can be ranked among the top ten in the country, and his sheng is the only one in the country!

  He's that kind of person, don't look at him being a professor in college, but he often thinks of ways to persuade his students to give up piano and learn suona instead. His reason is that the suona is what Chinese people should play. Whether it's great joy or great sorrow, the sound of the suona is the voice of the Chinese people - it's said that he himself formed a small folk music band, not doing anything else, just every Saturday and Sunday, running to the countryside to take on gigs, weddings and funerals, all taken! Not for the money, but to experience the joy and sorrow of every ordinary person. And so, his suona playing gets better and better!

  Actually, thinking about it makes sense, anyone who can get along with Cao Ting is not a normal person!

  Although... Li Qian felt he was still quite normal.

  Wang Huaiyu had already stood up early, hearing Li Qian call himself "Teacher Wang". He just waved his hand and smiled: "Don't call me that quickly, I'm a sworn brother with Old Cao who burns yellow paper and drinks chicken wine. We don't need to be polite to each other. For you, my younger brother, I'm the same as Old Cao. We both admire you very much! You should look up to your older brothers, calling me Old Wang or Brother Wang is fine!"

  Li Qian burst out laughing and called out "Wang Ge", then turned back, waving at Xie Bing who was still standing foolishly at the door. When she walked closer, he introduced her, saying "This is Xie Bing! She's a member of Wu Xing Wu Su band, I'm currently producing their album, coincidentally I heard she had time off and didn't go anywhere, so I invited her to come listen to the play with us." Then he turned around again to introduce Cao Yun and others to Xie Bing.

  Actually, there's no need for a big introduction. When we recorded the demo last time, Cao Tian and Wang Huaiyu had already met, so the focus is on introducing Cao Tian's two wives and two children.

  Chu Bing had been staring at the little girl for a long time. As soon as Xie Bing greeted everyone somewhat stiffly, Chu Bing walked over very naturally, pulled Xie Bing's hand and smiled: "Welcome welcome, sister you're great! My name is Chu Bing, your name is Xie Bing, look, we are really close aren't we?"

  She finished speaking, turned her head towards Li Qian and winked at him, intentionally saying: "Hey, didn't Little Lu's sister come?"

  Even an idiot can tell what it means!

  Li Qian just smiled blandly and said, "Her vacation was only three days, but she didn't come back."

  At this time, Cao Ting and his wife Cao Linna, who knew who Wang Jinglu was, were both smiling wryly. But Xie Bing still didn't understand the situation - no matter how they asked her, Wang Jingxue never revealed the relationship between Wang Jinglu and Li Qian. That was just one point, another very important point was that she was really a bit confused now.

  Perhaps among ordinary people and fans, it is thought that those stars, idols, singers and movie stars are naturally radiant and that others are hiding behind the scenes serving these big stars, always centering around them, but reality is obviously not like this.

  Take Cao Yun for example, he can write lyrics and compose music, is a well-known genius in the circle, although not one of the top ones, but in the music circle, even if it's a big brother like Liu Mingliang standing in front of him, Cao Yun can still hold his head high and be on an equal footing with him. Another example is Li Qian, don't look at the fact that he only has five songs released now, but based on the achievements of those five songs, even if he's facing Liu Mingliang now, the other party will definitely speak to him politely and won't put on any airs as a big star.

  Not for anything else, but because the lyricist and composer naturally stand upstream of the singer!

  If you're a successful music producer, it's even more awesome!

  For example, Liao Liao, according to the rules recognized by everyone in the circle, although Li Qian is not her producer, her most popular songs are all works of Li Qian, and she can become popular, also completely relying on Li Qian's works. So, she must be considered as one of Li Qian's protégés, and in that circle, it is recognized that Li Qian is her mentor, no matter whether she likes it or not, no matter when she meets Li Qian, she must show respect, otherwise everyone will think you are disrespectful to your teacher and ungrateful.

  This example also applies to other singers!

  So, don't be fooled by those stars shining brightly in the public eye. When it comes to their status within the industry, among songwriters and producers of the same level, they naturally become inferior.

  Of course, whether it's the film and television circle or the music circle, there are always a few outstanding individuals who stand at the top of the pyramid, even making most songwriters and producers in the circle want to fawn over them. However, only a handful of people can reach that level, and secondly, as I mentioned earlier, even Liu Mingying's status within the circle is just equal to Cao Yun's, there's no question of who is flattering whom.

  Xie Bing was just a mediocre singer in a mediocre band.

  The last time I recorded a demo, I saw Li Qian call Cao Yun over with just one phone call. At that time, they didn't think much of it, but later on, after hearing some introductions about Cao Yun from their agent Wu Jie and producer Li Jinlong, they inexplicably felt that this person was very powerful. It also made them feel that it's no wonder Li Qian had such a good relationship with him, because they both belonged to the same league of being very powerful.

  But now that she knows who Cao Yun is and what the name Cao Yun means in the circle, she can't be as calm as when she saw Cao Yun holding a bass last time.

  Even when they first met Li Qian, with her unimpressive young appearance at the time, those several girls who were usually straightforward and honest were all very respectful, let alone now that Cao Yun is not only very famous from an early age but also so cool, mature, and has such a noble demeanor.

  So, Xie Bing's face showed some obvious tension.

  After greeting everyone, she even involuntarily turned her head and bowed slightly to Cao Teng, saying carefully: "Teacher Cao, I've listened to many of your works. I like them all very much!"

  This is definitely flattery!

  Cao Yun is indeed very famous in the circle and became famous early, but as Li Qian once evaluated, even when he was doing rock music back then, it was all very niche and alternative. Later on, when he switched to writing folk songs, country songs and love songs, they were also all niche routes. He belongs to that typical kind of person who is famous in the circle but outside of it, nobody knows him. Given Xie Bing's age and taste, she wouldn't possibly like Cao Yun's stuff, so before someone introduced her, she had no idea who Cao Yun was.

  So, although she was very sincere in her flattery, and even managed to look sincere, it didn't work. Cao Ting looked at her and directly pointed at Li Qian saying: "You have him writing songs for your album, no need to flatter me!"

  With a brush of his hand, Xie Bing's face turned bright red.

  Wang Huaiyu smiled and chuckled, Chu Bingbing burst out laughing, while Cao Linna pushed Cao Yun aside with a helpless expression, muttering: "This mouth of yours!"

  But Cao Tian was pleased with himself and said to Xie Bing in a very arrogant tone: "This kid wants to hit on you!"

  This time Wang Huaiyu burst out laughing, while Chu Bingbing kept winking at Li Qian with a sly smile, and Li Qian could only shake his head in exasperation.

  …………

  At the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, when the performing arts market is busiest, tickets for Daming Lake Theater are hard to come by.

  However, Cao Ting's ticket was a private box, and it was the best luxury private box.

  As the time difference was almost up, everyone got up and walked towards the entrance. Chu Bing brightened up the tickets, and they all swarmed in. When we arrived at the private room on the second floor, I found that the design of this private room is very clever. In a private room of about 20 square meters, it was designed into two heights in a stepped shape. There were three eight-immortal tables inside, each with four taishi chairs.

  The table in front, right next to the railing, looking down, the big stage is right in sight, the location is so good that there's nothing to say. The two tables behind, because they are about 30-40 cm higher than the ones in front, don't have to worry at all about being blocked by people in front.

  After entering the box, Cao Linna first moved two chairs to the railing side. Little Cao Boer was excitedly carrying his sister over and sat down, with one person per stool, just right on the railing looking down.

  Then, Cao Yun and Wang Huaiyu, Li Qian sat in the front row, while Cao Linna accompanied Xie Bing to sit in the back.

  As for Chu Bingbing, she was busy calling out to the waiters to bring tea and melon seeds.

  Being served by the clever and nimble Chu Bingbing with tea and water, and accompanied by the elegant and refined Cao Linna in conversation, Xie Bing appeared to be very unaccustomed.

  Often Cao Linna says a few sentences, she hastily replies with one or two sentences, the whole person feels extremely awkward.

  Soon, the curtain of the stage was lifted, and the cymbals and drums began to sound. Chu Bingbing finished greeting everyone and came to sit down at Xie Bing's table, saying: "Sister, I'll accompany Xiao Bing, you go listen to your play!"

  Cao Linna nodded and said to Xie Bing: "I and our old Cao are both fond of this, but it's just that Sanmei doesn't have much feeling for Peking Opera. In that case, I won't be polite, I'll go listen to the opera, you two are young, you chat!"

  Xie Bing nodded and saw Chu Bingbing stand up, she also stood up stupidly.

  When Cao Linna moved a chair to sit behind Cao Beiyuan and his siblings, ready to listen to the play, Chu Bingbing finally burst out laughing. She pulled Xie Bing down to sit with her, saying: "We who are kept as concubines must always follow rules, but you're a guest, why be so restrained? Come, have some melon seeds! The melon seeds sold in this Daming Lake Theater are made by Old Li's Twelve Roads Melon Seeds. It's said that the raw materials are all from Hetao and Northeast China. Old Li's craftsmanship... try some!"

  Xie Bing picked up a small handful of melon seeds and slowly cracked them open.

  The play hasn't started yet, but after entering the theater, Chu Bingbing also subconsciously lowered her voice. At this time, the two of them sat chatting idly, and she asked: "Looking at you, I think you've never been to a play before?"

  Xie Bing was still a bit out of it, but after the elegant and poised Cao Linna left, facing the obviously more lively Chu Bingbing, she seemed to relax a bit, and replied: "I've heard of it, just never heard of Peking Opera."

  Chu Bingbing said "oh" and suddenly asked: "I forgot to ask you, where are you from?"

  Xie Bing is obviously gradually recovering, and said: "I am from Huzhou, Zhejiang Province, um, our place mainly has Kunqu Opera, Huangmei Diao and Yue Opera."

  Chu Bingbing blinked her eyes upon hearing this, looking at Xie Bing, and suddenly said: "Come to think of it, your sweet voice really sounds like you grew up listening to Yue Opera. Can you sing?"

  Xie Bing heard this and smiled, shaking her head, just as she was about to speak, the opening gong sounded with a loud "dang".

  ***

  It was mysteriously put on "pending review", I'll modify it a bit and see if it can be successful.