Saturday afternoon.

  Li Qian's home.

  Liao Liao sat on the sofa, holding his guitar in his arms, but his eyes were fixed on Li Qian's back.

  Li Qian stood by the window, holding his phone, with a tall and straight figure. The pale winter light shone through the glass window onto him. From Liao's angle, he looked like a low-quality camera photo, with pixels so low that his entire body seemed to have a slightly distorted edge.

  At this time, Li Qian nodded occasionally in front of his mobile phone and murmured "uh-huh" from time to time.

  On the phone, Xie Bing's voice was still soft and pleasant to listen to, chattering on about her busy days after becoming popular over the past half month, attending business performances, endorsement events, MV shoots, and all sorts of messy variety shows.

  "A few days ago, I went to record a show at Shun Tian TV station. We all found out after we arrived that it was actually a cooking show. We were all confused and thought it had nothing to do with us. But apparently the ratings are very high, so our company agreed to it. Luckily, Xiaoxue, Xiaoxuan and I can all cook, otherwise it would have been really embarrassing."

  Li Qian smiled and said, "You can still cook?"

  Xie Bing immediately said: "Of course! Huaiyang cuisine is my specialty! Next time we meet, I'll cook for you, how about that?"

  Li Qian smiled again, "Of course, next time we meet, I must try your craftsmanship."

  When it comes to this, Xie Bing seems to be a bit excited. The fatigue in her voice at the beginning of the conversation has decreased a lot. She said with glee: "I grew up by Taihu Lake, and what I'm best at is actually making fish! And our local famous stir-fried three delicacies, I could make it when I was 10 years old! When you have time, I'll be your tour guide. My hometown is a small county town, but it's very fun!"

  Although he knew that the person on the other end of the phone couldn't see him, Li Qian still nodded and said, "Mm-hmm. Then when I have a chance, I'll go to your place to play. To eat the stir-fried three delicacies you make, to listen to Kunqu opera, Huangmei diao and Yue opera."

  "Okay! Okay!" Xie Bing on the other end of the phone was very excited, even her tone had risen a few pitches. But soon she said "Wait a minute", and then fell silent, after a moment she said: "Can't chat with you anymore, my assistant just came to inform me that we need to assemble immediately. Tonight there's a commercial performance, it's a company's annual meeting or something, they're paying a high price but require us to interact with the audience on site, so we need to get there early to negotiate and familiarize ourselves with the process."

  Li Qian nodded and said: "Alright, go then, take care of your body, no matter how busy you are, make sure to rest well."

  Xie Bing was just over there and quietly said "uh-huh" for a moment, but then she suddenly said: "Ah, look at me, I actually forgot that the main reason I called you is to tell you that our company received an invitation to the Spring Festival Gala, and it's very likely that we'll be going on the show! Apparently, they want us to sing 'Ice Sugar Gourd'."

  Li Qian smiled and said, "That's great! Congratulations to you all!"

  Xie Bing smiled awkwardly and said softly, "Okay, I'll hang up now! I'll call you back later."

  Li Qian nodded and said: "Alright, go ahead!"

  A moment later, the phone hung up, and Li Qian put away his mobile phone and turned around. But he saw Liao Liao looking at him with a smile that was not quite a smile, and couldn't help but frown in confusion, laughing to ask: "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me like that?"

  Liao Liao put down his guitar and continued to gaze at him with a sly smile, saying: "You still say you haven't received any extra benefits? You've already charmed the young girl so much that she doesn't know her directions!"

  Li Qian smiled and moved a chair to sit down near the windowsill, too lazy to respond to her provocation.

  Recently, Li Qian has received many phone calls, especially on Saturdays and Sundays. Everyone knows that he is not in class at this time, so they mostly choose to call him at this time. Coincidentally, every Saturday and Sunday, Li Qian would be with Liao Liao studying her new song, so... basically, whenever Li Qian answers the phone, she is always listening on the side.

  Well, for the past two weeks, it can be said without exaggeration that the entire Chinese music scene has been completely dominated by Wu Yifan. The Dongfang Bookstore sales chart is topped by her album, which even surpassed the combined sales of the second to tenth places, exuding an aura of dominance. On the China Radio's Golden Melody Chart, she also made a strong impression, with multiple songs debuting on the chart at the same time, surpassing Liao Liang's sudden rise to fame last summer, and even more so!

  So, Li Jinlong naturally had to call on behalf of Huage Records to express his gratitude. Then, he also invited Li Qian to visit the headquarters of Huage Records at his convenience. Later, the girls from Wuxingwusu also called one after another to express their thanks. Even Wang Jingxue has already called and sincerely said "thank you" three times.

  Of course, Xie Bing had never said the word "thank" before.

  From the beginning, after finishing the album and leaving Jinan Prefecture, even if the album hadn't been released yet, no one knew whether it would be a hit or not, but Sima Duo, Sun Ruoxuan, and Zhou Pingping still maintained a frequency of about one phone call per month. Even if they just chatted casually about the weather, when the phone call came, their hearts were there too, at least representing their respect and gratitude for Li Qian. Wang Jingxue's calls were less frequent, including the two times she called to thank him in advance, but her personality was like that, and Li Qian didn't think it was anything wrong.

  Only Xie Bing, since leaving Jinan Prefecture, no matter where she was or what she was busy with, always maintained a fixed frequency, and would definitely make a phone call every three days.

  On the phone, they don't talk about anything else, just simply ask Li Qian what he's been busy with recently, and then talk about what she's been busy with recently. Occasionally, when they get excited, the two of them will also mention some small stories from their past. Then, after a few minutes or twenty minutes at most, everyone will hang up the phone very tacitly.

  Even if they are now famous all over the world, she is still the same.

  However, this kind of phone call that goes on for half a day falling into Liao Liao's eyes would naturally make her unable to help but guess this and that, constantly teasing Li Qian, saying he was secretly in love with the young girl.

  Li Qian, this old bird, counterattacked her with a smile, saying that she was just a little girl and had grown several years older. Others have already let me take the rules for granted, shouldn't you also be aware of it?

  But as time went on, Li Qian became more and more indifferent. You can say whatever you want, I'll just remain unmoved.

  Actually, with your mental age and experience, can't you sense that receiving a phone call every three days is a bit off?

  …………

  Seeing Li Qian ignore him, Liao Liao couldn't help but pout.

  Then she picked up her guitar and said, "Go on, what did you think of that line I sang just now?"

  Li Qian also sorted out the knot in his heart, thought for a moment, and went back to what happened earlier. He said: "The song 'Du Kou' is very carefree in my opinion! It's different from 'Gan Bei, Peng You' and 'Song Bie'. The emotions are sincere and genuine, but not so calculating. Just like the ancient saying goes, 'Why cry and make a fuss?' The lyrics say, 'Just leave your blessings on my sleeve.' It's sentimental, but doesn't show off! With friends all over the world, even if we're far apart, it's like we're neighbors! So, you can't keep singing with the same attitude as when you sang 'Gan Bei, Peng You' earlier. This song is very relaxed and carefree, but you sang it too sadly and too tensely! Note that this is folk music, so first bring out your most comfortable and emotional state to sing!"

  Liao Liao thought for a moment, took a deep breath and nodded, "Then I'll try again!"

  Li Qian also nodded and raised his second leg.

  Liao Liao hummed for a while, slowly strumming the guitar, closing her eyes and starting to sing. She sang one sentence, feeling that the tone was not right, so she stopped, but her hands continued to slowly pluck the chords. A moment later, she opened her mouth again and sang another sentence. Li Qian's eyes suddenly lit up, and he couldn't help but interrupt, "This tone is very close, come on, find that feeling from just now!"

  The experience of guiding Liao Liao to practice singing is completely different from that of the girls who learned songs with Wu Suo. In terms of breath control and techniques, Liao Liao is extremely skilled and familiar. To be honest, once she gets a song, it takes at most three days for her to master the techniques to the point where Li Jian can barely find any flaws. Therefore, when it comes to guidance, Li Jian's role is mainly to help her find the emotional direction and connotation of each song.

  Yeah, it's been over a week since Liao Liao arrived in Jinan Prefecture. She has been staying at Qi Jie teacher's place across the street. During the day, when Li Qian is teaching classes, she would practice singing by herself or drag Qi Jie out to wander around aimlessly. After all, Qi Jie had already resigned and was just studying with a pile of materials from the library. At night, they would usually go out together to find a place to eat something casual, then return home for Li Qian to guide Liao Liao in practicing singing. Weekends were roughly the same, during which time they only managed to squeeze in some social activity by meeting up with Cao Yun for dinner and chatting on the previous Saturday night.

  Well, in these ten or so days of effort, through Liao Liao's coordination and mediation, a verbal agreement on the production contract between Li Qian and Hua Ge Shang has been reached, with only the signing process remaining.

  Although the agreement reached in the end was still within Li Qian's acceptable range, it was already the bottom line. Therefore, Qi Jie, this agent, felt that her first task after joining the company was extremely failed, so she recently started desperately collecting relevant materials and teaching aids to make up for herself.

  Just before and after the oral agreement was reached, Li Qian had already given Liao Liao three songs.

  ***

  The second update! (.)