Chapter 69

The family stayed in the capital until the second day of the New Year and then returned to Shanghai. They had originally planned to return on the fifth day. Although Su Changhe did not say it, it was clear that he was also very unhappy in the capital.

Cheng Xiaoyu knew without asking that it was probably because of him. Before leaving, Cheng Xiaoyu met Wang Dongliang again. Because of the holiday, Wang Dongliang had not been able to find much valuable information about the alumni directory. He had only indirectly asked a senior executive of Shouhu Network about the handling plan for the alumni directory. There were rumors that Shouhu Network would shut it down completely due to frequent login issues.

The senior executive of Shouhu Network did not hide the situation with the alumni directory, as everyone in the industry was aware of it. However, he did not say much in response to Wang Dongliang's inquiries, saying that they were still studying the matter. It was possible that the project would be cut, but the scale was large, and the final decision was uncertain.

When Cheng Xiaoyu and Wang Dongliang parted ways, Cheng Xiaoyu handed a black bag to Wang Dongliang, which contained 200,000 yuan in cash. Wang Dongliang hesitated for a while, but Cheng Xiaoyu left without a word, leaving Wang Dongliang no choice but to accept it.

As for why Cheng Xiaoyu did not transfer the money but withdrew it in cash, it was because he knew that 200,000 yuan in an account was just a number, while a stack of cash was a tangible impact.

When Wang Dongliang left, he did not know how much money was in the bag. When he opened it in the car, he was surprised to find 200,000 yuan. The Audi, though not yet repaired, no longer required him to pay for the repairs. In a sense, although Su Dongliang had been frightened, he had gained 200,000 yuan.

Wang Dongliang thought about it and felt it was inappropriate. Moreover, he felt that knowing Cheng Xiaoyu, a high-ranking official's child, was an honor, and he did not want to make their relationship too vulgar. He also thought that the money from a high-ranking official's child would not be easy to accept. So he called Cheng Xiaoyu, hoping to return the money.

Cheng Xiaoyu, however, spoke from the heart, deeply touching Wang Dongliang. Chinese scholars have always had the idea of "using their skills to serve the imperial court." This was the first time Cheng Xiaoyu, with his own aura of a rich and powerful child, had gained Wang Dongliang's loyalty and trust.

Wang Dongliang once again advised Cheng Xiaoyu not to waste money on the alumni directory. Cheng Xiaoyu had already thought about how to respond to Wang Dongliang and could not tell the truth. He told Wang Dongliang that he had a project, a website project co-sponsored by the Ministry of Culture and the Huaxuan Department. Cheng Xiaoyu's plan was to buy the campus network, package it, and then conditionally "hand it over to the state."

Wang Dongliang suddenly understood that only someone like Cheng Xiaoyu, with connections, could do this. Ordinary people could not even think about it. Wang Dongliang immediately promised to find a way to negotiate the alumni directory with Cheng Xiaoyu.

Cheng Xiaoyu made further promises, saying that he would reward Wang Dongliang generously if the matter was successful. He asked Wang Dongliang to stay in touch with him.

When they returned to Shanghai, Aunt Zhou cashed the 3 million yuan check given by Zheng Jun and transferred the money to Cheng Xiaoyu's card. She told Cheng Xiaoyu that if he did not do well in the college entrance exam, he would have to rely on himself to change the car.

Aunt Zhou was always indifferent to money. Although her life was materialistic, she believed that one should live according to their means. She would not envy others' luxury and would not refuse what she could afford.

She was also quite reassured about Cheng Xiaoyu. Although he had caused two major incidents, he was generally well-behaved, did not spend money recklessly, and rarely used his 500,000 yuan credit card. His grades had also improved significantly in the final exams. Therefore, Aunt Zhou gave the money to Cheng Xiaoyu without hesitation, believing that boys should control money rather than be controlled by it.

In recent days, Cheng Xiaoyu had been practicing the piano and spending time in his music studio.

He had spent a lot of effort recording a song called "Sunny Day." Since he was alone, he had to set up the mixing console outside and record each instrument track one by one, followed by the vocal track. Recording individual instrument tracks alone took a lot of time, but he believed that as he became more familiar with the recording process, his speed would increase.

After recording all the tracks, he performed complex post-production, adjusting the sound (pitch, rhythm, etc.), effects, and mixing the tracks. For instruments he did not know but were needed in the music, he used a synthesizer.

For "Sunny Day," Cheng Xiaoyu did not use the original rock-oriented arrangement by Jay Chou but combined the arrangements by Guan Shimin and Liu Ruiqi, using a piano as the main melody. This made the song more touching.

"Sunny Day" accompanied Cheng Xiaoyu through his golden student years. Most of his peers would think of their campus, their crush, their innocent and pure first love when they heard this song.

The opening of "Sunny Day" was breathtaking, with three chords creating a divine melody. The subsequent singing was even more impressive.

Time was too fast, and life was too short. Cheng Xiaoyu always felt that each stage of life was a series of symbolic things, and "Sunny Day" was one of the most important symbols of his entire adolescence.

In his previous life, Cheng Xiaoyu had sung "Sunny Day" to express his first love, and he had a deep love for the song. Therefore, he recorded another version with Jay Chou's original arrangement to hone his recording and post-production skills.

After the New Year, Cheng Xiaoyu returned to Shanghai and recorded another song called "In the Name of the Father." The prelude, including the violin and the Italian soprano's coloratura, could only be completed using a synthesizer. (For those unfamiliar, a vocal synthesizer, like Hatsune Miku, can produce sounds without the limitations of human vocal range, breath control, pitch, or rhythm. However, the sound can be stiff and lack emotional nuance, which is why many people cannot accept this type of music.)

Although the effect of the vocal synthesizer was not as good as recording a real voice, after his meticulous work, the entire song had a unique mechanical feel, adding a special charm.

"In the Name of the Father" was considered a masterpiece of Western classical music by Cheng Xiaoyu, and he believed it was Jay Chou's peak in music, a level he might never surpass.

When producing the song, Cheng Xiaoyu adopted the original arrangement without hesitation, as it was nearly perfect. To fully reproduce the song, he went to great lengths. The background sounds in the prelude, such as prayers and gunshots, were used to create the musical atmosphere. The prelude began with an exaggerated Italian opera feel.

To get the Italian prayer and the opening of the Italian opera, Cheng Xiaoyu searched all over Shanghai for an Italian priest and an opera singer. He eventually found the priest but could not find a soprano who could perform the coloratura. He had to use a vocal synthesizer. For the Italian Bible monologue, he visited all the churches in Shanghai and finally found an Italian priest, who agreed to provide the authentic Italian prayer in exchange for a church service.

The main part of the song used a simple and fast rap, and the melody of the chorus was straightforward, deliberately avoiding the large fluctuations in pitch found in popular songs, giving the entire song a dark, playful, and black tone.

Fortunately, the singing difficulty of the song was not high, but the recording of the arrangement was challenging.

Cheng Xiaoyu put in all his effort in the rap, spending a lot of time practicing and making many detailed adjustments.

After the recording and mixing were completed, Cheng Xiaoyu was quite satisfied.

"In the Name of the Father" was more like a movie with only sound. The composition did not have a clear chorus, and the melody looped in a low tone, supporting Cheng Xiaoyu's rap. Whether it was the piano solo, the opera, the prelude prayer, or the gunshots, it was like a scene and soundtrack in a movie.

The middle part, with the piano solo and the female opera, used a technique similar to "John Woo + pigeon release," creating a visual impact through the contrast between stillness and movement. This was something that could only be felt in the song, not seen in a movie.

Some people once said that Jay Chou's "In the Name of the Father" was ahead of its time in the creation and arrangement of popular music. Cheng Xiaoyu wanted to use this masterpiece to open a new door for the popular music of this era.

After recording "In the Name of the Father," Cheng Xiaoyu felt that his post-production skills had improved, and his recording skills had also significantly enhanced.

The next song, "Class 2, Year 3," required almost no effort to record.

After recording the two songs, Cheng Xiaoyu opened the GG Music website, logged into JAY'SPoisoN's account, and uploaded four songs, including two different versions of "Sunny Day."

After uploading, Cheng Xiaoyu read through the copyright agreements and dispute resolution, which made him dizzy, but he could not skip them. The copyright belonged to the creator, but GG Music had exclusive broadcasting rights. The download and streaming fees were set by the creator.

The income was split 70-30 between GG Music and the creator, and 50-50 if the creator was a signed artist.

After setting up the music, the cloud computer would compare the melody with the database to check for copyright issues. If there were any, it would be manually reviewed. If there were no issues, the songs would appear on the GG Music artist rankings within one working day.

The ranking rules were detailed, but Cheng Xiaoyu did not study them in depth.

When setting the download and streaming fees, Cheng Xiaoyu was already dizzy. He did not care about the taboos for new artists and did not plan to promote his work aggressively. He disabled downloads and set the streaming fee to 0.5 yuan.

He knew that free streaming would attract more listeners, but he believed that his idol Jay Chou's music was good enough and did not want to devalue his work. Following the principle that "good wine needs no bush," he chose to charge for streaming, thinking it might attract more attention.

However, in his dizziness, he accidentally typed a comma instead of a period in 0.5 yuan. He did not notice and completed the settings, then closed the browser.

Unbeknownst to him, the system interpreted 0,5 as 5. Thus, each of Cheng Xiaoyu's four songs cost 5 yuan per stream and were not downloadable.

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