Chapter 37

In the bedroom, Li Qian was hunched over a desk, his right hand scribbling on a notebook, occasionally picking up his guitar to strum a few chords, then leaning back to write for a while.

He was arranging the five songs he had sold to Liao Liao.

When it comes to arranging, outsiders might think it's not that important, but those in the music industry all take it very seriously. Just like a famous opera performer who always has a "first string" by their side, without whom they might even refuse to perform, most famous singers usually have a few close arrangers. Whenever they release a new song, they choose the most suitable person based on the style, and if you ask them to change, they would be uneasy—what a "first string" and an arranger do is essentially the same: they support the performance.

A good "first string" can always bring out the best in a performer's voice and the unique charm of their singing style. Similarly, a good arranger can always highlight the atmosphere and theme of a song to the fullest, helping the singer convey the emotions of the song effectively.

In reality, it often happens that you might have heard a song before and thought it was just okay, but one day, you hear it again on a program performed by someone else, and suddenly it seems much better, making you think, "This song is really good!"

Don't be puzzled; it's definitely because it has been rearranged!

So, while a good song and a good singer are the most important and fundamental, for a song or an album to become popular, to be widely sung and listened to, and to become a classic in the hearts of listeners, a good arrangement is absolutely essential.

In fact, this is one of the reasons why Liao Liao was willing to pay a high price for the songs and insisted that Li Qian arrange them—being a singer who is particularly sensitive to emotions, she understood from the moment she heard Li Qian play the songs on his guitar that he had keenly captured the soul and essence of the two songs.

Moreover, in her view, Li Qian, as the original creator, would have arrangements that, even if not used in the end, would be extremely valuable for reference!

...

It should be acknowledged that whenever it comes to music, Li Qian's memory is absolutely outstanding. After all, being in the industry, he is constantly exposed to it, so he naturally remembers a lot and accurately.

However, even with his excellent memory, "Zhuozhe" and "Yehua" are indeed classic songs, but they are from almost two decades ago. By the time he fell off the wire and died, he hadn't heard them for at least a decade. So, while recalling the lyrics and melodies is not a problem, he could only remember some of the most critical elements of the arrangements.

For example, he roughly remembered that the arrangement of "Yehua" was mainly based on guitar and violin, and the arrangement of "Zhuozhe" was also guitar-centric—after all, Tian Zhen's album at the time was in a light rock and folk style, so remembering this wasn't too difficult. Plus, "Ganbei, Pengyou" also followed a similar style, so even if he didn't remember everything, rearranging them wouldn't be too hard.

The more challenging ones were "Weiliaoqing" and "Wo Re Lian De Jiuguo."

"Weiliaoqing" is clearly a song with a Chinese style, and with the rise of Jay Chou in the 21st century, Li Qian's research on Chinese-style songs mostly focused on the works of Jay Chou, Lin Junjie, and Wang Leehom, so he had no memory of the original arrangement of "Weiliaoqing."

As for "Wo Re Lian De Jiuguo," although it was very popular at the time, due to its age, Li Qian, despite having heard and liked it, now only remembered the lyrics and melody.

So, these two songs were the focus.

Of course, what made it most difficult for Li Qian was the lack of tools.

He didn't have the kind of material library on a computer that he could use, and all he had was a guitar, not even a keyboard!

So, his current arrangement was purely a matter of using his brain—when resources are limited, imagination must fill the gap.

Following the principle of starting with the easier tasks, Li Qian spent about an hour, without even waiting for dinner, to roughly arrange "Zhuozhe," "Yehua," and "Ganbei, Pengyou." After dinner, he spent another half an hour going over them carefully, making some adjustments, and considered them basically finalized.

Then, he tore out a few clean sheets of paper from his notebook and carefully transcribed his arrangements. This was it for the day.

Next, he planned to spend two to three more days on the remaining two songs.

He had no memory of the original arrangement of "Weiliaoqing," but that was fine. With the rise of Jay Chou and the popularity of songs like "Dongfengpo," "Jiangnan," and "Faruoxue," Li Qian, who had been in the music industry for over a decade, had studied Chinese-style song arrangements. So, he planned to work hard on "Weiliaoqing" as a test of his arranging skills.

As for "Wo Re Lian De Jiuguo," to be honest, after Li Qian grew up, especially after he started playing rock, arranging, and composing, this type of song was no longer popular. However, the arrangement of this song, as well as "Wojia Zhuzai Huangtugao," which is a clear representative of the folk style, has a very distinct tendency.

That is, it is passionate and unrestrained.

So, as long as he put his heart into it, it shouldn't be too difficult.

And Li Qian would definitely put his heart into it.

Because in his prediction, although "Zhuozhe," "Yehua," and the other songs would become more and more popular over time, the song that would help Liao Liao's album make its first big impact would be "Wo Re Lian De Jiuguo."

This kind of thing doesn't have much logic to it. All the songs are good and classic, but according to Li Qian's understanding, the current domestic music scene is most popular with folk, folk rock, and folk songs. Among the top-tier singers recognized by the public, only the Flying Band represents rock, and Zhou Mo represents urban love songs. The rest of the big-name singers are almost all in this category, or at least primarily in this category.

Not to mention Chinese-style songs, even love songs are not the mainstream of the music scene.

So, in short: this song must become a hit!

...

After finishing the transcription, Li Qian stood up, stretched, and thought for a moment. He then picked up his phone and sent a text to Wang Jinglu: "I have some good news to tell you, come to the rooftop."

After sending the text, he put his phone away, went to the bathroom to wash his face, and then said goodbye to his parents, changed his shoes, and went out.

In the afternoon, Li Qian's parents had already been to the bank.

The check was fine and could be cashed at any time.

Li Qian's father immediately withdrew 50,000 yuan and transferred it to Li Qian's bank card, and the remaining 350,000 yuan, fearing that Li Qian, being young, might not handle it well, he specially opened a new account and deposited it there.

On the way back, Li Qian's parents also went to an accounting firm and spent 60 yuan to consult about the tax on selling song copyrights.

The result was very surprising: the income from selling copyrights of original works such as songs and scripts enjoys the same tax treatment as the royalties from publishing literary works: no personal income tax is levied!

In other words, whether it's 30,000, 50,000, or 400,000 yuan, or even more, it all belongs to the author, and the state doesn't take a single cent!

According to what Li Qian's father said, he also consulted about the tax on derivative products of cultural copyrights, such as the sales of records, tapes, video tapes, VCDs, and the box office income of movies, opera tickets, drama tickets, and concert tickets. Although they are taxed, the tax rate is very low.

This news was naturally the best possible for Li Qian, who was determined to revolve his life around music and movies—not just a matter of money or tax, but a sign of the state's strong support for the cultural industry. With such support, the cultural industry would be hard not to flourish!

When the entire industry prospers, those in it will naturally rise with it!

...

Li Qian went to the rooftop and waited for a while, and Wang Jinglu came up.

"What good news do you have for me?" she asked as soon as she came up, looking quite happy.

Li Qian didn't keep her in suspense and said directly, "This afternoon, I sold five songs, my original songs, to a singer!"

Wang Jinglu's steps paused, and then her face lit up with surprise, "Really? Selling songs?"

Li Qian nodded.

This time, Wang Jinglu was genuinely happy, "You can actually sell songs now? I thought you just knew how to sing others' songs! Hey, hey, how much did you sell them for?"

Li Qian smiled, "Enough to treat you to a lot of rice noodles!"

Wang Jinglu let out a "Ha" but persisted, "Come on, how much exactly?"

Li Qian held up four fingers and, without waiting for her to guess, said, "400,000 yuan."

"Wow!"

This time, Wang Jinglu was truly stunned.

Then, she excitedly clenched her fists and waved them in front of her, "400,000... My goodness! Ah, ah, ah, no, no, you actually got ahead of me! I thought I would be far ahead of you!"

As she spoke, she couldn't help but walk back and forth around Li Qian...

Then, she said, said, said...

"Do you know? My sister told me that their group's album, after deducting the costs of song selection, arrangement, production, and recording, would only start making a profit after selling 300,000 copies, and they would only get bonuses. I remember my sister told my mom that so far, the money from the album that she has received is only about 20,000 yuan!"

"20,000 yuan, my sister, and the other four members of their group, they work hard every day, practicing songs and dances, and after a year of hard work, they only made a total of 100,000 yuan from the album!"

"My sister said their group's biggest income comes from commercial performances, but even that, after releasing the album last year, they did about 50 to 60 commercial performances in four to five months, and my sister only got about 200,000 yuan, but you, you sold five songs and got 400,000 yuan!"

"..."

Li Qian looked at her with some surprise.

He had seen her jump for joy before, like when his grades improved significantly after the last monthly exam, and she showed a wild smile for the first time in front of him.

In fact, even in the original Li Qian's memory, except for the few years when they were young and ran around laughing, she always had a clear and elegant demeanor, a very well-behaved girl. Li Qian couldn't even remember her being this excited and almost out of control after growing up—after the last monthly exam, although she was happy, she was still somewhat restrained and didn't show such unbridled excitement.

But... this is how a 17-year-old girl should be!

Seeing her in such a joyful and wild state, Li Qian suddenly felt a sense of youth himself.

Youth... it's not just about being 17 or being in high school. If you don't sweat when sitting next to a girl, if you don't blush when holding a girl's hand, if you don't feel your heart race and happiness accelerate when dating a girl, how can you call it youth?

And now, looking at Wang Jinglu, Li Qian suddenly smelled the scent of youth.

"Hey, if I treat you, how many bowls of rice noodles do you want?"

"Ah? Oh... I want... two... no, three! Anyway, you have money now, I'll eat a lot!"

"Pig!"

"You're the pig!"

"I'll only eat one bowl!"

"That's still a pig!"

"..."

Finally, after the excitement subsided, she gradually calmed down. Even without much light or moonlight, Li Qian instinctively noticed that her little face was still flushed!

"Hey, what songs did you write to sell for so much money?"

"A few, a total of three styles!"

"Make sure to sing them to me later!"

"Sure!"

"By the way, can I tell my sister... Oh, right, since you can write songs, you can write one for my sister! Write a good one, your best work, and if my sister likes it..."

"Forget it... Your sister probably won't even look at it..."

"Oh..."

Wang Jinglu suddenly fell silent, perhaps thinking of something.

After a moment, Li Qian turned to look at her. Sensing Li Qian's gaze, she also looked up, shyly meeting his eyes.

"I'll write a song for you."

"Ah? That's great! What song? Have you written it yet?"

"Alright, you guessed right, it's already written, I'll sing it to you later!"

"Great! I'll record it, and I can take it to the capital and listen to it often!"

"..."

PS: Don't always say I update too little. I consider 2,000 words a chapter, and I've never been below 3,000 words, often 4,000 or 5,000. Right?