Chapter 1

"Vast, Profound, Beautiful, and Refined"

— The motto of Huaguang Art School.

In the preface to "Selections of Ci Poems," Qing dynasty's Zhang Huayan once said: "Among the ci poets of the Tang dynasty, Wen Tingyun stands the highest, for his words are profound, beautiful, vast, and refined." He advocated that ci should be written with depth, beauty, vastness, and refinement, being substantial and weighty.

Here, "vast" means broad knowledge; "refined" means careful selection based on extensive collection; "profound" means a spirit of research; and "beautiful" means reaching the realm of perfection.

These four characters are now prominently displayed in the main hall of Huaguang Art School, serving as the school motto, constantly teaching the students of Huaguang to have a broad mind and vision, to strive tirelessly towards the peak of art, to aim high, and to never stop fighting.

Turning around, he smiled.

Taking one last look at the four-character motto, Du Xinghe left the vocational high school for arts that he had attended for only two years.

Dropping out of school is a painful experience for any sixteen-year-old boy.

But Du Xinghe did not think so.

In fact, from his determined and reserved eyes, one could sense that he was even looking forward to it.

Actually, three months ago, Du Xinghe was still on another Earth, pursuing his dream of music with unfulfilled aspirations.

On that Earth, Du Xinghe studied pop music for four years at the Central Conservatory of Music, with a minor in composition and Western classical music, demonstrating exceptional talent and outstanding ability. Before he even graduated, he was signed by the most popular record company in mainland China, Chengtian Entertainment.

However, just as he was about to release his first album, his affair with the top executives of Chengtian was exposed.

Enraged, the CEO of Chengtian issued a death sentence on Du Xinghe, prohibiting him from writing songs, composing, releasing any albums, or participating in any commercial performances during the 10-year contract period with Chengtian Entertainment. He was even forbidden from being mentioned by any media!

A rising star was thus drowned in the sea of people.

Ten years! Ten years!

How many tens of years can a person waste!

Enduring the most precious and darkest period of his life with unfulfilled aspirations, Du Xinghe, on his 31st birthday, was hit by a car on his way home after drinking too much.

After waking up, he found himself in this new world, entering the body of a boy also named Du Xinghe.

In this world, 16-year-old Du Xinghe and his father Du Shan were involved in a car accident.

Du Shan unfortunately passed away in the accident.

Du Xinghe, with a new soul, miraculously woke up.

In the three months since his rebirth, Du Xinghe had been lying in the hospital, increasing his understanding of this new world through the residual memories in his brain and by reading various newspapers and books.

The time in this world was still 1992, and mobile phones were not yet popular, let alone the internet.

The history of China before the Xinhai Revolution was identical to that of Du Xinghe's original world.

However, during the Xinhai Revolution, a major dictator named Zhang Bin appeared, seemingly also a time traveler. Zhang Bin overthrew the feudal monarchy, unified the warlords, and established a powerful new Chinese Empire.

Later, the Japanese also attempted to invade China, but the outcome was completely different.

In this world, the new China under Zhang Bin's rule immediately counterattacked after the Japanese invasion, directly targeting the Japanese islands.

If it weren't for American intervention, Japan in this world would have become an inseparable part of the Chinese Empire, just like North and South Korea.

The highly centralized system that followed allowed the Chinese Empire in this world to achieve rapid economic growth, almost surpassing the United States and Russia to become the world's strongest country.

In 1966, Emperor Zhang Bin passed away, and the empire subsequently experienced several major upheavals, severely damaging the economy and causing a significant setback, allowing the United States to regain its lead and even Japan to show signs of surpassing it.

However, despite the setbacks, the economy of this world was still much stronger than that of the world Du Xinghe had lived in.

This can be seen from the prosperity of the music industry.

Du Xinghe, a singer by profession, had studied music all his life and was very interested in the pop music market here.

From his observations, in 1992, CD players had already been widely adopted. When he was in the hospital, the nurses mostly listened to CDs, and few people used cassettes.

Moreover, in this world, the Chinese regions had a strong awareness of copyright protection for music, films, novels, and other cultural industries, with strict anti-piracy measures. The market was rarely flooded with pirated discs, and the good economic environment meant that people who enjoyed music almost always bought genuine discs, resulting in astonishing sales of pop music albums!

According to newspaper reports, in 1991 alone, 15 new Chinese albums sold over 10 million copies in the Greater China region!

The top-selling artist, Zhang Dehua, sold a staggering 29 million copies of his new album "Dreaming of Love"!

This was just the annual sales figure.

If we look at total sales, the Chinese artists in this world could easily outperform the Western pop artists of the previous world!

This clearly demonstrates the economic strength of this world.

The deeper Du Xinghe delved into understanding this world, the more he was amazed by its "madness."

During the three months he spent in the hospital, he reflected on his past almost every night and looked forward to the future.

In the previous world, he was shelved by Chengtian Entertainment for ten years, missing out on so much.

Now, in this era that is civilized to the point of madness, and reborn at 16, Du Xinghe vowed to reclaim what he had lost, a hundredfold!

He no longer wanted to live a life of unfulfilled aspirations.

He wanted to burst forth!

To burn every inch of his skin and create a true legend that belonged to him!

After three months of lying low, upon his discharge from the hospital, Du Xinghe made his first decision: to drop out of Huaguang Art School and focus on running the independent record company left by his father—Cloud World.

Page AD begins

Page AD ends