Chapter 4

In the recording studio, Du Xinghe had prepared the instruments in advance. These instruments were company property and had not yet been sold. Although they were of average quality, they were sufficient for recording a demo.

Du Xinghe had written detailed sheet music for each instrument and distributed it to everyone.

Sitting behind the drum kit, Zhang Xiaozhe noticed that the main melody of the song was to be played by the violin, so he asked, "Du, who's going to play the violin in this score? It seems none of us can handle it."

Liao Nan and Ma Qi also had the same question.

Du Xinghe picked up the violin case leaning against the wall and said, "I'll play it. I can play the violin."

"You can play it?"

Zhang Xiaozhe and the others looked at Du Xinghe with disbelief.

Liao Nan, who knew Du Xinghe best, spat at him, "Du, I've heard you play the violin in our string class, and it was worse than a fart! What are you trying to show off now?"

Zhang Xiaozhe also thought Du Xinghe didn't look like someone who could play the violin, so he said, "Liao Nan, do you have He Feng's contact number? Quickly call him to come over; that guy can play the violin."

"No need to call anyone. I really can play, and I've been practicing for a long time," Du Xinghe stopped Liao Nan from leaving.

"Can you really learn to play the violin just by practicing?" Ma Qi said bluntly, "Du, I think you should stop showing off and not waste everyone's time."

Seeing that the three of them didn't believe him, Du Xinghe didn't waste any more words. He took the violin out of the case and placed it on his shoulder in a professional manner.

He pressed the strings with his left hand and tried the sound with the bow, producing a deep "buzz" that immediately caught the attention of the three boys.

Then, like Ximen Chuixue drawing his sword, Du Xinghe played a segment of the famous violinist Fritz Kreisler's masterpiece, "Love's Joy."

In this world, this romantic violin piece was also well-known.

In the enclosed recording studio, Zhang Xiaozhe and the other three boys were completely stunned by the romantic and elegant yet warm and intimate melody that Du Xinghe produced. Goosebumps appeared on their arms, and they closed their eyes, silently appreciating and savoring it.

Actually, for Du Xinghe, this was just a casual performance.

In his former world, he had been playing the violin since he was five years old, for over twenty years, reaching a level of mastery. If he played seriously, he could make these three art students cry.

At this moment, he was just finding his feel.

He played for about three minutes, finishing a section of "Love's Joy."

With the final stroke of the bow, Du Xinghe looked at the entranced expressions of the others and smiled, asking, "Is my level good enough?"

Ma Qi opened his eyes, as if he had just woken from a dream, and said in extreme shock, "More than good enough, you're a master!"

Zhang Xiaozhe nodded in approval, saying, "I feel it has more flavor than He Feng's. I've heard He Feng play 'Love's Joy,' and it's clearly not as moving as yours."

Du Xinghe explained with a smile, "The double stops on the violin have always been a challenging technique, especially the third double stops. 'Love's Joy' emphasizes the expressiveness of the third double stops. If not handled well, it can easily sound pale and lack emotional impact."

Liao Nan, hearing Du Xinghe's expert tone, asked, "You play the violin so well, why did you always fail the string class?"

"If I passed, wouldn't you be the only one left failing?" Du Xinghe grinned at Liao Nan, "I'm just being considerate of you, so I deliberately played poorly in the string class."

"Damn, are you two playing around! That's disgusting!" Ma Qi, seeing the ambiguous looks between Du Xinghe and Liao Nan, couldn't stand it. He strummed the bass strings to remind everyone to get back to work.

Then, the group stopped joking around. Under Du Xinghe's lead, they finished recording the accompaniment for "Butterfly Dream" in less than two hours.

After dinner, Du Xinghe returned to the recording studio alone and gradually corrected the parts he didn't like from the afternoon recording.

In this era, software for audio editing wasn't popular, so Du Xinghe had to edit manually, a process that was very complicated and tedious. However, with the vision of a bright future, Du Xinghe didn't feel tired at all.

He spent about three hours editing, feeling it was almost perfect. Then, Du Xinghe took the violin into the recording studio again, combining it with the previous arrangement and re-recording the main violin melody.

He did this to create the effect of two violins playing in harmony, making the song's accompaniment more grand and majestic.

Wearing a high-end BV brand headphone, he closed his eyes and listened to the beautiful and harmonious arrangement. Du Xinghe recorded the new main violin melody in one go.

When the song ended, Du Xinghe opened his eyes and saw a girl in a white shirt sitting at the sound control desk on the other side of the recording studio's glass window, seemingly having been there for some time.

Du Xinghe recognized this girl; she was the only signed female singer in their Cloud World, Xu Nu.

To be precise, Xu Nu was Du Xinghe's senior.

Two years ago, when Du Xinghe first entered Huaguang Art School, Xu Nu was in her third year of the music program.

During her graduation performance, Xu Nu played and sang a folk love song she had created on stage, which caught the attention of a talent scout.

After graduation, Xu Nu signed with Era Records.

However, her time at Era Records was very difficult.

Era Records originally planned to package Xu Nu, a big-breasted beauty, as a creative female singer. They had even completed an album and submitted it for review, waiting for approval to start promotion and marketing.

Just at this critical moment, a high-ranking official at Era Records took a fancy to Xu Nu and demanded that she sleep with him.

Xu Nu was very stubborn and refused, offending the official.

In the end, just like the Du Xinghe from another dimension, Xu Nu was also sidelined.

Moreover, her situation was even worse than Du Xinghe's. Since her album had already been submitted for review, to avoid wasting a slot, Era Records directly released it without any promotion.

As expected, no distributors bought into Xu Nu, a new artist, and the record stores didn't stock her album.

In the end, Xu Nu's first solo album, "My Promise," sold less than 100 copies in total.

More than half of these were bought by her relatives and friends.

The number "100" in the booming record industry of today was absolutely a shameful figure.

It almost set a record for the lowest sales in Era Records' history!

According to the contract between Era Records and Xu Nu, if the album sales were too poor, Era Records had the right to terminate the contract with Xu Nu.

And so, Xu Nu was dropped by Era Records.

It felt like a roller coaster ride that hadn't even reached its peak; just as it started, Xu Nu fell into an abyss.