novelraw 24. The olive branch of the three giants
24. The olive branch of the three giants
"Feeding Mr. Huang (yellow swelling)? Ah, it's Mr. Shui (edema), oh, Mr. Hu (edema), Mr. Hu is here too."
Since deciding not to pursue graduate studies, Zheng Ning has completely relaxed.
The senior year courses were basically completed in the first few months, and now it's time for everyone to look for jobs and internships.
He naturally lost his anxiety about finding a job and deleted all the job-seeking apps he had been using.
The 5 yuan given to my mother played a significant role in my father's treatment. Once the imported high-end medicine was used, my father's condition was immediately brought under control.
There's no need to sell Zheng's audio-visual store now. Although CDs and VCDs are declining in popularity, many middle-aged and elderly people are not used to listening to music and watching dramas online or on their phones, so they will still come to the store to buy things.
"We have a few projects for you to do. One is to paint the moon inside and out, and to tile both sides of the Great Wall with colored tiles. Another project is to protect the environment. We plan to make a stainless steel lid to cover the Pacific Ocean. If it's done well, I dare not say more, but we will contact Kuwait and ask them to take dozens of tons of gasoline back to burn for fun."
Here he was, lounging on a recliner in his own music store, legs crossed, listening to some interesting works from the system's Earth copyright library.
Browsing doesn't leave a memory, and he doesn't have enough points to make a purchase.
So he treated everything from Earth as an alternative form of music, listening to it for fun whenever he had a spare moment.
Sure enough, while browsing the treasure trove of songs from Earth, he came across this storytelling performance called "Fake Fighting," which was told in a dialect similar to that of Shuncheng, Chengdu, and it suited his taste perfectly.
"Brother, what are you laughing at? Your legs are shaking from laughing so much."
Zheng Jingjing, who was carrying a thermos to deliver lunch to her brother at noon, appeared at the store entrance. She saw her brother lying on a recliner with his eyes closed, laughing heartily, so she asked him curiously.
"Oh? Jingjing's here. Oh, I just remembered something interesting."
I opened my eyes and found myself outside the system's copyright database.
Everything I had heard before was forgotten; this was the real listening experience.
"I thought you'd gone crazy again. Here, Mom made braised pork and your favorite tomato and egg stir-fry."
Her younger sister handed her the thermos, unscrewed the lid, and a rich aroma wafted out before Zheng Ning's eyes.
"It smells so good, thank you, little sister."
"Hello, is the boss there?"
Zheng Ning took the chopsticks and was about to start eating when she suddenly heard the voice of a man in his thirties coming from outside the shop.
"Yes, please wait a moment~"
The two were eating in the inner lounge to avoid the aroma wafting into the restaurant and affecting the guests' mood.
So when he lifted the curtain and came out, he saw a very formally dressed businessman looking him up and down with curiosity and surprise.
"Ha, I searched high and low but couldn't find it, and then it came to me without any effort."
The man wore square-framed glasses, his hair was slicked back and shiny, and his light blue suit looked particularly tailored and appropriate. He gave off a confident, reserved, and slightly arrogant vibe.
"Mr. Zheng, I've seen your videos and listened to your songs. To be honest, they're very memorable."
He is only about 1.78 meters tall, so he has to tilt his head back slightly to look Zheng Ning in the eye.
But this did not conceal the arrogance in his eyes. He slightly raised his chin and extended his hand to Zheng Ning.
"Let me introduce myself, I am Niu Decheng, a singer manager at Xinghai Entertainment."
"Star Sea Entertainment, a singer's agent?"
Zheng Ning subconsciously reached out and shook his hand, then turned to look at her sister, who also looked surprised and doubtful.
So soon, even the agent has come knocking on our door?
Am I really that famous now?
"Ahem, Mr. Niu, you flatter me. It's nothing special, just a casual song."
Zheng Ning was pleasantly surprised, but she quickly regained her composure, not wanting the other party to think she was a person without guile.
"Haha, Mr. Zheng is so young and accomplished, yet so humble. He's definitely got the makings of a big star!"
Niu Decheng took her hand, squeezed it lightly, and then let go. Zheng Ning could even see a slight gesture of disdain as he shook his hand away, which he concealed very well.
"We've been following your song 'Rice Fragrance' for a long time."
"I've heard this song since the day your street performance video was released. I thought it would only be a short-lived hit and then it would be over. This is the common fate of many internet-famous songs."
"But we never expected that you would have already broken into the top 13 of the newcomer champion list, so we felt that we should contact you and provide you with a brighter and broader development opportunity."
"Mr. Niu means..."
Zheng Ning gestured to his sister to make tea for Mr. Niu, and politely invited him to sit down.
"After observing you for so many days, we have determined that you are a newcomer with unlimited potential who is worth our investment of a lot of energy, resources and money to cultivate."
"You composed and wrote the lyrics for this song yourself... is that correct? Do you own the copyright to this song? Ah, thank you..."
Niu Decheng took the cup of hot tea that Zhao Jingjing handed him, but after only taking a light sniff, he frowned slightly and put it aside.
"Yes, it's my copyright, and I did write it myself."
Although the other party concealed their disdain for the tea in the shop very well, Zheng Ning keenly noticed it in that instant, which made a barely perceptible hint of displeasure appear in his heart.
But after all, they're from a big company, and the tea they usually drink probably costs tens of thousands of yuan per kilogram. Our own tea only costs a few dozen yuan per kilogram, so it's normal for them to complain when they just drink it casually.
So Zheng Ning didn't think too much about it and continued to communicate with the other party with enthusiasm.
"I'm a seasoned agent with over a decade of experience, and I have complete faith in my ears."
"Your talent perfectly matches our selection criteria at Starsea Entertainment, so I am now formally inviting you to join us."
"If Mr. Zheng is willing to sign a contract with us, our company will send highly professional and experienced personnel to manage and package your songs, and also provide excellent assistance and support for your songwriting work."
"As you know, Xinghai is one of the three major companies in Xizhou. We have countless excellent singers in our company. Your talent shouldn't be wasted like this. If these famous singers could sing your songs, your value would increase even more, and you would become a well-known songwriter in the industry."
At first, Zheng Ning nodded occasionally to show his understanding as he listened to Niu Decheng's words.
But as I listened, I suddenly felt... that the tone of the conversation seemed to have gone a bit off.
"Take your song 'Rice Fragrance' for example. You were just an amateur singer with no prior work or performance experience, yet you still managed to reach number 13 on the newcomer chart. If this song had been given to one of our company's top singers from the beginning, you can imagine the historical heights it would have reached..."
Perhaps they didn't notice the increasingly displeased expression on Zheng Ning's face.
Perhaps he saw it, but he didn't care about the feelings of this nobody at all.
Niu Decheng continued speaking on his own, his face beaming with excitement, and the promises he made grew ever larger.
"We really love this song, and we believe you will create many more excellent works like this in the future..."
"Therefore, according to the evaluation of the professionals in the company, you are indeed a very promising songwriter. If you come to Xinghai, you will definitely be highly regarded in the composition department and have a very promising development opportunity..."
"Stop, stop, Mr. Niu, please stop for a moment."
Hearing this, Zheng Ning finally couldn't take it anymore. She pressed her right index finger against her left palm and made a stop gesture.