novelraw 53. Spirited Away
53. Spirited Away
After giving a brief speech, Minister Yang smiled at Zhao Lu and returned to his private office.
"Then you can stay here and work in peace. I have to rush back to Hengcheng; I have a ton of things to take care of."
After exchanging a few words with Zheng Ning, Zhao Lu hurriedly left.
"Hey buddy, come on, have some beef jerky~"
Zheng Ning had just turned on his computer when the little girl sitting to his left by the window, wearing a rabbit hat, extended an olive branch to him.
"Oh, thank you... May I ask your name?"
The female colleague in front of me was too young; she looked about the same age as my younger sister. She had a delicate, rosy face and was wearing a thick, extra-thick women's traditional costume.
She has a very heroic and valiant female warrior style, but the rabbit plush hat on her head ruins the overall atmosphere, yet she looks unexpectedly cute.
"Wang Xiaoyu just graduated from Shuncheng Conservatory of Music."
Zheng Ning was taken aback by what the other party said!
"Wang Xiaoyu, you're Wang Xiaoyu? That wildly popular song from the latter half of last year, 'Spring Breeze and a Hundred Flowers in a Tide,' was your work?"
Zheng Ning has a strong impression of this song. His family owns a record store, and during that time he often used this song with its strong ancient flavor as a signature song to attract customers.
"Hey, you've heard my songs too? Then we admire each other. I also really like your 'Rice Fragrance' and 'Chengdu,' after all, I'm a local from Shuncheng."
The two chatted quite amicably. Zheng Ning regretted that she hadn't brought any snacks with her today, but the beef jerky Wang Xiaoyu gave her was quite delicious.
"By the way, what's the deal with that anime theme song that Minister Yang mentioned earlier?"
I turned on my computer and opened the internal OA webpage for the new employee training program.
Now, as a new employee, Zheng Ning needs to learn more about the company's rules and regulations, departmental management regulations, and other things that new employees need to learn.
He will only be formally assigned work tasks after he has fully completed the courses and passed the online assessment.
So, to put it simply, he can be very tired or very idle during this period, depending entirely on his learning progress.
"Oh, you mean that one? That's an order we received from an animation company in Dongzhou."
After finishing the beef jerky, Xiaoyu took out a pack of seaweed rolls from her pocket, peeled it open, and was about to take a bite when she suddenly thought for a moment and took out another pack from her pocket and handed it to Zheng Ning.
"Thank you... I'll buy some snacks when I get back and share them with you tomorrow."
Zheng Ning blushed slightly as she accepted the food offered to her. This girl was incredibly outgoing; despite it being their first meeting, she acted as if they were old friends.
"Okay, I want some liqueur-filled candies and walnut cookies!"
The little girl's eyes lit up as soon as she heard the keyword "snacks"!
"Oh, let me continue. You must have heard of that animation company, it's Donghai Animation, the one that produced 'The Legend of the Mad Sword'."
"Their new animated film is called Spirited Away, also known as The Thousand Searches. The main story is about a little girl who accidentally enters the spirit world and goes through many hardships in order to save her parents, who have been turned into animals after eating the food prepared for the gods."
"Don't you think this story is a bit too far-fetched? Those guys in the eastern part of East Asia just love playing around with this kind of nonsense and making weird movies..."
Wang Xiaoyu rested her chin on her hands, looking up at the ceiling, clearly finding the plot very difficult to accept.
"Oh, I see..."
Zheng Ning nodded, indicating that she understood.
But this task is no longer relevant to me. My primary task is to complete various training programs within the company and pass the assessments.
The other thing is my own song "Seven Mile Fragrance," which I need to keep an eye on in terms of its ranking and download count. But Zhao Lu promised me that she would keep a close eye on the data and ensure that all the necessary publicity and promotion are done.
I haven't been paying attention to the data for my new song yet, since it's only been online for three days and it's too early to tell anything.
Although he was studying the rules and regulations, Zheng Ming's mind was still filled with the content of the anime that Wang Xiaoyu had introduced.
"Because they accidentally ate the food prepared for God, they were turned into animals? This is practically a children's show, meant to teach them not to eat food of unknown origin..."
"Oh, right, they had another special request: the entire song's accompaniment had to be done on the piano. What a strange request, haha~"
Wang Xiaoyu thought of something and added to it, also sending him a copy of the song's customization requirements via the company's internal chat software.
"Look at them, all deep in thought. Actually, we hate these kinds of custom orders that are so rigidly defined in every aspect. There's no room for creativity at all; it feels like dancing in shackles..."
The little girl muttered to herself as she turned her attention back to the music composition software on her computer.
……
The morning went by quickly, and before I knew it, it was 12 o'clock, time to go down for lunch.
The composition department has only 10 people, which gives it a very streamlined feel.
Apart from two or three older people, who were probably middle-aged and married, who brought their own lunch boxes, and the guy who was huddled in the corner and had been sarcastic towards me at first, everyone else went downstairs to have lunch with their friends.
Zheng Ning also got along very well with her new colleagues and went downstairs to a beef rice restaurant for a meal. During the meal, they chatted about current entertainment gossip and music news. Zheng Ning felt that she quickly integrated into this new group.
"Hey Zheng Ning, your new song is doing pretty well! In just two hours this morning, it's gained almost 500 more downloads, and it's ranked 1165th!"
During the meal, Xiao Wang sat next to him, chatting with everyone while scrolling through his phone. Suddenly, he excitedly patted Zheng Ning on the shoulder and showed him the screen on his phone.
"Hey, they jumped 22 places in the rankings just by chatting and laughing?"
He was overjoyed, because this time his opponents were not the newcomers who had no background or fans.
They are all veteran singers who have dominated the music scene for a long time, or at least professional singers who have officially debuted and have debut songs and hit songs.
I used to feel quite at ease in the new group, but I immediately entered the top 100 in "Rice Fragrance".
But now, looking at it, although "Seven Mile Fragrance" is of very high quality, it suddenly seems less competitive compared to the works of these 20,000 to 30,000 official singers.
"Everything still needs the company to do a good job of packaging and promotion. Joining a giant company was definitely the best decision I ever made."
The delicious beef rice, with its onion aroma, filled Zheng Ning's mouth to the brim.
He was congratulating himself on his choice when he suddenly heard a melodious piano sound coming from not far outside the door.