novelraw Chapter 38 Liu Yifei looks forward to the "Singer" stage
Chapter 38 Liu Yifei looks forward to the "Singer" stage
Song Ze turned around.
Liu Yifei lowered his head, his fingers pressed against the inside of the paper cup, the steam from the honey water had already dissipated.
When she asked that question, her entire demeanor was completely different from before.
She is neither the meticulous and detail-oriented creator behind the console, nor the eternally dignified and poised international movie star in front of the camera.
She is a daughter who is almost suffocated by her mother's constant phone calls, but can't even utter a single complaint.
Song Ze did not speak immediately.
He stared at the dense audio tracks on the screen for two seconds, then took off his monitoring headphones and hung them around his neck.
"Being protected is a blessing."
His gaze fell on her, and his tone was flat.
"But you are different."
He paused for a moment.
"You can bloom in a greenhouse, and you can also blossom in the cold winter."
Liu Yifei's fingers tightened slightly as he gripped the paper cup.
A very faint red tinge appeared around her eyes.
It's not that I feel wronged.
It was a brief lapse in defense after being seen through.
She entered the industry at the age of fifteen, and for the past twenty years, everyone has said that she was born lucky.
No one mentions the nights she spent in her dorm when she went to study in the United States alone at the age of sixteen, nor does anyone care how much pressure she endured when she refused to renew her contract with Hollywood and returned to China to take on art films.
Everyone only saw the greenhouse.
That person's words just now revealed the harshness of winter.
The blush only lasted for two seconds before she suppressed it.
She lowered her eyes.
for a long time.
He uttered two words almost inaudibly.
"Thanks."
Song Ze did not respond.
He put his headphones back on and pulled the clippers back to their original position.
"The flute track hasn't been processed yet. The high frequencies are indeed too sharp. Can you listen to it and tell me how much to cut?"
One sentence pulled the atmosphere back from the private sphere to work.
Liu Yifei glanced at him.
The look in his eyes was different from before.
Beyond being mere collaborators, there's something deeper involved.
She did not mention her mother again.
He reached out and pulled a chair over to sit next to the control panel, then picked up the spare earphones and put them on.
"broadcast."
For the next two days, the soundproof door of shed number one in Yanjiao was hardly ever opened.
When Sister Hong brought in the food for the first time, Song Ze was lying on the mixing console, his earphone tilted to one ear, with a manuscript full of annotations spread out beside him.
Liu Yifei sat cross-legged on the carpet in the recording booth, repeatedly humming the same melody into the microphone.
Neither of them looked up.
The food has gone cold.
When the food was brought in for the second time, Song Ze stood in front of the mixing console, holding the fader with his left hand and tapping the beat with his right.
Liu Yifei stood behind him, tilting his head to listen to the clips coming from the monitor.
"This voice is half a beat late."
"It's intentional. Listen to the bass drum's landing point; that half-beat gap is the blank space."
"The ending note was finished too cleanly."
"Add a 0.3-second reverb tail; any more and it'll sound muddy."
Sister Hong placed the insulated bag at the door and left.
She has been an agent in the entertainment industry for 23 years and has seen all kinds of geniuses.
But this is the first time I've seen something like this.
The seventy-second hour.
Song Ze pressed the last key, and the mastering progress bar reached 100%.
He leaned back in his swivel chair and took off his headphones.
His eyes were bloodshot, and stubble was growing on his chin.
"put."
Liu Yifei stood behind him, her voice mostly hoarse, but her tone was steady.
Song Ze clicked play.
The prelude of strings unfolds, and vocal chanting rises from the gaps, without any specific words.
The piano in the verses is extremely restrained, while the emotions in the chorus build up layer by layer.
Suppressing, struggling, and then erupting.
Finally, all the instruments came in at once, and the vocals were pushed to their highest point, exploding throughout the entire recording studio.
The last note ended, its lingering resonance lasting for three seconds before fading into silence.
A soft sound came from the doorway.
Hongjie was standing inside the soundproof door at some point, the lid of her thermos cup unscrewed.
She opened her mouth, but said nothing.
There was a silence of nearly ten seconds.
She put down her cup and walked to the control panel.
"The contract terms remain unchanged."
She looked at Song Ze, her tone decisive.
"An additional 500,000 in production costs will be charged as your personal labor. It will be processed by the finance department tomorrow."
Song Ze went through the calculations in his mind.
The after-tax revenue of 3 million for "Liang Liang" has been received, plus streaming revenue sharing, plus a contract of the same scale as "Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms", plus this 500,000.
We're one step closer to our goal of 80 million in breach of contract penalties.
We're still far from it, but we're heading in the right direction.
"OK."
Liu Yifei took the initiative to extend his hand.
Song Ze shook hands with her.
"This song is not just the movie's OST."
She released her grip, took a step back, and looked into his eyes.
"It has its own life."
pause.
"I really look forward to hearing your own work on the stage of 'I Am a Singer'."
She turned around, picked up her coat and bag, and went out the door.
The door closed very quietly.
Song Ze stood there, the touch of her fingers still lingering on his fingertips.
The two of them were locked up together for three days, and their tacit understanding was abnormally good.
He snapped out of his thoughts, took out his phone, and called Zhang Juan.
"The OST is all set; Sister Hong will handle the contract directly."
"Arrange a car to go to Songzhuang the day after tomorrow. We should meet with Sa Dingding."
July 6th, Wednesday, 1:50 PM.
Independent villa No. 3 in Songzhuang Art District.
I rang the doorbell and waited for thirty seconds.
The door opened.
Sa Dingding stood behind the door, thinner than on TV, but with a much stronger presence.
She wore a dark red ethnic-style long robe, with silver ornaments on her chest and wrists, and her hair was braided into thin braids and coiled at the back of her head.
She glanced at him from head to toe.
"Thank you for coming all this way. I've been busy lately and can only spare fifteen minutes."
She stepped aside to let him pass, leading him through a corridor filled with various musical instruments and into a spacious studio.
A morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) and a dombra (dombra) hang on the wall, and a Yamaha grand piano stands in the corner with its lid half open.
Sa Dingding sat down at the piano and stretched out his hand.
"music score."
Song Ze took a folder out of his backpack and handed it over.
The complete lyrics and music score for "Left Finger Points to the Moon", plus a handwritten arrangement concept.
She turned to the first page and scanned it casually.
Turning to the second page, the speed slowed down.
In the second measure of the verse, the pitch is marked as C5.
Her fingers stopped on the musical staff.
Scroll down further, and you'll find dense vocal runs in the chorus, with the pitch climbing all the way up to D6.
There's a note at the end, handwritten and illegible: G6, Killer Move, use as needed.
Sa Dingding straightened up from the back of the chair.
She turned back to the first page and started reading again from the beginning.
This time, each line is extremely slow.
"Did you write this?"
She looked up abruptly, and before he could answer, she stood up and walked to the piano, her fingertips landing on the keys.
She began to audition.
The mid and low frequencies are clean and clear, and raising the pitch is effortless.
As the chorus progresses, the pitch continues to rise, with D6 steadily taking center stage, creating an ethereal and melodious sound. Every transition is so precise it seems as if it were etched into the vocals.
Every pitch, every breath control, every arc of a turn—these are all things that textbooks can't reach.
Song Ze stood three steps away.
The system panel pops up at the edge of the field of view.
[Ding! Target detected demonstrating "expert" singing skills.]
[Current host's singing level: Professional (1240/3000).]
[Level difference: 1 level.]
[The extraction criteria have been met. Extract now?]
extract.
Information flowed in.
It's not the gradual indoctrination of the past.
Large chunks of muscle memory and acoustic experience are compressed and then instantly decompressed.
The way the laryngeal muscles are fine-tuned has changed, the angle at which the breath flows through the vocal cords has changed, and the opening and closing range of the resonance cavity has changed.
From the chest cavity to the head cavity, every cavity that could resonate was recalibrated.
The system panel has been refreshed.
[Singing: Expert level, 3505/10000]
From professional level to expert level.
Qualitative change.
Song Ze controlled his breathing rhythm, not letting anything unusual show.
But the changes inside the body are overwhelming—those vocal techniques that used to require conscious effort have now all become instinctive.
The D6 is no longer the limit, but the comfort zone.
The last note faded.
Sa Dingding stood up from the piano bench and walked over to him.
She grabbed his shoulder.
"I want this song."
She didn't let go.
"When do you plan to sing? Where will you sing?"
Song Ze hadn't had a chance to answer yet.
The villa gate was pushed open.
Footsteps came from the other end of the corridor, their rhythm steady and unhurried.
Lin Shishi appeared at the entrance of the studio.
Wearing a light gray trench coat, her hair tied in a low ponytail, her cheeks flushed slightly from the wind blowing on her face.
Her gaze first fell on Sa Dingding's hand gripping Song Ze's shoulder, then moved to Sa Dingding's face.
This artist, who is always composed and elegant on the national stage, now had shining eyes and was almost excited.
"Teacher Sa, this is...?"
Sa Dingding loosened his grip, turned to her, and raised his voice by half an octave.
"Shishi, you've come at the perfect time."
She clapped her hands.
"I've made up my mind. I'll personally go to the judging panel for the auditions on 'I Am a Singer' next week."