novelraw Chapter 67 Bazaar Night Banquet
Chapter 67 Bazaar Night Banquet
After finishing the last piece of watermelon, Bailu took out a tissue to wipe her hands.
"Brother Song, this meal was worth it. I've been eating nothing but grass on set for months, and today I finally got some real food."
Wang Churan stood up and gently pushed the chair back into its original position.
"Thank you for your hospitality, Senior Brother Song. I have to go back to school for rehearsals, so I'll be leaving now."
She walked past Tian Xiwei and poked the other woman's shoulder with her finger.
"Don't bury your face in the bowl, you'll drown if you drink any more."
Tian Xiwei suddenly looked up, her cheeks flushed.
"I didn't drink it! I was researching the stock ratio!"
After paying the bill downstairs, Song Ze watched the three girls get into the nanny van.
The three rising stars have now been assembled.
He rubbed his aching neck and walked towards his car.
As soon as I got into the driver's seat and closed the door, the passenger's phone lit up with a blue light.
Note: Yang Mi.
"Your seat at the head table is reserved for the Bazaar Charity Night in three days. A walkthrough guide is included as a bonus; please check your mail."
The document below is a file.
When you open it, the table is filled with names and titles.
Song Ze tossed his phone aside and stepped on the gas.
October 24th, next Monday, is Tian Xiwei's birthday.
He made a note of it.
Three days later, in Yanjing, at the Park Hyatt Hotel, 49th floor, executive suite.
Five stylists surrounded Song Ze and worked on him for two whole hours.
He was wearing a bespoke Armani black suit, the cut of which was extremely close-fitting.
Song Ze stood in front of the full-length mirror, tugging at his tightly pulled tie.
"It's too tight. If we eat a bite of meat later, the buttons might pop off and hit the person across the way in the face."
The stylist was making a delicate gesture with his pinky finger raised.
"Teacher Song, this is called body shaping. Sister Mi specially air-freighted it from Milan for you, please bear with it."
At 7 PM, on the red carpet at the China World Trade Center.
The flash of the camera produced a burst of white light.
Yang Mi wore a haute couture fishtail dress with rhinestones and sequins, and held Song Ze's arm with one hand.
The two walked to the media interview area in front of the autograph wall, where dozens of reporters immediately surrounded them.
The microphone was shoved right in front of Song Ze's face.
A short-haired male reporter wearing black-rimmed glasses shouted at the top of his lungs.
"Song Ze, an anonymous netizen revealed that you are still in close contact with several ex-girlfriends. Is this true?"
Yang Mi tightened her grip on Song Ze's arm without making a sound.
Song Ze leaned closer to the microphone.
"Contact them! We must contact them!"
The reporters below were all stunned.
"They created a group chat, and I was specifically responsible for sending out red envelopes in the group. If I forgot to send one during holidays, they would all tag me and yell at me, calling me a scumbag who should pay protection money."
A burst of laughter erupted around them.
The male reporter with black-rimmed glasses stared with his mouth agape, all the pre-prepared probing questions stuck in his throat.
A female reporter on the right seized an opportunity to ask a question.
"Wan Ziliang's case is scheduled to go to trial on December 12th. Will you attend the hearing as a victim?"
Song Ze didn't pause for even a second.
"December 12th? Double Twelve, huh?"
He spread his hands.
"I'll probably have to stay home that day and try to snag some toilet paper discount coupons. We'll talk about whether I go or not once the summons actually arrives."
Several veteran reporters burst out laughing.
The reporter on the far left, wearing a baseball cap, is holding a recording pen.
"Your new song 'The Actor' has caused a lot of controversy because of its sharp lyrics. Many people are analyzing that you are subtly criticizing people in the industry. Is there something else behind it?"
Song Ze was facing the recording pen.
"The Actor is about everyone. You, me, him. Whether inside or outside the industry, who isn't an actor in their own life?"
He pointed to the reporter's recording pen.
"For example, right now you're standing here interviewing me, aren't you also seriously playing the role of a journalist digging for the truth behind gossip?"
The entire room fell silent for two seconds.
Then the shutter noise and flash became twice as intense as before.
Yang Mi kept smiling and tapped Song Ze's suit sleeve twice with her fingers.
Upon entering the inner area, one is greeted by elegantly dressed women.
Directors, producers, and brand executives gathered together.
Yang Mi, holding a half-full glass of champagne, led Song Ze through the group of people.
"Director Wang, it's been a long time. Let me introduce you to Song Ze, our strategic music partner at Jaywalk Studio."
The bald director looked him up and down, then extended his hand.
"Mr. Li, regarding the drama you mentioned before, let's check the release schedule. This is Song Ze, our future strategic music partner at Jaywalk Studio."
Throughout the entire process, Song Ze only nodded, smiled, and shook hands.
But he listened to every single word Yang Mi said.
This is to tell everyone in the room that Song Ze has Jiaxing Media and Yang Mi standing behind him.
After finishing a whole round of social engagements, Yang Mi rubbed her ankle.
"Let's go to the backstage lounge to catch our breath."
The two pushed open the door to the VIP lounge.
The main lights weren't on inside; only a few dim wall lamps were lit.
A woman in a black fitted dress sat on a long leather sofa in the corner.
He wore a baseball cap pulled low, custom-made monitoring earphones in his ears, and two fingers swiped rapidly across the tablet screen.
The screen was filled with extremely complex electronic sheet music.
Tan Jingjing.
The national team female singer who was dubbed the "Great Demon King" by the entire internet.
This is also the opponent that Song Ze will face on the first episode of "I Am a Singer".
Yang Mi put on a smiling face and walked over.
"Teacher Tan, it's been a long time."
Tan Jingjing took off one of her earphones and looked up to see who it was.
"Boss Yang."
Yang Mi stepped aside, making way for Song Ze.
"What a coincidence! Let me introduce you to Song Ze. He's the lyricist, composer, and singer of 'Liang Liang' (凉凉)."
Tan Jingjing's gaze fell on Song Ze's face, and she looked him up and down for two seconds.
Of course she knew Song Ze.
A washed-up artist who had just climbed out of the mud pit managed to break into the initial lineup of "Singer" with just a few songs.
This means that a few months later in Changsha, the two of them will be competing on the same stage.
"Hello there."
The tone was polite, but with a sense of distance.
At that moment, the door to the lounge was pushed open, and an assistant director from the organizer peeked in.
"Sister Mi, Mr. Zhang has been looking for you everywhere. He has an S-grade notebook he'd like you to take a look at."
Yang Mi quickly weighed her options and turned to Song Ze.
"Rest here for a while, I'll be right back."
The sound of high heels on the carpet faded into the distance, and the door was closed tightly.
Only Song Ze and Tan Jingjing remained in the lounge.
The atmosphere plummeted to freezing point.
Song Ze didn't try to strike up a conversation. He went to the water dispenser, filled a glass with warm water, and sat down on a single sofa about two meters away from Tan Jingjing.
Tan Jingjing put her headphones back on.
Her gaze was fixed on the tablet screen, her fingers impatiently dragging the progress bar.
Song Ze took a sip of water, glancing at the lit screen out of the corner of his eye.
That was an ancient Kazakh folk song, which had been adapted into several versions.
There was a cadenza in the middle, which was circled messily with red electronic pen marks and surrounded by dense vocal editing symbols.
Tan Jingjing is struggling to choose songs for "Masked Singer".
As a reborn person, he naturally knew that the "point-eared Avatar sister" in the third episode of "Masked Singer" was her.
She wanted to perfectly blend folk songs with Western opera arias, but she got stuck.
Tan Jingjing's lips moved rapidly as she silently sang.
No, I shook my head.
Go back to the previous section, hold your breath, and sing it again.
Or not.
The two vocal styles are completely conflicting, and when forcibly combined, they sound extremely disjointed.
Her face grew increasingly grim, and she began to tug at her sleeve forcefully.
Song Ze put down the paper cup.
"Teacher Tan."
The sound wasn't loud, but it was extremely clear in the quiet lounge.
Tan Jingjing ignored her.
"Teacher Tan, that coloratura passage you watched, didn't it feel a bit disconnected from the emotion of the main melody that followed?"
Tan Jingjing suddenly turned her head and stared at him.
He put down the tablet, not even bothering to check the earphone cord that had been pulled off.
"You understand this?"
His tone was full of distrust.
A problem that a national team athlete couldn't solve, how dare a newcomer singing pop songs point fingers?
Song Ze did not provide a lengthy explanation of vocal cord closure or resonance cavities.
He leaned back on the sofa, opened his mouth, and softly hummed the melody that had troubled Tan Jingjing for three days and three nights.
There was no showing off.
He abandoned the original metal core treatment and turned several extremely ornate decorative notes into a long sigh with a heavy, mournful feeling.
Perfectly clothed.
Tan Jingjing froze.
The tangled ball of yarn, which had been knotted for days, exploded the moment the humming ended.
What she was desperately searching for was not the connection between the two technologies, but the transition between the two emotions.
Song Ze's humming gave the song a complete soul.
She put down the tablet and, relying on her instincts as a top singer, followed Song Ze's train of thought and tried singing that short section.
The sound echoed in the lounge.
The barriers that had troubled her for days collapsed.
She stopped singing, gasped for breath, and turned to look at Song Ze.
That arrogant national team demon king has disappeared.
At that very moment, a crisp, mechanical system voice exploded in Song Ze's mind.
[Ding! Target Tan Jingjing is detected to be deeply conceiving and reviewing vocal techniques that blend folk and bel canto styles.]
[Skill level: Expert; meets extraction criteria; extract?]