HTI: Chapter 16

In M Country, Qiu Xing was sitting on the sofa in front of the window of his hotel room wearing a dressing gown. His face was hidden in shadows and his expression couldn’t be clearly seen.”

On the small table next to him was a laptop. The computer screen showed the long blackened image of Xie Yang that a marketing account had enlarged. A photo of Xie Yang’s blank face staring into the air in a dazed manner occupied most of the screen.

“Boss.” He Jun stood three steps away from Qiu Xing and hesitated. “Do I need to contact the public relations team?”

“No need.” Qiu Xing raised a hand to his forehead, voice unexpectedly calm, so calm that it was strange. “Who is he to me? Why should I rush to help him solve the trouble?”

He Jun tried not to look at the cup that Qiu Xing had just smashed onto the carpet and spoke euphemistically. “Sir, after all, there is a cooperation with you. If he is caught by the negative news then you—”

“Cooperation?” Qiu Xing smiled strangely. His tone was light and he showed a perfunctory remark like he had lost interest. “He is just a funny plaything. Does anyone know about my cooperation with him? How much influence can his energy have on me? Okay, you go and get some rest.”

He Jun couldn’t tell if this person was speaking the truth or angry words. He Jun guessed according to the previous habits and didn’t dare say anything more. He bent down to pick up the broken glass on the ground and left.

The door closed and the room became quiet.

The coldness on Qiu Xing’s face quickly faded. He lowered his hand and glanced at the computer screen. His eyes were fixed on Xie Yang’s dazed face for three minutes before reaching out and shutting the lid. “Aren’t you very good? Why show such a stupid face? Doesn’t your team have money to suppress this? So inexperienced yet not asking people for help? You will just be bullied like this?”

He took out his mobile phone and opened the chat box with Xie Yang. There was still the one yuan red envelope received but no new messages.

“Weren’t you very skilled before? Why aren’t you saying anything this time?!”

After the anger, he raised a hand to press against his slightly dizzy head. He suddenly laughed at himself and let himself sink into the soft sofa with closed eyes.

“I don’t have that much energy…” He placed his hand on the armrest of the sofa, his exhaustion and sickness slowly coming up and fingers gradually relaxing. “If you don’t ask me then I won’t help you.”

There was a muffled noise and the phone slipped onto the carpet.

The next second, there was a ding and the phone screen lit up. A new message had arrived.

***

The day after IUD’s heat soared, Wenyi sent a notice to Hu Biao, asking him to bring all of IUD’s members to the company for a meeting at the set time.

Hu Biao sent a text message informing everyone about the message. Then he rushed to join Xie Yang and set out for Wenyi with Xie Yang.

On the way, Xie Yang took out his phone and sent a WeChat message to Qiu Xing. After sending it, he thought about jet lag, turned off WeChat and started to use Weibo instead. He thought he wouldn’t receive a reply from Qiu Xing for at least a few hours. Unexpectedly, Qiu Xing returned the message within half a minute.

Xie Yang: Are you free? There’s something I want to ask you.

Qiu Xing: What is it?

Xie Yang was surprised and asked: You haven’t slept yet?

Qiu Xing: Don’t talk nonsense. What’s the matter?

So grumpy. Had he been woken up from his sleep?

Xie Yang made a long story short: I like a violin but it is only sold in M Country. I want to ask if you have time. If you do, can you help bring one back for me?

There was a moment of silence.

Qiu Xing: You’re bothering me with such a trivial matter?

Xie Yang admitted his mistake: Sorry, I didn’t notice the time difference between us. Did I wake you up?

There was a long, long silence.

Just as Xie Yang wondered if Qiu Xing had fallen back asleep, Qiu Xing’s reply was received. It was short and powerful: No time! I won’t! Do it yourself!

Sure enough, it seemed that Qiu Xing had just woken up from sleep.

Xie Yang put down his phone. He thought about it and picked his phone up again. Then he replied to Qiu Xing: I’m sorry for waking you up. Don’t be angry. It is easy to get nightmares if you’re angry. Good night.

Qiu Xing’s side was completely quiet.

The car stopped at Wenyi’s parking lot. Xie Yang put away his phone and got off with Hu Biao. Ke Lan and Tong Jian had arrived earlier than them but hadn’t gone up. Instead, they stayed in the parking lot to wait for Hu Biao and Xie Yang.

Once the four people met each other, Tong Jian immediately said, “It seems that Mo Bin has already arrived. I saw his car.”

Hu Biao was in a bad mood. He walked toward the elevator and said, “It doesn’t matter if he is here or not. During the meeting, remember to be silent and don’t talk nonsense. If there is anything, let Ke Lan or Xie Yang speak for you. Understand?”

Tong Jian knew he had a leaking mouth and quickly nodded in response.

The four people got on the elevator. Xie Yang looked at the elevator floor and asked, “What is the scale of Wenyi among the many entertainment and agent companies in B City?”

Hu Biao replied, “It is medium to low. Wenyi is good at supporting new people but there is a lack of high-end resources. Therefore, they can’t be praised as top class and can’t retrain people. In the past few years, Wenyi has mainly focused on the music business but it hasn’t been good. Now it is slowly transforming and started to focus on movies and television.”

Xie Yang understood and said, “Then you can help me pay attention to office buildings to rent. Look based on Wenyi’s current scale.”

Everyone in the elevator was stunned. Tong Jian even said, “Ah?”

The elevator arrived so they could only suppress the topic temporarily. Then they walked toward the meeting room.

In the meeting room, Mo Bin and Huang Mo, the manager of Wenyi’s artist agency department, had arrived. Neither of them spoke and the air pressure in the room was a bit low. Seeing Hu Biao and the others coming in, Huang Mo’s expression slightly relaxed and he got up to meet them.

Mo Bin had originally been playing with his mobile phone and raised his voice when he heard the sound. He quickly glanced at Ke Lan and Tong Jian and didn’t get up to say hello. He just lowered his head and continued to play with his phone.

Tong Jian was a bit agitated but he was suppressed by Ke Lan. Xie Yang noticed that Mo Bin seemed to be using Weibo.

After the greetings, everyone sat down. Huang Mo opened his mouth. “Now you don’t have to worry about Xie Yang’s black materials on Weibo. The company can help you deal with it. You have done a good job with this wave of heat. Next, you’ll concentrate on practicing new music and preparing for the five year anniversary performance. By the way,  Mo Bin, I heard you haven’t handed in the finished draft of the new music for the performance. Have you encountered any difficulties?”

Huang Mo tried to erase the previous IUD trouble while also handing over the ladder to Mo Bin.

Hu Biao and the others watched on. Since receiving the meeting notice, Mo Bin knew he wouldn’t be able to hide things this time. He locked his mobile phone and replied, “Brother Huang, it’s difficult. Recently, I’ve had a lot of activities and the creation of new songs has encountered a bottleneck.”

Huang Mo smiled. “That’s okay. If you can’t do it then let others do it. As the leader of IUD, you should focus on IUD’s activities.”

Let someone else do it?

Everyone looked at Huang Mo.

Mo Bin frowned. “What do you mean?”

“It means the company now feels the new IUD is very hot and it is worth continuing to grow. We should use resources to support you. Mo Bin, the current heat of IUD is something that can only be encountered and can’t be sought. If you do it well, IUD will definitely be able to come back to life.”

The statement ‘come back to life’ was tempting.

Xie Yang glanced at Mo Bin.

Mo Bin also instinctively looked in the direction of his old teammates and his eyes happened to meet Xie Yang’s eyes. Mo Bin was stunned while Xie Yang smiled.

Mo Bin saw the smile and tensed up. He made a provocative look before withdrawing his gaze. “Brother Huang, IUD has been composing and singing by ourselves since debut. Now you mean to let us sing another person’s songs? Isn’t this smashing our own signboard?”

“How is it smashing the signboard? It is just a transition. Now that IUD has become a new team, there should be a new atmosphere.” Huang Mo lowered his tone and spoke jubilantly, “Mo Bin, Wenyi really wants to raise you. Now the popularity of IUD on Weibo is just right. Didn’t you want to take off again? This is a good opportunity! Look, this is the world of Master Long Shuyou that the company specifically requested. As long as you have this, you can go back to that time!”

Long Shuyou?

Xie Yang’s heart was moved as he looked at the stack of music.

In the original book, he was one of the most important main keys that the female protagonist relied on in the entertainment industry. Besides the male protagonist, the female lead Mu Zhouyi would inevitably have a large number of high quality male partners who selflessly helped her or some senior masters. Long Shuyou was one of them.

Long Shuyou was one of the male partners who deeply loved the heroine. He was a lonely genius composer who was born into a musical family. A lunatic creative who didn’t see anything other than music.

After the female lead transformed her voice with her golden finger, Long Shuyou fell in love with her voice and actively contacted her, creating an album for her. This album led to the female lead getting the Song of the Year award and opened the door of the triad of movies, television and music. This made her status and popularity even higher.

It was also this album that made the villain Qiu Xing completely focus on the heroine. There was a type of soothing magic in the female lead’s voice after it was transformed by the golden finger. Qiu Xing had always been suffering from a headache due to his illness. Then he accidentally heard the female lead’s voice and found that her voice could alleviate his headache symptoms to a certain extent. She became a treasure and he was determined to snatch her from the male protagonist.

It was a very romantic storyline, a very troublesome golden finger.

Xie Yang frowned as he awakened from his thoughts and saw Mo Bin and Huang Mo arguing.

“Sorry Brother Huang, I won’t sing even if it is Master Long’s work. IUD is the IUD of four people, not Master Long!” Mo Bin spoke righteous words.

Xie Yang interjected. “Then will you sing the song I wrote?”

Mo Bin turned to look at Xie Yang, thinking this person was being deliberately arrogant. Mo Bin declared coldly, “I won’t sing any songs unless they are written by myself or Chenhao!”

Huang Mo was outraged by Mo Bin’s words. “Mo Bin, you are being unreasonable! Why don’t you want to grab the ready-made opportunity to make IUD red? Don’t talk to me about principles and the insistence to keep IUD. Fans might be fooled by your words but not me! Let’s make everything clear. Do you already have other plans?”