42: Chapter 42 The Queen Invites Me for Coffee, Is Capital Trying to Blacklist Me?

Two days later, Jingzhou.

Left Bank Cafe.

When Lu Zhixian arrived, he found the whole shop empty, with only one waiter remaining.

The "Reserved for Event" sign at the door was placed discreetly, but discretion itself was the ultimate form of high profile.

He pushed the door open and scanned the room.

Lin Shiya was already sitting at a window seat.

Her long brown hair was draped loosely; she wore no makeup and had on a beige turtleneck sweater with the sleeves rolled up twice, revealing a section of her slender, white wrist.

Sunlight slanted through the floor-to-ceiling windows, landing right on her face.

The tiny beauty mark at the corner of her eye was clearly visible in the light.

Lu Zhixian walked over, pulled out the chair opposite her, and sat down. He first glanced around the empty cafe before speaking.

"Teacher Lin specially booked the whole place to see me. With this kind of treatment, should I prepare a red envelope or something?"

Lin Shiya was looking down at her phone. Hearing this, she looked up and glanced at him.

"The money you earned from the New Year's Eve concert hasn't hit your account yet, has it? Don't try to act like a big shot when you're not."

"Oh, concerned about my income now?"

"...Can you speak normally?"

"No."

Lin Shiya was momentarily stifled. She lowered her gaze and took a sip of the latte in front of her.

The cup hid the slight curve of her lips.

The waiter came over to ask what Lu Zhixian wanted. He casually ordered an Americano, then leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed over his chest.

"Alright, Teacher Lin invited me out in the middle of her busy schedule; it can't just be for coffee."

Lin Shiya put down her cup, pulled a file folder from her handbag, and pushed it across the table.

"Look at this first."

Lu Zhixian opened the folder and pulled out the contents.

A contract.

He quickly flipped through a few pages and raised an eyebrow.

Co-producer agreement.

Party A was Shengyue Culture, and Party B was left blank. The content was clear—inviting him to serve as the co-producer for Lin Shiya's next album.

Profit sharing, credit rights, copyright ownership—the terms were written in great detail, and the conditions offered were quite generous.

Lu Zhixian flipped to the last page and found a handwritten track planning sheet attached.

One line was circled in red—"Duet Love Song × 1 (TBD)".

He looked up at Lin Shiya.

Lin Shiya held her cup, her expression calm.

"I want to make a stylistic breakthrough for my next album. Among the producers on the market who truly understand R&B, you're number one."

"Just that?"

"Not enough?"

"Enough." Lu Zhixian gently placed the contract back on the table, tapping the red text with his finger. "But I'm quite curious about this. A duet? With me?"

"Is there a problem?"

"No problem. I just think Teacher Lin is quite bold."

"It's just a musical collaboration."

"Then why did you circle it in red?"

Lin Shiya's coffee-drinking motion paused for half a beat.

"...To emphasize the focus."

Lu Zhixian didn't press further, but the punchable expression on his face already said it all.

He flipped through the contract again, finishing it in two minutes.

"The contract is fine. I'll sign."

Lin Shiya nodded slightly, tucked the contract back into the folder.

Her movements were swift, as if she had expected his answer all along.

The coffee was served.

Lu Zhixian took a sip and frowned at the bitterness.

Just as he was about to make a few more jokes, Lin Shiya suddenly put down her cup.

"Now, let's talk business."

Her tone changed.

It was no longer the tone of a casual chat.

"How much do you know about Xingmang Entertainment's movements?"

Lu Zhixian's hand holding the cup didn't stop, his tone casual: "Buying press releases to smear me before New Year's Eve, changing my performance order, and then using water armies to boost data in the early morning. Those things?"

"Those are just on the surface."

Lin Shiya took out her phone, opened a memo page, and handed it over.

"I had Sister Chen inquire through channels. Xingmang has already teamed up with at least three traditional record companies to launch a joint strike against your new album."

Lu Zhixian took the phone and glanced at it.

The content was very specific.

First, all new songs and albums from Xingmang's artists would be released intensively during the same period as his, using their volume advantage to seize all recommendation spots and traffic entry points.

Second, several traditional record companies would jointly pressure mainstream music platforms to limit the recommendation weight for his new album.

Third, offline record distribution channels have already started saying they won't accept the distribution of his physical albums.

Lu Zhixian handed the phone back.

"They're really going all out."

"That's your only reaction?"

"What else? Should I cry for you?"

Lin Shiya stared at him for two seconds, as if confirming whether he truly didn't care or was just putting on a brave face.

Finally, she took back her phone and spoke.

"I'm telling you this not just as a warning. Shengyue is willing to step in and help you shoulder this."

Lu Zhixian didn't respond, waiting for her to finish.

"Shengyue has long-term cooperative relationships with major platforms, and President Zhou's connections in the industry are deep enough. If you sign with Shengyue, we can help you clear all these channel obstacles."

She paused.

"This is President Zhou's intention, and mine as well."

The cafe fell silent for a few seconds.

The sunlight shifted slightly on the table.

Lu Zhixian looked down at the black liquid in his cup, and only after a while did he speak.

"Teacher Lin, regarding the signing, I have to tell you the truth."

He looked up.

"I'm not signing."

Lin Shiya's expression didn't change, but her fingers on the table tightened slightly.

"Reason?"

"No special reason." Lu Zhixian leaned back against the chair. "I'm not used to putting my life in someone else's hands. No matter who it is."

"This isn't handing over your life; it's a partnership."

"Once signed, what songs to release, when to release them, and who to collaborate with—all have to go through the company. Haven't you been bound by these things yourself?"

Lin Shiya fell silent.

This hit the mark. Before she signed with Shengyue, this was no secret in the industry.

Lu Zhixian's tone softened.

"I appreciate Teacher Lin's kindness. Shengyue's conditions are indeed impeccable, and I trust President Zhou's character. But I want to take a gamble."

"Gamble on what?"

"Gamble on the works."

He put down the cup and leaned forward slightly.

"If they block the channels, I won't use them. If they throw traffic at me, I'll use my works to stand against it."

"As long as the songs are good enough, listeners will find them. Wasn't New Year's Eve the best proof?"

"That was because you had a live performance," Lin Shiya's voice lowered slightly.

"Albums are different. Distribution, promotion, stocking—every link can be blocked. You can't hold out alone."

"If I can't hold out, then I can't. At worst, I'll just start over."

Lu Zhixian smiled, a very relaxed one.

"When I was in the industry before, I saw too many people being tied down by capital."

"Some people initially thought signing was a partnership, but in the end, they couldn't even decide what songs they wanted to sing. I don't want to go down that path again."

As he said this, his speaking speed slowed down.

Lin Shiya looked at the man across from her.

He leaned back, his posture relaxed, and his expression wasn't confrontational. But every word he spoke carried weight.

"It wasn't an impulsive decision."

"He had thought it through."

She looked away and looked down to pick up her coffee cup.

The coffee in the cup had already gone stone cold.

"Fine." She put down the cup. "I won't force the signing. But the collaboration remains; you still have to help me with my album."

"Of course."

"Also—" she hesitated, "if you really can't hold out later, come to me anytime."

Lu Zhixian looked at her and suddenly felt that this Ice Queen Diva was being particularly talkative today.

He didn't respond to that, just smiled.

That smile made Lin Shiya feel inexplicably irritable, and she tilted her head back to take a large gulp of the cold coffee.

...

When he came out of the Left Bank Cafe, it was already after four o'clock.

Lu Zhixian walked on the dry, cold winter streets of Jingzhou, exhaling a breath of white mist.

He went over the information in his head.

Xingmang teaming up with several record companies to suppress him was both a big and a small matter.

The channel blockade was indeed tricky.

He was currently an independent musician without an agency to handle these upstream and downstream relationships for him.

But he had a card in his hand that no one in this world could overturn.

He found a roadside bench and sat down.

He looked left and right, confirming no one was paying attention to him.

Lu Zhixian summoned the system panel in his mind.

The first thing that caught his eye was the popularity value.

With the New Year's Eve performance plus the heat that continued to ferment over the next two days, this number had risen to a level he hadn't even expected—

[Current Popularity Value: 11,420,000]

Over eleven million.

Enough.

Lu Zhixian took a deep breath and thought to himself.

"System, I want to exchange for an album. Invest all popularity points."

[Ding! Confirm spending 11,420,000 popularity points to open an album-level draw?]

[Confirm/Cancel]

"Confirm."

Golden light erupted in his mind.

That feeling was completely different from drawing a single last time. This time, the golden light was so dense it almost stung his consciousness, and the light effects on the system panel flashed crazily for a full ten seconds.

Then—

[Ding! Congratulations to the host for obtaining the God-tier album—"David Tao" self-titled album!]

[Album Quality: SSS-rank (God-tier)]

[Note: All the above tracks have been stored in the host's system space. Complete arrangements, vocal harmonies, and lyrics can be extracted at any time.]

Lu Zhixian stared at the name on the panel.

He sat motionless on the bench.

In his previous life, this album defined the sound of an era and influenced everyone who made R&B for the next twenty years.

Now, it lay in his system space.

Any single song from it was enough to stir up a storm in this world's music scene.

Lu Zhixian stood up and tucked his hands into his pockets.

The winter wind poured into his collar, making him quite cold.

But his lips curled into a grin.

"Blacklist me?"

He muttered to himself, his voice scattered by the wind.

"What a coincidence. My favorite thing to do is flip the table on others."

He pulled out his phone and sent a message to Jiang Cheng.

"Help me book a recording studio. The best one. Starting tomorrow, for a whole month."

Jiang Cheng replied instantly: "Brother Lu? You're going to record an album?!"

"Yeah."

After sending the message, he locked his screen and turned toward the subway station.