68: Chapter 68 What exactly are you after?

Monday, 11:00 PM.

Jiang Fan lay on his apartment bed, staring at the ceiling.

His phone screen lit up.

Li Cheng: "Are you asleep yet?"

Jiang Fan: "No."

Li Cheng: "I'm here at the Studio watching it. It's at 99 million."

Jiang Fan: "Staring at it won't make it go up any faster."

Li Cheng: "Can't you let me be excited for a moment?"

Jiang Fan didn't reply.

Twenty minutes passed, and his phone vibrated three times in a row.

Li Cheng sent three messages, each with only one character.

"It"

"Hit"

"100M"

Immediately after, a screenshot followed.

The total play count was frozen at 100,073,841.

Jiang Fan replied with four words: "Well done."

The person on the other end was probably so angry he threw his phone, as there were no messages for the next fifteen minutes.

Just as Jiang Fan was about to turn off the lights to sleep, a new message popped up on WeChat.

Xu Qingya.

It was midnight, and this diva still wasn't asleep.

Xu Qingya: "Congratulations."

A few seconds later, another one came.

"How far is 'sorrow relief' from my 'Red Bean'?"

Jiang Fan opened the backend to take a look.

"Still a long way off."

Xu Qingya: "That's good."

Jiang Fan could imagine the expression on her face as she typed those two words.

Another message popped up.

"Remember, if you surpass me, I won't let you off."

Jiang Fan replied with a thumbs-up emoji.

Xu Qingya didn't say anything else.

— —

The next morning, the news that Jiang Fan's three songs had broken 100 million plays spread throughout the industry.

It wasn't a slow spread; it was like an explosion.

The internal weekly report at Tencent Music listed Jiang Fan as "The most commercially promising newcomer of the quarter."

At noon, while Jiang Fan was eating takeout at the Studio, Li Cheng walked over holding his phone.

"Take a look at this."

It was an article from a self-media account with a sensational title: "From Security Guard to 100 Million Play Singer: Jiang Fan's 30-Day Myth."

Jiang Fan glanced at it; it had dug up his entire resume.

Working as a security guard at Tianyu Entertainment, getting fired, performing at bars, participating in Tomorrows Star, winning the championship, writing songs for Xu Qingya, the Shen Nian copyright case—the timeline was clearer than his own.

The last paragraph of the article read: "Every year, people in this industry shout 'A genius has arrived,' but most so-called geniuses are just packaged by capital. Jiang Fan is different. He has no agency, no capital, and not even a decent marketing team. He relies on one good song after another. If you must ask me if there is still hope for the Chinese music scene, my answer is—go listen to Jiang Fan."

Jiang Fan handed the phone back to him.

"Who wrote this?"

"An account called 'Midnight Music Hall' with over 20 million followers."

"Hmm. Give him a chicken drumstick."

Li Cheng glanced at him and swallowed his retort.

Breaking 100 million is the kind of thing where anyone else would post on Weibo to thank their fans, but this guy? He didn't even put down his chopsticks.

Jiang Fan continued eating his boxed lunch.

He took a bite of his chicken drumstick and mumbled, "Su Yuyan is coming tomorrow. Tell Zhou Yutong to tidy up the conference room."

"Also—" Jiang Fan swallowed the food in his mouth, "take her phone away tomorrow."

Zhou Yutong's previous offense was still fresh in his memory; if she pulled another stunt like that, Jiang Fan feared he wouldn't survive the month.

"Whose phone? Su Yuyan's or Zhou Yutong's?"

"Zhou Yutong's. You dare take Su Yuyan's?"

"Fair point."

— —

Wednesday, 2:00 PM.

Su Yuyan arrived ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time.

She wore a baseball cap, her makeup was exquisite, and there was a layer of glitter on the tear mole at the corner of her eye; if you didn't look closely, you would think it naturally sparkled.

She wore a beige blazer over a black camisole, with the area below her collarbone partially visible.

Zhou Yutong's phone had already been confiscated by Li Cheng, but her eyes couldn't be confiscated.

She was sprawled over her workstation, her gaze following Su Yuyan from the door to the conference room, her neck turning nearly 180 degrees.

Li Cheng made a throat-slitting gesture at the back of her head.

Only after the conference room door closed did Zhou Yutong pull her head back.

Su Yuyan took off her blazer, draped it over the chair, and sat down to start discussing the Arrangement plan with Jiang Fan.

Her fingertips tapped on one of the sections.

"Here, use the electric guitar riff as the main line and the brass section for the rhythm?"

"Your voice is sweet and sexy. Using a hard Arrangement to support a soft voice creates maximum contrast. It will hook the listeners' ears."

Su Yuyan bit the cap of her pen and thought for a moment.

"I was thinking of a funk foundation with strings."

"Too heavy. Your fan base is on the younger side, and the audience for funk is narrow. Keeping the brass section maintains the sense of rhythm while making it easier to go viral on short video platforms. A song that can hook people in fifteen seconds is a good song."

Su Yuyan put down the pen.

"Is your judgment of the market always this accurate?"

"It's not about accurate judgment; it's that I know what kind of sound can attract people."

Su Yuyan thought about the data from the release of "sorrow relief" and swallowed the rebuttal that was on the tip of her tongue.

After a few seconds, she took a document out of her bag and pushed it over.

"What is this?"

"The profit-sharing contract for 'perfume is poisonous' and 'the great wind blows'. I had a lawyer draft it; take a look at the terms."

Jiang Fan opened it and scanned through it.

The lyrics and music copyright belonged to Fanyin; Su Yuyan would get 60% of the performance rights and streaming revenue, and Jiang Fan would get 40%. The terms were clear, with no pitfalls.

His gaze fell on the author signature line.

"How about we change the author's name for 'the great wind blows'? Hmm... just write 'Unnamed', how about that?"

Su Yuyan tilted her head, and the tear mole at the corner of her eye moved with it.

"Is this because you're afraid Xu Qingya will find out?"

"She said that for every song I write for you, I have to give her two in return. I already owe her two now. If I keep writing, I won't be able to do anything else this year."

Su Yuyan laughed out loud.

"Diva Xu is quite controlling of you."

"So anonymity is good for everyone. You have one less problem, and I have two fewer debts to pay."

Su Yuyan thought for a moment, picked up a pen, and drew a circle next to the signature line.

"Fine, I'll listen to you. But 'Unnamed' sounds terrible; change it to something better."

"You decide."

Su Yuyan wrote two characters on the side: Fan Yu.

Jiang Fan took a look.

Fan and Yu.

She had taken both their names apart and blended them together.

"Just this?"

"What, it doesn't sound good?" Su Yuyan looked at him with her head tilted, the pen cap resting against the corner of her lips, a mischievous smile on her face.

Jiang Fan didn't take the bait.

A pen name is just a name; it doesn't matter what it is.

Su Yuyan took the contract back and stood up to tidy up her things.

"We'll go with your Arrangement plan. I'll have the production team create a demo when I get back, and I'll have you approve it first."

"Sure."

She picked up her bag, then put it back down.

"Join me for dinner tonight. 6:00 PM. I've booked a place, and I'll send you the location in a bit."

Su Yuyan stood up, put on her blazer, and as she passed by Jiang Fan, her finger tapped on his shoulder.

"6:00, don't be late."

She opened the conference room door and walked out.

A flurry of panicked footsteps came from outside the door.

Su Yuyan walked to the door, put on her hat and mask, and smiled at Zhou Yutong, who was still pretending to type at her workstation.

"Little girl, don't eavesdrop next time."

Zhou Yutong's face turned red from her neck to her ears.

Su Yuyan pushed the door open and left.

Li Cheng walked over from the pantry holding two cups of coffee, looked in the direction Su Yuyan had left, and then looked at Jiang Fan, who was still sitting motionless in the conference room.

He walked in, closed the door, and placed a cup of coffee in front of Jiang Fan.

"Finished after talking for twenty minutes?"

"The Arrangement plan is confirmed, and the contract is settled. Twenty minutes is enough."

Li Cheng took a sip of coffee and hesitated for a moment.

"Jiang Fan."

"Hmm."

"Actually, I've always wanted to ask you a question."

Jiang Fan looked up.

Li Cheng's expression became uncharacteristically serious.

"These women around you—Xu Qingya, Su Yuyan—what exactly are you after?"

The office was silent for two seconds.

"I'm not saying there's anything wrong with your character," Li Cheng added, "but you've always been very clear-headed, and every step you take is calculated precisely. Only in this matter do I not understand your logic."

He leaned forward.

"Xu Qingya is one of The Four Heavenly Queens, and so is Su Yuyan. Either one of them alone, if associated with you, would be a nuclear-level event. You are simultaneously... let me watch my wording—simultaneously maintaining two relationships; this isn't walking a tightrope, this is dancing on the tip of a blade."

Jiang Fan leaned back in his chair, watching him.

What am I after?

Survival.

Xu Qingya allowed him to live from one day to the next; without them, the grass on his grave would already be three feet high.

But he couldn't say that.

"What do you think?"

Li Cheng shook his head.

"I don't think you're the type of person to be blinded by women. But what you're doing certainly looks like it."

"People are very complex."

Jiang Fan picked up his coffee and took a sip.

Li Cheng stared at him for five seconds, unable to read any extra information from that face.

"Fine then." He stood up, picked up his cup, and walked out.

He stopped at the door.

"Do you need me to help you make up an alibi? In case Diva Xu asks."

"Not necessary."

The time reached 5:30, and Jiang Fan picked up his phone and tapped on the location sent by Su Yuyan.

A famous private restaurant on the Bund.

He put his phone in his pocket, picked up his jacket, and went out the door.