Chapter 177: Ye Xun’s Connections
After just finishing hot pot, the three went to the milk tea shop—at Ye Xun’s strong request.
After holding the iced milk tea and taking a big sip, Ye Xun finally let out a long breath, feeling much more relaxed. She looked at Pei Ningle beside her and Wang Heng across from her, and couldn’t help but voice her question: “How come none of you are afraid of spicy?”
Pei Ningle: “Because you get accustomed after eating it a few more times.”
Wang Heng shook his head, though: “No need to force it. Not being able to eat spicy is normal; everyone has different tastes.”
Pei Ningle: “Not being able to eat spicy pot is really a pity! I just feel that when eating delicious food, that’s when I have the most creative inspiration…”
Hearing her mention creation, Wang Heng asked: “How’s your next song coming along?”
“This one…” Pei Ningle looked outside the window and took a sip of milk tea. “It’s okay, I guess.”
Wang Heng knew very well that this girl relied mainly on inspiration for writing songs. When inspiration came, she could finish lyrics and music in a few days; when it didn’t, it could drag on for months. And Pei Ningle, who wasn’t even twenty yet, also had very unstable creation skills, so that previous song Lost took so long. Looking at the situation now, the next one probably wouldn’t come quickly either.
So he asked: “Got any inspiration yet?”
The young girl replied vaguely: “A little inspiration, still thinking…”
Wang Heng pressed on: “Figured out the direction? Chosen a style? The tempo’s speed? What chords for accompaniment? Got the main melody down?”
Pei Ningle bit down on the straw, speechless for the moment.
Ye Xun suddenly asked: “Sister Xiao Le, have you hit a bottleneck period in writing songs?”
“It’s not really a bottleneck period, it’s just…” Pei Ningle sighed, lifted her head to stare at Wang Heng. “I’m afraid your money will go to waste.”
Wang Heng: “Go to waste?”
The young girl’s eyes showed quite some unease: “Didn’t you say you’d spend money to run ads for me? But will Bilibili users like my songs? I’ve been browsing Bilibili for a long time lately, watched a lot of videos, and feel my music style is too niche there… They’re all young people; their song tastes probably aren’t too old-fashioned either, but…”
Wang Heng: “But you’re still not too confident, right?”
“It’s not a lack of confidence,” Pei Ningle stressed. “I just can’t be sure if it’ll suit Bilibili audience tastes. But I really like my own music, and as for quality, I’m very confident!”
Ye Xun beside her asked again: “Then why not run ads somewhere else?”
Wang Heng: “There’s also Wangyu Music; audio gets posted there too. So besides finding UP mains on Bilibili, I’ll also find playlist owners on Wangyu Music for her.”
Ye Xun shook her head, though: “But playlist promotion effect isn’t that great either, right? I checked the most popular playlists on Wangyu Music; I don’t like their song tastes, and they don’t suit Sister Xiao Le’s style either. But playlists that suit Sister Xiao Le’s style are too niche.”
Pei Ningle suddenly had a flash of inspiration: “Then why don’t we make our own playlist?”
Now Wang Heng and Ye Xun were both shaking their heads.
Wang Heng: “Cost-effectiveness too low.”
Ye Xun: “Making a playlist successful is very chance-based; spending tons of time on it isn’t guaranteed to succeed… So why not try other advertising methods?”
Wang Heng noticed she seemed to have her own thoughts on this, so he followed up: “What good advertising methods do you think there are?”
Ye Xun: “There’s someone at my dad’s company who started a WeChat Official Account last year. His biggest hobby is music, especially finding domestic independent music, so he opened his own WeChat Official Account. I heard he has quite a few fans and has written articles with readership over one hundred thousand.”
“WeChat Official Account?” This was obviously still quite unfamiliar to Pei Ningle; she’d heard of it but never read even one.
Wang Heng’s eyes lit up, though.
It was different now from a few years later; it was the early stage of the mobile internet ecosystem. WeChat users were already quite numerous, but very few were entrepreneurship on WeChat Official Accounts. Being able to hit over one hundred thousand now, and focused on music… that was quite promising.
It was just that he hadn’t paid attention to this kind of Official Account at all during the first playthrough, so he didn’t have the same confidence as with buying Bitcoin or picking companies to invest in.
Wang Heng immediately asked: “Can you contact him now?”
Ye Xun took out her mobile phone with one hand and patted her chest with the other: “I’ll ask and find out!”
————
Yan Xingzhou sat on his own sofa, gazing at the brilliant sunlight and Lin City street view outside the window, with soft folk singing voice flowing in his ears, yet he wasn’t happy at all.
No way around it; the company he worked for had fallen into a desperate situation and halted operations, and he heard they were even in bankruptcy lawsuit. And what should he do? Hold on, but holding on was clearly not going to work; find work, but he didn’t know where would be good.
Yan Xingzhou picked up his mobile phone and glanced at that news page. The report was about the traditional newspaper market shrinking further, with more and more people preferring to read news online. Even he himself, a newspaper editor, wasn’t reading network news now?
So, not finding a suitable position in Lin City, and even if found, having to take a salary cut—that situation was naturally the most reasonable.
When the big industry was declining, what could individuals in the industry do?
Yan Xingzhou looked at the brilliant spring light outside the window and sighed again.
At that moment, his mobile phone rang. He picked it up and saw it was an unknown caller.
After answering the phone, he heard a crisp and pleasant young girl’s voice: “Hello, is this Mister Yan Xingzhou?”
Yan Xingzhou: “I don’t order set meals.”
The voice on the other end seemed stunned too: “…I’m not selling set meals either!”
Yan Xingzhou: “Then what are you doing?”
Young girl: “Ahem, let me introduce myself. I’m Ye Kang’s daughter; my name is Ye Xun.”
“Who is Ye Kang?” Yan Xingzhou blurted out the question, then suddenly felt something off. The name ‘Ye Kang’—wasn’t it somewhat familiar?
Wait, wasn’t that the leader’s leader’s leader, the big boss of the head company!
He quickly asked cautiously: “You’re Boss Ye’s daughter? What do you need from me?”
Young girl: “I’m just helping to make an introduction; someone else has business with you.”
Yan Xingzhou was still baffled when he heard the voice on the other end change to someone else.
“Hello, I’m Wang Heng. I’d like to talk about WeChat Official Account business.”
“WeChat Official Account?” Yan Xingzhou suddenly realized. “So it’s because of that…”
Wang Heng: “Exactly. I read your WeChat Official Account articles; honestly, they’re pretty good.”
Yan Xingzhou: “You’re too kind, too kind.”
Wang Heng: “Anyway, here’s the matter: I’m the agent for an original independent singer, in the initial promotion stage. And your WeChat Official Account seems to me like a very suitable promotion channel.”
“So, you want me to help run ads?”
As he asked this, Yan Xingzhou’s thoughts were somewhat complex—listening to the tone, did that mean advertising fee too?
————
Next chapter before midnight, for sure.
