Chapter 178: But He Gave Too Much
Yan Xingzhou graduated from the Chinese Language and Literature major at a key university. After graduation, he joined a newspaper company as an editor, which matched his major well and also aligned relatively well with his personal aspirations.
Besides his daily work, Yan Xingzhou’s greatest hobby was reading and writing. Of course, what he wrote was not novels, but commentary articles on music, movies, and the like, as well as life essays. These were all things he was willing to write; he could keep writing them even without manuscript fees. There was no motive for profit, no one urging him on; he only wrote what he wanted to write, regardless of whether anyone appreciated it—in his view, this was pure writing.
As for the few music commentary articles he later posted on his WeChat Official Account, they unexpectedly gained attention from many people; that was a pleasant surprise.
And now it seemed that this pleasant surprise had brought even more opportunities?
The person on the phone seemed to hesitate for a moment before continuing, “Yes, it can be called advertising, but I have great confidence in the quality of this work. You can listen to it first; if you think it’s not suitable, that’s fine.”
Yan Xingzhou swallowed.
He suddenly realized that the WeChat Official Account in his hands could apparently become a bowl of rice? Yan Xingzhou, who had never directly earned money from writing, now felt that two completely different choices seemed to appear before him.
Either stick to the original intention of a text author, don’t charge fees, and maintain firm honesty toward both himself and his readers.
Or take the advertising fee and start a pretty decent side job.
How should he choose?
Based on his long-standing habits and views, he should actually refuse such a vulgar commercial request. But the desperate situation he faced at his job position now made him have to consider it carefully.
So Yan Xingzhou replied, “I want to think about it some more; is that okay?”
Wang Heng: “Think about what?”
Yan Xingzhou: “I’ve never thought about earning money from this before, and advertising like this…”
Wang Heng: “Three thousand.”
Yan Xingzhou: “What?”
Wang Heng: “Flat rate, three thousand.”
Yan Xingzhou still couldn’t quite believe his ears: “Wait… could you say it again?”
Wang Heng: “I’ll repeat it one last time: I want you to write a recommendation article, and comment on my singer and that song in a relatively professional and positive way. Three thousand yuan per article, and crucially, it has to be positive—you get it.”
Yan Xingzhou’s breathing immediately quickened.
Ten seconds ago he was still hesitating, but at this moment, he answered without the slightest delay: “No problem, I’ll write it!”
It was just one article, yet it matched half a month’s salary—what was there to hesitate about?
Writing an article to hype for advertising fees did indeed go against his long-held views… but the manuscript fee they offered was just too much.
————
Wang Heng hung up the phone, returned the mobile phone to Ye Xun, and smiled while giving a thumbs up: “It’s settled.”
Ye Xun was a bit stunned: “Three thousand yuan for one article?”
Pei Ningle nearby also found it somewhat hard to believe: “Aren’t you being a bit too generous?”
Wang Heng shook his head: “To make someone truly convinced from the heart, the remuneration must be sufficient. Besides, people just don’t understand WeChat Official Accounts right now, so they don’t have an accurate evaluation of their value. I read his articles and the comments below; the recognition and stickiness from those readers are worth this price.”
Pei Ningle was still a bit skeptical: “Really? Anyway, I’d have to sing in a bar for over ten days to earn that much.”
“No problem, I’ll pay; you don’t need to worry about it.”
Wang Heng spoke somewhat dominantly, almost unreasonably. But this performance, in Pei Ningle’s eyes, had a slightly unexpected charm.
In her impression, Wang Heng had always been a gentle boy, and the side he showed now… well, it wasn’t unpleasant at all.
Ye Xun worriedly said: “But do you have enough money? I haven’t given you tutoring fees since the month before last.”
“Oh right, you don’t know yet,” Wang Heng smiled. “I previously helped someone with wealth management speculating on Bitcoin, plus I invested some myself, and ended up earning some money. So you definitely don’t need to worry about me not having enough.”
“Bitcoin?” Ye Xun was stunned.
“Yeah, about a few hundred thousand…”
Wang Heng was still explaining, while Pei Ningle couldn’t help but secretly rejoice.
Look, he told her first before telling Ye Xun—what did that mean?
————
Before even hearing that song, Yan Xingzhou had received the other’s transfer, a full one thousand yuan.
The moment he saw that transfer message, he started conceiving—even if the song they wanted to promote was really not good, he had to find points to praise; that was professional quality!
Then, clicking on the link sent by agent Wang Heng, Yan Xingzhou began listening to this song 《Lost》.
“The arrangement is very simple, to put it nicely… minimalistic?”
The intro had just begun, and Yan Xingzhou was already trying to find good words. But a few seconds later, when that young girl’s voice rang out, he immediately forgot the good words he had just found.
“This voice, this sound…”
A few minutes later, the song finished playing, and Yan Xingzhou stared at the blank document on his computer screen, suddenly not knowing how to start.
Before listening to the music, he had already thought of an opening, but now thinking carefully, how could such a clichéd opening describe such a great voice?
Yes, the key was the voice. In his view, the arrangement of this song was really quite ordinary, even simplistic. The melody was fairly smooth, but not particularly stunning. The lyrics were good, though some phrases were a bit raw. Overall, the song wasn’t outstanding, but paired with this voice, it was exceptionally brilliant—extremely pleasant to listen to.
He suddenly had a flash of inspiration and found his angle for writing.
【What is meant by pleasant is a subjective standard of judgment, just like how some people love seafood while others can’t stand it. Music is the same; different people have different views on what makes a pleasant voice. But I have to say that today, an indescribable voice struck the softest part of my heart…】
And so, Yan Xingzhou used personal subjective feelings as his entry point, first writing about his feelings listening to this song, and lavishly praising the voice of the singer named Pei Ningle.
But just doing that wouldn’t be enough; after all, his previous articles had analyzed the musicality, so completely ignoring it here wouldn’t do.
So, after praising the voice, he finally began discussing the song’s creation:
【Whether it’s lyrics and music creation or accompaniment arrangement, they can’t escape one key point: for a song, what is its soul? In rock music, the lead singer’s voice is often just an instrument, no more important than bass and drums, so we see post-rock without vocals forming waves too.】
【But pop music is different; the core is always the human voice. Precisely because the human voice is the core, lyrics, music, and arrangement must all serve the singer’s voice. And this song is a perfect example…】
To come up with such a fresh angle, Yan Xingzhou was practically in awe of himself. Looking again at the one thousand yuan advance payment, he was even more motivated.
What? Literary integrity? What’s that? Edible?
————
