Chapter 101: This Song Is Called 《confession Balloon》, I Named It!
“……The director has probably negotiated it, I’ll explain in detail when you come back.”
Chi Ye pretended not to hear this sentence and continued methodically.
“Oh, sure, you decide.”
Jin Xia’s eyes sparkled with amusement as she made an OK gesture to Sister Mi, who drooped her eyelids and flopped headfirst onto the sofa again.
“Alright, then I’ll hang up first… Get some sleep, messed-up sleep schedule is bad for your body.”
Chi Ye wanted to hang up the phone to calm down.
“Nooo, I can’t sleep without hearing your voice.”
Chi Ye: “?!?”
Woman, watch your limits, you’re playing with fire.
“And I’m coming back to the country soon, which saves time on adjusting my sleep schedule.”
Jin Xia said smugly: “How about that? Am I smart?”
Chi Ye: “……”
“Go to sleep quickly.”
“Oh.”
Jin Xia felt a bit unwilling—she definitely wasn’t unwilling to sleep, she just wanted to talk more with Teacher Chi.
“Once the film crew starts shooting, I’ll take you to play every day.”
Chi Ye made a promise.
Empress Dowager beamed with joy: “Great, great, then it’s settled with Teacher Chi, no changes allowed!”
“No changes, go to sleep.”
“Mm, good morning!”
“……” Chi Ye looked at the pitch-black night sky and nodded: “Good morning.”
……
With the next drama confirmed, his career had indeed entered a “good morning” state.
Chi Ye flew back to Shanghai that same night, but it was too late, so he didn’t disturb Teacher Shi and found a nearby hotel to rest.
On the same night, Shi Daifu also hadn’t rested; she kept checking her mobile phone online from time to time, then sat foolishly by the bed looking at the moon… if there was one.
She didn’t disturb Chi Ye or send any messages.
The next day.
With two dark circles under her eyes, she met the energetic Chi Ye.
“Morning, Teacher Shi.”
Chi Ye apologized: “Sorry, I was a bit busy yesterday and broke my word.”
“It’s fine.”
Teacher Shi’s almond eyes glanced at him twice; after struggling inwardly for a long time, she still didn’t ask, just lowered her head and followed behind Chi Ye.
In the corridor, they unexpectedly ran into Shi Jinwei—so this rising Little Flower wasn’t running announcements?
“Morning, Lao Qian.”
Chi Ye was as spirited as ever.
Lao Qian’s attitude wasn’t as gentle as Teacher Shi’s; she coldly glanced at him and turned to head to her rehearsal room.
“Lao Qian is quite impolite.”
Chi Ye said just before she entered the door.
Shi Jinwei stumbled in her step, turned back, and her sapphire eyes held back again and again before she said: “You should worry about yourself.”
Chi Ye: “?”
Shi Jinwei had already entered the rehearsal room; her assistant sneakily glanced at Chi Ye with an inexplicable look in her eyes and followed Shi Jinwei inside.
“……What’s wrong with me? I’m fine.”
Chi Ye felt this person was being inexplicable; turning back, he unexpectedly caught Teacher Shi’s worried gaze.
“Oh, don’t listen to her nonsense; the one who should be worried is Yue Na. It went pretty smoothly yesterday, so relax.”
Chi Ye explained.
Because from his observation, Teacher Shi was not only introverted but also prone to overthinking and internalizing stress.
Dispelling her doubts would make it easier for her to sing.
“Mm.”
Shi Daifu nodded and followed Chi Ye into the rehearsal room.
“Do you have any ideas about this period’s theme?”
“No ideas.”
“Then I decide?”
“Mm.”
“Alright.” Chi Ye walked to a piano, turned back to Shi Daifu, and held up one finger: “Lucky you, guess what—another burst of inspiration. Today we focus on the musical score, tomorrow we fill in lyrics. Let’s go.”
Shi Daifu: “Huh?”
……
“Sister Shi, didn’t you want to ask him face-to-face last night if that song was really written on the spot? How come… you didn’t ask?”
Next door.
The assistant was now half a face fan and CP fan of Chi Ye; of course, if Sister Shi’s relationship with Teacher Chi could get even better, this half-fan could become a full fan.
“Hmph, who said I wanted to ask?”
Shi Jinwei snorted coldly: “I was just curious, but with someone like him, would he even tell you if you asked?”
Assistant: “……”
“So rude.” Shi Jinwei was a bit angry: “How can he keep calling me Pliers!”
Assistant: “……Yeah, that’s really not right; Sister Shi, your voice is clearly so gentle.”
This time, Shi Jinwei fell silent.
She paused, then waved her hand: “Go check… what ranking his song is at now.”
—From last night, others were focused on the big drama and feuds; Shi Jinwei had paid attention too… and she was very surprised and shocked by Chi Ye’s maneuver, thinking that if he had this kind of brain before, how could he not have blown up.
But after 《Confession Balloon》 came out, her attention shifted to the work itself.
Insiders all knew that Sister Shi was someone who cared a lot about strength and valued works highly.
This might be related to her idol background and the early years of being despised and criticized.
And the quality of 《Confession Balloon》 was beyond doubt; although up to now, everyone had only extracted the full live guitar version from the program team’s final released segment of the 《Time With You》 version MV, that didn’t hinder the song’s explosive popularity and soaring charts.
Last night, the stakeholders’ attention was all on Yue Na’s thunderclap.
The topic heat for 《Confession Balloon》 was compressed, but its popularity and solid “performance” were fermenting and spreading.
As of now, 《Confession Balloon》 had topped the two major music platforms NetEase Cloud Music and Kua Yin; in less than one night, it hit TOP3 on the single soar chart, TOP5 on the single gold chart, and TOP10 on the pop music chart.
Keep in mind, the other songs on these three charts were at least big hits that had fermented for half a year.
So Chi Ye’s promotion speed couldn’t even be described as terror; it was outright ascension.
—And this was just the 《Time With You》 guitar acapella version, not the formally distributed official version.
From last night to now, several music companies and platforms had already contacted Chi Ye, wanting exclusive copyright for 《Confession Balloon》.
Chi Ye had no inclination yet.
“These are the current rankings on the three charts…” The assistant handed the file to Shi Jinwei and continued: “Also, it entered the top 100 on the gold song chart.”
Gold song chart—this was a historical chart; no song had ever climbed on in just one night.
Listening to this string of data, Shi Jinwei felt a bit deflated: “This fast already…”
“No, how can he write a song like this?”
Assistant: “……”
“It definitely wasn’t written on the spot… The program team has a script, putting on an idol drama here—probably written half a year in advance?”
Shi Jinwei nodded: “Right, it must be like that; for this bit of vinegar, they wrapped these dumplings!”
“He planned long ago to mess with Flower and Yue Na… prepared at least half a year in advance… damn! This guy is too scheming!”
The assistant was dumbfounded: “Sister Shi… are you okay?”
“How am I not okay? I’m great…” After saying it, Shi Jinwei realized this was what Chi Ye had just said not long ago; she immediately spat: “Take it back, take it back—too much bad luck.”
Assistant: “……Let’s just start working.”
If she thought any more, she was afraid Sister Shi would go completely “obsessed.”
……
At the same time.
Yue Na had launched the so-called “emergency internal investigation” since last night, but this time Chi Ye had gone all out, making a huge commotion, and an investigation by the relevant departments was now inevitable.
All night and all day, Young President Liu had been busy with these matters.
At noon, he ate a few simple bites, tasting like wax; he waved for the dishes to be cleared away and painfully rubbed his temples.
“The connections on the taxation side… say this time it’s blown up big, impossible to just brush off casually… they’ll probably investigate.”
“Investigation is fine; the problem is how deep they’ll dig.”
Young President Liu opened his eyes: “Also, this has already affected our credit rating; going public is the most important thing, understand?”
The secretary was silent for two seconds, then lowered her voice: “This time we’ll have to bleed heavily… the higher-ups suggest stabilizing for a while first…”
Young President Liu closed his eyes, his facial muscles visibly twitching several times; he still couldn’t hold back and slammed a fist on the table: “Fuck!”
“Chi Ye, fuck your mother, just because of one Chi Ye, we’re losing this much?!”
Young President Liu’s mentality had exploded; this day and night’s experience came out of nowhere, and even more baffling was that they might have to bleed unimaginably because of it… with no guarantee of going public.
—Previously, Chi Ye had no capital for the slave contract, and it wasn’t connected to sensitive financial or taxation issues, so the higher-ups took the money and it could be smoothed over.
But once it touched sensitive issues, especially at this critical juncture, wanting to raise high and drop lightly seemed a bit unrealistic.
But he just couldn’t accept it—Yue Na’s everyone who mattered felt unwilling.
“We gave him face.”
Young President Liu’s gaze was sinister: “Get him, screw him over hard.”
The secretary wasn’t surprised; previously, Yue Na might have considered the so-called little emperor and Jin Xia’s “face,” but if you’re trying to destroy me, why would a big company fear a little artist like you?
“Which direction?”
“What direction can he have? Start from his music where he’s most smug now, get him.”
After Young President Liu finished, he waved: “Get out, let me be alone for a bit… sigh, got a shareholder meeting tonight too; I’m really… fucked.”
The secretary nodded and quietly left the office to issue instructions.
……
Chi Ye didn’t know that Yue Na had really been hurt by him this time.
Because according to the stuff Shen Qing Yu sold him, it actually wouldn’t have reached this effect.
The timing was key.
At a different time, Yue Na wouldn’t make a big fuss over this kind of negative news, let alone get wounded to the bone.
But after planning so long with the whole group waiting for going public, if it got indefinitely delayed because of this, anyone might go mad.
Of course, even if he knew, he’d just clap and cheer, maybe even think up some tricks and nasty tricks to amp it up.
Ten o’clock at night.
Chi Ye and Teacher Shi, along with the behind-the-scenes production team, had stayed in the rehearsal room all day and produced the musical score for the next period’s performance.
Then…
Everyone’s gazes toward Chi Ye were very complicated.
Teacher Shi several times seemed about to speak but stopped, then lowered her head to look at the score, listening to the still somewhat “raw” melody and music by her ear, remaining silent.
“What’s wrong?”
Chi Ye was messaging Keke on WeChat about Yue Na’s situation, which he’d just learned.
Noticing Shi Daifu’s gaze, he looked up casually: “Something up?”
Shi Daifu shook her head: “No.”
She paused, looked at Chi Ye, her almond eyes still unable to hide the bewilderment and shock.
Really…
Really in just one day, he’d come up with something close to the full melody for the new song?
And… a melody of this level of quality…
Thinking of this song, Shi Daifu felt incredulous.
She then thought, looks like… 《Confession Balloon》 really was created on the spot.
She hadn’t expected him to truly be a “talent.”
“If you’re hungry, eat first; don’t worry about me, I’ll think about lyrics later.”
After sending the message, Chi Ye sat back down and started “working at his desk,” actually pondering the plot of 《Xing Ni》.
Shi Daifu didn’t speak but quietly went to where she kept her backpack, squatted down, unzipped it, and inside were several bento boxes.
Each bento box was very clean, tightly sealed, with vegetables, fruit, and meat evenly distributed; three or four had eggs arranged into cute smiley faces.
One large insulated bucket held a dinner obviously different from the other bentos.
Inside was a thick layer of rice topped with a big chicken leg, braised pork, poached egg, shrimp, purple cabbage, carrot shreds, and other vegetables; beside it were even orange slices, strawberries, apples, and other vitamin C fruits.
She glanced at this bento box, hesitated for a long time, took it out, and walked to Chi Ye’s side: “Um…”
Chi Ye was busy thinking about the plot, looked up, saw the abundant dinner in her hand, and smiled: “I ate something when I went out earlier; not hungry, you eat.”
“Oh… okay…”
Teacher Shi stood there stunned for a moment, then turned and went back, but didn’t eat that bento; instead, she carefully put it into the insulated bucket she’d brought.
Then she went to a corner herself, took out a somewhat cold bento from her backpack, and started eating.
Not long after, one bento was finished; she paused, looked up at Chi Ye and saw he wasn’t paying attention, put the cleanly eaten bento box at the very bottom of her backpack, then took out a new one and continued eating.
Then the third… post-meal fruit.
After finishing everything, she got up, went out to wash the boxes clean, and when she returned, Chi Ye had already “written” a few lines of lyrics.
“This song is perfect for 《Loop》, and perfect for you too.”
Chi Ye was very happy and called to Teacher Shi as she walked in: “Come, come, quick look, hum a couple lines; let me hear.”
Teacher Shi: “Huh?”
She walked over suspiciously, glanced down, and froze in place.
“I didn’t expect”
“That for you I could go crazy to”
“Mountains collapsing, oceans roaring”
“Without you I don’t want to escape at all”
“……”
“This… what’s this song called?”
She turned back to look, finally asking bravely for the first time.
Chi Ye smiled: “《Light Years Away》.”
……
At the same time.
Jin Sui asked on the phone: “What’s the name of that song Chi Ye sang?”
Empress Dowager bragged smugly: “Auntie, this song is called 《Confession Balloon》!”
“I came up with the name together with Teacher Chi!”
