Chapter 13: Master Lin Yi’s Unwavering Honesty!

Lin Youjia. A second-tier singer. He once had a romantic relationship with Deng Ziqi. After some on-and-off drama, they eventually went their separate ways. As for their romance, Lin Yi had no interest. What he was interested in was the price at which Lin Youjia would buy his songs.

"Senior Lin Yi, hello! I am the singer Lin Youjia. Are you interested in selling any songs? We can discuss the price." This was the private message Lin Youjia had sent him.

In truth, the money wasn't the main point; what mattered was that he wanted to connect and interact with Lin Youjia. If Niu Junjie were here, he would surely sneer and curse, "Bah! Hypocrite! Fake! Scoundrel! My eyes have truly been blinded! Remember to give me a cut of the money, Daddy."

"Fine." Facing money—no, facing networking—Lin Yi set aside his reserve and actively added Lin Youjia as a friend.

Oh, there were other requests to add him as a friend too. But there were too many—several hundred of them. Lin Yi ignored them all, assuming they were just netizens. What if one of those netizens sent him dozens of gigabytes of "resources"? What would he do then? Watch them or not? A dilemma indeed.

"Holy crap! Lin Yi accepted my friend request!" Seeing the red notification, Lin Youjia jumped off his sofa, full of excitement, pacing back and forth in his living room while muttering to himself, "Senior Lin Yi accepted my request! My songs have a chance!"

"Whew! Don't get too excited!"
"But I'm so excited! I can't control myself!"
"Ah! Then don't control yourself!"
"Twist to the left, twist to the right, twist up high, then twist down low."

Once he calmed down, Lin Youjia picked up his phone and immediately replied to Lin Yi. He hadn't released a song in over a year; if he didn't release something soon, the audience might forget him entirely. His agency had picked out some songs for him, but none felt right. He had also reached out to gold-medal lyricists, but who knew how long it would take for his turn to come? The entertainment industry was cruel, to newcomers and veterans alike. Therefore, he had to seize the time to release his work. It wasn't as if he hadn't thought about writing his own songs, but singing and songwriting were two different things. Not every singer was a Jay Chou who could do both. The songs he wrote himself felt like empty, pretentious whining. After trying for half a year, he gave up, realizing he wasn't cut out for that line of work and was better off focusing on singing.

"Senior Lin Yi, I've long admired your reputation." He started off by buttering Lin Yi up with some flattery.

"Hello."
"Senior Lin Yi, are you free lately?"
"Yes."
"I would like to request a song."

"Hmm."

Senior Lin Yi is so cold! Is he always this brief? Thinking of lyricists like Lin Xi, Lin Youjia felt a sense of relief. People like that had the right to be arrogant!

"Um, do you have time to write songs lately?" Lin Youjia asked cautiously. In his mind, Senior Lin Yi was a scholarly, middle-aged man with deep literary foundations.

"Yes," Lin Yi replied.

Before Lin Youjia could finish typing his next sentence, another message arrived from Lin Yi.

"What price range are you looking for?"

In Lin Yi's eyes, songs were classified into different tiers, and naturally, the prices had to be tiered as well. Classic songs were special, starting at one million. Some might think Lin Yi was asking for the moon. But then again, a single classic song could sustain a singer for a lifetime; they would earn back the cost after just a few variety show appearances.

"There are price ranges?" Lin Youjia’s breath hitched, his heart pounding wildly. It seemed Senior Lin Yi had a lot of private stock! He had struck gold!

"What are the price ranges?" Lin Youjia asked nervously.

"One hundred thousand, two hundred thousand, five hundred thousand, and starting at one million. Which one do you want?"

Whew! That's a bit pricey! And even starting at a million. After weighing the balance in his bank account, Lin Youjia quickly replied, "Then give me two of the five-hundred-thousand ones."

This time, it was do or die! He would make a dazzling entrance, appearing before the audience like a king, declaring to them: I, Lin Youjia, have returned as a king!

Business! Lin Yi suppressed his fatigue, crawled out of bed, and searched for the hit songs of Lin Youjia's past life: "Perfecting," "Waste," and "Lying." "Perfecting" was there, but "Waste" and "Lying" were not.

*Scratch, scratch, scratch.*

He wrote them down on paper, turned on his computer, downloaded some composition software, finished the work, and sent the files to Lin Youjia.

"Pay if you're satisfied. The account number is 4001XXXX0513." Lin Yi sent the message and fell back onto his bed, fast asleep. The intensity of today's work had left him exhausted; if he didn't sleep, he was afraid he might drop dead.

Lin Youjia opened the files Lin Yi sent. Looking at the lyrics, he couldn't help but softly sing: "I've had a few decent partners, so I'm not exactly lonely. Maybe my wandering ways made them uneasy, which is why everything ended up in ruins..."

Suddenly, his eyes lit up! This song suited him perfectly! He continued reading: "Waste."

"How long has it been, and I haven't changed / Loving you for six whole years / You'd better be prepared / I have no intention of stopping anything / I want to say I have no ambition / And nothing to pass the time / How precious it is to have someone to love / It's okay, you don't have to give me a chance..."

Whew! Senior Lin Yi is truly a master! Lin Youjia's admiration for Lin Yi reached a new height. "I wonder how much more private stock Master Lin has," Lin Youjia thought fervently. If Master Lin gave him all the songs in his possession, then... would the title of Heavenly King be far off?

Whew! So exciting! A five-hundred-thousand-dollar song was already this charming, what about the million-dollar ones? Wouldn't they be even better? No, I must hold onto Master Lin's leg tightly; I will never let go even if I die! Lin Youjia thought to himself.

Right, I haven't replied to Master Lin yet! Lin Youjia quickly returned to Weibo. Seeing the message Lin Yi left him, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Master Lin is so straightforward! But he liked it! He quickly transferred the money to Master Lin to leave a good impression for future cooperation.

After finishing this, despite it being past one in the morning, Lin Youjia directly called his agent. Happiness should be shared; he understood that much.

"Hey, big brother, what's wrong? It's past one in the morning, is there anything that couldn't wait until morning?"
"I'm too excited, happiness must be shared!"

Agent: ...

Your happiness is not my happiness! Calling in the middle of the night—if it wasn't for the fact that you're Lin Youjia, I would have sent a million people to beat you up.

"What's the good news?" Lin Hong saw his wife's furious expression, shrank his head, and took the initiative to get out of bed and go to the living room.
"I found some good songs."
"Good songs?" Lin Hong rubbed his eyes. "Where did you find them?"

As his agent, Lin Hong understood Lin Youjia's situation very well. His popularity was slowly cooling down, and only his die-hard fans were still silently supporting him. If he didn't release a song soon, in a year or two, Lin Youjia might fade out of the entertainment industry entirely. After all, the turnover rate of the entertainment world was comparable to Wang Sicong changing girlfriends.