I Became an All-round Artist

“What did you write?”
“Let me hear it.”
“Why won’t you let me listen?”
“Oh, I don’t want to embarrass myself.”

For the composition department's year-end project, everyone seemed to be keeping their work under wraps, carefully guarding their songs like they were masterpieces. Very few were willing to share their work early. But as the end of the month approached, everyone had no choice but to hand in their pieces.

Lin Yuan also submitted his song.

It was understandable that many students in the composition department were feeling this way. After all, everyone who chose this field had a dream of becoming a top-tier composer. Lin Yuan, in particular, knew his classmates' works better than anyone else since he had participated in arranging and producing for about 70% of them.

To be fair, Lin Yuan thought a few of his classmates' works were quite good. Qinzhou's rich musical environment was bound to produce some top composers, and who knows—maybe one or two future industry giants were sitting in his class right now.

That said, Lin Yuan was very confident in his song, The First Dream. As one of the most inspirational and influential songs in Tianchao, this song's excellence had been proven time and time again. However, what some might not know is that this song wasn’t originally from Tianchao. It was a cover by Taiwanese singer Fan Wei-qi, of the Japanese hit Riding on the Silver Dragon’s Back by legendary songstress Miyuki Nakajima.

No wonder there was a saying in Tianchao that "Miyuki Nakajima fed half the Chinese music industry." Many of the Cantonese or Taiwanese songs people loved growing up were later discovered to be covers of Japanese originals.

Meanwhile, at the end of this month, Silver Blue Publishing's print department was busy collecting pre-orders for the new book Zhu Xian from major booksellers. As reports came in, the expression on department head Shi Yun's face was growing increasingly grim.

"Eight thousand copies from Huaxin Bookstore."
"Five thousand from Longxiang Bookstore."
"Three thousand from Bafang Bookstore."
"Two thousand from Yashi Bookstore."
"One thousand from Pinnacle Bookstore."
"One thousand from Time Bookstore."

As the statistics continued to roll in, Shi Yun's expression only worsened. The editorial department had been incredibly confident about the potential of Zhu Xian. After all, it was the editor-in-chief's personal order to print an initial run of one million copies, convinced the book’s sales would be impressive.

But clearly, the market didn’t agree.

Even though Silver Blue Publishing had printed a whopping one million copies of Zhu Xian, the total pre-orders from booksellers across Qinzhou added up to only around 280,000 copies.

And a good portion of those were only ordered because of Chu Kuang’s previous book’s performance.

"Isn't this too low?" remarked one of Shi Yun’s assistants on her left. “We’ve put a lot of effort into marketing this, so the numbers shouldn’t be this low. It seems like these bookstores, just like most in the industry, are expecting Zhu Xian to flop.”

Chu Kuang’s new book was a xianxia (immortal heroes) novel. When news first broke about it, the industry had erupted with mixed reactions, and most people weren't optimistic about this genre. Many believed Zhu Xian would flop, and while Silver Blue Publishing was willing to publish it, it was likely only because they couldn’t say no to Chu Kuang. Even if the book didn’t completely flop, it certainly wouldn’t reach the success of Chu Kuang’s previous work, Prince of Tennis.

In fact, someone had even run a poll on the internet, targeting Prince of Tennis readers, asking if they’d support Chu Kuang’s new xianxia book. The results weren’t encouraging.

The poll had three options:

· 60% said they wouldn’t support it.

· 30% said they would.

· 20% said they were undecided.

The outlook for Chu Kuang’s new book wasn’t great. And now, it seemed the major booksellers felt the same way, as reflected in their cautious pre-orders. For Shi Yun, this was a dangerous sign! Out of the one million printed copies, only 280,000 were sold so far. What if the remaining 720,000 didn’t sell?

She decided to talk to the editor-in-chief.

Editor-in-chief Lü Bei was browsing the internet in his office when Shi Yun arrived. He greeted her with a smile, “How are the pre-orders looking?”
"Total orders are at 280,000 copies," she replied with a worried expression.

Lü Bei paused for a moment. Was that all they’d sold? Then he chuckled, "You can’t blame the booksellers. If I were in their shoes, I wouldn’t dare order too many either. What if the book doesn’t sell?”

Shi Yun felt like slapping her forehead. If he was so aware of the risk, then why did he insist on printing so many? And why did he still look so happy about it?

Oblivious to Shi Yun’s thoughts, Lü Bei’s grin remained unchanged. “Have the top ten booksellers all placed orders?”

"Jingan Bookstore didn’t."

Lü Bei nodded, “I’ll handle Jingan Bookstore.”

With that, he made a phone call. Shi Yun stood quietly by, waiting.

The call went through quickly, and Lü Bei’s first words were, “Pei Du, want to go big?”
“How big?” replied Pei Du, the manager of Jingan Bookstore, with a smirk. “I’m guessing you’re calling to talk me into ordering more copies of Zhu Xian. I was actually about to contact you. How about ten thousand copies?”

“Do you really have that little faith in Chu Kuang?”

“It’s not that I don’t trust Chu Kuang, it’s that I don’t trust the xianxia genre. Let’s cut to the chase—what’s Silver Blue up to this time?”

“I’m offering you a major breakthrough,” Lü Bei said calmly.

Shi Yun nearly rolled her eyes. She was in charge of publishing and sales, not fiction, so she didn’t get the nuance of the conversation.

Pei Du sighed, “Jingan Bookstore is ranked fifth nationwide in terms of sales, and I’ve only been in this position for a year. I’m still trying to secure my footing, and there are countless eyes watching me, waiting for me to make a mistake. If I mess this up, I could be out of a job next year.”

“If you want to secure your position, trust me—order one million copies!”

Shi Yun was tempted to remind Lü Bei that they didn’t even have that much inventory, but then again, Pei Du wasn’t a fool. There was no way Lü Bei could trick him.

Sure enough, Pei Du laughed. He and Lü Bei were friends, so their conversation was more casual. “Do you even dare print that many?”

“That’s none of your concern,” Lü Bei replied nonchalantly.

Pei Du gritted his teeth. “Fine, I’ll play along. I’ll order 500,000 copies.”

He didn’t believe Lü Bei would set him up. After all, doing so would ruin their relationship, and the friendship between them was worth more than a few hundred thousand copies.

“That’s not enough. You’ve already said 500,000. You might as well go for 700,000.”

"Are you crazy, or am I?"

"Neither of us will be. If anyone's going to lose their minds, it'll be those who doubt us. This time, I want all of Qinzhou to know—those who believe in Silver Blue will win, and those who trust in Chu Kuang will live forever!"

"You sound like a cult leader."

"Silver Blue didn’t rise from a mid-sized publishing house to where it is today without some bold moves. While I don’t claim full credit, I’ve played a significant role. What do you think got me this far?"

Pei Du didn’t respond right away.

For three long minutes, the line was silent.

Lü Bei waited patiently, unfazed.

No one knew what kind of mental battle Pei Du was fighting internally. After three minutes, he growled, “Damn it, I’ll trust you this time. 700,000 copies!”

“Good, then be ready for some big bonuses and great sales next year. I’m hanging up.”

“Don’t jinx it. I’m about to brace myself for a storm.”

Shi Yun, who had been listening in on the whole conversation, was wide-eyed in disbelief. They’d just secured a 700,000-copy order? How did Lü Bei manage to pull that off? No wonder he was the editor-in-chief—his persuasive skills were terrifying!

But still...

Even though they’d cleared their stock, what if Zhu Xian didn’t sell well? Wouldn’t Jingan Bookstore blacklist Silver Blue? Worse yet, what if Pei Du got buried under unsold copies of Zhu Xian?

Enjoying this story? Support me on [Patreon](patreon.com/aiden_connor) to unlock more chapters early and get exclusive content!