I Became an All-round Artist

In Qi Prefecture, the Starry Sounds Music Company’s composition department was eerily quiet. Colleagues exchanged glances, confusion written on their faces.

After a long pause, someone hesitantly asked, “When he said ‘it’s done’... does that mean he’s finished the score for the martial arts game?”

How was that even possible?

Even including the time he spent on the road, only an hour or two had passed!

A scoff broke the silence.

“Yeah, right.”

Impossible.

Is this Lin representative getting ahead of himself? Does he think that just because he’s a star composer from Qin Prefecture, he can look down on us like we’re nothing?

Did he think he could dash off some random tune during a bathroom break and show us all up? Fool the client too?

What a joke!

He’s still too young.

The client will show him exactly why they’re the ones in charge.

And this Lin representative—does he really think so little of us? That a task we’ve been working on for months could be done by him in just a few hours?

The group chat remained silent, almost frozen.

Finally, Gu Dong couldn't hold back any longer and tagged Lin Yuan: "The client's expectations are very high. They won’t be satisfied with just any piece. I hope you take the time to create something serious, and not send over a rushed song you did in a few hours."

"Hey!" Gu Qiangyun, though also unhappy, was more worried about upsetting Lin Yuan. After all, he was a gold-tier composer from Qin Prefecture. What if he got angry and decided to quit? That would be a disaster.

He sighed and quickly tried to smooth things over in the chat. "Maybe Lin Representative just had a flash of inspiration when he saw the brief. With his level of talent, he’s surely more capable than the rest of us here. But Lin Representative, it might be good to polish it a bit more before we send it over..."

Lin Yuan didn’t bother explaining. Instead, he simply replied by tagging Gu Qiangyun, "Email."

“...”

“...”

“...”

A flood of ellipses filled the chat. No one dared to say what they were really thinking, but using ellipses to express their frustration was subtle enough—after all, everyone was doing it. If enough people joined in, no one would be singled out for criticism.

Gu Qiangyun, feeling resigned, shared the email address.

Without another word, Lin Yuan sent over the song.

Immediately afterward, Gu Qiangyun found himself added to a new chat group, titled "Real Company Chat."

It seemed everyone from the old group had been moved here, but there was one notable absence—Lin Yuan.

So the group Lin Yuan had just joined earlier had already become the “fake group?”

“What’s going on?” Gu Qiangyun grumbled to himself.

His office was right next to Gu Dong’s, so if he spoke loud enough, she could probably hear him.

But Gu Dong didn’t answer.

The new “real” group had already exploded with activity.

“Gu Dong is truly fearless!”

“Big Boss Gu Dong! Show him who’s boss!”

“What a mess.”

“Thank goodness for this new group. I didn’t even dare speak in that other one.”

“That representative really acts like we don’t even exist.”

“…”

Amid the chatter, Gu Dong tagged her father: “Why don’t you share the song with us so we can hear it for ourselves? Let’s see what this ‘gold-tier composer’ managed to whip up in just an hour.”

Gu Qiangyun shook his head.

Clearly, everyone was quite resentful of Lin Yuan.

This won’t work. The company will need Lin Yuan’s help in the future.

And Lin Yuan’s talent was undeniable. Wasn’t he the youngest gold-tier composer in Qin Prefecture? There’s no reason to doubt his abilities.

It’s just that, being so young and already so accomplished, it’s natural that he might come off as a bit arrogant.

I’ll have to work on everyone’s attitude later. We can’t afford to offend him.

With this in mind, Gu Qiangyun decided not to share the song in the group just yet.

Talent aside, could a song written in just an hour really be better than the ones their department had been struggling with for months, only to be repeatedly rejected by the client?

He put on his headphones and opened the email.

The song was titled Jianghu Laughs and it seemed Lin Yuan had already written lyrics for it as well.

Without much expectation, Gu Qiangyun moved his mouse and hit play.

As the song began, Gu Qiangyun started casually browsing the news.

He skimmed through various reports about projects from other companies, hoping to spot any potential opportunities for new deals.

Big music companies have deals come to them. But Starry Sounds? They have to go out and find deals.

For instance, this small production company was filming a new web series. Maybe they’d need a theme song or some background tracks. It could be worth following up on. And then this news mentioned—

Thunk.

Gu Qiangyun’s hand froze on the mouse.

In his headphones, the song Jianghu Laughs had reached the chorus: "Seems like a flower, but isn’t; like mist, but not. Rushing waters, unstoppable. A heart full of courage, iron will unbroken, but heroes—heroes are always alone..."

Chills ran down his spine.

His body tingled as if electrified.

He scrambled to replay the song from the beginning, this time focusing entirely on the music.

He wasn’t sure when it happened, but before long, he found himself moving to the rhythm. Even the teacup on his desk began to tremble with the gentle shake of his body.

The sun had set, and the room was bathed in the soft orange glow of dusk.

Amid this scene, Gu Qiangyun’s expression grew more and more exaggerated.

When the song finally ended, he felt as though his whole body was numb, like he’d been hit by a surge of energy.

At that moment, a knock came at the door.

Gu Dong entered, then froze.

Gu Qiangyun lay sprawled on the couch, completely relaxed, with an odd expression on his face. Was that… happiness?

“What happened?” she asked, concerned.

Gu Qiangyun didn’t respond.

“Manager?” she called again, louder.

Still no response.

She raised her voice: “Dad!”

Gu Qiangyun snapped out of his trance, looked at his daughter, then glanced at the computer before finally speaking:

“Get us a new deal.”

Here we go, thought Gu Dong, sighing. “Are we really abandoning the current one? The penalty fees for breaking that contract aren’t small. Shouldn’t we reach out to the main office first?”

“Just wait,” Gu Qiangyun waved dismissively. He then pulled out his phone and typed a message into the new chat group:

“From now on, the client is no longer your boss. Lin Representative is.”

After sending that message, he uploaded Jianghu Laughs into the group files and looked up at his daughter, saying:

“It’s already done.”

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