I Became an All-round Artist

When Lin Yuan got home, he was surprised to find two sealed steaks on the table.

“Back already?” Jian Yi called out.

It was Saturday. Jian Yi was in the living room playing an online game on his computer. Seeing Lin Yuan return, he paused the game, took off his headphones, and said, “Today, I’ll show you my steak-cooking skills.”

“Thanks,” Lin Yuan smiled and headed to his room.

Soon after, the sound of sizzling came from the kitchen—Jian Yi had started cooking the steaks.

Lin Yuan took out the files and looked over the new order’s requirements. It was for a theme song for a TV drama titled The Distance Between Us. The plot summary was quite detailed, about five thousand words.

At first, based on the title, Lin Yuan thought it was a typical romance drama, but after reading through the plot, he realized it wasn’t.

Although the storyline did have the feel of a romance drama—it followed a couple who were admired by everyone during their university years. They got married right after graduation, but due to financial struggles, their married life was filled with hardships.

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However, the couple stayed happy and in love, not letting difficulties defeat them. A few years later, the man lost his job due to company layoffs and decided to start his own business. Unfortunately, the venture failed, leaving him deep in debt, with creditors at their door.

Tensions rose between them as arguments grew more frequent, and eventually, the woman couldn’t take it anymore. She chose to divorce him.

Years later, the woman, still struggling to make ends meet, found a job at a large company. To her surprise, she ran into her ex-husband—now the company’s chairman.

The plot was predictable from there.

The man, feeling betrayed by the woman who had abandoned him during his hardest times, deliberately hired her to make her life miserable. The woman endured the harsh treatment.

But soon, the man discovered something shocking: the woman had a son. Fueled by jealousy, the man became even more relentless in tormenting her, until one day, when he forced her to work overtime, and her son fell ill with a high fever. The conflict between the two finally erupted.

In a twist of fate, the man found out that the woman had not been in another relationship all these years... and that the child might be his.

His feelings grew more complicated.

The story continued with the man uncovering the woman’s struggles and the real reason behind their divorce. He recalled the early days when they were happy despite being poor. It was his repeated failures that had destroyed their family.

The woman had raised their child alone all these years without asking him for a single cent. And when his mother had needed medical care, someone had anonymously donated money—it turned out it was the woman.

After learning all of this, the man decided to win her back. However, by that time, another man had entered her life and fallen for her.

What followed was the classic “treat her poorly and regret it later” storyline, filled with love triangles and emotional turmoil.

The script didn’t reveal the ending, but Lin Yuan could more or less guess it.

While the story was somewhat cliché, it did offer some realistic elements that were portrayed quite clearly. The intention seemed to be to create a drama that, while grounded in real-life struggles, also carried the emotional beats of a romance.

The male and female leads each had their own reasons and hardships, making it difficult to label anyone as purely right or wrong.

Especially when the script described how, after deciding to divorce, the female lead had pursued her dreams—only to find out she was pregnant, forcing her to give up on her dreams once again.

Lin Yuan didn’t dwell on the morality of the characters. What concerned him was what kind of song the system would generate for this story.

The client had requested a song in Qiyu (a specific language), one that reflected the emotions of both the male and female leads, and also incorporated elements of dreams and helplessness, among other things. In total, there were seven or eight detailed requirements.

It was a bit complicated.

Lin Yuan called up the system, recited the client’s demands, and asked, “How much will it cost to create a song that meets these requirements?”

The system replied, “One million.”

Lin Yuan nodded, not too surprised. The system had mentioned before that the more specific the song requirements, the higher the cost of customization.

This particular order had seven or eight requirements, and if not for the fact that none of them were outrageously difficult, the customization fee would have been even higher than a million.

But since the order was worth three million, as long as he completed it, he would still make a profit. The system’s price this time was actually quite reasonable.

“This is a special offer,” the system said. “Since it’s the host’s first time requesting such a detailed song, the price is discounted. Future requests of this nature will cost more.”

“I got it,” Lin Yuan replied. “Go ahead with the customization.”

“Song is being customized. Please wait,” the system responded.

Thirty seconds later, the system chimed, “Congratulations, host, you have received the song Like You, available in two versions.”

One version was the original, and the other was by Deng Ziqi, meaning both male and female singers could perform it. However, the emotional undertones varied between the two versions.

Lin Yuan pondered this.

The system’s choice of song surprised him, but after thinking it over, the content made sense. It fit the client’s requirements quite well.

As for the song’s quality, Lin Yuan had no doubts—it had already proven its worth in another world.

He listened to both versions. The original was more melancholic, while Deng Ziqi’s version conveyed a sense of hope.

“Dinner’s ready!” Jian Yi’s voice called from outside.

Lin Yuan got up and went to the living room.

On the table were two plates of steak, each accompanied by two soft-boiled eggs on the side. The eggs looked well-cooked, but the steaks left much to be desired. Lin Yuan’s steak was burnt around the edges, and the kitchen still carried a faint smell of something charred.

“Just eat it,” Jian Yi coughed, embarrassed. “Who knew cooking steak was this hard? I watched those chefs in the videos, and they made it look so easy.”

“...” Lin Yuan wasn’t impressed.

Seeing Lin Yuan’s reaction, Jian Yi pouted. “How about we order takeout? I think there’s steak on the menu. Anyway, I’ve ruined these ones. What a waste—these two steaks cost me over five hundred yuan.”

Saying that, Jian Yi started to clear the table.

Lin Yuan suddenly stopped him. “Don’t waste them.”

Jian Yi was taken aback for a moment. But Lin Yuan had already sat down and started cutting into his steak with a knife and fork, eating it seriously.

“Touched! You’re a true brother!” Jian Yi laughed and joined him, though his own steak was in even worse shape—one side was burnt to a crisp, while the other was still oozing blood.

“Why does it taste bland?” Jian Yi asked after a few bites.

“Probably forgot the seasoning…”

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