I Became an All-round Artist

That evening, Gu Qiangyun suddenly called a company-wide meeting and made his intentions clear: "The company needs a restructuring."

The announcement sent ripples of anxiety through the employees. It didn’t take much to guess that layoffs were imminent.

The problems at Star Sound Music had been building for a long time. The company’s flaws were obvious, but Gu Qiangyun, as general manager, had held off on drastic actions because the company was already on the verge of collapse and couldn't handle any major upheavals. So, he had to proceed cautiously, cutting losses slowly.

But things were different now.

With Lin’s arrival, the company’s situation had improved significantly—Star Sound Music had even broken into the top 100 of the provincial music production rankings!

Gu Qiangyun believed this was the perfect time for restructuring. With Lin here to support the company, it was now or never. If he delayed any longer and Lin returned to Qin Province, the opportunity would be lost.

The very next day after the meeting, Gu Qiangyun sprang into action.

He began having private discussions with staff members, and nearly every day, someone was let go. The wave of layoffs caused widespread panic, especially within the composition department. As more and more colleagues were dismissed, the remaining employees grew increasingly anxious—this time, the manager meant business!

Some of the laid-off employees even tried to plead with Gu Dong, hoping to find a way to stay.

Faced with requests from long-time staff, Gu Dong occasionally found it hard to refuse. He approached Gu Qiangyun to gauge his thoughts.

"You think I don’t have any feelings for our veteran employees?" Gu Qiangyun snapped. "But if we want the company to grow, we have to make tough decisions. Take Lao Zhang, for example. He’s not without talent, but he lacks self-awareness. He arrogantly claims he’ll only take orders worth more than 500,000 yuan, refusing to even look at smaller jobs worth 200,000 or 300,000."

Gu Dong was silent. Gu Qiangyun was right. Many employees had the same problem—unable to secure big orders, but unwilling to lower their standards and take smaller ones. But if no one handled the smaller jobs, who would keep the company’s revenue flowing?

Gu Qiangyun sighed. "You’ve heard the industry chatter, right? Even though we made it into the rankings, people are saying we’re dragging Lin down. That he’s fighting this battle alone. And while it’s true, we can’t let that be our company’s reputation…"

"I understand," Gu Dong nodded, no longer trying to intervene.

Gu Qiangyun’s restructuring efforts continued in full force.

After more than two weeks of layoffs, the process finally came to a halt. By then, the composition department had been reduced from 126 people to just 70.

So, when Lin Yuan returned to the company, he immediately noticed how much quieter it had become. He didn’t comment on the changes, though, and carried on as usual, teaching Xue Liang composition.

Xue Liang, luckily, hadn’t been affected by the layoffs—not because of his connection with Lin Yuan, but because of his consistently solid performance. He never reached too high and always accepted smaller jobs without complaint.

After finishing the lesson, Lin Yuan checked Xue Liang’s stats. His composition ability had reached 514, indicating that the recent training sessions hadn’t been in vain.

However, Lin Yuan also noticed that Xue Liang’s improvement was slowing down significantly after crossing the 500-point mark. After thinking it over, he realized the reason: Xue Liang had improved quickly at first because he started with a weak foundation. But as his skills grew stronger, further progress naturally became more difficult. This is a common pattern across many fields.

Lin Yuan wasn’t concerned. He simply instructed Xue Liang to focus on completing his current order—a 700,000-yuan job that Lin believed could significantly boost Xue Liang’s abilities and possibly even mark the moment when he’d be ready to go out on his own.

After completing the restructuring, Gu Qiangyun didn’t rush to hire new staff. The remaining 70 composers were enough for now.

As it turned out, the restructuring had a positive impact. Whether it was the pressure on the remaining employees or simply that those left behind were more capable, by the end of November, Star Sound Music had completed three new orders.

Gu Qiangyun was overjoyed! This marked the first time since Lin had joined the company that orders had been completed by the composition team rather than relying on Lin alone—and there were three in a row!

Although the total value of these orders was only 1.5 million yuan, a far cry from the high-quality orders Lin had previously delivered, Gu Qiangyun finally felt some relief. After all, cutting over a third of the staff had been a risky move, and if things had gone wrong, he would’ve had to answer to the headquarters.

Now, the situation had improved. At least on the rankings, Lin wasn’t fighting alone anymore. Other composers were pulling their weight, and the company was no longer simply a burden to him.

Gu Qiangyun decided it was time to have a conversation with Lin.

For a while, he’d felt guilty about how the company had been holding Lin back, so he hadn’t approached him much recently.

"Manager."

Lin Yuan looked up when Gu Qiangyun entered his office. "How’s the competitive bid for Seven Stars going?"

"Seven Stars?" Gu Qiangyun paused, then smiled. "I almost forgot about that. Has Lin already completed the submission for the Seven Stars bid?"

"Yes," Lin Yuan nodded.

Nearly two months had passed since the bid was announced, and Lin felt it was a good time to hand in the work without seeming rushed.

"I’ll send you the email," Gu Qiangyun said, pulling out his phone. He assumed Lin Yuan had written something casually just to collect a participation fee. After all, it was better to turn in something rather than nothing. "Just send your work to this address."

Gu Qiangyun didn’t bother listening to the song. He figured Lin had probably put together something mediocre and didn’t want to embarrass him by reviewing it. Best to give Lin some face.

"Alright," Lin Yuan agreed. Without knowing Gu Qiangyun’s thoughts, he simply sent over his completed piece, Every Kiss, to the email provided.

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