Mysterious Assistant of the Washed-Up Queen-Chapter 445 - 299: Anything else? The second half? Cantonese song! _2

They weren’t lacking in new faces; there were plenty of fresh young guys and beauties. But good works weren’t something you could just pull out on demand.

You either queued up at veteran lyricists and composers, which was wildly expensive. Or you sifted through the dross to find gold, selecting so-called gems from piles of rubbish. Alternatively, you plagiarized, mimicked, or fleeced ideas to see if you could adapt an existing mature work. Another method involved using big data analytics to find formulaic templates, then stuffing content into them and repackaging it. However, regardless of the method, none were particularly efficient. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Taking inspiration might be easy, but after so many years, most of the "wool" had nearly been stripped bare. From Asia to Europe and America, basically everything that could be borrowed had been. There was truly nothing fresh left.

Now, suddenly, someone like Youmeng had appeared, and everything they produced turned out to be a hit. Who wouldn’t be drooling with envy? It was absolutely enviable.

"SIGH. Chu Tian, look. All of this is for you."

"For me? What for?"

In the studio, the new album phase had concluded. Everyone had just sat down to finally have lunch during their break when Sister Hua handed him a big stack of documents.

Chu Tian was a bit confused by her words. He hadn’t debuted and didn’t have many close friends. Who would be looking for him?

No, wait. There were people. Because he was listed as the musical director on Xu Qingqiu’s album, he had recently received quite a few calls from headhunters and music companies trying to poach him.

But they wouldn’t send folders, would they? They’d usually just call directly.

He asked, even as his hands unconsciously started flipping through the documents.

As expected, Sister Hua didn’t give a straightforward answer. "Take a look and you’ll know. Tell me what you think afterwards?"

Chu Tian frowned. "Hm?" He was puzzled at first glance, but as he flipped through several pages, he finally understood.

So, it wasn’t him they were after. No, that wasn’t quite right. To be precise, they weren’t looking for Chu Tian, but for Youmeng.

That’s right. Without exception, all these were requests wanting Youmeng to compose songs. These included singers, music companies, entertainment companies, and even directors and actors. Essentially, a wide variety of people wanted to see if they could get some songs from him.

"Hold on, I get why singers and music companies would contact me, but what do directors and actors want?"

"What do you think?" Sister Hua replied. "Directors want you to write theme songs for movies and TV dramas; that’s not hard to understand, right? As for actors, maybe they’re thinking about a career shift?"

That made sense. Nowadays, anyone even slightly famous wanted to diversify their career to speed up their money-making. No one was a fool.

Take the Spring Festival Gala, for example. Aside from veteran artists and some traditional acts, those who performed on stage were usually singers. After all, you couldn’t expect an actor to perform a scene from a play on that stage, right?

In the past, those actors either pulled strings to squeeze into spoken-word programs as eye candy, to make up numbers, or to appear as mere background characters just to get some screen time. Or they acted as shills in magic shows. In short, they would do anything just to be on stage.

Those with good singing voices might get to join a chorus, but most of them, at best, were just part of a chorus, and primarily lip-syncing at that.

But who would be content with that? If there was a chance to sing a solo, who would want to just blend in with a large, indistinct crowd?

It wasn’t that they lacked opportunities or ability. So, in the end, they were all hoping to snag a few songs from Chu Tian and try to develop their careers as singers.

What if they became successful? Then they could legitimately claim to be singers.

This way, whether on stage at a gala or at private commercial events, they wouldn’t have to just stand around like wooden props. They could occasionally sing a couple of lines, which could also boost their asking price.

However beautiful the idea, reality was reality.

"Eh, let’s hold onto these for now," Chu Tian said, finally looking up. "We’ll look at them later. If there’s strong interest, or if it’s beneficial for us, we can consider it. As for the others, let’s just stall them and decide later."

Chu Tian wasn’t unwilling to write for them; he had plenty of songs. The real issue was his lack of time. Currently, just handling Xu Qingqiu’s affairs was overwhelming. He hardly had the mental capacity for anything else.

Committing was out of the question. It was better to delay for now. Maybe, when he had some downtime, if he was in the mood, he could write a couple of songs in exchange for some benefits.

"Okay, I’ll respond to them like that for now," Sister Hua said. "Just make sure you don’t pretend you don’t know about it later."

Chu Tian had this intention but was somewhat hesitant. Sister Hua, however, was quite earnest about it. Holding a royal flush like Youmeng and not being able to play it was quite frustrating sometimes. Now that Chu Tian had given his word, this "royal flush" could finally be laid on the table. If anyone foolishly tried to cause trouble, she wouldn’t even need to say much. Just dropping the name ’Youmeng’ would have people flocking to them. Most problems wouldn’t be problems anymore. Exchanging benefits was perfectly normal, after all.

"Alright, up to you," Chu Tian said. "Where are Yiyi and Yuan? Tell them to take a break. Let’s eat."

"Look, here they come," Sister Hua said, gesturing. "And your Qingqiu is with them."

"Heh, of course," Chu Tian’s face lit up. "Look how beautiful our Qingqiu is!"

Seeing Xu Qingqiu walk in, laughing and chatting animatedly with Yiyi and Yuan, Chu Tian’s shamelessness seemed to increase by several layers, prompting Sister Hua to roll her eyes repeatedly.

Once everyone had settled down and started opening their lunchboxes, Chu Tian, feeling bored, casually asked: