hooklinebooks Chapter 46 Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
Chapter 46 Impossible! Absolutely impossible!
"The warm-up period is two days," Su Xiaoxiao pointed to the timeline on the PPT. "Starting tomorrow, we will post a 15-second piano intro clip on Weibo with the caption 'Hearing the departure of winter,' and at the same time, we will buy three music-related KOLs to retweet it to create suspense."
"The next day, I posted a photo of Wang Bo working in the recording studio with the caption 'I woke up in a certain month of a certain year,' and at the same time contacted music critics to prepare a press release on music reviews."
"On the day of release, it went live on all platforms at midnight sharp. In the morning, we bought the trending topic #WangBoNewSongEncounter#. At noon, we promoted a long article by a music critic. In the afternoon, we promoted fan-made content. In the evening... Wang Bo, were you free that night?"
Wang Bo was taken aback: "Yes."
"Let's do a live stream at 8 pm tonight," Su Xiaoxiao said. "I don't need to sing, I'll just chat with my fans about the stories behind my creations and my experiences over this period. The stream will be about 30 minutes long, so as to keep it a mystery."
She turned to the head of the publicity department: "The pre-live broadcast promotion will begin at noon on the day of the launch. We'll buy some promotional credits to ensure there's enough viewers in the evening."
The person in charge quickly took notes: "Understood."
"Also," Su Xiaoxiao paused, "the music video for this song... will not be filmed for now."
Everyone was stunned.
Chen Mo couldn't help but say, "President Su, a lyrical song like 'Encounter' would be even better with a high-quality music video."
"I know," Su Xiaoxiao nodded, "but there's not enough time. From the script to filming to post-production, it will take at least two weeks. I can't wait that long, and besides..."
She looked at Wang Bo: "I want to save the music video for the school song. That song needs a more visual presentation, and it can be made into a short film to tell the stories of ordinary people. The budget can be higher, and the production cycle can be longer—we'll discuss these in more detail later."
Wang Bo's heart skipped a beat.
This woman has a truly sharp eye.
"Encounter" is a good song, but it is essentially still a love song. If a school song could be paired with a high-quality short film or music video, its impact would be more than doubled.
The meeting lasted for a full two hours.
By the end, everyone was energized, their eyes shining – participating in a project of this caliber was a rare experience for their careers.
After the meeting, Su Xiaoxiao kept Wang Bo and Chen Mo behind.
"Chen Mo," she said, "you need to deliver the final mixing and mastering of 'Encounter' to me by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I want the highest quality. Money is not a problem. We can also collaborate with external studios if needed."
Chen Mo nodded: "Don't worry, President Su, I'll stay up all night to get it done for you."
"No," Su Xiaoxiao waved her hand, "You still need to sleep. I don't want my producer to die suddenly. Quality is the priority, but there's no need to pursue perfection to an abnormal degree—art has no perfection, only completion."
She turned to Wang Bo: "You'll stay in the recording studio these next few days and work with Chen Mo to make the final adjustments. Also, think about what you're going to say during the live stream and write a draft beforehand, so you don't just stare blankly at the camera."
Wang Bo laughed: "President Su, as long as Sister Yu Ji isn't sitting next to me and keeping me occupied, chatting with the audience is my forte."
"That's good." Su Xiaoxiao thought of her best friend, who really did have a knack for honest people like Wang Bo. She checked the time. "Alright, go ahead and get busy. I have an investor to call."
Stepping out of the conference room, Chen Mo patted Wang Bo on the shoulder: "Brother, we're going to be cultivating immortality again tonight."
Wang Bo sighed, "I miss the days when I hung out with Zhou Yuji, it was so relaxing."
"A person can't be idle all the time," Chen Mo laughed. "Besides, President Su is generous with money and understands music. My former boss wanted me to make ten songs a day, and he demanded that every one of them be popular and catchy—damn it, if I had that ability, I would have started my own school of music long ago."
The two chatted and laughed as they walked toward the recording studio.
In that rented room in Shanghai.
Li Xuan was staring at the computer screen, his expression like he'd just eaten ten pounds of lemons.
"Holy crap!" Li Xuan pointed to a music blogger's announcement on Weibo, "Wang Bo is releasing a new song! So fast? He's only been popular for a few days and he's already rushing to harvest traffic?"
Zhang Haoming leaned over to look, and the blogger had posted a Weibo post: "According to reliable sources, Wang Bo, the original singer of 'The You of the Past,' will release his second single this week. The style is ballad, and the song title seems to be related to 'encounter.' Are you all looking forward to it?"
There are already thousands of comments below.
"I'm so excited! I've been listening to 'Once Upon a Time' on repeat for a week!"
"Anything produced by Wang Bo is guaranteed to be a masterpiece!"
"Please send it quickly! My playlist is starving!"
Li Xuan became increasingly envious: "What's there to be so smug about? So what if one song is a hit? The second one will definitely flop! There are plenty of examples like this in the entertainment industry. One song can sustain you for a lifetime, and everything after that is garbage."
Zhang Haoming chimed in, "Exactly. You guys haven't heard his songs from when he was with Yuji Entertainment. They were absolutely awful. I suspect that 'The You of the Past' wasn't even written by him. It was a song he bought, or one that the company hired a ghostwriter to write."
"Absolutely!" Li Xuan seemed to have found an outlet for his frustration. "Look at him, he's releasing a new song now. He's in such a hurry to release it because he wants to make a quick buck before the hype dies down. Once this song flops, his popularity will be pretty much over."
As he spoke, he took out his phone and logged into his Weibo side account—an account he used specifically to criticize people, with three followers, two of whom were zombie fans.
His fingers flew across the screen as he typed: "Some singers, once one song becomes a hit, they forget who they are and rush to release new songs to make money. Just wait for them to flop, then we'll see how their fans try to defend them."
After posting it, he looked at the Weibo post with satisfaction, as if he could already see the tragic future of Wang Bo's new song flopping, fans leaving, and the company giving up on him.
"Brother Xuan," Zhang Haoming suddenly thought of something, "do you think... we should go listen to his new song? What if... what if it becomes a hit again?"
Li Xuan glared at him: "Flame my ass! Impossible! Absolutely impossible!"
Despite saying that, he wasn't really sure himself.
He secretly listened to the song "Once Upon a Time" no less than ten times—although he cursed it as garbage, he still felt a pang of sadness every time he heard "I once dreamed of traveling the world with a sword."
The feeling is like seeing a brother who used to roll around in the mud with you suddenly climb ashore and wave a golden key back at you.
"No," Li Xuan gritted his teeth, "I have to do something."
"What are you doing?" Zhang Haoming asked.
Li Xuan's eyes darted around: "Isn't he going to release a new song? Let's hire some online trolls to flood all the music platforms with negative reviews, saying that this song is not as good as 'Once Upon a Time,' that he's lost his touch, and that he's just exploiting nostalgia... Basically, the worse the song, the better."
Zhang Haoming hesitated: "This...it will cost money, right?"
"Fine, I'll spend it!" Li Xuan said resolutely. "I still have several thousand yuan in my account, I'll throw it all in! I refuse to believe that Wang Bo can keep his luck forever!"