After leaving the hospital, Yu Hai began preparing to record Rice Fragrance.
He used the meager one thousand-odd yuan he had left to rent a recording studio.
Rushing against time, Yu Hai managed to record the song on the very last day of the competition's registration deadline. After filling out his basic information and giving himself the pen name Whale Fall, he uploaded the song to the official website of the Literary and Art Association.
In fact, participants in this songwriting competition were not required to sing their own songs.
As long as the singer they chose had little to no fame, ensuring it wouldn't influence the audience's judgment, it was acceptable.
The competition was primarily aimed at creators. Of course, a singer's performance would inevitably affect the quality of a song, so many people tried their best to pick singers with higher vocal proficiency.
To this end, before registration opened, the staff organizing the competition had uploaded audition clips of various rookie singers onto the official website.
These were voices of unreleased singers provided by major entertainment companies. If creators could not find a collaborating singer, they could choose a suitable one from this list for a free collaboration.
For these unreleased singers, if they managed to perform one of the top-ranking songs, they could easily use the opportunity to build a following and debut directly.
The entertainment environment in this world differed greatly from Earth.
In principle, the status and standing of creators were higher than others.
For instance, the status of a composer within the circle was generally higher than that of a singer, especially for composers whose songs surpassed a million downloads—their standing in the industry outranked many front-line singers.
Not to mention those composers revered by netizens as Grandmaster Composers, who had attained legendary status. They could order top male and female singers around as they pleased.
The reason Yu Hai chose to sing the song himself rather than find a collaborating singer was partly due to the tight schedule, which might not leave enough time, and partly because the fruit tree of emotions in his mind had already borne fruit.
Following the fermentation of the past few days, many people on the internet had already heard of Yu Hai, the original creator of Give You Everything.
His affection for Give You Everything and the goodwill generated by his open copyright policy allowed Yu Hai's fruit tree to absorb a certain amount of emotion values.
Two days after the Music Association released its announcement, the fruit tree in his mind bore two fruits—one blue and one golden—which appeared ripe and ready for picking. Beneath the green leaves, a third fruit was vaguely visible, though it was much smaller and still unripe.
Yu Hai first plucked the blue fruit.
The system displayed: Appearance Fruit. Consuming it slightly increases appearance.
Yu Hai was somewhat dazed. It was actually a fruit that directly boosted appearance—was this system really that mystical?
With a flicker of his consciousness, the fruit dissolved into streams of light. Yu Hai immediately felt a wave of lightness wash over him, bringing a deeply comfortable sensation.
He hurriedly opened his eyes, grabbed his crutches, walked over to the mirror, and examined his face closely.
Whether it was his imagination or not, he genuinely felt his skin was better than before, much less rough.
However, the effect was not particularly striking.
He checked the attribute interface displayed by the system:
Appearance: 81
Voice: 55
Vocal Technique: 50
The original host's vocal conditions were entirely ordinary, which was perhaps why the original host chose the composition department instead of the vocal performance department.
Otherwise, based solely on the original host's face, he definitely could have become a famous singer.
Yu Hai smacked his lips, refocused his concentration on his mind, and plucked the golden fruit.
System: Gold coin plus one.
Hm, this system actually had currency? What was it used for?
Yu Hai focused his consciousness on the gold coin and found that a redemption interface had appeared before him.
The items inside were dazzling and bizarre.
Aside from various songs, sheet music, instrument skills, and trial cards, there were also all kinds of foods.
For example: lollipops that won't make you fat, alcohol that won't get you drunk...
He just had no idea what they tasted like.
Yu Hai smacked his lips, weighed his options, and redeemed a Level 1 Vocal Technique Trial Card.
Time-limited to three hours, priced at one gold coin.
The vocal technique levels defined by the system ranged across five tiers, with Level 1 being the lowest, representing the standard of a singer who had received basic vocal training.
In all likelihood, many rookie singers in the entertainment industry preparing for their debut possessed this exact level of skill.
The song Rice Fragrance itself did not demand exceptional vocal technique, so using a Level 1 trial card allowed Yu Hai to smoothly record the track.
The songwriting competition was held annually. Once registration closed, all submitted songs were anonymously published online for free streaming and downloading.
After the competition ended, these songs would be taken down. If a song performed well, the author could choose to re-record and release it officially, at which point it could be monetized.
The number of songs each ID bound to an identity card could download daily was restricted, completely preventing any artificial inflation of data.
All download counts and comments on the songs would be displayed on the official competition page, ensuring full transparency with real-time leaderboard updates.
Ten days later, the competition concluded, and the creators of the top three downloaded songs would be awarded gold, silver, and bronze prizes along with corresponding cash rewards.
There were no barriers to entry for submissions in this competition; as long as the work was original, anyone from an elementary school student to an elderly woman could participate.
Naturally, the uploaded tunes had to pass the review of the Literary and Art Association.
Anything consisting of casual humming or lyrics that crossed the bottom line failed to pass screening.
An unwritten rule within the industry was that this was a competition for newcomers, so composers who had already achieved a certain level of success should refrain from joining the fray.
Even so, after filtering out unqualified entries, every edition of the songwriting competition still featured upwards of a thousand songs going live.
This was a grand carnival for numerous music lovers.
On August 1st at midnight, the 12th Songwriting Competition officially began.
A total of 928 approved songs instantly burst into everyone's view.
On the page, song titles of various colors floated across transparent spheres, slowly drifting and shifting. The densely packed song names were dazzling to the eye.
Many people listened to the songs sequentially from front to back, while others chose tracks to preview based on titles that caught their interest.
Pan Ye was one such person.
As the director of a music company, he paid close attention to these competitions for one simple reason: to scout for fresh talent and poach people.
Moreover, after the competition ended, music companies could purchase the copyrights of these songs and re-record them. If they happened to stumble upon a hidden gem, they would profit.
While rare, instances of songs failing to achieve top results in the competition but subsequently exploding in popularity after being bought by a music company and re-released with a suitable singer had indeed happened before.
Pan Ye casually browsed through the titles of the songs and randomly selected one to listen to. However, barely a few bars into the intro, his brow furrowed slightly, feeling the track was utterly mediocre.
Sure enough, many of these contestants had entered with a try-your-luck attitude. The works of numerous participants were incomplete and terribly raw.
After listening to a dozen songs in a row, Pan Ye failed to find a single piece that sparked his interest.
Then, he clicked on Rice Fragrance.
A simple guitar intro rang out, causing Pan Ye's furrowed brow to relax slightly.
A young male voice, clean and crisp, swept away the inner restlessness like a cool summer breeze.
"If towards this world,"
"You hold too many complaints,"
"If you stumble and dare no longer move forward,"
"Why must people be so fragile and degenerate?"
……
Listening to the song, especially after the chorus kicked in, Pan Ye felt as though he were instantly transported back to his childhood, running through golden-yellow fields, smelling the fragrance of rice and earth, with the sounds of insects and birds ringing in his ears.
"Do you still remember you said home is the only castle?"
"Keep running along the river of rice fragrance,"
"Smile softly, I know the dreams of childhood,"
"Don't cry, let the fireflies lead you away as you escape,"
"Country ballads, our eternal reliance,"
"Go home, return to the original beauty."
……
It was a remarkably leisurely childhood, carefree and untroubled. The corners of his mouth curved upward at the male singer's gentle whisper in his headphones: "Give a smile."
Without hesitation, Pan Ye directly downloaded Rice Fragrance and left a comment:
"After listening to this song, everything seems a little less bleak."
This was a healing song that soothed the soul.
After his successful registration, Yu Hai paid no further mind to the competition.
He went through his daily routine of rehabilitation, picking fruits, eating fruits—acting just like an old farmer.
With the ongoing songwriting competition, online discussions surrounding these new songs gradually increased.
Naturally, the most discussed among them was Rice Fragrance.
The quality of this song was truly formidable in the rookie village. Barely two days into the competition, it claimed the top spot on the download charts, and its subsequent download figures practically left everyone else in the dust.
On the fifth day, the official website released the real-time download rankings.
First place: Rice Fragrance, 1.09 million downloads.
Second place: You Won't Love Yourself, 450,000 downloads.
Opening the comments beneath Rice Fragrance:
"A song with such a strong sense of imagery."
"I've had this on single-track repeat for days."
"Putting all bias aside, isn't putting this song in a rookie competition a bit unfair?"
……
Fifteen days later, Yu Hai opened the songwriting competition page once again.
Sure enough, he saw that Rice Fragrance had won the gold award.
Simultaneously, the authors of all participating songs were publicly revealed.
Everyone saw the information displayed for Rice Fragrance:
Composer: Whale Fall
Lyricist: Whale Fall
Singer: Whale Fall
As expected, it was an unfamiliar name, but many had not anticipated that the singer would also be the author himself.
Consequently, many people formed their very first impression of the name Whale Fall.
Naturally, Yu Hai ushered in a bountiful harvest of fruits.
Aside from appearance and voice fruits, the majority of the haul consisted of vocal technique fruits.
By this time, his attributes had changed to:
Appearance: 83
Voice: 69
Vocal Technique: 63
Compared to before, he had improved significantly; at least all three attributes had crossed the passing line.
Today, not only was his appearance superior to when he left the hospital—primarily due to his skin improving drastically—but his vocal tone had also become much more pleasant. Previously, he needed a trial card to sing Rice Fragrance, but now he could barely record it even without one.
Yu Hai was naturally thrilled about this, but what made him even happier was the one hundred thousand yuan prize money he was about to receive.
Pity the poor guy who had spent the last ten days counting pennies to order takeout delivery.
He was still an injured patient, after all—why did he have to live such a destitute life?