September 1st marked the start of the university semester.
Yu Hai once again slept in until nine o'clock in the morning.
He washed up, had breakfast, changed his clothes, and hailed a cab to campus.
His apartment was actually very close to the university—only a ten-minute walk. Unfortunately, with his current leg injury, he had no choice but to take a taxi.
Upon arriving at the campus, Yu Hai went straight to his counselor's office to submit his application for day-student status.
The counselor for the third-year composition majors was named Liangying. In her thirties, she had ordinary looks and a gentle demeanor.
She reached out to take Yu Hai's form with a smile, saying, "I was actually planning to call you today. Your timing couldn't be better."
Noticing the cast on Yu Hai's leg, she asked with concern, "How is your injury? Do you need to take a leave of absence for a while?"
When the Su Yucheng scandal had broken, the name of the victim, Yu Hai, became public knowledge. Several classmates and even counselors had sent him messages asking if it was him.
Yu Hai hadn't answered directly, simply letting them know he was fine. Out of polite distance, none of them had probed further since their relationship was merely acquaintanceship.
Seeing the counselor's concern, Yu Hai first declined her kind offer, then asked curiously, "Did you need something, Teacher?"
"Not me, but the head of the department wants to see you." Liangying stood up. "I'll take you to see him right now."
As they walked from the office toward the elevators, Liangying deliberately slowed her pace to accommodate Yu Hai. "Actually, I wanted to call you a month ago. Is the Yu Hai who wrote that song *Give You Everything* you?"
"Yes." Yu Hai nodded in acknowledgment. "I originally planned to enter that song into the composition competition."
Liangying let out a regretful sigh and comforted him, "It's fine. You can enter again next year, and I'm sure you'll write an even better piece by then."
Yu Hai didn't say anything.
Liangying urged him further, "If you ever need anything in the future, feel free to call your teacher."
Yu Hai gave a soft hum of agreement.
When the elevator reached the appropriate floor, Liangying waited for Yu Hai to step out, hurried two steps ahead of him from behind, and knocked on an office door.
Hu Weiyuan, the head of the Haohan University Composition Department, looked somewhat startled to see Yu Hai and Liangying appear at his doorway.
Recognizing Yu Hai immediately, he hurriedly gestured for them to come in and sit down.
Inwardly, however, he was secretly astonished by the young man's appearance.
He looked much better than the photograph in his file; with looks like this, the kid could easily become famous in the entertainment industry even without any works to his name.
After bringing them over, Liangying left to tend to other matters.
Hu Weiyuan first poured a glass of water for Yu Hai, his attitude very cordial. "I heard about what happened during the summer vacation. You were wronged."
Yu Hai drank his water without a word, simply shaking his head quietly.
Hu Weiyuan patted his shoulder. "If you encounter something like this in the future, call the school. The school will always be your backing."
Yu Hai nodded in acceptance.
Only then did Hu Weiyuan get to the point. "I brought you here today mainly to ask about your future plans."
"Plans?" Yu Hai looked slightly puzzled.
Hu Weiyuan sat behind his desk and smiled. "An old friend of mine at the Music Association called me a few days ago and said our Haohan composition department has produced a genius this time."
"I didn't believe it at first, but after listening to the song *Rice Fragrance*, I changed my mind."
Hu Weiyuan sighed with emotion. "I've taught quite a few students in my lifetime and seen many musical geniuses. But it's very rare to find someone like you who can display such a level of compositional skill as a sophomore."
Yu Hai listened silently, without showing too much joy on his face. He wasn't particularly surprised that Hu Weiyuan knew Whale Fall was him.
The connections possessed by the head of a prestigious institution's department were far beyond what ordinary people could compare to.
Hu Weiyuan nodded inwardly at Yu Hai's reaction and continued, "Given your physical appearance, if you were to sign with a company right now and debut directly, I believe it would be very easy for you to become popular. Many companies have already contacted you, haven't they? What are your plans?"
Yu Hai was noncommittal regarding Hu Weiyuan's words. Indeed, many companies had contacted him via Weibo direct messages, but he hadn't replied to any of them and hadn't even looked closely at most of the messages. Moreover, since most people didn't know what Whale Fall looked like, their invitations were all for him to join their composition departments.
After pondering for a moment, he shook his head and said, "I still have many shortcomings. I won't show my face in the short term; I want to calm down and study for a while first."
A smile reappeared on Hu Weiyuan's face as he praised, "Good. It's very rare among young people to find someone as pragmatic as you."
"If you're going to work behind the scenes, you definitely need a partner music company. Do you have any ideas in that regard?"
"No." Yu Hai shook his head. He knew nothing about this circle and was afraid of getting scammed.
However, he couldn't avoid finding a company forever. The bounties posted on the official Music Association website offered some of the lowest rewards in the industry, and most were buyouts, which would be a bit of a loss for him.
Besides, it was impractical for him to keep searching for external recording studios every time he wanted to record a song; it was simply too inconvenient.
Hu Weiyuan nodded understandingly. "You're young and don't understand many of these things. You really do need to consider your choice of company carefully. I won't hide it from you—quite a few music companies have sought me out recently."
"Would you like to hear my advice?"
Yu Hai immediately replied, "Please go ahead."
Hu Weiyuan took a document from his drawer and handed it to Yu Hai. "Here is the information on these music companies. You can take a look. My suggestion is that you choose one among Xinhai, Fengchao, and Shanyin Swift."
Yu Hai took the documents and thoughtfully flipped through them. He found Hu Weiyuan's advice very pertinent; these three music companies were indeed the largest music production companies in the country at present.
They had a sufficient number of singers under their umbrella, vast promotional channels at their disposal, and robust financial backing from their parent investment firms.
Most importantly, the industry reputation and standing of all three were quite good.
After some thought, Yu Hai selected Xinhai, if for no other reason than that the company's headquarters was located in Yucheng, where Haohan University was also situated.
It was relatively close to his home.
He checked the terms Xinhai was offering him.
A five-year contract, with the company taking a fifty percent cut of the work's revenue, and the remainder split between himself and the singer. This was considered exceptionally generous for a rookie composer.
Copyrights would default to the author, which went without saying.
However, he felt that five years was too long.
So, right in front of Hu Weiyuan, Yu Hai called the management of Xinhai Music's composition department.
During the call, he candidly stated that the contract period was too long and that he was only willing to sign for a maximum of one year.
The middle-aged man on the other end pondered for a moment before agreeing.
Knowing that Yu Hai had mobility issues, Xu Nanshan, the head of Xinhai's composition department, brought the contract to the university that very afternoon, and the two of them signed it right in the department head's office.
Because Yu Hai was still a student, the company agreed that he only needed to come to work on weekends, with a base salary of ten thousand. Everything else would depend on song royalties.
Moreover, because of his inconvenient leg, he didn't need to report to the company for the near future.
As soon as Xinhai signed Yu Hai, they immediately arranged for a singer to record a brand-new version of *Rice Fragrance* and released it on the music platform.
The version Yu Hai had previously recorded had been taken down after the competition ended.
The rerelease of this song sent fans who loved it spreading the word to one another. Consequently, the popularity of the singer who performed it, Jiang Yucheng, experienced a surge.
This caused the fruit tree in Yu Hai's mind to bear two additional fruits.
Counting the mere five gold coins left in his mind, Yu Hai decided to suspend redeeming songs and first focus on studying peacefully at school for a while.
And so, Yu Hai went to school whenever he had classes and went home to read after class, spending two weeks in a very fulfilling routine.
Every few days he would harvest a fruit or accumulate another gold coin, and all his metrics were steadily improving.
Then he received a call from Xu Nanshan, the head of the composition department, asking if he had any songs available to enter the October New Song Charts.
One of the songs the company had originally scheduled for release in October had run into issues. However, the promotional resources had already been prepared, and skipping the release would waste them.
As for why he called Yu Hai, it was because Xu Nanshan had heard that Shang An, the composer who lost to Yu Hai in the songwriting competition, was also preparing to release a song in October.
Yu Hai didn't understand why he had to release a song just because Shang An was releasing one—he didn't even know who that person was.
Nevertheless, considering that he didn't have much savings left after buying his apartment, he agreed.
He asked Xu Nanshan to send him some audition clips of un-debuted minor singers from within the company, intending to choose a song based on their voices.
Xu Nanshan subconsciously asked why he was looking for rookie singers.
"Because it's cheap." Before Yu Hai could voice this reply, Xu Nanshan let out an "oh" and adopted a knowing expression. "You want to use a rookie singer to defeat the opponent and truly demonstrate your strength, huh?"
"What?" Yu Hai hung up in a daze, having no idea what the other person was imagining in his head.
He shook his head and pushed it out of his mind.
That afternoon, Yu Hai received the files and listened to ten people consecutively before finding one whose vocal ability satisfied him. Too lazy to listen any further, he decided on him.
The singer, Chen Song, possessed a very typical baritone voice—thick with a touch of huskiness, carrying a strong magnetic quality.
Yu Hai browsed through his system interface and spent two gold coins to redeem *Red Rose*.
On Earth, this song was composed by Adrian Chow, with lyrics written by Albert Leung, and performed by Eason Chan.
When speaking of Eason Chan's classic songs, many would agree this one deserved a spot on the list.
As for the story behind the song, there was no need to elaborate; those who understood, understood.
Too lazy to record a demo, Yu Hai wrote out the sheet music, took a photo of it, and sent it along with the chosen singer's profile to Xu Nanshan before returning to his books.
Xu Nanshan wasn't surprised that Yu Hai had sent the song to him so quickly. He assumed it was something Yu Hai had written previously and simply hadn't released until now.
However, upon finishing the score and lyrics, he immediately grew grave and treated it with utmost importance, feeling that this song was even better than *Let's Go Our Separate Ways*. The lyrics in particular were simply stunning.
With this song, they might just secure the top spot on the October New Song Chart.
He immediately had his assistant notify the artist management department to prepare for recording.
When Chen Song received the notification from his manager, he was so happy he wanted to spin around in place.
And indeed, he did.
He picked up Sister Zhou, his manager, and spun her around twice, only to be beaten over the head with a file folder for his trouble.
When Chen Song received the lyrics and sheet music outside the recording studio, he was so excited his whole body trembled. "This song... was this really given to me to sing?"
Since Yu Hai hadn't come to the company, Xu Nanshan felt somewhat uneasy and had his assistant supervise the singer's recording. Seeing Chen Song's reaction now, he couldn't help but chuckle. "This was personally designated by Whale Fall for you to sing, so don't mess it up."
"Understood, understood." Hearing that it was Whale Fall's new song, Chen Song felt both surprised and delighted.
He felt lightheaded, as if he had been struck by a pie falling from the sky.
This melody, these lyrics—Teacher Whale Fall was simply the greatest.
It took a full week for Chen Song to record a version he was relatively satisfied with.
Leaving the recording studio, he let out a breath of relief and said to his manager, "I feel the quality of this song is fantastic. I might actually become famous."
His manager agreed with this assessment. After a moment of thought, Chen Song added, "Can you find out when Teacher Whale Fall is coming back to the company? We should treat him to dinner."
His manager rolled her eyes. "Go ask around this company—who has ever seen Teacher Whale Fall? It seems he hasn't stepped foot here once since signing with us."
Chen Song couldn't help clicking his tongue in amazement. Composers—or more accurately, capable composers—truly received different treatment.
Although Whale Fall was a newly debuted rookie, his starting point was far higher than that of ordinary composers.
Whale Fall was very mysterious, and many people in the company were curious about him, yet none had ever had the fortune to meet him. There were numerous speculations about Whale Fall, but none had been verified.
Still, Chen Song thought to himself that if Teacher Whale Fall were to ever show up at the company, there would be no shortage of people trying to cozy up to him, so it wouldn't necessarily be his turn anyway.
Though he didn't know why Whale Fall had chosen him, he decided to just consider it a pie falling from the sky.
With a happy expression, he lost himself in the thought.