In the early morning of July 2011, Qin Tian jumped up from the bed with a start. He looked around at the furnishings in the room and muttered to himself, "Oh gosh, could I have time-traveled?"
As a seasoned bookworm, he had naturally encountered the trope of time travel countless times in novels, so he didn't panic too much.
Qin Tian calmly opened the calendar and confirmed the date—2011. That's right, he had indeed returned to the period right after the senior high school entrance examinations.
"My name is Qin Tian, and I'm a down-and-out minor singer," Qin Tian muttered to himself. Back in 2024 on the Douyin platform, he had managed to scrape together a living from traffic revenue by producing various internet hit songs and editing eccentric meme tracks.
At that time, he always had to be on guard against copyright infringement and similar troubles; after all, the national copyright system in 2024 was already quite strict.
As for life, it was just so-so—better than some, worse than many. When his followers increased, he would consider selling his account or live-streaming products. Everything was done for a few ounces of broken silver.
Pulling his thoughts back to the present, Qin Tian pondered, "If I remember correctly, this should be right after the senior high school entrance exams. I remember my scores weren't very ideal, so I just spent every day eating and sleeping. Maybe I time-traveled precisely because I slept too much. Ah, what a pity. Although I was admitted to a key high school back then, I didn't adjust my mindset well."
"Why bother sleeping so much while alive, for there will be endless sleep after death!" Qin Tian said to himself, almost laughing out loud at his own joke.
In his past life, Qin Tian didn't have any great talents. He simply studied hard to get into a university, and his singing was just a tiny bit better than KTV level.
As for music, it was purely out of hobby. In college, he even paid out of his own pocket to enroll in classes to learn it.
Later, he caught up with the internet era and self-studied video editing. These pretty much summed up all of Qin Tian's skills. "Ah, it seems that if I want to succeed, I still have to find a way through singing!"
Qin Tian quickly sorted through his memories. If he remembered correctly, next year would be 2012, and the phenomenal show The Voice of China would start that very year. In the early stages of the first season, no doubt anyone knew what the viewership ratings would be like, so it was relatively fair.
As a result, after just a few episodes, it became insanely popular. Later on, of course, all sorts of shady backstage dealings emerged endlessly, and the quality of the show plummeted directly. But it didn't matter; he planned to participate in this show and use songs from the future to somehow make a name for himself.
Of course, troubles still existed. Qin Tian looked down at himself. Although he was already 1.77 meters tall by the time he graduated from junior high, he was only 17 years old after all.
Qin Tian pondered, "How am I supposed to explain the fact that I know music? How do I participate in the show? Everything is going to be tricky!"
Just as he was deep in thought, a "clank" abruptly interrupted him.
His mother pushed the door open and said with concern, "Is the boy awake? Stop sleeping all day long. If we don't do well on the high school entrance exams, we can do other things instead. Failing the high school entrance exams doesn't mean we can't take the college entrance exams!"
"If push comes to shove, Mom will get you some money so you can go on a guided tour group. It happens that your sister is in a tour group, so I'll feel more at ease," his mother chattered away, her eyes full of care and affection.
Looking at his mother's face, which seemed more than a decade younger, Qin Tian couldn't help sighing inwardly, "Youth is truly, motherfucking enviable!"
"Mom, I want to sign up for a guitar class to learn. Staying home all the time is pretty boring," Qin Tian proposed.
His mother looked at Qin Tian skeptically. "With our family's genes, do we have any musical cells?"
Qin Tian muttered to himself, "Mom's words still hit right at the bullseye." But out loud, he said, "Just cultivating a hobby. There's no homework this summer anyway, so I've got to find something to do."
His mother thought about it and reluctantly agreed, "Fine then, go sign up. Don't you need to buy a guitar as well? Let's just hope you aren't showing a flash in the pan."
And so, Qin Tian enrolled in an art school near his home. Actually, Qin Tian knew a bit about all of this. After graduating from college in his past life, Qin Tian went to work in another city alone and cultivated quite a few hobbies during his spare time. Although he couldn't be called proficient, it was more than enough to get by.
This period of study was mainly to increase the persuasiveness of his self-composed songs. Otherwise, if he suddenly knew how to write songs, it really wouldn't be easy to explain. Fortunately, Qin Tian had always been clear-minded; once he made a decision, he would give it his all.
Besides the guitar, Qin Tian also studied arrangement, and even learned how to transcribe music based on some experience from his past life. The music teacher was astounded, thinking Qin Tian was a musical genius.
Qin Tian secretly felt quite pleased with himself. "Since I've been reborn through time travel, if I don't plagiarize a few songs, wouldn't my life be incomplete?" Thus, Qin Tian picked up his notebook and began to jot down those familiar songs from his past life.
Fortunately, Qin Tian was a singer and was somewhat familiar with these songs, otherwise he might not have remembered them so clearly. Qin Tian decided to copy songs released after 2013. After all, this year was 2011; he must be careful not to accidentally commit copyright infringement, which would be awkward.
Qin Tian sorted through the classic songs after 2013, such as "Hills", "Ugly Monster", "Accident", as well as "What Else Do I Have of You", "He Doesn't Understand", "Cultivating Love", and so on—simply too many to count. Qin Tian registered the copyrights for all the ones suitable for his age to sing, feeling like a music tycoon.
School started soon. Qin Tian went to school on weekdays and studied music on weekends, just waiting for news about The Voice of China next year so he could sign up and participate. However, problems followed closely behind—age was a major issue.
Next year Qin Tian would turn 18, but many songs couldn't be sung. If he sang songs inappropriate for his age, people would suspect plagiarism.
Moreover, Qin Tian still needed to save money to record songs; he couldn't keep asking his family for money.
At this moment, Qin Tian really wanted to slap himself across the face. Why hadn't he paid attention to the lottery in his previous life? If he had memorized those winning numbers, wouldn't he have made a fortune? Now look at him: he was full of ideas, but had no money to realize them. Truly, a clever housewife cannot cook a meal without rice.
My dear, there is more to this chapter; please click the next page to continue reading. The later parts are even more exciting!
"I can only save money from my living expenses and the hourly jobs I do on the side, and I have to keep it from my family. After all, our family is just an ordinary household. Cultivating a hobby is fine, but pulling out tens of thousands of yuan to record a song is totally unjustifiable no matter how you look at it. I need to think carefully about ways to make money," Qin Tian thought to himself.
In the blink of an eye, winter vacation arrived, and Qin Tian was about to turn 18. Qin Tian began to ponder what song would be best to sing. Would singing "Youth Manual" by the three boys be too simple? Would any teacher turn their chair around?
Singing "Those Years" wouldn't be appropriate either—wasn't that puppy love? Later, Qin Tian flipped through his little notebook and decided to sing Wukong. This song had nothing to do with love, possessed a certain level of difficulty in singing, and the inspiration was also easy to explain.
Qin Tian had his music teacher recommend a recording studio that cost 300 yuan an hour. Qin Tian briefly arranged the music first, and then recorded a demo and saved it onto a USB flash drive. After this recording session, Qin Tian's New Year's money was basically emptied out.
During the Chinese New Year, Qin Tian discussed learning singing techniques with his mother again. At first, his mother disagreed, but after Qin Tian played and sang Wukong himself—
"Moon splashes across the stars, the long road is distant and vast, the wind and smoke fade away, a lonely shadow stands dim and slender..."
"Who calls my martial arts extraordinary, who makes my love and hatred a difficult dilemma..."
By the time he finished singing, Qin Tian's heart felt somewhat broken into pieces.
His parents were also greatly surprised, not expecting that Qin Tian could write songs, and that they actually sounded pretty good.
And so, they agreed, imperceptibly accepting Qin Tian's idea of pursuing a path in the arts.
Although they still felt that taking the college entrance exams was the only way out and playing music wasn't a long-term plan, Qin Tian's academic grades were also decent, so they let him do as he pleased.
When he had free time from studying, Qin Tian secretly went to an internet café and saw the news about the casting for the role of Yu Ji in The Last Supper. Dilireba and Gulinazha had both participated. Seeing Gulinazha, Qin Tian felt a pang of heartache.
In his past life, Qin Tian was a loser. Speaking of the celebrities he liked, he really liked any pretty face. Figures like the Great Tang Poet Immortal, the Three Beauties of Xinjiang, along with Zhao Xiaogu, could be said to have accompanied Qin Tian through his entire youth.
Counting even further back, Gao Yuanyuan, Fan Bingbing, Zeng Li—there was no one Qin Tian didn't like. Qin Tian himself found it astonishing how someone born in the late 90s could like stars so much older than him.
If he had to name the female celebrities he liked most, they were Gulinazha and Boss Yang. The most regrettable one was also her—she possessed a physique that attracted scumbags, which perhaps had something to do with her name. Naza's men equaled scumbags. But even so, she was still Qin Tian's favorite star.
As for Boss Yang, she was already married at this time, so he didn't entertain any other thoughts.
Qin Tian thought to herself, "I lacked the ability in my past life, and in this life I don't know if I can catch up to her footsteps before she meets scumbags, keeping her away from other scumbags (of course, it would be even better if she could get a bit closer to me, the 'scumbag')."
"I must properly prepare for The Voice competition!" Qin Tian secretly made up his mind.