Chapter 109: She Really Came Back
The next day, Monday, Tang Yan received the song from Xu Man first thing in the morning.
Xu Man had also worked late into the night the day before to finish it.
Tang Yan held the weighty new song tightly in her hands. She said nothing, only smiled softly, then hurried to the company.
At a moment like this, words were superfluous. What they needed to do now was release the song on schedule and open their arms to the praise coming from every direction.
“Director Tang!”
“Director Tang!”
Once she arrived at the company, many staff members greeted her.
She answered each of them with a smile.
In truth, she could feel the tense atmosphere permeating every corner of the company. She knew all the staff had their nerves drawn taut.
The voices from the outside world over the past two days had caused no small stir both inside and outside the company, and many people were under enormous pressure.
Though no one said it to her outright, she could still sense their doubts and confusion from the way they acted. They could not understand why, when Light Years Away had been rejected by Nine-Nine Music, they would still choose to work with Xu Man.
Tang Yan gave no explanation, nor did she need to.
Time would prove everything.
After returning to her office, she played Light Years Away through once, then laughed softly.
After that, she simply sat quietly in her office, savoring the calm before the storm.
Everything that needed arranging had already been arranged. All she had to do now was wait patiently for ten o’clock to arrive.
Half an hour before ten, she rose and left her office, heading to a department downstairs.
“Director Tang!”
“Director Tang!”
As soon as she stepped into the office, all eyes turned toward her.
A trace of tension lingered in every one of those gazes.
Tang Yan nodded and handed the song over to the staff.
They hurriedly took it, not daring to waste a single second, and immediately set to work.
Uploading it to the backend, preparing various direct links, and so on and so forth.
Truthfully, everyone wanted to open it and listen, but with Tang Yan standing behind them, they all forced themselves to hold back.
Ten minutes before ten, there was suddenly a stir in the office.
The general manager had arrived.
“How are the preparations?” he asked Tang Yan in an unhurried tone.
“Everything is ready,” Tang Yan said, glancing at him before probing, “Would you like to listen to it first?”
“Very well.” The general manager gave a slight nod.
Tang Yan smiled and signaled for the staff to play it.
The staff member, who had long been eager to hear the song, quickly clicked it open.
The music began almost at once.
The whole office fell silent, afraid of missing even the smallest detail.
A few minutes later, the general manager nodded in approval and turned to leave.
“All right, keep at it.”
Aside from Tang Yan, no one noticed that he let out a long breath the moment he turned away.
Watching his retreating figure, Tang Yan’s lips curved into a fleeting, beautiful arc.
And with that single sentence, the general manager awakened the staff, who had been stunned to the core.
When they finally came back to themselves, they looked at Tang Yan with utter disbelief, their eyes brimming with unmasked shock.
This was Xu Man’s new song? The one that Nine-Nine Music had rejected?
What kind of joke was that?
Under their astonished gazes, Tang Yan smiled and said, “All right, everyone, calm yourselves. It’s almost ten o’clock.”
The staff took several deep breaths before finally suppressing the shock in their hearts. Then their eyes also began to burn, faint sparks flickering within them.
They knew their company was about to explode.
...
Outside.
Although the online discussion surrounding Xu Man’s new song was still a chaotic mess, as ten o’clock arrived, more and more people turned their attention to Everyday Music.
After three days of rumors and publicity, everyone following the matter was eager to hear the song and know exactly what kind of quality it had.
Rejected publicly by one giant, then accepted publicly by another giant. The whole thing was truly baffling.
The netizens waited.
The media waited.
The major music platforms waited.
Xiao Hang of Nine-Nine Music waited as well.
Even some advertisers were watching closely.
58 minutes.
59 minutes.
Ten o’clock sharp.
The banner on Everyday Music’s homepage flickered faintly and quickly changed into a brand-new one.
In the banner, Xu Man appeared to be recording in a studio. She was not looking at the camera, yet almost everyone could feel a kind of confidence radiating from her.
But by then, no one cared about that anymore.
Everyone clicked in at once, and before them appeared two links: video and audio.
Almost everyone chose the video link.
Click.
With the press of the button, the interface shifted abruptly.
A video frame appeared before them, showing Xu Man in the studio during the recording session.
She wore light makeup and looked to be in excellent spirits.
Before they could think further, the music’s introduction began, and the song information appeared on the screen at the same time.
Many people deliberately paid attention to the songwriter credits.
Light Years Away.
Lyrics by Deng Ziqi.
Composition by Deng Ziqi.
Deng Ziqi?
At the very instant they saw that name, almost everyone frowned slightly.
What an unfamiliar name.
Just as they were puzzled, Xu Man, keeping time with the music, opened her mouth softly, and a beautiful voice that countless people had long missed sounded in their ears.
“Feel the fingertips resting on my hair,”
“How, in an instant, time freezes still.”
Hearing the first line of lyrics, many ordinary netizens showed expressions of mild surprise.
This song... it actually sounds pretty good.
Not only the ordinary listeners, but even the seasoned music professionals watching the matter could not help but look grave.
Amateurs listen for excitement; experts look for the craft. As industry insiders, they quickly realized that this song was nothing like the outside world had been saying.
At the very least, it was a work that cleared the passing line.
In a situation where no one had been optimistic about it, simply reaching that standard was already a tremendous surprise.
Even Xiao Hang, who was not particularly well versed in music, frowned unconsciously, apparently also realizing that the song was not as bad as he had imagined.
“Fate let us meet beyond the chaos of the world,”
“Yet destiny demands that we love amid peril.”
Hiss—
At those lyrics, Han Wen, who had only been faintly frowning before, suddenly changed color!
His eyes flew wide open, and he stared at Xu Man on the screen in utter disbelief. For once, panic appeared on his face.
How could this be?
How was this possible?
How could a song have this kind of quality?
Wasn’t it said that it had been written by a newcomer?
And then, what came after was even more shocking.
“I never imagined I could go this insane for you,”
“Even if mountains collapse and oceans surge, I still do not want to run without you.”
On the screen, Xu Man erupted completely, her voice carrying such piercing force that it traveled through the screen and into the ears of countless listeners.
As if she had been suppressing herself for far too long, she seemed to pour all her strength into singing that line.
Hearing those words, Xiao Hang closed his eyes in pain, his heart already in utter despair.
At that moment, his mind was blank.
He knew he had played this wrong.
In just a few minutes, Nine-Nine Music would become the laughingstock of the entire music scene.
This humiliation... they might never be able to wash away.
At the same time, the internet exploded.
“Wow!!!”
“No way! No way! No way!”
“What kind of joke is this?”
“What did I just hear! What did I just hear!!”
“I can’t believe it! I really can’t believe it!”
“My God! She’s back! She’s really back!”
When they heard the chorus and the soaring climax, netizens erupted instantly.
Mouths agape, they stared at Xu Man on the screen in disbelief, their expressions beyond wonderful.
They were all stunned.
No one had expected the song to be of such quality.
Wasn’t it said that no record company wanted it?
Wasn’t it said that Xu Man was dragging the music world through the mud?
Wasn’t this supposed to be a terrible song?
What on earth was going on?
At what point had things gone wrong?
After a brief daze, the expressions on these netizens turned almost feverish.
This was getting huge. There was going to be a show worth watching.
A lot of people were not going to know how to clean this up.
Even more excited than the netizens were Xu Man’s fans.
After listening to the song, they were so shaken that they could scarcely speak for a long time. And when they saw Xu Man singing with all her strength, their hearts could no longer remain calm.
They had never dreamed that the one chance might truly appear. The miracle they had wanted had really come.
She had truly released another song with the potential to go wildly viral.
Once the song ended, after only a few seconds of silence, the entire internet boiled over.
Light Years Away, Xu Man’s new song, and related hot terms shot straight to the top of the charts.
Everyday Music even pushed it across the entire web in a rare pop-up promotion.
Major media outlets also rushed to report on it.
Xu Man’s New Song Shocks Everyone!
Xu Man Is Truly Back!
Xu Man’s New Song Stuns the Music Scene!
Xu Man Slaps the Entire Music Industry in the Face!
In this round of coverage, these outlets were not stingy with their praise at all. They spoke of her winning a brilliant comeback, the return of a queen, the hope of a revival in the music industry, and so on and so forth.
Even those shameless outlets from before seemed to have developed amnesia, forgetting every last trace of their earlier mockery. They even joined the frenzy, eagerly reporting statements such as Xu Man turning the entire music world into a joke, or Xu Man stirring up the whole industry by herself.
Only a few minutes after the new song was released, Light Years Away had already taken the entire internet by storm at a breathtaking pace.