Chapter 21: 3.5 gigabytes? Whose subordinate could be so formidable?

Just as he was about to force a shutdown, the computer that had been with Uncle Liang Ma for three years finally came back to life. Following this, a WinRAR archive download prompt popped up.

"...You scared me. So, it's just a theme song submission..."

Ma just let out a breath of relief, but immediately realized something was off. Wait. Who submits a theme song as a compressed archive file?! He took a closer look at the sender.

[Star Beauty Entertainment Music Producer: Li Can]

"?"

A question mark appeared on Ma's face. He knew Star Beauty Entertainment well, of course—he was quite familiar with them. The content of the email and the fact that the sender knew his private email address confirmed this was indeed someone from within the industry. But... was a compressed file a bit much?

Ma clicked the download button.

[Current download speed: 5MB/s. Estimated time remaining: 6:12...]

"?"

"What kind of decent person sends a 1.8GB archive file?!"

He had just been about to complain about the hotel's slow internet speed, but then he saw the file size. Ma was stunned. Now, he was actually curious. What kind of theme song could add up to a 1.8GB archive? Driven by curiosity, he waited for the download to finish.

Extraction began. When the files were finally decompressed, looking at the massive 3.5GB folder, Ma felt for the first time that his perspective might have been too narrow.

"Damn!"

Ma fell silent for a long time. After opening the folder and seeing the long list of music files—at least a dozen songs—he couldn't help but exclaim in admiration. "Now, this is truly impressive!"

He immediately clicked on a song to listen.

"Hmm? I was wondering why one song was over three hundred megabytes. Ah, multi-channel lossless files..."

He had barely muttered the words when he was instantly captivated by the music. The piano melody in the prelude was incredibly catchy! He glanced at the song title: "Longing."

Ma nodded thoughtfully. It was a lyrical song; it was clear the composer had sharply grasped the essence of a romantic drama. Moreover, it was unique in that it wasn't constrained by elements like "Xianxia" or "martial arts," aiming directly at the "love, hate, and sorrow" present in almost every romantic drama—the "longing" that always exists. To provide such an answer so quickly with limited information truly surprised him.

Before he could react further, the short prelude faded, and a low, gentle male voice slowly began to sing.

"Red beans grow in the southern land, that is a very distant affair... What is longing? No one cares anymore..."

In an instant, Ma was drawn into the emotions woven by the song. The self-deprecating lyrics, in just a few lines, used an attitude of denying longing to instead outline a picture of someone lovesick to the point of illness.

"Drunkenly lying in the sleepless city, neon lights everywhere..."
"In the wine glass, such a flood of... superficial romance..."

For a moment, Ma felt his breath hitch. Drunkenness, the sleepless city, neon lights everywhere; amidst the bustle, one person is quietly lonely, seemingly out of place with their surroundings. The slightly disdainful mention of "superficial romance," contrasted with the revelry of the neon city, made this loneliness even more dramatic.

Ma became completely serious. Feeling the suspenseful pauses, it seemed even his mood was surging with the eruption of the melody.

"Most willing to forget the poems of the ancients... Most disdainful of all is longing."
"Guarding love while fearing laughter... Fearing being seen through..."

Sure enough, when the chorus hit, Ma's slightly judgmental attitude vanished completely. He couldn't be bothered to analyze anymore; his mind went blank, following the melody.

"Spring comes again to see the red beans bloom, but no lovers come to pick them..."
"Fireworks embrace the wind, but true love is nowhere to be found..."

Stopping the music, Ma couldn't help but feel a ripple in his heart. His mind was filled with the song's simple lyrics. Yet, these simple words seemed to occupy a vast amount of his brain's processing power.

This song could be interpreted in many ways. It could be the self-pity of a lovesick person, a satire on fickle and fleeting flings, or a sense of helplessness and bitterness in love. Tortured to the point of madness by longing, yet unwilling to be seen through, fearing becoming a laughingstock—the intense irony precisely captured the indifference and disdain that appear when longing reaches its extreme.

What gave Ma goosebumps was that the scope of this song seemed to transcend time and space. It could fit a historical drama background, a fantasy setting, or even be used to satirize the cheap relationships of modern society. The potential for empathy was so broad that it seemed everyone could find their own answer within the song.

"This is really..."

Ma fell silent, unable to judge the song for a moment. His mind even drifted to the "Xianxia Romance" idol drama he was currently directing. This song could not only fit many key plot scenes, but it seemed it could also make the expression of those scenes even better! Otherwise, it would be a total waste of such a song.

Once his inspiration was sparked, Ma even had the urge to go back and reshoot some detailed scenes. A single song had directly influenced the director's vision for the entire drama.

"Who is this? Li Can? When did such a powerhouse emerge in the music scene?"

Ma grew curious. Putting aside the other tracks for a moment, he made a few phone calls to inquire about Li Can. It didn't take long before someone sent him the basic publicly available information about Li Can. One look, and he felt like his head might explode.

"Holy cow! This guy is a living legend!"

Ma's eyes widened, his gaze darting back and forth over the information. There were two brief news reports from the web:

[Classical Prince plays "Fantasy Impromptu" at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden]
[Addictive hit "Chick Chick" bombs the entire web; netizens cry out that it's insane]

"How can these two things be from the same person?!" Ma scratched his head fiercely. "Are we talking about the same guy?"

Continuing to flip through Li Can's resume, he found it increasingly incredible. It wasn't about whether his achievements were high or not; it was that this person always seemed a bit... strange.

"So that's why he could just dump 3.5GB of files on me..."

Amidst his musings, Ma noticed Li Can's network: a student of Professor Xu Qing.

"Well, well! No wonder I felt he was a bit odd! A student of Xu Qing—that makes perfect sense."

Ma suddenly understood. Of course, he would only say this in private; how could he dare to gossip about a master's protégé openly?

Ma's interest grew even stronger, and he began to carefully listen to the other tracks Li Can had submitted. The more he listened, the more excited he became. After listening to three more songs in a row, he couldn't suppress his excitement and called his producers to review them.

After getting their approval, Ma decisively finalized the decision and announced that the industry-wide search for works was over!

"This... this is the talent I've been looking for!"

He stood up quickly and made a decisive phone call.

"Hello? Tell Star Beauty that I want to sign the songs of their producer..."

Halfway through the sentence, Ma shook his head vigorously, changed his tone, and spoke with firm resolve.

"Oh, no! That's not right. I want to sign the man himself for our next collaboration!"