Entertainment: Starting with a Song of Rice Fragrance

Time flies.

Time quickly passed to January 10th.

"Seven Mile Fragrance" has been downloaded 157503 times and ranked 928th on the January new song chart of Flying Music Network.

"Tornado," released on the 4th, was downloaded 135780 times and successfully broke into the top 1000, ranking 998th.

This also made Zheng Ning reflect.

Back when I was a newcomer, with so many downloads, I had already broken into the top 20.

Now, his opponents have changed to hundreds of thousands of singers across the entire continent, although less than one-tenth of them release new songs in January.

But tens of thousands of singers released songs in January!

I, a complete newcomer, actually managed to squeeze into the top ten...

"Should I marvel at how competitive these songs are, truly befitting their Earthly origins?"

Zheng Ning looked at the song charts on her phone, her emotions were quite complicated.

He has successfully completed the onboarding training at Feiyang Entertainment's Shuncheng branch in the past few days.

He became a full member of the composition department here.

The most important task the composition department has recently received is to create the theme song for the animated film of the animation company in Dongzhou.

"Old Yang, how's the background music I sent you the day before yesterday? What's their reaction?"

Old Long, dressed in a Taoist robe, was slurping his breakfast, holding a steaming box of rice noodle rolls. When he saw Minister Yang enter, he stopped eating, looked up, and asked.

"I came here today to talk to you about this. Their feedback arrived last night. They said that the style of your song is too dark, and the emotional tone is too gloomy and somber."

It seemed to be raining outside. Old Yang shook the umbrella in his hand, opened it, and placed it on the open ground to the side. Then he turned around and continued speaking.

"Impossible! How could my music be anything dark? I was just expressing their cruel situation. Besides, didn't they just want that feeling of divine punishment for the ignorant masses?"

Old Long simply placed the rice noodle roll box on the table, casually wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his Taoist robe, and retorted with dissatisfaction.

"They said that although the protagonist's parents in their movie were turned into animals after eating food from the gods, they didn't suffer too much or experience any cruel torture. Your music style makes it sound like the protagonists are in hell; the style is completely incompatible."

Old Yang pursed his lips helplessly and shrugged at him.

"But I think your theme melody is good. Change the style a bit, make it a little more relaxed, and I'll send it to them to try."

"Oh, well, Xiao Wang, they said your version sounded kind of interesting, but the style was a bit too light and cheerful. It sounded like a movie for a few-year-old. Their target audience is teenagers to adults in their fifties, suitable for all ages."

Old Yang turned his head and looked at Wang Hui, who was looking at him expectantly. Wang Hui was as thin as a bamboo pole, but 1.9 meters tall.

"Seriously, Lao Yang? They don't want the steady and serious type, and they don't want the lively and cheerful type either. What exactly do they want?"

Long Wei slammed his hand on the table in dissatisfaction, almost spilling his rice noodle soup on it.

"Feel, you know? It's about a feeling!"

Xiao Wang helplessly shrugged and said sarcastically.

"Every time we deal with them, they say something just doesn't feel right. That damn 'feeling' is the hardest thing to control. They don't send anyone here to keep an eye on us and communicate with us constantly. Who knows what kind of feeling they're looking for!"

For a time, the composition department was filled with an atmosphere of complaints.

"Alright, alright, stop complaining. Everyone, get back to what you were doing. If it really comes down to it, each of you can make another one. This time, their order is a medium-sized one worth 600 million. Headquarters has already snatched up all the good orders. If we can't prove ourselves with this old client, our order volume will continue to decline..."

Old Yang rubbed his throbbing temples and strode towards his small office.

As he passed Zheng Ning's seat, he stopped and patted Zheng Ning on the shoulder.

"Xiao Zheng, how have you been these past few days? You're familiar with how to use our music composition software now, right? Next, you can try looking at this list of anime soundtracks and see if you can get any inspiration."

"Of course, this won't be part of your performance evaluation, since it was an order we took on before you joined. But you can take a look first, and if you can produce good work, I'll still give you credit for it."

After encouraging his new subordinate, a preoccupied Old Yang went into his small office and closed the door.

"Brother Ning, don't feel pressured. This order is from a troublesome client in Dongzhou. It was placed before you joined the company, so it's not your responsibility. My personal advice is to ignore it and focus on your own work."

As soon as I sat down, Wang Xiaoyu next to me handed me a bag of spiced pork jerky.

"You should think about whether you can write a pop song. When there are no commissions, we always do this. If we can write a pop song of any genre in two or three months, we consider it a completed task. No matter what type of song you write, there will always be singers in the company who can use it, and it will all count as our performance."

Perhaps it's about mutual appreciation between people with outstanding talent.

Wang Xiaoyu had been very friendly to Zheng Ning since he joined the company. She wasn't exactly enthusiastic, but there was a tacit understanding and familiarity between them that was common among old colleagues.

"Oh? Okay, thank you, Little Fish. Here, the liqueur-filled candy you mentioned last time."

After all, he was a senior colleague in the company, which shows that she was very grateful to him.

He never imagined that he could write a custom theme song for an animated film with piano as the main theme in just over a month.

I should focus on whether I can acquire advanced composition skills on my own and write a song that fits the current popular style.

But speaking of the piano...

These days, he has been practicing the piano at home every day, partly to turn theoretical knowledge into practical experience, and partly to complete the system's task that rewards a treasure chest of piano pieces.

With another day of practice, I'll have accumulated 100 hours.

What kind of reward will I get? I'm really looking forward to it.

……

When Zheng Lin got home that night, he didn't even bother to eat dinner. He went straight to his room, played the piano, and started whiling away the time.

"Ding!"

At 8 p.m., a clear system notification sounded in his mind.

"Congratulations, host, you have completed 100 hours of piano playing and successfully completed the mission [Piano Waltz]."

"Host has received a reward of 1 [Piano Music Treasure Chest], which has been sent to the host's system space. Please check it in time."