Life countdown begins, ice queen bursts into security room

Li Cheng hung up the phone at the eighth recording studio, not even bothering to light another cigarette.

"No need to call." Jiang Fan sat on the sofa, took out his phone's contacts, and dialed a number.

"Are you in trouble?" Xu Qingya's voice came through the receiver, with some background noise and the sound of announcements about flights.

"I need a top-of-the-line recording studio. Sheng Hai has already put in a deal with the commercial studios in Shenzhen, so I can't get in. Is there any way to get one?"

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone.

"On the top floor of Building B, Shenlan Building, Nanshan Science and Technology Park, there is a private studio that is not usually open to the public."

Xu Qingya gave an address, "The password is the last six digits of my phone number. I told the sound engineer to arrive in half an hour."

Jiang Fan raised an eyebrow: "Your private property?"

"A cunning rabbit has three burrows. I never fully trust the resources provided by EE-Media." Xu Qingya's tone was indifferent. "Consider this my gift to Fanyin Studio."

Thanks.

Jiang Fan hung up the phone, stood up, and looked at Li Cheng.

"Pack your things and head to the Deep Blue Building."

Li Cheng put the cigarette pack in his pocket, his mouth moved, but he didn't ask the pointless question, "How come Xu Qingya still has a recording studio in Pengcheng?"

It's perfectly normal for someone at her level to have several hideouts across the country.

The taxi drove for twenty minutes before stopping downstairs at the Deep Blue Building.

This office building has an ordinary appearance and is inconspicuous among the row of glass curtain wall buildings in the science park.

Take the elevator to the top floor. At the end of the corridor is a matte black security door with no markings.

Jiang Fan pressed six numbers on the combination lock.

The lock cylinder turned, and the door opened.

Li Cheng followed them inside, and the moment his foot touched the solid wood floor, he froze.

A 200-square-meter open-plan space.

To the left is the main control room, with a huge mixing console in the center, its black metal panel covered with knobs that reflect the light.

The recording booth on the right is separated from the outside by three layers of soundproof glass, and the walls are covered with acoustic treatment materials.

A Steinway grand piano stood in the corner, its lid half open.

Li Cheng walked over, his finger tracing a line across the tabletop, not daring to touch it. "That woman, Xu Qingya... she's given you her entire fortune."

"Just borrowing it."

Jiang Fan pushed open the door to the recording studio and went inside.

Shen Nian followed at the back and quietly sat down on a leather sofa behind the control room.

Her complexion was much better than it had been two days ago; it was no longer that sickly pale.

There was a spark of life in his eyes.

Fifteen minutes later, the sound engineer arrived.

The person who came in was a young man with long hair. He nodded to Jiang Fan as soon as he entered, then plopped down in front of the mixing console and began adjusting the equipment with extremely skillful movements.

"Teacher Jiang, we can begin. Let's record a dry voice first to get into the right mindset."

Jiang Fan put on the monitoring headphones and adjusted the height of the microphone stand.

The accompaniment is pushed into the headphones.

The first recording session begins.

Li Cheng stood outside the soundproof glass, arms crossed, looking inside.

He has mentored many singers, some of whom had to spend an entire day recording, going over and over again more than ten times, recording the verses and choruses line by line.

Some people are talented and can produce a decent product after three or four attempts.

Jiang Fan recorded it twice.

Just twice.

The long-haired sound engineer played back the dry audio a second time, listened for thirty seconds, took off his headphones, turned to look at Jiang Fan behind the glass, and his eyes changed.

"Teacher Jiang." His voice was a little unsteady, "For the second take, the breath control, pronunciation, and emotional flow were almost perfect; I hardly needed to fix them."

The official recording of "The Lone Warrior" took a total of forty minutes.

I've been a sound engineer for eight years and I've never seen this kind of efficiency.

Li Cheng glanced at his watch; he had originally reserved a whole day for recording.

He finished in forty minutes and stood there in a daze for a while.

Jiang Fan came out of the recording studio, took off his headphones and hung them on the stand.

"While the equipment is still warm, let's record the other songs as well."

"The other songs?" Li Cheng didn't react.

"I sang 'Sorrow,' 'The Ordinary Road,' 'Blue and White Porcelain,' and 'Under the Sea' on the show before, all of which were live versions. Since we have such a good studio, let's record a proper version."

Li Cheng opened his mouth.

For most singers, recording a single, from raw vocals to mixing and producing the final product, takes two or three days at the fastest, and half a month at the slowest.

Is Jiang Fan planning to finish it all in one day?

"Take it easy, your throat—"

"fine."

Jiang Fan turned around and went back into the recording studio.

The door closed behind him.

For the rest of the time, Li Cheng and Shen Nian sat in the control room, watching Jiang Fan record one song after another.

"Sorrow" took 25 minutes. "The Ordinary Road" was faster, 20 minutes. "Blue and White Porcelain" was 50 minutes. "Under the Sea" was a little slower because it required a duet with Shen Nian, taking a total of one hour.

When Shen Nian entered the studio to record her part, her hands were still trembling slightly.

But as soon as Jiang Fan's pre-recorded harmonies came in through her headphones, her breathing noticeably stabilized.

By 5 p.m., all the songs had been recorded.

The long-haired sound engineer has completely given up on maintaining professional composure.

He sat in front of the mixing console, staring at Jiang Fan as he walked out of the recording studio with the look of someone looking at an alien.

"Dude, you've worked hard. How long will the post-production mixing take?" Jiang Fan handed him a bottle of water.

"The mix for 'The Lone Warrior' should be ready tonight. The other tracks will be delivered by tomorrow afternoon, I guarantee." The sound engineer took the water, unscrewed the cap, and filled half the bottle.

"Honestly, this is the most comfortable recording I've ever done in all these years. Every track is very clean, and I hardly need to fix the pitch in post-production. I only need to do spatial processing and dynamic compression."

"Then let's finish 'The Lone Warrior' first."

Li Cheng walked over and slammed a document on the table.

"I just finalized the launch agreements with three platforms: Tencent Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and Kugou Music. It's all available simultaneously." He gritted his teeth. "Zero yuan. Permanently free."

Jiang Fan glanced at him: "Feeling sorry for him?"

"I don't care." Li Cheng flicked the lighter away, lit a cigarette, and took a deep drag. "I'm just mourning for my wallet for three seconds."

Shen Nian sat on the sofa, watching the two of them go back and forth, suppressing the smile on her lips.

-

It's 11:30 p.m.

Mixing complete.

The long-haired sound engineer transferred the final master file to Jiang Fan's computer and exported a standard format required by several streaming media platforms.

Li Cheng was simultaneously logged into the backend management systems of three platforms on his laptop, and dragged the file into the upload box.

The album cover was made on short notice.

A black background with a white flame silhouette in the center.

In the song description section, Li Cheng only typed one line:

"Dedicated to everyone who goes against the tide in the darkness."

Li Cheng's finger hovered above the Enter key.

"I've already made arrangements with the three platforms for review; they'll approve it without any review." He said, a cigarette dangling from his lips, staring at the time in the lower right corner of the screen. "It will be launched simultaneously at midnight."

11:59.

"It's not too late for you to regret it," Li Cheng asked as a final question.

Jiang Fan sat on the windowsill, looking at the Shenzhen skyline at night.

"Ten million," he said, his voice not loud.

Li Cheng tightened his grip.

"No, I don't want it."

Midnight.

Li Cheng pressed the Enter key.

The official studio recording of "The Lone Warrior" has been simultaneously released on three major platforms: Tencent Music, NetEase Cloud Music, and Kugou Music.

There was no grand promotion, no splash screen recommendation, no teaser posters, and not even a single Weibo announcement.

For the first two minutes after it went live, it had zero views.

Because nobody knew that this song had been quietly uploaded.

Third minute.

A user with the ID "Xiaochouge's die-hard fan NO.1" stumbled upon the song page.

He typed six words in the comments section.

"Holy crap! It's online!!"