ATLAS TRANSLATES

Logically speaking, there shouldn’t be any secrets in the industry.

The lyricist and composer behind Yan Lu seemed to appear out of nowhere. Even looking back, there was no one with a similar style.

In today’s hip-hop and rap era, there were only a handful of people in the traditional Chinese music circle.

The manager suspected that two masters were using alternate accounts to pave the way for Yan Lu, but after investigating for so long, they couldn’t match these two with any known lyricists or composers in the industry.

These two seemed to exist solely for Yan Lu.

Apart from being credited on Yan Lu’s new songs, no one in the industry knew whether they were male or female, or how old they were.

Each of Yan Lu’s songs was produced with high quality – the flute, pipa, and guzheng parts…

Each instrument’s part was worth listening to on repeat. It was simple to see why Yan Lu’s third song became an instant hit – from lyrics to melody to arrangement to the singer, everyone involved seemed to be a master.

But they couldn’t find any clues; they couldn’t even find out where Yan Lu recorded her songs.

It was puzzling to say Yan Lu had no backing, but if she did have support, she hadn’t received any global endorsements, only one for a new product called “Guben Gao.”

Neither An Qi nor Man Xi thought much of it.

“Earlier there were rumors about her unclear relationship with Director Liu, with scandals everywhere, but no one in the industry has heard of her having close connections with anyone,” the manager shook his head. Yan Lu’s background was easy to investigate.

An Qi hadn’t dared to make any moves these past few months, but after waiting so long, Yan Lu hadn’t done anything significant except release songs.

This time, being overshadowed by Yan Lu’s new song again, An Qi decided not to remain passive anymore. He lowered his head, “I understand.”

An Qi knew people at the Jiangjiang Music Academy—

[Does your school have a compilation of past performance competitions?]

** In Xiangcheng.

In the private room, Lu Xiaohan and others were also watching Yan Lu’s new song.

Wen Qi sat beside Lu Xiaohan, excitedly sharing links in the class group chat as he put on his headphones.

“Wake up,” Lu Xiaohan looked at Wen Qi with an amused expression, “Weren’t you Man Xi’s fan before? You almost got into a fight with Zhang Er Bi, how did you become Luge’s fan now?”

The “accidental like” incident was still fresh in Wen Qi’s memory.

He quickly gestured to Lu Xiaohan, and after seeing that Yan Lu hadn’t noticed, he let out a sigh of relief and said somewhat embarrassedly, “I was young and foolish.”

After several interactions, he felt that Yan Lu was quite impressive and had a charming personality.

“I get it, let’s eat,” Lu Xiaohan picked up some food with her chopsticks for him, “How the tables have turned.”

Wen Qi ate while scrolling through the comments under the song.

After listening, netizens began analyzing the lyrics. They were still top-tier lyrics, and he immediately noticed the second most popular comment—

[The name “Sun Never Sets” is quite fitting, when are we going to reclaim it (side-eye smile)]

He chuckled and liked the comment.

After the meal, Yan Lu wanted to invite the students from Class 15 to go singing.

She knew that during the filming period, these students often helped out at Zhang’s place.

Lu Xiaohan was the first to decline, “Sister Lu, let’s wait until after our college entrance exams. Recently, everyone’s been losing sleep over Sister Lian and the study god’s notes.”

Class 15’s study atmosphere had been quite good lately, probably because Bai Lian and Ning Xiao’s schedule was quite inspiring.

There was also Lu Lingxi’s heartfelt speech during class meeting—

High school and university were indeed the best opportunities to break free from one’s family background and social class. It was difficult to make these students understand, but Bai Lian was a good example.

“That’s right,” Wen Qi crushed his empty cola can with a sigh, “I’m studying hard too. Sister Lian, when you all ascend, can you take me with you?”

Bai Lian raised an eyebrow, looking at him.

Wen Qi was genuinely worried: “I’m really afraid that after the college entrance exam, you’ll either go to university in Bei City or Jiangjiang, while I’ll still be stuck here doing nothing.”

Hearing their conversation, Yan Lu realized that everyone at the table was preparing for college entrance exams.

After dinner, Bai Lian and Yan Lu fell behind.

The other students were discussing questions up ahead.

Jiang Fuli stayed by Bai Lian’s side, listening to Wen Qi and Lu Xiaohan discuss a math problem.

He listened for about a minute.

He couldn’t help but look at Wen Qi and Lu Xiaohan.

Wen Qi scratched the back of his head, feeling a chill, “So you think if we substitute the trigonometric function, why is this question so bizarre, three-halves times root three…”

Before he could finish, Jiang He, whose hand was being held by Lu Xiaohan, looked up and said slowly: “Five-halves times root three.”

“Huh?” Wen Qi and Lu Xiaohan stopped discussing.

They looked at each other, then took out their phones to check the answer—

Five-halves times root three.

Wen Qi: “…”

Lu Xiaohan: “…”

What goes around comes around. The two looked up, pretending nothing happened, but didn’t dare discuss problems near Jiang He anymore.

** “I heard he wants to become a lawyer?” Yan Lu had returned today to visit Zhang Shize with Zhang Ma. Wearing a black mask, she asked quietly, “Can he become a lawyer?”

After all, it was a criminal offense.

Bai Lian didn’t understand these things either.

Jiang Fuli lowered his eyes slightly. The private room was cold, and he held his coat, saying only: “Don’t challenge Chi Lu’s professionalism.”

Yan Lu was just worried, Chi Yundai naturally had his own considerations about these things.

She walked Bai Lian to the door, where Xiao Tian and the male assistant were waiting for Yan Lu.

“This is Xiao Tian, you’ve met before,” Yan Lu didn’t dare talk much with Jiang Fuli, only introducing the two new assistants to Bai Lian, “This is Ah Huang, the new assistant. When there are many anti-fans, Ah Huang handles it.”

Even the most popular celebrities have anti-fans, let alone Yan Lu.

Ah Huang was very curious about Bai Lian but didn’t dare ask much.

After Bai Lian and Jiang Fuli left, Ah Huang quietly asked Xiao Tian, “They’re actually friends with Sister Lu? Who is this Miss Bai? How come Sister Xin hasn’t signed her?”

With that aura and looks, wouldn’t she easily become popular in the entertainment industry?

“Miss Bai isn’t interested in the entertainment industry,” Xiao Tian answered. Otherwise, she would have been scouted long ago, why wait until now?

Yan Lu looked at the two, “You two take a couple days off as well.”

** It wasn’t late after dinner.

Jiang Fuli took Bai Lian home, while Lu Xiaohan went with Bai Lian as she needed to shoot new material at Ji Heng’s place.

Tomorrow would be March, and Ji Heng had already finalized the design sketches for both male and female students and started cutting and making clothes. This time there were nearly forty pieces of clothing that needed to be completed by May, and two months was a bit tight.

When the four arrived at Ji Heng’s courtyard, there were three people there.

Seeing Lu Xiaohan, Ji Heng introduced these aunties, “These are all embroiderers working together. Because there are too many clothes and we’re worried we won’t make it in time for your graduation photos, I asked them to help.”

Handmade clothes take a long time to complete.

“This is great,” Lu Xiaohan excitedly looked at the three new embroiderers, “Can you be in the video?”

Auntie Shen had heard Ji Heng’s explanation before, she nodded to Lu Xiaohan, somewhat shy: “We can.”

Lu Xiaohan immediately took out her camera from her bag and began filming details under the courtyard lights.

She planned to edit everything from Ji Heng making the clothes to the whole class wearing them and taking graduation photos into one video, which would be very meaningful.

For this work fee, Lu Xiaohan contributed most of the funds, only taking a small portion from the class fund.

That’s why Class 15’s class fund was never used up. Although Class 15 students weren’t as well-off as Class 8, Lu Xiaohan’s videos got quite a lot of views, making her Class 15’s little rich girl.

Ji Heng moved the embroidery frame to the side, and Jiang Fuli put his coat on the stone table, helping to set things up.

Ji Heng put down his pipe and glanced at Jiang Fuli but didn’t say anything.

After filming a segment, Lu Xiaohan stopped beside Bai Lian, “Sister Lian, Bird Brother is eight years old, right?”

“Yes.” Bai Lian looked down at Jiang He sitting dumbly on the stone bench eating an apple, she curved her lips: “Why?”

“Ah… nothing.” Lu Xiaohan walked away with measured steps.

After everyone left, Bai Lian leaned forward slightly and flicked Jiang He’s forehead, “What did you do?”

When they parted in the evening, she noticed that Class 15 seemed dejected.

Little Bird Brother refused to answer.

** The song “Rewriting Old Days” topped the new song charts in just one night.

Besides the composition and arrangement, the lyrics also trended on social media.

“Sun never sets.” Xiao Bingwen found the last line of lyrics interesting.

Beside him, Chen Ju, who was respectfully talking to Xu Nanjing, heard this and though he didn’t understand music much, he understood this line, “Haha, taking it back, that’s a good idea, I’ll go listen to it.”

Chen Ju usually didn’t listen to music, just radio while driving.

He hadn’t paid attention to Yan Lu’s new song, but now he took out his phone to search for it.

Next to him, Xiao Bingwen looked at Chen Ju – this kind of thinking, no wonder they’re from the Chen family, such bandit-like thoughts, but the lyricist… probably didn’t mean it that way, right?

Jiangjiang.

Xu family.

It was still a family dinner in the evening.

Since the Guo Huai incident came out, all the people Xu Jueming had planted around Xu Nanjing were removed. Xu Jueming had anticipated this; if Xu Nanjing hadn’t made such a big move this time, he wouldn’t have wanted to use these people either.

But without his people, it became difficult for him to know about Xu Nanjing’s recent situation.

Although no one said it, Xu Jueming knew that the Jiang family must have helped in this purge of people around Xu Nanjing. “He really is lucky,” Xu Jueming secretly gritted his teeth.

He had spent so much effort but couldn’t get close to Jiang Xiju.

At the dinner table, some people were praising Xu Jueming’s son Xu Jin, who had just negotiated cooperation with the government’s R&D department.

Old Master Xu looked at Xu Jin and nodded, giving a few words of praise: “Not bad.”

He didn’t have much appetite and didn’t eat much, only looking up at Xu Jueling: “How is Nanjing doing recently?”

Gao Yan sat beside Xu Jueling with her head lowered, not speaking.

Xu Jueling was modest.

“Big brother, don’t be so modest,” Xu Jueming smiled at Xu Jueling, “Should be negotiating a big deal and hiding it from dad, right? Is it meant to be a surprise for dad?”

There was indeed a surprise coming.

Xu Jueming lowered his head, hiding the cold mockery at the corner of his mouth.

He had early on given Xu Nanjing high expectations in the Xu family, and not just Old Master Xu, but other family members knew that Xu Nanjing was working on something big.

Xu Nanjing had been away for over half a month without returning, and had been somewhat negligent with family matters.

Plus with Xu Jin’s recent successive achievements, in comparison, the old master inevitably had some considerations in his heart.

“No big deal,” Xu Jueling smiled at his father, “This matter was originally waiting for Nanjing to tell you himself when he returned, but since you asked, I’ll tell you in advance. Nanjing has successfully negotiated cooperation for rare metals with foreign partners, who will guarantee supply quantities for the next year. The cooperation was signed the day before yesterday.”

With this revelation, all the cheerful conversation at the dinner table instantly disappeared.

Old Master Xu’s face lit up with joy, “He succeeded? Good, good, worthy of being a Xu family descendant!”

He was rarely so happy, asking someone to bring out his treasured daughter’s red wine to open.

“Are you sure it’s the Dawson family?” Xu Jueming’s fingers hanging at his side slightly clenched, his smile frozen for a moment before quickly returning to normal.

“Second brother, would you like to see the contract?” Xu Jueling smiled, “Next month we’ll start delivering, you’ll know then.”

“Good.” Xu Jueming’s lips painfully pulled into a slight smile, besides saying “good,” he couldn’t say anything else.

The Dawson family, the world’s largest supplier, almost monopolizing the entire market.

Successfully negotiating cooperation with them would only make Xu Nanjing’s position in the Xu family rise straight up.

He had taken such a big risk to bring back Guo Huai, why could Xu Nanjing still negotiate this deal, especially…

How did he negotiate it so quickly? Xu Jueming really couldn’t understand.

** “Really must thank that girl, what do you plan to do?” After dinner, Xu Jueling walked slowly back with Gao Yan, “But ride the motorcycle less, it’s not safe.”

When Xu Nanjing was home, Xu Jueling managed him quite strictly.

“What can I do?” Gao Yan sighed, pulling her military coat closer, “I’d like to make her my goddaughter, but she’s not willing.”

Xu Jueling turned his head, his dignified eyebrows showing surprise: “The one you mentioned last time was her?”

“Mm.” Gao Yan thought for a moment, took out her phone from her large pocket, and called Xu Nanjing.

Xu Nanjing answered quickly.

Gao Yan gave Xu Jueling a quiet look, then asked, “Didn’t you ask me to find teachers last time? I got Principal Liang to recommend several, and confirmed with them, otherwise…”

She rolled her eyes, seemingly saying casually: “Should I send them to Xiangcheng?”