105. Boss Lee, What a Good Man!
【Ding!】
【The “Superstar System” reminds you: The production mission for “Masked Calabash Hero” has been completed.】
【Current reputation of “Masked Calabash Hero”: One Bronze Star.】
【The talent skills available for purchase in the Reputation Shop will be updated and upgraded in the next stage.】
The lousy system was merely giving Student Li its customary reminder, but Li felt nothing at all. Recently, all he wanted was to keep farming reputation points. The lousy system’s updates and upgrades applied to skills associated with individual works. Once “Masked Calabash Hero” reached Silver-tier acclaim, all those previous skills—Basic Cinematography, Basic Film and Television Pyrotechnics and Explosives, Basic Action-Scene Techniques, and so on—could be selected for “cash enhancement.”
The currency required was reputation points. Whether they could be upgraded to the level of Intermediate Vehicle Operation and Stunt Driving depended on whether he spent enough.
Put plainly, everything in this game required spending money.
That was how the lousy system worked, and so did he, Li someone…
Just spend!
“Brother Jie, look! Doesn’t it resemble a peony?”
When Boss Li went to discuss artistic creation with “Boss Mei,” Yao Yao missed him so much that she took a photograph and sent it to Brother Jie.
“Looks more like a pink rose.”
“Ah~ No way~ Brother Jie, you’re naughty~”
“…”
When he heard the voice message Yao Yao sent, which sounded as though her “happy beans” had exploded, Boss Li decided that the photograph must contain some hidden mystery. He examined it carefully, enlarging it again and again until every pore was perfectly visible.
His phone felt as though it were burning like an AI PC!
Holy crap!
“Yao Yao, you really understand art.”
Boss Li’s face stiffened with laughter. On the spot, he bestowed upon Yao Yao the title of “the Innately Rosy Saint.”
The recording studio he had previously acquired stood on the outskirts of Xuanwu County, quite close to Xuanwu Park. It had been built by senior students from the School of Materials at Jianye Forestry University, and it was no ordinary amateur operation. Its technical director was a legitimate PhD specializing in acoustic materials.
All the acoustic treatment, soundproofing, equipment procurement, sound-controlled lighting design, electrical rewiring, and everything else had been the result of students and alumni from various departments of Jianye Forestry University sharing the same interests.
By the standards of material, labor, and design costs from ten years ago, the “Voice of Xuanwu” recording studio had consumed six hundred thousand yuan.
Had it been built by a legitimate record company, at least another zero would have been added to the cost.
This was not the kind of setup found in a tiny recording booth that cost only ten thousand or so. The small studios’ cables alone were worth less than those at the Voice of Xuanwu.
Boss Li had spent six million acquiring it and held sixty percent of the shares. The remaining forty percent still belonged to the original team.
At the same time, Boss Li had promised to operate the Voice of Xuanwu until it was listed in Chang’an. Small companies—especially small cultural and creative companies—were all listed in Chang’an.
Actually, Boss Li did not need to buy the Voice of Xuanwu at all. He could have cobbled together a studio of his own and it would have been perfectly adequate. Jianye Art Institute had its own recording studio, after all, and renting it for four hundred yuan a day was hardly impossible.
But how should one put it? Station Director Liu Deyu’s son, Liu Jingping, was a graduate student in the School of Materials at Jianye Forestry University. Influenced by his old father, he had also spent years drifting between television stations in Wohu District, and had consequently developed an interest in hydroelectricity, thermal power, nuclear power, and wind power.
Thermal power was dry and forceful, hydroelectricity gentle, wind power ethereal, and nuclear power full of passion!
Those who played with equipment were ultimately inferior to those who specialized in cables.
Aside from the fact that it was difficult to find work, studying materials science was practically perfect.
Thanks to his father’s good fortune, Liu Jingping happily accepted six hundred thousand yuan from Boss Li. That very day, he replaced his vehicle with a powerful reverse-trike cruiser and pasted the dark logo of the “Black Cat Hero” onto it.
This was the final-generation “Martial Emperor” reverse-trike, from the “Jianyuan Champion” series. Production had ceased in the twelfth lunar month of the previous year because sales had been truly abysmal. The entire line had been withdrawn from the market during the first lunar month, and very few units had remained available for sale. After all, it had been a high-end model.
After recalling the vehicles, the manufacturer had neither destroyed them nor distributed them as employee benefits. Instead, they had been refitted into heavy cruisers: the reverse-trikes were converted into conventional two-wheelers, and the paintwork was redesigned as a tie-in with “Black Cat Hero Police.”
Few people knew about this, but Liu Jingping was not one of them. Thus, he had hurriedly obtained a reverse-trike “Jianyuan Champion” worth more than four hundred thousand yuan and pasted the “Black Cat Hero” logo onto it, all in preparation for replacing its factory parts with custom aftermarket components.
There were only six hundred vehicles in the entire “Jianyuan Champion” series. The tie-in with “Black Cat Hero Police” belonged to the final production batch. Its hub motor bore the designation “JY12,” and because it had originally been a reverse-trike, it lacked a certain imposing presence. Overall, it possessed a “flaw.”
But precisely because it had a “flaw”…
That was why it was expensive!
Liu Jingping believed in the light, but he believed even more strongly in the “Black Cat Hero”!
With “Black Cat Hero Police” becoming a runaway hit, his vehicle—an out-of-print, original, first-edition “Black Cat Hero” collaboration model—would surely triple in value. At least, that was not an unreasonable expectation.
A slight flick of his hand, and he would have 1.2 million yuan.
In the end, those who played with cables were still inferior to those who played with mysticism.
For his high-fidelity audio setup, Liu Jingping used solar power, because it represented light.
“President Li, President Li… heh heh, when, when are we starting publicity for the ‘Jianyuan Dark Knight’?”
“Brother Liu, look at you, getting impatient again.”
“I want to see ‘Black Cat Hero Police’ so badly. I’ve had a knight’s dream since I was little.”
“Don’t worry, Brother Liu. Soon, soon. As soon as ‘Black Cat Hero Police’ is released, we’ll begin warming up the publicity for the ‘Jianyuan Dark Knight’ at the same time.”
“Got it!”
Liu Jingping grinned and rubbed his hands together. He was already imagining how wonderful it would be if the vehicle in his possession became the only one of its kind.
Perhaps it could even increase fivefold?
And so Liu Jingping waited on Boss Li hand and foot, bringing him tea and water and opening doors for him. He did not need to recognize the great opera performer known for playing young female roles, “Boss Mei.” After all, he was not counting on Boss Mei to make him rich.
But Boss Li…
He really was his boss.
The Voice of Xuanwu depended on Boss Li to put food on the table.
For the final polishing of the song, the Jianye City Symphony Orchestra had been invited. Mei Xingyu had never imagined that his collaboration with Li Jie would reach such a high level.
To be fair, he had originally intended to sing nothing more than a catchy pop song with a touch of operatic singing. That would have been enough.
He made his living in Youdu, in this territory of Northern Zhili, where people were always running into one another. How could he really give Wang Shiyin, a junior girl, the cold shoulder?
He was merely angry that Duan Gen had behaved dishonorably. They had agreed on something, yet the man had turned around and refused to acknowledge it.
And they had supposedly been friends for years.
To hell with that!
Whenever he thought of the matter, his blood boiled. Fortunately, his throat did not. Whenever he felt overheated, he simply drank a few more mouthfuls of water chestnut and pear juice. He had just taken a break to drink some when the light above the recording hall door came on, and a large, muscular man walked in.
“Why has Teacher Li come by today?”
“I managed to earn a little more over in Goryeo, so with the Lantern Festival coming up, I thought I’d hand out red envelopes to everyone. It’s nothing much—just enough for some sweet rice dumplings.”
As he spoke, Li Jie beckoned with one hand. Chen Pi followed behind him carrying a bag. The members of the Jianye Symphony Orchestra had also been taking a break, chatting and drinking water. When they suddenly saw their local patron arrive to distribute Lantern Festival red envelopes, they were completely caught off guard.
How many years had it been…
Could such a good thing really happen?
“Thank you for your hard work, Teacher.”
“Teacher, here—this one is yours.”
“Thank you for your hard work, Teacher.”
“Thank you for coming despite your busy schedule…”
For “Good Luck Arrives,” Boss Li had prepared a full triple-wind orchestration. He handed out red envelopes one by one to the hundred-member orchestra, and the moment the musicians received them, their spirits rose.
Just from feeling the envelope in their hands, they knew it contained at least eight hundred yuan.
“Teacher Mei, this is yours.”
“How could I possibly have one too? Teacher Li…”
“Ah, Teacher Mei, I’ll say no more. I have only one request: crush ‘Welcoming Spring with a Smile’ completely! As long as you destroy ‘Welcoming Spring with a Smile,’ I still have several masterpieces hidden away. They are the songs I intended to save as my retirement fund, and I originally planned to release them only after I turned sixty-five. But to take down ‘Welcoming Spring with a Smile,’ I’m willing to bring them out early!”
“Goddamn…”
Mei Xingyu normally never used profanity, but this time he became so agitated that he shook his sleeve and flung his robe aside, preparing to kneel on one knee and bow to Boss Li.
If he had not known the true value of “Good Luck Arrives,” he certainly would not have believed it. But now that he did know, what else was there to say?
“Good Luck Arrives” would definitely crush “Welcoming Spring with a Smile.”
But what Boss Li had said was that he would destroy “Welcoming Spring with a Smile”?
He had plainly said that he would destroy the “Heavenly Immortal Wang.”
To accomplish his goal, Boss Li had even brought out the very songs he had been saving for his funeral. How could “Boss Mei” not be excited?
Whether it succeeded or failed would ultimately depend on that final push.
To hell with it. From this day forward, Boss Li was his own father!
“Master Li!”
Mei Xingyu really did kneel and bow. Although Li Jie immediately reached out to support him and repeatedly said, “You mustn’t,” Mei Xingyu still bowed in midair and muttered, “Master Li, from this day onward, with this broken gong of a voice of mine, even if you asked me to sing ‘The Eighteen Touches,’ I would grit my teeth and make it bloom for you.”
In terms of standing in the martial world, Mei Xingyu ranked even higher than Lu Xiaoguan. Yet his bottom line was lower than Director Lu’s.
Boss Li did not look down on him for it, because his own bottom line was even lower.
“The final version!”
Mei Xingyu was invigorated, his entire body filled with energy. He then clasped his hands and bowed deeply to the members of the Jianye Symphony Orchestra.
“Ladies and gentlemen, young and old, I entrust this round to you.”
The orchestra members who had received the red envelopes were all highly motivated. Those who secretly opened theirs were especially excited. The envelope was not worth eight hundred yuan at all.
It was worth eighteen hundred!
Boss Li…
He was kind. Far too kind.
Even those who had intended to slack off now gathered themselves and hurried to show their true ability.
Otherwise, what if Boss Mei released another new song next time and did not ask them to participate?
First update.
The current average subscription count has surpassed the premium benchmark!
The current average is 3,100. Thank you, thank you—thank you all.
Time to beg for food again, brothers!
(End of Chapter)