I am a Big Player
Chapter 362 - 360, Have you gone far (second update)_1

Chapter 362: 360, Have you gone far (second update)_1

In his previous life, in February 2012, "Rolling in the Deep" won the 54th Grammy Awards for "Song of the Year," "Record of the Year," and "Best Short Form Music Video."

Ren He didn’t choose "Someone Like You" because although the music throughout the song was very steady, the emotions within were too intense. It was like a person sitting in front of you with a glass of wine, a burning fireplace beside them, and then, with a faint smile, saying to you, "I once loved someone, but now I can only reminisce about everything through old photos."

It was the calmest, most unpretentious, and also the richest emotion, which Yang Xi couldn’t perform. Without Ren He hurting her once, perhaps she’d never be able to interpret it in her lifetime. But there was no need for Ren He to make a fuss about it...

However, the vocal range in "Hello" was completely at odds with Yang Xi’s; even if she wanted to, she couldn’t evoke that feeling.

But "Rolling in the Deep" was different. Its raspy voice was suited for Yang Xi’s mid-range vocal tone. High notes were not a challenge for Yang Xi, plus the song mainly conveyed emotions filled with anger, vengeance, heartbreak, and self-reflection. Yang Xi hadn’t experienced such emotions, but she could try to burst with inspiration and imitate them.

This was the difference between "Someone" and "Rolling." "Someone" was a calm ocean with tumultuous waves beneath, an emotion very difficult to control, one must have personal experience. But "Rolling" was like a volcano.

Controlling calm emotions is the hardest, just like in his former life, so many people were able to successfully cover Eason Chen’s "Exaggerated." Although Eason Chen’s version was the most classic, others were successful too.

But few dared to tackle Eason Chen’s "Christmas Knot" and "Long Time No See."

It’s like in domestic TV dramas, where rampant roaring acting can always move the audience, but Chen Daoming’s simple and unadorned acting eventually received the highest praise. The most representative was Ni Dahong’s stoic acting; his face may exhibit little expression, but you felt like you could see a world through his eyes.

Therefore, for Yang Xi, "Rolling in the Deep" was actually a bit simpler.

When Ren He presented the song to Yang Xi, she was completely surprised and instantly fell in love with the English song he’d written for her.

She also liked "Faded," but at that time, she was worried whether Ren He would run out of inspiration. Now it seemed she was overconcerned.

Of course, the punishment task finally arrived...

"Task: No speaking allowed for 24 hours. If uncompleted, punishment is silence for 240 hours," the Divine Punishment System said calmly.

Ren He was shocked at the time, thinking that as an old acquaintance, the Divine Punishment System wouldn’t just mess with him, but then it hit him with such a vexing task. Wasn’t this the same nature as not washing one’s face for seven days? Clearly, it was just to mess with him!

What was this? An unexpected surprise from an old friend? There was the unexpected, but a surprise?!

What happened to the extreme sports challenge? I’ve got everyone rallied, and you hit me with this surprise?!

Obviously, not speaking for 24 hours was preferable to 240 hours. Although Ren He still held three task exemption rights in his hand, having decided to embark on a new journey, he chose not to use them. Save them for when he needed to gather strength for the next time.

Now Ren He had three exemption rights and one Perfect Orientation reward in hand. Compared to other things, these were his biggest trump cards.

By the afternoon, the American white celebrity named Evan finally arrived. To Ren He’s surprise, this was someone he had heard students mention back at the Juilliard School of Music. However, his reputation wasn’t great, entangled in legal issues due to a scandal involving minors all year, but somehow, it never seemed to affect him too much. It was said that his father was a congressman, and the chair of a key financial committee within Congress.

Some say American congressmen were similar to People’s University representatives, but in reality, their influence could be compared to that of central committee members or alternate members. At least that was what Ren He thought. Still, politics had nothing to do with him. There were clear partisan colors within the US Congress, not something so easily explained in a word or two.

Who cares about the lawsuit—it has nothing to do with Ren He. All he needed to do was his job, finish recording Yang Xi’s album, and then he was out of there.

However, just as the recording studio owner was leading everyone to welcome this Evan, the owner keenly detected a problem...

"Anything, why are you not talking?" the owner asked.

Ren He just shrugged, saying nothing. Yeah, why am I not talking... Can’t I just not want to talk, is that okay? I can’t even respond to you!

At this point, the owner was too preoccupied to bother with Ren He. Whatever was wrong with him, it couldn’t be anything serious.

When Evan came to record, just the number of assistants and bodyguards following him was over ten, their grandeur almost matching that of government officials on an outing.

This should have been a perfectly normal meeting, and yet for some reason, when Ren He felt Evan’s glance sweep over him, it seemed as if his eyes sparkled for a moment...

Ren He pondered, what does that mean, does this guy know me, or could I have been exposed? He frowned deeply but couldn’t speak. It had only been an hour since the mission had been issued...

His task was actually quite critical. There are generally three steps in album production: pre-recording, mixing, and mastering.

Pre-recording involves capturing all the audio, including musicians’ accompaniment and singers’ vocals. The material recorded during this stage can be referred to as ingredients.

Mixing is like cooking these ingredients to make a complete dish.

Nowadays, anyone with a modicum of musical knowledge tries to pass themselves off as a good mixing engineer, but it’s not that simple, especially for professional album mixing. You don’t just mix the ingredients together—you also have to differentiate, which are the good ones and which are not!

Today’s session was just a simple trial recording, where everyone recorded the music, then handed it over to Ren He to see how it turned out. They would then consider adjustments and might even remove some instruments or add new ones.

Recording a song could take at least a week—it’s a relatively long process. No one could create directly from previous life experiences like Ren He could.

As all the materials were being compiled, Ren He suddenly felt someone behind him. He had thought it was just a colleague watching, but to his surprise, a pale hand had already softly reached out towards Ren He’s hand, which was on the mouse.

His strong memory told him that it was Evan’s hand...

Evan had a thing for young boys and was a homosexual...

And Ren He was currently 16 years old...

Damn it! Ren He finally understood why Evan’s eyes lit up at the sight of him—he had originally thought he had blown his cover!

Ren He’s face darkened in that moment. While he had nothing against homosexuals, pederasty was illegal but still had nothing to do with him personally. But if you insist on reaching out toward me, let me say you’ve already gone too far!