Chapter 724: The Exhaustion of Talent

As soon as Wang Xiaomi returned to the west side courtyard, her father Wang Qiang immediately asked, "I heard a big star has come to our courtyard? Did you go eat with her? Tell Dad, what is she like?"

Wang Xiaomi said with a grin, "Dad, I still can't believe it even now. Our former teacher is actually that big star from Hong Kong. She doesn't look like our teacher at all on the cassette cover. Their makeup is just too amazing. Actually, Teacher has another special identity; she is Brother Zhuzi's..."

Wang Qiang's eyes widened abruptly: "You are not allowed to go around saying things like that, do you hear me?"

Wang Xiaomi nodded hurriedly: "I know, I've always been tight-lipped. Dad, our teacher is so rich; I heard she has over twenty Bodyguards following her! Do you think that since she's so rich, she'll spend money on Brother Zhuzi?"

Wang Qiang snorted: "No matter how rich she is, can she be richer than the young lady of the Liu family? Liushi Trading Company is what you call having deep pockets."

As the two were talking, a knock suddenly came from outside the door.

Wang Xiaomi opened the door to see it was Wang Fang, and asked casually, "Wang Fang, are you looking for me for something?"

Wang Fang leaned in with a look of admiration: "Sister Xiaomi, I don't have much education, but I just love people who can sing."

Wang Xiaomi curled her lips: "But I've never heard you sing."

Wang Fang smiled sheepishly: "Heh, I only sing in secret. How could I dare to open my mouth in front of professionals like you?"

Wang Xiaomi was amused by her: "Alright, stop beating around the bush. What do you actually want with me?"

Wang Fang said somewhat coyly, "Sister Xiaomi, I... I recognized Zhang Shuying. Her singing is truly too beautiful. You know I love running to the audio-video store whenever I'm free, listening to her song 'Sweet Honey' over and over. The more I listen, the more hooked I get. By the way, did she bring any cassettes when she came to see you this time? I want to ride on your coattails and listen to her other songs."

Wang Xiaomi nodded: "She did give me a set, it's very complete, but I haven't had time to listen to it yet. I'll give it to you after I'm done."

Wang Fang's eyes lit up, and she said hurriedly, "Xiaomi, I heard there are dual-deck Tape Recorders for sale on the market now. Don't you have one? Could you help me copy a set of every song?"

Wang Xiaomi was immediately a bit unhappy: "Her complete collection is over twenty tapes! Just the blank cassettes alone cost a lot of money."

Wang Fang laughed hurriedly: "I can afford the money. You know, in the country, it's always the same few songs over and over; I just want to hear the complete set."

Wang Xiaomi nodded helplessly: "Then wait a few days for me. I'll go to the troupe and find a professional to help you dub a few sets. If you, an amateur, come asking me, and the professionals in the troupe find out later, they'll be pestering me every day."

Wang Fang left happily, skipping along, and kept looking back to shout: "I'll definitely pay you for the tapes!"

Wang Xiaomi responded casually.

After Wang Fang left, Wang Qiang frowned and warned: "Xiaomi, this Wang Fang suddenly asking you for tapes, could she be harboring some crooked idea? None of those people in the Yan family are easy to deal with."

Wang Xiaomi waved her hand carelessly: "Heh, you don't understand. Dubbing tapes is the most normal thing in our troupe. If someone brings back an original tape, the whole troupe takes turns dubbing it; it doesn't count until the original is worn out."

Once Wang Qiang heard this, he didn't say anything more. After all, in this era, getting an original tape was truly not easy; ordinary people simply didn't have the connections.

Three days later, inside the recording studio.

He Yushui, Wang Xiaomi, Li Dahua, Zou Xiaoqi, plus a group of musicians from the symphony orchestra, officially began recording He Yushui's new album.

This time, she invited the most professional team to re-arrange the music and instrumentation. Once the instruments started, the atmosphere of the entire recording studio became heavy and profound.

He Yushui stood in front of the microphone and began to sing, and even the recording engineer was stunned—this voice had more charm and more penetration than before.

He Yushui's new album was soon officially released. In just one month, sales directly exceeded two million copies; it could be said to be incredibly popular.

For a time, the Broadcasting Choir became famous, and a long line of people came to discuss cooperation.

At the same time, those classic old songs of Zhang Shuying were also selling like crazy on the black markets everywhere.

And the source of all this actually lay with Wang Xiaomi.

It was precisely Wang Xiaomi who helped Wang Fang dub a set of Zhang Shuying's tapes.

After Wang Fang got her hands on them, she immediately pulled in Yan Jiekuang and her two brothers to secretly set up a small workshop, frantically copying pirated tapes.

The few of them bought blank cassettes, used several dual-deck Tape Recorders to dub them one after another, and after recording, they found a small printing factory to print a batch of crudely made covers.

The covers were printed roughly, and even the song titles were printed incorrectly, but that couldn't stop the songs from being good.

Plus, these songs had never been officially released in the mainland, so as soon as they entered the market, it instantly caused a sensation.

In just three months, Yan Jiekuang and Wang Fang relied on selling pirated tapes to earn their first pot of gold in life—a full thirty thousand yuan.

The two took the money home and counted it over and over.

These two were already devious and had harmed others before, so now they were even more afraid of being targeted; they still pretended to be very pitiful.

Seeing Yan Jiekuang working from dawn to dusk and acting mysterious lately, Yan Bugui pulled him aside and asked: "Didn't your wife say she was going to sell pirated tapes? Why is it all talk and no action?"

Yan Jiekuang immediately put on a look of distress: "Dad, we calculated it; starting this requires five thousand yuan in capital, where would we get that? Why don't you lend us some, and we'll pay you back as soon as we make money."

Yan Bugui shook his head like a rattle-drum: "What nonsense are you talking about! To pay off those previous fines, I even sold the television. You want me to come up with five thousand yuan? I couldn't even scrape that together if I sold my blood."

Yang Ruihua sighed with envy from the side: "Look at He Yushui, she became famous just by relying on one tape, and now her songs are playing everywhere on the streets. This girl is just too lucky; how did a big star suddenly pop up and insist on helping her? Could there be some secret in this?"

"What secret could there be?" Yan Bugui asked, puzzled.

Yang Ruihua shook her head: "That, I can't guess."

Yan Jiekuang and Wang Fang spent their days pedaling a broken tricycle, dressed in rags, looking no different from manual laborers doing odd jobs.

But no one knew that their pockets had long since been bulging beyond belief.

As more and more pirated tapes were sold on the black market, this naturally alerted Zhang Shuying's side.

She went straight to find He Yuzhu and got straight to the point: "Zhuzi, my songs are being mass-pirated in the mainland. How do you suggest we solve this?"

He Yuzhu pondered for a long time and said slowly: "In my opinion, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. You have some fame in a few big cities, but across the country, not many people actually know you. Now that pirated tapes are flying everywhere, it's actually helping you spread your fame. Plus, you're going to be on the Spring Festival Gala soon, which will definitely stir up another wave of heat. I think the best thing you can do now is to quickly release a brand-new album. At the same time, when selling this album, sell it in the same way as the pirated ones. That way, you can kill off those who are making the pirated ones."

Zhang Shuying smiled and said: "You are truly self-taught; our company did the same thing in the early days. However, you haven't written me a new song in a long time. What should I use to release a new album?"

He Yuzhu was stunned for a moment before saying: "Actually, I've already given you almost everything I could."

Zhang Shuying laughed: "You don't have to write such good ones; just write a few."

He Yuzhu felt a bitter smile inside—how would he know how to write songs? Everything he gave her before was classics he had heard and could sing from his past life.

He struggled for a long time, then dug out some old songs from the depths of his memory where he couldn't remember all the lyrics, managed to barely fill in the gaps, and scraped together ten songs.

Zhang Shuying hummed a few lines while holding the sheet music, and her eyes instantly lit up: "These songs are still at a high level; how is this 'talent exhausted' like you said? You haven't regressed at all."

He Yuzhu waved his hand: "My talent is exhausted..."

It wasn't modesty; the stock in his brain was truly running out.

Most of what remained were scattered melodies and fragmented lyrics; to restore them completely, he would have to find someone who understood music to collaborate with.