Chapter 640: Who Is Yang Chenggang?

By the time Sun Yanzi, who had slept comfortably, lazily rolled out of bed and groggily reached for the mobile phone on her nightstand, it was already past two in the afternoon.

"Ahhh~~~"

Yawning and drawing out the sound, Sun Yanzi stretched her back straight on the bed while her limbs pulled backward repeatedly, just like doing yoga stretches—

An indescribable soreness instantly filled every nerve in her body, making her suddenly much more alert.

"Did I sleep for so long?"

After checking her phone inbox and confirming there were no important messages missed, Sun Yanzi hummed a little tune, stepped onto the carpet, and happily walked into the bathroom to wash up—

While brushing her teeth, she didn't forget to wet her hand and fix the cowlick that had stood up due to her poor sleeping posture, pressing it down as much as possible.

Indeed, a beauty sleep is comfortable.

Criticizing herself for staying up late while simultaneously feeling that this long sleep would be good for her beauty, Sun Yanzi touched her rumbling stomach and headed into the kitchen—her fridge contained only a few bags of toast, three bottles of nearly empty jam, and half a box of eggs.

"Hmm..."

After thinking for no more than three seconds, she closed the fridge door, put on a down jacket and cotton slippers, and ran downstairs—

She hadn't really wanted to eat toast and bread and such things lately.

With her stomach still rumbling, Sun Yanzi, who had finally returned, embraced the beautiful young lady Cheng Hao's thigh with one hundred and twenty percent enthusiasm—

Nothing outside is as delicious as what you make, including the box lunches from Zhou Xingchi's "Kung Fu" film crew, Dora Hao!

"I still have some dumplings I wrapped myself in the fridge; if you're hungry, just boil them."

"Great! I knew you were the best, Cheng Hao, hehe."

Grinning widely with her teeth showing, Sun Yanzi hugged Cheng Hao's waist, laughing loudly, resting her head on her shoulder, her body swaying gently, her gaze falling on the documents in her hand: "Are these the handover documents from Warner?"

"Yes, the legal department confirmed there were no issues and sent them over; I'm helping him organize and bind them into a book. From now on, Zhou Yi will truly be General Manager Zhou; if you continue to be lazy and slack off, he will really deduct your salary." Cheng Hao smiled without showing her teeth, letting Sun Yanzi hug and rub against her.

"Deduct it then; I don't lack that kind of money." Sun Yanzi was quite generous.

Base salary is the kind of thing that unknown artists rely on for living expenses every month; for instance, when Zhou Yi and she were in Taiwan before debuting, they received the base salary issued by Warner every month. This is also why many record companies in this era sign contracts for seven or eight years, or even ten—

The training phase requires spending money to support them.

And now, she has passed that stage. Just the licensing fees for the songs she sings are enough to keep her full, not to mention that participating in a single compilation concert or commercial performance brings in hundreds of thousands.

"By the way, where is he? Hasn't he woken up yet?"

Sun Yanzi, who only just realized she didn't see that man at Cheng Hao's, was curious: "Could this pig sleep even longer than me?"

"He woke up at noon, ate a bowl of noodles, and went to the company to work on songs. He said he would finish 'Gong Xi Fa Cai' this afternoon and submit it to CCTV for review..."

One woman organized work documents while the other simply boiled a portion of dumplings and started eating them voraciously; the scene looked异常 harmonious until Sun Yanzi heard music coming from Cheng Hao's radio—

"Next up is a song requested by Mr. Luo Wen for Miss Xin. It is a song that has become very popular on the internet recently, called 'Rat Loves Rice'. He hopes to use this song to express his love for Miss Xin..."

After the host's emotional, rising-and-falling speech ended, the melodic accompaniment that followed made Sun Yanzi, who was battling pork and cabbage dumplings, freeze—

"I hear your voice, there is a special feeling

"Making me constantly think, daring not to forget you..."

This voice, this texture... why is it so rough?

As a music industry practitioner, she was somewhat an insider, yet this song called 'Old Book Loves Rice' overturned her past definition of the word "song".

It wasn't even as good as 'Ding Xiang Hua', which exploded last year.

'Ding Xiang Hua' was simple, but at least the lyrics and melody didn't sound so...?

Sun Yanzi's Chinese wasn't good, and for a moment she couldn't even come up with a suitable adjective to describe this song.

But when the chorus came out, she was startled to discover that Cheng Hao could actually hum along with it—

"I love you, love you, just like a rat loves rice

"No matter how much wind and rain, I will still accompany you

"I think of you, think of you, no matter how bitter it is

"As long as I can make you happy, I am willing to do anything, loving you like this~~~"

???

What kind of song is this?

Which immortal produced this?

Is it very popular?

Having only filmed one movie in the 'Kung Fu' crew, Sun Yanzi, who felt somewhat unfamiliar with the music scene, was puzzled: "Cheng Hao, have you heard this song?"

"Yes, of course I have; this song is famous on the internet."

Cheng Hao, not understanding why, thought Sun Yanzi also liked the song and nodded with a smile: "How is it? It sounds very good, right? Let me tell you, this song came out at the end of last year, and in less than a month it became a small hit on the internet; many radio stations have people requesting this song to confess their love.

"On the Music Fengyun List I often listen to, 'Rat Loves Rice' is about to break into the top ten in this week's rankings; even that new song by A-Du has been knocked down."

"???"

On December 24, 2003, the former Undercarriage War God released his new album 'Hello' with past glory.

As the commoner Guo Tianwang launched by Sea Butterfly, A-Du once had such high popularity from 'He Must Love You' that he competed with Zhou Yi in the mainland; the prestige of the Undercarriage War God was self-evident.

Although subsequent albums flopped, this did not stop Sea Butterfly from continuing to strongly promote him—

His new album 'Hello', released not long ago, gathered famous creators such as Dai Peini, Zhou Jielun, Fang Wenshan, Huang Junlang, Lin Junjie, and Zhou Chuanxiong, truly a gathering of heroes.

And yet, an album that Sea Butterfly had high hopes for, an album that A-Du himself viewed as a return to his peak, had its song rankings on some mainland charts knocked down a week after release by a singer from who knows where?

What an international joke!

The mysterious internet song 'Ding Xiang Hua' from 2002 wasn't this fierce, okay!

"Who is this Yang Chenggang, which immortal is he?"

"Who is Yang Chenggang?"

"..."

When several record companies paying attention to the music scene saw the name 'Yang Chenggang' written uniformly in the lyricist, composer, and singer columns, they all issued sharp questions; Universal Records, lacking a new generation big brother to lead them, immediately began an investigation.

A singer with no prior fame actually managing to suppress the established commoner Guo Tianwang was truly a terrifying start.

Having just finished recording "Gong Xi Fa Cai," Zhou Yi packed up his things and was about to ask Wang Qiwen to deliver the demo tape to CCTV when the latter came uninvited and knocked on the recording studio door—

"Ah Yi, it's incredible! Do you remember that song 'Rat Loves Rice' you mentioned before?"

The moment Wang Qiwen saw the song title, he recalled that Zhou Yi had apparently noticed this song earlier and immediately came over: "Something's wrong, this song is very wrong. Its aftereffect far exceeds everyone's imagination; everyone at Butterfly is going crazy, and Universal has even started releasing information that they are willing to pay a 2 million signing bonus to find this Yang Chenggang..."

Wang Qiwen, who had just taken office as the General Manager of the Artist Department, was somewhat distracted.

The fact that Universal, unable to find the person, offered a price of 2 million is enough to show just how frantic the situation has become.

However, what surprised Wang Qiwen most was that Zhou Yi, who had previously been following this song, now seemed completely unconcerned—

"There is no need to pay attention to this Yang Chenggang; finding him is a waste of time."

Wang Qiwen frowned: "What do you mean? Didn't you follow this song before? I thought you..."

"Because this song was not sung by him at all."

"Ah???"

Wang Qiwen was dumbfounded, never expecting such a twist.

Wait, what does that mean?

The lyrics, composition, and singing credits are all under Yang Chenggang, yet it turns out he didn't sing it?

"I asked friends on Bar Street; some of them know Yang Chenggang and also know this song."

Zhou Yi shook his head: "Yang Chenggang is the original creator of this song, but after writing it, he felt it was too trashy. Plus, he had no money to produce the final backing track, so he sold the demo along with the copyright to a singer named Wang Qiwen.

"After Wang Qiwen's company bought the song, they created a backing track tailored specifically for Wang Qiwen.

"The song you are hearing now, although credited to Yang Chenggang as the singer, is actually sung by Wang Qiwen.

"Because Yang Chenggang was the original author, after 'Rat Loves Rice' was completed, Wang Qiwen handed the song over to the former, who had come looking to hear the finished song. However, the latter broke his trust, directly claimed the already sold song as his own, uploaded it to the internet, and put his own name on all the credits..."

As Zhou Yi revealed the inside story, Wang Qiwen listened with his brows tightly furrowed.

So this guy is a scoundrel after all?

"According to my friends on Bar Street, Yang Chenggang himself is simply not good at singing, which is why he sold 'Rat Loves Rice'."

Zhou Yi shrugged and stated the truth.

Actually, he had even more that he didn't say.

For instance, 'Rat Loves Rice' had actually been sold by Yang Chenggang long ago; he flipped this song back and forth several times—finally, after Wang Qiwen recorded it at the end of 2003, sensing the business opportunity, he immediately claimed it as his own, uploaded it to the internet first, and credited himself in the singer column.

Yes, the internet hit 'Rat Loves Rice' that many post-90s remember was actually sung by Wang Qiwen, not Yang Chenggang.

Yang Chenggang's own re-recorded version was released at the end of 2004, but the version representing many post-90s childhood memories was actually Wang Qiwen's version.

Yang Chenggang himself did not earn nearly 200 million as rumored; that was just the value of the song's ringtone. Moreover, during the entire year of 2004 when it first became popular, since the song wasn't sung by him at all, where could he have earned so much money?

If he had really earned that much, he wouldn't have seen his financial situation plummet after the lawsuit in 2006 and started going downhill in 2007.

Most importantly, as a singer and lyricist/composer, he could not possibly take all the revenue without sharing the profits.

Even Zhou Yi couldn't do that.

Saying he made a lot of money from commercial performances is true, though.