Chapter Ninety-Three: The Busy Seventh Team (For Monthly Votes)

By the end of July, the oppressive heat of summer had quietly descended upon Azure Harbor, the seaside city.

People had begun dressing more lightly, and Li He even slowed his pace when walking.

Nothing complicated about it: moving too fast only made him sweat.

The end of the month was not only the close of one month and the beginning of another, but also a synonym for wrapping up work.

That day, Li He came to the company again and immediately noticed that his colleagues in Group Seven had grown busy.

Gone were the days of warm greetings and the leisurely sight of people pausing with cups of tea in hand for a long chat. When they passed one another now, they merely flicked a hurried glance, tossed out a perfunctory "You're here," and rushed on.

Li He found Old Comrade and voiced his confusion. "What's going on with everyone? Why do they all look like they're being chased by ghosts—hurrying when they come, hurrying when they leave?"

This was Li He's first time working at an entertainment agency. In his previous life, he had never been in a related industry.

When Li He had joined the lyrics-and-composition department at the beginning of July, he had not yet experienced what the department was like at month's end.

Old Comrade smiled with relaxed ease. "It's the end of the month, that's all."

At month's end, all the work of the entire month had to be consolidated.

For the lyricists and composers in the department, aside from their group assignments, each person also had an additional personal task that had to be completed every month.

Li He was puzzled. "What's so special about month-end?"

Shouldn't month-end be the easy, relaxing time?

It was payday, after all. He ought to have been happy.

Besides, most of the work for the month had already been finished by then. By rights, it should have been the most leisurely time of all.

So why was Group Seven doing the opposite?

Seeing that Li He was new to the working world and unfamiliar with the rhythms of the job, Old Comrade patiently explained, "Every month, the lyrics-and-composition department assigns each lyricist and composer a personal task. Gold-medal creators and the top lyricists and composers are exempt. The task is simple: one song. No theme, no restrictions. As long as the quality is not worse, that's enough."

This rule was not unique to Evergreen Entertainment; it was standard across entertainment companies throughout the music industry.

The personal task here did not mean one person working alone, but rather a lyricist and a composer joining together to create a song.

After all, not every lyricist-composer could be like Gaby, handling both lyrics and composition entirely on his own.

Songs produced as personal tasks had no special requirements beyond maintaining a solid level of quality.

That was because these songs would not be used immediately. Instead, the company would place them in its song library as reserves.

Creative work required inspiration. Sometimes the company urgently needed a certain type of song, but the in-house writers could not produce one on short notice. In that case, the song library could be searched and a suitable track pulled out for use.

After years of accumulation, the song libraries of the leading music companies held a terrifying number and variety of songs.

This was one of the foundations of a major company's strength.

Li He knew about personal tasks. When he had been negotiating his contract with Deng Qin, she had mentioned that the company’s lyrics-and-composition department mainly had two kinds of assignments: group tasks and personal tasks.

Li He asked, puzzled, "Why haven't I received any notice about a personal task from the company?"

Although he spent plenty of time slacking off and loafing around at the company every day, he did check the internal email system, group chats, and other information platforms.

He had never received any request for a personal task.

Could the company have overlooked it?

Had the internal employee system simply forgotten to record his hiring?

Old Qin laughed. "Your personal task has already been completed."

Completed?

When?

Li He thought back over the nearly month since he had come to the company and could not recall producing any extra song.

Seeing his baffled expression, the old colleague asked, "I remember that on your first day, I gave you the company’s lyrics-and-composition department guide. It had all the company’s requirements for lyricists and composers in it. What, you didn’t read it?"

Li He felt a little embarrassed. He had read it, but not all of it. He had only looked at the parts about what rules would get him fined.

In his previous life, when he had joined a company, there had also been a so-called orientation guide. In truth, it was just the company’s internal regulations and a complete handbook for getting fined.

Wasn't it enough just to avoid the sections that led to deductions?

Old Comrade sighed helplessly. "The guide says that lyricists and composers below gold-medal level must each create one complete song every month and submit it to the company’s song library. But if a lyricist or composer writes a hit of classic caliber or above, they are exempt from personal tasks for three months. That exemption can stack."

The term hit here was different from the concept of a hit song in Li He's previous world.

In his previous world, a hit song had to be not only of excellent quality, but also widely accepted by the public, broadly circulated, and proven by time before it could be called a true classic.

Here, a hit simply meant a song that could rise to the top of the download chart.

If luck was on your side and there was no real competition that month, even a song of somewhat lesser quality could become a hit.

Compared with that, the quality gap among hits in Li He's previous world was not very large, but here the gap could be enormous.

The song Li He had brought out, "Ten Years," had been rated by Evergreen Entertainment as a classic song. Its rarity and quality both surpassed hit level, so his three-month personal task requirement had been canceled.

As for the earlier songs "Relieving Sorrow," "Bubbles," and "Fate Across the Bridge," Li He had not yet joined Evergreen Entertainment at the time, so they did not count.

Having gotten the answer he wanted, Li He was about to leave when he glanced again at the old comrade, who remained at ease, and asked in confusion, "Why are you so relaxed? Did you write a classic song too?"

Everyone else was busy, all of them looking frantic.

Some were searching for references, others hammering at keyboards. Li He had even seen many senior lyricists and composers returning from outings in search of inspiration, scratching their heads in frustration.

He was an exception, and yet Old Comrade had been equally leisurely all along, with no sign of getting busy.

"My personal task has already been completed," Old Comrade said with a hint of pride. He no longer lounged but sat up straight. "This month’s personal task is different from usual. In the past it was always a song, but this month it’s a proposal."

Li He frowned. "What kind of proposal?"

Everyone in Group Seven was a lyricist or composer. Writing a song for a personal task made sense to Li He, but what on earth was a proposal?

Was the scope of a lyricist’s and composer’s work really that broad?

"I mentioned it to you before," Old Comrade said with a smile. "After our company’s attempt to propose a joint production of Slow Tempo with its partner company was refused, it began preparing its own variety show."

"Just like films, variety shows aren’t our company’s main business. If we want to enter the variety-show field and secure a foothold, our first program has to be something that catches the audience’s eye at once, something they’ll remember immediately and feel like watching all the way through."

"So the company mobilized all its employees to write proposals. If anyone’s proposal is adopted as the first variety show to be produced, setting aside the reward, that contribution alone would be an earth-shattering achievement for the company."

"The company is seeking diversified development, and your proposal helped it take a historic first step. Just think about how great that achievement is. Really think about it."

Li He fell into thought.

So that was the hidden meaning. No wonder the colleagues in Group Seven looked as if they had gone mad, ready to bite anyone who disturbed them.

They were not in it for the company reward, but for the merit of delivering that crucial step on the road to diversification.

—Though the reward would not be low, either.

At that moment Li He thought of Director Wen Shan. During the filming of Guardian, the company had granted almost every request without hesitation. In order to satisfy Wen Shan’s exacting demands for the ending song, the company had even forcefully requisitioned one of the gold-medal creators it had been carefully keeping on hand.

They were only one step away from hauling back the top-tier lyricists and composers who were out searching for inspiration.

And for a music-centered entertainment company, those top-tier names were like the pillars and cornerstone of the whole structure.

Evergreen’s treatment of Wen Shan was, in all of the entertainment world, something no second company could match.

From this, one could see just how badly Evergreen Entertainment longed for diversified development.

After some thought, Li He still did not tell Old Comrade that he also had a proposal.

The last experience with "Ten Years" was still fresh in his memory. Being watched by all his colleagues with those expressions had made him deeply uncomfortable.

It had the lonely feel of everyone else being ordinary, so why was he so outstanding?

"When it’s time for lunch, I’ll mention it to Sister Yang," Li He murmured as he sat at his desk.

He had heard Old Qin mention that the company cafeteria actually came in two kinds.

One was the ordinary cafeteria, where all employees could eat, including artists and security guards.

The other was the executive cafeteria, which only company leaders could use. According to Old Qin, the minimum requirement was deputy department head for each department, gold-medal creators among lyricists and composers, and first-tier performers among singers.

Li He did not yet meet the standard. He was not a gold-medal creator yet.

He planned to bring up the variety-show proposal with Zhang Yang at noon mainly because he felt the department head would not be busy after work, and for no other reason.

What bad intentions could a lyricist or composer possibly have? He simply did not want to disturb his superior during working hours.

With that thought set aside, Li He focused his mind and silently called out, "System."

The next instant, a transparent panel appeared.

Li He ignored everything else and went straight to the column for negative emotion points.

When he saw the long string of numbers there, he smiled.