Liu Man couldn’t help but wonder how the dishes that Yu Zhan cooked would taste like.

After Sun Weiwei and Ye Ziliang finished signing the contract, everyone started preparing the filming of the documentary within a short amount of time.

At this time, Xue Yunfei sent Liu Man a location via WeChat and told her to come over.

The address led to a recently-built building in the Gaoxin district that had five floors. On the brand-new front doors read: “Capital City Xinchen Albums”. Xue Yunfei was one of the partners of this company. Before, Liu Man had promised him and Coco to help record the theme song of “Sound of the Wind”.

Of course, Liu Man still remembered this. After all, she had 20,000 of straight-up cash and some more percentage of their earnings to receive.

As soon as she arrived, Xue Yunfei handed her a stack of contracts, “This contract is similar to the one you signed with Galaxy Films previously. This is also a part-time contract and is mainly about the song, ‘Sound of the Wind’, along with you performing its main melody. After you sign the contract, we will give you a percentage of what we earn based on the sales after we release the original album. I’ve discussed this with the other partners, and we have decided to increase your percentage to 20 percent. This is because you also did a piano duet with Tang Tu.”

Liu Man carefully browsed through the contents of the contract. Xue Yunfei was very generous and did not treat her harshly on the requirements. She could confirm this was a part-time contract, and they only wanted her singing, not her actual person.

After reading through the contract, Liu Man had no doubts and immediately lifted the pen to sign her name.

She asked Xue Yunfei, “When are we going to record the song?”

“Your piano duet with Tang Tu will have to be arranged according to Tang Tu’s schedule. He’s filming a movie somewhere else.”

After Tang Tu graduated, he officially became an employee in Galaxy Films. On his first day, he received an excellent resource — To act as the male lead, Huhanxie Chanyu, for the internationally well-known director, Lin Zhi’s new movie: Autumn Moon over the Han Palace.

He had already traveled to Gudu and Xibei for the film back in mid-June.

Xue Yufeni said, “We can record the theme song right now. The earlier we record it, the earlier you can get your 20,000 RMB of payment.”

What was Liu Man waiting for?

She knew very well that she still owed Lawyer Li the second half of the attorney payment.

Xue Yunfei brought Liu Man into the recording studio. He greeted a male young man who looked a bit fat, wore a hip-hop T-shirt, and had a trendy hairstyle, “Xiao Ming, she’s Liu Man and is here to record ‘Sound of the Wind’ right now.”

He then introduced Liu Man to this man, “Xiao Ming is another partner of Xinchen, and he’s also a good friend of mine. Oh, right. He also graduated from Berkeley and was just one year below me. He specializes in electronic music and blues.”

Liu Man greeted Huo Ming. Huo Ming, a bit upset, glanced at Xue Yunfei and reintroduced himself, “I’m Huo Ming. Huo as in Huo Qubing, and Ming(明) as in tomorrow(明天). Never call me ‘Xiao Ming’ as Xiao Feifei does!!!”

TL’s Note: Huo Qubing was a general back in the Han dynasty.

Hearing the mention of Huo Qubing, Liu Man instantly got distracted, “You are a descendant of Marquis Jinghuan? Wait, that’s not right. According to what I know, his only son died at a young age. He had no other descendants.”

???

What on Earth?

Huo Ming and Xue Yunfei exchanged glances.

Xue Yunfei finally realized the “Marquis Jinghuan” Liu Man mentioned was Huo Qubing. He felt it was funny, “Xiao Ming was only making an example. He has no relationship with Huo Qubing.”

Huo Ming laughed, “This Hanfu Goddess is interesting. The way she thinks seems to be different from others.”

“Her hobbies are more ancient-styled. She plays the Guqin and writes calligraphy, and she probably read lots of books from Ancient China. She’s a bit too obsessed for these things.”

Liu Man felt very embarrassed by Xue Yunfei’s joke, “I’m just thinking too much.”

Huo Ming felt this girl was pretty cute.

He gave Liu Man a thumbs-up, “When we were in Berkeley, we were so annoyed by Zhu Xiyang, but we could do nothing about him. You are impressive to put him down all by yourself.”

Everyone thought Zhu Xiyang was caught as a drug addict and his father along with other subordinates all got punished because Liu Man fearlessly exposed Zhu Xiyang and the other staffs’ crimes.

At that time, Huo Ming told Xue Yunfei that this girl did a great job!

Xue Yunfei thought so, too. After all, he had given Liu Man a mental preparation beforehand, causing Liu Man to keep her guards up when facing Zhu Xiyang. It was part of the reason how she remembered to record the audio as evidence.

However, Liu Man had an ambiguous instinct that Yu Zhan was behind-the-scene and caused Zhu Xiyang to get caught while taking drugs, and he also caused the chain of events that happened to Zhu Xiyang’s father. Coincidentally, for those days, the pet clinic was not open, and Yu Zhan was nowhere to be found. Who were those elders that he had met?

“OK, no more trash talk. Let’s start recording the song now,” Huo Ming said, “Go stand in front of the microphone and put on the headphones.”

Liu Man felt very curious about these professional pieces of equipment and glanced around out of wonder. She stood on the correct spot according to Huo Ming’s instructions and put on the heavy headphones.

Liu Man’s biological mother, Zhao, was a maid who sang. Xiao Zhao said her sister, Zhao was both beautiful and versatile. Zhao had a rare beauty, and her voice, when she sang, was refreshing and graceful. Liu Man had never seen her mother, not to mention hear her sing.

Xiao Zhao said she inherited Zhao’s voice; however, in Liu Man’s past life, she rarely sang. She felt singing was supposed to be a joyful and relaxing thing, but being in the cold palace, she rarely had such a good mood.

Now that her body no longer had any blood relationship with the Zhao family, her voice must be different from how it was in her past life.

At the start of the year, when Liu Man participated in Coco’s pedestrian mall live-stream, they sang a part of “Thinking About You” together. Liu Man had revealed her singing voice and discovered that her voice was more soft and gentle.

With Liu Man using this voice, it sounded more spiritual and curious. After all, transmigrating through time was very magical in itself!

Xue Yunfei said, “Xiao Ming, first play her the most recent demo after we rearranged the song.”

Huo Ming made an ‘OK’ gesture, and his right hand pushed a button to the top until it couldn’t go any further. The prelude of “Sound of the Wind” immediately sounded in Liu Man’s headphones.

This version was probably made by Xue Yunfei and Huo Ming using electronic notes, and it was a pure, modern-styled accompaniment with no lyrics.

After the song finished playing, Xue Yunfei asked for her opinion.

“It’s very modern,” This was Liu Man’s first thought.

Xue Yunfei laughed, “I’m guessing you don’t know about the composition with trendy music. Let me give you some background knowledge. In this accompaniment, there are four kinds of sounds: the guitar, bass, percussion, and electronic keyboard. We call these four ‘the four main accompaniment for trendy music’. After your singing gets recorded, we will also mix some other elements in on our last stage of making this song.”

Xue Yunfei said a lot.

Liu Man, learning lots of new things, continued to nod her head. Although she also studied music, she did not know any of the rules about trendy music.

Her humble and modest attitude satisfied both Xue Yunfei and Huo Ming.

Xue Yunfei and Huo Ming hated arrogant, ignorant, and pretentious singers the most. When they tried to help and instruct these people out of kindness, these singers would become impatient. When it came to recording their singing, these singers make hundreds of mistakes. Another kind of singer they hated as well as the kind that pretended to be professional and wanted to make lots of adjustments on what Xue Yunfei and Huo Ming worked very hard on.

People who obediently listen and do as they were told, like Liu Man, were rare.

Translated by: Sydney

Edited by: Yutong