Traffic Star Development Program

Chapter 88 Extraterrestrial Objects

The soundproof doors of the recording studio are incredibly thick. Once closed tightly, you can't hear anything outside, making it feel like being completely isolated from the world.

Xue Zhijian was cooped up inside for three whole days.

It wasn't like I was recording songs non-stop; most of the time I was just sitting there, spacing out.

There was a chair in front of the mixing console. He pulled it to the position closest to the microphone, sat down heavily, put on the headphones, took them off, and did this several times.

Sound engineer Li Huai was already used to it.

On the first day, Xue Zhijian sang the entire song "Extraterrestrial Object" from beginning to end, recording eleven tracks in one go.

In the end, the last one was no improvement at all compared to the first one.

After listening to the playback, he took off his headphones and said calmly, "That's enough for today."

The next day, he simply stopped singing.

Guang called out to Li Huai and played out the eleven clips he had recorded one by one.

He sat stiffly in the chair, listening without moving from beginning to end, slowly sipping half a cup of cold tea in between.

After listening to everything, he managed to say, "There's a transition in the sound that I still haven't figured out."

Li Huai huddled behind the control panel, weighing his words in his mind, but didn't dare to respond at all.

He's been in the sound mixing business for twelve years; what kind of singers haven't he seen?

Some artists come to the studio just to get by, sing the right notes, recite the lyrics, take the money and run, they're incredibly perfunctory;

Some people sit in the studio for half a day, getting into the mood and recording a masterpiece, only to collapse the next second.

There is another type, exactly like Xue Zhijian.

With a thought lingering in my mind, unable to find the answer in the chaotic world outside, I could only hide in the recording studio and try to find it.

If you find it, you leave immediately; if you don't, you just sit there and wait.

Li Huai has encountered many musicians who are this meticulous, but they are truly rare.

Early this morning, assistant Fang Yuan pushed open the door of the recording studio and was immediately stunned.

Xue Zhijian actually curled up and fell asleep on the engineer's lounge sofa.

That sofa was so narrow and cramped, it wasn't suitable for lying down at all.

He haphazardly draped his coat over himself, curled up on his side, breathing evenly, sleeping soundly and peacefully.

Fang Yuan stood at the door for a long time, not daring to make a sound to wake him.

I turned around and went downstairs, specially buying him a cup of hot soy milk, which I gently placed on the control panel.

Then I shrank into a corner, put my phone on silent, and waited quietly for him to wake up naturally.

At 9:47 a.m., Xue Zhijian slowly opened his eyes.

He glanced at the ceiling above his head, then lifted his coat and sat up straight.

He casually ran his fingers through his messy hair, glanced around, and saw the soy milk on the table. He then turned to look at Fang Yuan.

Fang Yuan looked up: "I just bought it for you, it's still warm."

Xue Zhijian picked up the soy milk, took a small sip, and remained silent throughout.

After hesitating for a long time, Fang Yuan finally mustered up the courage to speak: "Brother Qian, the first round of rehearsals for the Spring Festival Gala starts the day after tomorrow."

Xue Zhijian gave a faint "hmm".

"The production team kept asking again yesterday that the backstage waiting area positions need to be finalized in advance, since your solo performance is the closing act..."

I know what I'm doing.

Xue Zhijian put down his soy milk, got up and walked to the microphone, took off the headphones hanging on the stand and put them on, then nodded to Li Huai.

Li Huai understood immediately and quickly brought up the accompaniment for "Extraterrestrial Object".

The moment the intro began, Xue Zhijian slowly closed his eyes.

Back then, no one promoted it or publicized it; he had no idea that this song would one day grace the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, a national stage.

We really owe it all to the big boss.

He sang with a youthful innocence back then, but now he just wants to calm his mind and reinterpret his songs.

It's not a rigid replication, but rather a way of letting the melody grow naturally with my current experience, using my current voice to firmly support the powerful texture it should have.

The point he was so eager to find was never simply a matter of whether the pitch was right or wrong.

The key is how to end the chorus with a heavy, forceful vocal transition. If it's too heavy, it sounds like a deliberate screaming and venting; if it's too light, it sounds like a soft, affected sentimentality.

He longed for that perfect balance, neither too heavy nor too light, to settle peacefully where it should be.

Listeners don't need to think about it deliberately; the moment the words enter their ears, they can immediately empathize and understand.

As the accompaniment moved to the interlude before the chorus, Xue Zhijian began to sing right on time.

This time, he didn't interrupt or pause at all.

He sang steadily, word by word, until the very end, when suddenly a thought struck him.

This is it!

That perfectly timed transposition and ending note wasn't something he deliberately forced out; it flowed naturally from his emotions.

He had a clear understanding of the nuances of singing after three days of searching, and finally he had it right.

After the performance, he took off his headphones.

Li Huai quickly saved the audio track behind the control panel, opened the playback, precisely stopped at that crucial segment, and pressed pause.

Neither of them uttered a word, and the atmosphere was perfectly balanced.

Fang Yuan glanced down at the time on his phone, then looked up and saw Xue Zhijian pick up his coat and walk towards the shed door.

He stopped abruptly at the door.

"Rehearsal is the day after tomorrow, what time should we arrive?"

Fang Yuan quickly replied, "The production team has set the start time for 9 o'clock, so I suggest you go to the waiting area at 8:30."

Xue Zhijian responded, pushed open the door, and walked straight out.

Fang Yuan picked up the half-finished cup of soy milk and turned to look at Li Huai.

Li Huai was playing the newly recorded video on repeat, his face expressionless, but he quietly turned the volume up considerably.

Fang Yuan didn't say anything more and gently closed the recording studio door.

Xu Wen squatted in the corridor outside the office and waited for nearly twenty minutes.

The conference room door inside remained tightly closed.

Zeng Haozheng, along with his team from the distribution department, finalized the promotional plan for "Ning An Ru Meng".

Xu Wen didn't dare to rush in. He held Dilireba's application form in his hand and rubbed it over and over again.

To put it bluntly, he had already memorized the contents of the list perfectly.

He was in a dilemma, unsure whether he should go in and interrupt the meeting or just keep waiting.

If you interrupt rashly, Zeng Hao probably won't get angry, but he'll definitely give you a cold look.

But if we keep dragging this out, Dilireba's business schedule needs to be finalized and answered today. If it drags on any longer, her schedule will definitely clash and become chaotic.

After much deliberation, Xu Wen gritted his teeth and decided to continue waiting.

After another seven minutes, the meeting room door opened from the inside, and a group of people from the channel department filed out.

Xu Wen quickly stepped aside to make way, and after the last person left, he strode into the conference room.

"The approval process for Dilraba..."

"speak."

Zeng Hao sat firmly in the main seat of the conference table, without moving an inch. A pile of documents lay on the table, and a half-finished cup of cold tea sat beside him.

He didn't even look up; his tone clearly indicated he was listening to a report.

Xu Wen laid the application form out in front of him: "During the promotional period for 'Three Lives Three Worlds,' she has two business promotions and one media interview, which require the company's stamp and approval. The timeframes are all clearly marked. Please give me a definite answer today."

Zeng Hao glanced down at the receipt, quickly signed his name, and casually pushed it back.

Xu Wengang picked up the list and prepared to leave when Zeng Hao suddenly called out to him.

"She's here?"

Xu Wen was taken aback for a moment, then quickly replied, "Oh right, we've arrived. We're waiting in your office, saying we came specifically to wait for you after your meeting."

Zeng Hao didn't reply. He closed the documents on the table and slowly stood up.

The office door wasn't closed properly; it was just ajar.

This is how Dilireba looked when she came in. She pushed open the door, put her bag on the sofa, sat for a while, and then got up and wandered around the room.