Chapter 32

After Su Xingyao finished speaking, the room immediately fell silent, and all eyes were fixed on him.

“What did you say, Cat?”

It was Sheng Yan who spoke, his expression a mix of curiosity and surprise. He almost thought he had misheard.

“You can contact Lance?”

Suddenly being looked at by everyone with such hopeful eyes, Su Xingyao felt a little uncomfortable.

He didn’t say anything further but gently tapped his cat headgear.

Su Xingyao’s movement was small, but when he nodded, the way Sheng Yan looked at him instantly changed!

The other contestants also brightened up, feeling their confidence reignited by this simple action.

The rapper was the first to snap out of it.

He was so excited that he forgot about the cameras, exclaiming, “Holy crap, that’s amazing!”

The singer-dancer next to him still had some composure. Although he had a lot to say, considering that their practice time was running out, he finally said to Su Xingyao, “Quick, quick, quick! Can you try contacting him now?”

Seeing how eager everyone was, Su Xingyao spoke up again, “Okay. Just wait for me a moment. I’ll try to reach out.”

Time was indeed very tight, and Su Xingyao didn’t waste any more.

After leaving the practice room, he quickly found a place out of the camera’s view, took out his phone, and dialed Lance’s number.

However, the call rang for a long time, and when it eventually disconnected automatically, Lance didn’t pick up.

Su Xingyao had actually expected this.

Looking at the phone screen, he guessed that Lance was probably working on his new song.

Usually, when he was composing, Lance would turn off anything that could interrupt him.

Others might not know Lance, but Su Xingyao had already figured out his habits.

Lance, the music fanatic, spent about seventy percent of his time creating new music.

The remaining thirty percent was spent finding ways to push the boundaries of his music.

With such a grueling schedule, it was normal that Sheng Yan’s team hadn’t been able to contact him last night.

Thinking of this possibility, Su Xingyao felt a little anxious about his group’s timing.

They really needed the copyright for this song, but if they couldn’t secure it quickly, it would definitely affect their subsequent rehearsals.

Su Xingyao called again. When it didn’t go through, he pulled out WeChat and sent him a voice message, hoping that Lance would see it after finishing whatever he was busy with.

Influenced by Su Xingyao, his roommates now all used WeChat, and they almost always contacted each other through it, so in addition to phone calls, this had become their primary communication tool.

Su Xingyao quickly pressed the voice message button and left two voice messages for Lance.

“Lance, are you busy right now?”

“I need to talk to you about something urgent.”

As soon as Su Xingyao sent out two voice messages, his phone rang immediately.

Lance was calling him back.

Su Xingyao quickly pressed the answer button, but in his haste, his “cat paw” slipped, and he only succeeded on the second try.

The moment he connected the call, a burst of flawless foreign language rang in his ears.

“Unbelievable! Yao, you actually called me!”

Before Su Xingyao could even greet him with Lance’s name, the excited Lance had already switched to a plaintive tone, his voice dropping slightly.

“You haven’t contacted me in so long…”

Then his tone rose again, “Three months, seventeen days, and fifteen hours!”

Hearing Lance’s pitiful complaint, Su Xingyao quickly apologized, “Ah, sorry about that.”

Lance’s words reminded Su Xingyao that it had indeed been a while since they last talked.

The most recent time they had contact was when Su Xingyao added Lance as a friend after changing his number.

However, Lance had been busy with concert rehearsals at the time, and after adding each other, they only exchanged a few words.

For someone like Lance, that didn’t count as a proper conversation.

So… their last proper contact was before Su Xingyao had fallen off that cliff.

It really had been a long time.

Among his roommates, while each of them was a genius in their field, their personalities were also eccentric and tsundere.

They rarely initiated contact with anyone, and their fragile camaraderie over the years had been entirely maintained by Su Xingyao’s proactive efforts.

If he didn’t reach out to them, it was entirely possible for them to go a long time without saying a word to each other.

Fortunately, Lance was easy to appease.

The moment Su Xingyao apologized, Lance gave a couple of low “hmphs” like a sulking big dog before softening.

“It’s fine. I wasn’t mad at you anyway.”

After speaking kindly to Su Xingyao, Lance seemed to remember something else and sounded gritted through his teeth again.

“But that guy Leon deliberately posted on Moments two months ago to show off the signal booster he sent you.”

Lance couldn’t help but rant, “Why is he messing with such junk now? Is he running out of funds or something?”

Among Su Xingyao’s four roommates, though they had lived together for four years, their interactions were usually chaotic.

Especially between Lance and Leon—one a music fanatic, the other a tech wizard—they could never see eye to eye, and every meeting turned into a roasting match.

Hearing Lance bring up the signal booster, Su Xingyao explained, “He was worried I wouldn’t have a signal while filming in the mountains…”

Lance immediately changed his tune, “So, did you use it?”

“I did.”

“Oh… well, I guess he’s somewhat useful then.”

Su Xingyao heard Lance’s muffled voice and imagined the unwilling but helpless expression on his face, making him burst out laughing.

In the past, Su Xingyao would have chatted with Lance about random things.

But today, with a task at hand, he had to stop and get straight to the point, explaining the issue he was facing.

“Lance…” Su Xingyao began, “Here’s the thing, I’m currently participating in a singing show called The Voice of Heaven.”

“We have an upcoming competition, and we need to use your song.”

Su Xingyao briefly explained to Lance how he was participating in the show under a concealed identity and described the current situation of his team.

Lance readily agreed after listening, “No problem at all, whether it’s a cover or an adaptation, it doesn’t matter. Just go ahead and use it without worrying too much.”

After finishing the call, Su Xingyao quickly returned to the practice room.

The anxiously waiting crowd looked at him as if he were a hero returning triumphantly.

“How did it go, Cat?”

Sheng Yan took a few steps toward him, eagerly asking for an update.

With the mascot head covering him, Sheng Yan couldn’t see Su Xingyao’s expression and wasn’t sure of the outcome regarding the song rights.

Although emotionally, he trusted Su Xingyao not to exaggerate or make empty promises.

Logically, he knew how difficult this was.

Even though everyone had secretly wondered how Cat could contact Lance, seeing how quickly he came back, there was still concern that he might not have even reached him.

After all, Lance was famously hard to deal with, attending foreign award shows only if he felt like it.

As Sheng Yan contemplated this, a mechanical electronic voice spoke up.

“We should be able to start practicing now. He agreed.”

Upon hearing this, everyone, including Sheng Yan, fixed their eyes on Su Xingyao without blinking.

The way he nonchalantly announced the outcome left everyone with a surreal feeling.

At this moment, one of Sheng Yan’s assistants rushed into the practice room, shouting excitedly, “Brother Yan, Lance’s team reached out to the show themselves!”

The assistant’s voice was loud in his excitement, and everyone in the practice room heard every word.

Could it really… be resolved?

Was it… really that simple?

The contestants were stunned.

After all, this was something that mentor Sheng Yan had struggled with all night and still couldn’t achieve.

Yet, Cat had accomplished it so effortlessly!

He had simply stepped out to make a phone call, taking no more than ten minutes in total!

The expressions on the contestants’ faces were indescribable.

Their minds were filled with three big words—

Cat is awesome!

The contestants all looked at Su Xingyao, their eyes filled with admiration for the “big boss” Cat.

Not only is Cat strong and skilled at singing, but his connections are truly impressive… solving problems like it’s 24G internet speed!

Even Sheng Yan, as the mentor, was shocked by how quickly it was handled. It took him a few seconds to come to his senses and ask Su Xingyao.

“Cat… how did you manage to do it?”

If it weren’t for him personally going and hitting a wall at every turn, he would have believed it was as simple as it seemed.

Su Xingyao didn’t answer immediately when asked.

His relationship with Lance was a bit complicated to explain, and mentioning it might attract more attention.

Considering that Lance also didn’t like to expose his personal life, Su Xingyao thought for a moment and then vaguely said, “I met him when I was in school, and we added each other on WeChat…”

Normally, Su Xingyao wasn’t one to lie, but now he felt a little guilty as he lowered his eyes. His hands, still gloved, couldn’t help but rub together.

He was afraid people would notice the oddity of an overseas person adding him on WeChat…

However, it seemed that no one paid attention to those small details and instead mistakenly thought Su Xingyao and Lance were classmates.

The reason they made this assumption was based on Su Xingyao’s musical background.

Earlier, when Su Xingyao stepped out to make the call, those who didn’t know Lance looked him up and found out that Lance went to a famous and difficult-to-enter music conservatory internationally.

And those who got in were all very talented musicians.

From their perspective, Su Xingyao must have received very professional training to possess such top-tier talent, so when he said he knew Lance from school, they simply assumed they were alumni.

“So you’re alumni, no wonder you’re so amazing, Cat!”

Since the show’s production team hadn’t disclosed the contestants’ identities yet, everyone was still curious about Su Xingyao’s real background.

After all, anyone who knew someone like Lance couldn’t be an ordinary person.

But out of respect for both him and the rules of the show, no one pressed further, holding back their curiosity.

With the copyright sorted out, everyone finally felt relieved.

After getting one thing off their minds, their mood instantly lightened.

The group quickly sat down in a circle and began dividing up their parts using the printed lyrics the staff had prepared for them.

Although the group was formed by Shen Huaixi in a rather unconventional way, the contestants were united and harmonious.

They didn’t have any personal issues, so they quickly divided the lyrics among themselves.

The moment the lyrics were divided, the electronic contract from Lance’s side was sent to the show’s production team.

The staff, who had been anxiously waiting to make sure the timing didn’t clash, hurriedly received the contract.

Since she was the one responsible for contracts, she immediately noticed that this contract was very generous.

After quickly reviewing the contract and confirming that everything was in order, she double-checked it with the legal department. She couldn’t help but glance at the copyright fee section again, praising it repeatedly.

“Lance, what a beautiful person with a kind heart, like a little angel. The copyright fee is so generous!”

Su Xingyao was a bit surprised to hear his roommate described this way for the first time.

Sitting next to Su Xingyao, Sheng Yan, who obviously knew Lance to some extent, was also shocked by this description and curiously looked at the staff member.

“How generous?”

The staff member made a gesture with her hand, first showing five and then two. “He only symbolically took 520 yuan as the copyright fee.”

For a commercial program, it was indeed extremely generous for the singer to accept such a small copyright fee.

After saying this, the staff member turned to Su Xingyao and relayed the information from the contract.

“They said the program group should directly transfer the money to you.”

The rapper was stunned, looking at the staff member with a questioning gaze. “Are you sure this money… is for Cat?”

The staff member nodded.

Then there was silence.

The contestants all looked at Su Xingyao with expressions full of confusion and oddity.

Seeing their hesitant expressions, Su Xingyao, who was feeling a bit uneasy, asked, “Is there a problem with transferring it to me?”

When No. 77 saw that Su Xingyao looked completely bewildered, he smiled and explained, “It’s fine to transfer it to you, but in a few days, it’ll be May 20th…”

It was then that Su Xingyao suddenly understood…

No wonder everyone had looked at him strangely when they heard about the 520 yuan.

Su Xingyao knew that Lance absolutely hadn’t thought about this, but his action made everyone misinterpret the situation, making it awkward for him to explain himself.

Fearing that everyone might misunderstand, Su Xingyao quickly waved his hands to clarify, “This amount isn’t what you think it is…”

Then he hurriedly looked at the staff member to confirm, “He must have quoted it in foreign currency, right?”

The staff member nodded repeatedly after being reminded by Su Xingyao.

“Ah, yes, that’s right.”

“He wrote 100 on the contract, but I tend to automatically convert these amounts into domestic currency. Their country’s exchange rate with ours is 1:5.2, so it’s easy to calculate. I just habitually said 520 yuan.”

At this point, everyone understood that it had been a misunderstanding.

The 520 yuan coinciding with ^[1]In Chinese culture, 520 (pronounced as “wǔ èr líng”) sounds similar to the phrase “我爱你” (wǒ ài nǐ), which means “I love you.” As a result, 520 has … Continue readingMay 20th was easy to misinterpret.

But if it was actually 100 dollars, then that made more sense.

After all, international money transfers were a hassle, especially for a small amount like 100 dollars.

Lance had been generous enough to almost forgo the copyright fee, so he probably couldn’t be bothered to collect the money and just let his acquaintance, Cat, take this symbolic fee for him.

After the program team and Lance’s side finalized the contract, they quickly transferred the 520 yuan to Su Xingyao.

Suddenly receiving a large sum of money, Su Xingyao didn’t dare to use it immediately and quietly sent Lance a message on WeChat.

Su Xingyao: Why transfer the money to me?

This time, Lance replied instantly.

Lance: You help me transfer the money to Leon.

Lance: 【Cool】

Seeing that Lance had mentioned Leon in every sentence today, Su Xingyao immediately understood what he meant and replied with a period in frustration.

There was no need to use the copyright fee from the song to pay for the signal booster that Leon had given him earlier.

After realizing Lance’s intentions, Su Xingyao felt that the copyright fee he had just received had turned into a hot potato.

He thought for a few seconds without coming up with a solution and decided to open his Moments.

Su Xingyao rarely posts or looks at Moments.

It was by chance that he opened it today.

However, when he did open it, he saw Lance proudly posting an update.

Lance had directly shared the electronic contract he had sent to the program group.

Lance: Yao is going to cover my song 【Cool】 【Heart】 【Looking forward】

Lance’s post had been up for less than ten minutes. Although it hadn’t gotten any likes, there were already three comments.

Leon: Copyright fee? If you’re broke and can’t afford food, just v-me, I’ll send you 50 【Nose picking】 【Nose picking】 【Nose picking】

Below Leon’s comment, two more comments followed.

One had three rolling-eye emojis, and the other had three vomiting emojis.

Both were full of disdain.

After reading this post and the comments, Su Xingyao: ……