Hangzhou Airport, Arrivals Gate.

There were about a dozen reporters waiting, their cameras and lenses lining nearly half the corridor.

Lu Zhixian pushed his luggage cart out, wearing a black baseball cap and sunglasses, with his mask hanging at his chin—even with just half his face visible, he was still incredibly photogenic.

The sound of camera shutters merged into a continuous wave.

"Teacher Lu! Are you in Hangzhou this time for peak voice?"

"Teacher Lu, regarding your collaboration with Lin Shiya this time, is it a friendly guest appearance or something else?"

Lu Zhixian didn't stop pushing his cart; he tilted his head and calmly glanced at the reporter who had shoved a microphone in front of him.

"An employment contract."

Reporter: "..."

He had already walked past.

His assistant jogged to catch up and lowered his voice: "Brother, couldn't you say something more ambiguous? Think of the hype!"

"I'm just here to work."

Four hours later, this sentence hit the trending searches.

The hashtag was:

#Lu Zhixian Claims It's an Employment Contract#

The comments below were neatly divided into two camps.

"Others respond with ambiguity, he responds with 'work.' A breath of fresh air in the entertainment industry."

"So is he here to support Lin Shiya or to make money?"

"Either way is fine, I'm shipping it anyway."

There was also a long comment pinned to the top, which went on for three hundred words analyzing the commercial value of Lu Zhixian's trip, ending with: "In summary, this 'worker's' hourly wage is probably a normal person's annual salary."

Forty-eight thousand likes.

2:00 PM, a rehearsal room provided by the production team, Building B, Third Floor.

Lin Shiya arrived twenty minutes earlier than the agreed time.

She wore a light gray hoodie, a loose-fitting one, with the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.

Her hair was tied in a low ponytail, with a few stray strands scattered around her ears.

She stood by the piano, holding a stack of A4 papers in her hand, covered in a handwritten stage concept framework, densely packed with notes and several crossed-out plans on the side.

Sister Chen followed her in, sat down on a chair, and pulled out her phone to browse the trending searches.

She took a glance and then looked up at Lin Shiya.

"Did you know about what he said at the airport regarding the employment contract?"

"I saw it."

"Don't you think..."

"It's quite accurate," Lin Shiya said, her tone normal as she looked down through the stack of plans.

Sister Chen swallowed the rest of her sentence and went back to her phone.

There were two knocks on the door before it was pushed open.

Lu Zhixian entered, having changed his clothes into a dark blue hoodie, carrying a coffee cup in his hand.

He scanned the rehearsal room, his gaze landing on the stack of papers in Lin Shiya's hand.

"Such thorough preparation."

Lin Shiya looked up. "Where's mine?"

"From the convenience store downstairs. It was too expensive, I couldn't afford a second one." Lu Zhixian placed the coffee on the piano and sat on the bench. "Tell me, what direction do you want to sing in this time?"

Lin Shiya handed over the plans in her hand.

He took them and flipped through.

The keywords written on the paper were: Darkness. Looking up. Not healing, but continuing to walk.

On the bottom line, she had drawn two heavy lines with a ballpoint pen: No misery, no inspirational clichés, nothing fake.

After Lu Zhixian finished reading, he folded the paper and put it back, then took a sip of his coffee.

"Is there anything suitable in the song library?" Sister Chen asked from the side.

"I've checked, nothing is exactly right," Lin Shiya said. "Either they're too sad or too fiery. I want that middle ground—knowing the darkness, but still looking up."

Lu Zhixian set the coffee cup back down on the piano lid.

"No big deal."

He spoke very flatly.

In his mind, a different set of accounts was turning.

[System Prompt: Specified emotional direction detected. Hope/Starry Sky/Burning after loneliness. popularity points can be consumed to draw works; consumption for targeted draws is doubled. Confirm?]

Lu Zhixian stared at that string of numbers on the system interface for a full three seconds.

Doubled.

The popularity points he had worked so hard to save were being consumed at double the rate.

How long had it taken him to save these popularity points? Countless trending searches, that Weibo post 'Suggest visiting the ENT department,' the reversal of Old Li's video—every single one was earned through hard-won traffic.

This system thing was usually quiet, but at critical moments, it would jump out to talk about money.

He clicked confirm on the system interface.

First draw.

[Congratulations on obtaining: "My Happiness is Thinking of You." Emotional direction: Sweetness/Longing.]

Lu Zhixian: "..."

What does this have to do with looking up in the darkness?

Redraw.

Second draw.

[Congratulations on obtaining: "Hawthorn Tree." Emotional direction: Nostalgia/Reminiscence.]

Looking at this result, Lu Zhixian silently closed his eyes in his heart.

He felt his popularity points dropping rapidly, like an hourglass that couldn't be plugged.

Redraw.

Third draw.

[Congratulations on obtaining: "the brightest star in the night sky." Emotional direction: Loneliness/Looking up/Light in the darkness.]

Looking at the name of this song, Lu Zhixian breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

Immediately, the system settlement popped up.

He looked down at the final number of popularity points deducted.

The corner of his eye twitched.

He almost stood up on the spot.

"Are you feeling unwell?"

Lin Shiya's voice came from beside him.

Lu Zhixian looked up; Lin Shiya was standing diagonally across from him, watching his expression.

He steadied his expression and shook his head.

"It's nothing." He paused. "Inspiration is too expensive."

As soon as he said it, he felt the explanation was a bit nonsensical.

Lin Shiya didn't ask further; she just looked at him for a second and then withdrew her gaze.

Lu Zhixian placed both hands on the keys.

He first tried some chords and adjusted a few notes to find the basic tonality.

The rehearsal room wasn't large, and the upright piano's tone was a bit dry, but it was sufficient.

He slowly played the first part of the intro.

The piano sound was very light, as if he were feeling out the edges of the song.

Sister Chen, who had been scrolling through her phone, stopped her finger.

She didn't look up, but her phone screen went dark.

Lu Zhixian steadied the rhythm, took a deep breath, and began to sing.

His voice wasn't loud; it was almost like speaking, yet not quite.

"the brightest star in the night sky, can you hear clearly..."

The two staff members in the corner of the rehearsal room who were coordinating the schedule stopped talking at the same time.

It wasn't intentional; they just stopped.

The melody rose, and when it reached the line "I pray to possess a transparent soul," the volume opened up slightly, filling the entire space.

Then he softly pulled back the final line, and his fingers left the keys.

The lingering sound dissipated in the room for a few seconds.

No one spoke.

Sister Chen kept her head down, using the back of her phone to rub her eye socket, pretending to look for something.

Lu Zhixian turned to look at Lin Shiya.

She stood where she was; the stack of plans had been placed on the chair beside her, though no one knew when she had put them down.

She didn't speak; she just looked at him with an expression that was hard to define.

Lu Zhixian waited for a few seconds.

"How is it?"

Lin Shiya was silent for a while.

"You're giving this song to me to sing?"

"Yeah." Lu Zhixian turned back and placed his hands on the keys again, his tone flat. "You have to be the protagonist of this song. I'll provide the foundation for you."

He didn't explain much about what 'providing the foundation' meant.

But Lin Shiya understood.

She walked to the side of the piano, stood next to him, and looked at the keys.

"Play it again."

Lu Zhixian started again from the intro.

This time, Lin Shiya softly began to sing, following the melody for the first line.

When her voice met his piano, the atmospheric pressure in the rehearsal room seemed to drop a notch.

Sister Chen completely locked her phone, put it in her pocket, looked up, and listened intently.

In the neighboring rehearsal room.

Shen Yihang's team was practicing their positioning. Kevin's electronic track played from the speakers, making the walls vibrate slightly.

An assistant moved closer to the shared wall and frowned.

There was piano music next door, and faintly, a human voice.

He pulled out his phone, quietly approached the shared ventilation duct, and recorded a short clip. The sound quality was blurry, only allowing one to hear the rough outline of the melody and a tiny bit of the voice.

He sent this dozen-second audio clip to the manager.

Attached was a message: It seems they've prepared an original song.

The manager stared at this message, holding the phone without moving.

Shen Yihang was drinking water nearby; seeing the manager's expression, he put down his cup.

"What's wrong?"

The manager handed over the phone.

Shen Yihang put on headphones, listened to the blurry recording, then took them off without a word.

After a few seconds, he picked up his water cup again.

"Original," he repeated the word, his tone unreadable. "Lu Zhixian brought an original song."

The manager nodded.

Shen Yihang turned around and looked out the window.

The afternoon light of Hangzhou streamed in, illuminating half of his face.

"Tell Kevin to add a grand finale segment," he said, his voice level. "Use the best one we have."

The manager acknowledged and stepped out.

Only Shen Yihang remained standing in the room.

The piano music from next door drifted through the wall, intermittent yet unstoppable.