The next morning, the sunlight was just right.

There was a knock on the door of Lu Zhixian's rental apartment.

When he opened the door, Jiang Cheng's familiar face appeared, though his expression was somewhat awkward. A man was standing behind him.

The man was roughly in his early forties.

He wasn't tall and was a bit pudgy, wearing a faded black band T-shirt. He had stubble, messy hair, and sunken eyes. His entire being exuded the smell of overnight alcohol and a lingering air of despondency.

However, he stood very straight with his chin slightly tilted. In his bloodshot eyes, there was a flicker of fire that refused to go out, along with the scrutiny and arrogance unique to old-school musicians.

This was Shi Lei.

"Teacher Lu, this is Brother Lei," Jiang Cheng introduced as he stepped aside.

Lu Zhixian smiled and made way. "Come in and have a seat."

Shi Lei didn't move. He simply used his critical eyes to size Lu Zhixian up from head to toe before glancing at the simple furnishings in the room.

"You're Lu Zhixian?" His voice was raspy. "You wrote 'dispelling sorrow' and 'bubble'?"

"I did," Lu Zhixian nodded, unbothered.

"The songs are decent," Shi Lei's evaluation was stingy. "You're quite good at grasping the market; you know what kind of tunes the youngsters like nowadays."

These words sounded like praise, but they had thorns buried deep within.

The implication was that Lu Zhixian only wrote catchy pop songs to cater to the market, which wasn't the same path as the "art" he created.

Jiang Cheng rubbed his hands anxiously to the side, terrified that Lu Zhixian would kick the man out in a fit of pique.

Lu Zhixian merely smiled. He took three bottles of mineral water from the fridge, handed one to Jiang Cheng, twisted one open for himself, and placed the last one on the coffee table in front of Shi Lei.

"Jiang Cheng said you wanted me to write a song for you?" Lu Zhixian sat back on the sofa and got straight to the point.

Shi Lei finally moved and walked inside, but he didn't sit down. He stood in the center of the living room like a statue.

"It's not that I wanted to find you," he corrected. "It's this kid Jiang Cheng who insisted you could help me. I wanted to see what kind of rock a pop songwriter could actually write."

His tone was filled with disdain for the word "pop."

"Brother Lei!" Jiang Cheng grew anxious.

Shi Lei glared at him.

Lu Zhixian raised a hand, signaling Jiang Cheng to stay calm. He looked at Shi Lei without anger; instead, he found it rather interesting.

He had seen plenty of this kind of old-timer's foul temper.

Their pride was their final armor. Trying to make them bow through talk alone was useless.

You had to use the thing they were most proud of to smash that armor to pieces.

"Is that so?" Lu Zhixian leaned against the back of the sofa, picked up his laptop from the table, and leisurely plugged in a pair of headphones.

"Coincidentally, I have a newly written demo here. I haven't decided who should sing it yet. Listen and see if it's 'rock' enough."

Without any extra nonsense, he tossed the headphones over.

Shi Lei frowned, clearly unaccustomed to Lu Zhixian's "listen to the song if you disagree" style.

In his view, music required communication and the clashing of ideas; it wasn't something so simple and crude.

He hesitated for a few seconds.

Jiang Cheng watched nervously from the side, his palms sweating.

Shi Lei put the headphones in his ears, his face still wearing that "I'll see what tricks you can pull" expression.

Then, the mouse clicked play.

There was no intro.

The sound of a guitar, sounding as if it were coming from an old speaker, entered his ears.

In that instant, Shi Lei's body jolted.

This tone...

Immediately following, a male voice that was equally weathered and tinged with self-deprecation and exhaustion sang the first line to the beat of the drums.

"Once dreamed of wandering the world with a sword, to see the prosperity of the world..."

Shi Lei's pupils suddenly contracted.

He subconsciously took a step forward and sat down on the sofa, leaning forward with his hands tightly gripping his knees.

"...The young heart is always a bit reckless, now you make your home wherever you go."

The singing continued.

Jiang Cheng watched Shi Lei's profile, not even daring to breathe loudly.

He saw that Shi Lei's hand holding a cigarette was trembling slightly. A long stretch of ash had accumulated on the tip, but he was completely oblivious.

When it reached the chorus, the long-suppressed emotions completely exploded along with the intense drum beats and guitar strumming.

"Having experienced the many facets of life and the coldness of the world, this smile is warm and innocent..."

Boom!

It was as if something had exploded in Shi Lei's head.

He snapped his head up, and for the first time, a terrifying light burst from his cloudy eyes.

He thought of himself.

He remembered when the "Xiangyang Band" was at its peak, standing in a stadium of ten thousand people, receiving cheers like a mountain tsunami.

Back then, his smile had been so warm and innocent.

Then he thought of after the band disbanded, how he held his guitar alone in an empty bar, singing songs that no one wanted to hear.

Those cold stares, that mockery, those pieces of advice saying "you should accept your fate once you're past your prime."

Wasn't this song singing about him?

When the final line was finished, the music stopped abruptly.

The entire room fell into a deathly silence.

Shi Lei remained in that position, motionless.

A few seconds later, he slowly took off the headphones and placed them on the coffee table. His movements were very gentle.

He looked up and faced Lu Zhixian again.

This time, all the arrogance in his eyes had vanished completely.

"This song..." His voice was incredibly raspy, even more so than before, "What is it called?"

"the former you," Lu Zhixian replied.

"Lyrics and music..."

"Lu Zhixian."

Shi Lei fell silent.

Looking at the excessively young man before him, he suddenly felt that the pride and understanding of music he had built up over the first half of his life were laughable.

What is a genius?

This is a fucking genius.

To be able to write songs like 'dispelling sorrow' and 'bubble,' and then write a rock song like this that could shake an old rocker to his core.

"This song," Shi Lei took a deep breath, as if using all his strength to speak each word deliberately, "I want it."

It wasn't a negotiation or a question; it was a notification.

Jiang Cheng let out a long sigh of relief, his face showing an expression of wild joy.

Lu Zhixian pushed the contract he had just printed in front of him.

"The contract."

Shi Lei picked it up and flipped directly to the profit-sharing clause on the last page.

When he saw the numbers on it, even Jiang Cheng next to him couldn't help but lean in to take a look.

"Song revenue share: Party A (Lu Zhixian) takes 95%, Party B (Shi Lei) takes 5%."

"What?!" Jiang Cheng blurted out in shock. "Teacher Lu, this... isn't this share a bit..."

Five percent?

What was the difference between this and giving it away for free? If this song became a hit, how much money would that be? Teacher Lu was practically robbing him!

Shi Lei, however, was exceptionally calm.

He just glanced at Lu Zhixian, then picked up a pen and, without even looking at the other terms, signed his name in the Party B signature space.

—Shi Lei.

After signing, he pushed the contract back.

"I'll sign."

Jiang Cheng was completely bewildered.

"Five percent is plenty," Shi Lei looked at Lu Zhixian with a complex gaze.

"If this song can make me stand up again and help me reclaim the name Shi Lei, the value it brings cannot be measured by that ninety-five percent."

He was an old hand in the industry; he knew better than anyone.

Money can be earned again.

But an opportunity, especially one that could grant him a rebirth, would truly be gone forever if missed.

Looking at Shi Lei, Lu Zhixian finally showed an appreciative smile.

What he wanted was a clear-headed partner, not a giant baby who needed him to provide charity.

This ninety-five percent was both an affirmation of his work's value and a small punishment for Shi Lei's previous arrogance.

"The contract is signed." Shi Lei stood up. His entire mental state was worlds apart from when he first arrived; that air of despondency had been swept away.

"But I can't sing it right now."

"Hmm?"

Shi Lei's eyes held the characteristic ruthlessness of a rock singer. "Give me three days."

"In three days, I'll come to the recording studio to find you."

"I want to use my best state to sing 'the former you'."

Lu Zhixian nodded. "Fine, I'll wait for you."

Shi Lei didn't say another word. He turned and left with a brisk pace, like a general about to head to the battlefield.

Jiang Cheng stared blankly at Shi Lei's back, then at the contract on the table that could be called an "overlord clause," and finally turned his gaze to the calm and collected Lu Zhixian.

He suddenly felt that he was still too young.