Monday, early in the morning, northern Beijing.
Zhu Yaoqing squeezed out of the subway, sweating profusely.
There is no air conditioning on Line 1. The electric fans are spinning so fast that smoke is coming out, but the carriage is still stuffy.
It is hard to imagine that in 2009, the subway in the capital is still so torturous, especially after the Olympics were held the previous year!
Zhu Yaoqing finds taking the subway every day more tiring than going to work.
But there is no other way. Driving is even more tiring than taking the subway.
After exiting the subway station, Zhu Yaoqing loosened his collar and walked towards his workplace.
As a civil servant in northern Beijing, his responsibilities in the Propaganda Department were not complicated: mainly contacting people in the arts and cultural circles and organizing several performances every year.
All TV stations, film and television companies, and brokerage companies are within his contact range.
Basically, when an official call comes in, no one will refuse unless they really don't have time.
Even if these performances do not generate any economic benefits, and many of them are internal performances with no exposure.
On the other hand, the fact that he contacted and invited them just shows that he's doing well in the literary and art circle.
However, he had recently taken on another task: collecting commemorative songs for the "60th Anniversary Celebration" from the literary and art circles.
The so-called "holding a big event every ten years" is a tradition of the Chinese people. This time, the 60th anniversary celebration was extremely grand and involved all aspects.
On a larger scale, there were military parades, tributes, various main-theme movies, and themed activities. On a smaller scale, the job in Zhu Yaoqing's hands was one of them.
He was no stranger to this, as he did the same thing last year, but this year it was on a larger scale.
According to convention, "invitations for heroes" are sent out to all walks of life. As for the songs collected from society, they actually do not make up the majority.
The real big players are still the already famous professional singers and popular stars provided by entertainment companies. In addition, local art troupes must also have a place, right?
Although Zhu Yaoqing's position was just a small role in the government, he was a somewhat influential figure in the entertainment industry. It had nothing to do with his own talents, but only with what he represented.
Not long ago, the "Big Brother," who has extraordinary influence worldwide, was also called back to record a song. It was Zhu Yaoqing who contacted him.
He filled the thermos with hot water, sat in front of his old computer, and started checking his email despite the extreme lag.
Although it was difficult to produce good works through social solicitations, and even fewer people submitted works, as an official activity, it still needed to be handled in a timely manner, otherwise it would seem that Zhu Yaoqing was superficial in his work.
When Zhu Yaoqing logged into the email address for the solicitation activity, he saw only seven or eight emails. He was not surprised, as this was normal.
Four of them were asking for information about events, and Zhu Yaoqing gave brief replies. The remaining three emails were submissions of works.
The fact that he was able to take on this kind of work was closely related to his previous study of music. He could recognize the general melody and style by just opening the music score and taking a quick glance at it.
"A folk song? What's the other one? Oh. Five-tone Chinese singing style."
According to the submission requirements, both the music score and the recording file were required. Zhu Yaoqing listened to half of each and felt that they were not good enough.
The tune was old, the singing was old, and it was a bit too straightforward.
The lyrics were basically trying to force a celebration; they didn't rhyme and were too explicit.
The level was very average.
Zhu Yaoqing took a look at the contributors and found that one was a well-known folk song contestant who had participated in several programs, and the other was sent by a county-level art troupe.
Zhu Yaoqing was secretly relieved.
At this time, the third submitted song caught his attention.
Because in this email, in addition to the music score and recording, there was also a video file.
Zhu Yaoqing clicked on the video out of curiosity and thought, "It can't be a MV, right?"
Contributor: Ari.
He had never heard of the four words "Starry Sea" slowly appearing on the screen.
Zhu Yaoqing was a little confused. Looking at the name, it didn't seem like Hongge had been submitted to the wrong place.
However, the next scene stunned him.
It was a black-and-white photo.
That great man.
A melodious prelude sounded, not an old melody, but a very pleasant pop song feeling.
As the extremely catchy female voice sounded, Zhu Yaoqing finally understood why the video used the photo of that great man.
"I want to be a star."
The photo slowly blurred and revealed another face, that of the butler who had worked hard all his life.
These are the stars of the Republic.
"Go through the crowd, don't stop while you still have hope~"
When the chorus sounded and Zhu Yaoqing saw the photos of the scientists who made the "two bombs and one satellite" project, his hair stood on end!
"Will our love be blown to the sea by the wind and never come back?"
This song not only looks to the future but also remembers our ancestors.
Will the efforts of our predecessors and the passionate hearts of those who have passed away be passed on? Will they illuminate future generations?
Will the hardship and suffering they endured under those harsh conditions, and even their entire lives, bring happiness to future generations?
The scientists who kept their identities secret, the soldiers who died heroically, the martyrs who fell before dawn and never had the chance to witness the realization of their ideals—
Did they ever know that their choices were right?
Will their beliefs be blown away to the sea by the wind?
This is a poorly made MV.
It is almost just splicing together photos that are readily available on the internet in the form of PPT, and then adding a fade-in and fade-out effect.
But when they appeared together with "Starry Sea," Zhu Yaoqing felt a tremor running down his spine to his forehead.
The melodious female voice had the best timbre he had ever heard in his life.
"Will our love be like the stars guarding the sea~"
"I am running towards you, and you are the sea of stars~"
"The blazing stars in my eyes light my way through the long night~"
Great! Great!
He jumped up like a child who had found a treasure, attracting strange looks from his colleagues.
Zhu Yaoqing ignored everything else, quickly took out his USB drive, copied the song file into it, and then rushed to find his leader.
He wants this song to spread all over the country!
---
On Monday, Han Ziyin clearly felt that Zhou Rui was different.
He seemed much more tired than last week.
His lips were chapped, his voice was hoarse, and his face looked sleepy.
It was like... he'd been screaming all night.
Han Ziyin, who had no idea where Zhou Rui was over the weekend, was very curious.
Before class, Han Ziyin took out an unopened bottle of "Queer Juice" from her schoolbag and secretly passed it to Zhou Rui.
Zhou Rui took it and took a sip using the book to cover his mouth.
"Ah, thank you."
His voice was still a little hoarse.
When recording yesterday, he sang a lot in order to guide Li Wenqian, and they ate heavy meals with high oil and salt from a big restaurant.
He didn't feel anything that day, but when he woke up in the morning, he discovered that his throat was hoarse.
His vocal talent is really not that good. Look at Li Wenqian, who sang more than him, but acted like nothing happened today.
Zhou Rui wondered if "Starry Sea" had been seen. Was it blown into the sea by the wind?
But on second thought, he still had confidence in this song.
First, the theme and intention of this song are highly consistent, and it itself is a "red song" from the previous life.
Second, the quality and catchiness of the original song would have been super popular in 2009. It was a song that emerged in the era of short videos! It was all about being catchy in an instant!
Third, Li Wenqian's singing also added a lot of points.
At least it should be noticed.
As for now, it is more important to go to class first.
This is a good opportunity to try out the power of the [Focused] entry!
Zhou Rui closed his eyes slightly and put a little concentration into his mind.
Turn on [Focus Time] for one hour! The amount of concentration becomes (2/3).
When he opened his eyes again, Zhou Rui felt that the whole world seemed a little different.
All kinds of feelings were very strange, just like after staring at something for a long time, he would feel dazed about other things.
Zhou Rui felt this way now. He could easily focus his attention completely on something, a thought, or even a person.
But once he chose his target, he felt a haziness about other things, as if they were separated by a layer of gauze.
It was as if his spiritual consciousness was originally evenly distributed, but when he became a [Focused Person], his spiritual consciousness was gathered together, and the consciousness in other places naturally became less.
It seems that [Focus Time] has a side effect of reducing perception and reaction to minor things.
That's quite reasonable. But in this case, we should be careful when using [Focus Time], so as not to be too "focused" on something and ignore the dangers in the environment.
For example, being sent to another world by a dump truck.
By applying concentration in class, Zhou Rui clearly felt that his thinking was more agile, he absorbed knowledge faster, and it was almost impossible for him to be distracted. He would automatically ignore some minor conditions of his body.
For example, minor problems like itching or dry mouth would not affect him at all.
He could only understand 30% before, but now with [Focus Time], it had soared to 60%!
Don't underestimate this improvement. An adult can understand most of the content in a senior high school class. Can you imagine this if you are not failing?
If he had been given some more time, wouldn't he have been able to reach the sky?
Unfortunately, after the first class, Zhou Rui hadn't had time to check how much experience he had gained.
Huang Dewei's words sent a chill down his spine.
"Starting tomorrow, each subject will have an in-class test. Remember to bring a 2B pencil to fill in the answer sheet."
Zhou Rui felt a tremor from his coccyx to his forehead!
It's over! BBQ!