Chapter 15: Garen Feels Disheartened

Garen had never read a novel like "Ghost Blows Out the Light," nor did this world have such a genre. Moreover, tomb raiding was a criminal enterprise, condemned and forbidden by the moral standards of humanity; it was a topic discussed in passing, but actually carrying it out was several hundred times harder than murder or arson. While the figure of the tomb raider had appeared in literature and film, they were always cast as villains, and none of the works ever gave detailed descriptions of their techniques.

This was the first time he saw tomb raiders depicted as protagonists. One could even say that this book rehabilitated the “thief” in “grave robber,” turning them into professionals with both skills and a code of ethics. To classify this novel simply as horror would not do it justice, for it also brimmed with folklore and the thrill of adventure. Terms like “Captain Touch Gold,” “grave-turning,” and “zongzi” lent an air of mystery and grandeur; after reading this book, no one would think of tomb raiders as sordid or sinister, but rather as brave and upright!

“What would happen if I published this book?” The thought suddenly struck Garen as he read on. There was nothing like this in his world; even if there were tomb raiders, they certainly wouldn’t write such stories. If he were to release this book, how would people here judge it?

His eyes trembled with emotion. Without hesitation, he downloaded the entire series onto a USB drive, transferred it to his new computer, found an original fiction website, and, not bothering with a pen name, simply registered with his real name—after all, he hadn’t thought it through that far.

After a few mundane steps of registration, he uploaded the entire first volume, "The Ancient City of Jingjue," making only minor changes to terms that wouldn’t make sense in this world. Everything else he left untouched. When all was done, dawn was breaking outside his window.

Only then did he stretch, climb into bed, and fall asleep.

…

“This is hitfm, home to the best music! Welcome back to ‘New Music Express,’ I’m your DJ Jack! Up next is the theme song for the TV drama ‘That Graduation Year,’ premiering next week—‘Gardenias in Bloom’…”

“Gardenias in bloom, so lovely…”

Friday, 7:30 p.m.

In five major hitfm affiliate cities—Capital 88.3, Magic City 87.9, Broad City 88.5, Accompanying City 102, and Hibiscus City 95—the song “Gardenias in Bloom” was simultaneously promoted.

This was a warm-up campaign by Yida for the TV series “That Graduation Year,” set to air next Wednesday on three stations: Capital, Broad City, and Magic City. The song had already been released on Five-Star Music, so it wasn't technically a world premiere, but the effect was nearly the same—after all, more people tuned in to the radio than visited Five-Star for music.

After leaving the bar, Garen poured all his energy into producing his debut EP. The production was now complete, featuring the seven songs he’d already posted on Five-Star Music, all of which had been selected as theme, insert, or ending songs for the series “That Graduation Year” and the film “Youth in the Wind.”

Not a single song was wasted—this not only saved Yida a considerable sum in licensing fees, but also gave Garen a significant opportunity. With the original instrumentals as reference, the entire production process was smooth, and the timeline was about 20% shorter than that of most artists’ debut EPs.

At least for Garen, he could skip the most laborious steps—song selection, arrangements, producing demos, and so forth. Moreover, all of Yida Music’s resources were now focused solely on him; under Li Ronghao’s leadership, about 70% of the music production department was busy with Garen’s tracks.

Besides that, the company arranged numerous classes for him, the most important being body movement courses, teaching him stage presence, dance, singing expressions and gestures, how to hold a microphone, even how to walk and pose—all skills he needed to learn.

There were also classes in vocal training, instruments, and entertainment industry basics. The most unusual of all was a speaking class, with a dedicated instructor teaching him the art of conversation—what to say to whom, how to deal with the media, what could and could not be said—all of it had to be learned.

Early Saturday morning, Garen was summoned to the office by Wu Zhaoyang.

“Garen, here’s your schedule for next week—take a look,” Wu Zhaoyang handed him a form filled with engagements, one or two every day.

“Whoa! They’re scheduling me this quickly?” Garen was surprised. He’d only been with Yida for about half a month, and though he’d been busy, it was all in-house work—he hadn’t attended any events yet.

“We’ll start you on smaller gigs, get you acquainted with the TV series’ promo team. ‘That Graduation Year’ premieres next Friday on Anxi Satellite TV, so you’ll need to perform at the Capital’s premiere on Monday. Any problem with that?”

“Of course not!” Garen nodded. After leaving Wenzi Bar, he hadn’t had another chance to perform on stage. Recording in the studio was not the same; he was eager to perform again.

“After that, you’ll follow the crew to a few major cities for some promo events. Not many, so don’t worry—I’ll be with you the whole time,” Wu Zhaoyang added.

In fact, Garen’s only task at these events was to sing a few songs—not like the main cast or creative team, who had to give interviews. Hence, they were considered minor engagements.

“In addition, for the first and third day of Golden Week, the company has arranged for you to perform at two music festivals—one at Le Gu Dream Music Festival, the other at 798 Blueberry Music Festival. Each set is thirty minutes. You’ve got bar experience, so this shouldn’t be difficult, right?” Wu Zhaoyang continued.

These appearances weren’t on Garen’s current schedule, since Golden Week was still a week after next.

Garen didn’t see any difficulty, but remembering that Chen Yingying had promised to visit during Golden Week, he asked, “Brother Wu, I have a friend coming to see me then—can I bring her to the music festivals?”

“…Sure!” Wu Zhaoyang nodded after a moment’s thought, then said almost ruefully, “You still have some free time now, but once things get busy, you’ll rarely have the chance to see your friends again.”

“Alright, that works for me!” Garen didn’t read too much into Wu Zhaoyang’s words. As long as he could bring Chen Yingying, he was happy.

Leaving Wu Zhaoyang’s office, Garen went straight to the recording studio. As soon as he entered, Li Ronghao waved him over. “Garen, come quick! The post-production mastering for the entire EP is done—come have a listen.”

“Oh? That fast?” Garen hurried over, put on the headphones, and Li Ronghao started up the tracks. The music flowed out.

Once he’d listened to the whole EP, Garen finally breathed a sigh of relief. “Teacher Li, thank you all so much for your hard work these past days. I’m buying lunch for everyone today!”

“Hey, you’re not even officially debuted yet—how much money do you have to treat us?” Li Ronghao waved it off. “Forget it, save it for when you release your first full album.”

“Alright! I’ll book a private table for everyone then!” Garen meant it. The production department was only a dozen or so people, and for over two weeks, they’d worked around the clock—his gratitude was sincere.

That afternoon, with nothing pressing, Garen went home.

The company had arranged new accommodations for him in a residential complex where all the artists lived, but it was a shared dormitory, with several people to a unit.

So Garen declined the offer and stayed in his old rental.

Back in his bedroom, he turned on his new computer to check on "Ghost Blows Out the Light." After all this time, the book still hadn’t gained much traction; eight out of ten comments were spam, with only a few from actual readers.

Some praised the novel’s originality and asked for faster updates, but most were critical—saying tomb raiding was illegal, the author must be in jail for not updating, this kind of writing should be banned, or that the worldview was skewed. Others said that while the idea was good, the logic was weak and the writing sloppy—generally, they weren’t optimistic.

These comments left Garen a little deflated. He thought the book from another world might not appeal here, and was about to give up when he noticed there were over a dozen names on the fan leaderboard—paying readers.

Unable to let them down, he gritted his teeth and uploaded another volume, then closed the page and checked Five-Star Music.

By contrast, things on Five-Star Music were far more encouraging. All the comments under his songs were supportive; most people asked why he’d stopped singing at the bar, and some sent him flowers every day, hoping for a new release.

Logging into the backend, he saw a flood of internal messages, which he ignored—except one caught his eye: an official letter from Wang Cheng, music director and original content editor of Five-Star Music.

After reading a few lines, Garen was taken aback. Wang Cheng directly pointed out issues with his rough recordings and offered a slew of suggestions.

This confirmed for Garen that the backing tracks he’d downloaded onto his old laptop could only be used as references—they couldn’t be released as-is, or one day he’d be exposed.

Instead of replying to Wang Cheng, he posted an update: “Hello, everyone! My brand-new EP is finished and will be released soon. For the latest news, follow my Weibo!”

His official Weibo had just been set up by the company, but he hadn’t posted yet and planned to do so later.

As soon as he posted the update, his fans on Five-Star Music were abuzz.

“Garen posted!”

“Ahhh! It’s been almost half a month—why did Garen stop singing at the bar?”

“Yeah, yeah! Give us a reason! Did Wentao bully you?”

“Let’s go! Invade Garen’s Weibo!”

“Yes! See you all on Weibo!”

…