Chapter 63: Everything related to money is major

The other Zorro, Fu Cheng, found Xu Tingsheng during a break between lessons, asking him, “We...we seem to have become crazy popular. Are we still going on with the band?”

“The hell we will. We wouldn’t be able to make money with it,” Xu Tingsheng said.

“We can make money with it. I received a call a few days ago from a company that does ringtones. They want to make our into a ringtone, splitting us some profits from it. My mind wasn’t really there at the time, and I forgot to tell you about it.”

They could make money with it...Hearing Fu Cheng say this, song copying became a whole different matter in Xu Tingsheng’s mind entirely.

Ringtones, ringtones. How haven’t I thought of this before? When that song had been uploaded to the internet back then, it hadn’t brought about too much of an uproar, no music companies having tried to buy its copyrights from them as well. For Xu Tingsheng who had no intentions of becoming a singer himself, the whole matter had therefore felt rather meaningless.

Now, however, another door had opened before him.

The use of mobile phones was gradually becoming widespread in the year 2003. With the Xu Family’s abilities, Xu Tingsheng had been unable to catch a seat on the mobile phone bandwagon. Now, however, he had finally found a way to get on it.

Xu Tingsheng knew that ringtones would be an extremely profitable business over this period of time, with those songs that were more awesome able to earn upwards of a million yuan per year.

Also, he could be guaranteed his privacy in this. Xu Tingsheng needn’t have to show his face or make a public appearance at all. All he would have to do was record the songs behind the scenes before handing it over to the company to handle for them.

“Since it is profitable, let’s just do it then. Do they have any other requests?” Xu Tingsheng asked Fu Cheng.

“They just want us to record the song again, making a better recording of it before we sign a contract,” Fu Cheng said.

“That’s fine. You can find a more professional studio and record it again. You should record as well. Just tell me how much money you need.”

“No, what about doing it together?”

“I’m in charge of supplying you with the songs, right? I’ll give you two more later on.”

“You still have some?”

“Just a few.”

“All of them were written by that person with the guitar?”

“Yeah,” Xu Tingsheng hesitated for a moment before adding, “I’m in the midst of learning as well. That person’s taught me.”

Fu Cheng once again expressed his intense desire to meet that person who played the guitar, but Xu Tingsheng refused with no hesitation at all. He himself desired to meet the person with the guitar as well, but where in the world was he supposed to look?

As for Fu Cheng feeling that him having to do all the work alone was unfair, Xu Tingsheng took care of it with a single question.

“Do you want to earn money? Earn a lot of money.”

Fu Cheng replied with no hesitation whatsoever, “I want to. I didn’t especially want to before, but now I really want to. I want to have the ability to take care of Ms Fang.”

Xu Tingsheng chuckled, “That’s right then. This is the kind of realisation and sense of responsibility that a man should have. Therefore, stop talking rubbish with me. If you want to earn money, just work properly for this bro.”

......

Various people from all around came for this evening’s dinner. Other than Xu Tingsheng’s roommates as well as some familiar-looking faces from the same class, amongst those here were also some of the female upperclassmen who had visited them back then, including those in their second and third years of study.

Other than female seniors, there were male seniors as well. Xu Tingsheng truly had no impression of any of these at all.

They must have been invited by his roommates completely on their own accords. Still, all he could do was just wait there obediently in preparation to pay the final bill for the meal.

With so many strangers present here, Xu Tingsheng didn’t intend to consume alcohol today. He sat quietly in a corner with Zhang Ninglang, only offering a congratulatory toast to Li Linlin and Old Wai at the very start to wish them happiness before then falling silent.

Many of those coming here to get a free meal didn’t even know that he was the one who would have to pay later.

Tan Yao took care of the overall situation, conversing and laughing naturally with everyone as he downed cups of wine with relative ease. After a while, a knock was heard on the door, and he went out to check who it was.

Instead of leading the person directly into the room, he returned and clapped his hands to indicate for everyone to be silent before proclaiming loudly, “Come, let us all welcome our female upperclassmen in her fourth year, Yanzhou University’s Ultra Female Divinity and Supreme Beauty, Fang Chen!”

Xu Tingsheng had never heard of this Fang Chen before. Asking Zhang Ninglang behind him, he found that he too had not heard of her. Still, there seemed to be quite a few present here who knew her, all being rather excited at her arrival.

After the applause, into the room walked a 1.7m beauty, a sweet, radiant smile on her face.

Xu Tingsheng appraised her for a moment. Not only was this girl beautiful, she had an aura that was not weak as well, probably being someone who was rather good at ‘walking the world’.

Fang Chen gracefully greeted everyone before scolding Tan Yao with a smile on her face, “Just saying beauty is fine; you didn’t have to say fourth year, you know? My heart breaks upon hearing it.”

Positive laughter resounded at her words. Xu Tingsheng was convinced somewhat of her abilities. This girl was neither artificial nor shy in controlling the atmosphere, having attained a feeling of goodwill from most people here to the greatest extent through just simply a joke.

“I can’t win in words against our great host. There’s no need for further introductions here; everyone should have seen her before. Senior Fang Chen was the emcee of yesterday night’s welcoming party. She’s also the number one most beautiful emcee of our entire Yanzhou U.”

Hearing Tan Yao’s words, Xu Tingsheng realised it. So this was the beautiful female emcee whose programme had been messed up by him and Fu Cheng last night. Without a gown as well as thick makeup on, her bearing seemed to have changed somewhat as she appeared simpler and purer than before.

It was no wonder that he had failed to recognise her initially.

Not long after Fang Chen had sat down, yet a few others arrived. Whether they had come specifically for her or that had not initially been the case, all of them revolved around her upon their arrival, attentive and enthusiastic in all forms.

Xu Tingsheng didn’t know them, but he didn’t ask about them as well. He just felt some heartache over his wallet.

Since he felt pained by this, he should just eat more of it back. Xu Tingsheng led Zhang Ninglang along in eating furiously with lowered heads, teasing Old Wai and Li Linlin once in a while. From their conversation, Xu Tingsheng came to understand Li Linlin’s family background, which was pretty similar to his in his previous life. With her family’s difficult situation, not only did she have to take care of her own school fees and living expenses, she even had to help to upkeep her family a little. Currently, she was in the midst of looking for a job as a home tutor.

Having also been a home tutor in his previous life, Xu Tingsheng gave her a few simple pointers to take note of, also reminding her to watch out for her own safety and best choose students whose mothers were often at home.

Having gained a good impression of Xu Tingsheng, Li Linlin privately instructed Old Wai to hang out more with him in the future, rather than mess around muddledly with those more complicated, doubtful characters like Tan Yao.

The unsuspecting Tan Yao knew not that he had been the subject of a hidden lance as he continued flirting with a few female upperclassmen over by the side.

“Who’s the one treating today?”

A voice pulled Xu Tingsheng’s attention away from the food as he raised his hand in a simple gesture of response.

“It’s like this. I see that Fang Chen doesn’t really like these dishes, so I want to add a few more...I won’t take advantage of you, I’ll foot today’s bill. Right, I am Cao Qing, a third year.”

The atmosphere turned a little awkward. In having proposed this, Cao Qing was actually snootily embarrassing Xu Tingsheng a little, the disdain in his words greatly evident and the show-offy intent within even more so.

Everyone awaited Xu Tingsheng’s reaction. Afraid that he might be unable to rein in his anger, Tan Yao even sent him a few meaningful looks.

Yet, Xu Tingsheng was actually overjoyed. He had just calculated a short while ago that this meal, coupled with the money spent on wine, would add up to at least 3000 yuan. Having just felt agonised over this, a great hero had now arrived to liberate him from his sufferings.

𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

“Thanks, senior,” Xu Tingsheng said calmly and sincerely.

This took everyone here by surprise, no one having thought that he might react like this. He had accepted the offer just like this? If one said that Xu Tingsheng was gutless, his method seemed truly the easiest way to ease the situation while his tone had truly been polite as well, as opposed to being subservient or overbearing. Still, to have accepted it so straightforwardly-had he truly not been ticked off at all?

After learning his name from Tan Yao, Fang Chen now stood and raised her wineglass, “I find the food to be pretty good. Thanks for treating, Xu Tingsheng.”

Xu Tingsheng really almost hated her to death right then. With this, the bill had fallen to him yet again.

“Don’t mention it, and thank you for gracing us with your presence today, senior,” Xu Tingsheng helplessly responded before adding, “Still, I don’t drink. Sorry!”

After Xu Tingsheng had finished speaking, Fang Chen still had her wineglass raised within the air, her brows furrowed as she seemed to be thinking hard about something. Many of those around them thought that she was feeling embarrassed due to Xu Tingsheng not having reciprocated the gesture and ‘given her face’. A few ‘shining knights’, including Cao Qing who had offered to foot the bill just earlier, directed rather hostile gazes at Xu Tingsheng.

Tan Yao hurriedly helped to explain, “It’s like this-Old Xu still has to catch a train home tomorrow morning. How about this-those of us who won’t be returning home on October 1st will accompany you guys in drinking. Old Xu, you’d better take responsibility and haul us back later.”

Before Tan Yao had finished speaking, Old Wai, Lu Xu, Li Xingming and even Zhang Ninglang sitting beside Xu Tingsheng who had not even touched a drop of wine earlier had all poured themselves a glass of wine and stood up.

“These young kiddos are really rather loyal,” Xu Tingsheng thought.

Fang Chen finally relaxed her brows now as she hurriedly smiled and explained, “No, no...I’m like this when I’m thinking about things, always having this habit of frowning. My mind drifted off for a moment there; please don’t mind it, everyone...About that, Student Xu, if you don’t drink, do you mind if I sit beside you and we chat? Consider it your way of making amends.”