Chapter 156: Wishing You Prosperity? How About You Go with an Old Classic Instead

Lü Yuanqing felt a surge of irritation in his heart at these words.

"Still won't do?"

"Why are the requirements getting stricter and stricter?"

This wasn't his first time performing on the Spring Festival Gala. In the past, he would simply select a song, submit it, and it would easily pass the review. Rehearsals wouldn't even start until the final few days.

However, this year, not only was the review process much harsher, but once he arrived at China Television, they wouldn't let him leave.

They talked about closed-door rehearsals for fear of the performance leaking ahead of time.

The crucial point was that he hadn't even chosen his song yet!

After a moment of thought, he picked up his phone and dialed a number.

"Brother Qing, the song you asked for is ready!"

"How should I send it to you?"

As soon as the call connected, Su Chen's voice came through.

Lü Yuanqing was overjoyed upon hearing this.

"Su Chen, I thought you'd forgotten about this!"

On the other end, Su Chen hurriedly apologized.

"How could I forget? It's just that there have been too many messy things going on lately, which delayed it!"

"Where are you now? Have you returned to the Imperial Capital?"

Lü Yuanqing said helplessly, "I'm already back!"

"The rehearsal schedule was required exceptionally early this year!"

Having said that, he also offered an apology. "I originally figured you were busy dealing with 'those matters', so I decided not to disturb you unless necessary!"

"But the Spring Festival Gala seems to have been reformed this year; the schedule is extremely tight, and for confidentiality reasons, once we arrive, we aren't allowed to leave the CCTV building!"

"I was really driven to my wits' end by their urging, which is why I called you!"

On the other end, Su Chen let out a startled cry.

"Ah? Is it still too late now?"

Lü Yuanqing said with a smile, "It's fine, there's still time, but we've reached the final deadline."

"Just send it to my phone first so I can take a look, and I'll figure out a way to record it!"

Just as Lü Yuanqing had said, he had previously mentioned the matter of writing a song to Su Chen.

However, he hadn't chased him up about it afterwards. Knowing about Su Chen's recent entanglements with Dynasty Entertainment, he figured he would handle it himself if he could.

He would prioritize screening the songs he had collected and sing one if it worked out!

If that really didn't work out, he would just fall back on singing an old song.

Yet today, the production team had been pressing him quite anxiously, and after several of his songs were rejected in succession, he finally couldn't help but call Su Chen.

A few minutes later, Lü Yuanqing received a song on his phone.

The song had been written down on paper, and a photo of it was sent via phone.

Upon receiving it, he opened it eagerly.

"I wish you prosperity and wealth,
I wish you a splendid life,
May the best come here,
And the bad stay away,
Courtesy costs nothing..."

Upon reading the very first line, Lü Yuanqing's brow furrowed.

Was this... a bit perfunctory?

His friendship with Su Chen was quite deep. Based on his understanding of Su Chen, it shouldn't be like this.

Perhaps it would get better further down?

With remaining patience, he continued reading.

"I wish the girls of the world,
To marry a good boy,
May couples always stay together,
I wish the children of the whole world,
To be smarter than scholars,
May your heads be filled with high IQs..."

"I wish my respected great-aunt,
In thirty-six laps of competition,
To remain breathless and unchanged..."

Reading on, he truly couldn't read any further.

What on earth was this?

If it weren't written by Su Chen, he would probably have thrown the thing right at the person's face.

It wasn't to say the song was terrible, but rather completely lacking in brilliance!

He even tried humming it according to a melody, only to find it felt utterly dry!

Moreover, the lyrics were simply too dreadful to behold!

At least from a professional standpoint, this did not look like a good song.

However, this was sent by Su Chen after all.

"How is it, Boss?"

The assistant next to him asked cautiously, watching Lü Yuanqing's furrowed brow.

"It's nothing, let me look again!"

He still refused to believe that a song produced by Su Chen would be of this caliber.

So he picked up his phone once more, beginning to study it from start to finish.

Just then, an elderly man with slightly graying hair walked over from a distance.

The assistant nudged his arm and whispered, "Director Yang is here!"

Hearing this, Lü Yuanqing quickly put away his phone and went to greet him.

"Director Yang! Why did you come over personally?"

The newcomer was Yang Xiangcheng, the director in charge of the song category for the Spring Festival Gala, who previously held a pivotal position in the music industry.

Although he had been retired for a long time, for some reason he was invited back this year to direct the song segment of the Gala.

Therefore, Lü Yuanqing showed him the utmost respect.

"Xiao Lü, how are your song preparations coming along?"

"I just heard from the people downstairs that the song hasn't been finalized yet?"

Lü Yuanqing gave a bitter smile. "Not yet! I've selected a few songs, but none of them are very satisfactory!"

Yang Xiangcheng nodded upon hearing this. "It was indeed a bit rushed to invite you to the Spring Festival Gala this time, and you haven't been given much preparation time; the organizing committee is a bit at fault here."

"Still, we can't afford to stall any longer. All the other programs have already started individual rehearsals."

"Once rehearsals wrap up, full-dress rehearsals start in two days. We need to lock it down quickly!"

After saying this, he couldn't help offering a reminder.

"If it really doesn't work out, just follow my earlier suggestion and sing your old song instead!"

"There are quite a few people on our Gala stage who sing their own old classics; it's no big deal! At least that way is safer!"

"Mm..." Lü Yuanqing muttered thoughtfully.

Seeing Lü Yuanqing's hesitant expression, Yang Xiangcheng asked curiously, "What? Do you have some other good ideas?"

Lü Yuanqing hesitated, but still took out his phone.

He opened Su Chen's song and enlarged it for Yang Xiangcheng to see.

"I just received a new song here. Would you mind taking a look and giving me your judgment?"

Yang Xiangcheng shook his head with a smile. "I can see it now—you still want to sing a new song after all!"

"I can understand, though. Anyone would get tired of singing the exact same few songs over and over every single day."

With that, he took the phone from Lü Yuanqing's hand, glanced at it for a few seconds, and then stopped.

"Why don't... why don't you go print it out?"

"My eyes, you see, are terribly farsighted!"

The assistant was quick-witted; upon hearing this, he immediately asked Lü Yuanqing to send him the file to print.

Five minutes later, the assistant returned with the printed song lyrics.

Lü Yuanqing took them and handed them to Yang Xiangcheng. To leave himself a graceful exit strategy, he added, "I haven't read it carefully yet. Could you help me vet it?"

Yang Xiangcheng nodded and accepted the papers from Lü Yuanqing.

He adjusted his glasses, leaned his head as far back as possible, and began to read intently.

The longer he read, the deeper his brow furrowed.

A few minutes later, he silently returned the papers to Lü Yuanqing.

"How is it?" Lü Yuanqing looked at him, awaiting his verdict.

"Why don't you just choose an old song to sing instead?" Yang Xiangcheng said softly.