The next day, when Lin Yuan returned to the company, more people in the department greeted him.

“Morning.”

After responding to the greetings, Lin Yuan found Wu Yong to ask a question: “Are there fourteen ace composers on the tenth floor?”

“Yes.”

Wu Yong laughed, “Ace producers are truly skilled composers. Your schoolmate, Old Zheng, is one of them. He was the senior sitting next to you at the last meeting.”

“Do aces earn a higher salary?”

This was the main point Lin Yuan wanted to ask about.

Wu Yong nodded, “Ace composers definitely earn more than us. They have a base salary of thirty thousand yuan a month, but aces don’t really care about that base salary.”

Lin Yuan said, “I care.”

Wu Yong chuckled, “Then strive to become an ace. But the biggest advantage of being an ace isn’t just the base salary. The real benefit is that they have the qualification to negotiate with the company and can get a higher share of the profits from their works.”

A higher share of the profits?

Lin Yuan asked, “What’s the standard for becoming an ace?”

“Well, ‘ace’ is just our informal term. It sounds cool, like ‘Master Composer.’ In reality, the company’s ace composers have an official title: Senior Composer. They’re above us regular composers. To be evaluated as a Senior Composer by the company, you need at least five representative works with over a million downloads each.”

Lin Yuan nodded to show he understood.

Wu Yong patted Lin Yuan’s shoulder, “I just checked the downloads for ‘Life Like Summer Flowers.’ It’s close to six hundred thousand today. Breaking a million in the future shouldn’t be a problem. I wonder if your custom song for Qizhou has the potential to break a million… It’s hard to say because impression songs like these are often limited by the original work and tend to become niche. Niche works usually don’t have high download numbers, so don’t get your hopes up too much. But the commission for this order is good, so you’re definitely making a profit!”

“Okay.”

Lin Yuan was thoughtful.

Wu Yong sighed, “Don’t think too far ahead. After all, you’ve just joined the company and have already made a splash twice. You have a good chance of becoming a Senior Composer in the future. Then you’ll be the fifteenth ace on our tenth floor.”

“Okay.”

Lin Yuan felt he needed to speed up his song releases. Only by becoming a Senior Composer, or an ace, could he earn more money.

With that thought in mind, Lin Yuan asked Wu Yong, “Are the orders on the tenth floor open to everyone, like this time?”

“No.”

Wu Yong explained, “Orders are assigned by the boss, but usually aces get priority, and it’s done in sequence. They won’t let the same ace take every order, so everyone gets a chance. Only when an ace can’t handle an order does it get passed down to other aces. The requirements for the ‘Dance of Fish and Dragon’ order were quite strict, which is why all fourteen aces failed, and Old Zhou let the whole department try. This is rare. Usually, an order is completed after being passed to an average of five aces, given their strong capabilities.”

“What about Master Composers?”

“Let’s not talk about other floors. On our tenth floor, there’s only one Master Composer. You haven’t seen him because he rarely comes to the company. But Master Composers aren’t short of orders. If the offer for a song isn’t close to ten million, they won’t even consider it.”

“Oh.”

Lin Yuan gradually understood more about the company.

As a newcomer, he needed guidance on many things, which was why the supervisor had Wu Yong mentor him.

Around noon, the people in the Composition Department went to the cafeteria for lunch.

Having emptied his wallet on coffee, Lin Yuan decided to find someone to treat him to a meal. He already had someone in mind.

Sun Yaohuo!

Sun Yaohuo had become famous on the Newcomer Chart and was very grateful to Lin Yuan, having mentioned several times that he wanted to treat Lin Yuan to a meal. But Lin Yuan had always been busy.

Today, he could take the opportunity to fulfill that meal promise.

However, when Lin Yuan arrived at the eighth-floor Artist Department, he found out that Sun Yaohuo had a schedule and wasn’t in the company.

As he was about to leave, a familiar voice called out to him, “Lin Yuan.”

“Sister Zhao?”

Lin Yuan turned around and saw Zhao Jue.

Zhao Jue smiled, “I didn’t expect it to really be you. Are you here looking for someone?”

Lin Yuan nodded, “Yes, but Sun Yaohuo isn’t here.”

Zhao Jue said, “He’s busy and not here. You haven’t eaten yet, right? If you’re free, come have lunch with me. I’ll let you try the high-level cafeteria’s food.”

Lin Yuan was concerned, “Isn’t the high-level cafeteria expensive?”

Zhao Jue laughed, “Having a meal with Sister Zhao, and you think I’d let you pay? Come on, my treat.”

“Thank you, Sister Zhao!”

Lin Yuan was grateful.

The high-level cafeteria was different from the employee cafeteria. It was quieter, with fewer people. Several tables around Lin Yuan were empty, and most of the dishes were made to order, prepared by chefs for the high-level staff who had pre-ordered their meals.

“I often can’t finish by myself.”

Zhao Jue pointed to the four dishes on the table, “You can help me with them. If it’s not enough, I’ll have them make more.”

“It’s enough.”

Lin Yuan wasn’t greedy.

With the first bite, he understood why this was the high-level cafeteria.

The taste here was indeed better than the employee cafeteria, almost comparable to the restaurant with the ice cream buffet he had eaten at before. The employee cafeteria, which he had thought was great, suddenly seemed less impressive.

Zhao Jue ate slowly.

She occasionally took calls, looking busy, and her tone on the phone was often decisive and strong.

“The jewelry brand replaced our artist? It’s not our artist’s fault, right? Fine, don’t fight for it. Announce that Starlight’s artists won’t endorse this brand in the future.”

“The Muse clothing event complained about Starlight’s artist being late? What did I teach before? Think they’re famous now? Don’t use traffic as an excuse. Fine them as they should be. Acting like a diva with me, huh?”

“Li Li had a wardrobe malfunction and got photographed? Contact the PR department, and find out who the photographer is. I’ll have their boss explain.”

“…”

After several calls, she smiled apologetically at Lin Yuan, “Did I disturb you?”

“No.”

Lin Yuan hadn’t had breakfast, so he was a bit hungry. While Zhao Jue was on the phone, he focused on eating.

“You.”

Zhao Jue chuckled, wiping a grain of rice from Lin Yuan’s mouth, “Your mom called me last time asking about you. I didn’t expect you’d lie. You haven’t earned ten thousand, right? Your salary isn’t even two thousand.”

Lin Yuan said, “Sorry for the trouble, Sister Zhao.”

Zhao Jue shook her head, guessing the reason, so she didn’t blame Lin Yuan.

Just then, her phone rang again, but this call seemed important because Lin Yuan saw Zhao Jue’s expression change, and she even stood up.

Moreover, her tone on this call was not as strong as before, but rather a bit restrained, “Yes, yes, yes… I’m in contact… This girl is a bit proud… Hard to handle… I understand… Boss… Please don’t let them pressure me to make a military pledge again… My heart can’t take it…”

Lin Yuan realized.

It was the company boss, which was understandable. Who wouldn’t respect their superior?

After hanging up, Zhao Jue seemed to have lost her appetite, barely touching her food, looking worried.

“Is something bothering you?” Lin Yuan asked with concern.

Zhao Jue smiled wryly, “What’s the use of telling you? Just eat your meal.”

Lin Yuan drank some soup, then wiped his mouth, “I’m full. You can tell me now.”

“…”

Zhao Jue put down her phone, “You know ‘Bloom,’ right?”

Lin Yuan nodded.

It’s a talent show in Qinzhou held once a year. Xia Fan dreams of becoming an excellent female singer but has been eliminated for two consecutive years. It’s a high-threshold program.

“Then you must have followed the competition.”

Zhao Jue said with a headache, “This year’s ‘Bloom’ produced a very talented champion named Zhao Yingge. She’s beautiful, with a vocal talent comparable to yours in the past. Most importantly, she doesn’t have a management company yet, so all the entertainment companies in Qinzhou want to sign her. Unfortunately, this girl is very proud. She said that to sign her, they must provide a song that can be her representative work. I asked Old Zhou to find seven or eight ace composers to write songs for her, but she didn’t like any of them.”

Lin Yuan commented, “She has high standards.”

In the morning, out of curiosity about ace composers, Lin Yuan listened to many of their representative works.

He had to admit, the aces were indeed impressive. Each representative work was a classic.

At the same time, Lin Yuan was sure that these ace composers’ representative works would be hugely popular even in his previous world.

This gave Lin Yuan a deeper understanding of the composers’ skills on this planet.

“But she’s not just targeting Starlight.”

Zhao Jue’s tone softened a bit, seemingly finding Lin Yuan a good listener.

“Fortunately, the songs from Brilliant Silver and Sand Sea haven’t impressed her either, so for now, the three of us are still competing—she hasn’t considered companies outside the top three.”

At this point, Zhao Jue shook her head, “It’s not that she looks down on ace composers’ songs. It’s mainly because ace composers have limited energy. They often have long-term collaborations with singers and sometimes take external commissions, so the songs they write on short notice are of lower quality…”

Another call came in.

Zhao Jue didn’t want to answer, so she hung up and continued confiding in Lin Yuan, “As a composer, you should understand. Even if they give it their all, no ace composer can guarantee that every song they write will be a representative work. Representative works often represent a person’s highest level. Who can say that every piece they create reaches their highest level?”

“Yes, people say ace composers are amazing, producing extraordinary work.”

“But it depends on how you say it… They’re definitely amazing. After all, each of Starlight’s ace composers has at least five classic songs. But if you average it out, you’ll find… most of these ace composers are over thirty years old. Thirty is considered young talent!”

“In other words, except for a few geniuses, most of them take over ten years to write a few representative works.”

“Ten years! Just for a few representative works!”

“This output rate is like having a baby, nine months of pregnancy, and ace composers can’t even manage that in nine months. So Zhao Yingge’s demand for a representative work isn’t as simple as having an ace composer write a song for her. It’s a very difficult requirement.”

Lin Yuan understood.

Sister Zhao provided him with a new perspective.

He had only seen the strength of ace composers but hadn’t seen how much time and effort they spent to produce a representative work, just like how he worked hard on system tasks to get treasure chests.

“Sigh.”

Zhao Jue suddenly laughed, “I’ve been venting to you for so long, you must be tired of listening. Thanks for listening to my nonsense. If you’re full, go back to work. I’ll try to get a few more songs from Old Zhou. Anyway, the other two companies haven’t managed to deal with Zhao Yingge yet, so we’ll figure it out slowly.”

Lin Yuan asked, “If there’s a song, she’ll sign?”

Zhao Jue almost got annoyed by Lin Yuan’s casual tone, “Yes, a song will do, but it has to be a representative work. You understand what a representative work is, right? ‘Life Like Summer Flowers’ is your representative work—what, can you produce ‘Summer Flowers’ every day?”

Lin Yuan regretted, “I’ve already released ‘Life Like Summer Flowers.’ She’s probably heard it.”

Zhao Jue: “…”

Kid, are you serious?

Lin Yuan was also a bit troubled, “Will ‘Flammable and Explosive’ work?”

Zhao Jue looked puzzled, “What explosion?”

Lin Yuan took out his phone and operated on his email, then said, “I sent it to you.”

Zhao Jue was even more confused, “What did you send me?”

Lin Yuan stood up, “Consider it a thank you for the meal.”