Lin Yuan was unaware of Zhao Jue’s difficulties. After recording his song, he didn’t pay much attention to the Newcomer Season in the music industry because he had to focus on another task from the system:

[Enter the top 25 in the next professional course exam]

This was a task related to studying, and exam scores were crucial. So, from the first class the next day, Lin Yuan officially entered “study mode.”

Learning makes me happy.

Professional course assessments are generally in the form of written exams, with many knowledge points requiring rote memorization. Therefore, besides taking diligent notes in class, Lin Yuan also spent his free time after class tackling his professional course books.

The Composition Department is mostly theoretical.

After continuous study, Lin Yuan’s mind was filled with professional course knowledge points like “Counterpoint and Fugue,” “Harmony Explanation,” “Modern Composition Techniques,” and even “Orchestration.”

But surprisingly, after living this way for several days, Lin Yuan didn’t find it boring. Instead, he felt that his days were very fulfilling.

In the evening, when he was too tired from studying, he would call Xia Fan and Jian Yi to take a walk on the playground, enjoying the evening breeze and chatting, which was quite pleasant.

While walking on the playground, Lin Yuan’s phone suddenly vibrated. He took it out and saw a message: “The Newcomer Season starts tomorrow, ‘Life Like Summer Flowers’ has been registered, Starlight Entertainment is with you!”

Newcomer Season?

Lin Yuan was surprised: “Is today the last day of October? Tomorrow is November?”

Well, in order to complete the system task and open another bronze treasure chest, he had been studying so diligently that he had completely forgotten about the Newcomer Season.

“To be precise,” Jian Yi said, “after midnight tonight, the annual Newcomer Season in the music industry begins!”

Perhaps because it was related to their major, Xia Fan, standing nearby, excitedly added some key points: “These days, everyone in our music department has been discussing this, especially in our Vocal Department. Even our teacher mentioned it in class because our senior, Sun Yaohuo, will debut in the Newcomer Season. Sun Yaohuo himself even contacted the school, hoping that the juniors would vote for him… You should remember Senior Sun Yaohuo, right? Before you transferred departments, we collaborated with him.”

Lin Yuan had a peculiar expression: “I remember.”

To keep a low profile, Lin Yuan had specifically asked Sun Yaohuo not to reveal that he was the composer and lyricist of “Life Like Summer Flowers.” It seemed that Sun Yaohuo had indeed kept his secret.

Hmm?

Jian Yi tilted his head and glanced at Lin Yuan, finding his expression intriguing. Then he exchanged a look with Xia Fan, and they seemed to understand something implicitly.

Both of them remembered that Lin Yuan had previously asked them, in a roundabout way, how to release a new song. Xia Fan had even suggested that he register for this year’s Newcomer Season through the company agent…

Now it seemed that Lin Yuan had failed.

After all, the entry standards for the Newcomer Season were incredibly high. Although Lin Yuan had maxed out his vocal talent and had an unbeatable voice, he really didn’t have much talent in composition.

Moreover, if he wasn’t lacking confidence, Lin Yuan wouldn’t have asked them in such a roundabout way.

Given this, to avoid making Lin Yuan sad, the two of them tacitly decided not to bring up the topic tonight.

Lin Yuan was unaware of his friends’ thoughts. At this moment, he was somewhat relieved that they didn’t ask about the Newcomer Season, as he wasn’t good at lying to those close to him.

And so, with different thoughts in mind, the three of them returned to their respective dormitories.

The Newcomer Season officially started at midnight on November 1st. Many people stayed up late for it, but Lin Yuan had been so focused on studying that he was too exhausted to stay up, and his health wasn’t great either, so he couldn’t make it to midnight.

He went to bed at ten o’clock.

However, while Lin Yuan couldn’t stay up, others could. For instance, those night owls who loved listening to music and playing on their phones late at night.

Zhang Chen, a sophomore music student at Qinzhou Art Academy, was one such night owl. At midnight, Zhang Chen put on his best headphones and opened his usual app, Yunhai Music, right on time to see what new songs were worth discovering in this year’s Newcomer Season.

“I hope this year doesn’t disappoint me.”

As a music student, Zhang Chen was a music enthusiast. He owned four pairs of headphones, ranging in price from 1,500 to 10,000 yuan, all bought with money he earned from part-time jobs.

He started listening to the songs recommended on the homepage. To be honest, these songs were pretty good. After all, they were new songs pushed by major companies to compete on the Newcomer Chart, so their quality was guaranteed. Otherwise, it would just be a waste of resources.

But the problem was…

These songs only stayed at the level of being good. Zhang Chen, being a music enthusiast, had very picky ears, and ordinary songs couldn’t really impress him.

As a result, after listening to twenty-one songs, only three made it into Zhang Chen’s backup playlist.

Zhang Chen’s account was created ten years ago. He had two playlists under his account. The top one was a treasured playlist, and the bottom one was a backup playlist.

The treasured playlist had only twelve songs, accumulated over ten years. Each song was a classic in Zhang Chen’s mind, songs he might never delete and would listen to from time to time, always feeling as fresh as the first time.

The backup playlist had more songs, and the songs changed more frequently. These were songs Zhang Chen liked in the short term, but after listening to them too much, he would get tired of them and remove them from the backup playlist.

After listening to a few more songs, Zhang Chen felt a bit tired. Just as he was about to go to sleep, a new song recommendation caught his attention with its fleeting description: “Life is as splendid as summer flowers, and death is as serene as autumn leaves.”

Admittedly, this sentence was beautiful. So beautiful that Zhang Chen hesitated to click on the link to listen to the song, fearing that the song’s quality might not live up to the poetic description.

But in the end, he clicked on the song titled “Life Like Summer Flowers” out of curiosity about what the song behind those words was about.

The music started abruptly. A humming in an unidentifiable language resonated through the high-resolution molecular diaphragm of his headphones.

It’s hard to describe this feeling. It was like a wave crashing over him, instantly awakening every listening cell in Zhang Chen’s tired body, making him hold his breath as he attentively listened to the main verse of “Life Like Summer Flowers”:

“I don’t know how long I’ve been asleep in the dark, nor how hard it is to open my eyes. I came from afar, just as you were here, fascinated by the world. I go wild for her…”

There was a sense of sadness, a hint of regret, yet also a trace of hope and anticipation. The emotions from the singing mixed with those from the lyrics, floating in the sea of melody.

Zhang Chen’s breathing gradually calmed. But beneath his calm breathing, an unusual emotion seemed to gather in his chest, continuously rising until the music’s rhythm slightly quickened, and the first chorus began in an extraordinarily tranquil manner:

“I am this dazzling moment, a fleeting flame across the sky. I came for you, regardless of everything. I will extinguish, never to return. I am here, right here, fleeting as a startled swan, splendid as summer flowers…”

Zhang Chen listened almost in a daze. The blooming and withering of life seemed to be fully expressed in the song. He inexplicably thought of the bonds between people and the connection between people and the world.

At this moment, he suddenly felt an emotional release, his throat tightening, and he found himself choking up under the covers in the middle of the night because he ultimately thought of an old friend.

Like him, the friend was also a music enthusiast. They had worked summer jobs together to buy headphones and listened to music together, intoxicated by the classics.

But unfortunately, as Zhang Chen got into Qinzhou’s best art academy, his friend, unable to meet the academic requirements, had to give up on music as a lifelong dream, and their paths gradually diverged.

Did time and lack of contact really erase friendship?

Zhang Chen’s eyes were teary, filled with countless thoughts, as he listened to the song gradually fade:

“All the way spring light, all the way thorns, fleeting as a startled swan, splendid as summer flowers. This is a world where one cannot linger too long…”

Indeed, this is a world where one cannot linger too long. If so, why not choose to be as splendid as summer flowers? In a lifetime, may you not live in vain.

“Download.”

Songs can be listened to for free three times, but Zhang Chen didn’t plan to continue with the free listens. He wiped his tears and directly clicked to download the song.

The unified price for downloading a song on Blue Star is just one yuan.

After downloading the song, Zhang Chen’s lips curled into a slight smile as he added “Life Like Summer Flowers” to his treasured playlist, a playlist that hadn’t been updated in three years. Today, it welcomed a new song.

Then Zhang Chen checked the song’s information. Seeing the singer’s name, he was visibly surprised: “It’s sung by our school’s graduate, Senior Sun Yaohuo?”

Recently, the campus had been buzzing about the Newcomer Season, and Sun Yaohuo’s name had been mentioned frequently.

However, what Zhang Chen was most concerned about wasn’t the singer but the songwriter, especially the composer. To his surprise, the songwriter and composer were both credited to the same name:

“Xian Yu.”

Who is Xian Yu? It must be a stage name. Zhang Chen made a mental note of the name, planning to pay more attention to it in the future. Finally, he opened his chat software, clicked on a name he hadn’t contacted in over half a year, and shared “Life Like Summer Flowers” with them.

No need for words. Words are pale. But Zhang Chen thought that when the other person heard this song, they would understand. Music was their best language of communication.

Next, Zhang Chen wanted to share the song in his class group for everyone to enjoy. But when he opened the group chat, he smiled.

With the Newcomer Season underway, the night owls in the group were already buzzing. No one wanted to sleep early, after all, music was their major, and the song being discussed was unsurprising:

[Xiao Bei]: “Wow! Senior Sun Yaohuo is amazing!”

[Lan Lan]: “Life is as splendid as summer flowers, and death is as serene as autumn leaves! It’s explosive! Senior Sun Yaohuo is really going to be famous this time.”

[Hua Hua]: “Are you guys talking about Sun Yaohuo’s song? Is it that amazing? I’ll go listen.”

[Gentle Blade]: “I cried listening to ‘Life Like Summer Flowers.’ Senior Sun Yaohuo is indeed impressive, no doubt about his skills, but the real genius is the songwriter!”

[Dog Walks a Thousand Miles]: “Indeed! No wonder they’re a Master Composer! Senior Sun Yaohuo hit the jackpot with this god-tier backing!”

[Music Department Huang Liang]: “Believe it or not, when the Newcomer Chart opens tomorrow, ‘Life Like Summer Flowers’ will dominate!”

[Hua Hua]: “Finished listening to the song, I’m floored! The Master Composer is a god-level carry! Also, did you notice? The lyrics and composition were all done by the same Master Composer. With such a Master Composer on board, even if they tied a dog in the recording studio, it would win.”