"I'm off to take a shower, Darling. You have many things to do for your school reopening tomorrow, so get some rest early, goodnight. ^3^"
"Mmm, goodnight, Little Fairy."
Putting down his phone, Su Yu let out a soft smile.
This girl with the screen name "Misty Rain of the Southern River" was Su Yu's online girlfriend for three years.
Strictly speaking, she was the girlfriend of the Su Yu before.
Yes, he had time-travelled.
It had been a month since he travelled.
In his previous life, he was an orphan. With his natural talent of having a melodious voice and fortunate opportunities, he became famous all over the country at the age of twenty-four. Every day under the spotlight, he was supported and surrounded by hundreds of millions of fans.
While he enjoyed these glories, he also paid the corresponding price.
He received praise as well as curses.
With his fame and popularity, he was bound to always be in the public eye.
Towards the later period, he even feared using the restroom, afraid of being secretly photographed by paparazzi.
Overzealous fans were everywhere. Once, during a hotel stay, someone unknown managed to get ahold of his room card, barged into his room, and slept on the same bed with him.
Over time, Su Yu began to feel irritated and developed a disgust for his celebrity status.
His deep depression eventually led him to consider suicide by jumping into a river.
"This current life is what I desire."
He has a complete family. It may not be wealthy, even somewhat impoverished, but his parents' affection is profound, delivering an exceptionally harmonious atmosphere.
His online girlfriend is understanding, even though he has no idea what she looks like. Yet, through a month of conversation, he can sense the goodness of this girl. Perhaps, this is a soul connection.
In summary, this mundane life provides him reassurance and immense pleasure.
Click!
In the midst of Su Yu's reverie, the door to the room opens.
His mother, Zhang Guizhi, carrying a bowl of soup, walks in.
"You should go to sleep earlier after you finish your medicine. School starts tomorrow. I've packed your things. I'll take a half-day leave and accompany you to school."
She comes to Su Yu's bedside, passing the bowl to him.
"Mom, there's no need to take time off. I'm going with Zhang Yang tomorrow. He'll help me with the luggage."
Su Yu gets up and downs the medicinal soup in the bowl in one go.
This is a prescription that Zhang Guizhi got from an old rural doctor. In a month's time, he has grown accustomed to the bitter taste of the soup.
"Alright, with Zhang Yang accompanying you, I feel relieved. The noodle shop will be busy too since school starts tomorrow."
"Here is the candy, you can eat it later."
Zhang Guizhi takes back the medicine bowl, pulls out a handful of candies from her pocket, and hands them to Su Yu with a smile.
After tidying up his quilt, she turned and left.
She knows Zhang Yang and Su Yu were childhood friends. Su Yu has always been frail, but Zhang Yang has been a comforting presence, taking great care of him. So, she is quite relieved when the two of them are together.
"Even after such a long recovery, I still feel weak. But at least I've fully merged with the original host's memory."
As his mother's figure retreated, Su Yu took a deep breath and a small smile lifted the corners of his mouth.
Due to his physical weakness and hypoglycemia, he has to often eat some candy. For this, every time after he takes his medicine, his mother would give him a piece of candy. It has always been this way since childhood.
Aside from a slender physique, the original host is rather handsome in appearance. Due to his frail constitution, he had a somewhat pale skin that gives him a delicate and elegant air.
His father, Su Zheng Guo, is a sanitation worker and his income, including allowance, only amounts to a little over a thousand per month. His mother, Zhang GuiZhi, works as a dishwasher in a noodle shop making low wages.
Over the years, nearly all the family's money has been spent on the original host's medical expenses. Later, when they could no longer afford the medicine from the hospital, it was only out of necessity that Zhang GuiZhi went to the rural area in search of old traditional physicians, because herbal medicine is cheaper.
A month ago, the original host fainted on his way home, and then Su Yu transmigrated to this world. He didn't know whether the original host had died, or if their consciousness had swapped, and he had gone to Su Yu's world.
All he knew was that in the original host's memory, there was always a sense of guilt towards his parents, thinking of himself as a burden that has been holding them back for so many years.
So he studied hard, intensely.
To graduate early, to go and earn money, to provide a better life for his parents, this has been the original host's wish.
"If I'm to live again in your stead, then I will strive to make your wish come true."
Perhaps because of his troubled mind, tossing and turning restlessly, unable to sleep, Su Yu reached for his phone on the bedside.
With a complex expression, he opened the music player.
His experiences from his past life seemed to lead to some inner resistance towards music.
For such a long time, he hadn't heard a single song from this world.
However, through the original owner's memories, he had a general understanding of this world.
This was a parallel universe called Blue Star, whose context was extremely similar to Earth.
But there was one difference: the cultural atmosphere of this world was very rich, and the entertainment field—including movies, music, artwork, and novels—was extraordinarily thriving.
As a result, as long as you had good grades, you could get into a university of arts even without a foundation in the field.
While the original owner was physically weak, he studied hard and his academic performance was always at the top, even becoming the top arts student in Shuangqing city during the college entrance exams.
When everyone thought he would choose a top domestic university, he chose Shuangqing Art Academy instead, majoring in composition, which wasn't a popular choice.
Su Yu also learned from the original owner's memories that the current Huaxia seems to have entered a strange state where the flow era has arrived, and everyone's pursuit of art has gradually become a pursuit of flow.
Countless people are doing many jaw-dropping things to catch people's attention, as dignity and dreams are worth nothing in front of flow.
Flow is king; this is the current state of Huaxia.
This state has resulted in the entertainment industry being very prosperous, but the works incubated are somewhat mediocre.
The film industry is fraught with bad movies, taking the audience for fools.
These works are making money off the fans of these flow celebrities.
Acting skills are not important, after all, fans have filters for their idols. Lines are not important, as they can be dubbed post-production. All the actors need to do is move their mouths as if counting from one to five.
So what is important?
What's important are those celebrities with huge fanbases.
As long as they have a big fanbase, even if their ratings are negative, they can still earn a fortune.
As for music...
"We learn to bark together, together woof woof woof woof woof..."
The song playing in his earphones prompted Su Yu to furrow his eyebrows, his face contorting into an expression akin to a scowling elderly man on a subway meme.
The song he clicked on was from the hot music chart, and unbelievably, this "We Learn to Bark Together" was the top-ranked song.
"Good grief, such audacity... "
"One man I drink until drunk, drunkenly make those bottles into pairs..."
Su Yu's brows deepened with each new song he clicked on.
Eventually, he put down his phone, exhaled a long sigh of relief and complained: "What on earth are these things?"
He didn't understand how these songs, some of which could hardly be considered songs, made it to the top of the chart.
Wait a minute!
A sudden idea flashed in Su Yu's mind.
If all of these could become popular, then the songs from my past life, any one of them could top the charts, right?
Last time around, I just focused on singing but I didn't delve into arrangement or composition. But I could copy... ahem... transport them?
There're no Big Tree, Xu Wei, or Jay Chou in this world...
Randomly pick a song from any of these artists, and it could create a killing frenzy in this world.
Arriving at this idea, Su Yu felt a rush of impulse surge within him, but this only lasted for two seconds before he suppressed it.
He feared that if he became popular again, he would not be able to continue with his ordinary life.
But, singing is my profession and a quick way to make money. If I don't sing, how else am I supposed to earn money?
Write novels?
Su Yu shook his head. He had read many novels, but he didn't have a photographic memory. He could only remember the basic plotlines.
Such as "Heaven and earth are unkind, treating everything as straw dogs..." "The Dou Zong experts are terrifying…" "My son, Wang Teng, has an imperial demeanor..." "Ah Bin's high school scores were subpar..."
Even though these books could support him for a lifetime, he had forgotten most of the specific details and only had a vague storyline in mind. This isn't enough to sustain a successful writing career.
Casting away the impractical thoughts floating in his mind, Su Yu put down his phone.
He was thinking about a compromise that could allow him to leverage his strengths to make money, yet still lead a modest life.
[Ding. The 'Entertainment System' is being activated...]
Just then, a mechanic female voice appeared in his mind.
A system?
Su Yu, a frequent webnovel reader, is not unfamiliar with it.
Therefore, he did not panic too much, instead he calmly laid down, waiting for the system to bind.
