204 Dawn
Although Wang Heng hadn’t heard the previous song “Lost Path” before, it wasn’t hard to hear the flavor of the niche independent singer from the first timeline. It was just that the girl who was not yet twenty couldn’t interpret it completely enough, and was still a bit immature.
But the song she sang at this moment sounded particularly strange and fresh to Wang Heng’s ears.
The slow and leisurely tune echoed in the empty music store, accompanied by the equally gentle guitar sound:
“I see the brilliant sunset hiding behind the dark clouds,
Mist lingers around, front and back, left and right,
Lonely people are most afraid of loneliness,
The hardest thing is to move forward bravely…”
After singing the verse, it was time for the climax of the chorus. But at this moment, the singing stopped abruptly.
The girl’s hand pressed on the strings, and her perky little nose couldn’t help but wrinkle. “No, this is wrong…”
Wang Heng asked, “What’s wrong?”
Pei Ningle: “For this song, I want to sing about the mist first, that kind of sad and melancholic feeling, filling up the emotions bit by bit, pushing them higher. In the end, it suddenly becomes bright, like flowers blooming…”
Wang Heng imagined it. “Do you mean suppressing first before rising?”
The girl nodded immediately. “Yes, yes, that’s what I think.”
Wang Heng: “Then write it like that. Can’t you?”
Pei Ningle: “The problem is, the template for pop music is like this. First a relatively flat verse, then a prominent chorus, an interlude, then another verse, and finally the chorus repeats, often an octave higher, pushing the emotion to the highest point… But for this song, I want to use the first 70% for emotional foreshadowing, 10% for transition, and the last 20% to reach the peak. This is different from the mainstream on the market.”
Wang Heng: “Then be different. You don’t like following the rules, do you?”
The girl put down the guitar, tugged at the shoulder strap of her dress, obviously a little irritable—having a lot to say but finding it difficult to express clearly for a moment, it was nothing more than this feeling.
She frowned and thought for a moment, then said, “But the template for pop music makes sense! A song needs to intersperse choruses and verses so it doesn’t seem monotonous. I’m very worried, if I always use the same pattern to build up emotions, will people get impatient…”
Wang Heng: “Then add two more bridges.”
“Bridge? You even know what a bridge is?” Pei Ningle stared at him, surprise in her eyes.
Wang Heng shrugged. “It’s just a musical sentence connecting different sections. It’s not hard to understand.”
Of course, besides the so-called ‘bridge’, Wang Heng had heard more musical terms. But for these terms, his level of cognition was only knowing them, understanding a little basic concept. Everyone has different talents. Just as Pei Ningle found it difficult to learn the logic in code, Wang Heng also couldn’t figure out how she processed those notes.
Pei Ningle was not interested in pursuing the details, but analyzed seriously, “If I don’t put a chorus after the first verse, but put a bridge with a similar tone, then lay an interlude, and then repeat the verse… this seems to work.”
Wang Heng: “As long as it works.”
But Pei Ningle was still a little hesitant. “I don’t know if it will work. I feel that a song written like this will definitely be shorter than the previous one, maybe less than three minutes…”
Wang Heng: “It doesn’t matter. Short is not a problem. Being cliché or sounding bad is the problem, isn’t it?”
Pei Ningle didn’t speak, pondered for a long time, and picked up the guitar again.
This time, she sang the verse again, used humming without lyrics for the ‘bridge’ in the middle, and when it came to the final chorus, the guitar accompaniment suddenly became more urgent and powerful.
The girl looked out the window in a trance, raised her voice, and sang in a more ethereal high voice:
“I see every ordinary day,
Turning into a fresh miracle,
I see those brilliant rainbows,
Shining into lonely dreams,
I hear the harp playing crystals,
Weaving into beautiful poems,
I see you…”
Here, she plucked a string of light notes with the guitar as the ending.
After the song was finished, Pei Ningle turned to look at Wang Heng and asked nervously, “What do you think?”
Wang Heng stared at her, his mind analyzing rapidly.
During the first timeline, almost none of Pei Ningle’s songs were about love. The themes were either the loneliness and hesitation of urban youth, or attempts at some niche themes, such as cyberpunk.
In the second timeline, the time she officially started creating was advanced, but the style of the first song “Lost Path” was still the same, having nothing to do with love. Wang Heng originally thought this song “Dawn” would be the same, but hearing the last line, it seemed a little different?
The lyric ‘I see you’, was there any hint?
Wang Heng was analyzing when he saw Pei Ningle lean in front of him and ask again, “What do you think of this song? Does it sound good?”
Wang Heng smiled and applauded. “It’s great.”
Pei Ningle couldn’t help asking again, “Really?”
Wang Heng: “Really.”
Pei Ningle was still a little apprehensive. “Is it really great?”
Wang Heng emphasized, “Very great. Why not go to the recording studio and record it?”
Pei Ningle: “Okay, let’s go now!”
The girl hugged the guitar and walked out.
Seeing this, Wang Heng reminded her, “Return the guitar.”
Pei Ningle looked down, patted the guitar body gently, and said, “I just happen to want a new guitar. Buying it!”
Just then, a stranger’s voice sounded in the music store: “Excuse me, did you write that song just now, little sister? I’ve never heard that melody before, and you seemed to be talking about the creation of this song…”
The two turned around and saw a person sitting on the sofa in the corner. He looked about thirty or forty years old, with a beard and thick-rimmed glasses, looking very vicissitudinous. When Pei Ningle was playing the guitar and singing just now, he sat there motionless, right behind the drum kit, so neither Wang Heng nor Pei Ningle noticed him.
At this moment, the man stood up and said, “I’m the owner of this shop. Little sister, do you want to buy that guitar?”
Pei Ningle nodded. “How much is it?”
“The original price is over eight hundred, but for you…” The music store owner smiled. “Let’s make it a round number, five hundred.”
Pei Ningle blinked. “Five hundred and eight?”
“I mean five hundred, exactly five hundred!”
The music store owner couldn’t help but doubt slightly—was this slightly confused girl really the same person as the girl who sang just now?
Wang Heng suddenly asked, “Why give a discount? Is it because her song sounds good?”
The music store owner sighed. “Yes, that’s enough. I’ve seen too many people who buy a guitar, lose interest after three minutes, and leave it in a corner to gather dust. In the right hands, it’s the best destination for a guitar…”
