Chapter 6: Song Recording

"Private room? You have a customer?"

When Xiao Xia heard that Su Ran wanted to borrow a private room, her first thought was that Su Ran wanted to "treat" her "boss", and this customer might have something to do with her wanting to quit.

"No."

Xiao Xia didn't even try to hide her thoughts on her look. Su Ran wasn't sure what to make of her thoughts.

If the inside of her wasn't swapped, given the original owner's personality and situation, she would probably never leave this industry.

It made sense why Xiao Xia didn't believe her when she said she planned to have a career change.

"I just want to borrow the piano in there to record a few songs is all," said Su Ran, explaining her purpose.

Selling songs.

That was the only method that Su Ran could come up with that could pay off the loan sharks as fast as possible.

In her original world, Su Ran was praised by the industry and media as a master-level musician. However, unlike many highbrow musicians, Su Ran has no problem creating music that the public wanted for survival and for her quality of living.

Not only did she not resent that idea, she was actually churned out quite a bit of music for commercial purposes.

Which was why, she wasn't only the youngest musician in the industry, but also the richest.

In this world, however, there was no more wizard musician Su Ran, so naturally, there also wouldn't be any musical companies, pop singers, or influential stars lining up to buy songs from her.

She would just have to be proactive about it.

In the past, musical company moguls would fight to their death for a handwritten sheet music from her. But right now, without anything tangible, she didn't think she'd get any response if she just sent out a few compositions of sheet music.

And so, Su Ran's plan was to record a few sections of multiple songs and send them as a package.

Even the simplest form of music required instruments. The original owner would be of no help. The only alternate option that Su Ran could think of would be here.

After Su Ran had explained herself, Xiao Xia looked at her even more suspiciously.

"Piano? Recording? You?"

You've got to be kidding. They have been working together for years. Xiao Xia had a pretty good idea what kind of qualifications Su Ran possessed. With the exception of her pretty face, even if she wanted to be a host on a TV show, she was missing the talent and being able to speak softly and tenderly.

"I am serious. Just a few songs. I just need to borrow the piano in the private room for a little bit when it's available," said Su Ran.

"You just want to use the piano?"

She didn't know what Su Ran really wanted to accomplish, but the shop wasn't open for business in the daytime and the private room was just empty anyway. As for the piano inside, it was just a prop for the mood, it wasn't even worth much.

It was no big deal for Su Ran to use it for a little while.

"Yes, all I need is 10 minutes. I promise it won't be disruptive to the shop."

"What can you do in 10 minutes? Take it for 3 hours, just make sure you will be out of there when the cleaning crew comes in the afternoon."

"Thank you, Xia-jie."

After thanking Xia-jie, Su Ran pushed open the door, entered into a private room and walked straight toward the piano sitting on a podium. It had a grand look, but that's about it.

However, given her current situation, even a piano of this caliber was a blessing.

As such, Su Ran quickly put aside her resentment toward it, tuned it a little, and opened up the recording app on her phone and placed it on top of the piano.

The moment her fingertips touched the piano, Su Ran's lips curved upward. She smiled lightly like she was bathing in the spring breeze.

In her original world, Su Ran didn't have any family members. With the exception of a few assistants who cared for her, music was her entire world.

And so, touching the piano was almost like seeing a family member to her.

Her regret of dying halfway through her best work and the angst and confusion from arriving at this new world, all of it seemed to have melted away at that very moment.

Her fingers danced over the keys and strings of musical notes poured out like a stream in a mountain – carefree but mixed with a hint of sadness, as though it was telling a not-so-happy love story.

Outside the private room, Xiao Xia was playing Anipop on her cellphone. She paused suddenly when the moment she heard the music from the private room.

"No way, she could really play the piano?" Xiao Xia face was filled with a I-don't-believe-it-this-must-be-cellphone-ring look. She put away her cellphone and walked toward the private room.

Xiao Xia just wanted to see if it was Su Ran who was playing the piano, but she was stunned silent the moment she pushed open the door.

This really was Su Ran? The one that she knew?

Right now, Su Ran was sitting properly in front of the piano. Her face calm, her look focused, and her slender fingers dancing deftly and skillfully across the keys of the piano keys.

It was dark outside earlier so Xiao Xia didn't get a good look at Su Ran.

She just now noticed that without her normal thick makeup lathered over her face, she not only didn't seem uglier, but it exposed her stunningly delicate face.

The spotlight from the ceiling casted perfectly on Su Ran, giving Xiao Xia the illusion that she was at a classy concert right now.

And, Su Ran could really play the piano!

Even though Xiao Xia knew nothing about music, she still felt that Su Ran was very good at it, and the music she played sounded wonderful.

Xiao Xia wasn't the only one attracted by Su Ran's music.

"Oh my god! So pretty!" Li Xue, who had followed the music and spotted Su Ran playing on the piano, couldn't help but exclaim out loud. She immediately covered up her mouth with her hand the next second.

Nonetheless, she couldn't help but to pull out the cellphone and recorded this beautiful moment.

Just when they were completely mesmerized by her music, Su Ran stopped suddenly.

Her audience was wondering why she stopped, but they realized that she didn't stop. She merely switched over to a different piece.

The style changed abruptly from what was originally lyrical to a cheerful one.

Nobody expressed any displeasure that she had switched at the best part of the piece as the next one was just as good. The crowd merely felt that they wished they could listen to more of the first piece.

Once again, Su Ran switched again to another piece before the second one was done again.

This one has a more historical feel to it and Su Ran was able to perfectly create the heart-rending feel with her music.

After that, Su Ran switched a few more times and sometimes she'd even sing along a little bit.

Soon, she had finished with all 10 pieces. Su Ran picked up her phone and stopped the recording. It was exactly 10 minutes long.

She turned around and saw Xiao Xia standing by the door.

"Okay, I am done. Thank you, Xia-jie."

"Su Ran, how come you never mentioned that you are so talented?" Xiao Xia, recovered from her surprise, looked at Su Ran with widened eyes.

They've always thought she was a nobody when, in fact, she was just hiding her talents.

"Ugh, I never had the opportunity to," said Su Ran, just making something up.

In the original novel, as a daughter of the Su's, the original owner has had some piano lessons, except that the only thing that came out of it was to become the contrast that made the female lead look better.

In the novel, "Su Ran" wanted to show everyone that the female lead was but a talentless peasant girl at Old Mrs. Sung's, the male lead's mother, birthday banquet. Not only did she play a piece for Old Mrs. Sung, she further mocked how talentless the female lead was. The outcome? Of course she was faceslapped by the female lead with her raw talent.

Su Ran found this out from the original owner's memories. It seemed that "Su Ran" had stopped playing the piano after that incident.

Xiao Xia, not knowing the truth, nodded to her words and seemed to be pondering about something.

"I guess you are right." In their industry, all one needed was a pretty face. Talent was but the icing on the cake.

"Su Ran, tell big sister the truth, did you run into a talent scout?" asked Xiao Xia secretively as she dragged Su Ran to one side.

"Ugh, no…."

Even when Su Ran denied it, Xiao Xia still didn't believe her.

She must have ran into a scout or was planning on switching gear to become a star, an internet influencer, or record some music or something.

Surely Su Ran was a bit on the older side, but if one gave her a close look, one could still see that she was still quite attractive, easily better than half the stars out there. Perhaps, she really had some crazy encounters.

"Don't worry, if you really become famous one day, I promise I will not tell anyone that you worked here before."

As Xiao Xia was saying that, Hong-jie returned in her high heels. She didn't look very happy and even less so when she saw Su Ran who ditched them halfway yesterday.

"Su Ran? You sure ran away fast last night. What do you want now?"

"On, cousin, Su Ran said she's quitting. She came to tell you that."

"Quit? Who? Su Ran?" Hearing that Su Ran was quitting, the surprised look on Xiao Hongmei was exactly the same as the one on Xiao Xia just a bit earlier.

But Xiao Hongmei quickly recollected herself.

"Alright, leave then," said Hong-jie indifferently.

"But, let's be clear here. If you leave now, you are not going to get this month's table fees."

"That's fine." Su Ran's biggest goal right now was to end this bizarre life that belonged to the original owner. Money was only secondary.

Even the original owner didn't know how much she made in a month, let alone Su Ran. But one thing she knew for sure was that it wouldn't be enough to cover the loan sharks' amounts.

Xiao Xia grabbed onto Xiao Hongmei after Su Ran had left.

"Cousin, how come you let her go just like that?" That wasn't like her.

"Tsk, that Su Ran?" A look of contempt crept onto Xiao Hongmei's face. "I bet you she'll be back in less than a week and beg me to take her back.

"That's the way this business works. I will decide if I want to take her back then."

What Hong-jie didn't know right now was that the Su Ran that she was so sure would return never came back after a week. The very next time she saw the name "Su Ran" was on the internet search keywords, with the word "HOT" next to it at that.

"Big sister!"

As soon as Su Ran walked outside the bar, Li Xue ran up behind her and called out to her.

"You are talking to me?" Su Ran looked at the young girl who was barely older than her instant son, a bit confused.

"Yes, yes. Is big sister the musician hired by the shop?"

Li Xue was just here to help out during holidays and help with some clean up and maybe passing out some flyers in the daytime. She had almost no contact with the night workers like "Su Ran", so she didn't know about "Su Ran"'s identity.

"No, I am not."

"Oh, um..."

"Is there anything else?"

"That, I just want to ask, what's the name of the piece that big sister was just playing? It was so good!" said Li Xue emotionally.

She had never heard of any of the pieces that this big sister was playing earlier.

How was she so sure? Because they were so good that had she heard of them before, she certainly would have remembered.

She was so bummed that she didn't get to add them to her playlist!

"No."

"Huh?"

"These songs have not been released yet."

"Oh? You mean…."

"But they should be soon." Su Ran smiled when she saw the disappointment on her face.

"Really?"

"Really." If she didn't even have that much confidence in herself, Su Ran wouldn't have the title of a "master". The only thing she wasn't sure about was who would be singing these songs.