The Sea of Stars

The more Zhou Rui thought about it, the more he felt that this song was appropriate.

It was melodious and passionate, especially the melody, which was extremely catchy. Even in the era of short videos, where music is fragmented, it still stood out and became all the rage.

That song was Sea of Stars.

Many people first heard this song through a short video and understood it as a song praising love.

However, this song did not become popular immediately after its release. It gradually gained traction and became a hit across the internet after being featured in a centenary celebration event. It also became the theme song for the lunar exploration documentary series.

This was a work that perfectly combined pop music and mainstream values.

After learning the story behind the song, Zhou Rui went out of his way to find both versions and particularly pondered the lyrics. He was able to truly hear the grandeur of changing times through the melodious female voice.

The melody of Sea of Stars began to flash through his mind. If he didn't count his rebirth, he had still been playing this song on repeat "last week," so he was very familiar with it.

With the addition of the Absolute Musical Sense ability, many details of the song emerged in Zhou Rui's mind, including the background music in the verses, the instruments used, the chord transitions in the chorus, and even some singing techniques.

The arrangement of this song wasn't complicated and could be done with just a piano and bass. It was a little difficult to sing, but it mainly tested timbre rather than technique. It required a soft and majestic voice with richer emotions.

With a general idea in mind, Zhou Rui no longer hesitated and began eagerly learning musical notation.

Yes, he was now essentially a "musical illiterate" with top talent.

If he wanted to express the melody in his mind and turn it into a score to register the copyright, he couldn't just hum a part and send it out, right? He needed a score that adhered to the rules, but he had never learned anything about it. He only knew the rules of the five-line staff from his junior high school music class.

The staff notation was very difficult to understand, but also quite simple once broken down. Many people had said it only took half an hour to master the basic rules of staff notation. After all, it wasn't difficult to understand how to mark the notes according to the position of the lines.

However, it took several years to become proficient at using it, or even to recognize it at a glance while performing.

Fortunately, Zhou Rui didn't need to pursue this level. He didn't need to recognize musical notation instantly, at least not yet. He only needed to write out the melody in his mind, note by note, within the rules of the notation.

It was like being given a math formula and substituting numbers into it.

Even if it took an entire night, as long as he could finish it according to the rules, it would be fine. Even if he stumbled when reading the score again, so what?

There were actually two versions of this song: one was the popular version, and the other was the Centennial version. Zhou Rui had also heard the Centennial version, but he felt the lyrics were too straightforward and not as evocative as the more subtly praising original version. So, Zhou Rui used the original version for the lyrics.

The more metaphorical it was, the more sincere it appeared.

When Zhou Rui finished the song, he felt satisfied looking at the musical score he had drawn with a ruler in his hand.

There were a lot of handwritten music scores, but there probably weren't many composers who still wrote music by hand, right?

After taking a photo with Li Wenqian's mobile phone, Zhou Rui looked at the time and found it was already two o'clock. He quickly took a shower and went to bed.

Before going to bed, he tiptoed and took out his ID card from under the TV cabinet.

This had been hidden by Yao Peili to prevent Zhou Rui from going to the internet cafe, but Zhou Rui already knew where it was hidden.

Tomorrow, he would need to find a way to get a scanned copy of the music score for copyright registration, and the ID card was indispensable.

It was only for one day, so it shouldn't be discovered.

Zhou Rui also had his own bank card, which he had asked his mother to get in order to appear "independent," and he used it to store his New Year's money.

In reality, he never used it. He didn't have many relatives, so he couldn't receive much money at all. And before the end of the Spring Festival, the New Year's money would be snatched away by Yao Peili under various pretexts, and it would be gone before he could even go through the process of "saving money."

After getting everything ready, Zhou Rui lay down on the bed and went to sleep.

He had been sleeping later and later every day, and he had to protect his hairline.

The next morning, Zhou Rui went to pick up Li Wenqian as usual.

"You may need your phone for a while. How about I keep it for you?"

Li Wenqian wrinkled her nose to express her little displeasure, but she didn't object because the fruit leather in Zhou Rui's hand had already poked her delicate little face.

He had given so much.

"Okay, use it then. It's you who handed in your phone. Aunt Yao must be so happy!"

Zhou Rui smiled bitterly and said, "Stop talking, my face hurts already."

"By the way, what are you doing so mysteriously?"

Li Wenqian suddenly remembered that she hadn't asked Zhou Rui what he had done with his phone yesterday!

Had she been too obedient? She had given it to her as soon as she asked for it.

She had been tricked for the whole night with just one piece of fruit leather!

Zhou Rui didn't plan to hide it from Li Wenqian, because she would definitely be indispensable in the next plan. The demo recording of Sea of Stars would require the help of this future queen of singing!

He directly said: "I'm writing a song."

Li Wenqian suspected that she had heard it wrong.

"Writing songs? You? Really?"

It wasn't that she looked down on Zhou Rui, but Zhou Rui, like her, had never received any musical training since childhood.

Zhou Rui used Li Wenqian's mobile phone to show her the photo of the handwritten music score and said, "Look, this is the result of one night's work. It's genuine!"

Li Wenqian's eyes widened. "Still musical notation! When did you learn this?"

The future "last queen of singing" currently couldn't even read musical notation.

She just felt that Zhou Rui was glowing!

Zhou Rui "rua"d his mushroom head. Don't say it, the hair was quite smooth—the kind of smoothness that was dry and fragrant.

Although her hairstyle was a bit rustic, Li Wenqian wasn't a girl who didn't care about her appearance.

"The rules of staves are not complicated. I took some time to study them. Don't just stare at me. You have big eyes. When the copyright is registered, you have to record a demo for me."

Li Wenqian shook her head. "Me? No way! I don't even know musical notation, and I've never sung a song before."

She currently knew nothing about her own talents, and the person who had the most confidence in her in the world was Zhou Rui.

She didn't even need to know how to read musical notation—Zhou Rui would teach her how to sing it, sentence by sentence.

Li Wenqian's voice was very suitable for the song Sea of Stars. Even with her untrained voice, it was enough to beat many professional singers.

God feeds you, and you drop the spoon? Does God have no shame?

"By the way, I heard there's a transfer student in your class? A college entrance exam immigrant?"

Li Wenqian suddenly said.

Zhou Rui didn't hide anything and said frankly: "Yes, they just arrived at school yesterday afternoon."

Li Wenqian nodded and didn't ask any more questions.

The main thing was, she didn't know yet that the girl who was rumored to be able to directly win the title of campus beauty was Zhou Rui's desk mate.

There was also a lifelong friendship.

She didn't know yet that her house was being robbed.

The two of them separated in front of the school gate as usual and went to their respective classes.

When Zhou Rui arrived, Han Zinyin had not arrived yet. He casually opened his schoolbag and prepared to tidy up the desk.

As a result, his hand hit a hard object.

He took it out and looked.

Holy shit! A new phone!

The white, textured hard box had the Nokia logo printed on it. The photo on the package showed a unique mobile phone with a sliding flip cover, a full touch screen, and a full keyboard.

It was Nokia's last great effort, the famous N97!

If he remembered correctly, this phone hadn't even been officially released in mainland China yet, but its unique design and top-notch configurations had already made the N97 a very famous phone.

It was called "the king of mobile phones!"

Zhou Rui remembered that when he was a freshman in his previous life, a rich second-generation student in his class used this phone. Back then, Nokia had not yet fallen from grace. Once this phone was taken out, it was proof of wealth.

After all, in 2009, this phone cost more than 6,000 yuan.

And now, in Zhou Rui's desk, there was a brand-new N97 that had not been publicly released.

He looked around, wondering who had placed this on his desk.

What was this? A gift? Or was it misplaced?

As a high school student, wasn't it a bit too expensive for something like this?

Just as Zhou Rui was looking around, trying to guess what was going on, he saw Han Ziyin walking in with her slender neck held high and her eyes straight ahead.

But when she and Zhou Rui locked eyes, she subconsciously looked away, as if a little embarrassed.

Zhou Rui thought: Could it be Han Ziyin?