Looking at Xu Nuo’s utterly shocked expression, Jiang Ling took a confused half-step back.
“Uh… What’s wrong?”
She had indeed convinced Mo Ran, after all.
Wait a—
Did she just say… sleep her over?!
For a split second, Jiang Ling cursed her own ability to jump to conclusions, but she quickly recovered, flustered and hurriedly explained, “I said convinced, convinced her! I made some agreements with her, so this kind of issue shouldn’t come up again anytime soon.”
Hearing this, the entire NOVA team—including the eavesdropping Xu Nuo—let out a breath of relief.
After all, none of them wanted to see Mo Ran leave.
Now that it was certain Mo Ran wouldn’t be leaving, a new challenge appeared before them—
“The album production.”
Bai Xue flipped through her schedule, calmly pointing out the time they still had, and quickly opened a website on her laptop.
“Since this is our first album, it’s really special, so I’d like everyone to help choose the songs together.”
As she spoke, she scrolled through the screen, playing several candidate songs one by one.
“I want the main track to focus on a bright, lively feeling—ideally something that conveys genuine emotion.”
Bai Xue clicked on the song she was most satisfied with. “I think this one is good. The composer is well-known in the industry and has written songs for many famous girl groups.”
After listening to all the songs, Jiang Ling also felt the song Bai Xue picked was the best choice for their title track. From the first few bars, it was energetic and full of vitality, yet particularly pleasant and immersive.
“If no one has any objections, I’ll reach out and discuss this song with him.”
Bai Xue looked around, seeing no trace of dissatisfaction or disagreement on anyone’s face. She swiftly typed on her keyboard and opened the chat window with the composer.
It should have gone smoothly—
But Bai Xue stared at the “read” notification on her message for a long time, her brows knitting slightly.
She reviewed the message she sent over and over again—polite wording, a clear explanation of the purpose and budget, even her contact info attached. It should have been flawless.
So why hadn’t there been any reply? Not even a single response after reading?
Bai Xue instinctively felt something was off. She quickly found another famous composer and sent a similar message in the same way.
And, sure enough, the result was the same—read but ignored.
“What’s wrong?”
Noticing Bai Xue’s fingers tapping much faster on the keyboard and her slightly troubled expression, Jiang Ling immediately caught on and asked with concern.
“Mm… Something’s wrong.”
Bai Xue didn’t intend to hide it. She explained everything that had just happened, her voice hesitating at the end, “It doesn’t feel right.”
She’d worked with both of those composers back at the Bai family. Their personalities were a bit flamboyant, but at least communication had never been an issue—this kind of radio silence never happened. Unless—
A possible reason flashed through Bai Xue’s mind.
Is it that bastard again?
She wanted to sigh, but thinking that would be admitting defeat, she forced herself to perk up, rubbed her wrist, and when she looked up again, her expression was back to normal. “The plan’s been disrupted.”
“We probably won’t be able to use these songs. These, and these as well.”
She quickly crossed off all the composers who had any dealings with the Bai family. Looking at the few remaining names, Bai Xue couldn’t help but clench her fists.
Before she could say more, Jiang Ling nudged her arm, speaking with renewed energy, “It’s fine, if we can’t use those songs, we can just find other ones! There are so many composers on this site, it can’t be that we won’t find a single one we like, right?”
Mo Ran watched Jiang Ling’s awkward attempt to comfort Bai Xue with a gentle smile, saying nothing.
Hearing this, Fang Wannian immediately nodded in agreement. “Exactly! Worst case, I’ll go pull some strings and get someone to write for us.”
Lin Xiaoyu had already quietly started browsing the website, her expression particularly focused.
This helped soothe Bai Xue’s anxious heart a little.
She chuckled softly. “Yeah, there’s no way we won’t find at least one good song, right?”
There’s no way, right?
But—damn it, there really isn’t a single one?!
Jiang Ling scratched her already-messy hair—looking as if it had just been through an explosion—her eyes dull as she stared at the worn-out webpage.
If I’d known, I wouldn’t have jinxed it earlier! Now look—totally backfired!
Jiang Ling laughed bitterly to herself, but her hand didn’t stop scrolling the mouse.
There actually were a lot of good songs, some even by well-known composers, but most of them had already been crossed out by Bai Xue—she said those composers definitely wouldn’t respond, nor let them have the songs.
Jiang Ling had to settle for less, checking out some semi-famous accounts.
But maybe because of her preconceptions, Jiang Ling felt that all these songs were a bit lacking. Not that they weren’t good, but none had that “eye-opening” quality.
If it was for a B-side, that would be fine, but for the main track of their debut album, Jiang Ling felt it was best to be cautious.
The other members seemed to agree—none of the songs made anyone especially excited.
As the sun rose outside the window, Jiang Ling numbly checked the time. Her stomach growled loudly.
“Ha… Let’s take a break.”
Bai Xue saw everyone was getting tired and didn’t insist they keep going. She opened the delivery app. “Order whatever you want, it’s on me.”
That helped Jiang Ling recover a bit of her spirit.
She scrolled through the restaurant options for a long time but couldn’t find anything she particularly wanted. After going back and forth, she finally tapped into McDonald’s.
Long live fast food!
Long live fried food!
Jiang Ling cheered inwardly, quickly finishing her order. Her gaze naturally drifted to the search bar on the side of the screen, which was lit up.
You could type in the composer’s name there for quick searching.
Jiang Ling didn’t know any famous composers. After some thought, the only thing in her head was the takeout she’d just ordered. With a sense of playing around, she typed “hamburger” in English into the search box.
As each letter appeared, Jiang Ling slowly pressed enter.
To her surprise—
There really was a composer named Hamburger?
Jiang Ling’s mouth dropped open as she stared in disbelief at this user, whose profile picture was the default one and who had actually named themselves “Hamburger.” On impulse, she clicked into their profile.
Most of the personal info was hidden. The page was almost empty, just two or three songs—
Jiang Ling clicked on the most recent one.
Instantly, a light and cheerful melody filled the room, catching everyone’s attention within a few seconds.
“What song is this?”
Bai Xue immediately perked up, squinting as she kept listening.
The more she listened, the more shocked she looked.
“How did I not notice this song before? It’s practically tailor-made for NOVA… It’s so catchy, with excellent layers—perfectly fits our style.”
After hearing the entire track, the once gloomy atmosphere in the room was swept away, replaced by a fresh excitement.
“What’s the composer’s name?”
With Bai Xue’s eager gaze on her, Jiang Ling hesitated.
She carefully glanced at the name on the composer’s profile again and, in an uncertain tone, spoke slowly:
“Han… Han Baga?”