Ch49 - Singing in the Underworld

cw: brief mention of suicide (not graphic)

“Nian ge, you’re in charge of coaching us?”

After learning that Ji Xiunian had come to lead them, the members of the ‘Little Effort Team’ were so overjoyed they almost started jumping up and down.

There were only four mentors and they had obtained one of them. How lucky was this!

‘Curious baby’ Xu Lele couldn’t contain his happiness and asked, “Nian ge, does every mentor lead a group?”

“No.” Ji Xiunian’s response to this made the others feel like it was a bit out of the ordinary. They couldn’t understand how they had managed to receive this special treatment.

Ji Xiunian pointed at the sign that said ‘Monster’ in the practise room. He explained, “Fan ge wanted me to pay attention to everyone’s physical and mental states.”

“Ah?”

“So it was like this!”

“I was fine, but now I’m not feeling too well ai!”

…

To tell the truth, Ji Xiunian’s special attention to them was because they had chosen a song like ‘Monster’.

Because this was Zhang Jiamu’s last work, many people thought this song was rather inauspicious. Some people even said that this song brought depression and thoughts of death. Fan Zeng did not want his good friend’s work to be slandered like this, and wanted to reintroduce this song to everyone on his own show.

But the trainees were young. If by any chance they became too immersed in the negative emotions, it wouldn’t be good.

It just so happened that Ji Xiunian was the head of the effort teams, and it just so happened that Lu Xu chose ‘Monster’. There was no better choice for a teacher to help students with their homework than this.

No matter what reason Ji Xiunian had come over for, everyone felt much more assured with his coaching.

To interpret a song well, one had to understand the background of the song and the feelings the creator wanted to convey through it.

A search of Zhang Jiamu’s life on Baidu only let people feel like he was a genius—

He began learning piano at the age of three. At age five, he began performing at his own recitals. At the age of eight, he came into contact with pop music and fell in love with it. Afterwards, he began composing his own style. At eleven, the songs he wrote were chosen by a record label to be recorded. At fifteen, he became a solo artist and released his first solo album. Once released, his debut album won numerous awards, sweeping the music charts.

In the following years, he had sat firmly on the throne of the music industry. Every year, he would reliably release two albums that were high yield and high quality. Zhang Jiamu, who was not even thirty years old yet, had already obtained all kinds of fame and fortune, and large numbers of fans. At that time, no one could take over his limelight.

However just like that, this popular and magnanimous singer, on a day seven years ago, committed suicide by taking pills.

Other than leaving behind a song called ‘Monster’, there was nothing else…

The members of the “Little Effort Team” sighed the more they read, and expressed regret for Zhang Jiamu’s choice.

“I guess living was too miserable. That’s why he couldn’t resist going to the extreme.”

“That’s right, a lot of people look fresh and bright on the outside, but inside their hearts, they’re miserable. I saw Zhang Jiamu’s interviews before he died, he seemed quite happy, he was probably smiling while depressed. It was too painful, and he couldn’t endure it…”

“Ai ai ai, if not for the fact that living is too hard, who would want to die.”

…

Several people began to feel sorry and lament for Zhang Jiamu’s life, only hating that they couldn’t help him because they were too young. When talking about ‘Monster’, they also felt gloomy, unable to stop themselves from thinking of an image of a sad, shadowy back.

Ji Xiunian listened to them noisily analyse the song, and subconsciously noticed Lu Xu. From the start, Lu Xu hadn’t expressed any opinions on Zhang Jiamu’s life, his eyes even carrying glints of a smile.

In the beginning, Ji Xiunian even thought that maybe he had seen it wrong, but no matter how carefully he looked, he didn’t seem to be regretful. For some reason, Ji Xiunian was suddenly very curious about what Lu Xu thought.

“Lu Xu, do you have another view?”

The others heard Ji Xiunian raise the question, and looked towards Lu Xu, wanting to hear what the team captain would say.

Lu Xu hadn’t planned on saying too much, but seeing that everyone was waiting for him to speak, he could only shrug his shoulders and voice his own opinion. “I actually don’t really understand why you all think Zhang Jiamu wasn’t happy ai.”

“He committed suicide, he didn’t want to live and only wanted to die, of course, it was because he was unhappy.”

“Wanting to die may not purely be because of unhappiness, sometimes it’s because life is too smooth and too smart, so he wanted to try another state of being…”

These weren’t Lu Xu’s words, but what Zhang Jiamu himself had told him at that time.

It had been the end of the year, Lu Xu was busy with meeting quotas, and coincidentally accepted Zhang Jiamu’s order.

Usually, suicide was because life was too painful, or because it was persecuted, and even if they died their emotions would be unstable.

Only Zhang Jiamu was different. In his own words, his life had been smooth. He had already won all the awards in his thirties. He had everything, had experienced everything. The only thing he hadn’t experienced was death.

While holding on to this mentality, Zhang Jiamu had chosen to commit suicide with no regrets.

After he went to the underworld, he wasn’t worried when he didn’t get a number for reincarnation. There were many of his fans there who were still chasing their idol even in death.

And today, Zhang Jiamu would hold a concert every year in the underworld. There wasn’t much difference from when he was alive.

“If I had known that being dead was the same as being alive, then I wouldn’t have died!” Although he had said that, Zhang Jiamu was still doing quite well in the underworld.

For someone like that, to say he had a gloomy personality was really not fitting.

Lu Xu of course wouldn’t say that Zhang Jiamu had been his client. He could only say that this man was very smart, and had always known what he wanted.

His remarks had been too bold and even fantastical, but for some reason, the people present inexplicably felt that it made sense.

Ji Xiunian was also the same. After he finished listening, he felt that the hole in Lu Xu’s brain was big but it didn’t not make sense. “So, with regards to ‘Monster’’s rearrangement, what do you think?”

Lu Xu didn’t beat around the bush and said directly, “I personally feel that since Zhang Jiamu was a maverick, and was pretty cool and energetic, his song must be the same. I’ve seen how depressing and gloomy the other versions are, it’s really boring that way.” When Lu Xu spoke about work-related things, his eyes gleamed. “Why don’t we follow his personality, and just change it according to how cool he was…”