Chapter 1217 - Music Artisan

When the the director signalled the end of the livestream, Dom and Clover rushed to Iris in excitement. Jin Liwei allowed the friends their own moment while standing beside his wife.

"Boss, that song is so amazing!" Clover exclaimed.

"I bawled like a baby, Boss!" Dom cried. "As a Black Star myself, your new song went straight to my heart. I feel so appreciated by you. I’m sure all the other Black Stars feel the same way as I do. Wuwuwu! You’re the best forever and ever, Boss! No other celebrity is as awesome as you. Not even Prince Lin Lin! Believe me, I’m telling the truth. Cross my heart. Hope your bashers die!"

Reina Chua pulled his ear and twisted it.

"Ouch, Momsy! What are you doing?"

"Don’t curse other people to die like that," Reina scolded her son. "Aren’t you afraid that karma might bite you in the butt one day, ha? Instead of that, just wish for them to grow painful boils on their butts that’ll fester throughout their lifetimes. That’s enough karma for them."

Domingo Chua nodded his head in agreement with his wife’s words.

Linda Chua laughed. "You’re so wicked, Momsy."

Reina shrugged her shoulders, completely unbothered by the wickedness of her words. In fact, she looked righteous, believing that her words were justified. [Read official chapters on W e b n o v e l (dot) com. Please stop supporting piracy. Also follow author on Instagram: @arriacross]

"We’re not an evil family to wish for people’s death so easily like that. But we’re not pushovers either. I was so angry when I read all the comments bashing Xiulan. I know that celebrities constantly face this issue throughout their careers. Before today, I even secretly criticized celebrities who overreact to their bashers. It’s part of their job, so they should just accept the reality. That’s what I thought. But now that I’m personally witnessing someone close to me experiencing so much bashing, I feel so angry! Those bashers are too evil, ha. They deserve painful boils on their butts. Not only that, they should also have hemorrhoids! Let’s see if they still have the time to bash our dear Xiulan when they can’t even sit properly. Hmph!"

Iris chuckled and held the older woman’s hands. "Thank you, Auntie Reina."

Reina hugged her, giving her a comforting squeeze and a pat on the back. "You’re amazing, Xiulan. You handled things so beautifully and with class. Those bashers must be choking on their own insults after seeing you so unaffected. And that song is so wonderful, ha. I think that even foreigners who don’t understand Chinese will be touched by it. Even if they don’t understand the lyrics, they’ll still feel the emotions. Well done, Xiulan."

This time, Iris felt a little choked up. Her eyes moistened. She closed her eyes and hugged Reina.

This was a true mother’s warmth. It felt wonderful.

One day, she wanted to have this kind of loving and supportive but also firm and protective presence in all her children’s lives. She still feared becoming a bad mother because she never had any good models to aspire in the past. Now, she had several great models, all of them strong women in their own way. They all inspired her to strive to become the best mother that she could be.

After the Chuas, Tang Yiyi came up to Iris next. The manager was beaming in approval.

"Great job, Iris. I had no idea that you’re going to perform in today’s livestream. You should’ve given me a heads up"

"I didn’t know either," Iris replied. "That was an on-the-spot decision. I wanted to express my gratitude to my fans for their support and loyalty."

Tang Yiyi was surprised. "So you didn’t rehearse that song at all?"

Iris shook her head. "How can I rehearse something that didn’t exist yet? Like I said during the livestream, I only had the melody before today. The lyrics only came to me during the livestream. That’s why the song has many flaws. It’s still imperfect and not up to my usual standards. It needs a lot of polishing before I’ll be satisfied."

Tang Yiyi sighed and shook her head but there was an awed smile on her face. "That was already a great song but you’re still not satisfied. True artists are really finicky." Then she laughed in delight. "But that’s what I admire about you. You push yourself when it comes to your craft as a musician."

"That’s a given. I want to be a proud music artisan, not a music factory that mass-produces songs that prioritizes profit and fame."

"I understand." Tang Yiyi patted Iris’ shoulder. "Another good news. The livestream had a final live viewer count of 3 million plus. Not bad. No, it’s already amazing. I expect the recorded livestream video to accumulate more views especially when our studio and CEO Jin’s PR teams work together to promote your impromptu performance."

Iris didn’t have much of an opinion about her manager’s plan. She would just leave the PR work to the experts. She glanced at her husband who stood beside her, silently supporting her in her work that she was so passionate about. Jin Liwei gave her an encouraging smile. No words were needed. She could feel his care for her just by his strong presence alone.

"Excuse me, Boss," Dom interrupted while holding a phone. "It’s Mr. JJ. He wants to talk to you."

Iris received the phone. "Hello, Mr. JJ?"

"Brat! That song! We’re going to release it!" JJ didn’t even greet her and went straight to the point. His excitement was obvious.

"Not when it’s so flawed. It needs a lot of polishing. I’ll be ashamed to officially release a song that has a lot of technical shortcomings."

"Of course, we’re going to polish it first! Are you fine with working normally now, brat?"

"Yes, but my doctor advises me to refrain from having long workdays."

"That’s fine. This will be the first time for a great producer like me to do this, but I’ll make an exception for you since you’re pregnant and have delicate health. I’m willing to go there and work with you in your home studio instead of making you come here to my company’s recording studio like usual. A brat like you should be thankful that your music producer is this generous!"

Iris chuckled, already used to the producer’s acerbic and narcissistic way of speaking. "Thank you, Mr. JJ."