Chapter 34: Reading the Tarot Part 1

Cui Lin’s inexplicable private message just sat there in the inbox, marked as unread.

For one, his words were truly impossible to respond to.

If you answered one message, and ten or eight more followed, then they might as well forget about work and spend the whole night chatting with this gentleman! Were they even that close? If not familiar, a polite “Teacher Mengmeng” would be appropriate, please!

Second, Li Tingzhou genuinely had no time to deal with it right now.

Besides the recording work for “Sing My Heart Tonight,” he had many other business matters.

These were important. Before Heartbreak joined the variety show or took on commercial endorsements, these gigs were their main source of income…

With Qu Yanni joining, Heartbreak’s marketing and public relations power received an epic-level boost. The first beneficiary was the surprise release “Endless Summer.” It successfully harvested almost all the anticipation built since Heartbreak and Mengmeng had risen to fame. New fans and old alike worked hard to promote it. Combined with Heartbreak’s already decent public appeal, “Endless Summer”‘s first-day results were extraordinarily impressive.

Just the day before, everyone had rejoiced over “Purple Jasmine” hitting 200,000 listeners on Saturday morning, dreaming about the royalties to be settled next month.

Now, the little embroidered ball had easily doubled its predecessor’s numbers.

This was proof that quality work was the bedrock of a singer or band.

One good song beat a hundred, even a thousand, promotional fluff pieces.

And Mengmeng’s stable, high-quality output had firmly soothed the fans’ hearts.

The overly profound and pretentious articles by professional music critics could be disregarded for now, but the sentiment among casual listeners in the broader market was indicative.

Here, Dai Jier cited some… ahem, some posts from music circle bots.

“They say, once a band gets immersed in its own stylistic atmosphere, starts creating what it thinks is unique, that’s when the band is close to dying. What makes Heartbreak good is that its core style remains unwavering. Every time it probes out a bit into a safe zone, it expands its comfort zone to create, slowly transitioning from the band circle to the broader pop circle with a bigger audience.”

Li Tingzhou didn’t deny this statement. “That’s right.”

Since joining Heartbreak, what he had consistently insisted on was making the band set aside “pretension” and “burden” to create fusion concepts more suited to the general public’s listening habits and preferences.

The results proved his approach was correct.

Previously, Heartbreak was somewhat niche. Its style was unique, true, but it lacked mass appeal.

Now, Heartbreak was like a successfully socialized individual. Though it sacrificed a tiny portion of its unique traits, it gained greater survivability and comprehensive competitiveness. Unknowingly, it had also accumulated more conceptual tags: when you mentioned imagery like flowers, rain, or wind, not just the band circle, but the pop circle too, would unconsciously think of Heartbreak’s songs.

Because over the past two to three years of output, Heartbreak had constantly reinforced these impressions.

This was truly rare and difficult to achieve.

Just like how some poets excelled at farewell poems, others loved frontier poems—everyone had their own specialty. For Heartbreak’s third generation to continue the style while strengthening the tags showed a foresight exceeding 90% of those singers who reinvented themselves with every album.

The Diamond Music Director, while visiting First Sister on set, had once asked Li Tingzhou a similar question.

“Always writing these kinds of things, don’t you get bored?”

“Fans love it, audiences love it. The collection numbers grow month after month. Whenever it’s the rainy season, flower season, or even just a windy or rainy day, the listener count skyrockets. Don’t you think that’s a wonderful habit for listening to music?”

Li Tingzhou disliked spouting esoteric concepts.

He preferred to soften his strategic intent with sophistry: “Flowers bloom all year round. Only a tiny fraction of this country’s land sees no rain. Wind carries excellent symbolic meaning. I like flowers, rain, and wind. Every season, every moment represents a different mood, safekeeps different memories.”

“I’m only 25. Whatever’s on my mind, I just write it out. I don’t have that deep of a life philosophy to share.”

The music director, whose hairline was in critical danger, was uncharacteristically speechless.

He wanted to offer some pointers, but the young man gave him no opening!

Returning to the late-night talk, Li Tingzhou never missed a chance to reinforce Heartbreak’s ethos and direction. Seemingly casual, he was covertly rallying them: “We don’t need to exhaust ourselves trying to be all things to all people. We just need to walk a path unique to Heartbreak, and make that path wider and longer.”

Dai Jier completely agreed. Suddenly fired up in the middle of the night, he grabbed his drumsticks and launched into an impromptu solo. After showing off, he switched the song on the Bluetooth speaker, going right back to “Endless Summer.”

“Wait, you’re not sick of it yet?” Even Liu Lusi was a bit tired of hearing it.

“Not sick of it! The more I listen, the better my mood!”

~

【Public Opinion Observation Room (Rebuilt Version) | Is Your Lin Active?】

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Since the afternoon, he’s been sporadically liking over ten of Mengmeng’s Weibo posts.

Did no one tell him that rapid-fire liking will make Robert flag him as a bot-like account?

He’ll lower his own account weight, and Mengmeng will get shadowbanned too.

Second update:

The count is up to 26 posts now.

The earliest one goes back two years, when Mengmeng got on the wrong subway on a whim.

With what kind of mood is your Lin inspecting Mengmeng’s homepage, and with what mood is he liking that post about riding the wrong subway? Does he just find it funny, or, like Mengmeng’s fans archaeology-digging, does he find it cute and silly…

Third update:

Congrats to your Lin, who, 48 hours after mutually following Mengmeng, has finally stopped interacting (one-sided).

1L: Crispy Shark is truly sweating buckets here.

5L: Ever since he suddenly started working out, the direction of things has gotten very strange. August award ceremony, September starting a new project. Now he’s stirring things up so much that Shark Sister has ended up reviewing Mengmeng’s entire Weibo timeline alongside him.

9L: There were earlier rumors that Lin’s nanny van plays Heartbreak songs.

15L: Don’t tell me, pushing 30, he’s suddenly started an enthusiastic idol-chasing phase.

17L: What 30! He’s clearly only 28! (yelling)

25L: It’s actually quite funny. When your Lin debuted at 18, looking like this, he was said not to have inherited his parents’ best features. Now at 28, still looking like this, he’s suddenly become the face mountain among second and third-generation entertainers.

29L: So it’s bone structure and overall form > facial features and skin.

34L: Wasn’t it always said your Lin was boring? Interesting now, isn’t it?

38L: Is it him that’s interesting? Clearly, it’s the Mengmeng posts he’s liking that are interesting. Mengmeng has real zest for life. Listening to Heartbreak’s songs often gives me a melancholic vibe, but in reality, Mengmeng is more cheerful than I imagined. Anyone else getting on the wrong subway, I’d mock them for being fake, telling them to go back to their luxury car. But Mengmeng describes it adorably. He probably hadn’t been back in the country long then…

42L: Yeah, checking the date, it was barely two months after returning, still adjusting to J City’s climate.

49L: That’s why I understand Cui Lin’s liking even less.

52L: Has your Lin finally realized, living nearly 30 years, that he needs a friend? Though Mengmeng is three years younger, I think that age gap is negligible.

59L: That’s even scarier. Making friends with a music guy, Shark Sister would have a breakdown.

63L: As if Mengmeng would be willing. Your Lin furiously likes posts, but has Mengmeng interacted? He replied to Ancient Style King and Zheng Bing’s posts in the morning, what, did he stop looking at his phone by noon? A song release day should have a lot of socializing, right? Or did he uniquely miss your Lin’s messages?

78L: Really curious, is an acting dynasty family like your Lin’s, three generations deep, really that aloof?

84L: Not exactly aloof, I’d say. The path he walks, others would fail trying to replicate. His future is definitely heading for the establishment. Who’d dare casually latch onto him (a future high official)?

93L: Don’t turn your nose up at music guys on sight. I feel like Shark Sister is a bit like a dog bullying others on the master’s authority.

99L: LOL, Mengmeng’s practically free to do as he pleases in Night Heart Seven. Even his ex-girlfriend, now married, couldn’t resist trying to ride his coattails. When is it Shark Sister’s turn to be picky? He’s got backing, just keeps a low profile.

103L: I’d advise Shark Sister to relax. At least the person your Lin is contacting is a straight guy, okay.

106L: So… is he really?

112L: Old topic. You can search the group for old mega-threads.

115L: Every year, a mega-thread gets built in my group because of CL’s sexual orientation.

116L: It’s pretty obvious. He just comes off as very low-key, but so many years, zero scandals, even zero rumors. You can actually basically conclude. I remember ten years ago when CL just debuted, Ms. Duan gave an interview, full of pride, saying she’s very assured about her son, he wouldn’t be distracted and casually date girls.

121L: Duan Xinmei was assured too soon.

132L: That’s why I believe that CL came out on Chinese New Year’s Eve, infuriating his mom into flipping a table, and then, in one decisive move, moved out of Cuili Bay deep in the night to live alone from then on…

189L: Woah, quick, look at the neighboring thread, there’s gossip!

~

【Public Opinion Observation Room (Rebuilt Version) | Who saved that “calculated as broken up” post?】

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Who the hell reported it? I’m seriously gonna hate this! Third time copy-pasting!

[Not original, 100% pure copy!]

Main poster doesn’t accept DMs, doesn’t do online readings.

Straight to the conclusion: Broken up.

The card interpretation process might seem wordy, so only the main cards are posted.

[Original Poster]:

【Female】

Reversed Page of Pentacles.

Typical issue of material/reality plane, stemming from family, parents. This is a very bad sign, representing a certain sense of confusion/disorientation. This is one of the primary triggers for the breakup, and it’s in the dominant card position.