Chapter 57 Teasing His Wife

They had left, but Lin Jianlu still chose not to see them off.

That very evening, Sylvia Chang called to report that Lao Duan had eagerly approached her to discuss a new production contract. In the end, most of the other conditions remained largely unchanged, but Sylvia Chang had relentlessly negotiated the producer's royalty share up to 16 percent—a figure that neither Jonathan Lee nor Lo Ta-yu had ever secured.

According to her, Lao Duan had agreed only through clenched teeth.

Yet, having rushed over to Rock Records in person to listen to those new eight tracks, she insisted that Lin Jianlu was fully worth the 16 percent!

The tug-of-war hadn't lasted long, maybe around ten minutes, consisting mostly of Lao Duan trying to persuade her with every argument in the book, citing industry standards and precedents. But Sylvia Chang refused to budge, and in the end, he chose to compromise.

As a top producer in the record industry, Lo Ta-yu had long commanded a customary ceiling royalty rate of 15 percent. By the late 1980s, Lao Li—Jonathan Lee—could already secure 14 percent, and following the massive success of Sarah Chen’s album *Say You Love Me* (which included "Waking Up from a Dream") and Wakin Chau’s *Let Me Joy, Let Me Sorrow*, he finally reached 15 percent as well!

Both of them received these royalty shares as part of a producer team.

Take Lo Ta-yu, for instance. Later on in Hong Kong, he frequently collaborated with local lyricists and composers. Among the heavyweights, someone like Albert Leung would typically take a direct 5 percent royalty for his lyrics in recent years—an absolute ceiling in the industry. Therefore, whenever collaborating with him, Lo Ta-yu’s own composition, arrangement, and production actually accounted for 10 percent.

Jonathan Lee was no different.

Other producers within Rock Records, such as Chris Ho, Johnny Chen, and Paul Bao, generally saw their entire small teams receive royalties ranging from 10 to 12 percent. They handled a series of tasks including soliciting songs, composing, lyric writing, arranging, and producing, negotiating royalties separately with creators at each stage based on their respective market values.

Of course, it was straightforward; these were old industry veterans, so there was no game of wildly inflating demands only to compromise later—everyone went by established rates. Unless someone’s standards and achievements experienced a sudden leap within a certain period, these figures remained unchanged for years.

Just like when Lin Jianlu previously wrote the lyrics for Tarcy Su’s "Lemon Tree," the contract was also negotiated by Sylvia Chang. His lyrics accounted for a 4 percent royalty of that song, which translated to 0.5 percent of the entire album's royalty share because it was designated as the lead single—an amount that was already nearly the top-tier royalty share for industry creators.

When producing Richie Jen’s "Too Soft-Hearted," Lin Jianlu handled the lyrics, music, arrangement, and production entirely. The contract stipulated that the song would serve as the lead single for Richie Jen’s upcoming album, with Lin Jianlu receiving 1.5 percent of that entire album's sales.

Moreover, his producer Johnny Chen was no ordinary figure either; if you demanded too much for a single song, it would almost be disrespectful to him!

However, if Sarah Chen’s upcoming album were to proceed, it would deviate significantly from past industry practices.

Almost never in the history of the industry had there been a case where a single person completely monopolized all the lyrics, music, arrangements, and production for an entire album—let alone the fact that Lin Jianlu was currently the Chinese pop music industry's sole Diamond-certified "King of Songs," with the exceptional quality of his submitted works speaking for itself.

Consequently, he secured an extraordinary rate.

Still, it didn't really matter; after hanging up the phone, he pushed the thought aside.

For an album, is there a huge difference between getting 15 percent or 16 percent?

According to the original agreement, he was supposed to return to Taiwan and Hong Kong around mid-August, no later than the 20th or so, for promotional autograph sessions to boost sales. When Lao Duan had first arrived in the capital, he specifically reminded him of this, but later on—especially right before leaving—he stopped mentioning it altogether. For Lin Jianlu and Rock Records, whether Lin Jianlu went or not, whether he held autograph sessions or not, what difference would ten thousand, twenty thousand, or thirty to fifty thousand copies in sales make? Was it really that important?

Of course, Lin Jianlu still maintained his professional integrity; where he was supposed to go, he would go.

…………

August 7th, the twenty-third day of the sixth lunar month.

Today marks the Beginning of Autumn.

Outside, it was scorching hot, as if fire was raining down. Even at a little past six in the morning, there wasn't a hint of breeze. Without even exercising or running, just standing downstairs for half a minute would leave one drenched in sweat from head to toe.

Yet, Lin Jianlu deliberately extended his morning run by several extra kilometers.

Returning home to take a refreshing, thorough shower left him feeling exceptionally invigorated.

Eating a hearty meal made it even better.

At a little past seven, Gao Yuanyuan called, "Brother Lu, I've finished eating! Come pick me up!"

"Got it! Wait for me!"

They had agreed to go shopping together today.

Actually, her role in *Spicy Love Soup* wasn't particularly large either; she had already finished filming back in July. But the production crew provided a hotel room where she could stay, along with free boxed meals. Aside from returning to her home in Fengtai every few days to report in to her parents with a convenient white lie, she lingered with the film crew, refusing to leave.

Compared to staying at home and being reined in by strict rules, staying with the crew offered so much more freedom!

Her parents were busy with work and lacked the time to verify her fibs.

Since Lin Jianlu supported her freeloading off the crew's meals this way, Zhang Yang simply turned a blind eye.

In truth, after just a few days of getting along, Lin Jianlu gradually realized that given this girl's academic foundation, the college entrance examination would undoubtedly prove to be a massive hurdle for her—it wasn't just that she wasn't particularly bright, but her heart simply wasn't in her studies.

Living in the capital gave her household registration a distinct advantage; otherwise, she would most likely have been on par with the former Lin Jianlu. Yet she didn't seem to have attended schools like the Beijing Film Academy or the Central Academy of Drama. Although Lin Jianlu had adored her in his past life, he genuinely knew very little about this period of her life.

Of course, she probably ended up muddling her way into some university anyway.

It didn't matter!

My wife is pretty!

Besides, he neither expected her to test into a prestigious university or land a high-paying job, nor did he harbor any expectations for her to become immensely famous or earn vast sums of money in the future. Lin Jianlu was confident that the wealth he was earning now and would earn in the future was more than enough to comfortably support a family of five. So, let her be!

He got into his little BMW Series 3 and drove over to the hotel where the crew was staying to pick her up.

Although they were already somewhat familiar with each other, they weren't close enough yet, so their outing was purely window shopping, with a stop halfway to treat her to ice cream, which was already plenty delightful.

Lin Jianlu planned to wait a few more days before holding the young girl's hand.

Mmm...

What? You want to talk about kissing?

She's seventeen!

Do you lot want to test whether my 404 censorship sword is sharp or not?

"I don't believe you! I watched closely, that Sarah Chen definitely likes you! And Tarcy Su too! I saw the way they looked at you! There are so many puppy loves at our school, I've seen them!"

Oh, look at that, she's got a keen eye. "So what? Is it unusual for more people to like me? Just because they like me, does that mean I'm dating them?"

"Hmph, vain!"

The girl’s mildly prideful and cute expression was breathtakingly lovely.

"Hey, when you record new songs again, can you take me to that kind of recording studio you talked about to check it out? I've never been to one, it must be so much fun! Just imagining you singing inside while I get to watch you through a big piece of glass and listen live—I bet that would be extremely interesting!"

"Sure! Simple enough! I'll call you when the time comes!"

"That's great! Hey, Brother Lu..."

"Speak!"

"Have you ever kissed Tarcy Su?"

"Why are we back to this? Trying to trap me? Yes, I have! Not only Tarcy Su, let me think... my first kiss was Rene Liu, and then Tarcy Su, Gigi Leung, Sarah Chen, Brigitte Lin—I've kissed all of them! Satisfied? And that's not even all, if I wanted to, I could easily sweep Rosamund Kwan off her feet too! Having a house full of wives and concubines is not just a dream!"

The girl let out a snort of laughter. "Boaster!"

Yet immediately after, she asked, "Who is Gigi Leung?"

Lin Jianlu remained entirely unbothered. "A girl from Hong Kong, super tall, 1.76 meters, a great match for my height. She loves me so much she's head over heels, pursuing me fiercely! If I didn't already have someone else in my heart, I definitely would have fallen for her! She's so pretty, and pure! Considered the second-generation pure goddess archetype! Oh, right, that MV of mine for 'Ten Years,' you've seen it, right? The female lead was her! And... you probably haven't seen it, and honestly, I didn't catch it either, but she starred in a movie last year as the female lead alongside Andy Lau, called *Full Throttle*, which made over thirty million at the box office."

Hearing that there actually seemed to be such a person and such events, the girl's expression shifted slightly.

It wasn't looking too good.

Even though she had been busy with school and then joined the film crew right after vacation, she hadn't actually watched the "Ten Years" music video and didn't know if this Gigi Leung was really as pretty and pure as Lin Jianlu claimed.

Lin Jianlu chuckled. "How's that? Unhappy now? Then why'd you ask?"

The girl pouted, but upon second thought, she couldn't help but find it slightly amusing, her spoon poking back and forth in her ice cream bowl. "Well... if she's so great and likes you that much, why aren't you dating her?"

"Tsk! Listen to you! Did my words just go in one ear and out the other? Just because someone likes me, do I have to date them? With looks as good as mine, if I operated that way, how many girlfriends would I have?"

Hearing this, the girl burst into laughter again.

With a touch of delightful petulance, she retorted, "And what else? Are you seriously planning to find several more?"

Lin Jianlu thought for a moment and said, "Six or seven, I suppose! Six or seven would be enough!... Make it seven! Three wives and four concubines just sounds orderly and imposing!"

She laughed. "In your dreams! If your future girlfriend hears you talking like this, she'd definitely dump you!"

"That's not necessarily true! Like I just said, I haven't seen you dump me yet!"

"Hmph, I'm not your girlfriend!"

While Lin Jianlu was happily teasing his future wife, his phone suddenly rang. He answered it and instantly recognized the voice of Zhang Zien, the director for his music videos "Xiaoxiang Rain" and "Flower Field Mist."

"What's up, Lao Lao Zhang? Dinner? Sure! Who else is coming? Oh, got it!"