167 Good News and Bad News (1/2)
Jin Corporation.
The company settled in its usual workday pace now that its recent big business project was running smoothly without needing constant attention from the President-CEO.
Jin Liwei sat behind his massive dalbergia desk while his assistant stood a few steps away from him. Xu Tian just finished relaying the most relevant daily business news.
Afterwards, Xu Tian cleared his throat and began his next daily task which was relaying public news about his future lady boss. ”President, I have several news concerning Miss Long. Which would you like to hear first? The good news or the bad news?”
Jin Liwei frowned. ”There's bad news?”
”Yes, President. Unfortunately.”
”Good news first.”
Xu Tian nodded and then looked at his notes as he spoke. ”Miss Long's album 'Rebirth' is still reigning at the top of the music charts. Today, all the top 3 positions in the singles ranking are taken by 'Rebirth', 'Phantom of Your Love' and 'Black Star'. Second Master's song is in fourth place. It has been struggling to place third for more than a week now. It's even in danger of falling down further because the song behind it is the theme song for a very popular TV drama right now.”
”Hmm. Excellent. Good. Continue.”
Xu Tian blinked a couple of times. He immediately interpreted the President's brief comments. ”Excellent” was obviously for Miss Long's achievements in the music charts. How about the ”good” then? Did the President mean that it was ”good” that his younger brother's song was falling down the ranks in the music charts? Xu Tian suddenly felt a little sorry for the Second Master. But he didn't have time to think about the matter because he still had more news to relay.
”Miss Long's new album 'Rebirth Melodies' is doing extremely well. Both the album and its accompanying piano songbook are already breaking records in the country. In the international market, it is being well-received in Singapore, South Korea and Japan in Asia, the U.S. and Canada in North America, many countries in Europe especially in Austria, Germany and the U.K., and also in Australia. In Austria and Germany, it has even debuted within the top 10 of the music charts. Number 7 in Austria and number 10 in Germany.”
A pleased smile appeared on Jin Liwei's face.
”JJ's record label did an outstanding job in promoting Miss Long's album overseas, especially since Miss Long is more or less completely unknown outside the country. She's being labelled as an up-and-coming original music composer. There aren't a lot of reviews yet but most of the early ones gave positive reviews. It seems that critics are having a difficult time properly categorizing the album's musical style because although the music employs classical piano techniques, it doesn't completely rely on classical interpretation.”
'Whatever that means,' Xu Tian thought as he read from his notes.
He continued, ”Some foreign music analysts are labelling 'Rebirth Melodies' as contemporary classical but others are disagreeing. It seems that there is a debate going on about how to categorize Miss Long's album.”
”Hmm… A debate can be good. Keeps up the interest,” Jin Liwei murmured.
Then Xu Tian hesitated. At the moment, the President looked very pleased. Xu Tian was certain that the next news he was about to relay would wipe his boss' pleasant expression. Sighing inside, he steeled himself.
”President, would you like to hear the…bad news now?” As expected, he didn't even say anything yet but his boss already looked displeased.
”Go,” Jin Liwei ordered, his voice cold.
Clearing his throat, Xu Tian flipped to his next notes. ”Miss Long is currently under fire from some of classical musicians led by Maestro Liu Wei.”
He explained what happened to his boss.