Chapter 104

A thick book of “Western Modern Music” was opened and pressed on his chest. Lu Chen was sleeping with his eyes closed. Orange lights shone on his face, and the bright and dark outline was like a plaster sculpture.

Drop!

The cell phone that landed on the edge of the bed suddenly rang and shook violently.

Lu Chen woke up suddenly.

He sat up abruptly, his dark eyes full of confusion. After a while, he slowly recovered.

Lu Chen had just had a dream, in which he returned to that world, but he could not tell whether he was Xu Bo, Mo Ran or Fang Mingyi, or neither of them.

In his dream, he was a lonely time traveler, a secular observer, and regardless of the changes in the world, all of it has nothing to do with him. He just looked at the joys and sorrows of the world.

Lu Chen thought he would never wake up until the end of the world!

Fortunately, it was just a dream.

He got up, went to the bathroom and washed his face, and he was fully awake.

He went back to his bedroom and pick up his cell phone and took a look at the time. It was 1:32 in the morning.

Lu Chen couldn’t help but smile bitterly. He conveniently opened the Easy Pay message he just received, which suddenly stunned him. (TN: Easy Pay is like PayPal. And it’s real. Google it: 易付宝)

This message reminded Lu Chen that 200,000 yuan had just been transferred to his account!

And it’s anonymous.

The heck?

Lu Chen rubbed his eyes incredulously, and he hurriedly look through his record in Easy Pay. It turned out to be real!

Who is this prodigal fellow? And such a huge sum of money?

He was confused.

This transfer transaction is accompanied by a message. The content is very simple, two words – Thank you.

It was these two words that made Lu Chen vaguely understand.

Among the people he knew, he was probably the only one with the ability and motivation to do such a thing.

However, when Lu Chen called the other party to verify, the result was he was shut down with a voice prompt.

……

The next morning, Lu Chen arrived at the Nirvana Studio.

Lu Chen’s first solo album will be produced by this studio, and both parties have already signed a formal contract, so he will often come here for a long time.

In particular, a few songs that are ready to be sung in “Singing China” competition, should have their accompaniment be released in advance.

Lu Chen was still received by Wang Changsheng. The manager of the Nirvana studio gave him a surprised.

“Mr. Lu, I’ve found a suitable office space for you!”

“So fast?”

Lu Chen was surprised: “Where is the location?”

He is going to open a music studio in Blue Sky Creative Park, which is a little far from the city centre, but it has a good environment, complete commercial facilities and relatively low operating costs.

Therefore, Lu Chen asked Wang Changsheng to help him find a suitable office the day before yesterday. He didn’t expect to hear from him today.

This efficiency is too fast!

Wang Changsheng said with a smile, “It’s also a coincidence. Yesterday, I run into a former student of mine who went to worked in the park management committee. After inquiring, I found out that there were several floors in the A8 building that are being rented out, and the office area is between 100 and 1,500 square meters!”

Blue Sky Creative Park belongs to the District Government Management Committee, which owns a number of office buildings and properties. Among them, A7 and A8 are the best. They are located on the north and south sides of the entrance to the park, just tens of meters from the subway exit.

Originally, all the office space in the two office buildings has already been rented out, but recently, many companies in A8 have moved to a new building nearby, so several floors have been vacated for sublease.

This is really just a coincidence. If Wang Changsheng hasn’t run into his student, it would probably be gone in a few days.

According to his student, several sets have been booked in advance.

“I wanted to call you in the morning, and now you’re right here just in time!”

After Lu Chen learned about it, he immediately became interested. “Then can I trouble Manager Wang to accompany me to have a look?”

“No problem!”

Wang Changsheng said with a smile, “You can rest assured on the arrangement of the album. Wang Jing has already started working yesterday, to ensure that you will not be delayed in the competition, and also to ensure the quality of the work!”

“I’m calling now to make an appointment with my student.”

As the old saying goes, some people in the DPRK handle things well1. The property owned by the management committee is assisted by the people inside the management committee. That will make things much simpler. (TN: This just mean if you have connection, then things will go well.)

Wang Changsheng’s student, surnamed Xu, who is in his 30s, is the head of a department of the management committee.

After meeting and knowing him, he was still very enthusiastic about Lu Chen, praising Lu Chen for being young and promising.

It’s a little embarrassing for Lu Chen.

Through the introduction of Chief Xu, Lu Chen knew that the A8 office buildings in Blue Sky Creative Park is 32 stories high, and the first, second, and third floors were rented to banks, restaurants, gyms, and other business owners. And above the third floor are all office rooms. At present, there are vacant units for rent on the 15th, 19th and 26th floors.

Under his leadership, Lu Chen and Wang Changsheng came to the A8 office building together and visited the three floors respectively.

Lu Chen is really satisfied with the working conditions here.

At present, he is still in the initial stage, so the requirements are still not that high. If it wasn’t because his luck was good, he may not be able to run into this.

Such an opportunity is hard to come by. He definitely can’t miss it.

The only thing that made Lu Chen hesitant was that a suite of 200 square meters on the 19th floor and a suite of 150 square meters on the 26th floor was suitable for him, but he didn’t know which one to choose.

Wang Changsheng, who has rich experience, analyzed for Lu Chen, “Mr. Lu, if you have enough fund, you’d better rent the 200 square meters one! The house of the management committee will not raise the price easily. You can feel at ease renting it for a few years. The area is bigger, convenient for future business expansion.”

Bigger is definitely better. Lu Chen mainly wanted to save some rent, but Wang Changsheng has a good point. So, he decided to rent the 200 square meters suite on the 19th floor without considering it for a long time.

The former tenant of the suite has made some simple renovation. The suite was divided into a reception room, a large office area, two offices, a lounge, and a rest room. The rest room is divided into men and women’s cubicles, which are spacious and comfortable enough.

Although all the things inside has been removed, as long as he cleans it up and add all kinds of office equipment, he will soon be able to move in and start business.

The rent for the suite is 3.5 yuan per square meter per day, which is equivalent to 21,000 yuan per month, which is not cheap, but it is worth it relative to the location and conditions.

In addition, the annual property management fee is also about 20,000.

Fortunately, Lu Chen has a stable source of income now. Otherwise, even if he opens a studio, he will at most can only rent a small suite of dozens of square meters to make ends meet. Where can he rent such a big room?

It should be known that rent is just one aspect. In the future, he will hire employees and spend a lot on wages, taxes, utilities, and so on.

After choosing a good office space, for fear that a lot of problem may appear if he delays this, he directly went to the management committee with section Chief Xu to sign a contract.

Blue Sky Creative Park Management Committee is very efficient, and with the help of Chief Xu, he was able to signed a formal contract before noon, and got the lease of the property for a period of two years.

According to the contract requirement of “three pay three”, Lu Chen paid a total of 126,000 yuan2.

“Congratulations, Mr. Lu!”

After signing the contract, the head of the management committee shake hands with Lu Chen and said, “I wish you a bright future in the Blue Sky Creative Park!”

Lu Chen smiled and said, “Thank you!”

Originally, he wanted to invite the other party and Chief Xu to have lunch together, but they politely declined.

The Park management committee has strict regulations in this respect.

In the afternoon, Lu Chen came back to his home. The first thing he did was to call Li Feiyu.

The office is rented, but there are still a lot of work to do, such as cleaning, purchasing supplies, decorating, licensing, recruiting new employees, and so on, all of which needs Li Feiyu to help him complete.

And Lu Xi, she has to come to Beijing ahead of schedule!

Lu Chen has a hunch that he would soon become very busy and that he could not do without trustworthy people to help him.

After talking to Li Feiyu on the phone, Lu Chen turned on his computer and logged onto the Inspur blog network.

In this country’s largest blog site, he registered a new account. His ID is: Lu Chen FMX.

Lu Chen is himself, and FMX represents Fang Mingyi, Mo Ran and Xu Bo, respectively.

The establishment of this account also means that he has reached a new starting point in his life and career.

In his profile, Lu Chen filled in the word “Singer”.

He knows that this is just temporary, and in the future, he will be adding actor and freelance writers…

And even more!

The registration time is 16:27 on 13 July 2015. (TN: 4:27 pm)

There are 267 hours and 03 minutes to go until the start of the live broadcast of “Singing China” top 16 of 32 in Beijing Singing Area.

____

TN: I’m not sure if I translated this correctly, results show that the translated word for (朝中) is “people of the DPRK”. The thing that I’m getting is that if you know someone from the inside, things will go well.1

TN: No idea what is “three pay three” contract is so I don’t know where 126,000 came from. This only make sense if he paid for 6 months.2