1990: Starting from Baojia Street

After entering the recording studio and seeing the equipment inside, Akina Nakamori was also very moved.

When she first arrived at the studio, this old and simple building made her underestimate Zhou Yan's studio. She thought the equipment in the studio would not be very good.

But after a tour, she found that the equipment in this studio was very good. Although she has not used this recording studio yet, just looking at the design and equipment inside, she can tell that it is very professional.

There is also the practice room that Zhou Yan took them to see just now. The details of the acoustic design are also very good. This is almost the best that this building can achieve. If it wants to be better, it must be a building that specializes in music performances.

There was no recording task today, so Zhou Yan took Akina Nakamori to try out the recording studio briefly to let her get familiar with it.

After the trial, Zhou Yan said to her, "If you want to practice singing during your stay in Yanjing, you can come to our studio at any time and have someone arrange a practice room for you, or you can find someone to record some for you first."

After that, Zhou Yan looked at Li Xing again, "Xiao Li, you are more familiar with this place. If Miss Nakamori has any needs, please try your best to meet them."

Li Xing nodded and said, "Okay, Teacher Zhou."

"Well, generally speaking, the practice room is always available, but the recording studio may not be. If you want to use the recording studio, it's best to ask in advance. Liu Hang has a schedule, you can ask for a copy."

Although the studio's recording studio is mostly used for its own purposes, it also takes on some outside work.

Generally speaking, the studio takes on traditional music-related work, so the large recording studios are relatively open to the public, because there are not many large professional recording studios like theirs in China that can record symphonies.

Of course, we occasionally take on some popular jobs, which are introduced by people in the industry and ordinary people cannot get in touch with us.

After all, they have a lot of recording tasks in their own studio, so they don’t rent out the recording studio easily.

Even though their studio doesn't have many singers, there is a lot of work, and some of it is very time-consuming. Apart from anything else, just the production of the soundtrack for a movie takes up a lot of time.

At this time, Akina Nakamori asked, "Will we record the Chinese version next time when you come back?"

Zhou Yan said with a smile, "That depends on your pronunciation. If your pronunciation is fine at that time, then both versions can be recorded at once. But if your pronunciation is not good, it will be postponed for a while."

Akina Nakamori nodded and said, "I will try my best."

Zhou Yan nodded but didn't say anything. This thing couldn't be achieved just by working hard.

Kudo Shizuka has a good talent for languages, but it took her a long time to learn it, and Kudo Shizuka had actually studied Chinese for some time before that.

It is still unknown how good Akina Nakamori's language talent is, but Zhou Yan feels that it will not be better than Shizuka Kudo. The key is that she is learning from scratch, and she definitely has a longer way to go than Shizuka Kudo.

It is definitely impossible to ask her to study Chinese seriously now. I can only teach her the pronunciation and let her memorize it by rote.

Zhou Yan looked at his watch. It was not yet ten o'clock, so he said to Nakamori Akina, "Let Li Xing take you around. I have something else to do, so I'll leave now. If you are not in a hurry to leave at noon, stay in the studio for lunch."

Akina Nakamori nodded and said, "Thank you for your help."

"You're welcome."

Zhou Yan smiled and said goodbye.

After Zhou Yan left, the translator Jing Tian Chengzi smiled and said to Li Xing, "Mr. Zhou Yan is really busy."

When they talked on the phone before, Iida Chengzi felt that Zhou Yan was very busy. After meeting this time, this feeling became even more obvious.

Li Xing nodded and said, "Of course, Mr. Zhou has been very busy. The orchestra will go to Hong Kong tomorrow and a new round of tour will begin. In addition to the performances, he also has to compose film scores."

Akina Nakamori worriedly asked, "If he goes out on tour, will he come back next time we come?"

"I think so. Since he promised, he won't break his word. Teacher Zhou takes his promises very seriously." Li Xing smiled and asked, "What are you going to do now? I'll take you around. In fact, the building next door is also a studio, but that's the film and television production department."

Akina Nakamori asked in surprise, "Is there a film and television production department here?"

"Of course, Mr. Zhou is a great director."

"How about we go over and take a look?"

Iida Naoko was very interested in the film and television production department, but Nakamori Akina shook her head and said, "I want to study the Chinese version of the lyrics of "Snow Flower" first."

Zhou Yanke just said that if her pronunciation is good, she can record the Chinese version as well next time, and she is also very interested in the Chinese lyrics.

Hearing Akina Nakamori say that she wanted to study Chinese lyrics, Li Xing smiled and said, "Then I'll go find a practice room for you. It's more convenient in a practice room."

"sorry to bother you."

Li Xing then took the two of them to find a practice room and began to study the Chinese version of the lyrics of "Snow Flower".

When they arrived at the practice room, Iida Naoko roughly translated the meaning of the lyrics. After listening to it, Akina Nakamori nodded and said, "It is indeed very different from the Japanese version of the lyrics."

The lyrics of the Neon version are full of anticipation but a little disappointment, while the lyrics of the Chinese version are more about memories.

To be honest, Akina Nakamori still prefers the neon version of the lyrics. This is her own reason, because her memories of love are hardly any good ones.

The Chinese version of the lyrics were all about "love without regrets", which sounded a bit harsh to her.

Iida Naoko translated for Akina Nakamori while observing her expression.

Akina Nakamori's love story is a big deal and everyone in Japan knows about it, but the lyrics are obviously contrary to Akina Nakamori's love experience.

However, Akina Nakamori did not show any obvious emotions. After all, she is a professional singer and would not be broken by the lyrics.

After explaining the meaning of the lyrics, Iida Naoko began to teach Akina Nakamori how to pronounce the words.

After learning a few sentences, Akina Nakamori sighed, "Chinese is so difficult. I don't know how Shizuka learned it at that time."

After Iida Naoko translated Akina Nakamori's complaint to Li Xing, Li Xing smiled and said, "I heard that Miss Kudo spent every day in the studio to learn Chinese and also went to make friends with the band members."

After hearing what Li Xing said, Akina Nakamori sighed again. She couldn't make friends everywhere.

Speaking of Kudo Shizuka, Iida Chengzi asked Li Xing with a gossipy look on her face, "I heard that Shizuka is learning Chinese because she is pursuing Mr. Zhou Yan. Is this true?"

Many people in Japan know that Kudo Shizuka has publicly expressed her love for Zhou Yan, and rumors about the two of them are still often reported.

When the scandal between Mariah Carey and Zhou Yan broke out a few days ago, the scandal between Kudo Shizuka and Zhou Yan was also mentioned by many people, and many "opposition parties" expressed their support for Kudo Shizuka and Zhou Yan.

Li Xing smiled. Everyone in the studio knew that Kudo Shizuka was pursuing Zhou Yan.

However, he did not dare to discuss Zhou Yan's affairs, so he smiled and said, "I don't know about that. Didn't you learn Chinese because you wanted to sing Chinese songs?"

Iida Chengzi was a little disappointed that she didn't hear any gossip. She smiled and asked, "Does your teacher Zhou have a girlfriend?"

Li Xing scratched his head and said, "I don't know about that either. I think there shouldn't be any."

This time he really didn't know. He had only heard about Teacher Zhou's scandals, but never any real evidence.

Zhou Yan usually doesn't look like someone who is in love. Every time Li Xing sees Zhou Yan, he is busy with work.

Many members of the Youth Piano Orchestra were students of the Central Conservatory of Music at the same time as Zhou Yan. They knew a lot about Zhou Yan's past. Li Xing would sometimes chat with them, but they said that Zhou Yan never had a boyfriend when he was in school.

For ordinary students, even if they are in love, their junior and senior classmates in the same school probably won’t know about it.

But Zhou Yan is different. He is a well-known figure in school. If he falls in love, people will definitely know about it.

There are a lot of people who have had a crush on Zhou Yan, but none of them succeeded. I heard that Teacher Zhou used to be a very cold person. He rarely talked to girls, let alone boys.

In recent years, there are fewer women appearing around Zhou Yan, but more men. Yu Hua and Shi Tiesheng come over every now and then.

Seeing that Li Xing knew nothing about anything, Iida Naoko lost interest and turned to teach Akina Nakamori the pronunciation of the Chinese lyrics.

……

It was past eleven o'clock, and Akina Nakamori was still practicing pronunciation. Li Xing looked at his watch and said, "You two, it's getting late. Let's go to the cafeteria for lunch." Hearing that they were going to have lunch, Akina Nakamori asked, "Does the cafeteria have noodles with soy sauce?"

Li Xing was stunned by the question, "Mixed noodles?"

What Akina Nakamori said somewhat overturned Li Xing's impression of Akina Nakamori. After getting to know her, Li Xing felt that Akina Nakamori was a little cold. He didn't expect that she would be so interested in food, and especially in noodles with soy sauce.

In fact, Li Xing didn't know that the reason why Akina Nakamori asked about noodles with soybean paste was because Shizuka Kudo always told her that the noodles with soybean paste made by Zhou Yan's studio were delicious, which made her want to eat it too.

Li Xing thought for a moment and said, "The food in the cafeteria is different every day. I really don't know what's available today."

"Okay." Akina Nakamori pouted. She thought noodles with soy sauce were available every day.

Seeing Akina Nakamori's regretful expression, Li Xing smiled and said, "Ms. Nakamori, if you want to eat noodles with soy sauce, I can tell the chef to make it for you in the evening."

Nakamori Akina waved her hands repeatedly, "No, no, it's too much trouble."

Not only is it troublesome, but if word gets out, people will think she's some big shot and has to make demands when visiting the studio.

Li Xing smiled and said, "It's okay."

"Really, no need." Akina Nakamori refused again. She was too afraid to trouble others.

After the three of them arrived at the cafeteria, Li Xing was about to ask Kong Chao, who was serving the food, what dishes were available today. Kong Chao smiled and said, "Today we have mixed noodles and dumplings."

Li Xing scratched his head and said in surprise, "There really is mixed bean noodles."

"We heard that there will be guests from Japan today, so we made it specially. When Miss Shizuka was here, she liked to eat mixed noodles and dumplings." Kong Chao explained.

Li Xing suddenly realized, no wonder Akina Nakamori asked about noodles with soy sauce, it turned out that these were special supplies for Japanese guests.

Akina Nakamori was also very happy to hear that there was noodles with soybean paste. She asked Seiko Iida for noodles with soybean paste and dumplings.

As it turned out, Shizuka Kudo did not lie to her. The noodles in Zhou Yan's studio were indeed delicious. The only drawback was that the noodles were not spicy enough, and she preferred spicy food.

After a hearty meal, Akina Nakamori went back to the practice room to continue studying the Chinese version of the lyrics of "Snow Flower".

……

After Zhou Yanzhong, Mori Akina and others said goodbye, he returned to the office to continue writing "Shutter Island".

At 6:30 in the evening, Zhou Yan put away the manuscript and went to the cafeteria to eat.

There was no one in the cafeteria at this moment, and Kong Chao and his colleagues were packing up and getting ready to go off work.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "I'm sorry to have delayed your get off work again today."

Kong Chao was wiping the table. When he heard Zhou Yan's voice, he turned around and said with a smile, "Teacher Zhou, I saved your meal for you. I'll bring it to you now."

"Good work."

When the reserved food was served, Kong Chao said, "I wanted to save some dumplings for you, but they were eaten by Li Xing and the two guests from Nihong."

Zhou Yan asked in surprise, "They haven't left yet?"

After saying goodbye in the morning, Zhou Yan hasn't seen Akina Nakamori and the others since, and thought they had already left.

He was wondering why Akina Nakamori and the others left without saying hello to him, but he didn't expect that they hadn't left yet.

Kong Chao nodded and smiled, "He hasn't left yet. It seems that he went to the practice room upstairs after dinner."

"Yeah." Zhou Yan nodded and said nothing more.

After dinner, Zhou Yan did not go home, but went upstairs to the practice room.

Standing outside the door, through the glass, you can see Akina Nakamori practicing singing, while Seiko Iida and Li Xingze are sitting next to them, looking bored.

The practice room was well soundproofed and I could only vaguely hear the voice of Akina Nakamori singing. Although her pronunciation was not very good, I could tell that she was singing in Chinese.

But that was all. If Zhou Yan didn’t know the lyrics, he wouldn’t have understood what she was singing at all.

After listening for a while, Zhou Yan pushed the door open.

As soon as he pushed the door open, Akina Nakamori's singing stopped abruptly, and Iida Seiko and Li Xing also looked towards Zhou Yan.

"Teacher Zhou." Li Xing stood up and greeted him. The way he looked at Zhou Yan was as if he was looking at a savior.

Since the morning, he has been accompanying Akina Nakamori and the others to study the lyrics. Although he has nothing to do, he cannot leave.

At first it was okay, he just watched from the side and thought it was quite interesting, but as time went on, he felt like he was in prison.

While having dinner, he breathed a sigh of relief. He thought that the day was over, but who would have thought that Akina Nakamori would continue practicing.

Not only Li Xing, but Iida Seiko also felt like she was going crazy. She had been teaching Akina Nakamori how to pronounce words over and over again today. In the end, she felt like half of her face was almost numb.

Zhou Yan smiled and said, "Still practicing."

Iida Naoko nodded and said, "Yes, Akina wants to practice a little more."

"Well, diligence is a good thing." Zhou Yan nodded, and then said to Akina Nakamori, "Sing it again for me."

Iida Naoko translated Zhou Yan's words to Nakamori Akina, who smiled and nodded, then began to sing.

After Akina Nakamori finished singing, Zhou Yan frowned. Akina Nakamori's pronunciation could be described as terrible. There was not a single word that was pronounced correctly from beginning to end.

What's outrageous is that even though her pronunciation was totally wrong, she was able to sing the entire song fluently and confidently.

This was not a good thing. Zhou Yan was worried that she would sing too many wrong notes and would not be able to correct them later.

After a moment's silence, Zhou Yan said, "How about this, you don't sing it yet. I'll find someone to sing this song once and record it. Then you can listen to it more."

Zhou Yan believes that Akina Nakamori's pronunciation problem has a lot to do with Iida Seiko, because Iida Seiko's own pronunciation is not particularly standard.

This cannot be blamed on Seiko Iida. After all, she is a foreigner and has spent most of her time working in Japan, so it is difficult for her to pronounce words correctly.

The person who was most happy to hear Zhou Yan's suggestion was naturally Iida Naoko, because in this way, she would not have to teach Akina Nakamori the pronunciation sentence by sentence.

Her pronunciation is not very good to begin with, and the pronunciation when singing is different from the pronunciation when speaking. When I was teaching Akina Nakamori today, she almost confused herself while teaching.

Akina Nakamori also thought this was a good suggestion, so she nodded and said, "Then I'll trouble you."

Zhou Yan waved his hand, "No trouble, you are tired today, go back and rest early, don't you have an interview tomorrow?"

Since Zhou Yan had already spoken, Akina Nakamori did not insist any longer. She also understood that Zhou Yan must have thought that her pronunciation was poor, so he asked someone to sing it for her first.

If your pronunciation is really bad, there is really no point in continuing to practice like this.

Li Xing and Jingtian Chengzi also breathed a sigh of relief. They had wanted to go back for a long time.

Several people walked out of the studio. In the corridor, Akina Nakamori asked Zhou Yan, "Are you leaving tomorrow?"

Zhou Yan nodded, "Well, we'll leave tomorrow morning, so I have to go back early today to pack up."

Akina Nakamori smiled and said, "Then I wish your concert a success."

"Thank you." (End of chapter)