Chapter 2

Noah, who had been ready to take a beating, touched the work badge in his hand and looked at me with some surprise.

Every company employee in the room froze.

Only Sophie’s face showed a hint of surprise and anger.

I smiled and looked at the two of them. “Why would I hit someone?”

I walked over and patted Noah on the shoulder, then smiled and said to him, “With a frame this small, I’m afraid I’d beat him to death and end up in jail.”

Noah shivered all over and took a step back.

Didn’t I know that their people had already picked up their phones and were waiting for me to make the first move?

They wanted to keep evidence and hand it over to the police back home, then try to leave a stain on my record.

I wasn’t going to give them that chance.

Sophie lifted the work badge in her arms and questioned me:

“Ethan, what do you mean?”

“You flew all the way to the U.S. just to throw this childish tantrum at me? Take it back now!”

I looked at her angry eyes and couldn’t help laughing.

“Isn’t this what you wanted?”

“Give everything to your white moonlight, and push him up to the sky. Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Now the one accepting the award is him, the one getting famous is him, and now I’m even giving the producer position to him. Why are you unhappy instead?”

“Who exactly is throwing a childish tantrum?”

Sophie looked at me and couldn’t say a word, muttering you, you, you for a long time.

Noah, that two-faced green tea guy, stepped forward and blocked Sophie, looking at me with provocation.

“Ms. Carter is doing this for the good of our company, Mr. Moore. You don’t need to stay angry.”

“Anyway, the lyrics and music for the future still have to be written by you, Mr. Moore!”

I quickly stepped back to put some distance between us.

Without taking his bait, I just looked at Sophie. I wanted to see what exactly she would say.

Sophie seemed to snap back to reality and directly stuffed the work badge into Noah’s arms.

“It’s fine. Since he gave the position to you, just keep doing it well.”

“The songs were already better after you revised them, and if you write according to your own ideas, you’ll definitely do even better!”

In the end, she still chose Noah.

He smiled and accepted the work badge she handed over.

“I definitely won’t let Ms. Carter down. I’ll take our company to the next level!”

Noah raised both arms and shouted, and all the people from the company below looked at him and cheered with him.

Sophie had completely forgotten I was there, staring at Noah with an infatuated gaze as he stood proudly in the spotlight.

Only I watched Noah quietly and let out a laugh.

Noah probably really thought, just like the internet said, that if you can sing then you can write songs, and writing songs is especially easy.

The barrier to songwriting really is low, but making a successful commercial song takes countless rounds of thought.

The rhythm of the melody, the notes in the chorus, the rhyme of the lyrics, even the connection between the instrumental break and the words—all of it has to be handled.

Every time I wrote a song, I poured in all my heart and soul, just so I could create the perfect music in my mind.

But Noah didn’t care. Every time he got my work, he casually changed a few words, altered a few notes, and then had his people get the recording studio ready.

He called himself a genius, saying he didn’t need to get familiar with a song and could sing it after just one look.

But only I knew he even needed someone else to sing for him when it came to actual singing. Every concert he ever held was lip-synced, and the person recording in the studio had never been him!

No matter what the issue was, he knew nothing about anything. Aside from the title of superstar on his head, he couldn’t do anything.

But he somehow thought singing and writing songs were easy, and figured that as long as the cover only showed his face, countless fans would flock to him.

He probably thought that once he had finally shoved me out, everything would be fine, not knowing what was waiting for him.

Without me, the company was a leaderless flock, and he wouldn’t be able to sing a single song.

Sophie turned to me and said, “Fine, considering you’re an old employee, I won’t fire you.”

“The company still needs someone to clean, so I’ll pay you 2,000 dollars. Go rest up a bit more.”

Clean?

Make me, the lyricist of a song that won the International Hit Song Award for Best Lyrics, go clean?

If I wanted to find a music company, people would be fighting to hire me.

A 2,000-dollar salary wasn’t even my daily spending money, and it was pure humiliation.

No matter how much they paid, wouldn’t I still just be a janitor?

As long as I was still in the company, I would definitely be bullied by the two of them working together, and there would be absolutely no good ending.

“I said I’ll resign. You don’t need to humiliate me by talking about cleaning toilets.”

I said to Sophie:

“I don’t want severance pay. Just leave me the song I just finished writing, and then we’ll be even.”

That was the most perfect music in my mind, the one that had used up all the effort of my life.

Sophie looked at me with a smile that was not quite a smile and said to me:

“Sure, I can give the lyrics and music back to you, as long as you go apologize to Noah. Then I’ll return this song to you.”

Apologize?

He took my song, took my place, and went to the award stage I had dreamed of. And now I was supposed to apologize to him?

I walked up to Noah and slapped him hard across the face.

“This is my apology. Do you like it?”