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Chapter 79 - Chapter 79 - The Passage of Time

With 'White Album 2' officially entering production, Jinhui TV also launched a full-scale promotional campaign for the show.

During prime-time advertising slots, Jing Yu and Yu Youqing were featured prominently in commercials for the new drama. The fact that 'White Album 2' was being produced by the original cast and crew of 'Your Lie in April' was heavily emphasized as a major selling point.

From early June to the planned July premiere, weekly appearances on variety shows were scheduled for key cast and crew members—including Jing Yu, Yu Youqing, Xia Yining, Liu Neng, and Gao Wencang. These shows included the usual entertainment segments, but the main focus was on introducing 'White Album 2' to audiences.

The promotion extended beyond Lan Province as well. Based on viewership data from 'Your Lie in April', advertising was also pushed in provinces where that drama had been especially popular.

It took less than a week for the general public across Lan Province to catch on.

"Oh… So the writer of 'Your Lie in April' and the actress who played Miyazono Kaori have a new drama coming out!"

Even some of the more prominent national film review programs began highlighting 'White Album 2'.

The 'Your Lie in April' afterglow was still strong. Its rating on Yindou Net had actually increased by 0.2 points two or three months after its finale, reaching a remarkable 9.4.

On a popular TV review show produced by Imperial Capital TV, a segment featuring a "Most Popular Characters of Spring Dramas" ranking revealed just how passionate 'Your Lie in April's fans still were. Despite the show only ranking 18th in average viewership for the season, Miyazono Kaori reached #6 on the character popularity chart, thanks to the flood of SMS votes sent in by loyal fans.

All signs pointed to the fact that 'Your Lie in April's influence far surpassed its raw ratings.

In terms of fan loyalty and recognition, 'Your Lie in April' actually outperformed many of the dramas that had ranked in the top ten for viewership.

Even critics outside Lan Province took note. Though Jinhui TV was still a mid-tier network among Da Zhou's many stations, Jing Yu was a different story.

His name had now appeared in the talent evaluation reports of all the major networks—Xingtong TV, Huanshi TV, and Imperial Capital TV, the big three in Da Zhou.

In their internal reports and ratings of promising industry figures, Jing Yu scored consistently high.

While none of these networks saw 'White Album 2'—airing on a second-tier station—as a threat to their own big-budget fall dramas, that was more out of disdain for Jinhui TV, not Jing Yu.

Still, among the second-tier shows competing in the fall season, 'White Album 2' was already generating unusually high interest, even before it aired.

Visits to Jinhui TV's official website increased by four to five times the usual traffic. Most users were specifically looking for updates on 'White Album 2's production.

But ever since the official character posters were released, there hadn't been any new updates—prompting many fans to flood the comment section with complaints.

It wasn't that Jing Yu didn't care. He was just too busy.

Aside from writing the script, he was also the male lead of the drama, and—more importantly—deeply involved in the work of the music department.

As 'White Album 2' entered filming, the 20+ original tracks he had translated via the system's converter had now reached the stage of being fully produced and recorded.

Since he was already involved, he couldn't just hand things off to the music team. The arrangements, the musical style, even the choice of singers—Jing Yu had to personally oversee and approve every detail.

Late at night, 11:00 PM.

Filming for the day had ended, and most of the crew had gone home.

But Jing Yu remained in the music room, working with the sound team.

In this drama, each of the three main characters had a distinct musical identity:

Setsuna (Mu Xuecai) – a natural-born vocalist, the classic singing prodigy.

Touma (Dong Hesha) – a genius pianist.

Haruki (Yuan Cunxi) – top of the class, helpful, well-liked, and excels at everything.

Jing Yu and Xia Yining's roles were manageable. But when it came to Yu Youqing's Setsuna, there was one major issue—

Her singing voice just didn't cut it.

Unlike Jing Yu, who could cheat with system-enhanced skills, Yu Youqing—while beautiful and blessed with a soft, pleasant voice—was only a decent singer at best.

Her singing wasn't bad, but definitely not good enough to be recorded for a drama where the character is described as a "natural-born songstress."

There was no choice—a professional singer had to be brought in to dub her songs.

The tricky part was that in 'Your Lie in April', Yu Youqing had done her own voice acting for Miyazono Kaori, so to avoid fans feeling disconnected or "thrown off," the voice of this singer had to be extremely similar to hers.

And the singing? Top-tier.

"Haah…" Jing Yu slumped into a chair, exhausted.

He was being crushed by indecision.

To help him out, Liu Neng had gone through Jinhui's internal talent database and delivered profiles and CDs from dozens of singers across Lan City—all for Jing Yu to review.

But since he spent all day acting, he could only tackle this late at night. More all-nighters. More fatigue.

"If I'd known it'd be like this, I should've just let the music team handle it..." he muttered.

Still, despite his complaints, deep down he knew:

If he had to do it again, he'd still involve himself in the music.

Because this drama's magic—30% of it, at least—came from its powerful soundtrack.

The emotionally charged theme song, Todokanai Koi (A Love That Can't Reach You), the soul-piercing performance scenes, and the haunting AA "punishment" tracks during heartbreak moments—

If Jing Yu didn't personally oversee it, the final product would inevitably lose a chunk of its impact.

"Teacher Jing Yu, here's your tea."

"Teacher Jing Yu, thank you for your hard work."

"Teacher Jing Yu, if you're tired, maybe take a break?"

The music team, seeing Jing Yu lying half-dead in the chair like a meme lord, immediately gathered around with polite concern.

"It's fine. We're all in this together," Jing Yu replied.

He pulled off his headphones—after over two hours of demo listening, his ears were buzzing.

Over the next few days, between scenes, he used every free minute to interview potential singers for the dubbing.

The production proceeded in an orderly, professional rhythm.

Mid-June.

Sunday, 10:00 PM.

Jing Yu appeared with the entire 'White Album 2' team on a Jinhui TV variety show.

Originally, this was meant to be a simple promo slot for the upcoming drama.

But no one expected what happened next.

That night, the show's average rating jumped from 0.76% to 1.38%—nearly double the previous week.

During the live voting segment, Yu Youqing's fan support was three times higher than Xia Yining's.

The war for best girl… had begun.

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