Chapter 167: Chapter 140: Accidental Success !
Translator: 549690339
What’s with this look of being moved?
“I don’t need your gratitude! I didn’t even encourage you! I told you the truth! Now, with your professional integrity and artistic instinct, think about what level is your ‘The Fire’ which you wrote? What level is your independently composed ‘Self-Combustion’? How is it different from the songs I wrote… Oh no, those I plagiarised?”
After a while, Carrie Thomas came back to her senses, looking somewhat coy and embarrassed. She muttered, “They’re… they’re about the same.”
“Bah! Feel your conscience and consider again!”
Carrie Thomas raised her right hand and placed it on her chest.
Harrison Clark swallowed nervously and turned his head away.
Okay, she is quite sensitive.
“It’s a little bit better than most of what you’ve written.”
“Isn’t that enough? The level of a person’s artistic creativity is about the quality of his work, not the quantity! Ten thousand mediocre works cannot surpass one timeless classic. I wrote a lot, and quickly, but does that mean that my talent is higher than yours? You don’t understand such simple truth? Are you blinded by your circumstances? You really disappoint me.”
Carrie Thomas was stunned at first, but then she nodded in agreement, “You’re right. I’ve made up my mind!”
“What have you decided?”
“I want to study abroad.”
Harrison Clark: “Huh? Study abroad?”
“Yes. I need to improve my musical skills systematically. I should calm down and polish my capabilities again. I can’t always rely on sudden inspirations and luck to create. I should turn the instinctual flashes of inspiration into skills that I can steadily grasp. Only in this way can I achieve both quality and quantity. Please note I don’t fully agree with your view.”
“A classic indeed defines my height, but if I have the ability, why not create more classics? Every song is born from a specific background, contains different emotions, can touch and inspire different people under different scenes, or evoke different memories. As long as it’s a good song, it has its significance and value. Leaving more value is the way to make a life worthwhile. I’ll arrange it now and try to set off as soon as possible next week. When I come back, I’ll surely surprise you.”
After finishing her words, Carrie Thomas went upstairs.
Harrison Clark remained on the spot for a long time.
It seemed like he had overdone the pep talk this time, almost catapulting her to the sky.
What should he do?
Harrison Clark fell into thought, recalling the trajectory of Carrie Thomas’s creation after last time.
In the previous timeline, after creating “Self-Combustion”, Carrie Thomas continued to produce slowly at the pace of two to three songs per year at most, or one song in one to two years at least.
Her subsequent works were not bad, still matching her status at the top 100 of the past thousand years, but it wasn’t until ten years later that she wrote another peak work on the same level as “The Fire” and “Self-Combustion”.
Throughout her life, she wrote a total of six works at this level, averaging one every six or seven years.
Just based on the first two songs, “The Fire” and “Self-Combustion”, she was already firmly secured among the top 100 of the millennium. If you factor in all her subsequent works, she was most often ranked among the top ten of the millennium in many evaluations.
But as we know, there’s no first place in literature and no second place in martial arts.
Everyone has their own Hamlet in their hearts. Whether it’s Carrie Thomas or others who are frequently shortlisted in the top ten evaluations of the millennium, they all have a lot of controversy and discussion around them.
But even with controversy, what Carrie Thomas achieved was a compelling success.
Although Carrie Thomas’s creative work was more concerned with leaving a clear conscience than seeking posthumous fame, she and her work should be seen as a complete whole.
If history is seen as a past composed of countless coincidences, then it’s because she first became a person of that level.
That’s why her song “The Fire” was ranked in that position in the music library, and was heard by the former staff of the Yellowstone Research Institute, with different identities and names but similar roles. Each time, it became a war song for humanity.
During Dr. Sergey’s occasional breaks, her “Self-Combustion” would be played by the system during the rotation.
Now Harrison Clark was somewhat bewildered.
His original plan was to further intervene in Carrie Thomas’s life, allowing her to create a song in reverse based on the content of the gold record sent to space in 1977, a song totally opposite to “Song of the Wilderness”. Then he wanted to see if he could inspire people’s hearts with Carrie Thomas’s ultimate work and counteract the influence of “Song of the Wilderness”.
But if he did this, the responsibility he put on Carrie Thomas’s shoulders would be too great.
She might not be able…
It’s almost impossible to complete.
Or even if she eventually succeeded, this song might consume all her talent in her life.
So will her historical status rise or fall?
If it falls, will her songs still appear in the right place?Could a song given such a significant mission to combat pervasion really be passed down and sung among people after half a millennium?
About the future, the uncertainties and variables are too great. Even now, despite Harrison Clark having traveled back and forth several times into it, despite him considering himself quite versed in the procedure, he still dared not conclude about the potential impact his activities could have on the future.
All he could do was guess and continuously trial and error.
With the future yet to happen, and variables not yet set in stone, nobody could truly predict the future.
Harrison Clark always wondered whether, in one of his trips, his inadvertent mistakes could trigger a horrifying butterfly effect, ultimately causing humanity to meet the end times a thousand years earlier, or even preventing humanity from surviving to that moment — both outcomes remained uncertain.
If humanity were to extinguish within five hundred years, then what should he do after a millennium?
Harrison Clark was not sure.
But one thing he knew for sure, he could never allow such a situation to occur.
Harrison Clark was always reminded of the need for caution as an individual who could influence the future. Only with such caution could each of his steps be steady.
So now, he was unsure what to do with Carrie Thomas.
This confusion persisted for several days, and Harrison Clark was never relieved.
However, time didn’t stand still because of his hesitation. It kept moving forward steadily, one day at a time.
A week later, new turning points emerged in the tide of the times.
On that day, four major events surprised the global music industry:
The first one, the three pre-released singles from Lucy Haywood, an artist under Summit Ventures, were all from her debut album. All ten songs from this album were composed by Harrison Clark, causing a sensation.
Secondly, the rising star in folk music, Ward Owen, released a pre-released single from his second album. His never-before-heard fantastical, folk-style music was refreshing. All ten songs in his album, again, were composed by Harrison Clark.
Thirdly, the top youth pop singer, Avril Green, released her second single within a month. This song, once again, was produced by Harrison Clark.
Finally, Harrison “Everything-is-Me” Clark announced that the total song repertoire of Summit Ventures had exceeded thirty. Those interested in purchasing and producers — it was time to take action.
The songs for sale spanned a variety of styles, in both Chinese and English. Prospective buyers could state their preferences, providing their favoured genre and past works. Summit Ventures’ music production department would then consider providing the right fit of songs for suitable singers. Of course, offers and contract terms were also considered by Summit Ventures when choosing buyers.
All four major events happened on the same day.
The eyes of the global entertainment industry and social media were completely taken over by Harrison Clark.
Along with that, Summit Ventures’ valuation skyrocketed.
In just one day, its market value had jumped from 3 billion to 6.5 billion RMB, which was equivalent to 1 billion dollars.
The ability to sniff out value is the lifeblood of capital.
The creativity displayed by Harrison Clark was terrifyingly vast.
There was no way they wouldn’t notice.
Harrison Clark was just going about his business, doing what he should do without really pursuing anything in particular. However, his value became clearer and clearer.
The most significant change was the discomfort felt by Chris Owen — attorney of Ward Owen, his father.
In the vast mansion of the Owens, in the study, Chris Owen sat with an emotionless expression while Ward was laughing heartily.
For some reason, Chris still felt irked and itched to scold someone to mask his awkward feelings.
“Father, no offense, but how could you have had the audacity to value my master’s work at one billion? Look, in such a short time, it has increased, not just by six times. I had to work so hard to explain to my master that you weren’t teasing him — you just didn’t understand the market. The valuation of one billion… tsks tsks…that’s too…”
Ward Owen’s remarks became increasingly insolent, blatantly poking fun at the borderline.
Ward, at this moment, felt great.
For the first time in his life, he saw his own father at a loss, which was one of the great joys in life.
Then ten seconds passed.
“Oh…ouch…”
Ward’s euphoria led to his own end..