Chapter 1 The Situation

Since Tan Weiming was practically never home, when the Crown Princess Wang Fangpin and the family took care of various affairs, the first place they thought of was the study in the Crown Prince's residence. This place was absolutely safe and reliable, and no one ever dared to pry. But now that Tan Weiming was helping, it was too easy to install listening equipment in the Crown Prince's residence, which already had a lot of electrical equipment and an independent power supply system. No matter the era, women are never as sensitive to electrical equipment as men. In theory, the Crown Princess would have to ask about any new electrical equipment in the residence, but when Tan Weiming's confidants brought people from the Ye Family Workshop and the Intelligence Bureau to install recording equipment in the archive next to the study, saying it was for moisture-proofing, dust-proofing, and pest-proofing, Wang Fangpin was too lazy to even glance at it and left. She didn't suspect anything at all. And unknowingly, two wires were pulled, and sound probes were installed in the study, completing a simple and cumbersome listening system.

Afterwards, Tan Weiming deliberately got angry and drove away the page who originally managed the archive, replacing him with a member of the Intelligence Bureau to be responsible for cleaning the study once a day. There were very few people who could enter and leave the study in the Crown Prince's residence in the first place. This guy was also the one who served tea and water. Subsequently, he would have to start the recording device at the right time. But this was not difficult. The switch for the recording device was connected to another wire and installed in this intelligence officer's room outside the study courtyard. He could record the people entering and leaving the study and how long they stayed, record their conversations, and he needed to replace the master disc according to the situation and hand over the master disc containing the recordings to the Intelligence Bureau official who met him once a day, but he did not have the authority to listen to those master discs. The intelligence officers recruited and trained by the Intelligence Bureau were not stupid. This prohibition on listening was actually a benefit. Listening to these contents would lead to unknown consequences.

The recording equipment was basically mature, and playback equipment such as record players was naturally not a problem. The Ye Family Workshop was now producing record players that used diamond styluses and were even in stereo. Of course, this stereo was very limited. Ye Tao did create a device that could record in dual channels simultaneously, but that thing was too bulky and not as simple and easy to use as the monaural device. As for the record player, it could be adjusted according to the sound source.

Since the investigation of the Wang family and the Crown Princess was still ongoing, the matter of the recording equipment becoming listening equipment naturally had to be kept secret. But within a small circle, everyone was very interested in this technology. Especially the master discs that Ye Tao brought back from Yunzhou this time, many of which contained very interesting content. The master disc that recorded Lu Dan and Huang Wan's "voice" family letters, and recorded their daughter singing nursery rhymes, surprised Huang Xuping and moved him to tears. This form, although not so immediate and seemingly so extravagant at least for now, deepened the emotional connection between people more than simple letters. Ye Tao estimated that once record technology could be popularized, these voice letters would probably have a considerable market.

Tan Weishi had long been eyeing the recording technology. She had produced so many dramas in Danyang. Although there was no shortage of entertainment in Yunzhou, with various tribal songs and dances, large-scale dramas were not so easy to produce. The operas and poems produced in Danyang made her miss them even more. And records were a good way to preserve these kinds of dramas. Although the lack of visuals was a bit of a pity, being able to have sound and being able to revisit those dramas was already a great enjoyment. Ye Tao had never regarded recording equipment only as a tool for reconnaissance and surveillance. Originally, issuing audio products was something he and Tan Weixin had planned, and they had even thought of a name for the company. When they could start issuing records, the company mainly engaged in this business would be called "Rolling Stone Records."

Deep inside the Ye residence, in a heavily guarded place, the first recording studio in this era was under construction. Without space limitations, the recording equipment installed here was not comparable to the listening equipment that had to consider size and ease of use. The equipment installed in this recording studio was undoubtedly the pinnacle of transistor circuit development in this era. And these things also cultivated the first generation of audiophiles in this era. The sound-absorbing panels and felt inside the recording studio were all custom-made, and the power input to the recording studio was all specially filtered to ensure the stability of the power supply. The internal space of the recording studio was very sufficient, enough to accommodate the entire troupe and band for static activities such as playing and singing. In terms of sound pickup, a total of six sound pickup devices were used, all microphones hanging from the ceiling, placed in different locations. Due to technical idle resources, these six microphones were mainly forward-looking considerations rather than practical use, but each one independently collected sound, independently recorded the master disc, and also led out signals into the mixing console for reverb and mastering. Although for the time being only dual-channel stereo master discs could be produced and copied, in the future, when conditions matured, these separate channel master discs could naturally be taken out and re-recorded. The mixing console, on the other hand, seemed a bit dispensable for the time being. After all, under normal operating conditions of the equipment, the mixing console operators actually had nothing to do. Ye Tao was strong, but not strong enough.

This recording studio built inside the Ye residence was completed quickly. But finding someone to try it out was a big problem. The secret of the recording equipment could not be exposed, so the people who could come in had to be trustworthy. Finally, after several discussions, Tan Weishi found Liu Xiangyuan and asked her to bring a few completely reliable troupe members to the Ye residence.

Liu Xiangyuan didn't know what was going on and thought that the Ye residence was holding an internal banquet and wanted her to help liven things up. If it were anyone else, Liu Xiangyuan would not bother with such invitations. After all, although she was still the undisputed master of the guzheng in Dongping, she was also one of the managers of the world-famous Danyang Troupe—the manager responsible for all performance-related content. Liu Xiangyuan now often appeared as a VIP at various top-level banquets, and even at banquets in the royal palace. Not to mention that ordinary dignitaries could not invite her, even if she was willing to go, it would be with considerable courtesy. But even though Liu Xiangyuan had this misunderstanding at the beginning, she was still very interested in this private invitation from the Ye family. After all, without Ye Tao and Tan Weixin's initial courtesy and help, she would not have been able to achieve her current status at all. This time, the post signed by Tan Weishi came to summon her secretly, and in her opinion, it was just that the few people in the Ye family regarded her as one of their own and did not care too much about her current status.

"What? You don't want me to play the zither to liven things up?" When Liu Xiangyuan learned that the Ye family didn't have any banquets at all, Liu Xiangyuan's naturally lively and slightly humorous nature began to stir. "Then you still want me to bring people over? Could it be that you dislike that I'm old?"

Ye Tao was not surprised to see Liu Xiangyuan's interesting expression, and Tan Weishi was not surprised either. There were only a handful of people in the world who could make Liu Xiangyuan show this expression now. Besides the famous actors in her troupe that she had supported with all her might, probably only the people in the Ye family.

"How dare we..." Tan Weishi said with a light smile, "We're going to do an experiment. How dare we trouble Manager Liu. But to do this kind of experiment, we still have to rely on the people under your command."

"Experiment?" Liu Xiangyuan was undoubtedly very unfamiliar with this word. She frowned, with a somewhat confused expression. If those people who had always coveted her beauty but had never dared to make a move saw it, they would probably drool.

While leading Liu Xiangyuan towards the recording studio, Ye Tao explained to Liu Xiangyuan in plain language what was going on. From entering the main gate of the Ye residence to the road deep inside the Ye residence, Liu Xiangyuan actually walked with Ye Tao and Tan Weishi accompanying her, which was considered extremely high treatment. However, Liu Xiangyuan was confused by Ye Tao's introductions. When she arrived at the entrance of the recording studio, Liu Xiangyuan looked up at the unremarkable appearance of the building and actually felt a little scared. She carefully asked, "Isn't this cutting off the livelihood of our poor people? If everyone can listen to music at home, we... we..."

Tan Weishi was startled by Liu Xiangyuan's startled reaction, and then reacted, laughing, "Don't say you're still the manager of the troupe. You can't see the effect of the performance without going to the theater at all. Even if you can only play the zither, you should know how big the difference is between watching people perform live and just listening to the sound, right? Look at you, you're so hopeless."

Liu Xiangyuan's face turned red, and she immediately regained her composure, walked into the recording studio, and listened to Ye Tao and several technicians explain the various designs in the recording studio. Liu Xiangyuan completely reacted. She pulled over a little girl who had been following her closely, timidly as if fearing that she would be left behind if she fell too far behind, and said, "Since we want to hear if the recorded sound is good, why not let Yun'er try?"

This little girl named Yun'er looked only eleven or twelve years old. Since she had been holding the bag of sundries that Liu Xiangyuan carried with her in front of her chest, everyone hadn't really paid much attention to this little girl. But at this moment, although the little girl was suddenly pushed to the front, she was slightly panicked, but she quickly calmed down. Although she was still shy, she firmly raised her head. When everyone saw it, they secretly praised her. This delicate little girl was beautiful and dignified. Although it could be seen that she had not seen many scenes, she still did not lose her politeness and knelt down to give a blessing, and then stood quietly, waiting for everyone's decision.

"Then let her try." Tan Weishi giggled, led Yun'er into the recording studio, pulled down the microphone and placed it in front of Yun'er, put the large and comfortable headphones on Yun'er's head, and patted her shoulder encouragingly.

"Yun'er, just sing your favorite song, 'Memory'?" Through the microphone in the control room, Liu Xiangyuan instructed lightly.

Yun'er responded softly without hesitation, "Okay." She cleared her throat slightly, and at this time, the technician had pressed the conspicuous "Record" button made of red frosted glass with a light bulb inside.

What song was "Memory"? That was also something that Tan Weixin came up with when she vigorously plagiarized various dramas she was familiar with back in the day, basically a Chinese version of the main melody of the classic musical "Cats". Anyone who had seen that play would be deeply impressed by the different interpretations of the young cat and the old cat inside. And Yun'er's pure childish voice perfectly expressed the depth of the song from almost the first note. That voice that constantly floated into the air seemed to take people to another world...

Soprano! ...Tan Weixin and Ye Tao, who had been sitting behind the mixing console silently, looked at each other. This Yun'er was indeed gifted, indeed amazing.

Yun'er only knew to sing seriously, and she had already entered the emotions of the song. She was completely unaware of everyone's amazement in the control room behind the thick glass. Just as she was singing the second time, suddenly a sharp screech that made one's teeth ache came from the headphones, and Yun'er had to stop. She opened her eyes wide and stared at the control room behind the glass, but saw a scene of chaos.

Ye Tao asked awkwardly to a technician next to him, "Lao Xu, what's going on?"

"Uh...the sound is too high, the circuit activity is too strong, and the tube can't withstand such a high pitch, it's burned out." Lao Xu's voice was even more awkward. In this day and age, when the boss lost face, the subordinates would rather die. And Ye Tao's face was obviously going to be lost this time.

"Can it be repaired?" Ye Tao asked helplessly, "This has never happened before." Ye Tao already knew this set of things very well, but he didn't expect this to happen.

Lao Xu replied awkwardly, "It'll be fine in a while, just change a board and a few tubes. It hasn't happened before, boss. Although we old men have debugged it repeatedly countless times, none of us can make this kind of pitch."

Liu Xiangyuan was relieved and burst out laughing. She was also afraid that Ye Tao would get angry, so she quickly said, "It's okay, it's okay, just try again when it's fixed."

There was still room for adjustment in the circuit system. After slightly adjusting the settings of the signal amplification part, the second recording went very smoothly. When it was played back and Yun'er's voice was clearly transmitted from the speakers, Liu Xiangyuan and Yun'er didn't know how to react for a moment, and just stared blankly at the magical speakers.

After listening to it repeatedly a few times, and then recording a guzheng piece herself, Liu Xiangyuan was no longer so worried about her job. After thinking about it carefully, she actually felt that this thing would not only not affect her job, but would make the lives of those famous actors who really had unique skills even better. She carefully asked Ye Tao, "Lord Ye, this thing... how much does it cost to make? It shouldn't just be such a big pile of stuff, right?"