Chapter 52: Bonus Track

After concluding the dinner with Yuan Wang and the other four hosts, Xiao Siqi and his son boarded a late-night flight from Xiangnan back to Yanjing. The very first thing they did upon returning home was to discuss the matter Cao Zhongyun had brought up.

Xiao Yao had been present at the time, though it hadn't been convenient for him to speak. Now, behind closed doors with just the two of them, Xiao Yao offered his opinion immediately: "I cannot let him know it was me, so that meeting and everything else must be declined. Besides, I only happened to come up with that tune by chance; I don't really have a deep mastery of the ocarina. Meeting him wouldn't lead to any real discussion, aside from leaving him astonished. As for the copyright authorization, I don't really mind, and since I don't understand the pricing, I'll entrust the whole matter to your discretion."

Xiao Siqi had anticipated this exact outcome, so he raised no objections. However, he expressed a sense of grievance toward Xiao Yao, complaining that whenever he wrote something new, Xiao Yao was always the very first listener whose feedback and opinions he sought. Yet Xiao Yao had composed a melody without letting him hear it first, leaving his father's heart rather wounded. Speechless, Xiao Yao offered a soothing balm to his father's bruised ego, explaining that he had come up with the tune during early morning exercise—an hour far too early for Xiao Siqi to be awake—and he hadn't wanted to disturb his rest by waking him up to play it immediately. Later, once he got up, he had rushed straight into their assigned tasks and simply hadn't found the time. Xiao Siqi accepted the explanation and was successfully placated.

The following day, Xiao Siqi called Xu Ting to inform her about Cao Zhongyun's desire to purchase the broadcasting rights for the music. He stated that he had already obtained the authorization and commissioned Xu Ting to negotiate the specific price with Cao Zhongyun. Her agent commission would follow her standard business percentage, while the remainder belonging to him would be forwarded on his behalf by Xiao Siqi himself. As for the price, Xiao Siqi set no rigid demands; he merely instructed her to leverage the stir the tune had caused across two variety shows and position the negotiation around the persona of a talented new musical prodigy. Naturally, the quality and popularity of the two collaborative songs on his upcoming album could also serve as bargaining chips. He didn't care how much money she managed to secure—it would depend entirely on Xu Ting's negotiation skills. Despite saying all this, Xiao Siqi stubbornly refused to reveal the true identity of the composer to Xu Ting, leaving her utterly speechless and wishing she could take a bite out of him.

After finishing with Xu Ting, Xiao Siqi immediately contacted Cao Zhongyun to inform him that the composer was unwilling to reveal their identity or meet in person, but was open to selling the usage rights. All details, including the specific price, had been authorized to his agent, Xu Ting, whose contact information he then passed along to Cao Zhongyun.

On the phone, Cao Zhongyun felt a trace of disappointment, but since his primary goal had been achieved, he thanked Xiao Siqi profusely for his help before hanging up and hastily making arrangements to negotiate the usage rights with Xu Ting.

As Xu Ting and Cao Zhongyun's side were negotiating the agreement, the fourth episode of Xiangnan Television's *Where Are We Going, Dad?* had already been broadcast for a week, with the fifth episode about to air. Over the course of four episodes and more than a month, the popularity Xiao Siqi and his son had accumulated on the show was finally beginning to yield results. A flurry of event invitations, product endorsements, and various commercial offers began fluttering onto Xu Ting's desk.

Having served as Xiao Siqi's agent for five years and having thoroughly grasped his temperament, Xu Ting easily filtered out the commercial engagements she deemed suitable and which Xiao Siqi would likely agree to participate in. However, she found herself at a loss when dealing with the pile of requests specifically demanding that Xiao Siqi and Xiao Yao participate as a father-son duo. She was Xiao Siqi's agent, after all, not the agent of both father and son. Consequently, Xu Ting had no choice but to dump all the joint-participation invitations onto Xiao Siqi and let him discuss them with his son directly.

When Xiao Siqi received Xu Ting's notice and had just barely mentioned the matter to Xiao Yao—before he even had time to pull out the detailed descriptions of the events—Xiao Yao took one look and rejected the lot without a second glance.

For Xiao Yao, his initial motive for joining *Where Are We Going, Dad?* was primarily to help boost his father's profile, and secondarily because he thought it would be fun. When Xu Ting walked through their door with that stack of event proposals, he knew his primary objective had already been accomplished. As for the secondary objective, after filming three times for a total of six days, he currently had very little interest in the remaining three filming sessions of the show, let alone any inclination to subject himself to boring commercial activities. He wasn't even six years old yet, and he certainly didn't have the obligation to make money to support the family. Even if he did need to help support the household, he would much rather whip out his golden finger, pull a few classic hits from his past life, and trade them for cash.

Since Xiao Yao was unwilling to participate in commercial activities, given Xiao Siqi's personality, he would naturally never force a five-year-old child to go out and make money with him. Therefore, he replied honestly to Xu Ting: "Any commercial events requiring Xiao Yao's participation are declined across the board." Knowing Xiao Siqi's stubborn streak, Xu Ting felt a twinge of reluctance, but ultimately had no choice but to accept it.

Commercial activities could be turned down, but the filming of *Where Are We Going, Dad?* was something the father-son duo still had to see through to the end. By this point, the show had been filmed three times and four episodes had aired, with two more currently undergoing post-production editing and slated for release soon. According to the plan, the show would feature a total of six filming blocks divided into twelve episodes, meaning three more filming sessions remained.

The filming location for the fourth block was deep within the tropical rainforest of Xishuangbanna in southwestern Yunnan Province.
The fifth location was an uninhabited, desolate island situated at the southern tip of southern Hainan Province.
The sixth location was the Ulan Buh Desert, located in the western part of Inner Mongolia and the eastern part of Ningxia in the north.

All three filming locations were far off the beaten path, and they slept in self-assembled tents overnight. The production crew had suddenly turned so merciless that all five families suffered quite a bit on the show. After the episodes aired, numerous netizens even began to question whether the production team was running a parenting reality show or a wilderness survival reality show.

During the final three filming blocks, due to minimal contact with outsiders and Xiao Yao's waning interest now that his goal had been met, he stopped actively trying to stand out. Consequently, his standout moments were far fewer than in the first three blocks, and the hype surrounding the "monstrous child" cooled down somewhat. Yet, possessing the soul of a thirty-year-old, his sheer resilience and capacity for hardship alone placed him far beyond the reach of ordinary children.

Because the environment and conditions were unimaginably harsh and grueling, Xiao Yao was the only child who persevered from beginning to end without crying or throwing a single tantrum. All the other children—including Zhao瑞, who cultivated a tough-guy image—had shed tears and thrown emotional fits on the show. On the strength of this alone, Xiao Yao remained the most popular and closely watched child throughout the final six episodes.

By the time the entire show wrapped up, it was already the end of November. With just over a month left until the end of the year, Xiao Siqi began plunging back into his busy schedule.

Xiao Siqi had joined the variety show simply to boost his popularity and have some fun, with *Where Are We Going, Dad?* carrying the additional objective of deepening his bond with his son. At his core, however, he remained a musician and a singer. Riding the wave of skyrocketing popularity brought by the variety show to naturally roll out a new album was the most logical next step.

Between holding concerts in the first half of the year and participating in *Where Are We Going, Dad?* in the second, Xiao Siqi's year had been far more fulfilling than previous ones, though hardly overwhelmingly frantic. Music creation was something he constantly engaged in, and over the course of the year, he had penned quite a few satisfying works, making the release of an album a straightforward task.

Shen Yinan flipped through the stack of sheet music before him and smiled at Xiao Siqi. "Siqi, I never imagined your musical style would shift so significantly over the past year. Diversifying your style is a good thing; it seems you've broken through your bottleneck. I've always told you that you ought to try other genres of music."

Xiao Siqi smiled. Throughout the year, aside from work, the vast majority of his focus had been poured into Xiao Yao's music education. Yet Xiao Yao was far from being as singular in his musical tastes as his father; he asked countless eccentric and bizarre questions. To teach Xiao Yao properly, Xiao Siqi had been forced to delve deeply into various other musical genres. Through subtle influence, the music he created himself had naturally diversified under Xiao Yao's guidance. Of the twelve songs prepared for this new album, only five adhered to the bitter little ballads he had previously insisted upon—fewer than half. The rest consisted of three pop songs, two pop-rock tracks, one heavy metal hard rock song, and one folk tune.

"This is..." Shen Yinan pulled out the final piece of sheet music, frowning slightly. "'Little Worm's Flight'? A children's song?"

"Uh... I suppose it can be considered a nursery rhyme," Xiao Siqi chuckled.

"You're planning to sing a nursery rhyme?" Shen Yinan asked with amused disbelief.

"No, I'm planning to get a group of children to sing it chorally," Xiao Siqi replied.

"You didn't write the lyrics or the music, and you're not singing it. What on earth does this song have to do with you? You're planning to put this into your album?" Shen Yinan's tone turned serious and peculiar.

"Well, I'm handling the arrangement, and I'll be in charge of the recording and production as well. Furthermore, I will personally provide the musical direction for the children singing it," Xiao Siqi answered.

"Then what about your brand as a fully self-composed album?" Shen Yinan continued to press.

"It still stands. That's why I'm making this song a bonus track. The album will still have twelve songs, and this one will serve as an extra perk." Xiao Siqi clearly had considered this long in advance.

"Are you using your new album to help promote a new song, or using this song to boost your album sales? I really am curious about your relationship with this 'Composer'. You wouldn't happen to have changed your musical style because of them, would you? Two of the three songs in your last album that deviated from your original style involved this person. Even though there are no co-written works this time, you've gone and dug up a nursery rhyme to cram into your new album. But I have to admit—even though it's a nursery rhyme with relatively simple melody and lyrics, the quality of this song is exceptional."

After pondering for a moment, Shen Yinan consented to Xiao Siqi's plan and asked further, "Didn't you say you've been teaching your son music? Are you planning to have your son sing on this track as well?"

Xiao Siqi gave a wry, helpless smile and shook his head. "I'd love to have Xiaoyi sing on it, but he wouldn't agree."

"Oh? Your son has quite a bit of personality, doesn't he? He won't even contribute a little to his own dad's album?" Shen Yinan chuckled.

*This song was actually written by him in the first place,* Xiao Siqi thought to himself. *Allowing his old man to publish it is already a massive contribution.*