Chapter 152: The White Panda

Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura began to enthusiastically share their memories of the band Wink, leaving Aozhao somewhat overwhelmed. He quickly steered the conversation back to the main topic. "In that case, the two of you should know how to sing *Lonely Tropical Fish*, right? If you don't mind, let's go with that one... By the way, do you both still remember the lyrics and the melody?"

The two girls hummed the tune subconsciously. The melody was mostly correct, but Yumi Yoshimura could no longer remember the lyrics clearly.

Scarcely had she hummed a couple of lines when Ami Onuki interrupted her with a good-natured, teasing tone. "Yumi-chan, you're singing it wrong."

"Sorry, I've never been very good at memorizing lyrics," Yumi Yoshimura said with a smile.

Ami Onuki gave a helpless shrug. "Well, I suppose I have no choice... I'll just have to write down the lyrics for you."

"You two really get along well," Aozhao said as he picked up the paper and pen from the table and handed them to Ami Onuki.

Ami Onuki accepted the stationery. "Right? Even I find it a bit magical. Yumi-chan and I have so many differences in our personalities and interests, yet somehow we click so surprisingly well."

"That is what they call being kindred spirits," Yumi Yoshimura joked, putting on a distinctly Kansai-style middle-aged man's humor.

Aozhao deliberately let out a meaningful sigh. "Oh? Is that the kind of relationship you two share?"

"Hey, hey... Why are you playing along with Yumi-chan's jokes, Aozhao-san?" Ami Onuki frowned in protest, her head lowered as she wrote out the lyrics.

However, her utterly feeble protest was immediately drowned out by Yumi Yoshimura's carefree and hearty laughter.

Even so, once Ami Onuki finished copying the lyrics and handed them over, the two girls affectionately linked arms and stepped into the recording booth together. Walking side by side, they were of similar age, height, and hairstyle, with looks that were a match for one another—a truly pleasing sight to behold.

Silently sighing to himself that cute girls simply belonged with other cute girls, Aozhao put on his monitoring headphones and gave the "start" command through the microphone connected to the recording studio.

Then, their unedited voices fed back into his headphones.

...

Had it not been for Aozhao's intervention, it would not have been long before chance brought Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura to the attention of Tamio Okuda, who was also signed to Sony Music. They would have formed a female duo named Puffy, and in May of the following year, officially debuted with a million-selling single composed by Tamio Okuda and written by Yosui Inoue, titled *Asia no Junshin*. In the years that followed, they would conquer the music scene with an unstoppable momentum, successfully exporting their culture even across the ocean to America and enjoying considerable overseas fame for quite some time.

Because the lyrics of *Asia no Junshin* included the line "line up all the white pandas, whichever kind they may be," it was purely by coincidence that when Aozhao had first run into Ami Onuki, he had instinctively asked her whether she liked pandas.

As for why the black-and-white pandas turned white in the lyrics, apart from the wonderfully whimsical nature of the song's writing, it also had to do with Yosui Inoue's habitual lyric-writing style. The master who penned the line "My heart is like summer" was notoriously fond of forcing rhymes, which occasionally resulted in such eccentric lyrics.

Besides him, veteran Keisuke Kuwata of Southern All Stars was another rhyme fanatic. When listening to his songs, one would constantly encounter random English, French, and Spanish words thrown in purely for the sake of rhyme.

Had he not crossed paths with Ami Onuki, Aozhao would never have thought to meddle in the creation of Puffy. It wasn't a lack of ambition on his part; rather, because he was at Being while these two girls had long since been signed to Sony, their different affiliations meant the most he could have envisioned was offering them songs after Puffy debuted, rather than personally discovering the group.

In fact, when someone could rake in substantial royalties merely from songwriting and composition, why would Aozhao bother to put in the painstaking effort to secure the title of producer? Because the identity of a producer represented far more than absolute authority. Serving as a producer meant that, beyond collecting double royalties as a lyricist and composer when providing tracks, one could also claim an additional producer's cut from the record's profits.

Why was Tetsuya Komuro rolling in wealth during his prime, why did Takeshi Kobayashi rake in a fortune as a producer, and why did countless talented singer-songwriters scramble to join the ranks of producers? Because this profession was undeniably lucrative. As long as one could forge a million-selling act, the resulting income would flow in endlessly.

...

Ami Onuki and Yumi Yoshimura finished their trial recording and, upon receiving Aozhao's affirmative verdict, walked out of the booth together.

"The two of you cooperated remarkably well. You nailed the timing of the harmonies," Aozhao praised.

"Thank you," Ami Onuki bowed slightly. "Ever since Yumi-chan and I met, we've frequently gone to karaoke boxes together, and we've sung plenty of duets."

"Pardon my asking, but how long have the two of you known each other?"

The easygoing Yumi Yoshimura wrracked her brain. "Since last year? I honestly don't remember exactly when."

"I think it must have been before August of last year," Ami Onuki provided a more precise timeline. "Because the first time Yumi-chan and I went to a karaoke box together, Yumi-chan sang Aozhao-san's *Natsuiro*."

"You remember that quite clearly, don't you?" Aozhao chuckled at the mention of himself.

Whether out of a natural innocence or simply forgetting herself, Ami Onuki threw her teammate right under the bus. "Because Yumi-chan butchered that song so badly back then, I remember thinking, *'How on earth did someone like this pass the audition?'* So the impression was extra deep."

"Ah... So it's that kind of clear memory," Aozhao's mouth twitched.

Having been exposed right in front of the song's creator, even Yumi Yoshimura cast her gaze aside with a twinge of guilt. "That song was really huge back then, and everyone around us was singing it casually. I figured I'd catch the trend and show off a little in front of Ami-chan, so I hastily listened to it twice before going to meet her." With that, she offered a somewhat helpless smile. "Little did I know, not only did I fail to impress, but I left behind quite a little joke."

"Although the melody sounds simple, nailing it actually requires a certain degree of skill," Aozhao said with a smiling, diplomatic bailout. "Now that I've seen both of your vocal talents, I'll be sure to reach out when I need your help."