Cao Yuan was not a high-profile man, so when Gong Mingxia spoke like that, he actually breathed a sigh of relief. Since he had already delivered the betrothal gifts (a house) along with a piano earlier, when they married, he didn’t offer anything else, just bought Gong Mingxia three gold pieces and some clothes.
Gong Mingxia was not stingy either. She bought large color TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, and added a telephone for both the Cao Family and her own family—the type shared by both households. In total, she spent fifteen thousand yuan because installing the telephone was rather expensive, costing over four thousand yuan, so the total sum exceeding ten thousand was normal.
Apart from replacing major appliances, her room got a new 1.8-meter-wide bed, and the curtains, among other things, were all newly replaced when she first moved in, so there was no need to change them now. As for downstairs, the curtains were all uniformly replaced, but the beds were not changed; her mother-in-law said it was unnecessary.
Xiao Xiao’s room was also left unchanged, still equipped with the old bed left by the previous owner. The kids said it was still fine and did not need replacing.
Thus, the home furnishing expenses for both families amounted to two to three thousand yuan.
Finally, all the old furniture, appliances, and curtains combined from both families were arranged and installed in the rental properties.
Of course, this was when Cao Yuan became useful. Naturally, she told him about buying these two houses.
Cao Yuan was quite astonished, and Gong Mingxia took him to a music store, picking out four songs credited to Ming Xiu to show him, "This is where I earn my money from."
Cao Yuan looked up from the cassette in surprise, "Did you write these?"
Gong Mingxia shook her head, "Not exactly. I collaborated with a friend. ’Ming’ is me, ’Xiu’ is my friend."
Sorry, but at this moment, she had to temporarily use Meng Xiuying’s name as a cover. She couldn’t possibly admit that she wrote them because, technically, it would be considered plagiarism, but it wasn’t complete plagiarism—it was semi-original, as singing lyrics without any accompaniment couldn’t be completely identical. The later music arrangement needed to be created, how could it be exactly like later generations?
However, if the tune was there, the essence emerged, which made a considerable difference from what she had heard in later years.
"Can you really earn so much from this?" Cao Yuan felt a deep skepticism regarding his perception of money.
Houses worth 200,000 to 300,000 yuan, just bought like that, what concept was this?
"Stars earn much more than this. Moreover, this isn’t from a single song; it’s the profit and dividends from several songs. I lied to mom before, the house wasn’t bought with borrowed money, it was earned through this."
Cao Yuan looked at Gong Mingxia seriously, "I really appreciate you telling me all these things before marriage. I didn’t expect that I would end up being the one who benefits. Are you sure you still want to marry me? I might not earn as much as you in the future, I—" ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ novęlfire.net
Gong Mingxia knew he would say this, "I’ve already agreed to marry you. Why, are you having second thoughts now?"
"No, not at all. I just feel like, if a man earns less than his wife, he seems quite incompetent."
"That won’t happen. I won’t always be this successful, and people might not continue to collaborate with me. This is the last year; such opportunities will no longer exist."
Now, Gong Mingxia has bought three properties in Beijing and also owns three in H City. She felt her life was already worthwhile, so she no longer planned to earn money through songwriting.
Six songs were enough to last her a lifetime, so this year would be the last time she took this shortcut.