Chapter 6
yun1yun yun1yun
1 year ago
When Ji Sheng opened his eyes the next day, the bed in front of him was neatly covered with the quilt, and Xie Xuanming had already left.
The irregular sleeping position made Ji Sheng's body so sore he felt he was falling apart. He sat up, rubbing his face bitterly and pinching the most affected area around his waist, when his gaze was suddenly attracted by a small yellow square on the armrest of the brown couch.
It was a post-it note, left by Xie Xuanming.
Ji Sheng tore off the post-it note; the handwriting on it was strong and powerful.
Looking at the words, you would never expect a moody, unpredictable man to write them. Ji Sheng harboured discontent in his heart and vented it in secret.
The drum will be delivered today.
No extra toiletries in the bathroom.
The fare is on the bedside table
Ji Sheng stared at the three lines of words for a long time, and realized three truths.
First, he didn't suffer from backache in vain, at least he got a new drum set.
Second, Xie Xuanming told him not to touch the utensils in the house and go back to the dorm to wash.
Third, he had the money to go back.
Ji Sheng turned his head, and on the cabinet, two banknotes were pressed under the vial of eye drops.
Two red bills, tens of yuan more than the amount requested by Ji Sheng.
Although there was a subtle implication in getting a tip at the bedside, as a destitute person with less than 50 yuan of total assets at the moment, Ji Sheng did not and was not entitled to feel insulted. He gladly tucked the bills away, completing his first asset expansion since his rebirth.
Naturally, it was impossible for Xie Xuanming to leave him breakfast, so Ji Sheng didn't rush to brush his teeth.
In line with the idea that Heaven knows, you know, I know, Xie Xuanming doesn't know, Ji Sheng decided to use the guest toilet to answer the call of nature without any internal struggle.
After that, he washed his hands, poured a handful of cold water on his face and scrubbed it. With two hundred yuan in his pocket, he left the villa.
Ji Sheng originally planned to take the bus back, but the rehearsal notice in the group chat and his tired body made him give up this idea and take a taxi instead.
It was even more difficult to find a taxi in the villa area than in the urban village. The residents in the area generally had their own transportation and drivers, and taxi drivers with some common sense would not go there.
The mobile phone software showed that the nearest taxi was five kilometres away and it was going to take more than ten minutes to get there.
Ji Sheng leaned against the gate and waited for the car, bored and nagging the security guard.
Ji Sheng: "Brother, what kind of work do you do? "
Security guard standing guard: … …
Security guard: "Security."
Ji Sheng: "Security is good, ah. Guess what I do? You absolutely can't imagine."
Security guard: … I don't want to imagine.
The security guard said indifferently: "Unemployed vagrant."
"Wrong answer." Ji Sheng shook his head and said solemnly, "I am a substitute."
Security guard: … …
The guard glanced at Ji Sheng, the man who remained calm after his shocking statement, brimming with the odd air of 'substitute and proud, competitive and invincible'.
The security guard turned his eyes away and said to himself that there was likely something wrong with the guy's head.
The security guard said bluntly: "Substitute is good, ah."
Ji Sheng said, "It's okay, but I can't sleep at night, and it takes a bit of effort."
Security guard: ?
Ji Sheng said, "But I will try to adapt."
Security guard: ????
At this time, the taxi arrived, Ji Sheng waved to the shocked security guard, smiled and said 'see ya'.
The security guard didn't really want to see him again. He sincerely hoped that the young gold master would find his white moonlight as soon as possible and kick out the excessively mutant "meal substitute".
Whatever the security guard thought, Ji Sheng got into the car and disappeared.
Ji Sheng returned to the dorm; all the band members had gone to practise, leaving Huang Sizhe to open the door for him with a weird expression on his face.
Huang Sizhe looked constipated and seemed to have something to say, but Ji Sheng was not in the mood to take into account the sensitive feelings of this adolescent child. He was about to get sick of the sticky feeling in his mouth, so he rushed into his room, grabbed his bathroom cup and headed for the balcony.
While he was brushing his teeth, Huang Sizhe followed him and looked at him without saying a word, standing in the doorway.
"Why didn't you go to rehearsal?" Huang Sizhe's sense of presence was so strong that Ji Sheng had to react to the inquiry in his eyes, mumbling with the toothbrush in his mouth.
"You didn't go either." Huang Sizhe seems to have been waiting for him to speak for a long time and responded as soon as Ji Sheng asked. As he spoke, a bit of embarrassment appeared on his face, as if he was remorseful.
Ji Sheng glanced at him, not understanding where he had provoked the child again.
Ji Sheng didn't bother to think about it. He simply ignored Huang Sizhe, picked up the bathroom cup and rinsed his mouth.
"About that," Huang Sizhe seemed to be entangled for a long time, cleared his throat, and said vaguely, "——"
"What?" Ji Sheng didn't hear him clearly and looked up blankly. There was a touch of white that hadn't been wiped clean at the corner of his mouth and there was a hint of stupidity in his usually sharp eyes.
Seeing him like this, Huang Sizhe became angry again. He zoomed in and shouted, "I said I'm sorry! Can you not be so dumb, you can't understand what people are saying and you don't have a personality, you just do what you are told to do, are you a puppet? You have no brain and no character, you won't even know if you're bullied to death!"
He used the way of bullying "Ji Hui" to scold "Ji Hui" for not resisting when he was bullied.
Ji Sheng blinked, not understanding his logic much.
"Oh…"
Ji Sheng lowered his head to flush out the residual foam and responded slowly, "I'll try my best."
Huang Sizhe choked.
Huang Sizhe was so angry.
After Ji Sheng finished washing, he found Huang Sizhe still standing there, looking embarrassed.
What's the matter with this kid?
Ji Sheng was really puzzled: "Is there something else?"
"I said I'm sorry."
"I heard it."
"You didn't say it's okay."
"…huh?"
Huang Sizhe gritted his teeth, bit the bullet and said, "Just tell me if you accept my apology."
Ji Sheng felt extremely helpless. He was now Huang Sizhe's teammate. Even if Huang Sizhe didn't say anything, he could only "forgive" Huang Sizhe and forget about him, let alone now that he had apologised.
But Huang Sizhe didn't understand that. He was young and consisted of sharp edges and corners and wanted to divide right from wrong by drawing a clear line.
Ji Sheng pushed away his wet hair thinking that a child who was so obsessed with reasoning was a pain in the ass. Apologising was like confessing for him and he had to solemnly confirm whether it was accepted or not.
Ji Sheng wanted to deal with him perfunctorily with a few words, but when he saw Huang Sizhe's cheeks flushed and his eyes shy and serious, he suddenly became a little distracted.
He inexplicably thought of a certain sharp kid he had met many years ago.
"Don't you f*cking know how to say no?" The precocious seventeen year old in his memory was talking with rare exasperation, "So brainless, if I hadn't come back in time yesterday, something could have, no, would have definitely happened to you for f*ck's sake."
How did he react at the time?…
Nineteen-year-old Ji Sheng looked at seventeen-year-old Xie Xuanming's flushed face in surprise and stretched out his hand heartlessly to rub it: "The sun is rising from the east. Our good baby actually used two dirty words in one sentence. Come, come, go and report the joy to Lao Sheng and the others."
……
The memories stopped; Ji Sheng shook his bathroom cup, and when he raised his eyes, he felt some softness that he hadn't expected from himself.
"Alright." He said gently, "I accept your apology and thank you for your suggestion. I will try to make myself more temperamental in the future."
As the sun rose higher, Ji Sheng and Huang Sizhe opened the door of the underground garage.
"Here they are." The lead singer greeted them and said in surprise, "Sizhe, your face is so red, are you sick?"
"No." Huang Sizhe denied in a muffled voice.
The lead singer didn't mind and said happily: "Come and see, the drums are here."
"F*ck, it's Star!" The keyboardist squatted in front of the brightly glimmering drum set, harrumphing, "The boss is generous!"
The guitarist said enviously: "Give me the whole thing, I have long wanted to change to a brand-name girl."
"Don't think about it. You can't abandon your bad girl, so make do with your cheap Yamaha. "
The keyboardist and guitarist giggled, while the lead singer stood with his head in his hands, "The Star Series drum kit costs 20,000 and up. How can we afford to pay for this if it is scratched or bumped…"
The keyboardist smiled and hugged Ji Sheng's shoulders, pinching his chin: "Xiao Hui guarantees it with his body, such a beautiful child is worth at least 30,000 yuan."
Ji Sheng glanced helplessly at this unorthodox teammate, wondering if everyone who played the keyboard had this kind of morals…
Before he could speak, Huang Sizhe broke out first: "F*ck your mother, Zhou Wuyou, do you live in the feudal era? Saying this kind of sh*t!"
"Okay." The keyboardist named Zhou Wuyou was obviously accustomed to Huang Sizhe's routine irritability. He shrugged, "Then you can only ask Xiao Hui to pay attention and not to scratch them when he is playing. If we aren't selling Xiao Hui, the bunch of us tied together won't be enough for the boss."
Huang Sizhe was still about to burst out; Ji Sheng quickly grabbed him and said soothingly: "Let's practice, I want to try the sound of the new drums."
On the performance day, their pick-up and drop-off was still the same little lousy van, but the driver was different.
The new agent, surnamed Wang, didn't say much, and after a few words of caution, he went off to drive. Ji Sheng glanced at his muscular arms and felt that this man was more like a bodyguard than an agent.
Maybe his job was to be a bodyguard.
Ji Sheng guessed he might have been sent by Xie Xuanming.
This thought reassured Ji Sheng a lot. He still trusted Xie Xuanming's ability. A man who had been in the entertainment industry for three years would have been put down as soon as he made his debut if he didn't have a good eye for people.
With Xie Xuanming's men watching, the chances that the person who hid in the shadows and tried to kill Ji Hui would make another move were slim to none.
The bodyguard agent sent Niepan to the destination and arranged for a makeup artist to come.
"What makeup do you need in a doll costume?" Huang Sizhe resisted, while the keyboardist and guitarist on the side also showed a look of displeasure.
"What if you want to take off your headgear for a curtain call?" The makeup artist smiled good-naturedly.
Anyway, in the end, only Ji Sheng and the lead singer put on makeup.
Although it was a performance for children, the organisers also gave Niepan face, arranging their show at the end, as if they were big stars.
The scene was lively for more than an hour, and finally it was Niepan's turn.
Standing behind the curtain on the side of the stage, the members were notified that they were ready to go. One by one, they started putting on their doll costumes and headgear.
After putting on the headgear, the field of vision became narrow and grey; the lead singer looked at the stage behind the curtain through the sight holes covered with black gauze.
The drum set and keyboard were placed on the stage, shining with a cold metallic light.
The lead singer looked at them for a while, then turned around and wanted to gather the band members to cheer and boost their morale, but unexpectedly met Ji Sheng's icy sharp, translucent eyes.
At this moment, there was a feeling of low air pressure about the usually gentle and silent drummer, making him look tense like a snow leopard crawling on a cliff.
He stared at the back of the stage, where the Star drums waited for him, the muted light flowing like a dark river over the oak surface.
He held his headgear under his left arm and clenched the drumsticks with his right hand. Through the bloated doll costume, the lead singer could vaguely see the tight lines of the drummer's muscles.
The lead singer was taken aback, hearing Ji Sheng exhale a long breath and whisper, "Finally…"
When he said this, he looked like an old-time samurai.
The samurai coldly caressed his long unused sword, and from the moment the blade was unsheathed, he set foot on the road to retrieve his glory.
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Chapter 7
yun1yun yun1yun
1 year ago
"On the stage." A kindergarten teacher with a work badge came in a hurry from the back, urging them.
In a daze, the lead singer watched Ji Sheng put on his headgear, covering his shining eyes with a heavy shell.
Ji Sheng straightened his crooked headgear and at the next moment noticed that the lead singer was staring at him, frozen.
During the previous couple of weeks of rehearsals, Ji Sheng paid attention and wrote down the names of all the members.
The lead singer's name was Lu Haoren, who, as his name suggested, was a passerby and a good guy(1).
Ji Sheng examined his equipment: "Brother Lu, what's the matter?"
He was packed in a doll costume, harmless to humans and animals, and the cold air of his unsheathed sword was tightly concealed.
Lu Haoren decided that the light was too dim and the strange moment just now was an illusion. He patted Ji Sheng on the shoulder and said, "It's okay, get ready to play."
After the emcee left the scene and the curtain fell, the five big dolls with an average height of 1.8 metres quickly moved on stage and took up their respective positions.
The lead bunny turned back, exchanged a few glances with the beige bear clutching his guitar, the blue tiger standing behind his keyboard, the pink dog cupping his bass and the green Pikachu with his drumsticks in hand, and made an OK sign to the backstage, firm and tough.
The curtain slowly went up and the children in the audience opened their eyes wide. Lights flashed from the back of the stage, outlining the contours of various musical instruments and the shadows of five naive dolls merged with their instruments. Like the foolish knights who saved the princess in the fairy tale, armed with powerful weapons and relying on their superb skills, they emerged from the fog.
The light flared violently and the drums started first, a dense sound of drumbeat shaking away the fog. The bass followed, wandering low in the bottom end, helping the drums to hold the ship steady; then the keyboard and the guitar took control, hitting the charge with the main theme.
The children stared open-mouthed, the fairy tale-like performance on stage completely attracting their attention.
All the musicians entered the state; the oddly shaped dolls chivalrously turned musical notes into sharp blades, their swords pointed to the roaring dragon not far away.
The lead singer held the microphone and let out a clear tune, laying the foundation for the victory of this battle.
The reporter sent by the channel for children was holding the camera excitedly, having a hunch that he would record a perfect scene. Although he couldn't even recognize the track sung by the band in front of him as the must-have golden song of every birthday, he was still sure that this was the best children's show and the best band performance he had ever seen.
On stage, despite the perfect performance, the musicians were actually not in very good condition.
The stage configuration of the kindergarten was unexpectedly good; the lighting system was as perfect as that of a regular theatre and the temperature was as hot as normal stage lighting.
The first participants of the show sang and danced dressed lightly and still were sweating profusely when they came down, never mind the Niepan members in heavy doll costumes.
Lu Haoren held the microphone, and with every sound, he could feel sweat dripping onto his lips and into his mouth, salty and bitter.
Huang Sizhe's palms were wet. He insisted on wearing the doll costume and gloves to rehearse, and miraculously he was able to play flexible and clear music with clumsy fingers. But at the moment his hands were soaked in sweat, so sticky they were practically fused to his gloves.
Ji Sheng's situation was the worst. There was fog in front of him, his vision was blurred by sweat, and he could only rely on muscle memory to continue to perform. The most fatal thing was that the flannel inside the headgear fell off at some point, coincidentally covering half of his face and blocking his mouth and nose.
The air flow in the headgear was already meagre, and the sweat-soaked fabric made it exponentially worse. Ji Sheng opened his mouth and gasped for air but couldn't get any oxygen into his lungs.
The feeling of suffocation was like a surge of water pressure; Ji Sheng couldn't breathe and his brain gradually became muddled.
In a daze, Ji Sheng saw himself seated on the drum chair in the centre of an empty stage in his previous life. The audience screamed and cheered, but his forehead was covered in cold sweat and his temples were throbbing with pain.
In front of him there was a familiar drum set and in his hands there were custom drumsticks engraved with his initials.
The drumsticks were once an extension of Ji Sheng's fingers, almost another body organ of Ji Sheng.
But at this moment, the drumsticks were shaking uncontrollably in Ji Sheng's palms and even if he tried his best to hold them tightly, he couldn't persuade them to stop.
Ji Sheng realized in that moment, to his horror, that he was disconnected from the drum kit, from the love of his life, from his soul.
In his previous life, he flipped his hand over and the hideous scar on his wrist covered by a heavy foundation concealer was almost undistinguishable, yet carried a presence that could not be ignored.
Ji Sheng was shocked by the faintly visible red mark; his hand let go and the drumsticks fell gently to the ground, clattering with a loud noise.
The music gradually reached its climax; the kindergarten teacher in the audience was holding a SLR with a complicated expression.
Beside her, a child raised her head worriedly and asked in a milky voice, "Teacher, why are you trembling?"
The kindergarten teacher stabilised her emotions and squeezed out a reluctant smile: "The teacher is fine."
The kindergarten teacher used to be a station sister(2), who was given the task of taking pictures during this event.
Although her makeup now was elegant, her skirt long and her shoes demonstrating a demure temperament, she used to have bright days of wild hair and red lips.
At that time, the kindergarten teacher was not yet a kindergarten teacher. She was very young and had endless courage and rebelliousness. She could pick up a lollipop and grab a camera and go, stubbornly and determinedly following a certain drummer from south to north, from obscurity to fame.
The station sister looked at the stage in a daze.
"So similar," she murmured, "How can it be…"
She sighed, the sound of music paused abruptly, the drums stopped and then started again. The drummer with a distinctive style smoothly completed the last solo, his drumsticks dropping the notes to bring the performance to a perfect end.
The performance was over and the lights focused.
The station sister's eyes widened suddenly.
In the back of the stage, the drummer suddenly lifted his headgear, his wet face illuminated clearly.
The station sister's heart sank and then thudded heavily. In a trance she looked at the departed man who had flown down from heaven and landed steadily on the narrow stage in front of her.
The station sister could hardly breathe. She trembled, used her last strength to raise the camera, pointed it at the drummer and pressed the shutter.
It stood to reason that after performing this birthday song that was changed in such a way that even its author wouldn't be able to recognize it, the Niepan band should have evacuated quickly.
In fact, the physical condition of the members did not allow them to stay on stage for a long time either.
The insides of the doll's costumes were completely drenched, and every member was soaked in sweat. Staying for one more second was torture.
They wanted to retreat quickly, took the settlement, went back to the dorm to take a cold shower and then happily have a half-day vacation.
Unfortunately, this plan was obstructed in the first step of its implementation.
"Wait a minute!" In the audience, a little princess jumped up and raised her right hand high. The birthday crown on her head was very eye-catching, leaving no doubts that she was the absolute protagonist of that very unique birthday song.
The sky is big, and the people who celebrate birthdays are the biggest.
The members of Niepan who were about to slip away had to stop. Lu Haoren looked at his teammates, gritted his teeth and leaned close to the microphone, tentatively asking: "Birthday star, what do you want to say?"
The girl blinked a few times: "I want to listen to another song, can I?"
As soon as this remark came out, it was immediately supported by the little audience. A chorus of chirping young voices rose to the stage in anticipation of the Foolish Knights to show off more of their skills.
Niepan members exchanged glances, all at a loss.
They did sing songs other than 'Happy Birthday', but among those songs, passionate or violent, even the most soothing one didn't seem to be suitable for performing in front of the little seedlings of the motherland.
Seeing that Lu Haoren was in trouble, Ji Sheng leaned forward, hooked the microphone in front of the drum set and took over the conversation.
"Yes, what do you want to hear?"
"I…" The little girl furrowed her pretty eyebrows and thought hard for a while before speaking in a milky voice, "I want to listen to hard rock and heavy metal."
Ji Sheng: … …
Niepan everyone: … …
Ji Sheng didn't expect that this child had such an exceptional taste in music. After the little girl had said it, he noticed that the hairpin adorning her head was actually a ghastly white skull.
Presumably, her parents were not ordinary people that could raise such a stylish child.
Ji Sheng smiled helplessly: "What about the repertoire, are there any favourite songs?"
The little girl replied quickly: "Two tigers!" And cautiously added: "Is it possible?"
"Yes, it is possible." Ji Sheng couldn't resist the cuteness of the girl's big moist eyes and said with a smile, "Today you are the birthday star, and of course all the wishes of the birthday star must be fulfilled."
After saying that, Ji Sheng covered his mic and asked the keyboard Zhou Wuyou: "Okay?"
The keyboardist nodded at him, the big head of the doll costume swaying very conspicuously.
Ji Sheng gave him a thumbs up and continued: "You start directly, and I will look for a chance to join."
He bent over, picked up the headgear from the ground, put it back on and found that the damn flannel was still stuck to his mouth and nose, so he took it off again helplessly.
Ji Sheng dragged the mic in front of the drum and fixed it to a distance that could be reached by stretching his neck.
He knocked on the cymbal and said loudly into the mic: "Next, please enjoy the additional program tailored for today's birthday star —— two metal tigers!"
Ji Sheng gave the keyboardist a look; Zhou Wuyou hesitantly pressed the first note and Ji Sheng quickly followed, filling the trembling notes with a steady rhythm.
Today was a really eye-opening day for the children of Stardust Kindergarten. At the beginning of their lives, they were fortunate enough to hear the jazz version of 'Happy Birthday' and the hard rock version of 'Two Tigers' that many people would never be able to hear in their lifetime.
The crazy metal tigers swayed their bodies on stage to the violent rhythm set by the drummer, revealing their sharp fangs that they had never before shown in a children's song.
The children in the audience watched with relish, cheering from time to time, while the adults looked at each other, wondering if they should kick out that dark fairy-tale children's nursery rhyme band.
The reporter of the channel for children was numb. This delightful band gave him so many surprises that he felt tired. He was satiated and sluggish, leaving only the camera to faithfully record the rich material.
The body of the kindergarten teacher who was a station sister once shook like a sieve, but her hand holding the SLR remained motionless, recording the drummer's wonderful performance without missing a second.
The drummer, immersed in the music, accidentally swept his glance over a familiar face in the audience.
He was startled, the smooth drum sound stopped and a beat was missed.
The drummer quickly recovered and made up for the mistake.
After the drums had steadied, he looked down as if embarrassed that someone was filming him, smiled shyly, and then raised his head after a moment, his bright, gentle eyes falling on the station sister.
The station sister's rock-like stable hand collapsed at this sight; she looked at the young man's beautiful, familiar face, and burst into tears uncontrollably.
'Haoren' is homophonic to 'good guy', 'Luren' to 'passerby'
Station sister, a fan who uses a fancy camera to photograph her idol
Chapter 8
yun1yun yun1yun
1 year ago
After the performance, Niepan returned to the backstage dressing room, changed from their doll costumes and prepared to go back to the dormitory.
Zhou Wuyou lifted off his headgear as soon as he got off the stage: "Holy sh*t, I was almost scared stupid. No one told us someone could order songs before we came here!"
Huang Sizhe scolded: "It's embarrassing, what are you panicking about, playing 'Two tigers'? The sound was all over the place. Shame on you."
"The TV channel had such a big camera right in front of me, how could I not be nervous!" Zhou Wuyou turned his head gratefully, "Luckily there was Xiao Hui, singing to himself a little to keep the rhythm and melody steady."
When they were performing a heavy metal version of 'Two Tigers', the Niepan members were scared for a while whether they needed to sing, who would sing and how they would sing. Before they could figure out what to do, they saw Ji Sheng get on the mic and take over the drums and vocals all by himself.
His own drummer unexpectedly demonstrated the skills they had never seen before, and the Niepan members breathed a sigh of relief but also had some doubts.
"Can you sing?" Huang Sizhe asked with a frown.
Ji Sheng took off his gloves and wiped his hands with a tissue: "I used to be the lead singer."
"I haven't heard about it." Huang Sizhe continued pursuing him.
"It happened back then." Ji Sheng made a long story short, "I haven't practised much since I turned drummer, and I don't sing well. I'm sorry to mention it."
Ji Hui originally had a shy temperament. He said that much, and the other members didn't intend to press the issue. After all, who of them didn't do odd jobs while underground? Zhou Wuyou, who could barely hold drumsticks, still worked underground as a drummer in a few bands; not to mention singing, something that anyone can do regardless of whether it's pleasing to the ear or not.
Whatever else Huang Sizhe wanted to say, he was interrupted by a dispute at the door of the dressing room.
"I want to meet the drummer of the band."
"Sorry, the band members take a break and see no one."
"Is it possible to just meet? I just want to have a few words with him."
"Sorry, no way."
Outside the dressing room, the station sister looked earnestly. She sincerely wanted to meet the drummer who was too similar in appearance and style to her deceased idol. She wanted to say a few words with him, even if for a moment.
However, the agent was ordered by Xie Xuanming to protect Ji Sheng. Some unknown people were hiding in the shadows and no one knew when or if they would strike again. The danger in the dark is always the most deadly. Even if it was a slender girl, the agent/bodyguard didn't have any intention to let her in.
The two were playing tug of war when the door opened.
"Brother Wang, let her in." Ji Sheng stood at the door, "She's a friend."
The agent was silent for a while, looking at the station sister whose eyes reddened and filled with affection when she saw Ji Sheng.
The boss's little lover was approached by a girl who was crying and clearly infatuated…
The bodyguard/agent thought blankly, Boss Xie, your hat might be a bit green.
He said thoughtfully: "Have you mentioned this to Mr. Xie?"
Huang Sizhe listened to the conversation between them two and was instantly furious: "It's none of his business! Is he the Monkey King? Does Ji Hui have to report what friends he makes?"
The agent glanced at him coldly and continued to look at Ji Sheng: "Does Mr. Xie allow you to see her?"
Ji Sheng grabbed Huang Sizhe who was about to explode and explained, "Brother Wang, you misunderstood, this is probably a music enthusiast or a fan… Senior Xie shouldn't have asked you to stop me from seeing people at all either. Blocking a girl outside the door is not very polite, let her in first."
The agent looked at him indifferently for a while and made way.
The station sister entered the lounge. Her gaze fell on Ji Sheng's face, her eyes moistened and then her tears couldn't stop falling.
A strange girl came in and looked at Ji Sheng, crying without saying a word.
The members of Niepan had never seen such a scene. They looked at each other and embarrassedly remained silent in sync.
Ji Sheng drew a tissue, handed it over and said softly, "Is there anything wrong?"
"Thank you." The station sister took the tissue. She didn't actually know why she was here and why she had just made a lot of noise and violently begged to see the drummer. She wiped away her tears and said casually, "Your drum skills are very good."
"Thank you." Ji Sheng said.
After sobbing for a while, the station sister calmed down a little.
"Your style of playing drums is very much like someone's." She raised her eyes to Ji Sheng, "When I met him, he was about your age and didn't have much money, running around with drumsticks for small commercial gigs. He couldn't afford to put out an album or tour, but still was confident that he would be popular, that he would let everyone know he was the best drummer… later he did become famous, just, just…"
She couldn't talk anymore and started sobbing again. There was silence in the lounge, and only the station sister continued crying: "You are really, really very similar to him. When I saw you perform, I thought he had come back from heaven… It might be rude to say that, but I really can't help it…"
Huang Sizhe seemed to want to say something but was stared at by Ji Sheng and Lu Haoren at the same time, scratched his head irritably and remained silent.
"I understand." Ji Sheng handed her another tissue and said gently, "With a fan like you, even if that drummer went to the other world, he would still feel happy."
The station sister's shoulders stiffened and she let out a loud wail.
Before leaving, she blushed and asked, "I just took some pictures of you during the performance. Can I put them on the Internet?"
"Of course," Ji Sheng said.
The station sister gave him a deep look, bowed to thank him and turned to leave.
After she left, Huang Sizhe held back as long as possible and finally said, "The drummer she mentioned…"
"His name is Ji Sheng, he died in a car accident at the beginning of the year." Lu Haoren reminded in a low voice.
"Oh." Huang Sizhe stopped talking.
The atmosphere in the dressing room was a little depressing. At this moment, the door opened again and the agent brought in a person.
Ji Sheng didn't have time to take a look when Huang Sizhe leapt up again, his voice tense: "What did you bring him for?"
Ji Sheng raised his head and was taken aback.
Xie Xuanming passed by the agent, glanced coldly at the obviously hostile Huang Sizhe, turned his head and asked, "This one?"
The agent said calmly: "The band's bassist, named Huang Sizhe, is young, impatient and immature."
Huang Sizhe choked and became even more angry when his agent led the wolf into the house and reported the information on him.
He also guessed that this agent must be Xie Xuanming's subordinate, and Xie Xuanming could decide the life and death of the Niepan band with a single sentence, so he could only grit his teeth and swallow his anger.
Xie Xuanming didn't care about Huang Sizhe's hatred for him at all and didn't even bother to give this hairy boy a second look. From the moment he entered the door, his attention was only on Ji Sheng.
"Ji Hui, come." Xie Xuanming said flatly, turned around and left the lounge.
Huang Sizhe exploded completely, grabbing Ji Sheng's wrist as he was about to walk out: "He asks you to go, so you go?! When are you going to change your loser punching bag personality?"
Ji Sheng said calmly: "Senior Xie funded our performance. It is appropriate to thank him in person."
"Thank him by sleeping with him?!"
As soon as the words were spoken, Huang Sizhe regretted them.
Huang Sizhe wanted to remedy the situation, but the eyes of all the members were directed towards him. Although everyone had an unspoken understanding of these things, knowing and breaking it down to someone's face were, after all, two different concepts.
Ji Sheng's face completely lost its warmth; he no longer was in the mood to explain something to the child who had no control over his mouth. His expression quickly changed from patient to cold: "Let go."
Ji Sheng's eyes were icy and Huang Sizhe subconsciously let go. When he reacted, Ji Sheng had already opened the door and walked out.
Xie Xuanming was waiting outside the door; when he saw Ji Sheng coming out, he said: "Your band is in a good shape, they are all very good-looking."
Ji Sheng heard the connotation of his words and his eyelid twitched: "They are all serious musicians who play music seriously. It is better for Senior not to think too much."
"What does that mean? Don't you play music seriously?"
"…it doesn't mean that."
"Is that a sarcastic way of saying that I have a dirty mind and force people into prostitution?"
"… …"
Ji Sheng had nothing to say.
Xie Xuanming was now considered his gold master and bickering with the gold master was obviously not a smart choice.
His silence was full of dignity but Xie Xuanming didn't stop. He sneered: "You are very popular, especially with the bassist, he seems to care about you very much."
He turned the artillery fire on someone else again, and Ji Sheng sighed: "He's just a naive child who hasn't experienced severe social beatings. Don't bother with him."
Xie Xuanming was noncommittal and said coldly: "You are defending him."
"…" Ji Sheng was a bit powerless.
"I'm surprised." Xie Xuanming smiled strangely, "Do you drummers have a soft spot for bass?"
In his previous life, Ji Sheng's ex-boyfriend Sheng Kongzhi was a bassist.
Ji Sheng knew that Xie Xuanming was angry, lowered his eyes and changed the subject obediently: "Senior is looking for me, can I help?"
"Move out of the dormitory today."
There was no need to ask where to move.
Ji Sheng had no right to object and did not intend to object. The more time he had with Xie Xuanming, the more access he would have to the information he needed. He said, "Then I will pack my things today and move in tomorrow…"
"Come tonight," Xie Xuanming interrupted.
What a tyrant.
Ji Sheng sighed secretly but his face remained impassive: "Then I will go back to the dormitory to pack up my toiletries…"
"Don't bring those dirty things into the house." Xie Xuanming said coldly, "Write a list of what you need and just buy it."
"…" Ji Sheng remembered the shabby two-digit number in his mobile phone account and had a rare moment of truth, "You are so rich."
Xie Xuanming finalised it: "Write now."
The things you will definitely not lack in a kindergarten are paper and pens. Although Ji Sheng didn't know why Xie Xuanming didn't just ask him to send an electronic list, he borrowed a pen and a sheet of paper without much ado and quickly made a list of the daily necessities he needed.
Before he was reborn, Ji Sheng lived a very refined life, using only his preferred brand of daily necessities and feeling uncomfortable when he was away from familiar products.
But after being reborn, his financial situation was really abysmal, and the month and a half of lying flat almost cured him of his stinky picky user problem, making him gladly (forcibly) accept the reality as it was.
Now Xie Xuanming offered to pay the bill.
Without having to swipe his own card, Ji Sheng was naturally happy. He didn't wrong himself either and wrote with relish.
When giving Xie Xuanming the list, Ji Sheng emphasised: "The toothpaste must be the toothpaste for children."
Xie Xuanming took the A4 sheet covered in writing, glanced at it and his eye twitched slightly.
He commented coldly: "That's a lot to ask for."
"Lemon-flavoured or orange-flavoured."
"…Don't overstep the mark."
"It's best to be lemon-flavoured."
"Do. Not. Overstep."
"Is it okay?"
"……"
"Okay."
Chapter 9
yun1yun yun1yun
1 year ago
Ji Sheng didn't go back to the dorm. After leaving Stardust Kindergarten, he got in the car with Xie Xuanming and left.
He sat in Xie Xuanming's funeral parlour-like black limousine and brushed past the rickety little van that wobbled out of the car parking.
Looking at the band members in the van through the two layers of glass, Ji Sheng suddenly felt a sense of taking one for a team or selling himself to bury his father.
When he arrived at the villa, this feeling became even stronger.
First of all, Ji Sheng needed to solve the bathing problem.
He had just come out of the soggy doll costume, and his clothes were soaked in sweat. In the car, Xie Xuanming had already fully demonstrated his dislike. He frowned all the way and from time to time uttered a few full-scale 'tsks'. Ji Sheng was frightened, feeling he would speak in the next second and order him to get out of the car and, like the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, walk to the villa(1).
"May I use the bathroom?" Ji Sheng asked carefully. Seeing Xie Xuanming's eyebrows furrow again, Ji Sheng quickly added, "You don't want a dirty person to stay in the house and get in the way, do you?"
Xie Xuanming paused and reluctantly said, "Use the guest bathroom."
The bath was arranged; now there was a problem with the clothes.
Ji Sheng came empty-handed and didn't even bring a charger, let alone a change of clothes. Although the clothes were included in the purchase list, it was a pity that the things hadn't been delivered yet.
The fire of hope still existed in Ji Sheng's heart: "When I lived here before, I should have left a few pieces…"
"Thrown away." Xie Xuanming extinguished the tiny fire mercilessly.
Ji Sheng: "…Then, can you be so kind and lend me something?"
Xie Xuanming said, "No."
Ji Sheng's smile gradually became gentle: "Then I will run naked?"
In the end, Xie Xuanming reluctantly opened the door of the cloakroom, chose inside for a long time, selected a few unwanted items and handed them to Ji Sheng: "You wear this."
Ji Sheng glanced at the neat rows of black, white and grey loose T-shirts, tea brown and blue striped casual pants, and pulled down the corner of his mouth. He really didn't quite understand what Xie Xuanming was hesitating about just now.
Xie Xuanming's dressing style was widely criticised. On the one hand, he was a darling of the big brands, even though no matter what kind of "fashion" items were put on him, they would be drowned by his own aura of abstinence and madness without making a splash.
At the same time, Xie Xuanming was extremely perfunctory about the so-called "fashion". Except on red carpets and other essential occasions when he would wear high luxury items to show his face in front of the camera, repeatedly emphasising the brand, at other times, Xie Xuanming was always seen by paparazzi or passers-by in uninteresting, cool-toned sporty pieces.
Although Xie Xuanming's own body condition was enough to turn an emotionless old man's black shirt into a hormonally charged ascetic new fashion, however, his overly straight style of dressing still left a serious stereotype impression on passers-by, causing many melon-eating netizens to express surprise when reporters revealed his ambiguous photos with Ji Sheng.
Ji Sheng took the clothes from Xie Xuanming's hand, thanked him and quietly added the last knife: "Thank you, Senior, you haven't given me underwear yet."
Xie Xuanming's expression visibly darkened.
He closed the cloakroom door: "You can't wear mine." Glancing down, he added contemptuously: "The size is wrong."
Ji Sheng: … …
Even if it wasn't his own body, he still clenched his fists.
And you're a silvery spear point made of pewter, impressive-looking but useless.
Glancing at Xie Xuanming's muscular forearms and reminding himself that this was a violent madman who could knock out people's teeth at the drop of a hat, Ji Sheng tried to swallow his vicious retort.
He smiled softly: "If you don't mind me wearing your pants naked, of course I can go commando."
Two minutes later, Ji Sheng contentedly exited the cloakroom with disposable underwear in hand.
The cloakroom was located inside the master bedroom, and once outside, Ji Sheng again saw the couch that was extremely inconsistent with the decor. Its narrow size made it look particularly shabby and pitiful compared to the large, wide bed beside it.
At the thought of his night of discomfort and sleeplessness, Ji Sheng's waist began to ache faintly. With a sigh, he turned and asked, "Senior, maybe in the future, I can make my bed on the floor?"
Xie Xuanming was in a bad mood: "No."
"Why?"
"Because I said no."
A blue vein throbbed on Ji Sheng's forehead: "Emperor Xie, people need to sleep."
Xie Xuanming walked out of the room without looking back: "People can fall asleep while lying on the couch."
Ji Sheng was left in place, the corner of his mouth twitching uncontrollably.
He recalled that in his previous life, when the sexual harassment controversy broke out, he was receiving private messages from Xie Xuanming's fans cursing him, saying that he was shameless, occupying the perfect lover but still looking for someone else, simply not respecting his husband's honour.
Ji Sheng was puzzled at the moment as to why anyone would call Xie Xuanming the perfect lover.
The gold master who doesn't even allow his lover to make his bed on the floor is destined to be the mean husband whose prenuptial agreement will be planned as clearly as the Chu-Han divide(2).
Ji Sheng went downstairs and walked into the guest bathroom, complaining while taking off his clothes.
Xie Xuanming really deserved to miss his white moonlight, with his terrible personality. Had he been that white moonlight, he might have shouted a few blessings and run away now.
After Ji Sheng took a shower, he went out to the living room in clothes that were two sizes too large and found that the items on the list had been delivered.
Xie Xuanming sat on the couch and read his schedule, permitting him to check for any omissions without even looking up.
Ji Sheng pulled out a chair and sat down, opening the shopping bag.
He double-checked and found that there was really something that hadn't been bought.
"The list is not complete." Ji Sheng raised the list, pointing his finger at a certain line. "These two are missing."
"I asked to remove them." Xie Xuanming said coldly, "What do you buy lubricant and family planning supplies for? Don't bring dirty things to my house."
Ji Sheng held up the list, thinking: I'm still afraid that you will suddenly go crazy one day, so I take precautions to avoid heavy losses.
Xie Xuanming looked up, saw his weird expression and sneered with an unclear meaning: "I am not interested in you, so don't get any filthy thoughts about me."
The gold master warns his lover, do not have any designs on me.
The perverted murderer says, don't fucking touch me or I'll call the police.
Ji Sheng could not tell for a moment which was more confusing, nor could he ask, why were you touching my butt and leaving teeth marks on my neck if you were not interested in me.
He could only smirk and say, don't worry.
I am definitely not fucking interested in you.
Although Xie Xuanming had an eccentric personality, he was barely qualified as a gold master, and making Ji Sheng sleep on the couch was not for nothing.
After Ji Sheng suffered from backache for several days, he received his next job.
But this was a very poor resource, full of ridicule and contempt as if saying "you are only worthy of doing this kind of thing."
"Live broadcast?" Lu Haoren was shocked.
"Carrying adult products." Huang Sizhe's face was as black as a pot, "Have you been brainwashed by that dragon fruit to take on such a lousy job?"
As soon as Ji Sheng wanted to ask who the dragon fruit was, the company boss slapped the table and violently interfered with his curiosity.
"It's good to have work to do!" The boss shook the itinerary, "Don't you need money to feed yourself? If you don't make some extra money this month, you'll all have to pack your bags and get out."
The three of them were kicked out by the mad boss, looking at each other and feeling a little helpless.
"Is it really a job?" Huang Sizhe was still raising a stink, "We are obviously here to be a band, but we are working on garbage."
Lu Haoren sighed: "The live broadcast is actually okay, but I heard that the anchor that is working with it… is difficult to describe."
It was rare for the lead singer, who usually exuded motherly love, to make negative comments on people. Ji Sheng was curious: "What's wrong with that anchor, not good at business?"
His question was perfectly answered in the live broadcast the next day.
The anchor was not lacking business ability.
He had no brains at all, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he exploded in a large-scale thunderclap.
If you have no filter on your mouth, no wonder you are relegated to the midnight slot with adult toys.
As soon as the God of Thunder anchor saw Ji Sheng, he shook his hand with tears in his eyes and said sincerely: "Baby, you look so similar to my ex-husband. It's a pity that he passed away young and made me a widow early."
Ji Sheng shuddered as if electrocuted, glanced at the camera of the live broadcast room that had already started operating and squeezed out a stiff smile: "Your ex-husband…"
"Harassed teammates, cheated while in a relationship, and finally died of drunk driving! A model of scum!" The anchor ruthlessly destroyed the last bit of hope in Ji Sheng's heart. Demonstrating how angry he was, the anchor slapped the table and knocked down an adult toy standing on it, "In fact, his bad personality was okay, he was an idol, after all. The most unacceptable thing for me is that he actually demolished my cp. Deserves to die!"
Ji Sheng watched as the spherical rubber object bounced twice, vibrated at an alarming rate, jolted to the edge of the table, landed on the floor with a plop and stopped moving.
For a while Ji Sheng didn't know whether it was him or the little adult toy that deserved to die in the anchor's opinion.
The live broadcast was plunged into cold silence; Lu Haoren tried to speak in order to save the embarrassing situation: "I'll take the liberty to ask, what do you mean by cp? "
"Shengshi Shengping la." The anchor waved his hand, "Yes, that's right, it's the pairing of the sexual harasser and the victim, and this cp is all dead."
Outside the live broadcast room, the people watching from the brand side were so anxious that they held up a large whiteboard with three exclamation points, urging them to change the topic quickly and not to turn promotion into a funeral.
The anchor reluctantly changed the subject: "Come on, our guests today are the members of the Niepan band. Please introduce yourself."
"Hello everyone, I'm Ji Sheng…" Ji Sheng was still recovering from his social death and almost made a fatal slip of the tongue. He broke into a cold sweat, glanced at the dark camera and braced himself to continue despite the pain, "… Senior Ji Sheng and Senior Xie Xuanming cp's fan, so, the same as the anchor's cp, my cp is also dead, yes."
Behind him, Lu Haoren and Huang Sizhe were petrified. They looked at Ji Sheng in confusion as if they had been struck by lightning, with their faces full of "What are you smoking?"
Meeting a fan of an enemy cp, even though it was a dead cp, the anchor was still very unhappy. He smiled perfunctorily: "Oh, it's a pleasure to meet you." Turning the microphone to Lu Haoren, he used his magical brain circuit to once again bring the topic into the ditch, "What about you, Shengshi Shengping(3) or Xiefang Jifang (Xie Xuanming Ji Sheng cp name), which one do you like?"
Lu Haoren really couldn't understand why a live broadcast with sex products was now talking about a certain celebrity who had passed away and his cps.
He only knew that the other two celebrities mentioned in the topic, Xie Xuanming and Sheng Kongzhi, were the current top stars, while they were irrelevant things who would be raised by their parents for nothing and scolded by fans to their ancestors' graves if they said a wrong word.
So Lu Haoren took the microphone in a panic and stammered:
"Ah, I like Teacher Xie Xuanming's movies, and I often listen to Teacher Sheng Kongzhi's songs. Ji Sheng… Senior Ji Sheng, I… I, in short, I respect these three seniors very much and I can't tell what's better… If you insist on talking about cp… I am not… uh, a qualified… typical cp fan."
He was talking gibberish, and Huang Sizhe couldn't bear it anymore. He stepped in coldly, bringing the farce to a thunderous end.
"Oh, you are an atypical 3p fan."
1. Metaphor orginiating from 'Journey to the West', meaning to show your unique talent
2. The Chu-Han War (206-202 BC), resulted in dividing the country into two parts.
3. 'Shengshi Shengping', an additional meaning something like 'rise to the age of prosperity'
Chapter 10
yun1yun yun1yun
1 year ago
Niepan's first live broadcast, intuitively speaking, could be called a car crash that ended in a total mess.
But in an objective sense, they had achieved unparalleled success.
Because two extremely popular and incompatible top performers were brought out to the arena, the fans of Sheng Kongzhi and Xie Xuanming smelled the battle and went straight to the live broadcast room to fight in the barrage (screen text).
[Don't pull Xie Xuanming in, there's no need for a debuting genius to appear with a legal coffee(1) and a loser]
[The movie star's fans are so shameless, have you forgotten your licking dog face when your family cooked that cheating legal coffee?]
There were also reasonable passers-by who tried to persuade.
[Don't bring Ji Sheng in, respect the dead]
But they were immediately punched and kicked by both Xie and Sheng fans.
[Didn't he do it himself when he had a drunk driving accident? Coffee is not worthy of any sympathy]
[He didn't respect the victim he sexually harrassed, and he deserves no one's respect if he dies]
The fans of the two sides fought so fiercely that they abruptly brought the lonely midnight live broadcast to the top of the app's front page recommendations.
Passers-by looked at the front page offering [Try out little toys with cute band boys, which was the title of the live broadcast.
After two seconds of silence, there was a stampede.
Within half an hour, the number of people in the live broadcast room exceeded one million in real time, and the popularity reached a terrifying 25 million.
Huang Sizhe and Lu Haoren were petrified. Where could the unlucky children who came out to earn extra money doing a part-time job have seen this kind of scene? Facing the dark lens, the two of them did not dare to move and tried their best to reduce their sense of presence so as not to be involved in the war of the top stars.
The corners of Ji Sheng's mouth couldn't stop twitching. On the one hand, he endured the nuisance of the anchor's shrill voice, and on the other hand, he faced the bombardment of insults (towards him in his previous life).
The anchor grinned from ear to ear as the pie-from-the-sky heat drove sales up. He squinted his eyes, and in his imagination the flashing barrage had already transformed into the quickly growing amount of deposit in his account.
The live broadcast made a lot of noise; it lived up to expectations and became a hot search.
The hot search was naturally also a battlefield of public opinion for fans. Xie Xuanming and Sheng Kongzhi were at odds with each other, their fans holding a grudge for many years. It was not usual for the fans to throw shade in the news related to one of them; not to mention the situation now when both names were in a hot search together.
The hot search at three o'clock in the morning was as lively as Line 3 at eight in the morning and five in the evening.
With the battle in full swing, Ji Hui's name quietly appeared in the comments of passers-by.
[The one named Ji Hui really looks like… but is pretty good-looking]
[I think the person upstairs is trying to say that he looks like Ji Sheng, which he does. I wonder if they are related by blood.]
[Upstairs is secretly here again to blow the trumpet for the drink-driving, sexually harassing legal coffee. Ji Sheng's fans are really disgusting things with no sense of decency or humanity]
[I'm sick of being branded a fan just for saying something. Ji Sheng is not a good thing, I'm the first to say that, but his face is really nothing to sneeze at, right? Otherwise, what else could he rely on, a drummer who couldn't even hold a drumstick?】
At a time when public debate was surging, a black avatar Weibo account that had not been logged in for several years suddenly went online, uploaded a photo that was seen by a sharp-eyed marketing account, forwarded and quickly appeared in the centre of public opinion.
In the photo, the boy's hair was fluttering lightly, and the bulky doll costume on his body contrasted violently with the drumsticks flying dexterously in his hands.
The abandoned doll head lay askewy at the bottom of the frame, giving the photo a fairytale, unrealistic feel.
The boy's movements were wild, but his expression was restrained and composed.
He was born white-skinned, with a little mole under his eye that was suddenly dark, dazzling and bewitching in the bright light.
Well-behaved and seductive, soft and sharp.
The young man had a contradictory aura, like a willow seedling springing up in the desert, revealing both fragility and a crazy sense of rebellion.
This photo appeared in the centre of the "battlefield", subtly avoiding the fighting between the two sides and opening up a new direction for the debate.
The name Ji Hui began to appear in the public's vision.
It was almost four o'clock in the morning when Ji Sheng returned to the villa. He opened the door with the key given by Xie Xuanming and walked into the room.
The living room was dark, and Ji Sheng thought Xie Xuanming might have fallen asleep, or hadn't come home from a trip.
He put the key on the cabinet, bent over and began to take off his shoes.
As soon as he untied one of his shoelaces, Ji Sheng's shoulder was suddenly clenched by a strong hand and he was dragged back.
His spine slammed into the wall and the back of his head took a not-so-gentle knock, making Ji Sheng's head buzz as he looked up instinctively.
Xie Xuanming looked down at him with an indeterminate expression.
Ji Sheng calmed down: "Why didn't you turn on the lights?"
His eyes were reddened from pain, and the mole under his eye was glimmering in the faint light, making one feel itchy.
Xie Xuanming ignored this dot of bright colour and said gloomily: "What did you say during the live broadcast?"
"Huh?" Ji Sheng was taken aback and blurted out, "Did you watch the live broadcast?"
He really didn't expect that a busy guy like Xie Xuanming would pay attention to the live broadcast of a stand-in lover.
"Hot search is full of clips." Xie Xuanming's eyebrows were cold and hostile and he squeezed Ji Sheng's shoulder tighter, "Do you enjoy rubbing off the heat of the dead man?"
Ji Sheng realized.
He apparently said the wrong thing, bringing someone on the hot search and upsetting his gold master.
Ji Sheng was in a somewhat delicate mood, not quite sure whether Xie Xuanming's anger stemmed from his own name being dragged to the hot search or whether he was angry on behalf of his old lover.
Being that old lover himself, Ji Sheng paused: "Are you angry?"
"No."
"Because I brought Senior Ji Sheng to a hot search."
Xie Xuanming suddenly punched the wall; the load-bearing wall made a muffled sound. He said solemnly: "I said, don't mention his name."
Ji Sheng searched his memories briefly, and after confirming that Xie Xuanming hadn't said this to him, he reminded: "I have amnesia."
Another sentence was added: "I won't mention it again in the future, I'm sorry."
After he said this, Xie Xuanming suddenly fell silent. He looked down at Ji Sheng coldly for a while and lowered his fist that had hammered the wall: "Your performance on the live broadcast is really not like amnesia."
Ji Sheng's breathing stagnated slightly. During the live broadcast, he did not pay attention to controlling his expressions while listening to the anchor's spiel on the relationship between Xie Xuanming, Sheng Kongzhi and Ji Sheng.
He wondered if there was a look that "Ji Hui" shouldn't have had.
While Ji Sheng was recalling whether he revealed himself, Xie Xuanming said, "If you think of anything else afterwards, tell me directly." After a pause, he added: "Especially related to Ji Sheng."
Xie Xuanming's expression returned to calm, but Ji Sheng was a little upset.
A bit of weird irritability appeared in Ji Sheng's heart; he really didn't understand what was the point of Xie Xuanming pretending to pine for his old lover.
His white moonlight was clearly someone else; when Ji Sheng was alive, they had only used each other and Xie Xuanming had never shown him any kindness or help in trouble.
Now that he was "dead", Xie Xuanming had become a good lover full of affection and forbearance, playing his role to earn everyone's sympathy.
The more Ji Sheng thought about it, the more downturned the corners of his lips became. Finally he opened his mouth and said for no reason: "Speaking of which, I did think of another passage from the kidnappers recently, but the content was too out of line. I don't know if it's a figment of my imagination."
"Say."
"They said that Senior Sheng Kongzhi, who was harassed, had a romantic relationship with Senior Ji Sheng."
"……"
Ji Sheng tilted his head and said softly:
"Is it true?"
Xie Xuanming's aura gradually became violent: "What do you want to say?"
"It's actually true…" Ji Sheng opened his eyes wide, surprised. Then he added as if he really meant it, "I thought I heard it wrong… I was just surprised…
"Emperor Xie, it turns out there are things you can't get."
Xie Xuanming's aura suddenly grew colder and he took a step closer, completely pressing him against the wall. Ji Sheng thought for a moment that he was going to punch him and reflexively closed his eyes.
In the end, he only felt the wall shake heavily. When he opened his eyes, Xie Xuanming had already strode upstairs.
The door of the master bedroom slammed. Ji Sheng lowered his gaze and curved the corners of his lips blankly.
It seemed that there was no need to curl up on that little couch for the night today.
Niepan's first live broadcast event was very lively, and the brand valued the popularity, so they quickly approached the company to request a second live broadcast.
Only Ji Sheng was invited for this live broadcast, and the goods that needed to be sold now were electronic products and various musical instruments that were more in line with the tastes of young people.
When he saw the name of the co-anchor, Ji Sheng was stunned.
He looked at the two words motionlessly for a long time, until the makeup artist noticed: "What's the matter?"
"Nothing." Ji Sheng raised his head and smiled at her, "I just fell asleep."
In the itinerary in his hand, in the column for co-anchor, there was the name Su Jing.
Su Jing was an active e-sports player, a big anchor in the e-sports circle and a top live broadcast streamer.
He was also a former keyboardist and once he and Ji Sheng belonged to the same underground band.
Su Jing was a competitive player and very eloquent. Probably because of his keyboardist background, he was extraordinarily talented at spitting at people, ordinary keyboard warriors no match for him at all.
Ji Sheng had also been scolded by him, after the sexual harassment scandal.
Su Jing arrived half an hour later than Ji Sheng. He sat down as if he hadn't seen Ji Sheng. The makeup artist went over and started applying his makeup.
As she put on his makeup, Su Jing asked with his eyes closed, "What's your name?"
Ji Sheng looked around and confirmed that he was talking to him: "Ji Hui."
"Which 'ji'? "
"Ji for 'season'."
"…" Su Jing opened his eyes, looked at Ji Sheng strangely and sighed half sarcastically, "Xie Xuanming really knows how to find substitutes."
Ji Sheng looked at him calmly, with a slightly puzzled expression on his face.
Su Jing stared at Ji Sheng until he was reminded by the makeup artist to close his eyes: "Forget it, ignorance is a blessing."
Su Jing's live broadcast style was different from that of ordinary anchors promoting goods. He came with a fan base and was an e-sports anchor in his own right. The relationship with the fans in the live stream was more like bad friends than an anchor and the audience, and he and the audience shared mutual dislike in a very relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere.
However, the flaw of this style was that it was difficult for outsiders to integrate. Ji Sheng was left out to dry, with only a few face-licking comments occasionally mentioning him.
He sat there quietly, like a spectator, watching Su Jing interact with the audience.
Su Jing didn't intend to target Ji Sheng. On the contrary, he exported warnings to some barrage commenters who were rude to Ji Sheng, telling them not to be weird.
He hadn't changed at all.
Ji Sheng watched Su Jing comfortably display the goods in front of the camera and silently lamented.
Should we say that Su Jing has maintained his nature too well, or that others have lost their original heart too quickly?
After being an audience member for most of the night, Ji Sheng was finally blasted off his seat by Su Jing to demonstrate the effect of the product to the audience when an electric drum was presented.
Ji Sheng sat down in front of the electric drum and swung the drumsticks twice: "What should I play?"
He has solid basic skills and could play any song.
But the repertoire proposed by Su Jing made him pause for a while.
"Can you play 'Fruit Candy'?" Su Jing said, "From the Qingchu band."
The barrage screen was full of laughter and curses.
Su Jing had been known to yell things like "I played the keyboard that scared the shit out of people back in the day". The audience knew that Qingchu was the underground band he used to be in.
But no matter how much Su Jing bragged, there was no hiding the fact that Qingchu was a muddled little band that broke up without even releasing an album.
Now that Su Jing grabbed a guest and began to show off his "golden youth" again, the barrage knew he was giving the guest a hard time, so it was good to dislike him.
Amidst the bombardment of ridicule and heckling, Ji Sheng lowered his head and turned the drumsticks: "Okay, I can play it."
Su Jing was taken aback: "You really know it?"
"I have heard it." Ji Sheng smiled, "I really like this song."
He was holding the drumsticks, too serious to be joking, and Su Jing could only hesitantly take out his phone and put out the track.
The song was not recorded with professional equipment. The sound quality was very poor, barely audible even at maximum, and there was some lag.
Ji Sheng played this intermittent tune from beginning to end, as naturally as if he was performing his own song.
Su Jing was stunned. He had an illusion for a moment. It was not the live broadcast guest he saw today for the first time but a certain young man who came in early in the morning with a score in his hand, woke him up slapping his butt, and smiled in the face of his roar, saying, "I've written a song, I'll play it for you later".
The barrage was also taken aback. When Ji Sheng first started performing, the audience was still laughing, but later, they gradually realized that this guy was really good and very professional. They were dumbfounded for a while and shut up.
Ji Sheng finished the performance, put the drumsticks in the drum bag, got up and returned to his place.
He sat down for a while, and then the barrage suddenly woke up, dense exclamations and compliments reappearing in the live broadcast room.
"Well played, quite a surprise. I thought there were not many people who knew this song…"
Su Jing regained his senses and was about to say a few words to cover up his absent-mindedness, when he suddenly caught a glimpse of the barrage.
[Just like the dead pretty boy, it's an insult to the drummer's profession to play rock with a feminine touch. 】
Su Jing's face darkened: "I said I don't want to see cursing in the live broadcast room."
The man didn't let up and even got more aggressive in his tone.
"Bitch", "pussy" and "deserved to die" were used.
Faced with this man's quality triplet, Su Jing's face became a little bit horrible.
He turned back and picked the drumsticks from the drum bag.
Not far away, Su Jing's assistant silently covered his face.
It was over; Su Jing had switched to shotgun mode.
The drumstick was pointing at the screen. Su Jing's expression was gloomy and terrifying, as if he was holding not a drumstick but Lord Voldemort's magic wand, or a pen dripping ink over the Death Note, or the staff of the great wizard Gandalf the Grey.
Su Jing jerked his right hand, just enough to graze the corner of Ji Sheng's eye.
The former keyboardist went back to his old way and broke out completely.
"The one in the audience with the id 'wjssjb'."
He took a deep breath.
"What the fuck are you doing here introducing yourself to the whole world? You're only good enough to bang on your dad's grave. To say that someone insults the drummer profession, you're fucking insulting the human race!"
Su Jing stood up excitedly, waving the drumstick and rushing forward aggressively, forcing the staff who were about to come up to rescue the scene to retreat again.
He leaned in front of the camera, his mouth opened and closed.
"This wjssjb from the underworld, let me tell you——
"I*，*，*，*，*!!!"
Ding Dong.
The network management belatedly banned this overly uncivilised live broadcast room.
Celebrity who has been in the news for breaking the law
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