Chapter 21

"Let's go."

Lu Yan didn't continue watching the news about the fugitive buying orange juice and logged off the computer directly.

The two of them walked for a distance.

Lu Yan still couldn't help but complain, "The computers in your internet cafe are too damn crappy."

Xiao Heng expressed his agreement, "Ten of them can crash in one night."

Lu Yan: "Have you considered upgrading the equipment to improve the gamers' experience?"

Xiao Heng: "Am I the boss?"

The Black Internet Cafe was only three streets away from the Seventh District. After the Seventh District was demolished, this area was also affected quite a bit, and many restaurants chose to close down. It wasn't a prosperous place to begin with, and now it looked even more desolate.

Puddles of sewage and overflowing trash were visible everywhere.

Lu Yan had long been accustomed to this kind of environment in the Seventh District. Four years ago, when he got off the train with his instrument on his back, this was where he had his first meal. He hadn't been here in a while, but that shop was still open.

Lu Yan rarely thought about what happened four years ago anymore.

He didn't continue thinking, habitually cutting off the train of thought there. As Xiao Heng was talking, he noticed the person beside him had slowed his pace. "Why are you walking so slow..."

He was halfway through his sentence when he realized Lu Yan was looking at a noodle shop.

"You want to eat?"

"Yeah," Lu Yan said, snapping back to reality. "I brought you food for so many days. You need to have some conscience. This one's on you."

Lu Yan pushed the door open and went in.

The noodle shop was very small, only able to fit four tables, and the menu didn't have many options.

The owner was around sixty years old, and everyone called her Granny Li.

Granny Li had just finished cleaning a table. Holding a rag, she greeted him in a local accent that Lu Yan didn't quite understand, "You're here." Lu Yan said, "I'm here."

Granny Li recognized him. "The usual? A bowl of fried noodles?"

"Two bowls," Lu Yan helped push in the newly wiped table and chairs, "...brought a friend."

After Lu Yan finished speaking, the 'friend' pushed the door open and came in.

Lu Yan pointed at Xiao Heng and said to Granny Li, "He's paying."

Xiao Heng stood at the door, finding it amusing. "...Did I agree to that?"

Although Xiao Heng worked nearby, he rarely had the chance to eat out. He couldn't get away from the internet cafe, so he could only eat takeout.

He heard Granny Li making small talk with Lu Yan, "Young man, haven't seen you in a long time. Are you still practicing your instrument?"

Lu Yan said, "I am."

"Oh," Granny Li smiled, "that's very good."

There was nothing special about the fried noodles. They looked ordinary, with a couple of vegetable stalks and a few pieces of meat on top.

However, in the time it took Xiao Heng to pick up his chopsticks, half the meat on his noodles had disappeared, while the meat in Lu Yan's bowl across from him had piled up so high it covered the noodles underneath.

"Are you a dog?"

Xiao Heng added, "Have you no shame?"

It wasn't the first day Lu Yan had been shameless. He blocked Xiao Heng's extended chopsticks. "Just eat your food properly. Don't go touching my noodles with your hands or chopsticks."

It would be a cold day in hell before Xiao Heng listened to him.

He sneered, "Who moved their chopsticks first?"

"I didn't. Which one of your eyes saw me move?"

Just as the two were fighting fiercely over a few pieces of meat, the shop door was pushed open again.

Two young guys sauntered in with their hands in their pockets. "Granny, two bowls of noodles!"

These two probably just came from another internet cafe after gaming. They were still muttering about their last match. One of them, while dragging out a plastic chair, said, "Damn, that was a terrible gaming experience. What kind of teammates were those, what the hell were they playing—"

The "what" in his sentence twisted upwards, turning into "De."

The next second, the guy's eyes widened. After stammering on "De" for a while, he shouted out three words: "Demon King Band!"

Lu Yan, the lead singer of the Demon King Band, who was currently fighting Xiao Heng with his chopsticks: "..." Although the nickname people gave the Demon King Band sounded cool.

But once this name was taken out of specific contexts—like a band performance, or a rehearsal in the air-raid shelter, or bragging with other bands about who was more awesome—and placed in real life... it was really cringey.

Their band was one of the more famous ones in the underground band scene.

For four years, they had poured their hearts into making music, releasing many songs and performing frequently. Anyone involved in the underground rock scene basically knew of this V-Team, who debuted singing "It doesn't matter if we keep falling."

However, Lu Yan still didn't expect to run into a fan just by going out for a meal.

And an avid male fan at that.

"I-I-I'm your fan!"

"I love every album you've released! I was at the third-anniversary concert last year, right at the front! Very close to you! I was the one who threw clothes onto the stage!"

"I really love you guys. You, Da Ming, Brother Zhen, and Brother Xu."

At first, Lu Yan was a bit awkward. Anyone would be at a loss if they were suddenly confessed to so passionately while sitting in a noodle shop. But the "threw clothes" part was also quite funny. However, as soon as the words "Da Ming" and "Brother Xu" were spoken, Lu Yan's grip on his chopsticks suddenly loosened.

"But I heard you guys disbanded," the male fan's tone became a bit downcast as he said this. "...The bar where you used to be the resident band has a new band now, and there's been no news since. Everyone says the Demon King Band has disbanded."

If it had been a while ago, Lu Yan might have been able to tell him they hadn't disbanded.

'Just wait, we'll be back soon.'

But how long would they have to wait?

He himself didn't know.

He hadn't stood on stage to sing in a month.

In the end, the male fan insisted on asking Granny Li for a pen to ask if he could get an autograph.

Lu Yan hesitated for a moment, then signed a 'V' on his shirt.

After the meal, Xiao Heng paid the bill.

The two of them walked in the direction of the Seventh District.

"You have fans?"

When the avid male fan rushed to their table, not only was Lu Yan startled, Xiao Heng was also very surprised. He added, "A third-anniversary concert... tsk, you can even hold concerts? A venue for a few dozen people?"

"Three hundred."

Lu Yan said, "Who are you looking down on? Three hundred tickets sold out in a second. Back then, I was practically a legend in the Lower District—"

If it came to stories about the band's past, Lu Yan could talk for three days without repeating himself.

Lu Yan thought Xiao Heng was probably going to mock him again, but instead, Xiao Heng handed him a cigarette. "Smoke?"

Lu Yan took it.

Xiao Heng asked again, "Your band, you still haven't found the two people you're missing?"

He knew before that Lu Yan was in a band, and he also knew that two members had left his band.

But knowing and feeling it were completely different.

It was the first time he was so close to Lu Yan's "band" that was missing two members.

"Haven't found anyone suitable. Didn't I spot someone at your school before? But he wasn't interested." Lu Yan still felt it was a great pity when he thought of that guy in the yellow T-shirt.

"..."

Xiao Heng: "You still dare to bring up the school?"

Lu Yan: "What, you want to dredge up the past?"

Lu Yan smoked his cigarette, feeling that he and Xiao Heng were equally miserable.

His band, which once ruled the Lower District, had disbanded.

And this young master next to him had somehow ended up as a manager in a Black Internet Cafe.

...

However, Lu Yan was only down for a moment. He was always used to looking forward. "It's fine. If we can't find them, we'll just keep looking."

Since the topic of school had come up, Lu Yan added, "You still have classes at your school, aren't you going?"

A little further ahead was the eye-catching large field of ruins in the Seventh District.

Amidst a swirl of smoke, Xiao Heng didn't speak.

......

Lu Yan went back to his room and took a shower. Afterwards, he heard Brother Wei shouting for him from downstairs.

"Yan!"

"Are you home?" Brother Wei had returned from the loan company. He was riding a motorcycle, which kicked up a whirlwind of dust and sand from the ground as it screeched to a halt at the bottom of the building.

Lu Yan opened his window and said to Brother Wei, "I'm not drinking."

Brother Wei: "..."

"Who said anything about drinking," Brother Wei shouted. "Wait for me to park my bike. I have something to tell you, something big!"

Lu Yan had no idea what Brother Wei wanted to tell him.

He just felt that something wasn't right in the building.

Usually, everyone was in a hurry to rest after getting off work. Today, the entire building was unusually noisy, with footsteps echoing up and down the hallway.

When Lu Yan opened the door for Brother Wei, he guessed, "Are the people from the demolition company here again?"

However, after Brother Wei entered, he said only one thing, getting straight to the point: "Brother Yan, are you willing to support your brother's dream?"

Lu Yan: "?"

Brother Wei pulled over a chair and sat down, speaking in a sorrowful tone that traced back to the past, "You know, back when I failed the police academy entrance exam, it was a—"

Lu Yan picked up where he left off, "It was a sunny summer when I was eighteen."

Basically everyone in the building knew that Brother Wei had wanted to get into the police academy when he was young.

However, he really wasn't cut out for it and ended up failing miserably.

Now he was in the loan business, which, in Brother Wei's own words, was: "maintaining social order and peace in another way."

"Right," Brother Wei continued, "Let's go! We're going to Trust-Mart Supermarket right now!"

The topic changed so quickly that Lu Yan couldn't follow. "What are we going to the supermarket for?"

"Did you see that fugitive who bought orange juice?"

"You should pay more attention to the news in your free time. The fugitive just bought two bottles of orange juice at Trust-Mart Supermarket! Right near us!"

"..."

Lu Yan: "Brother, no matter what you want to do, I support you in spirit, but I think this matter..." 'It's better not to get involved in this mess. It's not worth it.'

Before Lu Yan could finish, Brother Wei opened his phone, found the latest news video from today, and showed it to him. "Brother Yan, take a look!" This news video was the same one Lu Yan had seen at the internet cafe.

He was just about to kick Brother Wei out when his gaze fell on the phone screen. He hadn't finished watching the news clip earlier. At the very end, the female anchor said with a solemn and serious expression, "—Hereby, the police are issuing an urgent wanted notice with a reward of 100,000 yuan. We hope that the public will actively provide more clues to help us bring Suspect Wang to justice."

Brother Wei's police dream was rekindled from the ashes. "Fate could stop me once, but it can't stop me a second time. The people need me."

Lu Yan didn't hear a word of what Brother Wei was saying.

His mind was filled with one hundred thousand.

One hundred thousand yuan.

A one followed by five zeros.

Lu Yan had originally placed his hand on Brother Wei's shoulder, intending to push him out the door. But his grip suddenly changed, and he hooked his arm around Brother Wei's neck. "Brother, I think people really should have dreams."

"Brother, do you have a plan?"

Brother Wei said, "I plan for us to form a squad. I've already come up with a name. We'll call it Squad 63, representing our Building 6, Unit 3."

And so, in the first month that Xiao Heng lived in this building.

His neighbor knocked on his door and asked if he wanted to uphold justice together.