Chapter 29 Part 2

After speaking, Sister Lan felt they were getting along quite well, so she offered him the pack of cigarettes in her hand.

"Have one?" Sister Lan smoked ladies' cigarettes, thin and long. Lu Yan wasn't picky. He took one from the pack, leaned in toward the lighter she offered, and lit it.

After chatting with Sister Lan for a while about nothing of substance, they added each other on WeChat. He had truly found a new line of thinking.

So that night, when Xiao Heng came over to Lu Yan's place to use the computer after showering, the small space was filled not only with the sound of Lu Yan practicing his instrument half-heartedly, but also with "Bro, 666."

Following Sister Lan's advice, Lu Yan had downloaded seven or eight different livestreaming platforms at once for comparative analysis.

He spent the whole night hopping between various livestream channels.

From steamy dances all the way to e-sports channels.

Lu Yan held his instrument and studied for a while, still unable to decide on his streaming path. "Which one do you think I should stream?"

Xiao Heng had an error in his code and hadn't found the problem yet. He leaned back in his chair, fiddling with a lighter in his hand, and said with half-closed eyes, "First, get your hair permed."

Although Lu Yan didn't understand why he had to perm his hair first, he asked, "And then?"

"Get the same perm as last time." Xiao Heng's thumb rubbed over the lighter, then pressed down with a click. "Then go on Kuaishou."

Lu Yan: "..."

Damn.

Lu Yan got bored of watching livestreams and glanced over at Xiao Heng.

His computer screen was filled with code.

Xiao Heng was the type who was fine when he wasn't touching a computer, but the moment he did, he couldn't hold back his energy.

Although Lu Yan couldn't understand what the hell Xiao Heng was typing, his music arrangement software was indeed much easier to use than before—except for that line of text that popped up every time he started it.

By the time Lu Yan finished his research on the livestreaming industry, it was already past two in the morning. He was exhausted, but Xiao Heng seemed to be getting more awake with every keystroke.

Xiao Heng was indeed wide awake. By the time he logged out of the tech forum and was about to shut down the computer to go back to his own place to sleep, Lu Yan had already fallen asleep, slumped over the desk. He was still holding a pen, his arm pinning down a draft that most people wouldn't be able to decipher.

Xiao Heng wanted to tell him to go sleep on the bed.

But the moment his hand touched Lu Yan's shoulder, the guy woke up groggily. Not fully conscious, he grabbed Xiao Heng's hand and said, "You're amazing!"

Xiao Heng froze.

The only light in the dim room came from the computer screen. Lu Yan's voice was muffled. Perhaps he wasn't sleeping soundly in this position. He rubbed his face against the tabletop and, after speaking, said another sentence.

Xiao Heng was close enough to barely make out the words: I think you're amazing.

...

Those words were so foolish, like someone at a corporate motivational rally clenching their fists and shouting, 'I can do it, I can do it, I can do it, I definitely can.'

Xiao Heng had just had a cigarette to wake himself up. The one he was holding in his mouth was not yet finished. After it sank in, he let out a laugh. "...What the hell kind of toxic motivational crap is this."

Xiao Heng pinched the cigarette between two fingers and noticed that Lu Yan's hand was resting right on the edge of the computer desk.

He recalled the cigarette the female tenant had handed Lu Yan during the day.

Lu Yan, surprisingly, suited smoking ladies' cigarettes.

He didn't know how those hands of his grew, with bones so long and slender yet still retaining a sense of strength. The cigarette held between his fingers wasn't out of place at all; instead, it made the seven-pointed tattoo on his wrist seem even more vivid in color.

Xiao Heng watched, squeezing the knuckle of his index finger. The sensation from when his palm had gripped Lu Yan's hand seemed to linger on his skin. After a moment, he came back to his senses and went to shut down the computer.

Lu Yan's piece-of-shit computer hadn't had any issues all night, but it started acting up when he tried to shut it down. Xiao Heng waited a long time for the screen to go dark. Finally, just as he was about to give up and pull the plug, it went dark.

However, not two seconds later, it returned to the startup screen.

Xiao Heng: "..."

This computer really had a mind of its own.

Xiao Heng flicked the ash from his cigarette, deciding to fix Lu Yan's computer.

The folders on Lu Yan's computer were clearly organized: Finished, Demo, Score... Xiao Heng didn't touch any of these categorized files. He just intended to uninstall some forcibly installed bloatware and clear up the memory.

Xiao Heng casually checked the software manually. After he deleted a pile of junk files, deep within this pile of junk, he unexpectedly saw an unlabeled folder.

[Unknown File]

Date created: 2015/6/12

Size: 3M

Xiao Heng had gotten used to clearing junk, and his hands reacted faster. Before he could read all the information, he had already clicked on it.

...

Inside was a video, less than thirteen seconds long, shot with a low-pixel phone from a few years ago.

A bar, a band.

The sounds of instruments, vocals, and the roaring cheers of the audience were all mixed together.

The lead singer was a short boy with a rough voice, who started screaming right from the beginning: Ahhh—!

Xiao Heng glanced at it, not meaning to invade Lu Yan's privacy, and moved the mouse to the top right corner to click the 'x'.

Lu Yan's head, which was resting on the desk, moved.

His hand moved as well.

Lu Yan's eyes fluttered open.

Seeing that he was awake, Xiao Heng stopped what he was doing and said directly, "Your computer was acting up just now. I was clearing out some junk for you and accidentally clicked on..."

Lu Yan wasn't fully awake when he opened his eyes. It was just uncomfortable sleeping slumped over. He wanted to ask, 'clicked on what?' But as the image before him slowly came into focus and sharpened, he clearly saw the short lead singer on the computer screen.

Suddenly, Lu Yan couldn't say a word.

He was completely frozen.

After Xiao Heng finished speaking, but before he could click the 'x', the image in the video shook violently twice. A guitar solo cut in, and the camera panned away from the wild, short lead singer to the left side of the stage.

On the left side of the stage was a guitarist, probably in his second or third year of high school. He had long hair and was wearing a clean white shirt, though a bunch of silver chains hung from his pants. Even though the camera angle was rather unforgiving, his legs still looked long and straight.

An astonishingly fast guitar shredding filled the air. The young man had an electric guitar slung over his back. All the lights in the bar converged on him, his slender fingers tensed, bent into a sharp arc.

The screams from the audience were almost loud enough to blow the roof off.