Chapter 31

Lu Yan closed his eyes again.

The summer wind slipped in through the crack of the window. The sound of breathing by his ear was like that same breeze gently caressing his cheek, easily blowing away his chaotic thoughts.

As if dispelling a nightmare.

...

When Lu Yan opened his eyes and woke up again, it was already eight in the morning.

He raised a hand to pinch the bridge of his nose. Opening his eyes, he realized he hadn't dreamed at all the whole night. He didn't dream of the sea of reeds in Jizhou, nor did he dream of those reeds turning into black claws and attacking him.

The quality of his sleep was unexpectedly high.

Lu Yan kept his eyes half-open for a while to adjust. Just as he was about to prop himself up, his palm touched something. He looked down, and his phone screen, sensing the touch, lit up again.

Displayed on the screen was the call duration.

One second.

Two seconds.

The numbers were still ticking up.

Lu Yan started watching from the '50' second mark, and as the time continued to climb, finally hitting a round number, his thoughts gradually returned—'Fuck, this call wasn't hung up all night?'

The second thought that popped into the mind of the impoverished and struggling band lead singer, Lu Yan, was: 'Isn't data usage money?'

Before Lu Yan could calculate just how much data he had burned through that night, a rustling sound came through, probably having woken up Xiao Heng. Lu Yan had just taken off his clothes when he heard a muffled murmur.

The voice coming from the other end of the receiver was incredibly muffled. Then, Xiao Heng asked, "What time is it now?"

"A little past eight." Lu Yan, having taken off his clothes, planned to get up and wash.

"Up so early."

"..." Lu Yan thought he might as well just take a shower. So, he tilted his head, tucked the phone between his shoulder and ear, and freed his hands to unbuckle his belt. "Got something to do, have to go out."

Yesterday, with nothing to do, he had browsed job postings and found a job. This job was different from all his previous ones; this time, it was a completely new field, a new challenge, a new life experience: wedding emcee.

The pay was considerable, but the job required an interview.

Although he had no work experience in this area, he didn't think it was a big deal at all. There's a first time for everything.

Xiao Heng heard too much miscellaneous noise from Lu Yan's end and asked again, "What are you doing?"

Lu Yan's hand had just touched the belt at his waist when he replied without thinking, "Taking off my pants."

Lu Yan had also just woken up and hadn't warmed up his voice yet. His voice wasn't like usual; instead, it sounded like he had chain-smoked several cigarettes in one go. The words "taking off my pants" sounded exceptionally suggestive when spoken by him.

There was silence on Xiao Heng's end.

The air was thick with awkwardness.

After Lu Yan said it, he himself felt that it sounded too... too...

'Fuck! What the hell did I just say?!'

Lu Yan cleared his throat, about to say something, but Xiao Heng spoke first, "Finished taking them off?"

Lu Yan: "..."

"Not yet," Lu Yan said, taking a breath. "If there's nothing else, I'm hanging up."

"Mm," Xiao Heng had no objection.

Lu Yan's finger moved towards the 'End Call' button, but he didn't press it. He paused, then added, "The spare key to my room is on the rooftop, under the third flowerpot from the left. If you need to use the computer, just get it yourself."

Xiao Heng grunted, "You're going out in a bit?"

Lu Yan thought he was being asked to bring something back. "Why?"

Xiao Heng: "Nothing. Do you know the way?"

"..."

Lu Yan directly ended the call.

After showering, Lu Yan quickly dried his hair, changed his clothes, and went out. In one hand, he dangled his keys, spinning the keyring between his fingers, while holding his phone in the other, looking for directions.

Lu Yan walked to the third floor, and the door to 303 opened. "Yo, going out?"

Sister Lan was holding a bag of trash, leaning against the doorway to greet him.

"Yeah, got something to do," Lu Yan put his phone away for the moment. After speaking, he noticed that the trash bag in Sister Lan's hand looked quite heavy and took it from her. "Let me get that."

Although Sister Lan was a live streamer who could eat six portions of fried chicken in one go, she didn't actually look fat. On the contrary, she was particularly thin. She was wearing a long dress and a uniquely styled necklace around her neck.

A snake was coiled around the dark green eye.

Lu Yan needed to buy various accessories for performances before, so he took a couple of extra glances at the necklace, only feeling that it didn't look like something bought in a store.

While going downstairs, Lu Yan said casually, "Sister, your necklace is really nice."

"You think so?" Sister Lan pushed open the entrance door and smiled. "I made it myself."

The very existence of Building 6, Unit 3 was strange enough. Nothing that happened to the residents in their building would be considered surprising, such as a female live streamer making her own necklaces.

Sister Lan asked, "Have you started your live stream yet?"

"Not yet," Lu Yan said. "Still looking into it."

As they spoke, they arrived at the trash station.

Lu Yan helped Sister Lan throw the trash in, then went directly to the nearby bus stop to wait. When he looked up after checking the navigation, Sister Lan was already walking back to the Seventh District.

From the Seventh District, he had to transfer twice. Lu Yan just managed to catch the next bus. He fished out two coins from his pants pocket, dropped them in, and walked to the back of the bus, finding a corner seat. This stop wasn't far from the starting station, so there weren't many people on board yet.

Lu Yan leaned against the window and continued to look at the navigation. A message just happened to pop up in his notification bar.

[Li Zhen]: !!!

Such a long string of exclamation marks.

Lu Yan was about to ask what was up when Li Zhen immediately sent another message: Are you free to take a call right now?!

After asking, perhaps because the situation was too urgent, the call came through directly before he could reply.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry," Li Zhen's voice was trembling as he spoke. "Where are you right now!"

Lu Yan leaned against the window, leisurely looking outside. "On a bus."

Li Zhen said while running, "What bus! Where are you going?"

Lu Yan added, "On a bus heading to a wedding planning company."

"..."

Li Zhen was clearly baffled by this "wedding planning company" that had come out of nowhere. He simply couldn't imagine what on earth their lead singer was up to.

"You're getting married?"

"The hell I am," Lu Yan said. "I'm applying to be an emcee."

"What emcee, don't apply, what is there to apply for," Li Zhen was about to faint. "Get off the bus right now—"

Li Zhen added, "Go to the Air-Raid Shelter! That blondie is coming today!"

Because of Li Zhen's call, Lu Yan got off the bus midway. After changing his destination, he squatted by the roadside, waiting for the navigation to recalculate the route. The circle in the center of the screen spun for a long time.

"Dear VIP member, planning the best route for you now, please wait..."

Lu Yan smoked a cigarette while waiting for the navigation to respond.

'Li Zhen is in such a rush, he must mean we have to go snatch the guy up.' He actually wasn't very confident about poaching him. Such a skilled guitarist, with so many bands to choose from, would be even less likely to join their V-Team, which didn't even have a full lineup.

"The route has been planned for you."

Lu Yan took only two drags before putting out the cigarette and standing up.

'Confident or not... snatch him first and worry later.'

Feiyue Road No. 3 Air-Raid Shelter.

Half of the underground bands in the Lower District were gathered here, the fight to recruit people raging fiercely.

"Brother, I know about your passion and pursuit of music, and I feel our musical philosophies are very consistent... Come to our band, you can make any demand you want!"

"His place is no good, look at us—come to us!"

"..."

Li Zhen arrived at the Air-Raid Shelter one step ahead of Lu Yan. By the time he managed to squeeze into the crowd, Lu Yan was just coming out of the subway station nearest to the shelter. Li Zhen yelled at the top of his lungs, "Brother, all these other bands, they already have guitarists! Look at our band, we don't have one! Do you know what I'm missing? I'm missing a bit of you!"

The people beside him were stunned. "Damn, he's even using corny pick-up lines. Li Zhen, aren't you going a bit too far?"

Spades Band, which had a guitarist: "Even though we already have a guitarist, as long as you come to us, we'll make you the lead guitarist."

Li Zhen was almost in tears. "Spades, where is the friendship between our brother bands?"

Captain of Spades Band: "What damn friendship is there between us! Did your lead singer consider our friendship when he was poaching from me?!"

This group of people was fighting over him like crazy.

Not only did Li Zhen have to fight among this group, but he also had to endure being mocked: "Brother, V-Team is no good."

The second blow: "Right, right, right, no good."

The third blow: "Don't go, their V-Team not only doesn't have a guitarist, they don't even have a bassist."

The final blow: "And the V-Team's lead singer is terrible at guitar!"

In the middle of the crowd, a tall boy with a black guitar case on his back and wearing a white T-shirt was surrounded. Because of his height, his head of messy golden-yellow hair was exceptionally conspicuous in the crowd.

Lu Yan had just crossed the road and walked to the entrance of the Air-Raid Shelter. From a distance, he could see the tall back of that guy and his shimmering yellow hair.

Lu Yan was pondering what to say for his opening line later, to try and leave a good impression on this "future guitarist" of their band. It couldn't be like last time's meeting with the yellow T-shirt guy in the C University bathroom; he had to learn his lesson.

As for what to say...

'Brother, I think you look a lot like our band's next guitarist? How about you roll with me?'

Inside the Air-Raid Shelter.

Li Zhen was being mocked so relentlessly that he felt he had to salvage some face for his own lead singer. Finally, racking his brains, he said, "But our lead singer is handsome! That counts as meeting half your conditions! Da, da, da..."

Li Zhen couldn't get the "da" out for the longest time.

In his haste, he had forgotten the blondie's stage name. While anxiously waiting for Lu Yan to appear, he kept trying to recall in his mind, 'What was his name, Da-something?' The Air-Raid Shelter was in chaos.

Lu Yan should have smoothly squeezed through the crowd and familiarly slung an arm around the shoulder of that supposedly awesome guitarist. However, he was standing at the entrance of the Air-Raid Shelter and had just taken one step forward—

The guitarist, squeezed in the middle of the crowd, turned around.

The boy was indeed young. Aside from being a head taller than others, he looked to be not even twenty years old.

Underneath the dazzling yellow hair was a face that seemed to have crawled out from the depths of Lu Yan's memory.

Different from his memory, a few years had passed, and the boy's once-immature features had matured, his facial contours becoming sharper. After seeing that face, Lu Yan's mind went "boom," and all his thoughts vanished.

Last night's video was like a secret phrase to open a Pandora's box. The moment that phrase was triggered, the pile of past events from four years ago came rushing back, overwhelming him.

The ground beneath Lu Yan's feet was clearly flat, yet for a moment, he felt the world spin.

A voice chased after him, annoying as hell, just like a kid with chuunibyou: "When will I be able to play better than you?"

Lu Yan then heard his own voice. The him from four years ago, with a guitar on his back, walking through the noisy crowd of a bar, ahead of the boy, saying without turning back, "You? Little brat, maybe in eight hundred years."

Lu Yan came back to his senses, thinking in disbelief, 'How could it be him.'

This face gradually overlapped with last night's string of letters in the email address: dap.

Li Zhen still hadn't remembered what this brother's name was: "Da, da, da..."

dap.

Lu Yan stood at the entrance of the Air-Raid Shelter, repeating silently in his mind: 'Big Cannon.'

The blondie, having been 'da-da-da'd' at by Li Zhen for ages, was a bit speechless. His gaze swept over the group of people, but he still didn't see the person he was looking for. A little disappointed, he raised a hand to adjust the guitar strap on his shoulder and said, "My name is Big Cannon."

Li Zhen was exhausted from trying to recruit him. Finally, he asked, "Fine, Big Cannon or Little Cannon, whatever. Who are you actually here to find!"

The blondie rubbed the back of his neck and said, "I'm looking for my big brother."

As he spoke, as if sensing something, he extended his gaze and looked towards the entrance of the Air-Raid Shelter.

The entrance was empty. There was nothing there.

The author has something to say: dap: Big Cannon!

A little spoiler, the blondie's real name is Dai Peng.