Chapter 101
Chapter 101
That gesture had left Qin Se completely at a loss back then.
She didn’t have any close friends in the group, nor did she dare get too close to the others.
Because every bit of her time was spent soaking up, like a sponge, all the things she had never seen or known before.
Only after she came to work in Xiangcheng did she learn what ice cream tasted like.
At twenty, in her first year after debuting with the group, she finally treated the child she had once been to her very first birthday cake.
The Children’s Palace that Xiao Ming could reach in a ten-minute walk-she had crossed mountains and rivers in her own way, and finally, in her twenties, caught one hurried glimpse of it from a bus.
Someone like her had no idea how to get along with her groupmates. All she could do was become invisible within the group.
But to her surprise, someone had noticed her…
At first, Qin Se wasn’t sure who it was.
It wasn’t until later, when she noticed that Ning Xi’s handwriting was exactly the same as the note that had encouraged her, that she realized it had been Ning Xi all along.
In that instant, many things she had once overlooked came into sharp focus in her mind.
Why had Ning Xi reminded everyone to check whether their passports had expired before going abroad? Because Qin Se hadn’t even known about passports.
Why had Ning Xi specially written the Chinese meanings beside the English lyrics? Everyone else could understand the lyrics. The only one who didn’t know English was her…
The Qin Se of back then hadn’t known how to respond to that kindness.
She hadn’t even known how to approach Ning Xi.
So when the invitation from You Are My Blessing arrived, she barely hesitated before agreeing to join as the eighth of the guests…
“All right, all right! Next song!” Fu Zhi’s loud, clamoring voice pulled Qin Se out of her memories.
Ning Xi asked, “What do you want to hear?”
Fu Zhi clenched his fist. “Light from the Dust!”
He had a side business investing in esports, so he preferred rousing, blood-pumping songs like this.
“Fine. You do it.” Ning Xi took a deep breath, glanced sympathetically at the camera in the car, then handed the microphone to Fu Zhi with a grave expression.
Determination shone in Fu Zhi’s eyes.
The music started.
Fu Zhi opened his mouth. “Born as countless fireflies in humble dust, riding the long wind to gather into a brilliant galaxy…”
“Cough, cough, cough, cough!” Jiang Sheshe coughed violently in shock.
The car also came to a sudden, hard stop.
Everyone pitched forward at the same time.
Fu Zhi’s freshly built-up emotions were completely ruined by the interruption, and he was rather displeased. “Driver, can you drive a little more steadily?”
The driver sounded wronged. “No, bro, when other people sing, it costs money. When you sing, it costs lives.”
[These days, you don’t even need a knife to kill someone.]
[I almost thought I saw my great-grandma.]
[We asked you to sing, not harvest souls.]
[He really sings well. Men hear it and go insane, women hear it and stop menstruating. This voice is the cure for depression, the alarm clock for vegetative patients, and it sang out the longing of a lonely village welfare bachelor for a widow.]
[Goddamn it, I just broke up, and then I heard Fu Zhi sing. Am I supposed to laugh or not?]
[Original singer: I can be the original singer, or I can be the plaintiff.]
[No, seriously, are the people in that car recovering addicts? How are they not laughing at this?]
Jiang Sheshe: “Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!”
Fu Zhi snapped, “What the hell are you laughing at? My singing isn’t that bad.”
Singing badly wasn’t scary. What was scary was having no self-awareness.
Everyone’s expressions became even harder to describe.
Fu Zhi looked at Ning Xi. “Tell me the truth. Is my singing really that bad?”
Although Ning Xi was unreliable, out of everyone there, he still trusted Ning Xi the most.
Ning Xi nodded with certainty. “Drop the ‘is it.’ Have some confidence. Your singing really is terrible.”
Fu Zhi: “…”
Fu Zhi: “You’re just saying that because you’re mad. I don’t believe you.”
Ning Xi: “…”
She really wished Fu Zhi would share even a fraction of that confidence with her.
A foul-mouthed, short-tempered Young Master like Fu Zhi lived by one principle: never turn the damage inward.
If he thought he sang well, then no one else’s opinion could ever shake him.
And so, with unshakable conviction, he picked up the microphone and continued torturing everyone with his singing:
“In the endless night, the only flash of light is you and me, walking out of mediocrity…”
Jiang Sheshe had already collapsed laughing onto Ning Xi’s shoulder.
Qin Se silently took out a pair of earplugs.
Even Xie Lanchen’s expression showed the faintest hint of endurance.
In the end, Ning Xi noticed that even the driver’s hands were trembling on the wheel. For the safety of everyone in the car, she took Jiang Sheshe’s microphone and began to sing:
“…I come from legend to write the legend anew. One surge of glory makes ten years of devotion worth it. In this battle, we’ll make everyone remember the moment we were crowned in honor!”
Ning Xi’s voice effortlessly crushed Fu Zhi’s.
And at last, everyone felt the hot-blooded power this song was meant to convey.
Even Fu Zhi, confident as he was, had to admit it: when it came to singing, that damn girl Ning Xi was, by the tiniest margin, better than him.
[Holy crap, Ning Xi sings this well?]
[Hahaha, don’t let the fact that Ning Xi is too pretty or too unhinged make you forget that she was the runaway center chosen out of a hundred trainees back then.]
[Quick info dump: Ning Xi was seventeen when she debuted four years ago through an idol survival show, ranking first by a huge margin thanks to both skill and popularity. The month she debuted, her popularity shot to the top among idols. After that, her debut single blew up on the charts, and her whole group’s status skyrocketed. At her peak, Ning Xi’s solo popularity could go head-to-head with the hottest boy bands. In four years since debuting, she’s never had a slump or been hated by the whole internet. She’s basically the perfect idol.]
[That’s what a top star is like. Debut at the peak. No need for any “watch her grow” narrative. Fans just get carried straight to victory. [rose]]
[Holy crap, that sounds so satisfying.]
Watching the Danmaku, Ning Xi’s fans felt deeply relieved. Baby, you saved yourself again. You even clawed back a little bit of your image.
But in the next second, their relief turned into terror.
“Come on, driver, play my dishwashing battle anthem, ‘Mask (DJ Version),'” Ning Xi said firmly.
Question DJ remixes. Understand DJ remixes. Fall in love with DJ remixes.
What was the point of riding in a car if you weren’t listening to DJ remixes?
Jiang Sheshe questioned her. “DJ? Isn’t that tacky?”
One minute later, she was screaming herself hoarse right along with Ning Xi:
“My powerless cries for you to stay have already been drowned in the ending. My heart has been torn apart, scattered through the air, flying like a flower already withered…”
[I used to think DJ remixes were tacky. Turns out I just wasn’t old enough.]
[All right, my bloodline has awakened. I’m going to challenge my dad now.]
[My mom: Why aren’t those few dishes washed yet? How far have you gotten? Me: I’ve gotten to ‘willing to give up all glory and riches for you.’]
[2019, heard a tacky DJ remix: turned it off. 2020: wanted to puke. 2021: got annoyed. 2022: got tired. 2023: got used to it. 2024: fell in love.]
After that, all sorts of dishwashing battle anthems played on loop.
Everyone had been thoroughly brainwashed. Even Xie Lanchen, who had barely heard any of these songs before, now had the melody of “I drew a fortune slip at the temple, crying that the childhood sweethearts were waiting for each other, begging Bodhisattva to bless the two of us” stuck in his head.
Until the music reached the climactic line, “Can’t stop guessing, guessing, guessing.”
“Can’t stop pressing, pressing, pressing!” the driver shouted excitedly as he stomped on the gas.
The speed shot up to eighty kilometers an hour, heading straight for a hundred.
Everyone panicked. “Driver, calm down! This isn’t a highway!!!”