Chapter 33

Inside the recording venue, Zhong Yang, unusually, wasn’t going around greeting everyone. Instead, he sat in his seat, constantly switching music apps and checking various charts. “We’ve gained another position on the New Song Chart, now at seventh!”

He handed his phone to Peng Keshi, saying, “Sister Shi, you’re amazing.”

“It’s not just my effort,” Peng Keshi responded calmly. “Jiang Ji was responsible for the overall arrangement of this song. If we have to give credit, Jiang Ji’s contribution is even more significant than mine.”

Before she could finish her sentence, Zhong Yang started teasing, “Wow, Sister Shi, are you secretly in love with Jiang Ji? You keep attributing everything to him!”

“You’re talking nonsense again,” Peng Keshi frowned.

“Let me tell you, although I’m not sure if Jiang Ji is bisexual,” Zhong Yang lowered his voice mysteriously, “his relationship with Brother Qingzhuo is definitely not over yet. Sister Shi, I think you can find someone else to secretly admire, like me.”

“Zhong Yang,” Peng Keshi sighed helplessly, unable to resist a sarcastic comment, “you were a decent person, why did you grow a mouth.”

“I’m not worse than Jiang Ji, right?” Zhong Yang asserted confidently. “Why can’t you secretly admire me?”

“I haven’t secretly admired anyone,” Peng Keshi said calmly. “I like girls.”

Zhong Yang’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?!”

Peng Keshi nodded. “Yes.”

“F*ck, three people, two of them are bent…” Zhong Yang paused halfway, not noticing Jiang Ji walking over.

“What ‘two of them are bent?” Jiang Ji sat down and casually asked, “Whom are you interested in?”

“I…” Zhong Yang stuttered, his eyes darting around. He lowered his voice and said, “Don’t tell anyone, but I have a crush on Brother Qingzhuo.”

Jiang Ji glanced at him without saying anything, showing no particular expression.

However, Zhong Yang felt that this glance was meaningful. Then, he suddenly noticed the coat Jiang Ji was wearing and began to scrutinize Jiang Ji, who was sitting beside him. “Hey? Is this Brother Qingzhuo’s clothes?”

Jiang Ji didn’t respond.

Zhong Yang leaned in again, vigorously sniffing Jiang Ji’s body. “I smell Brother Qingzhuo’s scent.”

“Are you a dog or something?” Jiang Ji frowned. “Stay away from me.”

“Why are you wearing Brother Qingzhuo’s coat?” Zhong Yang questioned. “Spill the beans, are you my rival in love?”

Jiang Ji looked at him as if he were foolish, choosing not to engage.

After a while, Chen Jia walked to the door and waved to Jiang Ji. Jiang Ji pointed at himself, asking her with his eyes if she was looking for him. Seeing Chen Jia nodding, he stood up and walked over.

“Brother Qingzhuo asked me to give this to you,” Chen Jia handed him a tote bag. “He said your clothes got dirty.”

Seeing Jiang Ji take the tote bag, Chen Jia added, “Is this his clothes you’re wearing? After changing, I’ll pass it to him on the way. There should be no one in the next dressing room now. Go quickly; I have something to do. I’ll come find you later.”

Jiang Ji nodded silently as he looked into the tote bag. He walked to the next dressing room, pushed the door open, and entered.

This dressing room had a changing area on one side, with a partition in the middle. Jiang Ji went straight into the changing area and took the clothes out of the tote bag.

The sweatshirt bought by Qin Qingzhuo was also navy blue, slightly brighter than the one he was currently wearing. It had metallic zipper designs on both sides of the sleeves, similar in style to the coat he had on, but with a more delicate and cool touch, just not as mature. The price tag and labels had been removed, but at a glance, it didn’t look like an inexpensive item.

Jiang Ji held the clothes for a moment, then lifted his hand to take off the coat he was wearing.

At this moment, footsteps approached the outside of the changing room, and then the door was pushed open. Someone walked in, and it seemed there was more than one person.

“Who should we pick, damn it? Just now, the lead singer of Midnight Temperature came to me, saying they want to choose us. They didn’t even stand a chance against Asperatus in the last match. If we pick them again as our opponents, it would be too humiliating for us.”

Jiang Ji was always very sensitive to voices. Names might not match, but he could easily recognize voices he had heard before. For example, he immediately identified the speaker as the bassist from Urban Collapse who had chatted with Peng Keshi after the last competition.

Ignoring the group outside, Jiang Ji slowly raised his hand, grabbed the collar of his dirty sweatshirt from behind his neck, and took it off.

Meanwhile, the conversation continued outside:

“They were beaten so badly by Asperatus last time; I feel like their morale has already collapsed. They must think they’re bound to be eliminated this round, so they picked us to make their loss less humiliating.”

“So, who should we pick? Fei Xing Legend and DCL Director are said to be not good options. Who else is left?”

“Let’s pick Asperatus. They’re just a random band who got a bit of attention from the show, and they’re getting cocky. That drummer of theirs is hopping around like a grasshopper. And their lead singer, I can’t stand him. Last time, I was chatting with their female bassist, and he just had to butt in, acting like he’s someone.”

“The lead singer’s name is Jiang Ji, right? Just a pretty face who relies on his looks to make a living, acting all high and mighty.”

“Yeah, look at their drummer today, strutting around like he’s won the championship. Just because they made it onto the new song chart? That’s something anyone can achieve with enough money. They haven’t seen the real world.”

Jiang Ji took off his clothes, put on the one Qin Qingzhuo had sent, which was soft and the right size. He adjusted the hood with his hand, ignoring the conversation outside.

He had grown accustomed to the criticisms behind his back since childhood, and he couldn’t be bothered with such things.

He picked up the dirty sweatshirt, put it in a bag, then took Qin Qingzhuo’s coat and stared at it for a moment, his fingers tightening slightly.

Outside, the three people’s conversation became more lively, veering off to a different topic:

“Have you seen who their mentor is? A bunch of losers have come together. How can he even have the nerve to be a mentor, with his level of accident scene performance?”

“Did you see his accident scene performance at that concert? If it were me, I wouldn’t have the face to stay in the music scene anymore. Why don’t we use that against him in this round? Maybe it’ll boost our popularity, just like with Asperatus.”

“Yeah, when he was being criticized, he didn’t even dare to make a sound. What a coward…”

Jiang Ji’s movements paused, his brow furrowing.

The pent-up resentment he had suppressed due to Qin Qingzhuo’s influence suddenly surged back with overwhelming force.

He felt an uncontrollable impulse to fight, to release this pent-up rage. The desire grew so strong that he couldn’t contain it.

His fingers clenched, and there was a faint cracking sound from his joints. Suddenly, he felt an urge to start a fight, to vent this inner fire, an impulse so strong that it was impossible to restrain.

He hung the coat on a nearby hanger and walked out of the changing room.

The three people outside, who were engrossed in their conversation, were surprised to see someone coming out of the changing room unexpectedly. They all fell silent at once.

Jiang Ji said nothing as he walked towards Qu Lei, the bassist with the foulest mouth.

Before Qu Lei could react, Jiang Ji grabbed his collar and slammed him against the wall behind him. He lifted his knee and thrust it into Qu Lei’s abdomen, causing the cigarette dangling from Qu Lei’s mouth to fall as his face contorted in pain.

The singer and guitarist behind him were momentarily stunned by Jiang Ji’s sudden aggressive action. Before they could react, Jiang Ji had already lifted Qu Lei off the wall by his collar, pulled him away, and then kicked him hard in the front, knocking him to the ground. Qu Lei clutched his stomach, trying to sit up but gasping in pain.

The singer and guitarist exchanged a glance. The singer approached, placing a hand on Jiang Ji’s shoulder. “Hey, buddy.” As Jiang Ji turned around, the singer clenched his fist and swung it at Jiang Ji.

Jiang Ji leaned to the side to avoid the punch, grabbed the hand pressing on his shoulder, pulled the singer towards him, and then punched him in the face. Meanwhile, the guitarist picked up his guitar, intending to take advantage of the situation and attack Jiang Ji. However, just as he was about to strike, the door beside him was pushed open. He turned to see that it was Zhong Yang.

Zhong Yang had been called by Chen Jia to the dressing room to find Jiang Ji. Pushing the door open, he met the guitarist’s gaze for a second, initially surprised by the chaos inside. However, he quickly reacted and rushed towards the guitarist without hesitation. “F*ck you, you arrogant idler!”

By the time the commotion in the recording room alarmed the people outside, the dressing room was already a mess.

Chen Jia was called over and was left speechless by the scene before her for a few seconds before exclaiming, “What on earth is going on here?!”

Seeing that no one was speaking, she entered the room. “Everyone else, back to the recording room. Don’t crowd in the dressing room!”

After sending away the unrelated people, leaving only the few who were fighting, Chen Jia quickly assessed the situation on both sides. Among the members of Urban Collapse, the bassist was curled up on the ground, the singer had a nosebleed and looked quite disheveled, and the guitarist was holding his face in pain. On the other hand, on Asperatus’ side, Jiang Ji had a slight abrasion on his face, and Zhong Yang had bruises around his eyes and mouth. Although they were injured too, their condition didn’t seem as severe as the other side.

She quickly made a plan to have the staff come in and tend to Urban Collapse’s injuries and kept Asperatus behind.

As the bassist was helped up from the ground, he gritted his teeth and growled as he walked towards the door, “Jiang Ji, remember to accept the challenge later. Whoever backs out is a f*cking grandson!”

“What challenge are you talking about?” Chen Jia scolded, “Just get out!”

As the door closed, the bassist’s arrogant curses echoed in the corridor, “Everyone listen up We’ve chosen Asperatus! Don’t you dare challenge us later! F*ck, we’ll kill you!”

Watching the three members of Urban Collapse being dragged out of the dressing room, Chen Jia turned to the two people in front of her.

“Why did you fight?” Having experienced Jiang Ji’s attitude of not yielding, Chen Jia shifted her gaze to Zhong Yang, who seemed more cooperative.

Zhong Yang scratched his head innocently. “I don’t know.”

Chen Jia was speechless for a moment. “I asked you to call someone, and you ended up getting into a fight with them?”

“They were already fighting when I got here. Of course, I had to help our band,” Zhong Yang said confidently.

Chen Jia was exasperated. “Couldn’t you just break up the fight?”

“Sis Jia, you don’t understand. Urban Collapse was even using guitars. If I didn’t help, Jiang Ji would have been beaten up badly, and then we couldn’t continue recording the show,” Zhong Yang explained with conviction. “When you fight, you have to understand the severity of the situation.”

Chen Jia was momentarily speechless. To be honest, she didn’t have a good impression of either of these bands. From the beginning, Urban Collapse had insisted on removing the drum shield, almost disrupting the normal recording of the show due to their contract with the production team. As for Asperatus, they hadn’t made her job any easier in the few recordings they had done. It was clear they weren’t easy to deal with either.

So it was hard to determine who was right or wrong in this situation.

Zhong Yang was clueless, and Chen Jia turned to Jiang Ji. “Why did you start the fight?”

“They were annoyed,” Jiang Ji replied curtly.

“What was the reason for being annoyed?”

“You should ask them.”

One didn’t know why the fight started, and the other knew but refused to cooperate with an answer. Chen Jia felt a headache coming on and decided to go check on the situation with Urban Collapse. She walked to the door, opened it, and said, “You guys stay here and don’t go out.”

As the door closed, Zhong Yang approached Jiang Ji. “Bro, why did you beat them up?”

Jiang Ji remained silent.

At that moment, the door was pushed open, and Peng Keshi walked in, looking at the injuries of the two: “Are you guys alright?”

“We’re fine,” Zhong Yang’s tone intentionally sounded dismissive, “Let me tell you, Sister Shi, with Jiang Ji and me, even if three Urban Collapses come, it wouldn’t be enough for us to handle.”

“Stop it,” Peng Keshi glanced at him, “You both look like you’ve been through a lot.”

“Really not bogus?” Zhong Yang, with a sense of idol baggage, raised his hand to touch his eye area, “F*ck, does it look bad? Let me check in the bathroom.”

As he was about to leave, Peng Keshi stopped him: “Don’t go yet, let’s discuss the matter of choosing opponents.”

“Didn’t we agree last time to choose The Crossing?” Zhong Yang said matter-of-factly, “They are the only band I’m sure has no connections, choosing them should be right.”

“Are we really choosing The Crossing?” Peng Keshi looked at Jiang Ji, “What do you think, Jiang Ji?”

“Jiang Ji doesn’t care,” Zhong Yang nudged Jiang Ji’s shoulder, “Right, bro, last time you said you didn’t care.”

Jiang Ji remained silent, looking grimly towards the door.

Zhong Yang guessed his thoughts and his expression became complicated, “What do you mean, you wouldn’t want to choose…”

Seeing Jiang Ji’s non-denial, Zhong Yang suddenly became excited, “Damn it, we can’t choose Urban Collapse! Jiang Ji, No… Brother Ji! We’ve come this far, we can’t act recklessly. Look, how about this, next time I’ll bring a few guys and secretly teach them a lesson…”

Jiang Ji lifted his eyelids to give him a glance, Zhong Yang tactfully stopped talking, not continuing further.

After a pause, Zhong Yang began to persuade quietly again, “You don’t know, according to reliable sources, Urban Collapse is different from last time’s Midnight Temperature. They’re not only a signed band but also very likely the predetermined champions. If we choose them, our competition will be over.”

Jiang Ji chuckled, “Are you really hoping for the championship?”

“Whether it’s the championship or not, that’s another matter. The fact now is for every extra match, there’s an extra appearance fee. We shouldn’t let go of this money for nothing. Why seek death on our own?” Zhong Yang said stubbornly, “Anyway, I disagree with choosing Urban Collapse.”

“Choosing The Crossing is fine,” Jiang Ji said lightly, “If not, you can write the songs for the performance, I’ve even thought of a name for you.”

“What?”

“Wimp.”

“You…” Zhong Yang was at a loss for words, paused, and then said, “Forget it, forget it. Let’s have a democratic vote. You can’t decide everything on your own. We also need to respect Sister Shi’s opinion, right?”

Jiang Ji said, “Okay.”

“Those in favor of choosing The Crossing, raise your hand,” Zhong Yang said, raising his own hand and looking at Peng Keshi, trying to encourage her to join him on his side. However, Peng Keshi didn’t seem inclined to raise her hand.

Zhong Yang stared at her, waiting for her vote for a long time, but it didn’t come. He had to say again, “Then those in favor of choosing Urban Collapse, raise your hand.”

Jiang Ji glanced out the window with his hands in his pockets, making no move. It was Peng Keshi who straightforwardly raised her hand.

“No, why?” Zhong Yang raised his voice, “Sister Shi, why are you always biased towards Jiang Ji!”

“It has nothing to do with bias,” Peng Keshi’s tone was calm as she looked at him, “Why do you think Jiang Ji beat up Urban Collapse?”

“How would I know…” Zhong Yang muttered unhappily, “He doesn’t say.”

“Then why did you beat up Urban Collapse?”

“Because Jiang Ji got into a fight with them… Of course, I unconditionally stand with our band.”

“Then it’s settled,” Peng Keshi said, “Urban Collapse is now saying that if we don’t fight back, we’re cowards. Do you want to admit to being a coward?”

“I…” Zhong Yang was tongue-tied.

“Anyway, I don’t admit it,” Peng Keshi said, “And, in my opinion, Jiang Ji isn’t the type to randomly pick fights. Since he did so, it means Urban Collapse must have done something more outrageous.”

“I can’t argue with you…” Zhong Yang murmured softly, still sounding reluctant.

“Also, I’m quite annoyed by the bassist from Urban Collapse,” Peng Keshi recalled being approached last time, still feeling uncomfortable, furrowing her brow, “I don’t want to be called a coward by such a scumbag.”

Peng Keshi rarely expressed disgust toward someone, piquing Zhong Yang’s curiosity, “Sister Shi, how did he offend you?”

“He tried to flirt with me and got chased away by Jiang Ji’s help.”

“Damn, he tried to flirt with you?!” Zhong Yang, upon hearing this, immediately raised his voice again, “Who the hell does that guy think he is!… When did this happen? Why didn’t I know about it?”

“It happened after the last competition, in the waiting room,” his reaction was over-the-top, which amused Peng Keshi, “Still choosing The Crossing?”

“…No, I can’t stand for this!” Zhong Yang’s attitude immediately did a 180-degree turn, he was quite adept at convincing himself, and quickly rationalized his thoughts, “Let’s just choose Urban Collapse then. Anyway, the remaining bands mostly have connections. Even if we choose The Crossing, at most we’ll get another appearance fee. If not, then so be it. That’s right, instead of kneeling and living, it’s better to stand and die. Maybe we’ll even attract more fans…”

Listening to Zhong Yang and Peng Keshi’s conversation nearby, Jiang Ji’s volatile mood gradually calmed down.

In fact, their band, aside from coming together for gigs, didn’t really participate in each other’s lives, let alone have any emotional bond. So for Jiang Ji, the relationship with Asperatus was simply maintained through money.

He was emotionally detached and independent, disliking anyone prying into his life and having no interest in other people’s lives either. If it weren’t for Huang Ying mentioning that the bar needed a band to liven things up, he wouldn’t have even thought about forming a band.

Because of this, he hadn’t cared about winning or losing in the previous matches, choosing songs based solely on his preferences. In the second match, intentionally writing such a bad song to test Qin Qingzhuo, he hadn’t even thought about discussing it with the other two.

But just a few minutes ago, Zhong Yang had stood on his side without hesitation, joining the fray, and Peng Keshi’s words on his behalf had made him feel for the first time a sense of unity in the band.

He began to think about how to approach the upcoming match against Urban Collapse. Objectively speaking, Urban Collapse’s level was among the best in all the bands, specializing in experimental music, adept at combining British rock with electronic dance music. Jiang Ji had seen their live performances in the previous matches, which were quite atmospheric, obviously created with the technical and stage effects that money could buy.

Urban Collapse didn’t shy away from this at all, using expensive instruments, effects pedals, and equipment, like that guitar the guitarist had wielded just now, which was easily worth tens of thousands.

But ultimately, there was still something lacking in terms of hitting people’s hearts directly. It wasn’t about the music style itself, but about these people, who were just superficial.

If they could be in a relatively fair environment, the chances of winning weren’t low, but now they had to compete against a band that the program team was favoring. Jiang Ji wasn’t sure whether the final result would be a win or a loss.

It would probably be a loss. Jiang Ji sighed almost imperceptibly.

But it didn’t matter, whether they won or lost, the opponent for this match must be Urban Collapse.