In mid-December, Wenzhou welcomed another wave of cold air, with temperatures not dropping much, but the distinctive damp cold of winter in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces became more pronounced. Despite being attacked by such coldness, Liang Zhen never stooped to wearing long johns with grace. However, deep down, he couldn’t help but nostalgically yearn for the heating in Lanzhou.

It was also in the early hours of this day that Liang Zhen uploaded his new song online. Apart from a few friends who participated in the production, he didn’t tell anyone else about his new song. Having collaborated with other rappers before, he had registered as an independent musician on Netease Cloud Music long ago. However, until that day, his name had always appeared in the “feat” section, as the one singing the hook.

After working until four-thirty in the morning to successfully upload the song, if one were to type “Liang ZhenZhen” into the search bar on Netease Cloud, they would find a new song titled “Liang Zhenzhou Ci” on the DJ musician’s homepage in the “music” section.

Being away from home, especially in the underground scene, how could one not have a stage name? Adding some English to it, like “aka,” would make it even cooler. Liang Zhen had considered it before, but he hadn’t come up with anything suitable, so he had always used his real name in Pinyin. After uploading the song, Liang Zhen fell asleep immediately out of exhaustion. He slept without dreams until noon and then realized that he had forgotten to charge his phone. After rebooting it, he still felt groggy. As WeChat messages, Weibo posts, and Netease Cloud notifications flooded in, Liang Zhen’s eyes widened.

He first opened Netease Cloud. Like a serial writer waiting for feedback, he also looked forward to receiving plenty of comments early the next morning. But there were more comments than he had imagined. Within ten hours of releasing the song, there were over three hundred comments on “Liang Zhenzhou Ci.” Among the featured comments were two rappers who had good relationships with him. One of them was from Xi’an—

Before clicking, I thought Liang Zhen wasn’t considerate enough, not even announcing a new song. After listening, I just want to say, Bro, you’re awesome, Northwest trap is awesome!

The other rapper was a local from Wenzhou whom Liang Zhen had collaborated with before. He was a photographer named Youtai, and his comment was interesting too—

Bro, if you get rich, can I still ask you to sing the hook for me in the future?

Liang Zhen grinned foolishly while holding his phone. Who wouldn’t like being praised? After glancing through WeChat, he returned to refreshing the comments on Netease Cloud. After reading through them once, he still felt unsatisfied and went through them a second time, finding another thirty or so comments. He had originally thought over a thousand comments would take a long time to read, but after browsing through them twice, even analyzing each simple “awesome” comment word by word, it didn’t take him an hour. He continued to scroll down to refresh. Although the rate of comment increase was not as high as when the song was just released, it was still enough to excite Liang Zhen. This was a good sign. If he could maintain this quality and release songs at this pace, he could eventually make an electronic album available on paid music apps. With three to five songs, he could start performing not as a backing vocalist but as the main act in livehouse venues.

Liang Zhen then opened WeChat, this time clicking on the conversation with Shao Mingyin. Their last communication was three days ago when he told Shao Mingyin that he had been too busy recording songs lately. Shao Mingyin had replied with an “OK” expression, and neither of them contacted each other afterward. Now that his new song had received good feedback, the first person he wanted to tell was still Shao Mingyin.

Liang Zhen didn’t know if Shao Mingyin had listened to it. Most likely not. He certainly didn’t expect Shao Mingyin to evaluate it after listening. Shao Mingyin was probably busy at the police station and wouldn’t have time to listen to songs.

Liang Zhen had already copied the link and typed it into the chat box, but after hesitating for a long time, he ultimately deleted it. He knew that one song couldn’t prove anything. He needed more, he needed to become what Shao Mingyin expected, to release an album, to perform, to earn money to buy this and that. He was both anxious and full of fighting spirit. These small satisfactions had to be suppressed for now. He wanted to save a big surprise for Shao Mingyin. So he immediately contacted the sound engineer and recording studio. He still had several songs he had bought beats for but hadn’t recorded yet. He felt inspired now and could make a big move.

Perhaps the desire to “return home in glory” was too strong. For the next week, Liang Zhen either attended classes at school or went to the recording studio. He recorded until two-thirty in the morning every day. After returning to the apartment in Green City Square that Song Zhou had lent him, Liang Zhen would lie down. The next day, when he woke up and felt the headphones were still on, he would continue listening to what he recorded yesterday, looking for any room for improvement. Under such high efficiency, he released three more songs within two weeks. He felt thankful to himself for having written so many lyrics before, even though he hadn’t released any songs back then. Although most of them were immature and couldn’t be directly used, whenever he flipped through them, he would exclaim, “Damn, why didn’t I record something so awesome before?”

After all the finished products were out, Liang Zhen didn’t immediately release them. This time, he wanted Shao Mingyin to listen first. During that time, because he recorded until late every day, he would be hungry by the time he got home, and there was no takeaway to order. So he learned to be self-reliant and came up with a set of “Liang Zhen’s Noodles Method.” Besides songs, he also wanted Shao Mingyin to taste his noodles. After all, Shao Mingyin had been the one feeding him since they met. Now Liang Zhen could barely cook. Just like songs needed to be heard by Shao Mingyin first, he could cook now, and he wanted Shao Mingyin to taste it first.

So that day, Liang Zhen was determined to surprise Shao Mingyin. He didn’t tell him that he would come that night. He just packed the ingredients in his backpack and waited at Shao Mingyin’s doorstep earlier than usual, guessing his usual off-work time. He could imagine Shao Mingyin’s expression when he saw him with a backpack full of food containers. He would definitely doubt his cooking skills, but once he tasted it, he wouldn’t praise it out loud, but he would definitely like it.

Liang Zhen waited and waited until the usual time when Shao Mingyin would come, but Shao Mingyin still hadn’t returned. Liang Zhen was quite pleased with himself. He thought Shao Mingyin might be working overtime, and if he did, he might forget to eat, so when he came back, he would need his warmth even more. He himself started to get hungry, but he firmly resisted the temptation to eat, determined to wait for Shao Mingyin to come back and eat together.

But it was almost nine o’clock, and there was still no movement in the stairwell. Liang Zhen became somewhat suspicious, not because he was afraid something had happened to Shao Mingyin, but because Shao Mingyin had never come back so late before, and he couldn’t guess what had caused the delay. He thought about sending Shao Mingyin a message to ask, but if he did, the surprise would be ruined.

So he decided to continue waiting. From standing to leaning against the wall, to finally squatting down tired against the wall, he was now famished, and his initial excitement was gradually fading. Fortunately, footsteps finally echoed in the hallway, instantly revitalizing him. He quietly moved to the corner of the stairs on their floor, peeking out, and when he saw it was Shao Mingyin, he felt relieved. The slight sense of grievance from the long wait dissipated. But he still wanted to playfully scare Shao Mingyin a bit for making him wait so long; after all, revenge seemed appropriate.

Shao Mingyin seemed to be in a good mood, smiling that gentle and disarming smile Liang Zhen was accustomed to seeing, the kind of smile that instantly transported Liang Zhen back to that night in the police station when Shao Mingyin asked him if he wanted to eat instant noodles.

As Liang Zhen watched that smile, just as his heart was beginning to warm, he noticed Shao Mingyin’s gaze constantly drifting downwards, landing on the next flight of stairs on his side. Shao Mingyin had just come up from that corner and stopped, smiling in that direction.

“Don’t overthink it, we’re all here.”

Shao Mingyin’s voice lacked much fluctuation, nor was it teasing or suggestive, but Liang Zhen didn’t have time to dwell on it. As soon as he heard that Shao Mingyin wasn’t alone, his heart sank to the bottom of the abyss.

He saw Shao Mingyin wave and say to the direction he couldn’t see: “Come up.”

At that moment, Liang Zhen didn’t know whether his impromptu visit today was right or wrong.

But regardless of right or wrong, he had stumbled upon Shao Mingyin bringing someone back.