Chapter 4

At 2:30 in the morning, the row of shops on Honglu Slope Street had already closed, and a few sparse street lamps illuminated the alley, casting dim light over the surrounding insects fluttering incessantly.

The streets were plunged into a state of slumber, and the Honglu Bar at the street corner had already closed its doors, indicating a slow business day. Usually, at this time, the customers hadn’t yet reached the point of drunkenness.

Jiang Ji had been at the Honglu Bar for almost half a year. After leaving Runcheng and coming to Yancheng about a year and a half ago, he had worked various odd jobs, such as a hotel waiter, a tutor, event setup, and even as a runway model, until he found stability as a resident singer here.

The bar’s proprietress, Huang Ying, was kind to him, not only renting out two rooms on the second floor at a low price for his temporary residence but also introducing him to various odd jobs like modeling and commercial performances. The heavy motorcycle was left behind by Huang Ying’s ex-boyfriend and was handed over to Jiang Ji since it was unused.

Jiang Ji did more than just sing in this bar; he did everything. When there were no customers, he helped watch the store, and when it was crowded, he helped mix drinks. Before closing time at night, he would even clean up and take out the trash.

After locking the motorcycle to the corner of the wall, Jiang Ji straightened up and walked towards the Honglu Bar with his guitar on his back.

The keys collided with each other on his fingertips with a tinkling sound. Just as he stepped onto the stairs, a dark figure suddenly rose beside the dimly lit bar door.

Jiang Ji’s footsteps paused, and the keys in his hand stopped swinging, gripped firmly in his palm. Every muscle in his body tensed in an instant, transitioning from relaxation to alertness. He squinted slightly to scrutinize the figure: of medium height, an adult man. Beyond him, a smaller figure swayed – a girl with a mushroom haircut, being held by the back of her collar by the man, her eyes almost half of her face obscured, staring at Jiang Ji.

“Hey,” the man looked at him and spoke with a rough, heavy voice, “is this your sister?”

“What’s going on?” Jiang Ji asked.

“Your sister stole something from my shop, and I’ve been waiting here for you for hours,” the man’s tone was clearly impatient as he complained, “How come you’re only back so late at night?”

“What did she steal?” Jiang Ji relaxed slightly and ascended the stairs, pressing a button on the key in his hand.

Above the stairs, the anti-theft shutter began to slowly rise.

The man handed him the plastic bag. Jiang Ji took it and roughly rummaged through it, finding chocolates, candies, and some inexplicable small trinkets inside.

“Stealing at such a young age, what’s wrong with you people? Can’t your family manage her properly? Are you her brother? Where are your parents? I was planning to call the police, thinking it’s better not to escalate things, just let the family handle the child properly…” The man ranted, while the girl with the mushroom haircut remained silent, staring fixedly at Jiang Ji.

Before the man could finish his words, Jiang Ji interrupted him, “How much money do you want?”

“Huh?” The man was taken aback.

“You’ve been waiting here until late at night just to ask for more money from our family, right? Spare me the nonsense, how much?” Jiang Ji pressed.

“Well…” The man hesitated for two seconds, “Give me three hundred.”

“Three hundred? Are you insane? Are these things worth thirty at most?” Jiang Ji frowned, tossing the bag of items onto the man’s chest, saying coldly, “You should call the police.”

“You can’t say that. Your sister has been to my shop several times before, wandering around and only buying things worth a few cents. Who knows what she stole…” Seeing Jiang Ji pushing the door to go inside, the man raised his hand to grab his arm, “Hey, don’t go!”

Jiang Ji turned his head, his gaze falling on the hand grabbing his arm, “Let go.”

His expression turned cold, and the man released his hand, “Then how much do you propose?”

“One hundred.”

“One hundred?! I saw your sister stealing from my shop last time, but she got away…” Seeing Jiang Ji about to push the door again, the man changed his tune midway, reluctantly saying, “Alright, alright, one hundred it is. Consider me unlucky to have met you two… How are you going to pay? Scan the code?”

Without saying another word, Jiang Ji withdrew his hand from the door, took out his phone, and scanned the QR code handed to him by the man.

As the man in front of him let go of the little girl and continued to chatter, Jiang Ji interrupted him by saying, “Shut up if you want money. Or should I beat you up and then we can go to the police together?”

He was tall, towering over the man by at least half a head. The clearly defined muscles on his arms didn’t seem like they were developed in a gym, and his eyes were fierce, clearly not someone to be trifled with.

The man fell silent, embarrassed.

Jiang Ji glared at him for a few seconds with a hostile expression before lowering his eyes to input the amount again.

A mechanical female voice rang out, “One hundred yuan received.”

Jiang Ji put away his phone, pushed open the door, and walked into the bar. The little girl silently bent down, picking up the items that had fallen on the ground one by one, putting them back into the plastic bag, and followed him inside.

The man seemed unwilling to give up and wanted to say something more, but hesitated about whether to speak or not. The shutter was already slowly descending, and a few seconds later, with a dull thud, it closed completely.

“What a nuisance…” The man spat on the ground as he watched the shutter fall to the ground, muttering under his breath, “Where did this brat come from?”

Inside the bar, Jiang Ji took off his guitar and leaned it against the wall.

Jiang Bei took out a lollipop from the plastic bag, tore off the wrapper, and put it in her mouth. She walked upstairs with a light step.

By the time Jiang Ji carried two portions of grilled cold noodles upstairs, Jiang Bei had already crumbled the lollipop in her mouth. She sat on the pool table, head down, playing with the little trinkets from the plastic bag.

Passing by Jiang Bei, Jiang Ji walked to the sofa against the wall and sat down. He opened one portion of the grilled cold noodles, took out disposable chopsticks, and started eating.

The cold noodles, which had cooled down, were chewy like rubber. The taste was acceptable, but the texture was not great. Jiang Ji struggled to finish one portion of the cold noodles, then grabbed a bottle of mineral water from the corner and took a few sips.

As he twisted the bottle cap back on, he saw Jiang Bei coming out of the bathroom, holding a whistle stolen from a store. The whistle looked like a bird, and Jiang Bei blew into it, producing a series of clear bird chirps.

She seemed to like the whistle quite a lot and blew it several times in a row.

Jiang Ji sat on the sofa and stretched his shoulders, his neck making cracking sounds. He looked at Jiang Bei and asked, “Where did you steal that from?”

“Over there.” Jiang Bei gestured vaguely to one side.

“Be specific. Which street? The name of the store?”

“Linyang Street, Changrong Store.” Jiang Bei blew the whistle again, ignoring Jiang Ji’s expression.

“Still playing games?” Jiang Ji chuckled coldly. “What did I say last time?”

Jiang Bei remained silent, continuing to blow the whistle, but the sound was noticeably less crisp than before.

Jiang Ji stood up, walked over, snatched the whistle from her hand, and threw it away.

The ceramic whistle turned into pieces as it hit the ground. Jiang Bei glanced at the broken whistle, then looked up at Jiang Ji with a resentful glare.

“What did I say last time?” Jiang Ji repeated, “Speak.”

“If it happens again, you’ll be kicked out of here.” Jiang Bei turned and walked towards her room. “Get out if you want, I’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“Don’t wait until tomorrow morning, leave now. I’ll take you back.” Jiang Ji grabbed her thin arm and headed towards the stairs.

Jiang Bei resisted Jiang Ji’s dragging, her body arched backward like a taut bow. She didn’t say a word, only stared fiercely at Jiang Ji with her black eyes.

Jiang Ji also remained silent, coldly staring at her, gradually increasing the strength in his hand, silently warning Jiang Bei that he wasn’t exerting real force yet.

After a stalemate for a while, when she couldn’t support herself to move forward, Jiang Bei finally turned her head away. With a soft “hmph,” she muttered, “I won’t steal anymore.”

“Louder.”

Jiang Bei remained silent again.

A few seconds later, Jiang Ji let go of Jiang Bei’s arm, squatted halfway down, and pointed at Jiang Bei’s nose with his finger. “Chen Jiang Bei, there’s a saying that goes ‘three strikes and you’re out.’ You know what number this is in your heart. I don’t blame you for what happened before, but from now on, if there’s another time like this, I’ll knock you out and send you back. Do you understand whether my words count or not?”

Seeing Jiang Bei’s eyes slightly reddening, he stared at her for a few more seconds before standing up and walking into the bathroom.

Jiang Bei stood still with her head down for a moment, then slowly walked to the sofa.

On the worn-out coffee table, there was still a portion of untouched grilled cold noodles. She squatted in front of the table and started eating slowly, one bite at a time.

After Jiang Ji finished showering, he glanced at the sofa. There was still half of the grilled cold noodles on the coffee table, and Jiang Bei had already returned to her room.

He walked over, cleaned up the trash on the table, straightened up, and went into his own room.

He half reclined, leaning against the headboard, and brought up the photo he took tonight on his phone.

The angle of the photo was good, the dim yellow light resembling a filter, giving it the feeling of an old movie poster without needing any processing.

What to do with this photo? Jiang Ji hadn’t figured it out yet. But there was no doubt that this photo was an unexpected gain tonight. Participating in a TV show recording, getting twenty thousand dollars, and also capturing a valuable photo, this trip was not in vain.

He needed to figure out who the person next to Qin Qingzhuo was… Jiang Ji thought about this as he raised his hand and turned off the room’s light.

Closing his eyes, a mysterious voice sounded in the depths of his mind: “Especially the lead singer, with a very textured voice, excellent control over the low tones, and the high notes in the chorus part were quite stunning…?”

Jiang Ji’s body relaxed, his breathing gradually slowing down, sinking into a deep sleep.

The first episode officially went online a week later, and on the day of the broadcast, all the key staff of the program group gathered in the studio building to monitor the audience’s reactions and backstage data in real-time.

Only Qin Qingzhuo was absent. After finishing his work, he went back to his studio, preparing for the recording of the second episode in advance. This was just one of the reasons why Qin Qingzhuo didn’t attend the live broadcast. The real reason was that he didn’t want to see himself on the screen. He felt somewhat absent-minded during the recording, finding it hard to imagine what state he was presenting to the audience.

Qin Qingzhuo went to bed early that night, didn’t set an alarm, and slept through all the sleep he had missed during this time.

The next day, after waking up, Qin Qingzhuo went to the program group. Although he missed watching the live broadcast last night, what was broadcasted was something he had put effort into, so Qin Qingzhuo was still very concerned about the program’s broadcast effect.

As soon as he stepped into the program group’s office, he sensitively felt that the atmosphere was somewhat subdued. There was only Xia Qi in the office, sitting on the corner sofa, listlessly scrolling through her phone.

Qin Qingzhuo walked over and sat on the other side of the sofa. “Are you the only one here?”

“Yeah, everyone else went home to catch up on sleep.” Xia Qi raised her eyelids to look at him, yawning.

“Aren’t you sleeping?” Qin Qingzhuo noticed the dark circles under Xia Qi’s eyes and guessed that she might have stayed here all night. “Why do you look so worried? Was the broadcast data for the first episode not good?”

Resting her head against the back of the sofa, Xia Qi’s voice was weak. “Not just not good, it was far worse than expected.”

“After all, it’s only been one episode, and most of the bands are new and don’t have much popularity.” Hearing this result, Qin Qingzhuo also felt uncomfortable, but he tried to cheer Xia Qi up.

“Yes, new bands without a fan base, it’s normal for the data to be bad in the first episode,” Xia Qi continued, taking over the conversation. “There have been many similar music programs on the market in the past two years, and the audience doesn’t feel fresh anymore. There are also other variety shows competing for ratings in the same time slot… I could find a hundred reasons, but it’s still hard to accept such results.” Xia Qi sighed heavily.

With Xia Qi having said everything, Qin Qingzhuo was momentarily speechless. It’s much harder to comfort someone who’s awake than someone who’s confused. He stood up, poured a cup of hot water for Xia Qi, and handed it to her.

Xia Qi took it. “Sorry, Qingzhuo, for spreading negative energy in front of you so early in the morning.”

Qin Qingzhuo shook his head and smiled. “If saying it can make you feel better, then go ahead.”

Xia Qi took a sip of hot water and stared into space for a moment before looking at Qin Qingzhuo. “Speaking of which, Qingzhuo, I really have to thank you for agreeing to be the mentor. Otherwise, the first episode would have been even more of a disaster.”

“Hmm?” Qin Qingzhuo was a little surprised.

Struggling to sit up from the sofa, Xia Qi moved the laptop from the side coffee table and opened it, turning the screen towards Qin Qingzhuo. Her fingers slid on the touchpad, DJing, and brought up the backstage monitoring page. “Take a look.”

The undulating curves on the screen represented the fluctuation of traffic, and it was obvious where there were peaks.

Xia Qi dragged the video to the position of the first peak, which was Qin Qingzhuo’s first appearance on the show.

Xia Qi dragged a few more spots backward in the video, and it was evident that every time Qin Qingzhuo commented, it would create a peak in the traffic curve.

Dragging the video backward, Xia Qi said, “Do you know what this represents? It means that a considerable portion of the audience clicked on our program to see you, and moreover, many of them only watched because of you.”

Qin Qingzhuo looked at the fluctuating curve, feeling somewhat speechless.

“And there’s this,” Xia Qi opened another page, “the marketing department promoted a set of hot search keywords on Weibo, and only the keywords related to you ranked high, while others can be said to be of no interest… Next to these are the keywords searched by the audience spontaneously, and they’re all related to you.”

Qin Qingzhuo looked at the list of keywords—”Qin Qingzhuo comeback,” “Qin Qingzhuo Restless Bands,” “Qin Qingzhuo mentor,” “Qin Qingzhuo singing,” “Qin Qingzhuo Shen Zha,” “Qin Qingzhuo music director”…

“The views of the video clips can further illustrate the point.” Xia Qi opened the video website, and the video with the highest relevance to the “Restless Bands” was the interaction between Qin Qingzhuo and Jiang Ji. The number of comments below had already exceeded ten thousand—

“The show was almost over when Qin Qingzhuo finally got into it. The label of being unprofessional wasn’t just casually pinned on.”

“I thought Qin Qingzhuo would be disconnected throughout, but suddenly, he perked up here.”

“Qin Qingzhuo didn’t disconnect… Didn’t you watch the behind-the-scenes footage from the production team? Qin Qingzhuo was involved in all the arrangements. Transitioning from a popular singer to a music producer is quite impressive.”

“I agree with Qin Qingzhuo’s taste. The other bands in this show are so noisy, only this band can make people listen quietly.”

“Hahaha, he suddenly became so talkative here, why would he be interested in what kind of cloud is Asperatus…”

“Is this still the old Qin Qingzhuo? Why does he seem to have changed his personality so much…”

“The lead singer completely ignores Qin Qingzhuo… But I have to say, he’s really handsome.”

“Did Qin Qingzhuo not sing? I want to hear Qin Qingzhuo sing.”

…

As Qin Qingzhuo scrolled through the comments, Xia Qi spoke up, “Qingzhuo, the audience’s perception of you isn’t as entirely negative as you imagined. Based on the audience’s reaction last night, many people still want to see you on the screen.”

Qin Qingzhuo continued to read the comments silently, taking in both the friendly and unfriendly ones.

Looking at Qin Qingzhuo, Xia Qi said, “Of course, there’s some personal interest for me in showing you this. Early this morning, Du Hefeng’s agent called me and said that he needs to undergo surgery on his back soon, and he probably won’t be able to participate in the program for several consecutive episodes. You know, frequent changes of mentors are detrimental to a show, especially since you’re now the main draw of the program. So, for the next few recordings… Brother, I still need to rely on you.”

Qin Qingzhuo looked at the comments, remaining silent.

When Xia Qi first approached him half a month ago to be the leading judge, Qin Qingzhuo instinctively asked, “Me? Are you sure?” In his opinion, someone with a poor reputation like him might or might not bring negative effects to the show.

But now, the data and comments that Xia Qi showed him undoubtedly gave Qin Qingzhuo a sense of relief.

No one dislikes being affirmed, and Qin Qingzhuo was no exception.

After a moment of silence, Qin Qingzhuo spoke again, “Do you need me to cooperate for several episodes?”

“Are you considering agreeing?” Xia Qi’s face showed her first smile of the day. “The timing is not yet certain for now, we need to see how Du Hefeng’s surgery goes.”

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t make an immediate decision, hesitating as he did when he agreed to be a mentor last time.

As the curve surged repeatedly because of him, Qin Qingzhuo wondered if it was because the audience liked him or just wanted to see him make a fool of himself.

If he were to return to the stage as a mentor again, could he overcome the discomfort he felt in the first episode? As the audience for the show might grow, any slight misstep from him might be amplified by the audience for judgment.

Looking at himself interacting with Jiang Ji on the screen, Qin Qingzhuo realized that although he had been behind the scenes for the past few years, the desire for the stage and the recognition of the audience seemed never to have disappeared…

After pondering for a while, Qin Qingzhuo spoke again, “I can continue to be a mentor, but Xia Qi, I also have a condition.”

“Tell me.”

“If this job makes me uncomfortable, I can terminate our contract at any time.”

“Well…” Xia Qi was a bit embarrassed, “I can’t decide on that, but I can help you negotiate.”

“Mmh, if it can be negotiated, draft a contract for me to review first.”

“No problem.” Finally, a big issue was somewhat resolved, and Xia Qi, who had just been a little downcast, regained some color in her cheeks.

“As for the role of music director…”

“You don’t need to worry about that. You’ve seen the program proposal before, and the music director’s workload is heaviest in the first episode. As we go on, the production team won’t interfere too much with the band’s song selection, and the corresponding workload will be much less. We plan to bring in Teacher Tao from the adjacent team to assist you.”

“That’s good.” Qin Qingzhuo nodded.

“Oh, Qingzhuo, there’s one more thing I need to ask for your consent.” Xia Qi said, “It’s an outdoor shooting job.”

“I haven’t fully decided to be a mentor yet, and you’ve already planned all the work for me?” Qin Qingzhuo glanced at her, with a smirk in his eyes, “Taking an inch, huh, Producer Xia?”

“Absolutely not,” Xia Qi raised her hand innocently, “It was agreed with the other mentors in advance, I just forgot to tell you earlier because it was all rushed. Here’s the thing, starting from the next episode, a short clip will be played when a band is eliminated because we’re not sure when a band will be eliminated, so we need to record short clips for all bands before the next episode. The mentor’s job is actually quite simple, just stroll around the band’s rehearsal space, interact with the band for a few moments, and film a few shots. You’re familiar with the bands you’ve chosen, so there shouldn’t be any problem, right?”

Qin Qingzhuo sighed, somewhat resignedly, “Apart from the words ‘no problem,’ what else can I say?”

“I promise to negotiate a good appearance fee for you.” Seeing that Qin Qingzhuo wasn’t really angry, Xia Qi said with a smile, then picked up the schedule book beside her, “Let me see… I have to go back and arrange it specifically, but what’s certain now is that there should be a recording next Thursday, because the lead singer of Asperatus will have his nineteenth birthday on August 19th… Do you remember him?”

“Jiang Ji?” Qin Qingzhuo thought of the young man who had ridden him home on a motorcycle that night.

“Yes,” Xia Qi looked up and smiled, “Hey, did you notice? The segment with you and Jiang Ji in the first episode had the highest DJ volume. Just a few seconds of interaction, and some people have already started shipping you two…”

“What’s there to ship? We hardly said anything to each other.” Qin Qingzhuo found it unbelievable, paused, and then said, “Xia Qi, I can’t control what’s said on the internet, but when you’re guiding public opinion, don’t lead it in that direction. You know about my relationship with Ji Chi.”

“Alright,” Xia Qi elongated her tone, “I’ll follow your lead.”

“Yeah,” Qin Qingzhuo smiled, “Let me know once the schedule is confirmed.”

After parting ways with Xia Qi, Qin Qingzhuo walked back, thinking that maybe he could give Jiang Ji a birthday gift?

After all, if it weren’t for Jiang Ji offering to take him home that night, he would have missed the chance to say goodbye to Ji Chi.

Author’s Note:

#Jiang Ji Bargaining Expert#

And the bar isn’t called “Shao ” anymore. “Shao” is too much of a loss. Sister Ying also opened another bar, and this one is quite profitable.