Chapter 59

To his surprise, as the wait extended into the early hours of the morning, there was no sign of the rain outside letting up at all.

When he had arrived, the program team had driven him in Qin Qingzhuo’s car. Now, at this late hour, it would be troublesome for the staff to send him back and then return here. It seemed they would be struggling all night. Qin Qingzhuo didn’t want to inconvenience them, but he also didn’t intend to stay here and put up with it. So, he sent the three members of the band back to their rooms to sleep. He planned to wait a while until the rain eased up a bit, then drive himself to a nearby hotel to make do for the night.

Standing under the eaves watching the rain, Qin Qingzhuo started chatting with Chen Jia, who was still busy at this late hour. “Have you gathered enough footage?” he asked.

“We have enough, but it’s not outstanding enough…” Chen Jia sighed, then took the opportunity to coax him again, “Brother Qingzhuo, why don’t you just stay with Jiang Ji for the night?”

“What kind of program is this?” Qin Qingzhuo found her persistence amusing. “Can you shoot something that’s actually suitable for airing?”

Chen Jia immediately seized on the crucial point, “So, there’s something between you and Jiang Ji that can’t be aired?”

“You’re crazy,” Qin Qingzhuo chuckled. “Get some rest.”

Walking back to the living room, Qin Qingzhuo sat on the sofa, watching the dense rain outside. It seemed like the rain had lessened slightly compared to before, but he wasn’t sure if it was just his imagination.

The last time he encountered such heavy rain was perhaps four years ago, on the day of his concert. The weather that day was indeed peculiar. Although it had been sunny all day long, a sudden downpour occurred just as the ticket checks started in the evening. Despite many people carrying umbrellas, the rain was too heavy, and almost everyone was soaked by the time they entered.

It was precisely because of this that the audience inside the venue became quite discontented when leaving midway through the concert… To be honest, if he had been sitting among the audience that night and experienced such an event, he probably would have shed his fandom then and there.

Qin Qingzhuo stood up and turned off the lights in the living room. In the darkness, as he sat back down on the sofa, he felt a bit more comfortable. Otherwise, with cameras all over the place, the thought of every subtle expression of his being recorded and then magnified and interpreted by different people made him somewhat uncomfortable.

He leaned back against the sofa, closed his eyes, and listened to the patter of rain outside.

Actually, Qin Qingzhuo had long been accustomed to various types of cameras: telephoto, wide-angle, in dim light, in bright light. But perhaps it had been too long since those days as a former singer. Occasionally reminiscing about that period, it felt like recalling a rich dream filled with various details.

Footsteps sounded from behind, but Qin Qingzhuo didn’t turn to look until the person approached closer.

Although the lights were off inside the house, the lights in the courtyard were still on, allowing Qin Qingzhuo to catch a glimpse of the person’s silhouette—It was Jiang Ji.

Jiang Ji must have just taken a shower, as his hair still seemed damp, and he was holding his guitar.

He probably thought Qin Qingzhuo was asleep, so his steps were quite light as he walked over and sat on the other side of the sofa. Qin Qingzhuo caught a whiff of the refreshing scent of shower gel emanating from him.

Qin Qingzhuo closed his eyes and listened to the rain, sensing Jiang Ji’s gaze on him.

That gaze lingered on his face for a long time, something Qin Qingzhuo couldn’t ignore. He finally opened his eyes. “Why aren’t you going back to your room to sleep?”

“Looking for some inspiration,” Jiang Ji said.

“What kind of inspiration are you looking for here…” Qin Qingzhuo began, a guess surfacing in his mind, but he pushed it back down.

“Are you still leaving tonight?” Jiang Ji asked softly.

“I’ll leave once the rain stops,” Qin Qingzhuo reiterated.

Jiang Ji looked out the window, then after a while, he said, “What if the rain doesn’t stop?”

Qin Qingzhuo didn’t respond, but he caught sight of Jiang Ji picking up his phone and tapping on the screen.

After a moment, his phone vibrated with a message.

He glanced at it and saw that it was from Jiang Ji, who was sitting on the other side of the sofa—”Then maybe you shouldn’t leave either.”

Something stirred softly in Qin Qingzhuo’s heart, and it took him a few seconds to respond, “Jiang Ji…”

His voice was low, almost like a sigh.

With the camera on them, it wasn’t appropriate to say anything more.

So the latter half of the sentence didn’t come out. He actually wanted to say, “Can’t you really write this love song?”

A simple sentence could easily move someone’s heart.

Qin Qingzhuo thought he really should leave, whether the rain stopped or not, he should leave.

Once someone’s heart is moved, it’s hard to control their emotions, and the next step would be to soften. It’s still not too late to call it off now.

So he put away his phone and looked towards the direction of the courtyard. “Looks like the rain has eased up. I should leave now.”

But he couldn’t resist softening his heart after all. As he got up from the sofa, he turned to Jiang Ji. “Do you want to walk me out?”

Jiang Ji, sitting on the other side of the sofa, also happened to speak—”I’ll walk you out.”

So their sentences collided.

Qin Qingzhuo smiled. “Let’s go then.”

At the door, he picked up a long-handled umbrella, Jiang Ji reached out and took it, opening the umbrella to cover both of their heads.

The rain had indeed lessened by now, no longer pouring down aggressively but rather pattering gently on the umbrella.

The cameraman followed a few steps behind, and the staff held umbrellas on the side. Qin Qingzhuo turned back to Chen Jia and said, “Haven’t you got enough footage? Stop filming in the rain.”

“We can never have too much.” Chen Jia followed behind with an umbrella. “You two go ahead, just ignore us.”

She said “ignore” quite casually, but Qin Qingzhuo knew what they wanted to film. How could he ignore it easily?

Besides, walking under the umbrella with Jiang Ji, even without speaking, the atmosphere felt ambiguous. He couldn’t just pretend everything was normal.

He noticed Jiang Ji still had his guitar strapped behind him and casually started a conversation with him, “You really never part with this guitar, do you?”

Jiang Ji continued walking ahead. “Guess why I’m carrying this guitar?”

“Hmm?”

“After seeing you off, I’m going to escape and write a song.” Jiang Ji said. His tone was casual, as if he was confident that Qin Qingzhuo wouldn’t report him to the production team, but rather condone his actions.

Qin Qingzhuo was somewhat surprised. “Escape to where?”

“I don’t know, anywhere without cameras.”

“So you went out with your guitar yesterday, hoping to find a place without cameras?”

“Yeah.”

“But you couldn’t find one, so you came back?”

“Was planning to run, but seeing them lugging around cameras and panting wasn’t easy.” Jiang Ji frowned.

Qin Qingzhuo chuckled. Maybe even Jiang Ji himself didn’t realize he was quite easy to soften…

Qin Qingzhuo’s car was parked at the gate of the courtyard, just a short distance away.

Jiang Ji held the umbrella and walked Qin Qingzhuo to the car. Qin Qingzhuo opened the car door.

Just before getting into the car, as he was about to ask Jiang Ji to go back, he glanced up and noticed that Jiang Ji’s other arm, the one not holding the umbrella, was already wet from the rain. From shoulder to jacket sleeve, it was almost completely soaked, while he himself hadn’t been rained on at all during the walk.

Unable to explain the feeling in that moment, Qin Qingzhuo made a rather absurd decision in the blink of an eye.

He reached out and grabbed Jiang Ji’s arm, leaning close to whisper in his ear, “Get in the car.”

Jiang Ji turned his head to glance at him, not asking anything, and quickly walked around the front of the car to open the passenger door.

By the time Chen Jia walked over and asked Qin Qingzhuo if he needed someone to drive him, Jiang Ji had already put away the umbrella, grabbed his guitar, sat in the car, and closed the door.

Everything happened unexpectedly, even Qin Qingzhuo, the “instigator,” didn’t expect himself to act like this.

Perhaps if he had thought for one more second, he would have felt that this decision was too irrational, but he didn’t give himself a chance to regret.

He started the car, stepped on the gas pedal, smoothly reversed and spun the wheels, splashing water on the ground, then sped away amidst the roar of the engine.

The incident happened suddenly, and by the time Chen Jia and the cameramen came to their senses, Qin Qingzhuo had already driven far away with Jiang Ji, leaving only the lingering exhaust fumes in the air.

After realizing what had happened, Chen Jia was at a loss, almost unsure of how to react. “What on earth…?”

She took out her phone to call Qin Qingzhuo, but he didn’t answer, probably busy driving.

She then opened Qin Qingzhuo’s WeChat profile and sent a voice message, “Brother Qingzhuo, it’s fine if you leave, but you can’t take Jiang Ji with you. The show is still being filmed…”

After sending the message, Chen Jia held her phone and lightly tapped her chin, muttering to herself, “Tsk, the show’s impact is off the charts…”

She turned to the cameraman. “Did you capture that moment just now?”

The cameraman nodded. “Yes, we did.”

“Good, keep it. We’ll edit it into the main footage later,” Chen Jia waved her hand, signaling the cameraman to go back. “Let’s call it a day. Get some rest early tonight, and we’ll talk about it tomorrow.”

As she stepped into the house, her phone vibrated. Chen Jia took it out and glanced at it. Qin Qingzhuo had replied with a message—

“Don’t worry, I’ll only take him for one night. I’ll bring him back with the song tomorrow morning.”