Chapter 2: Lemon

With the guitar on her back and the speaker in hand, Luo Quan stepped out the door with a light, brisk pace.

This was her first time going out on the street in denim shorts. Originally, she had intended to change into long pants, but after glancing at the scorching sunlight on the street outside the window, she dismissed the idea.

July in Tokyo was truly too hot, almost on par with her hometown of Yuzhou. Even though it was already 4:00 PM, it was still hot enough to make one feel flustered.

The landlord's house was directly opposite the apartment where Luo Quan lived. The landlord could see the front door of every resident in the apartment through the window and could hear any movement. He had once used this to discover three cunning tenants who couldn't pay rent and tried to sneak away in the middle of the night.

However, this house had no shelter around it, leaving it exposed to the scorching sun in summer and howling cold winds in winter—truly warm in summer and cold in winter. Although the conditions were so harsh, the landlord was content, perhaps this was the world of a miser.

"Where are you going?" Lying on a lounge chair and watching a comedy variety show, the landlord caught a glimpse of Luo Quan passing by the window and asked lazily.

"Going to Shinjuku to make money!" Luo Quan said without looking back.

The landlord lay back down, muttering to himself, "Shinjuku..."

Wait! Wasn't Kabukicho right in Shinjuku!

"I was just venting! This girl wouldn't really plan to run to that kind of place, would she?" The landlord, wearing wooden clogs, hurriedly ran to the street to call out to Luo Quan, but Luo Quan had already disappeared...

Tokyo's Adachi Ward was far from the city center, and it took about forty minutes to get to Shinjuku Ward by train.

The congestion of Tokyo's subways was world-famous. Although it was still some time before the evening rush hour, the density inside the subway could already be described as overcrowded.

To avoid being squeezed into a sandwich by a bunch of grown men, Luo Quan chose the women-only carriage at the end of the subway, but she didn't expect that she would still suffer after getting on.

The space in the subway was still crowded, and the constantly running air conditioning couldn't dispel the scorching heat brought by the midsummer. Sticky sweat was rapidly secreting from everyone's body.

In such an environment, the cosmetics on women's faces quickly intertwined and fused with sweat, eventually emitting an indescribable, strange odor—simply put, they were marinated.

Various pungent odors assaulted Luo Quan's nasal cavity and eyes. When she got on the train, she had seen a girl with decent looks, her small face as fair and clean as a doll's.

But now, this girl's appearance seemed so detestable in Luo Quan's eyes. She could even see milky-white liquid dripping from the girl's chin; that must have been a mixture of sweat and foundation!

Enduring the discomfort in her heart, Luo Quan closed her eyes, praying only that this journey would pass quickly.

Luo Quan didn't know how she got off the subway; she only knew that her entire back was soaked after getting off. After walking out of the platform, Luo Quan hurriedly opened her mouth to take a few deep breaths of fresh air, and the discomfort stuck in her chest finally dissipated.

Glancing at her phone, she found it was almost 5:00 PM, and her stomach happened to growl.

After buying some bread and drinks at a convenience store to deal with the meal, Luo Quan set up her street performer three-piece set on the side of the road.

Luo Quan was no stranger to the guitar. Back then, she had relied on her decent hand skills to disguise herself as a melancholic, artistic youth on the street, chatting up girls with great success.

But after getting to know her better, the girls discovered that this person was so poor he only had a guitar, and the melancholic artistic youth instantly turned into a poor loser, so much so that she didn't manage to date a single girl, instead gaining a reputation for deceiving people's feelings.

Later, Luo Quan finally understood that the Matchmaker had long since stopped caring about marriage and love. If you want to find a wife, you have to worship the God of Wealth!

Suppressing the thoughts in her heart, Luo Quan placed her hands on the guitar and began to play. Her seemingly slender fingers moved nimbly and rhythmically across the strings, playing a series of pleasant melodies.

As Luo Quan gradually entered the zone, her guitar playing became even more handy. Her already decent foundation, combined with the Guitar Mastery bestowed by the system, made her level comparable to those guitar veterans who had been playing for many years.

Unfortunately, the passing pedestrians were all in a hurry, their expressions indifferent. Not a single person was attracted by the girl's wonderful guitar performance on the side of the road. For a full ten minutes, it was just Luo Quan entertaining herself.

She had long heard that Japanese people were not just ordinarily indifferent, and now she had finally witnessed it. If this were in China, with such a beautiful girl performing on the street, pedestrians would probably have surrounded her and taken pictures with their phones long ago.

"I don't believe it!" Luo Quan was never someone who liked to give up easily. This little setback couldn't stump her. After taking a deep breath, she started playing again...

"Hello everyone, this is the third installment of Daisuke taking you around Tokyo! Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Akihabara; that maid milk tea must have made you drool, right? Today I've come to Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward. This is the place with the highest foot traffic in all of Tokyo. A friendly reminder: our ultimate destination today is that mysterious Kabukicho."

Shimizu Daisuke held a selfie stick and gave a meaningful smile to the phone lens.

He was a popular blogger on YouTube with two million followers, mainly filming videos about Japanese food, culture, and oddities. Because his video style was humorous and full of fun, he was loved by domestic and foreign audiences, and he himself was one of the most influential lifestyle bloggers in Japan on YouTube.

Today was his third day live-streaming his tour of Tokyo on YouTube, and as soon as he started, he attracted nearly 5,000 viewers.

This number certainly didn't count for much compared to those streamers in China who often had "millions" of viewers, but on YouTube, these 5,000 were genuine living people, not the same concept as those fake accounts operated in the background.

Shimizu Daisuke moved his gaze away from his phone, preparing to take everyone to find the secrets hidden in the streets and alleys of Shinjuku, when the pleasant music suddenly coming to his ears attracted his attention.

Following the sound of the music, he saw a foreign girl focused on playing the guitar on the street, and her level seemed quite good.

Street performers could be seen on the streets of Shinjuku every day, but such a foreign face was not common. Curiosity about this girl drove him to walk over.

Luo Quan, having finished playing another song, shook her slightly sore fingers and looked up, just in time to see Shimizu Daisuke walking towards her with a selfie stick, and her spirits lifted instantly.

What good luck, to meet a streamer so quickly!

"Hello, am I interrupting your performance?" Shimizu Daisuke greeted Luo Quan in English.

After the phone lens was aimed at Luo Quan, the audience's eyes lit up. The beauty of this young lady holding a guitar was so high!

"No interruption, I just finished playing," Luo Quan waved her hand and answered in fluent Japanese.

Shimizu Daisuke showed a surprised expression: "Your Japanese is quite good, just like a local. You must have lived here for a long time."

"I've lived in Japan for six years," Luo Quan said, then pointed to the phone Shimizu Daisuke was holding, asking a question she already knew the answer to: "Are you live-streaming?"

Shimizu Daisuke nodded: "I'm live-streaming on YouTube, and more than 5,000 people are watching. Would you like to say hello to everyone?"

This was exactly what she was waiting for! Luo Quan was secretly happy, but on the surface, she still smiled calmly, waved at the lens, and said, "Hello everyone."

A large wave of comments quickly floated across the phone screen, half in Japanese and half in English. Some were praising her beauty, and some were asking for her Instagram or Twitter account to add her as a friend.

Seeing that the live-stream effect was quite good, Shimizu Daisuke smiled and said, "It seems everyone likes you very much. Would you like to perform a song for everyone?"

"Of course, then I'll sing a song I wrote myself for everyone."

Luo Quan said, placing her hands on the guitar and plucking it, her red lips parting slightly:

If all of this were

A dream, how good it would be

Even now, you could still appear

In my dreams

Just like retrieving

A forgotten object

Carefully brushing away the dust covering the memories

In this world, there exists an irredeemable happiness

In the end, it was you who let me

Know these things

The soft and slightly sad singing voice was like a clear spring gushing into everyone's heart. These lyrics, which struck the soul, evoked the memories buried deep in the bottom of every listener's heart.

No matter how strong or independent one appeared on the surface, everyone had a soft corner in their heart longing for love.

This world might not have right or wrong, only interests. Everyone was moving forward in the cold darkness, but what we ultimately longed for was to grope for light in the darkness and feel warmth in the cold world.

Being human is sometimes just that contradictory.

This song told a story about love and parting, death and hope, which was also a reality that everyone could not escape. Whether it was the audience watching the live stream or the pedestrians passing by Luo Quan, they were attracted by this song in an instant, and their hearts trembled along with it.

Soon, the chorus arrived, and Luo Quan's singing voice changed from low to high-pitched:

Even that day's sadness

And that day's pain

And you, who loved all of this

Deeply

Turned into the lingering, unforgettable

Bitter scent of lemon in my heart

I cannot return until the heavy rain stops

Even today, you are still my light

As the song ended, Luo Quan presented "Lemon" flawlessly. Unknowingly, dozens of pedestrians had already surrounded her.

"Clap, clap, clap!"

Enthusiastic applause suddenly erupted, and everyone spared no effort to express their appreciation for this song that touched the depths of their hearts.

"It's truly too good to listen to. This is the best song I've heard so far this year!" Shimizu Daisuke was full of joy and said, "Can you tell me the name of this song? I want to download it as my phone ringtone."

Luo Quan replied, "This song is called 'Lemon,' but I just wrote it, so it hasn't been posted online yet."

Shimizu Daisuke suddenly said in a serious tone, "Then you must go and do it as soon as possible. I will upload the edited version of this live stream later. You'd better film a video and upload it to YouTube tonight. If someone else beats you to it, it will be very troublesome."

The Japanese awareness of copyright and intellectual property rights was not ordinarily strict, especially in music. Japan had laws stating that if one downloaded unauthorized songs online, they could face up to two years of imprisonment or a fine of up to 2 million yen!

This powerful protection of copyright was also a major reason why the Japanese record industry had flourished to this day. Compared to the situation in China where pirated and knock-off goods were everywhere, Japan was indeed doing much better in this regard.

If it weren't for Shimizu Daisuke's reminder, Luo Quan herself wouldn't have thought of this.

At the time of parting, Shimizu Daisuke wanted to exchange LINE IDs with Luo Quan to become friends. LINE was the most mainstream social software in Japan, equivalent to WeChat in China. Unfortunately, Luo Quan's personality used to be quite reclusive, and she only had one or two friends in Japan, usually contacting them directly by phone, so she had never applied for a LINE account. Shimizu Daisuke had to settle for the next best thing and subscribe to each other on YouTube.

Interestingly, he was actually the only subscriber in Luo Quan's subscription list. In an era where the internet was so developed, such an "old-fashioned" girl was truly rare.

After waving goodbye to Shimizu Daisuke, Luo Quan began to pack her things, preparing to go home.

The audience who had entered Shimizu Daisuke's live stream room to watch the broadcast reached as many as 10,000 people. After Luo Quan finished singing the song, her Heat Value soared by more than 2,000, exceeding the task requirements. The mall was also unlocked, and she was now urgently wanting to go home to see what products were in the mall. ===== CHAPTER 3 =====