Chapter 139: One Song, One Story

In the emergency room, Liu Qin arrived first, followed by Principal Song.

Lu Yanhe sat outside the emergency room, still shaken, greeted them, his face pale.

Liu Qin patted his shoulder.

At this moment, she didn't know what to say.

She looked at Chen Ziyan sitting beside Lu Yanhe, somewhat puzzled about her identity.

Chen Ziyan gave her a slight smile, stood up, and said, "I'm from Star Entertainment Agency. Since you're here, I'll be leaving now."

Lu Yanhe turned to look at her.

After the incident, everything was chaotic; it took a while for the ambulance and police to arrive. Lu Yanhe followed onto the ambulance but was at a loss, having no experience handling such situations. Fortunately, Chen Ziyan had come along with him, answering questions, handling the relevant procedures, and prompting Lu Yanhe to contact the school.

"Thank you," he said to her.

Chen Ziyan replied, "I know your mind must be in turmoil right now. We can find another time later to talk properly about our matters."

"Okay." Lu Yanhe nodded.

Chen Ziyan turned and left.

Principal Song rushed over.

"How is Xiao Su?" he asked, his face full of anxiety.

"Still in emergency treatment," Liu Qin said.

Principal Song cursed in fury, "That woman wasn't content with driving Xiao Su away from Jiang Guang; even after Xiao Su fled to Yuming, she still chased her here. A madwoman! Truly a madwoman!"

Liu Qin placed her hand on Lu Yanhe's shoulder, patting it gently, and said, "Yan He, we'll handle things here. You go back to school first; you have classes this afternoon. Don't worry, nothing bad will happen."

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"Then I'll leave first."

Principal Song glanced at him, seemingly realizing there was still a student present, and reined in his emotions slightly, stopping his cursing.

Lu Yanhe left the hospital.

The scene that had just unfolded remained vividly imprinted in his mind even now.

He couldn't understand how Yuan Yi could speak so calmly to Su Su after committing such a terrifying act.

When a person is in a daze, they walk without paying attention to the world around them, as if detached from it, unable to even hear sounds.

It wasn't until someone patted his shoulder that Lu Yanhe snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream.

"What are you zoning out about? I called you at least five times, and you ignored me."

The person appearing before Lu Yanhe was none other than Lin Miaomiao, who had run to his dressing room to interview him during the recording of "Little Song Gathering."

"You... what are you doing here?" Lu Yanhe asked, looking at her in surprise.

Lin Miaomiao said, "I was about to ask you the same thing. Why are you coming out of the hospital?"

Lu Yanhe replied, "I... I just brought someone to the hospital."

"That explains it. It's not school hours yet, and you're not at school but here." Lin Miaomiao showed a look of sudden realization. "Earlier, I heard 'Little Song Gathering' was preparing to invite you onto the show again. Why didn't you go?"

"My Agent wouldn't allow it."

Lin Miaomiao frowned. "Why? Did they think your performance the first time wasn't good enough? It was clearly quite good."

"It's not that reason. It's just some personal grudge; he doesn't want me getting more exposure on shows." Lu Yanhe explained briefly, then said, "I still need to return to school, so I'll be going now."

"Wait a moment." Lin Miaomiao immediately called out to him. "Let me give you a ride. My driver is waiting for me over there. You're heading to No. 13 Middle School, right? It's exactly on the way."

Lu Yanhe looked at her in surprise. "Is that so? Then thank you."

Lin Miaomiao laughed. "It's no trouble at all; what's there to thank me for?"

After getting into the car, Lin Miaomiao told the driver, "Take him to No. 13 Middle School first."

After exchanging a few words with Lin Miaomiao, Lu Yanhe's scattered thoughts began to settle.

He took a deep breath and asked Lin Miaomiao, "What did you come to the hospital for?"

"Me? I came to pick up some medicine; I've been feeling a bit unwell these past few days," Lin Miaomiao said. "But really, what kind of personal grudge could you possibly have with your Agent that they won't even let you appear on shows? They must really dislike you. Did you offend them?"

"Who knows."

"If you really did offend them, just apologize sincerely. You're an artist; if your Agent dislikes you, how can you possibly survive in this industry?"

"We'll see. Anyway, I don't have the energy to deal with these things right now. Just attending classes and reviewing for exams every day is exhausting me to the point of collapse."

"Oh, right, you're still in Gao San."

"You... you don't look any older than me, so how are you already working? How old are you?" Lu Yanhe asked.

Lin Miaomiao's eyes darted around, and she said, "Anyway, I'm older than you."

"You don't look like it," Lu Yanhe said. "You're not a host, yet last time you were able to impersonate a host at Aurora. Is your family part of Aurora's senior management?"

"Stop bringing up that incident where I impersonated a host!" Lin Miaomiao said, somewhat angry, puckering her lips. "I only did it for fun; how did it become 'impersonating'? It makes it sound like I had ulterior motives."

"Alright, alright."

"Are you not planning to work at all for the next half year?" Lin Miaomiao asked. "If you want to appear on a show, I can ask a relative to help and introduce you."

"Thank you for your kind offer, but it's not necessary right now. If I need that later, I'll ask for your help."

"How would you contact me? You don't even have my contact information." Lin Miaomiao took out her phone, opened her WeChat QR code, and held it out in front of Lu Yanhe. "Add me."

Lu Yanhe was just being polite, never expecting her to actually hand over the QR code.

He took out his phone and scanned it.

Lin Miaomiao's profile picture was a little rabbit lying in bed looking at the moon outside the window.

Quite cute.

"You're only 17?" As soon as Lu Yanhe added her as a friend, he immediately saw her personal profile.

Lin Miaomiao was greatly alarmed, then realized her personal profile had given her away.

"On-only... Oh, fine, I'm just one year younger than you, so what?" Lin Miaomiao snorted lightly. "Does being older than me make you so great?"

Lu Yanhe: "I didn't say that; I was just curious how old you are."

"Even if I'm a year younger than you, it's not by much," Lin Miaomiao said.

"Oh."

"You—" Lin Miaomiao suddenly wanted to say something else, but the words died on her lips. "Forget it; let's talk after your college entrance exam. Do your best; don't end up failing to get into Zhenhua or Yuming and become a laughingstock."

Lu Yanhe was utterly stunned.

"You're the first person to think I'd be mocked if I failed to get into Zhenhua or Yuming. Others question why I believe I can get in; how could anyone mock me?"

"Then get in and show them," Lin Miaomiao said.

At that moment, the car pulled over and stopped.

The driver said, "Young Lady, we've arrived at No. 13 Middle School."

Lin Miaomiao uttered an "Oh," then said, "We're here. Bye. Make sure you get in, okay?"

Lu Yanhe smiled. "Alright, I definitely will."

"This is our agreement; you can't go back on your word," Lin Miaomiao said.

"So if I don't get in, does that count as breaching the contract? Forget it; an agreement is an agreement. Besides, if I don't get in, I won't have to pay any penalty." Lu Yanhe opened the car door. "I'm off. Thanks."

"Bye." Lin Miaomiao watched him. "See you."

If the scene in the café had cast an unbelievable shadow over Lu Yanhe's life, then this chance encounter and conversation with Lin Miaomiao was like a gentle light smoothing over that shadow, like having a negative status effect in a game dispelled by a beautiful priestess sister using magic.

This was the third time meeting Lin Miaomiao, and finally, there was no longer that feeling of nearly being choked to death by this little girl due to a momentary lapse.

Seventeen years old.

One year younger than him.

Previously, she had disguised herself as a fresh college graduate to interview him.

Lu Yanhe walked into the school, turned around for a glance, and saw that car just starting up, preparing to leave.

Seeing Lu Yanhe look back, Lin Miaomiao, who was sitting in the car watching him, immediately turned her head to look around. "Did you leave something in the car?"

Lin Miaomiao searched everywhere but found nothing; by the time she looked up again, Lu Yanhe had already walked into the school.

"Hmph!" Lin Miaomiao realized she had simply overthought things.

By the time Lu Yanhe returned to his classroom, the first afternoon period had already begun.

According to the schedule, the second period upcoming was history class.

But Lu Yanhe knew that the second period would definitely not take place.

He didn't know what to do.

Lu Yanhe kept losing focus, the scene in the café floating in his mind.

After class ended, Lu Yanhe was still in a daze when Li Pengfei patted him and asked, "Old Lu, what did you do at noon? I didn't see you all lunch break."

Lu Yanhe came to his senses, turned around, looked at Li Pengfei, and said, "At noon, I went to meet someone from the company and ran into—"

"Holy crap! Teacher Su Su is undergoing emergency rescue at the hospital!" Zhou Ziyu suddenly shouted, filled with shock.

That single shout drew the attention of everyone in the entire class.

"What did you say?!" Mei Ping rose shocked from her seat, looking at Zhou Ziyu in disbelief.

The shock on the faces of the others was no less intense.

Holding his phone, Zhou Ziyu said, "News just came in; they say he was stabbed at noon!"

One stone stirred up a thousand waves.

Zhou Ziyu was surrounded tightly by everyone.

"What's going on?"

"Yeah, how did Teacher Su suddenly get stabbed?"

"Isn't that terrifying?"

"Teacher Su is such a good person; how could something like this happen to him?"

Sitting at his desk, Lu Yanhe exhaled a sigh of relief.

Just moments ago, he had been stammering, full of hesitation, unsure how to broach the subject with Li Pengfei, only for Zhou Ziyu to say it instead.

Li Pengfei did not go over.

Although his face also showed shock, he looked at Lu Yanhe and asked, "You said you ran into something at noon?"

Lu Yanhe said, "It's exactly what Zhou Ziyu just mentioned."

Li Pengfei looked at Lu Yanhe in surprise, lowered his voice, and asked in astonishment, "You witnessed Teacher Su getting stabbed?"

"Mm." Lu Yanhe nodded. "I just came back from the hospital."

"What's going on? How did Teacher Su suddenly get stabbed?" Li Pengfei said. "Did he run into a madman?"

Lu Yanhe's nerves twitched inexplicably.

This was already the third time today he had heard the word "madman."

He shook his head and said, "The person who stabbed Teacher Su was his ex-girlfriend; she had previously blocked Teacher Su at the school gate. I... I'm still a bit bewildered; it happened too suddenly."

Li Pengfei glanced at the crowd surrounding Zhou Ziyu and said, "How about we take a walk to the convenience store?"

Lu Yanhe also wanted to go out for some fresh air and nodded.

Once outside, it was much easier for the two of them to talk without worrying about being overheard by classmates nearby.

"You don't want everyone to know about this?"

"It doesn't feel like a good thing," Lu Yanhe said. "Teacher Su's ex-girlfriend has appeared several times already; I've bumped into her multiple times. Although Teacher Su hasn't explicitly told me, I get the impression he doesn't really want everyone to know about her."

"Why is everyone so crazy nowadays?" Li Pengfei showed an expression of disbelief. "The news is full of stories like this, hatred born from love: men throwing sulfuric acid on women, women cutting off men's genitals; it's incomprehensible."

Lu Yanhe displayed a bitter smile.

"But Teacher Su will definitely be fine; rest assured," Li Pengfei said with solemn conviction.

"Actually, it was very strange; I was at the scene and saw Teacher Su stabbed in the chest—I was completely stunned—yet his ex-girlfriend suddenly told me, 'Stop shouting; he won't die.' She had just done something so terrifying, yet she acted as if nothing were wrong."

"Incomprehensible," Li Pengfei said, shaking his head as well.

The two of them simultaneously looked up at the sky.

In December, the midwinter sky was as gloomy as a sick person's face, permeated with an inescapable darkness and bitterness.

Li Pengfei said, "It feels as though just when things finally calmed down for a while, trouble has struck again."

September was a month of many troubles for Class Three; October and November brought two months of relative calm, but now this incident has occurred.

The two arrived at the small shop, where each bought a bag of hot milk to drink.

After a long silence, Li Pengfei said, "However, with Teacher Su suddenly injured, will the history class have to change teachers again?"

"Probably," Lu Yanhe nodded.

Li Pengfei asked, "They wouldn't switch back to Yin Xiangyu, would they?"

Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "It's possible."

Li Pengfei silently shook his head.

"Then that would be terrible."

During the second-period history class, Yin Xiangyu did not appear; instead, Old Chen came.

Wearing his usual smile, he walked in and said, "You didn't expect me to walk in, did you? Something came up with your Teacher Su, so he asked me to take this class; we'll switch to English."

After speaking, however, he found he did not receive the reaction he had imagined.

These little brats would either cheer or sigh; in any case, they would absolutely never be this silent.

Old Chen's smile faded by two degrees; looking at everyone's faces, he fell silent for two seconds before asking tentatively, "You already know?"

"We know, Teacher Chen," Li Cui said in a dejected voice.

Old Chen said, "All right, then I won't keep it from you; but don't worry too much—the news I just received is that your Teacher Su has been rescued and is out of life-threatening danger."

He saw the students below suddenly lift their heads, looking at him with eyes shining brightly, joy rising on their faces.

"So, I know everyone is still worried about Teacher Su in their hearts, but Teacher Su certainly wouldn't want you to delay your learning progress because of your worry; I know this is difficult, but let's work together and not waste these forty minutes, all right?" Old Chen said with a smile. "Later tonight, I will represent everyone to visit him in the hospital; it wouldn't do to tell him that because he was injured, everyone has lost the heart to study."

Finally, the classmates in the class offered some response.

"Sigh—" a group of eighteen- or nineteen-year-old children sighed one after another.

Old Chen opened the book but did not begin lecturing on the textbook knowledge.

He paused and said, "There is a sentence in Hemingway's novel 'The Old Man and the Sea': 'It does not kill us will make us stronger difficulties.' The meaning of this sentence is that what does not kill us will make us stronger; it may not be entirely appropriate here, but this sentence just flashed through my mind. What I want to convey, everyone should understand. In life, we will encounter many accidents like today's; whether they happen to people around us or to ourselves, they occur suddenly, but once they happen, we must face them, and we must not be defeated. We must constantly strengthen ourselves, be strong, not be controlled by emotions, and know what we can do and what we should do. We are not doctors; we cannot help Teacher Su recover better, nor can we visit him now to offer comfort. All we can do is earnestly accomplish what we are capable of now: for me, that means teaching this class well; for you, it means not wasting these forty minutes."

During evening self-study, Liu Qin finally returned.

She immediately went to the classroom to inform everyone about Teacher Su's condition.

Teacher Su was out of danger and under observation in the hospital; at the same time, he had immediately entrusted her to tell everyone that he would not accept visits and asked them not to worry about him.

"History classes will temporarily be taught by other history teachers," Liu Qin said with a sigh in her heart.

Ever since Su Su arrived, Class Three's history scores had begun to rise, shooting upward like a rocket.

His greatest skill was making students spontaneously want to study history, generating interest in the subject.

Yet at this most critical moment, such an incident occurred.

Liu Qin felt somewhat distressed, both for Teacher Su and for these students.

Everyone had long guessed that history class would be taken over by another teacher, but hearing it confirmed still felt somewhat painful.

However, given that such an incident had occurred, this was the only way.

But fortunately, for young students, although facing a sudden accident is hard to accept, after it happens, they can quickly dispel those negative emotional effects.

Lu Yanhe had originally thought he would remain unsettled for several days, but after learning that Teacher Su was fine, when he woke up the next day, apart from still being unable to understand Yuan Yi's behavior—finding it baffling and inconceivable—he no longer felt the numbing shock of yesterday.

The only thing difficult to adapt to was the constantly changing substitute history teachers.

Yes, that's right; the school had not assigned them a fixed substitute teacher; instead, teachers from the history teaching and research group, following the progress of Su Su's previous lesson plans, each took responsibility for one class, rotating to teach them.

As a result, the quality of each class was uneven.

After two days of recovery, Lu Yanhe also began to seriously recall what Chen Ziyan had said to him that noon.

This matter was his second most important concern.

He definitely wanted the identity of an artist; in just a few short months, Lu Yanhe had already felt the many benefits this identity brought him. The greatest benefit was not the claim he had casually fabricated about "protecting himself from persecution by that black hand"; that was merely something said in the moment, the only thing he could say. For him, for the him of now, the greatest benefit of being an artist was earning money.

Students have no money; with his family background—no father, no mother, only an uncle who wanted to be a skinflint but failed—he had nothing.

If he did not become an artist, even if he got into university, the following four years would only allow him to support himself through work-study.

Therefore, since he was going to do this, he had to find a way to break the deadlock, so that Zhou Ping'an and the people behind him could no longer obstruct him.

Among the people Lu Yanhe currently knew, the only one who had both the means and the willingness to help him was Chen Ziyan.

Lu Yanhe carefully pondered his conversation with Chen Ziyan several times and slowly began to understand.

Chen Ziyan seemed to be asking him to give her a reason.

—You are entangled in so many troubles, and the future is destined to bring obstructions; if you will not give up on this path now, what about the future? Why should I take you on? Give me a reason.

At noon, Lu Yanhe searched for information on Chen Ziyan.

Sure enough, there was information about her online.

This legendary Agent, even though not a public figure, possessed enormous fame.

Two First-tier Stars, Chen Bige and Shang Yongzhou, were both brought up by her from their rookie stages, and she remains their partner to this day. Besides these two, Chen Ziyan also managed Mao Bingyu, an actress who was once extremely popular; the media said that if Mao Bingyu had not courageously retired at the height of her fame, she would have become Chen Ziyan's third First-tier Star.

After Chen Ziyan joined Star Entertainment, she developed Zhang Lan, who is now one of Star Entertainment's three leading ladies; the rise to fame and status of another leading lady, Jiang Yuqian, also had her behind-the-scenes promotion.

However, after Zhang Lan became famous, some unpleasantness apparently occurred between her and Chen Ziyan, and her agent was changed to the current Shi Zhou. Of course, whether there truly was unpleasantness, and how severe it was, no one knows.

In short, Chen Ziyan's career as an Agent could not be called anything but successful; whether male or female artists, anyone she managed became a currently popular or once-extremely-popular star.

Because of these past brilliant achievements, everyone in the industry trusts Chen Ziyan's eye for talent.

But looking at it this way, Chen Ziyan seemed like a person without any personal labels or distinguishing features.

In all the information searchable online, there was nothing but Chen Ziyan's achievements, yet no information about Chen Ziyan the person herself.

What her personality was like, what kind of life experiences she had, what kind of artists she liked—there was nothing at all.

What answer exactly did Chen Ziyan want to hear from him?

Star Entertainment Agency.

Vice President Ma looked at the woman sitting opposite him; although administratively he was her superior, in reality he could not control her at all.

As a gold-medal Agent personally recruited into the company by President Hong, her relationship with the company was less like employer and employee and more like a partnership.

Vice President Ma had also heard a rumor: the reason Chen Ziyan remained merely an Agent at Star Entertainment was not that the company was unwilling to give her an executive title, but that she herself was unwilling to accept one.

"Ziyan, how is your selection of talent going?" Vice President Ma asked.

Chen Ziyan smiled and said, "I'm still looking."

"Your choices really are always unexpected; the first one you picked was actually Tu Song. Before this, I had no impression of that name at all."

Upon hearing Vice President Ma's words, Chen Ziyan immediately realized that Zhou Ping'an must not have told him about the relationship between Tu Song and Mao Bingyu.

Thinking about it, it was understandable; after all, Zhou Ping'an himself hadn't known about such a relationship before and had kept Tu Song hidden. If Vice President Ma knew, he would surely blame Zhou for incompetence, so it was better to keep it concealed.

Chen Ziyan did not elaborate either; she herself was not very willing to let many people know that Tu Song had caught her eye only because of his connection to Mao Bingyu.

Chen Ziyan said, "For artists, what we Agents care about is simply a matter of affinity."

Vice President Ma: "Yes, but I heard you asked quite a few people about Lu Yanhe's situation? Are you interested in him?"

"Oh, Vice President Ma certainly has many informants within the company." The smile on Chen Ziyan's face immediately diminished by two parts.

"Don't take it to heart; I just happened to overhear some casual chatter, where would there be any informants?" Vice President Ma said immediately.

Casual chatter? Which idiot would go chat casually in front of a company vice president?

Chen Ziyan's expression remained unchanged as she countered, "Is there any problem with me being interested in Lu Yanhe?"

"Him? Ah, he does indeed have some issues," Vice President Ma said. "You can pick anyone else however you like, it doesn't matter, but regarding him, Ziyan, you should consider it again."

"Mm, I am indeed considering it. The process of learning about him has actually made me very curious: why are you so targeted against him?" Chen Ziyan asked, looking at him with a gentle smile.

"Hahaha, Ziyan, why on earth would I go out of my way to target a small-time artist?" Vice President Ma laughed immediately.

Chen Ziyan, however, did not buy it; she spread her hands, wearing a smile, and said, "This is also what I don't understand: who gave you some benefit that made you specifically come to remind me not to take him?"

Vice President Ma was still smiling on his face, but deep in his heart he already felt the situation was tricky and didn't know what to say at this moment.

"No, I just... simply don't like this artist," he said. "Because he is too cold-blooded and doesn't understand gratitude."

"Oh?" Chen Ziyan laughed in surprise. "Why do you say that?"

"He... he came from the countryside, you should know that, right?"

"Mm."

"His parents are both dead; his uncle brought him out and sent him to participate in the competition, but after he became famous back then, he turned his back on his obligations and refused to have any contact with his uncle," Vice President Ma said. "A child like this, showing ingratitude at such a young age—I don't like this kind of Bai Yanlang, so I detest him very much."

Chen Ziyan nodded.

"Is that so."

"Yes, that's why I advised you not to consider him; for an excellent Agent like you, he isn't worth it."

"Mm." Chen Ziyan nodded. "I understand."

Vice President Ma smiled.

Only after Chen Ziyan left did the smile on Vice President Ma's face slowly fade away.

He frowned slightly.

What has been going on with this Lu Yanhe over these past few months?

For the past two years, no one paid him any attention, yet in these few months, one after another, people are taking a fancy to him, seeking cooperation, wanting to represent him, showing interest in him.

And he himself, how did he suddenly obtain two "Act of Bravery" pennants?

Just because he holds these two pennants, they have to be wary of Lu Yanhe and dare not go too far; otherwise, once Lu Yanhe goes and makes some exposure, they will fall into enormous public opinion pressure.

After all, forcing a person who has received two police commendations for "Acts of Bravery" to terminate their contract, when the contract hasn't expired and Lu Yanhe has no substantive ethical violations, is simply indefensible.

But fortunately, they still managed to dissuade Chen Ziyan.

Vice President Ma smiled triumphantly.

Ingratitude.

That's a good argument.

From now on, we'll use that.

The snow had finally stopped.

Lu Yanhe sat in the classroom, looking out the window.

Unfortunately, outside the window was a corridor; one had to look past the corridor to see a strip of sky.

Sitting in the classroom all the time was really a bit stifling.

"So boring." Li Pengfei had passed the initial burst of enthusiasm and now felt restless again; after doing problems for a while, he couldn't help but stop to rest. "Every day it's just reading books and doing problems, doing problems and reading books, all these things; my head is spinning."

Lu Yanhe smiled and said, "Then look at Lin Yu and the others; how long have they persisted like this?"

Li Pengfei sighed with emotion: "That's why they're awesome."

"Didn't you say you wanted to surpass Luo Zicheng? You haven't achieved that goal yet."

"I now feel that surpassing Luo Zicheng is meaningless; he isn't even worthy of being my goal."

"Regardless of whether he's worthy or not, you should surpass him first before saying things like that."

"Hehe."

"Hey, did you guys see that post on the forum?" Jiang Haitian suddenly asked them.

"What post?" Li Pengfei asked.

"You really don't know," Jiang Hai said. "On our school's online forum, someone posted that there's a couple in our class who've managed to keep their relationship hidden from everyone. Now everyone's curious about who this couple is."

"Huh?" Li Pengfei looked disgusted. "Who cares about that? If they want to date secretly, let them."

"Aren't you even a little curious? The post says this couple is completely unimaginable—a pairing no one would ever expect."

"What's it to me? You guys are just bored, getting curious about stuff like this." Li Pengfei couldn't care less.

Just then, Xu Zijun entered through the back door.

She walked silently toward her seat with her head bowed.

Li Pengfei glanced at her and said, "Anyway, there are only a few months left until the college entrance exam. Let people date however they want."

The second rounds of independent recruitment admissions also began rolling out this month.

Lin Yu, Chen Yi, Chen Qin, and others started taking leave one after another to attend their independent recruitment second-round interviews.

Chu Saiying was among them.

Ever since the incident involving the two hundred thousand yuan came to light, Chu Saiying's presence in the class had become extremely low-key.

Sometimes, everyone even forgot that such a person existed in their class.

Yet, his grades kept improving with each exam.

It wasn't just Lu Yanhe who kept progressing; Chu Saiying did too.

He used to rank around fiftieth to seventieth in the grade, but now he had climbed to thirtieth place.

The entire Class Three, especially the students at the top ranks, were pushing hard toward the finish line.

Probably because the college entrance exam was drawing nearer and everyone's pressure was mounting, students began frequently gossiping during breaks.

So-and-so used to date so-and-so, such-and-such family actually does this kind of business, and so on—all sorts of gossip. Anyway, as long as it offered a brief escape from studying, everyone chatted about it, their eyes gleaming with excitement.

Inevitably, conversations turned to that post on the school forum about the secret couple in their class.

Everyone desperately wanted to know exactly which two people formed this couple.

Because of this atmosphere, the classroom often heard exchanges like—

"Mei Ping, could the secret couple be you and someone?"

Mei Ping rolled her eyes and glared fiercely. "Me and who?"

That was one style.

There was another style too.

"Li Cui, you're always finding excuses to talk to Bai Yu. Are you two secretly together?"

"Don't slander me! I talk to Bai Yu for other reasons."

"What other reasons could you two possibly have?"

"None of your damn business!"

"Then it must be you two!"

"If it's us, may I get hit by a car and die right now!"

"..."

Chaos ensued, with chickens flying and dogs jumping.

Amidst this atmosphere, Lu Yanhe remained completely apart from it all, never getting dragged in.

He didn't care at all about who was secretly dating.

Anyway, this wasn't an era where holding hands made people blush and turn red-eared.

He kept pondering how to send Chen Ziyan a message and arrange another serious conversation with her.

He felt Chen Ziyan hadn't lost interest in him, nor was she afraid of the trouble.

Of course, these were just his feelings; he wasn't certain.

Therefore, he could only meet Chen Ziyan face-to-face once more and have a serious talk.

He needed to persuade Chen Ziyan to trust him and become his Agent.

Lu Yanhe thought seriously for a long time, then wrote down two titles on a piece of paper: "Lost on Journey" and "Childhood."

"What are these?" Li Pengfei asked, surprised to see the two names on his paper. "Are you planning to write another song?"

Lu Yanhe said, "One is a song; the other... is a story."

"A story?"

"Yeah, I had a dream yesterday and dreamed up this story," Lu Yanhe said.

"You wrote another song?"

That evening in the dormitory, Yan Liang and Li Zhibai looked at Lu Yanhe in astonishment.

Lu Yanhe nodded.

"I've been humming it these past couple of days, and it just came out," Lu Yanhe said. "But I don't understand musical notation. Help me arrange it into sheet music."

Li Zhibai said, "This can only be left to Yan Liang; I don't understand it either."

Among the three, only Yan Liang had been diligently attending those basic music theory classes.

Lu Yanhe's original self hadn't skipped them either, but having previously lived in the countryside, his foundation was too weak, and he couldn't keep up at all.

Yan Liang nodded and said, "Alright, then sing it, and I'll write it down for you."

Lu Yanhe sang "Childhood" from beginning to end.

This song became wildly popular across Dajiangnanbei.

It was simple, not complicated, catchy, and almost everyone could sing it, becoming a memory of an entire era.

The simpler such songs are, the more they possess a timeless emotional impact on first-time listeners who have never heard them before.

After considering many options, Lu Yanhe finally chose this song.

"You, My Deskmate" is about reminiscing years after graduation; "Those Girls We Chased Back Then" delivers its emotional shock only when paired with the film; and as for Zhou Jielun's and Lin Junjie's songs, Lu Yanhe felt that firstly, his age didn't fit, and secondly, he couldn't capture that particular style.

There are many singers who cover Zhou Jielun and Lin Junjie, and no shortage of those with powerful vocal skills, but very few can sing with their own feeling, make it sound natural, and move a wide audience; before transmigrating, Lu Yanhe could only recall that G. E. M.'s "Tornado" and Terry Lin's "The Fireworks Fade Easily" were quite popular, and then there was nothing else.

Some songs must be sung by that specific singer to possess the ability to spread and infect.

Lu Yanhe had a clear understanding of himself.

He was not some kind of genius singer; his vocal conditions were good, but he was not a monster like Zhou Shen who stuns others the moment he opens his mouth.

Whether it was "Commemoration" or "Childhood," these were songs with greater universality; anyone could sing them, and as long as they did not fail miserably, the content the song itself told and the emotions it expressed would move anyone who had experienced those years.

Similarly, Lu Yanhe was a child who grew up in the countryside and in the mountains since childhood, only coming to the city at fifteen; because he participated in a competition, he luckily became an artist, only to fall out of favor immediately after debuting; with such experiences, the styles of songs he could carry were too few.

If he sang "Commemoration," others would not find it strange, because he was currently in his third year of high school.

If he sang "Childhood," others would not find it strange either, because everyone has a childhood.

But if he sang "A Thousand Years Later" or "Double Nunchucks," leaving aside whether Lu Yanhe was suitable for these songs, if others heard them, they would feel these songs were somewhat incompatible with him.

After Lu Yanhe finished singing "Childhood" a cappella, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang looked at him with faces full of surprise, remaining silent for a long time.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"This song..." Yan Liang scratched his chin, "is very pleasant to listen to."

"Mm, it really is very pleasant to listen to." Li Zhibai also nodded, "It made me listen with my whole heart."

"Is it talking about your own childhood?" Yan Liang asked.

—On the big tree by the pond, the cicadas are chirping summer again and again.

—On the swing by the playground, only butterflies stop upon it.

—The teacher's chalk on the blackboard is still desperately chattering away, writing endlessly.

—Waiting for class to end, waiting for school to finish, a childhood waiting for games.

Lu Yanhe changed the banyan tree to a big tree because there were no banyan trees in the mountain village where he grew up.

This song, created by Lo Ta-yu, used a few simple descriptions to outline scenes that mirrored everyone's childhood.

Yan Liang looked at Lu Yanhe in amazement, "So you really can write songs."

Lu Yanhe said, "I can't; it's just that I've been humming to myself these past few days, and these melodies slowly appeared in my mind."

"A genius," Li Zhibai said to him, "It sounds so good; Old Lu, can I cover this song in the future?"

"Of course you can," Lu Yanhe said.

He felt that after he sang this song, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang's attitudes toward him had subtly changed; it seemed there was a bit more respect?

Lu Yanhe said, "I plan to take this song to let Chen Ziyan hear it."

"If she can't tell how good this song is, that's her problem," Li Zhibai said immediately and decisively, "If you didn't write this, I would call my dad right now and have him buy it for me."

Lu Yanhe laughed.

Looking at Yan Liang and Li Zhibai, thinking of the help and care they had given him over the past few months, especially the two years of interaction recorded in the original body's memories, Lu Yanhe couldn't hold back for a moment and said, "In the future, if I have inspiration, I will write one song for each of you, as long as I can write them."

Yan Liang and Li Zhibai's eyes both lit up.

After the two songs "Commemoration" and "Childhood," they now had great faith in Lu Yanhe's creative ability.

"Really or fake? No, I'm already taking it as real; there's no fake about it," Li Zhibai said immediately, "Seriously, these are the songs I want to sing as a singer."

Yan Liang was also full of anticipation.

"Me too."

"You were still worrying that you'd starve to death if you couldn't be an artist; just by writing songs, you could support yourself," Li Zhibai said.

Lu Yanhe shook his head, "I don't know how to write songs; these two songs were both slowly hummed out; 'Commemoration' took about half a year to hum out, and 'Childhood' also took about four months to emerge bit by bit; if I relied on writing songs to support myself, writing only three songs a year, wouldn't I still starve to death?"

He was finding an excuse for himself in advance.

His repertoire was not large; every song used was one less; if he really made others think he was very good at writing songs and they all came to him to buy songs, that would be a huge trouble, and refusing people would quite offend them.

It was just promising Li Zhibai and Yan Liang to write one song for each of them that Lu Yanhe was willing to do.

These two teammates, roommates, and friends were the people Lu Yanhe had truly spent day and night with since coming to this world.

And these two people truly treated him as a friend, supporting him and helping him.

Lu Yanhe had long wanted to thank them, but he currently had nothing to offer except for the "repertoire" from another world.

They were all artists and could all sing.

Giving each of them a song was the most precious gift Lu Yanhe could offer.

With Yan Liang's help, Lu Yanhe finished writing the score for "Childhood," and after returning to his room, he began writing the story for "Lost on Journey."

Lu Yanhe had only watched this movie twice; he remembered the plot and some impressive lines, but replicating it one hundred percent was impossible.

When choosing a movie story, Lu Yanhe was very clear that he needed to pick one with strong creativity, a story that looked interesting at first glance.

Thus, Lu Yanhe thought of "Lost on Journey."

This was a road comedy built on the background of returning home for the Spring Festival travel rush; although Lu Yanhe did not understand dramatic theory, he knew this story itself was an interesting and attractive good story; when this movie was first released, how many people laughed until tears streamed down their faces, and later it was developed into a series, with the second part directly breaking the box office records for domestic films.

He spent three days writing this story out in two thousand characters, and then sent a message to Chen Ziyan: Hello, I have written a song and a story; I would like to ask for your guidance.

He sent the score for "Childhood" and the story for "Lost on Journey" to Chen Ziyan.

He added, "I wonder if you are free tomorrow noon; could I hear your evaluation in person again?"