Chapter 711: A Lonely Man

What broke the happy atmosphere was the "beep-beep" sound of an electric scooter being locked.

"Old Hu is back." Ma Qiushan said with a smile to Xu Hongdou, who was a bit confused, "That's Hu Youyu from Room 3 in our courtyard, he sings in the city."

Xu Hongdou nodded in understanding, then turned her gaze toward the entrance.

Just in this short while, Hu Youyu, with his long hair, wearing loose trendy clothes and carrying a broken wooden guitar, walked in, holding an electric scooter battery in one hand and packed snacks and barbecue in the other.

Seeing everyone's eyes fall on him, he was stunned for a moment, then noticed the two unfamiliar faces. He put the packed food on the table, placed the battery on the ground, walked up to Wang Yan and Xu Hongdou, and reached out his hand: "Hello, let me introduce myself. I'm Hu Youyu, living in Room 3. I saw the messages from many people in the group; I'm the one who welcomes you. You are Wang Yan, and such a beautiful big beauty must be Xu Hongdou, right?"

This Hu Youyu was also quite interesting; he got involved with a divorced woman whose child was already in college. Of course, one had to admit that the woman was indeed very charming.

However, this Hu Youyu also had some problems. He hung around bars singing to make money, but in terms of relationships, he acted like a novice. One couldn't say there were no good people in bars, but clearly, there were few good people who hung around bars for a long time. He was also a singer and looked quite handsome, which was very attractive to some women. As long as he wanted to, it wouldn't be a big problem for him to have eight or ten girlfriends in a year.

But what he showed was, although he looked like a loafer on the surface and was quite enthusiastic toward women, he was very clumsy when it came to the real deal. Of course, this wasn't contradictory, but appearing on a resident singer like him made it seem a bit strange. Of course, "emerging from the mud without being stained"—although his situation was abnormal, it wasn't impossible...

Wang Yan shook hands with him with a smile, while Xu Hongdou gave a polite smile, shaking hands only with her fingers, touching and then pulling back. Both of them said "Hello."

Hu Youyu didn't mind and remained very enthusiastic: "Knowing you were coming, I specially bought a lot of good food. How about it, want to drink a little together?"

"Sorry, we just finished dinner less than an hour ago, I can't eat anymore." Xu Hongdou shook her head and politely refused.

"It's alright, we can just talk." Hu Youyu shook his head with some regret, looked at Wang Yan, and then looked at Ma Qiushan and Nana: "How about the four of us drink a little?"

Ma Qiushan waved his hand, and Nana spoke first: "I don't eat after noon. Just now when Wang Yan and Hongdou were eating, they called us; if we wanted to drink, we would have drunk long ago, how could we wait until now? Wang Yan, why don't you drink a little with him? Get to know each other."

She had just watched Wang Yan eat dinner with her own eyes. Good heavens, he finished all that meat, and drank several cans of beer; he was truly a big eater.

Ma Qiushan waved his hand: "Better not. Wang Yan just ate so much food and drank several cans of beer; I estimate he can't eat anymore. Besides, eating at this hour is unhealthy and bad for the body. Right, Wang Yan?"

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Wang Yan nodded with a smile. Ma Qiushan was afraid he would eat himself into trouble, which would be too much trouble. He said: "I'll keep you company for two more cans, it's not a big problem. Besides, I have quite a lot of local specialties over there; go take a look, take whatever you want to eat at any time, don't be polite."

"Classy!"

Hu Youyu went to charge the battery, then rummaged through the big bag on the ground, took out a roast chicken and spiced beef, and gave Wang Yan a thumbs up. After all, a roast chicken was fifty, and a big piece of spiced beef was seventy or eighty. He had seen that big bag; besides some messy little pickles, it was all "hard" food.

He turned and said, "Hey, where's Da Mai? Call her down to eat something too; she can't just lock herself in the room all day. She writes novels, doesn't she need inspiration? Call her down and let's chat."

"Da Mai is writing a novel; that's her job, do you think it's that casual?" Nana rolled her eyes at him.

"Then she still has to eat if it's time to eat. I'll go call her."

"Hey, don't disturb Da Mai." Nana stood up quickly, wanting to stop him.

But Hu Youyu didn't care about that much. He turned and walked out of the house, came to the courtyard, and cupped his hands into a megaphone: "Da Mai, Da Mai, come down for a midnight snack. The new tenants of the courtyard are here, and there are local specialties from all over!"

Because Nana was sitting inside, she kept saying "don't shout, don't shout," and by the time she came out, Hu Youyu had already finished shouting.

She slapped Hu Youyu on the back unhappily: "I told you not to shout; it affects Da Mai's writing and also affects the neighbors' rest. Did you forget the rules of the courtyard? No noise after eight o'clock."

The force of this slap wasn't small, but it wasn't very big either, yet it still made Hu Youyu stagger with a *clatter*. He rubbed his back while baring his teeth, feeling a bit aggrieved: "I say, you hit too hard, I didn't shout that loudly, did I?"

Nana wanted to lecture him a few more words, but just then Hu Youyu's phone rang with a new message notification.

"Is it Da Mai?" she asked.

Hu Youyu took out his phone and looked at the message: "Yes, you guessed right. She said she won't come down to eat, and thanked me for the invitation."

"I told you, you didn't believe me, you had to disturb her." Nana rolled her eyes again and walked back.

At this moment, she had a big opinion of Hu Youyu. First, he disturbed the atmosphere of their original chat and came back at the wrong time; second, of course, was that he was shouting to find Da Mai. What if he ruined Da Mai's train of thought?

Wang Yan didn't care about them. At this time, he had already taken another six-pack of beer to the table, opened the snacks and barbecue Hu Youyu brought back, and started drinking.

Xu Hongdou saw Wang Yan still eating and drinking heavily, frowned and said: "Won't you get indigestion from eating so much at night? If it goes on for a long time, your stomach won't be good, right?"

Ma Qiushan nodded: "Yeah, that's what I said, you can't eat and drink like that. A few years ago, I was the same, eating and drinking heavily all day, and as a result, I ended up with 'three highs.' Look at how greasy I am now; it's all from eating and drinking, and I can't go back."

"That's because you don't train enough. Find a reliable fitness coach, and you'll change in two months." Wang Yan shook his head. "I'm not eating much, mainly because it's uncomfortable to drink without something to go with it. We drank so much tea just now, and now changing to beer is no problem; two pees and it'll be solved. Thanks for your concern, I know my limits. Come, brother, let's have one."

Wang Yan greeted Hu Youyu, who sat on his other side, clinked cans, and tilted his head back to gulp it down.

After drinking, while Ma Qiushan's Adam's apple bobbed, Hu Youyu ate the snacks he brought back in big mouthfuls, his mouth covered in oil, and sighed with emotion: "I originally brought them back thinking we'd eat together; otherwise, I would have finished eating in the city before coming back. Now the taste is much worse."

After speaking, he looked at Wang Yan tinkering with his computer, leaned over curiously, and gave a gasp: "Wang Yan, your photography skills are quite good; you took photos of Hongdou like a fairy."

Wang Yan laughed: "It's mainly because Hongdou has a good foundation."

"That's true." Hu Youyu sighed with admiration, "With someone like Hongdou, wouldn't there be a long line of pursuers? But you picked up a big bargain..."

"You thought wrong." Wang Yan tilted his head to look at him and continued his work.

"Thought wrong?"

"Do you think they look like a couple? We all thought so at first, but actually, they aren't." Nana had recovered by now. She knew Hu Youyu didn't mean anything else; after all, calling people to eat was never wrong. She said with a smile, "They met by chance..."

After listening to Nana explain the whole process, Hu Youyu leaned on the table and looked at Xu Hongdou, who was focused on looking at her beautiful photos on the other side.

Sensing his gaze, Xu Hongdou smiled: "Yes, it's just as Nana said, we met by chance; it was truly too coincidental."

Hu Youyu patted Wang Yan on the shoulder: "Then you have to work hard."

Hearing this, Wang Yan looked at Xu Hongdou, whose cheeks were slightly flushed, and laughed: "Alright, let's not talk about this. Aren't you a resident singer at a bar? Show us some talent and let us feel it?"

"No problem."

Hu Youyu clapped his hands happily. He did what he said, stood up to unpack his guitar, took out his broken wooden guitar, slung it on his back, and strummed the strings a few times.

He said: "I recently created a new song called 'A Lonely Man,' you are the first batch of listeners, give me some advice."

"We aren't professionals, we don't have such strong appreciation ability, we can only say whether it sounds good or not based on our own preferences." Wang Yan smiled and raised one hand, raising one eyebrow, "Come on, friend, please start your performance."

Whether a song is good or bad can often be known just by looking at the title. Of course, it doesn't exclude the possibility that some people are just bad at naming, but the actual work is very good, or has good lyrics, or has a wonderful melody. But the possibility of the two combined is not high. Because generally speaking, song titles are taken from the best lyrics in the song, or condense the meaning expressed by the song.

Undoubtedly, Hu Youyu's work was not the type to be excluded; one could tell just by looking at the title that the song wasn't very good. It had neither good lyrics nor a wonderful melody.

After listening to Hu Youyu's sincere singing and looking at his expectant eyes, Wang Yan was silent for a moment, then slowly said: "Your voice has characteristics. Although the range isn't very wide, it has a certain degree of recognizability. Your breath is also very steady, and your singing skills are sufficient; this is the foundation for you to make a living. I personally think that perhaps it's better for you to cover songs. After all, those worth covering are works that have been circulated and tested, suitable for mass entertainment. Perhaps you can also do some adaptations, add some drum beats or something."

With Wang Yan's words, Hu Youyu's expectant face drooped, and the room went quiet.

Suddenly, Ma Qiushan, who was cultivating his character, was the first to be unable to hold it in and burst into loud laughter. Following closely was Nana, and then Xu Hongdou covered her mouth, while Wang Yan kept a smile on his face.

Although this kind of collective mocking behavior wasn't very good or polite, clearly, in various social occasions, whether malicious or well-intentioned, scenes like this were not rare. If you flip out, it means you're narrow-minded. If you don't flip out, it means you can play along.

Hu Youyu was someone who could play along. He waved his hands irritably: "Just now you said you didn't understand music appreciation, look at how professional this is, talking about range and breath. If it doesn't sound good, it doesn't sound good, geez."

Putting the guitar aside, he sat back at the table, clinked with Wang Yan, drank beer, and made a bold statement: "One day, I will be able to write a song that is popular and spreads across the country."

Wang Yan spoke again: "I'm not discouraging you, but judging from your 'A Lonely Man' just now, your creation is folk-oriented. It's only in the last few years that folk music has become popular, but it's only those few songs that are popular; many people actually don't like listening to it. So, for you to be popular and spread across the country, it's basically impossible. After all, even those few popular songs haven't reached such a terrifying level of spread."

"Let's not talk about this, come, let's drink another one."

Hu Youyu twitched the corners of his mouth, trying his best to manage his expressions, and very wisely changed the subject: "Wang Yan, Hongdou, where are you two from? How long do you plan to stay here?"

Wang Yan and Xu Hongdou cooperated very well and started chatting with him. And unsurprisingly, the topic gradually turned to work, and then once again, the situation where Wang Yan had been traveling for more than seven years was brought up. This time, it was Nana and Ma Qiushan who helped brag...

It was in such a happy atmosphere that Wang Yan efficiently processed a large pile of Xu Hongdou's photos and many landscape photos, sent them all to Xu Hongdou, and also sent many photos that they thought looked good to Hu Youyu and Nana.

After getting the photos, of course, they had to happily post them on their Moments. Xu Hongdou posted a nine-grid collage, and the rest was a bombardment, sent to her family group.

She still remembered, just like in the original drama, to get a small board, print out the photos herself, stick them on the board, and add sticky notes; it was basically a scrapbook. The only difference was that there were too many photos, and she spent a long time selecting them.

After finishing these things, she lay on the bed satisfied, comfortably wrapped in a big quilt, looking at the mosquito-repelling sachet hanging on the head of the bed that was given by someone. She was dazed; perhaps she was thinking of someone, perhaps she was also thinking of her good sister Chen Nanxing. In short, she was having all sorts of messy thoughts, and unknowingly, she fell into a deep sleep...

In the next room, Wang Yan was bored, practiced some calligraphy, and then leaned against the head of the bed, reading a book on his tablet.

Actually, he preferred paper books because they felt more real. However, he didn't dislike e-books; after all, they were more convenient, not so bulky, and could be read anytime, anywhere, within a small space. Now that he was traveling, he used e-books.

However, many people who buy paper books don't really read them; they just buy many books and arrange them neatly on the bookshelf, smelling the evaporating printing scent, which looks pleasing to the eye. In the past, Wang Yan was such a person...

Seeming to remember the past, he smiled for no reason. Seeing that the time was about right, he turned off the room light and went to sleep... ===== CHAPTER 712 =====