Chapter 105: Clown!

Previously, Luo Mo's face had shown a look of difficulty and hesitation; not only Ding Xiaoyu, but Wei Ran and the others also wondered if the rock style had truly stumped Luo Mo.

They had intentionally let Ding Xiaoyu take an unconventional path just to watch the fun, but they hadn't expected that the usually quiet and reserved Ding Xiaoyu would actually suggest rock.

The reason Cao Lei set the theme as summer was actually at the instruction of Ning Dan.

Their recording of this episode was equivalent to a side story of *Creating Idols*.

*Creating Idols* began airing in early summer and officially concluded on the last day of summer.

For Luo Mo's fans, as well as many viewers, this was a very meaningful summer.

Especially after the phrase "This summer, talent defeated capital" appeared, this summer took on a different flavor.

Setting the theme here was actually to let Luo Mo perform and then have a wave of nostalgia.

It could also be considered a form of feedback to his fans and the audience.

No one expected that Luo Mo was just acting; after pretending for a while, he generously accepted Ding Xiaoyu's proposal.

No more pretending, I'm showing my hand!

Summer is summer, rock is rock; none of this is a big deal.

He took his computer out of his bag, and the more familiar Li Ge and Wei Ran immediately leaned over to peek at Luo Mo's folders.

Luo Mo shifted his bottom, blocked the computer with his body, and turned the screen toward Ding Xiaoyu, acting like he was guarding against thieves.

"Hey! Only minors may watch under my supervision," Luo Mo said with a smile.

Wei Ran and Li Ge had no choice but to give up; this was his music library, and he had the final say.

However, the unwilling Wei Ge decided to look for clues from Ding Xiaoyu's expression!

Ding Xiaoyu's gaze rested on the computer, and her beautiful eyes immediately widened.

"There really are: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, these four documents," Ding Xiaoyu thought to herself.

In reality, what Luo Mo opened was just one of his many files.

Never mind Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter; in another folder, there were even Plum Orchid Bamboo Chrysanthemum.

Luo Mo opened the folder marked 【Summer】; inside, there were three songs with titles, and some others without titles, marked only at the bottom as: Unfinished.

Ding Xiaoyu watched silently; as a fan of Luo Mo, she felt she had discovered a huge treasure!

She secretly glanced at Luo Mo from the corner of her eye, feeling her heartbeat accelerate.

She really just wanted to be bold for once, which is why she tentatively made the request for rock.

Although Ding Xiaoyu was a regular on *Walking and Singing*, she never made things difficult for guests, nor would she make any requirements of them.

In fact, on many variety shows, some hosts or regulars would act crazy, pranking or making things difficult for others for the sake of variety effects.

But she didn't expect that Luo Mo would actually agree to her.

For a fan, this was equivalent to fulfillment.

At the same time, there was a feeling that her own small rebellion had been satisfied.

Luo Mo clicked on the Demo, and the song's intro began to echo.

In the final edit, the editor would certainly cut out most of this content to maintain the freshness of the official performance.

And when the singing began, Ding Xiaoyu looked at the lyrics and felt her heart being gently touched; it was as if a switch had been flipped.

Throughout the process, she stared blankly at the lyrics, her mind wandering a bit.

When she came back to her senses, she saw that Luo Mo had been looking at her with a smile the whole time.

Ding Xiaoyu hurriedly lowered her head, feeling a bit embarrassed and thinking she had lost her composure.

Luo Mo originally wanted to pat her shoulder lightly, but thinking that sixteen was also a young lady and there should be a distinction between men and women, he pulled his hand back, yet smiled on his face and teased her: "It's okay, liking my songs isn't something to be ashamed of."

Hearing him say this, Ding Xiaoyu buried her head even deeper.

Luo Mo looked at her and said: "Can Yu sing?"

This question made the head-buried Ding Xiaoyu wave her hands hurriedly, and her little bottom on the chair shifted backward, clearly showing strong resistance.

"I... I am tone-deaf," she said.

Liu Qinghong, who was on the side, interjected: "Luo Mo, it's no problem to ask Yu to play a Yueqi; she can play seven kinds by herself, but if you talk about singing, she absolutely refuses to do it."

"I see," Luo Mo nodded and didn't say anything more.

After the Demo of this song finished playing, Cao Lei, who had the most Seniority among the group, didn't give much evaluation, only saying four words: "The younger generation is to be feared."

He had experienced that era when rock was extremely glorious.

Many years ago, people's thinking and other aspects were not as open as they are now; at that time, rock could be said to be an immediate explosion, and that feeling was incomparably intense.

Precisely because of this, this category of music was actually linked to the word 【Spirit】.

You would hear of rock spirit, but you generally wouldn't hear of folk spirit, blues spirit...

In his early years, Cao Lei had also played in a band for a while; the hottest rock band back then was called Black Stone, and Cao Lei had even written a song for this band, though the song didn't become a massive hit and couldn't be considered a representative work.

He could tell that this rock song of Luo Mo's related to summer had relatively strong pop appeal.

It had a fairly obvious difference in sound compared to the rock that was popular in the country in the early years.

But the quality of the song was high, and most importantly, his composition was very mature.

Cao Lei was an excellent creator; he knew very well that these days, many young people's creations might have highlights, but they would also have very obvious shortcomings.

Mature works are more durable to listen to.

Many songs, if you listen to them more than ten years later, you won't even believe they were works from over a decade ago.

After listening to the Demo, everyone was in high spirits.

Since they were going to perform a song in the form of a band, they had to allocate the work properly.

Wei Ran and Li Ge were responsible for the electric guitar and bass parts.

Cao Lei was responsible for singing some harmonies.

The rest were the keyboard and drums.

Logically speaking, as a girl who has won awards at international piano competitions, it should be more appropriate for Ding Xiaoyu to be in charge of the keyboard, but the keyboard parts in the entire song are actually very, very sparse, and could even be removed entirely.

Moreover, Ding Xiaoyu volunteered, and with a very soft voice, she raised her hand and said: "Um... I, can I play the drums?"

Liu Qinghong was stunned, and asked: "Yu, when did you learn to play the drums?"

He found it a bit hard to imagine what the quiet and well-behaved Ding Xiaoyu would look like while playing the drums.

Ding Xiaoyu held up two fingers to gesture, and said: "I know a little bit, I taught myself recently."

Given her attainments in Yueqi, when she said a little bit, it was equivalent to being able to crush a group of people among amateurs.

Luo Mo looked at the girl who spoke in such soft whispers, and said with a smile: "Sure, I think you are very suitable."

This sentence left everyone around with question marks on their faces, feeling that Luo Mo's train of thought was also quite eccentric.

When Luo Mo was on Earth, he hadn't actually seen many cute girls playing drums; what left a deeper impression was the scene of Asuka Saito playing the drum kit.

It was stunning, and most importantly, the visuals were good and pleasing to the eye, so it was revered by many "visual-oriented" fans as a god-tier live performance.

"She loves wire-fu, and she also taught herself the drum kit." Luo Mo thought to himself, feeling more and more that this little child star who started acting at the age of 8 was very interesting.

Next came the intense rehearsals.

Night fell, and the RV drove to a certain villa, where everyone would make some barbecue to eat tonight.

Cao Lei didn't know where he produced a case of beer from.

Ding Xiaoyu walked to the side silently, and took the initiative to pick up the skewers, preparing to grill them herself.

Luo Mo sat down next to her with a thud, took the skewers from her hand, turned his head and shouted to everyone: "You guys are in luck today. My family runs a small restaurant. I didn't learn much about cooking, but for some reason, my attributes in barbecue are maxed out."

"Is that so? Then we'll just wait and see!" Wei Ran put on the airs of a mentor and sat on a chair in a carefree manner.

"Then you have to save a can of beer for me," Luo Mo turned his head and said.

Ding Xiaoyu sat obediently beside Luo Mo, her whole body sitting straight. Her mother and manager had high requirements for her posture, and at the same time, they felt that if a girl sat in a slouching way, she would appear to lack temperament, so most of the time, her sitting posture was just like a primary school student attending a public lecture.

"Pass me the cumin powder." Luo Mo opened the conversation this way.

While flipping the skewers, he said: "Coming over from the *Cat Demon* film crew?"

Ding Xiaoyu nodded and said: "I arrived here a day earlier than you."

"Is filming tiring?" Luo Mo asked again.

"It's alright," Ding Xiaoyu said.

"Is it 'alright', or are you used to it?" Luo Mo asked.

Ding Xiaoyu turned her head to look at him and said: "A bit of both."

This girl debuted as a child star at the age of 8, and her acting skills in movies at age 8 could crush most of the young actors in the current market.

Many veterans in the industry said that this child's acting skills had actually reached the level of a Best Actress, but she had mostly played supporting roles in her works; if she had the chance to play a female lead in the future, there was a high possibility of her winning the Best Actress award!

So, although she didn't know any tricks and the team behind her wasn't that strong, she would never lack roles to play or resources.

After all, for child actors in her age group, the market was still relatively lacking.

Under normal circumstances, there were many veteran actors these days who earned money by saying insincere things, opening their mouths to offer nothing but hard praise, and netizens, upon hearing it, couldn't help but pick up their keyboards and directly transform into "keyboard immortals" on land.

But when they praised Ding Xiaoyu, everyone felt it was reasonable, and even felt that the praise was a bit conservative—why couldn't they just praise her openly?

If she acted in those tragic dramas, her ability to render emotions was simply superb.

"Do you like acting?" Luo Mo asked again.

"I like it." Ding Xiaoyu did not hesitate at all.

Most of the time, she felt that acting was more relaxing; she could use the shell of a character to vent the various emotions in her heart on set.

Luo Mo nodded and suddenly said: "Look, they are drinking over there, and we are here inhaling smoke. Should we randomly select a lucky diner, put in more chili, and add some mustard?"

When the camera captured this scene, the cameraman was dumbfounded.

Wow, this is the most well-behaved and sensible "national little sister" in everyone's hearts, Luo Mo, what are you doing!?

Ding Xiaoyu looked at him in confusion, but Luo Mo didn't care, and started working directly, saying: "Let's do this skewer. I'll do it discreetly, and you'll be responsible for serving it later."

"There, I've already brushed it. You didn't open your mouth to stop me, so you're an accomplice." Luo Mo's movements were lightning fast.

After the whole process, Ding Xiaoyu was left dazed, but for some reason, she also felt it was very fun.

Clearly... clearly it was very childish!

"Do you think it's better to put it in the corner, or mix it up and bury it underneath?" Luo Mo started interacting again.

Ding Xiaoyu carefully raised her right hand, most of her palm wrapped in her long sleeve, revealing only a small tip of her finger, and then pointed downward, signaling to bury it.

After pointing, she immediately retracted her hand.

"Okay, okay, you are very talented." Luo Mo's speech was becoming more and more inexplicable.

When this plate of barbecue was served, Luo Mo hummed a tune and continued to grill the next plate, seemingly not paying any attention to the situation over there.

Ding Xiaoyu was a bit nervous, looking towards Wei Ran and the others from time to time.

In the end, Li Ge took the bait, his entire face twisting.

This rapper, who wore a big gold chain and had a dragon tattooed on his arm, kept going "hiss-ha, hiss-ha—".

"Wow, why is this skewer so spicy, the flavor is so intense!" After Li Ge finished speaking, he handed it to Wei Ran and said: "You try it."

"Try it my foot." Wei Ran pushed him away in disgust, and they inexplicably started messing around.

While messing around, they even forgot to find the culprit.

Luo Mo glanced at Ding Xiaoyu, only to see her head slightly lowered and her body slightly hunched, but her toes would lift and fall lightly from time to time, repeating this motion.

Luo Mo didn't know why, but he was quite concerned about Ding Xiaoyu.

Was it because she looked cute and girl-next-door, truly giving off the feeling of a little sister at home?

It might also be because of a friend of Luo Mo's.

That friend of his, who debuted in an Idol boy group, worked harder than anyone else, strove more than anyone else, and always radiated a kind of positive energy, a kind of upward-striving aura; he was either making progress or on the way to making progress, as if no setback could affect him.

Many junior trainees in the same company would be infected by him, feeling that their senior was the most upward-striving person in this circle.

However, one day, he didn't know why he collapsed; he just suddenly collapsed.

He only made one phone call to his parents, crying bitterly as he said he wanted to give up.

His parents' first reaction was: "What about the breach of contract penalty?"

Immediately following that, they talked about the family's mortgage, his younger brother's car loan, future retirement issues, and so on.

From beginning to end, they didn't ask him once what was wrong; instead, they kept repeating one sentence, questioning him constantly: "How did you suddenly change into a different person!?"

As for this friend, the only one was the snow-white Cat at home, who would squeeze into his arms when he curled up on the sofa.

At this moment, Luo Mo had already finished grilling the second plate of barbecue, and this time he actually played a prank again, and it went from one skewer to three.

Ding Xiaoyu looked at him, her eyes wide open.

"What are you looking at? I'm a prank expert," Luo Mo said, very childishly and smugly.

Ding Xiaoyu couldn't help it; although she was his fan, you are really a dork like this.

Luo Mo shrugged and said, "I see you have great potential, do you want to take me as your master?"

"Huh?" Ding Xiaoyu couldn't quite keep up with his train of thought.

"Have you seen those wuxia Dramas? The master who knows how to use poison tests their disciple by letting the disciple poison them. Whenever they succeed, they graduate," Luo Mo said.

"It seems... there is such a Drama," Ding Xiaoyu said, stunned.

"Right? So disciple, work hard in the future; this master is very guarded," Luo Mo said casually.

"This, but, this..." Ding Xiaoyu really wanted to say that she had never agreed to participate in this childish game.

Moreover, she couldn't understand what Luo Mo was thinking, and she had never thought about taking a master either.

Luo Mo ignored her, got up alone, carried a plate of lucky barbecue, and walked toward Wei Ran and the others.

Ding Xiaoyu looked at this plate of barbecue, and once she thought about the three lucky grand prizes inside, she inexplicably felt it was a bit fun again.

After she sat down at the dining table, she was eating too.

In the end, she even got one of the skewers, but she was so spicy that she was all smiles.

Cao Lei even suspected that his younger sister was acting weird today; was she not made stupid by the spice?

As for Luo Mo's prank, surely no one cared; on the contrary, everyone felt this was just variety show effect.

Anyway, Luo Mo was originally someone who looked very serious at times and a bit roguish at others, which could be seen from how he got along with Tong Shu in "Creating Idols".

Luo Mo just watched Ding Xiaoyu from the side, not caring that she was spicy, and said, "Disciple, you were cackling from the spice just now, you looked like an old hen."

Ding Xiaoyu was teased by him like this and couldn't help but laugh again, then she felt she really looked like an old hen, and couldn't help but laugh again.

Cao Lei and Liu Qinghong exchanged a glance; it was their first time seeing a guest who dared to tease the Nation's Little Sister like this.

Is he not afraid of being roasted to death by this national princess's knights after the show airs?

And how did the younger sister become his disciple?

Liu Qinghong even felt that Luo Mo was indirectly taking advantage of him, being a generation higher than him out of thin air.

But no matter how everyone pressed them, the two refused to say what kind of master-disciple relationship they had.

It was too childish; how embarrassing.

But Cao Lei and Liu Qinghong could also feel that this was the day with the most enthusiastic emotional feedback since the younger sister started recording "Walking and Singing".

This world is quite strange; there are many 【not allowed】 things.

Strong people are not allowed to be fragile, kind people are not allowed to be selfish, sensible people are not allowed to act out, funny and optimistic people are not allowed to be tragic...

Luo Mo felt that she might become a Best Actress, but it was more likely she would become a drama fanatic.

By night, it was already a bit late.

Ding Xiaoyu slept early, she was still growing, so she went back to the RV to sleep first; she had a separate space in the RV.

Outside, only a group of men remained, along with empty beer bottles on the table.

Before sleeping, the show "Walking and Singing" had a Retention item, which was to have each guest tell a short story, preferably one with a bit of horror, but not too scary, just enough to adjust the atmosphere.

The rule about not being too scary was set by Cao Lei, because he was once scared terribly by a story told by a guest.

Usually, he took pleasure in scaring guests, but that one time he was scared so badly he didn't sleep all night.

And after that episode aired, the audience feedback was polarized; many people expressed they were scared out of their wits.

Later, it changed to just telling some strange stories; it didn't necessarily have to be scary or horrific.

But it must be bizarre enough!

Wei Ran and Li Ge were truly terrible; even though they had prepared carefully, when it was their turn to tell, they both told them like cold jokes.

The main thing was, even though it wasn't funny, they were like the worst kind of joke-tellers, stumbling through their own telling, and kept giggling non-stop.

Luo Mo thought for a moment, then faced the camera and told a short story, which could be considered a bit of a heartfelt sentiment.

In reality, this was a small segment of content from Rorschach's Journal in the movie "Watchmen"; Luo Mo had a deep impression of this content.

Among the staff, Ning Dan watched Luo Mo, also feeling very curious.

He was seen opening his mouth to say: "【A man goes to the doctor, says he's depressed, life is harsh and cruel, he feels all alone in a threatening world.】"

"【The doctor says: 'The treatment is simple. The great clown Pagliacci is in town. Go see him. That should pick you up.'】"

"【The man bursts into tears: 'But doctor... I am Pagliacci!'】"

For a moment, no one made a sound.

They couldn't describe the feeling, in short

Wow! That was distressing!

(PS: First update, 5500 words, asking for monthly votes!)

(End of chapter)