Let's play a game to liven things up

The fluorescent green liquid was poured onto the sugar cubes, and the blowtorch ignited the sugar cubes, causing a burst of iridescent blue flames to erupt from the liquor spoon.

Jiang Songhe stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray and watched through the wisps of smoke as the silver-haired singer wearing a blue feather mask skillfully arranged the elaborate wine vessels on the table. Compared to those opportunists who had previously made exorbitant demands on him, this person opposite him seemed unexpectedly attentive.

"Wait a moment." Jonathan gently turned the tap on the ice bucket, and the water droplets slowly melted the slightly caramelized sugar into the liquor.

Jiang Songhe squinted as he watched the wine in his glass gradually become cloudy. His thoughts drifted back to New Year's Eve 17 years ago. Back then, he and his unreliable childhood friend drank the same wine like guzzlers. He wondered if he thought it tasted so bad back then because he wasn't so particular about what he drank.

The phone suddenly buzzed beside her. Jiang Songhe flipped the screen, raised an eyebrow when she saw the caller ID, and answered the call with a swipe to unlock it: "What's up?"

"Ni Hou Liangzai" must be hanging out somewhere again. The drumbeats and shouting "waiwai" from the receiver made Jiang Songhe's ears tingle. Jiang Songhe frowned, moved the phone away, and said to the other end, "If you have something to say, find a quiet place to talk. If you have nothing to say, I'm hanging up."

"What? Who hung up? Hello? Song He? Hello?!"

"..."

Just as Jiang Songhe was about to curse, he glanced at the other side of the phone and saw that there were other people there. He swallowed the curse words that were about to come out of his mouth. The person on the other end of the phone was still calling "Songhe Songhe". He rubbed his thumb and manually muted "Ni Hou Liangzai" on the phone. Then he sent a WeChat message to repeat what he had said.

"So Mr. Jiang's full name is 'Songhe'~" A glass of milky green absinthe slid up to Jiang Songhe. "It's a very nice name~ but it doesn't seem to have any connection with the last character of your brother's name. Did your parents have any special wishes for you two when they named you?"

His hands, which had been typing furiously, suddenly stopped.

He would never have the chance to learn the meaning of his own name, "He," from his parents, while his younger brother's name, "Yun," was chosen by him without needing to ask. It wasn't a wish, but rather a kind of self-restraint stemming from a desire for atonement.

Jiang Songhe is willing to give up her own self and will promise to give Jiang Songyun the best of everything.

"Ni Hou Liangzai" called again at this moment, and Jiang Songhe naturally avoided the question. He answered the phone with one hand and tapped the table twice with his knuckles to express his gratitude to Jonathan for handing him the wine.

Ni Haolang noticed the noise had shifted to a quieter place: "Song He, didn't I tell you last time I had a friend who's a judge on Star Show? About Song Yun getting eliminated, bro, I covered for you~ How about that, awesome, right~~"

“Hmm…” Jiang Songhe took a sip of wine, scrutinizingly looking across the glass from the rim. “Then I should show my sincerity.”

Jonathan remained nonchalant, staring at the ice bucket as if consciously blocking out conversation, his hand supporting his chin tapping his cheek with his fingers, as if providing dynamic sound effects for the falling water droplets.

"That's right, let me tell you, my friend's name is Kun Ji'en, and I'm with him right now! There's no time like the present, why don't you come over now and we'll have a drink together?"

A few days ago, Jiang Songhe was suddenly struck by the memory of being cornered and stared at by dancers in a private box at Diamond Ash. After weighing the situation in her mind, Jiang Songhe felt that it would be easier to stay and find out the motives of the other judge.

Just as she was about to tell him that she was also out socializing, Jonathan turned around and slid a glass of freshly brewed sugar wine to Jiang Songhe, his tone languid and ambiguous: "You're drinking so slowly, what's wrong, is the drink I made not good?"

"..."

Ni Haolang's ears are sharper than a dog's; he noticed someone was next to Jiang Songhe and couldn't help but gossip: "Hey, where are you right now? Why is there a man talking to you?"

Jiang Songhe quickly glanced at the pole dancing stage not far away and the sailor-uniformed waiters walking back and forth, tactically swallowed a sip of her drink, and still truthfully said, "Uh, Weird Blue Bar, is it..."

"Holy crap? You're blaming Lan? I was wondering why you didn't like the girls I picked. I remember you... Holy crap!! Wait a minute, didn't you used to be with that little girl? Holy crap!!! Was that thing really that damaging? Did you completely change your ways?"

Ni Haolang's words came out like a barrage of cannon fire, each one landing on Jiang Songhe's minefield.

Jiang Songhe rubbed his throbbing eyebrows with one hand, while the other hand, gripping the cup tightly, had its nails scratching against the outside of the cup.

Ni Haolang's exaggeratedly hoarse voice continued: "I've always thought you were clueless about this, tsk, I misjudged you... Hey, don't be silent, tell me, what kind of handsome man could possibly fall for your iceberg-like charm..."

Jiang Songhe hung up the phone.

"I'm talking to you!" His mother's words were stuck in his throat. He remembered the time when he used to go to Ni Haolang's house for a free meal when he was a child. At the last minute, he silently changed his mind.

Idiot.

The anger that had been building up all afternoon surged up again. Seeing Jonathan, who had stirred up the conversation, only made her angrier. Jiang Songhe put down her cup, lit a cigarette, and pointed her chin at the empty cup in front of Jonathan, asking, "Aren't you going to drink?"

"As a singer, I cherish my talent and don't smoke or drink," Jonathan answered frankly, followed by a gentle but sharp remark, "I'll only be with you."

Jiang Songhe tightened his lips, and the white mist that had been expelling from his lungs came to an abrupt halt at the checkpoint, forced to change direction.

Grass.

He impulsively decided to use this bitter and strange remedy, wormwood, to teach this absurd brat who kept bothering him a lesson. However, the other party's words, "I don't smoke or drink, I only keep you company," made his ulterior motives seem utterly inhuman.

This kid, despite holding the title of a talent show judge, looks no more than twenty-three or twenty-four. He must have become famous at a young age, and is only six or seven years older than Song Yun? Song Yun is about to turn eighteen, and Jiang Songhe thought to himself, "What if he were forced to drink someday?"

He broke the man's nose on the spot.

……!

Damn it, I'm beating myself up.

Jiang Songhe turned his head and exhaled smoke expressionlessly. To dispel the darkness that had been nipped in the bud, he picked up the still not very good absinthe in front of him and silently punished himself with a glass.

Why bother arguing with a brat? Let him drink or not, it's up to him.

"Let's get down to business," Jiang Songhe suggested.

Jonathan rested his chin on his hands, looking focused as if he was about to get to the point, but asked a completely irrelevant question: "Does it often snow in Jingting around the New Year?"

"……yes."

Did it rain during the Spring Festival of 2008?

"right."

"Can you make a little mouse out of snow?"

...

Jiang Songhe interrupted these extremely childish questions with a "tsk" and said in a deep voice, "I think as a singer, you should cherish your time and not waste it on these inexplicable questions."

Jonathan's eyes flickered, then her fox-like eyes curved into crescents as she said, unmoved by his words, "You care about me that much?"

"?" Jiang Songhe almost choked from the sweet talk. She thought to herself that she shouldn't have let this brat lead her by the nose. So she shook out the wet wipes on the plate, wiped her hands which were covered in water droplets, and tried to regain control of the conversation: "I'm more concerned about whether you know the other judge on Star Show."

"Is it Kun Ji'en, the guy your awesome friend mentioned on the phone?"

"..." Jiang Songhe considered getting a new phone that wouldn't leak sound.

“I guess what you want to ask is,” Jonah said, mimicking Jiang Songhe’s tone and lowering his voice, “there were clearly only three judges during the audition, so where did you come from? Are you lying to me again? Who has more say, you or Kun Ji’en?”

Jiang Songhe was always deep and taciturn, and rarely had his thoughts fully revealed. To hide his emotions, he subconsciously drank the rest of the wine in his glass in one go.

Seeing Jiang Songhe's reaction, Jonah smiled smugly: "Since you're so concerned, how about we play a game to liven things up?"

Is this enough buildup, and now it's finally time to get down to business?

They go to all this trouble and complicated schemes to get a rebate.

Jiang Songhe exhaled a breath of alcohol, and with a cold laugh, cooperated, "Alright, how do you want to play?"

"I will answer all your questions, but you have to drink a glass of wine for every one you ask."

It turns out that Man'er also embraces this drinking culture. Jiang Songhe suddenly understood why Jonathan asked so many ridiculous questions before, trying to get people drunk so he could make demands.

He's become incredibly adept at this tactic over the past two years in his efforts to secure investment for "Yan Ge Xing," using any topic as an excuse to urge someone to drink—

"Brother Jiang, I also have the surname Jiang. Going back thousands of years, our ancestors were from the same clan. We must have a drink together!"

"Little Jiang, look at you, you can't even remember my name. It's not too much to punish yourself with three cups according to the rules, is it?"

"Hey Mr. Jiang, look at the night sky tonight, the moon is bright and the stars are few! It's a very auspicious sign for our cooperation! Come on, have a drink!"

drink!

drink!

drink!

...

Okay, sure.

-

The two then divided their tasks clearly: one burned sugar and served wine, while the other refilled the cups and encouraged drinking. Jonathan answered his own questions without Jiang Songhe needing to say anything more, and the atmosphere seemed quite harmonious at first glance.

The first question: In order to seize the opportunity to sign outstanding contestants, TANG increased its investment in Star Show. Jonathan's sudden appearance as the fourth judge was a mutually beneficial exchange between the competition organizers and TANG.

The second question: In the preliminary and semi-final rounds of the talent show, the judges decide which contestants stay and which go, narrowing the field from 100 to 20. In the final round, the four judges become mentors, and the 20 contestants go through a mutual selection process with their mentors, with each group of 5 forming a celebrity team. At this stage, it's not just Jonathan that's scouting for team members; it's simply to secure their chances of winning, and there's no need for deception.

The third question: Jonah is TANG's top artist, the answer is self-evident.

...

Absinthe truly lives up to its reputation as a drinker, having been banned for a century due to its hallucinogenic properties. After three large glasses, Jiang Songhe was already quite drunk.

Using the mask as a cover, Jonah brazenly traced Jiang Songhe's slightly swaying body with his gaze as she lowered her guard.

Behind the falling bangs, faint lines were visible between his brows. Perhaps because he was so tall, his upper body had to be slightly hunched over when leaning on the table, giving him a somewhat颓废 (颓废 is a difficult word to translate directly, but it implies a sense of listlessness, apathy, and a lack of confidence) appearance. His hand holding the cigarette was beautiful; the veins and bones were clearly defined, and his nails were neatly trimmed. When he exhaled smoke, he would raise his chin high, revealing his Adam's apple like a mountain peak…

“That makes sense.” Jiang Songhe spread her fingers, casually brushing a stray strand of hair behind her ear, her gaze unfocused as she looked at the person opposite her. “So… what are your conditions for having Song Yun stay… and join your team?”

This man's expression only shows a hint of humanity when he mentions Jiang Songyun.

How would you describe that expression?

Her eyes were red and moist, as if she could cry at any moment, but she stubbornly held back the moisture. Her lips were curved in a smile, but there was little joy in them. Her brows and nostrils twitched in unison, pulling at the throbbing veins on her forehead, as if she was intentionally suffocating herself, creating a self-destructive feeling of suffocation.

She's kind of sexy.

“Good question.” Jonathan avoided the scattered wine vessels on the table, leaned closer, and put his face into Jiang Songhe’s line of sight. “But what can we do? The wine is all gone.”

Jiang Songhe's jaw was crooked, and his masseter muscles were tense.

“Let’s try a different approach,” Jonathan said. “You promise me one thing, and I guarantee that what I ask you to do will answer your question.”

"Oh, really?" Jiang Songhe's eyes flashed with a fierce light. "Why don't you stop talking nonsense?"

"Give me a hug."