Chapter 8 Love Letter: "Did you know me before?"

After returning to school from the recording studio, Chen Jingchi went to the music club's rehearsal room. When they saw him, the three people who were rehearsing stopped.

A few minutes ago, everyone saw the update on the campus wall and were all curious about what kind of words could touch Chen Jingchi's heart.

Xu Yue and Chen Jingchi have been friends for many years, and he knows how picky Chen Jingchi is. At last week's welcome party, in order to present the best live performance, Chen Jingchi proposed to form a band, and he spent almost half a month just selecting satisfactory members.

Last night on the way back to school, Xu Yue was still worrying about the alternative plans, and today the results were suddenly announced. Xu Yue suspected that the company had compromised with him.

However, this conjecture was quickly overturned.

It wouldn't be surprising if anyone made concessions, but Chen Jingchi wouldn't; he's not the kind of person who would compromise.

Chen Jingchi opened the lyrics file and showed it to them.

Unlike Zhuo Wencheng and Zhan Li's praise, Xu Yue and Chen Jingchi had similar reactions when they first saw it. He did not express his opinion immediately, but waited for the others to finish reading before gesturing for Chen Jingchi to go to the restroom.

Chen Jingchi understood what he meant and followed him out of the rehearsal room.

There were very few people in the building on Saturday night. The doors to the stalls in the men's restroom were wide open. After confirming that no one else was around, Xu Yue spoke up: "If you hadn't said this was a submission, I would have almost thought you wrote it yourself."

He thought for a long time before coming up with an adjective: "Pure Wolf Brother flavor."

Chen Jingchi chuckled, "I hadn't heard the nickname 'Wolf Brother' in so long, and that was my first thought too."

After a moment, Chen Jingchi lowered his voice and asked, "Do you still remember the song selection for the senior year New Year's Eve party?"

"I remember," Xu Yue nodded.

Before New Year's Day, Chen Jingchi was training at an off-campus institution to prepare for the college entrance examination when he received a message from his homeroom teacher, Ms. Liu, asking if he had time to return to school to perform at the New Year's Eve party.

Chen Jingchi's campus band has disbanded. Some members have left, others have blocked him, and the passionate youthful dream has long been thrown into a corner, shattered and moldy.

Just because it wasn't mentioned again doesn't mean it wasn't cared about.

He still cherishes every opportunity to go on stage, even if the stage is not big enough. As long as he can stand on it, pick up the microphone and sing, he will make time for it no matter how busy he is.

Chen Jingchi agreed without the slightest hesitation.

However, when he submitted his original song "Prisoner Wolf" to his homeroom teacher, it was rejected because the style of the song was not suitable for a festival gala performance.

When deciding on the song, he had already anticipated this outcome. Overly sharp self-expression is often seen as a venting of personal emotions, especially for someone as young as seventeen or eighteen, who is in the prime of his youth and is easily misunderstood as making a fuss over nothing.

To put it even more harshly, it's non-mainstream.

The final solution was to switch to popular music designated by the homeroom teacher, and it turned out that such popular songs did indeed receive a better response.

As for the original song that was banned from being performed on stage, Chen Jingchi wanted to give it a chance to shine and planned to try performing it during the college entrance examination. However, the art exam teacher also subtly suggested that it was best not to take such a big risk and that getting into university was the most important thing.

That song was never even performed; it was forever sealed away in the depths of Chen Jingchi's memory.

Perhaps it was a defense mechanism of the brain, but Chen Jingchi was unwilling to recall the memories evoked by this song a second time, so he stopped dwelling on it and gradually forgot about its existence.

Even today.

"Who did you play that song for?" Xu Yue asked.

Chen Jingchi said with certainty, "Besides you, there's only the homeroom teacher and the art exam instructors."

Both teachers disagreed with the song, let alone appreciated it, and it was impossible for them to spread it.

Xu Yue's expression was hesitant. He glanced at the lyrics of the two songs again and said, "If you want to say they're similar, it's not the kind of similarity where the words are repeated. I can't quite put my finger on it. It's like they were written by the same person."

"I even wondered if I was missing a piece of memory," Chen Jingchi said helplessly.

A few seconds later, Xu Yue said, "I heard them say it's a girl named Zhou Yu. Have you heard of that name before?"

"No," Chen Jingchi said. "I've only heard of Zhou Yu."

Xu Yue further speculated: "Could it be someone who had a crush on you before? Someone who studied your word choice and sentence structure in depth and imitated it?"

Chen Jingchi did not have any early romantic relationships in junior and senior high school. The only girl he could say he had a good relationship with had already stopped contacting him before that song was written.

“If that’s the case, it’ll be a bit tricky.” Chen Jingchi frowned. “But I don’t think imitation can go that far.”

“That’s true,” Xu Yue said. “Maybe it’s fate? There are quite a few people in the world whose brainwaves are on the same frequency.”

Chen Jingchi planned to contact the other party first.

However, fate can be quite cruel; the more you want something to be resolved quickly, the less likely it is to happen.

"These days, people take their phones with them even when they go to the toilet," Zhuo Wencheng joked. "Two whole hours, that's not normal, bro."

"What a clever feigned retreat! I'm really curious about who this Zhou Yu is," Zhan Li laughed. "Even our Brother Chi has to wait in line. How many numbers are ahead of us? Can we get a definite answer?"

As Chen Jingchi listened to their jokes, he became increasingly restless and anxious to verify whether his guess was correct.

*

Zhou Yucai had only been back in his dormitory for a few minutes when he grabbed a power bank and went downstairs again.

There's a Starbucks on campus in the student dorms, which is the perfect place to chat.

I heard from senior students in the freshman group that when Starbucks opened a store on campus two years ago, it was very popular and trendy for a while. However, as the promotional activities decreased and people's novelty wore off, business gradually became quiet. Apart from promotional holidays, there were hardly any people in the store on weekdays.

When Zhou Yu arrived, Chen Jingchi had not yet come. Several couples had occupied the prominent seats. Afraid of being affected by strangers, she walked to the side of the work area and sat down in the most inconspicuous seat.

She knew very well why Chen Jingchi had chosen her poem, so she could easily guess what kind of conversation would follow.

Upon learning of her selection, she felt more worried than excited.

From seeing the results announced to meeting Chen Jingchi, it took less than ten minutes in total. Zhou Yu had little confidence in this unprepared battle.

Two minutes later, the phone rang.

Chen: [What are you wearing?]

Zhou Yu: [Black]

Asking this question meant that the person had arrived. Zhou Yu looked up towards the door and, sure enough, saw Chen Jingchi walking in.

His appearance attracted the attention of several people at the door. Some girls secretly took photos with their phones, but seeing that he had come with a purpose, no one dared to go up and talk to him.

Chen Jingchi's gaze swept around the store, finally settling on a corner he would never normally notice. If they hadn't communicated beforehand, he might have even mistaken it for a Starbucks employee.

The girl was dressed in understated black, her long, jet-black hair flowing smoothly like silk, which made her complexion appear even fairer. She wore no makeup, looking as innocent and naive as a high school student.

At that moment, those big, bright eyes were staring intently at him.

The face looked slightly familiar, and Chen Jingchi almost instantly recalled the taxi mix-up from last night.

It was her.

He thought they were complete strangers who would never cross paths again, but little did he know that he had already met the person he had been waiting for all this time back then.

As Chen Jingchi gradually closed the distance between them, Zhou Yu raised her head at an increasingly higher angle until his tall figure cast a shadow against the light, enveloping her within it.

This made her presence even less noticeable.

The moment their eyes met, the girl's calm, almost frozen gaze gradually overlapped with that of the person in the taxi last night.

Chen Jingchi sat down in the seat opposite her and asked, "What would you like to drink?"

"No need, thank you." Zhou Yu skipped the pleasantries and introduced himself again, "My name is Zhou Yu."

Neither of them mentioned their encounter yesterday again; the electronic signature and the last four digits of their phone numbers were irrelevant.

Upon seeing him, Zhou Yu did not show any obvious joy or excitement. It was unclear whether it was due to expected confidence or because being selected was just a trivial matter for her.

Chen Jingchi couldn't sense any emotional fluctuation from her face, which was an exception he had never seen in other girls.

"Zhou Yu." He uttered her name in a deep voice, met the gaze of the person looking directly at him, and asked, "You knew me before?"

He didn't beat around the bush; after meeting me in person, he directly asked me the question I most wanted answered.

Chen Jingchi placed his hands on the edge of the table, leaning his upper body slightly towards Zhou Yu, a posture that would be considered a typical intrusion into the other person's safe zone by a stranger.

Under such pressure, no one dared to lie to him.

Zhou Yu didn't flinch in the slightest, neither physically nor in her eyes. She straightened her back and replied in a low voice, "I've heard of you."

Chen Jingchi tried to catch any micro-expressions on her face, but to no avail.

She seemed very honest.

He then asked the next question: "What did you want to express by writing this poem?"

These words reminded Zhou Yu of reading comprehension exercises she did in high school, where the questions asked what the author's central idea was. The difference was that back then, answering incorrectly only resulted in a point deduction; now, if she answered incorrectly, she might lose some opportunities.

Chen Jingchi stared intently at her. Zhou Yu knew she only had one chance to answer the question, and she couldn't show weakness in front of him. The simplest way was to remain motionless and expressionless.

She slowly began to speak: "I have experienced some bad things in the past. I was too young and isolated. Now it's all in the past. I want to give my past self some courage and strength, and I want to let go of those feelings."

"It is a stubborn confusion that has failed to achieve its goal."

It's about growing up against the odds, shedding your childishness.

Every word in the lyrics is also for her.

As soon as she finished speaking, Zhou Yu could see the sharpness in the other person's eyes gradually fade, but she dared not relax and her nerves remained tense.

Chen Jingchi paused for several seconds before speaking: "Aren't you curious why I chose you?"

Zhou Yu shook his head: "Those who can resonate with words are more or less influenced by their past experiences. I need to explain myself, but I don't want to pry into yours."

Even his tone of voice lacked variation. A polite explanation finally convinced Chen Jingchi that everything seemed to be a coincidence.

They may have similar growth paths. This poem was written by her to her past self, which happened to resonate with Chen Jingchi.

Perhaps he was indeed overthinking things. Although he had always been unwilling to believe in luck, Zhou Yu's submission, sent at the last minute, was a timely rain that saved him from dire straits, a timely charcoal in the snow, an unexpected and belated surprise.

Chen Jingchi finally lowered his guard and began to appreciate the person in front of him.

He leaned back in his chair, relaxed, and changed the subject: "How much time did you spend on this poem?"

Hearing this, Zhou Yu knew he had hit the nail on the head. His tension eased slightly, and he replied, "One night."

Chen Jingchi nodded casually and asked the next question: "Does composing the music before writing the lyrics significantly limit your creative process?"

Zhou Yu paused for a second, then asked, "We still have a partnership?"

Her tone made it hard to tell whether she was expecting or surprised. Chen Jingchi raised an eyebrow and asked, "You don't want to?"

“No,” Zhou Yu replied to his previous question. “I can try.”

Zhou Yuneng sensed that after the first two questions, Chen Jingchi's trust in her had surpassed zero, and he tacitly agreed that they would continue to cooperate.

"The first album is tentatively planned to have three songs, and I'll give you the music for the remaining two," he said.

Zhou Yu hadn't expected that things would progress so quickly to the cooperation stage. She subconsciously asked, "Aren't there any other questions?"

She regretted asking the question as soon as it left her mouth.

He himself isn't going to pursue the matter anymore, so why did she have to say that?

Fortunately, Chen Jingchi didn't connect this to the lyrics. Instead, he asked a different question: "You don't check your phone messages much?"

He was clearly referring to the hours he had been waiting for her response. Zhou Yu's expression finally softened, and she explained, "I was outside this afternoon and my phone died, so I didn't see your email. I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Chen Jingchi said. "I get too many QQ messages, let's add each other on WeChat too."

Zhou Yu just took out his phone when he realized that the power bank he had brought with him was also out of power. Just now, during the conversation, his phone had automatically shut down.

She pressed the power button, then looked up at Chen Jingchi, who had already displayed the QR code, and said with a somewhat innocent expression, "It won't turn on."

Chen Jingchi clicked "Exit": "I'll add you. Give me your number."

After the operation, Chen Jingchi slowed down his speech and said, "Although I admire you, I need to make the premise of cooperation clear."

During his brief pause, Zhou Yu had already picked up where he left off: "You mean to say we're only talking about cooperation, not feelings?"

The moment she uttered those arrogant words, Chen Jingchi quickly realized he had been overthinking it.

really.

"Don't worry," Zhou Yu said frankly, "I like money more."

The girl's personality was really to his liking. Chen Jingchi chuckled, his voice still tinged with lingering amusement: "Sorry, I was the one who offended you."

The brief conversation ended there. Zhou Yu stood up behind Chen Jingchi and walked out of the coffee shop with him.

Chen Jingchi practices singing every day, and to avoid disturbing others, he doesn't live in the school dormitory but rents an apartment off-campus. He turned to Zhou Yu to say goodbye: "It's not convenient to talk for too long today. We'll contact each other via WeChat later regarding the details of the lyrics."

Zhou Yu nodded and watched him leave.

She stood in front of the coffee shop sign, the neon lights casting a colorful, flickering glow on her face.

Zhou Yu looked down at his hands hanging by his sides, and as his fingertips curled up, he touched his palm and found it was damp with sweat.

A note from the author:

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Thank you to reader "May you pass every exam." for watering with +12 nutrient solution! [Pink Heart][Pink Heart]