Chapter 62
There was a rehearsal tonight, and Xie Shuwan gathered a group of people upstairs to play games and listen to demos.
The band has a performance coming up soon, and the demo is a new surprise prepared for the performance. This time, they came to enjoy the special treatment given to them as friends.
Yu Shuzhi, who has recently become a regular at "coffee and wine", shook his head upon hearing this: "This is not preferential treatment, this is torture. I beg you, treat the prisoners well. If I keep listening, I'm really going to collapse."
He acted pitiful and funny, which amused everyone present, both men and women.
After laughing for a while, the group got really bored and started discussing playing games.
A clapping game: stack your hands together, and whoever doesn't dodge gets punched and has to drink.
Guan Nan reacted quickly, but after several rounds, she still hadn't gotten a single drink.
"No, no, I'm not playing anymore," Chen Fei shouted. "You're all cheating! I'm the only one drinking, and my hands are all swollen."
Yena teased her, "Then you should have reacted faster. Look at Nannan..."
Guan Nan, who was sitting in the corner, was suddenly called out, and all eyes turned to her. She, who had been quiet, smiled generously, picked up her wine glass, and said, "I'll drink it for her."
"That won't do!" Chen Fei quickly stopped her.
Lin Rui, standing to the side, laughed and said, "Sure, but it's just a matter of drinking for someone else, so you have to start with three cups."
The drinks on the table were strong, and with his encouragement, the atmosphere became even more lively. They all produced two more glasses and poured two more glasses of wine into them.
Yena looked unhappy: "She's allergic to alcohol, don't bully her! If you have a problem, come at me!"
“Come on, Yu Shu,” Ye Na said loyally, smashing her cup in front of Yu Shu. “Drink!”
Staring at the three glasses of wine, Yu Shu's lips twitched: "Wasn't this aimed at you?"
Why is it coming at me?
“That’s fine too,” Lin Rui said with a sly grin, “but we still need to add three more cups.”
Three cups after three cups, the drinks kept piling up on the table.
Chen Fei passed the three cups to Guan Nan, Ye Na then passed the six cups, and Yu Shu had to drink nine cups in one go to take over.
Fang Xiang was about to give in when he realized that drinking those nine cups would kill him, so he immediately pretended to be drunk, shaking his head and swaying, and even made a vomiting gesture: "I can't drink anymore."
He cleverly used a trick to switch the drinks, and in a daze, pushed the wine to Jiang Li across the street.
"Playing this high?" Xie Shuwan said gloatingly. "That's twelve cups!"
"Wow!" The atmosphere reached its peak. Qi Qi couldn't help but whistle and tease with a sly smile, "Jiang Li, wanna drink?"
"Drink! Drink! Drink!" Lin Rui also joined in.
The entire lounge was filled with a noisy commotion, and even people passing by downstairs couldn't help but stop and look up at the upstairs bar.
Inside the hall, under the ambient lighting, Guan Nan openly and honestly observed him.
In the dim light, the man's posture was relaxed and casual, as if this farce had nothing to do with him.
In the instant he looked up, his already sharp facial features became even more defined, especially his deep black eyes, which fixed intently on Guan Nan.
The light refracted and hit the silver chain around his neck.
The pendant was hidden inside the clothes.
The two stared at each other, their eyes hidden from view. The insurmountable Odaiba table between them resembled a powerful and raging river, much like the scene of a pantomime.
You and I are separated by a river, gazing at each other from afar.
Guan Nan's heart skipped a beat. Unable to withstand such eye contact, she didn't dare to look any longer and silently looked away.
Just then, Jiang Li shifted his languid posture and withdrew his gaze from her.
He put down his cards, leaned back slightly, and said confidently, "I'll drink."
The twelve glasses of wine were all strong, and you could tell from the aroma that they were quite potent. There was even a mixed red and white wine among them. Guan Nan couldn't bear to look at them and said, "Let's just forget about it."
Upon hearing this, Jiang Li's eyelids twitched, and the hand holding the wine cup paused in mid-air before extending it forward with a half-smile: "Then you do it."
Instantly, Guan Nan moved his lips, his expression hesitant.
"Ha," Jiang Li flicked his wrist, tilted his head back, and downed the glass in one gulp, the bottom of the glass clinking on the table. Then he said, "What are you saying if I don't drink?"
Before anyone could react, he began pouring cup after cup of wine with a blank expression.
By the sixth and seventh cups, his movements had visibly slowed down.
Guan Nan stood up and walked straight towards him. Even though she knew she shouldn't, she still stood in front of him without hesitation, just like he used to protect her, and took the wine glass from his hand.
Five cups remained on the table.
Guan Nan held his wrist, bent over and straightened up six times, and the strong liquor went down his throat.
My throat is burning, and the spiciness is making my stomach and heart ache.
These years have been filled with hardship and pain.
At this moment, however, I felt somewhat relieved.
Ye Na and Chen Fei stared at her with worried expressions, their hands gripping their phones as if they were about to make an emergency call, fearing that she might have an alcohol allergy and something bad might happen to her.
"The two of them..." Chen Fei hesitated, unable to finish her sentence.
"I don't know." After several attempts to probe, Guan Nan would always change the subject, so Ye Na didn't know why.
Could it be because of Jiang Li's "ex-girlfriend"?
However, Yena was unsure and didn't say anything.
Chen Fei looked around and, not far away, looked up at Jiang Li, whose expression was inscrutable, and guessed, "Could it be that he hurt her heart?"
"..." Yena was exasperated. "You have a really wild imagination."
As soon as she finished speaking, Guan Nan put down the last empty cup, let go of her wrist, turned around and walked over, her steps very steady.
He showed no signs of intoxication or allergic reactions.
Without saying a word, Ye Na pulled Guan Nan aside and checked her over from head to toe.
"Aren't you allergic to alcohol?" Chen Fei was still shaken, her eyes following Ye Na's movements. She was clearly recalling a time in college when Guan Nan mentioned her alcohol allergy when she refused a senior's offer to drink at a karaoke party.
Guan Nan never expected that the excuse she used to decline the appointment would be remembered by them to this day. No wonder she was never persuaded to drink alcohol at so many foreign affairs events, even though she didn't drink at all. Those insignificant little things were suddenly remembered and taken to heart by others.
Perhaps it was the wine that stirred her emotions, but Guan Nan's eyes welled up with tears. She choked back a sob and forced a smile: "No."
While they were still whispering to each other, the men on the other end were already discussing changing the game to liven things up, as if they hadn't had enough fun watching the previous performance.
Later, someone suggested playing cards with prostitutes.
This time, Guan Nan didn't participate. She made an excuse to go to the restroom, but actually grabbed her bag and left quietly. After she came out, she sent messages to the two of them.
After wandering around, I inexplicably found myself back at the foot of the clock tower, sitting there lost in thought.
She remembered that sea salt-scented coat.
A doll fell out of my coat pocket.
J-branded Sprite.
Guan Nan couldn't help but laugh foolishly, then immediately stopped herself.
The gentle evening breeze always easily stirs up melancholy, or perhaps it was the aftereffects of the alcohol taking hold, but in her hazy state, she saw someone standing under the clock tower.
His figure was tall and slender, and the cool moonlight shattered on the ground, creating a desolate yet lonely atmosphere.
It gives the illusion that he has been standing there for a long time and has never left.
Unconsciously, Guan Nan blurted out, "Jiang Li."
The person froze, as if turning around, or perhaps not making any movement at all.
When she looked up, the person was already gone.
It all seemed like a hallucination to her.
After a long while, when the clock struck twelve, it was midnight.
As night fell and darkness descended, Guan Nan sat alone on a bench, gazing up at the towering clock tower, unaware that someone was watching from behind, standing at a distance beneath the silent banyan tree.
--"Happy birthday."
······
Everything proceeded smoothly. Guan Nan was quick to learn and adapt, and soon she adapted to the company's operating model.
As promised, the company provided her with a team to lead the incubation of IPs.
But no one told her that the team she was about to lead consisted only of herself and another newcomer who filmed all sorts of videos and ventured into all sorts of channels and genres.
The viral hits resulting from her previous creative submissions were casually attributed to good luck.
Guan Nan was somewhat dejected, but only for a moment.
Nicknamed "Lulu-chan", she is a member of an incubated internet celebrity with 244 followers. She is a sweet and cute girl who is 172 cm tall.
Lulu was excited and nervous as someone showed her around for the first time, and said, "I have a restaurant visit this afternoon, can you come with me?"
Guan Nan felt a bit overwhelmed looking at the homepage filled with sports, travel, and restaurant reviews.
But not wanting to dampen the girl's enthusiasm, I went with her to visit the store in person.
The beginning and ending are always the same as the previous one: "Hello everyone, this is Lulu-chan, today we're eating..." and "Okay, that's the end of this video, see you next time"—classic.
A classic is something that is used by many people, but being a classic does not necessarily mean it will become popular or attract attention.
After watching one episode, Guan Nan couldn't find a suitable style for her, but she didn't deliberately dampen her enthusiasm. Instead, she kindly reminded her, "If you're doing a mukbang, it's best to avoid swallowing scenes, as some platforms will restrict traffic or even block the video."
“Ah,” Lulu said, looking troubled, “I saw comments questioning whether the lack of swallowing footage meant the eating was fake, and they didn’t believe me when I explained, so I deliberately slowed down the footage.”
"..." Guan Nan comforted her, seeing her discouraged look, "It's okay, we can take it slowly from now on."
Meanwhile, Chen Fei, who was trying to avoid blind dates, did not go back.
Because she was worried that Guan Nan might not be able to stay at her place, she decided to stay at Ye Na's house temporarily while looking for a place to live.
The results of the college entrance examination will be released at the end of June.
Whenever Guan Nan went out and returned home, she would always find many people downstairs throwing red ribbons at the pomegranate tree.
Over the next three days, she went closer to investigate and found that they were all prayers and requests.
“Hey classmate,” a girl in a school uniform saw her and couldn’t help but share, “You’re here to pray for good luck too, right? I heard that wishes made under this pomegranate tree are very effective, so I come here every year.”
Caught off guard by being called "classmate," Guan Nan was still a little taken aback.
When she got home, she realized that she had worn a pair of school trousers from Fuling when she was folding clothes that morning.
White T-shirt, school pants, no makeup, long, straight black hair.
He looked exactly like a student.
It's no wonder they admitted their mistake.
Yet this is the same person, this is Guan Nan, standing at this very moment, just as before and from now on. No one will remember Guan Nan, who in his student days consistently ranked first in his grade and was considered by everyone to be the city's top scorer, who, after being favored for so many years, became the most mediocre, the most lonely, and the most pathetic among them.
Guan Nan still wondered, "Can I pray for good luck here?"
"Sure!" The girl was quite surprised by her words, so she adopted the air of a local and earnestly explained, "You're from out of town, right? This pomegranate tree is very powerful around here. We come here to pray before every exam. Do you know why?"
Guan Nan honestly shook her head: "I don't know."
“Because,” the girl said secretly, pointing to the building in front of her, “two top scorers in the middle school entrance exam and one top scorer in the college entrance exam came from this building. There were supposed to be two. I heard that the community and school had prepared banners, but for some reason, they suddenly canceled the banner-hanging. I guess the other candidate for the top scorer in the college entrance exam underperformed. It’s such a pity.”
Upon hearing this, Guan Nan's face stiffened, and she forced a smile.
"Do you live here? You should have heard from the landlady, or you can ask her to find out. Her name is Nan."
Gazing at the pomegranate tree, Guan Nan seemed somewhat lost in thought, and hesitantly said, "I don't live here, I'm... here for tourism."
The girl clicked her tongue: "If you ask me, you're right. How can you name someone Nan? It's so unlucky."
“Yes,” Guan Nan said as if she were just passing through. “How can you call yourself Nan?”
Whether it was the disturbing memories or the inspiration from her conversation with the girl, Guan Nan finalized a new idea for Lulu in the evening, rushed to make props overnight, and started filming that night.
One is a content creator, and the other is an editor.
After the video was filmed, it was already two or three in the morning. Lulu changed her clothes and went downstairs. She walked up to Guan Nan, who was still editing, and saw her carefully observing and modifying each frame of the video.
"Will this work?" Lulu sat down on the stone bench, lacking confidence in herself. "I'm not a performing arts major."
After comforting her, Guan Nan checked the video repeatedly, using her past winning experience, "Don't worry, the video is very well made, and I will also buy promotions, don't worry."
Lulu found it hard to accept, and even more unbelievable when she heard it come from her own mouth: "Buy...buy promotion?"
“The traffic pool is too big. If you don’t buy promotion in the early stages, even if you are a gold nugget, you won’t be able to shine.” Guan Nan understands the mentality of practitioners. Her past experience also makes her understand what newcomers who haven’t started an account are worried about. “If it’s just for your own entertainment, there’s no need to spend this money. But if you are a practitioner in the industry, you need to change your mindset, and you have to spend this money.”
Lulu had seen the consequences of buying advertising before, so she was very reluctant to discuss it. Her face fell. "But buying advertising gets you yelled at, yelled at terribly. I've seen it happen..."
“That’s not the end, nor the conclusion, but the inevitable path for every practitioner.” Guan Nan shouldn’t have said this, but now the team she’s in charge of consists of only the two of them. They’re fighting side by side to achieve a breakthrough. They have the same goal, and Guan Nan feels that she can’t just sit and wait for her to slowly change her mindset. They don’t have that much time.
So, Guan Nan, unusually, used her experience in selling multiple products to enlighten her, calmly saying in the simplest and most straightforward way: "Since you're in this industry, you can't be too high-minded and think that buying promotions, buying traffic, and buying online trolls are so terrible. Without the support of external forces, on a network platform where millions of people are fighting for every second, none of us can get ahead."
Lulu stared at her in a daze upon hearing this.
Guan Nan didn't look at her, and continued working as she spoke. "A day is only so long, so the leisure time after studying and working becomes especially precious. This is why there are only three golden seconds at the beginning of each video. If you can keep the audience there, you will stay. If you can't, they can just swipe away and take away your future. The netizens in front of the phone screen are the ones who control your future and whether you can become popular."
"Since you're in this industry, your primary task is to make the audience like you, please them, and provide them with enough emotional value. No matter when or where, the audience is your bread and butter."
"Whether you like it or not, whether you're annoyed or not, whether you want to or not, you must put them first and not be capricious or throw tantrums. Because without them, you wouldn't exist, and all your honors are thanks to them. At least in front of the camera and behind the scenes, without their support, no one will see you, even if you have ten thousand taels of silver or ten thousand taels of gold, no one will care."
"And all you can do is improve your professional skills to thank everyone for their support. Besides, they don't want your gratitude; they just want you to be better, to be seen by more people, and to stand under the brightest spotlight."
"Only by doing these things can you truly live up to their expectations, their affection, and all their support."
Upon hearing this, Lulu blinked and remained speechless for a long time.
She said in a muffled voice with a slight nasal tone, "It's too late, I'm going home now."
Seeing Lulu's low spirits, Guan Nan didn't comfort her this time, wanting her to slowly process all the things that had been thrown at her in advance.
The banyan tree rustled in the evening breeze.
Guan Nan finished her work and closed her laptop. For a moment, she felt as if she had returned to a night many years ago, when the wind was just as gentle and cool.
That year seems to have been like that.
Santa Claus stood under the old banyan tree, looking up at the girl upstairs, the usually carefree boy smiling broadly.
The boy promised that "the wish will last forever."
In an instant, the phone on the stone table vibrated, bringing Guan Nan back to her senses.
I found my earlier naiveté laughable.
The two hardest things to hold onto in this world are a sincere heart and a lasting, unchanging wish.
Guan Nan answered the phone, "Hello."
"Hello, hello, I've finally gotten through," the voice on the other end of the phone said, sounding both helpless and anxious. "Your friend is drunk and causing trouble here. Could you please come over?"
The person's words were incoherent, and Guan Nan suspected that the other party was a scammer, so she specifically checked the caller ID.
— Local number in Fuling.
Guan Nan had all the few local numbers in her contacts, so she hung up without a second thought. However, the other party persisted, calling her again and again from different numbers, as if determined to get her to answer.
Guan Nan edited the text for the video she would post tomorrow while checking her scores.
The scam calls kept coming in, and Guan Nan was somewhat impressed by their dedication: "Hello."
"I have him in my hands. Hurry up and get to the banyan tree. I'm losing patience."
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