Chapter 9 Love Letter: I wonder if he ever regretted it.
"You're back so soon?" An Kejia was shocked to see Zhou Yu return to the dormitory less than ten minutes after he left. "You really only glanced at him once?"
Fan Xin, who was doing her skincare routine, chimed in, "Oh, we already met last night, so I told you we're familiar."
Although it wasn't quite as simple as An Kejia saying that he only glanced at it, it didn't make much difference. Chen Jingchi only asked a few brief questions.
However, even these few questions made Zhou Yu extremely alert.
An Kejia, ever curious, asked, "What did you two talk about?"
Zhou Yu was still thinking about his performance in front of Chen Jingchi. Judging from the words Chen Jingchi said when he left, he should be considered to have passed the test.
She hesitated for a few seconds before replying, "We talked about the lyrics."
The answer was too ordinary to satisfy the two girls' curiosity. Fan Xin leaned closer and asked, "Isn't there anything else?"
Zhou Yu knew what they wanted to hear, so she simply cut off all thoughts with one sentence: "The premise of cooperating with Chen Jingchi is that you cannot have any improper thoughts about him."
"Ah..." The last syllable of her voice was filled with deep disappointment.
Fan Xin and An Kejia looked at each other, and finally, without prior agreement, they both gave Zhou Yu a thumbs up.
"As expected, you deserve to earn this money." Fan Xin sincerely admired him. "No wonder you were chosen. Chen Jingchi's judgment is truly sharp."
"Can you really tell if someone is interested in you from their lyrics?" An Kejia's curiosity was piqued. "Zhou Zhou, what did you write?"
Zhou wanted to show them the lyrics, but when she picked up her phone, she realized it was out of battery. She plugged it in, thought for a while, and then summarized it in the simplest sentence: "It's about watching a performance."
"What performance?" An Kejia asked. "Chen Jingchi's performance?"
Zhou Yu nodded: "Mm."
"This is possible?!" Fan Xin's jaw dropped in astonishment. "So he likes writing short reviews after watching movies. He should have said so earlier."
An Kejia waved her hand and said, "Even if we write a review, we won't pass the facial recognition test, so forget about it."
"That's true." Fan Xin thought about it and felt better.
Zhou wanted to charge his phone and, after turning it on, first opened WeChat and accepted Chen Jingchi's friend request.
The next second, the other party sent a message.
Chen: [Send me your card number]
Just as Zhou Yu had copied and pasted the message, a new message popped up in the chat box.
Chen: [Royalty sharing will be discussed after the album is released.]
Zhou wanted to reply to him with "Okay".
After sending the message, Zhou Yu hovered her fingertip over the screen for a few seconds before finally clicking on Chen Jingchi's profile picture. Just as she expected, his Moments were completely blank. It wasn't that he had blocked her, but rather that he hadn't posted anything at all.
Just like her.
Zhou Yu clicked into the friend's profile section, his eyes landing on the words "Note Name".
After a moment, she gave up the idea and logged out of WeChat.
Chen Jingchi's efficiency was frighteningly high; Zhou Yu received the 10,000 yuan he transferred within minutes.
The balance had both whole and odd numbers; this was the first income she had ever received in her life.
But thinking about how he won this honor, a faint unease surfaced deep in Zhou Yu's heart.
She didn't know what Chen Jingchi thought of the lyrics she wrote, nor did she know if she could write another piece that satisfied him in their subsequent collaborations.
Ultimately, the reason this poem was selected was simply because she had an information gap. Zhou Yu also didn't know what style Chen Jingchi liked. Like everyone else, her understanding of him came from his works.
This applies only to works of art.
Standing out from thousands of people to win the opportunity came with enormous risks. From then on, she had to be extremely cautious and tread carefully regarding anything involving Chen Jingchi.
She was far less composed and calm than she appeared on the surface; she was simply used to arming herself with armor and wouldn't allow even the slightest crack to appear.
Zhou Yu felt immense pressure despite only meeting him for a few minutes tonight. This was her first formal conversation with Chen Jingchi, and he seemed very serious about her. Zhou Yu knew she couldn't let him down.
She thought of the cooperation conditions she had proposed when Chen Jingchi left.
We only talk about cooperation, not feelings.
Zhou Yu vaguely realized that those rumors weren't entirely unfounded.
The first week of the new semester for senior high school students included an entrance exam.
After finishing the last exam and returning to the classroom, Zhou Yu witnessed a rare scene: no one in the class was discussing the answers to the exam; instead, they were all talking about the school band.
As she walked to her seat, her deskmate Miao Jiasi waved to her and whispered, "Zhou Yu, do you know? I heard that Tide Echo disbanded."
Zhou Yu didn't notice and kicked his own stool with his toe, making a screeching sound on the tile floor.
She thought she was hallucinating.
Zhou Yu looked at Miao Jiasi's face without saying anything. The classmate in front of her seemed to realize that she didn't believe it and added, "It's true. Everyone's been talking about it all day."
Tidal Echoes is the only campus band at Xianhai No. 1 Middle School that has been officially recognized by the school and featured in official reports. Xianhai No. 1 Middle School is a key middle school in Xianhai and has never encouraged students to develop extracurricular activities. Clubs and student councils are just for show, having only the name but no real structure. Tidal Echoes is an exception.
The band's keyboardist and lead singer, Chen Jingchi, and guitarist, Xu Yue, started performing on the streets in junior high school. After their classmates helped film the videos and posted them online, they attracted some attention from the student community, and many students from their school came to watch their performances.
Having accumulated some performance experience and public goodwill, they recruited other members after entering high school. Therefore, at the very beginning of Tide Echo's official formation, it already had a certain influence in the school.
In just half a year, Tide Echo went from a duo who could only perform on the street with cheap guitars and leaky microphones to standing on school stages and becoming famous in several surrounding middle schools. All they needed was an opportunity to break out of their small circle and appear in front of the public.
In the second semester of their junior year of high school, after the band members left school for intensive training to pursue art exams, Tide Echoes went quiet for a while. Unexpectedly, only half a year later, news of their disbandment spread like wildfire.
Zhou looked at the person who spoke and asked, "Why are you disbanding?"
“It seems like there’s some internal conflict among them.” Miao Jiasi pulled her to sit down and said, “I heard from other classes that Su Jun and Hua Shiting broke up during the summer vacation. It probably didn’t end well, so they couldn’t stay in the band anymore and just broke up.”
Su Jun is the drummer for Tidal Echo, and Hua Shiting is the bassist. The two started dating in the first semester of their junior year of high school, and they were very public about it, which led to their parents being called in by their homeroom teacher several times.
What Zhou Yu didn't understand was that even if they broke up, it wouldn't affect their performances. Besides, Tide Echoes hadn't had any activities in the past six months, so what reason did they have to disband?
This was an absolute disaster for the other two members of the band.
Rumors about them spread like wildfire, and finally, two days later, Xu Yue posted a brief statement on his social media, announcing the official disbandment of Tide Echoes. No one else responded, and the group, which had been together for two years, came to an end.
Many people felt sorry for them. They clearly had the opportunity to perform on a bigger stage after the art exams, but they broke up at this crucial moment, which was no less than a waste of all their previous efforts.
There are several different explanations for the band's disbandment. Zhou Yu later heard a more credible version, which came from a classmate of Chen Jingchi from the same art exam preparation institution.
[After evening self-study on the 3rd, Su and Chen had a fight outside the classroom. It seems that Hua actually liked Chen all along and was only with Su to provoke Chen. But Chen didn't have any feelings for her at all. When Su found out about this, she broke up with Chen and came to confront him. Chen didn't know anything. The brothers fell out, and the band couldn't continue.]
When Tidal Echo was first established, they recruited members from schools. There were many who played drums, but very few who could play bass. As a girl, Hua Shiting was subjected to a lot of criticism when she first joined.
Chen Jingchi and Xu Yue attracted many female fans in junior high school because of their good looks. When they saw that there was a girl in the band, they were naturally unwilling to support her. The person who stood up for her back then was Chen Jingchi.
His statement, "Women's power should not be defined by gender," resonated deeply and was widely shared and liked, becoming a personal motto for many.
He admired the strong for the sake of his beloved music, but in the end, it was his closest friend who betrayed him with petty romantic feelings.
I wonder if he has ever regretted it.
A note from the author:
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Reader "Always Passes Exams.", Watering with Nutrient Solution +15
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