Chapter 28 – A Good Song

It was a beautiful hand that was slim without losing its smoothness. The skin was flawless and as white as jade. The five fingers were slender like scallions. The nails were trimmed neatly without any nail polish applied and radiated a healthy light pink.

Without a doubt, this was a woman’s hand. She elegantly and skillfully took the cocktail glass. It was as if this cup of Burning was specially mixed for her, rather than stolen from Lu Chen.

Lu Chen couldn’t help but turn back to look, and saw a face that he had a deep impression of.

Su Qingmei, Light Rain Media’s Director!

Tonight, Director Su looked quite dignified after she changed into casual female clothing. She no longer had the charm that confused people.

Lu Chen courteously said, “Good evening, Director Su.”

His courteousness contained a trace of alienated indifference. Lu Chen did not think that Su Qingmei, whose offer he rejected, appeared again just to snatch a cocktail.

He was instinctively on alert.

“Hello, Mr.Lu Chen…”

Su Qingmei unenthusiastically replied as she lifted the cocktail to her mouth and lightly sipped a little before commenting. “There’s too much juice within, causing the alcohol taste to be diluted, the taste leans towards slightly sweet instead of pure alcohol taste. Thus, the name Burning doesn’t reflect the drink.”

David exaggeratedly opened his mouth and said, “Miss Su, the alcohol concentration for this Burning is already very high!”

“But it isn’t high enough, right?”

Su Qingmei placed the cocktail glass back on the bar table and asked Lu Chen, “do you want to try it too?”

There were still light lip-marks, left by her, on the cocktail glass.

Was this a provocation?

Lu Chen smiled and replied, “thank you, but I’ll have to refuse. Alcohol isn’t good for the throat and I’m a singer.”

Even though he drank many beers last night, for people who truly loved alcohol, beer really wasn’t considered liquor.

Lu Chen nodded towards her as he stood up and left the bar counter.

Su Qingmei felt as if her strike had struck cotton, completely empty and without any power. She wanted to flare up, but couldn’t find a reason to do so. She could only resentfully snort.

David shrugged his shoulders, pretended that he didn’t know anything, and continued to concoct his cocktail.

As an experienced bartender, he didn’t want to be involved in the conflict between a man and woman.

Lu Chen went into the backstage with his guitar.

There weren’t many people in the room. Only Wang Xiaoshuai was there. He was wearing headphones while listening to a song and bobbing his head to the beat. Thus, he didn’t notice when Lu Chen showed up.

Lu Chen sat down at his own designated seat and opened the guitar case to retrieve his guitar. He proceeded to make a few small adjustments to tune it and prepared for the program he was going to perform tonight.

The two self-composed songs, You Who Sat Next to Me and Cinderella, were undoubtedly songs that will be performed regardless of what happens. However, for the other songs he is going to perform, he considered changing a couple songs to a casual love song or perhaps adding a gentle rock’n’roll.

Many of the customers in Houhai was quite picky. However, it wasn’t a problem even for the Lu Chen of the past to fool those customers who weren’t industry insiders. However, now that he had greater ambitions, even if he were performing on just a bar stage, the performance must still have style and quality.

Before he truly becomes successful, Lu Chen must continue being a singer in the bar. However, since he was going to do something, it must be his best and not be something done half-heartedly.

The time passed quickly and it was 8 PM in the blink of an eye.  The customers who came to the bar also steadily increased.

Li Hong and Ye Zhenyang also arrived. The former was courteous towards Lu Chen and had even taken the initiative to greet him, whereas, the latter was still unable to let go of his arrogance and his attitude was neither hot nor cold.

However, Lu Chen did not mind him. Perhaps, in the past, he would have envied a contracted singer like Ye Zhenyang, but, in the present, he did not need to be envious of anyone, regardless of what type of singer they were.

Right after 8 PM, Sister Na also appeared in the backstage room.

She enthusiastically greeted everyone as usual and then pulled Lu Chen to a side. She said, “there’s a few friends of the boss who are in the same trade coming over. I’ve arranged for you to perform tonight at 9 PM. It’s a good opportunity so do your best!”

“I know, thank you Sister Na. Oh, by the way…”

Lu Chen nodded his head and took out something he had prepared before and said, “this is for you.”

“What’s this?”

Sister Na curiously took it and laughed, “don’t tell me it’s a love letter? I’m too old for this. If it is possible for me to become 20 years younger, then I will be taking the initiative to chase you instead! Haha!”

Lu Chen gave her a piece of folded A4 printed paper and said, “it’s a song, I hope Sister Na will like it.”

“You really wrote a song for me?”

She opened the piece of paper, looked at the printed music score, and spoke in amazement, “thank you!”

She asked Lu Chen to write a song for her as a joke a couple days ago. However, after she said that, she didn’t take it to heart. She never expected that Lu Chen would really write a song for her.

Her voice was quite loud so Li Hong and Ye Zhenyang, who were backstage, both heard it while they couldn’t help but look at each other.

Lu Chen had written a song for Sister Na? Are you kidding me?

Ye Zhenyang disdainfully twitched his mouth and was clearly disapproving of Lu Chen.

He admitted that the two original songs that Lu Chen had written were pretty good. However, this sort of nostalgic ballad song was not suitable with Sister Na. Also, how could a good song be written that easily? He reckoned that it was just a claptrap to please the crowd.

Sister Na was touched by how Lu Chen composed a song for her but didn’t have many expectations as self-composition wasn’t easy in the popular music industry. A good song wasn’t easy to find and could only be discovered by luck.

However, when she began to read the music score and hummed along softly, her expression quickly changed.

Although Sister Na wasn’t a star singer or born from a family that does music, she had been working hard in the industry over for twenty years. She had performed numerous songs and her experience could be said to be rich and abundant.

She could essentially tell if a song was good with a glance, even if it was a completely new composition.

Sister Na was unable to continue halfway through her inspection. It wasn’t because her level wasn’t enough or because the song was bad.

“This song…”

She used both her hands to hold onto the thin piece of printed paper, like a devout believer holding onto a Bible. It was as if the paper weighed thousands of catties. She asked, with a hint of disbelief in her shaky voice, “is this really for me?”

She couldn’t believe it! She didn’t dare to believe it!

Lu Chen nodded his head and spoke with certainty, “it’s for you!”

Sparkling teardrops glistened in Sister Na’s eyes.

She wasn’t born in a rich family. In order to survive and pursue her passion for music, she embarked on her path since a young age. Despite having a music career for twenty over years, she still didn’t manage to become famous but was still singing in a bar.

Many people weren’t able to become famous was because their own talent wasn’t sufficient. Regardless of how hard they worked, they weren’t able to stand out.

However, it was different for Sister Na. She had a great talent in performing with her wide vocal range and unique voice. This talent allowed her to easily master difficult songs and she could be considered a singer with true abilities.

Chen Jianhao had once said, in private, that the reason why Sister Na wasn’t able to become famous after working in the industry for over twenty years was, other than her appearance, because she didn’t encounter a great song of her own, and a good talent scout that truly understood music.

There were plenty of talent scouts but it was hard to find a good song.

Sister Na the time that she craved for a good song that belonged to herself was truly too long!

It was so long that she already gave up and no longer entertained any foolish hopes.

However, fate was weird in this way. Suddenly, a genuinely good song had appeared just like that. It was placed into her hands and allowed her to obtain it!

This song not only had an amazing melody, but every line of the lyrics touched her heartstrings. It was as if this song was specifically made for her. This caused her to be unable to suppress her internal emotions and she had instantly burst into tears.

“Thank you, thank you!”

Sister Na suddenly opened her arms and hugged Lu Chen tightly, with tears streaming down her cheeks, “thank you!”

Lu Chen was stunned for a moment before he smiled, patted her back and said, “you’re welcome.”

The reason why he took out this song as a gift for Sister Na was because he was grateful for the latter’s help and concern. Without Sister Na’s care, it unlikely for him to be able to sing at the Forget Worries Bar until now.

When you drink water, think of its source. As a person, one must know how to be grateful to others. Deep down inside, Lu Chen was a proud man. While he was in dire straits, he could only take care of himself first and foremost. However, when he had the power, he was willing to repay those who are worth repaying.

This song was his repayment to Sister Na!

Li Hong, Ye Zhenyang and Wang Xiaoshuai were stunned looking at the scene.

They just saw Lu Chen gifting a written song to Sister Na and she started reciting the music score. However, her voice was too soft and no one could hear her clearly. Then, she started crying, then embraced Lu Chen to express her thanks.

What on earth was happening? The three of them had never seen Sister Na losing her self-control like that!