Chapter 14

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When Lu Yan said that she would participate in the Rookie talent competition, ‘the father who spoiled his daughter to no end’ Lu Jian was of course a hundred percent supportive of her and even bought her an expensive guitar.

However, before Lu Yan had time to use this guitar, she was dragged by her ambitious dad to start his money-making career:

As a street performer.

Lu Zhen deliberately chose the performing arts address in the People’s Park, which is almost half a city away from school, to avoid being seen by his schoolmates.

When Lu Zhen was hit by melancholy in his youth, he learned guitar for a few days in order to pick a girl up, so he could play some simple melodies such as “Little Star”.

Liang Ting complained mercilessly, “If you want to make money with this guitar, you might as well just sell the guitar for money. This guitar is not cheap.”

He reached out and tried to touch the guitar, but Lu Zhen avoided his hand. “What? Sell? This is Yanyan’s, I just borrowed it temporarily.”

As he was talking, Lu Yan’s aggressive voice permeated in the air, “Lu Zhen, you bastard, return the guitar to me!!!”

Lu Zhen hurriedly hid behind Liang Ting: “Hey, I’m just borrowing it! I won’t break it!”

“No way, you don’t even know how to play guitar!”

“Nonsense, you don’t know if I can play it or not.”

“Of course I know!”

Who can know you better than your own daughter!

Lu Zhen was basically a tone-deaf KTV killer, so much that Lu Yan deeply suspects that her possessing such a natural and nice voice was all thanks to her mother’s genes.

Lu Zhen flicked the strings and began to play, “Twinkle twinkle little star…”

“Little rabbit, open the door…”

“ABCDEFG…”

He just repeated a few children’s songs over and over again, he even sang the alphabet song…

When a grandfather and an aunty walking in the People’s Park passed by him, they frowned, covered their ears and hurriedly left.

He couldn’t even sing children’s songs properly; his voice was too ugly.

Lu Zhen was particularly frustrated.

As the sun set, Lu Yan leaned on Lu Zhen’s shoulder, looked at the empty guitar case, then curled her lips and said, “I told you. Who can understand you better than I do? You are really tone-deaf but nobody’s perfect.”

Lu Zhen knocked on Lu Yan’s head in response, and she covered her head with an aggrieved face, “Woo.”

Liang Ting smiled, “Don’t discriminate against tone-deaf people, even they are qualified to love music.”

Lu Zhen stared at the empty box, then frowned, feeling the difficulty of making money.

How did Shen Kuo manage to support himself by relying on himself?

Lu Yan suggested, “Why don’t you let me try it?”

“No can do!”

“Forget it!”

“No! Just don’t!”

The three teenagers voiced their opposition unanimously. Lu Yan’s voice in the “accident” was even more unbearable to hear than that of Lu Zhen!

When she was in junior high school, she went to the stage to sing Grasshopper’s “Lost Love Alliance”[1], but the host interrupted her and sent her off the stage, which shows how bad she was at singing.

([1]: 草蜢 – 失恋阵线联盟, link to the song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=suIbr4JS5MA)

Lu Zhen laughed at her mercilessly at that time. Although the little girl had a bad brain, she was also angry. After sulking for many days, Lu Zhen took her to the playground to make her happy… That was when the kidnapping occurred.

But fortunately… They finally got the little girl back.

“Don’t look down on me, I’ll surprise you all.”

Lu Yan finished speaking, took the guitar from Lu Zhen’s hand, plucked the strings, and the guitar produced a string of sweet melody.

Lu Zhen and Liang Ting covered their ears with their hands at the same time, buried their faces in their knees, so as not to lose face later.

Lu Yan grumbled discontentedly, and seeing that only Qin Hao was supporting her with a smile, and simply said, “Uncle Qin Hao, help me play the rhythm.” Qin Hao bought a toy tambourine for two dollars and tried it with Lu Yan’s melody. Unexpectedly, the two instruments were together from the first beat (hit off instantly).

Lu Yan parted her lips, her clear voice very penetrating.

Lu Zhen and Liang Ting put down their hands covering their ears at the same time and looked at her in surprise.

She was not bad, no. She was very good; very, very good!

Lu Yan was sitting on the stone bench, leaning slightly, the soft bangs on her forehead covering her beautiful peach eyes.

She sang “Little Baby”[2]. The sweet voice accompanied by catchy lyrics and melodious melody attracted many passersby in the park, who came for a walk after a meal.

([2]: 夏天播放 – 小寶貝, link to song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqTC3Pl2NiE, it’s a very beautiful and calm song)

Lu Yan smiled while singing, two sweet dimples carved into her cheeks. She was leaning against Lu Zhen, full of warmth and happiness.

Emotions were well transmitted through music, and the surrounding audience could also feel the happiness that Lu Yan was conveying through music.

After singing this song, the surrounding applause was thunderous, and many audiences consciously put change in the guitar case.

Lu Zhen asked in disbelief, rummaging through Lu Yan’s pocket< “You don’t have a Walkman? You are not lip-synching?”

“How is it a lip-synch? Don’t look down on me!”.

“But the voice …”

”…Was extremely pleasant to hear!”

Lu Yan smiled triumphantly, “I said it before, but you didn’t believe me.”

During that time, the People’s Park was very lively at dusk, every evening, because rumors spread that there was a girl there who sang very nicely.

At that time, there was no Douyin and no online novels, so everyone’s way of entertaining themselves was relatively simple. Therefore, listening to Lu Yan singing in the park became a kind of spiritual enjoyment for everyone.

In her past life, Lu Yan had her own room on the live broadcast platform. Whenever she opened the live broadcast to sing, the traffic on the live broadcast platform would suddenly rise, showing a peak.

That’s how popular she was.

For her, the public attention was easy to grasp. Even if she was holding a simple guitar and sitting on a stone bench in the park, without makeup and no beauty effect, she was still so radiant and moving.

Liang Ting looked at Lu Yan, who was smiling sweetly, and then at the obsessed audience around her.

There is no doubt that passers-by of all ages, men and women, became her fans.

There are many people in the entertainment circle who sing well, but there are few who can charm the audience like Lu Yan with her smile.

This talent was innate for her.

During that time, Lu Yan became a little “celebrity” in People’s Park. When Shen Kuo was passing by the park when he was going to the hospital to get medicine for his father, he also heard her voice accidentally.

She was singing an affectionate love song, her voice was faint, and the guitar plucking was especially gentle–

“For the rest of my life, you are the one, be it wind or snow, you are the one, be it poor or mundane…”[3]

([3]马良-往后余生, link to song : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oa49Nym7wJk, also a very good song recommended by TL ☺)

Shen Kuo never liked to join in the fun, and he didn’t like to go to crowded places, but he was attracted by her voice, so he squeezed into the crowd and saw her.

She sat quietly holding the guitar, the soft light of the street lamp shined on her face, and her fine and curled eyelashes were like small brushes, casting a shadow on her cheeks.

She plucked the strings lightly, her face kind and gentle.

“I want to be with you under the clear sky that extends for a thousand of miles, and I want to say it out loud, that I am so into you, the past is rushing, you will always be touched, for the rest of my life, I only want you.”

Shen Kuo’s heart suddenly trembled as if it was hit by huge waves roaring, a storm brewing behind his calm black eyes.

He has never thought about what the rest of his life should be like. A person who is deeply trapped in the quagmire has only the embarrassment of his family members in front of him. The future was infinitely distant, and there was no hope and no light ahead of him.

But after that day, Shen Kuo began to have a ray of light in his heart— the way she laughed.

Lu Zhen turned his head and when he saw Shen Kuo standing in the crowd, he immediately became unable to sit still.

He patted his pants, walked in front of Shen Kuo, and blocked Shen Kuo’s gaze to Lu Yan with his tall figure.

Shen Kuo ignored him and moved a step to the left.

Lu Zhen moved a step to the left as if deliberately looking for faults, not allowing him to see Lu Yan.

The corners of Shen Kuo’s eyes trembled, and he murmured, “Get lost.”

“Don’t wanna.”

Lu Zhen stood in front of him grinning, and said arrogantly, “If you want to see our girl, give me money.”

Shen Kuo’s eyes fell. In the guitar case on the grass, there were more than 50 yuan in scattered change.

Lu Zhen knew that this guy had worked part-time for several jobs after school, was making money like desperately, and he was very frugal on food and clothing on weekdays, and he would not spend money randomly.

Lu Zhen deliberately wanted to embarrass him, raised his tone, and said, “If you can’t bear to spend money, just get out of the way. For guys like you, she is unreachable. The smelly frog wants to eat swan meat, what a wishful thinking…”

A wishful thinking.

Shen Kuo’s heart was stabbed, not because Lu Zhen insulted him, but because what Lu Zhen said… was the truth.

He was not worthy of this girl.

“Lu Zhen!” Lu Yan stopped playing and scolded him angrily, “What nonsense are you blabbering?”

“I’m talking nonsense? Where was I talking nonsense? It was all true!”

“Shut up!”

Lu Yan looked at Shen Kuo and smiled apologetically.

Shen Kuo did not hesitate, put his hand into the bag and took out a whole one hundred yuan bill.

Lu Zhen looked at the banknote and sarcastically said, “We won’t give it back later.”

“No need.”

Shen Kuo went past him, slamming his shoulder unceremoniously, causing him to stagger back and almost fall backwards.

Instead of putting the money in the guitar case, he walked up to Lu Yan, folded the banknote neatly with his dexterous hands, and put it in the small purse in front of Lu Yan. He bowed his head and said something in her ear.

After he whispered to, he glanced at Lu Zhen indifferently and turned to leave.

Lu Yan touched her purse, her soft cheeks flushed slightly, and nodded.

“Really?” Lu Zhen hurried over, trying to get the one-hundred-yuan bill from Lu Yan’s bag: “That dog. He must have taken a fake bill! Show me quickly!”

Lu Yan hurriedly covered it,”He gave it to me!”

“What? Gave it to you?”

“Shen Kuo told me himself, this money is for me to buy rice bubble cones to eat.”

“What? With this money, there is more than enough to buy ten carts of rice bubble cones, you will eat until you burst!”

Twenty years ago, the value of one hundred yuan could almost double by seven or eight times, that’s why Lu Zhen reacted like this.

Lu Yan watched Shen Kuo’s long figure gradually disappearing into the sunset.

In her impression of him, he was stubborn, indifferent, and hid a knife behind his smile… But when he put the money in her purse and asked her to take the money to buy rice cones to eat, his dark coffee eyes… were extremely gentle.

At night, when Shen Kuo came out of his yard, the neighbor’s widow Chen Yueqin was drying clothes at the entrance of the alley.

“Xiao Kuo is at home, have you eaten dinner yet?” Chen Yueqin said to him graciously, “Our house has stewed chicken soup. Do you want me to give you and your father a bowl?”

“No.” Shen Kuo coldly refused.

Chen Yueqin’s face was still full of smiles, “Are there any dirty clothes in the room? Bring them to Aunt Chen. Aunt Chen will help you wash them.”

Of course, Shen Kuo knew what Chen Yueqin’s intent was. His father, Shen Jianxun, contracted pneumoconiosis due to unprotected work in the cement factory for a long time. The factory paid a large amount of pension for his father’s later treatment and conditioning.

Chen Yueqin had no job and no source of income, so she naturally coveted the expensive pension.

Shen Kuo locked the door of the room, and when he turned around, he gave Chen Yueqin a cold look, “From now on, don’t come to my house again.”

“Oh, but you are at school during the day and working outside at night. Who will then take care of your dad? Ah?”

Chen Yueqin shook wet a floral blouse and hung it on the wire, “I heard your dad’s painful groaning, and I felt uncomfortable in my heart. How can I bear to leave him alone? If you don’t ask me to come, what if your dad has a shortcoming at home?”

“I will hire a nanny.”

Chen Yueqin smiled deeper, “Why would you waste money on that? I will help you when I am there, and your dad also has someone who I can talk to.”

Shen Kuo didn’t know what ecstasy Chen Yueqin had poured into Shen Jianxun, making him really think that this woman really wanted to live with him.

But Shen Kuo could see that this woman was not at ease. A rascal like her, the more she talked to her, the more she slapped her nose on her face. Shen Kuo saw a lot of people like this.

“Do you really want to marry my dad?”

“Aiya, what are you saying…” Chen Yueqin said shamelessly, “I mean, we should first be friends. It’s embarrassing to say whether to marry or not.”

Shen Kuo smiled coldly, a deep chill in his eyes, “I heard that you have a daughter.”

Chen Yueqin felt a little nervous about Shen Kuo’s gaze, “What do you want?”

Shen Kuo slowly approached. In a voice only she could hear, he said in a deep voice, “I really want… sisters.”

He deliberately twisted the word “sister” on the tip of his tongue, and the frivolous expression on his face made Chen Yueqin feel goosebumps all over her body. She stood there, trembling and unable to speak.

This kid is really evil, not good!

…

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