Not long after Lu Yan went upstairs, someone knocked on the door.
“Yan-ge, Yan-ge, are you at home?”
“Ge!”
“Ge, pay attention to me!”
He was currently changing clothes. With his hands on his belt and his jeans half unzipped, he then pulled it back up: "What's the up with you, Zhang Xiaohui?”
The boy standing outside the door saw the door opened up and didn’t have time to retract his hand.
The boy is quite young, no more than seventeen or eighteen years old. He wore a pair of sloppy flip flops on his foot. Even with its strings detached from the rubber, he still wore them candidly. He scratched his hair before delivering something that was folded like a piece of tofu in his hands: “It’s like this, today there’s a meeting on the top floor. Aunt Zhan entrusted someone to bring this back, this is a elderly’s wholehearted gift. You weren’t able to join the meeting. Tomorrow, the demolishing company may take a trip by here… the f*ck, your hairstyle!”
He spoke with a thumbs up: “Bandits are cool!”
Zhang Xiaohui didn’t say anything wrong. Although this hairstyle is indeed inhuman, anyone with a sky-high broom on his head can be considered a unique level of hideousness by itself. But Lu Yan isn’t an ordinary person.
He can still recall when he moved into this building two years ago. It was almost Mid-Autumn Festival, so he prepared a few boxes of mooncakes to send out to his neighbors from the first up to the top floor. When he knocked on door number 602 and saw Lu Yan for the first time, he was a bit dumbstruck. The man had lengthy air, taint eyebrows and rows of earrings. There was also an extremely peculiar and fine sense of rebellion exuding from his body.
The guy with long hair narrowed his eyes and gazed at him. He let out a puff of smoke from his cigarette: “A newcomer?”
The puff of smoke made him forget what he was there for.
Currently, that guy’s long hair turned into an interestingly flashy sky-high broom.
Zhang Xiaohui spoke again, “Yan-ge, are you messing around with Kuaishou1?”
[1] Basically, a mobile phone platform where you can film videos and upload them.
It’s a camera software where you post meng, entertainment, etc
Lu Yan’s temples throbbed abruptly.
Zhang Xiaohui understood that some people don’t live an easy life, so he encouraged: “It’s recently trending within the bury love2 community. You are talented and admirable so you’ll definitely be noticed. Influence will soon be within reach.”
[2] A netizen family, quite similar to the copycat organization.
“Xiaohui,” Lu Yan stared at him for a while, then crooked a finger at him, “You come here.”
Zhang Xiaohui faintly sensed danger: “I, uh, it suddenly occurred to me that I still have some stuff to do.”
“Do you even have common sense?” Lu Yan’s knuckles cracked and rapped on Zhang Xiaohui’s forehead, not too softly nor harsh, “Do you think there’s a reason with Laozi’s attitude to mess around with Kuaishou?”
Zhang Xiaohui covered his forehead: “No… no… no… of course, not. It’s my fault, Yan-ge.”
Lu Yan still had hidden tricks. He waited for Zhang Xiaohui to close his eyes. He then spread open his hands and gently put them on his shoulder: “Okay, thanks for your visit. Tomorrow, I’ll be here. If they dare come…”
Zhang Xiaohui tried to guess what Lu Yan was going to say next. There were a total of eight guesses he made in his mind, but even then, he still didn’t guess correctly.
“...I’ll beat them up.”
The neighbors of this building had something in common. Everyone is a renter who has paid the rent for the next year in advance, but suddenly, an announcement came stating that the district was bought by a large company and would be converted into a factory. The property owner didn’t leave behind a word before he ran away with the rent and compensation money.
Originally, it was only a matter of debt, but the person in charge sent by the large company to negotiate had a short temper. So, without saying anything more, they sent Aunt Zhang who lived on the first floor, to the clinic.
This explains why the beam of the roof is currently down.
If you want to act stubborn than anyone else, then this group of people who lived in a low-cost rental house all year round have never lost before.
His original schedule for a performance was tonight but it was delayed until tomorrow night; Lu Yan’s arrangement to leave for the bar after returning home with his guitar case was postponed. He sprawled on the bed instead, planned to doze off, and as to not mess up the new hairstyle, he kept a distance away from the bed’s headboard. This made him sleep uncomfortably all night.
Early the next morning.
Unlike in other places, there were no restaurants nearby after the demolition of Seventh District and even in the morning, stalls selling breakfast will not come here to start business. The entire place looked like a no man’s land.
Lu Yan both slept early and woke up early. Before six o’clock, he got up to stew some noodles and filled the kettle with water. With his back against the stove as he waited for the water to boil, he suddenly recalled a certain melody. He knocked on the tiles and opened the window beside him with his other hand.
The environment was undeniably dreadful, especially within their district. Despite that, from his current angle, he could see the sun rising from the horizon, dying the half of the sky a light sheen of red.
Lu Yan marveled at it for a while before he retracted his gaze. This is, afterall, still Xiacheng District. Poverty is still poverty… then his gaze landed on a vehicle.
A silver-gray sports car was parked in front of the smashed archway at the gate of Seventh District. The modified tail of the car was full of provocation, with a demeanor that seemed like it could be driven all the way to the sky.
A vehicle like this showing up here is extremely rare. Except for an electrical motorbike that goes rampant on the street, the only other vehicles that appeared here are secondhand cars.
The entire car, from top to bottom, exuded a sense of being out of place.
What did Zhang Xiaohui mentioned yesterday?
“Tomorrow, the demolishing company may come by for a trip.”
Quite early, Lu Yan thought.
Most of the residents in the building leave early and return late at night as they worked in several jobs and various businesses, an attitude of wanting to do almost anything.
Thus, almost all of the residents from this building moved away.
Lu Yan gave it a last glance and after making sure that it was going to park here and there was no large forklift truck around, he decided that it wasn’t a threat. He hummed and looked away. He stared at the steaming smoke coming out of the pot as he knocked his knuckles on the cold tile.
While playing around with his fingers, an idea suddenly came to his mind. His hands were itching, so he picked up the guitar leaning against the wall.
The place where he lived was a cramped single room, twenty square feet, just a small assembly of furniture squeezed together in an absurd way.
In the past twenty years, he had paid more attention to musical instruments, such as a few guitars, a secondhand piano of unknown origin, and various kinds of CD records.
Currently steaming hot water, lead singer of the band Lu Yan, held the guitar, plugged it in and strum the string altogether.
He strummed it twice, following the tune of melody from his mouth.
He didn’t pay attention to the car downstairs, which looked like it was about to fly off, turn off its engine. Half a minute passed by and the car door finally opened.
A person came out of the car.
The person was wearing a black shirt with exquisite workmanship and on his wrist was a watch. The ring of the watch was inlaid with diamonds, and the shirt’s cuffs were folded up to show off his wrist. On the shirt’s cuffs were unidentified stains, patches of white that looked very noticeable in contrast to the black.
“Big bro, you are really gonna go in,” as the car window was lowered down, a head poked out from the driver’s seat. The owner of the head had conspicuous red hair. The redhead glanced left and right before sighing, “It’s still my first time coming to this district. Is this a place where humans can live? It’s quite unsafe, like it’s about to collapse.”
In front of them was half a gate, the rest of it crumbled.
The watchman’s lobby was flattened.
Not even a few steps on the ground are leveled.
Anyway, it was demolished, inside and out.
… The one who got out of the vehicle just glanced around at his surroundings. He wasn’t as overdramatic as the redhead and he was not even sentimental.
But he also didn’t look quite pleased. It was obvious that he was irritated from the way he took out a pack of cigarettes and lowered his head to directly take one out with his mouth. This kind of irritation had nothing to do with the pile of ruins in front of him.
“Lighter.” Xiao Heng spoke while nibbling on his cigarette.
The redhead understood within seconds. He immediately took out a lighter, flicked it and stretched out his hands through the car window: “Here!”
Xiao Heng bent over and lit the cigarette.
Smoke swirled up in front of the redhead.
After the redhead lit up the cigarette, he threw the lighter down onto the passenger seat before placing both hands on the steering wheel. He caressed it a few times, groping as if he was touching a woman: “Your car is quite incredible, so flashy to ride in. It’s truly every man’s dream. Big bro, can I drive two more laps close by?”
“Di Zhuangzi.”
The redhead was caught off guard hearing his name: “Huh?”
Xiao Heng spoke again, “Scram.”
Di Zhuangzi: “.........”
…... “Scram and find if there are supermarkets nearby,” Xiao Heng walked two steps forward as he smoked on his cigarette. He then added, “And then buy some dry hypoallergenic powdered milk and then scram back.”
“Ge, don’t ever say an unfinished sentence again.” Di Zhuangzhi smacked his chest.
Xiao Heng walked towards the bottom half of the building. He didn’t know what to make out of the building. It seemed as if there had been a fight near the entrance. The door was hanging crooked, one push and the door would open.
He spread open his hand and on his palm was a note: “Number 601, Unit 6, No. 6, Unity District.
“Big bro, what type of powdered milk did you just request?” Zhuangzhi had driven five hundred meters away from the district when he called Xiao Heng again, “Tommy? Is it a foreign brand?”
“Hypoallergenic condensed milk3. Hypoallergenic as in allergies.” Xiao Heng extinguished the rest of the cigarette.
[3] Hypoallergenic infant formula designed for infants who have food allergies or are lactose intolerant.
“I’ll go,” Di Zhuangzhi stepped on the accelerator. “You can actually get allergies if you drink ordinary powdered milk. How could I have thought that powdered milk can also be so specific. You only took care of that child for a few days and yet you already know so much…”
Xiao Heng hung up the phone.
The noise of Di Zhuangzhi’s bluffing had already disappeared from his ears, but the world did not become silent. At that moment, in the exact same time, the sound of someone playing an instrument drifted down from the top of the building. The distorted sound was very intense and vivid, with a strong penetrating power that can cause air to split into two.
Electric guitar.
However, compared to heavy metal, this kind of force really isn’t a match at all. It stubbornly kept playing what can be called a delusional tone, with interruptions in the middle, and flat notes when the fingers weren’t pressed firmly. If this kind of guitar playing was assessed, the person playing may not even have the qualifications to be selected.
This is too awful.
The cramp corridors were plastered with small advertisements and the graffitis were sprayed with nothing but red spray paint. This vulgarity leaking silently from the cracks in the wall was unique only to Xiacheng.
The destructive instrumental sound emitted the same kind of vulgarity.
Xiao Heng strolled up to the sixth floor and the strange deadly melody sounded closer, with only a non-existing wall separating him from it.
The sound of the instrument continued until it turned into strumming, probably to show off skills, but it didn’t show off anything at all.
“...” The sound stopped for two beats and Xiao Heng could hear a vague and unsteady humming.
A male voice.
The tone wasn’t bad, and the pitch was accurate. It was much more exceptional compared to the guitar.
Lu Yan closed his eyes even after playing the last chord, still engrossed in feeling the lingering sound around him. After three seconds, he slowly opened his eyes.
He jolted his left wrist gently and altered a few chords on the handwritten music sheet before hanging up the guitar again. Afterwards, he poured the boiling water into the cup of instant noodles and then placed a bowl on top.
He looked at the unrecognizable sheet for a while and decided to give it a title. Grabbing a pen, he wrote down two words on the top: Aerial.
It doesn’t have the right feel to it.
Wipe out.
He wrote again: “Soaring Youth.”
…?
No good either, too hilarious.
Omit.
Four or five consecutive crosses later, there was only three bold and casual characters left on the top in the end: Haven’t decided yet.
He took a picture of the sheet and sent it to Li Zhen.
To prevent Li Zhen from ignoring it the first time, Lu Yan found a dozen emojis in the emoji collection column and posted them altogether. This kind of distraction was simply convenient.
“Lu Yan! F*ck your grandpa!” Li Zhen’s call soon came.
Lu Yan said: “Don’t always mention my grandpa. My grandpa is doing well. His physique is healthy, he eats quite efficiently and sleeps properly.”
“...” Li Zhen broke down, “What time is it? I was sleeping and you suddenly startled me!”
“Have you checked out the new album?”
Li Zhen was both about to pass out and curious: “Hang on, I’ll check it now.”
It’s better not to check it out. Once you look at it, you will feel like breaking down even more.
“What the heck is this stuff, what’s with all your scribbling about… How many times have I told you, your writing is so ghost-like that not even a single human can recognize it! Can’t you practice your handwriting for a little bit? Damn, when I took a glance, only my ass can understand this title!” Li Zhen’s speech was getting more and more deafening. If he worked harder, he could even hit high notes.
“I haven’t decided the title yet!”
Lu Yan caressed his nape: “If you can’t recognize it, then shall I play it for you?”
Li Zhen was dead silent on the other end.
To be honest, Lu Yan’s skill level in songwriting is exceptional. Between dedicated and talented, he is definitely the third type; he was the dedicated and talented one. As the lead singer, his singing is also quite passable. It wasn’t baseless that their band could dominate this area and be given the nickname “Devil Gang”. It was just that every time Lu Yan sent out some indiscernible drafts, the drafts were so confusing that one wouldn’t be able to understand them unless they listened to them. Unfortunately, when he plays instruments, it was truly awful.
Li Zhen’s desire to fall asleep again disappeared in a flash; he was now completely awake.
“I wasn’t sober just now,” Li Zhen explained, “Yan’er4, I thought your music sheet had seemed complicated, but it’s actually not at all. I just wasn’t in my right mind to appreciate it.
[4] He is calling him in an affectionate way. ‘Er’ is a diminutive marker that can be used in names as a term of endearment.
Lu Yan: “Then you can continue to appreciate it.”
Li Zhen: “Fine, let me appreciate it a bit more.”
After putting down the phone, Lu Yan folded the sheet and put it up on the refrigerator. He was planning to open up the instant noodles when it suddenly occurred to him that the bowl he was holding was borrowed from the neighbor next door.
The next-door neighbor was a single woman with long hair. It hasn’t been more than half a year since she moved here and Lu Yan didn’t even know her name. Women usually don’t converse much. He never paid attention to what time she goes out during the day and she comes back even later than him at night, so they hardly encounter each other.
Lu Yan prepared to return the bowl. So he won’t forget about it the moment he turned around, he also took a dozen oranges from the fruit plate and put them in the bowl before heading out. He opened the door—
Inside their demolished building.
In the cramped corridor on the sixth floor.
At this certain point, this certain period of time, there was a very suspicious male standing there.
---------------------------------------------------
The author has something to say:
Lu Yan is a shou!
Translator: Piggybank
Editor(s): Rum, Muku
Proofreader: Rae