The name was still somewhat acceptable.
But this kind of temperament...
Lu Yan thought of a certain individual that had the same surname as this person, but he was unsure of the other’s exact full name.
…
Is everyone who’s surnamed Xiao always this arrogant?
The person on the opposite end must’ve also felt difficult, and consecutively apologised: Please excuse my forgetfulness, I had forgotten to mention this to my bro, give me a moment ah, my apologies.
Xiao Heng is currently in the kitchen preparing condensed milk when he receives the friend request, he’s already annoyed by his restricted mobility – he hangs the infant carrier in front, there's a ball-like creature curling on his chest, the more he looks the more he felt that it’s somewhat unexpected.
He lowered his head and stared at the figure curling up like a ball lying on his chest.
He’s faced with a pair of pristine eyes.
This pair of eyes was really huge, like that of a pair of black grapes.
This baby was no more than four months old. Perhaps he was hungry, but the moment he caught a whiff of the condensed milk, he refused to drink it. And starts wailing in a blink of an eye: “WAAaaa ——”
Once the baby started crying, its constant waaah! seemed endless. it’s even comparable to a continuously steaming water faucet that had been left open.
Xiao Heng’s tone sounded impatient: “What’s the use in wailing.”
The crying didn’t stop.
Xiao Heng: “Please stop whining, it’s irritating.”
The crying still didn’t stop.
Xiao Heng suppresses the urge to shove this infant away out of impulsiveness. Frowning while he drops a bead of milk on to his back hand to test the temperature, then he shoves the milk bottle into the infant’s mouth.
At this moment, his phone screen that had dimmed down earlier lit up again.
[Qiu Shaofeng]: Heng-ge!
[Qiu Shaofeng]: Don’t be so quick to reject others, it’s the stand-in class attendant that I found for you!
Xiao Heng is total confused as to why the subject of class attendant was brought up during the conversation.
So, he directly replied to Qiu Shaofeng through a phone call: “What's the stand-in class attendant about?”
“Just what exactly is it that’s keeping you busy these days, big bro? Zhuangzhi as well, you both left me and go to have fun on your own,” Qiu Shaofeng currently displaying his mighty brotherly affection, “But it doesn’t matter, although you treat me like this, I’m the kind of person who won’t take these things to heart, so in order to keep you entertained and rest assured…”
Qiu Shaofeng hadn't even finished his sentence before Xiao Heng cut him off: “No need.”
Qiu Shaofeng: “…”
Xiao Heng: “Forget it.”
“Don’t you know that your current actions are extremely rude!” Qiu Shaofeng was enraged, “It’s fine even if you don’t bring me along to have fun! Do you also have to trample on our brotherly affection?!”
To hell with having fun Xiao Heng thought.
He his currently at home babysitting an infant and he himself didn’t even get enough sleep.
However, this affair with the infant was really too problematic. It was already complicated enough whenever he bumps into Di Zhuangzhi and he asks him to ask him to buy some baby milk.
What else had he mentioned again?
He also mentioned that old b*tch Xiao Qishan, who f*cks around all day and has managed to even f*ck out a little half-brother for him.
This infant also recognizes people. Once you feed him, he would later refuse anyone else.
Qiu Shaofeng continued to speak until Xiao Heng interrupted him: “Alright, I’ll let him add me first.”
Xiao Heng accepted the friend request. The other party had what looks like a black and red guitar as their profile picture.
Qiu Shaofeng: “I personally handpicked this person myself. In order to find an individual that suited your image, I wasted a total of three days, and you still treat me like this?”
Xiao Heng: “Well I’ll thank you for this.”
“He actually has quite the handsome appearance,” Qiu Shaofeng changed the topic in an instant. “I even have a picture, wanna see?”
“No need,” Xiao Heng spoke while holding onto the milk bottle, “Am I out of my mind?”
[Don’t bother me if there are no important matters]: I’ve accepted your friend request, we can now start chatting.
This type of impulsive tyrant-like username could naturally cause people to feel uneasy, so Lu Yan straightforwardly sent a greeting after his friend request had been accepted, confused as to what he should send, so he merely just sent a courteous “Hello”.
As a result, the other party did not reply.
Lu Yan thought about it for a moment, and then sent a few more messages:
I, myself, have had numerous years of experience as a part-timer.
Upholding my principles of valuing honesty, prioritising my customer’s needs, I can be responsible as your stand-in, and promising contentment in you.
I can achieve a first-class course record and showcase a first-class approach.
This time, the other party reply.
The reply was six ellipses.
[Xiao Heng]: ……
The matter regarding the class stand-in has almost been completely discussed. Lu Yan decided to go downstairs to practice with his guitar, taking advantage of the fact that there weren’t too many people out right now. At night, he made an invitation to come drinking with Wei-ge, since he had said it himself that he would accompany him for a drink next time. Every time they bump into each other, Wei-ge would continually pester him on when the next time would be.
Everyone regularly held their gathering on the building’s roof deck. Once the sky darkens, they would set up a plastic table there.
Lu Yan hauls half a box of liquor while going up to the roof top, and find out Zhang Xiaohui has also arrived.
“What’s the matter with you,” Lu Yan placed down the box of liquor as he spoke, “Xiaohui, don’t you usually avoid alcohol?”
Zhang Xiaohui shook his head: “Don’t mention it ge, I genuinely had it miserable these days.”
“I’ve finally obtained those lines on the stage script, but they’ve been snatched away by other Longtaos1 .”
[1]: longtaos are actors who play walk-on parts in traditional operas
Zhang Xiaohui doesn’t have a stable job.
He aspired to become an actor. He sneaked his way into major cinema studios, first debuting by performing as a corpse on stage and once the drama《The Corpse’s Method of Self-development》had aired, he also obtained some scripts as insignificant side characters, even if every now and then, the characters he acted had no more than six phrases on the stage script.
“So what if the role has been snatched? Coincidentally the crew is lacking someone to play as the maidservant, so I told the director, I could act as a female.” Zhang Xiaohui lifted his head up and downed a sip of liquor, “… the director thought that I was a pervert.”
Lu Yan: “Fill yourself with determination, kid. Acting can transcend all genders, how could the director have thought that way.”
Zhang Xiaohui: “Yea!”
They toasted to a few more cups of liquor, and then Wei-ge tipsily spoke up, “Yan Yan, how about you sing a song for us? It’s been a while since I’ve heard you sing. Bring up your guitar, too. Come perform for us.”
Lu Yan: “Alright, I’ll fetch it right now.”
Zhang Xiao couldn’t hold them down: “No need for instruments. Wei-ge, you seriously drank too much…”
Lu Yan brought up a guitar from downstairs. As his fingers pressed on the guitar strings, recalls back when Huang Xu was leaving with a face full of snot and tears, complaining “The way you strum the guitar is serious too awful”, Lu Yan suddenly thought, at this moment their train should’ve already arrive at Jing Zhou.
Lu Yan changed his right fingers’ positions, doing a temporary song change. A broken string of melody began to flow from between his fingertips.
He closed his eyes, waited for the beat, and then began singing.
But you'll be alright now sugar
You'll feel better tomorrow
Come the morning light now baby
….
And don't you cry tonight
And don't you cry tonight
Within these lyrics surged out the gentle warmth of the night.
***
Lu Yan didn’t drink too much alcohol. According to the schedule sent by the other party, there will be class tomorrow at eight in the morning.
International economics.
Starting from Xiacheng locality, you would need to waste at least two hours on the road. Early in the morning, Lu Yan had found out that a large percentage of his clothes in his closet were made up of stage performance attires while biting onto his slice of bread, various types of flashy, decorative, furry, and even silver-chained attires….. Lu Yan flipped through the closet, and only found a single skirt underneath——there wasn’t much he could wear that was appropriate for schooling.
T-shirts should be considerably plain, plain, but he casually fishes out a T-shirt that has several English letters printed on it: I will fuck you.2
[2]: original text from novel
Much less the other pieces of clothing.
Lu · Vagabond of Society · Yan encounters his first challenge as a part-timer.
Lu Yan continued to rummage through his entire closet and finally found a white t-shirt, with a pair of jeans that goes well alongside his recently cut-short hair. Leaving out the other chaotic decoratives. All in all, he looked alright.
Lu Yan’s arrival just happened to coincides with the busiest time period of the school once he’s at the entrance of C University.
C University is an old school, dozens of decades old, and it stood at the center of Xiajing locality, with commotions disrupting its inert tranquility.
Glancing from the entrance into the building’s interior, behind the golden memo plaque is an extended course of shading trees. Students ride bicycle through out the university campus, the crispy and clear bicycle bell ringing could be heard under the road of shading trees.
The international economics lecture hall was large in size, and had a total of about a few hundred seats.
Lu Yan deliberately snapped a shot before entering.
In order to affirm that the photo was physically taken, he stretched out two fingers in front of the camera and gestured a yay sign.
[Lu Yan]: [Picture].
[Lu Yan]: Already arrived.
Half an hour later, Xiao Heng finally replied.
[Xiao Heng]: No need to send it.
Lu Yan sat at the back row of the auditorium, listening to the professor on the podium lecturing on “Finance relations and international currency”.
It’s none of his business to learn whatever it was that they were being taught. He doesn’t understand a crap, anyways.
Lu Yan props up his head with his hand, and then uses the other to type a reply: This is my professional spirit.
After half of the class’ time period had passes, the old professor switches off the PPT.3
[3]: Microsoft PowerPoint
“As for the following, everyone please take out a sheet of paper…. I don’t have to pick names, there are a lot of people, so it will be time consuming. For the remaining time, I’ll ask you to write a short essay, write down your name as well as your student school ID, then hand it in to me during class dismissal.”
Old professor: “Make up your own topic, or write a discussion regarding today’s lesson, both are fine.”
An in-class assignment.
Lu Yan thought that he should just randomly plagiarise from the internet.
But then the old professor emphasize: “You mustn’t copy off from the internet. I can tell with a single glance, no matter whichever way you write it in. It’s alright as long as it’s self-written, we can communicate through discussion, no need to burden yourself psychologically.”
Everyone lowered their heads and started writing. Lu Yan minimized the Baidu page on his phone screen and sent a report to his boss:
[Lu Yan]: There’s an in-class assignment that needs to be handed in.
[Lu Yan]: I didn’t learn this stuff before… if you have some faith in me, then can I freely express my inner talent?
[Xiao Heng]: Up to you.
…. This client still is difficult to interact with as always.
Lu Yan put aside his mobile phone, and started to ponder on how he should write the short essay.
He doesn’t understand the concept of international economics. Lu Yan can only pave another path for himself, aside from the name and student school ID. He wrote down his first passage:
During this lesson, my main impression lies on you, my professor. Your elegant temperament and the profound knowledge you’ve obtained. The peaches and plums do not speak, yet a path is born beneath them.3 You’re the inventor of mankind's souls, spreading the fire of wisdom; you are the towering beacon that provides directions above the vast ocean; you’re like the first glimmer of sunshine that illuminated me this morning.
[4]: An idiom in which it simply means “a man of sincerity attracts attention “, just like how peaches and plums are merely there, yet still attract people over to pluck it.
……
Today’s morning lesson had finally finished.
[Lu Yan]: The lesson’s over.
[Lu Yan]: Still need to transfer the payment over to your bro, right?
The other party straightforwardly transferred over the money.
[Xiao Heng]: [Transferred cash]
Lu Yan walked a little further forward. Once he received the money, he planned to take the bus and return home.
His sense of direction was unreliable. It was already enough of a challenge for him to find the lecture hall’s location smoothly upon arriving. Because of this, the moment he exited through a different door within the campus building, he began to regret switching directions.
He was also unaware of where he had walked himself to, but not too far away up front was a mini plaza.
Perhaps there was an on-going community-held event being hosted there. There were a few booths in fixed rows set up in the plaza.
It was incredibly crowded.
Lu Yan’s gaze swept past those booths, and in the end, they soon landed on three words: “Musical Instrument Club.”
They still haven’t begun recruiting new members. There were at least two to three individuals who were currently preparing the Musical Instrument Club booth. Nearby were a music sheet stand and a few instruments of different types.
There was a thin guy who wore a yellow t-shirt adjusting the sound of his instrument on the side.
Bass guitar.
Lu Yan didn’t take much of it into consideration. The level of those from school district communities were typically like that of an amateur’s.
He continued searching for an exit. Once that guy finished adjusting the sounds, followed by a casual show of a ‘slap’5 segment, the quality of the music broadcaster was poor, blasting out unclear sound effects, and given fair evaluation, this person’s performance…. was still considerably okay.
[5]: original English word written by the author. Slap refers to bass slapping, where percussive sounds will be produced by string instruments.
Refined and familiarized skills.
The pace of his could leave people speechless, while still playing each chord distinctive and clear-cut.
This ‘slap’ segment lasted no more than thirty seconds, because there’s not much of a crowd near by, also the broadcaster has poor effects, it didn’t attract much attention. The yellow t-shirt dude finishes off his segment, bend down to take off his guitar strap, and then handed the bass guitar to the person by his side: “Alright, the volume adjustment has been finished.”
Lu Yan heard the person on the side holding the bass guitar questioned: “Aren’t you gonna play for awhile at our booth?”
Yellow t-shirt fellow: “I’m not even part of your club, what’s the use in hanging around and blindly stirring up festivity, plus I also have to attend classes later.”
The yellow t-shirt fellow said while turning towards the direction of the educational faulty building’s restroom.
Perhaps within this lifetime, the yellow t-shirt one may have never thought he would meet his most important turning point of his life in this restroom. Once he finishes his business in the cubicle, he caught a glimpse of a person opposite his cubicle, leaning against the wall.
Male.
One who was currently smoking.
The man has on a white t-shirt, appears unbearably clean, but his entire person exudes an unknown temperament that does quite the opposite affect.
Seeing him come out, the man extinguished his cigarette. “I just saw your bass guitar performance earlier. That was quite handsome of you.”
Yellow t-shirt fellow’s heart skipped a beat.
Although Lu Yan usually doesn’t have a lower limit himself, dare to pry corners with the Spade orchestra, but it was still awkward, especially if it involved having to sincerely express his thoughts face to face with some stranger.
He coughed once, and he organized the words in his speech: “I’m a little pretty interested in you.”
Lu Yan was unaware that in this location, paired up with these types of actions, this sentence might have quite an ambiguous meaning. He also didn’t notice that Yellow T-shirt fellow’s expression had subtly morphed into one of fright.
“If you are willing… We…” can build a steady friendship between us, and I run a band, so do you have any interest in joining?
But Lu Yan hasn’t even finished his sentence when the yellow t-shirt guy suddenly grabbed a convenient mop nearby and held it out in front of his chest as a tool for self-defense: “Who the hell are you!”
“Me,” Lu Yan, highly aware of his duty as a stand-in class attendant, so he said in reply, “Department of Economics, Xiao Heng.”
________________________________________
The author has something to say:
Note: Song: Don’t cry
(T/N: The album sang by Lu Yan on the roof top.)
By: Guns N’ Roses
Translator: Piggybank 🐽
Editor(s): Rae and Muku