7 Chapter 6 – Sauteed Black Pepper sLittle” Ribs 1 (1/2)
Gu Sheng pulled off her headphones in despair. Soon, she was trembling with excitement as she started to carefully select songs, in case she would need them later. She chose, for example, songs that were not meaningless, had a limit to how embarrassing they were, or had a beautiful melody and lyrics… to try to rescue her image.
Next time, she needed to be more aggressive, to confidently and in a justified tone, tell Toupai Da'Ren, ”Da'Ren, I am going to sing this song for you…”
After she had seven or eight BGMs (background music) prepared, she finally calmed down somewhat.
”Gu Sheng, what stage have you and Toupai progressed to?” Geng Xiaoxing's tone was also calm as she asked.
”Huh?” The way Gu Sheng looked at her was like she was staring at a ghost.
”You guys locked yourselves together in a little room and had a private rendezvous. Aren't you afraid his fans will take headshots at you?” Geng Xiaoxing shook her head and sighed lightly, ”A tall tree attracts the wind[1] [criticism always follows the famous]. Low-profile. You guys totally need to keep a low-profile.”
She suspected that Geng Xiaoxing must have held those comments in for a long time. After finally getting the chance to say what she wanted to say, in an extremely delighting-in-someone-else's-troubles manner, she kicked the wastebasket back to its original location, picked up her wallet, and headed out for dinner.
Gu Sheng thought for a minute, then glanced over her Weibo page again.
It pained her to do so, but she deleted the status, ”Taking song requests” from her personal profile… After all, she was being followed by Toupai Da'Ren, and she should at least leave him some face, mm-hmm. But, she honestly was just an unknown. And she honestly liked to sing. And there was honestly no one requesting her to sing. And she honestly wanted to ”take song requests.”
In silence, she closed the webpage. Because she was being suspected of ”hugging a thigh”, she pondered whether or not she should be more careful when requesting collaborations.
For Toupai's reputation, mm-hmm, Sheng Sheng Man, you had better exercise some restraint.
However, after this little episode, she and Qiang Qing Ci did not have much interaction.
Each year, the winter holidays were always accompanied by the Spring Festival[2] holidays.
Many of the people who had a part in the anniversary celebration did not have much time to be online after they had gone home for the holidays, or else their internet connection was too slow. As a result, they arranged to have one last internal meeting on February 1st at a specified time to finalize the program for the anniversary celebration.
Then, they would need to divide up the work amongst themselves and begin preparations.
Because it was nearing the Spring Festival, Gu Sheng's family grocery store would close especially early. Practically, once the sky grew dark, they would close up.
On little Lunar New Year[3], she deliberately went to help out with closing and by chance, happened to see an argument taking place across the road. Standing behind the glass door, she threw a few looks in that direction. Since the store was near the hospital, every now and then, disputes between doctors and patients could be seen, so she was accustomed to it. However, this time, she saw a familiar face. It was the young man who had bought the fruit chunk yogurt that night.
The reason why she noticed him was because he and the three others with him had clearly become the target of attack. At the moment when Gu Sheng recognized him, someone had grabbed the clothes of the woman on his right. He reached over to block away the offender … And while he was blocking, a punch landed on his face.
”Ah!” A cry escaped from Gu Sheng's lips.
Right after, she heard a loud racket. Turning around, she saw several drinks had fallen and landed outside of the cooler.
”My god! … Freak me out, will you?” Cousin bent over and began to pick the things up, all the while complaining, ”I hate it when girls scream for no reason. It's ridiculously painful on the ears. You think you're one of those spirits on a haunted night?”
”I didn't mean to…” Gu Sheng walked over to help him clean up, stuffing everything back into the cooler. When she looked back againto check on the situation in front of the hospital doors, the fight had already ended. The people who had caused the disturbance were still there, but the man and his companions had left already.
Gu Sheng reckoned, that man was probably one of the graduate students working at the hospital? Or something else?
Anyway, he was so young, he couldn't be a doctor, right?
But he was rather gallant and heroic, the way he knew that he should protect the girl…
After silently praising him for a bit, she decided that the next time the young man came, she would definitely give him… a 12% discount. Mm-hmm.
February 1st was the third day of the new lunar year.
By the time the arranged time of 9:00 p.m. arrived, she had already gathered up her snacks into the living room. Duck tongue and tripe were the main foods with spicy peanuts and iced black tea on the side. Fully prepared, she went online and entered Wanmei's chat room.
She had just stepped into the living room when her mom also came in and asked about visiting relatives the following day, so she was delayed for some time. By the time she had finished talking and turned back around, she was surprised to find the comments spamming the screen had to do with her.
More accurately, everyone was gossiping like crazy.
”It's Sheng Sheng Man @@ ~if there's Sheng Sheng Man, then there will definitely be Toupai Dada!!” ”What?!!! Where? Where is she?” ”That one that one!... why is sheng sheng man the orange horse[4]?!!!! aaaaah! someone come stab my eyes blind! hurry n stab my eyes blind!” ”Calm down… Toupai and her… mm, you guys get it?…” ”*flip the tables* Sheng Sheng Man, I won't let this lie!” ...
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Gu Sheng was utterly flabbergasted.
She really wanted to say… Toupai was indeed going to be there, but he was there for actual business and had nothing to do with her, ah ah ah ah…
She debated for three seconds but, in the end, still gloomily entered the password-protected room.
The people in there had absolutely no idea that outside, there was so much ruckus it was about to overturn the heavens, and they were merely carrying out idle conversation. As usual, group leader, Jue Mei and Feng Ya Song were heading up the banter and the others would throw in the occasional comment.
Qiang Qing Ci did not say anything, but he was in the room.
Gu Sheng's first reaction was, his computer was fixed now?
But she hastily realized her attention was much too focused on him, and she needed to be distracted.
”Let's release something, like a pre-event warm-up,” Feng Ya Song suggested in a lazy tone. ”Consider it a little perk for the fans. At the time of the actual anniversary celebration, we will then release the official storyline song.”
”Good idea,” Jue Mei Sha Yi agreed.
The assistant group leader, Dou Dou Dou Bing gave a laugh. ”You're the group leader, and I'm the assistant group leader, but what we say still doesn't count. Three years have passed, and the highlight of the show is our Qiang Qing Ci Dada.”
In the headset, Geng Xiaoxing's giggles could clearly be heard.
Soft and sweet… soft and sweet…
Gu Sheng felt, mm-hmm, it must be because of Jue Mei Sha Yi... Although she still did not have hard evidence, if a girl who normally had the heart of a tomboy suddenly had a complete change in personality, there was no doubt then that something fishy was going on…
While she was still speculating, Qiang Qing Ci unexpectedly spoke, and he was saying her name. ”Sheng Sheng?”
For some reason, it was just the ”Man” on the end of her name that got left out... But it seemed to give the wrong impression of being a little… um, like he was suspiciously intimate with her.
”Dada, I'm here,” she answered immediately.
”You like ancient style, I remember.”