Chapter 65: The Argument
Su Jinli had no previous experience in lyric-writing. So, when he received the music, he spent a while feeling lost.
He listened to some other songs to get a feel for it, then started writing lyrics. He hummed along as he wrote — the melody was one he often used for vocal practice, so it was familiar.
While writing, he didn't go to the practice room, instead, he chose to stay in his bedroom. It was quieter there, and he wouldn't be disturbed.
After a while, Wu Yu opened the room's door and asked, "How's it going?"
“Not bad, have you finished your practice?”
“Your older brother is always picking fights with me." (Note: Referring to Shen Cheng here)
"What did he do this time?" Su Jinli adjusted the direction of his swivel chair to face Wu Yu. This squabbling between the two was routine to him.
"He heard me practicing. He said my song selection style is too monotonous. He mentioned how you've chosen songs of various styles and stood out in each one on the show. Comparatively, my songs are all of the same style, like screaming at the top of my lungs." After repeating this, Wu Yu rolled his eyes and lay down on his bed.
"Actually, he's kind of right."
"You always agree with whoever you listen to. Just like you want to establish a unique persona, I also have my own style. Many singers have their own style, which attracts loyal fans."
Hearing this, Su Jinli agreed, "You have a point..."
Wu Yu looked at Su Jinli, finding it particularly interesting. He glanced at the camera, noticed it was on, and decided not to say anything more.
Su Jinli caught Wu Yu's gaze, got up to turn off the camera, and then asked Wu Yu, "Wu Yu, what does it feel like to be in love with someone?"
Wu Yu was taken aback by the question, rolled over, and looked at Su Jinli in astonishment.
Feeling a bit embarrassed by Wu Yu's stare, Su Jinli asked in puzzlement, "What's the matter?"
"I just never thought that one day, someone would come to me to discuss love matters." Wu Yu really had no experience in relationships, having only been in one where he was dumped. "Of all of us, you're the one with the most serious romantic experience."
"I was pursued by her, found her all right, and thought her personality was also fine. So, I decided to give it a try. After getting together, I didn't treat her that well. You know what happened afterward. Thinking about it, I deserved getting dumped."
Su Jinli was really confused, looking at his notebook, feeling lost.
"What's wrong, not having been in love, is writing lyrics quite difficult for you?" Wu Yu asked him.
"It's a bit like that..." Su Jinli could only reply.
"It's essentially constantly thinking of that person, caring for them, and being able to pick them out in a crowd at a glance."
After considering Wu Yu's words, Su Jinli realized that the people he always thinks of are Shen Cheng, his grandfather, and his younger brother.
The people he cares about are also those few.
Only the third point holds true for him. An Zhiyan is too tall. It's impossible to ignore him in a crowd.
So, given these points, Su Jinli doesn't like An Zhiyan, right?
"There's also this, if you don't like a person, you absolutely won't like them getting close to you or doing things that are intimately close... You know what I mean? Your body will have a repulsive reaction. I, for one, can't kiss or hug someone I don't like," Wu Yu added.
After hearing the additional point, Su Jinli suddenly stiffened, looking at Wu Yu in astonishment.
Wu Yu, feeling weird under Su Jinli's gaze, asked, "What's wrong?"
"So, this means I'm in love?"
Wu Yu slightly frowned, then settled back down, "Like I said, I'm not good with these things. Ask An Zhihan — he might be able to provide a detailed answer. After all, he's an old hand at this."
"You're the old hand..." A muttering voice came from the door.
"Is it interesting to eavesdrop?" Wu Yu asked without even getting up.
An Zhihan immediately walked in from outside the door and said, "I was just checking to see if you guys were talking bad about me."
Wu Yu, too lazy to deal with the childish An Zhihan, turned over and began singing to the wall.
An Zhihan came to Su Jinli's side and shared his love experiences: "If you care about someone's news, that means you like them. For instance, if you're chatting and they suddenly don't reply for a long time, you'll check your chat records thinking if you said something wrong and upset them."
After hearing this, Su Jinli relaxed as he had never worried about this issue, chatting with An Zhiyan only occasionally.
An Zhiyan is not a great conversationalist, and they haven't exchanged many words on WeChat until now.
"Also, once you like someone, a possessive desire arises. If you see her being intimate with someone else, you'll get jealous," An Zhihan continued.
Su Jinli's worries were eased again because he never gets jealous. He doesn't care who An Zhiyan chooses to be close to, as long as they have a good relationship.
"Finally, whoever you're thinking of right now is the one you like." Having said that, An Zhihan gently tapped Su Jinli's head.
Su Jinli was surprised once more and looked at An Zhihan in astonishment.
An Zhihan was confused by Su Jinli's expression, and both of them stared at each other, utterly baffled.
Wu Yu stopped humming and turned around to ask Su Jinli, "You're not seriously developing feelings for Zhang Caini, are you?"
"Really? You haven't officially debuted yet, and you're not good at keeping secrets. That's not a good idea!" An Zhihan also chimed in.
Su Jinli quickly shook his head: "No, no, I was just asking casually."
After answering, he lowered his head and continued writing.
An Zhihan went to see what Su Jinli was writing and said after reading, "Your lyrics are too wordy and not easy to understand. Maybe your songs can stand out, but these lyrics won't make your songs popular because many people can't sing them well, remember them, or find them catchy."
Su Jinli also paused, staring at his lyrics, when he suddenly heard a message notification on his phone.
He opened the message and saw Xiao Mi had sent him a message: "Yura's play is about to wrap up, do you guys have any insider tickets? I want to watch you on the spot."
Su Jinli: "Okay, hold on, I'll go ask."
Xiao Mi: "Mm, mm, no pressure, if it's really not possible, I'll buy a ticket from a scalper."
Su Jinli: "Is Scalper your good friend?"
Xiao Mi: "Don't tell me you thought 'scalper' was someone's name."
He really didn't know what 'scalper' meant, so he chatted with Xiao Mi for a while.
After a while, Xiao Mi sent a selfie. Su Jinli opened it and saw her wearing a cap with a red and white koi pattern on it. It was a gift made by Su Jinli's fan club.
Su Jinli had been holding back for a long time before he finally didn't say that his koi was actually golden, not red and white…
However, since it was something the fan club came up with, he had no choice but to accept it.
Xiao Mi bought such a cap, wore it on her head, and sent a selfie to Su Jinli. He couldn't help but smile after seeing the photo.
An Zhihan peeked at the photo and recognized her, "Oh, it's the girl we met at the restaurant last time. She's quite pretty. I remember her."
"Yup, she wants to come and watch my performance. Do we have any internal tickets here?"
"It's a bit late for that, there probably aren't any seats left now. There might be some tickets left for the grand final. Do you want me to ask for you?"
"Okay, sounds good."
"Do you… like her?" An Zhihan asked tentatively.
"No, not at all. She just helped me before, so I want to get her a ticket." Su Jinli answered quite frankly.
An Zhihan picked up his phone again to check the photo, feeling that Xiao Mi really looked pretty. Upon recalling, he found her also not short in height. Therefore, he said to Su Jinli, "Send me her contact, I'll add her as a friend."
"You're going direct contact with her?"
"No, I…" An Zhihan raised his head to glance at the camera before saying, "I think she looks good, I'll chat with her to see if our personalities match. If we match, I…"
Before An Zhihan could finish his sentence, Wu Yu couldn't help but ask, "If you match, you'll develop into friends with benefits? Once she gets played by you, this girl won't even be able to stay friends with Su Jinli."
"You make it sound so terrible. I can be a good person when I'm serious," An Zhihan retorted with dissatisfaction.
"Heh," Wu Yu was quite sceptical.
"No!" Su Jinli finally understood An Zhihan's intentions, instantly refusing.
"So you don’t trust me either?”
"Yes."
An Zhihan was upset, storming out of the room huffily.
Then, nobody went after him.
The atmosphere became really awkward for a while.
After a while, An Zhihan returned on his own.
________________________
Su Jinli's songwriting was almost done, and the program team intended to confiscate their phones again.
Su Jinli transferred his song onto another device, then began to message his friends, telling them his phone would soon be taken.
Xiao Mi: Thanks for the ticket!
Su Jinli looked at this line of text and found it strange. He asked with surprise: But I didn't get one?
Xiao Mi: An Zhihan added me. He even asked for my address, sent me a ticket and some good food. Wasn't that your idea?
Su Jinli stared at the words on the screen and felt a sudden wave of anger.
His phone was taught to be used by An Zhihan. When initially setting it up, An Zhihan had input his own fingerprint.
A few days ago, when An Zhihan expressed an interest in getting to know Xiao Mi, Su Jinli refused. An Zhihan did not bring it up again, and Su Jinli didn't think much of it. He did not anticipate that An Zhihan would find Xiao Mi's contact independently and get in touch with her.
He was somewhat irate and immediately went to confront An Zhihan, "How could you check my phone without my permission?"
"Our phones look the same. I made a mistake," An Zhihan shrugged.
"You... how could you do this? I don't like people touching my stuff without asking. Besides, I already said that you are not suitable for her."
An Zhihan realized Su Jinli must have found out, so he replied, "I didn't do anything bad. I just got her two onsite tickets and promised to let her check out the training camp."
"You could have told me before you did this. Why didn't you say anything? And after what happened last time, I don't really appreciate your view on relationships. She has helped me, so I value her. You're my friend, and I don't want you to hurt her."
When An Zhihan went into the bathroom and turned on the faucet, he heard Su Jinli say this and instantly became displeased."What do you mean, I am not a good person?"
"In this regard, you are indeed not good enough." Su Jinli asserted.
An Zhihan was somewhat annoyed. Leaning on the sink, he spoke defiantly to Su Jinli, "Just wait and see. She will definitely have feelings for me. Don't you know "bad boys" are irresistible? Besides, she's just an assistant. I'm not trying to woo some little starlet, is it really necessary to make a big deal out of it?"
"The way you talk about her is very disrespectful." Su Jinli looked at An Zhihan with clenched fists, disappointment filling his heart.
Even if he's a friend, undermining his benefactor was unacceptable.
An Zhihan hadn't really done anything. He had just added her as a WeChat friend, chatted a few lines, and mailed a ticket. Yet Su Jinli came to confront him immediately. His explanations were dismissed by Su Jinli, which annoyed An Zhihan.
So, vexed and confused, he blurted out something quite distasteful.
"Huh." An Zhihan couldn't help but sneer, "It's a favor to her that I'm even willing to play with her."
The moment his words ended, Su Jinli punched An Zhihan.
________________________
Author's Note:
Congratulations to An Zhihan, about to initiate the husband-wife fighting mode.
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