The instrument room was large.
It had most of the mainstream instruments you could think of. There were many rooms like it at the Conservatory, and around finals they were usually packed to capacity.
Xu Ye followed the four of them in and closed the door behind him.
Zhang Ruowei started assigning tasks the moment they were inside. “We’ve only got two days. This morning we write the melody, this afternoon the lyrics, tomorrow we rehearse all day. Nobody eats until the job’s done!”
Feeling the full weight of the deadline, the group quickly pulled chairs into a circle and started debating how to write the thing.
Xu Ye leaned in, listened to the commotion for a bit, then cut in. “Is it just — write a song? Any other requirements?”
“Folk style, that’s it. Nothing else.”
“That’s easy, no need to spend a whole day on it.” Xu Ye smiled. “Qingqing, hand me the guitar.”
Of the four, only Chen Qingqing had absolute faith in him — because he’d already written a song once before, one that had even caught a modest amount of traction online after being posted. [TL: a reference to the song Xu Ye wrote and released earlier under Qingqing’s artist name “Chen Zijin” — established well before Chapter 100]
She quickly passed him the guitar.
Xu Ye took it, went over and sat down beside the piano, crossed one leg over the other, rested the guitar on his thigh, and began mentally combing through folk songs from after 2015.
There were plenty to choose from, but some he couldn’t fully remember the lyrics to, and some were too famous — if the girls performed one of those, it might cause a real stir. So he tried to think of something relatively obscure, and also suited to four girls singing it.
He thought for a good ten minutes or so — and then, in a flash of inspiration, the melody of one lesser-known folk song surfaced in his mind.
As everyone knows: folk music has three subjects — love, dreams, and faraway places. And its listeners come in three kinds — the lonely, the ordinary, and the down-on-their-luck.
Just as Zhang Ruowei, Jiang Yu, and Shen Xinyi were still fiercely arguing over whether the song’s theme should be love or dreams, Xu Ye, without any warning, strummed the guitar strings.
Two seconds later, a lovely wash of guitar was echoing through the room.
All four girls turned at once. Aside from Chen Qingqing, the other three wore identical expressions of disbelief.
Worried about giving himself away, Xu Ye played a short passage and then deliberately paused, pretending to think. A few minutes later, he picked it back up. This went on for about half an hour, until a genuinely refreshing, uplifting melody was complete.
“That—!”
They were all music students who listened to all kinds of songs, and the moment this one came out, they knew for certain it was something Xu Ye was composing on the spot — because if it already existed, they’d surely have heard it.
“Give me a pen, I’ll write out the score.”
“Hey — what are you all spacing out for, give me a pen already!”
Shen Xinyi hurried over with a pen and two sheets of A4 paper. Seeing Xu Ye start writing directly on the page, Zhang Ruowei and Jiang Yu crowded in around him to watch.
“Mi-so-so-do-re~” Xu Ye hummed as he wrote out the score.
In only about ten minutes, he had the whole thing down on paper.
Zhang Ruowei snatched it up immediately — they could all read a score, and she started humming along to it…
“Xu Ye! How did you do that?” She grabbed his shirt the moment she finished a passage, demanding an answer. Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi were just as desperate to know how a finance major could write songs.
Xu Ye waved a hand. “Keep it down, keep it down.”
“Just tell us — how do you know how to write songs?”
Xu Ye smiled mysteriously. “What did you think I won Qingqing over with? My looks? Of course not. Talent.”
Hearing that, Chen Qingqing reached over and gave his arm another light pinch.
The little flirtatious back-and-forth was completely ignored by the three roommates.
Jiang Yu said, a little excited, “The melody’s done — so next is the lyrics?”
“You want to do them, or should I?”
“You, you.”
“You’re the best at this.”
Xu Ye laughed. “Zhang Ruowei, that’s not what you were saying a minute ago.”
“Oh, quit talking and just write it.”
Xu Ye put on a pained expression and rolled his neck. “My neck hurts from sitting so long.”
Zhang Ruowei caught his meaning instantly, went around behind him, and started pounding his shoulders with her little fists.
Xu Ye stretched again. “My legs are sore too.”
Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi exchanged a look, then crouched on either side and started working his legs.
Xu Ye was about to say something else when Chen Qingqing pinched his ear and hauled it up, huffing, “Are you quite finished?”
He gave a sheepish laugh, finally sat up straight, picked up the pen, and pretended to think.
The four of them stood off to the side, nobody saying a word, terrified of disturbing him.
A melody this good already sounded wonderful on guitar alone. They had a feeling that if the lyrics were just as strong, the song would be perfect.
Xu Ye was in no rush. He “thought” for a long while before finally setting pen to paper. His handwriting wasn’t much to look at — a little sloppy, even — but not so bad you couldn’t read it.
With each line he wrote, the four of them silently recited it in their heads. Just as Xu Ye was nearly finished with the full set of lyrics—
Bang!
The instrument room door was suddenly shoved open from outside, and four guys walked in. Xu Ye recognized two of them — Li Junfeng and Zhang Xiaobei. He’d even mooched a free meal off them once. [TL: a reference to Ch. 82, where Xu Ye quietly humiliated Li Junfeng’s wealth-flexing at a group dinner via a barrage of Alipay notifications from his fruit shop]
The four of them were clearly here for the same “assignment,” but seeing the room already occupied, they all froze — especially at the sight of Zhang Ruowei, Chen Qingqing, and the others all gathered around a single guy. A flicker of jealousy stirred in each of them.
Birds of a feather flock together. The music class had thirty students, only eight of them male, the other twenty-two female, all of at least above-average looks. But taken dorm by dorm, Zhang Ruowei’s room had the highest collective looks of any — and they also happened to be the least sociable of the bunch. With the other girls it was fine, but whenever any of the guys tried to strike up a conversation, Zhang Ruowei and the rest gave them the cold shoulder.
If they’d treated everyone that way, it would’ve been one thing. But seeing them behave so completely differently toward Xu Ye left the four guys feeling distinctly sour.
“What a coincidence — you’re all here too.” Li Junfeng was the first to recover, forcing a smile.
Zhang Ruowei said, “What? You need the instrument room too?”
Li Junfeng shrugged. “Didn’t want to disturb anyone in the dorm, and figured the instrument room was the best spot. So — you all made any progress?”
At that, Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi each took a step closer to Xu Ye, as if to keep Li Junfeng’s group from seeing the song he’d written.
Xu Ye quietly folded the A4 paper, tucked it into his pocket, and stood up with a smile. “How about we head to a hotel instead? I need to find a place near here to get a room with Qingqing tonight anyway.”
Zhang Ruowei agreed in a heartbeat. “Sure.”
Jiang Yu and Shen Xinyi hurried to chime in as well. Only then did Xu Ye nod at Li Junfeng’s group by way of greeting, and started leading Chen Qingqing’s whole dorm out of the room. Just as the two groups were passing each other—
Li Junfeng suddenly asked, with a pointed edge, “Xu Ye, it’s gotten colder lately — how’s business at your fruit shop?”
Ever since that meal, Li Junfeng had been nursing a bellyful of resentment. The more he thought about it, the worse it sat with him. Why should Xu Ye get to strut around just because he ran some crummy fruit shop? A guy who owned a fruit stall — what kind of “boss” was that?
Xu Ye played along agreeably. “Oh, not great, honestly. Slow season right now.”
Li Junfeng smiled at that. “Is that so? Where’s your shop located, then? I’ll swing by and give it some business when I have the time.”
“No need for that.” Xu Ye stopped walking, fishing around inside his jacket for something. “I’m not really counting on the fruit shop to make money anymore.”
He pulled a business card from an inner pocket and handed it to Li Junfeng. “I started a trading company a while back — business is pretty good. Drop by for tea sometime, if you’re free.”
With that, he walked straight out.
Zhang Ruowei, Jiang Yu, and the others glanced at the card in Li Junfeng’s hand and quickly followed.
“Founder and Chairman of Shanghai Xinye Trading Co., Ltd.???” Li Junfeng stared down at the card, completely dumbfounded. “How… how is he a trading company chairman now too?!”
(End of Chapter 125)