Chapter 52: Hua Country Has Hip Hop (Protagonist has very few scenes)
After the college entrance exams, the Gaokao, Wang Jiaming told his parents he wanted to study music. Unsurprisingly, Papa Wang and Mama Wang shut that down immediately.
Why study music when everything was perfectly fine? He should go to university properly and come back to help with the family business. Besides, didn’t they know exactly how much their son was worth? If Wang Jiaming could actually sing, they wouldn’t have objected. But God knows what he was belting out. He called it “DJ,” but it was just an explosive noise that nearly lifted the roof off the house.
At that time, Wang Jiaming didn’t understand what Rap was. In his small county town, most of what he was exposed to was “DJ dance music.” In their school, afros and DJ tracks were the height of fashion.
Every weekend, when students were allowed to leave campus, was prime time for showing off. Sporting an afro, riding a motorcycle, with a phone in a pocket blasting high-energy music on speaker, speeding past the school gate at sixty miles per hour. That was the moment a group of girls would always scream, and the boys would watch with envy. They couldn’t help it; they were just that cool.
Wang Jiaming was a key member of this “cool guy” squad. His family had money, so he bought his own motorcycle. The other boys had to sneak their parents’ bikes out, so he was the one with the most swagger. Because he owned his own bike, Wang Jiaming held a high status among the boys. On weekends, he would often give his “bros” a ride, roaring past the school gates to attract the girls’ attention.
Back then, plenty of girls liked him. The confession letters he received would stack up taller than he was. But in those days, for the sake of posturing, Wang Jiaming rejected them all. He claimed he needed to focus on being a cool young man and couldn’t let romance interfere with his status as an idol worshipped by the masses.
The result… Wang Jiaming became a legend at his school. Rich, cool, and the “White Moonlight”—the unattainable dream—for the girls.
While the legendary Wang Jiaming commanded the wind and rain in the social scene, his studies were a complete disaster. He hated studying; he couldn’t stand the sight of dense text or complex formulas. It didn’t matter if his grades were bad anyway; his parents didn’t nag him about it.
Studying wasn’t Wang Jiaming’s priority, and the teachers didn’t bother with a poor student like him. So, Wang Jiaming had plenty of time to mess around, acting cool, surfing the web, playing games, and repeating the leisurely campus life that other boys envied.
One day, after a gaming session, a sudden wave of emptiness hit him. He was alone in the dorm. His roommates had gone out riding, but he stayed behind because it was too cold, tossing his keys to a roommate before diving into his games.
Wang Jiaming lay on his bed like a salted fish, phone cast aside, staring at the ceiling and wondering where this emptiness was coming from.
Was he lonely because it was suddenly quiet without anyone around? Was it because he couldn’t pass that level in the game and lost heart? Or was it…
Was he hungry?
Wang Jiaming rolled out of bed and got out a cup of instant noodles. The cafeteria was closed at this hour; luckily, he had his stash.
Get the bowl, boil water, tear the packet, add noodles, add seasoning, pour water. He also added a sausage he had ripped open and already taken a bite of. Then, he sat and waited.
After preparing the noodles, Wang Jiaming sat with his head propped in his hand, continuing to contemplate his inner void while he waited for his food.
Suddenly, a song that would change his life interrupted the quiet, beautiful boy’s contemplation.
“If I were a DJ,
Would you love me?
Would you love me?
Would you love me?…”
He didn’t know who was blasting it outside the dorm, but it was loud enough to wake the dorm matron from her nap. With a mighty roar from the matron, the music cut off abruptly.
But that song continued to spiral in Wang Jiaming’s mind, refusing to fade. It felt like an electric current coursing through him, leaving him weak and unwilling to move. He knew the noodles would get soggy and taste bad if he waited, but Wang Jiaming remained unmoved.
“If I were a DJ, would you still love me…” Wang Jiaming asked himself repeatedly in his heart. It was as if the smart, beautiful class monitor from the elite class was standing right in front of him, and he was asking her this question with tears in his eyes.
Many girls liked Wang Jiaming, but he had his own goddess: the monitor of the school’s elite class. She wasn’t just good-looking; her grades were top-tier. Although Wang Jiaming stood out in the regular classes, in the world of the elite class, he was just a passerby. The goddess wouldn’t look twice at a boy who didn’t study.
Fortunately, Wang Jiaming only appreciated pretty girls visually; he didn’t actually like the class monitor. Otherwise, he might have turned into a legendary scholar just to impress her (or so Wang Jiaming believed).
Ao! What a tragic, beautiful love story! Wang Jiaming was moved by his own imagination, immersing himself in it for a long time until his roommates returned and the opening of the door snapped him awake.
“Ao! My noodles!”
From that day on, Wang Jiaming developed a profound interest in “DJ.” It wasn’t that he hadn’t heard it before, but that specific song had impacted his soul. For the first time, he realized that “DJ” was actually really good.
Wang Jiaming resolved to learn DJing. He listened to every DJ track he could collect and sang along. Slowly, he got the hang of it. Excited beyond belief, he decided he wanted to become a “DJ singer”—even though he didn’t even know that a DJ is a profession, not a musical genre.
Later, when Teacher Luo educated him on what a DJ actually was, Wang Jiaming felt like he’d been struck by lightning. He couldn’t believe it.
When Wang Jiaming went home and told his parents he wanted to be a DJ singer, Papa and Mama Wang felt their heads swell. They couldn’t understand why young people liked listening to that noisy music, just as kids couldn’t understand why adults always thought they were right.
Papa and Mama Wang wouldn’t let him mess around. They could barely tolerate the afro, but when it came to his future, they wouldn’t let him do as he pleased. It didn’t matter if his grades were bad; they had ways to get him into university.
Wang Jiaming knew his academic standing very well. It would be a miracle if he could get into university on his own merits. How much money would they have to bribe to stuff him in there?!
To prevent his family from going bankrupt, Wang Jiaming entertained thoughts of running away. But it was just a thought. He was comfortable at home and didn’t want to wander the streets.
In the end, however, Wang Jiaming did run away. The catalyst was his parents wanting to take him to change his surname. Upon asking, Jiaming realized his parents intended for him to steal someone else’s identity to take their university spot.
Although Wang Jiaming was often scatterbrained, he was a kind kid who still dreamed of being a hero from a martial arts novel. No matter how dumb he was, he knew that doing this was wrong and would ruin the life of the student he replaced.
Transforming into a righteous hero, Wang Jiaming sternly refused his parents’ demand. When he realized they wouldn’t change their minds, Wang Jiaming secretly took the family car and 10,000 yuan, intending to run away. He even picked up a good-looking guy on the way.
Wang Jiaming arrived in the city, clutching the money and the car, to seek refuge with his online friend, Luo Xizhou. Luo Xizhou shared his interests, and the two planned to do something big together.
Luo Xizhou was still a student, living in a rental apartment with his older brother. When Wang Jiaming arrived, he moved in with them.
Luo Xizhou’s brother was Luo Xiyu, a teacher who particularly couldn’t stand slacker students. It was one thing for his own brother to be unrefined—he could tolerate family—but seeing Wang Jiaming with an afro, dressed in flashy clothes, and finding out he was a dropout? Luo Xiyu nearly kicked him out. But for his brother’s sake, Luo Xiyu endured it.
He endured it until, eventually, he got himself entangled with him.
Wang Jiaming was good at reading people. Seeing that Luo Xiyu disliked his style, Wang Jiaming tried his best to avoid him and minimize his presence. Since it was summer break when he arrived, he just partied with Luo Xizhou. Teacher Luo happened to be the head teacher for a Grade 12 class that year, so he was busy with supplementary lessons and didn’t pay them much mind.
It was Luo Xiyu’s first time being a Grade 12 head teacher, and the pressure was immense. His own brother didn’t notice, but the seemingly careless Wang Jiaming did, and even helped him de-stress. Gradually, Luo Xiyu’s opinion of Wang Jiaming changed. Once the affection started, there was no stopping it.
After Luo Xizhou went off to university, even Wang Jiaming, thick-skinned as he was, felt embarrassed to keep staying there. But he had very little money left. So when Luo Xiyu asked him to stay, Wang Jiaming thought about it and agreed. Later on, the two got together.
After developing feelings for him, Luo Xiyu paid more attention to Wang Jiaming’s interests. Knowing Wang Jiaming wanted to “sing DJ,” Luo Xiyu kindly explained that DJ is actually a job title, not a genre of music. Wang Jiaming was dumbfounded on the spot. After all this time, the thing he had been pursuing didn’t even have a basic classification.
Wang Jiaming was depressed for days. Luo Xiyu couldn’t stand seeing him like that, so he told him to listen to Rap. Wang Jiaming found Rap to be just as fiery and fell in love with it. Seeing his enthusiasm, Luo Xiyu specifically found a teacher to tutor him. Surprisingly, Wang Jiaming had a knack for it and became quite decent after some learning.
However, Rap wasn’t popular in Jiang City. Wang Jiaming couldn’t find anyone to exchange ideas with and could only look for circles online. Because he was self-taught and hadn’t been learning for long, Wang Jiaming rarely posted his songs online and had no idea where his skill level stood. If possible, he wanted to visit Sichuan Province or Xi’an to see the scenes there.
Teacher Luo always said he would take him there when he had time, but Teacher Luo was always busy. Wang Jiaming felt he would be waiting forever.
…
“Wow, Ge, your life could totally be a script for an inspirational idol drama!” Wang Ziyu clasped his hands together, looking at Wang Jiaming with the worshipful eyes and posture of a fangirl meeting her idol.
“You flatter me, you flatter me…” Wang Jiaming loved being worshipped, and Wang Ziyu’s admiration worked like a charm on him.
“Ge, compared to you, my life is so bland it hurts. I’m so envious!” If he had a flower in his hand, Wang Ziyu would definitely be plucking the petals one by one. Whenever he sank into a fantasy, he needed something to fiddle with.
“Nothing to be envious of. I’m the one who envies you. I regret not studying hard; I still have to rely on Teacher Luo to help me write lyrics!” Wang Jiaming unconsciously flaunted his relationship.
“…” Flaunting their love in front of him again… Wang Ziyu retreated to the corner to grow mushrooms in misery.
“What’s wrong?” Wang Jiaming was confused. One second they were chatting happily, the next Ziyu ran off looking pitiful.
“It’s nothing, ignore him,” Lin Xia said while scrolling through Weibo. He happened to swipe onto a registration announcement.
“Jiaming, I saw a competition. I think it suits you very well.” Lin Xia quickly scanned it and realized this contest was perfect for Wang Jiaming.
“What competition?” Wang Jiaming stood up and leaned over to look.
“Hua Country Has Hip Hop.”
Author’s Note:
Back when the author was in their chunibyo (middle school syndrome) phase, I really loved “Midnight DJ” hahaha.
Thanks to Matsuriko for the landmine, love you~ (≧з)(ε≦)
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