Chapter 13
Shen Beiyu had no idea what they were talking about, looking blankly at Bai Sinian, then at Cui Yeyi.
Bai Sinian explained this simple permutation and combination problem to them, and then continued.
Shen Beiyu’s foundation was even worse than Cui Yeyi’s, but who cares, he’s cuter. Bai Sinian patiently explained it to him over and over again.
Bai Sinian: “Do you understand?”
Shen Beiyu: “I think I understand…”
Bai Sinian knew he didn’t understand, looking at his clear eyes untainted by knowledge.
In an hour, when Cui Yeyi was even arguing against the math formulas, Bai Sinian doubted his 17-year-old heart was already approaching 300 beats per minute.
“Okay, that’s enough for today!”
As soon as Bai Sinian said this, Bian Rui, who was sitting at the back of the classroom, had already started packing his bag, his movements made it clear that he didn’t want to stay a minute longer.
Bai Sinian could empathize.
“Shen Beiyu! Remember to turn off the lights!” Bai Sinian shouted and then chased after Bian Rui.
Bian Rui had his backpack casually slung over his shoulder, hands in his pockets, striding towards the stairwell, Bai Sinian followed behind, teasing: “What’s wrong? Can’t stand their stupidity?”
“It’s alright, Fan Hongyi must be stronger than the two I tutored, at least what I explained tonight, he understood.” Bian Rui’s lips curled up.
Sure enough, even Bian Rui noticed his speechlessness when lecturing Cui Yeyi and Shen Beiyu.
“Let’s switch.” Bai Sinian suggested.
Bian Rui snorted: “Your grades are better than mine, no need to switch.”
What logic! But Bai Sinian didn’t want to argue with his idol, he even compromised without struggling: “Alright, then I’ll definitely make them surpass Fan Hongyi!”
This sentence seemed to ignite Bian Rui’s fighting spirit: “Then let’s make a bet, whoever’s student makes more progress wins.”
“Okay!” Bai Sinian agreed immediately, “What are we betting?”
They had already left the teaching building, walking on the main road towards the dormitories, with only a few dim yellow street lamps casting flickering shadows on the trees.
Bian Rui thought for a few seconds and said, “The loser has to do one thing the winner asks.”
“Sounds good, no problem!”
Hehe, when I win, I’ll make you sign autographs till your hand hurts.
In the next few days, while Cui Yeyi and Shen Beiyu thought Bai Sinian had given up on them, Bai Sinian suddenly started to strictly grasp their studies.
He would even run to their class during breaks to give them test papers, Cui Yeyi was really suffering.
Finally, it was the weekend. According to the agreement, they no longer had to desperately do exercises. This weekend, Cui Yeyi was going to take everyone to the new off-campus practice room.
Five minutes’ walk to the right after leaving the school gate was the new practice room, the brand new practice room had various music symbols and patterns hanging on the walls, adding an artistic atmosphere to the entire space.
A guitar was leaning against the rack, its strings slightly trembling in the sunlight, in the corner, a complete drum set was quietly placed, the drumhead was tight, and the drumsticks were lightly placed, Cui Yeyi’s eyes were shining.
“Brand new YAMAHA drums! Fuck, so awesome, my dad is so awesome!” Cui Yeyi couldn’t help but praise his dad fervently.
Not only were the drums super expensive, but the microphones, guitars, and basses that the other guys were using were also top brands.
The few of them couldn’t help but rush up and start plucking and testing the instruments.
Bai Sinian looked at Cui Yeyi, Fan Hongyi, and Shen Beiyu on stage, they were really pleasing to the eye, just randomly touching the instruments, their postures and movements exuded an air of coolness.
Bian Rui, who was also wanting to go up, suddenly stood still.
“What’s wrong?” Bai Sinian asked, looking at Bian Rui’s back.
The sound quality of those instruments was really good, but what the hell are they playing!
Bian Rui didn’t even want to take another step forward, after the chaotic playing was over, Bian Rui couldn’t hold back anymore: “I hope that in the future we can become a professional band.”
“Of course, definitely!” Cui Yeyi replied without even thinking.
Bian Rui took a deep breath with eyes closed: “Then starting from now on, we need to start practicing specific songs, cultivate the band’s tacit understanding, and don’t practice the whole song at once, it’s not easy to correct mistakes in time, we can do it section by section, like this segment is ABCSOLO four sections, first get A right, then B, then go through A to B, understand?”
With this explanation, everyone understood much better.
“Then which song should we practice first?” Shen Beiyu asked softly.
Bai Sinian knew that the hottest one recently was “Red Sun”, he immediately raised his hand: “Can we practice ‘Red Sun’? Everyone has heard it, it’s familiar, and the sheet music will be remembered faster, the practice will definitely go smoothly!”
“Makes sense.” Cui Yeyi nodded: “I can sing the whole song for you now.”
“Stop, stop, let’s start practicing the song first!” Fan Hongyi used his eternally lazy voice to stop Cui Yeyi from singing.
The four of them finally began a serious practice session, Bai Sinian took out his phone to record this touching moment.
The footage on the phone was so beautiful, the unintentional elegance of the four handsome young men made their already good-looking faces even more charming.
Unfortunately, the music was too painful to listen to, first the drum beats were dull and muffled, then the guitar sounds were uneven, obviously lacking control over the strength and rhythm, and the clumsy bass playing caused the sound to be intermittent and out of sync with the overall rhythm.
Bian Rui suppressed his anger, trying to find the right pitch, while also coordinating with the band, but the result was that he sang breathlessly, completely unable to sync with the band.
Bai Sinian saw it all, although the pieced-together music made him want to go crazy, but thinking about the future when they really develop tacit understanding, he was full of confidence in them again.
While the band was repeatedly practicing, Bai Sinian ran downstairs to the vending machine to buy five bottles of drinks, then rushed back to the practice room with the cold drinks.
Just as they were taking a break, Bai Sinian called them over to drink water.
Bian Rui: “You can loosen the drum head a little, forget it, never mind.”
Among the entire band, Bian Rui was the one who understood music the most, the others were all amateurs, Bai Sinian cheerfully comforted: “It’s okay, Cui Yeyi, your family has money, just find a professional teacher to teach you some professional knowledge!”
Cui Yeyi was quite unhappy with Bian Rui right now, after all, it was his dad who spent money to provide the venue, and gave them such good quality musical equipment, not only did Bian Rui not treat him well, but he kept criticizing him.
“I won’t, I won’t!” Cui Yeyi said stubbornly.
Bai Sinian coaxed: “Okay, okay, don’t find a teacher, let’s self-study, if it really doesn’t work, I’ll go learn and teach you.”
Bian Rui looked at Bai Sinian in disbelief, for some reason, he got even angrier: “Why don’t you replace him and join the band?”
“Ah no no no, I can’t, Cui Yeyi is much better than me.” Bai Sinian quickly explained.
Bai Sinian suggested: “Tonight everyone can get familiar with the score, and we’ll concentrate on practicing again tomorrow, the band’s tacit understanding is formed through constant practice, with tacit understanding, it will be much smoother in the future.”
Fan Hongyi: “I feel like I’m fine, I just practiced a few times, I can definitely keep up with everyone’s rhythm tomorrow.”
Shen Beiyu didn’t dare to speak.
Cui Yeyi started packing his basketball bag, throwing the water bottle into the bag, and then swinging the bag onto his shoulder: “I have other things to do, I’m leaving first.”
Bian Rui seemed to be sulking, he didn’t bring anything, and left the practice room first, as if leaving before Cui Yeyi meant he won.
“Hey hey?” Bai Sinian didn’t even have time to call them back.
Fan Hongyi also followed them out of the practice room, Bai Sinian was stunned, the band had only been formed for a few days, and it was scattering like sand, shouldn’t they be desperately practicing when they were most passionate?
In the end, only Bai Sinian and Shen Beiyu were left facing each other.
“Are you leaving?” Bai Sinian had already planned to go home early today.
But Shen Beiyu shook his head: “I’ll stay and practice a little more.”
“Then I’ll keep you company.”
So Bai Sinian sat in the practice room, scrolling through his phone while secretly taking pictures of Shen Beiyu practicing the guitar alone.
The setting sun, the remaining rays shone through the half-open window, sparsely scattering on the slightly thin figure of the young man. His fingers danced lightly on the guitar strings, his gaze focused and bright, the wind outside gently blew, ruffling a few strands of hair on his forehead.
This scene was so beautiful, Bai Sinian even recorded a video, just to record this peaceful and harmonious moment.
“Sinian ge, I should be able to do it! Let me play it for you!” Shen Beiyu suddenly called out excitedly to Bai Sinian.
Bai Sinian nodded approvingly.
Although he didn’t understand music very well, he could tell that this time he played very smoothly, much more fluently than before.
“You’re so amazing! Xiao Bei, I told you, you could do it!”
Hearing Bai Sinian’s praise, the shy boy Shen Beiyu blushed again.
When they left the practice room, it was already close to 7 o’clock, it was already dark outside, they turned off the lights and power of the practice room and left the building.
The smell of barbecue wafted from the roadside, Bai Sinian took a deep breath and felt hungry: “I’m hungry, Shen Beiyu, want to eat something?”
Shen Beiyu swallowed his saliva: “Mm.”
Bai Sinian led Shen Beiyu to a stall selling “octopus balls”, each buying a box of hot octopus balls, the seaweed wrapped around the balls was baked twisted, Shen Beiyu blew on it and stuffed an entire ball into his mouth, the taste was really good!
He hadn’t even finished the one in his mouth, and stuffed another one in, his cheeks puffed out as he chewed: “So delicious.”
Seeing the child’s innocent and satisfied expression, Bai Sinian smiled, he was really the easiest to please, an octopus ball could make him so happy.
Bai Sinian then took him to another stall to buy a big bag of barbecue, he held the skewers for Shen Beiyu, Shen Beiyu hadn’t even finished the octopus balls and started eating the barbecue, nodding his head frequently in delight.
Suddenly, Shen Beiyu stopped chewing with his cheeks puffed out.
“What’s wrong?” Bai Sinian looked puzzled at Shen Beiyu.
Seeing Shen Beiyu staring blankly ahead, he couldn’t help but follow his gaze. By the roadside, a Rolls-Royce Phantom was parked, a tall young man was stepping out of the car and striding towards them.
“Brother.”
As the man got closer, Shen Beiyu muttered.
Bai Sinian was surprised to examine the man in front of him, his face was handsome, his features were deep and three-dimensional, his gaze was sharp and profound, exuding an overbearing air.
“Do you like eating this?” The young man frowned and asked.
