Chapter 65
Although both of her methods to prove that the single life was superior had failed one after another, it wasn’t a total loss for Wen Ying.
At the very least, she had confirmed that there was something strange about this stronghold.
Perhaps this place was the source of all the peculiarities in Peace Town.
And as for proving the virtues of being single, Wen Ying still had a third method.
The third drawback of being in a relationship: it gets in the way of your career!
Everyone knows that puppy love can ruin your studies, and even if it’s not puppy love, it can still interfere with your work.
And so, Wen Ying sought out Lin Ruge once again.
This time, when she entered his room, Lin Ruge’s gratitude was even more profound.
“Miss Wen, you’ve helped our stronghold so much. I don’t know how I can ever thank you,” Lin Ruge said with sincerity. “Especially with my mother’s matter. Her past family has always been a weight on her heart, and my father has tried many things to help… If it weren’t for your arrival, my mother would never have been able to resolve those feelings.”
Perhaps Miss Wen’s “proof by contradiction” plans had all failed, but she had indeed helped them a great deal.
Wen Ying didn’t know what to say.
Was this what they called doing a good deed with bad intentions?
But this adoptive mother of Lin Ruge’s…
She was certainly strange.
Her brief descriptions of her past family all seemed unusual.
“What is your mother’s name?” Wen Ying asked.
“My mother’s surname is Hua, and her given name is Pi,” Lin Ruge answered truthfully, though he didn’t know why Wen Ying was asking.
Hua Pi… Hua Pi?
The name sounded somewhat familiar…
Not because of a certain famous movie, but because Wen Ying felt she had heard a similar name somewhere in this world.
“What else do you know about your mother’s past?” Wen Ying asked again.
“Well… I don’t know very much.” Lin Ruge shook his head. “To protect her feelings, my father rarely brings up her past. I only know that my mother deeply respected my grandmother. It seems I didn’t have a grandfather; my mother was raised by her grandmother from a young age. She also had a younger sister, and the two of them were very close… but for some reason, now my mother is the only one left.”
Wen Ying frowned slightly.
It didn’t sound like anything particularly special.
As she suspected, Lin Ruge was completely oblivious to the strangeness of the stronghold.
“Alright, I understand. Thank you.” Wen Ying changed the subject. “Our last two attempts were unsuccessful. But now, I have a third plan.”
“Please, Miss Wen, do tell,” Lin Ruge said politely.
“Little brother, let me ask you, what do you usually do all day in this stronghold?” If she was going to interfere with his career, Wen Ying first had to know what his career was.
He was the leader of the bandits, after all. Even if he didn’t have to go down the mountain to rob people, he should have something to do…
“I read, practice calligraphy, and sometimes I take a walk around the stronghold…” Lin Ruge tried hard to recall, but couldn’t come up with much else.
Wen Ying: “…”
Isn’t that just being a loafer!
So, this Lin Ruge not only had a heart condition and was a moocher living off his parents, but he was also an idle good-for-nothing with no job!
A man like that, no matter how handsome, could absolutely not become her husband!
Wen Ying suddenly understood why Lin Ruge’s parents were so eager to marry him off.
With a son like this, how could they not be anxious?
But Wen Ying felt that Lin Ruge didn’t really need to resort to kidnapping a bride.
Sometimes, a pretty face was enough.
Since Lin Ruge had no real career to speak of, Wen Ying’s plan to interfere with it was dead in the water.
But there were always more solutions than problems. Even if she couldn’t ruin his career, she could at least use other methods to show the negative effects of love.
As everyone knows, the most painful part of love is a breakup.
It doesn’t just hurt you; it hurts everyone around you.
And that was one of the greatest benefits of avoiding romance—if you never fall in love, you can never have your heart broken!
Typically, after a breakup, people would drown their sorrows in alcohol.
However, due to Lin Ruge’s heart condition, he couldn’t drink…
Then… he could vent by singing!
To make Lin Ruge’s parents realize the harm of romance in the shortest amount of time, she had to maximize the damage. Being a public nuisance was definitely the most destructive weapon, capable of making people resentful in the quickest way possible.
“Little brother, can you sing?” Wen Ying asked.
“Sing?” Lin Ruge shook his head slightly. “I’ve never sung before.”
Never sung before?
That was perfect. An off-key voice had the strongest destructive power.
“It doesn’t matter if you’ve never sung.” Wen Ying smiled faintly. “In that case, I’ll teach you a few songs.”
For the next while, Wen Ying taught Lin Ruge several songs.
When it came to divine nuisance music, nothing beat square dancing anthems.
And when it came to the effect of being a nuisance, nothing beat a high-pitched, cracking voice.
Wen Ying walked to the table, took up a brush, and wrote down the lyrics to a few songs, handing the paper to Lin Ruge.
Lin Ruge took it and looked.
The songs were titled, The Most Dazzling Ethnic Wind, Love You Till I Die, and Gurenge.
The lyrics to Gurenge were especially strange, with lines like “Pork bones, come and braise them…” It looked more like a recipe.
Next, Wen Ying patiently taught Lin Ruge how to sing these songs, earning his applause and cheers.
“Miss Wen, you have a beautiful singing voice,” Lin Ruge praised.
Wen Ying hadn’t intended to sing well at all, but because her singing skill was already maxed out, it was impossible for her to sound bad…
“So, do you know how to sing them now?” Wen Ying asked.
“I think… more or less…” Lin Ruge recalled seriously, giving an ambiguous answer.
“Good. Practice on your own, then. Our plan begins tomorrow,” Wen Ying nodded.
Ambiguous was for the best.
If he couldn’t remember the tune, he would naturally sing off-key.
Although Wen Ying’s goal was to be a public nuisance, doing it at night would be truly depraved, so she scheduled Lin Ruge’s singing session for the morning after everyone was awake.
Wen Ying waited in her room for the noise to begin—
“The vast horizon is my love~ Flowers are blooming at the foot of the rolling green hills~”
Lin Ruge’s singing started right on time, but it wasn’t what Wen Ying had expected.
This Lin Ruge, who had never sung a note in his life, actually had an amazing voice!
Not only was he perfectly on key, but he sounded as if he had been professionally trained, his technique flawless.
“Love you till I die~~ It’s not worth it if it’s not exhilarating~”
Even this divine song of cracking high notes, Lin Ruge handled with ease, even adding a touch of operatic flair.
“Five pounds of rice is not enough~ That Louis didn’t wash the eggs again~”
Even with the very strange misheard lyrics, Lin Ruge sang them without a hint of awkwardness.
Fortunately, the three songs themselves were extremely potent. Even though Lin Ruge sang them beautifully, they were still a bit jarring to the ears.
At the same time, Wen Ying spread a rumor throughout the stronghold that Lin Ruge was in a terrible mood because she had been ignoring him, and with no other way to vent, he had resorted to singing to express his sorrow.
Lin Ruge sang for five consecutive days. Finally, his parents summoned him to their room.
“Ruge, what… exactly has been going on recently?” his father asked in a heavy tone.
“Father, are you referring to my recent singing?” Lin Ruge bowed before asking.
“Yes,” his father nodded grimly.
Wen Ying had already prepared an answer for him. “Father, it’s because of Yingying. She’s been ignoring me these past few days…”
“No, no, that’s not what I’m asking.” His father cut him off. “I want to know, what’s the deal with these songs? Where did you learn them?”
“Huh?” This question was completely unexpected. Wen Ying hadn’t prepared an answer for this.
After a moment’s thought, Lin Ruge could only answer truthfully. “Yingying taught me.”
The lyrics were so bizarre, he wouldn’t even know where to begin if he tried to lie.
“I knew it was Yingying!” Lin Ruge’s mother, Hua Pi, said excitedly. “I just knew it had to be another one of Yingying’s brilliant plans!”
With that, she said to Lin Ruge, “Quickly, go and invite Yingying here!”
Wen Ying knew that Lin Ruge’s parents would come looking for her eventually.
But seeing that it was Lin Ruge who came to get her, she already knew that, most likely, she had failed again.
After a brief exchange with Lin Ruge on the way, Wen Ying confirmed her suspicion.
No way, no way, don’t tell me I did a good deed with bad intentions again…
The moment Wen Ying stepped into the room, Hua Pi spoke, her voice once again filled with immense gratitude. “Yingying, this time, our whole stronghold must thank you again!”
…She knew it.
“This time… what did I do?” Wen Ying asked uncertainly.
“Yingying, you taught Ruge those songs on purpose, didn’t you?” Hua Pi said, moved. “You deliberately gave him the cold shoulder because you knew he was a talented singer but was unwilling to sing in front of others. Such a selfless spirit, putting the community before yourself… it truly makes me… ashamed of my own inadequacy!”
“What’s wrong with those songs?” Wen Ying had a bad feeling.
But beyond that, Hua Pi’s words struck her as odd.
Even Lin Ruge himself didn’t know about his own singing talent. How did his adoptive mother know?
“Yingying, as you know, for some reason the people in the stronghold had all become reclusive, and some strange rumors were spreading. If that continued, it wouldn’t just be a matter of our reputation; staying cooped up at home all day would cause serious health problems for the residents.” Hua Pi was so overcome with emotion that she choked up, so Lin Ruge’s father continued the explanation. “But ever since you had Ruge sing that… that Ethnic Wind song, things have changed. When people heard the melody, they couldn’t help but start dancing. They instinctively left their homes to dance together outside. This dancing not only helps their physical health, but as the atmosphere in the stronghold has become more lively, the rumors have simply vanished on their own.”
…So this was the power of square dance music.
“And the third song… something-Lotus. Everyone thought the lyrics were strange, but it wasn’t until Louis came to me yesterday to confess that I understood the deep meaning behind your bizarre lyrics,” Lin Ruge’s father said slowly.
Deep meaning… How could mere misheard lyrics have a deep meaning?
“Louis is a helper in the kitchen. Yesterday, he admitted to me that he had indeed been stealing pork bones, chicken hearts, and a few pounds of rice from time to time while working… and that he was often careless when washing vegetables, sometimes even forgetting to wash them at all. He said it was only after hearing Ruge sing that song that he realized we knew about his actions all along and were just waiting for him to confess. Yesterday, he was crying his eyes out, swearing he would turn over a new leaf.” Lin Ruge’s father looked at Wen Ying with extreme admiration. “Yingying, you are truly brilliant. You only visited the kitchen once, yet you were able to notice these irregularities. And you used such an indirect method to not only alert us, but to alert Louis himself. Yingying, you are a true strategist! In the future, I can rest easy leaving the stronghold in your hands.”
Wen Ying: “…”
Who on earth could have guessed that there was actually someone in the kitchen named Louis?!
Author’s Note:
I’ve added the missing part~
For those who don’t know the misheard lyrics for Gurenge, I didn’t want to take up space in the main text, so I’ll explain it here. The lyrics sound like “Pork bones, come and braise them, you forgot to wash the eggs again~” and later, “several basins of chicken hearts opened,” and “five pounds of rice is not enough,” which is why it implies he was stealing these things (not really).
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