Chapter 8: Bright and Dazzling
[Career Woman: After work today, I went for a drink with colleagues at a bar near the office and found a super handsome ‘Little Brother.’ Do you think thatâs the main point? NO! The point is that this ‘Little Brother’ sings so incredibly well that all the patrons were crying, okay? Even the men were secretly wiping tears, let alone the women. This ‘Little Brother’ is my Male God from now on. Having heard his songs and seen his face, no other male organism will ever catch my eye again.]
This was a post from a certain “White-boned Demoness” (a successful professional woman) in her WeChat Moments, accompanied by four photos. Although they were all side profiles and didn’t show his face clearly, he looked amazing from every angle.
This beauty was attractive and had many WeChat friends, many of whom were colleagues. After seeing the post, a group of girls immediately declared they would go “scout” the boy tomorrow. Since they weren’t sure what time he would be on stage, they decided to head over right after work. The men, meanwhile, claimed they would act as the girls’ “flower-protecting messengers.”
[Coser Yaohuang V: After finishing work today, everyone went to a bar to celebrate and found a peerless Male God. Great looks! Great aura! Great voice! Great singing! In comparison, Iâm suddenly feeling very insecure, you know? Everyone cried listening to him. Later, the bar became incredibly quiet, everyone just listening to him sing in silence. I only remembered to post to Weibo after the Male God left the stage.]
The post was accompanied by two photos: one of many people wiping their eyes, and one of Xiahou Qian singing on stage.
Yaohuang was a COSER who considered himself quite good-looking. He didn’t have a massive following, but he had over a hundred thousand fans. He was the steady type in the COSER circle, neither acting cute nor selling homoerotic “fanservice.” Although everyone thought he was a “top,” he didn’t actually like men, and he didn’t have a woman he liked either.
Yaohuangâs fans were naturally curious when they saw him call another man a “Male God,” but since they were scattered all over the country, Yaohuang didn’t plan to reveal his location. People could only gossip on Weibo; although some asked for the barâs address, Yaohuang didn’t disclose it.
[Premium Black Horse V: Damn, I cried too. The other songs were fine, but one was especially sorrowful. I didn’t feel much listening to the original, but when the Male God sang it, I just felt so miserable. The Male God must be someone with a story. //@Coser Yaohuang V: After finishing work today, everyone went to a bar to celebrate…]
“Premium Black Horse” was a girl and the photographer for Yaohuangâs team. She had a “Queen” personality and usually enjoyed teasing submissive “shou” types. Although she hadn’t revealed her face, team members had leaked that she was a great beauty. She had many fans too. Since Yaohuang had already said the whole team was at the bar, her comment undoubtedly verified his words.
Xiahou Qian had dinner at a roadside stall after leaving Night Color and then went home.
After washing up, he sat on his bed with his laptop. He opened Tianlai and checked the status of his song. The online purchases had exceeded 20, with slightly fewer downloads. Overall, everything was moving in a good direction. Xiahou Qian decided to record and upload another song in a few days.
The next day, Xiahou Qian woke up early. He went for a morning run and grabbed breakfast on the way back. With nothing else to do, he sat at his electronic keyboard, playing while sketching notes on paper. This was the first time he had written a song since his rebirth.
He wanted to write a song about rebirth. Much like his homepage name, he titled it Nirvana. He had considered calling it Rebirth, but Nirvana sounded more high-end.
The composition went surprisingly well. Within a day, he had completed the first draft. However, after listening to it several times, he felt something was missing. After thinking for a while and failing to find the answer, he simply set it aside since it was almost time for work. Composing was a matter of inspiration, after all.
Xiahou Qian arrived at Night Color just at 6:00 PM. Upon entering, he found the place much more crowded than yesterday. Wang Wei was sitting at the bar. Seeing Xiahou Qian, he greeted him with a smile. Xiahou Qian smiled back, called out “Manager Wang,” and sat on a high stool across from him.
“Want something to drink? It’s on me,” Wang Wei said.
“Just a glass of soda water.” To protect his voice, Xiahou Qian rarely drank stimulating beverages, and alcohol was completely out of the question. He was also careful with his diet, rarely eating spicy food. If his voice was damaged, it would be incredibly difficult to recover.
A moment later, a glass of soda water was placed on the bar. Wang Wei pushed the glass toward him with a smile.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Xiahou Qian took a sip and asked, “Do you have paper and a pen? I’ll write today’s song list.”
“Yes.” Before Wang Wei could speak, the young bartender behind the counter spoke up, taking out paper, a pen, and a new notebook from a storage compartment.
“This was prepared specifically for you. From now on, write your daily song list in this notebook. Mm, you can write your name on the cover,” Wang Wei added.
“Thank you,” Xiahou Qian smiled.
At that moment, another group of five or six people entered. From where Xiahou Qian and Wang Wei were sitting, they could clearly hear what was being said as the group passed the bar.
“I didn’t expect you to attract so many people on the first day. Youâre truly formidable,” Wang Wei teased.
The words of those people made it clear they had come specifically for him. After all, there probably wasn’t a second “super handsome Little Brother who came for an audition last night.” However, Xiahou Qian found the title both embarrassing and speechless.
Patrons looked toward the bar, but since Xiahou Qianâs back was to them, no one saw his face.
Xiahou Qian chatted with Wang Wei while listing his songs. Once finished, the young bartender helped take the list to the person in charge of the backing tracks.
“Whatâs your name?” Xiahou Qian asked the bartender when he returned. In his memory, bartenders were usually flashy and lively, but the one in this shop was introverted and shy, rushing to do any odd job when he wasn’t mixing drinks.
“My name is Wang Shaoyou,” the young bartender replied quickly, looking a bit awkward.
“He’s my nephew, from the countryside. Heâs not much of a talker, but heâs very honest and hardworking,” Wang Wei interjected.
“I really wouldn’t have guessed. You two are nothing alike in looks or personality,” Xiahou Qian said with a light laugh.
Wang Wei was shrewd and smooth, while Wang Shaoyou was honest and dull. Xiahou Qian had been curious why someone like him would work in a bar, but now that he knew his relationship with Wang Wei, it made sense. Wang Wei was likely looking after his nephew by letting him learn mixology and work at Night Color. Wang Shaoyou, perhaps afraid of causing trouble for Wang Wei or having Lu Ke think poorly of him, helped with every chore besides his actual job.
“You should smile less in the future; itâs practically blinding,” Wang Wei said. This wasn’t the first time heâd felt this way. With Xiahou Qianâs looks, he was bound to break many hearts.
This time, Xiahou Qian couldn’t help but let out a genuine chuckle. The smile on his face was more radiant and unrestrained than before. In his last life, he hadn’t smiled much even at school. Because of his mother, he usually wore a cold expression, and after he was disfigured and lost his voice, he never smiled again. Now that he was living again, his mindset had changed. He didn’t want to live so heavily; surely that wasn’t what his mother would have wanted.
Heâd had no father since childhood. He only knew from his mother that he was an exceptional man who had been very good to her, though they never married.
As for why the man left, his motherâs version was that his fatherâs family had matters to resolve. She firmly believed the man would return for them. Before she died, she told Xiahou Qian that if his father ever came back, he must not blame him; she believed his failure to return for so many years must have been due to an accident.
Xiahou Qian, of course, didn’t believe these self-comforting words. He felt his father had simply found an excuse to leave. Perhaps he already had a fiancĂŠe or even a wife and children back home. But since his mother felt no resentment, Xiahou Qian felt no hatred for the man he had never met.
Xiahou Qian had been brilliant and sensible since he was young. His mother never had to worry about his studies. He skipped through middle and high school and entered the Huaxia Conservatory of Music at fourteen. His many honors overshadowed the fact that he was from a single-parent home. When people mentioned Xiahou Qian, their first impression was “genius.” After moving once, no one brought up his lack of a father anymore.
The downside of skipping grades was that Xiahou Qian had no peers. Everyone tended to look after a handsome boy much younger than them, but Xiahou Qian didn’t like people getting too close, which led to his habit of being cold. Later, with his “genius” reputation, he was described as a high-cold, unreachable Male God. In short: The Cold Male God.
Xiahou Qian was beautiful and a genius, yet he had no suitors. The reason was simple: he was much younger than his classmates. Leaving middle school aside, he was only fourteen when he graduated high school. He was a minor for all four years of university. No matter how “lost to madness” his twenty-year-old classmates were, they couldn’t bring themselves to make a move on a minor. He had only just become a legal adult by the time he graduated.
Shen Wei was the only person in class who had his contact information, because as the class monitor, he needed it for event notifications.
Around 7:00 PM, Xiahou Qian took a bottle of mineral water and walked onto the stage just like yesterday, sitting in the same spot.
“Male God!” Someone spotted him almost immediately.
At first, it was just a few girls shouting excitedly, but soon, many others joined in. There were both men and women among them. Xiahou Qian didn’t know, but Wang Wei knew very well: many in the crowd were patrons from yesterday who had clearly returned specifically for Xiahou Qian.
“Hello, everyone. I am Qian Chen. I will be here every night from 7:00 to 8:00 from now on.” He didn’t plan to use his real name and had picked a stage name on the fly. However, this offhand name actually revealed quite a bitâthough Xiahou Qian likely hadn’t realized it himself.
“Qian Chen!”
“Male God Qian Chen!”
“Male God! Male God!”
Seeing the crowd’s enthusiasm, Xiahou Qian looked up and gave everyone a smileâbright and dazzling. The applause and cheers grew even more intense. Wang Wei was both happy and speechless. Is he holding a concert?
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