Chapter 5: You Who Sat Next to Me
Luo Hongyi was one of the regular customers of Nepenthes Bar.
He had been working in Beijing for many years now and he could be considered as a semi-successful person. Although he was very busy during the day, he still made time to visit the bar in the evening. He would order a few cocktails and quietly idle away the long, dark nights.
Luo Hongyi didn’t like extremely noisy places, but he also didn’t like being lonely by himself. The atmosphere of the bars in Houhai made him feel comfortable, but he didn’t come there to look for a woman, but rather to relax his taut heartstrings.
Tonight, just as he sat on his usual place at the bar, he head Lu Chen singing《You Who Sat Next to Me》.
“......
You were always really careful,
Asking to borrow half of my eraser,
You had also said by accident,
That you like being with me,
Back then the skies were always blue,
The days were passing too slowly,
You were always saying that graduation is far away,
In no time we have drifted apart!
Who met the sentimental you,
Who comforted you who loved to cry,
Who read the letter I wrote to you,
Who threw it to the wind,
......”
As an elite worker, Luo Hongyi had long been used to conflicts. He himself believed that his heart were as impregnable as steel, and that it was unlikely that he would be moved by anyone again.
But after hearing this ballad of a sorrowful reminiscence, he suddenly discovered that his heart wasn’t as stone cold as he thought, and that he still had an unsatisfied soft spot deep within.
Seatmates were probably one of the most precious memories of youth. Most people often had their first love with their seatmates even though they didn’t understand love during that time. Therefore, this love was pure, and pure and honest feelings were the most beautiful!
Luo Hongyi also had a seatmate engraved on the depths of his memories. It was a girl with a “tóng” character in her name.
Meeting, becoming friends, falling in love, quarrelling, reconciling, and finally graduating, only to drift apart in a blink of an eye!
It was like a melodramatic modern drama, yet that was what Luo Hongyi experienced in his damned youth!
He could no longer remember the past, but at this moment, Luo Hongyi suddenly had a strong urge to call Tong just to ask her one question——Are you doing fine?
But that was a very very long time ago, so they had already lost contact with each other.
“......
The old days have passed,
I will also have my own wife.
I will show her the photos,
Tell her about you who sat next to me.
Who married the sentimental you,
Who comforted you who loved to cry,
Who tied your hair into a bun,
Who gave you your wedding dress,
La…”
Luo Hongyi suddenly stood up, almost knocking over the wine table in front of him, but he didn’t care, he grabbed an unopened wine bottle and walked with large strides towards the stage.
On stage, Lu Chen had just finished singing the last verse of the song.
The entire audience was silent and, as if by God’s magic, time seemed to have stopped at that moment.
Lu Chen was feeling very good.
It was because everyone’s eyes were focused at him, nobody was talking, nobody was drinking, nobody was being casual, and not a single person ignored him.
Right there, on that stage, he had used a new song to conquer them all!
However, there was a well-dressed middle aged man quickly heading towards the stage, his footsteps stumbled slightly as he rushed towards the stage, afterwards he put the wine bottle on his hand on top of the stage.
Afterwards, the man took out his wallet and put 5 hundred dollar Yuan bills beside the wine bottle, hesitated for a bit, then added 3 more.
With a total of 8 brand new red bills, he pressed them beneath the wine bottle.
“Sing it again!”
The middle aged man looked at Lu Chen and said with a hoarse voice, “Please sing it again!”
His black eyes were shining with inexplicable luster.
Lu Chen was shocked at first, but he quickly understood and said, “Thank you for your support sir, in that case I will sing it again, I hope everyone also likes my first original song.”
This way of rewarding was very rare in Nepenthes Bar, because the majority of the customers were white collar workers, young artists, college students, and the community insiders, most of them were rational people.
The classical 《You Who Sat Next to Me》, through Lu Chen’s singing, had magically moved everyone.
At this moment, applause finally exploded within the bar, and the excitement almost broke through the roof!
Lu Chen bent down and took the wine bottle, he uncorked it and drank a big mouthful, and afterwards he returned it to its original position. After nodding at the middle aged man, he started to play his guitar again.
He began to sing for the second time.
The applause from earlier quickly settled down so the tranquility within the bar was quickly restored. The noise from the pedestrian street outside passed through the windows and was faintly discernible.
As the sound of Lu Chen’s voice and the sound of his guitar mixed together, his figure as he sang on the small stage became an unforgettable scene.
Behind the counter, Su Qingmei’s eyes were shining as she tightly grasped Chen Jianhao’s arm, she whispered, “I want, I want him, I want him!”
Chen Jianhao pinched his eyebrows as though he had a headache, and with a bitter smile he said, “My lady, what happened to being reserved?”
“If he becomes yours, he wouldn’t be able to run away even if he wanted to, but if he doesn’t become yours…”
“He can only be mine!”
Su Qingmei unyieldingly interrupted him, her words were filled with self-confidence, “I don’t believe that he would refuse my invitation, but only if you don’t hinder me, and if this is truly his original song.”
Chen Jianhao took out his phone with his left hand and said, “I tested it with Musix°Match and there is no similar work, but if you want to be sure, go inquire with the music library.”
Musix°Match was a very popular phone app at present. As long as one opened it and recorded a part of a song, it could instantly identify the song title, and furthermore, it’s accuracy was quite high.
Of course, compared to 《Great China’s Music Library》, Musix°Match’s professionalism and authority were much worse.
Su Qingmei smiled happily, she released Chen Jianhao’s arm and said, “That won’t be a problem.”
A mature woman’s beauty, a young girl’s cunningness, the two different traits mixed together gave her a unique charm, like a legendary chaos-wreaking witch.
But Chen Jianhao respectfully said, “You have no problems, but I still have a problem!”
He left the counter and walked towards the backstage.
While on the stage, Lu Chen continued to sing.
Within the huge room backstage, Sister Hong and the male singer Xing Ye looked at each other in dismay. Shock, astonishment, envy, jealousy, and other types of emotions alternated on their faces, but they remained silent.
The huge room wasn’t soundproof like the small inner rooms, therefore they could clearly hear Lu Chen’s voice.
Since they had already spent so much time working at the bar, how could they have not known Lu Chen’s level?
As resident singers, both Sister Hong and Xing Ye had always looked down on Lu Chen, they saw him as nothing more than a bar waiter, and they had never viewed him as a rival.
But tonight, Lu Chen’s first song《Soaring Pigeon》had won the audience’s admiration, then he came up with an original song that stunned the entire audience and brought the house down!
Was he still the Lu Chen that they knew?
The two singers couldn’t believe it, they didn’t believe it, they didn’t want to believe it!
“Where… where did he copy it?”
After a moment, Xing Ye murmured, “It feels a bit familiar, isn’t it shameful to call it original?”
Sister Hong forced out a smile, but she secretly disdained his IQ in her heart.
Whether the song was original or not, the people in the audience could use their cellphones to check, and unless Lu Chen’s head was kicked by a donkey, he wouldn’t be bragging about it, otherwise how would he still show his face in the future?
What she couldn’t believe was, from beginning to end of Lu Chen’s songs, he actually didn’t use auto-tune.
What was Fatty doing in the electronics room?
At the same time, in the electronics room.
Fatty and the waiter, Xiao Gao, were completely dumbfounded.
They were scheming against Lu Chen, which was why they turned off the sound mixer on the stage so that only the original sounds would be heard, so Lu Chen would be exposed and humiliated, and therefore satisfy their dark desires.
But the result was completely different from what they imagined, Lu Chen not only didn’t lose face, instead he won the praise of every customer, his performance level was incomparably better than before!
Through the speakers from the monitor, they could hear Lu Chen’s voice even clearer than outside.
All of their dirty tricks became useless.
Furthermore, Lu Chen even had an original song!
Fatty dejectedly shook his head, he reached out to turn on the sound mixer.
Xiao Gao grabbed him and grimly asked, “Brother Fatty, can’t you tune his voice to make it bad?”
Intense jealousy filled his heart, making him lose reason.
But Fatty was still clear headed, and since he didn’t have an enmity with Lu Chen, he jumped with shock, like his buttocks was burned, and anxiously said, “What nonsense are you talking about, do you also want me to lose my job? I can’t, I can’t…”
Since he could improve the voicing, it was only natural that he could also make it worse, but since it was extremely obvious, how would others be fooled?
Xiao Gao was very unwilling to stop, he clutched Fatty’s arm and refused to let go, as he continued to persuade him.
At this time, the electronic room’s door suddenly opened.
While harboring dark thoughts, the two of them turned around to look at the door, but as they saw Chen Jianhao enter, they became scared senseless.
Chen Jianhao had a dark expression, his sharp eyes first swept over the two persons, then finally on the turned off sound mixer, his eyes flashed slightly.
Fatty was paralyzed in his chair as he tried to explain with a bitter expression, “Bo… Boss, I…”
Chen Jianhao didn’t pay any attention to him, while facing Xiao Gao he coldly said, “Xiao Gao, go to the cashier and take your wages for this month, after that don’t come back again.”
The owner of Nepenthes Bar knew what happened, and he also knew who the culprit was.
As if a bolt of thunder struck him, Xiao Gao suddenly woke up, all of his jealousy, anger, and hatred vanished instantly, and was replaced with fear and regret.
“Boss, I was wrong, please give me another chance!”
Being a waiter at Nepenthes Bar was actually quite good, the salary wasn’t low, their boss, Chen Jianhao, wasn’t harsh, and their new year’s bonus was high.
Xiao Gao really didn’t want to lose this job, furthermore Chen Jianhao meant that he wouldn’t allow him to return to Houhai in the future!
Chen Jianhao couldn’t actually influence every bar in Houhai, but as long as a few words get out, which bar would want to hire that kind of troublemaker?
Now he was even allowing him to take his wages before firing him, he was actually already being extremely benevolent.
No matter how much he begged, it was useless.
Xiao Gao wanted to cry but he had no tears—— it was a misfortune he brought onto himself!
TL Note: Click ---->>Here< to listen to the song
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