Saturday, May 22, Clear.
The sky looked as if it was just washed. It was inconceivably clean; a blue curtain unblemished by any white clouds. It felt very surreal.
The capital's widespread environmental remediation policies and pollution elimination efforts removed the stigma as the "haze capital". However, these types of blue skies still weren't seen normally and made people's mood to unconsciously become free of worry.
Even though it wasn't the hottest season yet, the girls in the city already changed into pretty summer dresses. The streets were filled with fluttering short skirts to show off their long legs and youthfulness.
"Big Chen!"
Li Feiyu pulled his leather briefcase and gasped for breath as he ran up. He shouted towards Lu Chen who was standing by the road enjoying the scenery, "Let's hurry up and go. If we're late, our seat may be taken by someone else!"
"Big Chen" was Li Feiyu's new nickname for Lu Chen. Originally, it was "superstar", "Little Lu" or "brother". Now, in consideration of Lu Chen's new status, Li Feiyu finally settled on this nickname after careful deliberation.
According to Li Feiyu's way of talking, people with status have a "big" or "grandpa" attached. Lu Chen's still wasn't capable enough to have the word "grandpa" attached but "big" was no problem. Saying it would also not let others look down on him.
Lu Chen — calling him Big Lu didn't sound good and could easily be misinterpreted.
1 As a result, he decided on Big Chen.
Lu Chen didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He couldn't help that Li Feiyu had the mouth of a salesman. The mouth of a salesman has the reputation of being the best of the seven weapons in the workplace. He could talk his way out of anything, as such Lu Chen could only go along with Li Feiyu.
"I already said it three times. Our seats are reserved…"
Lu Chen helplessly said, "It won't be taken by others. If we go now, it really will be a bit too early…"
Tonight, Houhai's Blue Lotus Bar was holding their music festival activities with Light Rain Media as their primary sponsor. It was rumored that the scale was very large and was the most grandiose among all the prior festivals. They invited many people from within the industry.
Lu Chen was also on the lineup of invited singers. When the people from Blue Lotus Bar asked him if he had any requests, he thought for a while then decided to ask for a VIP pass and asked for permission from Blue Lotus Bar to broadcast the event live.
That's right. Tonight, Lu Fei's Broadcast Room's scheduled event was Blue Lotus Music Festival
This idea came up when Chen Jianhao told Lu Chen the news about the invitation. Nowadays, the content of internet broadcasts were more and more diverse. It was easy for the audience to get tired if the anchor just sat in front of the computer and performed every day. Therefore, it was necessary to make new types of content every once in a while.
There is no doubt that, when he gets on stage during the Blue Lotus Music Festival, it would be an amazing performance!
In order to accomplish his goal, Lu Chen didn't hesitate to give up the performance fee that Blue Lotus Bar gave.
He believed that donations from his fans would be more than enough to compensate for the loss.
However, the way they operated was very magnanimous. Not did they agree with all of Lu Chen's demands, they didn't leave out a single cent in their performance fee.
Blue Lotus Bar's Music Festival never restricted filming. They even recorded the various events at the venue and broadcasted them online for others to view and promote the influence of the event.
As such, Lu Chen smoothly obtained a VIP pass — not for himself but rather for Li Feiyu.
This was because a live broadcast required people to help. Brother Fei naturally was the best choice for this. He was also the only choice.
However, after Li Feiyu learned about this, he was ecstatic and began preparing for the event two days prior.
Broadcasting live outdoors is actually rather simple, you would only need a 4G smartphone to accomplish it. Li Feiyu wasn't careless in the slightest. He not only got a high definition camera and a high quality microphone, he also purchased a tripod, photo lightbox, and noise filters.
Of course, Lu Chen paid for these things since he could still use them in the future.
"Being early is better than being later. The earlier we leave, the faster we can get ready."
Li Feiyu laughed and said, "I heard from others that the Blue Lotus Music Festival is very lively. Little Mei went to it before. I told her that we were going to do a VIP broadcast tonight and she said that she would tune into the live broadcast to watch.
He said it with a face filled with exultation and unconsciously revealed his feelings.
Lu Chen asked curiously, "Didn't Little Mei resign already? You still talk to her?"
Little Mei worked at the front desk in the 4S store that Li Feiyu worked at. She had a crowd of admirers and Li Feiyu was secretly in love with her.
Speaking of Little Mei, the time that Li Feiyu tried broadcasting was because of Little Mei's influence as well. Little Mei's live broadcast reportedly made tens of thousands of dollars every month. She didn't even plan to work at the 4S store anymore and become a full time anchor.
"Don't bring that up!"
Li Feiyu regretfully said, "Little Mei's broadcasting room violated the rules and was sealed so she didn't resign."
Even though his tone was very regretful, there wasn't a hint of regret in the expression on his face, rather, there was an expression of joy.
Lu Chen laughed involuntarily and didn't say anything else.
The Little Mei that Li Feiyu haven't even meet was not a good fit for Li Feiyu, but Li Feiyu liked her so Lu Chen didn't say anything else.
"Taxi!"
Li Feiyu waved his hands to stop the taxi that just passed them.
The two of them hurried towards Houhai. The taxi driver was from Beijing so he was familiar with that area. As soon as they said the address, the taxi smoothly pulled out and was in the parking lot in front of Blue Lotus Bar in no time.
A little factory was the predecessor of the Blue Lotus Bar, however, after the city changed, the layout became what it was today. In front of the bar was a busy pedestrian walkway while there was an artificial lake with azure waves in the back.
Unlike Forget Worries Bar, Blue Lotus Bar's parking lots were connected with a paved two way street. Therefore, the movement in and out of the parking lot was very convenient, regardless if it was normally or during events. If you arrived late, there was simply no empty spots and business was very good.
What made people the most envious was the fact that the entire lot, larger than a big house, was bought earlier by Blue Lotus Bar's owner, Chang Wei. If he no longer wanted to be a part of the industry and decided to sell off the land, he has enough money to spend for three generations.
However, Chang Wei never had those types of thoughts and always earnestly operated his bar. All of the people in the industry couldn't help giving him thumbs up.
The Music Festival began at 7:00 PM and it wasn't even 5:00 PM, but there was already many people that arrived very early like the two of them. Some of them were performers but many more of them were members of the audience.
The venue and stage were already set up. There was no lack of things like lights, speakers, and huge LED screens. Many workers were hurrying around, making last minute adjustments and keeping order.
Getting out of the car at the entrance, Li Feiyu's eyes opened in shock, "Wow, this is practically a concert venue!"
The parking lot's area was large enough that, even with a portion set aside as a stage, there was easily enough room for two to three thousand audience members. In all of Houhai, this was the only place that had sufficient room to host this large of an event.
"Excuse me, are you two participating in the performance?"
A staff member walked over and courteously asked.
"Yes!"
Lu Chen pulled out his ID card and VIP pass for the staff member to examine. The Blue Lotus Music Festival has already been held many times and they always followed a strict standard. People without an ID card or a ticket were unable to go in.
He also noticed a police car, likely deployed from the local police station, parked not far away.
The staff member examined the ID card and VIP pass and said, "please follow me."
Following the staff member's lead, Lu Chen and Li Feiyu passed through the parking lot and entered the Blue Lotus Bar.
The layout and decorations of Blue Lotus Bar was undoubtedly much more luxurious compared to Daylily Bar. The wave shaped bar counter alone was double the length of Daylily Bar's counter. A dazzling lineup of liquor was on the display rack and each suspended drinking glass glinted under the illumination of the lights.
The bar was separated into three stories: top, middle, and bottom. The T-shaped stage was very fashionable, the backdrop was at least 500 inches wide, various lights were cleverly arranged, and the sound system made people gasp in amazement.
Due to the activities tonight, the bar wasn't open. The ground floor was treated as the backstage area and separated into various areas for the singers and bands that were performing.
Daylily Bar's place was on the inside right side of the bar counter. Three wine tables were combined to make a long table. The combined area wasn't small.
The people representing Daylily Bar tonight obviously wasn't Lu Chen alone. However, the Wandering Band and Sister Na both haven't arrived. The amount of singers from other bars that already arrived couldn't be considered a lot either.
After putting down his guitar, he and Li Feiyu went up to the VIP area on the second floor.
大陆 is used to refer to mainland China