Fairy Tale Town Exists

"Alright, brothers, that's it for today's stream. Yuuka still has to study Chinese, so let's not disturb her," Zhao Yu said to the viewers in the stream.

[Yuuka has to study Chinese, so do you? Streamer, you're getting more and more perfunctory.]

[What are you, a Fish platform civil servant? Clocking in and out of work?]

[Streamer, you weren't like this before. Don't tell me you've gone weak?]

The Bullet Screen flooded with complaints about Zhao Yu. Ever since he had met Yuuka, he had changed from the kind of streamer who stayed up all night. He went live punctually every afternoon and ended the stream at eleven sharp.

"It's not that I'm clocking out. It's mainly because those two songs have already been recorded in the studio. You have to leave me some time to release them, right?" Zhao Yu said helplessly.

"You don't want to keep waiting forever to hear the full versions of those three songs, do you?"

[Tch, after spending so much time with Yuuka, you've learned the Japanese style of threats too, huh?]

[And you still say you're not Japanese?]

[Fine, I'll forgive you this time for the sake of having new songs to listen to.]

"See? Some people are still looking forward to my songs," Zhao Yu said, immediately spotting the final Bullet Screen comment about having songs to listen to.

But the smile on his face gave veteran viewers familiar with his streams a faintly ominous feeling.

Could it be...

"So, bye-bye, everyone!"

The stream went black, and Zhao Yu vanished from view.

[Fuck! I knew it! Instant stream end.]

[It's a traditional skill. You'll get used to it.]

[We might as well have Yuuka take over as the streamer.]

[The blue sky is dead; the yellow sky shall rise! I approve!]

Although Zhao Yu had already left, some viewers were still discussing in the black-screened stream whether Zhao Yu ought to be stripped of his streamer status.

Meanwhile, Zhao Yu opened the Cloud Village Music website and uploaded his songs through the musician dashboard.

A week had passed since the matter involving Yuuka and Qigong Shiori.

During that time, Yuuka and Zhao Yu had grown increasingly close. Even when nobody deliberately stirred things up, the atmosphere between them occasionally turned ambiguous.

Zhao Yu did not dislike this change. In fact, he was rather pleased by it.

As for why Yuuka had become increasingly close to him, he could only attribute it to the secrets they had exchanged.

After all, he had revealed a rather serious embarrassing part of his past. It could be said that he had truly bared his heart.

And to make communication between them more convenient, Yuuka had begun teaching herself Chinese. That was why Zhao Yu had said what he did just now.

Originally, Zhao Yu had wanted to teach Yuuka himself, but Yuuka refused him with the reason, "Lord Yu already has enough trouble dealing with me normally. This time, I have to let Lord Yu see my determination!"

As for what exactly had made Yuuka resolve to learn Chinese, Zhao Yu did not really dare to ask, nor did he want to. After all, if it turned out not to be what he imagined, he would definitely be disappointed.

"That should do it, right?" Zhao Yu muttered to himself as he looked at the three uploaded songs.

He had registered as a Cloud Village Music artist a few days ago, along with accounts on Penguin and several other music platforms. But he still planned to upload these three songs to Cloud Village first and test the waters.

After all, he was currently just an unknown nobody. It would be the same anywhere, so he might as well start with Cloud Village Music, where there were the most grassroots musicians.

Once these three songs were discovered and gradually became popular, he would have the leverage to negotiate contracts with other music companies.

"I refuse to believe these songs won't catch on even in a parallel world."

After taking a screenshot of the successful upload page, Zhao Yu closed the website and began editing a post in his Fish platform streamer feed.

"Brothers, Fairy Tale Town, Chengdu, and Compendium of Materia Medica have all been uploaded to Cloud Village Music. Go give them a listen."

After typing that out, Zhao Yu uploaded the screenshot, hit send, and exited the Fish platform app.

"Oh, right, I need to send a copy to Shuizi Ge too." Remembering what he had promised A Shui, Zhao Yu immediately sent it over through A Shui's WeChat.

"Wow! That fast? You're a real brother!" A Shui replied just as quickly.

"I sent it over as soon as it was done. From now on, you're a man with his own BGM too," Zhao Yu typed with a smile.

Although the Wenbo March would later count as A Shui's signature BGM, Zhao Yu did not actually like that Korean song very much.

"Thanks to you. I'll let Ning Wang and Bao Lan hear it later." A Shui sent a thankful emoji.

The moment Zhao Yu saw those two names, the problems Invictus Gaming had faced in 2019 surfaced in his mind. To be fair, the biggest source of drama in the entire team back then had been those two.

But even if he wanted to warn A Shui, he did not know how to go about it. After all, this involved the private matters of two other people. He could hardly tell A Shui that he could foresee the future, could he?

Thinking of that, Zhao Yu could only type a single line.

"You're not planning to transfer teams anytime soon, are you?"

"Not for now. Why? Did you hear some media outlets making wild guesses and get curious?"

"No. I just want to tell you that if you ever want to transfer teams in the future, whatever you do, don't go to RNG."

After sending that message, Zhao Yu let out a sigh of relief and tossed his phone aside.

This was the only thing he could do now. No one could save Invictus Gaming in 2019 unless he could get involved in IG's management.

A certain gacha expert's wild stunt, coupled with the influx of fandom stans, had essentially sealed this doomed outcome.

"I can only help you this much, buddy." Zhao Yu closed his eyes and muttered to himself.

Meanwhile, Li Qingwan looked at Zhao Yu's Fish platform post, a faint smile appearing on her face.

Her father was still taking a wait-and-see approach toward Zhao Yu, hoping to reconsider after the songs were released. And now, hadn't the opportunity arrived?

After waiting so long, Zhao Yu had finally released these three songs. Li Qingwan believed that with such quality, their results definitely wouldn't be bad.

"But it's better to be safe..." With that thought, Li Qingwan opened WeChat, typed out a message, and sent it to someone.

An hour later, beneath every video of Zhao Yu singing on the street, a group of guides appeared.

They continuously directed viewers curious about where to listen to Zhao Yu's songs to Cloud Village Music.

As time passed, Zhao Yu's three songs continued to gain traction, and more and more people began paying attention to this singer who had suddenly risen to prominence.

There was another person who had been keeping an eye on Zhao Yu's movements all along: Li Fei, who had once met him by chance.

The moment Zhao Yu released his songs, he clicked into Zhao Yu's profile on Cloud Village Music.

"Hm? Besides Chengdu, there are actually two other songs?" A look of surprise appeared on Li Fei's face.

He then opened Fairy Tale Town first. The familiar folk style made him hum along involuntarily, but after seeing the lyrics, a complicated expression appeared on his face.

"So it really is this kind of style..."

Like Chengdu, this song had a plain, straightforward feel. The difference was that one spoke of memories of a city, while the other used a fairy tale as a foundation to tell a story about life.

Neither song seemed particularly stunning at first glance, but the more he listened, the more addictive they became, giving him the feeling that he could gather his courage and live again.

"Thanks to you, I was able to pull myself together again." Li Fei sighed softly and turned to look at Xiao Yan, who was sitting beside him.

He no longer sang on the streets or worked as a resident singer at bars. Instead, he had begun teaching children musical instruments while continuing to chase his musical dream.

If Chengdu had stirred up his attachment to this city, then Xiao Yan was the reason he kept striving.

Although he did not earn as much as he had singing at bars, life was gradually getting better. He liked this sense of stability.

"Who says Fairy Tale Town doesn't exist?" Li Fei glanced at the comments section, a smile appearing on his face.

Slowly, he typed out a line.

"Fairy Tale Town exists. As long as you don't let down the people by your side, anywhere can be Fairy Tale Town."

"Why the hell are you looking at me like that?" Xiao Yan, who was eating chips and watching a movie, noticed Li Fei's gaze. She turned around and spoke.

"Nothing. I just think it's really great to have you here." Li Fei shook his head.

"Li Fei? You don't have anything going on today, do you?" Xiao Yan frowned, leaned closer, and placed a hand on his forehead.

"No fever? Did you go behind my back and find some other girl? Talk!"

"How would I dare?" Li Fei did not know whether to laugh or cry. He handed his phone to Xiao Yan and truthfully told her about meeting Zhao Yu before.

"So that's how it is. Then he could be considered a great benefactor to us too, right?" Xiao Yan said thoughtfully.

"I guess you could say that." Li Fei nodded.

If it had not been for Zhao Yu, he would probably have returned to his hometown by now. He might even have broken up with Xiao Yan.

"Then we should thank him properly. Oh, right! Haven't some of your friends been participating in that event lately? How about you..." Xiao Yan whispered into Li Fei's ear.

"Wouldn't that be inappropriate? Without getting his permission..." Li Fei hesitated.

"Just submit it first and talk about it later. It won't do him any harm anyway! A good person like him shouldn't stay unknown!" Xiao Yan said seriously.

"Alright, I understand." Li Fei nodded.

With the quality of this song, there shouldn't be a problem, right?

The main plot and romance are currently being written in alternating turns, so everyone, please don't worry.

As for Qigong Shiori's scenes, all I can say is that she plays an even greater role than Li Qingwan in advancing Zhao Yu and Yuuka's romance.

I originally didn't want to write their story in too much detail and planned to gloss over it, but I wanted to make Yuuka a more well-rounded character, so I wrote it after all.

There was also the matter of what exactly was written in Qigong Shiori's little notebook, but after thinking it over, I decided to save that for later. Taking it bit by bit will be better.

Tonight is the first round. Thank you all for following along, and I'm counting on you for the second, third, and fourth rounds too! (bows)

Once it goes premium, my updates should never fall below 6k. Even now, I'm already updating around 5k per chapter.

A lot of friends have told me to keep the word count down to 4k, but I still prefer to make each chapter as complete as possible, so I've never forced the word count to stop at a certain point.

I hope that, for this reason, everyone can help boost the follow-through a little more. Please!