I Thought of Something Happy

"What are you so happy about, Wan Jun?"

Chen Baozhu came back in from outside with a smile. Seeing Wang Siyi hugging her phone and grinning in the lobby, she asked.

"Ah! N-nothing."

Wang Siyi had been chatting "furiously" with Li Changle. When she saw Chen Baozhu coming over, she quickly put her phone away, afraid Chen Baozhu might see something.

Chen Baozhu was puzzled by Wang Siyi's behavior, but didn't say anything. She had something more important to discuss with her.

"Go to bed early tonight and rest your voice. We'll start recording tomorrow. Ideally, we'll get the song done within three days."

Once it was recorded, they'd apply to the company to release a new album. Given how the company operated, it wouldn't give Wang Siyi any publicity at all, but after all these years in show business, Chen Baozhu had built up some connections.

On top of that, director Huang Wenchuan's new film would come out in a month. That should just about take care of the album's promotion.

Chen Baozhu only hoped they could finish recording the album as soon as possible. She was afraid the company would pull some other nasty stunt.

Given Chen Zhiyuan's character, you never knew. Chen Baozhu hadn't even let anyone at Xinyi Huyou know that Wang Siyi had returned to Shanghai.

She wanted to catch the company off guard. Once they submitted the application, Chen Zhiyuan would have no choice but to sign it. If he refused, the company would be breaching its contract.

That would be perfect. Wang Siyi could take the money and leave for a bigger company. What was there to lose? No matter how you looked at it, they'd come out on top. The enemy was in the open, while they were hidden. They had the upper hand!

Chen Baozhu looked very confident.

"Wan Jun, see if you can get 'Red Bean' recorded in the next few days. I've already contacted a producer for you. It's Teacher Yang Caiqian, the same one as last time."

"He still resents the way New Art took the song he'd given you, but he really admires your talent. So I went to see him again and showed him the demo of 'Red Bean.' Without a second thought, he volunteered to produce the album."

Chen Baozhu spoke to Wang Siyi with a bright smile, looking very pleased.

"Really? Teacher Yang Caiqian is so generous. I never would've expected that. I still feel terrible about what happened."

Wang Siyi still looked embarrassed. She'd liked that song a lot, but unfortunately the company had played them both for fools.

Yang Caiqian was a fairly famous musician, and, above all, a versatile one. He did everything in a song's journey from inspiration to release—except sing. He wrote lyrics and music, and was also a well-known album producer. Wang Siyi couldn't have asked for anyone better to produce her album.

In fact, most of the songs on the album had already been recorded. Some had been collected by the company for her in the past, and Sister Baozhu had managed to get others from different musicians.

Only the final lead single had been missing. It wasn't until Li Changle wrote "Red Bean" that they finally had enough songs for a full album.

Now they had a producer and promotional resources. All that remained was to finish recording and release the album. Wang Siyi and Chen Baozhu were both very confident about it, especially about "Red Bean."

"Hey, Teacher Yang is easy to talk to. I went to visit him in person this time, and he didn't turn me away. When I showed him the song, he was stunned. He said the lyrics were the best he'd ever seen."

"He only had one condition for producing your album: he wants to meet the person who wrote the song and talk with him. So I'll have to ask you to bring your friend over. That shouldn't be a problem, right?"

Chen Baozhu asked Wang Siyi with a beaming smile.

Wang Siyi nodded, though she wasn't sure whether Li Changle would come. She wanted to see him too. They'd only parted that morning, but somehow it already felt like ages since she'd last seen him.

He'd have to come up to sign the authorization for the film's theme song anyway, and now Yang Caiqian wanted to meet him too. Surely he wouldn't mind coming to Shanghai. It was just that the last time she'd asked whether he was thinking of coming to Shanghai, she'd seemed rather resistant to the idea.

She furrowed her pretty brows, then replied to Chen Baozhu hesitantly.

"I'll ask if he's willing. We can talk about it then."

"You have to bring him over. I already promised director Huang Wenchuan and Teacher Yang Caiqian, young lady."

"I-I'll do my best."

After she agreed reluctantly, Chen Baozhu told her to hurry up, take a shower, and get some rest.

Wang Siyi breathed a sigh of relief and turned to go back to her room. She took out her phone. The chat with Li Changle was still open, and he'd sent her several messages.

"Where are you?"

"What are you doing?"

"Are you busy?"

It seemed he'd finally figured out she really was busy and stopped messaging. Wang Siyi looked at the three questions he'd sent in a row and let the corners of her mouth curl up. That dummy was finally starting to catch on.

"I was talking to my manager and didn't look at my phone."

She sent a short reply, then went quiet again, thinking about how to come up with a good reason to get him to Shanghai.

A few minutes later, Li Changle replied.

"Oh. I was writing my novel. It's coming out tomorrow."

Wang Siyi knew Li Changle was working on his second novel, but she hadn't gotten around to reading it. Lately, she hadn't felt like reading anything, not even something Li Changle had written.

But now she'd put the past behind her and would be busy again. She probably wouldn't have much time to read. She seemed to remember hearing him talk about writing a Wuxia novel at the dinner table.

Wang Siyi wasn't interested in Wuxia novels. If Li Changle hadn't written it, she probably wouldn't have given it a second glance.

"A director wants to use your song 'Red Bean' as a theme song. I agreed on your behalf. You'll need to authorize it, and they'll pay you 100,000 yuan for the rights. Do you have time to come to Shanghai?"

In the end, Wang Siyi decided to be direct. She didn't know whether he'd be willing to come, and felt a little nervous and anxious. What would she do if he refused?

"Oh, sure. When?"

Li Changle answered readily, asking Wang Siyi when.

That left Wang Siyi at a loss. Hadn't he always been reluctant to come to Shanghai? Why had he agreed so quickly? Did he want to see her too?

Her heart lifted a little, and she quickly typed:

"Didn't you always say you didn't want to come to Shanghai? Why did you agree so fast?"

"When did I ever say I didn't want to go to Shanghai?"

Li Changle was stunned. When had he ever acted like he didn't want to go to Shanghai? He didn't think he had. Had this woman dreamed it up?

"I asked you before whether you'd ever consider coming to Shanghai. You looked like you hated the idea."

Wang Siyi was still clearly annoyed about it. She'd asked him so directly, after all.

Of course she'd hoped he'd consider moving to Shanghai. Instead, the guy had asked her why he would want to go there. It had made her furious.

"That's different. I can visit Shanghai or go there on a business trip, but I can't live or work there."

"Why?"

Wang Siyi asked, confused.

"I don't want to be a wage slave. What's so great about being exploited by capitalism? In Shanghai, working from nine in the morning to nine at night is practically a good deal. Even if you're not working, the pace of life is so fast, there's no sense of life at all, and it's so far from home. What's the point of living in a place like that?"

Li Changle explained that he didn't want to be a wage slave, much less live somewhere soaked in the blood and tears of wage slaves.

Wang Siyi understood, and thought he had a point. She'd never thought much of Shanghai before, but after living with Li Changle in Yangcheng for a while, she'd realized he really knew how to enjoy life. He always cooked for himself and took things at an easy pace.

That sort of life was almost impossible in Shanghai. She couldn't figure out how someone so young—he was even younger than she was—could be so good at living. Wang Siyi couldn't help grumbling about Li Changle to herself.

But on WeChat, she replied:

"You make a good point."

"That's the wisdom I've accumulated over two lifetimes!"

Li Changle typed smugly, bragging to Wang Siyi.

"Yeah, right. Do you remember what happened in your past life?"

"I do. Every night, I dream about what happened in my past life."

"Whatever. I'm going to take a shower."

Wang Siyi used the classic line.

Li Changle stared at the six words "I'm going to take a shower" and fell into thought. Thinking of the old joke, he wondered if he counted as a simp.

Come on. How could I be a simp? I've got money and looks. What kind of girl couldn't I win over?

He looked in the mirror and regained his confidence.

Half an hour later, as soon as Wang Siyi had finished showering, she threw on a set of pajamas and grabbed her phone. In a flash, she sent Li Changle a message:

"I'm done."

Li Changle couldn't help smiling. How was this woman so cute? She was done, so she was done. Why did she have to tell him? Strange.

Still, he couldn't ask her that. Li Changle was a little afraid to. It was strange. When he'd first met Wang Siyi, she'd seemed to radiate coldness, with an aloof aura that could freeze everything within ten meters.

He'd been a little afraid of her back then. But later he'd realized that aloofness was just a shield.

She was thin-skinned, timid, couldn't hold her liquor, hated bitter things and taking medicine, and couldn't even do the dishes.

The better he got to know her, the more he realized she was just a soft-hearted, adorable girl, completely different from how she seemed on the surface.

Thinking of that, Li Changle smiled. Then, as soon as he finished smiling, he realized something.

Wait. When did I get to know her so well?

Li Changle pondered the question for several minutes, but couldn't come up with a good answer. So he simply got lost in thought and didn't even reply to Wang Siyi's messages.

Come on, I took care of her for two whole months. Isn't it perfectly normal that I know her well? That makes complete sense and is entirely logical.

Once he'd figured it out, Li Changle stopped worrying about it. He noticed that half an hour had already passed, and Wang Siyi had sent several messages after he hadn't replied.

"I was thinking about something and got distracted."

"What were you thinking about?"

Wang Siyi replied instantly, as if she'd been staring at her phone.

"I thought of something happy."

"What happy thing?"

Li Changle really wanted to play along with the joke, but he couldn't say what came next. So he answered directly:

"I was thinking about what you were like the night you got drunk."

Wang Siyi's face stiffened as soon as she saw the message. She typed to Li Changle uncertainly:

"Didn't you say I was quiet when I was drunk?"

Quiet? There was no way she'd been quiet when she was drunk. Li Changle grumbled to himself, but he couldn't type that.

"Yeah, you were really quiet. But you were pretty cute when you were drunk."

Wang Siyi's face turned red in an instant. She put down her phone and flopped onto the bed, rolling around a few times. Then she got up and picked up her phone again, but didn't say anything.

Instead, she sent Li Changle a "Go die" sticker: one little dog pinning another by the neck.

"Did I do anything else when I was drunk? Otherwise, why would you have spent so long thinking about it?"

Wang Siyi had latched onto the important point. She still couldn't remember what had happened that night, and her face reddened.

She wanted to know what she'd done while drunk, but was afraid he'd tell her and she'd embarrass herself all over again.

She was sure she'd done plenty of humiliating things that night, but the guy wouldn't tell her, and she didn't dare ask.

But now that she couldn't see him in person, it didn't count as embarrassing herself. She had to make him tell her exactly what she'd done that night.

Li Changle clearly hadn't expected Wang Siyi to ask that. He froze, unsure how to reply.

"Come on, tell me everything I did that night!"

Wang Siyi sounded decisive. She had to make the most of her courage while it lasted and not let him intimidate her.

"Uh... maybe I shouldn't?"

"So you really are hiding something from me!"

Clever Wang Siyi immediately spotted the problem, then sent Li Changle another "Go die" sticker.

Li Changle was stunned. Since when had Wang Siyi gotten so clever? This was ridiculous.

"Are you sure you want me to tell you?"

Li Changle asked Wang Siyi uncertainly.

"Tell me already!"

Wang Siyi could hardly wait. She was desperate to know what she'd done that night.

After sending that message, she also sent a "Hurry up" sticker.

Wang Siyi had stumbled across stickers while Li Changle was spacing out earlier.

Then she'd realized stickers worked even better than typing. They were cute and got the meaning across perfectly. She was clearly already in love with sticker culture.