Recognizing a Few More Sons

Si You played another tune for Jiang Tingxu.

He considered himself somewhat gifted in music. He had planned to pursue it as a side career after winning a Grand Slam Best Actor award, never expecting to end up in such a sorry state.

Although he had been reborn in another world, Si You valued authenticity. Once his own abilities were strong enough, he disdained showing off with things that did not belong to him. So every piece he performed was his own composition, and when inspiration struck, he could even improvise a passage at will.

Jiang Tingxu listened intently. The chaos around him was washed clean by the flute music, and he could not help typing: [Can you play the guzheng?]

"I can!" Si You spotted it immediately. "What would the boss like to hear?"

[Lin'an Melody.]

Although the original owner had debuted in a song-and-dance boy group, he had only studied how to become popular and had done absolutely nothing related to his actual profession. Thus, from the information Si You had received, Lin'an Melody seemed to be a famous piece passed down from seven hundred years ago.

Si You gestured. "Just a moment."

He went out to find the owner of the music room and asked whether he had guzheng sheet music for Lin'an Melody. The owner said, "Of course!"

During the few minutes Si You was gone, not only did the livestream comments explode, but two topics also parachuted onto Weibo's trending list: #Si You Flute# and #Si You Recognizes a Dad#. The onlookers were stunned. Who had Si You acknowledged as his dad?!

Another crowd rushed over, only to see Si You setting up the sheet music. The slight arrogance in his expression vanished, and his entire presence became calm.

Si You had always held a certain reverence for acting, music, and the like.

The young man's long, slender fingers rested lightly on the strings. Set against the dark brown paulownia soundboard, they possessed an indescribable classical beauty.

[New here. What is this for?]

[To make you kneel and sing "Conquer."]

[?]

Then, Si You's fingertips plucked the strings, and distant, ethereal notes poured forth. Lin'an Melody was not difficult. It had been composed to praise tranquil pastoral life: picking chrysanthemums beneath the eastern hedge, leisurely catching sight of the southern mountains.

As Si You's five fingers settled and slowly drew the piece to a close, the comments all tagged Silent Little Fish, reminding him that it was time to acknowledge his dad.

Oh, the later arrivals finally understood. Someone else was recognizing Si You as his dad.

[Brilliant. Big bro has never followed anyone before. You kid really have some skills. I thought all you could do was play horror games.]

"I've cleared Infant Road. Next, I'll play Wedding Dress and Yin-Yang Street." Si You got up and walked over to his phone. Seeing that comment just then, he casually replied.

[!!! You really are my living dad! I want to watch!]

Si You smiled. "Then wait for it if you want to watch." He paused. "Was the boss satisfied?"

Jiang Tingxu typed one-handed while getting dressed. [Yeah. I have something to do outside. Keep it up, and try to recognize a few more sons.]

"Sure!"

The boss's profile picture turned gray the very next second. He had even logged out of the backend. What an action-oriented man.

Sister Chen was waiting for Jiang Tingxu at the door. They were going to sign a contract with Spring Heartbeat.

When Jiang Tingxu came out, there was actually a hint of a pleased smile on his usually expressionless face. He was even humming something softly. Sister Chen leaned closer to listen; it was quite a leisurely, soothing tune.

"In a good mood?" Sister Chen asked.

Jiang Tingxu admitted it readily. "Yeah."

"What happened?" Sister Chen asked curiously.

"I heard some music I liked," Jiang Tingxu said. "Cancel all the other arrangements. For now, I'll only take Spring Heartbeat."

Sister Chen felt that something was off, but she had no clue what it was.

Meanwhile, Si You played the drums as well, then used a guitar to perform a classic old song from this world ten years ago, stirring up many people's memories of youth. Ignoring the "boo-hoo-hoo" flooding the comments, he crouched halfway in front of the camera. Fine beads of sweat covered his forehead. Si You casually wiped them away, slicked his hair back to reveal his full, smooth forehead, and asked, "Who else wants to be my son?"

The haters nearly spat blood.

Some of the other haters' sanity was also teetering on the verge of collapse. Hadn't they said this guy wore three pounds of makeup on his face, was a sissy who loved to cry, and could not do anything at all? Huh? Who had provided that false intelligence?! With features this flawless shoved so close to the camera, who could withstand it? Just asking, who could withstand it?

And he even slicked his hair back. He was seducing me!

If Si You checked his Weibo backend now, he would discover that his follower count was slowly increasing, with a hint of cautious hesitance. Many of them were burner accounts, as though those people were cursing themselves while unable to stop themselves from following Si You.

"During my boy-group days..." Si You twisted open a bottle of water, his legs relaxed as he spoke softly. "My reputation wasn't very good, but I never bullied anyone or anything like that. I couldn't clear things up before. Now I'm all alone, and my new company hasn't even decided who'll take me on. No one's managing me, so I'll say a little more."

[Couldn't clear things up?]

[Definitely. They must have all signed confidentiality agreements, with strict rules about what they could and couldn't say.]

Si You had to prove himself first before he had the right to wash away the filth smeared on him, layer by layer.

"It's getting late. Someone said they still wanted to see the drums, right? Fine. I'll end the stream after that."

The moment Si You finished speaking, gifts flooded the comments.

[Stream for another half hour! I want to request songs!]

Si You ignored them outright. Three meals a day were far too important; he could not delay them.

True to his word, he ended the stream after finishing on the drums. The livestream screen went black in an instant, and question marks began drifting through the comments again.

You kid really couldn't be swayed, huh? You wouldn't even make money when it was being handed to you?!

Following the map, Si You found the nearest snack street. There were not many people there, and the buildings were old. Si You chose a braised noodle shop and ordered some braised meat as well.

He was always hungry. The original owner was not yet twenty-one and had grown up never knowing where his next meal would come from, so hunger was what he could tolerate least. But because of what happened with Shen Chuan, he hid away during the online abuse and literally suffocated himself to death.

What a miserable way to go, Si You thought as he slurped down noodles in huge mouthfuls.

There was no one else in the shop. The owner was sitting at the entrance smoking a pipe, and no one recognized Si You, so he habitually opened his phone to check the backend, then chuckled.

The owner could not help turning back to look at him.

Earlier, he had been immersed in his performance and had only occasionally thanked people for gifts. He had never expected that one hour of "busking" would bring in nineteen thousand. Even split fifty-fifty with the platform, that was still a profit!

His sense of crisis eased slightly, and Si You finally felt a little more secure.

Just then, a WeChat friend request popped up. The note contained four words: Xinsheng Yuan Fei.

See? The entertainment industry was this realistic. Once you began to have value, even an abandoned piece could influence the game.

The moment Si You accepted, Yuan Fei sent him a message: [I'm your new manager, Yuan Fei.]

Si You typed: [Hello, Brother Yuan.]

The other side did not waste words and directly explained his purpose. Yuan Fei mainly managed newcomers, but he was highly capable. He currently had seven or eight artists under him, all of whom appeared to have brighter prospects than Si You. Yet Yuan Fei had also sharply sensed that ever since Si You started livestreaming horror games, something about him had changed.

Yuan Fei told Si You to keep playing games and maintain his popularity until the second season of Spring Heartbeat began airing.

As if you needed to tell me that?

After getting home, Si You started a livestream of Yin-Yang Street.

It was rather strange, but Si You truly had very few mom fans or girlfriend fans now. There were, however, a whole lot of "big-bro fans"...