Yun Xiaoran walked calmly toward the restaurant entrance, completely unaware that at least three pairs of eyes were fixed on his retreating figure. Had he turned around just then, all three would have looked away at once.
"Jin'er, he's leaving."
Sister Hua faithfully reported the news.
"I know. So what if he's leaving? Why are you reporting it to me?"
"Oh, all right. Why do I get the feeling you're more interested in Yun Xiaoran than all that gossip?"
Unable to hold back any longer, Sister Hua looked smugly at Shen Jin.
Shen Jin's fair, rosy forehead practically sprouted dark lines of irritation. She scowled, then snapped impatiently:
"Get lost. Since when am I interested?"
Then Shen Jin fixed her icy gaze on Yun Xiaoran, seemingly intent on watching him leave the restaurant.
"Qingxi, see that figure over there? And those clothes-it has to be Yun Xiaoran. There's no way I'm mistaken..."
Liu Yi glanced over casually, finding the figure heading toward the restaurant entrance increasingly familiar. Only belatedly did she realize that it was actually Yun Xiaoran!
"Yun Xiaoran is here? Are you sure? He's so poor, and he has to support his younger sister in college. How could he possibly..."
"There's no mistake. He must be here to stalk you. He wants to ruin you!"
Li Qingxi froze for a moment, then annoyance flashed in her eyes as she muttered:
"I never thought Yun Xiaoran would still be hung up on me, but we live in two different worlds now. Find a time to ask him out again. I need to have a proper talk with him myself!"
"Okay..."
Liu Yi stared intently at Yun Xiaoran as he headed toward the entrance.
Zhou Zeyu looked again at the card in his hand, then at Yun Xiaoran walking toward the restaurant entrance. Remembering that he still needed to drive him home, he impulsively called out:
"Yun, how about I give you a ride?"
Hearing this, Yun Xiaoran turned toward Zhou Zeyu. At the same time, Shen Jin nervously turned away and began eating her half-finished dessert with feigned composure.
After catching sight of Yun Xiaoran's profile, Li Qingxi also turned back and said:
"That's definitely Yun Xiaoran!"
"Sure, that works..."
Yun Xiaoran nodded slightly, accepting Zhou Zeyu's offer. His home was hardly a short distance away, after all. Why pass up a free ride?
Yun Xiaoran rode to the roadside café, then headed home at an unhurried pace.
It was already three in the afternoon. Within two hours, he should be able to finish the score for Blue and White Porcelain and sing it through once, leaving him time to start making noodles afterward.
After going over the lyrics several times, he began adjusting his equipment, mainly a microphone unit and an expensive photography light.
Once everything was ready, Yun Xiaoran sat in front of a clean white wall, still wearing the shirt from his previous video.
Then he began to play and sing softly:
"On the plain clay, blue blossoms take shape, the brushstrokes turning from deep to pale; the peonies painted on the vase are like your first touch of makeup..."
Yun Xiaoran's voice was slightly deep and did not quite match the original rendition, but both singers were men in their twenties or thirties, so the difference was not particularly great.
By the time he finished singing it for the third time, it was already five in the afternoon.
Yun Xiaoran did a little editing, then came up with a title: "Sky blue waits for the misty rain, while I wait for you."
Then he posted it to VA Site.
While the video uploaded to VA Site, Yun Xiaoran did not sit idle. His new wife should be coming home soon, so he opened WeChat again, scrolled toward the bottom of his contact list, and typed a message:
"What kind of noodles would you like tonight? I'll make them for you."
Elsewhere.
Shen Jin's phone received the message while she was rehearsing. Reading it with her beautiful eyes, she was quite surprised, but even more amused:
Oh, wonderful. You flirted with another woman over lunch at a restaurant that cost five thousand per person, and now that it's evening, you remembered me? Why didn't you ask whether I'd eaten at noon? Or what I'd had?
Yun Xiaoran's message made Shen Jin think this was, to some extent, his way of "making up for cheating."
So angry that she laughed, Shen Jin did not reply.
Meanwhile, Yun Xiaoran had not attached nearly as much significance to his message.
They were both adults with their own things to do. He certainly wasn't going to spend all day glued to his phone waiting for her messages and bending over backward for her.
Slow to warm up? What, slow enough to wait for a candle to burn through a lock?
After waiting ten minutes, Yun Xiaoran put his phone away.
"Lone Cloud posted another new song?"
Ever since hearing Great God Lone Cloud say that he would release a new song that afternoon, Zhao Ruoxi had been distracted all day.
In the Luxury Residential Complex in Linshun City, a girl with waist-length hair sat with her thighs bare, in a room filled with merchandise, plush dolls, and all sorts of pairings featuring handsome otome-game men.
"Sky blue waits for the misty rain, while I wait for you?"
Zhao Ruoxi paused, then was overwhelmed with delight.
"Yay! Lone Cloud finally isn't being that aloof, clueless guy anymore. I never expected him to have such a way with words."
She opened the video. There were the same familiar shirt and instrument, though the white background seemed to belong to a different room this time.
"Your beauty drifts away like a wisp, to a place I cannot reach..."
A song lasting three minutes and fifty-eight seconds, a plain white wall, and a fresh-faced, artistic young man holding a simple instrument-it was a feast for both the eyes and the ears.
Great God Lone Cloud, you have my admiration!
After listening to the song, Zhao Ruoxi opened the comments below and could not help laughing:
"Great God Lone Cloud, this song is so beautiful, but why is it so short? It's as short as that author, Electric Motor. It's nowhere near enough."
"I agree with the comment above. They're both pretty short..."
"Anything from Great God Lone Cloud is guaranteed quality. I'll hit all three support buttons first as a sign of respect!"
"It's been ages since I heard such pure, beautiful lyrics on VA Site. This song reminded me of my youth, those days spent running beneath the setting sun."
At the rehearsal venue for I Am a Singer.
"Li Qingxi has taken first place again with her gorgeous voice and outstanding stage presence. It looks like this season's newcomers on I Am a Singer are all monsters. Who would have thought Li Qingxi could perform even better than she did yesterday?"
"Shen Muge is still quite good, but she's a little behind Li Qingxi."
"There are rumors that Shen Muge is going to sing that song that's been blowing up online lately. Is that true?"
"We don't know yet..."
Offstage, Shen Jin was still on the verge of elimination. In the round that narrowed ten contestants down to five, she had placed fifth, yet she did not look particularly anxious.
That was because Shen Jin had enough faith in Great God Lone Cloud's song to believe she could turn things around in the final.
Besides, not using that song today had already caught Li Qingxi off guard. It also allowed her to wait for the song Great God Lone Cloud would release that evening, which could put the plagiarism accusation to rest once and for all.
Otherwise, singing it amid such a plagiarism controversy could easily destroy her career.
Great God Lone Cloud should have released his new song by now. Let me take a look...
As soon as Shen Jin reached backstage, she anxiously opened her phone and spotted the conspicuous title on VA Site's homepage:
"Sky blue waits for the misty rain, while I wait for you."
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