Chapter 8: A Whimsical Urge to Tease

Overnight, the storm still hadn’t completely subsided.

The sun rose as usual, and Li Tingzhou went to work as usual.

Bearing the seemingly idle probing gazes of his colleagues, he put on his headphones and worked single-mindedly all day, sending off the “High Completion”, “High Precision” version of “BAD.”

This time, the client made one last request—

“Teacher Mengmeng, could you give ‘BAD’ a trendy-sounding name?”

Whale had deep connections with Diamond Records. The music team for this talent show almost completely overlapped with Diamond’s personnel.

Meaning, many of them had witnessed the power of a single song, “Telepathy,” making First Sister have a major resurgence. They also craved the out-of-circle heat brought by its translated title, “Telepatía.” They tried to continue this myth, achieving success both domestically and internationally.

Li Tingzhou wanted to explain that it was only because Eldan had dated a Spanish-speaking girlfriend; at the time, his Spanish was in a bursting phase of pretending to understand, so he projected some emotions into the work…

As for now, Li Tingzhou had a half-assed solution.

“Just call it BAD.”

The liaison team leader paused, thought it over, and found it very good. The more he pondered, the more brilliant it felt!

“Vulgar yet elegant, complex yet simple.”

“Great! Teacher Mengmeng, let’s go with this! Our side won’t find another lyricist teacher to write a Chinese version. Actually, the English version isn’t bad. Translating it into Chinese would make it feel neither foreign nor native, losing that exact meaning.”

Li Tingzhou had expected this.

He initially didn’t want to express any more opinions, only silently envisioning Whale’s generous final payment.

But the liaison team leader’s hesitant expression clearly indicated something else wasn’t finished.

“Uh, Teacher Mengmeng, the studio we previously contacted is probably about to blow up. But we have an agreement, cooperation is definitely over. The current problem: the dance group for the positioning round still lacks supplied songs. If you have any suitable songs on hand, we also really need…”

Li Tingzhou didn’t immediately agree: “Heartbreak has performances in May, I’m afraid we can’t make the timeline.”

Some words didn’t need to be spelled out; those who understood would understand.

Since Heartbreak’s side indicated the customization cycle couldn’t keep up, the production team’s side also took a step back: “Let’s just see if anything fits, you’ll still have the final say.”

Implying: Teacher, just browse your music library. If something’s good, we’ll take it.

Since they put it that way, Li Tingzhou didn’t refuse: “Alright.”

“We’ll draft the contract soon.”

Hanging up the phone, Li Tingzhou stood and stretched. He went to the lounge storage cabinet to grab two cans, planning to go outside and encounter the stray cats.

Mao Maoyu had just come out of the recording studio, grabbed a pack of cigarettes, and followed.

“Keep your distance, otherwise the cats won’t come smelling the smoke.”

Left with no choice, Mao Maoyu had to find a flowerbed across the street and crouch there.

The two shouted across the street at each other—

“Did Sister Lusi scold you?”

“How could she?”

Mao Maoyu took a deep drag into his lungs, exhaled a smoke ring, and sighed in relief: “Anyway, you have a whole wall of hats. Next time you go out, just wear a hat.”

Li Tingzhou didn’t want to talk anymore.

In fact, he was already rearranging his Y City itinerary.

After a while, a cat finally arrived. Li Tingzhou hurriedly opened the can.

“Qiaoqiao, come here, eat up, eat up!”

This was a white, long-haired, odd-eyed cat. Even though its fur curled slightly, looking a bit messy, it was still Li Tingzhou’s favorite among the surrounding strays. Having fed it so often, he even gave it a name. Every time he saw it, he’d call “Qiaoqiao, Qiaoqiao.” Anyway, with milk comes mother, the cat didn’t mind, responding whenever food appeared.

Mao Maoyu, finally finished his cigarette, also came over and crouched nearby.

“You always give it extra meals. You’ve made the cat fat.”

While the cat was engrossed in eating, Li Tingzhou took the chance to stroke it once, saying matter-of-factly: “Eat more, you’ll have more strength to fight. Otherwise, what if other cats bully Qiaoqiao?”

As everyone knows, the language of stray cats is “first come, first served.” It wasn’t that he didn’t want to adopt.

But Qiaoqiao didn’t want to. It possessed strong wildness.

A forced melon is not sweet. Li Tingzhou didn’t force it, just diligently came out to feed it, managing to run into it two or three times a week.

Mao Maoyu fell silent, watching Qiaoqiao wolf down two cans. Only then did it lick its mouth corners, lazily collapsing beside Li Tingzhou, waiting for pets. Its limbs stretched straight out as if yawning, revealing the dense garlic-clove fur on its belly.

He stood up, took out his phone, and snapped a photo of the man and cat.

After feeding the cat, the two went to the recording studio to monitor others’ recordings.

“Feels like the Concertmaster of the Philharmonic is just so-so…”

Li Tingzhou gave him a glare: “She’s my junior from the Affiliated High School.” Without this connection, they wouldn’t have even found her, let alone gotten her to record accompaniment for Heartbreak’s song. With this, what’s there to be dissatisfied about?

Mao Maoyu finally behaved, shutting his mouth honestly.

The sound engineer, also a long-time partner of Heartbreak, said to Li Tingzhou in a hushed tone: “Got a strong premonition something great is happening, don’t worry.”

After work, Li Tingzhou treated everyone to dinner.

All of Heartbreak’s colleagues working today went. The three violinists from the J City Philharmonic Orchestra who came to help record were the main guests.

Zhong Peiyao walked beside Li Tingzhou, finally finding a chance to catch up.

“Senior Brother, recently enjoying success in both love and career, huh?”

Li Tingzhou saw the teasing smile in her eyes and said helplessly: “Stop making fun of me.”

“I was not!”

Though they were senior and junior schoolmates, their last meeting was several years ago. A mention in the school group chat that a certain teacher from the Affiliated High School was gravely ill prompted Li Tingzhou to visit during his annual leave. He bumped into Zhong Peiyao, who was already doing her Master’s at the Central Conservatory. The little girl who once cried loudly after her practice room was stolen had grown into an elegant young woman.

Until right before he returned to his country, the two maintained sporadic contact.

They didn’t chat about much else, just listened to Zhong Peiyao share domestic gossip.

Relying solely on this gossip-buddy camaraderie, Zhong Peiyao would also help Heartbreak.

“I really liked Bro Huzi. How has he been lately?”

Li Tingzhou looked at her with a strange expression: “Are you serious?”

Jiang Hu was the Music Circle’s ascetic monk, famously immune to worldly desires.

“Ah, I don’t mean that kind of ‘like’.”

“Alright, he’s been okay lately. Soon, he’ll meet the requirements for surgery.” Jiang Hu’s condition, though rare, was fortunate because he was young and had a good physical foundation—overall, high hopes.

Zhong Peiyao nodded, following behind Heartbreak’s staff into the restaurant entrance.

Many famous old restaurants were in J City’s old town area. Excluding those needing advance reservations, there were still plenty of options left. Li Tingzhou rolled up his shirt sleeves, discussing a room change with the front desk, when a group of young faces surged in, all dressed brightly and neatly.

Li Tingzhou didn’t pay attention, but someone behind stretched out an arm and tapped his shoulder.

“Hey—”

Zhong Peiyao turned back first, then asked Li Tingzhou: Do you know him?

“Don’t you remember me? Last time on Xiangling Road, you and Xi He together…”

Li Tingzhou thought for two seconds, memory returning: “Congcong?”

The other party was first stunned by his face straight-on, eyes as if pierced by some light, dizzy. He could only shift his focus, staring at the mole on Li Tingzhou’s chin. Then, being publicly called by his childhood nickname, his mind suddenly went completely blank, stammering, he forgot what he originally meant to say.

“Haha!”

His companions burst out laughing.

“You… how come you’re not with my junior sister?”

Li Tingzhou instantly understood. But seeing Ying Cong’s red-faced fluster, a whimsical urge to tease arose. He looked at Zhong Peiyao; their eyes met, and she smiled. He said: “This is also my junior sister.”

Two groups of strangers laughed together—only Ying Cong was still dazed.

Zhong Peiyao was already shaking hands and exchanging names with people, but Ying Cong was still foolishly staring at Li Tingzhou’s back:

He wore a light pine-green shirt, slightly draped in texture, sleeves rolled up revealing tightly muscled, smoothly lined forearms. His shoulders were broad enough to fill out a shirt whose color outshone its cut. Yet this plain, elegant color, reaching his waist, suddenly cinched tight, hugging a narrow, thin slice of a waist.

Ying Cong didn’t dare look lower. He inexplicably found this man very intimidating.

“Senior Brother, there’s a private room.”

Li Tingzhou smiled at Ying Cong: “Excuse us first.”

Even after they walked far away, Ying Cong was still dazed. His good friend pushed him: “Forget it, Congcong. You didn’t lose unfairly. Girls really do prefer this bad-boy type.”

“Alright, alright, let’s go upstairs too.”

“When’s the big star arriving? Everyone’s waiting for him.”

“Stuck on the Second Ring Road. Just wait!”