South of Chutian

When Tang Heng arrived home, Fu Liling was on the balcony talking on the phone.She was wearing a lead gray cashmere coat that was below her knees. When she heard the sound, she turned her head and gave Tang Heng a wink.It seemed that she had just returned home, and before she could take off her makeup, Tang Heng sat down in front of her dressing table and peeled off the wrapping paper of the cake.

"I'm really sorry to trouble you this time, Sister Su... You're too polite, haha, then we'll see you on Saturday, and I'll pick you up in a car." After talking on the phone, Fu Liling sat down next to Tang Heng, and kissed him affectionately. Touch his head: "Is it delicious?"

Tang Heng handed her the spoon: "Try it."

"I'm losing weight," Fu Liling said, "you can eat, baby."

The cake tastes like chestnut. I can't tell what brand it is. The sweetness is moderate and the taste is extremely delicate.Tang Heng ate and thought, next time he will also buy a piece for Li Yuechi.

"I saw your uncle this afternoon," Fu Liling put her arms around Tang Heng, "he told me."

"say what?"

"Last time you complained to Dean Zhang, didn't you?"

Tang Heng paused, bit his spoon and mumbled, "They bullied me...brother."

"Which brother are you?"

"Li Yuechi."

"Oh—the one who came to borrow books at home before?"

"Ah."

"You," she stretched out her index finger and nodded Tang Heng's head, "every day you know you're causing trouble."

Tang Heng swallowed the cake in his mouth, and said with a smile: "Isn't this all supported by you?"

Fu Liling also laughed, picked up the phone and didn't know who to reply to the text message.She didn't continue this topic, and Tang Heng was secretly relieved.

You could tell she was in a good mood tonight.Tang Heng finished eating the cake and asked, "Where did you buy this?"

"Like it? Tomorrow I'll ask them to send two more yuan, but don't eat too much."

"No...what's the name of the store? I'll buy it for Jiang Ya and the others in a few days."

"Pan Lingji, it's over there at Shouyi Square. Just call and ask them to deliver it when the time comes—it's a store opened by Sister Su's friend."

"Miss Su?"

"Dean Zhang's wife."

"Oh," Tang Heng said, "When did you become so familiar with his family?"

"It's all about human relations." Fu Liling got up, and threw her coat on the back of the sofa. "By the way, your uncle said, have you given up your qualification for exemption?"

In fact, this has been a matter of last month.Although Tang Heng got the promotion quota from the college and passed the written test and interview of Han University and a university in Beijing, he finally chose to give up the promotion.The nationwide promotion and exemption system opened last month, and he did not submit an application in the system at all.

"Yes..." Tang Heng thought to himself, and there was going to be another quarrel.

However, Fu Liling was uncharacteristically calm. She just nodded and said, "I'll invite Dean Zhang's family to dinner on Sunday night, and your uncle will also go. Remember to spare some time."

"You're staying until Sunday?" It's only Monday.

"I'll go back to Shanghai on the 20th," Fu Liling yawned, and said lazily, "I won't be free next month, and there are many things to do at the end of the year."

Fu Liling stayed at home for ten days, so Tang Heng also had to stay at home for ten days.

At noon on Thursday, he and Li Yuechi had a quick meal in the school cafeteria—not because he was so busy with rehearsals, but because Li Yuechi was not free.Uncle’s project is really troublesome. According to Li Yuechi, it is a poverty alleviation project for Dawu County, Hubei. They cooperate with the local government and enterprises to help farmers sell agricultural products, and they also conduct follow-up surveys on a group of poor households.Li Yuechi has just joined the project team and is not familiar with the preliminary work, so he has to complete the assigned tasks and spend time understanding the previous progress.

They no longer spend a lot of time together like before, and it is not easy to make an appointment for a meal in the cafeteria every day.Tang Heng even complained a little to his uncle: "You and Tian Xiaoqin just studied together, why does he arrange so many things for you?"

"He said that this project is very important, and we will bring our two names on the article in the future," Li Yuechi said while eating, "It's good to have this opportunity to exercise."

"Oh, yes," Tang Heng said sullenly, "Eat more, I feel like you've lost weight."

Li Yuechi raised his eyebrows and smiled: "It's only been a few days."

"I can't stand being so tired for a few days." Fortunately, they were sitting in the corner of the cafeteria, and Tang Heng gave Li Yuechi the braised pork ribs in his bowl, "I can't finish it."

In fact, he didn't like the food in the canteen at all, especially the canteen that Li Yuechi often came to - it was the cheapest one among the many canteens in Han University.The set meal of two dishes and one meal is only [-] yuan, and there is also a free bowl of seaweed soup.The price is so cheap, of course, the taste is not much better.Tang Heng really couldn't eat the food here, so he went to the window next door to buy braised pork ribs or chicken. It cost seven yuan a piece.

He didn't know how Li Yuechi could eat the wrinkled stir-fried vegetable sprouts, the sweet and sour pork tenderloin full of dough, and the rice that was so hard that the grains were distinct.Every time he wanted to buy braised pork ribs for Li Yuechi, Li Yuechi would always say, "No need."

In fact, it's only three yuan and fifty cents more expensive.

"Are you going to have a meeting tomorrow night?" Tang Heng withdrew his thoughts, "We have a game tomorrow night."

"That Zhou Hei Ya?"

"Well, a new bar on Jianghan Road, LIL."

"Tomorrow night...I'll try my best to go there," Li Yuechi put down his chopsticks, "What time does it start?"

"Seven o'clock, but we don't know which one to play in."

Li Yuechi nodded: "I see."

He ate all the rice on the plate, and even scooped out the carrots in the seaweed soup—Tang Heng knew that he didn't really like carrots.

And there was less than half a bowl of Tang Heng's braised pork ribs left.

The two sent the plates to the tableware recycling place and walked out of the cafeteria together.When they were about to part, Li Yuechi said in a low voice: "Actually, you don't have to eat with me... Are you not used to it?"

"No," Tang Heng shook his head hastily, "I'm just full of breakfast."

"is it?"

"Ah."

Li Yuechi smiled, and said helplessly, "Okay."

Tang Heng opened his umbrella and walked out under his umbrella.It is raining again in Wuhan, and the weather forecast shows that the highest temperature today will only be five degrees Celsius.This wet and cold weather is a little annoying, as if winter will never pass.

They parted at a fork in the road. At this time, there were students who were out of class everywhere. They could do nothing but nod to each other.Tang Heng walked towards the subway station, and Li Yuechi walked towards the teaching building.The sky was gloomy like a yellowed old book, Tang Heng walked about ten steps, turned around, and saw that Li Yuechi's back had become very small.When he was alone, he always walked very fast. Tang Heng knew it was because he rushed back to the classroom to correct the homework of the students in the remedial class. After the homework was corrected, it was time to go to class.After class at four o'clock, he went to work in the project team's office until dinner time.In the evening, he was going to the "Aoki Kaoyan" class again.

He is like a top spinning around, and he can't stand still for a second.

Throughout the afternoon and evening, Huster rehearsed in the rehearsal room, and went to the small restaurant opposite for dinner.It was freezing cold outside, but they were so hot inside that they only wore a single shirt and were sweating profusely.

Jiang Ya put down the drumsticks, collapsed on the sofa and said, "I don't want to listen to "Southern" again in my life."

Tang Heng collapsed beside him, muttering: "Me too."

An Yun drank the whole bottle of mineral water in one gulp: "I don't believe we are not No.1."

"Brother, think about the song first," Jiang Ya said, "Submit the demo before NO.20 in January."

"You have the face to criticize me? Have you written your words?"

"I've written six lines!"

An Yun squinted at him and said doubtfully, "Really."

"Fuck, really, it must be finished before New Year's Day."

"You better be."

"We can learn from each other," Jiang Ya stroked his red hair, "I don't even chat with my sister now."

Generally speaking, Huster's rehearsal went very smoothly. Before that, Jiang Ya always hit the wrong drumbeat, and there was no problem after that.

On Friday, Wuhan was still cloudy and rainy.They made an appointment to meet again at noon-after all, they would start makeup and rehearsal in the afternoon, and they would have a game in the evening, so they had to get enough sleep.Tang Heng got up at noon, had dinner at home, and then took the subway with Jiang Ya'an Yun to the LIL Bar on Jianghan Road.

The organizer generously invited a professional makeup and hair team, and also hired a hotel room above the bar as a dressing room.As soon as he entered the room, Jiang Ya immediately turned on the air conditioner.

"It's so fucking cold," he said shivering, "I'm also convinced by the horrible weather in Wuhan, I don't even have to change my underwear."

Tang Heng said, "Don't you have a dryer at home?"

"It was broken by Lulu, and it hasn't been repaired yet."

"Lulu?" An Yun said coldly, "You said last night that you don't have time to talk about your sister recently."

"I... Oh," Jiang Ya smiled guiltily, "It's all about last week, she insists on coming to me, what can I do?"

"You are fucking serious, you were a breeding pig in your last life."

Jiang Ya giggled and imitated two pig calls of "hum hum".

Soon the make-up artist arrived, and the three of them put on make-up and styled their hair one by one.Jiang Ya's is the simplest, An Yun's pot head made the hair stylist a lot of effort, and Tang Heng is the lead singer, the makeup artist said, your makeup is the most important.

At 05:30 in the afternoon, they have already had a round of rehearsal and did not sing, but they have finalized the order of appearance and stage movement.There are a total of ten bands, and Lakers played in fifth place.An Yun whispered, "We're lucky."

Jiang Ya asked: "Why?"

"At the beginning of the competition, the judges must have been very strict. Afterwards, they lost their freshness and stopped listening carefully—it was right in the middle."

"Damn," Jiang Ya said, "It's true——son, are you nervous now?"

Tang Heng turned the phone to silent and put it in his pocket: "I'm so nervous, I'm about to throw up."

He just sent a text message to Li Yuechi, telling him that they played around eight o'clock.Li Yuechi replied that he could come over.

He was really, really not nervous.To put it bluntly, this is just a performance, and the only difference from the past is that this time I have to wear earphones.But he really wanted Li Yuechi to come and see this performance. Although he really wanted to vomit from singing "South", he still wanted to sing this song for Li Yuechi. "Where I fell in love for the first time", he fell in love for the first time here, and his lover was in the audience.

At six o'clock, the contestants returned to their respective dressing rooms to rest and eat.In order to avoid unexpected situations, Jiang Ya ordered the takeaway to be white porridge and pork ribs in lotus root soup, without any dipping sauce.

At seven o'clock, they sat in the waiting area.The first band to come on stage was from the Hanyang Conservatory of Music. There were five boys, three of whom wore ponytails, and one had long hair and a shawl.

Jiang Ya leaned into Tang Heng's ear and said, "Damn it, we don't have a good look."

Tang Heng said: "You stand out when you play the drums with your bare upper body."

As soon as the words were finished, a woman wearing sunglasses came over and sat beside Tang Heng.She took off her sunglasses and smiled at Tang Heng: "Brother, we meet again."

It's Lin Lang.

Tang Heng didn't find it strange that she appeared here.

"What are you singing?" Lin Lang asked.

""south"."

"Hey, I like this one."

The music sounded, and the two didn't talk anymore.At this time, Tang Heng received another text message from Li Yuechi:

I'm already in a meeting, so I can come by eight o'clock.

Very firm tone.Tang Heng smiled at the screen.

At [-]:[-], the second band finished singing and the judges finished their comments. Huster was called backstage to wait.

Before leaving, Tang Heng took off his down jacket and only wore Rei Kawakubo's white T-shirt with short sleeves.

Lin Lang asked in surprise, "Are you wearing this on stage?" Although the air conditioner was turned on in the bar, it was still very cold.

Tang Heng smiled and said, "This dress is a lucky shirt."