Chapter 153 - 135: Meeting Again Soon

Chapter 153: Chapter 135: Meeting Again Soon

The four of them slowly gathered together, and Lin Zhengran hailed a taxi.

Xiao Heqing and Jiang Xueli stood on either side of him, one on his left and the other on his right.

While waiting for the taxi, no one spoke. The air was perfectly quiet.

The silence caused Jiang Xueli’s toes to curl nervously against the soles of her shoes, while Xiao Heqing lowered her head, rubbing her fingers together in front of her.

An unknown amount of time passed before they finally glanced at each other again.

Surprisingly, they both spoke up to greet one another in perfect, unspoken unison.

"Qingqing, why are you here?" Jiang Xueli asked.

"Lili, I heard you made the music competition charts this week?" He Qing said.

The simultaneous questions left both girls stunned. They stared at each other, surprised not only by their flawless synchronization but also by the names they had used.

In the past, they had always called each other by their full names. But now, it had become Lili and Qingqing.

Both girls blushed slightly and let out soft giggles.

Once again, they answered at the exact same time.

Looking upward, Jiang Xueli replied, "Ah, yes. Zhengran and I entered the competition and made the top fifty, but the final results won’t be out for another half a month."

"Didn’t Wenwen rent an apartment here a while ago?" He Qing said. "I’ve been wanting to come over and take a look for a long time, so I took the opportunity to visit today since school is starting."

Han Wenwen blinked her fox-like eyes at them, wearing a subtle expression.

Lin Zhengran chimed in, "Can you two even hear what the other is saying when you talk and ask questions at the exact same time?"

The taxi arrived. Lin Zhengran took the passenger seat in the front, leaving Han Wenwen, He Qing, and Jiang Xueli to share the back.

The ride was quiet. The awkward atmosphere didn’t vanish just because they had changed locations.

The two girls maintained their postures—one staring out the window, the other keeping her head down with her hands resting on her thighs.

This continued until Han Wenwen pulled three lollipops from her pocket, offering them on her outstretched palm. "Qingqing, Lili, do you two want some candy?"

He Qing and Jiang Xueli murmured their thanks and each took a piece.

Jiang Xueli examined the pitch-black wrapper with curiosity. "What flavor is this lollipop? Why is the packaging so dark?"

"Yeah, I’ve never seen this before either," He Qing added. "Is it new?"

Han Wenwen gave them a meaningful look. "You’ll know once you unwrap it and taste it. It’s delicious."

The three of them unwrapped their lollipops together and popped them into their mouths.

Suddenly, all of their faces twisted into grimaces at the taste.

Jiang Xueli and He Qing immediately pulled the lollipops out.

"What flavor is this?" Jiang Xueli asked Han Wenwen. "It’s so bitter."

Through her own twisted smile, Han Wenwen explained, "This is the newly released bitter melon and fish-flavored lollipop. They say the mixture of the two flavors creates a miraculous chemical reaction. I thought the combination sounded interesting, so I bought a few to try."

Xiao Heqing pursed her lips, unable to hold back a giggle as she covered her mouth. "But the taste is so weird. Who would actually like this?"

"It’s a new product," Han Wenwen replied. "People probably buy it out of pure curiosity. Surprisingly, a lot of people bought it in the first batch. If sales drop later, they’ll just stop making it."

Jiang Xueli looked at the candy in her hand. "So you’re saying this might become a limited edition collector’s item? I guess I have to give it another taste then." She popped it back into her mouth, and her face immediately scrunched up again as she gave her verdict. "It’s still disgusting."

All three girls burst out laughing.

At first, both Jiang Xueli and He Qing had been worrying about how to handle this sudden sisterhood, unsure of how to break the ice upon meeting.

But now, amidst the cheerful laughter, they looked at each other and suddenly realized there was nothing special they needed to handle. Things could just be exactly as they had always been.

After all, they were originally good friends to begin with.

Still laughing, Han Wenwen pulled another lollipop from her pocket and offered it to Lin Zhengran in the front seat. "Lin Zhengran, do you want to try one too?"

Hearing the three girls chatting, Lin Zhengran reached his hand back. "Give me one to try."

Taking the candy from Han Wenwen, he unwrapped it and put it in his mouth.

He froze.

His mouth was flooded with the ultimate concoction of extreme bitterness and fishiness.

"I have to admit, this taste is truly unique," he muttered.

[The Demon Sect’s unique and rare mixed elixir. Upon consumption, you gain +1 Strength.]

On the same day, a piano recital was being held at a grand theater that morning. Jiang Qian sat elegantly on the stage, dressed in a long silver-white gown. With a graceful demeanor, her cold eyes gazed at the piano keys while her fingers danced across them, playing a moving melody.

In the audience, Jiang Jingshi and Fang Meng sat together.

The former was also wearing a long dress today, with artistic earrings dangling from her ears. She sighed in deep admiration. "Qianqian’s piano skills have been getting better and better lately. She’s improved so much."

Fang Meng appreciated the performance on stage. "She really has improved a lot."

"But I heard she chased away all the piano teachers at home, didn’t she? What, did she suddenly have an epiphany about this profession?"

"Uh, it’s a long story. The main reason is that Qianqian feels those music teachers aren’t as good as a certain someone. Plus, Lin Zhengran seems to have given her some guidance recently. After comparing them, Qianqian decided there was no need to keep learning from her previous teachers."

Jiang Jingshi came to a realization. "So you’re saying Qianqian is playing the piano so well right now all thanks to Zhengran? That’s quite magical. Speaking of which, has Qianqian still been competing with him over all sorts of random things lately?"

"Not really," Fang Meng replied. "Because Lin Zhengran is simply too strong in every aspect. Qianqian just can’t beat him. However, she is still keeping a close eye on him."

Looking at the stage, Jiang Jingshi suddenly remembered what had happened at the cat cafe that day.

The scene of her falling into Lin Zhengran’s arms had frequently surfaced in her mind over the past two days.

In the past, Jiang Jingshi never thought she would care so much about a boy. But after meeting Lin Zhengran, she couldn’t help but marvel that such a thing as destiny truly existed in this world.

Even if you refused to admit it, it was useless.

A man in a suit suddenly approached from the side. He bowed and spoke respectfully to Jiang Jingshi. "President Jiang, regarding this morning’s New Star Chart rankings and the matter you asked me to investigate..." He proceeded to whisper something in her ear.

Jiang Jingshi gave him a look of surprise before turning to Fang Meng. "Meng, tell Qianqian I have something to attend to and have to leave early. She played well today."

Fang Meng nodded. "Understood, Eldest Miss."

She watched Jiang Jingshi stand up and leave, with the man following her out of the venue.

Fang Meng slowly pursed her lips, thinking that the Eldest Miss had been paying a lot of attention to Lin Zhengran’s affairs lately...

It increasingly felt like Jiang Jingshi’s interest wasn’t just because of Qianqian, but stemmed from something much more primal—the natural curiosity a woman had for a man.

"Even after being exposed to the world of the rich for so many years, I still truly don’t understand it," Fang Meng muttered to herself.

Outside the grand theater.

On her way back to the car, her high heels clicked against the pavement as she asked the man beside her, "Are you saying that the girl named Jiang Xueli has already reached the top three?"

"Yes, President Jiang," he answered. "In just a single night, she surged from twentieth place to the top three. Her momentum looks incredibly fierce and shows no signs of stopping. If this continues... I’m afraid she won’t just stop at the top three."

Looking into the distance, Jiang Jingshi thought, "Zhengran, it seems that whenever I bump into you, I inevitably end up losing some money."

Returning to her Rolls-Royce, Jiang Jingshi pulled out a tablet and scrolled through the rankings on the New Star Chart.

Only a single short day had passed since the competition began.

Due to Jiang City’s previous sabotage, the popularity of the charts was now at an unprecedented high.

There were already tens of thousands of comments on the chart alone.

The total music streams had even reached several hundred thousand.

The top-ranked singer shown was named Ping Yifei, an artist signed under Jiang Jingshi’s company.

His song had one hundred and thirty thousand streams and sixty thousand votes.

The second-ranked singer, Chen Li, was also an artist under Jiang Jingshi.

Her song had one hundred thousand streams and thirty thousand votes.

The third place went to Jiang Xueli. Her song "You Are My Star" had fifty thousand streams and twenty-five thousand votes.

"With so few streams, how is her voting rate this high?" Jiang Jingshi wondered in confusion. "It’s almost at fifty percent."

She clicked open the comment section under Jiang Xueli’s song and found a flood of praise.

User "Pleasant Goat Please Slow Down": "Holy crap, I found a good song! How can such an amazing song rank so low?"

User "Drunk Solo Kill Mother-in-Law": "The little sister singing this song has such a stable voice. I feel like it’s going to blow up."

User "Can’t I Just Play Genshin Impact?": "The melody sounds really cheerful, but for some reason, there’s this underlying sense of sorrow. It feels like the creator is experiencing an unrequited love. Listening to it made me have to cast a vote."

User "Falling Into a Cesspool is Like Drinking Porridge": "Quit your bragging, have you even listened to it? With such kickass lyrics, how is this only in third place? Charge up there, Ghana! Ahahahaha."

Jiang Jingshi only briefly skimmed over these abstract comments and bizarre usernames, but the overwhelming wave of positive reviews was impossible to hide.

And at this rate of voting, the second-place position was clearly starting to look unstable.

However... Jiang Jingshi had somewhat expected this. After all, this wasn’t her first time witnessing the caliber of someone trained by Zhengran.

Fortunately, the first-place artist this time was a very capable veteran singer. Judging by the current number of votes, it was unlikely that he would be overtaken, as his growth momentum was also quite fierce.

Jiang Jingshi looked at the man standing outside her car. "You mentioned there were also results regarding your investigation into New Star Music?"

The man nodded.

"Yes, President Jiang. Everything has been thoroughly investigated. The backer behind New Star Music turned out to be Pan Cheng Electronics. The people from Pan Cheng Electronics approached Jiang City and then organized New Star Music to pull off that previous stunt together.

"Their goal was to generate public hype for their corporation. Because they have a new product launching soon, we suspect they wanted to capitalize on this wave of public attention to boost their sales."

"Pan Cheng Electronics? Now that’s an old friend."

The company name was no stranger to Jiang Jingshi. They were a well-established enterprise in Wisteria City and had always been at odds with the Jiang Group.

More importantly, it was rumored that they had invested a considerable amount of capital into the music industry.

Now that she had entered the market, the other party was likely feeling a trace of fear.

"Now that this scheme has fallen through, has Pan Cheng Electronics made any other moves?" Jiang Jingshi asked.

The man shook his head. "We haven’t discovered anything yet. But... I’ve heard rumors that they seem very interested in this current New Star Chart."

"Oh?" Jiang Jingshi looked down at the New Star Chart. She pondered for a moment until her eyes swept over the music studio representing Jiang Xueli, and she suddenly realized something.

She let out a soft laugh, muttering to herself, "Zhengran, it seems we might be collaborating again in the near future."

Setting down her tablet, she took out her phone, found Lin Zhengran’s WeChat, and sent him a message.

"Zhengran, do you have time to come out and have dinner with me sometime in the next two days?"

A moment later, Lin Zhengran replied, "Jiang, I’m a student. I still have to attend evening self-study."

Jiang Jingshi realized that was indeed true.

Lin Zhengran followed up: "But is there something you need?"

She texted back: "Yes, there’s something I want to discuss with you. Although it’s just a guess, I’m afraid the studio Jiang Xueli is with might be heading into trouble soon."