Chapter 27 - 1#
Grand Return#
The staff member watched helplessly as Mo Xuzhi went on stage.
All the lights went down.
Standing in the center of the stage, Du Minsheng suddenly smelled a familiar, extremely faint fragrance.
But time didn’t allow him to stop and think.
The fans, who were very excited just now, gradually quieted down, and the entire scene was unexpectedly quiet.
Du Minsheng took a secret breath.
The lights blazed.
Sounding along with the explosive voice was the stirring yet suppressed sound of the piano.
The piano sound climbed upward with the singing, and after reaching the peak, it gradually slowed down, then took a sharp turn downward. The suddenly lowered piano sound made people’s hearts skip a beat unconsciously, and their blood pressure soared.
The fans in the audience even became cautious with their breathing.
They even already had images in their minds of a giant whale soaring into the clouds and then falling dejectedly.
They wanted to scream, but they couldn’t make a sound. All their emotions were bottled up in their chests, and their hearts felt like they were about to explode.
So the real “Whale” was like this.
Du Minsheng stood under the spotlight and looked toward that dark corner.
Although there were no lights in the corner, through the faint light, he could clearly identify that it was Mo Xuzhi sitting there.
His back was straight, and as if noticing his gaze, he also turned his head.
The deep voice gradually slowed down, and the piano sound slowed down as well.
The fans standing in the audience didn’t feel relaxed; instead, they felt more nervous and unconsciously felt a bit sad.
The life of the giant whale was slowly passing away.
It fell into the sea and used its last bit of strength to swim desperately toward the bottom of the sea.
The lightless sea floor and fine white sand were its final home.
Du Minsheng finished singing the last note, slowly put down the microphone, and closed his eyes to adjust his breathing.
The piano sound slowly spread out and finally disappeared on a mid-low note.
When a whale falls in the ocean, all things grow.
It took a good while before the fans below the stage regained their senses.
First there were scattered sounds, then the voices gradually rose until they became boiling and uproarious.
“Holy crap! Absolutely stunning!!!”
“It sounds so good!! One more song! Du Minsheng I love you, ahh!”
“The piano is so incredible! One more time, okay?!!”
“Ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
“Brother Du is the eternal god!”
Du Minsheng bowed slightly, said thank you, and turned toward the dark corner.
Mo Xuzhi sat there, looking at him with a smile.
The two went off stage together.
The director, who was watching the monitor backstage, looked at the lively scene over on the stage and couldn’t close his mouth with a smile.
Seeing that the singing was finished, he turned back and asked, “Who was the person playing the piano? I didn’t expect someone among us to be hiding their talents so deeply.”
Old Chen, who was specifically assigned to arrange these things, sat on the side with his smile fading a bit, looking somewhat confused: “I arranged for a guitar; I never arranged for someone to play the piano. I asked before, and no one in the crew should know how to play the piano.”
The others were startled.
Just as a staff member was passing by outside, Old Chen called out to him and asked, “Do you know who played the piano… No, why are you here?”
The person passing by happened to be the one he had arranged to play the guitar.
That person didn’t expect to be caught like this and looked a bit embarrassed. He scratched his head and said, “I had a stomach ache just now and went to the toilet. Fearing there wouldn’t be enough time, I asked someone else to find another guitar player. Then it seemed Du Minsheng found someone, and the one he found was Mo Xuzhi… Yeah, it should be him.”
“Mo Xuzhi?”
The director frowned, always feeling that something was a bit off.
He suddenly remembered something, turned his head and asked Old Chen, “Where’s the cameraman following Mo Xuzhi?”
Old Chen closed his eyes in despair, “It was too busy today, the stage was short-handed, so he was sent to the audience area to set up a camera and film the stage.”
The staff present: “…”
“Director Li, the borrowed guitar seems to be broken. How about this…”
A staff member walked in holding a guitar, and his voice died out as he spoke.
The atmosphere inside seemed not quite right, especially the director, whose brow was still furrowed; even flies wouldn’t dare come this way, for fear of being squeezed to death by him.
It… it didn’t seem like the time to talk about this.
The person had already come in, and going out again wasn’t an option. He stood there, sharing the embarrassment with the brother who had just come out of the toilet. The director asked him: “Where did you just come from?”
He answered honestly: “From the stage.”
“Did you see Mo Xuzhi?”
“Saw him, saw him.”
He hadn’t just seen him, but had seen him go on stage with his own eyes.
“Was there a cameraman following him… was there any cameraman around?”
“N-no.”
“He played the guitar?”
“Yes. Then there was a problem with the guitar, so he temporarily switched to the piano.”
Oh ho.
The case was solved now.
Not a single staff member present dared to look at the director’s expression.
Finally sensing a bit of the situation, the staff member holding the guitar quickly tried to remedy: “The place where he sat when playing the guitar happened to be facing the stage entrance. I remember there was a cameraman filming opposite; maybe he captured him.”
The director sent someone to find the cameraman.
After a long while.
He let out a long sigh.
“I shouldn’t have let him go so easily.”
The competition result was already a settled matter. After packing up, the staff led Mo Xuzhi and the other three to the small villa.
The other four people in Group A hadn’t moved yet.
The wooden cabin couldn’t hold their luggage at all. Tonight they still had to clear the grass around the house and fix the electric lights before they could move in.
The small villa was quite well decorated.
The first floor had a living room, kitchen, study, and activity room, along with a small garden. The second floor had four bedrooms and a study.
Mo Xuzhi chose a room with a window facing a small forest, which looked relatively quiet.
The several other people also went back to their respective rooms.
“Want to play a game?”
After entering the room, Mo Xuzhi wasn’t in a hurry to pack his luggage but only moved out his laptop and turned on the power. While the computer was starting up, he turned his head to look at the cameraman on the side and invited him to play a game together, saying, “I have very good skills.”
Today the crew had been stimulated by something unknown, making the cameraman follow people more closely. Wherever he went, the cameraman followed, looking as if he was afraid of losing him.
The cameraman still remembered he was at work and also remembered Mo Xuzhi’s glorious deed of spending five years to cross from Bronze to Silver, so he refused.
“I’ll be playing games in the room later, and there’s also a camera in the room,” Mo Xuzhi raised his hand and looked at his watch, saying, “It’s so late, it’s already past the time to finish work. Does the director pay you overtime? Why don’t you go rest first?”
Every word pierced the heart.
The cameraman stood for a bit more, then adjusted the position of the camera and left the room clutching his heart.
After the cameraman left, Mo Xuzhi took another look at the time.
Only nine o’clock, still some time, wait a bit more.
This hour wasn’t suitable for going to talk to Luo Wenyun alone.
The matters that needed to be handled had been handled almost enough yesterday. He logged into Ajiang again and looked at the background, found that the saved manuscripts were enough, and immediately lay down like a “salted fish” and opened a game.
He didn’t have much of a gaming addiction, and such a small amount of time wouldn’t allow for a full game, so he didn’t start a match but wandered around, clicking on the store and other messy places.
During the store visit, a team request came, and Mo Xuzhi reflexively directly crossed it out, then continued wandering.
Nothing else had changed in the game over the years, but the flashy things had certainly increased.
Feeling it was about time, he was preparing to close the game when he saw a notice suddenly pop up at the top of the middle of the page.
It didn’t seem to be a notice, but a megaphone, the kind that can be displayed to the whole server just by spending 100 RMB.
He seemed to have seen this when he was wandering the store just now, and thought it was something similar to an IQ tax, but didn’t expect someone to buy it immediately.
【TTK—ROD: shu! Now that you’re online, pay attention to shen! He went to the toilet to cry!】
“?”
Mo Xuzhi was slightly confused.
He opened the friend list, opened the chat box with shen_, and found that after the last chat message, there was another friend team request with the status as rejected.
It might have been crossed out casually just now.
Mo Xuzhi was just about to type a reply when he suddenly heard movement from next door.
It should be Luo Wenyun going out.
【shu: Don’t cry, a bit busy, let’s play together next time】
After replying briefly with a sentence, Mo Xuzhi closed the computer, turned the camera to face the wall, and then also went out of the room.
He found Luo Wenyun in the small garden on the first floor.
At that time, Luo Wenyun had lit a cigarette and was standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, looking at the deep twilight outside, expressionless.
As if hearing movement, he turned his head and instantly met Mo Xuzhi standing at the corner.
Even with such a person suddenly appearing, he didn’t seem surprised at all, but rather as if he had anticipated it.
His gaze looked over, unperturbed.
Perhaps he had an expression, but the surrounding light was too dim, and Mo Xuzhi couldn’t see anything clearly.
He approached Luo Wenyun and smelled a somewhat peculiar tobacco scent.
Luo Wenyun asked:
“What are you here for?”
“What could I be here for?”
Mo Xuzhi stood still beside Luo Wenyun, looking at the cigarette box in his hand, and said, “Give me one too.”
Luo Wenyun gave him one.
Mo Xuzhi held the cigarette in his mouth but didn’t take the lighter handed by Luo Wenyun.
His posture holding the cigarette was a bit unskilled, the filter pressed against his red lips; compared to those old smokers, it had a different feeling.
“Look down,” he said.
Luo Wenyun looked down.
Mo Xuzhi raised his head slightly, the end of the cigarette aimed at the glowing red cigarette butt Luo Wenyun was burning.
The distance between the two was so close they could clearly see each other’s distinct eyelashes.
Luo Wenyun looked down at Mo Xuzhi, his pupils dilating slightly.
All of Mo Xuzhi’s attention was on the cigarette butt, and he didn’t look at Luo Wenyun.
After the cigarette butt was lit, Mo Xuzhi stood back in his original place. He feigned taking a drag, but as a result, he almost choked himself into coughing, and it took a while to hold it back.
He then held the cigarette in his hand and didn’t smoke it, just holding it pretentiously.
Luo Wenyun asked him huskily: “What are you doing?”
Mo Xuzhi didn’t answer immediately but reached out with his other hand, which wasn’t holding the cigarette, to hook his back neck, and then said with a smile, “I said before that I wanted to enter Following the Wind.”
“Want to give it a try? As long as you let me enter the Following the Wind crew.”
His actions looked ambiguous, even hooking the neck, but in reality, he was just grabbing Luo Wenyun’s shirt collar, not touching anything extra.
Luo Wenyun saw clearly and understood in his heart.
“The actions just now were enough for the cameraman behind to film. Can you put your hand down now?”
His voice this time was slightly louder, no longer limited to only being heard by Mo Xuzhi.
The cameraman standing in the dark carrying the camera was startled.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t have even a bit of embarrassment at being exposed. He turned to the cameraman and said, “Hard work, it’s time to finish work, quickly go back and rest.”
The cameraman’s brain was a bit dazed. He was startled when he met Luo Wenyun’s gaze, and then didn’t have time to think much before hearing Mo Xuzhi’s words and leaving with the camera.
Damn it, both of these people actually discovered he was following behind.
After the cameraman left, Mo Xuzhi extinguished the cigarette in his hand.
Luo Wenyun asked: “You want these few shots so much?”
Mo Xuzhi found a chair and sat down, his expression indifferent: “More shots mean more traffic, more traffic means more money.”
He wasn’t after these few shots.
Mainly because the plot had reached this point; he had to crawl into Luo Wenyun’s bed tonight and had to be captured by the camera. But he truly couldn’t do such a thing, so he took a middle ground, turning it into leading and hinting, and then Luo Wenyun rejecting, which had the same effect.
When he went out of the room, he specifically went around everywhere to let the cameraman notice him, ensuring the cameraman followed behind him, before arriving at the small garden to find Luo Wenyun.
Not to mention, it took some effort.
The ambiguity vanished without a trace in an instant.
Luo Wenyun had already gotten used to Mo Xuzhi’s sudden changes of face like this.
“You’ve been walking very close to Du Minsheng these past few days,” he looked into Mo Xuzhi’s eyes and said, “What, found a new patron?”
Mo Xuzhi shook his head, “I can’t earn his money, still need to look around more.”
Meaning his money could be earned.
Luo Wenyun gave a “he” sound, “You really want to find a new patron.”
“Fewer clients mean less money,” Mo Xuzhi analyzed, “Only more clients bring big money. Don’t worry, even with a new patron, it won’t delay your matters. If there’s a time conflict, you’ll be given priority.”
He spoke seriously, making it seem like a real thing, as if he had been thinking about it for a long time.
Luo Wenyun was amused by his anger. He looked down and took out his phone, saying,
“Stop talking for now, settle down.”
Quickly, Mo Xuzhi’s phone vibrated once.
“All day tomorrow.”
He looked up at Luo Wenyun, then looked down at his phone and saw the transfer reminder.
He even counted it in front of Luo Wenyun, “Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, ten thousands…”
“Eh, one million. Such a big gesture this time.”
Luo Wenyun looked at Mo Xuzhi, his gaze certain and steady.
He knew Mo Xuzhi would accept; there was no doubt about that.
Meeting Luo Wenyun’s gaze, Mo Xuzhi placed his phone face down on the table.
Luo Wenyun looked at him.
Mo Xuzhi waved his hand, smiling regretfully:
“Pity, someone has already booked me. The order already taken cannot be returned.”
“Already found a new client?”
The light in Luo Wenyun’s eyes changed a few times. Finally, he also sat down, looking levelly at Mo Xuzhi, with an inexplicably dense sense of intimidation. He asked, “Who is that person?”
Mo Xuzhi wasn’t afraid at all. His expression didn’t change as he continued to shake his head: “I have very good professional ethics and won’t leak client information.”
Luo Wenyun held back his patience and changed the way he spoke: “How much did he pay? I’ll double it.”
Truly wealthy and overbearing.
Mo Xuzhi thought this, but still shook his head: “I’m afraid not.”
The funds allocated by the central government are conservatively estimated at tens of billions; Luo Wenyun really couldn’t produce that without being squeezed dry for quite some time.
“Alright, the chat ends here. Next time remember to take the initiative to give money in a timely manner for chatting. This time I’ll count it as free for you.”
Luo Wenyun watched Mo Xuzhi go up the stairs and didn’t move for quite a while.
When Mo Xuzhi’s figure disappeared around the corner with only a piece of his clothes left, Luo Wenyun turned his head to look out the window.
The moon tonight was very bright, shining on the leaves and the grass, like a layer of thick snow.
Luo Wenyun was startled.
He suddenly got up and extinguished the cigarette, quickly ran up the stairs, and stood at the top of the stairs supporting himself against the wall. He saw at a glance Mo Xuzhi, who was still taking out his key and hadn’t entered the room.
He walked over quickly and grabbed the other’s thin wrist tightly with his palm.
Mo Xuzhi didn’t expect Luo Wenyun to suddenly run up. He was startled first, then moved his wrist, “How about you relax a bit first?”
Luo Wenyun’s expression was very strange, looking very flurried. He was panting heavily, his eyes staring straight at Mo Xuzhi.