As Ye Shuang pressed the final note, Linlin finally finished singing the song.
The group bowed slightly to the audience.
"Thank you!"
The crowd erupted into thunderous applause—
"That was amazing!!!!!"
"Whoooooo!"
"Damn, that last line gave me chills."
"666666666!"
"..."
"Thank you, everyone!" Backstage, Linlin expressed her sincere gratitude to Ye Shuang and the others. If it hadn't been for Ye Shuang and An Shiyu improvising on the spot, the performance would have been a disaster.
"At least we managed to pull it off in the end," Ye Shuang said with a smile. "Though it was a bit chaotic."
He glanced at An Shiyu. "Where did you find that sheet music?"
"Just searched for it online. Though I might have picked the more complicated version," An Shiyu replied casually, blowing a bubble with her gum. "Didn’t expect you to nail it at over 200 BPM on the first try."
Ye Shuang deadpanned, "So you were betting on me failing?"
"Who knows…" An Shiyu shoved her hands into her pockets and looked away.
Ye Shuang: "..."
Never mind. No point arguing with this fish.
Meanwhile, Bai Yuyou, who had been quietly standing beside Ye Shuang, suddenly pulled out her phone. A message flashed on the screen:
Mom: Sorry, Rou Nü, something came up last minute, so I couldn’t make it to your performance.
Mom: I’ll definitely come next time.
Mom: [Transfer: ¥100,000]
Bai Yuyou tightened her grip on the phone, her usually calm eyes dimming slightly as she stared at the screen. After a pause, she slowly typed out "It’s okay" before slipping the phone back into her skirt pocket.
Her fingertips felt oddly numb, and she unconsciously rubbed her arms for warmth.
Gazing at Ye Shuang’s back, she reached out and tugged lightly on his sleeve.
"What’s wrong?" Ye Shuang turned to find Bai Yuyou looking up at him.
Bai Yuyou shook her head. "Nothing…"
Yet she wrapped her arms around his.
Ye Shuang studied her face. Though her expression remained as blank as ever, he sensed the subtle shift in her mood.
After a moment, he smiled. "By the way, did Aunt Xian and the others see your performance?"
Bai Yuyou didn’t answer, but her grip on his arm tightened slightly.
Understanding dawned on Ye Shuang.
With a silent sigh, he turned to Zhixia and the others. "Yuyou and I are heading out for a bit. We’ll be back later."
"Sure thing!" Zhixia replied warmly.
"Keke, come with us," Ye Shuang said to Tang Keke.
"Me?" Tang Keke blinked, scratching her head. "Won’t I just be a third wheel? The electricity’s already overflowing here."
"Let’s go."
"Huh?"
Though confused, Tang Keke obediently followed.
Ye Shuang tapped on his phone before leading the two girls out of the backstage area.
"Brother, where are we going?"
"The audience seats."
"Eh?"
Bai Yuyou, too, had no idea what Ye Shuang was planning. But the warmth of his hand around hers was enough to anchor her.
After weaving through the crowd for a minute or two, Ye Shuang suddenly stopped and grinned at Bai Yuyou.
"We’re here."
"Yuyou, sweetheart, you were incredible up there!"
"Such a brilliant performance!"
"Yuyou-jiejie, you sounded so good!"
Familiar voices made Bai Yuyou peek out from behind Ye Shuang. There, in the audience, sat Aunt Li, Chen Hai, Chen Qin, Chen Qiaoqiao, and the others—all beaming at her.
An indescribable emotion surged in her chest. She ducked back behind Ye Shuang, her fingers clutching the fabric of his shirt. Her eyes glistened faintly as she buried her face deeper, her ears turning pink beneath her hair.
"She’s shy," Ye Shuang chuckled, patting her shoulder gently.
"Big-chest sister, I recorded your part too!" Chen Qiaoqiao waved her camera at Tang Keke.
Tang Keke grimaced. "It’s Keke-jiejie."
"Huh?"
The exchange drew laughter, and Chen Hai’s wife pinched Qiaoqiao’s cheek in playful reprimand.
"Everyone’s here for you, Yuyou," Ye Shuang murmured. "Even if Aunt Xian couldn’t make it, you’ve got all of us. So many people care about you."
"Come on, look up."
Bai Yuyou slowly raised her head. The faces around her were filled with warmth and pride. Her lips parted slightly.
"Was… my performance good?"
"The best!" Aunt Li and the others cheered.
"Here, darling, Auntie took tons of close-ups! Let’s see which ones you like." Aunt Li brandished her DSLR, already planning to compile the photos into an album.
"A memento of our Yuyou’s first stage performance."
"Thank you, Aunt Li…" Bai Yuyou whispered.
Ye Shuang crossed his arms, watching as Bai Yuyou and Li Fugui huddled over the camera. A smile tugged at his lips.
Well, as long as she’s happy.
It was her debut, after all.
"You handled that well back there," a voice said beside him. Chen Qin rested a hand on his shoulder, her other hand poking his cheek.
Dressed in a sleek black evening gown adorned with jewels, her striking figure turned heads wherever she went.
"We were scrambling for most of it," Ye Shuang admitted. The audience hadn’t noticed, but the girls had been on the verge of panic mid-performance.
Chen Qin glanced around. "Did Aunt Xian show up?"
"Planned to…" Ye Shuang trailed off. "But no expectations, no disappointments."
"That’s why she never hopes for much. She’s used to being let down."
"Aunt Xian really…" Chen Qin sighed, then leaned closer. "Hey, Ye Shuang, why not just keep Yuyou by your side forever?"
"Where’s this coming from?"
"Just a thought." Chen Qin changed the subject. "Anyway, about Yang Wei—I dug deeper like you said. He did leak our confidential projects to Tianwei Group. How’d you sniff that out?"
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
