Volume 4: Beginning of Spring Chapter 33: Off-tune
"Would you like coffee or black tea?" Jiang You asked.
"Black tea, please."
Jiang You walked into the kitchen, and Yang Xuan pulled a chair to sit down at the long table. She heard Jiang You 's voice coming from the kitchen, "Have you started promoting yet?"
"For promotion, I went there a few days ago to record a theme song. It will be released at 8 o'clock tonight. Remember to forward it to me," Yang Xuan took out her cell phone and sent the invitation link to Jiang You's phone.
Jiang You came out with two cups of black tea. "Theme song? Sing it for me?"
Yang Xuan glanced towards the ceiling and said, "Let me think about it. I only have a few lines of lyrics. How did this tune come about? Hey..."
Jiang You sat down opposite her, took a sip of water and looked at Yang Xuan.
"I remember now, that one, escaping from the encirclement and enmity..." After singing two lines, Yang Xuan stopped, "Oh, yes, the next line is, that one, escaping from the desperate situation..."
"Stop singing, stop singing," Jiang You interrupted Yang Xuan, "When you walked out of the recording studio, weren't you beaten up by the recording engineer?"
"No, Teacher Liu said that my voice is pretty good."
"Is there really nothing to praise about this? It's just like praising someone's writing style for a novel."
“Why can’t you praise good writing?”
"There is no standard for good writing. If there are typos, it can be considered as homophones. If there are grammatical errors, it can be considered as symbolic expressions with deconstructive implications."
"Are you saying I'm off-tune? Where's your fan filter?"
"It's broken," Jiang You clicked on the link and sent it to Ma Yi after filling in the information. "It's about being surrounded by enemies but also finding a way out of a desperate situation. Is it an extreme sports show, like riding a skateboard and doing parkour on the roof of a skyscraper? I think it's quite interesting."
"It's a language program, and it seems to be related to psychology. There will be a psychology expert. I've read the script, the process, the questions, and the answer template. You can also answer them yourself. Anyway, just confirm it before the official recording." Yang Xuan took a sip of water and licked her lips. "I'm quite scared of those questions, but if I withdraw now, Sister Fu Xin has confirmed with me repeatedly before. The contract has been signed. If I want to go back on my word, I can't explain to Brother Huan."
"I ordered a takeout of muffins. Honey muffins, freshly made."
"Brother Jiang."
"what?"
"Zhu Sha is going this time too. I met her when I was recording a song. And Liu Zeyan, he's the main guest. What do you think I should do?" Yang Xuan took another sip of water. "I've thought about it myself. I wonder if I should deliberately create some conflicts and explosive moments, like this..."
Jiang You put down his phone and looked Yang Xuan up and down. Yang Xuan felt a little flustered when he looked at her. "What's wrong?"
“You are so selfless.”
"ah?"
Jiang You's cell phone rang. It was the takeaway call. After hanging up, he walked out.
Yang Xuan watched him walk out of the store, walk along the stone path to the gate of the yard, and open the door...
She turned her head.
The water in the cup was a little cold, so she drank it in one gulp.
Jiang You came back with the takeaway bag. He placed a muffin and cutlery in front of Yang Xuan, then sat down and tore open the tin foil package. Hot steam wafted out from the gap.
He broke off a piece with his hands and took a bite. It was soft and sweet. He said, "Try it. It tastes really good."
Then he reached out, picked up the empty cup next to Yang Xuan, went to the kitchen to fill it with water, and came out, "Eat it while it's hot, it will become hard when it gets cold."
Yang Xuan picked up a small piece with a plastic fork and said, "Remember to take a good picture for me."
"Have you figured it out?"
"It's just a blind spot."
"That's amazing! He's well-educated and can speak idioms now."
"Can you say something nicer?"
"Your sister Fu Xin, she switched to Wu Xu, she has to prove herself, right? How? Zhu Sha, she definitely doesn't like you, right? She was a naughty kid and ran to 123, she wants you to be famous much more than you do."
"Yes, Liu Zeyan also had an accident recently."
"What happened to him?" Jiang You asked.
"It seems that they were accused of disrespecting seniors or something like that."
"You want to clean up, right?"
"That lyric is quite right. I'm surrounded by enemies on all sides and I have to survive. This really is an extreme survival game."
"Come back alive!"
Jiang You's phone vibrated. He glanced at the screen and Ma Yi replied that he had filled it out. He said that he and Ding Tianhua were currently in Yushui District and asked Jiang You if he was free and whether he wanted to get together.
"What do you want to eat for dinner?" Jiang You looked up and asked Yang Xuan.
"I don't eat dinner now. I'm going to record in a few days. I need to lose some weight. I only eat a banana at night."
"Then I'm going to have a big dinner. You wait for my photos. You'll be so greedy." After saying that, Jiang You replied to Ma Yi and said okay.
Yang Xuan finished her pancake and left.
Jiang You sent Yang Xuan out of the yard and watched her leave.
He left the yard door open.
He took out a pair of garden shears, walked to the edge of the flower bed, squatted down, and cut off the branches and leaves that were too protruding.
Several more spiritual flowers sprouted buds.
Soon, Ma Yi and Ding Tianhua arrived.
Ma Yi knocked on the door of the yard .
Jiang You stood up and turned around. He said, "You guys came so quickly, Tianhua, look at my yard. It looks better now."
"It looks good," Ding Tianhua walked in and walked around the yard. "How is your business lately ?"
“It hasn’t opened yet this year.”
Ding Tianhua walked to the edge of the pond. "You think it's a waste, right? The yard is so nice, with a greenhouse and a terrace. The air here seems to be better than outside. I don't know if it's my illusion," he turned to Ma Yi and asked, "What do you think?"
Ma Yi took a deep breath and said, "I think it's better than being outside. I feel sober all of a sudden."
Jiang You put the scissors aside and said, "I have agreed with the neighbors to make a catering service. Let's make it look better and eat a little bit on a big plate."
Jiang You told Ding Tianhua about his and Yin Jie's ideas, and then he said, "Do you think this will work?"
Ding Tianhua thought for a moment and said, "It depends on whether you really want to make money."
"Of course I do."
"Then you have to meet the needs of customers. At the noodle shop next door, customers come in to fill their stomachs, but here, they just come in to take pictures and then fill their stomachs. But now, there are too many stores for taking pictures and too many places to check in. Checking in has lost its sense of ritual and sacredness, because you can't remember how much you spent to go there. And now with the addition of filters, all the photos you take are the same. If you missed the wave last year, it will be difficult now."
"Yes, that's what we want," Jiang You nodded, "We just want to make a little more money."
"So you have to think about what you can offer to customers when they come to you, and then promote it as your main product."
Jiang You looked at the flowers in the flower bed.
"Okay, Tianhua, it's rare for us to get together, let's not talk about work," Ma Yi walked over, "He's driving me crazy, I want to stay at home with my girlfriend, but he insists..."
Ding Tianhua looked at Jiang You and pointed at Ma Yi, "Look at him, he's starting to feed dog food again."
