Peninsula's Life Begins in 2016

Chapter 98? Are you a robot made of iron?

After dropping Kim Minjung off at SM Entertainment, Kang Yeon drove back to his apartment in Hongdae, where the clock on the wall showed eight o'clock.

Jiang Yanshun picked up two tuna rice balls from the convenience store downstairs, changed his shoes, threw them on the living room table, and went straight into the bedroom without even taking off his coat.

Lin Xiaolu consciously drifted to the corner of the sofa and curled up in a ball, not daring to follow her in and disturb her.

She knew very well that once Jiang Yan got into work mode, he was a work machine who didn't care about anyone, not even his own family.

The black computer started up with a hum, and Jiang Yan inserted the matte black USB drive that Lin Yun'er had given him into the port.

The USB drive was completely empty, containing only two audio files with extremely simple names.

"AsIflt"sYourLast-demo" and "KillThisLove-demo".

He put on his headphones and double-clicked the first file.

Lin Chong'er's clear yet slightly languid voice immediately filled the room.

She is not a professional singer-songwriter, and her breath control is sometimes unsteady, and her high notes are a bit strained, but she pronounces every note very accurately.

She recorded the catchy hook in the chorus in a soft humming style, which has a unique magic to it.

Jiang Yan listened to the entire recording with his eyes closed, then opened them and dragged the progress bar back to the beginning.

This time, he wasn't listening to the melody, but to the skeleton hidden beneath it.

The bass drum's heavy beat placement, the synthesizer's layered logic, the bass's low-frequency response, the layering of timbres in the chorus —

Yoona clearly put a lot of thought into it, interspersing her detailed notes throughout the demo, sometimes mimicking brass sounds with her mouth, and sometimes simply using her voice as a prompt.

As Jiang Yan listened, he wrote rapidly in his notebook, the pen tip making a rustling sound as it scratched across the paper.

After listening to both songs, his notebook was filled with dense writing on three pages, with even the margins marked with various symbols that only he could understand.

He took off his headphones and rubbed his aching ears. Lin Xiaolu had somehow appeared behind him, peering at the mess of scribbles on the paper, and couldn't help but gasp, "Damn, you've completely dismantled the arrangement framework for both songs?"

"Hmm." Jiang Yan turned the page of his notebook, lightly tapping the paper with his pen. "As If It's..."

She only hummed the general melody of the chorus of "Your Last"; the exact timbre would need to be fine-tuned on the synthesizer, which takes a lot of time.

He paused, his fingertips tracing the notes on "Kill This Love" again, his brow furrowing slightly: "And this opening, the original sentence definitely can't be used, we have to rewrite an introduction that's both impactful and memorable, without being too abrupt—"

Lin Xiaolu looked at his profile as he frowned and pondered seriously, and felt a little amazed.

This person was in the SM meeting room that afternoon, arguing with a group of executives, but then turned around and spent three hours in the recording studio working on a song.

After picking up his sister and having fried chicken, he immediately started dismantling the new arrangement, as if his humiliating resignation was nothing more than a speck of dust to be brushed away.

"Why are you looking at me?" Jiang Yan didn't even look up, his pen still scribbling on the paper.

"It's nothing." Lin Xiaolu quickly looked away, drifted to the windowsill and pretended to study the plump succulent, her fingers lightly fiddling with the leaves. "It's just that I think—you can be really scary sometimes."

"Me, scary? You'd be more likely to say your future self is scary."

"Ani, you didn't understand what I meant. I meant you swallow all your emotions and can turn around and work as if nothing happened."

"If it were anyone else, being treated like this by the company would at least make them depressed for two or three days, right? But you, you went straight to the recording studio after leaving the meeting room, picked up your sister and came back to keep working hard. Are you an iron robot?"

Jiang Yan put down his pen, turned to look at her, and a half-smile played on his lips: "So what do you want me to do? Hold you and cry?"

Before Lin Xiaolu could explode in anger and retort, he sighed softly and added, "It's not that I'm without emotions, but I don't have time to be depressed right now. Minzheng is still young and needs someone to take care of her. As for Zhenli, I need to establish a firm foothold first before I can properly explain things to her so she doesn't worry. The demo on Teddy's side needs to be finished as soon as possible, just in case something unexpected happens. And then there's the Bitcoin position; I have to keep an eye on it several times a week."

He spread his hands and smiled helplessly: "Look, so many things are waiting for me. I don't even have enough time to sleep, how can I afford to waste time on emotions?"

Lin Xiaolu looked at the bloodshot eyes in his eyes, opened her mouth, but in the end she didn't say anything. She floated back behind him and quietly watched him write new lyrics line by line.

As the night deepened outside the window, the faint sounds of laughter and chatter from university students drifted from a pub on the street in the distance, carried by the night breeze into the balcony before quickly dissipating into the air.

The sounds of keyboard clicks and pen scratching across paper intertwined, becoming the only melody in this small room.

Both of them were so engrossed that they completely forgot about the time and the two cold rice balls on the coffee table.

The clock in the living room ticked silently, from nine o'clock to ten o'clock, and then to eleven twenty.

Just then, a very faint turning sound came from the lock cylinder of the security door.

Jin Zheng quietly pushed open the door, changed into slippers, and gently placed her backpack on the sofa.

Her gaze first fell on the two untouched triangular rice balls on the coffee table, and her small brows furrowed slightly.

Then she looked at the warm yellow light leaking from the crack in the bedroom door and the faint sound of keyboard typing.

She pouted, said nothing, went back to her room, grabbed her pajamas, and quietly went into the bathroom.

When she came out of the shower, her long, wet hair was wrapped in a white towel, with water droplets still dripping from the ends.

She walked to the bedroom door in her slippers and saw Jiang Yan still sitting in the same position as when she entered, with his back to her in front of the computer, his headphones firmly on his head, and his fingers flying across the keyboard like butterflies.

Lin Xiaolu was the first to notice her. Her semi-transparent body stiffened abruptly, and she quickly reached out to pat Jiang Yan's shoulder: "Jiang Yan, Jiang Yan! Minzhen is back!"

She patted him several times, but Jiang Yan didn't react at all.

Once this guy gets immersed in music, the whole world shuts him out.

Kim Min leaned against the door frame, gently wiping the water droplets from the ends of her hair with a towel, while quietly watching Kang Yeon's back.

The light cast a soft golden outline on him, and his focused profile looked exceptionally handsome under the screen's glow.

Five minutes passed in this manner. Jiang Yan seemed dissatisfied with the rhythm of a certain drumbeat, frowned, took off his headphones, and casually rubbed his throbbing temples.

Just as he looked up, he caught a glimpse of a small figure by the door frame out of the corner of his eye.

Then, Jiang Yan froze instantly.

Seeing that he had finally come to his senses, Kim Min gave him a sweet smile, held up the towel in her hand, and said in a crisp voice, "Oppa, help me blow-dry my hair."

Jiang Yan's gaze slid from her wet, long hair to the time in the lower right corner of the computer screen.

23: 54.

His expression changed instantly.

"Min-stunned?!"

Jiang Yan jumped up from his chair, his headphone cord was ripped off, and a burst of explosive drumbeats immediately came from the computer speakers.

Jiang Yan rushed to Jin Can in three steps, his voice full of panic and self-blame, "Why did you come back by yourself?"

I—I forgot to check the time. I should have picked you up. I'm so sorry.

Kim Min looked up at him with her small face upturned, and the corners of her mouth couldn't help but curl up higher and higher as she watched him look like he had made a huge mistake.

She had known Jiang Yan for so many years, and this was the first time she had ever seen the usually calm and composed Oppa, who wouldn't even flinch if the sky were to fall, stare with such wide eyes.

"It's okay, Oppa."

She tiptoed and stuffed the soft towel into Jiang Yan's hand, then obediently turned around, her back to him, her long, black hair cascading down like a waterfall. "It's very convenient to get to the subway station from the company, and I know Oppa is busy with important things."