Life countdown begins, ice queen bursts into security room

Saturday evening.

When Jiang Fan arrived at the door of Xu Qingya's villa, a notification popped up on his phone from Tencent Music.

The three songs, "Sorrow," "The Ordinary Road," and "Under the Sea," were officially released online at 8:00 AM today.

He clicked into the backend and glanced at the data.

"Sorrow" has surpassed eight million views, "The Ordinary Road" has six million eight hundred thousand, and "Under the Sea" is slightly slower, but it has still exceeded five million.

The three songs combined garnered over 20 million views in less than twelve hours after their release.

Jiang Fan's name became incredibly famous.

The comments section was even more exaggerated.

Jiang Fan scrolled down a few more pages.

"Who exactly is this guy? Three songs, three different styles, and each one could be a hit?"

"Did the village upstairs just get internet access? That's the 'Rising Star' champion, the security guard from before."

"Please, can you not play three songs at once...? Which one should I loop first?"

Jiang Fan exited the background app and put his phone back in his pocket.

He entered the door lock code directly and pushed the door open to go inside.

When he was changing his shoes in the entryway, he smelled the aroma of stewed pork ribs.

The kitchen door was open.

Xu Qingya stood by the stove and put on the black T-shirt he had left there last time.

The hem covered the middle of her thighs, revealing half of her white legs underneath.

She was wearing a pair of fluffy slippers.

"You're here? Pour yourself some water." She didn't turn around.

Jiang Fan went into the kitchen, took a cup from the sterilizer, filled it with water, took a sip, and watched her stir-fry the ribs in the pan.

"Why are you wearing my clothes?"

"Your clothes have been sitting here for half a month; it's a waste not to wear them."

Xu Qingya poked the ribs with her chopsticks; they went in easily, so she turned off the heat.

"Did you release those three songs today?"

"Um."

"How's the data?"

"good."

Xu Qingya wiped her hands and looked up at him.

"How much is 'okay'?"

"Within ten hours of its release, it garnered a total of just over 20 million views."

Xu Qingya paused for two seconds.

For a new singer's debut work, three songs, to surpass 20 million total plays within half a day of release—such data is virtually nonexistent in the industry.

Even for her, "Red Bean" only had 16 million views on its first day, and that was only thanks to the superstar's fan base and the company's operations department's full-fledged promotion.

Where is Jiang Fan?

Zero fan base, zero pre-launch hype, zero promotional investment.

Completely naked.

"You're so calm." Xu Qingya ladled out the ribs.

"What's there to be upset about? If the song is good, the numbers won't be bad."

That's the logic, but the way he said it sounded so irritating.

Xu Qingya carried the plate out, and Jiang Fan followed by carrying the soup pot to the dining table.

Four dishes and one soup.

Jiang Fan picked up a piece of pork rib with his chopsticks and chewed it twice.

"Your cooking skills have improved."

"Nonsense, who did I train for?"

Xu Qingya was stunned for a moment after saying this.

She lowered her head to scoop up the soup, and the tips of her ears turned red.

Jiang Fan didn't dwell on that remark and focused on eating.

Some bargains are only worth taking once; trying to take advantage of them too often can get you beaten up.

After dinner, the two of them snuggled up on the sofa.

Xu Qingya opened her tablet and browsed the real-time charts on Tencent Music.

"Sorrow" has climbed to third place on the new song chart.

"Won't he surpass me in a few days?" Xu Qingya rolled her eyes at him.

Jiang Fan did not refute.

Answering "no" to this kind of question is being perfunctory, while answering "yes" is courting disaster.

The smartest thing to do is to shut up.

Xu Qingya scrolled down to the comments section of "Under the Sea" one by one.

The most liked comment was pinned: "I suffer from depression, and I listened to this song twenty times. Finally, someone sang out the feelings I couldn't express."

The more than three thousand replies below are all personal accounts of their experiences.

Xu Qingya traced the names, then her fingers stopped.

She knew about Shen Nian's situation.

He suffered from depression, had his songs stolen, and was almost buried by the entire industry.

"You saved her."

"I just wrote a song."

Xu Qingya did not respond.

She then checked Weibo's trending topics.

Article 7: #JiangFan releases three new songs in one day#

Article 12: #The lyrics to "Sorrow" are amazing#

Article 18: #UnderwaterEmoWarning#

"Your current popularity is even greater than when I debuted."

Xu Qingya kicked him lightly, her slipper brushing against his calf.

Jiang Fan took her ankle and gave it a couple of squeezes.

Why did you kick me?

I don't like the look of you.

A popular fantasy drama is playing on TV.

The two of them just sat there, chatting idly, neither of them in a hurry to speak.

-

Around 9 p.m., Jiang Fan's phone rang.

Li Cheng.

"Take this," Jiang Fan said to Xu Qingya after glancing at his phone.

Xu Qingya made a casual gesture and continued watching TV.

Jiang Fan went out onto the balcony to answer the phone.

"What's wrong?"

"Have you seen the data?" Li Cheng's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.

"I've seen it."

"Brother Fan, give us some feedback! Three songs breaking 100 million plays in three days is not a dream!"

"Um."

"'Hmm'? Just one 'hmm'? Why are you behaving like an old monk?"

"Is there anything else?"

Li Cheng choked for two seconds, probably rolling his eyes on the other end of the phone.

"Fine, fine, you're something else. You're the boss. I'm hanging up."

The phone was disconnected.

Jiang Fan stood on the balcony for a while.

A night breeze blew by, carrying the scent of paulownia blossoms.

Footsteps sounded behind me.

Xu Qingya walked to the balcony door and leaned against the door frame.

"Come in. It's windy outside."

Jiang Fan turned and went inside.

The living room lights were switched to a warm color at some point.

Are you leaving tonight?

"You're letting me leave?"

"I'm asking you."

"I'm not leaving."

Xu Qingya turned off the TV.

"Go take a shower. The towel is on the second shelf of the cabinet. Don't use my bath towel; I bought you a new one, the gray one."

Jiang Fan stood up and walked towards the bathroom.

The bathroom door was closed.

As the hot water poured down, Jiang Fan glanced at the system panel.

Current lifespan: 18500 points

[Remaining lifespan: 18 days and 6 hours]

It's much better than when we only had one day left.

He turned off the shower and pulled open the second shelf of the cabinet.

The new gray bath towel was folded neatly and placed in the most conspicuous position.

There was also a new set of pajamas next to it.

Jiang Fan picked up a bath towel to dry himself, then picked up the pajamas and looked at them for two seconds.

While this diva was saying "Are you leaving or not?", her preparations were impeccable.

He put on his pajamas and walked out of the bathroom. Xu Qingya had already changed into a set of home clothes and was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, holding a tablet and looking at something.

"come over."

Jiang Fan walked over and sat down next to her.

Xu Qingya turned the tablet over to show him.

The screen displayed a music review titled "Jiang Fan: One Man Overturned the Table of Chinese Music".

Jiang Fan glanced at it twice.

"writer of sensational headlines."

"The content is also well-written. Look at this part—'From the amazing 'Blue and White Porcelain' on the talent show stage to the 'Lone Warrior' he wrote on the spot in the live broadcast room, Jiang Fan accomplished in less than a month what most musicians cannot do in ten years. What's even more terrifying is that no one has seen his potential yet.'"

After Xu Qingya finished reading, she put down the tablet.

"The author of this article is Zhou Tianhe, a veteran in the music criticism circle, who doesn't praise people easily."

After saying that, Xu Qingya stood up, put on her slippers, and walked towards the bedroom.

She took two steps, then looked back at him.

He didn't say a word.

But the meaning behind that look was very clear.

Jiang Fan turned off the living room lights and followed them.

The bedroom lights were dimmed to their lowest setting, barely illuminating the outline of the bedside table.

Xu Qingya lay down first, then turned over so that her back was to him.

The blanket was pulled up to my shoulders.

"Go to sleep."

"Does she sleep vegetarian?"

Xu Qingya turned around and glared at him. That look could kill even in the dark.

"……Good night."

"Good night."

There was silence for about thirty seconds.

Xu Qingya's hand reached out from under the blanket.

Five fingers precisely gripped Xiao Jiangfan.

Jiang Fan looked down—even though it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything.

"Who just said they were going to sleep?"

There was no answer in the darkness.

The pressure on his hands tightened slightly.