At 3 a.m., the landmines in front of the station

"She's already obsessed. I doubt she'll be able to sleep tonight."

Ning Ye curled the corners of her lips. "I don't know what kind of drug you gave her. Anyway, you should go home now. That's all for today. I'll give you a red envelope later. Five times the bonus."

"Oh...five times..."

Su Che nodded somewhat uneasily.

I have a feeling that something is not right.

But he would never presume to ask about things that Ningning didn't tell him.

They had no choice but to start packing and prepare to go home.

I just learned from the chat that Yuan Xiao is a musician in a campus band, playing electric guitar and lead vocals, but he's a newbie.

Their team was newly formed, and since it was an all-girls school, all the teammates were girls, with varying skill levels.

The reason for crying is quite simple—

She was "kicked out" by her teammates.

She said, "The lead singer insisted on Kirakira, demanding to be prominent in public to be satisfied. The rehearsal songs she chose were also extreme, all incredibly difficult tracks that disregarded the teammates' abilities, often reaching 180 BPM... completely ignoring the feelings of others."

"The drummer is a cool and self-assured senior student. Her skill level is average, but she often puts pressure on her teammates."

During rehearsals, they don't use a metronome; if something goes wrong, they immediately blame the guitar and keyboard; if you argue with them, they slam the door and leave—there's absolutely no logic to it.

"For keyboard players, they are completely ignorant of music theory and are only good at playing exam pieces. They can't even distinguish between modes and chords. They are semi-musical illiterate and can only play the piano from the score."

As for herself, she had only been learning guitar for a short time and had no experience with the xylophone, so she skipped class to learn the electric guitar... Since everyone was a "friend," she had no choice but to grit her teeth and practice even if she was forced to.

Su Che asked, "What about bass?"

The answer I got was, "The lead singer thought he could play without a bass, so he didn't even look for one."

"...Good heavens."

Hearing this, he basically understood.

Such teams are essentially playing "playing house on campus".

It is truly difficult to cultivate tacit understanding in just a few months if it is to be built into a large-scale and systematic approach.

Therefore, parting ways was almost an inevitable outcome.

He offered the child a few words of comfort and mentioned that...

"In fact, finding a suitable teammate is 10,000 times harder than finding a single person of the opposite sex who is satisfactory in every way."

The argument is that "good character + like-minded people + good equipment + good skill level + good time + good energy + good aesthetic sense = dreaming".

As for why I say that...

Having witnessed such complex relationships myself, I can be considered a semi-experienced person.

Yuan Xiao wouldn't listen to any of this.

They immediately raised a new requirement—

"Would you like to play with me and become my new teammate?"

This statement was made based on the premise that she knew nothing about his level of ability.

Su Che's first reaction was, "What does your all-girl band have to do with me? Besides, I don't have time to play in a band. I have to do my own things. Going out to teach classes is already the limit."

But on second thought,

Directly rejecting a girl at this time would only deepen her emotional wounds, which is neither appropriate nor reasonable.

So he pretended to think about it, but actually chose to go to the toilet first as a tactical way to avoid the situation.

Unexpectedly, the scene just now unfolded.

...

"Xiao Su, you don't need to come to work on Monday. I'm giving you the day off. Just stay home and rest. You'll still get paid."

Seeing that he seemed preoccupied, Sister Ningning bent down and generously gave him a shot of adrenaline.

Being able to snag such an "easy-to-take" girl tonight is definitely beneficial for the store's business.

But this money is a bit too much to handle; I still need to figure out a suitable way to feed it to the little one, bite by bite...

The proprietress found him more and more pleasing to the eye and was very satisfied with her decision.

"Okay, I understand."

Su Che didn't linger. He tidied up the table, picked up his bag, and prepared to leave.

"Oh right,"

As he was leaving, he glanced at Yuan Xiao's personal belongings that she had left on her seat and asked the landlady,

"Will you take good care of the child's things? Make sure they don't get lost or anything."

"of course."

Ning Ye smiled charmingly and said meaningfully, "If you're not comfortable with it, why don't you take it back and keep it with you for now?"

"Huh? Is that okay?"

"Of course you can. It's just some ID documents and small trinkets. It'll save me the trouble of keeping them with you. Anyway, she'll come back to wait for you sooner or later."

Her eyes sparkled, and she smiled confidently.

……

……

Chapter 14 "Fake Landmines" (Two-in-One)

Su Che took the child's bag and waited in the phone booth at the store entrance for about half an hour, but she didn't come back.

It was nearly 2:30.

Thinking she wouldn't be coming back tonight, he walked alone towards his home.

It can be seen along the opening of the bag.

Inside were Yuan Xiao's empty wallet, lighter, cosmetics, small toys, and other items; nothing particularly valuable.

In order to contact her and return her belongings, Su Che took out his ID and glanced at it, learning that her school was not far from the gate diagonally opposite his own university.

Sacred Heart International Women's College.

"Oh, we're neighbors..."

He had heard that the girls' school was quite wealthy.

Boasting a cherry blossom grove and an artificial lake, and housing various famous pets on campus, it's a popular topic of conversation in the neighborhood.

As soon as school lets out, a large number of luxury cars will be parked at the gate to pick up female students, leading to an inexplicable competition among parents about their cars.

The school is a high school, an international preparatory school. Yuan Xiao is in her senior year and will soon be entering university.

Being kicked out of the team at this time means that her relationship with the other girls will also be severed, and they will become strangers from now on.

"Ugh."

Su Che sighed softly, he was all too familiar with this situation.

Although I've never formed a band, I'm a serious music fanatic. I watch all the music anime I like, follow all the composers I like, go to live shows whenever I can, and attend countless master recitals.

Regarding the band, they have received invitations from netizens to form a group.

Unfortunately, he still had to solve his own survival problem, and before he could prove himself, he was unable to devote himself fully to the task and meet his teammates' high demands for "originality".

After politely declining, I've come this far alone.

Looking at a certain eccentric novel that I reread every day, I silently searched for resonance.

"That child had only been learning the piano for a short time, and she must have felt resentful about being abandoned by her teammates. Unfortunately, she didn't understand that the prerequisite for a team to go all the way is that the teammates understand, support, recognize, and encourage each other."

Su Che shook his head, glanced back at the bar that had already closed early,

Passing by a phone booth around 3 a.m.

The shadows were elongated and distorted under the streetlights.

...

【Ding--】

You have received a Fetion transfer of 2700 yuan.

"..."

Seeing the money Ningning had transferred, Su Che paused slightly as he returned to the residential area, his confusion deepening.

"That's really five times...?"

The hourly wage is 180, three hours of work is 540, and five times that is 2700.

He did nothing but provide Yuan Xiao with some emotional value, and yet he received such a large bonus.

Why?

[Was Yuan Xiao really outdone by her?]

Su Che's expression hardened, and he frowned slightly:

"If I were Yuan Xiao, and my bill exceeded this price, and then I went outside and found the store closed, would I curse that the store was a rip-off, charging meat prices for vegetarian dishes?"

"Upon closer reflection, she didn't take her things, and I don't know why she left. She seemed happy while I comforted her, so it shouldn't be a problem on my end. So, what exactly happened?"

After pondering for a moment without finding a solution, Su Che decided to address the problem at its root.

"After school on Monday, I'll deliver the things to her school next door so she can receive them. That should be a perfect solution."

He nodded, making up his mind.

I strolled through the deserted neighborhood late at night.

Swipe your card to enter the elevator.

Press the number 21.