Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

"Birthday?" Yuzhen rested her chin on her hand, recalling her birthdays over the past few years. "I think it was during rehearsals, performances, or cleaning up messes for my bandmates."

"Is that all? Didn't anyone celebrate your birthday?" Xingge looked at the man in front of her. Usually, this guy seemed carefree, but now that he said this, she suddenly felt sorry for him.

“My mom and Yuuki would send me messages on my birthday,” Yuuki recalled. “Later, after my dad and I made up, he sent me messages too. But we stopped having proper celebrations.”

After Yuma finished speaking, she looked at Hoshika and found that her eyes were glistening with tears.

"Wait, why are you crying?" Yuzhen quickly pulled a handkerchief out of her pocket and gave it to her.

"I didn't cry, I just got sand in my eyes." Xingge wiped her tears with a handkerchief. She decided that she must prepare a birthday surprise for Youzhen.

……

A while had passed since Pochi got his new guitar. After that, Nijika went to Pochi's house again, but when she came back, she looked like she had seen something terrifying.

She didn't reveal too much to Yuzhen and Xingge, but simply asked them to follow Boqi's new account.

“These background images on her homepage look familiar,” Yuma said, opening Kita’s account. “Did she steal them from Kita’s account?”

"Not only that, she also stole a few from your account." Xingge also noticed the familiar pictures.

Yuzhen looked at it, and it really was true. Boqi had even resorted to this method to maintain the "real-life" persona he had created online.

But is it really okay? Yuma couldn't help but worry about her. What if it was discovered that Guitar Hero was actually a socially awkward person pretending to be a popular person? Would she get attacked for that?

Later, Yuzhen discovered that Boqi's new account had many new updates, including photos of guitars and effects pedals.

Yuuma is even more worried about her now. He had seen Ryo's bass photos on her account before, and they had received a lot of likes. Would Pochi start imitating this behavior?

Poch's vanity is a bit too much. He felt he should find some time to talk to Poch and tell him not to spend money on things like this just because of vanity.

However, things took a turn for the better than he had imagined.

"You mean you spent all 200,000 on effects pedals?"

Yuzhen looked at the new update Boqi posted on his account, and then looked at Boqi lying on the ground, his life hanging in the balance.

"Why buy so many effects pedals? For likes? Boqi, no matter how many likes you get online, it's all fake. Having money in your hands is what gives you peace of mind."

But it's no use lecturing him now; money spent is like water spilled—it can't be taken back.

This isn't some sandbox game where you can have unlimited water. Yuzhen looked at Boqi; she'd learned her lesson.

However, when he looked at Boqi's post, he found that it had quite a few likes. So, people online like this kind of thing nowadays?

That evening, after taking a shower, Xingge picked up her phone from the bed and discovered that a blogger she followed had posted a new update.

"The first CSM belt for middle-aged office workers?"

The background of the picture is a white wall, but there is a tomahawk keyboard next to it. The person in the picture is not shown, but is wearing a belt around their waist and is giving a thumbs-up to the camera.

She checked the account name and profile picture again; they were correct. Then she returned to her room and, sure enough, saw Yuuma carefully putting the belt back into its original box.

Chapter 90 I Have a Plan

“Middle-aged, corporate slave, first belt…” Xingge paused, looked at Youzhen who was sitting obediently next to her, “Which one is related to you?”

“Although it’s basically unrelated, writing it this way will get you clicks.” Yuzhen scratched his head. He must have his reasons for choosing this kind of title. “Besides, am I a middle-aged person? At least on this point, I’m telling the truth, right?”

At this moment, Yuuma completely forgot that Hoshika was the same age as him. He referred to himself as a middle-aged man, which happened to touch on the age issue that Hoshika was most reluctant to talk about.

Xingge felt like a primary school student who failed the final exam. He had finally managed to forget about it with the comfort of his friends, but halfway through playing with them, one of his friends' parents suddenly came over and said to him, "You got such a low score, how dare you play?"

Then Xingge discovered that the child who had been called away had the same score as her.

Yuma's words reminded her that she was about to turn thirty. Thirty and twenty-nine, although only one year apart, are like the gap between level ninety-nine and level one hundred in some isekai novel settings.

At least that's what Xingge thinks.

Yuzhen went to sleep on the sofa without her knowing why, and couldn't fall asleep for a while.

So he took out his phone and looked at the likes. The post had only been up for two and a half hours and already had several thousand likes. Kenzaki Yuuma couldn't help but let out a soft hum.

Hongxia, who had just finished using the bathroom in the middle of the night and wanted to get some water, came to the living room, only to be startled by Youzhen, who was lying on the sofa staring at his phone and grinning foolishly.

“I see. I think I know why my sister kicked you out.” Hongxia sat on the sofa, holding her cup. “Brother, you mentioned age, didn’t you? My sister is probably anxious because she’s almost thirty.”

"Such a thing is true?"

Yu-chan couldn't quite understand girls' thoughts on this kind of thing. But he remembered that his mother didn't seem to like talking about her age either.

"But I have a plan that should solve this problem. Hongxia, you should go back to sleep and don't stay up late."

After watching Nijiga return to her room, Yuma got up from the sofa and walked towards Hoshiga's room.

The solution is simple: just give Xingge something to do so she won't have time to worry about her age. Youzhen is very good at this kind of thing, and he has a great idea. He thinks Hongxia would be quite happy to be an aunt.

He reached the door, but before he could even grasp the doorknob, the door opened.

"Not these next few days."

Xingge opened the door, saw Youzhen, and immediately said this.

She couldn't sleep either; she found that even holding her plush toy couldn't help her fall asleep.

Xingge overheard a conversation between two people in the living room. Although she didn't understand it clearly, she heard Youzhen say that he had a solution and heard his footsteps coming towards the room.

She didn't want to be bothered by this guy in the middle of the night, so she simply stopped being angry, pulled Yuzhen into the house, and wouldn't let him sleep on the sofa anymore. She lay tightly on the bed, hugging Yuzhen's waist. As long as she didn't let go, Yuzhen couldn't cause any trouble.

'So that's how it was solved?'

Yuzhen looked at Xingge, who was nestled in her arms and quickly fell asleep, and gently kissed her forehead, temporarily abandoning her own plans.

……

The weather is getting colder, and the band's original short-sleeved uniforms are definitely not suitable anymore. So, Hongxia asked Yuzhen to help design new uniforms, preferably hoodies.

This was no problem at all; their team uniforms were already designed, they just needed to be modified into hoodies. Yuma even added hoods, and then found a tailor to make them for them.

The four little ones really liked their new clothes, and Boqi especially liked the hood, because with it she could wear it during performances and cover her face by looking down.

Boqi was already imagining himself as a snail in a hoodie when Liang took out a bag of salt, picked up a pinch, and sprinkled it on Boqi.

"Don't waste salt." Yuzhen snatched the salt away and took it back to the restaurant's kitchen, which saved costs.

……

Yuma has recently started doing live streaming.

Because he wanders around all day now, the restaurant has hired too many staff and generally doesn't need him. The performance hall also basically doesn't need his help. He's really idle and has nothing to do. At most, he records a cover song video.

So Yuuma became interested in this stuff after that midnight livestream. He already had a fan base, so he wasn't worried about not having viewers. Plus, Hiroi was also livestreaming, chatting with viewers in his stream every day, so he thought chatting with netizens online wouldn't be bad either.

However, he didn't intend to make money from this thing; he just used it as a way to pass the time.

"I've discovered that there's quite a bit of demand for my decent looks and magnetic voice in the live streaming industry."

When Yuma started her live stream, this is how she answered Hoshika and Nijika's curious questions.

His livestreaming schedule is unpredictable; he'll go live whenever he gets bored to play games and chat with his fans.

Sometimes he streams with his face shown, since he used to play in a band, and his performance videos are still on his homepage, so he's not afraid of people seeing his face. Sometimes he uses a virtual avatar, because if he creates one and doesn't use it, what's the point?

However, there were also things that annoyed him. Once, when he was live streaming, Hongxia passed by behind him, and he received a lot of paid comments. These clueless viewers couldn't move after seeing the cute Hongxia.

"Huh!? How could my cute little sister get married so easily! Don't even dream about it!" Yuzhen showed a highly expressive face after seeing the comment, and even gave the middle finger to the camera.

This kind of thing might provoke backlash from other streamers, but the person currently streaming is a former lead singer of a rock band, and this kind of rock and roll behavior is exactly what most of Yuzhen's viewers want to see.

However, after that, Yuuma used a suit for most of his livestreams. Firstly, Nijika was still in school, and it wouldn't be good if others saw her. Secondly, Nijika getting a lot of donations just for appearing on camera would negatively influence her views on money, and he couldn't let her become like Ryo.

"Your live stream has quite a lot of viewers."

Xingge placed a glass of juice on the table and then sat down next to Youzhen. She only felt comfortable talking to him after noticing that Youzhen hadn't turned on his microphone.

Yuma was livestreaming using his virtual avatar. He had accepted a challenge: a fan had given him a short lyric, and he was trying to compose a piece. However, the fan's name was a bit odd, something like "Poison," and Yuma couldn't pronounce the string of strange symbols that followed.

These usernames are clearly the work of a teenage girl with delusions of grandeur. Just looking at them can unconsciously remind people of their own delusional experiences, leading them to deny their former selves.

However, Yuma has already righteously severed ties with her past self, so there's not much of a problem.

"She asked a lot of questions about your former band." Xingge scrolled through the live stream comments. "Did you answer them all?"

"No, not at all. We can talk about those trivial things later. I need to get down to business now."

Yu-chan's eyes were fixed on the computer screen, while she listened intently to the music playing through her headphones.

Xingge watched Youzhen from the side. How long had it been since she had seen him look so serious?

Chapter 91 The Smell of Tobacco

"Mo Ai! I'll tell you."

Yuuma felt a bit exhausted inside the performance hall. Kita and Ryo had followed him everywhere he went today, insisting that he continue telling the story he hadn't finished before.

The two of them also said that Yuzhen is now like a novelist who cuts out chapters, having already cut out important plot points and then stopped updating for so long.

"I understand, I'll tell you the story." Yuuma slumped weakly in her chair. "Who else wants to hear a story?"

Seeing that Kita and Ryo had already settled things, Nijika and PA pulled Pochi over.

Apart from Boqi, the others now looked at the preschool teacher Yuzhen with expectant eyes, just like kindergarten children.

"I want to hear about the process of you two coming together."

Yuma looked at Ryo, who was speaking; a kindergarten kid would never say something like that.

"Liang! Let's be more subtle about this." Hongxia patted Liang's shoulder. "Brother, let's start while sister's not around. Shall we continue from where we left off last time?"

Why is even Hongxia like this?

“We didn’t do anything special that time,” Yuma waved her hand. “If I’m going to talk about it, let’s keep it brief and start from when I went to university.”

……

Kenzaki Yuuma, in the flashback, is a sophomore at Waseda University. He is on his way to the university where Hoshika attends. The two have agreed to meet after school.

Xingge had to repeat a year because she failed her exams. Later, with Youzhen's help, she was admitted to university. However, because of that time she repeated a year, she was a year below Youzhen.

When Yuzhen arrived at the school gate, she saw Xingge carrying a guitar with her back to her, talking to a girl. Yuzhen quietly approached her, thinking of startling her.

"Can you lend me some money to buy cigarettes? I don't have much left, but I'll definitely pay you back tomorrow."

Xingge's voice startled Youzhen. He watched as Xingge pulled a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket; there were only a few left.