Band Girl Drink Mixing Action

If an unaware passerby came by now, he would see Qingchuan Xiang like a little girl being bullied by two cool-looking girls. She was sobbing and sipped milk jelly into her mouth, and the two "bullies" were watching her while she was crying.

She was actually crying while drinking milk jelly. In the lying position, Qingchuan Xiang's tears kept pouring into the arms around her, and it seemed that they were about to drown her own lower lip.

"What's wrong with you..." Li Xi complained helplessly. Qingchuan Xiang was now standing behind the bar. After lying on the table, his original standing posture gradually became uncontrollable. His body slid down more and more, and finally his head was still on the table, and his lower body was half-kneeling on the ground.

"Ha--" Li Xi sighed. His originally depressed mood had no time to show off. He was forcibly interrupted by the shock brought by Qingchuan Xiang's fragile appearance. "Really, what is going on?"

Li Xi walked around behind Qingchuan Xiang, put his arms through Qingchuan Xiang's armpits, and directly hugged Qingchuan Xiang. Then, with just a little force, he lifted up Qingchuan Xiang who had no resistance.

How come it's so light? It even has that refreshing smell after the rain, even though it hasn't rained in the past few days.

His arms were filled with the soft fragrance of jade, and the ponytail behind his head was still swinging restlessly from side to side as he walked, brushing against Li Xi's arms, making them a little itchy. Li Xi could also feel Qingchuan Xiang trembling from time to time because of sobbing.

Relying on his own strength, he half lifted and half carried the crying Xiaoxiang all the way to the stool in front of the bar and helped her sit down.

Immediately afterwards, Xi and Hailing sat on either side of Qingchuanxiang, helping her to smooth her back.

Qingchuan Xiang drank the milk jelly very slowly. When she finally finished it, her tears finally stopped and her tone became much calmer.

"So what happened just now, Xiang?" Li Xi rarely called Qingchuan Xiang's name directly, feeling a little embarrassed. It couldn't be that the coffee he just made was so bad that it made Qingchuan Xiang cry.

Qingchuan Xiang half-collapsed on the bar again, complaining in a low voice. His weak tone and red eyes made him sound more like a spoiled child who had been made to cry: "It's all Li Xi's fault."

"What happened..." Li Xi was even more confused and asked in disbelief, "Could it be because my coffee was so bad?"

At this moment, Li Xi's first thought was no longer a sense of inferiority, but his mind was full of question marks.

"That's right, it's terrible, based on my long experience in making drinks." Qingchuan Xiang tried to say it viciously, taking the opportunity to comment on the coffee to scold Li Xi for his inexplicable strong sense of inferiority, which was really stupid!

"but,"

Qingchuan Xiang propped himself up and looked into Lixi's eyes. His eyes, which had just cried, seemed to become even more moist after being watery. Like the wet eyes of a young deer, they sparkled with brilliance on the surface as the sunlight came in from the window.

“For starters, that coffee is indeed delicious, Lixi.

"You did a great job."

Chapter 50: The Deadlock of Demand Change

"...What? It sounds like he's just saying it out of consideration for me."

Perhaps it was because Qingchuan Xiang's crying face was too impactful, or perhaps it was because Qingchuan Xiang's seemingly sincere compliment hit the soft spot in Li Xi's heart. Li Xi turned his head slightly and avoided looking at Qingchuan Xiang's face.

"Mingming Lixi looks very happy now."

Hailing, who had been watching from the sidelines, now became the most relaxed and natural person among the people present. With a relieved smile on her face, she resumed her joking mode with Lixi.

"Indeed." After praising Li Xi, Qingchuan Xiang had not yet completely gotten rid of the feeling of powerlessness. However, after the most intense first impact had passed, Qingchuan Xiang even began to slowly savor the remaining aftertaste and digest what he had drunk.

However, during this process, Qingchuan Xiang was too lazy to maintain his posture, so he lay his face sideways on the table, staring straight at Li Xi.

He tilted his head, placed one arm flat on the table, and grasped the other elbow with his palm. The grasped hand rested on the table with the elbow, and he covered his mouth with his backhand.

In addition, even though Li Xi turned his head away and didn't want Qingchuan Xiang and Hai Ling to see his face, the blush that spread all the way to his ears completely exposed Li Xi's mood.

I'm totally embarrassed.

Li Xi rarely refuted, and Hai Ling simply smiled as the two men, one of whom had just burst into tears, seemed to be arguing. Taking advantage of this quiet time to calm down, Qing Chuanxiang reassessed the current situation.

Although the plan went completely astray midway and the situation went out of control, which gave me a little emotional shock, at least I achieved one goal: to understand Li Xi's psychology behind the high pressure on himself.

Qingchuan Xiang, who obtained the key information, now understands that Li Xi's desire for her abilities to be recognized by others is due to her own sense of inferiority. In addition, Li Xi herself is a serious and competitive person, which has led to her setting high standards for everything she does.

However, after learning from Xiangzi's experience, Qingchuan Xiang did not regard inferiority complex as the sole cause of Li Xi's negative emotions, and continued to think deeply based on inferiority complex.

First of all, Qingchuan Xiang was sure of one thing. Based on her previous observations, Lixi would never feel inferior because of everything. In fact, even the outburst of Lixi's inferiority complex just now was definitely not because of the coffee-making incident. It was just that her excellence and confidence in mixing drinks reminded her of other people.

That person is Xiangzi.

Continuing to think, in what aspect did Xiangzi aggravate Lixi's inferiority complex? First of all, it was not the instrument. Lixi should not feel inferior because of the technical differences between different instruments. What's more, Lixi's own drumming skills were very good in his own opinion.

Let’s ignore the factor of appearance. It’s true that Xiangzi is good-looking, but Lixi is definitely a beauty with a different style. She might look better when she doesn’t speak.

So what else did Xiangzi do in the band? He composed music and had the leadership qualities that could drive the entire band forward.

Qingchuan Xiang tends to envy Li Xi's two strengths of Xiangzi, and also feels inferior because he cannot do these two things.

Lixi likes Deng very much, and no one can fail to see this, but Lixi's attitude towards Deng was very cold at the beginning. He really started to become enthusiastic because of the birth of the song, Spring Shadow.

Li Xi was deeply moved by the song and therefore wanted to compose music for the lyrics of Deng, thus starting to have the idea of catching up with Xiangzi in this regard.

Qingchuan Xiang connected these superficial clues bit by bit in his mind, relying on the thread of "inferiority complex" hidden in the dark, and obtained a seemingly reasonable whole process.

Another point is that the disbandment of the band further magnified Li Xi's sense of inferiority. Xiangzi's withdrawal directly led to the disbandment of CRYCHC. Everyone then realized that the entire band was formed by Xiangzi alone, and no one else could become the new core to drive others to continue.

Li Xi was naturally one of them. She couldn't even keep the light on and finally chose to leave.

If this idea is correct, Li Xi really wants to continue forming a band.

There are still many questions. The feeling of inferiority that I just drank is definitely not the result of more than a month of band time. It may be caused by the family, school and other environments in the past. But it doesn’t matter what those causes are. I just need to know the current result and continue to use it to guide the future direction.

Qingchuan Xiang came to the conclusion that: even if Li Xi also wanted to reorganize the band, she was not the key to the reorganization, and she herself was even waiting for an opportunity indefinitely.

But putting aside the band factor, if we only think about Li Xi's question, Qingchuan Xiang still has a doubt, and that is about Hai Ling...

"School's about to start. I hope I can still come here to practice then... Hey?" Several girls carrying musical instruments walked into the RiNG Café and saw three people sitting quietly there. "Um... can we order now?"

"Looks like I can't bother you any further." Qingchuan Xiang slowly stood up. Although the tears on her face had not been wiped away, her expression had returned to normal. "I'll come for coffee again in the future. Oh, and maybe some black tea or something."

"Oh." Li Xi finally turned around, the blush on his face dissipated until only a little bit remained, but he might still be a little bit unresponsive, so his voice was very low, "See you next time, Hailing, Xiang."

"I haven't said goodbye yet. But now it's time for my appointment with another band." Hailing stood up neatly, just like a mercenary with excellent professional qualities.

Nodding to the band girl passersby who were still a little confused, Qingchuan Xiang and Hailing left the cafe side by side and walked back to the lobby of RiNG.

"Hailing." Qingchuan Xiang called out to Hailing who was about to go to the practice room.

"What's wrong?" Hailing turned her head and looked at Qingchuan Xiang, as if she was not surprised that she was called down.

"First of all, I have to say I'm sorry."

"Why are you apologizing so suddenly? Did Xiang do anything to offend me?"

"There's no need to pretend you don't know. But if you insist I tell you... I'm sorry for interrupting what I was about to do when you suddenly asked me to make you a cup of coffee. At that time, I really didn't take Lixi's condition into consideration and wanted to stimulate Lixi even further."

"I thought you were the kind of person who handled things tactfully, but now you're speaking so directly?"

"It's just a matter of taste. I don't think you need to hide too much from Miss Hailing."

"Really?" Hailing blinked, obviously a little surprised by Qingchuan Xiang's overly frank attitude, "Then I accept your apology."

After saying this, Hailing saw that Qingchuan Xiang's mouth corners were slightly more upturned.

"Sure enough, Hailing cares about Lixi?"

Being tricked and accepting Qingchuan Xiang's apology means that you are indeed angry about the other party's behavior, and it also undoubtedly means that you have always cared about someone.

Hailing turned completely around and faced Qingchuan Xiang: "So what does Xiang want to do?"

"Lixi's problem still exists. Although it seemed that Lixi felt relieved by the praise just now, it didn't solve the problem at all."

As for the reasons for inferiority complex, perhaps one’s own talent plays a part, but it is definitely not the main reason.

"You should be able to tell that, so I'm confused. Since you care so much about Lixi, why don't you try to comfort her?" Qingchuan Xiang looked at the instrument case that Hailing never let go of, "Especially since you seem to really want to form a band with Lixi."

"Why do you say that?"

"As for the instrument case, RiNG's practice room basically requires advance reservations during holidays. If you've been invited by another band to practice, this is the earliest time the RiNG practice room is open. No other bands will be using the practice room before then, so you can put your heavy instrument case away first and then go find Lixi.

"Can I assume that your appearance in front of Lixi with your instrument in hand was some kind of hint to Lixi? Plus, you said you've been accepting commissions from various bands instead of staying in a fixed band. Maybe it's just to be able to form a band with someone."

"The reason why I didn't go to comfort Li Xi..."

After not answering himself directly for the second time, Qingchuan Xiang blinked and asked himself why he asked that question the first time. But after hearing the second new question, he went back to the first question.

If you don't want to say it, then don't say it. If my curiosity is aroused and I finally find out the reason, it's all your fault.

"Because I'm an outsider."

"Ok?"

"A band is like a home. Li Xi still can't let go of his old band, and since I'm not a band member, it's naturally not my place to get involved."

Qingchuan Xiang couldn't understand: "But you are obviously Li Xi's friend?"

"Because we're friends, and I care about Li Xi, I can't cross the line."

Restrained. Qingchuan Xiang thought of this word. Although he was wearing a rather bold and mature leather jacket, his behavior was very reliable. All his interactions with Li Xi were restrained to a friendly but certainly not overly intimate distance.

It was different from the feeling Chuhua gave her. If Chuhua was disguising himself and hiding his feelings the whole time, Hailing was extremely restrained and expressed emotions that were in line with her identity.

Although the final result was the same, Qingchuan Xiang added a few more layers of thickening to the label of "difficult to deal with" that he gave Hailing in his mind.

"So the result is still a dead end." Qingchuan Xiang sighed helplessly. Since it has become impossible to reunite the previous band members due to Xiangzi's reality, he naturally wants to introduce other people to join. However, Hailing, the most promising one at the moment, is not a possibility.

"So, Xiang, why are you unwilling to bring your band back together?" Hailing asked.

"In my opinion, you're quite good at perceiving other people's inner thoughts. I originally thought you were an extremely rational person, but your last words to Li Xi seemed so sincere to me. You're the most suitable person, right?"

"I'm so sorry, maybe my problem is the biggest one."

"Really?" Hailing didn't ask any further questions. Qingchuan Xiang also personally felt that Hailing's restrained communication while maintaining distance really gave people a sense of comfort and freedom. "Xiang, do you want to add me as a Line friend?"

"Okay." Qingchuan Xiang agreed happily, "Maybe we will have a lot to talk about in the future."

Chapter 51: Afterglow

As usual, Xiangzi arrived at Qingchuan Bookstore twenty minutes early today to do some preparatory work before work, mainly to confirm what tasks might need to be done today and arrange the order and time allocation of each task.

This will allow Xiangzi to complete his tasks in an orderly and faster manner, and free up as much free time as possible for himself to read and study.

It wasn't just music books. Since he was preparing to attend Ueyama High School, the academic requirements would naturally be higher for a school that prioritized academic advancement and offered scholarships. Xiangzi had already begun pre-studying high school knowledge.

"Yesterday I mainly dealt with some academic problems. Today I might look for some music books..."

Xiangzi was carefully planning his goal in his mind, and after making the arrangements, he suddenly remembered another thing.

"I told Hemu about my part-time job at the bookstore earlier, and we agreed to meet there today to talk about family matters..."

Xiangzi fell into deep thought for a moment. In addition to some bad family affairs, the mention of Mu also made Xiangzi inevitably think of CRYCHIC.

I don’t know what the current situation of CRYCHIC is. Although Xiangzi has been deliberately avoiding the band’s affairs and trying to cut off from his past ignorance and childishness, he always can’t help but think about it in his heart.

Should I ask Mu about them when the time comes... No, forget it. What's the matter with this lingering feeling?

"Hello." After entering the bookstore, Xiangzi still maintained his usual elegant demeanor and greeted the store manager Qing Chuanyu who was sitting behind the cash register.

"Ah, Xiaoxiang, I was just thinking that you would be here by now." Qing Chuanyu responded enthusiastically with a sly smile on his face.

"Miss Yu, what do you want to talk to me about?" Xiangzi asked doubtfully. It was clearly a working day, so it was normal for him to come here. Why did she think that he had to come at this time?

"Ahem, nothing, nothing." As if suddenly remembering something, Qing Chuanyu didn't dare to say anything more. He coughed violently and said, "Xiangzi, just go and do your own thing."

"Ok."

Xiangzi went to the staff room with ease, put away his shoulder bag, changed into the library's uniform apron, and then looked for a senior who was scheduled to work earlier than him in the library to prepare to hand over today's matters.

Finally, Xiangzi found Miss Ohkawa, an employee who was holding a vacuum cleaner and preparing to clean the area in a corner of the library, where various cushions and lazy sofas were placed on the floor for guests to read and rest.

In addition, there was also someone Xiangzi was very familiar with.

"Um, Xiaoxiang... can you please move aside? I need to clean up here. I'll be right there."

Senior Dahe is a college student. He was a college student before the store manager Yu dropped out of school. He seems to have come here from the countryside to live. His usual behavior is always shy and simple.

For example, now, Miss Ohkawa was looking at the thing that had turned into a puddle on the ground, occupying a large area and not moving, with great distress, and she was completely unable to clean up this place.

This pool of water naturally belonged to Qingchuan Xiang. She piled up several pillows, cushions and other things in the rest area together, and then lay down on them. She looked lazy and depressed, with an extra-long straw made of two or three straws combined in her mouth, and the other end was inserted into a box of milk jelly.

Xiangzi was delighted, but he kept a polite smile on his face as he walked over. Meanwhile, Qingchuan Xiang was also talking to Dahe while biting his straw:

"Sister Dahe, I will fully fulfill my duties as a rag and roll around here to clean the floor. Don't worry, my sister won't blame you."

"It's not a question of whether to blame me or not..." Dahai looked worriedly at Qingchuan Xiang, who seemed weak and lazy. He put the vacuum cleaner aside and frantically circled around Xiang, trying to find a convenient place to grab and pull Qingchuan Xiang up.

"Senior Ohkawa, what's going on here?" Xiangzi just walked up to the two of them and looked at Qingchuan Xiang with interest. Unlike before, this was the first time he appeared so lazy in front of Xiangzi.

"Xiao Xiangzi, come and try to comfort Xiao Xiang. She's been lying here like this for over an hour."

More than an hour? Xiangzi was surprised to hear this and turned his gaze to the box of milk jelly that Qingchuanxiang was slowly sucking. This thing didn't look like something that Qingchuanxiang could drink for an hour.

After moving his feet slightly, Xiangzi immediately discovered several empty bottles, jars and boxes hidden behind the piled up mats.

"Is this the only place left to clean, Taiga-senpai?"

"Yes."

"Then Senior Dahe, please go and rest first. Leave this to me. Xiaoxiang and I will clean this place together later."