They are in the music show, but I am a stranger to them

Chen Qi, who had quickly finished the sandwich on the plate, quickly turned his gaze to Xiangzi in front of him. Seeing that Xiangzi seemed to be still a little hesitant, he blinked and smiled slightly, saying:

"What's wrong, Shoko? Have you had breakfast yet? If you can't finish it, I'll pack it up and give it to Aine later."

“—I ate it.”

There is no doubt that Chen Qi's words forced Xiangzi, who originally did not want to accept this kindness, to accept it.

Compared to Chen Qi who just grabbed the food and ate it directly, Xiangzi, whose education since childhood had engraved etiquette and elegance into his bones, skillfully used the knife and fork to put the soft sandwich into his mouth piece by piece like eating a cake.

After a while, Xiangzi's mouth was filled with the simple aroma of wheat and the taste of high protein. She was savoring this long-lost enjoyment and was almost moved to tears - but she held back.

Xiangzi didn't even dare to let Chen Qi notice anything, and he ate the next few pieces in a hurry. He finished the sandwich quickly until the taste of the juice took over his taste buds and the last trace of sweetness gradually faded from his mouth.

"...So, Chen Qi, what exactly do you want to talk to me about?" After wiping his lips with a tissue, Xiangzi, who felt that hunger had left him, looked at Chen Qi with some recovered spirit. This time, Xiangzi finally had the energy to put on a smile to Chen Qi.

The next moment, Xiangzi was slightly disturbed by Chen Qi's teasing, even ambiguous answer:

"What's wrong? Can't I just come here because I want to see you?"

"...Please stop joking." Upon hearing this, Xiangzi's fingers holding the juice cup moved slightly, and then he answered with his head slightly turned away, looking a little uncomfortably.

Xiangzi knew that she was hiding her embarrassment, or to be more precise, hiding the tears in the corners of her eyes...

Falling from heaven to earth, such a huge gap is not something that everyone can accept. Even though Xiangzi relied on her extraordinary perseverance and strong self-esteem to survive the most difficult period, the feeling of having to bear everything alone really made her feel exhausted.

It's not just physical fatigue, it's also mental fatigue... From morning till night, in addition to dealing with school teachers, I also have to deal with bosses' harassment, uncooperative guests, and naughty children...

Even when he returned to that so-called home, he could not get even the slightest comfort from his only "relative".

And during this period of time, the only person who said such words to her and tried every means to make her accept help was the person she felt the most sorry for... How could Xiangzi not be moved by this, and how could she face Chen Qi?

Therefore, Xiangzi could only hide all his emotions in front of Chen Qi.

He enjoyed every bit of care he got from him, which drove away the bitterness and fatigue in his heart, and this made Xiangzi very content.

Now that Deng is back, there is no shortage of people around Chen Qi who need his care. I can support myself now, so why should I cause him any more trouble?

"So, was this just a prank? If so, then I'm going back to school."

"And, thank you for your kindness, Chen Qi. I'll pay for this meal. You—"

"Ah, wait, Xiangzi, I do need your help with a second thing, and you may be the only one who can help me."

Seeing that Xiangzi's inner pressure seemed to be relieved a little, Chen Qi's first purpose of meeting Xiangzi by chance this time was also achieved - he already had a rough idea of ​​Xiangzi's current mental state.

All I can say is... it's worse than he had imagined. Ever since he last saw Xiangzi fleeing in [SPACE], he had sensed Xiangzi's emotional and mental instability, and now, Xiangzi's condition has become even worse.

This also accelerated Chen Qi's determination to help Xiangzi and form Ave Mujica as soon as possible. Only this band could help Xiangzi escape from the endless suffering of working.

So, driven by his inner impulse, facing Xiangzi who had returned to his seat again with an attitude of "listening to you", Chen Qi took a deep breath and then asked Xiangzi in an extremely solemn and serious tone:

"Xiangzi? Are you familiar with the name Sanjiao Chuhua?"

"……Why?"

However, when faced with the name suddenly mentioned by Chen Qi, Xiangzi, who had been very calm, showed a rare look of hesitation.

Xiangzi's arm tensed and she accidentally knocked over the empty juice cup next to her. It was not until the juice cup rolled to the ground with a crisp sound that Xiangzi came back to his senses from his daze.

Chuhua? Why did Chen Qi suddenly mention Chuhua?

They shouldn't know each other, right? Why did Chen Qi suddenly ask me about Chu Hua?

Xiangzi was full of doubts, and then she felt a strange sour feeling surge in her heart. She looked at Chen Qi in front of her, who looked so serious for the first time in a long time, and seemed reluctant to share the answer to this question with him...

Chapter 48: Xiangzi recognizes reality? Decides to forget Chen Qi?

"So that's what happened."

Five minutes later, Chen Qi also encountered Sanjiao Chuhua by chance when he was training for street performances with his band [SPACE], and told Toyokawa Shoko, who knew nothing about it, that Chuhua invited him to become a professional musician and was willing to introduce him to his agency.

After Chen Qi's explanation, Xiangzi finally understood why Chen Qi wanted to find Sanjiao Chuhua. Now, after thinking for a long time with his head down, he did not immediately agree to Chen Qi's request.

On the contrary, Xiangzi asked Chen Qi a question that made her feel confused.

"But, Chen Qi, why do you think I have Chu Hua's contact information?"

"I remember that when we were still in Crychic, I never mentioned anything about Chuhua to anyone, not even to you, right?"

Chen Qi: “Uh…”

Oh no, I forgot about this and completely forgot to find an excuse.

A big part of the reason why Chen Qi found Xiangzi was because Chu Hua, a member of Sanjiao whom she met by chance yesterday, mentioned to her the path to becoming a professional musician. In particular, Chu Hua seemed very interested in his music and was even willing to provide some assistance for his debut, which made Chen Qi really excited.

He has been releasing songs online for half a year. Although he cannot release new songs every time, he is still not satisfied with the fluctuation of around 30,000 fans.

During the past six months, Chen Qi has also clearly realized his weakness, which is that if he is not facing someone, he simply cannot sing with feeling.

In this respect, Chen Qi's situation is similar to Deng's. In the closed environment of the recording studio, their performance is not as good as that of a live performance.

Therefore, Chen Qi clearly realized that if he continued to stay in the room as an online singer, his future would probably be over. He had to make a change and stand on the real stage like Chu Hua.

Only at a live performance can I bring my "biased" performance skills to the fullest.

But unfortunately, Chen Qi left in a hurry yesterday because of Aiyin's request for help, so he left in a panic without even getting Sanjiao Chuhua's contact information.

Now, Chen Qi wanted to meet Chu Hua to express his apologies for leaving suddenly yesterday, and to know in detail how much help Chu Hua could provide him and whether he could support him in a relatively large-scale live performance.

Of course, this was just a little delusion of Chen Qi himself. After all, he didn't know how much importance Sanjiao Chuhua had in his agency. Chen Qi was already very grateful that Chuhua could provide him with a channel to connect with the agency and support his first official performance after his debut.

As for his future popularity, it depends on Chen Qi's own ability. If others give you a chance and you can't seize it, it only means that you are not cut out for it.

At the moment, the only person Chen Qi could think of who could help him get in touch with Chuhua was Xiangzi, Chuhua's childhood sweetheart.

Of course, there are also some of Chen Qi's own thoughts in this - after all, as a time traveler, he knows very well that Chuhua has a heavy feeling for Xiangzi, her childhood sweetheart. After all, a chat record encouraging her can be read for a year...

And if Xiangzi helped him to contact Chuhua of the triangle, then he could rebuild the relationship between Chuhua and Xiangzi. In this way, when he wanted to help Xiangzi set up Ave Mujica in the future, the resistance would undoubtedly be much smaller.

More importantly, in this case, Xiangzi would not have to re-enact the famous scene of "Let me forget everything" which crushed his self-esteem into powder.

But now, Chen Qi, who wanted to contact Chuhua as quickly as possible, was stumped by Xiangzi's question.

Just as Xiangzi said, she had never mentioned anything about Chuhua to Chen Qi. From Xiangzi's perspective, how did she know that Xiangzi knew Chuhua?

However, the silence only lasted about half a second. Chen Qi's brain began to work at high speed. He quickly grasped the key points from his memories of the past year and thought of his own reasons.

"Because I saw a photo of you and Chuhua at your home, Xiangzi."

"Photos?" However, Xiangzi couldn't help but blink when he heard this, seeming a little confused, but Chen Qi nodded affirmatively and replied calmly as if it was a matter of fact:

"Xiangzi, do you still remember that you often invited me to your home to make demos of new songs together?"

"When I first went to your house, didn't you take me to visit all the rooms in your house? Your own room was included at that time, and there were many photos hanging on one wall of your room."

"There is one photo that left a deep impression on me. It seems to be a photo of you, Xiangzi, when you were a child? It's a photo with a little girl with light blonde hair."

Xiangzi: "Hey! Did you see that?!"

When Chen Qi said this, Xiangzi's memories before he left home suddenly emerged. However, compared to that time when he openly and naively invited friends of the opposite sex into his boudoir, Xiangzi's attitude now was completely different.

When Xiangzi thought about his many private matters, even the photos of his memories from childhood to adulthood, which were all visible to Chen Qi, he felt an unspeakable shame only after nearly a year.

"Yes, it was because I saw that photo that I remembered the appearance of the girl who seemed to be very close to you, Xiangzi. The color of her eyes was very similar to that of Sanjiao Chuhua, whom I met yesterday."

"So, I came here today to try my luck and ask you, Xiangzi, if the girl you know is Sanjiao Chuhua."

When Chen Qi noticed Xiangzi's expression, he knew that his excuse was enough to convince Xiangzi, so he admitted it.

However, Chen Qi didn't know that his impromptu excuse and overly detailed details actually made Xiangzi have some bad suspicions.

Why... does Chen Qi have such a deep memory of a photo that he saw by chance a year ago?

Xiangzi, who is also a member of Crychic and has a close relationship with Chen Qi, knows very well that Chen Qi is not a god with a photographic memory.

He is even a little face-blind. If you don't have some extremely iconic features in your appearance, he will easily forget what you look like if he doesn't meet Chen Qi more than a few times.

And now, after a year, Chen Qi can still remember what Chu Hua looked like when she was a child. Based on Xiangzi's understanding of Chen Qi, there is only one possibility...

Chen Qi, perhaps without noticing it, looked at the photo of himself and Chu Hua over and over again.

Why did Chen Qi look at that photo over and over again?

Is it because the childhood self in the photo was very, very cute?

Xiangzi couldn't help but think of this, and her delicate face blushed slightly unconsciously, but she quickly suppressed it.

After all, based on the limited information available, this possibility is too low.

On the contrary, judging from the fact that Chen Qi still remembered it in such detail... Chen Qi might have a deeper impression of Chu Hua in the photo.

Indeed, Xiangzi certainly knew that his childhood sweetheart had been very good-looking since childhood. Even Xiangzi, who was confident that he was also good-looking, had to admit that in terms of appearance and temperament alone, he was slightly inferior to Chuhua.

This is probably one of the reasons why Chu Hua’s potential was discovered so quickly by the agency a year ago and he made his debut so quickly?

Then, the reason why Chen Qi could remember Chu Hua so clearly should be closely related to Chu Hua's appearance...

"...Yes, I know Chu Hua. Chu Hua and I are childhood sweethearts. I also have her contact information."

Suppressing the bitterness in his heart, Xiangzi also controlled his face not to show too much anxiety. While picking up the cup that fell to the ground but was not broken, he asked Chen Qi in front of him in a calm tone:

"So, Chen Qi, what do you want me to do for you?"

"Of course, please help me contact Chu Hua. I want to meet with her and discuss in detail the professional musician thing she mentioned." Chen Qi had no intention of beating around the bush, because this matter was very important to both him and Xiangzi.

After all, the support that Chen Qi, as a professional musician, can provide to Xiangzi is incomparable to what he can provide to Xiangzi now, who is not very famous.

Although Ave Mujika, according to Xiangzi's conception, is a band where all members hide their true identities and even cover half of their faces, Chen Qi doesn't think that as a popular idol, Sanjiao Chuhua, no fans will be able to recognize her as long as she wears a mask.

Even without mentioning Chuhua, Xiangzi bluntly said that he was impressed by Miao Meng who joined later because of her popularity.

Obviously, Xiangzi did not intend to keep the true identities of all the band members secret. She just wanted to create the band's "worldview".

By the same token, if Chen Qi can become a professional musician with his own popularity like Chu Hua, then the popularity he brings with Ave Mujica can better help Xiangzi to embark on a professional path as soon as possible, and will definitely bring success that surpasses the original.

This is the most helpful method for Xiangzi, who is now in debt and wants to improve his life as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, although Chen Qi and Xiangzi had a very good relationship, they did not achieve spiritual communication after all, and Xiangzi was not aware of all Chen Qi's ideas.

Xiangzi only knew that Chen Qi's music career was slowly getting on the right track. He should have been happy about Chen Qi's idea and given his utmost support...

But now... I don't know why, looking at Chen Qi who is so close to me, and looking at Chen Qi's eager expression to become a professional musician, Xiangzi always feels that... the distance between him and me is getting farther and farther.

Chen Qi was becoming more and more outstanding, but he himself... was still sinking at the bottom of society, unable to even guarantee three meals a day.

Could it be that everything that Manager Tsuzuki said was true? Did I really drag Chen Qi down? Xiangzi couldn't help but have such extremely depressing thoughts in his mind.

If I hadn't invited Chen Qi to join Crychic, would Chen Qi have already become a real professional musician like Chu Hua? Would he have already become a very popular star?

Why does my mouth feel so bitter? I just drank sweet and sour juice...

"……I see."

However, even though countless complicated emotions were churning in his heart, Xiangzi still suppressed all his personal feelings.

She didn't even dare to let Chen Qi in front of her see that she was forcing a smile, so she could only try to keep a calm expression, took out her cell phone from her pocket, and said softly:

"This is Chuhua's contact information. Just tell her that I shared it with you."

"Hey? Xiangzi, why don't you say hello to Chuhua? I think Chuhua will trust me more this way." Chen Qi asked with a blink. He hoped to take this opportunity to let Chuhua and Xiangzi get in touch again.

After all, Chuhua is Xiangzi's childhood sweetheart. Although Chen Qi feels that Chuhua did not impress Xiangzi in the original novel, Chuhua is a person who cares about Xiangzi wholeheartedly. It is also a good thing for Xiangzi to let Chuhua give some comfort to Xiangzi who is on the verge of collapse.

Chen Qi has a lot of things to do now. He has to take care of the band's special training, Deng's mental condition, and may be busy rehearsing for performances in the future. It is difficult for him to fully take care of Xiangzi's situation.

Facing Chen Qi's harmless words, Xiangzi, who was extremely sensitive, trembled in his heart. Looking directly at Chen Qi's sincere and concerned eyes, Xiangzi could not help but look away. After taking a deep breath, he said lightly:

“I’m sorry, I can’t do this.”

I can't push you further away from me...

I'm sorry, Chen Qi, please forgive my weakness and selfishness.

I really hope to realize your dream and make up for my past mistakes...but I also hope that I am still qualified to stand on the same stage with you.

Soon, after Xiangzi confirmed that Chen Qi had saved Chuhua's contact information, he took back his phone, stood up, and said lightly:

"Well, if there is nothing else, I will take my leave."

"The sandwich is delicious. Thank you for your kindness, Chen Qi."

And...I wish you a bright future.

Xiangzi, feeling a little depressed inside, slowly left the store under Chen Qi's gaze. Her emotions were so complicated that she even forgot to take the bill away and even forgot to pay the bill for Chen Qi.

Xiangzi, who was in a state of confusion, returned to Yuqiu step by step. However, what surprised Xiangzi this time was that the moment she stepped into the school gate, accompanied by a female classmate's exclamation, suddenly, a large group of classmates who had been waiting here for a long time immediately surrounded her.