Entertainment: A song that brought his deceased wife back to life.

On the living room sofa, Luo Qianyu sat cross-legged, with a whole sheet of clownfish stickers on the coffee table in front of her.

With a cold expression, she tore off a piece of paper and slapped it onto Xu Qing's laptop.

After sticking stickers on the laptop, they stuck them on the charger, then the remote control, and even Xu Qing's mug on the corner of the table wasn't spared. This assertion of sovereignty was executed flawlessly, like some kind of advanced scientific experiment.

Xu Qing walked over carrying two cans of iced cola and glanced at the "masterpieces" on the table.

"The stickers are all ruined by drying out. I'll have to pay for the next restock myself."

Luo Qianyu didn't even raise her head, continuing to tear at the food.

"explain."

Xu Qing placed a can of cola next to her, opened another can and took a sip, then sat down at the other end of the sofa.

He stared at the ceiling, silent for a few seconds. Then the confession began.

Seven years ago, at the age of eighteen, he went to Humboldt University of Berlin as an exchange student to lead the "Siren" acoustics project. Under the pseudonym "Wang Qing," he joined a local cover band as a guitarist.

Later, the band was spotted by a big producer and signed a contract.

Wang Qing became the guitarist for the Queen Band, while Adam Lambert was the lead singer. The two worked together for one year and three months.

"How could he..." Luo Qianyu smacked the sticker in her hand against the cup, her lips pressed into a thin line, "...have those kinds of thoughts about you?"

"It's a matter of his sexual orientation. Everyone in the band knows he likes men." Xu Qing's tone was as flat as if he were reading a product manual. "One day after rehearsal, he confessed his feelings to me directly, but I didn't agree."

"and then?"

"Then he downed half a bottle of whiskey and, fueled by the alcohol, did it again in the rehearsal room."

"How did you handle it?"

Xu Qing paused for a second.

He knocked it out with one punch.

Luo Qianyu's hand, which was tearing off the sticker, froze in mid-air.

"……ha?"

"Left cheek, a straight punch." Xu Qing didn't even flinch. "After I'm done, I'll tell him straight up, 'Don't use feelings to blackmail straight men. You're a genius, you don't need to ruin yourself over this kind of nonsense.'"

Luo Qianyu turned her head and looked at him as if he were a monster.

"You stunned him with a straight punch?"

"He was indeed sober by then."

"and then?"

"Then I left the band. I dumped all the guitar tabs and arrangement manuscripts on him and went back to China to deal with the Sirens' mess."

Luo Qianyu stared at him with her mouth agape for a full five seconds.

Then she lowered her head and slowly put the clownfish sticker that had been torn in half back on, smoothing out the edges little by little.

The jealousy that had just surged within me vanished instantly.

Instead, a strong pang of sorrow and heartache washed over me, not for Adam, but for Xu Qing.

At only eighteen years old, he was alone in a foreign country, carrying a research project that was being hunted by the wolves of capital, and he also had to work in a band to benefit others. In the end, he couldn't even keep a friend and returned to China all alone.

"So he later took off thanks to the drafts you saved?"

"He's a monster in himself, all he lacks is a methodology." Xu Qing took a sip of his drink. "I was just handing him a key; he kicked the door open himself."

Luo Qianyu squeezed the soda can and rubbed it back and forth.

"And that 'soul' he mentioned today—"

"He meant that my music influenced his creative process." Xu Qing turned to look at her. "It's not the kind of melodramatic plot you're thinking of."

"I wasn't thinking about anything."

Your eyes are red.

"It was blown by the wind."

"The air conditioning is on at home, where did this strange wind come from?"

Luo Qianyu took a big gulp of cola in a fit of pique, but choked and coughed, tears streaming down her face as she coughed.

Xu Qing reached out and gently patted her back to help her breathe.

This time, Luo Qianyu didn't dodge. Instead, she moved closer to him, burying her face in his shoulder, her voice muffled and trembling.

"Xu Qing, you had such a tough time when you were eighteen."

Xu Qing didn't reply, but moved his hand from her back to the back of her head and gently rubbed her messy long hair.

-

At the same time, on the other side of the Pacific Ocean.

In the hotel's penthouse suite, Adam stood barefoot before the floor-to-ceiling window. Outside, the bustling CBD skyline shimmered with neon lights, casting a dazzling, surreal glow across the entire glass pane.

Agent Jason was slumped on the sofa, his phone on speakerphone, his face ashen, as if he had just swallowed a fly.

On the other end of the phone, Marcus's voice was cold and calculating.

"Mr. Lambert, Deepsea Capital still has three ongoing global offering agreements with your label, with default penalties amounting to $30 million. If you insist on staying in China to help him, our legal team will initiate the claims process within 48 hours."

Jason's face turned pale, and he frantically tried to come up with the right words to back down.

Adam suddenly turned around and snatched the phone from Jason's hand.

"Marcus."

There was a moment of silence on the other end of the phone.

Adam brought the phone close to his ear, a chillingly dangerous smile playing on his lips. Then, he unleashed a devastating attack right at the enemy's face.

He spoke in perfect American English at breakneck speed. For a full minute, he unleashed a torrent of telegraphic profanity that could instantly shut down a stand-up comedy show, relentlessly blasting Marcus's ancestors, his intellectual capacity, and the bottom line of Deepsea Capital's business practices.

Finally, he paused for a second, took a deep breath, and his tone instantly turned icy cold.

"And one more thing, Marcus."

"If you lay a single finger on him—I promise you, Queen's next album, every last song on it, will spell out exactly what Deep Sea Capital did to that 19-year-old girl in the Siren trials."

There was a three-second silence on the other end of the phone.

Then came a faint grinding sound of teeth—Marcus was grinding his teeth in anger.

"You're making a mistake, Adam."

"No." Adam moved his phone away, laughing heartily at the screen. "I made a mistake six years ago. I let him leave. I'm not making that mistake again."

After saying that, he hung up immediately.

Jason stared at him in disbelief, his jaw practically dropping to the floor.

Adam tossed his phone aside and walked barefoot into the bedroom. As he passed the table, he picked up an old, dark metal key with the illegible "king.Q" scribbled on it.

Wang Qing. (This is also why the band was renamed Queen Band after Xu Qing left.)

He gripped the pick tightly, the veins on the back of his hand bulging.

Even in the dust, sparks can be hidden; in the ordinary, legends can be born. He will personally make up for the regret of six years ago.

-

The rankings for the second episode of "I Am a Singer" were officially released the following morning.

First place: Adam Lambert. A landslide victory for Lambert, overwhelmingly so by both the audience and the judges. A completely predictable, overwhelming win, as inevitable as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west.

Second place: Luo Qianyu.

Their ranking remains as stable as ever; they were second last time, and they're still second this time.

Last place – Haili Amu.

If the elimination clause of the challenger competition is triggered, you're out of the game.

As Haili Amu packed his bags to leave, he passed by Adam's lounge and suddenly stopped in his tracks.

The door was half-open, and a casually strummed guitar melody drifted out, exuding a nonchalant, teasing-cat-like quality.

Haili Amu stood there for three seconds, exhaled a breath of stale air, and turned to leave.

In the end, I didn't get in. In this industry, sometimes keeping your distance is more dignified than forcing your way in.

Dinner time, in Luo Qianyu's living room.

Luo Qianyu tossed the ranking screenshot in front of Xu Qing, tapped the edge of her bowl with her chopsticks, and looked both smug and resentful.

"I can't be upset if Adam comes in first place, but sooner or later, I'll have to beat him on stage."

Xu Qing put a piece of food into her bowl without saying a word.

"What are you thinking about?" Luo Qianyu tilted her head and looked at him.

"We're calculating his residual value."

"What is its value?"

"If Adam stays in China, Deepsea Capital won't dare to go all out easily." Xu Qing instantly switched back to his emotionless producer mode. "A superstar with 300 million global sales publicly endorsing us, if Deepsea dares to play dirty tricks, it will become an international scandal in no time. He is now our top-notch shield."

Luo Qianyu slowly put down her chopsticks.

"So you're planning to use him?"

"It's not a matter of exploitation." Xu Qing looked directly at her. "This was his own choice. Just like when you saw my Weibo post and decided to speak out—no one forced him to come to China at gunpoint."

Luo Qianyu remained silent for a long time.

Then she picked up her chopsticks and stuffed a big mouthful of rice into her mouth, her cheeks bulging.

"Then I must become stronger."

"Um?"

"I'm going to beat him fair and square on this stage. Not because of your amazing arrangement, nor because he went easy on me." Luo Qianyu swallowed her food, her eyes burning with fighting spirit. "I'm going to shut everyone up and prove that Luo Qianyu deserves to stand next to Adam—because of my song, not because I'm your girlfriend."

She paused for a moment, her tone incredibly certain.

"I am your only muse, and I need to figure this out myself."

Xu Qing looked at her, a barely perceptible smile playing on his lips. It was so subtle, but Luo Qianyu's radar had already locked onto her with pinpoint accuracy.

"OK."

"Don't give me that 'Xu Qing-style perfunctory smile'. Do you even believe me?"

"Believe it, why wouldn't I believe it?"

"Not enough." Luo Qianyu pointed her chopsticks at his nose. "You need to develop a sense of crisis towards me."

"I'm trembling with fear."

"You don't seem scared at all!"

"I'm introverted and don't like to express myself."

Luo Qianyu put down her chopsticks, took a bite of food fiercely, and didn't say anything more, but she couldn't suppress the upturned corners of her mouth.