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

As he reached the door, Su Che glanced back at her, a suspicion creeping into his heart.

"How could that be? It really hurts!"

Jiang Nai blinked. "Besides, I was bullied by your good disciple last time, so you still owe me some humane care. Isn't this a perfect way to make up for it?"

"What humanities..."

"Alright, alright, let's not dwell on this. Next time you faint, I'll bring you home to play again. Be good."

"...You really are cured, I can see."

Su Che always felt like he had been taken advantage of.

But he had no evidence.

Reflecting on Nana's state today, even with his suspicious nature, it would be hard for him to imagine that she was taking this opportunity to conduct a "no-makeup test".

Jiang Nai has always lacked confidence in her appearance without makeup.

After all, she lost weight through drastic weight loss when she was in poor shape, so her natural beauty couldn't possibly be a perfect 10 like Ari's.

She knew she was only around a 4-5 out of 10, but with makeup she could reach a 9.5, so she invited him to her home today looking haggard to see his reaction.

The young girl was perceptive and noticed that he showed no sign of disdain whatsoever.

This mental ailment will naturally heal itself.

When mental health improves and emotions are in good condition, a positive mindset transforms into energy that dispels the external curses that were originally placed upon oneself.

Su Che could never have guessed any of this.

Looking at the photo of the two of them that I secretly took while he was fast asleep last time,

With a slender finger, tap "Set as screensaver".

A smile bloomed on Jiang Nai's face as she watched his departing figure with satisfaction.

-

……

With the first round of performances over, preparations for the second round are in full swing.

The two sessions were held a week apart, with no major rehearsals in between, but some smaller rehearsals were interspersed throughout.

According to Tianlai's performance information, there will be a total of three bands performing in the next round—

The home team is "Rainbow", the away team is "Silver Traveler", and the old friend "Water Color" was originally supposed to be the home team, but was temporarily replaced.

"It's a conspiracy! It must be a conspiracy! We've been set up by Brother Zhang! It was clearly agreed from the beginning that we were the ones to be the ones to be caught!"

Inside the school rehearsal room, Mengjie was grumbling and complaining to her teammates.

Du Yuan and Wang Lu stood by and echoed each other, expressing their dissatisfaction with the authorities.

Yui leaned against the door, smiling as she hugged her Rifen, showing no surprise at her teammates' amusing reactions.

Ling Yao, who had become the person in charge of the team, had long harbored great dissatisfaction with these people.

[A guy who only complains and doesn't know how to solve problems won't have much of a future in the team.]

Ling Yao clicked his tongue in disapproval, knowing that his teammates' lower limits were hindering the team's upper limits.

If one cannot sever their own "water color," they will forever remain in the era of Yuan Xiao, instead of taking a step further and becoming a team of their own.

Looking around, only YUI truly possesses the strength.

But she usually stays here like a smiling tiger; she can play the piano, but she will never reveal any extra thoughts.

In other words, she is the type to close herself off emotionally and refuse to communicate with her incompetent teammates.

"Stop arguing. I contacted the regional manager of the 'Regeneration' store yesterday and secured a audition spot. It's tomorrow. Are you interested?"

She said coldly.

"! 'Regeneration'... isn't that huge coffee shop chain? Do they offer resident cafes?"

"Well, some individual stores are fine, but this time we're going to the flagship store, which happens to be near Riverside Street."

"That's quite convenient..."

After thinking for a moment, Mengjie looked at her two old teammates behind her and decided that it was worth a try.

"If it's successful, will I get paid for performing there?"

Compared to lofty ideals and goals, Sister Meng seems to care more about immediate gains.

Ling Yao scoffed and nodded impatiently, "There are definitely some, but not many. After all, it's a coffee shop, not a music restaurant or a ticketed livehouse."

Even if we were to put it another way, even if it were performed at Tianlai Theater, our ticket sales volume wouldn't be enough to recoup Mr. Zhang's costs.

She had already figured out that before she and YUI joined, "Shui Se" had fewer than 30 fans, and 29 of them were there because of the gimmick of an all-female band, looking at female students rather than listening to the songs.

To get back on track, we must take it one step at a time.

"Then it's settled. I'll contact the person in charge there. We'll prepare three songs and perform well tomorrow. YUI, are things alright on your end?"

"middle."

"...?"

Ling Yao glanced at her.

YUI, still smiling, was playing on her phone. Her nail polish was cherry blossom color, which looked absolutely gorgeous.

Recently, she has taken to learning "authentic Chinese" from some strange Chinese teachers in her little red book.

But all I learned was the dialect.

She's become obsessed with these unique phrases, and lately she's been frequently spouting things like, "Aya, what are you doing? Can I help you?", "Good in the morning, bad at night", "Little rabbit", "Turtle lamb", "Damn, I want to learn from Tenkai and drink four cups of coffee every day"...

YUI thinks this is trendy and always communicates with her friends in Japan in Chinese, even teaching them some vocabulary and usage.

Ling Yao felt that she had gone mad with qi.

"Don't put all your energy into learning Chinese, hey... Have you even practiced the piano yet...?"

"I've practiced, I've practiced, I'm very strong."

YUI's eyes never leave the screen while she speaks, a typical example of a high-intensity surfer.

"Fine, you'd better do it that way."

Ling Yao sighed, raised his arm, and ordered his teammates in the water-colored outfit to continue the rehearsal.

The rehearsal process was tedious and lengthy.

The next morning, none of the women were absent.

I arrived at the coffee shop called "Regeneration" right on time, following the location sent in the group chat.

This store is located at the very edge of the riverside commercial pedestrian street. The signboard is very eye-catching. The store looks to be about 180 square meters. It is a place where you can sit down, rather than a takeout store.

The logo features a blue background with green leaves, resembling clover, that grow vigorously upwards.

Below it is a brown flowerpot filled with soil made of coffee grounds.

"You know what, he's quite unique."

Mengjie commented on the floral logo.

A group of people, carrying instruments and equipment, waited for the coffee shop to open in the morning sun at 9 a.m.

Life in Tianhai moves at a very fast pace, and many shops stay open very late, so the opening time during the day is also pushed back a bit.

Some companies start work at 9-10 am, while coffee shops open at 9:30 am.

After waiting for about fifteen minutes, a woman walked towards us from across the street.

She had short, ear-length hair, wore sunglasses, and a dark green, exquisitely textured gown in the style of a medieval noblewoman.

She had a bag slung over her shoulder and a sterling silver necklace around her neck, and she glanced in this direction.

"Are you the 'Water Color' applicants?"

Her voice sounds youthful; without careful listening, one might mistake her for a woman in her twenties.

"Yes, I am the team leader, Ling Yao. Please take care of me."

"Oh."

The woman looked the five people over again and thought that their outfits didn't seem to have anything to do with the color "water," so she assumed that the piece they were going to play later might be "water," and didn't say anything more.

He walked calmly to the shop entrance, took out his keys, and opened the double doors of the store.

"Come in. It's still early before opening time, so you can do a sound check and get ready. Play a song first."

She said, "Another band will be coming to compete with you for this opportunity later, and they will be here soon."

I will have to choose between you and them, so I suggest you be mentally prepared.

"Okay okay."

The group perked up and immediately adopted a wartime mindset.

Even the lazy Yui became a little more serious, tightening the guitar strap on her shoulder.

Mengjie and the others moved the equipment inside. The coffee shop has its own drum kit, so there's no need for a drummer, which is quite rare.

"We're a music cafe, focusing on a soothing sonic afternoon tea, so the songs we need are mostly slow and lyrical, with a BPM not exceeding 150. Hard rock songs are a no-go. You get what I mean?"

"what……"

The women exchanged glances, all feeling a chill run down their spines and quite tense.

This was clearly a request that was suddenly added by the person in charge; it hadn't been mentioned before.

Just as Mengjie was about to erupt, YUI pulled her back and whispered a reminder:

"In an adult society, it's normal to be suddenly given new demands. Don't get agitated; after all, we're here to make money."

"……Row."

Wang Meng verbally agreed, but in reality, she was extremely panicked.

Of the songs she practiced, only one was a slow rock song with a BPM of less than 150, and this was the song she had neglected the most, which she sang much worse than the other fast songs. She was very unsure of herself.

Yui joined later and naturally didn't know the situation, but the other teammates were well aware of it.