A band, or a battleground?

Ning Qianyu continued to explain: "Player vs. environment is like a human versus machine battle. When you find a highly efficient method, put in less effort, or simply pretend not to study, yet still achieve better results than most people... it's incredibly satisfying."

“You’re even less representative,” Jiang Yi could only look at Qi Yuan, “Then how exactly did you learn it? I’ve never seen you learn it.”

Qi Yuan thought for a moment, but couldn't explain it, so he could only say, "I learned it in a dream."

Jiang Yi: "?"

Ning Qianyu and Qiu Mengxue couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Seeing that Jiang Yi's eyes were getting red, Qi Yuan quickly explained, "I'm not kidding you, it's really hard to explain. I just flip through a few books and I know a lot of things. This is probably even less representative, right?"

Jiang Yi nodded vigorously: "It's not just unrepresentative, I feel like you're toying with me."

Qi Yuan was both amused and exasperated. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly made a suggestion: "How about this, we're in the same band, so teammates should help each other. If you feel that your study efficiency has been low lately, or if you have a lot of difficulties that you can't handle, then ask your teammates for help."

Jiang Yi's eyes lit up immediately: "You want to tutor me?"

At the same time, Qiu Mengxue and Ning Qianyu stared at Qi Yuan, their gazes becoming serious and tense.

However, Qi Yuan shook his head: "I'm really short on time, the album isn't finished recording yet. I suggest that Mengxue and Qianyu tutor you, after all, they are such good students."

A hint of disappointment flashed in Jiang Yi's large, watery eyes.

Compared to grades, it would be better to have more opportunities to spend time with Qi Yuan... Wait, the real reason why my grades have dropped this semester and why I have no interest in studying seems to be coming to light.

Ning Qianyu's first reaction was to shake her head: "I can't, I can't tutor others. My sister is so naughty, I almost never hit her. But the only time I hit her was when I was tutoring her with her homework."

Qi Yuan added, "Qianyu isn't good at tutoring others, but that's okay. Mengxue is very good at it. Last time, Mengxue even told me that if my grades slipped this semester, she could tutor me."

Qiu Mengxue: "..."

Jiang Yi's gaze sharpened: "You actually said that?"

Qiu Mengxue smiled, but secretly gritted her teeth: "Yes, teammates should help each other."

Qi Yuan clapped his hands and said, "Well said, then it's settled. Mengxue, you'll be in charge of tutoring Yiyi."

Jiang Yi and Qiu Mengxue exchanged a glance, then suddenly looked at Qi Yuan and asked, "What about you? Aren't you coming with us?"

Qiu Mengxue immediately realized this and added, "Sometimes I might not be able to explain the concepts clearly when I tutor alone. If you come too, Qi Yuan, the effect will definitely be better."

Faced with the expectant gazes of the two beautiful girls, Qi Yuan pondered for a moment and nodded: "That's fine too. I live between your two homes, so it's not far. You two can come over every weekend."

Ning Qianyu immediately objected: "What? Am I being ostracized?!"

Qi Yuan: "Didn't you say you didn't know how to tutor others?"

Ning Qianyu: "...Teammates should help each other!"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

199 Host's Welfare

For the girls of Haruhi-kage, the opportunity to spend time with Qi Yuan was not to be missed.

Qi Yuan had already considered the possibility of the three of them visiting and made preparations in advance. Although he didn't want to rush into a romantic relationship with any of them and disrupt the band's stability, he was willing to give himself a small perk within reasonable limits.

So this Saturday morning, when the three of them entered Qi Yuan's house and changed into slippers, they were shocked to find...

"Why are these slippers transparent?!" Ning Qianyu blurted out instinctively.

She glanced at the slippers in Qiu Mengxue's and Jiang Yi's hands. Both pairs were transparent, but they had different patterns on the instep. The patterns were small, about the size of a thumb, making them easy to distinguish but also allowing one to see every detail from toe to heel.

"I bought these online. I didn't really choose, I just randomly ordered three pairs. Don't you guys like them?"

Qi Yuan's tone remained as nonchalant as ever, as if he hadn't thought about it at all. The fleeting twitch at the corner of his mouth went unnoticed by the three girls in front of him.

Qiu Mengxue was the most generous and innocent. Without a trace of melancholy, she changed into slippers, took a few steps closer, and asked, "Where are we studying?"

Qi Yuan pointed to the square dining table: "Let's just sit there. The height of the table is just right, and there's plenty of room for all four of us to sit comfortably."

Qiu Mengxue walked over and sat down, placing her schoolbag beside her.

There's a bench next to the dining table, which is perfect for putting a schoolbag on.

Qi Yuan watched it without making a sound.

As November arrived and the weather grew cooler, Qiu Mengxue wore a long skirt with short socks today. The socks were pure white, without any unnecessary embellishment, yet they accentuated her small, delicate feet. Compared to the girl's height, her feet seemed rather small…

At this moment, Ning Qianyu also changed into slippers. Turning her head, she saw Jiang Yi still hesitating, so she jokingly asked, "Why aren't you changing into slippers? Do your feet smell bad?"

Jiang Yi blushed immediately and her breathing became rapid.

"Qianyu..."

"Hey, hey, why are you making that face like you're going to eat me alive? Okay, okay, your feet don't smell at all!" Ning Qianyu's voice was a bit loud, attracting Qi Yuan's attention.

Jiang Yi blushed even more, completely out of anger. The girl had only felt a little shy about wearing slippers at Qi Yuan's house, as if she were showing him her feet. But Ning Qianyu's interruption made her forget about being shy and only wanted to scratch him hard.

Jiang Yi quickly changed into slippers, but Ning Qianyu had already hidden behind Qi Yuan.

He had been examining the feet of the two men.

Ning Qianyu was wearing sweatpants and black socks, still maintaining her tomboyish style. Her feet were even smaller than Qiu Mengxue's, after all, she was also petite. So much so that even wearing the same size slippers, they easily slipped off. Ning Qianyu walked very fast, so she had to hook her small toes up to prevent the slippers from falling off.

Jiang Yi was wearing a knee-length pleated skirt with white mid-calf socks today... and Qi Yuan couldn't bear to look at her like that.

Because of these two girls, a game of tag started around him, except that one of them had a murderous look in her eyes.

Qiu Mengxue had just taken out her study materials when she looked up and saw this scene. She said helplessly, "Stop messing around, aren't we here to study? You guys... Eh?!"

She was stunned.

Just then, Jiang Yi, eager to tickle Ning Qianyu, reached out from both sides of Qi Yuan's body and pinched the soft flesh of his waist.

Ning Qianyu instinctively tried to dodge, and Jiang Yi instinctively exerted force, so she not only grabbed Ning Qianyu, but also pulled her even tighter—but the problem was that there was a completely bewildered Qi Yuan between them.

Therefore, in Qiu Mengxue's view, at this moment, Qi Yuan was facing Jiang Yi in front of him and Ning Qianyu behind him. The two of them not only sandwiched Qi Yuan in the middle, but were also very closely entangled with him.

Three people hugging?!

Qi Yuan had only intended to admire the lines of the three beautiful girls' feet, but things took an unexpected turn. A warm, delicate body pressed against his front, another petite girl pressed against his back—the feeling…

It was so sudden, I didn't even have time to react before it felt amazing.

With a loud "bang," Qiu Mengxue slammed her hand on the table and roared, "What are you doing!"

Jiang Yi was startled and quickly released Ning Qianyu. Ning Qianyu also quickly took several steps back. In this way, the two of them put some distance between themselves and Qi Yuan.

Qi Yuan was also stunned by the roar.

Even so, Qiu Mengxue's voice was still clear and crisp, but the volume was exceptionally loud, making people's ears hurt.

Ning Qianyu turned her head and asked, "What's your hurry?"

For a moment, Qiu Mengxue was also stunned.

All four of them fell into an eerie silence.

After a while, Qi Yuan said, "Sit down, everyone. We're here to learn, so stop fooling around."

Jiang Yi and Ning Qianyu stopped fighting and obediently followed him to sit at the dining table.

Qiu Mengxue suddenly asked, "Yiyi, didn't you say you couldn't figure out how to solve a few math problems? Let me take a look."

Jiang Yi shrank her neck: "Qianyu said she can, right?"

Ning Qianyu received a look from her good teammate and immediately realized, "Ah, right, I'll explain it to her first."

Qiu Mengxue nodded and continued working on her problem.

Qi Yuan was also focused on his work, completely oblivious to the girls' whispers.

Jiang Yi moved next to Ning Qianyu and took out her math test paper and scratch paper. She pointed to a problem on the test paper, but wrote another sentence on the scratch paper:

Mengxue seems genuinely anxious.

Ning Qianyu said, "Oh, this problem? I'll show you the equation," but what she was actually writing was:

Yes, she was in such a hurry. I've never heard her voice so loud before.

Jiang Yi: [Louder than the sound of you drumming.]

Ning Qianyu: [Even the drums and cymbals combined aren't that loud.]

Jiang Yi: [Next time, we can do it like before, but let's not let Mengxue see it again.]

Ning Qianyu: [Do you still want to stick to him next time?]

Just then, Qiu Mengxue raised her eyes and glanced at the two of them, quietly asking, "Are you two really looking at math problems? Your pens are flying everywhere, are you writing Chinese?"

Jiang Yi tensed up.

Ning Qianyu quickly made an excuse: "I was helping her write down her thoughts, yes, writing them down is the easiest way to avoid forgetting them."

Just as Qiu Mengxue was about to ask another question, Qi Yuan put down his pen, stretched, and said, "You guys continue studying here. I'm going to the recording studio."

Ning Qianyu: "You've only done a few questions?"

Qi Yuan smiled and said, "I started working on it before the three of you arrived. Besides, I don't need to hand in any homework, so there's no need to work on questions with obvious answers."

Qiu Mengxue asked, "How many songs haven't been recorded yet?"

Qi Yuan: "This is the last of the ten songs on the album. We'll finish everything this weekend, and then we'll hand over the post-production work to someone else. After that, our album will be released in December. Everyone, can you think about what a good name for this album would be?"

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Are all 200 for the band...?

"After all ten songs were recorded, while waiting for post-production, a problem arose..."

Qi Yuan stood beside the dining table, looking at the three girls sitting at it. He paused, then continued:

What should we call our first album?

Ning Qianyu was the first to raise her hand.

Before she could speak, Qi Yuan added, "We can't choose a name that has nothing to do with our band."

Ning Qianyu put her hand down again.

Qiu Mengxue said, "You wrote all ten songs on this album. So you should be in charge of naming them."

Jiang Yi also said, "Yes, and we're not very good at naming things either."

Qi Yuan pondered for a moment.

He certainly wouldn't be using internet memes anymore, but when it comes to naming things, he doesn't think he's very good at it. Besides, the style of this album seems rather complex.

Of the ten songs, the most are rock, such as "Blue Lotus", "Mountains and Seas", "Existence", "I Want to Fly" and "Blooming Life", but there are also pop or folk styles, such as "A Thousand Years Later", "Those Flowers" and "Life is Like Summer Flowers", as well as the ancient style "Hair Like Snow" and the dark rap "In the Name of the Father".

Any one of these songs could easily be the title track of a hit album in a parallel world, let alone all ten of them together, especially considering that the level of entertainment creation in this world is a notch lower...

He gave up thinking and said, "How about we use our band name, or Ginkgo Road Square?"

That small square next to the shopping mall is where Qi Yuan joined the band.

Qiu Mengxue asked, "Between the band name and the place name, which do you prefer?"

Qi Yuan shrugged: "I think either is fine. What about you guys?"

Qiu Mengxue looked at Ning Qianyu and Jiang Yi and said, "Raise your hand if you agree with using Spring Shadow as the album title."

Then the three girls raised their arms in unison.

Qiu Mengxue then said, "Raise your hand if you agree with using Ginkgo Road Square."

This time, only Jiang Yi raised her hand.

Ning Qianyu complained, "Do you agree to every suggestion Qi Yuan makes?"

Jiang Yi argued, "I just think both names are fine, why do you think that?"

Qiu Mengxue was too lazy to argue with the two of them, so she looked at Qi Yuan and said, "The result is already obvious."

"Okay, I'll tell Sister Liu right away..." Qi Yuan was halfway through his sentence when he heard his phone ring. He took it out and saw that the caller ID showed Shen Yihan.

So he answered the phone and said, "Sister Yihan, what's wrong?"

Before the words were even finished, the casual and indifferent expressions on the three girls' faces vanished instantly. They didn't say a word, but exchanged glances, their eyes filled with intense wariness.

Shen Yihan's voice on the phone sounded a little cautious: "How have you been lately? Are you still very busy? How's that album going?"

Qi Yuan: "After getting used to the recording studio, things went smoothly. I got everything I needed to do done."