138: Chapter 138 Can't Pursue Girls

"Okay."

Li Li answered crisply.

As soon as these two words fell, a 'ding' sounded in his mind.

[System Prompt: Host detected to have completed a hidden achievement—Truly Saving a Life]

[Rewards being distributed...]

[Congratulations on obtaining: No One Can Earn a Penny from Me · Mastery of Music Production]

[Skill Description: Covers the entire process of arrangement, mixing, mastering, and audio engineering, equivalent to fifteen years of experience as a top producer.]

Li Li was very happy; this was obtaining the ability of the same-surname teacher, Zhang Dayan.

A lucky strike.

From arrangement to mixing to mastering, the whole package.

It's like the literary plagiarist has upgraded to a literary plagiarism factory.

"Teacher Li Li?"

Song Yaoshan held a bowl of crab meat, his chopsticks suspended in mid-air.

"You were stunned for ten seconds just now, the kind where your eyeballs didn't even move."

"Thinking about how to write the song."

"Oh! So did you come up with it?"

He had.

In the system's music library, Miss Cai's "rose boy" lay quietly there, with the full set of lyrics, composition, and arrangement data neatly organized.

Ye Yongzhi's story and Xu Qi's story, separated by time and space, collided on the same proposition.

A boy whose gender expression did not conform to mainstream expectations was bullied, isolated, and pushed toward the cliff.

This song should belong to the Xu Qi of this world.

"I thought of it. Three days is enough."

Song Yaoshan stuffed the crab meat into his mouth, his cheeks bulging, and gave him a thumbs up.

The appetite after surviving a disaster is truly fierce; this kid polished off a whole king crab, two Australian lobsters, and half a plate of sashimi in half an hour, eating with refined manners but terrifying speed.

Li Li gnawed on a crab leg with one hand, his left arm resting on the table, not daring to move it.

After the meal, he helped Song Yaoshan clean up the dishes. The dishwasher was imported from Germany, and the buttons were all in German; he managed to guess the start button based on his intuition for Hebrew.

Although he didn't quite understand why his intuition for Hebrew could be driven by German.

"I won't come to see you tomorrow. We've talked enough. I'll focus on writing the lyrics, and on Saturday night, I'll piggyback on the hype with a livestream so everyone can hear 'rose boy'."

Song Yaoshan stood in the entryway, barefoot on the teak floor, and nodded.

"Teacher Li Li, you... thank you for today."

"Don't thank me. Thank that uncle who jumped out from the sixth floor to catch you."

"Didn't he say he wasn't much older than you?"

"He really isn't much older than me, but dark circles don't lie."

Song Yaoshan chuckled, his nose crinkling, his eyes curving—the way a sixteen-year-old should look.

— —

Li Li walked out of the residential complex gate and called a ride-hailing car.

Before the car arrived, his phone vibrated.

A video call from Jiang Rumu.

He swiped with his right hand to answer, and a face popped up on the screen.

No makeup, hair tied up casually, holding a plush pillow in her arms, sitting on the sofa.

"Li Li."

"Yeah."

"I watched the livestream."

"You watched the whole thing?"

"I watched the whole thing."

Jiang Rumu's hands holding the pillow tightened.

"You did very well. I heard every word that child said. As for Xu Qi's matter... tell me about it when you get back."

After a half-beat pause, her voice suddenly rose.

It made Li Li feel slightly uncomfortable, but he didn't dare to show it.

"But Li Li, are you crazy?"

"When you were hanging outside the seventh floor with one hand, did you know the livestream chat was flooded with the word 'help'? Can you still move your left hand? Are you injured? Don't tell me you're fine; you didn't swing your whole arm when you were walking."

"How did you know that when I was walking..."

"The cameraman filmed it, it could be seen on the livestream, I'm not blind."

"Wrist strain, not serious, it'll be fine in a few days."

"You always say it's not serious. Last time during the fire rescue variety show's physical test explosion, you said it wasn't serious. The time before that, during the fire fighting, you also said it wasn't serious. Li Li, do you think you have nine lives?"

"Basic operation."

"If you say 'basic' again, I'm hanging up."

Li Li shut his mouth.

A brief silence. Jiang Rumu changed her sitting posture.

"That child... Song Yaoshan, how is he now? Does he need help? I can sponsor him to finish university."

"No need."

"Why?"

"Because he lives at Shenzhen Bay · Seaview No. 1, a 300-square-meter penthouse. His fridge is stuffed with king crab and Australian lobster. I just had a seafood feast at his place; the per-person cost is probably enough for my food expenses at the orphanage for a month."

Jiang Rumu's movements froze for a second.

"...What?"

"His dad was an early employee at Penguin Company; all the stocks and real estate were passed down to him. He doesn't lack material things; what he lacks is someone who cares."

"So, the person you risked your life to pull back from the seventh floor today... is a billionaire?"

"A post-accident orphan billionaire."

"..."

Li Li didn't give her time to process it and went straight to the main topic.

"I promised him I'd write a song called 'rose boy'. Anti-discrimination, anti-bullying, speaking out in Xu Qi's name."

Jiang Rumu said 'oh' and waited for the rest.

"I promised him you would sing it, and I would arrange and produce it."

"Wait."

The pillow was put down.

"Arrangement? Production? You?"

"Me."

"You also know music production?"

"Just learned it."

Strictly speaking, he had just obtained it three minutes ago; he wasn't lying at all.

Jiang Rumu stared at the screen for three seconds.

"Li Li, is there anything you don't know how to do?"

Li Li thought about it.

"I don't know how to chase girls."

Jiang Rumu on the screen paused for a beat.

Her ears turned visibly red, spreading from the earlobes to her cheekbones.

She reached out toward the screen.

"Snap."

Hung up.

Li Li looked at the black screen of his phone, the curve of his lips suppressed for two seconds before he couldn't hold it back anymore.

The ride-hailing car arrived just in time.

He got in and sat down, and three WeChat messages popped up on his phone, four seconds apart.

Jiang Rumu: [Send me the lyrics and melody as soon as possible. Three days is too short; I need to practice in advance.]

Jiang Rumu: [Otherwise, if the recording doesn't go well, I'll be the one losing face.]

Jiang Rumu: [Don't think that hanging up is the end of it. Go get an X-ray for your left hand!!!]

The last message had three exclamation marks.

Li Li replied with one word: Okay.

— —

Back at the Luohu Fire Station, it was past nine in the evening.

Li Li went straight to the second floor and knocked on the door of Cheng Songyan's office.

Cheng Songyan was sitting behind the desk, his waist wrapped in bandages, filling out a form.

The price of jumping out from the sixth floor: severe soft tissue contusion on his waist, and the bruises from the seatbelt would take half a month to heal.

But he was still filling out the form.

"Captain Cheng, I'd like to request three days off."

Cheng Songyan didn't look up.

"Is it to write a song for that kid?"

"Yes."

The pen scribbled twice.

"Go ahead."

Li Li turned to leave.

"Li Li."

"Yeah?"

Cheng Songyan looked up, his dark circles still heavy.

"About that kid calling me uncle today."

"I didn't hear anything."

"Better that way."

Li Li closed the door and walked to the end of the corridor to the Production Team's workroom, where the executive director was organizing footage.

"Do you have any top-tier recording studios in Shenzhen that we can rent? At least one that can produce master-level quality."

The executive director scratched his head.

"We're not very familiar with Shenzhen; our partner studios are all in Beijing... This is a bit difficult..."

Footsteps came from the corridor.

Gu Zeyan passed by the doorway, holding a script in his hand. His makeup wasn't removed, and his bangs were pinned back with hair clips.

He paused, looked up and down the corridor, and confirmed that no cameras were filming.

He walked in.

"Take out your phone."

Li Li looked at him.

Gu Zeyan didn't explain; he took out his phone, found a number, and read it out.

"Brother Chen, Nanshan District, Shenzhen. The equipment is SSL and Neve, integrated mixing and recording. Tell him to rent it for three days; he'll give a reasonable price."

He paused.

"Don't say I gave you the number."

He turned and walked away. He took two steps, stopped, and didn't look back.

"I watched the livestream replay. You're very impressive."

The footsteps faded away.

Li Li looked down at the number.

Gu Zeyan was basically a tool man arranged by the Company to snatch traffic.

But tools occasionally grow their own judgment.

If the Company found out what this kid did, he'd probably get called in for a talk again.

Whatever. Work first.

— —

For the next two days, Li Li locked himself in that recording studio in Nanshan District.

The first day, he revised the lyrics.

The original "rose boy" was written about Ye Yongzhi, but Xu Qi's story had different facets.

He flipped through his notes to the sentence Song Yaoshan said— "He said pink is too soft; only red has bones."

The diary was posted on the bulletin board, the classical dance was mocked, red roses, white sneakers.

He embedded these one by one.

The second day, he locked the door, sat down in front of the mixing console alone, and began recording.

The Production Team's cameraman filmed the whole process.

When the lens swept over the dense faders and jumping audio waveforms on the console, the cameraman set up the machine, sat in the corner, and didn't ask another word the whole time.

The demo was finished late on the second night and sent to Jiang Rumu.

Jiang Rumu replied instantly: It sounds great, very thoughtful. I think Song Yaoshan will like it.

Li Li: You practice first. I'll return to Chengdu tomorrow to record.

Jiang Rumu: Okay.

Jiang Rumu: Did you get an X-ray for your left hand?

Li Li: Yes, it's fine.

He didn't get one. The one-year special forces physical enhancement given by the system could also help him recover his wrist strength.

— —

The third day, Chengdu Qingshan Orphanage.

Li Li got out of the ride-hailing car. His left wrist could be lifted, but he couldn't exert much force.

He pushed the door open, walked through the front courtyard corridor, past the cafeteria, the activity room, and the newly renovated classroom.

He hadn't been back for twenty days.

He turned the last corner.

Under the big banyan tree in the middle of the courtyard, someone was leaning against the trunk, looking down at a printed lyric sheet.

Red baseball cap, white T-shirt, jeans, canvas shoes.

As simple as it could get.

Jiang Rumu looked up.

The lyric sheet drifted down from her hand.

She didn't pick it up.

Li Li stopped three meters away.

"How is the practice going?"

Jiang Rumu bent down to pick up the lyric sheet. When she stood up straight, the tip of her nose was a little red.

"You listen first. If you dare to give a bad review, you sing it yourself."

She opened her mouth, but before the first note came out—

The window on the second floor of the orphanage was pushed open with a clatter, and seven or eight heads were squeezed into the window frame.

"Director Li Li is back!!!"

"Is that sister Jiang Rumu!!!!!"

"Director, are you two dating!!!"

The whole courtyard was in chaos.

Jiang Rumu closed her mouth, and the brim of her baseball cap was pulled down, covering most of her face.

Under the brim, the tips of her ears were bright red.

Just as Li Li was about to speak, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

He took it out and glanced at it.

Song Yaoshan's WeChat.

A photo, a sentence.

The photo was of the bulletin board at Cuiyuan Middle School. A red-background, white-text notice was posted on it, stamped with the school's official seal.

The title of the notice was—

[Regarding the Investigation and Handling Results of the Xu Qi Incident]

Song Yaoshan's caption only had four words: We won!