Chapter 132 – I Just Like That Tsundere Side of You

April 16th.

Monday.

It was a bright and sunny day.

As usual, Old Luo, the owner of the video and music store, got up early and started organizing the new batch of tapes and CDs that had just arrived.

Unpacking.

Sorting.

Shelving.

That was his daily work routine.

But today, there was one more step added to his routine.

He picked out an album from the newly arrived batch, one that was from Top Entertainment.

The album only had five songs.

Three of them were previously released tracks.

Although the price wasn’t steep, unless you were a fan, most people wouldn’t spend money on an entire album just for one or two new songs.

Unfortunately—Old Luo happened to be one of those fans.

“Jiangjiang”…

He looked at the album cover, where a cartoon girl roughly the same age as his daughter was illustrated.

He chuckled knowingly.

Ever since he first heard a song composed by “Jiangjiang,” he’d been thoroughly captivated.

Whether it was Passing Through the Mortal World, the opera-style Hard to Let Go, or the recent pop release Eating Fried Chicken at Times Square, they all gave Old Luo the feeling of rediscovering what music could be.

And now—Jiangjiang had released two more brand-new singles.

So of course, Old Luo brought the album into the store immediately.

Then tore off the plastic wrapping.

Took out the signed CD.

Slotted it into the CD player.

Pressed play.

With a crisp “click,” the disc began to spin.

Old Luo sat beside the player and opened the lyrics booklet.

But the moment he saw the title of the song—A single word—“Oh.”

It hit him in the chest like a hammer.

——————

Golden Twist Decorations.

Gym.

Waiting for the treadmill to come to a stop, Li Mingyu stepped off, panting, and wiped the sweat from her body as she stretched her thigh muscles.

Even though it was only 10:40 in the morning, she had already been lightly jogging for nearly half an hour.

After all, a good figure doesn’t come for free.

Those who can eat whatever they want without gaining weight usually either move a lot or have a special physique.

Li Mingyu didn’t fall into the latter category, so she paid close attention to maintaining her body.

Just then—Her phone suddenly rang.

She glanced down, the corner of her lips curling up as she picked it up.

“What’s up, Busy Liao? Calling me on a Monday?”

“Little Cutie Yu!!”

A voice came through the phone, practically shrieking with excitement. Li Mingyu simply moved the phone away from her ear.

Once the volume dropped back down, she brought it back to her ear.

A moment later—Li Mingyu found the remote control in the gym, turned on the TV, and switched it to Haicheng Music Channel.

On screen, two music hosts were chatting and bantering.

But as she watched—Li Mingyu noticed a particular anime poster placed beside them. It looked oddly familiar.

And at the bottom of the poster, two characters stood out—“Jiangjiang.”

“Da Shan, do you remember what it felt like to be a teenager?”

“You mean the class beauty from the class next door?”

“You had a crush on her?”

“What, didn’t you?”

The two hosts shared a knowing, teasing laugh.

After a while, one of them tapped the table and, with a nostalgic expression, said wistfully:

“Let’s listen to Jiangjiang’s second track—one that brings back memories of high school crushes.”

“Starry Mood”…

As the sound of a car engine revving drew closer—

Li Mingyu suddenly realized that the sound effect was from her own BMW’s engine.

No wonder someone had borrowed her car a while back.

So that’s what it was for.

She was left speechless, only able to laugh.

And then—The music began to play.

> “One step, two steps, three steps, four steps, looking at the sky, holding hands…”

> “One star, two stars, three stars, four stars, all in a line, watching the stars…”
As the music played, Li Mingyu became fully immersed, both mind and body.

It was as if she had traveled back to her school days.

Carefree. Unburdened.

And it wasn’t just Li Mingyu who felt that way.

She was far from the only one.

So—Even without much promotional effort from Top Entertainment, just based on the quality of the songs alone, the album Cute Girl soared to 76th place on the best-selling album chart in only three days.

And it continued to climb—at an astonishing rate.

At the same time—On the Hot Songs Chart, the two new tracks shot in like comets, landing at 27th and 39th place respectively.

Likewise—They appeared on the Trending Topics Chart, the Popularity Index Chart, the Hot Songs Playlist…

Even Jiangjiang’s earlier track, Eating Fried Chicken at Times Square, was dragged back into the top 100 sales list.

While Liao Liao had expected the album to sell well, she hadn’t expected it to explode like this.

For three whole days—There hadn’t been a moment when a smile left her face.

Until the fourth day, when facial muscle cramps landed her in the hospital—that smile finally had to rest.

“Liao-jie… Please don’t move, my hand’s shaking…”

In the office, Xiao Yuan stood behind Liao Liao, trembling as she applied a black medicinal ointment to her face.

Just as she finished—There was a sudden knock knock knock on the door.

“Come in…” Liao Liao mumbled.

Worried her voice was too soft, Xiao Yuan called out too, louder: “Come in!”

The door opened, and a young woman holding some folders stepped inside.

“Director Liao, this is the sales report from the Promotions Department.”

Sales?

At the mention of that word, Liao Liao, who had been lying on the sofa, immediately lifted her head toward the desk.

“Put it there…”

“Huh?”

“She said put it over there!” Xiao Yuan quickly added.

The young woman understood immediately and placed the stack of folders on the desk before giving a quick bow and leaving.

After the door closed—Liao Liao nudged Xiao Yuan with her butt.

Xiao Yuan paused, then realized what she meant and rushed to bring the folders over to her.

She laid them out and began flipping through.

“Liao-jie.”

“Wow—Shen Weiwei sold 134,400 units of fan merch yesterday.”

“That’s a lot! Must be her top fans going all in, right?”

Liao Liao just hummed twice and flicked her finger.

Xiao Yuan flipped to the next page.

“Huh, Chen Liren sold almost 1,300 copies of his album yesterday.”

“This old guy’s doing pretty well these days.”

“Probably cozied up to a few rich old ladies again…”

She muttered instinctively, but when she saw that Liaoliao didn’t say anything, Xiaoyuan flipped straight to the bottom of the report.

And when she saw that string of numbers on the report—Her mouth dropped open involuntarily.

“Tw–twenty-three thousand copies?”

—————

Ever since she released those two songs, Jiang Ning could clearly feel that more people were singing around school.

Every now and then, she’d catch snippets of lyrics like “molded into your shape” or “falling piece by piece because of you.”

Of course—Similar phrases also started showing up more frequently in the love letters Jiang Girl received.

It gave her a constant sense of being trapped by her own web.

In the afternoon.

P.E. class.

No. 1 High had one of the best turf tracks in all of Jiangzhou City, so of course it wasn’t lacking in football activities.

Sure, picking twenty-two players from a single class might’ve been a bit of a challenge.

But with multiple classes having P.E. at the same time—

Once there was a break, the boys from different classes would immediately jump into a soccer match.

The girls, on the other hand, opted for quieter activities.

Playing badminton, taking walks, or, like Jiang Girl’s group—Sitting in the bleachers, soaking up the sun.

Just then—A wave of cheers erupted from the far side of the field.

Before Jiang Ning even looked up—Sun Qian’s voice rang out beside her.

“What a goal!!”

“Banana kick!!”

“That was so hot!!”

Okay then…

Apparently some boy from who-knows-which class just scored.

Jiang Ning instantly lost all interest and went back to the magazine she had “borrowed” from one of the boys in class.

Calling it a magazine—It was more like a short story digest.

Dozens of pages thick, filled with a bunch of little tales.

Most of them were stories Jiang Girl had never seen before.

And while the quality wasn’t exactly on par with the action-packed novels she remembered—

It was still pretty decent.

Jiang Ning had considered—Maybe she could write a few stories herself and build up some popularity.

But she was already this busy every day.

If she carved out another two or three hours to write articles by hand—hundreds, even thousands of words—She might honestly go nuts.

Just then.

Qi Wen had somehow appeared beside her.

“Reading junk again!”

“You do know the midterms are in two days, right?!”

Looking at this little Ms. Housekeeper, Jiang Ning just grinned and pointed to the magazine in her hands.

“Wanna read?”

“There’re a couple good stories in here.”

“No!”

“I’m gonna study hard!”

Qi Wen flatly rejected her offer, then spread out her English textbook and even pulled a pair of earbuds from her pocket.

She put them on.

Looked like she was really listening to some English dictation.

But actually—Jiang Girl, sitting right next to her, could clearly hear a distinct “wo~” coming from her earbuds.

Nice.

So she was listening to Chinese pop songs while memorizing English vocab, huh?

Gotta love that tsundere attitude of yours.

Jiang Girl brushed aside Qi Little Missy’s hair, leaned in and planted a big “muah” on her cheek—

Then bolted.

Smooth as butter, fluid as a stream.

So smooth it made people envious.

(End of Chapter)

————

Song Mentioned《星晴》 (“Starry Mood”) – 周杰伦 (Jay Chou) – https://youtu.be/sTNJsIcPSvE