I only took a small sip of the liquor, and rather than being drunk, I felt more dizzy.
When Xie Lan arrived at the school gate, he was already a little awake. Dou Sheng was negotiating with the security guard. He breathed a sigh of relief and opened his phone.
A bright red notification light appeared on the messenger, indicating that Xie Jingming had sent another message.
-Dad heard that you did well in math. Congratulations.
- Admission through competition is indeed a way, but it has risks. If you can't get into the university you want, you might as well come back to participate in AMC. You have a good chance of applying to Oxford and Cambridge. Think about it again.
-Lanlan, you are not a child anymore. You need to learn to get along with the unpleasant things in life. Dad and Elizabeth will not have any next plans in the short term. You can come back and try to get along with her like a friend first.
Xie Lan saw that the other party was relatively calm, but as soon as the word "Elizabeth" appeared, he canceled the software on the spot.
The more Xie Jingming planned slowly, the more it showed that he had the intention to maintain a long-term relationship with the woman. Xie Lan frowned and fanned himself with the collar of his T-shirt, feeling a little upset.
After passing the security guard, Dou Sheng asked, "What's wrong? Why do you look so grim?"
Xie Lan was silent for a while before whispering, "It's okay, I just read a few messages from my dad."
When it came to Xie Jingming, Dou Sheng didn't ask any more questions. He put his hands in his pockets, as if he was thinking about something, or just daydreaming.
Xie Lan spent a long while brewing his emotions before he finally opened the app again and sent a reply to Xie Jingming.
-What you want to do is none of my business. I'm not going back.
He exited the app immediately after clicking send and simply uninstalled the software temporarily before he breathed a sigh of relief.
Dou Sheng suddenly thought and said softly, "I want to shoot a domestic high school hardcore documentary. It's a relatively long-term project. I can release a preview of the director, then slowly look for materials and release the film at the end of the semester."
The topic came up a bit abruptly, and Xie Lan was a little slow to react, and exclaimed, "Huh?"
Dou Sheng glanced at him and said, "We want you to act in part of the main storyline. It depends on whether you are willing to do so. This kind of video needs to have a show effect, and sometimes it will be quite big. I think that maybe your current life is not gripping you enough mentally. When you are truly dominated by high school life, you will not care so much about that."
Xie Lan didn't quite understand what spiritual power and being dominated by life meant. He frowned and digested it for a while, "From my perspective, is it similar to a documentary about the survival of overseas returnees?"
Dou Sheng was happy. "That's about right. A true story of how overseas returnees survive in high school in China. Yes, that's the name."
Xie Lan fell silent. He seemed to be a little drunk again and felt groggy.
"It's not that I can't do it." He raised his hand and rubbed his throbbing temple, "But it's hard for me to produce good results on TV."
"That's not necessarily true. If you agree, leave the rest to me." Dou Sheng smiled mysteriously, "We agreed not to get really angry."
Xie Lan glanced at him, with a bad feeling rising in his heart.
The four people walked across the rostrum and the front playground in a staggered manner, turned from the east side of the teaching building, and the dormitory building was not far ahead.
As Xie Lan walked, he asked again, "How do you define hardcore high school life?"
Dou Sheng didn't reply, Xie Lan continued walking forward, "Are you talking about academic pressure, or..."
Before he finished speaking, his arm was suddenly grabbed by Dou Sheng, who said coldly: "For example, the person in front of you is enough to define hardcore."
Xie Lan looked up blankly when he heard that, and his whole body froze.
Not far away, Dai You and Wang Gou were stagnating next to the window through which one could climb into the dormitory. Hu Xiujie was right next to them, his face illuminated by the moonlight, an expression that would be unforgettable.
She spoke each word through her teeth, "This is the first time this semester that someone has stayed out overnight, and it turns out that you four are the ones that were caught."
The dormitory manager quickly flipped through the record sheet and said, "Please wait a moment, Director. Let me see which class they are from!"
"He's from my class." said Hu Xiujie.
The dormitory manager's hands froze in the wind.
Hu Xiujie took a deep breath, and the Qi sank into his Dantian—
"Stand against the wall!"
Xie Lan was stunned by the shout, and didn't know what went wrong for a moment. He could only subconsciously imitate Dou Sheng, leaning against the rough wall of the dormitory building, with his shoulders and back completely in contact with the wall, like a cookie pressed on a baking tray.
Dai You had obviously rarely encountered such a scene, not to mention Wang Gou, who had already started to tremble and was about to cry. Only Dou Sheng remained calm and even yawned softly.
"Student Councillor." Hu Xiujie said with a gloomy face, "Tell me, what were you doing?"
Dai You apologized in a low voice, "Sorry, teacher, we went out for a midnight snack and came back late."
"Having supper?" Hu Xiujie sniffed subconsciously, "A barbecue stall next door? Have you been drinking?"
Xie Lan was deeply shocked—Hu Xiujie’s guess about the student was too accurate.
Dou Sheng answered for him quietly, "Teacher, smell it."
"Am I a dog?!" Hu Xiujie was furious on the spot, his voice rising eight degrees, "I know without asking that you were the one who instigated this! Besides the three of them, who else went to eat together? Were there any girls?"
Dou Sheng sighed, "There are also Yu Fei and Che Ziming. You should know this even without me having to tell you. The others are gone."
Xie Lan stood aside, humbly learning Dou Sheng's speaking skills.
Dou Sheng was indeed very skilled in dealing with Hu Xiujie. He avoided things that needed to be avoided very skillfully. Sometimes he was very frank, and sometimes he lied calmly. For example, he lied decisively about Liu Yixuan. It was probably because the situation was different when it came to a girl.
Hu Xiujie glared at Dou Sheng for a long while, glared fiercely at his face, and turned to Xie Lan.
Xie Lan's breath choked, and he immediately looked at his nose and then his heart.
"Have you been drinking?" Hu Xiujie asked coldly.
Xie Lan was silent for a while, then whispered, "Teacher, smell it."
Hu Xiujie: “…”
Dou Sheng cried out in pain, and was so happy that he could not even stand. He held his waist and came down from the wall, but was pushed back by Hu Xiujie, who slapped him in the face with a series of palm strikes, all on his shoulders and arms.
"Ah, ah." Dou Sheng laughed as he let her hit him, "Teacher, why are you hitting me? You hit him and he's mad at you."
Hu Xiujie scolded, "It's all because of you! Xie Lan was such a good kid, how well behaved was he when he first came here? How could you have made him into this person?!"
Dou Sheng argued helplessly, "Isn't he pretty well behaved now? Well, okay, okay, teacher, I was wrong..."
Dou Sheng was beaten for no reason. After Hu Xiujie calmed down, he wiped away the tears from his laughter and said, "I did drink a little bit, less than a cup in total. There were six of us boys, so each drank one sip. I drank a little more, two sips."
Hu Xiujie glared at him angrily.
"Teacher, don't eat me." Dou Sheng quickly raised his hands. "We are just celebrating. Xie Lan ranked first in the city in math, but he is under a lot of pressure from studying. He was not in a good mood after taking the science test today. We just want him to relax."
Hu Xiujie's expression lightened up a bit, and he looked at Xie Lan, "Are you feeling stressed?"
Xie Lan had no choice but to nod.
"Hey." Hu Xiujie reached out and touched his hair and said, "Teacher knows you are under a lot of pressure, but Lao Ma should have told you that with your math skills, if you perform well in the competition, you can go to any school you want. The purpose of the exam is not to make students anxious, but just to train in a different way. Domestic students study hard for ten years, to put it bluntly, they are all preparing for that final battle. Do you understand?"
Xie Lan was rubbed so hard that he was dizzy and didn't understand.
But he tried hard not to run away, nodded and said, "Okay, teacher."
As soon as he finished speaking, Dou Sheng seized the opportunity and lowered his head and said, "Anyway, we know we were wrong. I'm sorry, teacher!"
Dai You next to him also said immediately, "I won't dare to do that next time. I'm sorry, teacher!"
Wang Gou lowered his head in confusion, "I'm sorry, teacher!"
Xie Lan secretly glanced at Hu Xiujie's expression.
Hu Xiujie's expression became calmer than before, and still a little helpless.
After a long while, she sighed and said, "Okay, don't let me catch you again."
"Understood." Dou Sheng turned around immediately after hearing that. "Good night, teacher."
"Stop." Hu Xiujie said coldly from behind, "Did I let you go? I'm warning you, this is just one term for me. If I hear that you don't come home overnight again during this semester, you will have to read your self-criticism under the national flag during the break. Do you hear me?"
Dou Sheng nodded quickly while slinking away, "Yeah, yeah, okay."
After entering the dormitory building, Xie Lan couldn't help asking, "Is reviewing under the national flag a cultural feature of our country?"
"It's Hu Xiujie's characteristic. If you don't provoke her, she will be fine." Dou Sheng said, glancing at Xie Lan's gloomy expression, and smiled: "If you really want to review it, I will write an article for you, don't worry."
**
Since Liu Yixuan was willing to come back, Xie Lan immediately started recruiting people, deciding on the music, and rehearsing, and the planning of the outdoor symphony went very smoothly.
The live broadcast was scheduled for the last weekend before the provincial training camp began. The weather was fine and the sky was blue. On the lawn of the main playground of Yingzhong, violins, electric pianos, pipa, and bamboo flutes were all in place behind the music stands. Cameras were set up around them, and the scene was comparable to a media conference.
Dou Sheng talked to the helper, then smiled at Xie Lan and said, "The lighting is really good today. You can't even tell that this lawn is artificial. At first glance, I thought it was a famous national park."
Xie Lan hummed, and carefully looked through the fields of view of each camera position—each instrument area had a main view and a side view, and there were three camera positions overall. He couldn't help but sighed, "Did you bring all the cameras?"
"No, it'll ruin everything."
Dou Sheng glanced at the cameras and sighed, "I finally understand why I haven't saved any money in two years of being a VP."
Xie Lan asked, "Do you really need so many? It's just a 20-minute live broadcast."
"It doesn't matter if it's live, but we still have to release a finely edited video afterwards. With this lineup, I'd be letting everyone down if the video doesn't get 3 million views."
Dou Sheng said this as he lifted up the tablet and continued to draw. On the screen was the logo of a musical instrument training institution that would later be displayed on the live broadcast screen. It matched the theme of this episode very well.
Dou Sheng took the initiative to bring back this advertisement. A few days ago, Xie Lan and the others had just finished rehearsing, and Dou Sheng suddenly said that he had found an advertiser who could make some money and share it with everyone, and also said that he wanted to add a clarinet to the band.
Xie Lan didn't mind the promotion, but the only thing he felt helpless about was that although the brand appreciated his playing skills, they valued Dou Sheng's fan base more. Although the live broadcast and videos were pushed by Xie Lan, Dou Sheng would forward them. The brand required Dou Sheng to join the performance. It was not enough to just put him in the frame, but they had to force him to add an electric piano.
But Dou Sheng himself had only studied piano for two months. Xie Lan racked his brains and finally arranged twelve bars for him in three songs, allowing him to hide in the small orchestra and fish in troubled waters.
Violinists Xie Lan and Mao Lengxue, pianoists Dou Sheng and Dai You, bamboo flute player Liu Yixuan, pipa player Dong Shuijing, everyone is here.
Liu Yixuan and Dong Shuijing both wore Hanfu, Liu Yixuan's was light pink and Dong Shuijing's was light goose yellow. They looked very good standing on the lawn.
Xie Lan glanced at the time. There were still ten minutes left.
"Who is the clarinet player?" He frowned and asked, "Did you give me the score?"
Dou Sheng was still concentrating on beautifying the subtitles that would be posted in the live broadcast room later. "Don't worry, it will come. I told him to pay."
Xie Lan was shocked. "You paid for it?"
"If you put it that way, it seems to make sense. After all, he would never come if he didn't have money." Dou Sheng turned the tablet towards Xie Lan and said, "Take a look. Are you satisfied with this cartoon handwritten font?"
"Early Summer Wutong | Small Lawn Symphony | Yinghua Middle School Grade 2 Class 4"
Program: My Neighbor Totoro, Carousel of Life, and Lanling King's Battle Song, 10 minutes per round, 2 rounds
The theme of this song is warmth, healing, and Chinese style adaptation. The first two songs are mainly for violin, and the third song is mainly for pipa. All three songs are a fusion of Eastern and Western instruments. "Lanling King's Battle Song" will also be accompanied by drum music made in advance on the computer.
Xie Lan was stunned for a while when he saw the words "Class 4, Grade 2" in the title.
"The clarinet is from Class 4?"
A name suddenly popped into his mind, but he didn't dare to guess.
Just as Dou Sheng was about to speak, his cell phone rang. The caller ID read: Chen Ge.
Dou Sheng directly pressed the hands-free button and said coldly, "Can you still come? There are so many people waiting for you. I have a client for this project. If you mess it up, you will lose money."
There was a whirring sound coming from the phone, and after a while Chen Ge's voice rang out, "Where is it? I can't find it."
"It's a big playground, but where's the grass? You must have become stupid after being in Class 12 for a month."
The other party was silent for a few seconds, and then the line was disconnected with a beep.
Dou Sheng hung up his phone and smiled at Xie Lan, "Chen Ge is quite reliable. He will come if he promises to, but he will put on a sour face. There's nothing I can do about it. All injured children are like this. I can only bear it."
Xie Lan didn't reply, but stared at Dou Sheng in a daze.
It was not until now that he seemed to understand why Dou Sheng had to take this advertisement.
Dou Sheng continued to discuss with him in a low voice, "Educational institutions don't pay much, and this time you are the main creator and I am the one who reposts it. They don't have much confidence in the data. We will donate 10,000 yuan of the advertising fee to charity. The other people have agreed to donate 2,000 yuan each. The remaining 20,000 or 30,000 yuan will not be shared by the two of us. We will give it all to Clarinet. Is that okay?"
Xie Lan looked at him for a while and said softly, "You found the advertisement, I'll listen to you."
"Second Cat is so generous." Dou Sheng said with a smile, "He is really a chivalrous cat."
Xie Lan couldn't help but ask again, "But if Chen Ge knew this, would he still take the money?"
"He may have a misunderstanding about our industry. He doesn't quite understand the awkward situation of one of us being an outsider and the other not having much traffic at the moment. He really thinks that each of us can get 20,000 or 30,000 yuan."
Dou Sheng said with a sigh, then nodded, "But that's true. I usually just post small ads on Weibo. This is my first time to do a serious video placement. The first time is always valuable."
Xie Lan looked at him. He was still as nonchalant as usual, yawning, as if everything was just a whim, rather than a carefully planned, secret helping hand to a friend.
"People are coming." Dou Sheng said.
After Chen Ge showed up with the clarinet on his back, the people who were chatting on the stage suddenly fell silent, and Dong Shuijing was in a daze holding her pipa.
The wind blew the music score on the music stand gently, and Chen Ge took the clarinet out of the box and glanced at the people on the field.
He didn't say anything, just nodded as a greeting.
Dou Sheng yawned, "Finally here."
"When does it start?" Chen Ge asked.
"Five minutes, why don't you rehearse with them? You're the only one who hasn't rehearsed with them."
"No need." Chen Ge's expression was still a little cold. "I have practiced the music you gave me at home. I won't make any mistakes for you."
Liu Yixuan stood up, pulled a spare stool and music stand next to Dong Shuijing, and said calmly: "Put the clarinet next to the pipa, it will look better."
Chen Ge looked back at Dong Shuijing, said nothing, and sat down on the chair.
"A lot of people have come to the live broadcast room. I'm ready to push the stream."
Dou Sheng stood up and stretched in the bright sunshine. "Are you all ready?"
Everyone took their seats, Xie Lan's violin was in the center, the brown instrument sparkling in the sun. He walked over and set up the instrument, raised his right arm in an elegant arc, and placed the bow on the strings, freezing the moment.
Dou Sheng also walked to the electric piano that belonged to him and sat down, put his cell phone on silent mode out of the camera's reach, and gave a look to the person in control of the situation.
The live broadcast was officially launched and the number of viewers began to increase.
It was a beautiful sunny Sunday afternoon with a small outdoor symphony.
There was no one announcing the show during the live broadcast. Only white translucent characters curled up on the screen - the first song was "My Neighbor Totoro".
Xie Lan calmed himself down, his eyes fell on the strings of the violin, and he led the playing with the bow.
The wind blew the music score, which turned the pages rustlingly, but Xie Lan did not look at the score. His eyes were only on the strings trembling under his fingertips. He knew when to stop and bring in the pipa, when to continue to cooperate with the clarinet, when to give a sound, and when to stop. He was very familiar with it, as comfortable as the first violinist of a symphony orchestra.
Chen Ge did not look at the music score either. His black eyes were quietly fixed on the clarinet. Occasionally, they would lift their eyes and seem to casually cast a glance on the face of Dong Shuijing who was playing the pipa next to him, and then glance at Dou Sheng and Dai You who were sitting behind the two electric pianos not far away.
It was a sunny day, and light and melodious symphonies were played on the beautiful grass.
Dou Sheng sat next to the electric piano, listening to the cheerful notes and glancing at the comments in Xie Lan's live broadcast room from time to time.
-What the hell is this
-Why did it start so suddenly? There was no warning!
- I rushed in and immersed myself in it
-Tears, My Neighbor Totoro was my childhood
-So the violin version of My Neighbor Totoro looks like this
-Lanzai is crying tt
-Everyone is great, the ladies love it
- Ordered milk tea!
-The violin has also been ordered!
Dou Sheng raised the corners of his lips slightly.
Xie Lan really looked down on him. Even though he had only learned it for two months, there was no need to only allow him to perform two hits in every song.
He looked at the large area of music score in front of him that had been crossed out and wanted to laugh, but he held it back. In the video, there was a gentle smile on the corner of his mouth.
After the song "My Neighbor Totoro" ended, Xie Lan paused for a moment.
The words of "My Neighbor Totoro" on the screen gradually faded away like the tail of a plane disappearing in the sky, and then gathered again to form "The Carousel of Life". The moment the words became clear, Dai You's piano sent out an elegant and low tremolo, bringing out a low prelude, and then Xie Lan's violin came in and officially played the melody. The style of the song turned to cheerful and melodious, with a hint of sadness flowing in the melodiousness.
Dou Sheng looked at Xie Lan. The wind blew Xie Lan's thin clothes to one side, and the fabric outlined the boy's slender waistline. He was wearing a white T-shirt and light blue jeans, and he seemed to be melting in the bright and clear vision, but his eyebrows were so vivid, his black eyes were calm, and he pushed and pulled the bow in his hand, and his whole body was entangled in the melodious rhythm.
-Xie Lan is really a unique person in the world
-Second cat is good, I have no
-Where are the beans
- I can't see the beans clearly because of the piano.
-Is he actually working
-dm has been watching em
-Report Douzimoyu by real name
-Excuse me, I thought you were here to perform, but it turns out you are a VIP in the backstage
There is a section in this piece that is played purely for piano and violin, and only one piano is allowed. Dou Sheng will be accompanying Xie Lan later.
Xie Lan played to that part with fear and trepidation. In his peripheral vision, Dou Sheng finally raised his eyes and looked at the music score attentively. Then, three bass chords were played steadily. Although not professional enough, those notes were inexplicably gentle, lingering in the gentle afternoon breeze in late spring and early summer, sobbing with the violin.
When it came to "Lanling King's Battle", Xie Lan finally put down his bow for a while, and Dong Shuijing held the pipa and plucked it lightly, blending with the swift and sonorous drum beats, and the grand sense of the plot came to the fore. Then the clarinet and bamboo flute joined in, and then the violin and piano. The music gradually deepened, and the sound of the pipa and clarinet was the strongest in it, singing in harmony.
Xie Lan glanced slightly to the side, his sight falling on the surveillance screen not far away.
He couldn't see the fragmented comments before, but now the screams were gradually replaced by screen-sweeping, and poems like rolling walls floated by -
The fine wine of Lanling is the color of tulips, and is served in a jade bowl with an amber luster.
But if the host can make his guests drunk, they will not know that they are away from home.
I don’t know where it is, it’s a foreign land.
Xie Lan lowered his eyes and listened quietly. His dark eyes were as calm as ever, only flashing with light inadvertently as they moved.
This was the first time in recent years that he had returned to the "symphony orchestra" to play the violin. The violin in the orchestra seemed no longer such a lonely instrument.
After the two rounds of music were finished, the guy in charge, as agreed upon, suddenly cut off the live broadcast after the last note fell and all the performers froze for two seconds.
The screen was dark, the commentary was blank for a few seconds, and then question marks flashed across it frantically.
This was what Xie Lan and Dou Sheng agreed upon after repeated discussions—the show started abruptly and ended abruptly. The first round of performances gave passersby time to come in, and the second round of performances was the climax. After the climax, there was only a pause for a moment, and in that instant, the sound disappeared and the people dispersed. From beginning to end, there was no one to announce the show, and no one to narrate.
It seemed like this was just a fairy tale happening in an ordinary school on an afternoon in late spring or early summer.
It’s a grand illusion.
That night, the fan recording of "Early Summer Sycamore Grassland Symphony" rushed to the front page of Bilibili and immediately became the hottest trend.