Chapter 13: Hard to Utter

Chapter 13: Hard to Utter

Just giving a light and casual thank you to Chen Feng was not enough; it seemed very impolite.

But even though she understood this, it was still very hard for her to open her mouth again.

Zhong Lei was not used to dealing with people, especially the opposite sex. Talking a few more words made her feel uncomfortable all over.

But now she owed Chen Feng a favor, so she probably couldn’t avoid interacting with him.

Zhong Lei thought hard, not knowing what to do to repay this favor.

Buy Chen Feng’s song?

Zhong Lei shook her head.

That wasn’t realistic.

It was a very mature work, worth at least tens of thousands. If sold to the right person, asking for one or two hundred thousand wouldn’t be strange.

Maybe even more.

If she bought his song, she might still be taking advantage of Chen Feng.

Then instead of repaying the favor, she would owe even more.

That night, perhaps because her body clock hadn’t adjusted, or perhaps because her mind was filled with too many things, Zhong Lei tossed and turned, unable to sleep.

She still hadn’t fallen asleep when she heard Chen Feng leaving downstairs the next morning.

She got up from her bed, stood by the window, and watched Chen Feng downstairs walking quickly out of the residential area in the cold, crisp morning wind of early winter.

Zhong Lei couldn’t help feeling a little envious.

She again remembered her days as a resident singer in nightclubs. Even though it was only a little over a month, it felt like a past life.

At first, she was rejected by the first nightclub.

Then she played and sang a song herself. The other party recognized her ability and signed her to the lowest standard resident singer contract.

Fortunately, gold always shines.

After just a couple of days of singing, nearby nightclubs came looking for her one after another, each offering a contract with better terms than the last.

She originally thought that if things continued like this, within a year or two, she should have saved enough money to self-fund an album, and then she could break free from the shackles of being a nightclub singer.

She didn’t expect ideals to be too beautiful and reality too cruel.

Offending a big shot by accident immediately made her future pitch dark.

But Zhong Lei did not regret it. Given ten more choices, she would still have slapped that person.

She knew that with her personality, she would inevitably offend someone like that sooner or later.

Rather than climbing higher and falling later, it was better to be taught a lesson by reality early.

Zhong Lei suddenly felt the world was ridiculous and absurd.

Hardworking people get no reward, while scumbags are born with a silver spoon.

And then these scumbags trample on everyone, acting like tyrants and doing as they please.

She felt the world was very unfair. She remembered the disingenuous experience of being a resident singer over the past month, remembering how she felt sick to her stomach but had to smile and face the talent agents from various nightclubs.

It was very uncomfortable.

Some weirdos tipped her. She was clearly disgusted, but could only hold her nose and take their money, saying thank you with her mouth while cautiously avoiding their groping hands.

What exactly am I after?

Zhong Lei asked herself this.

This kind of life is so boring, so unfair.

So annoying.

A long time passed, and the tune Chen Feng sang that day involuntarily recalled in her mind. She began to hum it softly.

When she reached the chorus part, she didn’t realize it ended. Instead, she unconsciously hummed two more notes, and the melody following the chorus naturally flowed from her mouth, only lacking the lyrics.

If Chen Feng heard it, he would be shocked.

The melody he hadn’t played was completed by Zhong Lei based on intuition!

After singing another part of the melody, Zhong Lei’s heart suddenly became extremely agitated.

An indescribable emotion erupted like a volcano, startling her awake.

Although she still didn’t know the lyrics for the latter part, her intuition told her that the second half of this song definitely had a twist. The emotion would no longer be so depressing; instead, it would become enthusiastic and high-pitched.

I misjudged him!

Chen Feng’s song wasn’t mocking me!

He saw through my unwillingness, and he saw through my weariness with life!

He even saw through my pride!

He didn’t look down on me; instead, he even knew that I looked down on my own work!

His motivation for creating this song was actually to encourage me!

This…

Zhong Lei was speechless for a moment.

At that moment, she felt as if she was standing naked in front of Chen Feng, completely exposed, with all her secrets seen through by him.

How could he understand me so well?

But we’ve only met a few times, and the words we’ve spoken probably don’t even add up to twenty sentences, right?

How is this possible!

But it was the fact.

The song “Dullness” was like a sharp knife, stabbing deeply into Zhong Lei’s heart, cutting open the protective shell she had worked hard to build.

The melody grew louder and louder in her heart. A strong desire rose from within, as if it would set her on fire.

For no reason, Zhong Lei really wanted to know what the following lyrics and melody of this song were like.

I really want to sing this song.

Before falling asleep, she murmured this in her heart.

In the evening, the sound of the door opening downstairs woke Zhong Lei.

She quickly jumped out of bed and rushed downstairs.

She was in such a hurry that she didn’t even change out of her pajamas.

Opening the door and going downstairs, Chen Feng was bending down to change his shoes.

“Chen Feng.”

Zhong Lei called out softly.

Chen Feng, who had just put on his slippers, seemed preoccupied and was startled by her call. He straightened up with a jolt and turned around. “Ah, Zhong Lei, hello, hello.”

In the more than a month they had known each other, this was the first time Zhong Lei actively greeted him. He wasn’t quite used to it.

Zhong Lei suddenly didn’t know what to say next.

She even regretted rushing down so hastily.

She originally wanted to tell Chen Feng that she really wanted to sing that song, but the words stuck in her throat, unable to come out.

“Oh right, I have something that I might need to trouble you with.”

It was Chen Feng who spoke first.

The heavy feeling in Zhong Lei’s heart vanished.

It seemed he needed my help. That’s good. This way, I can repay the favor I owe him first, and then I can talk to him about the song later.

Although Chen Feng had only asked for her opinion on the song at the time, Zhong Lei couldn’t deny one thing: the more she recalled its melody, the more she liked the song.

She even felt that song had a destined connection with her.

So she decided that even if she had to scrape together every penny, she would find a way to get the money to buy Chen Feng’s song.

If she still couldn’t get support from home, she would swallow her pride and ask for credit first, then repay him more later when she earned money.

“Hmm, what is it? Tell me.”

There was a bit of cheerfulness in her tone.

Chen Feng seemed a little hesitant to speak. Finally, he said hesitantly, “Well, it’s like this. An acquaintance said they could introduce me to a singer. That singer will buy my song—the one I sang for you once. But the other party asked me to provide a demo. My singing skills, as you know, are just so-so. I thought, aren’t you a singer? You probably sing much better than I do. So I wanted to trouble you to help me record a demo. There’s payment… two thousand yuan.”

This was why it was hard for Chen Feng to utter.