Chapter 97: Superstition is Not Advisable

Chapter 97: Superstition is Not Advisable

Inside a private room at a restaurant in Zhonghai, everyone had ordered a fine meal and was preparing to dine together.

They were celebrating Chen Feng’s “release from prison,” and also, Zhong Lei and the Meng siblings wanted to thank him for saving their lives.

Whether it was a deliberate arrangement or just how people happened to sit, Zhong Lei was seated on Chen Feng’s right, and Lu Wei was on his left.

If this had happened to the old Chen Feng, he would have felt quite uneasy.

But now, having seen a lot and being someone who had truly been bombed by alien Invaders, he had unconsciously become much more composed.

“Chen Feng, let me propose two toasts to you. The first is to thank you for saving my life, the second is to thank you for writing and composing songs for me.”

Zhong Lei picked up the bottle of Maotai liquor and wanted to pour some for Chen Feng.

Chen Feng instinctively covered his cup. “I can’t drink. It will lower my… uh… okay, just a little bit.”

He almost blurted out that it would lower his operation level of the Azure Dragon Armor, but he remembered just in time that in this era, there was simply no Azure Dragon Armor for him to pilot.

Meng Wanyue, sitting across from him, teased with a chuckle, “Brother Feng, are you afraid it will lower your resistance and you’ll get drunk and act wild?”

“Will you just shut up!” Zhong Lei’s face slightly flushed as she glared fiercely at Meng Wanyue.

Chen Feng felt quite speechless.

Oh no.

This is bad.

It would have been better if Zhong Lei had said nothing.

But she actually responded to Meng Wanyue’s comment, using such a stern-on-the-outside but weak-on-the-inside tone, instead of harshly telling her not to talk nonsense.

This was very problematic!

Chen Feng didn’t dare to say a word and just silently drank.

Two cups went down.

He hadn’t drunk for too long, so it felt a bit spicy. He hurriedly ate some food.

Zhong Lei’s alcohol tolerance didn’t seem great either; two cups brought color to her cheeks, which turned a rosy red.

The atmosphere at the table was slightly heavy and strange. Lu Wei broke the silence. “By the way, Chen Feng, you’re currently out on bail pending further investigation. You’ll need to come back to Zhonghai later for some procedures. Also, you might not have seen the news online, but the situation has caused quite a stir. So, for the next six months, you’d better not appear in public to avoid gossip.”

Chen Feng thought for a moment. “It’s fine. I’m not planning to be in the spotlight anyway; I’ll stay behind the scenes.”

“I heard you play the Guitar before. Your playing level is very high. Ah, what a shame,” Lu Wei sighed.

Chen Feng’s mouth was full of food. “Hey, what’s there to be sorry about? I know my own level. My playing is just okay.”

Meng Wanyue’s eyes shifted. “Brother Feng, I want to ask you something. Sister Lei said you stole someone’s motorcycle to save us because your right eyelid was twitching. Is that what you told the police too?”

Chen Feng nodded. “What else would I say? That’s the truth.”

Meng Wanyue giggled. “Then your sixth sense is way too sharp! If it were me, I wouldn’t dare to be so sure. Is this the legendary bond between lovers?”

She laid her cards on the table, bringing up something Chen Feng was currently trying to avoid.

What was even more terrifying was that Zhong Lei didn’t tell her to shut up. Instead, she pretended to be shy while subtly observing Chen Feng’s reaction.

Chen Feng knew he was now in a situation as dreadful as facing Doomsday.

Firstly, he was now deeply aware of Zhong Lei’s importance.

But her importance wasn’t just about her as a person in the present.

Her yet-to-be-completed, or even properly started, artistic career was equally important.

But in all the Timelines Chen Feng had experienced so far, there was no sign of the two of them being in a romantic relationship.

Zhong Lei had always been a very independent, very determined single person.

This time, due to the accident with the car crash—perhaps combined with previous interactions and his seemingly presumptuous but necessary plagiarism today—her belief in staying single had been shaken hard.

But right now, Chen Feng really didn’t dare to pursue Zhong Lei.

When she was single, she could write those songs that were both hugely popular and deeply meaningful.

That was her talent.

Chen Feng couldn’t guarantee at all that if she fell into the whirlpool of love, she might turn into someone who only wrote love songs about romance.

Before being a musical master, Zhong Lei’s more fundamental identity was that of a woman.

Once the two of them took that step, whether they stayed together till old age or parted ways someday, it would definitely change her outlook on life drastically and ultimately affect her creative philosophy.

Chen Feng didn’t rule out that he might pursue Zhong Lei someday in the future, but definitely not now.

Only in a Timeline where, looking back from a thousand years later, he found that the two of them had already gotten together and humanity had achieved final victory.

So, although it was somewhat regrettable, he was sorry.

Chen Feng suddenly reached out, grabbed Meng Wanyue’s hand, narrowed his eyes, and said in a magnetic voice, “Wanyue, you’re right. The bond between you and me is so strong. It must have taken a thousand glances in our past lives to bring us together in this one.”

Meng Wanyue was first stunned, then looked into Chen Feng’s seemingly electric eyes. Her heart pounded wildly, her face turned crimson, and she didn’t know what to do.

“Hahaha, serves you right for teasing me! See how good I am!”

Chen Feng knew when to stop.

Lu Wei pulled the topic back. “The police didn’t believe you, right?”

Chen Feng nodded. “Right, they told me superstition is not advisable. But then I asked them back if I really ended up saving people, and they couldn’t answer.”

Lu Wei said, “You’re really something. But you can’t act so recklessly in the future. I don’t know whether to praise you for being clever or scold you for being superstitious. By the way, you composed for Zhong Lei again this time, and Young Master Ou and Sister Chen Li have also benefited a lot from you. When will you write a song for me?”

Chen Feng asked back, “Don’t you create your own songs, Sister Weiwei?”

Lu Wei pouted. “Times have changed. I didn’t realize you were this amazing before.”

Chen Feng agreed. “Alright, we can work on something together when we have time.”

“But Chen Feng, you have to give me the full score for ‘Baptism of Fire’ first. First come, first served,” Zhong Lei chimed in from the side.

Chen Feng secretly wiped sweat. “Right, right. I’ll write it out in the next day or two.”

This meal had exhausted him mentally. Fortunately, there were no plans after dinner, and everyone went their separate ways.

Lu Wei went to a relative’s house, and Zhong Lei went to Meng Wanyue’s home.

Ou Junlang called his driver and took Chen Feng and Meng Xiaozhou to the hotel.

On the way, Chen Feng had a brief chat with Meng Xiaozhou, who was sitting in the back seat with him. Chen Feng learned that this person was indeed an impressive figure.

Also a returnee from studying abroad, Meng Xiaozhou was much more reliable compared to Ou Junlang, the disgrace of the Ivy League.

He was a proper graduate from Harvard Business School, a full scholarship recipient. Even before returning to China, he had made quite a name for himself overseas. This time, he was invited by a domestic giant company and directly parachuted in as a senior executive.

Of course, Meng Xiaozhou didn’t say all this in a boastful tone. He just casually mentioned which school he graduated from and where he was going to work upon returning during his chat with Chen Feng. Ou Junlang filled in the rest of the details.

Back at the hotel, as Chen Feng was taking out his notebook to write the music score, Ou Junlang came knocking.

“Master, what you said earlier about the company, you were serious, right?”

Chen Feng let him in. “Yes.”

“So what kind of company are we actually going to start? I have an existing one. How about I transfer half the shares to you?”

Chen Feng shook his head. “Not good. I know about your company’s situation. Forget half the shares, I can’t afford even one-tenth.”

“You can contribute with your skills for part of it. We can start a partnership. Then, for the money you’re short, you can owe it and pay back slowly.”

Ou Junlang was thinking very seriously.

Chen Feng thought again. Just thinking about the details of business management made him somewhat irritable.

He pondered for a moment and said, “But I just want to write songs, and I only know how to write songs. The partnership company is just a pretext. My real purpose is that I believe in your potential and want to write songs for you.”

Ou Junlang’s mouth twitched violently. He stayed silent for a long time before saying with self-awareness, “Master, do you really have such high hopes for me? Am I that talented?”

“Correct!”

“But I haven’t even finished the three songs you gave me before. I… I’m actually not that great.”

Chen Feng patted Ou Junlang’s shoulder earnestly. “No, you are excellent. Your talent is beyond your own imagination! You can, and you must, achieve something in singing. In a couple of days when we return to Hanzhou, we’ll discuss it carefully.”

He had an idea.

His most important asset in this era was the copyright and profit-sharing rights for the many songs he had already brought over.

For any songs he sold to others in the future, the related copyrights had to stay in his own hands.

He could hold these things as an individual, but that wasn’t the best choice for maximizing profits.

As the scale of assets grew and the types of assets became more complex, it was no longer appropriate to manage copyrights as an individual.

First, he couldn’t handle it all himself. Second, relying on personal effort alone couldn’t manage the allocation and growth of resources well, leading to invisible waste.

He was still a lone operator, so he could only do one-off deals like selling songs. He couldn’t manage any additional copyright derivative development.

He didn’t have the energy, the ability, or the patience to go around negotiating business with people. He didn’t understand it, and even if he tried, he might not succeed.

But if he could build a mature and stable team, and properly develop the copyrights for the songs he had already sold, plus the dozen or so songs he casually brought back this time while he had a moment, the company could start building momentum.

And in the future, he had to keep increasing the efficiency of bringing songs over. The output would grow larger and larger. While ensuring the artistic careers of Zhong Lei and Ou Junlang, he would still need to cash in more secondary works in large quantities.

But once he started high output, the quantity would be more staggering than a mother pig giving birth. He couldn’t personally sell songs every time; it would be impossible to handle.

So, he needed a team. A company was necessary. But he had no interest in management, so he definitely needed to bring in partners, let others do the hard work, contribute effort and money, while he just focused on “creating”.

For every entrepreneur, the importance of partners was obvious.

A partner had to be trustworthy, have connections, have ability, and most importantly, have money.

Whether Fatty Ou had ability or not was another matter, but the other three aspects satisfied Chen Feng.

But Ou Junlang had just taken over Zhou A’s business. His personal assets were already vast and still being integrated, so he wasn’t very suitable to join Ou Junlang’s enterprise.

Chen Feng had neither the standing nor the capital to take a majority stake in Ou Junlang’s already established business.

But Chen Feng had once told Zhong Lei that even brothers should keep clear accounts; he couldn’t afford to take a loss.

He was the diligent transporter, holding exclusive resources. For him to become a minor shareholder in Ou Junlang’s business, essentially working for someone else, was both restrictive and something he was unwilling to accept emotionally.

Not having control would also hinder his ability to use his “foresight” to manage the overall situation in the future.

Chen Feng also didn’t want Ou Junlang’s management contract; that wasn’t interesting, and he didn’t know how to run a management company well.

Moreover, he wanted to help Ou Junlang succeed, but without taking a loss himself. He needed to keep accumulating initial capital. So, the copyrights for all the songs Ou Junlang would sing in the future had to be held by his own company.

Therefore, the best way was for him to first register a company, make its business scope as broad as possible, then let Ou Junlang invest to become a medium-sized shareholder. Let Fatty Ou provide the money and arrange people to do the work.

He would contribute non-replicable resources. Fatty Ou, the follower, would contribute the other part of the resources that were replicable but relatively lacking on Chen Feng’s side. That was a perfect cooperation strategy.

After sending Ou Junlang away and clarifying his thoughts, Chen Feng felt carefree and happily continued writing songs.

Not long after, his phone rang again. Seeing the name on the caller ID, his fingers holding the pen trembled slightly.

“What’s the matter? Isn’t it late? Aren’t you sleeping yet?”

“It’s only ten o’clock, what’s late about that?”

Zhong Lei on the other end said grumpily.

Chen Feng sighed. “Right, right, I almost forgot you used to sleep in the morning. But this time, learn from your experience. Meng Wanyue’s sudden collapse was due to exhaustion.”

“Alright, I know. I’ll take care of myself. By the way, you lost over five million this time, right?”

Whenever Zhong Lei mentioned this, Chen Feng felt a pang of pain. He still didn’t dare to look at the bank’s deduction notifications, thinking out of sight, out of mind.

Working hard as a transporter, shamelessly plagiarizing against his conscience, giving up principles, personality, and face to barely save up over ten million, only to have it halved in a blink—who could feel good about that?

“Don’t bring up sore subjects. I’ve figured it out. Money, you can’t bring it with you when you’re born, and you can’t take it when you die. I’m not sad.”

Zhong Lei laughed heartily on the other end. “I would believe you if you didn’t say that last sentence in a choked voice.”

“I’m not crying!”

“Your voice is trembling! I can hear it!”

“Alright, fine. Anyway, the old doesn’t go, the new doesn’t come. I’ll just earn it back. I’ll copy… I’ll write a few more songs for you, and we’ll earn it back.”

“Mhm, I’ll pay you back.”

“No need, really.”

“I will definitely pay you back! This is not up to you.”

“Uh, okay.”

“Chen Feng, thank you.”

“Alright, you’ve said that N times today. Go to sleep.”

“Okay.”

He hung up the phone.

Chen Feng breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhong Lei sighed.

Some things had changed, some had not.

Although Zhong Lei advocated being single, she was an artist. Her heart was far more sensitive than ordinary people’s.

How could she not notice Chen Feng keeping his distance, neither too close nor too far, when he brushed off Meng Wanyue?

But strangely, she wasn’t sad. Instead, she felt it was natural.

She didn’t blame Chen Feng either.

She knew this person was just like that.

Bang bang bang.

Tonight, Chen Feng was destined to have no peace.

Someone was knocking on the door again.

Opening the door, Chen Feng said in surprise, “Mr. Meng, what’s the matter?”

Meng Xiaozhou seemed somewhat awkward, subconsciously adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses. “Thank you again, Mr. Chen, for saving my sister’s life. The over five million you lost, I will find a way to repay you.”

Chen Feng waved his hand. “No need, really no need.”

He didn’t expect Meng Xiaozhou to also offer to repay the money, but Chen Feng truly felt he didn’t deserve it.

Only he himself knew that if Zhong Lei hadn’t also been in the car, Meng Wanyue would definitely be dead.

He wouldn’t have gone to save her.

He knew his own thoughts were somewhat cold and ruthless. He also knew that afterward, if he saw Zhong Lei grieving over losing a good friend, or if he saw Meng Wanyue’s family, he would definitely blame himself.

But when he decided to shoulder the responsibility of saving humanity, it was already destined that he must also bear more pain and torment.

This level of self-blame, he believed he could still withstand.

“I insist. Besides this five million, I will give you another five million. However, studying overseas has already cost my family a lot of money. It will take me about one to two years to gather this sum.”

Meng Xiaozhou said firmly.

Chen Feng felt a headache coming on. “Really, don’t do this.”

“I just have one more favor to ask.”

“What is it?”

“If Mr. Chen doesn’t have those kinds of feelings for my sister, please… try to reject her more decisively.”

“Huh?”

“What Wanyue said at the dinner table today was actually somewhat presumptuous. But as her brother, I could see she was eager to matchmake you with Miss Zhong Lei because she actually wanted to cut off her own hopes early. Goodnight.”

Meng Xiaozhou finished speaking and ran off.

Chen Feng stood frozen in place.

They say the person who understands a sister best in the world is not her parents, but her older brother.

Meng Xiaozhou perfectly illustrated this theory.

Chen Feng was speechless. Meng Wanyue liked him too?

Nonsense!

Does the gratitude for saving a life affect women that much?

Wait, maybe my talent also attracted her.

But I really have no interest or energy for romantic entanglements right now.

So, everyone, sorry.

Somehow, Chen Feng recalled the words Tang Tianxin said to him the day before the destruction.

“No, implantation was successful. I successfully conceived.”

His heart ached unconsciously. He envied Tang Tianxin’s absolutely rational mindset again.

On some level, replacing emotions with logic seemed to have its benefits.

Chen Feng shrugged and went back to his room.

I can’t stop others from liking me, but I know what I should do.