NOVEL WEB Ch. 16
Chapter 16
“All right, people—time to pick the set list for this year’s Welcome Party.”
Yunxiao parked herself on the sofa, pulse finally settling, and looked around the room.
Li Hua blinked. “Huh? Didn’t we lock that in already? ‘Wildfire’ and ‘White Horse.’”
Ye Zi—band captain, dusting off the seat of her jeans—flopped across the couch and yawned. “Don’t tell me you’ve got a bright idea, Xiao Hei?”
Yunxiao hesitated, then pulled a folded wad of staff paper from her bag: Lin Zhe’s newest song, “Boundless Sea and Sky.” She smoothed it onto the coffee table.
“Let’s swap one of the two for this.”
Ye Zi rubbed the sleep from her eyes. “Uh... the gig’s in, what, twelve days? Changing songs now is cutting it close.”
“We can do it,” Yunxiao said, dead certain.
Buou leaned forward, scooped up the score, and squinted. “What’s this, though?”
“To Yunxiao—” she read aloud.
Yunxiao’s face exploded crimson. She snatched the page back so fast Buou’s hand was still frozen mid-air.
Xiao Lan caught the scent of gossip and popped over. “Ooh, what is it?”
Ye Zi cupped a hand to her mouth, grinning like a devil. “A love letter, perchance?”
The normally cool, swaggering Yunxiao shrank into a flustered schoolgirl. “N-no, nothing like that...”
While everyone laughed, she folded the dedication page with ceremonial care and tucked it into her pocket.
Ye Zi wouldn’t let it drop. “So we’re changing songs because of some guy named Lin Zhe?”
Yunxiao answered with a knuckle-rap to the skull.
“Ow!” Ye Zi clutched her head. “I’m the captain! Where’s my respect?”
Buou, still parked on the sofa’s far edge, spoke up. “Let’s do it, Ye Zi. Drop ‘Wildfire.’ We’ve got two whole weeks—plenty of time.”
Every head swivelled toward the keyboardist. Black bangs half-hid her eyes, but light glimmered through the strands.
Ye Zi padded over and read over Buou’s shoulder. Xiao Lan and Li Hua crowded in.
Ye Zi’s fingers drummed the sofa arm; she hummed a bar, then another. Her eyes lit up—treasure-map bright.
The song was that good. It itched under her skin.
Only snag: the lyrics were marked Cantonese, and the band almost never sang in Cantonese.
Li Hua tried a line in Mandarin; it felt like diet soda—flat and wrong.
Buou suddenly shot to her feet, hair swishing to her waist, hands on hips. “Cantonese? Child’s play. Hello, I’m from Guangdong, remember?”
The room blinked—right, Buou’s hometown.
She turned to Yunxiao. “You’re fine with it too, yeah?”
Yunxiao nodded. “I binged Cantonese movies and Canto-pop back in senior year. A little brush-up and I’m solid.”
The memory ambushed her: skipping class, dragging Lin Zhe to the cinema, the two of them hiding in the back row. A tiny, secret smile tugged at her mouth.
Seeing her lead guitarist and keyboardist already allied, Ye Zi surrendered with both palms up.
“Fine, fine. ‘Wildfire’ is out. Tomorrow’s regular practice—let’s nail this thing.”
She scratched her head. “One last thing, though. Where’d this score come from?”
Yunxiao stayed mute, chin tucked, fingers twisting in her lap—every inch the girl with a crush.
Ye Zi groaned like a dying plant. “Okay, okay, I get it.”
Yet the captain’s brain was already whirring. Lin Zhe—freshman, killer singer, and now proven songwriter? Yesterday’s “Mercury Records,” today’s “Boundless Sea and Sky”—both gold.
A wicked plan sprouted: lure the guy into Back-Alley Cat as their in-house composer. Mascot, secret weapon—whatever. Free talent, right?
Ye Zi spun on her heel, stroked an imaginary beard, and shot Yunxiao the grin of a con-artist who’d just spotted a mark.
Besides, the best bait is already right in front of us.
Even Yunxiao couldn’t help shivering under her captain’s stare.
She had no idea what the idiot was plotting, but that sly old-fox grin promised nothing good.
“Dear Captain, I strongly advise you not to entertain any dangerous thoughts.”
Yunxiao raised a fist at her foolish captain, eyes turning ice-cold.
Terrifying—so terrifying—our lead guitarist.