Chapter 45: The Glamorous Landlady's Midnight Invitation

The doorbell rang "ding dong," breaking the tranquility of the night.

Xu Yunzhou was staring at the screen. His fingers habitually tapped the keyboard, pressing fast-forward, before he slowly got up.

Opening the door, a wave of hot air mixed with cumin and charcoal fire aroma rushed at his face—the takeout delivery guy handed over a tightly wrapped tin foil package; it was the whole roasted sheep he ordered.

"Thanks."

The rented room was too small, he could only carry it back to the computer desk to open.

While tearing open the tin foil, he had already bitten into a piece of freshly torn off, still sizzling lamb rib.

By the time he turned his attention back to the game, the time inside had already jumped a large segment, and the scene cut to Bashu University's welcome party for freshmen.

The lights on the stage were dazzling.

Below the stage, people crowded people, the sound waves rising one after another!

Song Jiaru, who had just become a freshman at Bashu University, walked up to the microphone stand. Before she even adjusted the height of the mic stand—

"Song Jiaru!"

"Goddess!"

"Ah—!"

Below the stage was like an exploded pot. Cheers, screams, and whistles mixed together, simply about to lift the roof!

This formation simply didn't look like a welcome party, but more like a large-scale concert!

There was no helping it; the current Song Jiaru was long no longer that cowardly, socially anxious young girl.

After the viral spread across the entire internet of the video "Busking on the street revealing a voice of nature, turning around to beat up armed hooligans with nunchucks," plus the god-level forwarding assist from Heavenly King Zhou, she was already the hottest "Nunchuck Beautiful Girl Singer" in the internet world, a national-level newly rising internet celebrity!

Not only was the audience filled with teachers and students from her own department, people from other colleges also rushed over one after another.

They held high various glow signs and light boards made overnight, converging into a flashing ocean in the dim auditorium—

"Junior Sister fly bravely, Seniors will always follow!"

"Beautiful and dashing Song Jiaru! The Light of Bashu U!"

"Goddess! Look at me! I want to have monkeys for you!"

The atmosphere was fanatical, the glow sticks waving, comparable to a fanatical star-chasing scene.

Song Jiaru carried that familiar acoustic guitar on her back, her posture relaxed and natural, a trace of a smile at the corners of her mouth, already beginning to enjoy this feeling of being watched.

She seemingly inadvertently tilted her head slightly, glancing at that void behind her that only she could feel—there, her omnipotent "Big Brother" Xu Yunzhou was holding a roasted lamb leg, gnawing until his mouth was shiny with grease.

She couldn't help but let out a "pfft" of light laughter, her brows and eyes curving. Facing the empty air, she soundlessly mouthed a coquettish complaint:

"Big Brother, you're eating alone again!"

Immediately after, she took a deep breath, turned her head back, and faced the dense crowd of audience below who came for her.

There was no nervousness or constraint on her face, replaced by a calmness and powerful aura of initially tasting fame and beginning to unhurriedly control this attention of the masses.

Her slender, fair fingers with distinct joints gently rested on the strings, then strummed smoothly.

A fresh, bright prelude, carrying rhythm and full of hope, flowed out like a clear mountain stream, instantly grabbing everyone's ears and suppressing the clamor of the scene.

She opened her mouth, singing a song named "Youth."

(TL: "Youth" is a massively popular 2019 Chinese pop song by Meng Ran.)

"Change a way of living, make yourself happy..."

"I am still that youth from before, without a single bit of change..."

This was of course another viral hit Xu Yunzhou "borrowed" from the future for her.

The melody was catchy, extremely memorable, and the lyrics were positive and uplifting.

It fit the pure and enthusiastic atmosphere of the campus, and could instantly trigger the impulse of a whole-audience chorus and deafening screams.

Outside the screen, Xu Yunzhou was gnawing on the real, tangible roasted lamb leg in the real world, his mouth dripping with grease.

His head subconsciously nodded along with the clear singing voice and impassioned beats coming from the game, muttering indistinctly:

"Mhm... so Song Jiaru's breakout song 'Youth' was sung at the college welcome party... I was still young back then, didn't have much impression. But it really sounds good; this voice, pure and powerful, no wonder she was later called 'a voice kissed by an angel'..."

Just as he was listening engrossed, immersed in the "joy of nurturing," his phone in reality rang inappropriately, breaking his immersive experience.

Frowning, Xu Yunzhou glanced at the screen, caller ID—Landlady Lu Qian.

He instantly felt puzzled:

"Hmm? In the middle of the night, could it be she smelled the aroma of the roasted whole sheep from opposite and wants to come over to mooch food?"

He wiped his greasy hands, tapped answer, his tone flat:

"Hello, Sister Qian?"

From the other end of the phone came Lu Qian's voice, carrying obvious tipsiness, deliberately put on to be soft and coquettish:

"Little Xu~ You haven't rested yet, right? Mhm... I hear it's quite lively on your end, are you... singing?"

Xu Yunzhou's internal eye roll almost reached the sky.

Are we very familiar? Counting fully, we've only met twice, what's with this overly familiar tone?

"Sister Qian, I'm playing games at home, the volume might be a bit loud. It's so late, what instructions do you have?"

His tone remained flat, carrying detachment.

Lu Qian's voice carried a bit of embarrassment, yet also a somewhat matter-of-course request:

"Um... there's a little matter I want to trouble you with... I... I drank a bit too much tonight, my head is a bit dizzy... could I trouble you to come pick me up? It's not far, just at that 'Night Color Club' next to our residential compound."

Xu Yunzhou felt a wave of speechlessness in his heart.

In the dead of night, a lone man and a lone woman, picking someone up at a club?

No matter how you look at this script, it seems like the legendary badger game, or this glamorous landlady wants to play some ambiguous tricks.

(TL: "Badger game" is a blackmail scam involving a compromising sexual situation.)

He refused directly:

"It's late, it's not quite appropriate for me to come over, right Sister Qian? What about the friends you're with? You could also call a designated driver."

"Aiya, I don't feel assured with them! What's wrong with you coming to pick me up for a bit?"

Lu Qian started to act a bit shamelessly, and threw out a chip she thought couldn't be refused,

"If you come pick me up, Sister will waive one month's rent for you! How about it?"

Xu Yunzhou almost laughed out loud from anger.

A little over a thousand yuan? Do you really treat me as a male model on call?

(TL: "Male model" is often used as a euphemism for male escorts in clubs.)

"Sister Qian, it's really not about the money, mainly it's not very convenient for me today..."

He prepared to explicitly refuse this time.

Lu Qian tugged back and forth on the other end of the phone for a while. Seeing that the lure of profit failed, she finally hemmed and hawed, half-embarrassed and half-pleadingly telling the truth:

"Little Xu, let me tell you the truth... I... I have a big client here, who accidentally glimpsed your profile picture in my WeChat just now... and... and said she particularly wanted to meet you in person. Saying as long as I can bring you over to let her have a couple of drinks, she'll sign the order immediately!"

"This business deal is quite important for Sister... Look... how about we cooperate? Sister definitely won't treat you unfairly!"

This time Xu Yunzhou was truly stunned, almost choking on the lamb meat in his mouth.

Hah???

There's even this kind of operation? Does this count as me... being male beauty bait?

Alarm bells instantly rang loudly in his mind, and the first thought that popped up was—could this be the ghost of that lingering bastard Chen Beichen? Playing this kind of underhanded trick wanting to humiliate me?

He pressed down his doubts and asked in a deep voice:

"That big client friend of yours, who is it?"

As if grasping a lifesaver, Lu Qian hurriedly reported the name:

"It's the Chairman of Qingsheng Media! Chairman Song Jinxuan!"

Xu Yunzhou fell silent for a moment.

Qingsheng Media... Song Jinxuan... that woman who cynically mocked him during the day.

Although getting along during the day was very unpleasant, remembering that she is Lin Ruoxuan's younger cousin... this line seems very valuable to contact.

Perhaps he could learn some clues about Lin Ruoxuan's current situation from it?

"Okay."

Xu Yunzhou made his decision,

"Send the specific address and private room number, I'll head over in a bit."

...

Night Color KTV, inside a certain private room.

Lu Qian put down her phone, piled a flattering smile on her face, and cautiously said to Song Jinxuan, who was sitting in the main seat of the sofa with an imposing aura:

"Chairman Song, that friend of mine... he promised to come over in a bit."

Song Jinxuan swayed the amber liquor in her hand. Hearing this, she only nodded slightly imperceptibly, no emotion visible on her exquisite, cold, and beautiful face.

She turned her head and gave a flat instruction to the assistant waiting respectfully nearby:

"Tell the waiter to open four more bottles of Ace of Spades."

In the private room, the lighting was ambiguous and unclear, the music flowed lazily, yet faintly revealed a suppressive feeling of a storm approaching.