Chapter 22: The Girls Band

After following An Ran'er for more than ten minutes, they arrived at a rehearsal room located in the basement of Huarong Building.

"What's this?" Li Nuo looked around the room with the curiosity of a child.

The rehearsal room had black-and-white checkered walls. As soon as they entered, they could see all kinds of audio equipment and musical instruments. Guitars, bass guitars, drum sets, and many other things were neatly arranged inside.

"This is the rehearsal room we rent for practice," An Ran'er said as she placed the guitar she had brought from home to the side. Then she looked at her phone and frowned. "Those two idiots still aren't here. So annoying."

Hearing that, Li Nuo remembered that [The Girls] band had four members. Besides the lead singer who had left and An Ran'er, there were two other members.

Thinking about it, he rarely paid attention to idol groups or girl bands, so he wasn't familiar with the members of [The Girls]. If not for An Ran'er, he probably would never have had anything to do with a real-life girl band.

Walking over to the drum set, Li Nuo became playful and picked up a pair of drumsticks. He lightly hit the drum, producing several thump thump sounds.

An Ran'er immediately looked unhappy.

"Don't touch other people's things without permission, idiot."

"Sorry..."

After being scolded, Li Nuo quickly put the drumsticks back down. While he was still looking around the room, the door suddenly opened.

A man wearing a suit, carrying a briefcase, and wearing gold-rimmed glasses walked in.

"You're here pretty early, Ran'er."

The man smiled as he spoke.

"Ah? Yes."

An Ran'er, who had been adjusting her guitar, quickly turned around and answered. After placing his briefcase on a nearby table, the man looked at Li Nuo.

"So this is the famous [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold] you've been trying so hard to find?"

"That's right. ‘Her’ name is Li Nuan."

The man walked up to Li Nuo and adjusted his glasses with one finger. After taking a closer look, he said,

"What a cute girl."

Then he extended his right hand with a smile.

"Hello. I'm the manager of [The Girls], Yu Haoshen. You can also call me by my English name, Hosen."

"Hello."

Li Nuo timidly shook his hand. Being called cute by a man did not make him happy at all.

However, he recognized this man. Yu Haoshen was the same person he had seen shopping with An Ran'er at the beach that day.

After greeting him, Yu Haoshen suddenly became serious.

"Miss Li Nuan, have you ever been the lead singer of another band before?"

"Huh? N-No."

"Have you ever performed live on stage?"

"N-No."

"Hmm. So you're a complete amateur."

"What does... amateur mean?"

"It means an ordinary person with no professional experience."

"Oh..."

After hearing his answers, Yu Haoshen lowered his head and thought for a moment before turning to An Ran'er.

"The others still haven't arrived?"

"They should be here soon."

Just as she finished speaking, the rehearsal room door opened again.

"Sumimasen! We're late!"

The one who spoke was a cute girl with a round face and twin ponytails. Behind her stood a tall girl with short hair.

"It's all because I accidentally overslept this morning! I'm really, really sorry!"

The twin-tailed girl lightly tapped her head and stuck out her tongue in a cute manner.

"Wasn't it because you insisted on staying up late playing games last night?"

The short-haired girl made the comment with a completely expressionless face.

"What are you talking about? It's obviously because Yuxin-chan didn't wake me up properly this morning!" the round-faced girl puffed up her cheeks angrily.

"I did wake you up. Once."

The short-haired girl remained expressionless.

"Y-You... Yuxin-chan, you're an idiot! A big idiot!"

"Xiao Lu is the real idiot."

Seeing that the round-faced girl, called Xiao Lu, was about to explode again, Yu Haoshen quickly stepped in.

"Alright, stop arguing. Since everyone is here, let's get down to business."

At that moment, Li Nuo stared at the angry round-faced girl in surprise.

"So she's one of the band members too?"

The girl looked very familiar to him. She was none other than Ye Feilu, who had gone to the beach with them during the vacation.

"Of course. Didn't I tell you? Xiao Lu is our drummer." An Ran'er looked surprised.

"You never told me that."

Li Nuo felt speechless. Then he looked at the tall short-haired girl.

"A-And that girl over there is also a member?"

"Yes. Her name is Wu Yuxin. She's the bassist."

After a brief round of introductions, Li Nuo finally learned the basic information about the members of The Girls:

An Ran'er — Band leader and guitarist, 16 years old.

Ye Feilu — Drummer, 17 years old.

Wu Yuxin — Bassist, 18 years old.

Yu Haoshen (Hosen) — Band manager, male, 24 years old.

After checking the time, Yu Haoshen said,

"Since everyone is here, let's start with a rehearsal."

Then he turned to Li Nuo.

"Miss Li Nuan, get ready as well. We'll have you try singing lead first. After all, we've only heard your singing online."

"Uh... okay."

Yu Haoshen had always been skeptical of singers who became famous on the internet.

After all, there were too many ways to fake things online. For example, audio software and voice processors could make even someone with poor singing ability sound pleasant.

Thanks to such tools, some average singers, or even people who could barely sing in tune, could become popular online as singers.

But once those people performed live, they almost always became a joke.

If [A Promise Worth a Thousand Gold] turned out to be one of those people, Yu Haoshen would never allow her to join the band.

Meanwhile, Ye Feilu quietly sneaked over to An Ran'er, who was tuning her guitar.

She lowered her voice and whispered into An Ran'er's ear,

"Ran'er, this is the method you came up with to get Li Nuo into the band?"

As she spoke, she glanced toward Li Nuo, who was standing there blankly holding a microphone.

"Yep. Not bad, right?"

An Ran'er replied with a smile while holding her guitar.

"Not bad my foot. Isn't this basically tricking people?"

"Then what other choice do we have?"

"Uh..."