Chapter 33: Good News and Bad News
On Sunday afternoon, inside the rehearsal room in the basement of Huarong Building.
Four girls with different styles were each tuning their instruments.
"Is everyone ready?" An Ran'er asked the other three while holding a blue guitar.
"OK, OK." Ye Feilu raised her drumsticks and replied.
"Yuxin is ready too." Wu Yuxin said while holding her bass guitar.
After hearing that everyone was ready, Li Nuo, who had been looking down and adjusting his red guitar, also raised his head.
"Uh... I-I'm ready too."
However, as soon as he finished speaking, An Ran'er walked over and checked his guitar.
"Did you adjust the string tension?"
"Uh... I don't think I did."
"Seriously... are you an idiot? I've told you so many times that you need to tune the strings before playing."
As she spoke, she put down her own guitar, took Li Nuo's guitar, adjusted the strings for him, then handed it back.
"If you make such a basic mistake again, I'll punish you by not letting you eat."
"I promise it won't happen again."
Li Nuo quickly accepted the guitar and made his promise.
An Ran'er put her hands on her hips and stared at him unhappily.
"Huh? So you're planning to do it again?"
"N-No! No next time! Definitely no next time! Haha..."
Li Nuo immediately waved his hands and shook his head.
Watching the two interact, Wu Yuxin expressionlessly said to Ye Feilu beside her,
"The two of them seem really close."
"Ah, he's just a henpecked wife."
Ye Feilu sighed, shook her head, and spread her hands.
"Henpecked wife? Aren't they both girls?"
Wu Yuxin tilted her head in confusion. Realizing she had misspoken, sweat appeared on Ye Feilu's forehead.
"I-I was joking. They're both girls, of course... haha..."
After confirming that all the equipment was working properly, the four officially began their performance.
The drums sounded first.
Then the guitars and bass joined in, working together to create the melody.
After more than ten seconds of upbeat music, Li Nuo gripped his guitar tightly and began to sing,
"What you're saying now is different from before..."
"Though it did help me understand the real you a little more..."
"The reason I've always been so impatient and restless..."
"Is because I wanted to treat you like something that belonged to me..."
…………………………
For a while, the cheerful melody and Li Nuo's beautiful singing voice filled the small rehearsal room.
When the song ended, Li Nuo finally let out a sigh of relief.
He turned around, about to say something, only to find the other three standing motionless.
They were all looking down at the floor.
Seeing their reactions, Li Nuo thought he must have made a mistake while singing.
"Um..."
Before he could finish speaking, the three girls suddenly looked at each other and shouted together.
"Yay!!"
The sudden reaction completely confused Li Nuo.
"Huh? What are you..."
Seeing his blank expression, An Ran'er ran over, grabbed his hands, and said excitedly,
"Your performance just now was perfect! We finally did it!"
"Li Nuan-chan, you're amazing!" Ye Feilu cheered.
"Yuxin thinks so too."
"N-Not really... Don't praise me so much... haha..."
Li Nuo scratched his cheek awkwardly as the three girls showered him with compliments.
Just as everyone was laughing and celebrating, a knock on the door interrupted them.
Since he was closest to the door, Li Nuo went to open it. Standing outside was Yu Haoshen, wearing a serious expression.
"Brother Haoshen?"
Hearing Li Nuo's voice, Yu Haoshen immediately returned to his usual gentle smile and looked down at him.
"Miss Li Nuan is as cute as ever today."
"U-Uh... please come in."
Being called cute the moment they met made Li Nuo blush slightly as he stepped aside.
As soon as Yu Haoshen entered the room, An Ran'er said,
"Brother Haoshen, we just finished a rehearsal."
"Oh? How did it go?"
"It was a huge success!"
An Ran'er smiled brightly.
"Really? That's good... that's very good."
After a brief pause, she continued,
"Brother Haoshen, I think [The Girls] can officially announce our comeback now."
The moment she said that, the smile on Yu Haoshen's face froze. He lowered his head and remained silent.
"What's wrong?"
Noticing that he seemed different from usual, An Ran'er asked anxiously.
"Did something happen?"
After thinking for a while, Yu Haoshen finally spoke.
"Since everyone is here today, I might as well tell you everything."
"What is it?"
The four girls asked curiously.
"It's about The Girls' comeback."
Adjusting his gold-rimmed glasses, Yu Haoshen smiled and said,
"I have one piece of good news and one piece of bad news. Which one do you want to hear first?"
"Um... Yuxin wants to hear the good news first."
Wu Yuxin raised her hand.
"Alright, then I'll start with the good news."
"I went back to the company headquarters recently. I brought Li Nuo's application to join the band and submitted a request for [The Girls] to make a comeback."
"And then?" An Ran'er asked.
"The company has approved Li Nuo's addition to the band. They've also approved The Girls' comeback."
"Yay!"
Ye Feilu cheered happily.
However, seeing that Yu Haoshen still looked worried, An Ran'er immediately asked,
"Then what's the bad news?"
"The bad news is..."
Yu Haoshen suddenly paused.
Then he scratched the back of his head and laughed awkwardly.
"Could someone get me a glass of water first? I've been busy since this morning and I'm a little thirsty. Haha."
"......"
Everyone was speechless.
"Here."
Ye Feilu poured him a glass of water.
"Thanks."
After taking a sip, Yu Haoshen continued,
"Although the company agreed, they also gave us a condition."
"What condition?" An Ran'er quickly asked.
"They want you to produce an original album with at least ten songs before the end of this month. And at least one song must reach the Top 10 of this year's annual popular song rankings before the end of the year."
"What!?"
An Ran'er cried out in shock.
"It's already November 20th. That's impossible!"
Ye Feilu lowered her head helplessly.
"Mm... Yuxin thinks it's impossible too."
They had finally gotten the chance to make a comeback. Yet now they were stopped by this final obstacle.
Biting her lip, An Ran'er unwillingly asked,
"Can't they give us more time?"
Yu Haoshen shook his head.
"The company made it very clear. They've already lost a lot of money on this band. If they can't see any possibility of making a profit in the near future, they'd rather disband [The Girls] completely."
After Yu Haoshen finished speaking, the entire rehearsal room fell silent.
Ten original songs in ten days.
That meant writing one song every single day.
Only a musical genius could probably accomplish something like that.
Just as everyone was worrying over the problem, Li Nuo spoke timidly.
"Um... if it's only ten songs... I might actually have a way."
"What did you just say?"
All four of them immediately turned to look at him.