CH 53

Chapter 53 – New Album Preparation

You will have to admit it one day.

Pei Tingsong understood Fang Juexia’s words in less than an instant.

The vast majority of people in this world kept searching for true love in a vast sea of people, having been lulled into mistakenly believing that they could definitely fall in love with someone for a lifetime by stories. Every single one of them thought that what they would obtain would be honey that wouldn’t dilute over their lifetime, but in reality, most of their love stories were like poor quality cans that would soon expire. As the poisonous industrial chemicals were consumed one mouthful at a time, the sweet delusions would eventually dissipate, leaving behind only painful after-effects. These after-effects would last for at least months, at most years, or maybe even for an entire lifetime.

No one could deny the existence of rational numbers, but when compared with the densely packed irrational numbers, those sparse points were rarer than shooting stars.

He suddenly became curious, so he didn’t think deeply before opening his mouth. 

“If, and I’m just coming up with a hypothesis here,” Pei Tingsong asked, looking straight into Fang Juexia’s eyes, “If you really fell in love with someone someday, what would you do?”

Fang Juexia met his gaze in silence, and his eyes flickered uncontrollably. He had been left stumped by this question. It seemed that pretty much as soon as he had started to comprehend things, he had excluded this question from his life plans. He had never thought about the possibility of falling in love with anyone, let alone making deductions about how his heart might feel when or if that happened. 

“I don’t know.” He finally stuck to the facts. “This hypothesis is meaningless. People are a collection of complex physiological mechanisms, and you can hardly control one of your own nerves, let alone…”

Let alone trying to control the emotions that surged when you fell in love with someone.

He didn’t finish the rest of his sentence; he didn’t know why, but in front of Pei Tingsong, he couldn’t say it all out loud, and so, he simply swallowed his next words. He shrugged, then threw this problem back. “What about you?”

“Me?” Pei Tingsong thought for a while before answering, “Although I haven’t seen any true love, and also don’t really want to aspire towards any such thing, if it really appears…”

“I wouldn’t hide from it.” He raised his eyebrows. “Even if I ended up choosing an irrational number, it wouldn’t matter, for I would still treat it as a rational number. It’s a little idealistic, but I believe that some things can be transformed by my will.”

Fang Juexia admired his pluck. These kinds of words, if they came from other people, would be quite a bit like moths heading toward a flame, but when Pei Tingsong uttered them, somehow, they felt completely different.

“So, your mother is also like this, using her own will to wait. At least in her heart, what she is still holding onto is a rational number. Her love is still not dead.”

Fang Juexia had to acknowledge that statement. Buried deep in his mother’s heart was the belief that that person would always come back. However, Fang Juexia didn’t believe it. “But you can see from her example that the overwhelming majority of people suffer from failed love, and you haven’t even seen a successful example with your own eyes. Aren’t you afraid of stepping straight into failure?”

Facing Fang Juexia’s question, Pei Tingsong looked very relaxed. “I’m not afraid of failure, and moreover, I’m even not afraid of low probability and scarcity. On the contrary, I like it a lot.”

Word by word, he stated boldly and frankly, “What I want is the rarest thing.”

Fang Juexia was left speechless. They were both the fruit of failed families, but while one indulged only in freedom, the other precisely dodged mistakes; they held opposite ideals while also carrying extreme attitudes towards love. But even so, Fang Juexia had to admit that he was convinced by Pei Tingsong’s words.

Pei Tingsong’s cellphone suddenly rang, interrupting this debate of their views on love. After he picked it up, he simply replied with a few sentences and hung up.

“The boss asked us to go to the company to finish the main song together.” He got up and stretched. Fang Juexia also stood up, placed the cactus in a safe corner, picked up a spray can, sprayed some water onto it, observed it closely, and then sprayed a little more. He seemed to have discovered something by accident, and with a little surprise coloring his tone, he said to himself, “Is it going to bloom?”

Pei Tingsong looked at him squatting on the ground and seriously pulling on the top of the cactus, and couldn’t help laughing again.

“Fang Juexia, you are someone who is living with your grandfather’s shell draped over you.”

Fang Juexia didn’t understand his meaning. He turned around and looked over at Pei Tingsong, still holding the small spray can in his hand.

“Your father is a man who regards art as his life, and your mom is someone who is heedless of danger when it’s for love. Don’t you stress science? The power of genes is very powerful, and you are the child of these two people.” Pei Tingsong put his hands in his pockets and said with a smile, “So, in your bones, you are actually also a romantic.”

“You will have to admit it one day.”

Saying that, Pei Tingsong left, leaving Fang Juexia alone on the balcony. He remained stunned for a minute and then turned to stare at the cactus.

Romantic—this word was pretty much like a hyperbola to him.

When they hurried to the company, they found that Boss Chen Zhengyun was also there. He had already heard Fang Juexia’s lyric-free demo in advance and kept heaping praise on it, especially after discovering that Fang Juexia was naturally sensitive to melody. To a large extent, composing music was a job that only those with inborn talent could do. It was difficult for some people, no matter how hard they studied musical theory, to write a catchy melody with highlights. 

“We’ve been developing you in the dance track this entire time, and even thought this way was particularly correct. Now it seems that the company came really close to missing out on a treasure.” Chen Zhengyun himself used to be a singer-songwriter. Before he had started the company, he had already transformed himself into an excellent producer who had written a lot of songs. He was unstinting in his effusive praise for Fang Juexia’s talent. “Since it’s the main song, we still hope that it will be a song where its performance becomes a more important factor than the melody itself, but also that it will be easy to sing, so that people can remember it after just hearing it once.”

Another company composer used the guitar to play their modified main song for them to hear.

“This counts as the third version, we have been discussing it for several hours already. Ziyan came back and helped us modify it.”

Pei Tingsong sat on one side. “After changing it too much, it’s easy for your ears to go numb, and you can’t tell if it’s good or bad anymore.”

“That’s why I called you guys here.” Chen Zhengyun began to needle him again, “How about you, how are the lyrics? Have you pinned down the concept for this song?”

Pei Tingsong told the truth, “My mind’s in a bit of a mess right now. This song is a bit of a mix, and there are many concepts that it can incorporate. It’s very hard for me to figure out a core…”

Just then, the door opened again, and Jiang Miao and Ling Yi entered. “You’re all here la.”

“I came late.” Jiang Miao moved a chair and sat down. Chen Zhengyun said that it was no problem, then added, “Xiao Miao, I asked them to bring over your guzheng.”

Everyone began to discuss things again, but Fang Juexia was still recalling the music that had just been played by the composer. He split the melody apartin his mind, part by part, and even tone by tone.

While the others were still discussing, Fang Juexia sat in front of an electronic keyboard, played a very simple chord, then tried humming the composer’s melody from just now, but every time, he ended up getting stuck in the middle. He tried again and found that it was still the same.

Pei Tingsong also discovered that he was trying to do something alone, so he sneaked over and sat next to him. “Do you have an idea?”

“I think what you said just now is right,” Fang Juexia said as he put both his hands on the black and white keys. “Our melody is too full, and not smooth. In fact, that’s totally unnecessary, and its spark can be created with the musical arrangement. If the melody is too full, it’s easy for people to feel confused when listening to it and be unable to remember the tune.”

He tried cutting off part of the melody, then hummed, and it immediately sounded a lot better. Pei Tingsong nodded. “But like this, the strong feeling of the song will be reduced.”

“No.” Fang Juexia was very sure and explained, “Because right now I’m just playing the simplest chords for you, but the musical arrangement is the soul of dance music. The point of the melody is for essence, not for volume; a good musical arrangement can fully reflect the arrangement, rhythm, and artistic conception of a song.”

Looking at his serious appearance, Pei Tingsong suddenly felt that Fang Juexia was particularly good-looking.

As he played, Fang Juexia suddenly remembered the famous Pipa song, ‘Ambush On All Sides’ that Jiang Miao had played last night when he was practicing his guzheng. At that time, he had even run over specifically to listen to it. The sweeping strings, in the very beginning, were full of murderous spirit, somewhat creating the scenario of an empty city using one song to push back thousands of troops.

A melody appeared in his mind, and after Pei Tingsong heard only a few parts, his attention was completely drawn towards it. “This is nice. The changes in tone are all connected, and it gives off a strong Chinese feel.”

Fang Juexia smiled and used the electronic keyboard to play some more music. Soon, other people were also drawn over, and Chen Zhengyun looked at him and asked, “Is this what you just wrote?”

His hand stopped, and Fang Juexia noted the score down before telling everyone his own thoughts, “We have been adding things to the melody this entire time until now, only making it more complicated. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been involved in the creation of the previous compositions this whole time, and because I just listened to the demo of this composition right now that I can count as having the point of view of a pure listener. After listening to the piano composition played by Sir just now, I found that, in fact, we have added too much into the melody. It’s hard to hear the different things in the highly complex arrangement, but we can discover that by playing it on just the piano alone.”

He tried to play the chorus of the song. “With good dance music, even with the simplest chords, it can sound very good unplugged, and that is the underlying main melody. I tried playing it just now, and found that there were many redundant parts to this piece. Cutting some of them out and adding catchy melodies will make it much better.”

Listening to the part he had just played, Pei Tingsong suddenly thought of something and asked Jiang Miao, “Miao Ge, can you play a guzheng part?”

Upon hearing him say this, Fang Juexia couldn’t help but be a bit surprised. Before he even had to say it, Pei Tingsong had already understood what he had been thinking; it was kind of incredible.

Jiang Miao sat down beside the guzheng with a smile, and stuck his fingers in place. “Play what?”

“Just sweep the strings, I’ll come in as you play.” Fang Juexia also put his hands on the piano keys, waiting for Jiang Miao’s signal. Jiang Miao lowered his head halfway down, his fingertips gathered slightly, and then, as his wrist shook, a sound swept out, just like a murderous wind. 

This was exactly the effect that Fang Juexia wanted. When Jiang Miao swept out the second tone, the sound of the electric keyboard came in to replace the chorus, and Fang Juexia hummed the changes he had made to the tune. He Ziyan soon realized the kind of style he wanted and took out an electronic drum pad to drum out the rhythm.

This whole cooperation was very simple and thrown together, but it produced an amazing blend of music. Fang Juexia continued, “Before, only the elements were given out, but there was no main concept, which made it feel very chaotic. But yesterday, I heard Miao Ge practicing with Pipa music, and the first few chords and strings of ‘Ambush On All Sides’ are very murderous. I was thinking that our song this time can be based on the concept of a warrior.”

He was usually quiet, but when he talked about his understanding of music and the stage, his eyes filled with light. “Like ancient marching drums and formations, as well as sword dancing, these all have the same origin as song and dance performances. We can take the concept of a warrior, use a strong rhythm and an aggressive arrangement to create a composition weighed with a sense of sorrow and conviction, and I believe we can integrate this well into the effect we wanted before.”

He Ziyan was suddenly inspired and used his MIDI to pick out an electronic sound, which was very similar to the sound of a sword. He said to Jiang Miao, “You sweep the strings again.”

The MIDI’s imitation sword sound integrated with the guzheng’s sweeping strings, just like swordsmen fighting.

“Yes, that’s a good concept.” Chen Zhengyun also said, “When the time comes, we can put in a sample of real sword sounds and put it together with the electronic sounds, to give it a sense of interlacing with virtual reality. Then, the feel should be closer to that of the glint and flash of cold steel.”

Pei Tingsong was suddenly inspired. He seemed to have seen the scene from ‘Ambush On All Sides’, of being forced to stand and fight, so he became engrossed in writing down a few lines, getting the key notes down.

The whole room of people stayed up all night for the sake of the song, and none of them felt tired at all. Later, Lu Yuan came, and they sorted out the melody for the whole song. Pei Tingsong pretty much dished out the first version of the lyrics for the song right then and there, and so they simply moved to the studio to record the demo along with the words.

By the time they came out of the studio, daylight was already out in full. The six boys collapsed on the sofa of the recording studio, head to head; Chen Zhengyun teased that they looked like a litter of puppies. Fang Juexia felt lucky; although they hadn’t made their debut in a large company with rich resources, they had more freedom to create here.

“We’ll work hard these next few days to complete the musical arrangement as well. Everyone should practice well, and we’ll strive for the month after next, no, we’ll send out the notice next month itself.”

“We’re finally going to have a second album!” Ling Yi excitedly bit on He Ziyan’s coat and was slapped away by him with the comment, “You really are a Chihuahua.”

Kaleido’s popularity was increasing day by day, and more and more work, events included, was also coming in. However, in order to prepare for the second album, the company pushed off a lot of these business activities. Except for some variety shows and endorsements that had been signed prior to this, they didn’t arrange any other work for the group, all so that they could concentrate on practicing. After all, Kaleido was a boy-band, and while popularity and exposure were important, the song and stage were still the foundation of any boy-band. Only by handing over a satisfactory answer using this foundation could they prevent the popularity they had now from becoming a bubble that could burst at a touch. 

While creating the songs, they had also started a new round of style planning and MV planning. Star Chart paid a lot of money to invite a stage costume designer to specially design clothing for the six of them to use during the MV filming and the stage performances. In the past, the company had been too poor to spend much money on styling, but now that Kaleido was making money, that money would be used wisely.

Due to his regular studies, Pei Tingsong had never dyed his hair since their debut. However, the concept of the album this time was very aggressive, one which tallied best with Pei Tingsong, and dyeing the hair was a powerful tool to attract attention. The planner and stylist came up with many schemes. His original hair color was too black, so they first bleached his hair and then dyed it silver-white.

Getting hair dyed was a pretty tedious process. Pei Tingsong had been studying and practicing the songs at the same time, so it was quite hard on him already. On top of that, he couldn’t even sleep in on the weekend, getting pulled up early in order to get his hair bleached. He was so sleepy that he fell asleep several times during the process, and felt hungry when he woke up.

“So sleepy ah.” The hair colorist couldn’t help laughing.

“Too sleepy.” When Pei Tingsong saw the plan they had designed, he thought of something, and he asked the hair colorist, “What color is Juexia’s hair this time?”

“Juexia ah, he may be dyed black this time.”

Black hair. Pei Tingsong imagined it—Fang Juexia’s skin was pale, the color of his eyes was light, and his hair was already brown. However, he gave off a very strong distant feel, and his temperament was too cold. The company had wanted to make him seem more friendly to make it easier to suck up fans, so had always had his hair dyed dark brown. Now, upon switching to black hair, the contrast with his skin color would grow stronger, and he should look even more colder.

“Then when is he going to get it dyed?”

“He may be in a little later, anyway, he doesn’t have to get his hair bleached. The ones with unusual colors go first, to try out the colors, and after you’re done, it’ll be Ling Yi’s turn.”

He had thought Fang Juexia would come here today. Pei Tingsong thought for a bit, then took out his cellphone and opened WeChat.

Just as he completed an hour of dance practice in the practice room, Fang Juexia’s cellphone rang. He picked it up and saw that it was Pei Tingsong.

[Guide Dog: Where are you? What are you doing? I’m starving.]

What did this count as? Did he want him to deliver food? Fang Juexia thought about it and deliberately pretended not to understand.

[Just a pretty face and also still pretty: Practice room, dancing. Order takeout if you’re hungry.]

After sending that message, Fang Juexia felt very happy. He leaned his head against the wall and gently tapped against it. The little clock in his heart ticked ten times, and then his cellphone vibrated again.

[Guide Dog: Hello, I’d like to have one fried crab roe and one scallion oil noodles with less oil.]

He even sent over a ‘please, please’ emoticon. 

Fang Juexia looked at the time, picked up his clothes, stood up, and left the practice room. There was a snack bar located below their company that had been in business for more than ten years, and their small steamed buns and pan fried buns were unique. When people in the company ordered from them, they often ordered ten baskets at a time to be delivered upstairs. Fang Juexia also had the owner’s phone number saved in his cellphone, but he still went downstairs himself, wearing a hat and mask to buy it in person.

He didn’t know why he did so, he probably just wanted to go for a walk.

“Yi? Juexia, you haven’t been here in a long time ah. What do you want to eat?” The owner was a very warm-hearted middle-aged man, with a little bit of a Shanghai feel to him, and was especially kind.

Fang Juexia ordered what Pei Tingsong wanted, then added a cup of soybean milk. “Troubling you to please pack it up for me.”

“Okay, okay, no chili sauce for the pan fried buns, right?” The owner was familiar with his tastes.

“I do want some.” Fang Juexia immediately said, “Some chili sauce.”

The owner’s busy hands stopped. “Yo, starting to eat spicy things la?”

“No…” Fang Juexia said with a smile, “For the child in our group.”

“Oh ~” the owner also smiled. “You guys all have really good relationships, just like brothers.” As he said that, he had already finished packing all the snacks, and handed them to Juexia. “Come again next time ah.”

“Thank you, boss.”

It was strange; Pei Tingsong had originally been terribly sleepy, but after he sent the message to Fang Juexia, he felt so energetic that he couldn’t even fall asleep after closing his eyes. He looked at himself in the mirror, and feeling completely bored, started to hum. 

“What song is this?” The hair colorist checked how his hair color was fading and said casually, “It actually sounds very nice.” 

Only then did Pei Tingsong realize that what he was humming subconsciously was the song written by Fang Juexia.

“Just randomly humming…”

He had almost leaked Fang Juexia’s song for him. 

Just when he was feeling guilty, a pale hand appeared in front of him, holding a takeout box and setting it on the table in front of him. Pei Tingsong raised his head in surprise and saw Fang Juexia, who was completely wrapped up, with only his eyes and birthmark showing.

“It’s no use covering up so tightly.”

He could recognize him just by his hands.

Fang Juexia didn’t understand his meaning. “Why is it of no use?”

Pei Tingsong’s next words changed as they came out of his mouth. “I mean, what’s the use of not covering that birthmark? Is there a second person in this world with such a birthmark?”

That sounded pretty reasonable. Fang Juexia looked in the mirror and touched the birthmark at the corner of his eyes. Then he thought of something, turned to him, and said, “Eat quickly, it won’t be good when it gets cold.”

“I’m really starving.” He grabbed a pan fried bun, took a bite, and asked in a muffled tone, “Aren’t you going to eat?”

“I had breakfast.” Fang Juexia didn’t even sit down. Pei Tingsong suspected that he might have really come here just to give him something, and maybe he was about to leave. 

“You eat some more.” Pei Tingsong used the excuse of body management to make Fang Juexia eat as well. Fang Juexia couldn’t beat him, and could only sit next to him and eat a pan fried bun. 

Fang Juexia was very refined when eating, licking his lips every time he took a bite. The more Pei Tingsong observed him, the more he felt that Fang Juexia was different from many of the boys he had met, though he couldn’t exactly pinpoint what was different.

After eating a whole pan fried bun, Fang Juexia cleaned his hands with a napkin. Noticing that Pei Tingsong had been staring at him the entire time, he felt strange, and asked, “What are you doing staring at me?”

“Nothing.” Pei Tingsong shifted his gaze away and quickly changed the topic. “My scalp hurts a bit.” As soon as he raised his hand, his wrist was gripped by Fang Juexia.

“Don’t scratch.” Fang Juexia said, “Bleaching your hair does hurt your scalp a bit, so don’t get the bleaching cream on your hands.”

Pei Tingsong kind of liked the feeling of being minded by Fang Juexia. He also didn’t know why that was so; plainly speaking, he was the kind of person who would want to go west when he was told to go east by others. 

“But my scalp just really doesn’t feel good.”

“I know.” Fang Juexia lowered his head and pinched Pei Tingsong’s forearm. Pei Tingsong hadn’t been expecting that at all. “What are you doing?”

“This way, you’re distracted.” Fang Juexia pinched again, then raised his head and laughed at him.

Pei Tingsong’s gaze moved from his smiling eyes to the corners of his mouth, as well as the lips he had just licked lightly. However, the other party soon became immersed in continuing this pinching game and didn’t notice Pei Tingsong’s dazed eyes.

The hair colorist, who was scrolling through his cellphone, suddenly laughed. “Hey, the episode of your amusement park ensemble show has come out. Haunted house special.”

His voice suddenly pulled Pei Tingsong out of his thoughts, while also making Fang Juexia let go of Pei Tingsong’s hand, for he turned his head and asked, “So fast? I didn’t even see it.”

“You guys are all on the Hot Search. Quickly, go have a look!”

Fang Juexia took out his cellphone, logged into his rarely used Weibo account, and saw a familiar name as soon as he entered the Hot Search list.

“Number two and number three on the Hot Search list is you, eh.”

Upon hearing the end of Fang Juexia’s words and his cute tone, Pei Tingsong was rather proud, and felt especially good. So he cleared his throat, and while wearing a look of being a frequent caller on the Hot Search List. “Really? How did I get on the Hot Search again?”

“En.” Fang Juexia showed him his cellphone, his face filled with the desire to share. “Look.”

Pei Tingsong, deliberately, only shot a glance at it, but in the end, his eyebrows were the ones that ended shooting up.

#Pei Tingsong Haunted House#

#Pei Tingscared#