CH 89

Chapter 89 – Green Waves

First love is the night trip owed to each other.

“Drink some?” Pei Tingsong crouched down next to him and stuck the mung bean smoothie towards the corner of Fang Juexia’s mouth.

Only then did Fang Juexia regain his senses, after which he set the papers to one side with a hua sound. His beautiful eyes were wide open as he looked at Pei Tingsong.

Seeing him like this, Pei Tingsong laughed. “What’s the matter with you? Did you see something just now?”

Fang Juexia shook his head. “No.” Even though he said no, his face burned. His mind was full of Pei Tingsong’s free and easy words— every line, every word.

Having too good of a memory was a bad thing.

As the corners of Pei Tingsong’s mouth quirked up, he put down the smoothie before extending both of his arms and setting them down on the sofa, then he leaned forward to encircle Fang Juexia within the lazyboy sofa. Fang Juexia felt a little flustered; he leaned back unconsciously, nearly falling into empty space and bumping against the wall, but Pei Tingsong caught the back of his head with his palm in time.

“Be careful.”

Fang Juexia had completely fallen into his arms now.

Pei Tingsong’s palm slipped slowly down from the back of his head, grasping the pale back of his neck. Fang Juexia liked to wear casual shirts, and there were many such similar styled shirts hanging in his wardrobe. They looked very common when they were just hanging there, but became so clean and beautiful when they were worn by him.

He couldn’t help lowering his head.

Fang Juexia thought he was going to kiss him, so he reflexively closed his eyes, but soon realized that Pei Tingsong went much lower than he thought, for he had bitten the top button of his white shirt instead.

He unbuttoned Fang Juexia’s clothes with his mouth and kissed the clavicle hidden inside. Then he looked up again, smiling childishly and kissing him on the lips.

“You read what I wrote?” Pei Tingsong asked.

Fang Juexia nodded and said, “Just one page.”

“There’s just that one anyway, the rest are all useless.” Pei Tingsong was open and natural. He took Fang Juexia’s hand and put it on his waist, so that their posture would change into them embracing each other. “You are so nervous. Do you think I will do something to you?”

He didn’t know why he was nervous, but he became like this every time, even though he really did like Pei Tingsong.

“Desire and sex are both natural things, just like love.” Pei Tingsong said, “There are still a lot of books in my bookcase in the dorm. Whenever I miss you, I start writing some stuff, especially in the evening.”

Desire was the derivative of love, and the imagination in the poet’s dream.

“Do you want to read them?”

Fang Juexia’s ears had turned completely red. He just kept looking at Pei Tingsong, unable to utter a word in reply. All because he could not deny that the moment he read Pei Tingsong’s poem, his heart had fluttered. 

Who could refuse a poet’s display of love?

“Next time ba,” Pei Tingsong kissed his side profile and his ear, softly whispering, “Next time I’ll read it out loud to you.”

Clearly, he had just said ‘next time’, but the image that appeared in Fang Juexia’s mind was that of a completely dark night. Was that the power of language? He, who had always kept himself detached and without desire, had now gradually begun loosening the net that confined him, peeling off his hard shell, and bit by bit, accepting the instinct of love and desire. It was so much like melting.

The winter snow imprisoned by spring would become spring water one day ba.

As Pei Tingsong was softly kissing Fang Juexia, his cellphone, which was in his pocket, vibrated. He frowned at this interruption and took it out to see that it was Cheng Qiang calling, so he could only pick it up. 

“Hello, Qiang Ge.” Pei Tingsong put on earphones while still holding Fang Juexia’s face in his hand as he rubbed his lower lip with his thumb, his eyes full of him. “Really? It’s already settled then, did you tell Juexia?”

Upon hearing his name, Fang Juexia opened his eyes wider and tilted his head while looking at him. His appearance was so lovely that Pei Tingsong drew closer and kissed the corner of his eye.

“Then I’ll tell him ba. I’ll let him come to my workshop later.”

When he heard Pei Tingsong lying, Fang Juexia couldn’t help but laugh. He bit the area around Pei Tingsong’s thumb, making some kind of show of force. He also deliberately drew closer to Pei Tingsong’s face, demonstrating that he was already in the workshop. Pei Tingsong couldn’t help laughing and avoided him. Finally, Fang Juexia’s face, that was already in his grasp, came ever so close. 

A bit of a temper rose, and Fang Juexia deliberately kissed him, blocking his mouth.

Pei Tingsong was stunned for a moment. Cheng Qiang, on the other end of the call, heard him stop talking midway and asked him what happened. Pei Tingsong drew back a little bit. “Nothing, I was drinking some water.”

Drinking water? Fang Juexia raised his eyebrows and pulled his cheek. Pei Tingsong was dealing with his agent on one end of the call while rubbing Fang Juexia’s back on the other end to make him behave.

“Understood. I’m writing lyrics right now, so I won’t keep talking with you ah. In a moment, he’ll come.”

He hurriedly hung up the call. Fang Juexia knew that the time for pranks was over and wanted to slip away quickly, but Pei Tingsong grabbed his waist and pressed him into the carpet, pretending to be fierce and threatening. “You are really getting stronger and stronger now. Do you not believe that I will punish you right here on the floor?”

Fang Juexia replied seriously, with a smile, “You were the one who lied first, aren’t you someone who wants to keep it real?”

Pei Tingsong immediately released him. “Okay ah, I’m going to come out of the closet to Qiang Ge right now.”

“Hey, hey, hey.” Fang Juexia gave up and softened, hugging his arm and getting up. “What did Qiang Ge want with me just now? Is there something going on?”

Only after Pei Tingsong sat down properly did he take a sip of the mung bean smoothie he had just placed on the ground. The ice had melted completely, and the sweetness pricked his throat.

“He just said that there is a very good drama team coming to cooperate with us. The popular drama from last winter belongs to their company, and their summer one is a campus drama. After the producer heard the four songs of our demo, he very quickly took a fancy to yours.”

Fang Juexia sort of couldn’t believe it. “My song?”

“Yes, yours.” Pei Tingsong rubbed his face. “You’re really good, a popular group took a fancy to you all of a sudden.”

“But there are no lyrics yet,” No matter how he thought about it, Fang Juexia found it inconceivable. “The main song has to at least have lyrics.”

“They said they like this style, it’s very special; the melody is an earworm and will definitely be popular. For the theme song of a TV drama, the best thing is for it to conform to the style of the script.” As he said that, Pei Tingsong had already received the synopsis and the style description of the story that Cheng Qiang had just sent, as well as some TV drama materials. He turned on the computer to check.

Fang Juexia drew close to see the name of the TV drama.  “‘Green Waves’, it sounds like a literary film’s name, but it’s actually a campus drama.”

The drama had a touch of mystery. It started with a series of stories about a suicide incident in a high school. The heroine was a good friend of the girl who had committed suicide, and after the girl died, she transferred to her friend’s high school and met the secret love written about in her good friend’s diary—the male protagonist. In the process of searching for the truth about her friend’s death, they revealed that her good friend’s campus life for the past two years had been full of suffering and pain from being bullied.

At the end of the story, it turned out that the female lead was actually the girl who had committed suicide. After her death, she was reborn as a person who did not exist in the world – the “perfect friend” that she had desperately wished and hoped for.

“It’s a great story.” Fang Juexia inexplicably found himself  really looking forward to it. Thinking that his song could become one of the interludes in such a drama, he felt a sense of encouragement. 

“Yes, it’s said that it was written by a gold medal screenwriter.” Pei Tingsong opened another document. “Here are some script fragments. The crew said that they already have the theme song for the beginning of the TV series, and they want to match your song to the love parts. The romance between the male and female leads is relatively light, and this kind of melody, which is not too sweet but very emotional, is very suitable.”

Fang Juexia looked at the key words in the style description: summer, first love, keep at arm’s length, green and unripe, clean.

“It feels like the lyrics are a little hard to write.”

Pei Tingsong agreed. “If they let me write it by myself, it may be simpler. It’s like I’ve suddenly got assigned a topic for a composition.” He thought of something. “What was on your mind back when you wrote this song?”

The sudden question caught Fang Juexia somewhat off guard. He thought carefully. “It seems…I didn’t think of anything.”

“You weren’t thinking about anything while writing it? How is that possible?”

“Really, I just wanted to write some melodies, and I already had some in my mind.” Fang Juexia himself didn’t feel that was very convincing, so he simply said, “Leibniz even said that music is the unconscious operation of mathematics in the soul.”

Pei Tingsong was amused by him. “Alright ba, I’ll just not expect to get any inspiration from you. I’ll turn it over and over in my mind myself ba.”

Seeing that he had begun to read the materials again, Fang Juexia also read them from his side and repeated the words, “First love…. Summer, a summer song. “

Pei Tingsong suddenly noticed a sentence in the outline, which said that the hero actually also secretly loved the female lead. He thought, maybe he could write from the male lead’s perspective.

So he lay down on the table and asked Fang Juexia, “When you see the words ‘summer’, ‘first love’, and the rest of these words, what picture appears in your mind?”

Fang Juexia’s thoughts on these words weren’t very clear. Middle school was already a bit far away from him, and what’s more, his life had always been a fixed line. Looking back on his youth, most of it was filled with training.

But if they were talking about first love, then for him, that must be connected to Pei Tingsong.

He could recall every detail related to Pei Tingsong: the first time they met, the first time they quarreled, the first time he saw him smile, the first time he heard him apologize.

The fall under the elevator, the confession in the dark corridor, the first time he heard him say that his birthmark was beautiful.

The shadows of the amusement park, the embrace when falling from the sky, the soft dusk on the balcony….

They were all vivid in his mind. 

“First love is all the memories you gave me.” Fang Juexia leaned on the table like him, and they looked at each other, “The dusk where we chatted about what true love was, the big, bright sun at the amusement park, the fireworks you showed me, the movies we watched when hiding in the hotel and your apartment, and the shady road where we want to walk hand in hand but can’t.

“As for summer…” Fang Juexia showed a smile, thinking of his saddest days, thinking of Pei Tingsong worn out by the journey and rushing back, but not daring to hold him.

“Summer is the rain you didn’t let me get drenched in.”

Looking at his clear eyes, Pei Tingsong’s heart was thickly filled with a stinging and swelling sensation. 

For him, first love was an open and bright date that they gave to each other. 

Suddenly inspired, Pei Tingsong quickly kissed Fang Juexia. “I know, I have an idea.”

“So fast?” Fang Juexia was very happy inside and thought that he was going to get to work now. “Then I won’t disturb you, I’ll go back to dance.”

“Don’t,” Pei Tingsong grabbed his wrist and insisted on keeping him by his side. “You keep me company. I have many books, and you can read and keep me company for a while. It’ll be very fast.”

Fang Juexia felt that was strange, but Pei Tingsong was always so strange, especially when he was writing.

“Then you don’t need me to help you?” Fang Juexia pointed to the electronic piano. “I can help play that melody for you.”

Pei Tingsong took out his pen and paper and set his comfortable swivel chair aside for Fang Juexia. He pulled out a chair from under the workbench and sat down on it. “You’re helping me just by staying with me.”

Okay ba, Fang Juexia happily replied inside. 

Still afraid of disturbing him, he sat quietly as he took in everything on his desk carefully. There were all kinds of pens in the pen holder, some desk lamps with peculiar shapes, many stacked books, notebooks, notes, and a pile of recording equipment. There was even a microtonal sampler in there. Fang Juexia only remembered that it was very expensive and could be used to record some sounds that were difficult to record. He had heard He Ziyan talk about it before, but no one could buy it. 

It turned out that Pei Tingsong had one; when he went back, he needed to tell He Ziyan that there was no need to buy one now. 

Fang Juexia picked up Poems by Tsvetaeva on the desk, and started reading it in silence, quietly keeping Pei Tingsong company by his side, waiting for him to write the lyrics.

Thinking of Fang Juexia’s words, Pei Tingsong followed his inspiration down its path and wrote. Every part of the melody was covered with words in his mind and gradually became more concrete, like a slow motion image appearing frame by frame, like a fragment of a story.

It only took 20 minutes for him to write out all the lyrics. Pei Tingsong took the piece of paper and looked over it again and again, humming the tune in his heart and matching the words up to it. 

“Done.” It was only when he got out of the mood created by writing the lyrics that he discovered that Fang Juexia had fallen asleep nestled in his swivel chair. The poetry collection was spread out over his stomach, his chest was slightly undulating under his white shirt, and his breathing was steady.

Pei Tingsong finally believed that there were certain kinds of people in this world who were born to be the muses of others.

Back during the time when he had constantly been struggling against things, he had thought that only being a cynic was grand. 

But if Fang Juexia was here, his muse was here, and now Pei Tingsong only wanted to be a small-scale third rate artist.

The workload for the mini-album was light, and Kaleido was always highly efficient when it came to creating music, so the preparatory work was completed soon. However, the producer for “Green Waves” put forth a request for a Fang Juexia solo version of “Night Trip” to be part of the OST.

This was also very common. Generally, a group song wouldn’t be picked as the theme song for a drama, because the point of BGM itself was to let the audience enter the situation in a better way and ensure that they get absorbed by the emotions of the scene, and the frequent change of singers in a group song would likely fracture the audience’s emotional foray into the scene. Star Chart expressed their understanding, and then specifically let Fang Juexia record a solo version. Pei Tingsong even proposed that he wanted to arrange the song again.

The producers of the drama production team saw this sincerity, and repeatedly expressed their gratitude.

After recording the song, Kaleido went to Qingdao specially to shoot the MV for the main song. Qingdao was green and very beautiful in summer. The picture of the six people running along the shady road of the Eight Great Passes, looking back and laughing together, was finally selected for the cover of the album “Last Summer“.

Later, they heard that there would be many singers and popular groups releasing new albums in July. Out of fear of running into that, Star Chart finally chose to release the mini-album early. On June 20, it released its first wave of the main song.

The main song “Last Summer” had a lively style, full of the summer feel and catchy. The first day’s playback numbers broke “Break Through”’s record. Many people came to listen to it just because of the good reputation the last album had garnered.

However, Kaleido’s comeback this time didn’t include many promotional performances, and so it lost out on a lot of exposure. Coupled with the achievements and staying power of the last album really being too large, it became very difficult for this one mini-album to surpass it all at once. For Kaleido, this was just a summer reward they had created for their fans, but for many people who were staring at their achievements, this undoubtedly became ammunition for mockery by their anti-fans. 

The audience numbers and amount of discussion for the mini-album were not as good as they had been for “Break Through”, so these antis began to play up the theory of “they’ve exhausted all of their tricks”. The album sales were high, so they just said that mini-albums were cheap, with ten such albums being worth one of a main album, so there was no value there. 

But Kaleido and Star Chart didn’t care about that very much. In order to promote the album, they participated in some more events, taking part in some reality shows and radio programs. The six members, who worked every day, simply didn’t have the time to care about such stuff. 

The whole situation changed a few days later. Just as Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia had guessed before, “Green Waves” really stood out from the many other idol dramas of mediocre quality, and soon became the top hot summer drama series.

The drama’s cinematography contained quite a lot of the cold tones found in the Japanese style of shooting, while the plot of the drama caught everyone’s heart. Almost everyone was pursuing the drama online, and popular posts centered around “Green Waves” emerged one after another. In addition, the episode with the highest rating was the one in which the male lead realized he loved the female lead: the two people, who rode bicycles to visit witnesses, met a group of children carrying fragrant flowers on the beach while on their way back to school; the flowers were tiny but beautiful.

This scene was filmed very beautifully, and the youthful internal troubles being able to be seen with just a glance. The BGM for this scene was coincidentally Fang Juexia’s solo version of “Night Trip”. The fusion between the music and the video was extremely wonderful, and in one move, this scene became the most famous scene out of the entire drama. 

Suddenly, this song that was composed and sung by Fang Juexia, and the lyrics for which were written by Pei Tingsong, entered the trending list for popular songs on major music platforms, and its playback numbers rose sharply. With the popularity of the drama, this song became the first pop song to go out of the entertainment circle in the summer, and its ranking exploded. All over the Internet were cover songs of this song, with snippets from this song becoming popular BGM for short video apps.

The popularity of love songs was always higher than that of dance music. With this song being used in more popular videos, it not only saw a growth in its own popularity, but this also had an unexpected impact on the original version sung by six people. Together with ‘Last Summer’, the whole summer mini-album leaped into the rankings, and its sales broke through the barrier again.

Because the songs were so popular, MLH’s promotional singing program specially invited Kaleido to their studio to record a six person version of “Night Trip” for a special stage episode.

For the TingJue CP fans, this song was even more special. Precisely because this was Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia’s first cooperative piece.

In order to celebrate the song breaking all these records, many TingJue CP stations also created a variety of corresponding peripheral items, and the TingJue God station named ‘Snow Imprisoned in Spring’ sent an even more meaningful gift.

[@Snow Imprisoned in Spring CP station: In order to celebrate the success of our Geges’ first cooperation, we specially contacted the Green Waves drama group, and after obtaining permission, we made two sets of summer school uniforms from the TV series (P1), including name-plates printed with the names of Pei Tingsong and Fang Juexia (P2). Two lines of lyrics have been embroidered to the front of the two white shirts, with one line per shirt. Placing them together, it becomes complete (P3 details). Hoping Geges will like this special gift. We will always miss every night trip from when we were young.]

On the day of the radio program, after the group members heard they could wear their own clothes, Fang Juexia put on the white shirt made by the Snow Imprisoned in Spring station, but he didn’t wear the nameplate. He thought that no one would find out because he really had too many white shirts.

Like Pei Tingsong, he had become a person who liked to “carry around contraband goods”.

The atmosphere while recording the radio program was very good. The host and the six people of Kaleido chatted like they were old friends chatting about the past; they also drank soda while talking about music and the past of their youths.

They sang an acapella version of “Last Summer” live on the program, which was different from the original dance music style, for it was very gentle.

After the main song was sung, the host cued into the audience interaction segment, randomly selecting some questions from the radio messages and posing them to Kaleido.

“Friend with the ID ‘Forever Domino’ says, ‘I especially like the feel when Kaleido writes their own songs. This time, the style is very different from the previous album, and I like it a lot. I want to ask, do Geges have any creative stories to share?”

He Ziyan said, “First of all, thanking this fan. In fact, the song production of this album allowed us to play with a more creative space than that with the last two albums. Besides the composer of the main song being a producer from overseas, the other non-main songs were all works of our members, such as Juexia’s “Night Trip”, Miaomiao’s “Daydream”, and my “Swimming Across this Sea”, and the lyrics for these were as always, written by our Xiao Pei.”

Lu Yuan nodded. “Xiao Pei made a big breakthrough this time. At the beginning, all of us were doubting whether he could even write love songs.”

Pei Tingsong spread his hands. “Using actions to prove myself.”

Jiang Miao said, “The arrangement of the solo version of ‘Night Trip’ was also completed by Xiao Pei. They say that there are many little details in it.”

“Oh, really?” The host asked, “Can you be specific?”

“Specific…” Pei Tingsong took a look at Fang Juexia and said, “There’s a bit of a difference in the drumline between the solo version and six-person version of ‘Night Trip,’ everyone can listen to it. Little friends with sharp ears may find some small Easter eggs.”

Ling Yi teased, “Tch, tch, selling some suspense.”

“It’s OK. If you guys can’t hear it, you guys can ask him at the autograph session.”

“Hahahaha.”

Pei Tingsong’s glance in his direction before answering made Fang Juexia feel strange. Unconsciously, he became lost in thought. He began to think about the difference between the two versions.

It seemed that the drumline in the solo version was a bit simpler. 

But was that all?

The host continued, “Audience member with ID ‘Two Fire is my little baby’…”

Before he could finish reading, Ling Yi couldn’t hold back his laugh, and then everyone began to laugh.

“What are you laughing at? Can’t I be a little baby?” He Ziyan raised his eyebrow. “Let me listen to what they said.”

The host continued, “She said, ‘Two Fire Ge, I’m a senior high school student in Year Three who has just finished college entrance examinations. Now it’s time to declare a major, and I have a major I really like in my heart, but my family has other ideas; they think another major has more prospects. Now I’m so confused ah, and I want to hear Gege’s thoughts?”

Fang Juexia said with a smile, “This is a tough problem.”

“Yes ah, I thought you wanted me to tell a joke.” He Ziyan spoke seriously after finishing his joke, “In fact, I guess your confusion isn’t about the fact that you can’t make a choice, but that you don’t want to give up the decision you already have made in your heart.”

Fang Juexia also agreed with his statement. Oftentimes, when people said things were very hard and they were very hesitant about it, it was because, in fact, they had long ago made up their minds. 

“If you already have the answer in your heart, you must work hard to try it out. Even if you fail in the end, you will not regret it. If you listen to others and choose the direction you don’t like, it’ll be very hard to stick to it. Looking back, it may become the most regretful thing in your life.”

Then He Ziyan laughed again. “This is my very casual and irresponsible suggestion ah. Everyone will find themselves being confused during this period of time. For the past 20 or so years, I have been confused the whole time, and I had no family to help make decisions for me, but I have also gotten through that time. Don’t be afraid; bravely going to do things is the only way.”

No family. 

Hearing him lightly sketch out his past, Fang Juexia felt a little distressed. He didn’t know much more about He Ziyan’s youth than these fans did. He Ziyan didn’t talk about it often, and normally, he was always joking around, like he had no worries.

But Fang Juexia also knew that no one would really be devoid of any worries in life.

The host sighed. “Everyone’s youth, every youth’s summer, maybe there are many stories ba. Only by moving forward will there be a bright future.”

He continued, “Audience member with ID ‘Green Light of Summer Years’ said, ‘Hello, I’m a fan of Kaleido and also a fan of the drama ‘Green Waves.’ Today is my birthday, and I’d like to ask Juexia Gege to sing ‘Night Trip’, is that okay?’”

When Fang Juexia heard this, he asked, “By myself?”

Jiang Miao turned his head and gestured to him. “Go ahead ba. Ling Yi sang his OST last time.”

“Yes ah.” Ling Yi saw a guitar to the side and suggested, “How about Xiao Pei goes along ba, he can play the guitar.”

So they hastility started up an acoustic solo version of “Night Trip”. Pei Tingsong took the guitar, plucked the strings and looked at Fang Juexia.

Fang Juexia nodded. The sound of the guitar was very gloomy, and suddenly, the atmosphere in the studio turned into one of several people sitting around on the grass while listening to music.

“Your window under the scorching sun, go there

Bicycles circling the tree lined road where

When you have time, the back seat is shining fair

Dusk is no different affair

The light shining on you and your hair

Just becomes different, I swear.”

His voice was very special; it was cold, but when singing such a love song, it contained a more subtle and hard to describe feel to it, which made it different from when others sang the song. 

Originally, it started off with a somewhat sad melody, piled with green and romantic words, but it gradually became a lot gentler. 

Pei Tingsong played the guitar and occasionally looked up at him. When their gazes connected, they smiled. 

“Stay away from other people’s eyes here

Wandering around an abandoned amusement park where

The sunburn on your cheekbones there

Is as beautiful as a kiss with due care

Do you like fireworks

I hope that’s the case here.”

Back when Fang Juexia had written this song, he had only relied on his pure musical talent and instinct to create it. The melody was very good, but there was no soul to support it from beginning to end, not until Pei Tingsong filled it with lyrics. Only then did it become complete. 

“The heat burns the moon fair

Shining debris falling into the waves’ lair

Sweat is always transparent, wet and white and bare

Crying cicadas cover up desire here

Flowers eat the sunshine of July air

The fragrance of your neck weaves a net of dreams rare.”

As he sang, Fang Juexia couldn’t help but think of when he had woken up in that small workshop and gotten the lyrics, and how his heart had sped up. 

“Really? Will it rain tonight?

I’m beginning to hate the rain

Cycling home will drench your shirt, right?

The coastline is overgrown with green algae, like my wishful thoughts of you

Flowers suddenly bloom, want to kiss your heart, nowhere to hide from view.”

Pei Tingsong was playing the guitar while singing the harmony for Fang Juexia in his own low voice, perfectly integrating into the song. In the solo version of the OST, the harmony was also sung by him.

“Wait? Let the day go dark again, I plea

I’m starting to like the night

Will darkness make you try to rely on me?

Don’t want the heat wave to end, why can’t July stretch out of sight

When we hold hands, my chest is hot, and I’m holding pure white light.”

All the things they had experienced together, all those memories that were vivid in their minds, they were all cut into countless fragmented metaphors by Pei Tingsong and inserted into the song, like a chaotic jigsaw puzzle. Putting it all together, it seemed to have nothing to do with them, and only seemed to be a story about first love. Besides them, no one else could trace the origin of this song back to its source. 

“If asked who you are going on a date with tonight

Answer with a smile, it’s the moon lit bright

You blame me for being good at lying, alright

I say summer is so long and a delight.”

Nobody knew, but everybody sang along.