When Shen Xingruo finished singing a song, everyone applauded and cheered with grace. Fans went wild with praise, while some idiot adjusted the room’s lighting and rang bells to create noise. It felt a bit like Shen Xingru’s solo concert.
The Werewolf game dragged on, and not many rounds were played throughout the night. Shen Xingru, always attracting attention, either got killed or voted out without getting a chance to speak properly, stifling her opportunities.
With the game progressing slowly, Shen Xingruo had no choice but to focus on singing. Up front, Li Chengfan was singing “Rescue,” but halfway through, he lost his breath and couldn’t hit the high notes. Then, another song, “On the Roof,” a duet, started playing.
Li Chengfan eagerly grabbed the mic and shouted to Shen Xingru, “Xingru, sing with me!”
Shen Xingruo responded with the mic, “I don’t know this one.”
Li Chengfan exclaimed, “You don’t know ‘On the Roof’? Then what do you know? Wait, let me find a duet for you…”
Meanwhile, Lu Xingyan, who still held the Werewolf card, cast a cold glance at Li Chengfan. But Li Chengfan, completely absorbed in wanting to sing a duet with the goddess, paid no attention to the deathly gaze Lu Xingyan projected.
As the list of popular duets scrolled down, songs like “Dimple,” “Love in Hiroshima,” and “Bare Face” appeared. Shen Xingruo stood up and walked over to take a look. After a while, she pointed to a song and asked Li Chengfan if he knew it.
Li Chengfan patted his chest, “Of course I do!”
And so, they happily switched songs.
Lu Xingyan had been keeping an eye on their movements, and it was the perfect moment to kill someone at night. He was absent-mindedly trying to end the round and signaled to use his knife.
He was prepared to snatch the mic, but when the song came on, it was “Kindly Break Up.”
Lu Xingyan immediately dismissed the idea of grabbing the mic; it was too ominous.
As the game reached the moment of truth, the moderator said, “Last night was a peaceful night.” ???
Lu Xingyan was hoping for death, but unexpectedly, the witch saved him.
Chen Zhu, who held the witch card this round, was naturally less skilled. When faced with critical decisions, she froze, and her misplaced confidence was terrifying.
At dawn, she came out and revealed her identity, choosing to save Lu Xingyan with a silver potion.
But that wasn’t all; she confidently accused Bian He, who held the seer card, of being a werewolf and led the crowd to vote him out.
With the witch gone after the night and the four werewolves voted out during the day, the last remaining god was voted out, and the game ended.
The werewolves’ victory came too quickly, like a tornado, and Shen Xingruo and Li Chengfan’s duet was still ongoing.
Chen Zhu was criticized for her poor skills but couldn’t find the words to respond. Instead, she took it out on Li Chengfan, dissing his terrible singing voice and then snatching the mic from him to continue singing with Shen Xingru.
With the game over, Lu Xingyan couldn’t be bothered to play anymore and walked over to the song selection booth.
At that moment, Zhai Jiajing and Shi Qin were choosing songs. Lu Xingyan stood behind them, glanced at the selection, and suddenly reached out to select “You’re Written in My Song,” which someone had requested.
Zhao Jiajing paused for a moment as she glanced at the screen. Lu Xingyan sat back on the sofa, drinking beer. By the time the song switched, he had grabbed the mic, but suddenly, Shen Xingruo asked, “Who requested this song?”
Zhao Jiajing casually looked over from Lu Xingyan’s direction and replied, “I did.”
Shen Xingruo handed her the mic and settled back into her seat, sipping her milk tea.
Before Shen Xingruo returned to her seat, Lu Xingyan casually tossed the mic into Xu Chengzhou’s lap.
Xu Chengzhou looked bewildered, “Why give it to me? I can’t sing!”
After passing through several hands, only Shi Qin could sing, so she and Zhao Jiajing began a duet.
Zhao Jiajing was a bit distracted, causing her to miss a few notes.
After Shen Xingruo returned, Lu Xingyan asked her, “Queen of Songs, why aren’t you singing this one?”
“It wasn’t my choice,” Shen Xingruo replied, taking a sip of her milk cap. “And I don’t know this song either.”
Before Lu Xingyan could say anything, Li Chengfan came over and asked Shen Xingruo if she knew “Run Away to the Moon,” as if he hadn’t gotten enough of the duet they had just sung.
Shen Xingruo nodded.
Lu Xingyan decided to hold back whatever he was about to say.
After waiting for a couple more songs, Lu Xingyan grabbed a mic from the table just before Li Chengfan could start singing. He sang the first verse:
“You’re a heartless and ruthless thief
You stole my heart, my breath, and my name”
Li Chengfan looked utterly confused, holding the mic and glancing around.
Shen Xingruo paused, subconsciously glancing at Lu Xingyan sitting beside her.
Lu Xingyan looked quite natural, finishing his verse and then gesturing for Shen Xingruo to sing.
Although Shen Xingruo didn’t understand what he was doing, she didn’t have time to think and continued singing the female part:
“You’re the kidnapper who abducted me
On the back of the motorcycle, I felt the wind, escaping mediocrity”
As Shen Xingruo sang, her gaze met Lu Xingyan’s and Li Chengfan’s.
Lu Xingyan looked like a tyrant who forcibly stole a woman, wearing an expression that seemed to say, “So what if I stole it?” It seemed perfectly natural.
“This planet has fifty billion people missing out every day
How lucky to have you watching the stars with me”
This was the first time Shen Xingruo had heard Lu Xingyan sing.
To be fair, Lu Xingyan was terrible at academics, but when it came to entertainment, he was either proficient or at least presentable in everything. After all, he earned enough pocket money; there had to be some results.
His voice was low but clean.
Trying to find the right word to describe it, Shen Xingruo suddenly thought of one: suave.
It was indeed suave.
She was distracted now, reaching the part of the duet.
She wasn’t sure why, but there was a strange sensation in her ears, something she didn’t feel when singing with Li Chengfan.
If she had to pinpoint the difference, Li Chengfan seemed like a fake in a duet, while Lu Xingyan was genuine.
As they sang together, Li Chengfan stared in disbelief.
He understood now.
He understood completely!!!
Unable to contain his excitement over this earth-shattering revelation, Li Chengfan crouched and hurried over to Zhao Langming, bursting with gossip, “Damn it! No wonder this guy, Lu Xingyan, tried to steal my song! He’s fallen for her! I thought he was just kidding!!!”
After examining him from head to toe, Zhao Langming offered just two words, “Idiot.”
Others, witnessing their romantic duet, felt something slightly off.
If it were just camaraderie, Shen Xingruo wasn’t the first desk mate for Lu Xingyan, nor was she his first female desk mate. So why hadn’t he shown such affectionate gestures or sung love songs with other female classmates…?
Not just others, even Shen Xingruo found it all a bit strange.
But it wasn’t just Lu Xingyan who seemed strange; she felt a bit strange herself, unnatural, as if her ears were burning.
Luckily, it was dimly lit, so no one would notice her flushed ears.
As the song ended, she casually took a few sips of beer from the table, so no one would suspect anything wrong with her flushed face.
It was ten o’clock at the karaoke, and some well-behaved ones had to head home.
About ten people remained for the barbecue.
Lu Xingyan and his group headed to the barbecue stall first, while Shen Xingruo escorted Shi Qin and the others to the nearby subway station before following the shared location Lu Xingyan sent.
Maybe it was the two sips of beer, but Shen Xingruo still felt her ears and neck burning.
Even the summer night breeze felt hot.
The subway exit was only about five to six hundred meters from the barbecue stall. This small area was a gathering spot for late-night snacks near the university town. It was said that they had all been shut down when the city was striving for the title of a civilized city, but now, with the title secured, the late-night snack stalls had sprung back to life.
On the roadside, a long row of stalls with blue or red roofs stood, their warm yellow light bulbs and incandescent lights intermingling. The aroma of seasonings and cooking oil wafted through the air, weaving a lively and ordinary atmosphere on this early summer night.
Shen Xingruo checked the location on her phone. She had a strange feeling that Lu Xingyan had been moving subtly, as if swaying back and forth within a small radius, centered around a single point.
She was puzzled.
Suddenly, the clamor of a brawl ahead caught her attention. A stall named “Fat Brother Barbecue” had thrown out a few stools, and from a distance, it looked like a fight was breaking out.
She hesitated for a moment before witnessing a guy grabbing another guy’s collar and punching him in the stomach relentlessly. The guy being punched kept retreating until he finally fell to the ground.
Shen Xingruo sensed trouble.
She didn’t know the guy being beaten, but the one doing the beating looked like Xu Chengzhou. He was wearing a particularly flashy fluorescent green printed T-shirt today, really standing out.
Xu Chengzhou was in a fight, so…
Shen Xingruo didn’t know what was going on, but she knew the only thing she could do now was not to add to their troubles.
She walked over to another barbecue stall next to Fat Brother Barbecue, getting closer to watch the situation.
As she approached, she saw the guy in the black T-shirt grab an unopened bottle of beer and smash it at the feet of a muscular guy opposite him. The beer foamed out, and fragments scattered everywhere. The guy in the black T-shirt twisted the muscular guy’s wrist and pulled it outward, his face turning pale.
“Didn’t I warn you to watch your mouth? Last time, you backed down pretty quickly, didn’t you?” His voice was as lazy as usual, but there was a strong sense of hostility in it when you listened closely.
Shen Xingruo recognized him immediately.
The guy in the black T-shirt was Lu Xingyan.
From her angle, she could only see half of Lu Xingyan’s profile. His soft bangs hung over his forehead, and a few strands of short hair stood up restlessly on top of his head. There was no expression on his face, completely different from his usual pretentious demeanor.
Shen Xingruo had never seen Lu Xingyan get into a real fight. His glorious achievements seemed to be only rumors circulating among his peers. The two times there had been signs of a scuffle before, the other party had backed down before it even started.
This led her to once think that the rumors of Lu Xingyan being good at fighting were just his friends hyping him up.
But now—
Zhao Langming was handling someone while also giving Lu Xingyan a kick from behind, hitting the muscular guy’s leg joint accurately. The muscular guy’s legs went weak as if he was about to kneel.
Lu Xingyan and Zhao Langming worked together seamlessly. They quickly released their hold, and Lu Xingyan grabbed the guy’s hair and pressed him down, then stepped on his back to keep him down, and finally twisted one of his arms behind his back.
The guy on the ground let out a scream akin to a slaughtered pig.
Initially, Shen Xingruo had been prepared to assess the situation and, if Lu Xingyan and his group couldn’t handle it, to call the police. But as she stood there watching, she suddenly felt her concern was somewhat unnecessary.
“Why the hell are you screaming like a pig? I haven’t even dislocated your arm yet, and you’re already crying for your mommy,” Lu Xingyan said lazily.
“Lu Xingyan, F*ck you! I asked ages ago! It’s not like she’s your woman, so why the hell are you getting worked up?” The guy on the ground’s veins bulged, his face and neck turning red, both in a state of congestion.
Suddenly, Lu Xingyan grabbed his hair and pulled upward, then leaned in slightly and whispered in his ear, “How the hell do you know it’s not now, or in the future?”
Shen Xingruo didn’t hear this exchange.
Her attention was focused, and the guy’s voice on the ground sounded somewhat familiar.
She shifted to the side and saw his face, finally remembering—this guy sat in front of her during the first monthly exam, the one who had made inappropriate jokes and almost started a fight with her.
Five minutes later, the brawl at the barbecue stall ended.
Perhaps someone had called the police, as police cars were heard coming in this direction.
Someone yelled, “The cops are here,” and then everyone demonstrated the swift response expected of brawlers. Within ten seconds, they scattered like birds, even the ones who had been beaten lying on the ground gritting their teeth as they got up and ran away, limping.
Only Lu Xingyan remained calm. He took out the remaining cash from his pocket and handed it to the owner, apologizing politely.
Shen Xingruo couldn’t stand his slow movements and pulled him, rushing toward the direction of the subway station. “Hurry!”
Lu Xingyan was momentarily surprised, taking several seconds to realize it was Shen Xingru. He reached back and grabbed her wrist, then explained with experience, “Why are you in such a rush? They’re not coming for us. With the police response time in Star City, they wouldn’t even make it to the snack stalls before they close.”
Shen Xingruo gave him a skeptical glance but didn’t slow down.
Lu Xingyan then pointed back with a seasoned gesture. “Don’t believe me? Look, that car is heading straight over…”
Before he could finish his sentence, the police car behind them turned onto the side road, and then—
Stopped.
“Oh, crap! Run!”
“This is unbelievable!”