161: Chapter 161 This distance seems a bit too close...

Shen Qingxue stared at him for three seconds, the scrutiny in her gaze growing thicker and thicker.

"Are you sure it's not because your arrangement progress hasn't kept up, so you temporarily came up with this method to make up for it?"

Lu Li's expression froze for a fraction of a second, then quickly returned to normal.

"How is that possible! Am I that kind of person?"

"You are."

Shen Qingxue answered without the slightest hesitation.

Lu Li was choked up for a moment, opened his mouth and closed it again, and finally sighed resignedly.

"Fine, I admit, the progress is just a tiny bit slow, but it's definitely not because of playing games. It's because... inspiration needs to settle!"

Shen Qingxue looked at him expressionlessly.

"Go on, I'm listening."

Lu Li felt a bit guilty under her gaze, but still braced himself and continued talking nonsense.

"Think about it, a good song is like good wine; it takes time to ferment. Aren't I just letting it settle? Only after it settles can we produce a masterpiece."

"Then have you finished playing the yuanshen event?"

"Uh... almost, almost. How about the two of us do it together then?"

Shen Qingxue took a deep breath and slowly let it out, seeming to try hard to keep herself calm.

"So what you mean now is that your arrangement isn't done yet, but you can sing harmonies for me as compensation?"

Lu Li nodded repeatedly.

"Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly what I mean."

"Besides, think about it, if I sing harmonies, our coordination will be even more tacit. We can even use this version directly during the competition. How great is that?"

Shen Qingxue leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, and stared at him for several seconds.

Lu Li felt his hair stand on end from her gaze and was just about to add a few more sentences to remedy the situation when Shen Qingxue suddenly spoke.

"Fine."

"Huh?"

Lu Li was stunned for a moment, thinking he had misheard.

"I said, fine."

Shen Qingxue repeated, her tone still light, but the corners of her mouth curved up into a slight, unnoticeable arc.

"However, I have conditions."

Lu Li hurriedly nodded.

"Go ahead, what conditions?"

"After this song is recorded, you must finish the arrangement. You can't drag it out; the competition is only a few days away."

"No problem!"

Lu Li patted his chest to assure her, his expression as solemn as could be.

"Also, starting tomorrow, you are not allowed to play on your phone during daily song practice. You must accompany me for the whole session."

Lu Li hesitated for a fraction of a second, then gritted his teeth.

"Fine! If I don't play, I won't play!"

After saying that, he muttered silently in his heart.

I'm lying to you. Just you wait, I'll drag you into playing together then. That event gives nine hundred stones, can you hold back and not log in?

Shen Qingxue glanced at him. Although she was still somewhat suspicious, a trace of a smile still appeared on her face.

"Shall we start now then?"

"Let's start right now!"

Lu Li stood up from his chair, walked over to the equipment, brought up the accompaniment for "come on", and adjusted the parameters.

"Come, come, come, you take the verse first, let me hear the feel of it."

Shen Qingxue nodded, then demonstrated the verse section.

After listening, Lu Li nodded.

Hmm~ Very nice.

If the harmony part is added, it will be even more perfect.

"Right, for the chorus part, I'll start coming in with harmonies from the first half. You take the main melody, and I'll lay down a lower octave underneath. See how the effect is."

Lu Li thought for a moment and said.

"Okay."

Shen Qingxue didn't waste words, readjusted the position of her headphones, and waited for the accompaniment to start again.

The prelude sounded once more.

This time, Lu Li's voice chimed in just right the moment she sang the first word of the chorus.

His voice was a bit deeper than usual, steadily supporting Shen Qingxue's clear main melody.

Their voices intertwined together—one high, one low, one bright, one dark.

The air in the living room seemed to have grown a bit softer.

After finishing the song once, Shen Qingxue took off her headphones and tilted her head to look at Lu Li.

"How is it?"

"It sounds good."

Lu Li gave a thumbs up, his expression rarely serious.

"But in the second half of the chorus, you can rein in your trailing notes a bit more. The current handling is a bit too full. Leave a little room, and the emotion will be more moving."

Shen Qingxue thought about it and nodded.

"Then let's do it again."

The third time.

Following what Lu Li said, Shen Qingxue reined in the trailing notes of the second half of the chorus a bit more, no longer deliberately drawing them out, but letting them fall gently.

The effect was immediate.

Listening to it, Lu Li's lips curved up slightly.

"Yes, that's the feeling."

Seeing his expression in the mirror, Shen Qingxue's lips also unconsciously curved upward.

The two of them continued to grind and coordinate further down.

There was a rap section in the middle which Lu Li took care of; Shen Qingxue only needed to pad two words at the end of each sentence.

While recording the rap, Lu Li stood in front of the microphone, hitting the rhythm very accurately and pronouncing words clearly, with no trace of the awkwardness from the first time he sang this song.

Shen Qingxue listened from the side, a flash of surprise crossing her eyes.

She knew Lu Li's singing skills weren't actually bad, but she didn't expect him to be able to hold his own in rap as well.

It was a small surprise.

"How was it?"

After finishing the recording, Lu Li took off his headphones and raised an eyebrow at her.

"Not bad."

Shen Qingxue withdrew her gaze, her tone plain, but the arc of her mouth betrayed her.

Lu Li grinned and didn't expose her little tsundere thoughts.

The two of them continued to pick at the details downward.

Going through it section by section, polishing it sentence by sentence.

Lu Li would occasionally lean over, pointing at a certain line in the lyrics booklet, and tell her how to handle the breath control here and how to lay down the emotional buildup there.

He leaned very close.

So close that Shen Qingxue could smell the faint scent of laundry detergent on him—fresh and pleasant.

"Look at here, don't drag it out too much, just a tiny bit, and the emotion will have more of a progressive feel..."

Lu Li said, pointing at the lyrics, then turned his head to look at Shen Qingxue, wanting to confirm if she understood.

The distance between the two of them became extremely close at this moment.

So close that Shen Qingxue could see the arc of his eyelashes, and could see that hint of seriousness and focus deep in his eyes.

Her breathing hitched slightly.

Her heartbeat suddenly started acting a bit abnormal.

"Do you get it?"

Lu Li didn't notice her abnormality and was still waiting for her response.

"Mm."

Shen Qingxue wanted to back away a bit to widen the distance, but her feet seemed to be nailed to the ground and wouldn't move.

It wasn't because she couldn't move.

It was because she couldn't bear to move.

The moment this thought popped up, Shen Qingxue herself was startled.

Lu Li had already turned back to keep looking at the lyrics, his fingers tracing along the paper while muttering under his breath.

Shen Qingxue looked at his focused profile, a nameless emotion welling up deep in her heart.

A little sweet, yet a little flustered.

"Look here, open up a bit more when the time comes, no need to hold back..."

Lu Li leaned in close again.

This time, after pointing at the lyrics, he raised his head to look at Shen Qingxue, wanting to see her reaction.

Their gazes collided within an extremely close distance.

The living room fell silent for a split second.

Lu Li was also stunned for a moment.

Only then did he notice, uh... the distance between the two of them seemed... a bit too close.

If it were any closer, they might just kiss.

Of course, he didn't have that kind of guts either.

"Ahem."

Lu Li still relied on his old reliable trick, letting out a tactical cough and nonchalantly taking half a step back.

"Um... right here, why don't you give it a try."

Shen Qingxue lowered her eyelashes, casting her gaze back onto the lyrics booklet.

"Okay."

Her voice was muffled, her earlobes completely red.

But she didn't dodge, didn't even move, just stood right there, her fingers unconsciously drawing circles on the lyrics booklet.

The accompaniment sounded once more.

Shen Qingxue began to sing, her voice carrying a trace of something indescribable compared to just now.

To be exact, it should be emotion.

Standing beside her and listening to her voice, Lu Li suddenly felt a strange sensation welling up in his heart as well.

He hurriedly shook his head, casting away those messy thoughts, and focused on singing his own harmony.