65: Chapter 65 The diva says she's going to sleep, but her hands are still getting restless.

Saturday evening.

When Jiang Fan arrived at the entrance of Xu Qingya's small villa, a push notification from Tencent Music popped up on his phone.

The three songs, "sorrow relief," "the ordinary road," and "deep sea," had officially launched at eight o'clock this morning.

He clicked into the backend to take a look at the data.

"sorrow relief" had surpassed eight million streams, "the ordinary road" had six point eight million, and "deep sea" was a bit slower, but it had also crossed the five million mark.

Combined, the three songs had exceeded twenty million total streams in less than twelve hours since their release.

Jiang Fan's name had completely blown up.

The comment section was even more exaggerated.

Jiang Fan scrolled down through a few comments.

"What is this guy's background anyway? Three songs, three different styles—couldn't every single one of them be a lead single?"

"Has the person above just gotten internet access in their village? This is the Tomorrows Star champion, the security guard from before."

"I'm begging you, could you not release three at once? Which one am I supposed to put on repeat first?"

Jiang Fan exited the backend and tucked his phone back into his pocket.

He entered the door lock password directly and pushed the door open to enter.

As he changed his shoes in the entryway, he caught the scent of stewed pork ribs.

The kitchen door was open.

Xu Qingya stood by the stove, wearing a black T-shirt he had left there last time.

The hem covered the middle of her thighs, revealing half of her fair, white legs underneath.

She was shuffling around in a pair of fuzzy slippers.

"You're here? Pour yourself some water." She didn't turn around.

Jiang Fan walked into the kitchen, grabbed a cup from the sterilizer to get some water, took a sip, and watched her stir-fry the ribs in the pan.

"Why are you wearing my clothes?"

"Your clothes have been here for half a month; it'd be a waste not to wear them."

Xu Qingya poked the ribs with a pair of chopsticks; they went through easily, so she turned off the heat.

"Did those three songs of yours launch today?"

"Yeah."

"How's the data?"

"It's alright."

Xu Qingya wiped her hands and looked up at him.

"'It's alright'—what does that mean in numbers?"

"Ten hours after launch, the total streams are just over twenty million."

Xu Qingya's hands paused for two seconds.

For a newcomer's debut work, having three songs break twenty million total streams in half a day—this kind of data basically didn't exist in the industry.

Even for her, the first-day streams for "Red Bean" were only sixteen million, and that was with the support of her fanbase as a diva and the full efforts of the company's operations department.

And Jiang Fan?

Zero fan base, zero pre-promotion, zero marketing investment.

Purely raw.

"You're quite calm about it." Xu Qingya served the ribs.

"Why wouldn't I be calm? If the songs are good, the data won't be bad."

The logic was sound, but coming from him, it sounded incredibly punchable.

Xu Qingya carried the plate out, and Jiang Fan followed, carrying the soup pot to the dining table.

Four dishes and one soup.

Jiang Fan picked up a piece of rib and chewed it twice.

"Your cooking has improved."

"No kidding. Who do you think I practiced for?"

Once the words were out, Xu Qingya paused, stunned by herself.

She lowered her head to ladle the soup, her earlobes turning red.

Jiang Fan didn't harp on that sentence and honestly just ate his meal.

Some advantages are fine to take once, but keep pushing it and you'll get beaten up.

After eating, the two of them huddled on the sofa.

Xu Qingya opened her tablet to check the real-time charts on Tencent Music.

"sorrow relief" had already surged to third place on the new song chart.

"In a few more days, aren't you going to surpass me?" Xu Qingya rolled her eyes at him.

Jiang Fan didn't refute this.

For this kind of question, answering "no" is perfunctory, and answering "yes" is asking for death.

The smartest thing to do is to shut up.

Xu Qingya flipped to the comment section for "deep sea" and scrolled down one by one.

The comment with the most likes was pinned: "I am a patient with depression, and I've listened to this twenty times. Finally, someone has sung the feelings I couldn't put into words."

There were over three thousand replies underneath, all of them sharing their own stories.

As Xu Qingya scrolled, her finger stopped.

She knew about Shen Nian's situation.

Depression, having her songs stolen, and nearly being buried by the entire industry.

"You saved her."

"I just wrote a song."

Xu Qingya didn't continue the conversation.

She opened the Weibo trending list again.

Seventh: #Jiang Fan releases three new songs in one day#

Twelfth: #sorrow relief lyrics are too good#

Eighteenth: #deep sea emo warning#

"Your current popularity is even fiercer than it was the year I debuted."

Xu Qingya kicked him, not hard, her slipper brushing against his calf.

Jiang Fan took her ankle and gave it a casual squeeze.

"Why are you kicking me?"

"I don't like the look of you."

On the TV, a recently popular xianxia drama was playing.

The two of them just huddled there, chatting aimlessly, neither in a rush to talk.

——

After nine o'clock in the evening, Jiang Fan's phone rang.

Li Cheng.

"I'll take this." Jiang Fan picked up his phone, glanced at the screen, and said to Xu Qingya.

Xu Qingya made a casual gesture and continued watching TV.

Jiang Fan walked onto the balcony to answer the call.

"What's up?"

"Have you seen the data?" Li Cheng's voice was uncontrollably excited.

"I saw it."

"Brother Fan, give me some reaction! The three songs breaking a hundred million total streams within three days is not a dream!"

"Mm."

"'Mm'? Just a 'Mm'? Why are you like an old monk?"

"Anything else?"

Li Cheng choked for two seconds, probably rolling his eyes on the other end of the line.

"Fine, fine, fine, you're awesome. You're the boss. I'm hanging up."

The call ended.

Jiang Fan stood on the balcony for a while.

The night breeze blew over, carrying the scent of paulownia flowers.

Footsteps came from behind him.

Xu Qingya walked to the balcony doorway and leaned against the doorframe.

"Come in. It's windy outside."

Jiang Fan turned and went inside.

The lights in the living room had been adjusted to a warm color at some point.

"Are you leaving tonight?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

"I'm asking you."

"I'm not leaving."

Xu Qingya turned off the TV.

"Then go take a shower. The towels are on the second shelf of the cabinet. Don't use my bath towel; I bought you a new one, the gray one."

Jiang Fan stood up and walked toward the bathroom.

The bathroom door closed.

As the hot water poured down, Jiang Fan took a look at his system panel.

[Current Lifespan Value: 18,500 points]

[Remaining Lifespan: 18 days 6 hours]

It was so much better than when he only had one day left.

He turned off the showerhead and pulled open the second shelf of the cabinet.

The new gray bath towel was folded neatly and placed in the most conspicuous spot.

Next to it was a set of new pajamas.

Jiang Fan picked up the bath towel to dry himself, then picked up the pajamas and looked at them for two seconds.

This diva was saying "Are you leaving?" while her preparation work was absolutely watertight.

He put on the pajamas and walked out of the bathroom. Xu Qingya had already changed into loungewear and was sitting cross-legged on the sofa, holding a tablet and looking at something.

"Come here."

Jiang Fan walked over and sat down beside her.

Xu Qingya turned the tablet around to show him.

On the screen was a music review, with the title: "Jiang Fan: One Person Overturns the Table of the Chinese Music Industry."

Jiang Fan scanned it for a moment.

"Clickbait."

"The content isn't bad either. Look at this paragraph: 'From the breathtaking "blue and white porcelain" on the talent show stage to the "lonely warrior" written live in the Livestream Room, Jiang Fan has completed in less than a month the path that most musicians can't finish in ten years. What's even scarier is that no one has seen his ceiling yet.'"

After reading, Xu Qingya put down the tablet.

"The person who wrote this article is named Zhou Tianhe, an old veteran in the music review circle who doesn't praise people easily."

After saying this, Xu Qingya stood up, put on her slippers, and walked toward the bedroom.

After walking two steps, she turned back to look at him.

She didn't say a word.

But the meaning in that look was very clear.

Jiang Fan turned off the living room lights and followed her.

The bedroom lights were dimmed to the lowest setting, barely illuminating the outline of the bedside table.

Xu Qingya lay down first, turned over, and faced away from him.

She pulled the quilt up to her shoulders.

"Sleep."

"Just sleeping?"

Xu Qingya turned back and glared at him. That look could kill even in the dark.

"…Good night."

"Good night."

It was quiet for about thirty seconds.

Under the quilt, Xu Qingya's hand reached over.

Five fingers precisely gripped little Jiang Fan.

Jiang Fan looked down—though it was pitch black and he couldn't see anything.

"Who said they were sleeping just now?"

There was no answer in the darkness.

The strength in her hand tightened a little.