People in Zongman are masters of copying romance novels

"You're going out in such heavy rain without an umbrella. You'll catch a cold tomorrow," he said.

"Ah... Aoki-senpai." Hong Xia first looked up at the transparent umbrella held above her head, then greeted him and began to explain, "The drumsticks I've been using for a long time have a problem, so I came here to buy a new one."

As she spoke, she lifted the unopened drumstick in her arms.

Glancing sideways, he noticed that half of Hongxia's body was still wet with rain, so Aokijie tilted the transparent umbrella towards the girl next to him.

He continued, "It's not too late to buy it when the rain subsides."

The two of them started walking again. The umbrella was a little small. In order to shield Hongxia from the rain, Aokisuke's clothes, which were not wet at first, were now being eroded by the heavy rain.

"Is it too late..."

Hong Xia blinked, hesitated for a moment, and then said,

"Everyone in the band is working so hard. We can't let the band practice end just because of me."

Aoki Jie did not respond immediately, and took a few steps forward before he spoke.

"I'm telling you... Ijichi-kun, you just put too much pressure on yourself sometimes. If there's something wrong with your drumsticks, even if we have to suspend practice for a while in this heavy rain, everyone in the band will definitely understand."

The girl took a deep breath, raised her head slightly, and fixed her gaze on Aokisuke's profile.

Putting too much pressure on myself...

Hongxia suddenly remembered what Aoki-senpai had said to her next to the vending machine several days ago, and then she suddenly remembered what Kita Ikuyo had told her about Aoki-senpai the day before yesterday.

"The most important thing for a band is to be happy. Results are secondary. Don't impose the pressure of reality on the band."

Senior Aoki did exactly what he said and did not impose the pressure of life on the band, but at the same time, his actions contradicted what he said.

When Aoki-senpai said, "Ijichi-san, you sometimes put too much pressure on yourself," he was also bearing some of the pressure himself.

He retracted his eyes and looked forward. The raindrops fell on the ground, splashing small water droplets.

My thoughts are a little confused.

Aoki Suke is a very good guitar player, and his ability in original arrangement and lyrics writing is also formidable, as evidenced by the song "Lemon".

Hongxia didn't know why Aoki, a senior with such level of ability, wanted to join the Ending Band, but she knew that Aoki Jie did not urge his teammates when facing financial pressure alone, and did not require his teammates to achieve good results in the competition two months later because he believed in the members of the Ending Band.

So even if the pressure is high, it doesn't matter...

The girl opened her mouth, perhaps wanting to say something, but after hesitating for a moment, she stopped herself.

Hong Xia held the unopened drumstick tightly in her arms and raised her eyes again.

The girl who usually wore a bright smile on her face now had a very serious expression on her face. Her wild thoughts were stopped in her throat by the words "pretend to be ignorant for now". She just opened her mouth and said a few words briefly.

"Aoki-senpai, I don't want to disappoint everyone in the band, and I don't want to disappoint you either."

"..."

Aoki Jie was stunned for a moment, then looked at the girl next to him.

Shimokitazawa Station is not far from [STARRY]. After exiting the station and walking for a distance, I ran into Hong Xia again. We chatted as we walked, and by then we were almost at the stairs of [STARRY].

Going down the stairs, Aokijie put away the umbrella in his hand and put the transparent umbrella to the side of the door. Then, he responded,

"The band is a whole. Even if someone has a problem one day, everyone in the band will not be disappointed."

Hong Xia, who was pushing the door, paused for a moment.

Without looking back at Aokisuke, she shook her head.

"Senior Aoki, I will try my best."

......

On Thursday, we practiced until about eight o'clock, and then several members of the band went home.

On Friday, nothing happened the whole day. I went to school and came home from school as usual, and went to the livehouse to help out and practice as usual.

The weather cleared up slightly until Saturday, but there was still occasional light rain.

The band’s first official live performance ended and began.

Chapter 36: Expressing Through Song and Music

Even the raindrops in early June are still warm and cool, and you can feel a slight chill when they fall on your body.

On Saturday, the weather was cloudy and the outdoor temperature was still around 20 degrees Celsius.

Because it was the weekend, Aoki Jie didn't get up too early. He woke up naturally around nine o'clock. Considering that it was late, he didn't eat breakfast. He simply washed up and cleaned the rental house. Then he started reading the book "The Suzumiya Haruhi" that he had bought earlier in the room.

I have been reading it in my free time these two days, so there are only a few pages left. Aoki is currently hesitating whether to buy a few more sequels.

After that, he watched "The Suzumiya Haruhi" for a while and studied math problems for a while until lunch time. Aoki Jie went out with a garbage bag to throw away the garbage and bought a lunch box on the way.

The fried chicken bento I made at noon had a freshly made fried chicken. The skin of the fried chicken was not softened by the soup, and it tasted good. The price was reasonable.

After eating, he finished watching "The Suzumiya Haruhi". At about one o'clock, Aoki Suke put on his guitar bag and took a transparent umbrella and walked towards the tram station.

When he arrived at the livehouse, although it was still early, the girls from the band arrived earlier than him. Because today was the band's first official live performance, they were currently in the [STARRY] recording studio, training to prepare for the performance in the evening.

When Aoki Jie arrived, the girls were halfway through playing together. He did not go up to disturb them, but sat aside and listened quietly to their performance.

However, after listening for a while, Aokisuke frowned slightly——

Ryo, Pochi-chan's playing had some issues, but overall the mistakes were not particularly big, and Kita-chan also performed normally on the guitar.

But Hongxia...

Aoki Jie always felt that she was somewhat absent-minded at the moment. Obviously, the rhythm of the other girls was not a big problem, but at this moment, her drum beats were frequently wrong.

When the first round of practice was over and the second round was halfway through, Aoki hesitated for a moment and chose to interrupt the training of several people.

"Ijichi-kun, I can't seem to keep up with the drum beat... Is there something wrong?"

Hong Xia stopped beating the drum with great effort.

After taking a breath, she responded.

"Yes, I'm a little tired, but I'll catch up next time."

Aokisuke opened his mouth and wanted to say something, but after hesitating for a moment, he simply nodded.

On to the third training.

The third ensemble practice was indeed much better than the previous two, both in terms of the overall rhythm and Hongxia's drum beats.

However, compared to before, her level has indeed dropped slightly, and her rhythm is still somewhat flawed.

Maybe I'm not in a good shape today. If there's just a little flaw, then it should be okay, right?

Feeling a little uneasy for some reason, Aokijie shook his head, trying to get rid of the random thoughts in his mind.

After all, it’s my first live performance, so it will definitely be a success.

With this thought in mind, I stayed in the livehouse until evening.

......

There are only about three minutes left before the band's first live performance on stage, and the live is about to begin.

then--

At the end, several girls from the band took their instruments onto the stage. Aoki finally learned from the manager of Xingge why Hongxia was in a bad state today.

"She had a low-grade fever today after getting caught in the rain the day before yesterday. I took her to the doctor this morning, and the doctor said it wasn't a serious problem. She felt better after taking the fever-reducing medicine. She insisted on going on stage today, so..."

The feeling of uneasiness that had been suppressed in my heart suddenly surged to the top of my heart.

......

End The band is ready.

The lights on the stage dimmed for a moment, and when they came back on, the sound of Hongxia's drum set rang out.

No problem.

Immediately afterwards, the bass and guitar joined the rhythm, coordinating with Hongxia's drum beats.

No problem.

After 30 seconds, the drum beat speeds up slightly.

No problem.

Around 45 seconds into the chorus, the drum beat speeds up again.

Aoki Jie had listened to the song "That Band" countless times after finishing the band's training, so he could clearly hear whether there were any flaws in the performance of the song.

And now...

"Boom-"

Entering the chorus, according to the music score of "That Band", the drummer should have been hitting the cymbals and drumheads continuously at a very fast rhythm. However, after the chorus began, Hong Xia was a beat late on the first syllable where he should have been hitting the drum.

Then, the more mistakes you make, the easier it is to panic, and the more panic you get, the easier it is to make mistakes—

At this moment.

On the live stage, Hongxia's breathing was a little rapid.

She clearly realized that there was something wrong with her rhythm and wanted to adjust, but she was somewhat helpless at this moment.

"I can't keep up at all. My training state is completely different from my usual training state."

Pochi-chan, Kita, and Ryo all made no mistakes. Only Hongxia's drumming was slightly behind by a beat.

"I'm feeling overwhelmed and can't keep up with the drum beats. What should I do?"

I tried my best to keep up with the music while maintaining the speed, but blindly accelerating would directly lead to a complete disruption of the rhythm.

'What should I do?'

Holding the drumsticks in his hands, he tried his best to keep up with the rhythm of the band, but the ensemble that had no problems at all during daily training now made mistakes no matter how hard he played.

"I clearly said I'd prove it to Aoki-senpai, and I clearly said I'd improve even under pressure..."

The more she tried to keep up with the rhythm of the rest of the band, the more the drum beats became out of sync. However, Hong Xia could still clearly hear where she was going wrong.

"I can't muster any strength..."

She lowered her eyes to look at the drum, then raised her head to look at the densely packed audience below the stage. Hong Xia suddenly felt inexplicably the mocking gazes of the audience below the stage.

I want to try my best to ignore it and readjust my rhythm.

She bit her lower lip lightly, her forearms completely limp from the continuous beatings, and beads of sweat covered her forehead.

'Keep up the tempo, please, keep up the tempo!'

"I don't want to fail, absolutely not!"

until--

"Snapped."

As the second chorus began, Hong Xia couldn't hold the drumstick tightly no matter how hard she tried. The floor of the live stage finally collided with the drumstick, making a crisp sound.

The drumstick fell out of his hand, and Hong Xia was completely stunned.

All the thoughts in her mind drifted away. The girl blinked, lowered her head slightly, and stared blankly at the drumstick on the stage floor.

The band's dream was slightly shaken for the first time when the drumsticks fell out of their hands.

offstage.

The uneasiness in his heart turned into reality, and Aokisuke sighed slightly.

After tidying up the tables around him, he took his guitar and headed towards the recording studio of [STARRY].

......

About three minutes later.

The four girls who had finished their band walked into the recording studio.

The atmosphere was a little heavy. After several people entered the recording studio, no one spoke first. The air in the room with five people was overly silent.

After a while, Kita Ikuyo, who was sitting next to him, tried to speak out.

"Well, that... Senior Hong Xia, it's normal to make mistakes occasionally. Only with mistakes can we make progress. Next time, I will definitely succeed completely."

The sound stopped and the air returned to silence.