People in Zongman are masters of copying romance novels

Listening to Aoki Suke's singing, Hongxia in the audience suddenly felt a little dazed.

She thought of Aokisuke's experience and the words he had written in the introduction to "Lemon".

Now, at this moment, Aoki-senpai who is singing this song, is the unwillingness in this song singing to himself?

For some reason, I had to give up music, and I even lost my guitar. I thought about giving up, but I couldn't break the little habits I had developed from practicing, and I was filled with reluctance...

If so, how much courage does it take for Aoki-senpai to sing this music, this music that is like rubbing salt into wounds...

Why sing this music?

Aoki Jie also didn't know what Hong Xia was thinking at this moment -

[STARRY] On the stage, he sang this song with all his might, but he felt a little uncomfortable in his heart.

Empathy is the most basic human ability.

The song "So I Gave Up Music" is really too heavy, and the description of dreams in the song is extremely cruel.

But it is extremely real——

The goal of 'achieving your dream' is probably a hundred times more difficult than the goal of 'becoming a millionaire'.

Due to the interference of various factors in reality, people choose to give up after failing to persist, and various other reasons, very few people can finally stick to their original aspirations and fulfill their dreams.

In his previous life, Aoki Jie had imagined that he would become a practitioner in the gaming industry in the future, but due to family pressures, he finally chose a major that had nothing to do with the gaming industry.

The dream slipped away before my eyes, and all the future related to the dream in my heart turned into nothing.

All the efforts, persistence and struggle have come to nothing.

So... just give up from the beginning.

Don’t fantasize from the beginning, don’t have dreams from the beginning, and abandon your extravagant hopes from the beginning.

But is it really okay to do this?

The performance never stops for a moment. After the chorus, the lyrics slow down and the guitar speeds up again.

Aoki continued to sing,

"Even if I think hard, I can't get any results. Just living is painful enough for me."

“There’s no way to make money from music.”

“Just write whatever lyrics you want.”

The tone is a little softer, the rhythm is a little slower, and the sound is even lighter than at the beginning.

"It doesn't matter. It's not wrong. This is not wrong, right? This shouldn't be wrong."

It seemed like he was asking himself, or asking the audience, or perhaps - asking Ichi Hongka who was in the audience at that moment.

The music that had never stopped since the beginning suddenly stopped after the series of questions.

On the stage, holding a guitar, Aokisuke looked at Hongxia. At this moment, their eyes met.

For some reason, the moment her eyes met Aoki's, Hongxia inexplicably felt her heartbeat suddenly speed up.

He took a deep breath, and the sound of his breathing was carried to the entire audience through the microphone.

Then, the next moment, the stagnant guitar sound suddenly rang out, stronger and more forceful than before, as if it was roaring with all its might, as if it wanted to vent all its resentment.

Accompanied by the sound of the guitar, Aokijie poured out all his emotions——

"This is all wrong! I knew it a long time ago!"

"No matter what the truth, love, redemption, or tenderness are, it doesn't matter!"

"The correct answer that can't be said is all defensive instinct!"

"It doesn't matter what happens! All of this is your fault—!"

The shouts were even louder than before, and the emotions were enough to infect the entire audience.

The singing continues.

The second chorus ends and the song gradually comes to an end.

The tempo eased a little, becoming slower and lighter, until the last line of "So I Quit Music".

"So I..."

“So, I gave up music.”

The sound of the guitar stopped completely, and Aokisuke closed his eyes gently.

"thank you all."

Then he opened his eyes, said thank you, and looked at Hong Xia again.

......

Hong Xia's thoughts were still a little confused at this time.

She didn't know why Aoki-senpai went on stage to sing this song, and she didn't know why Aoki-senpai looked at her after the performance.

After going through the emotions of wanting to prove something to Aoki-senpai, being hit by setbacks, feeling pressure and even wanting to give up for a moment, and now listening to Aoki-senpai finish singing this song, Hongxia no longer knew what to think about.

Until the next moment.

Focusing on Aoki Suke, Ijichi Hongxia clearly saw what Aoki-senpai did after thanking him——

It wasn't an encouragement, nor was it a bow of thanks.

Just... after taking a deep breath, he looked at himself, and then after finishing the performance, Aoki's fingertips lightly swept across the guitar strings again.

It was clearly an extremely simple action, and it was clearly as ordinary as it could be. But at this moment, looking at Senior Aoki on the stage, Hongxia seemed to suddenly understand the meaning of this action.

As if refuting his last line of lyrics, he strummed the guitar strings, as if telling himself—

"I haven't given up."

"Don't give up."

Being in a noisy livehouse, the noises around her were frighteningly chaotic, but Hong Xia suddenly felt that the sounds around her quieted down for a moment.

Reason and emotion suddenly mixed together, and my thoughts, confused by the low fever, completely stopped thinking at this moment.

She suddenly understood and realized why Senior Aoki wanted to go on stage to play this music.

Her heartbeat suddenly became very fast and Hong Xia's vision became a little blurry.

Chapter 38 Rainbow Summer and Orange Soda

After Aoki Suke finished his performance, another band came on stage, but because Aoki Suke's performance was so outstanding, the atmosphere in the audience was not very hot.

After the band finished playing, [STARRY] sent the guests away and closed the show.

After closing, instead of continuing training as usual, several girls went home one after another.

However, although there was no further training, before Pochi-chan, Ryo, and Kita-chan left, the atmosphere in the store was no longer as heavy as it was right after the live show.

In fact, the girls in the band had no intention of blaming Hong Xia at all - even if the mistakes were caused by problems in practice, no one would blame her too much, not to mention that Hong Xia made the mistakes due to physical reasons.

The silence at the end of the live performance was simply because the others were worried about Hong Xia but didn't know how to comfort her.

Anyway, the band's atmosphere calmed down a bit, and several girls returned early.

Aokisuke packed up his guitar, said something to the store manager and Hongxia, and then walked out of the [STARRY] store.

Outside the livehouse, the last drizzle of rain in Tokyo had completely stopped.

The shape of the clouds could not be seen in the dark sky. One could only make out the layers of clouds stacked up in the moonlight.

After folding up the umbrella he had only used twice, Aokisuke slowly walked towards the tram station.

Perhaps because it had just rained, although it wasn't particularly late, there weren't many pedestrians on Shimokitazawa Street at this time.

I deliberately slowed down my pace, intending to stay a little longer outdoors in Tokyo, which had just been washed by rain, and then—

After walking out of the livehouse for a while, without walking too fast, until he passed by the vending machine for the umpteenth time, Aokisuke suddenly heard a familiar voice calling his name from behind.

"Aoki-senpai—"

The voice was not very loud, but it was clearly audible in Shimokitazawa, who was almost silent at the time. By the tone of voice, Aokisuke could tell who was calling him.

I stopped and looked back. Not too far away, Hong Xia was jogging towards me, stepping on the puddles on the road.

"What's wrong?" Aokisuke asked in confusion.

A while after he finished singing "So I Gave Up Music" and left the stage, Hong Xia's originally depressed mood seemed to have recovered a little.

However, after that, the two of them had no further communication except for the greeting that Aokisuke said when he left the livehouse.

So when he saw Hongxia calling him, Aokisuke felt a little confused.

After Hongxia trotted over to Aokisuke, she took a deep breath and paused for a moment before answering.

"I feel like I should say something to Aoki-senpai."

Hong Xia said to Aoki Jie, "Thank you for this afternoon... Aoki-senpai."

"Just sing a song..." Aokisuke started, but before he could finish his voice, he was interrupted by Hongxia.

"It was the band's first live, their first official performance on stage, and it was ruined because of me. Whether on stage or just after coming off the stage, I really, really wanted to cry."

Blinking her eyes, Hong Xia looked at Qing Mujie,

"At that time, I even wanted to give up - everyone's dreams were pinned on the band, and these dreams were getting closer and closer to realization thanks to everyone's efforts. Just when they were about to blossom for the first time, because of me..."

The sound stopped gently.

Taking a small step back, she lowered her head slightly, took out her wallet from her pocket, and took out two banknotes. Hong Xia looked at the vending machine and asked Aoki Jie,

"Aoki-senpai, is orange soda okay?"

"Yeah." Aokisuke nodded.

"Okay—come to think of it, pineapple flavor seems pretty good too... No, orange flavor is better. Orange juice, orange juice soda..."

Hong Xia stuffed two banknotes into the vending machine, muttered to herself in a low voice, and ordered two cans of soda.

He handed a can to Aokisuke and then pulled the ring.

After a short pause, she continued speaking, but she skipped the previous topic.

"Aoki-san, 'So I Gave Up Music' is really nice. Will you upload it to YouTube later?"

"Yes, it will be uploaded probably tomorrow or the day after tomorrow." Aoki Jie replied.

"Oh..." Hongxia nodded.

The girl didn't say anything else. Aoki Jie didn't know what to say. The atmosphere suddenly fell silent after Hongxia asked the question and Aoki Jie answered.

After a few seconds of silence, considering that the girl had not recovered from her cold, and that the night breeze was somewhat chilly even in summer, Aoki spoke up.

"Ijichi-kun, do you want to say anything else?"

Hong Xia pondered for a moment, opened the ring of the can in her hand, and put the cold soda on her face.

“I always feel like I want to say everything, but I always feel like I can’t say anything.”

She blinked, hesitated, and then looked at the street lights on the streets of Shimokitazawa.

"Whether it's talking about the band, music, thank you, or everyone's dreams..."

Sniffing lightly, the girl looked at the now deserted streets of Shimokitazawa.

"I'm definitely going to cry right now."

"Well......"

Hong Xia looked back again, "Senior Aoki, next time, I will absolutely, absolutely try my best to play, and I will absolutely, absolutely not make any mistakes again, until the competition in two months..."

He took a deep breath, paused for a moment, and then continued, "In that competition, try your best to achieve good results."

Listening to Hongxia's words, Aokisuke was silent for a moment.

Then, after being silent for most of the time, Aokisuke spoke a long paragraph.

"It doesn't matter whether that PVC project succeeds or not, Ijichi-kun. I've said this before... Regardless of mistakes or success, the most important thing for a band is to enjoy the time together. And—after you leave the band, everyone can rely on you. You don't need to carry the pressure alone out of a sense of responsibility."

But Hong Xia shook her head.

"no."