Frivolous - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

She was soon surrounded by a crowd, but they all maintained a disciplined distance.

One of the girls handed over a ticket stub. “Conductor Yu, can I get an autograph? The performance was truly amazing! The emotions were so contagious I got goosebumps.“

Xu Wan reached out to block her. “I’m sorry, she doesn’t do autographs.“

“Conductor Yu, will there be another performance? We really want to see you again this year.“

“I’m not sure yet,” Yu Lanzhou replied softly with a calm expression.

Bodyguards rushed over just in time, shielding Yu Lanzhou as they headed toward the parking lot.

In the car, Xu Wan looked down at her phone and said, “Teacher Yu, Boss Yu’s flight landed at nine-thirty. She’s expected to be home in an hour.“

“Mhm.” Yu Lanzhou rubbed her temples. She didn’t feel like lifting her arms, so she said to Xu Wan, “Show me the reviews.“

Xu Wan lowered her head. “Teacher Yu, there are no bad reviews.“

Yu Lanzhou didn’t believe her for a second. “Open them.“

Xu Wan opened the iPad in the car, entered the keywords for the search, and slowly slid her finger across the screen.

The top comments were all praise:

“A truly high-level performance.“

“My great conductor, please hold a few more shows, I beg you.”

“Her style hasn’t diminished at all; she truly deserves the title of Conductor Yu.“

“Wife is so handsome, so beautiful, so cool!“

Amidst the tidal wave of praise focused mainly on Yu Lanzhou’s appearance, Yu Lanzhou spotted several stinging comments:

“I smell nothing but the stench of money. Why not just continue inheriting the family business? Yu Shen needs you, but the world of conducting certainly doesn’t.”

“It’s just a bunch of laypeople who know nothing but how to scream and act like lovestruck idiots. Do those fans understand conducting or symphonies? They’re chasing a star like brainless zealots.”

“She clearly hasn’t synchronized with the orchestra; there was a blatant pause at measure 43. Compared to Master Yuan Yaoghong, she’s still far behind.“

“Five years of honing, and this is the level of a ‘genius conductor’s’ comeback? Refund the audience’s money.“

“This eldest miss has to bring bodyguards everywhere; her body is just that precious.“

Yu Lanzhou closed her eyes. “Take it away.“

The meaning of the comments had been stripped away, yet the shapes of those words seemed to flash before her eyes.

Xu Wan saw her staring blankly at her right hand and, thinking of something, immediately said, “President Yu has hired another neurological expert from Germany. She wants you to go to the hospital when you return to Hanglin.“

“Mhm.” Yu Lanzhou pressed her wrist gently and whispered, “Tomorrow, pull the monitor footage. See if that girl from earlier actually listened to the performance.“

“Understood.“

Yu Lanzhou only ate a few bites for dinner. Just as she was about to return to her room to rest, Yu Tingzhou—who had just returned from a business trip abroad—tossed her suitcase aside and sat down in front of Yu Lanzhou.

She wore a small checked blazer over a tight U-neck white tank top. The way she bit her lower lip looked somewhat sexy, and her bright, confident smile carried a hint of a daughterly charm.

“Sister, the performance effect was truly great! It’s trending on short-video platforms again, number one in Pingjing.” Yu Tingzhou raised an eyebrow and said, “Truly deserving of the title Conductor Yu.“

“Talk less. Eat.“

“OK, OK. But Sister, for this trip, do you really only plan to perform once?“

Yu Lanzhou thought back to the brief encounter in the art hall, her gaze pausing.

Yu Tingzhou caught her hesitation and hurriedly leaned in. “Right? Right! There’s no way you’re only doing one show. Tell me which one you want to schedule next, and I’ll add it immediately.“

Yu Tingzhou was a far more successful merchant than she was.

“Nothing is decided.“

“Oh, Sister! Mom said you told her you might stay in Pingjing for two months before returning to Hanglin. No matter how much I begged you in previous years, you wouldn’t come. It would be such a pity not to do a few more shows now that you’re here.“

“Why did you suddenly come to Pingjing? Didn’t Professor Zhou come with you?“

“Why would she come with me?“

“You didn’t come with Professor Zhou? How much longer are you two going to drag this out?“

“Think clearly with that dog brain of yours before you open your mouth. Don’t talk nonsense. We have nothing anymore.“

“Fine, fine, ‘nothing anymore’.” Yu Tingzhou didn’t nitpick her choice of tense and continued, “But Sister, if you have ‘nothing’ even with Professor Zhou, is there really anyone else who can catch your eye?”

Yu Lanzhou gave her a sidelong glance and prepared to return to her room.

“Don’t go! I have serious business to tell you. Since you and Professor Zhou are nothing, then perfect—go meet someone. He happens to be in Pingjing too. Monday morning, do you have time?”

“President Yu’s idea?”

“Obviously. Otherwise, where would I get the nerve to tell you? The CEO of Yemin Pharmaceuticals. Three years younger than you, young, handsome, unmarried, no children.”

“He doesn’t know I have a child?”

“He knows! But he’s set his heart on you. He specifically asked Old Man Ji to pull some strings. How devoted.”

“Then you go, since you like him so much.”

“I’d love to, but my little boyfriend wouldn’t be happy about it.”

“I’ll only say this once: turn it down.”

“Oh.”

Chen Ran sat in the back seat of Su Ping’an’s car, listening to the wind rushing past her ears.

Su Ping’an’s voice rang out from the front: “We’re having hotpot tonight. Xiao Fang and the others have already prepared the ingredients. We specifically made a split pot so it won’t affect your performance tomorrow.”

“Sleep well until noon tomorrow, then start ‘burning’ in the afternoon!”

Their band had prepared a small, free performance in a rock underground passage in Pingjing.

“I have something to do tomorrow at noon. It’ll take about two hours.”

“Where are you going? Do you need me to drop you off?”

“No need.”

But Su Ping’an insisted: “I’ll take you.”

Monday noon, when Chen Ran heard Su Ping’an’s gasp from the front of the motorcycle, she realized that she still possessed the bad luck of being able to screw everything up.

At the same moment, Yu Lanzhou had already been sitting in the audience of the art hall for an hour.

During that time, Xu Wan walked in slowly and asked, “Teacher Yu, go eat first. I’ll stay here. If she comes, I’ll tell her to find you.”

Yu Lanzhou raised her hand to stop her. “No need.”

Xu Wan understood that Yu Lanzhou never repeated herself, so she followed suit: “Understood.”

The concert review meeting was postponed accordingly.

At three in the afternoon, Xu Wan, waiting by the door, still hadn’t seen the person who was supposed to come. Yu Lanzhou finally walked out of the hall. Xu Wan saw Yu Lanzhou, set against the backdrop of the pitch-black, deep space, quietly having waited for a broken promise. She couldn’t help but wonder what the deal was with that girl she had seen that day.

Xu Wan showed a screenshot of the footage to Yu Lanzhou. “Teacher Yu, I found her. She did come to the concert. She was sitting on the far right of the middle-back row on the second floor.”

“It doesn’t matter anymore.”

The next morning, Xu Wan sharply noticed a familiar face among the resumes in Taozi’s hand. That face was simply too stunning, too easy to remember. So much so that Xu Wan wondered why the person hadn’t entered the entertainment industry yet. Well, wasn’t she about to enter now?

Taozi, who was in charge of HR, pointed at Chen Ran and introduced her: “This is the new round of band recruitment for our company. The lead singer already has a reputation; this ’23’ has a solid foundation in the rock circle.”

“23?”

“Yes! She’s released many popular songs before. Maybe you’ve even heard them.”

Xu Wan had heard them indeed. She was more than familiar. She now understood why Yu Lanzhou cared so much about that girl.

Carefully flipping through the resume, she asked, “No educational background?”

Taozi said, “You can count the number of people in the rock circle with good degrees on one hand. Maybe she wants to hide it.”

After knocking on the office door and receiving permission to enter, Xu Wan placed the stack of papers on Yu Lanzhou’s desk. Seeing the other woman’s tired look, Xu Wan directly pulled out Chen Ran’s photo and placed it at the very top of the stack.

Yu Lanzhou finally cast a glance and saw the photo of the person who had made her angry. She looked up at Xu Wan. “What is this?”

“Band resumes newly submitted to the company. Interviews and auditions are being held this Thursday.”

Thursday afternoon, Chen Ran and her band members walked into that magnificent and grand building shaped like a half-cut orange. After waiting for half an hour, Xu Wan pushed open the door of the waiting room and asked, “Lead singer?”

Chen Ran raised her hand.

“Follow me.”

“What about us?” Su Ping’an followed.

Xu Wan raised her hand to stop her. “Please wait here for a moment.”

The hallway to Yu Lanzhou’s office wasn’t very long, but Chen Ran’s footsteps were sluggish. She felt like she wasn’t truly prepared to see Yu Lanzhou. In the hallway, Taozi from HR ran into the beautiful girl from the resume and smiled in greeting. Chen Ran, however, stared straight ahead.

“The boss needs to talk to you first. Please come in.” Xu Wan pushed the door open.

Chen Ran walked in and, after Xu Wan closed the door, called out, “Auntie Yu.”

“Here for an interview?” Yu Lanzhou’s tone seemed to carry a hint of teasing, as if she were using a cat teaser to play with the person in front of her.

Chen Ran lowered her head and replied, “Mhm. I formed a band.”

“I listened to one or two of the songs you submitted. They felt a bit like trash.” Yu Lanzhou wasn’t abusing her power for personal reasons; she genuinely believed that not one of the dozen or so tracks had the potential to become a hit.

Chen Ran’s already pale face seemed to lose its last trace of blood.

Yu Lanzhou softened slightly. “I heard you are ’23’? I’ve heard ’23’s earlier songs. I don’t quite understand why the style is like this now.”

The ’23’ of the past had a grand sense of narrative, like a monologue in outer space, or a loneliness that wanted to communicate with other celestial bodies through sound. Now, Yu Lanzhou could clearly hear a sense of violence within it. Chen Ran was no longer gentle, and thus Yu Lanzhou found it irritating to listen to.

“People have to mature, grow up, and move forward. The style naturally changes.”

“It’s not entirely a question of style. It’s more about a lack of thought. A hollow mind.”

Chen Ran clenched her hands tightly. Words like these were still within her tolerance. She said, “Auntie Yu, I haven’t read books in a long time. It’s normal that I can’t write anything.” She had stopped attending school, and she rarely “read” anymore.

“What is the band’s name?”

“Ode.”

An ode praising the greatness of this world. Chen Ran guaranteed there was no irony or cynicism hidden in the song title.

Yu Lanzhou said, “Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du Mal.”

“She rings through my life like a song full of wit and endless aftertaste.”

“No. It doesn’t have an origin. I just picked it randomly.”

“I didn’t say it came from that poetry collection. Unless you’ve read it?”

“I’m sorry. I misunderstood, Teacher Yu.”

Clearly, Chen Ran was apologizing, yet Yu Lanzhou felt a surge of irritation. She judged that Chen Ran was being perfunctory and avoiding her.

“Why start a band?” It would have been easier for Chen Ran to make a name for herself alone than with a group.

“I prefer bands.”

If Chen Ran were the interviewer herself, she would have given herself a negative score for this advance interview. She tried to compensate: “Because my parents both loved bands, I was influenced by them as a child and prefer this form of performance.”

Yu Lanzhou looked at her for a few seconds, a hint of coldness seemingly invading her gaze again. She suddenly changed the subject and asked Chen Ran directly: “Why didn’t you come find me?”

“What?” Chen Ran feigned ignorance. She didn’t want to be the person who was constantly unlucky anymore; even if she was, she wanted to keep it from Yu Lanzhou.

“Why didn’t you come find me that day?” Yu Lanzhou never thought Chen Ran would disobey her. So when the meeting was postponed that afternoon and she had waited until three o’clock without seeing Chen Ran, she realized she had been stood up for the first time in her life. At one o’clock, she had sat there tapping the armrest with her index finger; at one-thirty, she had smiled and shook her head, not quite understanding what she was doing. But there seemed to be a bit of “deserved it” in there.

She heard Chen Ran reply in a nonchalant tone, “I forgot. I’m sorry, Auntie Yu.”

“Forgot?” It was the first time Yu Lanzhou had heard such an absurdly insincere excuse directed at her. “Is it cerebral atrophy or just insanity?”

Chen Ran’s face tensed. Although she had heard words a hundred times harsher than this, she couldn’t remain indifferent to this sentence. Because it came from Yu Lanzhou’s mouth. Every word from her mouth was as absolute as a golden rule.

“Is junior year that busy?”

“Yes, there are many things to do.” Chen Ran nodded, lying. Yu Lanzhou hadn’t investigated her; she couldn’t say more, or there would be too many flaws.

“So busy you couldn’t spare a moment to see me.” Yu Lanzhou nodded, then made a “please” gesture. “Get out. I have nothing else to say.”

Now Yu Lanzhou was certain: she was beginning to truly loathe this version of Chen Ran. The Chen Ran who didn’t fit her expectations at all. The Chen Ran who was completely resisting her.

“I’m sorry, Auntie Yu.” Chen Ran responded with a slight bow and then stepped out of the room. She couldn’t clash with Yu Lanzhou for more than five minutes, or her remaining unrestrained emotions would collapse.

The bassist, Qiu Fang, was waiting at the door. Seeing Chen Ran come out with a deathly pale face, she grabbed her arm and asked, “Hey, what happened? Are you okay? What did Conductor Yu want with you?”

“Nothing.” Chen Ran calmly pulled her arm away. “Is it almost our turn?”

“Two more groups.”

When Ode Band took the stage, Yu Lanzhou was sitting below, arms crossed, watching coldly. When Chen Ran looked up after setting up her instrument, she met Yu Lanzhou’s gaze directly. She hurriedly looked down and then toward Su Ping’an. The other gave her a bright smile, and Chen Ran felt a bit more settled.

As the prelude began, low, flickering lights shone on Chen Ran, her whole body exuding a half-dead aura. By the chorus, however, her mood shifted drastically. Emotions piled up and surged upward; at that moment, Chen Ran was like rain under thunder and lightning—unrestrained and free.

The lyrics were a bit blurry, with only a few lines audible:Gloomy, a passing wind. A bay of seawater.Loss of sensation, a blurred life. A disaster star.

As the final note fell, Chen Ran snapped out of the song and looked first toward Yu Lanzhou, but the other woman wasn’t looking at her. Yu Lanzhou had always believed that a band should win with live vitality. Now, it seemed there was vitality, but it was a vitality headed toward death. After listening, it felt like being caught in a cold rain.

The drummer from the previous band, who had already finished, whispered a critique nearby: “It exploded. The sense of brokenness is off the charts.”

Ode Band stood on stage waiting for judgment. Chen Ran was less than five meters away from Yu Lanzhou. The person in charge walked up to Yu Lanzhou, leaned down, and asked, “Conductor Yu, what do you think?”

Yu Lanzhou turned her head and asked, “Xu Wan, what do you think?”

Xu Wan weighed Yu Lanzhou’s thoughts, daring neither to praise nor belittle. “The overall atmosphere is quite good. It’s just that the lead singer’s breath seems a bit short, and her stamina doesn’t seem to be quite there.”

Yu Lanzhou said nonchalantly to the person on stage, “Did you hear that? Don’t go collapsing on the stage.”

Chen Ran didn’t know the purpose of Yu Lanzhou’s words, but she was certain they weren’t out of concern. Her voice trembled slightly, yet she still responded, “I won’t collapse on stage.”

Yu Lanzhou ignored her retort and stood up to leave. Xu Wan took two quick steps to follow and asked, “So… are we signing them?”

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