Ch90 - Can’t Learn

Qu Dehui posted a Weibo that implied he had seen a ghost. The fans were very worried, but netizens thought this didn’t quite make sense.

[@A Little Zebra: I remember that the rooms in the building are very close to each other. No matter if it’s a person or a ghost, if there had actually been someone knocking on the door, there’s no way only Qu Dehui heard it. Perhaps the ghost is targeting him with harassment? This doesn’t seem quite right.]

[@Flying Over Pastures With The Arrival Of Spring: I thought I was the only one sticking with materialism. Really, the magnitude of knocking in order to wake someone up in the middle of the night means that others must have also heard it. Maybe he was so pressured it created a hallucination. I’m not trying to be negative, just discussing the truth.]

[@Sweet And Sour Pineapple Rice: I mean, I always feel like he’s trying to cause a stir. It seems like no matter what show Qu Dehui participates in, something will happen, and then the fans will tear into the program group. Wasn’t it like this the last time he participated in ‘Let’s Go Travel’? It was obviously a small incident, but he had to post on Weibo crying about his hardships, and all his fellow artists got scolded ummmmm]

Qu Dehui was considered to be at the forefront of the music industry, but his accomplishments were all those he had achieved in the past.

In recent years, there had been a wealth of new singers. Those like Qu Dehui who hadn’t put out a new representative piece of work would only have old fans. Other than those who would always come out to write comments for him, the others leaving comments were all passer-bys eating melons. It was natural that everyone’s voices would be different.

Originally Qu Dehui wanted to pick up some fans online, but he hadn’t thought that not only would he not pick many fans up,  he had instead drawn the netizens to himself.

It wasn’t good for him to express anything when others were mocking him, saying that it was impossible to encounter ghosts. Otherwise it would be like publicly spreading myths, and it was completely unsuitable for his image.

His manager called, and told him he shouldn’t have posted on Weibo without any proof.

“Aren’t I the living proof?” Qu Dehui was extremely angry, and he felt his temper rise through his entire body. It was whatever if people online didn’t believe him, but even his manager’s attitude was like this. It was testing his patience.

“It’s not that Hui ge, I’m saying this for your own good too. Is it possible that you’ve been too stressed recently? You haven’t been smoking again, right?”

“Your damn smoking. Laozi hasn’t done it for a long time, it’s really not a hallucination, okay?” Qu Dehui was so angry he directly hung up the phone. He slammed his fist into the wall, but it hurt so much he had to curse his mother twice under his breath.

“Oh my god, no way?” Tao Yingbo had been wanting to go over to see his reaction, but he hadn’t thought he would learn of such explosive news.

He glanced at Qu Dehui, and only felt that he cut a sorry figure.

“Forget it, there’s still the recording today, so I won’t flick at your forehead for now.”

Tao Yingbo couldn’t hide secrets. The moment he left, he ran over to Lu xu and Ji Xiunian to talk about the situation.

The entertainment circle was full of temptations and stress. There were many artists who went down the wrong path at a whim.

Lu Xu held no meaning from this, and merely told him, “Xiao Bai has already sent over the results from the investigation. All of Qu Dehui’s more popular songs are mostly written by others. How incredible.”

Perhaps once that first album had tasted the sweetness of being labeled as talent, Qu Dehui’s management group began packaging him into the identity of a composer.

On the surface, they claimed that all the songs had been written by Qu Dehui, but the truth was that they were all bought from others with money and then called his own. Different composers had different styles and their quality was different; this was why the quality of Qu Dehui’s albums was always fluctuating.

Tao Yingbo hadn’t thought that this person would actually be so despicable and lowly.

“Taking others’ work as his own. That’s really too shameful.” Thinking of something, Tao Yingbo was a little sad. “But people like him, their ability to endure must be very strong. I feel like he definitely won’t admit it when it’s time…”

“Mhm.” Lu Xu nodded. “So that’s why you have to wake him up to reality.”

“Me?” Tao Yingbo didn’t understand, and his expression was a little stunned.

Lu Xu hooked his finger towards him, and quietly gave him a few instructions.

Tao Yingbo nodded as he listened, suddenly looking somewhat excited.

The morning passed by in a flash. Fan Zeng only began today’s recording in the afternoon.

When they received the song Tao Yingbo had written, the other members in Lu Xu’s team were extremely moved.

“Is this composition really something Instructor Tao wrote in one night? It’s so amazing, like a deity writing songs.”

“Take a look at this, Xu ge’s lyrics along with Instructor Tao’s song is so incredible. I feel like we’ll be the most attractive treasures during the public performance.”

Gu Wenan also thought Tao Yingbo’s composition was great. There was a mix of many musical elements inside, but it didn’t make others feel like it was too complicated.

“Instructor Tao’s ability levels are really high. I feel like he’s already at the peak. I don’t know why, but the style is a little like Instructor Qu’s first album. Anyways, it’s very nice.”

Every successful composer had their own unique style. Even if two songs didn’t coincide with a single rhythm, one could tell from the style of the songs that they both fell under one composer’s style.

Gu Wenan also composed, so he was very sensitive to things like the style of a song.

To tell the truth, he always had thought Qu Dehui’s representative work was his first album. At the time, he had wondered how there could be someone with such talent in the world. But after that album reached its peak, Qu Dehui never again wrote an album as beautiful.

The songs that followed always felt like they weren’t at this standardl, ebbing and flowing to the point that some people even said he was buying his songs…

Gu Wenan didn’t mean anything else by his words; he had merely said this unconsciously after hearing Tao Yingbo’s song.

Lu Xu smiled from the side and followed up the topic. “What a coincidence, I think it’s very similar too.”

The more Gu Wenan listened, the more he liked it. He asked Ji Xiunian, “Xiu ge, can you help me ask Instructor Tao on whether or not he’s interested in collaborating? Recently I’ve been working on a new album. If it’s possible, I’d like to invite him to collaborate on it together.”

“Wow!” Tao Yingbo nodded at the side. He really wanted to collaborate with Gu Wenan. But he was a ghost; no matter how excited he was, others could not see it.

Thinking of this, Tao Yingbo felt a little disappointed.

Ji Xiunian couldn’t quite pinpoint his feelings as he watched from the side, however he couldn’t promise anything, so he merely said, “Wait for me to ask him for you.”

“Okay!”

The few of them chatted leisurely for a bit before becoming busy with rehearsal. There were only a few days left before the second public performance. With such a good song, the team members were all filled with the desire to perform well on stage.

Qu Dehui was absent-minded the entire day, constantly questioning whether or not he had actually seen a ghost.

Truth be told, what the netizens had said had some logic to it. The knocking on the door in the middle of the night had been so loud. Based on that, others should have heard it too.

Shen Chengyu lived right next door. Today, he had even carefully asked, but the other person had calmly said he hadn’t heard anything. The more that person seemed like he hadn’t been lying, the more uneasy Qu Dehui felt.

Even the trainees in the vocal group he was directing weren’t in the mood. The entire scene was basically held together by Yu Manman.

Even the assistant who didn’t understand much about music couldn’t help but mutter, “Fan ge, did we really invite the right person?”

When the program staff had rushed towards the talent Qu Dehui presented, they had thought that even if he wasn’t in the composition group, he could still direct the trainees’ vocally. But who would’ve thought that his commentary didn’t hit the point a lot of the time, completely unlike the image of a composer at the top of the industry.

“It’s already like this. If it’s not good, just cut it out.” Fan Zeng also didn’t think it would be like this, and couldn’t help but sigh.

It was a good thing Yu Manman was reliable. Otherwise, they would really be in trouble.

At this moment, Qu Dehui didn’t know he was being dragged behind the camera. He was currently full of thoughts about whether he should find some master who understood these kinds of things.

When he passed by the dance room, Lu Xu and the others happened to be rehearsing their new song.

The familiar style pierced through Qu Dehui’s heart, and immediately made him lose his senses.

This feeling was really too similar to his first album. The reason why he could get to his position today was because of that album. The more others praised him for it, the less he liked this album. The person who actually composed this album was already dead, yet all the troubles had still been left with him.

Qu Dehui couldn’t help but think, if that person surnamed Tao was still alive, would he be able to maintain his consistency?

There were many people he had bought songs from. Only that person had to run off and jump off a building, completely failing to appreciate his kindness.

That person’s death hadn’t affected him very much. No one would pay attention to what a small character had once said. People wouldn’t even know about him.

He could only quietly disappear from the world like a good-for-nothing while Qu Dehui reaped both fame and fortune. This was life.

In all these years, Qu Dehui had always thought of things like this. He had money and luck. Wasn’t it normal to spend money on his image?

It was just when he heard that style of song, Qu Dehui’s heart skipped a beat, and he couldn’t help but think of that person.

Similar, it was really too similar.

He didn’t know if it was because he was too affected by this, but Qu Dehui was so familiar with Tao Yingbo’s style it was etched into his bones.

“Impossible, he died a long time ago.”

Although he tried his best to build himself up, Qu Dehui still pushed open the door of the practise room.

Seeing him come in, Ji Xiunian’s gaze deepened. “Instructor Qu, what do you think of Lu Xu’s group’s song?”

“It’s pretty good.” Qu Dehui was a little absent-minded, and couldn’t resist asking Ji Xiunian, “Which trainee wrote this song? Was it Lu Xu?”

“The lyrics are Lu Xu’s, but the song isn’t.”

“Who’s the composer?” Qu Dehui’s tone was full of an urgency he himself hadn’t noticed.

Ji Xiunian lowered his head and smiled, then calmly said, “It’s Instructor Tao.”

“Instructor Tao?” Qu Dehui felt an inexplicable shock at this last name, and his voice unconsciously became higher by a few degrees. When he returned to his senses, he realised everyone was looking towards him, and he waved his hand somewhat awkwardly. He had known beforehand that the program group had invited an anonymous composer to act as a composition instructor. He hadn’t thought anything of it at that time, but when he heard the style of this song, he felt a little weak.

Qu Dehui forced himself to calm down with much difficulty, then continued interrogating Ji Xiunian. “Why doesn’t Instructor Tao like revealing his face?”

“Part of his personality, I guess.” He wanted to ask more, but Ji Xiunian didn’t seem like he had any intention of saying any more.

Qu Dehui didn’t want his abnormal behaviour to be discovered, and could only force a smile as he stood by Ji Xiunian to watch the performance.

It had to be said that this Instructor Tao was really amazing at composing songs. Even while he was preoccupied with other thoughts, he felt that the song was nice to listen to.

But as he listened, Qu Dehui began realising that the lyrics were not quite right—

“A despicable thief, a vain crown becoming a blade of judgement…”

Perhaps it was because he was feeling guilty, but Qu Dehui felt like Lu Xu and the others were singing about himself. Once he thought of this, the more he listened, the more he thought the entire song was sung for him to hear.

The so-called despicable thief, wasn’t it pointing to the fact that he had used that person’s songs?

“Instructor Qu, your expression doesn’t look very good, are you uncomfortable anywhere?” The sudden concern from Ji Xiunian, who was standing to his side, made Qu Dehui feel even worse.

He shook his head and said he was fine, then immediately made an excuse to leave the dance practise room.

Ji Xiunian turned back to look at Lu Xu. The two of them exchanged gazes, and began smiling.

The seeds of doubt had already been planted. As long as they fueled it with fire, the prairie would definitely burn.

That night, Qu Dehui lay in bed, unable to sleep as he tossed and turned.

This room was filled with discarded, empty, and shattered bottles of red wine and whiskey. It was evident he had drunk a lot.

According to the rules, drinking was not allowed while filming the show, but he couldn’t stop himself from letting his thoughts run wild, and had to use alcohol to numb himself.

It was just that there was something preoccupying his thoughts. It was obvious he was quite inebriated, but he still couldn’t fall asleep.

Someone would come knock at his door at 3 A.M. the previous days, making him always wait for this time.

“I didn’t lie, there really was someone knocking on the door.” Qu Dehui became angrier and angrier, and pushed his foot down in one go to sit up on the bed. No one believed that someone was harassing him, making him seem like a liar.

Seeing that it was almost three o’clock, Qu Dehui couldn’t resist opening up Weibo and dropping into the middle of his fan group.

There were several champions of pulling all-nighters inside. Seeing that he had appeared, they were all very excited, and continuously asked after him.

[Ya, we’ve captured a Hui ge!]

[Aaa, am I dreaming? I’ve managed to catch male god in the middle of the night]

[Hui ge why aren’t you sleeping yet, is that pervert knocking on your door again?]

Now when Qu Dehui saw the words “knocking on the door”, he felt very morose. He replied with red eyes—

[I wasn’t lying, there’s a person knocking on the door everyday in the early morning. It’s almost 3 A.M. now. I’ll open up a livestream to prove it to you all okay?]

Knowing that he was going to start a livestream, the fans were all naturally supportive—

[Although it’s a little scary, but Hui ge you should start it, we’ll keep you company]

[Open open open, I want to see what kind of ghost dares bully my male god, I want to scold him so much he’ll want to die again]

Alcohol made people impulsive. Seeing that his fans were all supporting him, Qu Dehui clicked on the livestream in a moment of impulse. He adjusted the view to the rear camera, then raised his phone to face the door, calmly waiting for three o’clock.