Chapter 61: Inspiration Came Halfway

  "Chen Chufan?" Li San muttered to himself, this name seemed very familiar, as if he had heard it somewhere before. Moreover, not just once, but suddenly he couldn't remember where.

  So, amidst the endless entanglement in his mind, Li San returned to his own office. It was called an office, but it was actually a gathering place for thugs. The small room of over 40 square meters had only one old office desk, a chair and a sofa, which were all the furnishings inside. Cigarette butts littered the floor, clearly not having been swept for a long time. A telephone on the office desk was the only decent electrical appliance, if you could even call it that.

  Li San had just picked up the phone and was about to dial a number to ask his younger brother to investigate who this person was, when he suddenly stopped. His gaze fell on the incoming call display on the phone, which showed that the call was from Zhang Peng. Seeing this, Li San thought of Zhang Peng, and thinking of Zhang Peng made him think of Chen Chufan's identity.

  "History Department, Chen Chufan! Son of a... isn't that the student Zhang Peng was trying to mess with? No wonder the name sounds so familiar!" As soon as he remembered who Chen Chufan was, Li San hung up the phone and sneered to himself: "Heh heh, this is quite a coincidence! The kid wants to use me, Old Man Li, as a gun, but this time I'm not afraid of being dragged down with him!"

  For a moment, Li San felt his heart was filled with joy, and his previous depression completely disappeared.

  Chen Chufan didn't know that he had already been remembered by a certain big brother on the path, and he was sitting seriously in the school library with a large stack of history books beside him.

  Sitting with Ye Siying in the music room for half a day, they couldn't come up with any inspiration, so they left the music room. Chen Chufan went to the school library at Ye Siying's suggestion, looking for some miscellaneous historical stories and anecdotes to find inspiration. As Ye Siying said, if you want to write songs with a sense of history, you should go to historical books to find inspiration.

  Chen Chufan was as smooth as flowing water, and after leaving the music classroom, he casually ate something and then ran alone to the reading room of the school library. Fortunately, his current speed of reading ten lines at a glance still allowed him to memorize without forgetting, and soon he found a suitable topic from it.

  The origin of the story is "Luoyang Jialan Ji", which should be considered an ancient miscellaneous book, recording many Buddhist classics, literary style, and historical geography. Of course, what ultimately attracted Chen Chufan was one of the beautiful love stories in it. The general idea of the story is that a young general met a beautiful woman in a small village by chance, and they fell in love at first sight and privately agreed to be together for life. However, at this time, the war on the border was continuous, and the general was called to the border to fight. In the chaotic world, the soldiers were exhausted, the war did not stop, the woman waited bitterly for the general but did not meet him, her youth had passed, her beauty had faded, and she finally chose to become a nun in the ancient temple of Jialan. When the general returned after experiencing the wind and snow and searched for the woman's hometown, he found that people and things were no longer the same, and the fate was exhausted. The two stood silently in the rain night of the ancient temple, holding back tears.

  A poignant love story can always move people, and Chen Chufan's inspiration also burst forth from the emotion brought by a poignant story. He seemed to have seen an ancient temple in the rain at night, two people with fate but no affinity, gazing at each other in the rain. So he hastily took out paper and pen and wrote down a song lyrics.

  The wind blows, the rain is lingering, who can understand my sorrowful thoughts? Spring has passed, and beauty is fading, how many white hairs have been added. The geese have flown away, the city is desolate, are you still standing outside the village? Flowers fall, tears flow silently, another year has passed, I wonder why love is so hard to be together until death. Back then, we promised to guard each other in this life, to guard the red dust, to spend a lifetime together! Layer by layer, the mountain stairs are deep, I heard that you are still alone. The rain annoys people, waking up from a dream at midnight, what's echoing on the stairs is waiting again. Layer by layer, the mountain stairs are deep, I heard that you are still guarding the lonely city. The collapsed mountain gate, the broken emotional bond, the bitter wait, we have fate but no chance in this life.

  You miss, once youthful, envied by many, now the splendor is no more, like an old withered vine. Time flies, flowers fade, please don't ask me if I'm still sincere. The Buddha said, deep emotions accumulated over lifetimes require bitter waiting. But I can, wait alone for a thousand years, just to be true in the next life. If you're willing to wait, come visit my door in the next life, and let's warm up our dreams together, and I'll play a tune on the ancient zither. Layer by layer, are the mountain temple steps deep, I heard that you still guard the solitary city, the crumbling mountain gate, severed emotional ties, bitter waiting, this life has fate but no destiny for us, outside the Azure Temple, eternal night rain awaits.

  With a sigh of relief, Chen Chufan finished writing the lyrics. In his opinion, half of the songwriting work was done, and he could compose the melody according to the lyrics when he had time.

  Carefully putting away the lyrics he had written, Chen Chufan, in a great mood, reorganized the books on wild history on his desk and put them back on the bookshelf before leaving the library where he had stayed for half a day.

  Today is Friday, and this afternoon is the day Chen Chufan goes to work at Liu's place for the first time. He didn't dare to slack off. Without returning to his dormitory, he directly went out of the school gate, hailed a taxi, and rushed to the Qing Shui Wan Club where he was going to work.

  Qingshui Bay Club is located on the Riverside Avenue in W City, a three-story old mansion renovated from a connected building. Chen Chufan stood at the entrance of the club, looking at the open old-fashioned wooden door, and even thought that the taxi driver had taken him to the wrong place. Fortunately, there was a receptionist inside who saw Chen Chufan standing stupidly at the entrance, so she came out and politely asked: "May I ask if you have any business here, sir?"

  "Professional demeanor is really high!" Seeing the female greeter in a formal cheongsam, Chen Chufan couldn't help but secretly praise her. The reason was simple: he was dressed in such shabby clothes and still managed to be treated with courtesy by the greeter at the entrance of this high-end club. This made Chen Chufan have an even higher opinion of Liu Niang, who had invited him into the club.

  "My name is Chen Chufan, I applied for the pianist position at your club and Manager Liu asked me to report today."

  "Oh, you're Xiao Chen! Manager Liu has told us about you, come with me!" The female greeter looked at this big boy who was only a few years younger than herself with some curiosity. He had a clear and delicate face, but his body was very tall and sturdy, wearing simple clothes that didn't look like those of a pianist at all. Because the other pianists in the club were either lacking in exercise or something, they didn't have such a strong physique, and their attire was much more particular than Chen Chufan's. Even their hair was long and rarely seen like Chen Chufan's short, flat haircut. My god, he even wore sneakers! Shouldn't pianists wear leather shoes? Anyway, this big boy in front of her looked more like an athlete than a pianist.

  "My name is Xiaoyun, I'm the greeter here. Manager Liu won't be here until later, but she said if you came, to go sign a part-time contract with HR first. Oh, and Manager Liu thinks very highly of you, assigning you to Zone C - that's the best and most expensive consumption area in the whole club! Looks like your piano skills are really impressive!" Xiaoyun led Chen Chufan into the club, still chattering away, a little girl who loved to talk.

  As soon as you enter the clubhouse, it's a refreshing coolness. It's like a door separates the inside and outside into two completely different worlds. Outside is sweltering heat, while inside is cool and refreshing.

  Enjoying the cool and refreshing air, Chen Chufan carefully examined the interior decoration of the clubhouse. Compared to the unassuming old exterior wall, the interior decoration was completely at the other extreme, extremely luxurious. Of course, feeling luxurious might also have something to do with Chen Chufan not having seen much of the world, but in any case, he thought the crystal chandeliers that were open during the day on the ceiling were very beautiful, the exquisite paintings on the walls were particularly pleasing to look at, and the soft red carpet underfoot was very comfortable and clean. At a glance, it was clear that someone took care of it regularly. In short, everything here was completely different from Chen Chufan's life experience of over 20 years. "So this is how rich people enjoy themselves!" Chen Chufan thought to himself in secret. However, he didn't know that the Qing Shui Wan Clubhouse was only slightly famous in W City, and there were countless high-end clubhouses across the country that were a hundred times more luxurious than Qing Shui Wan.

  It wasn't until Xiaoyi's words reached Chen Chufan's ears that he snapped out of his shock. "Huh? Sister Xiaoyi, are there still divisions within the club?"

  "Of course! Our club is a membership-based system, divided into three different areas according to the member's level. The C area is the best area, you'll know once you've worked here for a few days!" Xiaoyan replied proudly. It seems that being able to work here is something that makes her feel extremely proud.

  As they walked and chatted, the two of them passed through a corridor with two layers of steps before arriving at an office door with a sign that read "Human Resources Department". Along the way, Chen Chufan had become roughly familiar with all the staff members, and his initial awkwardness in this luxurious clubhouse had gradually dissipated, making him feel much more relaxed. Although everyone they met in the clubhouse cast strange glances at Chen Chufan's outfit, he elegantly ignored them all.

  Deep down, Chen Chufan couldn't help but sigh: "Alas, I'm still inexperienced. If I had known it was this kind of place, at least I should have changed into something more formal!" After sighing, he couldn't help but feel that his current outfit was a bit embarrassing. However, Chen Chufan thought again and felt that with the series of superhuman changes he had recently undergone, there was no need to be self-deprecating in front of ordinary people.

  "It's here, you go in yourself, I'll go down to work first. By the way, the manager in charge of personnel is also surnamed Liu, we all call her Sister Liu." Xiaoyun said, and made a cheering gesture to Chen Chufan before turning around and leaving.

  Chen Chufan looked up at the heavy wooden door, casually adjusted his actually perfectly fine T-shirt, and knocked twice with a calm expression. The thick door panel emitted two "bangs".

  "It's still solid wood!" Chen Chufan thought to himself.

  PS: It's a bit painful not to set up a crossover, but the result is that someone else's well-written lyrics are really embarrassing to use directly. I had to write it myself in a hurry. If any fans of "Yan Hua Yi Leng" read this chapter, please don't make fun of those lyrics. Bao Dding knows he doesn't have Fang Wen Shan's good writing skills, but can't help but take up the pen and write, forgive me!