ECG -Chapter 134 How Much? I’ll Pay You Right Now

Lin Hao was just about to speak when Xia Yumeng stopped him.

Lin Hao knew what she wanted to say, but he still shook his head. Xia Yumeng had no choice but to let him do as he wished.

Lin Hao said to the five people on the stage, “Check your instruments. If anything is broken, I’ll compensate you! I’m really sorry about what happened today!”

Lin Hao understood that Xia Yumeng did not want him to take responsibility for this, but this incident had started because of him. If he avoided it, then that would be a problem with his character.

The people onstage were currently checking their instruments. Hearing Lin Hao say this, the keyboardist wearing glasses quickly waved his hand.

“No need, no need. I don’t think anything’s wrong!”

Chao Bin immediately became unhappy.

“Didn’t you see that my guitar snapped?”

The keyboardist’s face instantly turned red.

Seeing that the electric guitar had only snapped two strings, Chao Bin lifted up the acoustic guitar instead.

“My guitar is smashed!”

Xia Yumeng’s brows furrowed slightly.

Lin Hao looked apologetic.

“How much? I’ll pay you right now!”

“1,980!” A trace of arrogance flashed across Chao Bin’s face. He did not believe that the plainly dressed Lin Hao could immediately take out that much money.

Lin Hao truly did not take it seriously. He simply stayed at school every day and rarely went out, so he did not own many clothes and was not good at dressing himself up. In his previous life, it had been because he was too poor. In this life, he had only just made some money not long ago, so he had no concept of famous brands at all.

He had long since seen Chao Bin’s hatred toward him. He also knew that Chao Bin was making him pay not only because he felt sorry for the guitar, but also because he wanted to humiliate him properly in front of Xia Yumeng.

Today was originally supposed to be a showcase for their Rock Band. He had not expected it to end in such a complete mess, even giving Black Fox free publicity. How could Chao Bin possibly feel comfortable about that?

Fortunately, Lin Hao had withdrawn ten thousand yuan from the bank today. Although he had not brought all of it with him, when he left the dormitory, he had thought he might need to treat people to dinner at night or something, so he had carried more than two thousand yuan with him.

Lin Hao knew very clearly what Chao Bin was thinking, but this money still had to be paid.

This small amount of money was nothing. If Black Fox had rented a venue for a trial performance, let alone whether two thousand yuan would have been enough, it was still uncertain whether they could have gathered so many students to watch. Besides, using tonight’s performance, he had released the song “Sister” and, at the same time, had managed to clear up some of the scandal between him and Fourth Sister. These were not things that could be achieved with money alone. Many matters required the right time, place, and people in order to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Of course, the power of these eight hundred people was very limited, but he believed they would still spread what happened tonight. It would have some influence.

Lin Hao looked at the stage and asked again, “What about the rest of you? Is anything else damaged?”

The band members all shook their heads.

“Good!”

Lin Hao reached into his trouser pocket and took out a stack of hundred-yuan bills. With a few quick flicks, he counted out twenty notes, then walked to the front of the stage and handed them to Chao Bin with a cheerful smile.

Chao Bin had not expected this guy to really be able to take out the money. He had no choice but to bend down and accept it.

Lin Hao deliberately did not go up onto the stage. He wanted Chao Bin to bend down toward him.

Seeing that Chao Bin had taken the money, Lin Hao smiled and said, “No need to give me back the remaining twenty yuan.”

After saying that, he no longer paid attention to Chao Bin’s embarrassed expression. Instead, he walked over to the students who had already stood up.

“How are you all? If anyone feels unwell, let’s go to the hospital now and have a checkup!”

A male student hurriedly waved his hand.

“It’s fine. I just wasn’t paying attention and got pushed down. What big problem could there be? Lin Hao, your song ‘Sister’ is really good. It’s a pity we didn’t record it. Sigh!”

A girl also smiled and asked, “Yeah, will you release an album?”

Seeing that they were about to ask another pile of questions, Lin Hao smiled and said, “We definitely will in the future. When there’s a chance, you can come to our Arts Institute to listen. Next semester, we’ll also try to hold some performances on campus like today!”

“Great!”

“That’s wonderful!”

After chatting casually for a while longer, the students finally walked out while grimacing in pain.

Lin Hao reminded them from behind that if they felt uncomfortable after going back, they absolutely had to go to the hospital and inform him.

The two people from the Security Department went up onto the stage. Xia Yumeng and the others had no interest in watching how Chao Bin and his band would deal with the aftermath, so they left the small auditorium.

Chu Xiaomei supported Qi Xuebing as Yan Xiaoqi asked him, “Xuebing, how are you?”

Qi Xuebing chuckled.

“I’m fine. Just got stepped on the waist a few times! Those bastards stepped on me and climbed straight onto the stage!”

Chu Xiaomei’s face was full of worry. Just now, when she had been pushed down, Qi Xuebing had thrown himself over her body. If not for him, she did not know what state she would have been trampled into.

Chu Xiaomei felt moved in her heart, but her mouth scolded him instead.

“Why did you lie on top of me? There were so many people. What would we do if they trampled you badly?”

Qi Xuebing chuckled and didn’t say anything more.

Bai Zhitao was still shaken from the fear, while Wu Xiaozhou put his arm around her shoulders and comforted her.

Everyone stood at the entrance of the teachers’ university. Several taxi drivers were waving at them, trying to get their attention. Lin Hao kept gently rubbing Xia Yumeng’s hand, his heart aching for her.

Lin Hao looked around and noticed a pharmacy diagonally across the street. He called out, “Wait for me a moment!” Then he quickly ran across the road.

A short while later, he returned carrying two bottles of red flower oil. He handed one bottle to Xia Yumeng and said softly, “When you get back to the dorm, make sure you rub it on for a while!”

Xia Yumeng immediately reached out and hugged his waist. The two of them held each other tightly until Wu Xiaozhou impatiently started whistling, forcing them to separate.

Lin Hao gave the other bottle of red flower oil to Qi Xuebing. He even joked that there was nothing else he could do to help him, and Qi Xuebing was deeply touched. He hadn’t expected Lin Hao to still remember him, so he quickly smiled and said he would ask his dorm mates to help him apply it when they got back.

Chu Xiaomei’s eyes were moist as she also said, “Thank you.”

Before getting into the car, Xia Yumeng reminded Lin Hao to come to the teachers’ university tomorrow.

Lin Hao was stunned. The plane to Shanghai was tomorrow night, so he didn’t know why she wanted him to come here at this time.

“Idiot, let me ask you—have you prepared your competition outfit?” Xia Yumeng noticed the confusion in his eyes.

Lin Hao smiled awkwardly. He really had no experience with this. Even Fan Gang had forgotten about such an important thing. It seemed men really were careless.

Seeing his expression, Xia Yumeng knew she had guessed correctly.

“Come tomorrow. The two of us will go to Suya International Mall, and I’ll buy you a suit for your performance!”

Lin Hao nodded. His heart warmed with emotion. He reached out with both hands and hugged her tightly once again. Xia Yumeng’s pretty face immediately turned red.

The two taxis drove away into the distance. Xia Yumeng and Jiang Rong walked back into the campus.

Jiang Rong was still frightened. “That scared me to death. What was wrong with those people?”

Xia Yumeng shook her head with a bitter smile. “Thinking about it now, it was probably because of Lin Hao’s two songs. The first song completely stunned them, and the second one was just too touching. So for a moment, they all lost their rationality! Lin Hao was standing under the spotlight and looked just like a celebrity. Those students probably became dazed and really felt like he was some kind of superstar.”

Jiang Rong shook her head and sighed. “Now I finally understand why big stars have so many bodyguards at their performances, and why they have people surrounding them wherever they go!”

Xia Yumeng nodded. “Mm.”

“Before, I thought those people were just putting on an act. But now I understand that when there are too many fans, it can actually become a terrifying thing!”

“Exactly. That’s why no industry is easy!” Xia Yumeng sighed.

Jiang Rong gave her a thumbs-up. “I was completely scared silly. Cui Gang pushed me into the corner of the wall, and I didn’t even dare move. But you turned everything around!”

Actually, when Xia Yumeng thought back to what happened, she was also still frightened. She shook her head with a bitter smile.

“In that situation, if no one had stepped forward, things would only have gotten more chaotic. There was a very real chance something serious could have happened.”

Then she added, “You weren’t bad either. In such a chaotic situation, you still managed to get out and make a phone call. I was really worried you would get pushed down too!”

“Yeah, tonight was really lucky!” Jiang Rong said.

Then she thought of Chao Bin.

“This Chao Bin… Normally he looks like he has a lot of masculine courage. How come he was so useless just now? His face turned pale from fear. He was even worse than some of the female students!”

Xia Yumeng showed a look of disdain.

“That’s how people are. Often, you only see someone’s true character when something happens. Chao Bin is narrow-minded and always seeks revenge over the smallest things. From now on, we all need to stay away from him.”

“Come on, it’s not like we were ever close to him anyway!” Jiang Rong said.

After that, the two girls both giggled.

Jiang Rong suddenly remembered the song Chao Bin and the others sang tonight. She couldn’t help but burst out laughing.

“What did Wan Shi even sing tonight? It was practically a bunch of demons dancing around. It was just noise! Looks like they’ve wasted these two years at the teachers’ university. All the popularity they painstakingly built up has vanished. Everything has gone back to how it was before…”

Xia Yumeng sighed.

“Trying to be different was nothing more than a way to attract attention.”

Jiang Rong suddenly thought of Cui Gang.

“Cui Gang and Lin Hao still sang the best. That’s real music. I like it!”

Xia Yumeng looked at her teasingly.

“Oh? Are you starting to like him a little?”

Jiang Rong’s face turned red. She reached out and pinched her.

“I’m talking about the songs!”

“I didn’t say anything about the person!”

“……”

The two girls started playing around in the campus.

Tonight, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, while their laughter echoed through the night sky above the school.