ECG -Chapter 174 The Wandering Man

The two times they held hands—one time was because Qin Ruoyun deliberately reached out to hold his hand. She liked Lin Hao, and she had always been a woman who dared to love and hate. It was just that ordinary men could not catch her eye.

In fact, she herself didn’t know whether holding Lin Hao’s hand meant she would have to continue being with this young man, or even marry him and have children in the future. She hadn’t thought that far ahead. She simply liked him; she simply wanted to be with him.

But this time, when she held his hand, Lin Hao tactfully rejected her. He also subtly told her: we are only siblings.

The second time they held hands was initiated by Lin Hao. This time it was completely natural, as natural as two real siblings or good friends. Holding hands was only because the crowd was too large, and only by holding hands could they avoid getting separated.

The two times they held hands allowed Qin Ruoyun to understand what Lin Hao was thinking. Although she felt extremely upset inside, she still had to admire this clever little guy who was as shrewd as a fox.

To have such a beautiful woman right in front of him yet remain unmoved, and still naturally resolve the awkwardness between them—he had even worried she might feel uncomfortable, so he used the second time holding hands to firmly establish their sibling relationship. All of this made her secretly give him a thumbs-up despite her sadness.

Lin Hao had no idea she was thinking so much. At this moment, he was seriously looking at the CD in his hand.

On the CD cover, a plain-looking bald, chubby man was leaning against a weathered wall with a cold expression. A beam of light shone on the wall, where four large calligraphy characters were carved:

The Wandering Man.

Singer: Gao Shuai.

This was an ordinary album with a total of twelve songs. Lin Hao was unfamiliar with the other eleven songs.

“How much?” he asked the chubby vendor.

“65!” the little fat guy said cheerfully.

“How much?” Qin Ruoyun was startled.

The retail price of a CD album at the time was usually around 45 yuan. Her previous album had also been 45 yuan. This Gao Shuai was only a second-rate singer, so why was he selling it for 65 yuan?

Lin Hao was also quite surprised.

“Why is it so expensive?”

“Brother, that’s just how the market decides prices!” The little fat guy glanced at Qin Ruoyun a few times, then continued, “They’re selling too fast. It’s already hard to get stock now. Isn’t it natural that the price goes up?”

“Look.”

The little fat guy bent down and lifted a large cardboard box, turning it over for them to see. There were only four or five CDs left inside.

“One box has six hundred copies. Look how many days it’s been—almost all gone!”

“Tell me, wouldn’t the wholesalers raise their prices? If they raise theirs, I have to raise mine too. Otherwise, am I supposed to drink the northwest wind?”

Lin Hao laughed and didn’t bother arguing. He took out a hundred yuan and handed it to him.

The little fat guy counted out the change. While doing so, he kept sneaking glances at Qin Ruoyun with a shifty expression. When he handed the 35 yuan change to Lin Hao, his eyes were still fixed on her.

Qin Ruoyun knew that this guy had probably recognized her. After all, people in this business looked at CD covers and promotional posters every day, so they had a much deeper impression of many celebrities than ordinary people did.

Lin Hao took the money, but Qin Ruoyun grabbed him, hooked her arm around his, and pulled him away.

The little fat guy finally realized what was happening and shouted loudly:

“Qin Ruoyun, don’t go! Hey, it’s Qin Ruoyun!”

The people passing by his stall heard him and stopped.

A girl shouted toward him:

“Where? Where is she?”

A woman holding a child said:

“Where is she? Don’t shout nonsense!”

The little fat guy stared at the crowd, heartbroken.

Ah! If only he had recognized her earlier.

If he could have gotten her to sign that copy of Looking at Flowers Through the Mist, it would have sold for at least 200 yuan!

What if he could get her to sign several copies?

The chubby little guy regretted it so much that he almost cried, as if he had missed out on a fortune…

Lin Hao and Qin Ruoyun went back into the crowd. He had heard the little chubby guy shouting just now, so he understood what Qin Ruoyun meant. The two of them walked quickly, and several times they almost bumped into people, earning quite a few annoyed looks.

They arrived at a cold drink stall. Lin Hao was thirsty from walking so much.

“I’m just buying two ice creams. It’s too hot!”

The two of them sat facing each other under a sun umbrella. Lin Hao ate his ice cream while flipping through the CD booklet. He tore open the plastic wrapping. The case was a little flimsy, and the quality was quite ordinary.

Qin Ruoyun didn’t understand why he was so interested in this CD. She had already heard the song “The Wanderer” a few days ago, and after listening to it, she had scoffed at it.

It was just a completely meaningless pop song with no substance at all. It had absolutely no difficulty. Its only advantage was that both the melody and lyrics were catchy.

Lin Hao pulled out the cover of the CD case. The back had the names of the songs printed on it. Then he opened the folded booklet inside, which contained the lyrics of each song.

When he confirmed once again that the lyrics and music of “The Wanderer” were written by Gao Shuai, he became even more confused.

The first time he heard this song was at the end of August 2002, on the train when he and Wu Xiaozhou had gone to the provincial capital for school. Even now, he could clearly remember the appearance of that disabled man in his thirties, and his name was Heizi.

At the time, he had asked Heizi where he learned this song. Heizi had looked flustered and refused to answer before getting off the train. Even the disabled man carrying two bricks had looked at him fiercely.

But how had this song now become something written and composed by Gao Shuai? And it had even been released as an album.

Qin Ruoyun saw him sitting there blankly, holding the song booklet without saying anything. The ice cream in his cup had already melted into liquid, so she waved her hand in front of his eyes.

“Hey, what’s wrong?”

Lin Hao came back to his senses and realized he had lost his composure. He raised the song booklet in his hand and asked:

“Big Sis, are you familiar with this Gao Shuai?”

Qin Ruoyun thought for a moment. Although she wasn’t familiar with him, she should have seen him at some performance events.

It was just that her status in the Chinese music industry was too high. Many second-rate singers wanted to curry favor with her, but they simply didn’t have the opportunity to get close to her.

Lin Hao glanced at the production company listed on the CD and froze.

What a coincidence—truly a case of running into old enemies again. He never expected it to be this company once more: Fenghua Fashion Audio-Visual Media Co., Ltd.

“Big Sis, are you familiar with this company called Fenghua Fashion?”

Qin Ruoyun nodded.

“I wouldn’t say I’m familiar with them. I once performed on the same stage with Fenghua Fashion’s owner, Jiang Datong. But later he quit the music industry, so we lost contact.”

“You mean this CD was released by Fenghua Fashion?” Qin Ruoyun was also a little surprised.

She hadn’t bought this CD. She had heard the song in the audio-visual room at Phantom.

“It should have been published through them. Fenghua Fashion doesn’t have publishing rights. They’re just an entertainment agency.”

Lin Hao nodded.

“This is quite a coincidence. Looks like you and Jiang Datong really are destined to keep crossing paths!” Qin Ruoyun giggled.

Lin Hao wasn’t surprised at all by her comment. Although the lawsuit between him and Fenghua Fashion hadn’t caused much of a stir, the entertainment circle was only so big. Especially with Phantom keeping an eye on him, how could they possibly not know about it?

In reality, Qin Ruoyun and the others only knew the surface details. They didn’t even know that Wei Yuan was the lawyer involved in the lawsuit. Otherwise, by following the lead of Wei Yuan, they would have discovered that behind this matter stood Fifth Master Shen, as well as Zhou Dongbing from the Northeast.

At this moment, Lin Hao himself didn’t know that Fifth Master Shen was behind it. It was precisely because of Fifth Master Shen that Jiang Datong hadn’t set his sights on him. Otherwise, it would have become another troublesome matter.

Lin Hao thought about it. He had to get to the bottom of this, but he didn’t want to trouble Zhou Dongbing again.

Although he had saved Wei Yuan’s phone number, their relationship was complicated. Wei Yuan had only helped him with the lawsuit back then. Asking him to contact Jiang Datong for him was obviously inappropriate.

Then another thought came to him. If he could directly find this Gao Shuai, why would he need to meet Jiang Datong?

“Big Sis, I want to meet this Gao Shuai.”