DA chapter 24

 

After saying that sentence, the director left, leaning on her cane.

Yan Xu wanted to stop her, but Deputy Director Chen gave him a disapproving look.

The crowd grew impatient, unable to wait for Yan Xu to give a specific answer.

“What song are we supposed to sing?”

“Who knows.”

“What happens if we fail?”

“This is a task assigned by an NPC. What do you think will happen if we can’t finish it?”

Lin Jia looked at Xiao Yao. Xiao Yao immediately straightened up and said, “Brother Jia, please give orders.”

Lin Jia asked, “Did you check the dance room?”

When Xiao Yao had introduced the interior of the building to Lin Jia earlier, he mentioned that the Yile Welfare Institute had a dance room.

Since dance and music go together, maybe the song they had to sing was in the dance room.

“Should… be there.” Xiao Yao’s vague answer did not satisfy Lin Jia. His voice grew quieter. “Brother Jia, how about we go take a look?”

He had only scanned the area roughly before and had not inspected every room thoroughly. “But the dance room door wasn’t locked.”

Xiao Yao hurried to add that, feeling guilty like a worker whose boss denied his work.

The cat at Lin Jia’s feet nodded in agreement, glad that someone else was a victim, too.

After Lin Jia reminded them like this, the others who had checked the Yile Welfare Institute also remembered the existence of the dance room. Since lives were at stake, they did not dare to delay and hurried toward the dance room.

The others ran very fast, but Lin Jia lagged behind.

Xiao Yao could only worry anxiously.

By the time Lin Jia arrived at the dance room, the others had already found their target.

They found a music score in the dance room, but they didn’t look happy.

Lin Jia only glanced inside once and understood why—the music score in Yan Xu’s hand was as thick as a thumb.

After Xiao Yao took a look, he also looked troubled. The thickness of the music score meant there was more than one song inside, at least around a hundred songs, so how to choose?

There was only one music score. Yan Xu flipped through it and handed it to Deputy Director Chen. Deputy Director Chen quickly looked through it, whispered something to Yan Xu, and tossed the music score over.

Xiao Yao hurried to snatch it. He was tall and sturdy and looked fierce, too. Despite his injured hand, he grabbed the music score as if snatching a bouquet.

He didn’t rush to look at it, but rather offered it as if presenting a treasure, handing the music score to Lin Jia.

As a result of doing this was that everyone looked toward Lin Jia.

As Lin Jia reached to take it, he saw Yan Xu looking at him from the corner of his eye, then showing a thoughtful expression.

Lin Jia did not put the music score down because of that, he flipped through it naturally.

Just like guessed, the music score contained no fewer than a hundred songs, both Chinese and foreign, all children’s songs.

Other than that, there was nothing abnormal; the entire score was brand new, and it was impossible to distinguish anything from the wear level.

Xiao Yao said, “This…”

The cat also wanted to see, but Lin Jia quietly kicked it away.

They passed the music score to others. After one round of everyone flipping through it, they looked at each other.

“How do we choose?”

There were too many songs inside. After looking carefully through them, there was no especially obvious song. Who knows what song the director wanted them to sing?

When the newcomers saw the heaviness on the old hands’ faces, they immediately panicked.

“Captain Yan, what’s the situation now? Are we choosing a song? If we choose the wrong one, will the director kill us?”

When the director left, she said that there would be punishment if they sang badly. This was Fish Belly—strange in every way. Would the so-called punishment be simple?

Yan Xu curled his finger, and the music score rotated back into his hand. He flipped through it again, saying, “Instead of spending time blaming me, choose a song.”

In the crowd, someone’s face instantly turned pale—their quiet blame had actually reached Yan Xu’s ears.

They were two people from Zhang Tudou’s team. Zhang Tudou scolded them twice and coughed once, then asked, “Captain Yan, do you know which one to choose?”

Many hopeful eyes looked toward Yan Xu.

“Don’t know.” Yan Xu still looked indifferent. “Just choose randomly. Leave it to luck.”

“This…”

Deputy Director Chen took the music score from Yan Xu and flipped through it. After a while, he addressed everyone, “I looked through the music score. There are also some familiar children’s songs included. Since we don’t know the correct answer, we can only choose the ones we know and try not to make mistakes.”

When Deputy Director Chen said that, everyone relaxed slightly.

Deputy Director Chen added, “Since the letters were written by the director, materializing the director was not wrong. We can try to get some information from her. I don’t want to hear any more complaints. Can you do that?”

Everyone smiled awkwardly: “Yes.”

Lin Jia watched coldly. Since entering Fish Belly, Deputy Director Chen had barely spoken, and it was always Yan Xu who spoke and took action. Now, with just two short sentences, Deputy Director Chen had used both favor and pressure and earned enough goodwill from others.

However, Yan Xu looked completely indifferent, so Lin Jia wouldn’t comment either.

“Choose.”

With Deputy Director Chen’s order, everyone began choosing songs one after another.

There was only one music score and too many people were looking at it. Lin Jia didn’t enjoy squeezing into a crowd. He had looked through the score before and remembered some songs.

Xiao Yao still did not quite give up and looked at Lin Jia expectantly. “Brother Jia, are you really choosing at random?”

In the past, Lin Jia could always find a solution when all seemed lost. Xiao Yao hoped that Lin Jia could see something this time as well.

“Otherwise?” Lin Jia shattered Xiao Yao’s fantasy without mercy.

Xiao Yao secretly looked at Lin Jia. He did not think that Lin Jia would value luck above all else. However, since Lin Jia did not say anything, he probably had confidence…maybe.

Thinking this, Xiao Yao secretly relaxed and asked, “Brother Jia, which song should I choose?”

Many of the songs in the music score were familiar, such as “Two Tigers,” “Clapping Song,” and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.”

Since the music score was not in hand, Xiao Yao recalled, ““The lyrics seem unchanged. I just don’t know if the tune changed.”

“Didn’t change,” Lin Jia said.

When Xiao Yao heard this, he felt steadier inside and flattered Lin Jia: “Brother Jia is amazing. He can even read the tune.”

The people around them had already begun choosing songs. Xiao Yao wanted to snatch the music score, but Lin Jia stopped him. There were so many people fighting to look at the music score that if Xiao Yao had gone to snatch it, conflict might have happened. Lin Jia wouldn’t say much if Xiao Yao acted alone, but now everyone saw him and Xiao Yao as one team. If Xiao Yao caused trouble, Lin Jia might get implicated too.

Lin Jia did not like creating extra trouble. Besides, he had already memorized some of the music score when he first flipped through it.

“Alright then.” Xiao Yao said. “Then I’ll choose ‘Two Tigers.’”

He had just wanted to ask what Lin Jia had chosen when uneven footsteps sounded in the corridor and soon arrived at the dance room door.

In the dance room, everyone who had chosen a song instantly fell silent. The director still looked stern, and her tone was severe. “Why are you still outside?”

Did you take my words as passing wind?”

“Believe it or not, I’ll make all of you receive punishment!”

Seeing that the director was getting angrier the more she spoke, no one dared to breathe loudly for fear of being singled out.

Yan Xu, still with an indifferent expression, spoke up: “Director, don’t be angry. We’re seriously preparing songs.” He deliberately stressed the two words, “seriously,” and grinned after speaking.

The director looked at him suspiciously, then at everyone else.

Yan Xu slapped someone on the back of the head. “Show one to the director?”

The person’s legs gave out from fright, and he dropped to his knees.

Lin Jia noticed that this person was the same one who had quietly complained about Yan Xu materializing the director. It was hard not to say that Yan Xu was taking public revenge for a private grievance.

The director said, “Quickly go back to your rooms. Don’t stay outside. I’ll come room by room to inspect later.”

After speaking, she leaned on her cane and walked away in uneven steps.

Everyone let out a breath, but the way they looked at Yan Xu had changed. Since entering Fish Belly, Yan Xu had always been the one speaking and acting. They had almost forgotten what kind of person Yan Xu was.

He was a mad dog of the administration, not some newcomer that the old hands could casually use to test danger.

“What are you still standing there for? If you’ve chosen a song, then go choose a room.” Yan Xu still sounded indifferent. He yawned as he left with Deputy Director Chen.

Lin Jia and Xiao Yao left after them. Xiao Yao led Lin Jia toward the Welfare Institute rooms.

All the rooms were on the second floor at the front of the building. Since the orphans of the Welfare Institute had not yet arrived, the rooms were empty and available for those entering Fish Belly to choose from.

Xiao Yao had originally wanted to choose a room in the middle. Generally speaking, middle rooms were the safest. However, when he saw Lin Jia choose the room on the left, he chose the room next to him.

The director said she would soon come room by room to check the singing results, so Xiao Yao had no choice but to separate from Lin Jia and stay in his own room.

As soon as Lin Jia entered his room, the cat quickly closed the door and said, “I was suffocating.”

Lin Jia looked at the cat once. The middle room was the safest, but it also meant that people lived on both sides, so there was a greater chance that the cat would be noticed.

So, he chose the room on the edge. This way, Xiao Yao was next door, and even if he noticed something, he could fool him.

The cat did not know Lin Jia did it for itself, and hurriedly asked Lin Jia: “What song did you choose?”

Lin Jia casually mentioned a song.

Unexpectedly, the cat knew it and immediately said, “This song is quite difficult.”

Most children’s songs have catchy tunes with no high notes. The cat judged the difficulty of these tracks based solely on the lyrics, categorizing the songs according to the number of words in the lyrics.

Only one or two songs were slightly difficult.

And the song Lin Jia named was about that level of difficulty.

The cat said, “Sing it.”

Since he had to be inspected anyway, Lin Jia didn’t hesitate and opened his mouth to sing. “I have one beautiful wish: After growing up, I can sow the sun. Sowing one seed, one seed is enough; it will bear many, many suns.”[mfn]This lyric is from a Chinese children’s song called 种太阳 (Zhòng Tàiyáng — “Planting the Sun”) It’s a famous Chinese children’s song from the late 1980s–1990s.[/mfn]

After singing, Lin Jia looked at the cat.

The cat: “emmmm.”

The cat: “A little bit awful.”

The cat was disappointed. “Didn’t you know the music score?”

People who had not studied music could hardly read a music score. Before Lin Jia opened his mouth, the cat had high expectations of him.

However, the moment he opened his mouth, that illusion shattered.

Lin Jia knew the cat wouldn’t say anything useful, so he said lightly, “Before evaluating others, first weigh your own measure.”

The cat refused to accept it. “Of course I have the ability to evaluate you.”

“Then that settles it.” Lin Jia hung up his coat. “It’s not like lip-syncing can’t be done.”

The cat: “What do you mean?”

Lin Jia was about to respond when someone suddenly knocked on the door. He looked toward the door. “Who?”

Outside the door: “Me.”

The director’s voice.

Fortunately, the director came to Lin Jia first.

Before opening the door, Lin Jia looked at the cat and pointed to his own throat, then pointed to the cat.

The cat was instantly shocked—what?!

Already pushing the cat onto the rack like this? No way! Lin Jia trusted it this much?

 

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