Chapter 150: Jiang Xiwen, Give Us One

Li Huanwen’s rendition of "Hungry Wolf Legend" was explosive and passionate. Although the lyrics were hardly suitable for middle school students, Jacky Cheung’s song was a massive hit among teenagers at the time. However, such fast-paced Cantonese songs were notoriously difficult to sing; while everyone loved listening to them, almost no one could perform them well.

Indeed, Li Huanwen possessed genuine musical talent and imitated the original song remarkably well. Waves of applause kept time with the rhythm, encouraging him to dance and sing with escalating fervor.

It was not until the song ended that he stopped swaying his body. Holding the microphone with the confident aura of a true celebrity, he said, "Thank you, everyone. Thank you." Then, softening his tone, he continued, "Next, I would like to dedicate a slow song to all of you. I will accompany myself on the guitar to send my best wishes to every classmate here. The song is called 'Blessing'."

"Li Huanwen! Li Huanwen! We love you! Li Huanwen! Li Huanwen! We love you..." The plump, freckled girl could no longer contain herself and burst out cheering. Soon, a chorus of female voices joined in. After all, everyone knew Tan Yutou well enough by then to realize he wouldn't mind, and besides, this kind of adoration was simply the devotion of fans toward an idol, nothing overly scandalous.

*Good grief, the anthem of Rukawa Kaoru's fan club has finally made its appearance...* Jiang Xiwen thought to himself.

"Thank you all for your profound affection..." Li Huanwen handled the adoration of his fans with practiced ease. By simply slipping in the word "profound," he managed to cast his generalized benevolence over all the girls present.

"Those who know me well are aware that I usually excel at singing Andy Lau's songs. But today, I have come to Class 4 of the Third Year because Mr. Tan is the teacher I respect the most, and here too are my dearest friend Zhang Ya, and all of you—my younger schoolmates. For your sakes, I specially prepared a song by Jacky Cheung. One fast song, and one slow song..."

Upon hearing herself referred to as his "dearest friend," Zhang Ya almost vomited, but she could hardly expose him on the spot and had to endure it for the time being.

Accompanied by Li Huanwen's speech, the lights gradually brightened with a hazy, dim glow. The lighting technician was a classmate hired by Li Huanwen, and their coordination was seamless.

Li Huanwen picked up his guitar, and as the lights illuminated the space, the melody of "Blessing" drifted softly into the classroom.

*Do not ask, do not speak, everything remains unsaid...*

Not only the girls, but even some of the boys were moved by the song, holding hands and swaying to the rhythm. Zhang Ya was also captivated by the music itself, her gaze shifting toward the stage, only to find Li Huanwen looking at her with deep affection. She hurriedly lowered her head.

Li Huanwen felt secretly triumphant. In his eyes, Zhang Ya's reaction meant she was beginning to develop feelings for him, identical to the response of every other girl he had ever charmed.

At that moment, only one student in the entire classroom paid no attention to Li Huanwen. Sitting in the corner, Ning Yan stared fixedly at Jiang Xiwen, completely motionless. When the classmate beside her glanced over and asked a casual question, she merely offered a faint smile.

Arrogance breeds madness. Li Huanwen felt an escalating surge of smug satisfaction. Imagining the moment he would corner Jiang Xiwen, he poured even more energy into his performance. This time, he had thoroughly investigated whether Jiang Xiwen could sing, and the conclusion he reached was that this kid had never once performed on a stage from elementary school all the way through the third year of junior high. Even though his grades had suddenly skyrocketed last semester and he had written a novel that students adored, there had been no sudden indication of any musical ability whatsoever.

Therefore, Li Huanwen proceeded with bold confidence. After finishing a flawless rendition of "Blessing," he gave a stylish point to the students in the audience, swept his gaze across the room, and said, "Thank you, everyone. Next, I would like to invite one of us to the stage to perform a song—none other than our class's most talented writer, Jiang Xiwen!"

The lighting technician dutifully blew a wolf-whistle to hype up the crowd. Because he had stood up to the tyrannical teacher, and because he had written *The Ethereal Legend*, Jiang Xiwen already enjoyed immense popularity among his peers. Spurred on by the technician's whistle, the entire class began chanting: "Jiang Xiwen! Come on up! Jiang Xiwen! Come on up!"

"Damn it, Xiwen, this guy is making trouble for you again!" Gong Xiang said angrily. "Getting you up there right now is obviously meant to use you as a foil. He has already whipped the atmosphere into a frenzy, and the stage presence has reached its peak. To outdo him musically at this point, you'd need to bring in a professional singer."

"Hey now, Gong Xiang, you're a fast learner. On stage, you have to know how to use the audience to build momentum. Don't forget that when you hold your own concerts in the future," Jiang Xiwen said with a grin.

"You're still in the mood to joke? They're calling you up there!" Gong Xiang urged anxiously. "Should I go up in your place?"

"No need. Just wait a little longer..."

Finally tearing her gaze away from Jiang Xiwen, Ning Yan glared angrily at Li Huanwen in the middle of the classroom and prepared to stand up and confront him. Instead, she saw Zhang Ya walk forward and say to the classmates, "Classmate Jiang Xiwen might not be very good at singing, so let's not put him on the spot. How about we just have him come up and say a few words of blessing instead..."

Ning Yan sank back into her seat in a daze. *He doesn't need my help anymore. He's no longer that frail boy from the past. Why is it that when he doesn't need me, I'm always thinking of him? Now he has Zhang Ya—their fathers are both government officials, and what am I?*

The more Ning Yan thought about it, the more heartbroken she felt. Fortunately, it was dark; the classroom lights remained focused in a hazy glow solely on the center of the stage, and with everyone else looking toward the platform, there was not a single person near Ning Yan to notice the tears quietly welling in her eyes.

"It's fine! Xiwen already said today is a graduation party, not a concert. As long as he comes up and sings a little, it doesn't matter! Don't you all agree?" Li Huanwen once again leveraged his specialty to stir up the emotions of the entire class.

"Jiang Xiwen! Come on up! Jiang Xiwen! Come on up..."

"Xiwen, what should we do?" Gong Xiang grew even more frantic.

"It's time. See that? Only when the audience's enthusiasm reaches a certain pitch is it the right moment to make an entrance," Jiang Xiwen instructed Gong Xiang on the spot. "If I hadn't gone up, it would have only magnified Li Huanwen's momentum and made a fool of me. But if I had gone up too early, even if I sang well, it wouldn't have created the desired sense of anticipation. So going up right now is the most appropriate choice."

"What?" Gong Xiang was stunned. "You actually know how to sing?"

"You'll see in a moment." Jiang Xiwen smiled, stood up, and strode toward the stage in the center of the classroom. Stopping in front of a visibly anxious Zhang Ya, he whispered, "Class Monitor, go back and sit down. You don't need to worry."

Seeing Jiang Xiwen's resolute expression, Zhang Ya felt a sudden surge of anticipation—just like the time he subdued two thugs with a few swift moves, just like the time he slapped the tyrannical teacher across the face for her sake, and just like the debate he had with Li Huanwen over the planning proposal in class just a few days ago.

This unfathomable boy always managed to pull off the unexpected.

Jiang Xiwen took the microphone from Zhang Ya's hand, looked at the gloating expression on Li Huanwen's face, and said, "Senior Brother Huanwen, may I borrow your guitar for a moment?"

"What? You know how to play?!" Li Huanwen's eyes nearly popped out of his head. *Damn it, could this kid actually know how to play, or is he just putting on a bluff?*

Anxiety began to creep into Li Huanwen's heart. Recalling the information he had gathered on Jiang Xiwen, many people said that since last November, he had seemed like a completely different person. Viewed in that light, it was entirely possible that he could sing.

"Senior Brother?" Jiang Xiwen waved his hand in front of Li Huanwen. "The guitar..."

"Oh!" Li Huanwen snapped out of his daze and hurriedly handed over the guitar. However, before passing it across, he stealthily gave one of the pegs a twist, throwing the tuning completely out of whack.

Jiang Xiwen took the guitar and muttered a word of thanks.

At that moment, absolute silence fell over the classroom. This was precisely the effect Jiang Xiwen had been waiting for.

He knew his vocal skills couldn't match Li Huanwen's, but he was certainly not as hopeless as his classmates assumed. That was why he waited until the crowd's teasing reached its peak before taking the stage, and why he asked to borrow a guitar—knowing how to play the guitar at this age could invisibly add countless points to a performance.

Since no one else knew about this hidden skill of his, and the stage momentum had already been fully built up, the next step was to shift the performance space to give the audience a fresh, casual feeling of being right among them.

Clutching the guitar, Jiang Xiwen walked over to a gazebo-like structure on the side of the room and sat down on a wooden bench inside. Although it was a prop, the bench was solidly built, so sitting on it posed no problem.

Every eye in the room followed Jiang Xiwen to the gazebo. Even the students who had previously been sitting sideways turned to face him.

As time dragged on, the momentum Li Huanwen had built up earlier dissipated significantly, and coupled with this change in venue, Jiang Xiwen successfully captured the undivided attention of every student.

Next came the core of the performance: singing while playing. He tested the strings and quickly noticed something was amiss. Although practicing the song "Wind and Rain Without Impedance" hadn't elevated his guitar skills to any profound level, he certainly knew how to tune an instrument.

Standing in the middle of the stage, Li Huanwen's complexion grew increasingly unsightly. He had every reason to believe that even if Jiang Xiwen's guitar-playing and singing weren't superior to his own, they certainly wouldn't be too bad either.