Chapter 164: The Singer

"On the banyan tree by the pond, the cicadas are chirping of summer."
"On the swing by the playground, only the butterflies are resting~"
"The teacher's chalk on the blackboard is still busily scratching away."
"Waiting for class to end, waiting for school to finish, waiting for a childhood of games~"

The familiar melody, the familiar singing, the familiar lyrics.
It was that same song, "Childhood" by Lo Ta-yu, sung in that same signature mature woman’s voice, with Katerina’s trademark—an emotionally charged… wail that could move spirits to tears.

"She seems to really like this song," Chang Yu thought, watching Katerina’s focused profile.

In truth, most young people these days don't care for such old, outdated songs. Katerina, however, was an exception. Could it be that this song held some special significance for her?

Right now, Katerina was gripping the microphone, her eyes locked onto the karaoke machine’s large screen, listening intently to the melody through her headphones. She looked as serious and professional as one could possibly be.

He had expected a master, but the moment she opened her mouth, she revealed herself to be a total novice. It was a performance completely devoid of pitch. Chang Yu only listened for a short while before he began to question the meaning of life. Theoretically, this song should have been relatively easy to sing. But as it turned out… she managed to make a perfectly good song sound utterly abysmal.

"I never realized there were people in this world who could sing this badly!" Chang Yu felt genuinely depressed; his ears had effectively shut down in self-defense.

It made him realize one thing: the heavens are fair to everyone. When they open a door for you, they quietly close a window. No one is perfect; everyone has their flaws. Take Katerina, for example. The heavens had favored her immensely, bestowing almost every shining quality upon her. She was beautiful, had a great figure, was diligent at work, possessed a superpower that ordinary people only dreamed of, and was quite wealthy. Yet, this woman, who seemed perfect in every way to Chang Yu, lacked even a shred of musical talent.

Listening to Katerina’s incredibly earnest, off-key, and soul-crushingly bad singing, Chang Yu felt like he was about to explode. Finally, he survived the end of the song. The small karaoke booth suddenly fell silent, and Chang Yu felt a sense of rebirth.

"Your turn," Katerina said, handing him the microphone. "What do you want to sing? I’ll queue it up for you."

Looking at the microphone in his hand, Chang Yu suddenly remembered that Katerina had been so excited while singing that she had accidentally sprayed it with spit. Should he put the mic in his mouth and lick it clean? he wondered.

"Let’s go with 'Must Love You,'" he decided, his sense of reason finally prevailing over his impulse.

Soon, the moving melody played through the headphones—the exact song Chang Yu had wanted. He raised the microphone, gathered his emotions, and sang with deep affection:

"Although the days we've known each other are still brief,
I have already fallen deeply in love with you.
Your innocence and pure heart have captured me;
You are the beautiful angel of my dreams.
I know you are an innocent, kind, and gentle girl,
And I truly hope I am worthy of you.
If you could give me a chance to love you well,
I only want to tell you with all my heart..."

As the song ended, Chang Yu kept his eyes closed, deeply immersed in his own intoxication. He had sung with true feeling, creating an emotional resonance that left him lingering in the moment.

"Not bad," Katerina said, looking up at Chang Yu with a gaze of pure admiration. She had the feeling that when Chang Yu said he couldn't sing, he was just being modest.

In reality, Chang Yu actually sang quite well, not at all the tone-deaf mess he claimed to be. While his skill wasn't up to the level of a professional singer, it was certainly good enough for an ordinary person. At the very least, he was twenty blocks ahead of her.

"Why is your only takeaway whether I sang well or not?" Chang Yu mustered his courage to drop a hint. "Don't you think the lyrics to this song are wonderful?"

"Hmm… they’re pretty good," Katerina replied, missing the hint entirely. She didn't get the point at all.

*It’s over. The song was a total waste!*

Watching Katerina act as if nothing had happened, Chang Yu thought, *Is Katerina… a dense, iron-willed girl?*

His plan to confess his feelings through the lyrics had crashed and burned in spectacular fashion. Chang Yu had thought that by singing a heartfelt rendition of "Must Love You," he could express his love in a way that was both subtle and direct. But after finishing, he realized the song hadn't achieved the expected effect at all—Katerina hadn't even considered that possibility!

Katerina was usually such a smart person; why couldn't she pick up on such an obvious hint when it came to this? Chang Yu was burning with anxiety, feeling like the house was on fire.

Time ticked away as Chang Yu let his thoughts run wild. Finally, after forty minutes, Katerina walked out of the karaoke booth, looking completely satisfied. Behind her followed Chang Yu, wearing the complex expression of a man who had just survived a nightmare.

"As expected, coming here to sing is the best way to relieve stress," Katerina murmured, as if talking to herself. She was the type of person who carried heavy thoughts and easily fell into a state of anxiety. Singing was her best way to decompress.

"How was it? Did you have fun?" Katerina asked. "I noticed you didn't seem to be enjoying yourself much earlier. Do you want to sing a bit more?"

Chang Yu swallowed involuntarily. Her suggestion felt like a bolt of lightning from a clear sky, plunging his world into darkness.

"No… let's not!" Chang Yu made up his mind. Even if he were to die here today, he would never step foot into that karaoke booth again. It was just too much torture.

"Fine," Katerina nodded. "Then we'll come back next time. We should always leave something to look forward to, right?"

"Pfft!" Chang Yu, who was drinking water, sprayed it out of his mouth.

*What a disaster!* Katerina… Katerina… did she just say… she wants to come back next time? *Heaven, please spare me! I’m still young! I haven't even contributed my light and heat to the motherland yet! I can't die in my prime!*

...

In the mall's entertainment zone, a middle-aged man with a slicked-back, greasy hairstyle wore a mournful expression.

"Miss, how is it you again?"

"Every time you come, our shop is bound to make a loss. You’re clearly not an ordinary person, so why must you make things so difficult for a guy like me?"

"I only have so many prizes to begin with, barely enough for my own use, and yet every time, you win them all."

"We’re just a small business, a small operation—we can’t handle this kind of winning streak!"

Standing before the balloon-popping stall, Chang Yu and Katerina looked at each other, then at the middle-aged man, who was pouring out his grievances with a silver tongue. They felt inexplicably awkward.

*Katerina, oh Katerina, exactly how many prizes did you win from this boss to leave him with such deep psychological trauma?*

"This..." The man’s pleading expression touched Katerina’s heart, and she found herself in a dilemma. If she were to give up the game and walk away, she would certainly feel reluctant. After all, she loved the balloon-popping game, and she had brought Chang Yu here today specifically so they could both have a go.

However, she also understood that if she insisted on playing here, the shop owner would absolutely refuse. She had simply visited too many times recently and had scared him with her winning. Seeing the boss standing squarely in front of the toy guns, with a posture that screamed, "If you want to touch these guns, you'll have to step over my dead body," Katerina knew he was prepared to "live and die with the toy guns."

"Look! What’s happening over there?" a curious voice rang out, drawing the attention of passersby.

"Looks like a fight! Let’s go watch the commotion!"

Because this floor of the mall was filled with amusement facilities—balloon popping, ring toss, go-karts, claw machines, and VR game centers—it was popular with young people and children, making it a very high-traffic area. In a place like this, the slightest hint of trouble would quickly be exposed to the public eye.

And so, when people saw the tense atmosphere around Chang Yu, a crowd immediately gathered—a group of onlookers who loved a good scene.

"Let’s go. We won't play today," Katerina said, choosing to compromise as she saw the crowd growing. She didn't want to make a spectacle of herself.

"But you wanted to play this so much, how can we just leave?" Chang Yu didn't want Katerina to be disappointed, and his expression showed his dissatisfaction. This resentment was directed at the boss, because in Chang Yu’s eyes, this guy was deliberately making things hard for her. If Katerina was in a bad mood today, it was at least half his fault. And if Katerina was unhappy, then he, Chang Yu, was unhappy.

"They’re running a business; winning and losing is normal. Why act like you can't afford to lose?" he thought. "You can't just welcome customers who spend a lot of money and pop nothing, then drive away the ones with good aim, right? Don't skilled customers count as customers too? This is just playing dirty and having no integrity! You little chicken!"

Suppressing his dissatisfaction and anger, Chang Yu said to the boss, who looked smug, thinking he had successfully driven them away by causing a scene: "If you won't let her play, you should at least let me have a turn, right?"

"You?" The boss looked Chang Yu up and down. "Young man, what do you mean?"