TN: I had a hard time translating this chapter. I hope my work is still okay. Comment if anything is unclear.
Chapter 189 – Friends
A star once said during an interview in a TV program that his own star journey has been rough and bumpy and has gone through countless hardship. He has wanted to give up several times and just live an ordinary life.
But when he stood on the stage and heard the thousands of people shouting his name, all the tiredness and pain disappeared, and he felt that all his efforts had been rewarded and he insisted on keeping his original intention unchanged.
At this moment, Lu Chen understood this senior.
Although there weren’t many guests in the Forget Worries Bar at this moment, only 100-200, they weren’t ordinary people. There were colleagues in the industry, singers in Houhai, and bar owners…
When everyone was shouting his name and expecting him to sing on the stage, it was a really good feeling.
It was as if he was the master of the whole world!
It was difficult to refuse such kindness[1]. Lu Chen stepped onto the stage and stood in the bright spotlight.
The bar quickly calmed down.
Lu Chen smiled a little embarrassedly and said into the microphone, “Today is an important day for Brother Jianhao to say goodbye to his single life, so I’ll send a song as a gift.”
The applause that had just subsided resounded again.
Everyone’s eyes were all focused on Lu Chen, with expectation, curiosity, and excitement.
Lu Chen borrowed a guitar from Qin Hanyang.
He said with a smile, “All the people here are friends, so the name of this song is…”
“Friends!”
The next moment Lu Chen gently plucked the strings and played the prelude.
His eyes looked forward, and there was a flash of light in his dark eyes.
Then, his low and deep singing voice gently passed into everyone’s ears.
“All these years, alone, the wind has passed, the rain has gone. There were tears, there were mistakes. Things we hold dear I still recall”
“If you’ve had true love, then you would know, there is loneliness, there are goodbyes, there are dreams. Always there is you in my heart!”
“Friends walk this life together, those days will not return. One word, one life, a lifetime relationship, a cup of wine…”
“With Friends, you are never alone. Lifelong friends you’d understand. There are wounds, there is pain. Life still has to go on but you still got me by your side!”
“……”
It was unclear when, perhaps it was when Lu Chen played the first note. The originally noisy, lively, and happy Forget Worries Bar has become quiet, very quiet.
Behind the bar, bartender David put down the shaker he has been shaking for a while…
In the crowd, the snow bunny girls no longer wander around.
On the upper floor of the bar, several specially invited VIPs poked their heads out of the railing, trying to hear more clearly.
More people gathered around the stage. They stared at Lu Chen and listened to the song, looking serious and thoughtful.
And a little touched.
Friend, what a precious word that is!
The lyrics of this song were very simple, the melody wasn’t complicated, Lu Chen’s playing and singing didn’t have any dazzling elements.
He played and sang as if telling a story of the vicissitudes of life.
Shaking the hearts and souls of all the people present, especially the musicians!
Many of them actually lead a vagrant life[2] because of the special nature of their work. They often run back and forth in different places. Sometimes, they don’t have time to open their luggage and have to report to the next station, living a wandering life.
On the road of music. Every time they set out, they never knew what kind of result they would have. They could only rely on themselves and friends when they encountered obstacles.
They have no way to pin a sense of stability that can last forever, and the only feeling that could give them peace of mind, apart from their family and loved ones, were only friends!
Drifting in Beijing wasn’t easy and friends were hard to come by!
“One sentence, one life, a lifetime relationship, a cup of wine” four short sentences expressing the preciousness of friendship in a wandering life. It was rare for friends to get together to drink and reminisce about their days for a night. Then, the next day, they would each go to their different ways. Although they only had each other’s word for it, but it represented an oath of a lifetime.
It was just that how many such friends could one have in one’s life?
Friends were a kind of encounter.
In this vast world with billowing bustling places and vast sea of people, for friends to meet each other, come together, get to know each other, understand each other, and get close to each other, it was really fate.
In the journey of life where people come and go, get together and separate, in their different life tracks and in the sea of heart of different experiences, it could be said that it was a kind of luck to be able to meet, get together, and come across each other. Fate would not always be there. This should be extremely cherished!
It was like what Lu Chen sings in his song.
“With Friends, you are never alone. Lifelong friends you’d understand. There are wounds, there is pain. Life still has to go on but you still got me by your side!”
“Friends walk this life together, those days will not return. One word, one life, a lifetime relationship, a cup of wine.”
Chen Jianhao stood in the crowd, his eyes a little sour.
Men don’t cry easily, but that’s only because they aren’t sad enough[3].
He wasn’t sad.
Because tomorrow was his wedding day. After all the stormy times, he suddenly found that there has always been someone who was worth cherishing silently waiting by his side. He would not miss it for the world.
It was just that Lu Chen’s singing brought back memories of the past.
Chen Jianhao thought of those friends who had accompanied him all the way. Some of them lost their way and lost contact during the journey. Some of them drifted away without hearing anything from them and some even turned into enemies.
But there were also a few friends who persevere and become true friends.
The so-called true friends weren’t those we see or have a drink with every day, but those that even if we haven’t met or even made a phone call for several years, but once they know that the other party needs help, even if they are thousands of miles away, they will try their best to come over.
How lucky he was to have several such friends!
Looking back on the past, Chen Jianhao unexpectedly became sentimental.
Until applause broke out around him and woke him up.
On the stage, Lu Chen returned the guitar to Qin Hanyang. He leaned over and asked a snow bunny girl for a glass of beer.
Standing up again, Lu Chen raised his glass high and said, “Here’s a toast to friends!”
“To friends!”
Everyone raised their glasses in response to his call.
Lu Chen lifted his head and drank all the beer in the glass in one go.
He was a little drunk.
But tonight’s bachelor party has only just begun, and there were more programs to come.
Maybe they were moved by Lu Chen’s song, or they just wanted to get to know him. When Lu Chen got off the stage, guests came one after another to give him a toast.
Lu Chen drank one glass after another, and in the end, he didn’t even know how much beer he had drank.
He even wondered when did his drinking capacity get better? He didn’t get drunk even after drinking so much!
Unfortunately, this was just his misconception.
When he finished drinking, Lu Chen’s consciousness became blurred. In the haze, he was helped to the backstage lounge.
Lying drunk in bed, countless memories emerged in Lu Chen’s mind.
It was all his memories from the dream world.
Xu Bo, Mo Ran, and Fang Mingyi’s…
A period of life flashes before his eyes, so illusory and so real!
Vaguely, he heard what seemed to be someone singing softly in his ear.
“The time is shaking, the time is turning!”
“The time is shaking, the time is turning!”
…….
“Big Chen, Big Chen!”
Lu Chen was woken up by a hard shake.
This made him dizzy.
Trying to open his eyes, Lu Chen saw a familiar face – Brother Xiaofei.
He was still confused: “Brother Fei, why are you here?”
Li Feiyu didn’t know whether to laugh or cry: “Big Chen, today is Boss Chen’s wedding day. You are the best man!”
Lu Chen suddenly woke up, instinctively turned over and sat up: “Oh no!”
Today was October 1, National Day, and it was also the wedding day of Chen Jianhao and Zhang Nana. Lu Chen was assigned with the task of picking up the bride as best man.
He drank so much at the bachelor party last night that he completely forgot about it!
Li Feiyu hurriedly said: “It is not too late, the motorcade is waiting outside at the side of the road, you go wash first. I’ll drive later.”
Lu Chen finally breathed a sigh of relief and hurried to get ready.
There was a bathroom in the lounge in the backstage of Forget Worries Bar. Lu Chen simply took a bath to wash away the smell of alcohol and at the same time make himself fully awake.
Li Feiyu brought his formal attire. He changed into it after taking the bath and went out.
He followed the motorcade directly to the hotel.
Zhang Nana was not a native of Beijing. She used to rent a house to live in, so she opened a room in the hotel as her maternal home[4], and her parents came over from their hometown.
Interestingly, when Lu Chen arrived at the hotel to pick up the bride, Lu Chen found Su Qingmei among the bridesmaids.
Miss Su Qingmei, Director of Light Rain Media, was really seizing the opportunity to make trouble with the groomsmen.
Three tests, red envelopes, guessing riddles[5]…
Fortunately, Sister Na, the bride was very reasonable. She complimented them highly and let them down gently to help Lu Chen and others fulfill their duty.
The formal wedding ceremony was held at the famous five-star Regent Hotel in Beijing.
For the first time in his life, Chen Jianhao didn’t mistreat[6] the bride who had been in love with him for many years. The whole wedding was very grand, with as many as 400 to 500 guests invited, and the bridesmaids were lenient in receiving red envelopes.
There were a lot of friends from inside and outside the circle that have come.
The scene of the ceremony was so touching. Sister Na even cried.
It was really not easy for the two to be together. Chen Jianhao originally had no intention of getting married, and Sister Na was not the ideal partner in his mind, but the latter’s true feelings moved him and finally achieved this beautiful fate.
It was a good story in the circle.
Although Sister Na’s appearance was very ordinary, she has become a well-known female singer through her cooperation with the Wandering Band, which was enough to match Chen Jianhao in terms of identity alone.
After attending the wedding of Chen Jianhao and Zhang Nana, Lu Chen couldn’t have a long National Day holiday.
The next day, he took Li Feiyu to Jinling to shoot his first commercial.
______________
TN: The Song: HERE.
[1] 盛情难却 – This is a Chinese Idiom. This has different meaning/translation: difficult to refuse such kindness ; be hard to turn down the warm-hearted offer ; difficult to decline sb.’s generous intentions ; difficult to deny your great hospitality.
[2] Vagrant life – they wander from place to place.
[3] The perseverance of men in the face of sadness makes it hard for them to ever shed a tear
[4] Her parent’s home. Traditionally, the groom with the best man and groomsmen would pick up the bride at her parent’s home. Since her parents and her aren’t a native of Beijing, they don’t have a house in Beijing and just use/treat a room in the hotel as her parent’s home.
[5] There was also a tradition. When picking up the bride, the bridesmaid would defend bride from the groom and the groomsmen. Only after undergoing a series of test from the bridesmaids would the groom be allowed to pick up the bride.
[6] This just mean that he went all out with the wedding, he didn’t cheapen out. It’s not that it was the first time he was treating her good.
TN: If you like my translations support me in ko-fi: Here.
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