The Celebration Party

"Sheng Sheng, come quick. Fanglin is trying to get me drunk. Please get him off my back!"

The youngest member of the band, Li Ranran, was a live wire—flirty and alluring like the infamous Lolita. 

Smiling, Jiang Jiusheng walked over and sat down.

"You're here," Jin Fanglin said by way of greeting and gave her a glass of Chivas. She loved alcohol. The stronger, the better. 

Jiang Jiusheng took a sip and then downed the contents in one gulp.

Unable to smile, Mo Bing shook her head but didn't stop her. It was, after all, a celebration party, so she decided not to interfere with the drinking.

"I'm playing a drinking game with Fanglin and have lost eight rounds. Please help me beat him, Sheng Sheng!" said Li Ranran, glaring fiercely at Jin Fanglin, barely concealing the coquettish look in her eyes.

Jin Fanglin and Li Ranran had been dating for three tumultuous years. She was foul-tempered and blunt, while he was the typical worker-bee with his years of experience and exposure and had a gentlemanly and gracious manner. For all of Li Ranran's cantankerous follies, she had met her nemesis in Fanglin and simply couldn't escape his cunning grip. To Jiang Jiusheng, they were a match made in heaven. 

Pouring herself another, she said, "None of you can out-drink me, so I suggest you go easy on the drinking."

Alcohol, cigarettes, brawls, and guitar playing—Jiang Jiusheng indulged in all of these activities with such gusto and intensity that it clearly contradicted her angelic good looks. Li Ranran pouted and put down her glass, acceding to her lead singer's command.

Seated in a corner, Zhang Nai kept his head low, staring at his cell phone and not uttering a word.

"Where's Liu Xu?" Mo Bing asked him.

He lifted his head and looked instead at Jiang Jiusheng, saying, "She's not well and will be late."

Jiang Jiusheng did not pursue further, but Mo Bing frowned, also not commenting further.

But the straight talker Li Ranran sounded annoyed as she declared, "What bloody cheek to think she is bigger than Sheng Sheng! Does she expect us to stand in line to welcome her?"

Zhang Nai had a thunderstruck look on his face. 

Jin Fanglin pulled Li Ranran aside, saying in a low voice, "Keep it down."

Grunting, Li Ranran dragged Jin Fanglin to the dance floor.

About 40 minutes and more than half a bottle of whiskey later, Zhang Nai stood up, saying, "Xiao Xu is here. I'll go fetch her." 

Jiang Jiusheng nodded in silence and continued to enjoy her drink.

Since their university days, Zhang Nai had liked Liu Xu, and this was common knowledge among the band members. They had been dating for almost four years and were a couple in every sense of the word, yet Liu Xu had never publicly acknowledged Zhang Nai as her boyfriend. 

Li Ranran had always maintained that Liu Xu was hedging her bets and that Zhang Nai had been a spare tire for four years. The bad blood between Li Ranran and Liu Xu had festered within the band for a long while now. 

TheNine had begun as a student band called TheOne. When Tian Yu Media had acceded to Jiang Jiusheng's demand to let her debut as a member of the band, their one condition had been to have the name of the band changed to TheNine. Some of the band members had disagreed with the change, and keyboard player Liu Xu was the most vocal of them. 

Of course, Liu Xu had her reasons for objecting. TheOne had been founded by Jin Fanglin with Zhang Nai and Liu Xu as the first members. Even the youngest member, Li Ranran, had been a member before Jiang Jiusheng. At the time of her debut, Jiang Jiusheng had only been with the band for about two months, having joined not as a lead singer but as a rhythm guitarist. The original lead singer had been a senior at Jin Fanglin's school, but she'd had to leave the band due to personal reasons. Jin Fanglin had decided to let Jiang Jiusheng take over as lead singer because, although Liu Xu had a good voice, she did not have as wide of a vocal range, nor the power to effectively deliver rock. 

Initially, the relationship was manageable. However, as Jiang Jiusheng's popularity and standing in the industry grew rapidly, the other band members were continually dissed by keyboard-happy netizens. To add fuel to the fire, the total number of fans of the other four band members did not even add up to half of Jiang Jiusheng's fan base of 30 million active members. This situation of one person getting all the limelight was just too blatant, and the relationship between the two worsened.

Seeing that the private room was empty, Mo Bing took her glass and sat alongside Jiang Jiusheng, asking, "And you still don't want to go solo?"

Without hesitation, she shook her head. "Nope."

"You might not want to, but others have their own ideas," Mo Bing hinted.

Taking a sip of the alcohol, Jiang Jiusheng looked up at her. 

Putting down her glass, Mo Bing said, "Liu Xu met up with some music producers a few days ago."

Jiang Jiusheng slouched against the sofa, knees touching and legs splayed out to form a small V-shape. Looking relaxed in her comfortable pose, she replied without emotion, "Oh." 

"Is that it?" Mo Bing raised her eyebrows at her. "No further reaction?"

Without a doubt, Jiang Jiusheng was the sole benefactor of TheNine, and Liu Xu, the ingrate, was biting the hand that fed her by wanting to leave. 

"Leave her be."

Mo Bing was flabbergasted by the lack of reaction.

Swirling her wine glass, Jiang Jiusheng took a philosophical stance, saying, "Humans tend not to know when to stop unless they get hurt badly."

Mo Bing made an indiscernible sound and did not broach the subject of the ingrate any further. Based on her years of experience in the industry, she could tell that while Liu Xu had the intention, she did not have what it took to pull off whatever she had in mind.

Having had her fun, Li Ranran returned to the private room with Jin Fanglin in tow. At the same time, Zhang Nai walked in, followed by Liu Xu.

"You're one hour late," Li Ranran proclaimed rudely.

Liu Xu put her bag down, brushed off her white shirt, and sat, her expressionless face elegantly made up. "We had to detour to dodge the paparazzi." 

Throwing her a glance, Li Ranran gave a superficial smile and said sarcastically, "Wow. The paparazzi are so diligent these days, even resorting to stalking you for some pictures of Sheng Sheng." Casually dressed in baggy clothes, she crossed her legs, saying, "Looks like I should learn from you, wearing makeup and sunglasses when I'm out and about to brush up on my image." 

Li Ranran and Liu Xu had always been at loggerheads—the former impetuously blunt, while the latter was a sly wolf in lamb's clothing. Peace was impossible with these two around.

Liu Xu ignored the taunt, looking beautiful and vulnerable. 

Zhang Nai tried to coax her with a glass of fine-colored wine. "Have a drink first."

"I don't want to drink. Alcohol is harmful to my voice," Liu Xu replied a little impatiently, continuously playing with her pitch-black hair. A mean person pretending to pure and innocent—like a pristine white lotus!

Not liking what she had witnessed, Li Ranran gave a carefree laugh and said to Jiang Jiusheng, "Lead singer, did you hear that? Don't drink. It's bad for your voice." She glinted at Liu Xu and insinuated, "Otherwise, you might end up being replaced as the lead singer."

"Enough, Li Ranran!" Liu Xu could not take it anymore and lost it.

Her sparring partner simply shrugged. "Not yet."

She just could not tolerate Liu Xu, a mere keyboard player, always putting on airs and graces like a lead singer. 

"You—"

No longer the demure, pure white lotus? Let it all out, then!

Laughing, Li Ranran interrupted her outburst, taunting, "Where are the reporters? Are they here yet? Quick, take some photos of her baring her fangs so I can ride on the popularity of this little fairy of TheNine and be frantically searched for online."

Liu Xu had always maintained the public image of a gracious and gentle little fairy, and the pretentiousness of it all was what really irked Li Ranran.

True to form, the "little fairy" bottled it all up. Clutching her bag, she walked out, saying, "I'm going to the bathroom."

With that, Liu Xu trotted out of the room in her ten-centimeter high shoes.

Zhang Nai stood up and said a little apologetically, "Sheng Sheng, please don't be upset. She's got such a temper." That said, he followed her outside.

"Ha! It didn't kill her!" said Li Ranran, tossing her head. 

Liu Xu was a pain in the butt, but Zhang Nai was also irritating. Here was a good-looking man with an excellent physique who willingly allowed himself to be overshadowed by Liu Xu, acting like a lovestruck scholar who'd had his soul stolen. 

Jiang Jiusheng could only watch, laughing as Li Ranran stuck out her tongue at her, looking innocent and unaffected by her own outburst just a few seconds before. 

Draining her glass, Jiang Jiusheng got up, holding her pack of cigarettes. "I'm going out for a smoke."