Chapter 3: Small shrimps in the world

The backstage of the Forget-Me-Not Bar is a large room separated from the outside, and there are two small suites inside.

The backstage is the space for the singers in the bar.

In the large room outside, there is a row of dressing tables and storage cabinets, plus five or six soft chairs for resident singers and song-request singers. The two small suites have sofas, TVs, wine cabinets, independent toilets and other facilities, which are the territory of contracted singers and bands.

Also singing in the bar, the status of singers is very different.

When Lu Chen came in, there were already two resident singers, a man and a woman, sitting in the outer room. The male singer was playing with his mobile phone, and the woman was putting on makeup. No one paid attention to Lu Chen who had just pushed the door in.

Because in this small circle, Lu Chen's status is the lowest.

"Good morning, Brother Ye, good morning, Sister Hong!"

Lu Chen greeted the two as usual, then sat down in his seat and put away the guitar case.

His position was in the far corner of the backstage.

The male singer said "hmm" indifferently, but the female singer put down the cotton pad in her hand and said with a smile: "Xiao Lu, you are late today. Were you criticized by the boss? Haha!"

Sister Hong is over 30 years old this year. She has been a resident of the Forget-Me-Not Bar for five years. She is good at love songs and has a good voice. Although her appearance is not outstanding, she is still a little famous in the bar singer circle in Houhai.

However, compared with Zhang Nana, one of the pillars of the Forget-Me-Not Bar, she is still a lot worse.

Despite this, she always maintains a condescending arrogance towards Lu Chen. It sounds like a concerned inquiry, but in fact, there is a hint of teasing and mockery.

If it were Lu Chen yesterday, he would definitely be depressed and unhappy because of this, and he would be angry but unable to vent.

However, after experiencing three different lives in his dream, his mentality has changed without even noticing it. He smiled calmly and said, "Thank you, Sister Hong, for your concern. I apologized to the boss."

Sister Hong was stunned, and she couldn't say what she wanted to say.

She snorted softly, ignored Lu Chen, and picked up the cotton pad she had just dropped.

At this moment, the door of a small suite inside suddenly opened, and a man in a black jacket and long hair came out.

"Brother Qin!"

Sister Hong and the male singer reacted quickly, and immediately stood up and greeted each other with a smile.

Lu Chen was a beat late, and also stood up: "Good morning, Brother Qin"

This jacket man, Brother Qin Hanyang, is the real boss of Forget Worry Grass, the lead singer and rhythm guitarist of the Wandering Band. He is an indispensable soul of the Wandering Band, and even the boss Chen Jianhao is polite to him.

The Wandering Band is a permanent resident of Forget-Me-Not. There are five members in total. In addition to Qin Hanyang, there is also a lead guitarist, a bassist, a drummer and a keyboardist.

It is not easy for a bar like Forget-Me-Not to support a band. On the contrary, the existence of the Wandering Band has also improved the reputation and popularity of the bar, so it is a well-deserved pillar of the bar.

Qin Hanyang had no expression on his face and nodded as a response.

He picked up a few manuscripts on the dressing table, then returned to his room and closed the door.

Sister Hong and the male singer looked a little embarrassed, but they had no qualifications to argue with Qin Hanyang. You know, one word from the latter can make them get out of Forget-Me-Not and even get out of the Houhai circle.

Lu Chen smiled in his heart. He was too far away from Qin Hanyang, and he had no intention of clinging to him, so it didn't matter what the other party's attitude was, and of course he wouldn't feel embarrassed about being rejected.

A bar is also a small world, and Lu Chen is just a small shrimp in the world.

He sat down again and began to comb his messy hair.

The atmosphere of Houhai Bar is different from that of Sanlitun, where all kinds of people gather. The decadent and decadent singers with strange clothes and sloppy appearance are not welcome here, so one's own image is very important.

The voice of the live host has been heard on the stage outside, and that is the beginning of the warm-up.

Lu Chen must hurry up to prepare, as he will be on stage soon.

As for what song to sing tonight, he already has a preliminary idea in his mind.

While the host was telling jokes to liven up the atmosphere, the waiter who was guarding the door of the bar sneaked into the electronic music room on the right side of the backstage.

The electronic music room is very small, and it is filled with equipment and computers for controlling sound and lighting. Various cables and wires are densely packed like a spider web, and red, green and blue LED indicators are flashing non-stop.

Sitting in the middle of the "spider web" was a fat man weighing at least 200 pounds. He was wearing a huge monitoring headset and was shaking his head to listen to music. There was a half-eaten hamburger on the workbench in front of him.

"Fat brother, fat brother!"

The waiter called twice in a row, but the other party didn't hear him. In desperation, he had to go forward and push hard.

The fat man suddenly opened his eyes and saw that it was the waiter. He frowned, took off his headphones and said unhappily: "Xiao Gao, you are not outside to receive guests, why are you running to my place, get out!"

He is the sound pipe of the electronic music room. In this small room, even if Chen Jianhao comes, he has to listen to him.

Xiao Gao certainly knew this, and he quickly smiled and sent a bottle of Kingway beer.

The fat man took the beer without hesitation, glanced at him and asked: "Tell me, what do you want to do by being so attentive? I'll be frank with you, small matters can be discussed, big matters are out of the question!"

"It's really a small matter."

Xiao Gao was immediately refreshed, and hurried over to whisper a few words in the fat man's ear.

The fat man's face became strange when he heard it. He looked up and down at the other person as if he had just met him again, and said: "You are so sinister, is this a small matter?"

Xiao Gao smiled and said: "It's really a small matter. I just don't like that kid Lu Chen. He relies on his pretty face and looks down on everyone. We just want to teach him a lesson and let him know that he can't rely on his face to get along in the Forget-Me-Not Grass!"

"Yeah"

The fat man nodded thoughtfully, raised his hand and stroked his fat chin and said: "What you said makes sense, you said he He is handsome but can't sing well. He doesn't go to Sanlitun to be a young master, but comes to Houhai to pretend to be an artistic youth. He needs me, Fatty, to clean up his mess. Isn't this putting the cart before the horse? "

Xiao Gao smiled sinisterly: "Yes, yes, Fatty, you are doing this for his own good."

He suddenly changed his expression and pointed to the one-way glass window of the music room and said: "Lu Chen is on stage!"

There is a one-way glass on the wall separating the music room and the stage. People inside can see the entire stage scene, but people outside cannot see inside.

The person holding a guitar and walking to the middle of the stage, who else but Lu Chen?

"Fat brother, hurry up!"

Xiao Gao stared at Lu Chen and urged anxiously.

"What are you panicking about!"

The fat man glared at Xiao Gao and said, "I know what I'm doing. You don't need to teach me how to do it!"

While speaking, he reached out and turned off a button on the sound console, and the LED indicator on the auxiliary mixer next to him went out immediately.

The singers in Houhai Bar basically sing live or even with live accompaniment. It is difficult for people without some skills to survive here, but the singers' voices can be adjusted in the electronic sound room. If the sound is adjusted well, it has the ability to turn decay into magic.

Real professional tuners disdain to hang out in bars, and forget-me-nots cannot be hired, so the backstage sound adjustment is done by semi-professional sound pipes, combined with semi-professional digital equipment, it is no problem to fool laymen.

Among the customers who come to the bar to consume, there are also insiders who know the business, but not many, and they will not tell the inside story.

Lu Chen's singing and playing skills are very ordinary. In addition to his appearance advantage, he has the opportunity to appear on stage to make extra money, and the backstage tuning of the fat man sound pipe is also a credit.

What made Fatty unhappy was that Lu Chen had never given him any benefits, and he was even more famous than the resident singers!

So now that Xiao Gao had instigated him, he felt resentful and temporarily turned off the mixer.

In this way, the sound of Lu Chen playing and singing on the stage would not be optimized in any way, and would be directly presented in its original form through the amplifier in the **L speakers worth hundreds of thousands.

He showed his true colors!

The fat man smiled and winked at Xiao Gao: "Just wait and see!"

Xiao Gao nodded vigorously and clenched his fists excitedly - Lu Chen, let's see if you have the face to continue to hang around in Forget-Me-Not in the future!

At this moment, Lu Chen didn't know that he was being plotted against.

He sat on the piano stool, holding the guitar in his arms with his right hand, freeing his left hand to adjust the angle of the microphone.

After 8pm, it was the weekend, and more and more customers appeared in the bar. Now almost two-thirds of the seats were occupied, many of them were old customers.

After finishing the preparations, Lu Chen said to the microphone: "Thank you all for coming to Forget-Me-Not. Today, I will sing a song for you, a flying pigeon. I hope you will like it!"

There was sparse applause in the bar, and a female customer who knew Lu Chen blew a loud hooligan whistle.

"Come on, Xiao Lu!"

Many customers laughed, and the atmosphere became lively and active.

Lu Chen waved to the other party in shame, and then prepared to start his performance.

"Brother Jianhao"

Behind the bar, the charming woman looked at Lu Chen on the stage, her eyes flashing with light: "Your boy looks good, very handsome, and can sing and play. Let him come to my company."

"Him?"

Chen Jianhao laughed dumbly, shook his head and said: "Xiao Lu's hardware is OK, but his singing and playing skills are too amateurish. He can only fill in the audience here, and he has to rely on the back to fix the sound. Do you really want to sign him?"

"Forget it"

The charming woman said decisively: "I don't want those without a foundation. My small company can't afford to train them."

Beijing has three things: many officials, many rich people, and many handsome men and beautiful women. Talents with outstanding appearances are everywhere.

In terms of music alone, Beijing has three major music colleges, plus various music training institutions. There are countless new people coming out every year. Why bother to train a guy without a foundation?

The charming woman just said it casually, not taking it seriously. At this time, Lu Chen plucked the guitar strings.

(End of this chapter)