Exclusive Model for the Top Painter Chapter 39

A Surprise on the Night of the Finals

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He never expected to win two awards at once, so Liang Jin was quite surprised.

When he got home, he was extremely excited and insisted on dragging Ji Xiuyuan to drink in celebration. Then he was eaten and wiped clean again and again, and it was a very intense night.

Liang Jin slept until midday the next day, when he opened his eyes tiredly.

There was a note on the bed, Ji Xiuyuan had gone to the office because he had a meeting in the morning. He left a message for Liang Jin, saying that he had ordered meal service and that he could just call the restaurant when he woke up.

Liang Jin habitually checked his phone, and he had received over 30 messages from Shu Yue on WeChat.

He clicked on them and read them. The content was about the university music festival competition, Shu Yue's band had made it to the finals, and the date of the finals was this Sunday night.

Shu Yue: Brother!!! I'm in the finals!!!

Shu Yue: You have to come and watch!!!

Shu Yue: This Sunday at 7 p.m. at A City Stadium, I've got you tickets for the inside!!! First row!!!

Shu Yue: I've recently written a new song, I'm going to sing it at the finals, I'll send it to you first!

Receiving an audio file, Liang Jin downloaded it to his phone and clicked play.

The melodious melody rang out, and after about ten seconds, it abruptly stopped.

Liang Jin shook his phone in confusion, was there something wrong with the playback device?

Suddenly, he was hit with a severe headache, and as if the mute button had been pressed, the sounds around him disappeared.

Cold sweat broke out in front of Liang Jin's forehead: No way? Did we fool around too much last night? But I've never heard of any side effects like this before.

Fortunately, it didn't last very long and after a few minutes, everything was back to normal.

Liang Jin reflected on himself for a while: I think I had an inexplicable headache some time ago as well, it must be because I've been too busy with work recently, I'll be fine after resting over the next couple of days.

He replied to Shu Yue: How many tickets do you have?

Shu Yue replied in seconds: 10 tickets!

Liang Jin: Then give me two.

Shu Yue: What do you need two for? Could it be???

Liang Jin: What are you talking about? Just give me the tickets.

Shu Yue: Give, give, give! I'll definitely give them! I'm so excited, be sure to bring my sister-in-law along!!!

In the afternoon, he met up with Shu Yue and got his tickets for the finals. Shu Yue kept bragging to him about how cool and unbeatable his band was.

Liang Jin suddenly asked, "How are things going with your internship?"

Shu Yue instantly blushed: "It's! It's just fine!"

"Has the company gone bankrupt yet?"

"Al-almost!"

Liang Jin was puzzled, "What are you so nervous about?"

Shu Yue grabbed a glass of water and took a swig: "Zhou Hai is too much of a punk! Brother, you were really wise to separate from him!"

"You seem to have a deep understanding?"

Shu Yue wanted to cry but had no tears, "Didn't he graduate from something like drama and film studies? Why is he more calculating than me, a finance major, when it comes to accounts management? I'm interning there, not to mention screwing him over, if I miscalculate by even one cent, my salary will be deducted! I've already had two thousand deducted this month!!! If this goes on, I'll have to pay him back!!!"

Liang Jin did his best to hold in his laughter and patted his shoulder, "If you really can't hold on, just leave, there's no shame in it."

"You think I don't want to?" Shu Yue cried, "I didn't read the contract carefully when I signed it, and that guy actually set a huge amount for breach of contract!!! I'm so miserable!!! Zhou Hai is not human."

"I agree."

Shu Yue shook his hand off, "Let's not talk about him, if I think about the music festival, all these worries are immediately far away from me. I'm already looking forward to the weekend! Tell me about you, what kind of sister-in-law did you find for me? The same kind as your ex-girlfriend, the delicate and cute type?"

Liang Jin subconsciously got scared when he heard about his ex-girlfriend, "Don't mention any ex-girlfriend, that was ages ago."

"Oh I get it, your current partner will be jealous." Shu Yue smiled brightly, "Isn't that right, Brother?"

"Yes yes yes, you mustn't mention it, especially in front of him."

"Hahaha you're such a wimp Brother! I never thought you'd like the domineering CEO type of girlfriend."

Liang Jin mulled it over for a while and slowly said, "Actually... it's not a girlfriend."

Shu Yue froze: "Boyfriend? Oh my god, Brother! Are you still you? If you're bent, I won't believe there are still straight men in the world!"

"Then you can start to not believe."

Shu Yue continued to remain shocked: "Zhou Hai is gay, and now you're bent too. Brother, I'm even starting to doubt myself now." He asked seriously, "What do you say, should I go to the hospital to have my sexual orientation tested?"

"I suggest you go get your brain tested first."

———

At night, Ji Xiuyuan came back very late.

When Liang Jin finished taking a shower, he lay on the bed. Ji Xiuyuan was still leaning against the bed, dealing with business on his laptop.

Liang Jin said, "Ji Shen, you've been busy lately."

Ji Xiuyuan stroked his head, "A little."

"What are you busy with?"

"The Alexander Rutsch Award selection." (Angel: It is the highest award in the international painting world)

"Ah, you've been selected again this year?"

"Mhmm."

"As expected of Ji Shen, that's great!"

"The panel of experts from the US is coming to visit this weekend and there are some materials that need to be prepared."

"Oh." Liang Jin thought to himself, he definitely won't be able to go to the music festival on Sunday then. Never mind, he'd go on his own, Ji Shen's work was more important. He slid under the covers and covered his head with the quilt.

Ji Xiuyuan asked, "Are you going to rest?"

"What else?"

"Wait," Ji Xiuyuan immediately saved the current file before shutting down the laptop, "do it again?"

"... Aren't you tired?"

"No."

"Isn't there work left to be done?"

"The work can wait." Ji Xiuyuan fished him out of the covers, "Let's get down to business first."

Liang Jin: ......

———

On Sunday night, Liang Jin took a taxi to A City Stadium, which was already packed with people.

He called Shu Yue and ten minutes later, Shu Yue waved at him from the crowd with his pale gold hair.

After the two met, Liang Jin asked, "I saw you two days ago, didn't you still have white hair?"

Shu Yue was carrying his guitar and threw a wink at the pretty girl passing by, "I dyed it specially for tonight! The gold colour is more in line with the emotion I'm conveying in this song."

He took Liang Jin straight backstage: "Brother, you can hang out here for a while. Go to the front later when the show starts, your ticket is in the first row of the infield. I'll go over there and ask my brothers to come over for you to get to know them!"

"Oh."

He found an empty seat and was just about to take out his phone to play a game when he heard someone call out to him, "A'Liang."

Liang Jin looked up and saw Zhou Hai. It had been a long time since they had seen each other, so it was quite awkward to suddenly run into each other.

Liang Jin asked, "Are you also participating in the music festival?"

Zhou Hai laughed, "How is that possible? We've known each other for so long, have you ever seen me sing and dance?"

"I have," Liang Jin said, "the night of the graduation reception, you were drunk and came to sing at the bottom of my dormitory."

Zhou Hai's expression froze for a moment: "So you still remember."

"Of course," Liang Jin said bitterly, "because it was so difficult to listen to, it will never be forgotten."

Zhou Hai smiled, "A'Liang, I suddenly had a feeling, it's like I'm back in college."

"That's your illusion," Liang Jin whispered, "It's been so long since we graduated, and there are many things that we can't go back to."

Zhou Hai was silent for a while, and just when Liang Jin thought he had left, he heard him say again, "You're with Ji Xiuyuan, aren't you?"

Liang Jin immediately lifted his head, "You... how do you know?"

"Is it true?"

"Yes."

Zhou Hai's eyes seemed to lose a certain colour as he looked at Liang Jin flatly, "That's good, congratulations."

Liang Jin pursued, "Did my parents tell you?"

"You've actually met the parents already?" Zhou Hai was surprised, "Ji Xiuyuan was so impatient?"

Liang Jin didn't know how to answer.

Zhou Hai took his phone out and opened the text message interface, "He was the one who deliberately told me."

Liang Jin raised his eyes, only to see that Zhou Hai had received a text message from an unfamiliar number on his phone, with the following very concise content:

Liang Jin is mine now. (Ji Xiuyuan)

So it turns out that Ji Shen also does this kind of primary school manoeuvre?

Liang Jin couldn't laugh or cry, but this strange possessiveness was really...

Kind of cute.

He couldn't help but smile, and Liang Jin said, "Sorry, he's small-minded and likes to be jealous."

Zhou Hai said with relief, "It's alright, it seems that I really don't stand a chance. I apologise for what happened before, can we still be friends after today?"

"... Okay."

At this moment, Shu Yue walked over with his guitar on his back and said in shock, "Exploiter Zhou? What are you doing here?"

Zhou Hai was obviously extremely unhappy with this name: "I'm here to inspect the work."

Shu Yue immediately glared angrily, "Inspection my ass, it's after hours, don't try to exploit me!"

"Did I say I'm here to inspect your work? I'm the biggest sponsor of the festival, don't you know that?"

When these two met, it was like a barrel of dynamite hitting a match. Liang Jin was starting to get a headache, he could hardly imagine a scenario where the two were working in the same company...

Shu Yue snorted disdainfully: "Why would I know? I'm not interested in those business ventures of yours, and oh yes, I have no interest in you personally. Seeing you even affects my mood, if I don't win the competition tonight, it must be your fault."

Liang Jin's headache got worse: "You guys talk, I'll go first."

When he got to his seat inside the arena, the view from the first row was really very good.

At 7 o'clock, the festival officially kicked off.

The opening song and dance was very powerful, full of the vitality and energy of youth. As fans screamed and shouted, and the colourful lights shone throughout the venue, it seemed that the whole city was going crazy for the event.

At around nine o'clock, Shu Yue's band Scratch took to the stage for the finale. Their upbeat music and stage presence directly blew up the venue, bringing the atmosphere to a frenzied climax!

The moment the music stopped after finishing the song, thunderous applause erupted all around.

This was followed by the presentation of the awards, where the judges scored and ranked the acts, and the results were soon announced.

Without a doubt, Scratch was the winner.

Shu Yue held the trophy in his hands and was smiling happily. After bowing to express his gratitude, he winked at Liang Jin from the stage.

Liang Jin gave him a thumbs up.

When delivering his acceptance speech, Shu Yue said a long list of nonsensical words and ended with a remark about Liang Jin: "My brother also came to the venue. If he hadn't hidden the truth from my parents for me, I would probably have had both my legs broken by my parents long ago."

The scene erupted in laughter.

Shu Yue whistled to the audience from on stage, "Brother! Thank you!"

Liang Jin was about to respond to him with a few words when a sudden sharp pain came from the back of his head, gradually spreading throughout his entire head. The veins by his temples kept throbbing, and Liang Jin gritted his teeth, his palms breaking into cold sweat.

The colourful lights gradually became blurred and the sounds around him seemed so unreal...

The moment Liang Jin fell to the ground, he heard Shu Yue's loud shout from the stage speakers:

Brother!!!

‿︵‿︵ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ・❉・ ʚ˚̣̣̣͙ɞ‿︵‿︵

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Translator Notes

This gave me PTSD from The Chief Conductor's Strange Lover. The last time we had a character with severe headaches, it didn't end well…

But we'll be okay here! We have a wedding coming up, and many, MANY sweet married couple moments.

Please feel free to comment any mistakes I made so I can improve and do better as I go through the book.

Translated: June 13, 2023