Reborn as a Substitute

Once Xie Xuanming’s family background was revealed, all the members of the team were shocked stupid.

Flyers of various rehearsal rooms for rent in Li Tan’s hand fell to the ground and the ever blooming smile on Sheng Kongzhi’s face couldn’t hold up. Ji Sheng’s eyes changed their shape and became perfectly round, which could be considered a medical miracle. Su Jing let out a roar, turned around and asked loudly where Ji Sheng had kidnapped this child from and whether he had come with a knife and tied up someone…

Shocked and stunned, Qingchu still didn’t use Xie Xuanming’s six-figure sum in the end.

After all, the 17-year-old who had known them for two days blinked his innocent eyes and told them that he had 100,000 in his card and they could use it for whatever they wanted…

No one with a little conscience would agree to such an “unreasonable” request…

Not to mention the possibility of being sent straight to the police.

Although Qingchu was poor, they were not poor enough to comfortably grab an underage child’s “New Year’s money” to fill their financial hole.

After the shock, the Qingchu members rejected Xie Xuanming’s application for “bringing money into the team” and solemnly told him to be a good boy and remember that the most important thing was not to expose his wealth. So he should stop grabbing people in the future, saying that he has a six-figure sum on his card and Rolex on his wrist, because it’s easy to get beaten up…

Xie Xuanming nodded obediently, but thought to himself, isn’t there no future? Instead of making him take the six-digit deposit to the grave or letting it be repossessed by the Xie family, it was better to generously sponsor Qingchu and let him become an “investor in youth dreams” at the end of his life.

After dissuading Xie Xuanming’s extravagant money-throwing behaviour, Qingchu negotiated for a while and finally decided to rent a practice room; however, they had to find a way to negotiate good terms with the boss before renting to prevent the lack of playground space when they needed to practise.

After they reached a consensus, the temporary meeting of the Qingchu band ended.

Li Tan said goodbye to the rest and left the rental house. He didn’t live there because he had a fixed job and his financial situation was much better than that of the others who didn’t know when and where they’d have their next meal.

He lived with his younger brother in a rental house with slightly better conditions not far away. From time to time, he would bring some delicious food to feed the other hungry band members.

Li Tan was easy-going and trustworthy, which was why he mingled with the other members despite being much older.

Xie Xuanming was about to get up and go back to his room when Ji Sheng stopped him.

“You gave me the watch before, I will give it back to you.” Ji Sheng lowered his head and fished for it in his pockets, “That thing is too expensive to accept. I checked the price on the Internet before, good fellow, I have never seen so many zeros in my life.”

“Oh, zero zero zero, there are zeros everywhere, where is there one~” Su Jing, who was playing his cloth keyboard, caught the key words and sang loudly.

“Be fucking quiet, there are fucking minors here, don’t fucking teach children bad things.” Ji Sheng turned his head and scolded angrily.

Xie Xuanming: ……

Xie Xuanming: So civilised.

Ji Sheng turned around and again became amiable as he fumbled halfway through his possessions until pulling out a cardboard box in a very boutique style, two for ten yuan, probably the most expensive packaging a destitute could afford.

Ji Sheng handed the box to Xie Xuanming.

Xie Xuanming didn’t take it: “I don’t want it anymore.”

“Why are you such a loser kid?” Ji Sheng’s face turned black and he forcibly stuffed the box into his hand, “This is Hercules, a world-famous watch. I don’t have the guts to walk around the street with the value of a car with me, it’s too scary. When I meet a robber in the future, I can’t even tell him confidently that I have no money, dad, so it’s better to rob a beggar than to rob me…”

“Lost in love, I am wretched like a beggar, despite the luxury cars and champagne, still, poor~ Oh”

Blue veins pulsed on Ji Sheng’s forehead; he turned and yelled, “Practise your piano! You play eight notes wrong in a song and still have the nerve to bleep!”

Xie Xuanming waited for him to turn back and said, “It’s Rolex(1)… I have already told you the price before.”

“Oh, Rolex.” Ji Sheng scratched his head and smiled, “At that time, I thought it was your junior middle school joke. Who knew you were actually quoting the price honestly. If I had this watch at your age, holy shit, I would have bragged about it adding two extra zeros at the end.”

Xie Xuanming was amused, lowered his head and smiled briefly.

Casting all caution to the wind, Ji Sheng sent him out with the box: “Anyway, take this watch yourself, don’t give it to others and don’t talk about it everywhere. Just wear it low-key… it matches your temperament.”

“What temperament?”

“That kind of a cold young master style.” Ji Sheng said casually, pinched Xie Xuanming’s face lightly and said with a smile, “Young master who wears a famous watch and has a huge amount of money, remember not to be late for the rehearsal at night.”

With a bang, the door closed, and Xie Xuanming looked down at the beautiful paper box with flashing diamonds and a vulgar pink bow he held in his hands. He felt inexplicably a little funny.

He silently hooked his lips up, turned around and went back to his room.

Xie Xuanming followed Qingchu to rehearse several times and finally was ushered to his first performance on stage.

The performance was in OR, a bar with an extremely strong rock atmosphere. After watching Qingchu’s performance at the Magic Flute Band Festival, the owner of OR decisively kicked out the original resident band and signed a contract with Qingchu.

Before playing, Ji Sheng saw Xie Xuanming’s expression being a little stiff, so he paced around him and asked him repeatedly if he was nervous. If he was nervous, he could take a look at the six-digit watch on his hand. Whoever said that he sang badly, just show this watch to that guy and shut him up…

So Xie Xuanming directly covered Ji Sheng’s chattering mouth with his hand wearing the said six-digit watch: “Don’t make a noise, you talk more than Brother Su today.”

Ji Sheng blinked twice and said in a muffled voice: “Why do you call Su Jing ‘brother’ instead of calling me ‘brother’… are you nervous?”

“……”

“Yes?”

“No.”

Standing on the stage, Xie Xuanming looked down at the audience. Many people looked over curiously. He took a deep breath.

This was the first time he had walked out of the shadows and faced the sight of so many people.

It felt… not too bad.

Xie Xuanming secretly recalled the lyrics he knew by heart, thinking that the performance should go well if nothing happened…

Unfortunately, there were always unpredictable circumstances, and Schrödinger’s cat was never absent.

When the performance was about to begin, the door of the bar was kicked open with a bang, and four or five people broke in with great momentum.

The visitors were not good.

The drumsticks hit the edge of the drum with an unpleasant sound as Ji Sheng was unable to stop the force of his beat.

He looked up at the group of uninvited guests and recognised the identity of the leader, a muscular reincarnation of a Spartan in a vest.

He met the man backstage at the band festival; he was the lead singer of the Lizi band. At that time, Su Jing and Ji Sheng complained that this guy must have been singing with his biceps to develop them like that…

Of course biceps couldn’t sing, but biceps could do many things other than singing.

For example, like moving bricks.

For example, like smashing venues.

The Lizi band, the former resident band of the OR bar, was kicked out by the boss, and now they were coming back looking for trouble.

The Sparta-like lead singer walked to the front of the stage, kicked over a table and sneered at the members of Qingchu amidst the screams of customers: “Just this group of boys? Is OR going to turn into a cowboy shop?”

Su Jing’s face turned black; he wanted to jump up and was held back by Sheng Kongzhi.

Just kidding; the guy’s arms were thicker than his thighs, so he was not going to rush to sacrifice his head.

Sparta’s eyes wandered around until he decided to pick on the boy standing at the front of the stage.

“You——little brat, go back to school.” Sparta jumped on the stage, patted Xie Xuanming’s cheek lightly and then put his hand on his shoulder. He had three lip studs fixed on his thick lip and his mouth opening and closing was a hideous sight, “Just fool around with the little girls at school, don’t come here and steal business from us brothers.”

“Get it off.” Xie Xuanming stared at Sparta, expressionless.

His eyes were dark, and when he stared at people motionlessly, he gave people a secret scare, just like a wild dog hiding in the dark and baring its teeth at you. Even a beast ten times its size would have to consider the blood that leaked from its white teeth.

Sparta was taken aback, thinking, shit, this kid looks like white porcelain, how come his eyes are so fucking crazy? If you continue to provoke him, he might go wild and bite…

But when you’re looking for a fight, it’s all about being fierce, so there’s no room for retreat!

“You tell me to get it off, so I’ll get it off?” Sparta tilted his head and smiled grimly, “What if I don’t get it off?!”

Xie Xuanming didn’t bother to talk nonsense. The palm of the guy was sweaty and the sticky touch made him nauseous. He grabbed Sparta’s sturdy arm and  pulled it away vigorously.

Xie Xuanming’s grip was so hard that his five fingers were embedded in the muscle, making Sparta let out a cry of pain.

“Big brother!”

“Bro!”

“Brother Tie!”

The worried shouts of the band members angered Sparta and he slapped Xie Xuanming away.

Xie Xuanming’s arm was knocked aside and the back of his hand slammed straight into a mic stand.

“Clang!” There was a crisp sound.

In full view of the crowd, Xie Xuanming’s watch cracked and crystal-like glass spilled from his wrist.

Sparta was stunned, Ji Sheng was shocked, Su Jing broke down and Xie Xuanming’s face darkened.

Before he could snap, he heard Ji Sheng yell and rush up, pounding his fist into Sparta’s abdomen.

“Holy shit, that’s Hercules!”

Sparta grunted as he was punched and took two steps back before bursting into a fury, “That’s fucking Rolex, you stupid bastard!”

The two were not idle during the conversation. Ji Sheng took advantage of Sparta’s loss of balance and slammed him to the ground with another punch.

Sparta was furious and yelled, “Don’t you fucking dare! Who gave you the courage to touch me… fuck!”

Ji Sheng dropped his knee on his abdomen, making him swallow the rest of his words.

“Just so you’re clear, I’ve been playing drums for ten years.” Ji Sheng rolled up his sleeves, his eyes cold and stern, “You know what that means? It means that I play the drums well, and at the same time, I have the strength in my hands to knock your ugly lip studs out…”

Before he finished speaking, Sparta let out an angry shout and pushed him off.

A few tens of pounds of muscles were not for nothing. With the same rich fighting skills, people with heavier weight would have an absolute advantage.

“Baby Sheng!”

“Xiao Sheng!”

The members of Qingchu screamed.

Seeing Ji Sheng defeated, Su Jing couldn’t bear it: “Fuck, you really think that Qingchu is easy to bully!”

He broke away from Sheng Kongzhi and raised the mic stand, dancing like a reincarnation of the Monkey King and yelling at the members of Lizi.

Lizi had been smashing venues for years, and now that Qingchu had taken the lead, they naturally couldn’t stand still. One of them raised his hand to grab the mic stand and stalemate Su Jing. The other two rushed towards the remaining Li Tan and Sheng Kongzhi on stage.

Fuck!

Li Tan cursed; he had long passed the age of fighting and brawling and knew that the so-called battle of wills was nothing more than a bunch of idiots showing off their lower IQ.

But now someone was rushing straight up and there was no way to escape a fight.

Would you choose to be beaten unilaterally, or would you choose to be beaten less while beating someone back?…

Li Tan cursed a few times and raised his hand to grab the opponent’s fist.

Ji Sheng was lifted and thrown away, rolled twice on the ground, found his centre of gravity and squatted firmly. Before he got up, he saw Sparta striding over and raising his foot to kick—

He failed to kick.

Xie Xuanming flashed out from the side, picked up a chair and slammed it hard into Sparta’s stomach, knocking the man back two steps, then turned around to raise the guitar——

“Drop it!” Everyone froze for a moment, shouting at him, “That’s fucking lakewood!!!”

Xie Xuanming: ……

Xie Xuanming rises.

Xie Xuanming wilts.

Xie Xuanming obediently put down the guitar, turned to lift the stool and swung it at Sparta again.

The two bands fought for a long time, with nine men exuding the aura of the famous Battle of Thermopylae. The bar owner came out and shouted to stop the fight, but after receiving two inexplicable blows, he also got mad and dropped his things to join the melee.

During the fight, someone switched off the light and the bar instantly fell into darkness. The scene became more chaotic and could even be called out of control.

People were hitting people everywhere, without paying attention if it was an enemy, a passer-by or one of their own.

Xie Xuanming was hit twice on his back. He gritted his teeth and returned two punches. He was not sure if he hit the one who hit him.

He had a foothold in the centre of the melee and he would fight back wherever he was hit. He was as fierce as a wild wolf with one eye blind, biting indiscriminately.

Slowly, Xie Xuanming was getting a bit overwhelmed; he had received too many blows and there was no part of his body that didn’t hurt.

Xie Xuanming consciously retreated gradually, trying to withdraw from the melee, but he tripped over before taking two steps and was hugged by the waist after losing his balance.

Someone was holding him and dragging him back!

Xie Xuanming was shocked and slammed his elbow backwards.

Unfortunately, he was unable to use his strength in this position; he struggled to fight back but was eventually forced into a locker.

The locker door closed and the man let go; Xie Xuanming leapt up and was about to fight desperately when his head hit the top of the locker so hard that he felt dizzy.

He grunted in pain, still swinging his fists, but the attack was stopped by the opponent and his mouth was covered.

“Hush…” Ji Sheng whispered, “It’s me.”

He was a step too late; Xie Xuanming had already opened his mouth fiercely, clenched his teeth and bit his palm hard.

“Fuck!”

Ji Sheng let out a sincere, angry cry that he hadn’t even let out during the group fight earlier.

How is Hercules similar to Rolex? It’s Dàlìshì (Hercules) vs. Láolìshì (Rolex), literally ‘big strong man’ vs. ‘old strong man’