Study System: I'm a 38-Year-Old Student-Chapter 341 - 230: Setting a Trap for My Father-in-law
The bar didn’t close until after two in the morning.
When Shen Qiushan got home, it was already three a.m.
Tonight, both Lin Xiamo and Lin Jiayu were staying over, and as usual, Lin Jiayu was sharing a bed with Shen Yanran.
While Lin Xiamo snuck into Shen Qiushan’s room.
Even though neither of them cared much about foreign holidays, that didn’t stop them from celebrating with some passion.
By the time they were done and had taken a shower, it was already past four o’clock.
Instead of feeling sleepy, Shen Qiushan was wide awake, while Lin Xiamo sat at the bay window, gazing at the neon-lit riverside, a little emotional.
She wasn’t really a materialistic woman, but she’d never imagined that one day she’d be living in such a luxury apartment with a river view, and would end up together with Shen Qiushan—her former brother-in-law.
Thinking back over the past few months, it all felt a bit surreal.
"How’s the preparation for the finals going?"
Shen Qiushan, wrapped in a bath towel, walked over to the window, spoiling her as he reached out and put his arm around Lin Xiamo’s shoulders.
"I still haven’t decided what song to sing."
"Oh right, Tingting and the others hope you can perform with us in the finals!"
"We’ve always said on the show that you’re actually a member of the Red Rose Band. Now that it’s the finals, it’s time for you to show your face, don’t you think?"
Lin Xiamo looked up at Shen Qiushan, her eyes full of anticipation.
"Sure!"
Shen Qiushan grinned and nodded. "I just happen to have a song that we could play with on the final stage!"
"You wrote another new song?"
Lin Xiamo’s beautiful eyes lit up. Although their last song, "The Most Popular National Style," got dissed by many for being tacky, it still became a nationwide hit.
What’s even more surprising was that because of its popularity, Chen Qingzhu, a singer who’d been anonymous all her life in the arts troupe, suddenly became famous.
She became a renowned "veteran artist" overnight!
"Yeah, I jot things down when I have nothing else to do. Inspiration’s been overflowing lately!"
Shen Qiushan boasted without any pressure. To get on Mother-in-law Chen Qingzhu’s good side, he’d recently spent all the Scholar Index he’d earned on the prize draws. Besides "The Most Popular National Style" which he’d already given out, he still had three songs left.
The other three songs weren’t really suitable for Chen Qingzhu, but since he was going to perform in the finals himself, there was a DJ-style duet among them that seemed perfect for him and Lin Xiamo to play with.
The reason he said "play" was because this song was completely different from "The Most Popular National Style" and "Red Rose"!
It was a totally new style.
"That awesome? Send it to me, let me see."
Lin Xiamo was interested now.
"OK!"
"I’ll send it to you right now!"
Shen Qiushan immediately sent the song called "Ninety Thousand Words" that he’d already downloaded to his phone to Lin Xiamo.
[Able to write the most biting words
To mock this mundane world
But can’t bring myself to criticize you one bit
I suppose I’m all kinds of charming
But not a good man
Who is lucky enough to love wrongly for a lifetime]
Looking at the lyrics, Lin Xiamo couldn’t help but frown.
She’d been able to understand both the lyrics and the meaning of "Red Rose" and "The Most Popular National Style," but with this one, neither the title nor the lyrics made much sense to her.
"What’s this song supposed to be expressing?"
"I have no clue at all."
Once she finished reading the whole song, Lin Xiamo said that quite honestly.
"Does a song really have to express something?"
Actually, Shen Qiushan didn’t get what the song was about either. But the works awarded by the system always came with a demo, and he felt it sounded pretty hype.
"Huh?"
"I guess you have a point!"
Lin Xiamo was stunned for a second—she was stumped by his question.
People always love to assign all kinds of meanings to art, but forget that whether it’s music, novels, or movies, their main purpose is to entertain, to give people some relaxation outside of stressful work and life.
And of course, if in entertaining people they can also communicate ideas, that’s great; but if they can’t, simply bringing pleasure is perfectly fine too.
Like some light music or high-energy DJ tracks—you have no idea what message they’re supposed to convey, but it doesn’t stop you from finding a moment of peace or getting pumped up by them.
"Let’s see how it goes in rehearsal tomorrow!"
Lin Xiamo herself wasn’t sure whether she and Shen Qiushan could pull off this song, so she wanted to talk it over with Hu Tingting and the others, and then get some feedback from their mentor, Yang Nian.
"Alright!"
Shen Qiushan nodded. He picked this song simply because it felt hype, matching his mood lately.
If they were going to the stage, they should do something different.
"By the way, I want to invite Dad to the finals."
"Do you have any ideas on how to convince him?"
Lin Xiamo brought it up again.
Since Lin Moxuan was always against her doing music, she really wanted to prove herself in front of her old man.
The finals stage of "Voice of Hua Country" was the most important show she’d ever done since forming the band.
So, Lin Xiamo really wished her dad could be there to watch in person.
"That’s easy, just leave it to me."
"We’re going home for dinner tomorrow, right? Perfect chance to get it done!"
Since he’d been plotting how to win over his future father-in-law, Shen Qiushan felt he understood Lin Moxuan very well by now.
If he went straight to propose marriage, the timing wasn’t quite right.
But inviting Lin Moxuan to watch the finals of "Voice of Hua Country"—that, Shen Qiushan was pretty confident about.
"So confident?"
In Lin Xiamo’s eyes, this still seemed pretty tough to pull off.
