Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love) - Chapter 69

Chapter 69: My dinner 

Early the next morning, Ding Meng and her crew set off for D City.

Since she was going to visit five cities on this trip, the company picked five outfits from the Colorful Kiss MV and asked her to wear a different one for each city.

Ding Meng spent the entire morning getting ready. Although her stylist during the filming of the MV was French and the stylist who had come with her was one assigned by the company, the stylist was just as meticulous.

That morning, Qiao Yichen and Sima Xiaoxiao were discussing her new album in his office. Sima Xiaoxiao looked at the new song he had written for her and laughed. “Great Producer Qiao, don’t you think that your preferential treatment between singers is a bit too excessive? The lyrics you wrote for Ding Meng were ‘Your kisses carry the sweet taste of strawberries, making me become addicted’, yet the lyrics you wrote for me are ‘The icy rain pours down on my heart, cooling the heat from the candlelight’?”

Qiao Yichen sat in his office chair without saying a word.

Sima Xiaoxiao continued to voice her dissatisfaction, “I know that Ding Meng is your wife and that you’re overflowing with love for her, but I just want to be able to peacefully sing a love song. Couldn’t you write something less oppressive?”

Qiao Yichen finally looked up to glance at her and spoke, “If you’re not satisfied, go find someone else to write it.”

Sima Xiaoxiao’s eyes narrowed. After staring at him for a moment, she suddenly burst into laughter, “I’ve heard that your mood has been terrible ever since Ding Meng left town for her signing events.”

Qiao Yichen looked at her, “Would you like to record this song fifty times?”

Sima Xiaoxiao, “…”

The weak must swallow their grievances and submit to the powerful.

Ding Meng’s first signing event began at 1:30pm. Many fans had started lining up at noon. Their hands were filled with bags on bags of cookies.

Today, Ding Meng was wearing an ice cream print one-piece dress. Her fans began shrieking as soon as she appeared on stage. The protectors and elders of the D City Little Lemon Division lifted banners and shouted in clear voices, “Lemon Leader, Lemon Leader, Universe’s Most Meng!”

For a second, Ding Meng mistakenly felt like she had returned to the Heavenly Voiceset.

The signing event began when she sat down on the seat arranged by the event planners. The event crew walked down the line to caution everyone repeatedly that only signature requests would be permitted. However, the fans didn’t listen at all.

“Lemon Leader, could you write ‘Xiao Liang-zi is definitely yours, drop everything and start pursuing!’?”

“Lemon Leader, could you write for me the exact same thing you wrote for Emperor Mo?!”

“Lemon Leader, please write get fit or die!”

“Lemon Leader, I’ve liked you quietly! Could you also sign my math exam while you’re at it???”

Ding Meng, “…”

She felt like she had spent so much time practicing her signature for nothing.

Ding Meng had started practicing her fountain penmanship back in elementary school. Thanks to the encouragement of her teacher, she had even taken an exam to become ranked so her handwriting was really nice. However, towards the end of the signing, her endurance had worn thin. Simply moving her wrist made her feel incredibly tired. She had to resort to signing an undecipherable mess of a signature.

The signing event only lasted half an hour so many fans didn’t get a signature. At first, everyone protested unhappily, but they all ended up enjoying themselves to their fullest when Ding Meng performed a song from her album.

After the signing event concluded, Ding Meng returned to the hotel to rest. Since they would be staying in D City for the entire day, she decided to nap until six or seven o’clock and then go to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner.

At this moment, Qiao Yichen was at the set of the Heavenly Voice competition. The second day of the preliminary round was already underway. Even though all the contestants had gone through one round of auditions when they had signed up, according to Qiao Yichen, the preliminary rounds were still as much of a bloodbath as last time.

Not only that, the most irritating part was that quite a few contestants this year were imitating Ding Meng.

For example, this number 32 who was currently in front of him.

“Hello Judges.” Number 32 brushed aside her hair which was just as black and long as Ding Meng’s as she smiled at Qiao Yichen, “The song that I will be performing is I’m Here by Ding Meng.”

The other two judges smiled but didn’t say anything. Qiao Yichen frowned imperceptibly.

Since I’m here was written by him, he was the most knowledgeable on just how difficult it was. At the time, even Ding Meng suffered many scoldings from him in the recording studio. He didn’t understand where these contestants were getting the confidence to pick such difficult songs, even at the preliminary round.

While he was still lost in thought, Number 32 had already begun singing.

“An empty room with nothing, but the moonlight to accompany me. “

“On this chilly night, extend a hand and look through the gaps between your fingers to see the flickering stars.”

“When will you realize…”

“I’m here…”

The words ‘I’m here’ suddenly rose violently and ear piercingly.

Without even waiting for Qiao Yichen to yell at her to stop, a judge next to him couldn’t help but take the lead, “High notes shouldn’t be sung like this. You sound like you’re trying to kill a pig.”

The female contestant felt rather awkward and looked at the only female among the judges, hoping that judge would say something nice. The female judge acknowledged her and spoke, “I’m here is a very difficult song. It’s not a song that just anyone can master. What Great Producer Qiao values the most is a contestant’s singing abilities. Don’t believe that he’ll be more lenient on you if you copy his wife.”

The female contestant, “…”

She could only look towards Qiao Yichen now.

Qiao Yichen leaned forward slightly to approach the microphone and spoke indifferently, “I wanted to yell stop from the moment you began singing. The only reason I didn’t interrupt you was because I wanted to see just how badly you could possibly sing.”

The female contestant, “…”

She ran out in tears.

When the contestants waiting outside saw yet another person come out in tears, they couldn’t help but sigh. A girl with relatively loud voice said, “I called this earlier. Don’t copy Ding Meng. It’s fine if you can you copy her well, but if you fall short… isn’t that just asking to be murdered by Qiao dada?”

Quite a few contestants nodded in agreement, but there were also some voices of opposition, although they were very weak. “But it’s also possible that Qiao Yichen wouldn’t have the heart to scold you if you remind him of his wife.”

The girl from earlier spoke, “With just a glance, I can tell you don’t know a thing. Previously, Ding Meng said on a music program that Qiao dada doesn’t hold back at all when he scolds her during recording sessions. He’s already like that to his own honored wife. How do you think he’d treat an impersonator like yourself? I think that you’d better spend less energy thinking about dishonest practices. Singing in a steady and honest matter is better.”

This time, no one spoke up again.

After almost an entire afternoon had passed, the preset alarm on Ding Meng’s phone woke her up at 6:30pm on the dot. She washed her face and grabbed her bag before heading to the hotel’s restaurant.

There was a buffet for dinner at this restaurant. Originally, she had wanted to invite her assistant to eat dinner with her, but her assistant had already ordered food to go. Therefore, she had no choice but to eat dinner by herself.

There actually weren’t that many people in the restaurant. She started off by grabbing a piece of steak and some spaghetti. After finding a random table, she set down her food to stake her place and then set off again to grab some sashimi and sushi. She finally sat down after bringing over plate of shrimp and another plate of scallops, effectively covering the entire table.

The steak was almost cold so she decided to eat it first. Barely two mouthfuls in, a familiar female voice spoke from her side, “Ding Meng?”

Ding Meng looked up to take a glance and spoke with a bit of astonishment, “Mu Shuang, what are you doing here too?”

Mu Shuang responded, “My album is going to be released next month. I’m here to appear on a TV program.”

“Ah, I see. This is really such a coincidence. I just happened to come here to hold a signing event.”

Mu Shuang had already heard about Ding Meng’s signing event. She just didn’t expect that they would actually be staying at the same hotel… Eh, was it because the company was lazy and booked their rooms in the same transaction?

She glanced at Ding Meng’s table of food and asked, “Who did you come with?”

Ding Meng responded, “Oh, no one. I’m by myself.”

Mu Shuang stared blankly for a moment before turning back to look at the table of food. She was speechless.

She remembered that she had seen the size of Ding Meng’s appetite last time when Ding Meng had gone to her aunt’s house to attend the celebration feast.

Ding Meng was actually really happy now. She enthusiastically invited Mu Shuang to eat dinner with her, “You’re by yourself too right? Why don’t we eat together? That way we can even chat a bit.”

“Okay.” Mu Shuang put down her bag and also walked over to grab food.

Ding Meng ate until she was especially satisfied. It felt like the fatigue from that afternoon had diminished quite a bit. After taking out her phone and snapping a picture of the table full of food, she uploaded it onto Weibo.

DingMeng_LemonLeader (v): Unexpectedly bumped into @MuShuang while eating dinner at the hotel’s restaurant *hearty laugh* The food here is pretty good. The feeling of eating one’s fill is really great~

[Picture][Picture]

Very quickly, many fans started drooling at her table of food.

“The seafood looks really fresh. Lemon Leader is definitely trying to make us jealous *bye*”

“Lemon Leader, are you eating so liberally because you want to turn back into the little fatty you were in middle school? :)”

“@QiaoYichen”

“Lemon Leader and Mu Shuang are both so beautiful!”

“I think I know which hotel that is *wink*”

“Lemon Leader, D City’s Little Lemon’s are begging for a morsel *pity*”

Not long after, Qiao Yichen saw that Weibo post. He pursed his lips and snapped a picture of his own dinner. Then, he also uploaded it onto Weibo.

QiaoYichen (v): My dinner  [Picture]

“Hahahahaha Qiao dada is so pitiful. That’s a bowl of vegetarian noodles without a single piece of meat *crying laugh*”

“A child without a wife’s love is like a neglected weed 2333333”

“@DingMeng_LemonLeader, come quickly to see how miserable your husband is. You’ve got a ton of meat and seafood, but he’s at home eating bloated noodles…This won’t do! I need to go laugh for a moment hahahaha”

“Is Qiao dada sulking right now?! So tsundere *crying laugh*”

“It’s like he’s throwing a little tantrum *doge*”

“Dropping a tantrum card.”

“Looking at the two Weibo posts side by side makes me really…feel sorry for you *crying laugh*”

“PDA-ing everyday. I can’t watch this *bye*”

“I can almost hear the voice-over: Wife, please pet me *doge*”

“Qiao dada, you need to eat well even when Lemon Leader isn’t there *pity* *pity* *pity*”

When Ding Meng returned to her room and started browsing Weibo, she finally saw his post. Qiao Yichen’s dinner really did look rather pitiful. After looking at it for a while, she couldn’t help but laugh.

After thinking carefully, she realized that they had never been separated ever since she and Qiao Yichen had gotten married. They were almost always together even at work.

After blinking a few times, she found Qiao Yichen’s cell phone number and dialed it.

Qiao Yichen had just finished eating his noodles. When he saw the call from Ding Meng, his eyes flashed and his fingertip brushed across the screen, “What, you still remember this husband of yours?”

The sound of Ding Meng’s laughter traveled through the phone, “Goudan, you’re really quite pitiful. How come you only ate a bowl of noodles? Aren’t there a lot of ingredients in the fridge?”

Qiao Yichen walked into the living room and laid down on the couch, “You’re not here so I didn’t feel like cooking.”

After a moment of pause, Ding Meng started laughing again, “As someone’s husband, you shouldn’t be this headstrong. If you really don’t want to cook, you can always eat at the office.”

“Okay…” Qiao Yichen grumbled. Then he asked, “Did the signing event go smoothly?”

Ding Meng responded, “Yup, very smoothly. The Little Lemons were all very enthusiastic. They even gave me a ton of gifts. The only thing was that my hand really couldn’t endure signing continuously for half an hour.

Qiao Yichen frowned slightly, “Don’t work too hard. Take care of yourself.”

“Okay, I know. How have you been doing? Did you see any promising newcomers at the competition this season?”

Qiao Yichen responded, “There are still a couple who sing fairly well. It’s just that there are a lot of contestants trying to imitate you this time around…” When he spoke up to there, his voice gradually grew softer, “It makes me miss you even more.”