Chapter 61 On the Road Band

  It's not just Lin Xiaoyu who is struggling to make ends meet for his frequently broken basketball shoes. Yi Li and their band are also facing an economic crisis.

  The name of this band is "On the Road". The name of the band was decided by everyone, and it means that everyone is on this endless road of life.

  Lin Xiaoyu really likes the name of this band. Lin Xiaoyu feels a lot from the simple phrase "on the road", whether it's constantly moving forward, wandering at the fork in the road, or waiting on the road... Lin Xiaoyu thinks that the word "on the road" contains too many meanings and unknown destinies. Lin Xiaoyu can't figure out the meaning of "on the road" because Lin Xiaoyu is also on the road right now...

  Everyone in the band has their own profession and life. Because of a common dream and infatuation with music and rock, they came together to play music. With the kind of free-spirited melody that rock embodies, they built a beautiful spiritual garden amidst the dull and arduous reality of everyday life.

  The person in charge of the band's finances is Da Zhi, a slightly chubby guy who runs a small advertising company. The band's expenses are basically borne by him. Although he rarely participates in the band's training, many of their performances are arranged by him. Occasionally, Da Zhi also participates as a keyboard player in the band's performances, but most of the time he is busy making a living outside.

  Now Daiz's company is facing a financial crisis, so the band's current maintenance funds have become a problem.

  Drummer Lei Zi is a small editor in a publishing house. Perhaps because he often deals with text, Lei Zi is a relatively quiet and taciturn person. It's rare to hear him speak up when everyone is chatting, but his occasional remarks always make people feel full of philosophical meaning and depth. So Lei Zi also wrote many good lyrics and poems for the band.

  The silent and introverted Pui Tze has a heart full of passion and strength. If he feels the music when practicing singing, you will see this normally quiet Pui Tze striking out a crazy rhythm on the drum set in front of him at an astonishing speed.

  Huang Yongming, who is completely opposite in personality to Wei Zi, always has a mouth that likes to tease. In the band, he and Wei Zi have the best relationship, which makes people very different. Later, Lin Xiaoyu only knew that Huang Yongming and Wei Zi were high school classmates, they had fought for a girl they both loved more than once, and later the girl went to another city and fell into someone else's arms. Huang Yongming and Wei Zi also didn't know how they became a pair of friends who would die together.

  Huang Yongming always seemed to face life with a sunny smile, but life always turned a dark face towards him. Huang Yongming's parents left the world due to a traffic accident, and his originally good family became disheartened, but in front of friends, Huang Yongming was always full of smiles. Only when he sat alone holding his bass, quietly sitting by the window looking into the distance, could people feel a sense of sadness from this friend who always brought laughter to everyone.

  Huang Yongming works at an auto repair shop. He rarely talks about his work, and even when he does, he always smiles and shares some funny stories that happen during his daily work. However, everyone who cares about him quietly has already noticed that his originally fair hands have slowly become calloused.

  Zhang Zhihui, Yan Nan's older cousin, was one of the best off in terms of family background. Although he had already started working and had his own house and car, and was making preparations for marriage, his parents were always opposed to their son playing this kind of messy music with a group of people they thought were idle and lazy. So Zhang Zhihui usually avoided his parents when he came to practice singing. Now, as a civil servant, Zhang Zhihui had the support of his family in his unit, and his career was on the rise, but he didn't like sitting in the office all day facing files and documents he didn't like, and having to put on a fake smile with his leaders and colleagues. However, as a filial son, Zhang Zhihui could only endure this kind of work to make his parents feel at ease. In his heart, only basketball and rock music could make him truly feel free and happy.

  As the soul and big brother of the band, Yi Li, who majored in music in college, is the only one in the band without a stable job.

  Yi Li, who had a degree from a prestigious university, should have been able to find a good job easily. However, due to his strong personality and somewhat cynical attitude towards the world, he found it difficult to work steadily in a society that he thought was hypocritical. Yi Li didn't know how many bosses he had gone through, so now he still considered music as his career. But as an unknown musician, his works were hard to be recognized by those music companies who only cared about commercial interests. Therefore, he still had to worry about making a living for himself.

  Fortunately, Yi Li still had a lover named Zhang Yan who was willing to suffer with him without complaint. Zhang Yan was Yi Li's junior fellow student in college, and she fell deeply in love with this talented and charismatic guy after watching his performance at school. The lively Zhang Yan started pursuing Yi Li, the dark horse prince in the hearts of countless girls on campus, and eventually followed him to Feicui City, a strange small town, to live together after graduation.

  Zhang Yan is now working as a clerk in a small company, and she almost supports her lover's music dream with her own salary. Zhang Yan feels that being able to hear Yi Li singing a warm song with his guitar by her side every night is a good enough life.

  The band members all have different personalities and preferences for rock styles. Lei Zi and Huang Yongming like Nirvana's kind of manic rock music; Zhang Zhihui likes Suede and The Beatles, that kind of British style; Dazhi likes

  Green Day and Red Hot Chili Peppers kind of punk; Yi Li likes heavy metal bands like Metallica, Aerosmith, Guns N' Roses, etc.

  This also makes the band's music style diversified, and there is no definition of any style. Whatever mood you are in, play whatever style of rock, as long as it's fun. This also makes Lin Xiaoyu very happy in this band, Lin Xiaoyu thinks she likes all styles of rock except for those extreme death rocks, Lin Xiaoyu feels that every style can bring herself different feelings.

  To alleviate the band's recent financial difficulties, everyone has been saving on their own expenses. Normally, they would drink cold beer to quench their thirst during practice sessions, but now they have switched to plain water. It's also common to see Yi Li smoking only a few puffs before extinguishing the cigarette, which is then relit and finished during the next break.

  The band's funds were not enough to rely on thrift alone, so recently the band has also increased a lot of performances. Most of the performances are in some bars singing a few songs, and one night can earn two or three hundred yuan. Lin Xiaoyu's skills are still far from the level that can be performed on stage, he is always doing some logistical work for the band with Yan Zhang and others behind the scenes. Although it was doing this kind of work with a bit of a running dragon suit, Lin Xiaoyu felt very happy and free to enjoy rock music with everyone.

  The band could have made more money by singing in bars, but the members of the band were unwilling to perform popular music that was trending at the time to please the audience, as required by the bar owners. Although this would have earned them more money, everyone was unwilling to do so because they did not want to sing those soulless and empty songs, which made them feel like clowns in a circus trying to amuse the audience. This was not their intention for playing rock music, which is great because of its principles and individuality.

  The band is thus supported with everyone's efforts, slowly and arduously, but the difficulties of real life are shaken away to a distant place at the moment when the rock music sounds. In those jumping strings, continuously vibrating drums and that unbound singing voice, there is a spirit that is forever higher than real life... Because there is a paradise in dreams...

  Everyone has their own story, and everyone experiences different things in their own story. Life is unpredictable and hard to figure out. In short, life is really not easy.