Chapter 46: Public Declaration

  Although the donkey cart is not very fast, it's still somewhat faster than walking. You can smell the sweet fragrance of melons and fruits without exerting yourself, which may also be a kind of comfort.

  Not yet arrived at the scene, I could already hear the hawkers' cries, the loudspeaker promotional voices in front of the shops, and all sorts of bargaining sounds.

  "Wow, so many people!" Looking at the crowded street, Xuan Sheng jumped out of the car first, with a hint of excitement in his eyes. It was possible to see such a large crowd in Shanghai's shopping malls, but it wasn't as lively as this.

  Smelling the fragrance of melons and fruits all over the street, looking at the slender and charming girls, Chen Zhiquan's eyes were fixed in place. Everyone got off the bus, but he alone remained on it, reluctant to move.

  Grandpa Mù looked at the old mule panting heavily and shook his head in distress, but shouted to Zhìquán in Uyghur to get down. Chen Zhìquán didn't hear or understand him at all, still grinning foolishly as he stared at the beauties.

  Li Lu'er couldn't bear it anymore, so he led the donkey cart to a more conspicuous place at the intersection. He spread out a grass mat on the ground at the back of the cart and let the donkey rest directly. In an instant, all the Hami melons, fragrant melons, and honeydew melons in the cart rolled down from the cart board and scattered all over the ground.

  Xiao Xuan and Li Chao hurried to help block the melons, while Chen Zhiquan was shocked for a moment, and followed the melons as they rolled down. Looking at Lu Xian Sheng, he sighed and shook his head, thinking that in Shanghai, who else would dare to bully this sensitive young master of the Lu family?

  "Lai Luoer, you want to rob and murder me!" Chen Zhiquan's face turned red with rage.

  He shrugged and raised his head high, narrowing his eyes and directly ignoring him.

  "Alright, don't be angry anymore. Just now, Grandpa Mu called you for a long time, it's not Lao Er's fault that you didn't come down, don't be angry, you're a boy!" Xiao Xuan pulled on Zhi Quan's arm for half a day, hoping the two wouldn't quarrel.

  Listening to Xiao Xuan's soft and delicate coquetry, Chen Zhiquan had no choice but to give in, pulling Xiao Xuan along to join the excitement.

  Li Chao slowly walked over to Lu'er's side with a flattering expression on his face.

  Before Li Chao could speak, Luo Er had already spoken up: "Go on, go find Ruo Yun! You little scoundrel!"

  Looking at Lu Er's sour face, Li Chao still ran away with a whoosh, because he knew that his current existence was superfluous.

  "Take me for a spin!" Lu Xiangsheng said.

  "Hmm...do you want to buy something or just look around?" asked Lí Luòér.

  "I don't know, let's just walk and see!"

  "Then follow me this way and see if we can find Xiao Xuan and the others!" Li Luoer walked ahead, with Lu Xiangsheng closely following behind.

  All the way, vendors enthusiastically held their goods and blocked them to introduce them. Lí Luòér turned her head to look at Lù Xiǎng Shèng, and as long as Xiǎng Shèng shook his head, Luòér wouldn't ask any more questions and would directly push through the crowd to clear a path for Xiǎng Shèng.

  After circling around two venues, she still couldn't find Xiao Xuan and Zhi Quan. Li Chao also didn't bring Ruo Yun to catch up. Lu'er started to feel a bit flustered, not knowing why, but in crowded situations, her head always hurt.

  "What's wrong?" Lu Xiangsheng looked at Luo Er who was swaying a bit, and hastily pushed away the two people in front of him to rush forward and support her.

  Li Luoer struggled to shake her head, trying to make herself clearer, but she was still dizzy. In the end, she leaned weakly on Lu Xiangsheng's body, "Let's go out, my head is spinning!"

  "Can you still walk? Let me carry you!" Lu Xiangsheng's heart ached.

  "No need for that, just let me sit next to you, we're all neighbors, if others see us and start gossiping it won't be good!"

  Lu Xiansheng didn't say much, he just used all his strength to support Luo Er. The two of them struggled out of the crowd, and Lu Xiansheng helped Luo Er sit down at a yogurt stand.

  The enthusiastic Uyghur auntie greeted them, and Lu Xiansheng ordered 2 servings of yogurt ice cream and 2 sugar glutinous rice balls. After all, spending some money to have a place to rest was also good.

  "What's going on? How could you be like this? Are you anemic?" Lu Xiangsheng was still sitting next to Li Lu'er, afraid that she might still feel unwell.

  "I don't know, it's been like this since I was a kid. Many doctors have said that there's nothing seriously wrong with me, just that my blood and energy are insufficient, so I should take some supplements to nourish my blood. However, I've always eaten dates and other things like that, but I haven't seen any effects..."

  "It seems it's not just anemia, don't worry, next week when I'm off work, I'll take you to get a check-up, aren't there two or three top-grade hospitals in Hami city?"

  "I don't understand those..." Lei Luoer just kept eating the yogurt ice cream in her bowl.

  Chen Zhiquan and Shen Xiaoxuan finally found Lu Xiansheng and Luo Er after searching all the way. They hastily ran over, putting down their bags and packages on the table. Zhiquan snatched Lu Xiansheng's yogurt ice cream and ate it in two mouthfuls.

  Lu Xiansheng couldn't help but smile wryly as he looked at Chen Zhiquan's disheveled appearance, with a large number of colorful food bags of all sizes on the table in front of him. "You've only been out for an hour, what did you buy?"

  Chen Zhiquan completely ignored him and instructed the ice cream auntie to pack up the ice cream.

  Shen Xiaoxuan slowed down, and only then did he speak up: "We bought a lot of delicious food, but basically it's all cooked dishes, seafood and the like. Zhi Quan said we're going to have a big dinner tonight, and wants to show off his skills at home, so we ended up buying this huge pile!"

  "What? Cooking seafood? Is he crazy and you're following him? Who here knows how to cook it? Are we going to invite a chef? And besides, our home doesn't even have a refrigerator. Buying so many things, one meal can't finish them all, they'll all go to waste... Our home doesn't even have a dog, leftover food has nowhere to be digested, what a pity..." Luo Er rummaged through the plastic bags on the table, chattering nonstop.

  "Alright, don't say anything more. I'll do it tonight. If we can't finish it, let's call the class monitors over for dinner and they will definitely be able to eat it all up. Don't worry about it!" Lu Xiang Sheng comforted Luo Er.

  Lou fell just dissipated, and then saw Li Chao pulling Ruoyun walking in this direction, but how did they have a familiar figure beside them? Ah! Shen Kai? Lou blinked her eyes hard, only to see clearly that it was indeed Shen Kai.

  Lu Xuan Sheng looked at Li Luo Er's unwavering gaze and followed suit, suddenly his head felt like it was going to explode again.

  "Hey, sisters and brothers~" Yu Yun ran to Luo Er's side first and acted coquettishly.

  "How did you end up with him?" Shen Xiaoxuan rolled her eyes and stared at Lei Chao.

  Li Chao furrowed his brow and scratched his head, unsure of how to face this group of people.

  Shen Kai was very calm, "I just saw Lei Chao, said hello, heard you guys are all here, so I came over to join the fun! Don't mind me being extra, do you?"

  "You still ask, how can it be redundant!" Chen Zhiquan finally put down his plate and stared at Shen Kai.

  Luo'er took a look at the situation and quickly interjected: "Since we're all here, let's go for a walk together. However, we've also walked quite a bit already! We were just about to head back."

  "Are you going back now? The other side of the country is having an event, a singing competition! Aren't you most fond of this kind of activity? I heard today's prizes are quite many, electric rice cookers, induction cookers, even refrigerators and washing machines are being given away!" Shen Kai was indeed clever, his understanding of Luo Er was still plentiful, he said some things that Luo Er was interested in.

  "Really?" Luo Er was somewhat unable to contain her excitement, "Then are you going to participate?"

  Shen Kai nodded and looked at Lu Xiansheng saying: "You big city people shouldn't be interested, I won't force it!"

  Lu Xuan Sheng sneered: "I really like this kind of activity, let alone I also want to move an refrigerator back for Yun Shi!"

  A loud crash of a plate broke the silence, and several people rushed to help Ice Cream Mama clean up the broken plates. Then each person took some big and small bags that Chen Zhiquan had bought back and went to participate in the National Beauty Singing Competition.

  They arrived at the event site a bit late, and all the registered participants were already standing on the temporary stage. Lu Xiansheng and Shen Kai secretly competed with each other, and neither of them used the stairs, jumping up directly.

  "Wow, here come two more handsome guys! This event is going to be amazing!" The host was staring crazily at Lu Xiangsheng and Shen Kai while introducing the competition rules.

  When choosing instruments, Shen Kai chose the piano and Lu Xiansheng chose the guitar.

  The first round of the self-selected song competition began, and Lu Xiansheng competed against a teenage boy, with Lu Xiansheng winning unanimously. Shen Kai also advanced after competing against a vegetable vendor.

  In the second round of eliminations, Lu Xiansheng's "Sea and Sky" advanced with solid vocals and standard Cantonese. Shen Kai's piano accompaniment to "Encounter" made all the girls scream and successfully advanced.

  The final round of strong competition, originally with over a dozen people on stage, was left with only Lu Xiansheng holding his guitar and Shen Kai sitting at the piano.

  "Shen Kai, jiayou!" Li Lu'er shouted loudly. However, as soon as she shouted out this sentence, she felt that something was off, the whole scene was so quiet, and this sentence was so jarring...

  "You're sick? He's my own brother and I don't even call him that!" Shen Xiaoxuan muttered with a bitter face.

  Li Luoer just realized that Lu Xiansheng's face had changed, and Chen Zhiquan's gnashing teeth could be heard.

  The host warmed up the atmosphere, and more and more people came to watch. The children who were standing in the front row were almost stuck to the stage.

  The girls under the stage were screaming like crazy, each in their own group, supporting Shen Kai and shouting: "Kai brother, we love you!" The supporters of Lu Xiansheng were not to be outdone, loudly chanting: "Xiansheng Xiansheng, invincible!"

  Just as the shouting reached a climax, Shen Kai began to play and sing "Fairy Tale" by himself. His slender fingers danced on the piano keys, his eyes filled with deep emotions occasionally gazing into the distance below the stage, moving all the girls in the audience to tears.

  After Shen Kai's curtain call, he sat in Wang's chair, and it was Lu Xiansheng's turn. Chen Zhiquan couldn't help but wipe away cold sweat. The opponent was already emotional enough; what could be used to defeat him and ignite the passion of the entire audience, no longer sorrowful?

  Lu Xiansheng ignored Shen Kai's performance, following the rhythm, hugging his guitar, and chose the Cantonese song "The Most Beloved in Life". At first, the audience was in a state of sorrow, until he sang:

  Whether true or false, can be divided into two roles to play themselves

  Will dedicate the tenderness in my heart to you, my only acquaintance

  As if in a trance, still hoping you understand and cherish yourself

  One day even if we are apart I miss you I really miss you...

  In an instant, the atmosphere in the entire venue walked out of the gloom, and followed Xuan Sheng to sing in unison. The boys who usually watched the excitement were actually more energetic than the girls, this feeling was like opening a concert, but Lu Xuan Sheng's eyes never moved away from Li Luo Er, making all the girls crazy with envy and jealousy.

  "In the end, I just want to say that maybe you can't accept my heart now, but I'll always wait for you, forever guarding by your side...". Lu Xiangsheng's mouth curved into a happy smile as he looked at Li Lu'er's sparkling big eyes, and he knew that his heart had fallen, unable to pull back. No matter what the future holds, at least for now, he wants her to be the happiest person.

  The whole audience screamed and cried, but Li Luo'er stood in place, at a loss for what to do...