Chapter 167: July 9th, an Ordinary Day

Wen Xi blinked.

She regained control of her body.

She picked up her phone and opened the video she had just recorded.

In the video, she was wearing a tight tank top, standing in front of a broken wooden table, and her hands were wildly tapping the surface.

There was no piano.

But she played a piano piece that shattered all conventional views and was exquisitely beautiful.

Wen Xi stared at the screen.

She watched for a full minute.

Then, she lifted her head.

She looked at Xu Yunzhou, who was floating beside her, waiting for her reaction.

Her gaze was complex.

There was shock, bewilderment, doubt, but most of all, excitement.

A kind of scorching excitement, like discovering a new continent.

She licked her slightly dry lips and spoke, her voice slightly hoarse from excitement:

"Little Zhou-zhou, Sister believes you're a cultivation expert now!"

"Because this piece is rarely heard in the mortal world!"

"Oh, what's the name of this piece? 'Feathered Garment Dance'?"

Xu Yunzhou floated closer, looking at the frozen image of her tapping the table on the screen.

He was silent for two seconds.

Then, he softly said:

"‘To Sister Xi.’”

Wen Xi was stunned:

"Pay homage to 'Für Elise'?"

"If Beethoven knew someone was paying homage to him with a table, he might crawl out of his grave to argue about music theory with you."

Xu Yunzhou laughed:

"Then he'd have to learn how to time travel first."

Wen Xi laughed too.

It wasn't a mocking laugh, nor a joking one.

It was a genuine, carefree laugh, even tinged with a bit of pride.

"Alright."

She carefully placed her phone on the table, as if putting down a fragile treasure.

Then, she turned to look at Xu Yunzhou.

Her eyes were serious:

"Thank you for playing this piece with my body."

"As a reward,"

She pointed at herself:

"Whenever you need a body in the future, just speak up."

"Sister will," she patted her chest, and the curves under her tank top gently trembled, "always leave you a VIP channel."

Xu Yunzhou floated in the air, silent for three seconds:

"…No need to put it so ambiguously."

"Little Zhou-zhou, your thoughts are impure~"

Wen Xi laughed loudly.

Her laughter echoed in the small dormitory, making the window glass buzz.

Xu Yunzhou smiled and thought it was time to return:

"I'll be leaving."

"Good luck, Sister Xi."

"In the future,"

He paused, as if prophesying or stating a fact already written,

"you're going to become the Queen of Criminal Investigation."

Wen Xi smiled.

She whispered to herself:

"Queen of Criminal Investigation?"

"It sounds…"

"…so thrilling."

...

Reality. Bathroom.

Xu Yunzhou suddenly opened his eyes.

His consciousness detached from the small dormitory in Qingyang Town in 2017 and returned to the bathroom in Binzhou Olympic Center in 2025.

Only a few seconds had passed.

He quickly uninstalled the program, closed his laptop, and placed it by the sink.

He took a deep breath.

He pushed the door and walked out.

The corridor was dimly lit, and distant roars from the venue could be heard.

"Song Jiaru!"

"July 9th!"

"Come out!"

The shouts were filled with anxiety, anticipation, impatience, and a collective fervor.

He took a step.

He walked towards the stage, where all the lights and expectations converged.

His steps were steady and unhurried.

When his figure appeared at the side entrance of the stage, the staff responsible for controlling the scene visibly froze, instinctively trying to stop him, but they stepped aside the moment they met Xu Yunzhou's gaze.

That gaze…

It was calm and profound, as if it had seen countless life-and-death battles and changes in the world.

Not the gaze of a young man in his early twenties.

It was the calm and certainty of someone who had seen many grand scenes and wielded life and death.

Xu Yunzhou walked onto the stage.

The spotlight's edge swept over his shoulder, and soon more light converged, enveloping him.

He walked to Song Jiaru.

He stood in the direction pointed by the ring.

The entire venue fell silent.

As if someone had pressed the mute button, even the sound of waving glow sticks disappeared.

Countless eyes, filled with suspicion, scrutiny, and disbelief, fixed on the young man who suddenly appeared.

Too young!

He looked to be in his early twenties at most, with a clear and handsome face, wearing a simple Zhongshan suit, standing tall and straight.

He was good-looking, even with a touch of the freshness of a young man.

But this was too different from the mysterious, talented, and songwriting genius "July 9th" everyone imagined!

This was clearly just a very good-looking neighbor or a newly debuted idol!

Where was the music industry giant who had stirred things up for a decade?

Where was the lyricist and composer who could write songs like "The Brave Alone," "Stars and the Sea," and "Beyond Light Years" with such breadth and depth?

The collision between expectations and reality left countless viewers momentarily blank and deeply skeptical.

The live stream chat even froze for a moment, as if millions of people had lost their voice simultaneously.

Then.

A volcano erupted!

【？？？？That's it？？？？？？】

【I took off my pants and this is what you show me? Although he's handsome… but he's too young!】

【Did you get it wrong? Staff? Crazy fan rushing the stage? Where's security?】

【Jiaru, look at me! I look like your long-lost boyfriend! Choose me, choose me!】

【I don't believe it! This must be a stand-in! The real July 9th must be at least in his thirties, right?】

【But… he looks so good in the Zhongshan suit… it gives a sense of a noble young master from the Republican era…】

【Wait… don't you think… his eyes are a bit scary? Too calm…】

Even Xu Yunzhou's childhood friend Shen Jie, who was filming furiously from the back of the stands, was stunned.

He stared at the increasingly familiar face on the stage, tremblingly recording a video and sending it to Xu Yunzhou, with a message filled with shock and absurdity:

"Brother Xu! Holy crap! Holy crap! Holy crap!"

"This mysterious boyfriend of Song Jiaru…"

"He really looks like you! Exactly the same!"

"What's going on? Do you have a long-lost twin brother?"

...

On the stage.

Song Jiaru, seeing Xu Yunzhou actually walk up to the stage and stand in front of her, tears welled up in her eyes again.

Not tears of sadness.

Tears of joy, of dreams coming true, of a decade of waiting finally being fulfilled.

She looked at him.

She looked at his unmasked, familiar, and clear face, facing all the cameras.

She looked at the gentle look in his eyes, and the unique mix of deep helplessness and a smile.

Her trembling lips whispered, in a voice only the two of them could hear:

"Thank you."

"Big Brother."

Xu Yunzhou stood in front of her, in front of the 30,000 audience members and countless live stream cameras.

If it were the ordinary programmer Xu Yunzhou from before, he would probably have been trembling, his mind blank, wishing to disappear on the spot.

But now…

In the "Lin Ruoxuan Instance," he had accompanied that business queen through hundreds of higher-level, life-and-death business negotiations, witnessing how those old foxes who controlled trillions of capital hid knives behind smiles, and how Lin Ruoxuan handled the situation with wit and humor amidst the danger.

In the "Song Jiaru Instance," he had personally transformed the timid girl who would blush at the sight of people into the dazzling queen of the music industry. He had accompanied her through the awkwardness of her first book signing and witnessed her excitement when she won her first award.

In the "Xu Nuo Instance," he had witnessed even more brutal life-and-death struggles and power games, seeing bullets whiz past his ear and the frail girl rise step by step to the throne amidst a sea of blood and corpses.

Public speaking, quick thinking, aura control, and psychological resilience in the face of millions of eyes—these skills had been ingrained into his bones through countless trials, becoming instinct.

He naturally had no stage fright.

He took the microphone handed to him by a staff member.

His voice, clear and steady, with a strange soothing power, echoed throughout the venue:

"Hello everyone."

"I…"

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the sea of faces below:

"I am July 9th."

A wave of suppressed exclamations rose from the audience below.

He continued, his tone calm but sincere:

"Yes, that was the first day I met Jiaru."

"It wasn't a special day, no meteor shower, and the Mayan prophecy of the end of the world was still months away."

"Anyway, it was just an ordinary day in the summer of 2012."

"But for her, for me…"

He turned to look at Song Jiaru, who was wearing a wedding dress and whose tears were flowing freely, his voice softening:

"Maybe from that day on, things were no longer the same."