Chapter 099: Happy Birthday to Me

"Sorry, Liu, but I am not all that interested in joining a band."

Without much hesitation, Zhang Tan turned down Liu Yicheng's proposal at once. Being in a band would eat up a great deal of time, and that was not what Zhang Tan wanted.

For him, making music was a fine way to give himself a little more presence and polish, but it could never become the whole of life, or even most of it. He was used to living freely on his own terms: sing when he felt like singing, stay silent when he did not. But with a band, there would be rehearsals to schedule, arrangements to make, endless trouble. Too much fuss.

Zhang Tan's refusal left Liu Yicheng somewhat disappointed.

Still, after a few more drinks, he let that little disappointment go. It had been nothing more than a spur-of-the-moment idea to begin with.

"No problem. A band is just a decoration anyway. If you are not joining, that is even better. I can put it aside completely and focus on the studio."

Though he said that, Liu Yicheng did not look nearly as relaxed as his words suggested. Some people liked music as a matter of taste and affectation, like Zhang Tan. Others liked music because they truly loved it, and Liu Yicheng was clearly one of the latter.

After thinking it over, Zhang Tan said, "Even if I am not interested in the band, if there is a chance, we can still release The Stones of Hefei together. As for the performance at the Lobster Festival, Liu, you can talk to the organizing committee and let us form a group. We can play Spicy Little Lobster and The Stones of Hefei together. We can treat it as the band's farewell concert."

"Hey, that is good," Huang Mao immediately chimed in. "Performing at the Lobster Festival counts as a proper debut, and then we really will be a genuine band!"

A Cheng and Xiao Yu agreed as well, and Liu Yicheng had no reason to object.

So they quickly reached a consensus.

A team performance at the Lobster Festival.

Xiao Yu tapped his chopsticks and suggested, "Since we are debuting, why not think of a name for the band?"

Huang Mao agreed. "How about Yellow and Easy? The yellow stands for me, Huang Mao, and the easy stands for Liu. Everyone else can just be supporting cast."

Pfft.

Zhang Tan nearly spat his drink out. Of all the names in the world, it had to be Yellow and Easy.

Fortunately, nobody paid Huang Mao any mind, and they kept thinking. Xiao Yu liked English-style band names and wanted to call it the Jest Band. A Cheng, despite his big, sturdy build and honest face, came up with a domineering name: the Mighty Band. Liu Yicheng used his own name and combined it into the band name Ever the Same.

Yellow and Easy, Jest, Mighty, Ever the Same.

The four of them each stood by the name they had chosen, and none would yield.

At last, Liu Yicheng turned to Zhang Tan for advice. "Xiao Zhang, which of these four names do you think is best?"

Zhang Tan said, "Any of them will do, but none of them really feels like rock. Let me give you a few. Beyond, Gala, Black Panther, Tang Dynasty... If none of those work, you can always call yourselves Drifting."

"Cheesy."

"Boring."

"Just so-so."

"Not as good as the one I picked."

The four of them instantly expressed their disdain.

After another hour of debate, the band's name was finally settled: Drifting. No one was truly satisfied, but it was just barely acceptable. Of course, the name did not mean all that much. After two songs at the Lobster Festival, the band would basically be game over.

...

The recording session the next day went smoothly. By the afternoon, Spicy Little Lobster had been officially recorded and sent to the organizing committee for review.

Once it passed inspection, Zhang Tan would receive his payment. Not much, but still: five thousand yuan for the theme song contest prize, plus two thousand for the performance fee, seven thousand yuan in total.

After Drifting was formed, Liu Yicheng contacted the committee and confirmed that the band could perform two songs at the Lobster Festival.

The festival would open on May eighteenth, so there was still plenty of time left for them to rehearse together. Zhang Tan first went back to school to show his face and ask Yu Na for a few days' leave. After spending a day there, school let out for the weekend, and he could go home again for two days.

His older sister, Zhang Yan, had also come home.

Because Sunday was April twenty-eighth, the sixteenth day of the third lunar month, Zhang Tan's birthday: his sixteenth birthday.

It should have been an ordinary birthday. In those days, boys his age did not really make a fuss over birthdays. At most, their mothers would boil two eggs to mark the occasion. But for Zhang Tan's birthday, Tan Mingxia had prepared a proper feast with real care, calling the whole family together, including Zhang Heren, the grandfather.

Life at home was improving by the day, and Zhang Tan had contributed more than anyone.

A mother might not be able to bring herself to thank her son outright, so she celebrated his birthday instead, giving him a good, proper reward. Zhang Tan was her pride, her hope, her heart's reliance. As a woman from the countryside, Tan Mingxia may have harbored ambitions, but she could never truly break free from the shackles of illiteracy. All her struggles against fate had been poured into her two children.

Now her daughter Zhang Yan had been accepted into Anhui Medical University, and there was no need to worry about her future. Her son Zhang Tan had become a writer, and his novel had already been published, so there was even less to worry about. Their family had suffered the pain of layoffs, but once the internet cafe opened, business grew more and more prosperous and steady. They had enough to eat, enough to drink, and even the few mu of farmland were being prepared to lease out to another family for cultivation.

It could be said that their family had responded to the national call and successfully entered a moderately prosperous life.

This birthday meal was both a reward for Zhang Tan and a celebration of a good life.

The bowls and chopsticks were set out, and the Wuliangye was brought over. Zhang Tan filled a glass for Zhang Heren and Zhang Quanshun, then poured a small half-glass for Tan Mingxia. At the end, he even asked Zhang Yan, "Big sister, want some?"

"I do not drink. I do not drink."

"Have a little," Zhang Tan urged.

Tan Mingxia came over carrying a pot of old hen soup and shot Zhang Tan a glare. "Enough. Since your big sister does not drink, do not pour her any."

Zhang Heren, like Zhang Tan, had a taste for mischief. "Second daughter-in-law, what harm is there in letting Yanyan have a little? Once the boys and girls grow up and go out into society, how can they not drink a little at social gatherings?"

Tan Mingxia insisted, "Dad, we do not want her going to any social gatherings. It is enough if she finds a steady job and gets married and settles down."

Zhang Quanshun joined in as well. "After all, she is just a young girl. She does not need to be out in the social scene."

Seeing her parents join hands in that same old preference for sons over daughters, Zhang Yan immediately protested. "Why should girls not be able to go out into the world? Zhang Tan, pour me some. I want to drink with Grandpa."

"All right. A woman is no worse than a man. I will pour you some," Zhang Tan said with a laugh, giving Zhang Yan a small half-glass.

It was no bad thing for girls to drink a little now and then. In the society of the future, such bias would gradually disappear. Besides, as society opened up, who did not occasionally have to attend a banquet for work? Learning a little tolerance for liquor would at least prevent one from getting drunk at the first sip and being taken advantage of.

Still, with Zhang Yan's modest, contented nature, in her previous life she had spent more than a decade as an outpatient doctor, steady and practical. She truly did not need to get involved in such social niceties.

Soon enough, the drinks were poured and all the dishes were placed on the table.

The family sat down happily to drink and eat, chatting about old times, talking at length about the future, and sighing over the life they had now. The atmosphere was especially warm.

With his mouth full of food, Zhang Tan felt a hundred and twenty percent grateful to heaven.

This was the first birthday he had spent after being reborn.

By calculation, it had already been seven months since his rebirth.

Everything, under his influence, had grown better and better. One could not say that every wish had come true, but at least things were going his way. Of course, there was still much effort to be made, to fulfill one after another of his flamboyant, carefree, vengeance-seeking dreams.

"Hah, so this is my sixteenth birthday, is it?"

He swirled the glass in his hand, gazing at the clear white liquor, and for a moment Zhang Tan felt a little dazed. "Or perhaps this is my thirty-first birthday?"

"Happy birthday to me!"