Part 5 of the Devoted Series.
Six months after the park, Shen Wei tries rock music and Zhao Yulan wears leather, dreaming of Shen Wei.
This is an half and half story, featuring Shen Wei and Zhao Yulan. It came about after a friend pointed out (whi...
Zhao Yunlan could sing. It was an earth shattering fact that made Shen Wei wonder how he had survived not knowing this.
It had taken him another month, half a year after the park to finally investigate Rising Tide.
He had never liked rock or metal music, finding it headache inducing and baffling. Too macho, too desperate, too loud and so overly sexual. The problem was that Zhao Yunlan played the electric violin and cello in the band, was their band leader and after reading a comment posted by another fan of his classical work, sometimes sang backing vocals.
He had stared at those words stuck in traffic and had dwelled on them for hours while he had been cooking, finding himself smiling randomly at the thought. Zhao Yunlan could sing.
The temptation of listening to him sing was enough to overcome any prejudice or dislike of the genre. If Zhao played in a rock band and he did, then Shen Wei would have to either learn to like the genre or at least tolerate it, so he could support him. Plus, Zhao Yunlan in black leather really didn't sound that bad.
Zhao Yulan out of respect for the band, careful management of their reputation or personal preference, kept his classical work separate from his band related music. The website for Damn Cat, the main portal for him and Da Qing to showcase their acoustic work rarely featured Rising Tide. Other online video channels used only their names and were dedicated to everything from pop song covers, ancient musical works or the true classics like Mozart.
There were some metal and rock cover songs, always instrumental, that Shen Wei decided to listen to, nearly non-stop in his free time, in order to inure himself to the parts he didn't like. The wail of the electric cello, mimicking an electric guitar set his teeth on edge, but he decided to think of it as skillful.
Zhao also rarely uploaded photos in contrast to Da Qing, whose other online accounts were filled with assorted photos. Some were beautiful captures of nature or the sky, but while Shen Wei made sure to fave and comment on those, it was the endless photos of Zhao Yunlan that addicted him.
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Snapshots of him playing bow in hand, sleeping, walking and smiling were seared into his memory. He thought of them in the difficult moments, in the stretches of time when he was tired, worn down or facing a hard situation.
He had successfully avoided a bad conflict with Chu Shuzhi, both them overly tired, by thinking of that picture of Zhao in black tie, his black glasses tilted, as he focused on something on stage above him. He looked adorably confused and so beautiful.
One of the few with him clean shaven and Shen Wei was still trying to decide which he liked better, anger vanishing as he thought of that smooth chin, devoid of rose thorns, diverting the crisis. He had copies downloaded and saved, looking through them when the dark thoughts began to torment him in his weak moments or when he just wanted to see his face.
