July 13th.

  It was not yet six o'clock in the morning when Li Qian opened his eyes.

  The mattress was a bit soft, the original owner of the house was a couple who had been married for only a few years, this should be their marital bed, but Li Qian was still not quite used to it, and after waking up, he felt that his waist and back were a bit sore.

  But since he woke up, he still rubbed his eyes and got up at the first time.

  Before six o'clock, the red sun was still below the sea, but the sky had already lit up.

  Li Qian got out of bed wearing only his underwear, first went to the kitchen to fetch a kettle of water and put it on the stove, then went to the bathroom to use the toilet, wash his face, and brush his teeth. After finishing everything, the water had already boiled, so he took the newly bought large teapot and made a pot of jasmine tea. Only after that did he return to the bedroom to make his bed and get dressed.

  Then he took his mobile phone and keys downstairs.

  There isn't a small park nearby like Shengshi Garden, but Li Qian chose this place because it's not far from the ancient city wall.

  He left at around 6:15 and jogged slowly for about ten minutes before arriving at the foot of the ancient city wall.

  This ancient city wall was originally built in the Ming Dynasty and later repaired during the Qing Dynasty. It wasn't until after the founding of the country that it became a cultural relic. Even now, although everyone knows it's an antique, the government hasn't put up fences to protect it, nor can it be called a park. However, early in the morning, there are many people who come here to walk their birds and practice boxing at the foot of the city wall.

  But Li Qian is not with them, he comes here and will bypass them, directly climbing up the city wall from the inside - the city wall is a must-have for defending against enemies in the cold weapon era, such as Jinan Prefecture, which is a large prefecture, naturally has high standards. The remaining section of the ancient city wall is east-west oriented, with a length of over 700-800 meters and a width of about 4-5 meters. This width can accommodate horse racing, let alone allow Li Qian to show off his skills in a fight.

  About ten or so minutes later, after practicing his fists and feet and taking a short rest, Li Qian got up and continued to jog slowly back home.

  He is now renting a house in this district, which is one of the earlier commodity districts in Jinan Prefecture. According to Li Qian's understanding, since the early 1980s, the trend of commodity economy has been unstoppable, and so-called commodity houses also emerged at that time, and this district was also built around that time.

  A residential area of over a decade has already formed a relatively stable living system.

  There are four or five breakfast stalls alone at the east gate of the community.

  After moving over, Li Qian had eaten his way through each one, and finally settled on the Henanese-owned "Old Zhao's Spicy Soup" as his breakfast spot - this store didn't sell many things like other places did; they didn't sell the most common dou jiang you tiao, nor did they have mantou or baozi. The store only sold four items: meat buns, vegetable buns, spicy soup, and tofu brain.

  In addition to su baozi, the other three dishes are also very suitable for Li Qian's stomach.

  One yuan, three meat buns plus a bowl of hot and spicy soup, is a delicious breakfast.

  Their buns are not particularly large, but the filling is generous and meaty. The flavor of the spicy soup is also very authentic because they actually use beef to simmer it.

  Li Qian ran back and circled around the east gate, bought breakfast before returning home.

  At this time, the sun had already risen.

  He went home, took a bath, and then wore only his underwear to the dining table, poured himself a cup of warm chrysanthemum tea, drank it slowly, and only then began eating breakfast.

  Breakfast finished, after cleaning up the bowls and chopsticks, it was around 8:30.

  Then he would sit on a small two-seat sofa and listen to music for half an hour.

  The player was his old portable cassette player, a Nanxing brand, and the speakers were second-hand goods he had just swapped from an audio store a few days ago, a pair of bookshelf boxes. For over 200 yuan, they looked good and sounded okay.

  Of course, a two-hundred-yuan box plus dozens of yuan for earbuds, even if the value of this space-time RMB is much higher, but at this price, it's really not worth mentioning the sound quality. He doesn't care about that now, he just doesn't want to wear headphones all day and listen to songs until his ears get sick.

  Previously, Li Qian left some, plus the new ones he bought later, now he has more than 100 tapes in his hands, mostly pop and rock, and many English and Russian tapes have been purchased. However, what he listened to this morning was still his favorite in his previous life - Mozart.

  A cassette tape, about 45 minutes of playback time. For the first 20 minutes, he would sit on the sofa with his eyes closed, resting and digesting, after 20 minutes, he would get up, take a mop to wipe the floor, then take a rag to wipe and clean everywhere - by the time the cassette tape was finished, the whole room would be spotless.

  It was already past nine o'clock at this time.

  Next, he would take an hour to do two things: try to compose music for the songs whose lyrics and melodies he had already recalled and written down, and organize some ideas from before, recording down some fleeting melodies that came into his mind.

  Of course, the melody he recorded now is only a fragment, but as the sparks of inspiration accumulate more and more, many works will gradually take shape - in his previous life, many of Li Qian's works were created in this way.

  Some geniuses can create a song in one or two hours with inspiration, but Li Qian knows he doesn't have that kind of talent. He has his own talents, but not to that extent, so he can only use the method of an ordinary person.

  That's accumulation.

  Of course, in the process of doing these two things, if he happens to touch a certain memory and suddenly remembers a song he heard in his previous life, Li Qian will also record it as soon as possible - for him, this is an extremely important capital, naturally not too much.

  Then at more than 10 o'clock, he started practicing singing, also for about an hour.

  So, by about half past eleven, he can complete all his tasks for the morning.

  During this time, he would drink all the flower tea in the ocean until it was completely gone.

  At half past eleven, he got up, took his mobile phone and keys, rode a bicycle back to his home in Shengshi Garden for lunch.

  Then, just before that, he will definitely come back this way.

  Between one and two o'clock, he would take a short nap in his bedroom - even if he couldn't sleep, he had to lie down and rest.

  After two o'clock, he woke up, washed his face, and carried his guitar downstairs.

  In the past few days, he spent three days riding a bicycle to circle around the urban area of Jinan Prefecture and made dense marks on a map of Jinan Prefecture that he had bought.

  He wants to go find a job.

  High-end bars and dance halls would definitely not be short of people, and those who could perform there were often singers or bands with a certain reputation in the local underground music circle. So Li Qian excluded those places from the beginning. The ones he chose were mostly some small bars and mid-to-high-end restaurants, especially Western restaurants.

  At two o'clock in the afternoon, when the sun was at its hottest, lunch had passed and dinner was still early, but it was just the right time for him to go for an interview.

  Today he is going to Xichun Road, Mingyuan Road and surrounding areas, where high-end restaurants are concentrated. On his map and notebook, there are more than 20 places that can be used for self-introduction and job application.

  More than two o'clock, he came to the first one. After entering the door, he found the front desk and then found the duty manager. He explained his intention, but the other party didn't hesitate at all and directly refused - their store already had someone singing, and the cooperation was quite good, so they didn't plan to invite anyone else. So Li Qian smiled and thanked them, leaving to go to another one.

  The second family also rejected him outright. They simply said they had never intended to hire a resident singer.

  It was the third store, and the duty manager was a woman who looked to be in her thirties, clearly sharp and capable. For some reason, she didn't say yes or no, but instead asked Li Qian to sing a song for her first. She even called over several waiters from the restaurant, and a few people from the kitchen came out to join in on the fun.

  As long as others are willing to listen, it's a good thing.

  Then Li Qian sang a song "Our Love" which had been prepared for them.

  This is a song by Cui Ming, not too big or small, not considered red but has some fame. Li Qian likes it very much, especially this one "Our Love" - the lyrics are about breaking up, but they don't feel sad at all, the words and melody are very open-minded, even with a bit of humor. Li Qian thinks that if this song is sung in a restaurant, even if it can't stimulate appetite, at least it will make people feel comfortable listening to it, and if some people can feel a little sentimental after hearing the song, then it's perfect!

  The song is great, his voice isn't exceptionally good, but it's not bad either. With the singing skills he has practiced for over a month recently, it's naturally a huge success.

  The manager on the other side was also very satisfied with what he heard, but her answer to Li Qian was that it was necessary to report and ask for instructions from above, and then she asked Li Qian how much salary he needed.

  This Li Qian is very casual, according to his words, lunch and dinner are both okay, the price is not picky either, just give whatever amount is fine, but he can only sing for an hour.

  He then left his phone number and promised to give him a call regardless of what decision was made above.

  Li Qian thanked him and then went out.

  This is a very normal thing, over the past two days, Li Qian has been going from house to house.

  Some people directly refused, some politely declined, and others even waved their hands to shoo him away. Of course, there were also a few restaurants willing to listen to his singing from start to finish. Throughout the process, Li Qian's mindset remained very calm.

  He just wants to find a place where he can sing in front of an audience, that's all.

  He then went to several restaurants and bars, most of which rejected him outright. However, one restaurant asked him to sing a song, so he sang a gentle and soothing folk song, but was interrupted halfway through by someone who seemed impatient. Li Qian didn't get angry, thanked them and left - he guessed that the manager might not have liked folk songs, but there was no way to know for sure, sometimes you just had to accept bad luck.

  Then, without knowing it was the ninth and tenth house, he got another chance to sing.

  The manager of this restaurant was also a woman in her thirties - after summarizing, Li Qian was surprised to find that he was more popular in front of the female manager.

  Then he sang a song "One Year One Withered Glory" by Zhou Fen for her in that manager's office.

  Zhou Dunyi's song is certainly sentimental and petty bourgeois enough.

  "Spring has arrived, so I sprouted."

  At that time, I didn't know about the rise and fall of things in the world.

  Just want to work hard to bloom a fragrant and beautiful flower.

  You came, so I loved.

  Under the fence on that early summer morning

  I am a fragrant and beautiful flower.

  ……”

  Li Qian still sings very well.

  As a singer, his age is there, his vocal cords are not yet fully stable, the low pitch is not enough to sink, but it's delicate enough, and when interpreting Zhou Xun's songs, although it can't be compared with the original singer, it has its own unique flavor.

  The manager on the other side was clearly very satisfied.

  So, surprisingly, the other side agreed to let Li Qian try singing for three days.

  Of course, no salary.

  Only after the trial singing ends and the other party decides to let him stay on as a singer will they give him the three days' wages.

  But Li Qian still agreed in one breath.

  However, after agreeing to try out for an hour every day from 7 to 8 pm, when he walked out of the store's door, he still walked towards the next one without hesitation.

  He won't stop until he finds at least one place where he can settle down for sure.

  In fact, although there is only a suitable time for self-recommendation from 2 to 5 pm, he has run to as many as 40 or 50 stores in the past two days. Although most of them were rejected, about six or seven households agreed to give him a callback.

  And today, he also walked through two streets in one breath, entering more than 20 wine houses and restaurants one after another, until it was past five o'clock before turning back home.

  Maybe tomorrow, he will go to two other streets not far away to continue looking for opportunities.

  Just on his way home, he suddenly received a call from Liao Liao.