Chapter 2: To Youth

Autumn in Paris is very long.

The clear summer sky is slowly covered by white clouds in the breeze, and before you know it, the blue sky and white clouds characteristic of autumn become the main theme.

Those clouds drifted through the center of the sky at a speed visible to the naked eye, suddenly blocking the sun and suddenly spilling those golden rays through the gaps, so that the whole city was enveloped in a seemingly magical change of light and shadow.

Jiang Bai came out of the 9th bridge subway station, humming a French song he had just learned today, and walked along the familiar road to the bar at No. 6 Little Jasmine Road.

Ever since he learned the French version of "Blue Lotus" in the Sino-French salon, he had been hooked on the feeling of singing in French.

God gave the most beautiful writing to the Chinese, the most beautiful pronunciation to the Italians, and the most beautiful song to the French.

Jiang Bai no longer remembered where he saw this phrase. At first he didn't think so, only that Chinese was unparalleled in every way. It wasn't until he heard a heartfelt confession in an Italian movie and watched "Les Choristes" that he had to admit that there was indeed a reason for this saying.

He now especially finds it a pleasure to sing in French.

As those gentle currents of air swirled at the base of his tongue, as he tightened the muscles of his cheeks, curled his lips and lightly exhaled that one syllable, he could feel as if he was kissing the genie of music.

Jiang Bai walked all the way to the bar humming lightly.

He arrived a little late today, and the bar was already full of people who had come to the salon. Jiang Bai bought a glass of aloe vera wine at the bar and walked inside with his book bag.

Ya Bu looked up from the deepest booth of the bar and waved to him.

At that moment, another person pushed in the door, triggering a roar in the room.

The French guy who had just entered the bar was holding a large bouquet of roses, smiling brightly, and walking straight to a round table where the girls were sitting.

The girls immediately rose to the occasion and gave way to a blonde girl in the middle.

The French guy handed over the roses: "Happy birthday, Leina!"

The girl named Leina took the rose, went up to the guy and kissed him on the mouth, smiling: "Thank you! I'm so happy!"

Chen Lijie had the good sense to serve two glasses of pink sparkling wine to congratulate Leina on her birthday.

Jiang Bai sat down across from Ya Bu and asked with a smile, "In France, is it also possible to send roses for birthdays?"

"Roses can be sent anytime, as long as the other party likes them." Ya Bu replied.

"I thought roses were only for Valentine's Day." Jiang Bai shrugged his shoulders.

Ya Bu shook his head and laughed: "Actually, roses bloom in the summer, and only the blazing sunlight can make them bloom so enthusiastically. I prefer red roses blooming on the branches rather than in bouquets, for their aroma is as intoxicating as the sweetest wine…"

Jiang Bai blinked somewhat blankly after listening to this passage.

He didn't fully understand.

Ya Bu obviously realized this as well, gave a low laugh, and simply said, "Roses are beautiful, and I like them."

"Hey! Ya Bu! My girlfriend wants to hear you sing!"

Someone suddenly called out loudly to Ya Bu, Jiang Bai looked back, it was the kid who just gave roses to his girlfriend.

"As a birthday present, this request is not too much, right?" He put his arm around Leina's shoulder and said in a loud voice, and a few Frenchmen on the side immediately started to coax him.

Ya Bu leaned back in his chair behind him and lazily said, "I have not sung for a long time… let my student sing a song for you guys instead as our birthday gift to Leina together!"

After saying that, he carried out his own guitar from the back of the booth and stuffed it into Jiang Bai's hand.

"If you don't mind, go sing them a song called 'Leina's Lavender' and I'll buy you a drink when you get back!" Ya Bu said, winking quickly at Jiang Bai.

Jiang Bai carried the guitar a little helplessly, but the other person’s words have been said, and he is not so pretentious, as a favor to friends is no big deal.

He picked up the guitar and said, "I want to drink golden champagne!" Turning around, he went on stage.

Leina's Lavender is actually the French version of To Youth, adapted by Fred's band. After learning the French version of "Blue Lotus" last time, Ya Bu taught Jiang Bai this song again.

Naturally, in return, Jiang Bai also taught Ya Bu to sing the Chinese version of the original song.

Jiang Bai sat on a chair on the stage and gently plucked the strings with his fingers. After a warm and soft intro, he slowly opened his mouth and sang.

The sun-splashed cottage, a cinnamon fragrance brushed through the drums inside the house, and Leina, whose naked belly sweetly slept.

In her dream, lavenders bloomed everywhere.

She wore a small dress with lace, and the green river Earl flowed around her like light time.

She walked down every path, seeing miracles at every step.

As the sea of purple flowers sprang up with all their might toward the sun, her heart suddenly filled with courage.

She searched with wide eyes as she was surrounded by bees, then cut the purple flower she liked best and brought it home…

This story about a beautiful dream is simple and gentle, without the faint sadness hidden under the passionate youth of the Chinese version of "To Youth", which hides the warmth of youth.

When Jiang Bai sang the line "Every step you take, you can see a miracle", his gaze was slightly fixed at Ya Bu who was sitting in the far corner.

Ya Bu was sitting lazily on the sofa, but there was a pair of eyes staring at him intently, as if there was something surging in his eyes that will soon be suppressed and will spill out in the next second.

Jiang Bai's heart was racing from that gaze, but he did not look away, and boldly stared at Ya Bu across almost the entire bar, the corners of his mouth unconsciously raised, and poured all his feelings into the song:

　　"When the purple sea of flowers came to the sun with all its strength, her heart suddenly full of courage—"

Ya Bu abruptly got up, separated the crowd who were intoxicated by Jiang Bai's song, walked up to the stage and took the microphone from Jiang Bai's hand.

　　"A good day, a beautiful day, a sweet day, for whom toil and for whom to sweeten—"

When the audience on stage saw Ya Bu come on stage and open his mouth to sing in Chinese, they immediately whistled and applauded wildly.

Jiang Bai lowered his head, strummed the strings of his guitar, and continued to set the music for Ya Bu.

After singing, Ya Bu put down the microphone and walked off the stage with Jiang Bai. The audience around almost went crazy, yelling one after another for the two to do another song.

Ya Bu winked at Chen Lijie, who got up and announced that the time was up and the Sino-French salon would start soon.

Jiang Bai was taken by the wrist to the corner booth by Ya Bu, and someone immediately came up to chat with them. After a while, Chen Lijie brought a glass of golden champagne and placed it in front of Jiang Bai, and then sat beside him, before the "miscellaneous people" left one by one.

"I was just kidding, you really have golden champagne here?" Jiang Bai looked at the champagne on the table, and didn't know whether he would laugh or cry.

"It's time to speak in French." Chen Lijie said squarely. After that, he changed his Chinese and hugged Jiang Bai's neck and teased him. "Since my brother ordered it, even if the store does not have it, I can get you one! Hey, why don't you come to our bar to sing? There are enough golden champagne for you!"

Jiang Bai snickered and pushed Chen Lijie away from his body.

"Lijie, get me a glass of Gibson." Ya Bu suddenly spoke.

Chen Lijie was ordered to leave his seat immediately and went to the bar, leaving Jiang Bai and Ya Bu alone in the booth.

"Why did you suddenly go up to sing again just now, didn't you say you don't want to sing?" Jiang Bai casually found a topic.

Ya Bu stared into Jiang Bai's eyes for a long time and laughed out, "A girl asked for a rose from Leina just now."

He seemed to be talking about something else, and Jiang Bai was a little puzzled by what he heard.

"I guess she wanted to give it to you." Ya Bu added.

Jiang Bai felt incredulous: "Really? I sing that well?"

Ya Bu reached out to ruffle Jiang Bai's bangs and laughed: "Your singing voice is so beautiful… that I'm starting to get jealous."

This action brought up a slight breeze that rolled along with the smell of the oriental woody toned perfume on Ya Bu's body and went into Jiang Bai's nostrils. Jiang Bai's hand holding the champagne glass shook and almost spilled the liquid. He immediately took a sip with his head down covertly, and began to organize in his mind how to respond to this flirtation in French.　

He was now convinced by the look he had seen on stage that Ya Bu was indeed, as he had suspected, of the same thoughts as him and should also like him.

At least, he likes the skin and this voice of his.

Before Jiang Bai could find the right words, Ya Bu spoke again, "Any children?"

In French, the direct translation of male and female friends is "children", because the noun is divided into the feminine and masculine, which has the difference between men and women. But the word "friend"(French: ami/amie) starts with a vowel and ends with a vowel, with the word "little" in front of it, and the feminine and masculine versions can only be seen when it is written out. So just from the pronunciation, saying the word "boyfriend" or "girlfriend" is enough. (Note1) *see the author’s note at the end of the chapter

Jiang Bai knew that this was a test, so he clearly added a distinction to the "little friend" and replied: "I once had a boyfriend, but we’ve separated long ago."

Ya Bu's laugh came immediately, with an almost imperceptible feeling of relaxation. His whole person also looked less tense, casually leaning back on the soft seat of the booth and staring at Jiang Bai somewhat playfully.

"And you?" Jiang Bai asked.

He was now trying to suppress his heartbeat that was about to take flight, but it didn't seem to have too good results.

"I had one once, but now I'm single."

Ya Bu replied with a smile, but avoided mentioning the gender of his former lover, giving Jiang Bai a feeling of having been deliberately flirted on— the other party must have been waiting for him to ask.

So he met Ya Bu: "Is it a boyfriend?"

Ya Bu laughed out loud again, nodded and teased, "You're quite perceptive."

After saying that, he swept Jiang Bai a glance a few more times, and mischievously struck ar the moment he lifted his cup to drink and asked, "Ever had sex?"

Jiang Bai was so surprised that he almost spit out a mouthful of wine. He tried to keep his cool, but he still choked on the liquor in his nose, and instantly, his face turned red, tears came out of his eyes, and he coughed quite heartbreakingly.

Chen Lijie came over with a cocktail glass at this time, handed the Gibson to Ya Bu, and reached out to pat Jiang Bai's back.

"What's wrong? Don't be so anxious, I've said as long as you come here to sing, there’d be enough golden champagne!"

Jiang Bai laughed and reached out and pulled a tissue to wipe his tears.

Ya Bu raised his eyebrow on Chen Lijie, whose eyes then turned between the two and immediately walked away.

Jiang Bai looked at Ya Bu and saw from the other party's expression that he did not give up waiting for the answer to the question just now.

This kind of sexual innuendo gave Jiang Bai the courage to go all out, so he licked his lips and said, "hands and mouth, nothing else."

Sure enough, the next second Ya Bu came forward and whispered in his ear and asked, "Want to try something else?"

This was too exciting!

Jiang Bai's heart began to beat violently, and he resisted the urge to move backwards, forcing his legs to fold up naturally to hide the changes in his body that he couldn't control. He could feel his face heating up and a rush of excitement running from his tailbone straight up to his scalp, almost dizzying.

Ya Bu still maintained his leaning forward posture, his amazingly blue eyes reflecting the dim but dazzling lights of the bar, simply mesmerizing.

Jiang Bai almost opened his mouth to impulsively say yes.

But he still controlled himself.

When he chose to study in France, he had daydreamed of developing an exotic relationship. Now suddenly there was such an opportunity in front of him, or such a bold and direct invitation, but Jiang Bai felt the danger.

What he wanted was an exotic love affair, not an exotic one-night stand.

Although with Ya Bu's appearance and poise, even if there was only one night of warmth between the two, Jiang Bai would feel that he was favored by Lady Luck. But right now, he wanted to fight for something more and longer than one night.

"It is a little sudden." He took a sip of his wine and said, "I don't know. I'll have to think about it."

Ya Bu laughed out loud, leaned back into his chair back, raised his chin and said, "Then take down my cell phone number, this doesn't need to be thought about, does it?"

"No, no, I can write it down now." Jiang Bai immediately took out his cell phone.

Ya Bu raised his eyebrows, taking care of Jiang Bai's hearing to slow down his speech to report the numbers: "0, 6, 49, 27, 33…"

Jiang Bai inputs two digits according to his words.

Ya Bu began to recite the last set of numbers: "four…"

Jiang Bai typed "four".

"…twenty…"

Jiang Bai deleted the "four" and replaced it with "eight".

"…and eighteen."

Jiang Bai went crazy: "Oh! Ninety-eight!" (Note2)

He deleted "eight" again and entered the last two digits of the phone number: nine and eight.

When he looked up again, he clearly saw a teasing smile flashing n Ya Bu's eyes.

“You're talking so slowly on purpose!" Jiang Bai said angrily.

Ya Bu laughed loudly and apologized, "Sorry, because Lijie always used to complain to me about the number composition in French, I just wanted to tease you, no offense!"

Jiang Bai finally couldn't stop himself from laughing and cursed, "Yes! The number composition of French is simply retarded!"

The atmosphere was lightened by Ya Bu's joke, and neither of them brought up the highly suggestive conversation just now. Jiang Bai called Ya Bu on his cell phone and asked him to save his number.

Near the end of this day's Sino-French Salon, Chen Lijie suddenly jumped onto the stage and announced the theme activities for next month's Salon.

"Next month we will hold a concert in the salon, everyone is welcome to come on stage and sing their favorite songs, but there is a prerequisite that Chinese people must sing French songs and French people must sing Chinese songs. Anyone who wants to sign up, remember to report your chosen songs to me during the next few salon events, so I can find the soundtrack, but of course we also welcome your own soundtrack too!"

Immediately, someone on the floor asked, "Will Ya Bu and Jiang Bai sing?"

Chen Lijie swept a glance at the corner of the bar, laughing: "Sing, they must sing! And it will be the grand finale of the concert!"

A chorus of whistles and cheers rang out all around.

Ya Bu shook his head with a smile and whispered to Jiang Bai: "Li Jie did it on purpose, he keeps trying to get me back on stage again!"

Jiang Bai smiled, "I think this event is quite good, it just so happens that I have a French song that I want to learn."

Ya Bu raised his eyebrows.

Jiang Bai sent an invitation to him, "How about singing it together?"

The author has something to say:

Note 1: French boyfriend: petit ami, French girlfriend: petite amie, the middle t and a to be pronounced together, read out pronunciation is exactly the same.

Note 2: I believe that numbers are a groove that everyone who learns French has to go through (laughs). French numbers from 10 to 60 are normal word count, but 70 has to be expressed as "60 + 10", then 80 is even more excessive, was expressed as "4x20", 90 is "4x20 + 10 "...... take the opportunity to write the article to spit out the snake French.

-The French version of "To Youth": 弗雷德乐队·《Les lavandes de Leina》

TL Note:

弗雷德乐队 is basically Fred’s Band

Listen here for the original version of To Youth, and Listen here for the French version, Leina's Lavenders~ You can also listen to them on the TLSWST Playlist I made on YouTube, which compiles all the songs mentioned in the story.

Les Choristes, or 放牛班的春天 in Chinese and The Chorus in English, is a French musical film directed by Christophe Barratier. You can watch it on Netflix, and you can listen to the soundtrack on Spotify here. I also found a video on Youtube of “The Chorus In Concert” which you can watch here.

In author's Note2, I can definitely agree with Jiang Bai here. I took a French class once, and I really struggled with the number system.