Chapter 444 - Jin Liwei’s Fiancée
As the one singing with Iris, Jin Chonglin knew from the slightly detached look in her eyes that she was imagining another man standing beside her on stage right now. He had no doubt that it was his older brother, Jin Liwei, who was in her mind while singing. All the love and pa.s.sion she was expressing wasn"t for him but for his brother.
The thought suddenly depressed him, transforming his pa.s.sionate expression into a heartbroken one. It gave his singing an extra layer of deep emotion as he sung the next part solo.
"Smitten I had followed you around
Not expecting anything in return"
His hand subconsciously extended to Iris. It was already too late when he realized what he was doing. He was about to pretend that he was just gesturing his arm as part of his singing when Iris accepted his offered hand and held it. His heart skipped a beat.
As for Iris, she was just very into the performance. It felt natural at that moment to hold hands. Besides, she only treated Jin Chonglin as a brother-in-law, and in this situation, as a teammate working together towards the same goal of giving their best performance to the audience. She didn"t see anything wrong with holding his hand, especially since it was a love song they were singing together.
In addition to this, her entire mind was filled with only her darling. She knew that he was watching theperformance on TV at home. She also hoped that he could feel that she was singing the song to him. That was why she gave her best, expressing so much emotion in her singing. This love song was for him.
Her voice rose high in a light and effortless way, and then falling just as effortlessly as she sang the last two lines of her solo.
"But you always knew
So you gave me all I could ever want"
Then both Iris and Jin Chonglin sang the last notes together. Their voices melded into an almost perfect yin and yang harmony that also showcased their undeniable chemistry together as a duet.
"I got you~"
The song ended on a light, nostalgic note, just like the rainbow after a rainy day. It filled everyone with good vibes, but at the same time, there was a slight heart-wrenching feeling deep inside them.
It was the feeling of loving someone so much that it hurt. The happiness was so overwhelming that there was a covert fear of losing it.
This was the kind of feeling the audience were experiencing from the song, especially after noticing the heartbroken expression Jin Chonglin wore during the last part.
As soon as the music stopped completely, the audience"s full emotions burst out in an explosive tempest of applause. Of course, they gave the performance a standing ovation. They were cheering, screaming, clapping, whistling, crying and fainting.
The ones in a relations.h.i.+p felt like they were falling in love all over again with their significant others. The heartbroken ones either missed their exes or wanted to move on and find new love. The single ones wanted to fall in love, especially those who had never fallen before.
This was the kind of effect the song had on them. No, it wasn"t just the song by itself. This was the effect of watching Iris Long and Jin Chonglin"s heart-fluttering live performance of the song.
The two just looked so great together and performed with so much emotions that it was easy to believe that they were actually in love with each other. This was especially true from watching Jin Chonglin. The way he looked at Iris was exactly like that of a man completely head over heels in love with a woman. At least, that was how it appeared to people"s eyes.
"LINRIS! LINRIS!! LINRIS!!!"
The LinRis s.h.i.+ppers started to chant, and soon everyone was chanting along with them.
Jin Chonglin tightened his hold of Iris" hand and raised it up. They bowed together to their exultant fans and the rest of the cheering audience.
The applause only grew louder.
Afterwards, Iris loosened her hand but Jin Chonglin didn"t let her go. In fact, he even tightened his hold on her hand when she tried gently tugging it away. She knew several moves to force him to let go of her hand, but she obviously couldn"t do any of them in front of all of these people and on national television.
So in the most natural way possible while still maintaining her bright smile, she leaned close to him and without moving her lips too much to hinder any lip readers, she whispered to him.
"Brother Chonglin, release my hand now. Your older brother is watching us on TV tonight. You"re going to make him angry again. Stop teasing him like this. It"s not funny anymore."
He flashed his killer smile at her, arousing another wave of wild squealing from the audience. He squeezed her hand before finally letting it go.
Iris inwardly sighed in relief. It wasn"t that she was afraid of making Jin Liwei jealous. Of course, she didn"t want to make her darling jealous because she now knew what an ugly feeling jealousy felt like. She didn"t want any of them to experience it as much as possible.
Her rejection of Jin Chonglin"s touch was more of her body"s instinctive response against any man getting physically close to her who wasn"t Jin Liwei, and to a certain extent, her Big Brother Lu Zihao.
Despite this, Iris was committed to being a performer tonight. She stood beside Jin Chonglin and acted like they were close to each other. And indeed, to some degree, they were close to each other because they were future in-laws. They were basically family now.
The two hosts finally reached them. They sandwiched Iris and Jin Chonglin between them.
Female host: "Wow! What a sensational performance! My heart was fluttering the entire time I was watching you!"
Both Iris and Jin Chonglin thanked her.
The hosts focused their questions on their song "s.h.i.+ning Eyes" first. Since Iris was the one who wrote it, she answered most of the questions. Jin Chonglin just shared his experiences working with Iris and with the notorious hothead music producer, JJ.
Fortunately, these questions were over quickly. It seemed that the audience wasn"t the only ones who felt impatient. The hosts would"ve already asked the juiciest questions as soon as the interview started, if it weren"t that they were required to ask questions about the song first.
Male host: "Now let"s move on the most antic.i.p.ated part of the interview. The two of you have mentioned before that you"ll announce something important to everyone. The floor is yours."
The entire studio became quiet, as everyone leaned forward in antic.i.p.ation. They didn"t want to miss any word of the important announcement. The LinRis s.h.i.+ppers were trembling in excitement, their expressions hopeful.
Iris gestured for Jin Chonglin to make the announcement. He nodded.
"We have a very important announcement to make, so please listen very carefully," he began talking. "Junior Iris wrote "s.h.i.+ning Eyes" by herself. This is our first ever music collaboration but it is most definitely not our last. We have another collaboration coming up which we will release next month. This time, I wrote the song. We will release the teasers and previews in the next few days, so please look forward to them. Thank you very much for supporting "s.h.i.+ning Eyes". We hope that you"ll continue to support our next collab single again when we release it next month."
Jin Chonglin stopped speaking and lowered his mic. Iris nodded and continued to smile.
Everyone blinked several times and waited for him to say more, but he didn"t.
"Huh? That"s it?"
Female host: "Uh… Jin Chonglin, is that it?"
"Yes," he replied with a nod.
Iris tilted her head to the side, wondering why the atmosphere suddenly felt awkward. She had already tossed out the fans" earlier misunderstandings about her relations.h.i.+p with Jin Chonglin out of her mind. So she didn"t fully understand what was causing this awkward silence. Wanting to ease awkward atmosphere, she lifted her mic and spoke as well.
"Our next collab single will be very different from "s.h.i.+ning Eyes". It will be…hmm…s.e.xier."
Eyes lit up after hearing what she said.
"Oooooh!"
People started recovering from their earlier disappointment. Now they began to feel excited for this next music collaboration. However, they still felt unsatisfied by the interview.
The hosts were of the same mind as them.
Female host: "Jin Chonglin, Iris. Just to clarify everything once and for all, are the two of you in a romantic relations.h.i.+p? Is it true that you"re engaged?"
"No," Iris immediately answered. Her expression remained pleasant but her tone was firm. "I already said this many times before. I am engaged to another man who I love very much. In fact, my fiancé who is NOT Senior Jin Chonglin is my inspiration for writing "s.h.i.+ning Eyes"."
Throughout Iris" answer, Jin Chonglin didn"t say anything. He just maintained his smile.
The LinRis s.h.i.+ppers felt their dreams shatter right before their eyes. Some of them even started crying from heartbreak.
It was unfortunate that they already ran out of time. The hosts wanted to ask more, but they received directions from their earpieces to finish up the interview.
Everyone didn"t know exactly what to feel about the finale. The performance was amazing, but the interview was very anti-climactic. Sure, a new collab song was exciting but it wasn"t the announcement that many hoped for.
When the show officially ended, Iris and Jin Chonglin returned backstage. The staff and the other artists welcomed them with a warm round of applause and congratulations. Despite the anti-climactic interview, the two still gave the best performance of the night. They were the night"s bigshots, so everyone gave them the respect they were due.
Many of these people wanted to take pictures with both Jin Chonglin and Iris. Surprisingly, more asked Iris than Jin Chonglin this time. They were very curious about her. Jin Chonglin hovered around her, making sure that the males didn"t get too close. He was doing his "duty" as her senior.
Their managers, Tang Yiyi and Lin Dong, alongside a few of their bodyguards began to escort them back to their dressing rooms.
Along the hallway, Iris heard something with her great ears that made her stop in her tracks. Jin Chonglin and their entourage also stopped, confused at her sudden action. Then they saw her focusing her attention on a group of female idols gossiping among themselves in a corner. The girls were looking at something on their phones.
"So this is what CEO Jin Liwei"s fiancée looks like."
"Let me see. Oooh. She"s pretty."
"Yeah. She"s apparently a successful businesswoman. It seems like CEO Jin personally hired her to be a new executive at Jin Corporation. The two of them are a perfect match."
"Eh? She"s Singaporean?"
"Yup. Her name is Rose Young."