Amid the flood of comments on the screen, the background music finally switched to "Exhausting the World."
The moment he sang the first word, it was already the climax of the entire song:
"A painting of rivers and mountains stained with blood, how could it compare to the cinnabar dot between your brows? Even if the world is overturned, it remains nothing more than a fleeting splendor—"
Rivers and mountains stained with blood, yet still no match for a single glance from a beauty.
Rivers and mountains, or the beauty?
The beauty, or the rivers and mountains?
His high notes blended seamlessly into the background music, effortlessly conveying the imperial aura of one who scorns the ten directions and gazes down upon the vast landscape.
Gu Sheng listened, hardly daring to breathe. All her senses were captivated by his voice, instantly plunging her into this sorrowful tale. Soon, his voice alone merged with the other three.
Qiang Qingci's high notes and gradually clear voice, combined with the harmonies of the other two...
It was simply too perfect!
With these four, with these four magnificent voices, they truly exhausted the world...
As the song neared its end, at the very last moment, all the voices suddenly ceased.
Gu Sheng was stunned for two seconds.
Suddenly, the background music reappeared.
The abrupt silence, followed by the sudden resurgence of the climactic music, seized everyone's hearts.
His voice finally returned, bringing the perfect conclusion to "Exhausting the World":
"In the dream, under the moon atop the tower, stands you with brows and eyes unchanged. Brushing the snowflakes from your clothes, we stand side by side, gazing upon the vastness of heaven and earth—"
Standing side by side... gazing upon the vastness of heaven and earth.
She suddenly recalled that day in the recording studio, when he stood beside her. Those eyes, dark as ink, so beautiful they took her breath away...
"I can't take it anymore," Die Die spoke into the microphone again, her voice clearly excited. "Dou Bing, let's swap. I'll trade my Fusheng Wumeng for your top talent? No, I'll add W too. Two for one, how about that?"
"That would be such a loss," Dou Dou Dou Bing chuckled. "Die Die, why don't you just quit your club and join our Perfect?"
Alright...
Even she was used to it.
The top talent was always the subject of teasing.
...
Qiang Qingci, however, remained silent, and his microphone stayed dark. Gu Sheng noticed this and found it strange... She sent him a private message: Are you busy?
Qiang Qingci: Yes. I'll be logging off soon, there are some things to take care of.
Sheng Sheng Man: Then go ahead quickly ^^
Qiang Qingci: Play on your own for a while. I'll call you when I'm done.
Call...
(⊙v⊙) Hmm, a call... Alright, having only been his girlfriend for a few hours, she still needed to cultivate the right mindset. Gu Sheng quickly sent a smiling emoji.
Then she saw the top talent leave a message on the public screen: Something came up, I have to go. Goodbye for now, everyone.
The people on the microphone were teasing him enthusiastically, but the main character had already run off.
"This top talent really did 'exhaust the world' with one song... and then ran off without taking responsibility~" Fusheng Wumeng immediately laughed.
Fortunately, with so many beauties present tonight, they could easily carry the late-night session.
Seeing that he had left, Gu Sheng consciously exited the room as well.
With nothing to do, she somehow wandered onto Weibo. Ever since that time she expressed how "happy" she was and was surrounded by the masses, she had developed a psychological shadow and hadn't posted anything since...Thinking back to when she first became familiar with the top talent, she had also worried about being targeted or exposed. Later, she realized that she rarely appeared in the two-dimensional world, and on the rare occasions she did, it was only to share her own compositions or songs she had sung. There shouldn’t be much to criticize... Besides, the Ancient Style Music Circle started relatively late and was a small community. Even if there was gossip, it was usually focused on well-known figures, not a small-time composer and singer like her.
...
She should... be safe for now, right? T.T...
That night, she slept until around six in the morning when she vaguely heard the sound of a WeChat notification on her phone. At first, she thought it was part of a dream, but when she checked in the morning, she realized it was a message from Mo Qingcheng: "Finished work. It’s too late to call you. Sweet dreams, or rather, good morning."
Her eyes half-open, she stared at the message.
After a moment, she buried her face in the pillow and silently laughed.
Just that one minute happened to be noticed by Geng Xiaoxing, who was passing by her bed while drying her wet hair with a towel. Geng Xiaoxing’s eyes lit up as she immediately called her out: "Oh my, are you lovesick... Wait, no, you’re missing the top talent, aren’t you?"
A pillow was successfully thrown down at her.
Clutching another pillow, she climbed out of bed, unable to hide her good mood.
She couldn’t explain why, but she just felt like laughing... The sun today was so round and beautiful...
Since both she and Geng Xiaoxing had been recommended for graduate studies, they were naturally assigned by their department this semester to help organize the department’s library. The library had been funded by the department head and was scheduled to open next semester, so this term was mainly about sorting and organizing, with no outsiders involved.
Thus, the two of them spent their days on the top floor of the department building, working alongside four other male students who had also been recommended for graduate studies. In pairs, they continuously used iPads to check and verify the books on each shelf.
They worked from sunrise to sunset.
Mo Qingcheng was already working, while she was still in school. From this perspective, it seemed like nothing had really changed in her life because of their relationship.
But... it had only been three days. What changes could there be?
Oh no, Gu Sheng, you’re spacing out again.
T.T...
She glanced discreetly at Geng Xiaoxing, wanting to ask her where they had left off in the inventory. But clearly, Geng Xiaoxing was also slacking off, engrossed in flipping through a book: "Our department is so open-minded—they even have a section for youth novels..." Geng Xiaoxing pursed her lips, standing on a small ladder with her eyes fixed on the book. "I’ve read the completed version of this online, but there’s a new extra chapter here. Wait for me to finish reading, then we’ll go for lunch."
She was so hungry she felt like she was about to faint, and here was this person on the ladder wanting to read the new extra chapter of a romance novel...
On the verge of tears, she closed the data document and logged into her QQ on the iPad to check her emails and see how many compositions and raw audio files she still needed to finish. Unexpectedly, the first message she saw was from Zoudiao’er: "Little Patron, are you okay?"
Why such a strange question?
"I’m fine, why? Do you want to switch shifts with me on YY Voice Chat?"
"╮(╯▽╰)╭, I noticed you haven’t posted on Weibo, so I thought you might have been affected by the posts."
"Huh?"
"╮(╯▽╰)╭, tall trees catch the wind. As the Little Patron of the top talent, it’s absolutely unscientific if you’re not thrown into the frying pan a few times. So... hang in there, Sheng Sheng Man."
"Huh?" She had a bad feeling about this.Sure enough, Zoudiao'er quickly copied and pasted a comment.
It was entirely aimed at the songs she had arranged when she first entered the circle, with harsh wording that criticized them as utterly worthless... It was very professional, so professional that it made her feel ashamed. But the sarcasm laced with barbs in the words was also very obvious. Indeed... was it still having an impact?
Gu Sheng leaned against the bookshelf, watching as Zoudiao'er kept pasting over the comments.
This circle was small, and the songs that could become famous mostly had strong lineups, from the arrangement to the singers. So, for the songs she had worked on in the past, getting two or three hundred reposts at most was considered a very good result. Since the songs weren’t popular, naturally, there wouldn’t be such professional people analyzing them...
Seeing her own "child" thrown into a frying pan to be fried—it was impossible not to feel upset.
She watched silently, not even noticing when Geng Xiaoxing came down from the ladder.
"What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?" Geng Xiaoxing noticed her pale expression.
"Huh?" Gu Sheng closed QQ and let out a soft sigh. "No, I’m just hungry."
Let’s eat, let’s eat.
Eating your fill can solve all worries!
She looked at Geng Xiaoxing. "You’re treating me to a meal. I’m starving. I want minced pork with vermicelli in a clay pot!"
"Ah?" Geng Xiaoxing couldn’t keep up with her sudden shift in mood and made what she thought was a reasonable guess. "Did you have a fight with the Top talent, the one who’s drop-dead gorgeous?" "..." Gu Sheng was about to say they hadn’t even met, so what was there to fight about, when her phone in her pants pocket rang.
It was the Top talent...
She shushed Geng Xiaoxing, grabbed her phone, and ran to the window to answer it.
"I’m home," Mo Qingcheng’s voice came through, not very clear and sounding hoarse. "I might need to sleep a bit longer, probably about two hours, then I’ll call you again."
"Are you... sick?" His voice made her inexplicably worried.
"Yeah," his voice faded in and out, as if the phone was moving around. "Laryngitis, and I might have a bit of a fever."
"A fever? Did you take your temperature?"
"Yeah."
And then... it went quiet.
Those two responses of "yeah" sounded weary and exhausted, and to her ears, they added a sense of unease, a pang of heartache... and a bit of impatience. She didn’t dare keep pressing him, afraid it would hurt his throat, but she also didn’t know how high his "bit of a fever" actually was... Seriously, shouldn’t a doctor take better care of themselves? T.T...
"I’ll sleep for two hours, then call you again." Mo Qingcheng’s voice was truly hoarse beyond belief, raspy, grinding against her heart, yet he still remembered to repeat when he’d contact her again.
She felt... her heart was being ground to pieces...
The call ended.
Geng Xiaoxing walked over, noticing Gu Sheng’s expression shift from the earlier despondence and sadness to now... seeming anxious? Did they really have a fight? Before she could even ask, Gu Sheng shoved the iPad into her hands. "I’m not coming this afternoon. If the teacher asks, just say I have a stomachache..."
"Ah?"
Gu Sheng grabbed her phone and ran toward the elevator.
"Weren’t you... going to eat... minced pork with vermicelli in a clay pot..."
Geng Xiaoxing couldn’t keep up with her pace at all, watching as she disappeared just like that...
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