Chapter 40 (1/2)
Chapter 40 It's Not I Singing the Song—the Song Singing Me!
At Fang Qiu's words, Zhu Benzheng, Sun Hao, and Zhou Xiaotian actually felt relieved.
Based on their knowledge about Fang Qiu, he would never do anything he was not sure of.
”It was so when he came on stage during the blackout of the Mid-Autumn Festival gala.”
”So was the offhand performance at the Start-of-Term Ceremony!”
”This time it has to be the same!”
”Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen this song.”
Yesterday, after his roommates went back to the dormitory and heard Fang Qiu tell them the story of his unprepared show, they found themselves in a cold sweat.
And they all fell to their hands and knees in front of Fang Qiu, who was talented enough to have no fears.
”Fang Qiu already dared to take such a risky task and was confident about it.”
”This time it won't get any worse!”
At the Acupuncture Association.
Jiang Miaoyu's tightly furrowed brows loosened slightly at this time.
In the middle of the sports ground, Li Qingshi nodded at Fang Qiu, and then said, ”Now I'll leave the stage to student Fang.”
Then, he pointed out the staff at the side of the stage to Fang Qiu, implying that that man would take care of the music, before stepping off the stage.
Fang Qiu took a deep breath. With everyone's eyes locked on him, he raised the microphone.
”In fact, singing is not hard at all. Having a good voice and a basic sense of tone will do.”
Fang Qiu opened his mouth to speak.
Those words made the audience mystified.
”What is he doing?”
”He didn't sing but start to talk?”
Li Qingshi was perplexed as well.
”What's Fang Qiu getting at?”
”Actually, singing is also quite difficult, because you not only want to sing nicely but movingly. You want to strike the heartstrings of your audience and arouse resonance. That's rather difficult.”
Ignoring the others, Fang Qiu launched into a monologue. ”However, that isn't the hardest part. A bit of emotion and singing techniques will do.”
Saying so, Fang Qiu looked at Li Qingshi and went on with a smile, ”The most difficult part is to let the song sing you instead of you singing the song.”
”As Lu Xiangshan—a philosopher from the Southern Song Dynasty—once said, it's the Six Classics that interpret me, not the reverse. And so is singing.”
”When some people sing, they themselves are easily absorbed in the song, fully immersed in the conscious realm the song conceived.”
”Their singing might be beautiful.”
”But the song won't blend in them.”
”Nor will it blend in the audience. Thus, it's a pity.”
Every word Fang Qiu just said pounded on Li Qingshi's heart.
His face instantly darkened.
He knew Fang Qiu was saying those remarks to him, mocking him ignorant of the real singing art!
What annoyed him most was that he had heard the same theory from his vocal music teacher, so he could not retort.
But he did not believe that Fang Qiu could achieve it.
”To sing a song, one should not just sing it but let the song sing himself? Easy talking, but why don't you try it first!”
The crowd did not fully catch Fang Qiu's meaning. Jiang Miaoyu started to ponder over Fang Qiu's remarks, feeling it quite abstruse, unable to grasp the gist for the time being.
Especially for the saying of Lu Xiangshan, she never heard of it before.
With the crowding gazing at him blankly, Fang Qiu nodded at the staff.
The staff caught his hint and made an ”OK” gesture, and then played the music.
As the music sounded, everyone braced themselves up—they were eager to see how on earth Fang Qiu's singing could differ from Li Qingshi's.
However, the moment the music fluttered out, Fang Qiu's temperament suddenly altered, rendering him a more energetic and sanguine young man.
”I want,
You to stay by my side.
I want,
To watch you do your makeup.
Here arrived the evening breeze,
Which tickled my heart, oh, my girl,
I'm far from home, staring at the moon.
…”
As he opened his mouth to sing, all the audience were amazed. They gaped at Fang Qiu in shock.
The song was still the same song, and the melody was still the same melody.
But it made them feel that Fang Qiu was not just singing.
He was confiding in all of them.
He was not singing. Instead, he was talking!
This discovery made many people speechless. ”Could someone possibly sing like this?”
”But it does sound fantastic.”
”At least it has more earnest emotion than Li Qingshi's purely beautiful version.”
”Gift you, this beautiful dress.
Watch you, put on makeup before the mirror.
The night is so tense,
Time goes so slow, oh, my girl.
Where are you, watching the sunrise.
……”
When he finished this part, everyone was stupified.
Including Li Qingshi!
Through Li Qingshi's singing, all the people knew this was a song expressing a man's longing for his beloved girl while he was far away from his hometown.
But now.
Fang Qiu even conveyed a youth's expectations and yearning for the love to come.
With just the same song, the same tune, Fang Qiu expressed a whole different feeling.
Stunned!
Everyone was truly stunned.
They just had to say it was beautiful!
Jiang Miaoyu stared at Fang Qiu in astonishment. She seemed to have gripped the meaning of Fang Qiu's previous remarks.
”One should sing a song that suits his age.”
”One should sing a song that suits his mood!”
”Apparently, the man in this song had endured much more which we, the youth, have not yet experienced.”
”The sentiment of witnessing vicissitudes is something we can't understand.”
”We can only imagine it, try to imitate it.”
”Thus, though Li Qingshi had the flawless singing skills, there is one crucial problem in his singing—he can only pretend he has all the feelings!”
”He hopes to express such feelings that should not belong to a boy at his age in the first place.”
”So it is impossible!”
”Accordingly, the audience only found his singing sad and beautiful. Some sentimental people would even feel it touching. However, most of them merely thought it a nice song.”
”But Fang Qiu's is different.”
”He communicates the yearning and pursuit for love that is natural for their ages.”
”Well, this is just like what he said. It's not he singing the song, it's the song singing him!”
”Awesome!”
”Freaking awesome!”
At this moment, Jiang Miaoyu had a high opinion of Fang Qiu.
At first, she only thought Fang Qiu was merely good at singing, but she never expected his singing to be at such a high level.
Li Qingshi also considered all this, his eyes rounded in disbelief.
He could not bring himself to believe that Fang Qiu's singing truly reached the phase that his vocal music teacher had been pursuing!
Nor could he pluck the courage to acknowledge that someone younger than him was also more talented than him in singing!
He could not believe it. He would not believe it!
He told himself all this was an illusion.
”Right, it's an illusion!”
He needed to hear the whole thing to see whether Fang Qiu was truly competent and well-trained!
He wanted to verify with his own eyes that Fang Qiu was just bragging!
”It is the night to blame, which is wildly stirring.
It is the guitar to blame, which sounds too gloomy.
Oh, I want to sing,
And miss you silently, my girl.
Where are you, watching the sunrise.
…”