Chapter 103: Diaochan Is Riding Her Horse On The Way
“Scenic area? Singing?”
As the program’s continued fermentation persisted, the Maodie account’s fan count reached 200,000. Qi Luo An opened the short video app originally intending to manage it a bit, but instead saw the trending search about Yu Wei.
Short video trending searches update very quickly, and unlike Weibo trending searches which can be directly bought, they are very authoritative in terms of real-time popularity.
Qi Luo An hurriedly clicked into the related entry, then saw Yu Wei wearing tour guide clothes sitting there holding a guitar…
This blind box draw got tour guide?
There were many videos under the related entry, obviously all shot by on-site tourists. She casually picked one with a good angle to open it, wanting to understand the on-site situation.
The crowd gathered and dispersed like tides, ultimately forming a loose circle. At the center, Yu Wei held the old wooden guitar and strummed the prelude.
His fingertips slid over the strings, and a series of metallic arpeggios suddenly rang out.
Qi Luo An was very unfamiliar with this melody. As expected, it was another new song that appeared in the novel but hadn’t been sung yet—only “Blue Lotus” and “I’m as Free as the Wind” remained.
She felt it was probably the latter, because “Blue Lotus” was both a piece Yu Wei had battled Meng Han with and one of the works that appeared in the movie, so there was no need to casually bring it out.
The song’s prelude lasted as long as forty seconds, a style rare in Yu Wei’s works. Those who didn’t know might think he wanted to show off his guitar technique.
“I’m as free as the wind
Just like your tenderness cannot be retained.”
Yu Wei’s voice was not clear and bright, even carrying a gravelly roughness, as if repeatedly eroded by the drifting journey.
When the first line of lyrics burst forth, his strumming rhythm suddenly intensified, his right wrist moving up and down with an almost stubborn force, all six strings vibrating simultaneously, emitting a roar like waves crashing on the shore.
This line of lyrics confirmed Qi Luo An’s guess, but Yu Wei’s slightly rugged singing style today was also the first time she heard it.
AI will have new material…
The navy clothes paired with dark trousers looked very mature, but it was precisely this maturity that added a wild vitality to his singing.
The breeze disordered the hair falling over his forehead, revealing slightly furrowed brows and tightly closed eyes, as if he was alone savoring the “all the vicissitudes, borne alone” isolation in the lyrics.
Qi Luo An subconsciously began to imagine: when he practiced this song alone, did he also repeatedly adjust the curve of his mouth in front of the mirror to make this vulnerability and stubbornness so seamlessly integrated?
Actually, it was because someone on-site turned on the flash…
Before the chorus arrived, Yu Wei’s fingers quickly switched, transitioning from strumming to a rapid arpeggio fingerstyle. The guitar sound was like jade fragments falling on a plate, urgently paving the way for the explosion of emotion.
“I give you tenderness but you refuse to accept
I give you hands’ real feelings
I give you freedom and lasting memories
I give you everything but cannot stay.”
The singing voice suddenly rose sharply, tearing through the camera shot, carrying an almost painful frankness. Every “give” was squeezed out from deep in the chest cavity, making Qi Luo An’s scalp tingle.
She subconsciously imitated Yu Wei’s strumming gesture and played an air guitar, her fingertips quietly sliding along the edge of her skirt. The faint sound of fabric friction became her personal secret chord.
Why does it feel like every time I watch Yu Wei sing, I do this…
She must pay this fee for watching the video.
Qi Luo An adjusted her mindset and continued listening. Because it was an on-site performance, Yu Wei didn’t just sing a simple demo but properly sang the entire song.
During the interlude, Yu Wei lowered his head, his left hand moving rapidly on the fretboard, playing a low, almost whimpering melody line. At this moment, the guitar sound was no longer mere accompaniment; it became the wind itself.
But not a breeze, rather a homeless, rootless wind of freedom howling past.
The ending note of the final “freedom” had not yet dissipated when Yu Wei’s right palm root suddenly pressed down on all the strings. The music abruptly stopped, leaving only the blankness of the scenic area background noise.
He opened his eyes and let out a long breath. The video abruptly ended. Qi Luo An felt a bit unsatisfied and switched to another video to watch it again.
The second video had a different angle, and she also discovered more details, like the sweat at Yu Wei’s temples during the performance and the damp fabric on his back.
On such a hot day, it must have been tough for him…
Qi Luo An glanced sympathetically at Yu Wei. Just as she was about to close the video, a girl in ancient-style plain shirt and skirt appeared in the background corner.
Her finger suddenly froze. This figure was too familiar; even in a fleeting camera shot, she wouldn’t mistake her.
Qi Luo An abruptly sat up straight, dragging the progress bar back three seconds to carefully observe Shen Yutong’s expression. In the video, she kept looking in Yu Wei’s direction, her gaze smiling.
“Not good.”
…
The performance at Bianliang Yimeng Theater was an acrobatics piece depicting Zhang Zeduan’s creative process. Yu Wei watched the silk aerial dancers flipping in the air and, amid the shock, thought of one thing.
Acrobatics is also entertainment art. If he wrote it into the novel, could he learn it?
Seems not very meaningful…
Try it later when there’s nothing good to write. Then he can go to the circus and grab work from the monkeys, crushing them.
After Yu Wei finished singing, the seven members of the small group had fully recognized him as this tour guide. Though his guiding wasn’t great, he maxed out the emotional value.
As for those short videos leaked from the site, they had been standing right next to Yu Wei, so they at least got a participation award, which other tourists couldn’t do.
As for the scenic area explanation, they could freeload…
“The wind in your
Taking advantage of the performance ending, the neighboring Shen Yutong asked Yu Wei a question about song creation.
To facilitate filming by the program team, their seats were placed in the falling flower special effects area in the front row of the theater. Yu Wei hadn’t expected her to ask this, but he still explained it seriously in a few sentences.
This kind of freedom is not an active choice, but a passive response to “gentleness unable to retain,” implying the helplessness of “forced freedom.”
Serious singer-songwriters all have their emphases; some value lyrics, some value melody, like Shen Yutong who values lyrics.
Yu Wei checked Shen Yutong’s resume on the bus: child star debut, learned in a chorus group as a child, but always lukewarm.
She re-entered the public vision two years ago, participating in a talent show variety with several high-quality originals, plus solid singing skill, directly winning the champion and becoming an A-list singer.
Shen Yutong is that kind of pure musician; since becoming popular again from the talent show, she hasn’t been on any variety shows, and Music Blind Box is her reality show debut.
Her lyric-writing attainment is very high. Yu Wei listened to a few in his spare time: poetic narrative and delicate language, mostly in the style of Red Bean, so she particularly likes this song.
“I feel like you in this song have three identities: sober person, bearer, and fareweller. What are the spiritual portraits of these identities?”
Such an abstract question… It can only be said that it’s good he has complete mastery; if it were an ordinary plagiarist, they couldn’t even handle her words.
“The wandering wanderer theme symbolizes spiritual rootlessness; bearing emphasizes the individual’s complete acceptance of destiny; the sober farewell highlights the interweaving of self-respect and pain.”
Xu Wei’s music style is unique, his lyrics profound and restrained, savoring them does have flavor, so it’s normal for Shen Yutong to be interested.
Previously, when Yu Wei watched those character exclusive interviews, he would think, hey, what would the entertainment protagonist do when encountering a music exclusive interview? They can’t reach the global top without even having an exclusive interview, right.
Luckily his cheat skill is a cut above…
After the performance ended, it was lunch break time. Normally, the tour guide should take the tourists to taste gourmet food at the scenic area, but Yu Wei really doesn’t like this.
Anyway, he’s gone traveling quite a few times; buying things at scenic areas is basically getting ripped off, many things don’t target the poor at all, simply unaffordable.
Yu Wei isn’t a real tour guide, the scenic area has no benefit relationship with him, he definitely won’t do this kind of thing.
He simply returned to the program team’s rest area and mooched a staff member’s boxed meal.
The sight of Yu Wei eating while writing shocked the passersby; turns out the rumor that he loves writing books is true, seizing every second to this extent, it can’t be just a persona, right?
The novel plot has recently been filming a movie; to insert a song, Yu Wei decided to write a small side story where the scenic area finds the protagonist to do advertisement promotion, so he wrote a song.
Though the plot is a classic trope, it’s still better than writing a poem… A plot of writing a poem for the scenic area to do advertisement, no one could really believe that, right.
In the current era background, poetry actually has a hard time spreading; the glory of any literary work can’t be separated from the era background.
These days, if you really write a good poem, in netizens’ eyes, what’s the difference from one generated by AI? Poetry detached from history’s settling down, even literature big shots don’t love reading it.
The rest is to seize the time to write, striving to finish the whole song before the tour guide work ends tomorrow.
Just as his hands were flying up and down the keyboard typing, Qi Luo An’s abrupt message interrupted his train of thought: “Are you still there?”
He’d only seen this kind of question in the comment section of handsome guy beauty falling videos…
“What do you mean?”
“Still at Along the River During the Qingming Festival scenic area?”
Yu Wei then realized that Qi Luo An must have seen the video of him singing at the scenic area, so she asked this.
“Still here, but might go to Guangzhou Street Hong Kong Street in the afternoon.”
“OK, I’m on the way.”
What the heck, she’s on her way here?
Her home is at least three or four hours drive from Hengdian, coming all this way for what?
It can’t be that she wants to come see him, right? No way, even honeymoon period young couples haven’t reached this level, what are they even…
“You serious?”
“This time I really have to come.”
Qi Luo An answered very firmly. Based on her understanding of Shen Yutong, Yu Wei encountering her would really be dangerous, she had to go.
She and Shen Yutong are childhood playmates, their relationship has always been good, the other isn’t a bad person, much less some scheming girl.
But she has one flaw: she likes to overthink, researching this and that.
Treating people like little white mice…
