Chapter 28

The host returned to the stage with the voting results and announced every award from tenth through second place.

The winning formations went up one by one to accept their awards. Photos were taken on the spot, and everyone cheered and celebrated, having already forgotten all about the boy group's performance. After all, they had come for their families and friends, not for some show.

Tonight might be the last time they saw their families for the next few years.

Just as first place was about to be announced, Qiao Huan, Ye Yiwei, and Bai Jike finished getting ready and took their places backstage.

It was time for their performance.

Li Xun lifted his head, still brimming with frustration. One look at them, and his frustration gave way to utter astonishment:

"You're... dressed like that?"

Yao Xiaofu was equally surprised. "We were counting on you four to win back our pride! Isn't this a little too... plain?"

Hu Bin was even more anxious. "Come on, Brother Jiang Ji! How could you let them go onstage like this?"

The three wore nothing but white shirts on top, and their pants were still part of their training uniforms. They had hardly any extra styling, either. That was it.

Jiang Ji smiled helplessly. "I was only responsible for the arrangement and part of the choreography. The rest... they designed themselves."

Pei Dahai asked, "Then what are you going to sing?"

Jiang Ji spread his hands. "'Green Flower.'"

"What???"

What kind of ancient song was that? They had never even heard of it!

Li Xun sank to the floor, his eyes vacant. "We're done for, we're done for..."

Only then did Zhuo Yang come running over. "The props we borrowed from Uncle Yang are in place. Let's go."

Qiao Huan looked back and smiled at everyone. "Don't worry."

Those words were meant for Ye Yiwei, too.

Then the four of them walked together toward the lights onstage.

Although the trainees had great faith in Qiao Huan, they weren't reassured.

As they watched the four walk onstage, seven or eight people instantly poked their heads out from behind the curtain, staring fixedly at the stage.

In the audience.

The crowd had already grown impatient. They complained about some minor artists being scheduled to sing and dance right before the singing competition's champion was announced.

Someone even shouted, "Hurry it up! I'm waiting to see my son!"

The leader in the front row also took out his phone, ready to pass the time by replying to messages.

As his fingers tapped away, he asked the person beside him without much interest, "What's this last group singing?"

The staff member beside him answered at once, "Sir, they're singing 'Green Flower.' It seems like a pretty old song. I've never even heard of it."

"What?!" The leader put down his phone at once.

He looked back at the increasingly restless audience and contestants, then at the four young men onstage, whose appearance was almost entirely unadorned. Already imagining what was about to happen, his eyes went wide—

"They're singing 'Green Flower'???"

"Quick! Tell logistics to bring over thirty boxes of tissues!!!"

After three deep bass drumbeats, Qiao Huan, Zhuo Yang, Ye Yiwei, and Bai Jike walked onstage.

Four tall stools had already been set out. After the four sat down, only the overhead lights remained on, casting layers of shadows across their faces and bodies.

The bullet comments immediately began to mock them:

"I'm dying, what are they doing? Don't tell me they're just going to sing without dancing?"

"They might as well call themselves a band."

"I'd like to see if they can sing as well as a band."

"Those four are dressed just as tackily as they were on that variety show. Seriously, they call themselves idols?"

For the first time that night, the audience broke into scattered applause, unsure what the four had up their sleeves.

Xiao Zhao sat at home, watching the bullet comments and the audience's reaction, her palms slick with sweat.

"Yes, yes, those are the young men!" Zhao Jun recognized them at a glance. "Just wait and see, sweetheart. They're really good people!"

Xiao Zhao sighed.

What good was being nice? If their skills were too poor on their first appearance, they would be mocked to death, let alone debut...

Twang—

Qiao Huan had produced a guitar from somewhere. With just one gentle strum, the entire venue fell silent.

It was the most common instrument here, simple and easy to learn, and it had whittled away countless lonely years for those who trained here.

The guitar's notes were crisp, yet carried a thread of weary sorrow. Paired with Qiao Huan's humming, they held a faint sigh beneath their relaxed ease.

Every trainee backstage had their heart in their throat. A plain stage was one thing, but they were even accompanying themselves.

If they couldn't handle the pressure, there was a good chance they would mess up playing!

They began to pray silently that nothing would go wrong. Whether they could win back their pride was all up to 404!

"The cold wind stirs the drifting, falling leaves

Back home and here, green flowers blanket the hills

We once roamed the mountain ridges

Seeking out these green flowers together"

Ye Yiwei and Qiao Huan began to sing together.

The simple, captivating melody echoed gently through the venue.

Ye Yiwei's voice was utterly steady. Together with Qiao Huan's harmony and accompaniment, it surged through the venue like a clear, flowing spring.

The two voices were almost candid, unadorned like their clothes: youth in its truest colors.

"Whoa..." A murmur rose from the audience.

As family members, they had paid little attention and had wished for a fast-forward button to skip the group's singing. But now, after only two lines, they had been drawn in.

It was as though they were following their children back through those years of training.

Some people took out their phones and began recording.

But they weren't filming the stage. They were filming the formations of contestants beside them.

The gazes these young men turned toward the stage were almost burning with sincerity.

The song had clearly captured their hearts.

"We also once crossed rivers barefoot

Forgetting time amid splashing water and laughter."

The simple lyrics struck straight at the heart.

Forest protection, patrols, grassroots work in remote areas, coastal search and rescue... After tonight's singing competition, they would shoulder their packs and embark on a new journey, pouring the hot blood of their youth across every corner of their homeland.

The stage lighting changed, flooding the stage with light.

The four in their plain white shirts stood and swayed gently to the tune, their spotless hems fluttering lightly with their movements.

They stepped into the light, their expressions earnest and resolute.

The background music gradually rose. Qiao Huan's guitar was like a trickle joining the sea, with an ocean current surging beneath the surface.

Zhuo Yang and Bai Jike's harmonies joined in at the same time, one deep and raspy, the other high and ethereal. They seemed to represent two states of mind among those leaving—I want to stay, and I also want to set out.

More attentive listeners recognized where the background music came from.

"Holy crap, I've got goosebumps. Was the background music recorded here?"

"I heard the reveille, the lights-out call, and a lot of instructors' voices. The pitch has changed, of course, but the timbre is still there!"

"I noticed that too. This is incredible!"

"Father, Mother, please don't worry

Your child has grown up"

The lyrics here were gentle and low, and Qiao Huan switched to a lyrical singing style, as though he were truly speaking to the families.

Sobs rang out from the families' section at once.

These were the words tonight's contestants had wanted to say all along!

Before the passage ended, Ye Yiwei's voice had already joined in, overlapping with Qiao Huan's.

"We shed our hot blood to defend our land

Unafraid of wind or rain"

Unlike Qiao Huan's voice, which sounded as though it were speaking from the heart, Ye Yiwei's was enormously explosive, instantly lifting the entire passage to a soaring pitch.

At the same time, the background music grew grander. More and more familiar sounds from training echoed in their ears, layering over one another and gradually rising in intensity.

The bullet comments became lively:

"They're singing so beautifully! I'm absolutely bawling!"

"Their four voices fit together so perfectly. No showing off or flaunting techniques, and they managed to rearrange this old song like that. They put so much thought into it!"

"What heavenly harmonies! Two states of mind, two ways of expressing them—so amazing!"

"To be fair, the singing is good, but it's not like a boy group at all."

"Exactly. I honestly can't find anything moving about it. Isn't it just a job?"

Jiang Renbao stood backstage, listening to Cultivation Four's soft singing, already on the verge of tears.

But he still remembered his job. He whispered to the director, asking them to switch the livestream feed.

The next second, they saw the livestream image.

Countless young people in the audience, men and women alike, had tears in their eyes.

This song, from its lyrics to its arrangement and performance, had sung straight into their hearts! It seemed to speak the words they wanted to say.

This stage existed for them!

"Ahhhh, seeing all those young men and women crying, I can't take it either!"

"To the person up front, you're cold-blooded and unmoved because you're not one of them!"

"Someone is always carrying the burden and pressing forward for you!"

"This is Cultivation Four's debut performance, and they're not even keeping the camera on themselves. They're giving it to these people instead!"

Others might not have known, but the old leader knew "Green Flower" all too well.

It was practically known as the base's forbidden song, because the lyrics were so moving that people cried whenever it was sung!

He had thought he was already immune to the song, yet after the four young men onstage rearranged it, his eyes still grew wet!

"The mountains and rivers always bloom in splendor; I stand guard over them

When green flowers cover the hills, your child will come home"

As the final lyrics rang out, never mind those who were leaving for distant places—even their families were crying rivers of tears.

They had stayed strong all evening and desperately needed this moment to let their emotions out.

They truly couldn't bear to part.

A reluctance to part that a thousand words could never fully express.

The atmosphere at the venue gradually spun out of control.

The old leader wiped his tears, but he was nervous. What could they do now...?

The haters in the bullet comments finally found their chance:

"I'm dying. Isn't this just deliberately tugging at heartstrings? So contrived."

"Can they even bring this to a close now?"

"Exactly. And they call themselves a boy group, but they're just sitting there singing?"

"All four of them are dressed so tackily. They don't look good at all. So low!"

Thump, thump—

Thump.

The song ended, and the drumbeats sounded again.

Qiao Huan's guitar hadn't stopped, either.

The performance wasn't over!

Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei began humming. To the beat of the drums and the sound of the guitar, the faint sorrow was swept away, leaving only a stirring, impassioned feeling that kept welling up in their hearts.

The two seemed to be competing at something, pushing their technique and resonance to the utmost. With just the two of them, they sang with the majestic force of mountains and seas overlapping!

Just like the young people at the venue, they were teammates, but they also competed with one another.

In an instant, the hot blood of youth surged again.

The bullet comments went wild:

"Who said they were just tugging at heartstrings? That was the buildup!!!"

"They're incredible! Those voices hit the crown of my head!"

"Who was saying they had no technique just now? Come out and take your beating!"

"Do they even need accompaniment? These two are human instruments!"

The venue went wild.

Xiao Zhao's household went wild too.

She and her father could only cry out in amazement, full of praise.

But her mother, who had been silent the whole time, pushed up her glasses.

"How much work did those two put in?"

Xiao Zhao looked at her mother in disbelief.

Her mother was a professor at a music conservatory, and she had never heard her praise an artist before.

"This arrangement is brilliant. It's such an old song, and so earnest, but the way they sing it is simply moving to the depths of the heart," her mother said. "And these two contestants' voices were already a good match. Now they're also of one mind, pulling in the same direction, each doing everything they can to fill the gaps in the other's voice and technique. They're not showing off anymore; they're supporting each other and improving!"

"It's wonderful. Using this kind of youthful rivalry onstage not only fits the atmosphere here, but suits the whole song perfectly," her mother said with feeling. "They really put their hearts into it. How much work must it have taken to arrange?"