Chapter 29

The transitional passage of the duet came to an end.

Every light in the venue suddenly went out.

Only the stirring drumbeats remained, driving onward!

A beam of light shone straight down from the highest point, illuminating the four onstage!

The crying and shouting throughout the venue stopped abruptly, and every gaze turned to the stage.

Immediately afterward, countless beams of light illuminated every formation, every young person about to set out.

"Among the vast sea of people, which one am I?

Among the surging waves, which one am I?"

The lyrics and melody were familiar to everyone!

The people who had just been immersed in the sorrow of parting suddenly felt their pulses beating once more!

Ye Yiwei's voice grew stronger, like a faint light gradually blazing into glorious splendor.

A shot of hot blood plunged straight into the heart of every audience member.

"Among the great army conquering the universe,

The one who gives silently is me.

In the long river of a glorious undertaking,

The one who surges forever is me."

Gradually, voices rose in chorus throughout the venue.

If one song could perfectly express what they felt at this moment, it had to be this one!

Everyone who had come to train had gone through the experiences in the earlier passages of the song: repeated training and competition, with homesickness spreading silently among them.

But they all remembered their mission. It was the reason for every hardship they endured and every ounce of effort they put in!

On one side of the audience, AUV's Qian Li was dumbstruck.

What was going on?!

There had been nothing like this atmosphere during their performance, only a few words of praise at most: "Not bad" and "Impressive."

Voices joined together, grains of sand gathering into a tower.

The trainees rose to their feet and sang with the four of them, their eyes already red.

"The mountains know me, the rivers know me.

The motherland will never forget,

Will never forget me!"

At that moment, all their longing and reluctance to part were pressed down and melted away by their profound devotion.

My family, my friends, my motherland—none of them will ever forget me!

This was a true performance, one that existed for the audience!

The atmosphere at the venue swept up the bullet comments as well:

"So powerful! I'm bawling!"

"This is what a fitting performance looks like! Unlike AUV, who just wanted to show off and made everything flashy!"

"Xiu Si sang so incredibly well! I'm moved!"

The original song had a gentle, lyrical tone, but Jiang Ji's arrangement had made it more youthful and energetic.

It was a better fit for tonight's stage.

But that was not the end. The magic of the arrangement was only beginning to show itself.

Every listener could hear the drumbeat that had been underlying the track grow stronger and clearer, until it came as densely as a rainstorm in an instant.

It immediately brought to mind countless figures hidden among the mountains and rivers, gathering and bursting forth at this moment.

A projection lit up above the stage.

In forests, on snowy plains, in the desert and Gobi, among reefs and gravel...

The "seniors" who had graduated from Qinglong had sent footage of themselves as they were now—

Vigorous figures raced alongside tree shadows and waves;

Weariness and laughter blossomed among rocks and cliffs.

"I blend my youth, blend it into the motherland's mountains and rivers.

I blend my radiance, blend it into the motherland's constellations."

The magic of light, images, and sound shook everyone to their souls.

Only the paid trolls were still tirelessly dissing Xiu Si, asking why they were only singing and not dancing.

But the face-slapping always came so quickly.

Just as everyone was immersed in this sense of mission, four silhouettes began to dance to the sound effects.

This was not the boy-band dancing they had just seen, nor was it any kind of hip-hop, jazz, or robotic dance!

"It's the Yingge Dance!" An audience member familiar with folk culture recognized it and shouted, "It's our Han people's Yingge Dance!"

No one had ever seen the Yingge Dance on a stage like this!

Much less a Yingge Dance performed by a boy band!

Qiao Huan and the other three put on the headpieces Uncle Yang had painted by hand. Holding short red fluorescent sticks, Yingge batons, in both hands, they made broad, sweeping movements to the beat.

Even though the audience at the venue and in the bullet comments could only see their silhouettes, it was enough to show how nimble and powerful their movements were!

The dance already combined theater, martial arts, and dance, and at such a rapid pace, it looked even more heroic and martial.

At times, the four came together, their synchronized movements projecting a force no ten thousand men could stop. At others, they spread out, their paths covering the entire stage in a majestic sweep.

Their suggestive movements and deliberate empty spaces, accompanied by the stirring music, conjured countless images.

The glow of the Yingge batons lit their figures and faces from time to time. Though the headpieces were merely painted with various designs, the eyes were their own.

Their resolute, focused gazes burned holes through the darkness.

Of the four, the tall and sturdy Zhuo Yang was the group's lead dancer, so he naturally led the Yingge Dance.

He raised his arms high, his movements powerful as a fierce tiger pouncing on its prey. A series of intricate somersaults and twists followed. Beside him, it seemed there was no air, but seawater, churning as a swimming dragon wheeled through it.

The spirit of dragon and tiger was ready to burst forth!

Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei had not stopped singing either. Their parts had simply changed into clipped sounds somewhere between calls and breaths, adding an even more majestic rhythm to the entire Yingge Dance performance!

"Too powerful, too powerful! Their breathing is still so steady with movements that big!"

"Ahhhhhh, it's not just the dance moves—even their singing echoes what's on the screen! That's incredible!"

"What kind of divine arrangement is this?! I'm completely in love!"

Just as everyone was reeling from those intricate movements and arrangements, the images on the screen began to change rapidly.

They were no longer images of the seniors, but letters.

The rap section began:

"It's raining hard today, and I thought of you."

"My family lives an ordinary life; for that, I can put everything into every step."

"Hey, my friend, did you do extra training today?"

"I patrol the mountain forests. Mom, there's a cloud that looks just like you."

The audience at the venue recognized them, and so did the viewers in the bullet comments—these were all letters home from people training at Azure Dragon Training and those who had already graduated!

And Bai Jike had taken words and phrases from them and turned them into a rap, half chanted and half recited!

His delivery was deeply sincere and passionate, and together with the layered, surging music, it struck straight at the soul.

The bullet comments even stopped flooding the screen, and the audience held its breath.

The figures who had traveled far and the homesickness established earlier were brought together in that rap!

Even though the drumbeat was accompanied by bass, guitar, and other electronic instruments, the feeling and meaning it expressed were a love of home and country that only their own audience could understand!

Ye Yiwei and Qiao Huan sang softly.

Zhuo Yang's Yingge Dance was vigorous and powerful.

Bai Jike's rap was simple and direct.

The four favored children of heaven complemented one another, making the audience forget to breathe, their hearts deeply stirred.

With the rapidly flashing images, the lights, and the background music, this was probably what people meant by a god-tier live performance!

"I'm numb, I'm numb, my scalp's tingling!"

"I really thought rap could only be about money, cars, and romance. I never imagined it could be like this!"

"Incredible! They really understand what the young men and women here are thinking, and they can express it too!"

"Now that's a meaningful performance!"

Bai Jike's section soon ended.

The chorus rang out again.

The trainees and their families at the venue came back to their senses and followed Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei's voices, singing together once more.

"Will never forget me,

Will never forget me."

The accompaniment faded, leaving only Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei's voices, high and low, echoing and setting each other off.

At the end, there should have been a long note that gradually faded, a finish that would best showcase their skill.

As insiders, AUV thought Qiao Huan and Ye Yiwei surely would not pass up this chance to show off their technique!

Unexpectedly, the two merely looked at each other for a moment, then stopped singing together.

Only the audience's voices remained, echoing through the hall and bringing the entire performance to a perfect close.

Then thunderous applause erupted.

It did not die down for a long time.

The audience began to rise and cheer—

"That was wonderful! Young men, thank you!"

"The best performance today, without a doubt!"

"This is the sentiment that belongs to us Huaguo people!"

The eight members of AUV sat off to one side, their faces all darkening.

But even though they refused to concede, each of them had to admit to themselves that the performance had been overwhelmingly strong, whether in its creativity, its execution, or the individual ability of every member of Xiu Si.