Generally speaking, in these kinds of bars, when there's a resident singer, people will occasionally pay to request songs.
If there are no resident singers, very few customers will voluntarily go up and sing. Those who will are mostly people with a certain level of skill who know that their singing won't make them a laughing stock or cause noise.
Of course, there are also those who get drunk and want to go up and howl, but they are usually stopped by the waiters with an excuse to avoid disturbing other guests.
The moment Xiang Kun uttered his first sentence, the waiter who had brought him onto the stage frowned, exchanged a glance with his companion, and prepared to find an excuse to ask Xiang Kun to come down early.
But as the song continued, with the second and third lines, he was involuntarily drawn in, his entire being captivated by the song's atmosphere. He could almost hear the stirring accompaniment of an entire symphony orchestra, and Xiang Kun's voice suddenly sounded beautiful. The song excited him so much that he clenched his fist, his head bobbing up and down in sync with the rhythm he heard in his mind.
Not only the waiter, but all the customers in the bar, including the bartender, stopped what they were doing and stopped their conversations, looking up at the bald, bespectacled guy on the stage.
This kind of attention was only seen in the past when bars invited former resident singers who had appeared on talent shows to come back and perform.
Yang Jie, the bespectacled girl who came with her classmates, also recognized Xiang Kun singing on stage. While she was somewhat surprised, she was also drawn into the emotions by the song. At one moment, she seemed to see a young man buried in his books in a library, with fewer and fewer people around him until he was all alone; at another moment, she seemed to see a young man with a haggard and anxious face leading his colleagues to set up the venue, and because he was too tired, he almost fell down the stairs when he left; at yet another moment, she seemed to see a chubby boy looking at the empty office, his face full of reluctance and regret as he slowly closed the door.
She could clearly sense the emotions of the people she saw, their pressure, their pain, their determination, their helplessness, and their spirit.
When she was singing halfway through, Xiang Kun and their eyes met. Suddenly, she felt as if the scenery around her had changed. She was suddenly in a concert, with an entire symphony orchestra on stage, a female conductor, and Jacky Cheung standing in the middle of the stage singing into a microphone. The singing in her ears had also become Jacky Cheung's voice.
It all felt so real, so real, that she even felt she could rush onto the stage and hug Jacky Cheung.
After an unknown amount of time, Yang Jie suddenly realized that she was not actually at the concert. She turned her head and found that they were having a lively discussion with each other.
She looked up abruptly, and when she looked back at the stage, she only saw the bald man with glasses giving his thanks before walking off the stage.
Where are the symphony orchestras anymore? Where is Jacky Cheung?
Was it an illusion? But everything that just happened was far too real!
Yang Jie couldn't help but take off her glasses and rub her eyes hard. She wondered if she had some kind of mental disorder.
Meanwhile, amidst spontaneous applause, Xiang Kun nodded to the other guests as he returned to their table.
Chang Bin stared at him, shaking his head, his eyes wide. "Holy crap! Holy crap, Xiang Kun! I was just thinking, if someone throws a bottle at you, should I run away first, or call an ambulance for you before running away... Holy crap, when did you learn to sing? Damn, I was hallucinating just now. Do you know that when you sang 'Upright and Unyielding,' I saw that the person singing on stage was actually you with hair, no, I should say you from nine or ten years ago! I was completely stunned, you know? Damn, I guess I've been too tired lately, and even a little bit of alcohol caused me to hallucinate."
Xiang Kun knew that Chang Bin was indeed hallucinating, but the hallucinations were not due to his fatigue or drinking; they were caused by himself.
During a conversation with Chang Bin, he was overcome with emotion and suddenly thought of an experimental method: to see if drinking Guo Tianxiang's blood would produce any other effects through "Emotional Assimilation."
So, while singing, he used his eyes to amplify his emotions and convey them to others, attempting to exert a deeper influence.
This time, the experiment finally did not fail like the series of experiments from the afternoon to the evening. He made eye contact with a total of four people, and at the moment of eye contact, he saw a somewhat blurry image, as if the resolution was not high enough and it was forcibly magnified. These images were all constructed in Xiang Kun's mind because he was immersed in his emotions.
Clearly, when Xiang Kun enters a state of "Emotional Assimilation," he can use eye contact to further influence those he has Emotional Assimilation, making them feel as if they are truly there, seeing scenes that appear real, just like when Guo Tianxiang exerts "Self-Fear Projection" on people.
"Emotional Assimilation" allows others to feel what Xiang Kun feels, and to imagine similar situations to Xiang Kun's, but at that time, they are clearly aware that they are in an emotional state, and it is a mental image;
However, after "emotional assimilation" and "projection" through their eyes, they can directly and "realistically" see those images appear before their eyes with their naked eyes.
This is naturally a derivative effect of Guo Tianxiang's blood and abilities on Xiang Kun's original abilities.
However, Xiang Kun felt that the illusions manifested by this ability were not as realistic as Guo Tianxiang's "Self-Fear Projection." After all, Guo Tianxiang's ability directly made the affected target imagine what they saw, allowing their brains to deceive themselves, and the details were easier to fill in completely in their minds.
Xiang Kun's ability, however, projects the scenes within his emotions into the consciousness of the other person, allowing them to "see" them. Although the other person's brain will fill in some details on its own, if they are observant enough, they should still be able to detect the differences from reality. However, those affected are all first swayed by Xiang Kun's "Emotional Assimilation," making it extremely difficult for them to remain rational and discover the flaws.
While chatting and laughing with Chang Bin Xiang Kun, Xiang Kun paid attention to the discussions among the people around him who had been "Emotional Assimilation" by him. He paid special attention to the other three people besides Chang Bin who had been "Projection Manifestation" into him, trying to understand their specific feelings at the time from their conversations with their companions.
The waiter smiled and brought over two small dishes, saying to Xiang Kun, "Brother, you sang really well just now! A customer wants to give you flowers and would like you to sing another song."
Xiang Kun quickly clasped his hands in thanks to the customer the waiter had mentioned, then said to the waiter, "This song was sung from the heart, following my emotions, so it's barely listenable. I can't sing other songs. I know my own limitations, and I wouldn't dare to embarrass myself by going up there, otherwise I'd be driving you away."
He's already released his emotions; if you make him sing again, it'll be a complete disaster.
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I recommend Lao Si Ji Ji's new book, "Seeking the Dao in the Red Dust in the Mortal World," a Xianxia novel with delicate emotional descriptions and excellent writing.