Yu Xiuyuan took the sheet music, pulled over a chair, and sat down opposite Chen Yu.
There was a meter between them.
He glanced down at the score and nodded. "Start singing."
Chen Yu took a deep breath.
He silently told himself to hold on to it. This ray of light.
Once he was ready, he began.
There was no backing music in the practice room, but the moment his voice rang out, the whole room felt different.
It had a clear, pure quality that was deeply moving.
Yu Xiuyuan lightly tapped the beat against his knee. After listening to a few lines, he suddenly stood up.
He walked to the corner of the practice room and picked up a guitar from the rack. The production team had put it there so the mentors could improvise accompaniments.
He sat back down with the guitar in his arms, followed the score, and hit the beat precisely with his fingertips. Chords poured out like the tide.
Natural and perfectly fitted, they wrapped seamlessly around Chen Yu's voice.
Chen Yu faltered for a moment.
But he didn't stop.
Yu Xiuyuan was different when he played the guitar.
He still looked lazy and indifferent to everything, but a stillness settled over him, and the melody flowed like water from his fingertips.
When Chen Yu's voice climbed higher, his chords rose to support it;
When Chen Yu's voice slowed, his notes slowed too, as though they were talking, or embracing.
As Chen Yu sang, his eyes reddened.
It wasn't because he was sad.
It was because it had been so long since anyone had accompanied him like this.
The guitar and singing intertwined in the practice room, like two rivers flowing into the same sea.
The revelation that Yu Xiuyuan could play guitar-and play it