Chapter 91: The Chosen One

The cool evening breeze brushed over the bay, white waves chased the shore, there were no coconut groves against the slanting sun, only a stretch of blue sea. Seated on the low wall before the gate, I would dream the same dream again and again. Even on the dusk beach, there were two and a half pairs of footprints.

Back then, my grandmother, leaning on her cane, would gently take my hand and, stepping through the twilight, walk toward the bay warmed by the lingering glow. One footprint was a string of laughter that wore away many an hour, until night swallowed us both on the road home.

Like a sea breeze coming in, like the evening light glowing warm, Li Xuan’s supple and enchanting singing brought forth one beautiful, tender scene after another in the audience’s minds, a beauty too lovely for words.

Li Xuan was singing memories belonging to the bay, but the family affection woven by her voice made many people think of their own childhoods, of the moments when their grandfathers and grandmothers cared for them.

A warm current of tenderness and nostalgia rose naturally from the depths of the heart.

Li Xuan’s singing was like the fuse of memory, igniting the hearts of every listener who longed for the love of family.

Luo Tao could see it clearly in the control room: many people in the audience wore expressions of enchantment, and some were already unable to help themselves, their eyes glistening with tears.

For a voice as heavenly as Li Xuan’s, one could only say she was born under a lucky star; her beauty was beyond words.

When she sang this song in the middle register, she was so moving that many in the audience were led by her voice into that warm bay, the softest part of their hearts nourished as though by sea water warmed in the sunset. It was an exquisite, gentle indulgence.

The chorus remained as impressive as ever.

It stirred to warmth the homesickness of Zhang Qiyang, who was about to take the stage.

Compared with Cai Qin’s lower-pitched version, Li Xuan’s middle-register rendition of the song was utterly refined and sweet. Her voice was warm and bright, especially soothing to the soul.

She could convey her feelings perfectly through song, and that was the greatest singing gift of all.

One could only imagine that her grandmother, far away in the archipelago, and all her family, upon hearing such a song, would surely feel a deep emotion and pride rising from the heart.

That the bay could produce such a songstress was truly a pride for the Lee family, and a pride for the entire archipelago.

Little Frog was nearly moved to tears below the stage.

He had attended East Entertainment Music Training School with Li Xuan, and they were close friends of many years. He knew all too well how much she had given, how much she had sacrificed over the years, in order to step by step ascend to the throne of a rising song queen.

What she sacrificed most was the chance to spend more time with her family and care for them.

Though she could give her family more money and improve their lives, her relatives were simple and honest folk. Even with money, they were unwilling to spend more, and would not even leave the small fishing village where their ancestors had lived for generations. That was what worried Li Xuan most and tugged most painfully at her heart.

Because her work on the mainland was too busy, too relentless, and she had to grit her teeth and push upward, she had seldom gone home to reunite with her family in recent years.

Now that she had sung such a heartfelt song, Little Frog could especially understand Li Xuan’s longing and bitterness at this very moment.

For Zhang Qiyang to casually compose such a work, one that could express Li Xuan’s homesickness so perfectly, Little Frog truly admired him beyond measure.

The audience in the venue and those before their televisions were hearing this song for the first time, yet all at once they remembered its melody and emotion.

Zhang Qiyang could not recall how many times he had heard it himself, but tonight, hearing Li Xuan sing it in a parallel space from which he could not turn back, he felt a homesickness more intense than he had ever known.

When Li Xuan finished her flawless performance, bowed to thank the audience, and left the stage to a thunderstorm of applause, Zhang Qiyang, holding a wooden guitar in the backstage corridor, could not help but applaud her as well.

Just as Li Xuan had eagerly wanted to sing this song tonight to release the longing in her heart, Zhang Qiyang, who outwardly seemed carefree and irreverent, was also urgently longing this evening to pour out the homesickness he had restrained for so long.

Forcing himself not to be sad, but to step forward with the beautiful feeling of longing for home, Zhang Qiyang walked onto the stage with his acoustic guitar.

The cannon master had finally arrived.

The live audience, still immersed in Li Xuan’s heavenly voice, cleared their minds and immediately shifted their expectations, now looking forward to Zhang Qiyang’s performance.

Much of that anticipation was curiosity.

Most of the people there could not understand how Zhang Qiyang had managed to win three consecutive episodes. Had he really bribed the audience?

Yet after coming to the studio as spectators, they had not received the rumored cannon-master red envelopes they had expected.

So how had Zhang Qiyang won the championship?

Could it truly be because of the legendary strength of his live singing?

If so, they would have to experience for themselves the charm of his live performance.

The viewers before their televisions were surprised to see Zhang Qiyang appear without changing clothes or putting on any ghastly makeup, dressed instead in a relaxed, casual manner.

The forum for the show changed its tone as well. Posts that had been praising the perfect performances of Zhou Delin and Li Xuan instantly turned into a special session for the cannon master.

Die-hard supporters and black-hat trolls once again clashed head-on.

The supporters waved their flags and shouted themselves hoarse for the one and only king in their hearts.

The trolls, meanwhile, seized every weakness they could find in Zhang Qiyang and mocked him mercilessly.

A sudden surge of ratings followed the appearance of this focal figure, and the program’s stage-by-stage viewership rose again in a small but miraculous leap.

Just moments earlier, during Li Xuan’s competition performance, this episode’s peak rating had broken through 3 percent for the first time, finally reaching a level the production team could accept.

But after Zhang Qiyang appeared, the show’s peak rating actually kept climbing, reaching 3.3 percent.

This left the statistics staff of the production team unable to resist a sigh of admiration: the cannon master was truly terrifying.

In terms of ratings alone, the cannon master was now the king of television.

Whether low-key or flamboyant, he always managed to seize the audience’s attention. Damn it, this was the chosen one of the television world.