Chapter 164: Farewell to Sorrow-Pop Star(The Imperial Gate Chef's Knife)

"...I'm always breaking your heart / I'm always so cruel / I tell you not to take it seriously / because I dare not believe; you are so beautiful / and you are so extremely lovable / Oh Cinderella / My Cinderella..."

Accompanied by the song "Cinderella" being sung by the young man on the stage, Huang Guolun spoke a somewhat insincere and thus cruel sentence to Sun Yanzhen: "I can write a love song for you for your future boyfriend."

Knowing that Huang Guolun was dodging again, Sun Yanzhen pouted in anger and hummed, "My future boyfriend will write one for me himself, I don't need you to send one. If you don't want to give me one, then forget it. How boring!"

Huang Guolun silently endured Sun Yanzhen's complaint.
Listening to the "Cinderella" sung by the young man on the stage, he grieved alone.

"...Perhaps you never / thought my heart would ache / If this is a dream / I'd rather stay drunk and never wake; I used to endure / I waited like this / Perhaps waiting for you to come again / Perhaps waiting for you to come again..."

The young man's green and immature guitar-playing-and-singing seemed to voice Huang Guolun's inner thoughts.
Sun Yanzhen's pouting appearance made Huang Guolun's heart ache with dim sorrow.

Originally, this was a wonderful evening, and he didn't want the two of them to grow pointlessly vexed over such trivial matters.
Yet these matters, which he considered trivial, were by no means trivial to Sun Yanzhen.

In fact, one could tell from the formidable aura Sun Yanzhen exuded the moment she appeared tonight that, influenced by Taozi, Godmother Sun was accelerating her pace to secure her position.

However, Huang Guolun was currently at the most absurd and bizarre stage of his life; he truly could no longer take a step closer to Sun Yanzhen, even though in his heart he desperately wished to. Reality was simply this cruel, always trapping him in a predicament of self-torment and tormenting others from which he could hardly break free.

Could this be the destined shackles of a second-generation graveyard heir? Huang Guolun himself was filled with anguish.

"Are you really not going to write a song for me?" Sun Yanzhen puffed out her cheeks and asked Huang Guolun once more, looking pitiful.

Huang Guolun let out a long sigh of "Ah," and said, "Then I'll write one."

"What do you mean by 'then I'll write one'? Is it really that difficult just to write me a song?"

"It's not difficult, it's agonizing."

"How is it agonizing?" Sun Yanzhen didn't understand.

"After hearing my song, your heart will ache."

"Is it a love song? As long as it's a love song, and one you wrote specifically for me, my heart will definitely not ache! Hehe." Sun Yanzhen's appetite revived, and she ate with relish while waiting for Huang Guolun to dedicate a song to her.

Huang Guolun struggled internally for a moment and said, "Are you sure you want to hear the song I'm giving you?"

"You're so dilatory! Of course I am absolutely, positively, definitely sure I want to hear it! You've never seriously given me a song before. Last year on my birthday, you sang 'Not That Simple' and said it was for me, but I felt that song was more like you singing to yourself. This time you are not allowed to just cobble together any random song to fool me; it must be a song written exclusively for me."

"Alright, since you want to hear it, then I will sing it to you."

Sun Yanzhen's beautiful eyes lit up at his tone, and she asked with a playful and curious smile, "Have you already written a song for me a long time ago?"

Huang Guolun ate a piece of shrimp that was growing cold and said, "Consider it so. This song should quite fit your mood and state of mind. Whether you like it or not, this is the song I give you."

"As long as it's from you, I'll definitely like it." Sun Yanzhen revealed her bottom line in high spirits, saying, "Coming to this restaurant to eat was precisely because I wanted you to give me a song."

Huang Guolun smiled with complicated emotions and said no more.

While the two of them were exchanging these words, the handsome young man on the stage had already finished his performance.
His singing was very sincere and earned him quite a few encouragement points.
In the end, his score was 102 points, with a scoring rate of 55%, making it difficult to shake Sun Yanzhen's championship position.

Yet being able to perform live for his girlfriend on such an occasion, he was already immensely satisfied.

After the handsome young man, there were still eleven tables of guests and seven tables waiting ahead of him, along with the bearded uncle, putting them before Huang Guolun in the queue.
Judging by the time, Huang Guolun should be able to perform during the eight-to-nine o'clock slot.

Sun Yanzhen couldn't wait to hear the song Huang Guolun had prepared for her.
Yet before that could happen, Sun Yanzhen's joyful mood was splashed with a basin of cold water by a suddenly intervening great beauty.

The newly registered guest at table 11 was an exquisite beauty with a face more stunning than Sun Yanzhen's, a figure better than Sun Yanzhen's, and an extremely charming aura that instantly pleased the eye the moment she stepped onto the stage.

This woman looked particularly like a celebrity, possessing an extraordinary presence. The moment she sat down on the stage, the lighting seemed to grow brighter, casting an especially radiant glow upon her.
Guests at quite a few tables were guessing: Could this be some big celebrity coming to join the fun?

Huang Guolun also found this woman looking familiar, as if he had seen her on television, but for the life of him he couldn't remember who she was.

This woman was named Mu Chunmei. Eight years ago, when she first debuted at the age of twenty, her stage name was Mu Yi.
I believe most people had forgotten this bright girl who flashed across the Chinese music scene like a shooting star back then.

In terms of appearance, even in her youth Mu Chunmei already possessed the template of peerless elegance.
If one were to take her somewhat rustic self from eight years ago and pit her against Zhao Jing today, she probably wouldn't fall behind in the slightest.

At that time, Mu Chunmei not only possessed supreme beauty, but her vocal prowess was also formidable, with a bright future ahead of her. She could be considered the most eye-catching newcomer in the Chinese music scene during that period.

Unfortunately, she fell in with the wrong people.
Possessing an excessively rigid personality, she reportedly offended some major figure and was blacklisted and shelved by the record company,从此 fading into the crowd.

Over the years, unable to make a breakthrough in the industry, Mu Chunmei never let go of the singing career she loved.
When the company wouldn't let her sing and wouldn't give her money, she took it upon herself to work as a resident singer in bars and frequently went on commercial gigs with friends.

Corporate annual meetings, rural evening galas, funerals and weddings, opening ceremonies, anniversary performances—as long as there was a singing opportunity that paid, she turned none of them down.

Mu Chunmei had sung more songs over the past eight years than any tier-one or tier-two singer combined.
The number of stages she had performed on was several times greater than even the most popular singers.

Gifted by nature and having further undergone the process from quantitative change to qualitative change, Mu Chunmei's vocal technique had long since been honed to the level of a consummate grand vocalist.

After eight years of ups and downs, the washed-of-all-artifice Mu Chunmei had also gained a few more touches of a mature woman's charm in her appearance, deserving to be called brilliantly radiant, dignified, and gracefully poised.

At this moment, a simple long-collared white shirt paired with slim-fitting black wool trousers formed a minimalist black-and-white pairing that exuded a somewhat neutral charm. Had she not been a beauty with a tall and graceful figure, ordinary women would find it hard to pull off such an outfit.

Yet Mu Chunmei did not look any less starry due to her simple attire.
The moment she stepped onto the stage, she captured the eyes of almost everyone in the restaurant.

Just moments before, Sun Yanzhen holding a guitar and singing had been eye-catching enough.
Instead of holding a guitar, Mu Chunmei removed the microphone, sat down on a high stool with her long legs extended, one high heel planted on the floor while the other rested on the footrest. Sitting there so relaxed with her long hair draped over her shoulders like a waterfall, from every angle she looked as elegant as a painting, supremely pleasing to the eye.

Many male customers at this moment felt a sentiment akin to parting the clouds to see the sun: This woman is so breathtakingly beautiful!

Her beauty wasn't the artificially manufactured kind, nor was it the kind piled on with cosmetics.
Although she wore light makeup, anyone could tell that her foundation carried a pure, naturally sculpted sense of aesthetic beauty. Even other women would feel a stirring of the heart and a sense of envy upon seeing such a beauty.

Sun Yanzhen remarked sentimentally to Huang Guolun at this point, "This woman is so pretty. Her appearance adds so many points! She probably can't sing well, right?"

Huang Guolun smiled without speaking. He could sense that this woman's breath control was extraordinarily steady, and her state was relaxed and at ease. She was clearly a singer accustomed to grand occasions.
Just by looking at her posture in holding the microphone alone, he knew she intended to sing a cappella.

Anyone without an ounce of self-awareness would never dare to sing a cappella on such an occasion.
Huang Guolun guessed that this woman most likely possessed formidable vocal skills.

The entire hall fell silent.
Under everyone's watchful gaze, Mu Chunmei wore a calm smile at the corners of her mouth, leisurely raised the microphone, and seemingly at random, prepared to sing.

Yet before singing, Mu Chunmei gathered her breath from her dantian slowly and powerfully, and an exceptionally bright brilliance instantly burst forth within her gaze, much like a master preparing to unleash an inner art.

The moment Huang Guolun saw this posture, he knew this was an absolute veteran expert!

Even with mental preparation, the moment Mu Chunmei exhaled and began to sing, the ethereal voice that pierced the air still shook Huang Guolun to his core:

"Say goodbye to sorrow because I no longer care about any outcome / I can be magnanimous about anything, not caring who is right / Closing both eyes, what do I lose? / Right and wrong also drift past / Don't be stubborn enough to ask why for everything..."

What she was singing was Sandy Lam's "Say Goodbye to Sorrow," a Cantonese classic that made listeners drop to their knees the moment it began.

Cantonese has nine tones, and its spoken melodies are inherently pleasant to the ear. When rendered through Mu Chunmei's emotion-rich, ethereal voice, the entire restaurant was imbued with the texture of a dream theater.

Ever since acquiring his divine ears, aside from his own singing which occasionally moved him to the sensation of dreaming, Mu Chunmei's vocal delivery was the second performance that produced this feeling in Huang Guolun.

Mu Chunmei's pitch was accurate, steady, and ruthless; her emotional phrasing was completely natural, and the texture of her voice was dreamlike, as if carrying its own natural reverb and harmonies. It was like a blade suddenly appearing before one's eyes, driven straight into one's heart by the most beautiful woman in the world, leaving no chance to dodge. One would collapse directly into her song, firmly captivated, compelled to listen on, unable to do anything else.

Following Mu Chunmei's vocal opening, no less than ten people in the restaurant failed to chew the food in their mouths.
Having inadvertently caught a sliver of her voice, they were all struck by this ethereal female voice that had suddenly invaded their hearts, and thereafter became infatuated as they listened to her performance:

"Say goodbye to sentimentality because tears do not easily make me stay / I love to navigate any state of mind as naturally as possible / Reaching the very end is like forgetting oneself amidst all things / Restoring body and mind to their primal state / Facing the profound peace within the mirror of the heart / The sound of birds flashes past in an instant..."

In this passage, Mu Chunmei heightened her emotional delivery. Supported by her immense breath capacity, the second wave of sound she pushed forth possessed an even more fatal attraction than the first. Huang Guolun felt his heart leaping into his throat as he listened.

He had never heard Sandy Lam sing this song live. Yet based solely on these two a cappella phrases sung by the woman on stage, Huang Guolun was marveling to the point of thinking that even if the S-tier vocal goddess Sandy Lam herself were here, she might not outsing this woman.

Who on earth is this person?!
She is so powerful!

Ever since acquiring his divine hearing, this was the first time Huang Guolun had heard such a formidable a cappella performance.
He longed to clean out his earwax, cast aside all mortal dust, and wholeheartedly savor this rare ethereal interpretation:

...
"Only the heart, aside from the heart, can unlock the heart's locks / Much vexation comes from wanting too much / As slight as sand and light as smoke, how could there be ripples / Sorrow has tumbled into the Ganges River"

"The road of love is too winding; if you pass it, treat it as a passing phase / Treat moved love as a sparring bout / Whatever you encounter along the journey, appreciate it all / When immersed, be happy and live through it together"

The more Mu Chunmei sang, the more astonished Huang Guolun became, not stopping even when it made his scalp tingle.
This song was not actually difficult, but Mu Chunmei's feeling was simply too exceptional, especially that internal tension of sorrow without abandonment, displaying immense mastery.

Huang Guolun possessed divine hearing, and he could hear that this level of mastery was certainly not something an ordinary professional singer could achieve.

Nanfang was already a professional singer with quite impressive talent and fairly solid vocal skills.
Yet judging by the texture of the woman's a cappella singing before him, conservatively speaking, leaving Nanfang two streets behind would be more than effortless.

Without any accompaniment, relying solely on a cappella, she could create such a magnificent momentum amidst wave upon wave of emotional release. Huang Guolun truly felt that this woman's vocal skills were matchless.

Although drawing conclusions after hearing only one song might seem somewhat irresponsible, Mu Chunmei's performance here was so stunning to Huang Guolun that he even felt that across the entire Chinese music scene, there were not many female singers who could stand on equal footing with her.

A singer of this caliber, coupled with such dazzling and peerless looks, would definitely skyrocket to fame if she entered the entertainment industry. Even if misfortune befell her and she didn't hit the big time, she would undoubtedly be a renowned vocalist.

Yet Huang Guolun couldn't recognize who she was no matter how hard he tried, to the point where he even began to wonder: could she also be a folk musician hiding her brilliance like him?

Indeed, true masters dwell among the common folk!

Huang Guolun was genuinely moved by Mu Chunmei's performance. Without consulting Sun Yanzhen, his hand involuntarily reached out and gave Mu Chunmei a score of five points.

Sun Yanzhen was so shocked she almost threw a punch at Huang Guolun!
The woman on stage exuded boundless charm; not only was she beautiful, but her singing also carried an ethereal attribute that penetrated people's hearts. She was absolute danger to Sun Yanzhen!

In order to preserve her own championship advantage, Sun Yanzhen was so shaken by Mu Chunmei that she wanted to give her a minus five.
Yet who would have thought that Huang Guolun's hand would be so swift as to award her a positive five points? This was truly letting beauty overshadow loyalty!

Sun Yanzhen gnashed her teeth in anger, yet her eyes couldn't help drifting back toward Mu Chunmei.
Looking at Mu Chunmei and listening to her sing was truly a form of enjoyment. Even while angry, Sun Yanzhen found it hard to refuse this kind of soul-nourishing and ear-pleasing pleasure.

As she enjoyed it, however, her heart was also weeping.
With a performance of this caliber laid out before Sun Yanzhen, she knew all too well that her hourly championship was done for.