Really, Really Miss You

The subsequent contestants all did benefit from his teaching in some way or another, and many of the ones who were sharper and could grasp the concept better were even able to make impromptu adjustments to their performance, taking this competition to a whole new level and value to be appreciated.

It was nearly 10:30, and the official competition events finally came to a close for the night.

The hostess suddenly exhaled a long breath, and then her tone changed into an excited one. "The competition will end here for tonight. Thank you to all of our judges and teachers, our contestants, as well as all the people who worked to make this happen. In five minutes, after all the staff and judges have exited, we have a surprise mystery gift for all of you. Everyone take a short break, please, and we will see you in a little bit."

And with that last sentence, every person who had been on microphone disappeared.

The only person remaining in the room was the hostess, who was playing a recording of the video game's theme song…

It was not clear who first noticed something peculiar, but comments started incessantly popping up on the public comment screen: "Oh gawd, hurry and check out the administrator list…" "Waaaah! What kind of gift is this AH!... oh god, I'm going to die."...

All the people who had originally been planning on exiting the YY room at once grew excited, and everyone immediately clicked on the list of administrators.

Only Qiang Qing Ci and the hostess were present at first, but… the number of administrators was continuously increasing.

One, two, three… More and more "yellow IDs[1]" were entering the YY room.

Jue Mei Sha Yi, Feng Ya Song, Dou Dou Dou Bing, Little T. They represented Wanmei Voice Acting Group…

Si Wu Xie [Thoughts are Pure], Xiao Bai [Little White], Die Die [Fold], Fu Sheng Wu Meng [Dreamless Floating Life], Wwwwk. They represented Liu Nian Zhi Sheng [The Voice of Fleeting Time] Voice Acting Group…

Fei Shao, Bei Dou Xiao Xing [Little Star of the Big Dipper], Wan Wan Rao Rao [Twists and Turns]. They represented Shui Mo [Ink] Music Association…

Ling Long Ti Tou, Jian Jian [Gradually], Little He, 2Yue [2nd Month]. These represented Gu Cha Wu Xiang [Ancient Tea Without Fragrance] Music Association…

Two entertainment circles. And the four most veteran associations in these circles had made their appearance.

Oh my god...

(⊙o⊙)...

Most importantly, out of the hundreds of associations out there, these four were at the very top of the pyramid.

And even to the newer members within these topmost associations, the veterans of the association had a god-like status…

None of them accepted new projects from those outside of their association.

Occasionally, they would participate in certain events, but it was usually as a favour for a good friend.

So, for them to be here like this, to suddenly be here in this way, was really too amazing, you know? T.T …

The news spread in an instant, and the number of people in the YY room was increasing rapidly. Many of them who entered the room would cry on the public comment screen: "I finally managed to get in. Was about to grow wings from being stuck and waiting…" "My most beloved idol ah, ah, ah, ah! My goddess AAAH! My male god AAAH! … Oh god …"

Five minutes seemed to tick by very slowly.

The comment screen looked like it was going to explode from all the spamming. The staff in charge of maintaining order kept trying to restrain the rate at which comments were allowed to be posted, but they were completely unable to control this explosion of posts that was happening on the screen. In the end, they just gave up…

After all, the official event had ended already. The point of this late night event was to make everyone high with excitement anyways.

"Okay, you've all seen it now, right?" The hostess was giddy as well, completely immersed into the role of being a voice lover. "Our two biggest voice acting associations and two biggest music associations are the ones who wrote and performed the theme song for this video game and provided the voice acting for the promotional videos. Definitely an awesome benefit here tonight for fans and can also be considered… a belated Valentine's Day present. So everyone, treat this like your god or goddess is giving you a late Valentine's Day celebration. As for me… I'm going to happily go off and be a little fan. Handing over the mike now…"

The hostess handed off the microphone.

"Everyone…. Long time no see." Liu Nian Zhi Sheng Voice Acting Group's Fu Sheng Wu Meng was the first to speak, in a voice so gentle it seemed like water could be squeezed out of it. "I'm at the airport right now, using my mobile phone to log into YY. When the performance starts a little later, if there's any sound quality issues, please bear with and forgive me."

Die Die: "No worries, Wu Meng Dada. Give us a couple of cat cries and we'll consider that our compensation."

"Meow… What did you say? I can't really hear you. Meow…" Fu Sheng Wu Meng gave a couple chuckles, soft, gentle, and sweet…

The comment box was immediately filled with comments of "Sooooo cute!!!!" "Dada, requesting to marry you!!!!"...

Die Die coughed a couple times. "Where's that dignity we had all agreed to remember to keep?"

"Meow… What's that you said? Aaah, such bad reception in the airport… Let me hand over the mike."

Die Die immediately burst out in laughter. She cleared her throat before officially taking over the task of being host of the event. "Since out of this group of old friends, I'm the only one who has the side job of being an online emcee as well, I'll be the guest host for tonight's late night event... Tonight was not easy to pull together. Besides one or two people who could not make it, basically the whole crew is present. Is that right, Toupai DaRen?"

Toupai was one of the judges tonight so naturally, he was one of the main attractions of the night.

But…

Gu Sheng felt that … everyone seemed to just like teasing him, eh…

Only a single, nonchalant word in reply: "Mm."

Toupai was certainly concise…

There was absolutely no hint of the logical, calm manner of speaking he had used a while ago when he was a judge, and he had reverted back to his nature where words were as precious as gold. However, that did not prevent the fans, who were no longer being restrained, from flooding the screen with torrential outpourings of love declarations T.T...

"I suspect it must be because it is the day after Valentine's Day, so everyone is free," Die Die continued with a charming laugh. "Is that right, Toupai DaRen? Last night, a lot of people must have been really busy…"

"I suppose." Toupai seemed to be able to guess where she was heading with her words.

"So… Qiang Qing Ci Dada… yesterday, you must have been very busy too, right? What were you doing?"

T.T...

Gu Sheng immediately became embarrassed…

Tens of thousands of spectators… and things still managed to come back around to this topic? …

"Me?" Qiang Qing Ci gave a chuckle. His answer was given in an understated tone, but was also plain and clear. "I did what I was supposed to do."

I did… what I was… supposed to do…

This way of answering basically confirmed Mu Mu's Weibo comment. Then, there was also the song he had posted himself… There were tens of thousands of people in the room, yet Qiang Qing Ci, who was on the microphone, was still clearly much more composed than her, the one who was using an alternate ID to secretly listen in …

She dragged her finger over one of the pages of her book, scratching it incessantly. She wanted to make herself calm down a bit, and then calm down even more.

Feng Ya Song suddenly turned on his microphone. "Die Die, you aren't being very kind, eh. There's so many of us here, but how come you only have eyes for Unrivalled Allure Toupai DaRen? Oooh… Don't tell me you've had a crush on Toupai for a long time now, eh?"

Die Die was thrilled. "Eight out of ten girls have a crush on Toupai. I'm one who doesn't follow the crowd. I openly love him, of course."

Fei Shao was amused as well. "I openly love Toupai as well… Don't think that just because you're hogging the mike, you can declare your love as you wish, eh."

Everyone was bantering back and forth with laughs and jeers.

Those closest to Toupai were taking on an obvious stance of protecting him.

Fortunately, Die Die was only using Toupai's popularity as a way to warm-up the crowd, and she quickly jumped into the main topic. "The opening song for this late night event is actually a medley. How are we going to make this medley? Tonight, the four most beautiful 'beauties' are going to give you the most explosive opening program."

There was a brief moment of silence.

Then, immediately following was the biggest surge of exhilaration the night had seen yet. Everybody was elated…

And the biggest reason the crowd was seething with excitement was because Die Die had stopped talking right at this point and had not said whom those four were. The public comments screen was beong flooded incessantly as people typed their own idol's name. Each artiste had his or her own fans, and now, all of them seemed as if they had been dosed with stimulants. And plus, it was claimed that it would be tonight's four most beautiful "beauties." Well, of course, my own DaRen is the most beautiful!!!!

Naturally, the names being shouted the most on the screen were the most popular male artiste of each of the four associations.

Qiang Qing Ci, Fu Sheng Wu Meng, Bei Dou Xiao Xing, and Jian Jian.

And Qiang Qing Ci's name was the one most furiously coming up on the screen…

Die Die laughed, and without saying anything more, she began playing the background music.

The background music for the four songs had already been edited together. The first note of the first song had just rung out and then someone had already posted its name on the screen: "Yangguan Diao" [Tune of Yangguan[2]]. Bei Dou Xiao Xing's microphone indicator lit up, and his slightly husky voice was singing the first line:

[0:33] "The glint of the blade is relentlessly pursuing and does not let one escape. Who's embrace can one fall into?

A midnight battlefield. In the desert, the desolate smoke signals sway like wild grass ––"

Sure enough… guessed correctly.

No one had expected that the song chosen to open the event would be one about the smoke signals of war on the desert, brotherhood, and patriotism.

An event opener that made everyone boil in excitement.

Since this was a medley, each person would only sing half a song.

Soon, the music transitioned out of this song's chorus and cut directly into the chorus of "Feng Qi Tian Lan" [Wind Rises Up at Tianlan]. The background music had been edited flawlessly, so perfect and had flowed so smoothly that it seemed like a single song.

This time, it was Jian Jian's turn:

[1:22] "Years from now, the pages of the history books will have this night recorded.

The long limestone streets tainted with scenes of parting through separation or death ––"

A song of righteous passion –– a city falling captive, a nation's downfall, a general who would rather spill her blood on that long street rather than surrender –– was sung in a heartrending manner that awed the listeners…

Jian Jian's voice was particularly clear and resonant, completely different from the previous song's deep and low quality, and carried a distinct sense of mournfulness.

The tens of thousands of people were all completely captivated as they listened.

"Meow… Such pressure." Fu Sheng Wu Meng chose this unexpected moment to act cute.

It was apparent that he was the next singer.

Sure enough, once the chorus of the previous song was done, the music immediately cut into the chorus of "Shan He Yong Mu"[A Country Forever to be Admired]. Fu Sheng Wu Meng truly did as he had said he would, using his mobile phone in some unknown corner of the airport as he started sing. He had a reputation of being the most adorably fun character in his association but also the male with the most beautiful singing voice. When he opened his mouth to sing, his voice immediately ceased its cuteness:

[0:48] "For you, I sing 300 nights of love songs. Dust and dirt swirl in the air, but they are only a moment in passing

When you looked off into the distance, were you willing to let go?

A scene seemed to be conjured up of a proud, untamable young man, his bold, unrestrained attitude apparent as he stood, cup of wine in hand, before a troop of ten thousand.

Three people had sung…

Three people had sung…

Everyone could guess who the next person was.

Regardless of whether one was comparing popularity or singing ability, besides Qiang Qing Ci, no one else was able to exceed the previous three singing "generals"… Which song was it going to be? The name was already emerging in Gu Sheng's mind…

In the comment screen, besides Qiang Qing Ci's name, the name continuously flooding the screen was…

"Qing Jin Tian Xia [Overturn The World]."