Are you trying to force me to become a star?

Chapter 11 The Power of Music

"Mom and Dad, I'm full."

Inside a villa in the Zhonghai Huxi Royal Villa community, Qin Shuyin put down her bowl and chopsticks, pulled out a chair, and went back to her room.

Mr. and Mrs. Qin exchanged a glance, both seeing the worry in each other's eyes. How could they eat so little?

Qin Shuyin returned to her bedroom and sat down, aimlessly playing on the computer, but she couldn't muster much interest.

Her grandmother passed away a month ago.

Her father runs a company and is usually very busy. Her mother also assists her father at the company. Her closest relative is her grandmother.

But a month ago, while she was still in school, someone from her family came to pick her up and told her that her grandmother had passed away.

Actually, her grandmother is already eighty-four years old, healthy and doesn't even need to take medicine. Moreover, her son is filial, successful in his career, and her granddaughter is adorable and always makes her happy.

The elderly ladies who usually take walks with her all envy her, saying, "Old lady, even the gods would envy your life."

"What's there to envy? As long as you don't cause trouble for the children, that's enough. The greatest blessing is to be able to leave whenever you want one day."

The old lady even enjoyed this last blessing, passing away in just half a day after she went from being bedridden.

When Qin Shuyin returned home, she was still in a state of confusion. She stared blankly at everything in front of her, watching her beloved grandmother, who had lost her warmth, being placed in a crystal coffin, and then relatives and friends came to pay their respects, cremate, and bury her.

Throughout the entire process, she didn't shed a single tear.

Under immense grief, one cannot cry.

Then she went back to school, but her parents felt that something was wrong with her situation and discussed with the teacher that she should not stay at the dormitory directly, and instead pick her up and drop her off at school every day.

After returning home tonight, she didn't know what to do; she simply had no appetite and no interest in anything.

She frantically clicked on the computer, right-clicking, refreshing, right-clicking, refreshing...

Somehow, she opened the Zhiyin app, logged in automatically, and saw "Anhe Bridge" in the recommendations. As if possessed, she listened to it and heard the captivating drumbeats.

The heart-pounding drumbeats brought a heavy sense of bygone time, which gradually focused her attention.

Let me see you one more time, from south to north.

"Like being blindfolded by the Fifth Ring Road."

"..."

The expensive sound system in her home perfectly reproduced the singer's emotions, and she listened to the emotionally charged singing, completely immersed in it.

As the song played, memories of my grandmother gradually surfaced, reminding me of that kind old woman who would always wait for me after school, and her of her frequent greeting, "My dear, school's out."

"..."

"Let me hear that most beautiful line one more time."

"I'm waiting for you when you get home."

As she looked at the lines of lyrics, her eyes gradually filled with tears.

At that moment, the guitar strings were gently plucked, and a mournful instrument, with its extreme impact, broke through her defenses. Tears streamed down her face involuntarily, and she began to sob softly, finally collapsing onto the table and wailing.

The crying startled her parents downstairs, and they rushed upstairs. When they entered the room, they saw their daughter crying uncontrollably on the table.

Qin's mother stepped forward, and Qin Shuyin hugged her tightly, crying out hoarsely, "Mom, I miss my grandma, I miss my grandma so much."

While her mother wept with heartache, she wiped away her daughter's tears, saying, "Good child, cry it out, it'll make you feel better."

Qin's father watched the mother and daughter embracing each other, then silently walked out of the room, lit a cigarette, and slowly smoked it.

When the crying subsided, Qin's father came in, sat down beside her with red eyes, and gently comforted her, "Shuyin, your grandmother is blessed; she didn't suffer at all."

Qin Shuyin was still sobbing. Yes, her grandmother was a blessed person who hadn't suffered.

But the more it's like this, the more it hurts.

……

……

When Xu Jinyan returned to her dorm, Pang Lei exclaimed in surprise, "Holy crap, Jinyan, you're on the recommendation list! What kind of status is this?"

Xu Jinyan was utterly shocked to see Pang Lei, who couldn't speak without using the word "dirty," even resorting to inversion.

Kong Chun excitedly said, "In just half an hour, the downloads of your song have increased by 100,000. You're going to be a huge hit!"

You're also using inverted format?

Xu Jinyan then looked at Yu Han, who was usually the most composed, and asked, "Do you want to join in the fun?"

Yu Han lived up to his most composed assessment, speaking slowly and deliberately: "I just carefully studied the platform's rules. The recommended section on Zhiyin.com cannot be bought with money. It doesn't look at online advertising and marketing; it only looks at objective data on the Zhiyin platform. Therefore, those that can be recommended must have excellent results, high number of plays, and high downloads, like weekly chart champions, runners-up, and third place."

Kong Chun asked in confusion, "Jin Yan's song has only been online for a day, how come it's already on the recommendation list?"

Yu Han smiled slightly, saying, "That's a good compliment," and continued, "The above are the mainstream rules. There are also some unspoken rules: First, the platform encourages new artists and new songs, especially independent musicians who aren't signed to a record company, and Jin Yan fits this description; second, the platform also encourages relatively niche genres compared to mainstream music, and folk music fits this description; third, the platform also encourages music that promotes traditional ethnic musical instruments, and the morin khuur (horsehead fiddle) fits this description; finally..."

Xu Jinyan smiled and asked, "Anything else?"

As expected of you, you didn't use inversion, you went straight for parallelism.

Yu Han laughed and said, "It's the last one, the last one, the very last one. This is a competition hosted by the Zhiyin platform itself. It's been lukewarm for the past few years, but now that you've appeared, they have to increase the hype, right?"

The three applauded, thanking Teacher Yu for his insightful speech.

In fact, Xu Jinyan had just noticed that the rate at which the positive emotion value received by the system was increasing had suddenly accelerated.

He received the most emotional points during the semi-finals, after which the rate of increase slowed down considerably. He then discovered that the song had been featured in the recommendation section, which was a significant positive development.

Correspondingly, negative emotions also increased somewhat. These mainly came from a few individuals, with Wang Yizhen contributing the majority, though the other contestants also contributed some.

It's worth mentioning that Xiaotian provided another wave of positive emotional value.

Tsk tsk, the same thing, some people think it's unfair. The competition isn't even over yet, why should the organizers help cheat? Is there any comparison?

Others thought it was great; more people were paying attention, and they were being recognized by more people, all thanks to Xu Jinyan.

Of course, there are a very few students who want to get rid of Xu Jinyan and capitalize on this wave of traffic.

The system reflects the myriad aspects of human life in a very clear and interesting way.

But regardless, on Monday night, "Anhe Bridge" became a hit.

More and more people started listening to the videos. Basically, no one thought about listening to them three times. After the first listen, they paid to download them without hesitation.

Then they started looping it endlessly. They didn't care about the lyrics; what they cared about was the melancholic melody and the memories it brought back.

People who are happy in life will have a sense of profound regret, while those who have regrets will either have tears in their eyes or cry until their faces are contorted, depending on the magnitude of their regrets.

Regardless, the hype has built up, the stage is set, and on the day of the finals, the number of viewers entering the live stream will definitely be several times greater than before. All five contestants, regardless of their mood, have begun their tense preparations, waiting to see if they can seize this opportunity and turn the tide.

……

……

On Tuesday morning, Qin Shuyin entered the classroom. After crying her heart out yesterday, she felt much more relaxed and sensible.

People grow up a lot after experiencing the loss of a loved one and cherish their family members even more.

As soon as she sat down, her deskmate and best friend noticed that Qin Shuyin was different from the previous few days.

She naturally knew that a family member had passed away in Qin Shuyin's family. Over the past month, she had tried her best to comfort Qin Shuyin, but because Qin Shuyin's life was relatively happy, and her only deceased grandfather had passed away when she was still young, her comfort had not been of much help.

"Shuyin, are you feeling better?"

Qin Shuyin smiled and looked over, saying, "I'm much better, thank you."

She could naturally feel her deskmate's care, which touched her deeply and made her realize that there is still a lot of beauty in life. "Yesterday, a folk song was recommended on Zhiyin (a Chinese online literature platform). After listening to it, I cried a lot and released all the emotions that had been building up inside me. Now I feel like the sky has suddenly become much clearer."

"What kind of folk song is this? It's so amazing!"

Qin Shuyin recalled what she had seen yesterday and said, "The song is called Anhe Bridge, and the singer's name is Xu... Xu something again?"

That song touched her deeply. She never imagined that the power of music could be so moving and soul-stirring. The singer must have experienced immense pain and regret to write such lyrics and sing with such feeling.

She carefully recalled what she had seen yesterday. She remembered very clearly that the songwriter, composer, arranger, and singer were all the same person, and that the singer's surname was the same as her best friend's, Xu, and her given name was...

"Xu Jinyan, yes, that's the name, and you share the same surname, Xu."

"Xu...Xu Jinyan?" Xu Yunge stared at her best friend with her mouth agape.

Qin Shuyin looked at her with a puzzled expression, not understanding why she reacted that way.

"My brother's name is Xu Jinyan!"