The video begins with a guzheng being carried onto a small stage. From the background, it appears to be a rather elegant bar.
Next, the owner comes on stage to introduce the performer. The person holding the phone seems to be a professional woman, quietly chatting with her friends. She mentions that back when she was at Dark Night Star, she had never heard a live performance of ancient music, so she is filming this one to edit and post on her Moments.
Then, the young lady in hanfu takes the stage, and a melodious guzheng piece begins. The video filmer gently taps the rhythm, showing her enjoyment.
At the same time, the bullet comments are filled with remarks like “So pleasant”, “The young lady plays beautifully”, and “Chinese ancient music truly has artistic conception”.
The next moment, a cool, indifferent voice suddenly rings out in the video.
“Stop playing. Your technique is still a bit raw. Go home and practise for a few more years before performing again.”
“Holy shit?”
“Where did this jealous hag come from!”
“Some menopausal old woman envious of a young, beautiful, talented girl?”
“Watch further!”
“Watch further!”
“Holy shit, watch to the end! I absolutely refuse to spoil it!”
Sure enough, just like the early bullet comments, the guests in the bar all speak up in defence of the performer.
Then the owner steps in to mediate, and a seemingly handsome young man from the other side comes forward, though he does not manage to turn the situation around.
“The lighting is too dim to see clearly. This guy looks quite young. Living off a woman?”
“Begging the uploader to increase the brightness!”
“The hanfu young lady is making her move. Impressive. Let’s see how he handles it.”
“Oh no, he actually wants to play? Could he possibly play better than this young lady?”
“I know the hanfu young lady. She’s a top student at Haicheng Conservatory of Music, in her final year, with profound family training and excellent grades. She’s definitely qualified for professional performances.”
“Sitting here waiting for this guy to embarrass himself!”
“Oh no, he’s even claiming to have composed it himself? Giving him too much face!”
“Outrageous! Shameless! Claiming to compose it himself— this is exactly how Chinese classical music gets ruined by people like him!”
“Expose this scumbag who belittles the young lady just to please some old woman!”
“Watch further!”
“Watch further!”
“Holy shit, I was stunned. You must watch to the end!”
The man sits down, the guzheng sounds, and in the next instant, the entire bar falls silent.
“…”
“It seems… rather good?”
“Tch! Not good at all!”
“Never heard it before. Plagiarised, right?”
“Definitely plagiarised! This scumbag probably bought the score from somewhere and is showing off here!”
“To be fair, he really plays well!”
However, because of the phone’s recording quality, only about a third of the timbre comes through, and the artistic conception is hard to fully convey, so viewers online do not feel the same shock as the live audience.
Yet still…
“Watch further!”
“High energy ahead!”
“The big climax is coming!”
The next moment, a xiao melody rises. The camera pans, and in the dim lighting, it captures a silhouette.
“Holy shit, so beautiful!”
“Even though it’s just a shadow, I feel like I’ve fallen in love!”
“I take back everything I said earlier!”
“My god, are you lot all driven by lust? Didn’t you hear that the young lady’s xiao playing matches the previous melody, but with subtle adjustments it expresses an entirely different feeling?”
“What does that mean?”
“No idea!”
“I just know the young lady plays the xiao beautifully!”
No matter how poor the phone audio is, it cannot diminish the sheer quality of Lu Zheng and Si Lingxi’s performance. Even conveying only a fraction of the divine charm through the video is enough to astound viewers.
“So beautiful!”
“Never heard anything like it!”
“So this is Feng Qiu Huang? No wonder Zhuo Wenjun eloped with Sima Xiangru.”
“Love it, love it!”
“If that man wasn’t lying, then it only proves that these two have truly, terrifyingly high musical ability!
Leaving aside the outstanding quality of this Feng Qiu Huang that the man composed, the fact that the woman could listen once and then subtly adjust to harmonise shows top-tier foundation and musical talent!”
“To be honest, it really is much better than what the hanfu young lady played earlier.”
“Maybe they genuinely couldn’t bear to listen to her performance. For example, I can’t stand my mum’s donkey-like erhu playing. Perhaps in the ears of true professionals, the hanfu young lady’s performance sounded like donkey braying.”
“That’s too harsh!”
“Harsh +1, but somehow I feel you’ve hit the truth.”
“Same!”
“Same!”
Soon, the piece ends. The reactions of the bar patrons mirror those of the online viewers: they all comfort the hanfu young lady and ask the owner to play some light music.
“Haha, hilarious!”
“Seeking the psychological shadow area of the young lady!”
“Wow, that man is really handsome!”
“But that woman is the truly beautiful one, with such long hair. She must be a very gentle, virtuous, classically elegant girl!”
“I want to learn guzheng!”
“Holy shit, my girlfriend is demanding I play Feng Qiu Huang for her. I can’t even play guitar! Help!”
“Hey, hey, hey? The hanfu young lady went over to that table and sat down. So it wasn’t deliberate troublemaking after all. Misunderstanding cleared.”
The video ends with the hanfu young lady joining their booth.
It wasn’t that the uploader didn’t want to film Lu Zheng and the others leaving; rather, just as she took out her phone again, she accidentally dropped it on the floor and shattered the tempered glass screen.
…
On the other side, in a certain bureau in Haicheng, a dedicated office has been cleared out. It is connected to all the city’s Skynet cameras, hooked into the big data analysis system, and has access to electronic records of all cases in Haicheng.
At this moment, every surveillance feed within a one-kilometre radius of Yuhua Residential Compound is being analysed, along with statements from fire victims, onlookers, and firefighters at the scene.
A five-person team is carefully reviewing footage and analysing the transcripts.
“Who would have thought we’d encounter the real deal right after arriving.”
“How do you know it’s the real deal?”
“Do you think this fire was normal?”
“Look at the fire experts’ analysis report. They say that at the time there happened to be a vortex airflow that momentarily evacuated the air inside the building, suppressing the flames in an instant. Then the airflow passed, and the subsequent strong wind extinguished the remaining fire, creating this once-in-a-century miraculous phenomenon.”
“You believe that?”
“I don’t either, but the problem is we can’t find any clues!”
“If we can’t find any, we keep looking! Right now this is our only lead. Start with the resident information for the compound, analyse household by household!
Then expand the surveillance radius from one kilometre to two. Record every person who appears, and cross-reference with big data for any future cases… Hey, I’m talking to you. What are you watching?”
“Er… just watching a handsome young man and a beautiful young lady performing classical folk music. They play really well…”
“This is work hours!”
“Alright, alright! Understood, understood. Let’s keep analysing, keep analysing!”
