"Look! Some pa.s.serby is singing at our campus entrance and his voice is amazing!"
"Is this some television recording a show?"
"Huh? He looks like one of us. I've seen him before."
As the video spread to the Faculty of Art, Su Yang's ident.i.ty was revealed, and soon the whole campus knew about the student from the Faculty of Art who could sing very well and was busking in front of the campus.
The song that he sang was 'Beijing Beijing'.
Although no one knew why Su Yang sang the song of Beijing in front of a campus in Shanghai, it did not stop them from enjoying his beautiful voice.
The original singer of this song was a popular singer named w.a.n.g Feng. He was known for his coa.r.s.e and rugged voice when performing the song which made it feel wild and unrestrained.
Su Yang's cover of the song was a little different from the original. After all, he was moved by what he had seen and experienced. His 'Beijing Beijing' felt more melancholic and resistant, and it seemed as though he lost himself in the song.
The anguish he exuded in his singing as a young student who was not even 20 years old seemed like he was struggling against the odds yet had hope to fight on. Compared to the original, Su Yang's version possessed another kind of charm.
…
In the female dorm of the campus, Chu Xia was lying in her bed with pink pajamas and a mask on her face. Her phone suddenly rang. It was just a single notification at first, but the notifications poured in one after another.
She slightly turned her body and asked her roommate in the lower bunker to bring her her phone, "Wenwen, can you bring me my phone? Thanks."
Wenwen was still looking at something on her phone as she picked Chu Xia's phone up and pa.s.sed it to her.
Chu Xia then unlocked her phone and realized that the message was from the secretary group of her course and she was tagged in it. She thought there were more tasks to settle, but when she checked it, the group was spamming a short clip of some sort. Several other cla.s.s secretaries sent it to the group at once and the last message was forwarded by the secretary of the second Chinese Literature cla.s.s. Her name was mentioned along with the message.
'Isn't this Su Yang from your cla.s.s? He can sing really well. Has he signed up for the campus singing compet.i.tion?"
'Su Yang? What happened to Su Yang?' Chu Xia had yet to respond to the situation.
At the next moment, from the lower bunk, Wenwen squealed all of a sudden, "Holy sh*t! It's Su Yang!"
The other roommates did not know what happened, so everyone gathered around for a closer look.
Some of them were stunned by the realization of it and exclaimed, "No wonder he looks so familiar! It's him!"
"Yeah! Oh my G.o.d!"
"This is really a surprise!"
Chu Xia was confused and curious at the same time. 'What happened? What happened to Su Yang again? Huh? Why did I say 'again'?'
She tapped on the clip that was posted in the group. Although the start of the video was a little dark, with her roommates and the secretary from the second cla.s.s giving her hints, Chu Xia knew at first glance that the boy in the clip was Su Yang.
He stood there quietly with his eyes closed. When he opened his eyes, his fingers started to stroke the guitar strings and his charming voice sang loudly.
'When I walk on each of these streets, it seems like my heart can never be in peace.'
When the first phrase entered her ears, Chu Xia had gooseb.u.mps explode all over her flesh. It was good, excellent, in fact.
Su Yang's singing in the clip was far better than that time when she had heard him sing in the garden.
The vicissitudes of life, the bitterness, and the emotions were expressed perfectly and brazenly in his slightly hoa.r.s.e voice. Chu Xia heard it all from her phone. She could not help but feel sourness and melancholy in her heart.
As the clip continued, Su Yang's singing got even more emotional and he started to shout. In the end, he no longer cared about the accuracy of his timbre. All he did was vent his emotions and that rawness of his voice moved everyone's hearts.
Even after the song ended, Chu Xia still had gooseb.u.mps all over her. She felt slightly numb and appeared absent-minded for a long while.
There was only one thought floating in her mind.
'T-that's Su Yang?'
…
Meanwhile, in Su Yang's neighborhood, where Qu Xiaomeng lived.
Wearing a pair of round frame gla.s.ses, she was working on her lecture slides on her computer. On the sofa beside her was a young man who was 18 to 19 years of age and shared a resemblance with her. He was playing his iPad with his legs crossed.
Suddenly, her computer received several desktop notifications from WeChat. She tabbed out of her Powerpoint and checked the message. It was from the faculty lecturers' group.
'Isn't this Su Yang from the first Chinese Lecture?'
'It's him.'
'He can sing this well!? I've never noticed this before.'
'I know, right?'
'Su Yang?' Qu Xiaomeng pushed her gla.s.ses up slightly and curiously clicked on a slightly blurry clip.
After she finished watching the clip, Qu Xiaomeng's jaw fell to the ground and she could not close her mouth for a while.
'This is Su Yang?!'
Her mind was confused for a long time before she reluctantly accepted the fact that it was him.
On second thought, she searched for Su Yang's name on WeChat and sent him a message: 'You can sing quite well, but don't forget about our promise.'
After she tapped on the "Send" b.u.t.ton, Qu Xiaomeng received a notification: 'Please add the user as a friend before sending a message.' (Su Yang deleted Qu Xiaomeng's contact right after he got it.)
Qu Xiaomeng was rendered speechless.
'You little...just you wait!'
…
In the office building on campus, Old Zhou was enjoying his tea from his Thermos flask while he looked at his phone. He was grinning at a clip that was playing as Su Yang's emotional singing belted out from his phone speakers.
"Not bad, not bad." Old Zhou took a sip of tea from his flask and even chewed on some goji berries.
…
In the age of the internet, the spread of information could reach lightspeed. Right after Su Yang finished a single song, the video of him had spread to almost half of the campus and was about to go out of the campus. Nonetheless, he had no idea about that.
After he shouted the last note, he bowed deeply at the students who had stayed for his show. He returned the guitar to the busker and left despite the students begging for one more song.
On the way back, Su Yang realized that several of the academic chat groups that he was in, such as the one with the cla.s.s, the one with the part-timers, and even the group with the straight-A students, were spamming him with messages. Every single one of them tagged him.
Indeed, even the straight-A students had a chat group and Su Yang was a member of the group.
As a matter of fact, other than his poor command of English, he was considered the top student in his other subjects. His results were considered one of the best, if not the best, in his entire course and even the faculty. Otherwise, he could not have gotten into a prestigious university with his borderline English.
After Su Yang tapped on the messages, he realized that his busking session had been recorded and had spread like wildfire on campus. However, he smiled and was not overly concerned.
University students were young adults who could barely stay put. The slightest commotion would catch their attention and they would share the most interesting things among themselves. However, how many of them would remember what they shared, especially an impromptu performance?
Of course, being recognized by almost half of the campus was something Su Yang considered joyful.
'I simply play the guitar and sing a song, and you people almost freak out. I find their ignorance amusing.' That was what he told himself on the way home with a smirk on his face.
However, right after he reached home, his good mood flew out of the door.
His bas.e.m.e.nt was in a mess. Books were scattered everywhere, his bed was turned upside down, his chair had fallen, and his desk was not where it usually was. Su Yang was bewildered by the scene.
Most importantly, Gru, the withered twig, had transformed. Its body had grown at least five times and was now as robust as a log. The two sprouts at its tip had become vines and were being brandished around like whips. Gru angrily growled its name when Su Yang came in, "Gruuu, Gruuu!"
Apart from that, the husky bolster, Little Hus, was nowhere to be found.
