1979: The child's mother is a celestial being.

Chapter 230 Spring Festival Gala (Part 3)

"Next, please welcome Li Guyi with the song 'New Year's Greeting Song'. Let's give her a round of applause."

No. 48, Tongluo Ancient Lane.

The eight families who had packed He Zhu's house to the brim started discussing as soon as the first song of the Spring Festival Gala began.

"Who is Li Guyi? That name sounds familiar."

"It's the one who sang 'Hometown Love'."

"Oh, it's her. I remember her songs were criticized as decadent music before, and she was even called a 'pornographic singer.' How come she can now perform on CCTV's Spring Festival Gala stage?"

"The country has been reforming and opening up for five or six years now, times have changed."

"Yes, yes, yes, nowadays there are people who dare to publicly play that Taiwanese guy's 'Sweet Honey,' compared to this song, 'Hometown Love' is much more conservative."

"In that case, could we request Comrade Li Guiyi's 'Hometown Love'? I think one of the hosts mentioned that we could request songs, right?"

"Sure, but we don't have a phone."

"My workplace has them."

"Then go and fight."

"It's so far, I'm not going..."

At this very moment, among the tens of millions of viewers across the country watching Li Guiyi singing "New Year's Greetings Song" on television, there are quite a few who share the same thoughts as these people.

While most households do not have telephones installed, a small percentage do.

Or some simply used their work unit's phone to call the on-demand section of CCTV's Studio One backstage.

This year, the production team specially set up four hotline numbers to make it easier to receive public feedback.

All four phones were ringing at that moment.

Someone had just finished one call when the next one came in immediately.

It's clear that a lot of people are making calls.

"Hello, this is the CCTV Spring Festival Gala."

"Hello comrade, I am Jiang Ming, a technician from Northwest Steel Plant No. 2. May I request a song called 'Hometown Love' by Li Guiyi?"

"Okay, Comrade Jiang Ming, we will summarize your requests and pass them on to the director. Is there anything else?"

"That's all, thank you."

After hanging up the phone, the operator quickly wrote down Jiang Ming's information and the song he requested on a piece of paper and then placed it on a plate prepared to the side.

Although the Spring Festival Gala had just begun and Li Guiyi had finished singing "New Year's Greetings Song" before leaving the stage, the plate was already nearly half full of paper slips.

Half of these notes were requests to watch "Hometown Love".

The problem is, "Hometown Love" is a banned song.

Just then, his colleague next to him also hung up the phone. The two exchanged a glance and briefly discussed:

“From the moment Li Guiyi took the stage until now, in just five minutes, I have received more than twenty requests to watch ‘Hometown Love’.”

"I'm about the same, but luckily that's not something we need to worry about. Let the director worry about it."

"Haha, that's true."

Returning to the stage, after Li Guiyi finished singing "New Year's Greeting Song," the next program was a word puzzle game.

The riddle is: "From top to bottom, widely united, what character is it?"

Liu Xiaoli was slightly taken aback when she heard the riddle. She remembered that it wasn't this riddle during the rehearsal. She didn't expect the production team to change it at the last minute. Now she didn't know the answer either.

At this moment, Chen Fusheng returned to the audience, also frowning in deep thought, but he quickly guessed the answer. Secretary Wu, who was at the same table, had also come up with the answer. Seeing Chen Fusheng's relaxed expression, he asked curiously, "Comrade Chen, you've guessed the answer, haven't you?"

"They must have guessed it. I bet Secretary Wu did too."

"Haha, let's say it together, I am a seat."

"I am also a seat, the 'seat' in 'seat'."

The others at the table heard their answers; some suddenly understood, while others were still confused.

Liu Xiaoli belonged to the latter group, but she didn't ask and pretended that she understood.

But her daughter in her arms was very honest, "Daddy, why is it a seat?"

"Because 'from top to bottom' represents 'sitting,' the character for 'sit' is composed of 'sit' and 'widespread unity,' which means adding 'widespread' to the top of 'sit,' so this character is the 'seat' in 'seat.'"

"I don't understand," Chen Qian continued, shaking her head.

Chen Fusheng rubbed her little head and smiled, "It's okay, you'll understand when you go to school and learn to read."

After he finished speaking, he looked up at his wife.

The latter immediately felt guilty and said, "Why are you looking at me? I didn't ask you anything."

"..."

Well, Chen Fusheng decided to save face for his wife and didn't bother to expose her.

Just then, a staff member carrying a plate full of slips of paper quickly approached their table, bowing low, and said to Wu Lengxi and Wang Feng:

"Secretary Wu, Director Wang, these are all notes requesting Li Guiyi to sing 'Hometown Love'. Director Huang and Director Deng are unsure what to do, so they asked me to come and ask for your opinions on their behalf."

Wu Lengxi and Wang Feng exchanged a glance. To be honest, they were also a bit troubled. Although the social atmosphere had indeed become much more open than a few years ago due to the rapid pace of reform and opening up, "Hometown Love" was still a banned song. Considering the political risks, they naturally did not want the song to appear on the stage. However, looking at the full plate of slips of paper handed to them by the staff, these were the opinions of the masses. Since the Spring Festival Gala had opened up the on-demand channel, it would be unreasonable for them to ignore the opinions of the masses.

Therefore, both of them were caught in a dilemma.

"What does Comrade Chen think we should do?"

Chen Fusheng simply picked up a slip of paper from the plate to take a look, but Wu Lengxi unexpectedly threw this difficult problem at him.

Immediately, Chen Fusheng silently put the note back and said, "Secretary Wu, I haven't read it yet."

"You!" Wu Lengxi pointed helplessly at Chen Fusheng.

Of course, Chen Fusheng was just joking. He picked up another piece of paper and casually offered his opinion.

"My view is to respect public opinion."

"What a wonderful example of respecting public opinion," Wu Lengxi remarked.

In fact, he already had the answer in his heart. Since Chen Fusheng's suggestion aligned with his own, he stopped hesitating, exchanged a glance with Wang Feng, and then said to the staff member:
"Since it's the will of the people, let's arrange for them to sing."

The news was quickly relayed to Li Guiyi, who had just stepped down from his post.

She could hardly believe her ears: "What? You want me to sing 'Hometown Love' later?"

“Yes, Comrade Li Guiyi, this is the voice of the people. If you have forgotten, you can come up later. Go and familiarize yourself with it now,” Deng Zaijun said.

"Director Deng, are you sure it's 'Hometown Love'? Isn't that a banned song?" Li Guyi still doubted that she had misheard.

Although she received a lot of attention because of this song, she has also been criticized a lot over the years. The song is still banned. She never thought that the production team would ask her to sing it tonight.

“Comrade Li Guiyi, you heard right, it’s 'Hometown Love', and it was approved by Secretary Wu, Director Wang, and Director Chen. This means that from this moment on, your song is no longer a banned song.”

Li Guyi went down to prepare.

After several more program crews, it was soon time for Chen Fusheng's single and his duet with his family...

(End of this chapter)