Entertainment: The microphones are here, why is everyone so silent?

"I'll get you two tickets and take you to hear real music live!"

"Let me show you what T0-level live singing skills really are!"

"Really?!" Huang Zhicheng's eyes lit up.

Her expression darkened again, and she muttered, "But... the college entrance exam is coming up soon..."

"The college entrance exam?" Old Huang's tone was weary and helpless. "With your current lazy habits, what can your mother and I expect you to achieve through academics?"

"Since we've chosen the path of art, let's make the most of it!"

"Ye Chen's songs are a perfect benchmark! If you can learn even a little bit from them, it's better than doing a hundred practice tests!"

"I was wrong before." Old Huang paused, looking much older at that moment. "Your pursuit of Ye Chen is something to learn from."

He patted his son on the shoulder, his tone unusually gentle:

"I'll take care of the tickets. You just need to listen carefully!"

Looking into his father's eyes, which held a mixture of disappointment and hope, Huang Zhicheng didn't argue for the first time; he simply gripped his phone tightly.

The screen displays the lyrics page for "The Hard-to-Recite Sutra".

A single ticket was resold for several thousand yuan.

Who knows, those two tickets might just wipe out Old Deng's secret stash of money...

……

late at night.

Yunnan, the land of colorful clouds, and the Spring City.

The city of Kunming outside the window is shrouded in darkness.

Only a few neon lights in the distance were dimly lit.

Inside the room, several plaques read "Family of First-Class Heroes".

The gray-black photo shows a little-known anti-drug police officer who died in the line of duty.

The woman leaned back on the sofa, holding a faded Qin's Moon themed keychain in her hand.

As his fingertips traced the metal edge, his eyes unknowingly welled up with tears again.

"Honey... I'm so happy I learned to sing 'Only Mother is Good in the World' today." She whispered to the air, her voice terribly hoarse, "If only you could hear me..."

"Mommy, Mommy!"

The bedroom door was pushed open, and six-year-old Xiao Kaixin walked out, clutching a teddy bear and rubbing her eyes.

As if she sensed something, she ran over barefoot.

The little hand climbed onto the sofa: "Why are you crying?"

The woman hurriedly wiped her face and hugged her daughter tightly: "No, Mommy's just... my eyes are a little sore."

"You miss your dad again, don't you?"

Xiao Kaixin tilted her head back, her eyes, which looked remarkably like her husband's, clear and bright.

The woman choked up, buried her face in her daughter's soft hair, and took a few deep breaths.

When she looked up again, she tried to force a smile:

"Mommy will be fine after listening to some music. Will you happily listen to music with Mommy?"

This was an agreement between the couple—and also the way she had managed to get through all these years on her own.

Whenever the longing becomes unbearable, she puts on her headphones and lets the music temporarily shut her out of the world.

Little Kaixin nodded obediently and climbed onto her lap to sit down.

The woman opened Cloud Music, and the homepage prominently featured a poster of Ye Chen's new song.

A song, a thought, a world of martial arts?

She paused, taken aback.

My husband loved "Qin's Moon" the most, and always said that China should have its own martial arts music.

Back then, she always laughed at his idealism, but he earnestly said, "When we have time in the future, I'll take you to see the real world."

Later, he broke his promise.

Her fingers trembled slightly as she clicked on "Moonlight".

The moment the intro began, Xiao Kaixin's eyes lit up: "Mommy! That's Uncle Ye Chen's voice! Our teacher played it in class today!"

The woman did not speak.

She listened to the ethereal, moon-like opera singing.

Looking at the lyrics "The moon of Qin and the pass of Han," I suddenly felt something gripping my heart tightly.

The world of martial arts still exists, but the person who told her the stories is gone.

She almost frantically switched to the next song, "The Difficult Scripture".

The fast-paced Cantonese lyrics are like a barrage of swordplay.

The songs there sang of greed, anger, and ignorance; of love and hate; of the eight sufferings of life; of not getting what one wants—she suddenly remembered:

Before her husband left for the last time, he held their daughter, Kaixin, and hummed an off-key song, saying that he would take a long vacation after this mission was over and take them to Dali.

"Mom, this song is so fast!" Kaixin whispered.

She hummed in agreement, and tears silently streamed down her face, dripping onto her daughter's hair.

The last song is "Silence".

She thought it was another martial arts song, but the moment she clicked on it, she was captivated by the piano prelude.

Then she heard—

"I can't help but transform into a stubborn fish, swimming alone against the ocean current to the very end!"

The woman's breath caught in her throat.

That's not martial arts.

That's a person struggling in the deep sea!

It is a stubbornness that refuses to sink to the bottom, even though it is clearly soaked in sadness!

It was a roar of "I refuse to accept my fate" after swallowing all the tears!

"I've been sentenced to a lifetime of loneliness by love, but I won't fight back! I won't let go!"

The song made her hug her little Kaixin tighter, her nails digging into her palms.

Over the years, everyone has advised her to "look forward" and to "be strong for her child."

She was tired of hearing those grand principles and just numbly endured each day.

But this song... the feeling of being choked by fate yet still insisting on singing it out, hit her like a dull thud in the heart.

It turns out she wasn't the only one in the deep sea.

It turns out that being "strong" doesn't mean not crying, but rather continuing to swim forward after crying.

The song is coming to an end.

The phrase "losing you" lingered repeatedly, but in the end it settled on the resolute decision to "draw a prison for you for life."

It's not about accepting fate, it's about making a choice!

Choose to remember, choose to continue living with that love.

The moment the music stopped, the living room became so quiet that you could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall.

At this moment, her eyes were already brimming with tears.

Little Kaixin looked up at her and asked, "Mommy, are you still crying?"

The woman shook her head.

She wiped away her tears, bent down and kissed her daughter's forehead, then picked up her phone and opened the ticketing app.

"I'm happy," her voice was soft, yet carried a long-lost firmness, "Let's go see Uncle Ye Chen's concert, okay?"

"Really?!" Kaixin's eyes widened. "But Daddy said..."

"Dad said he would take us to see the world of martial arts," the woman interrupted her.

His gaze fell on the Qin's Moon keychain, and a very faint smile appeared on his lips:

"He broke his promise. So this time, Mom is taking him to see the modern-day Chinese martial arts world."

She didn't hesitate at all when she bought the three tickets for the inner field.

When she finished placing the order, Xiao Kaixin was already fast asleep in her arms.

The woman gently patted her daughter's back, gazed at the deep night outside the window, and whispered to the air, "Honey, can you hear me?"

"The current martial arts world... has some really good songs."

"I'll take you to hear it."

She closed her eyes and for the first time felt that the sun might really rise as usual tomorrow.

And the fish in the deep sea finally began to try to swim towards the light.

……

One night passed.

Before Ye Chen even got out of bed, he was bombarded with calls from Xu Hong bringing good news.