You're about to retire from the entertainment industry, yet your concerts are still so popular?

This is true not only in the music industry.

The same applies to Zhang Yiming's small group.

A video conference is being held in the group.

Li Shuyuan gripped the sheet music, her voice filled with rage: "Those transitions in 'Moonlight'... did Ye Chen write it with his life on the line?!"

Jin Haiji then remarked, "After this performance, does Teacher Ye Chen want to give up his voice?"

Zhang Yiming: "Jin Haiji! I'm going to Hangzhou! If Ye Chen falls from power, I'll be the first to rush up and carry him off the stage!"

Wang Xinlin smiled sweetly: "Teacher Yiming, you don't need to carry me. I'll help Teacher Ye Chen myself."

"..."

As time goes by.

Ye Chen's fan group has been much quieter lately.

They're all busy learning songs in different places.

A music academy in Southwest China.

Luo Zhaojie stared at the sheet music for "I Will Love You Till I Die" that he had been copying all night and sneered: "It's nothing special. I'll master it tonight."

Right now, he is practicing this song.

"Even in death, I will love you!"

"Aww!!!"

This awful school! The soundproofing in the practice rooms for Chinese students is terrible. I heard a violinist screaming in agony from the next room as his bow hair snapped.

Luo Zhaojie didn't stop.

He felt his emotions had reached their peak, and he thrust them upwards with all his might: "I won't feel good until I've given it my all—the desire to destroy the universe remains!!!"

The second line already sounded off, and the third line completely broke the melody.

"Luo Zhaojie, are you having an asthma attack or are you butchering a pig?" The girl in the music room next door poked her head in. "That noise you just made, even dogs would get neutered overnight!"

"I'm practicing singing! Ye Chen's new song!" Luo Zhaojie's face turned red.

"Ye Chen's?" The young woman's eyes lit up. "Then you continue, I'll record something."

Luo Zhaojie took another breath and secretly lowered the volume by a whole octave: "I'll love you even if I die~"

The bass version sounds like a mosquito buzzing.

"Is this 'Love You Till I Die' or 'Remember You Till I Die'?" The girl burst out laughing!

"This song's high notes are so high they're suffocating, and the low notes are so low they're suffocating! It won't even let me catch my breath in the middle?!" Luo Zhaojie slammed down the sheet music and collapsed onto the piano bench!

This rendition of "I Will Love You Till I Die" has sung everyone numb!

Ye Chen's song is simply not written for human beings!

He wanted to send me away!

The young woman patted him on the shoulder generously: "Don't bother practicing. Ye Chen probably wouldn't be able to sing it himself either."

"No! I need to practice until the chorus!" Luo Zhaojie suddenly sat up straight!

"What if he suddenly goes up on stage and I, as a music student, can't even open my mouth? How embarrassing!"

Then he tried a seventh time, an eighth time...

The continuous high notes above C5, the extreme vocal range of the male voice in the chorus, left my voice completely hoarse on the ninth take.

Finally, he slumped onto the piano and weakly said, "Ye Chen...you're a devil!"

……

Dodo's mom is having trouble sleeping again.

After Duoduo's father sacrificed his life, she felt like she had sunk to the bottom of the water.

Duoduo chatters away during the day, but at night she secretly cries while hugging her policeman teddy bear.

She dared not break down in front of her child, so she could only wait until Duoduo fell asleep before curling up alone in the corner of the sofa.

She habitually opened Ye Chen's playlist, wanting to escape into the world of music.

Ye Chen sang a revolutionary song at the last stop in Chongqing, which was very moving and brought tears to my eyes, but it couldn't ease her longing for her husband.

This time, she was drawn to the word "silence".

The song title perfectly reflects my state of mind these past few years: silence, quietude, and mourning.

With headphones on, Zhang Jie's version of the piano prelude sounds like raindrops falling into a deep pool.

[Unable to resist transforming into a stubborn fish, swimming alone against the ocean current to the very end...]

Upon hearing this, she was stunned.

Isn't this poem about her?

Stubbornly trapped in the year she lost him, she defied everyone's advice and sank alone to the bottom of the sea.

The vows made sincerely in my youth have silently sunk to the depths of the sea...

Tears fell onto the back of my hand.

She remembered that morning before he went out on a mission, the sun was shining brightly, and he said, "When I get back, I'll take you and Duoduo to eat at that wonton shop."

The vows are silent, and the people sink.

But then, the chorus suddenly blared!

[I couldn't help but transform into a stubborn fish.]

Swimming against the ocean currents all by myself!

I have been sentenced to a lifetime of loneliness by love!

[Don't fight back! Don't let go! ...]

Not fight back? Not let go?

Her breath caught in her throat.

This song is like her struggling in the deep sea, soaked in sadness, yet stubbornly refusing to sink!

Ye Chen's singing seemed to be telling her—don't give up, you can still take another step forward!

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

It turns out that being strong isn't about not crying, it's about crying and then continuing to swim forward!

It's the courage to take a step forward, no matter how heavy your steps are!

As the music gradually stopped, her eyes were already brimming with tears.

The bedroom door opened, and Duoduo, still half-asleep, ran over clutching her policeman doll: "Mommy, why are you crying?"

"No, it's just that Mom understands Uncle Ye Chen's 'Walking Towards the Light' now." She gently hugged her daughter.

"Duoduo, how about Mommy takes you to eat wontons?"

The sunlight streamed in through the window and shone on her face.

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

……

Ye Chen specifically scheduled the Hangzhou stop for the 12th to avoid clashing with the college entrance examination.

As a result, magical realism unfolded in senior high school classrooms across the country over the next month.

During the morning reading session, the radio station played seven songs, including "Chasing Dreams with a Pure Heart," on a rotating basis.

Not only were the students affected, but the head of the teaching department also had tears in his eyes after hearing it: "...The college entrance examination is too difficult. I also took the exam in four provinces back then."

During evening self-study, a top student was humming "Youth" while doing practice problems.

My deskmate was exasperated: "Can you please stop singing? All I can think of is 'I'm still the same boy I used to be,' I've completely forgotten all the function formulas!"

The top student pushed up his glasses: "Then you have to blame Ye Chen. His song is addictive. I did three sets of mock exams last night, and the more I did, the more hooked I became."

My deskmate gritted his teeth: "Ye Chen! You owe me! If I get into university, I'll attend three of your concerts!"

Time flies.

On the day of the college entrance examination, the first boy to rush out of the examination room was stopped by reporters.

He ripped off his exam admission ticket and yelled into the camera, "Ye Chen is awesome! I used all the practice questions I did all night!"

The reporter exclaimed excitedly, "Did you predict the question correctly?"

"No!" The boy's eyes burned with passion. "It was his songs that made me stay up three more nights! And do so many extra practice problems!"

The entire room fell silent.

Across the country, the first person to emerge from the examination hall always presented a similar scene:

"I've run into that conic section problem I stayed up all night working through twice! Ye Chen, I can't believe your lies!"

"Ye Chen is awesome! I memorized his lyrics last night, and I just used them in my essay!"

"I used 'Youth' magazine as my alarm clock, and every day I was kicked awake by the message 'I'm still the same youth I used to be' to do practice problems. Today I can finally sleep in!"

The night of the first day of the college entrance examination.

40,000 new comments with the same format appeared under Ye Chen's Weibo post: "[Ye Chen, I've finished my exams, here to fulfill my vow.]"