Entertainment: A song that brought his deceased wife back to life.

That night, Weibo's technicians contemplated jumping off a building.

Just five minutes ago, they had fixed the smoking server and hadn't even had a chance to press the restart button when a new term shot up to the top of the list at rocket speed, followed by a dark purple "Explosive".

#SisterXuQing#

There was no buying of trending topics, and no online trolls controlling the comments.

They were all living people.

They were all living people who had just been crying their eyes out in the live stream.

"Can anyone tell me who the 'older sister' in the lyrics is?"

"When that female voice came out, I felt like my skull was being ripped open. It was so gentle, but it hurt so much."

"I found it! I'm a local from Linhai, and there really was a fire at the Sunshine Welfare Home twenty years ago! There was a girl named Jiang Yue at the time..."

The internet has a memory, especially when tens of millions of people start digging for the truth at the same time; no secret can be kept hidden.

A scanned copy of a yellowed old newspaper was posted.

The title is blurry, but can be vaguely discerned: "Aftermath of the Sunshine Welfare Home Fire: Surviving Orphans Suffer Severe Psychological Trauma, Who Will Care for Their Future?"

The accompanying picture shows a skinny little boy clinging tightly to the hem of an older girl's clothes.

The girl smiled brightly, revealing a small canine tooth.

The boy had a gloomy look in his eyes and his mouth was tightly shut.

"It's Xu Qing! That little boy is definitely Xu Qing!"

"Is that girl Sister Jiang Yue?"

"I cried. It turns out he wasn't just playing the victim; he was genuinely singing his life for the dead."

In the comments section, countless people began piecing together the story of the "little mute" and the "older sister".

People finally understand why Xu Qing's songs always carry an unyielding loneliness.

Why would he say, "This song isn't for living people"?

Because the person who should have been listening to this song the most has long since rotted away in that moldy storage room.

"I hereby declare that from this day forward, Xu Qing is not a singer, he is a soul singer."

The famous music critic "Erdi" wrote this on Weibo: "In this superficial era full of technique and high notes, Xu Qing used his scars to slap the entire Chinese music scene hard. He didn't sing songs, he sang his life."

……

Backstage lounge.

Xu Qing slumped onto the sofa, truly paralyzed.

That song, "As You Wish," almost drained all his energy.

While the "god-level empathy" and "god-level voice imitation" loaded by the system had amazing effects, the side effects were also obvious—it was tiring, so tiring that I didn't even want to move my fingers.

A glass of warm water was brought to my lips.

Xu Qing looked up and saw a face wearing sunglasses.

Luo Qianyu didn't say anything, but simply put the straw into his mouth.

Even through the sunglasses, Xu Qing could feel those swollen, peach-like eyes staring intently at him.

"That's enough." Xu Qing took a sip of water, her throat feeling a little better, and teased in a hoarse voice, "If you cry any more, these sunglasses won't be able to hold your tears anymore, and we'll have to pay the brand money later."

Luo Qianyu sniffed, ignoring his teasing.

She squatted down, not minding the dust on the ground, and reached out to massage Xu Qing's stiff calf muscles.

"Does it hurt?"

She asked very softly.

Xu Qing was taken aback for a moment, then laughed: "It doesn't hurt, it feels great."

Luo Qianyu paused for a moment, then pinched him hard.

"Hiss—" Xu Qing gasped, "Murdering her husband?"

"You're so stubborn." Luo Qianyu's voice was nasal, but the pressure on her hand softened. "Why have you never told me about Sister Jiang Yue?"

She only knew that Xu Qing was an orphan, but she didn't know about the past involving the fire and the festering wound.

Looking back now, how desperate must Xu Qing have been when Sister Hong fabricated that lie about "her whole body being ulcerated"?

It was like tearing open an old wound in his heart and rubbing salt into it.

Xu Qing leaned back on the sofa, looking at the incandescent light on the ceiling.

"What's the point of talking about such old, trivial matters?"

He spoke calmly, as if recounting someone else's story: "Besides, she doesn't like me looking gloomy; she likes to laugh."

Luo Qianyu didn't say anything more, but simply rested her head gently on Xu Qing's knee.

She understood.

Central control room.

Zhou Yan's current state is so bad that he's probably just one diagnosis away from going insane.

Originally, he wanted to embarrass Xu Qing by cutting off his in-ear monitor and silencing him, but instead, he helped Xu Qing achieve his legendary status.

The screen is now filled with comments saying "Xu Qing is the champion," and sponsors are calling one after another, all of them cursing.

"Director, what... what should we do?" the assistant director asked tremblingly. "Should we continue targeting them? Public opinion is boiling over. If we pull any more tricks, I'm afraid..."

"What's there to be afraid of!"

Zhou Yan swept the documents off the table, his eyes bloodshot.

He had no way out.

If he fails to bring down Xu Qing this time, once Luo Tianxiong has a chance to make a move, Zhou Yan will never be able to become a director, and he won't even be hired to put screen protectors on a pedestrian bridge.

"Isn't he just creating a persona? Isn't he supposed to be a devoted lover? Isn't he an orphan?"

Zhou Yan stared intently at Xu Qing's face on the screen, a sinister smile spreading across his face.

What will be the theme for the next round?

"It's...it's about 'identity'." The assistant director swallowed hard. "It was originally meant to let the contestants showcase a side of themselves that wasn't previously known, or a talent..."

"Okay! Let's do this!"

Zhou Yan took out a document from the drawer; it was a piece of dirt on him from Zhao Tai of Xinghuang Entertainment.

Regarding Xu Qing's financial situation.

Regarding that internet celebrity "Qingyu".

"An orphan living in a basement and eating instant noodles is actually a top-tier online novel author worth hundreds of millions?"

"He pretends to be impoverished to gain sympathy while squandering huge sums of royalties?"

"If this gets out, I wonder if those netizens who felt sorry for him will feel like idiots!"

Zhou Yan slammed the document on the table.

"Inform the host that the next round will begin immediately without a break."

"Make this document into a PowerPoint presentation, and I want to publicly execute you on the spot!"

"Xu Qing, what good is your singing? I'm going to completely ruin your reputation!"

……

on the stage.

The host wiped the sweat from his forehead and forced a smile that looked worse than a grimace.

"Thank you... thank you Xu Qing for the wonderful performance."

"I'm sure everyone is very excited, but the competition must continue."

"The next round, which is also the highlight of our finals, is the identity reveal!"

The audience below the stage hadn't yet recovered from the emotions they had just experienced, and they clapped a few times in a scattered manner.

The host glanced at the in-ear monitor, his expression changed, clearly indicating that he had received some instructions.

"In this segment, we will reveal a side of the contestants that is not known to others."

"Some people may be hidden culinary geniuses, while others may be street dance masters."

"but……"

The host paused, then turned his gaze to Xu Qing, who had just come up from backstage.

"Someone may be wearing a mask that we can't even see clearly."

The atmosphere at the scene changed instantly after those words were spoken.

Anyone with a brain could smell the targeted odor.

On the big screen, the originally vibrant background suddenly went black.

Next, bank statements, property inquiry records (although they were empty), and screenshots of the back-end earnings of the pen name "Qingyu" were displayed like a slideshow.

The entire audience erupted in uproar.

"Holy crap? What is this?"

"Royalties...individual, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands...more than ten million??"

"Qingyu? That Qingyu, the author of 'Zhu Xian,' is Xu Qing??"

"Really?! I'm a die-hard fan of Qingyu! Isn't that guy just a shut-in who never updates?"

Zhou Yan's voice was transmitted directly to the live sound system through the microphone in the control room.

"Xu Qing, please explain."

"You keep saying that you come from a poor background, live in a basement, and even have to be given a decent guitar by your girlfriend."

"But this evidence shows that you clearly possess enormous wealth."

"Are you exploiting the audience's sympathy? Or is that so-called 'impoverished' character just a carefully crafted persona?"

This move can be described as cutting off the enemy's supply lines.

The netizens who were just moved were instantly stunned.

"What's going on? Xu Qing is rich?"

"Then why would he pretend to be poor?"

"Was all that sob story just an act? Even the money he spent on buying his girlfriend a scarf was an act?"

"If this is true, it's disgusting! It's such a betrayal of our feelings!"

The doubts spread like a virus.

People hate not the poor, but the rich who pretend to be poor to gain sympathy.

Standing in the center of the stage, Xu Qing looked at the so-called "dirt" on the big screen.

He didn't panic.

He didn't even change his expression.