"Next, please welcome singer Jiang Xiao'e for a wonderful performance!"
As soon as the host finished speaking.
A burst of cheers erupted from the audience.
Jiang Xiao'e walked onto the stage.
She knew that a significant portion of these cheers was for Teacher Ting Yu, but that wasn't important. Her goal today was to perfectly deliver Teacher Ting Yu's song.
She believed that this song by Teacher Ting Yu was no less remarkable than the golden hits of the Music God!
...
The stage play segment continued.
The performers were not celebrities.
Instead, they were ordinary actors selected by the program team.
A middle-aged woman, playing the role of the daughter, pushed a wheelchair. On the wheelchair sat her father, his hair now gray.
"What is this?" the father asked, his eyes somewhat vacant. He pointed to a tree beside them.
"That's a locust tree," the daughter replied.
After a while, the old man asked again, "What is this?"
The daughter continued, "A locust tree."
The two continued their question-and-answer exchange.
After asking four times.
The daughter finally lost her patience and yelled, "I already told you it's a locust tree! What's wrong with you!"
The father froze, lowered his head in hurt, and fell silent.
Following this.
The scene shifted.
The plot paused at this point.
Jiang Xiao'e, holding her guitar, sat on the steps of the set and began to play the intro.
On the big screen, the song information appeared.
"A Prose Poem Written by Father"
Sung by: Jiang Xiao'e
Lyrics by: Ting Yu
Music by: Ting Yu
The intro of this song was very simple, with the guitar as the main melody, accompanied by a touch of background support.
However, the sound of the guitar was most capable of plucking at heartstrings, and the changes between chords instantly amplified the atmosphere.
"Another song about fathers?"
"Old fathers are ecstatic!!"
"Haha, this kid Ting Yu is truly great!"
"This kid is reliable; if there's a song, he really releases it!"
"The last one was from a son's perspective, so this one should be from a daughter's perspective."
"..."
While the middle-aged fans below the stage were filled with joy.
The scene on stage transformed.
The father had vanished.
Only the daughter remained, holding a box, sitting under that locust tree.
She opened the box. Inside, besides some ledgers, was a slightly yellowed notebook.
On the notebook, some crooked characters were written.
At this moment, the camera focused on the text in the notebook.
"February 10th, I became a father, blessed with a robust, spirited daughter."
"August 20th, Mother said the daughter can start solid foods. Today, I borrowed a jin of rice from Brother Rui and ground it into powder. (Repaid)"
"It's my daughter's first birthday. I went to the temple this morning to pray for a peace charm for her. The master said to plant a locust tree in the yard, which can bless the daughter with wealth and good fortune."
"I need to earn more money to save for my daughter's education."
"Daughter is three years old. I haven't seen her for over a year, and she can already call me 'Dad.' I want to touch her little face, but I'm afraid my calloused hands will hurt her."
"Today, my daughter is four years old. She pointed to the locust tree by the door and asked me what it was. I told her it was a locust tree. She asked again, and I answered again. She asked sixteen times, and I answered sixteen times."
Seeing the words in the notebook, accompanied by the sound of the intro.
All the audience members felt a tightening in their chests, followed by a sharp pang.
Starting so intensely from the beginning?
"Holy cow!"
"Hiss... What kind of song is this?"
"I have a bad feeling..."
Just as the audience below the stage was being made to feel a prickle of unease by the contents of the diary.
Jiang Xiao'e glanced at her parents in the audience.
She strummed her guitar, leaned closer to the microphone in front of her, and began to sing.
"In nineteen eighty-four, the crops weren't all harvested yet.
My daughter lay in my arms, sleeping so sweetly.
No time tonight for the open-air movie.
My wife reminded me to fix the sewing machine's pedal
..."
The lyrics of this song were not ornate, nor did they pile up flowery language; they could be described as extremely ordinary.
Often, the more ordinary the words, the more they could move people's hearts.
Especially when paired with the story just told, and the image of Jiang Xiao'e's small frame on stage, holding her guitar and singing.
It brought forth images of summer evenings, holding one's daughter while seeking coolness.
Starlit skies, rice fields, the chirping of frogs and insects.
The sense of the era was instantly heightened.
"Tomorrow, I'll go borrow more money from the neighbors.
The child cried all day, wanting cookies.
The blue poplin shirt, pain drills into my heart.
Crouching by the pond, I punched myself twice
..."
Two verses of the main melody.
Merely two verses!
Instantly, everyone present was moved!
Such direct lyrics!
So direct they pierced everyone's souls!
Indeed, that era was difficult. It was precisely because of this hardship that the sense of responsibility to provide a better life for the family and children made the father's understated expressions even more touching.
That gaze filled with longing care, the hardship behind a single biscuit, sung quietly, understood by those who listen.
"These are the words from my father's diary.
This is his youth, a prose poem left behind.
Decades later, I read them and couldn't stop my tears.
But my father has long since become like a shadow..."
Jiang Xiao'e's father sat in his seat, gazing blankly at his daughter singing on stage, filled with relief, surprise, guilt, and pride...
His heart was a mix of emotions.
Countless feelings intertwined, causing a constant sting in his nose.
Beside him, Jiang Xiao'e's mother was already in tears.
Only those who lived in that era could truly empathize with this song.
"In nineteen ninety-four, the crops had long been harvested.
My elderly mother passed away last year.
My daughter, with her pigtails, ran into the campus.
..."
Not only the audience.
Even the chief director and the program staff were deeply moved.
The lyrics of this song, while seemingly plain, were like hidden knives in every line!
Not only the lyrics but also the melody, which seemed to be a gentle narration, yet from the beginning, it was tugging at one's heart. As the singing progressed, it tightened one's chest further, creating a subtle sense of suffocation, a feeling of being unable to breathe.
When they realized it.
They discovered they had been so engrossed in the song that they had forgotten to breathe.
"Thinking of the future, I'll become a pile of old paper money.
My daughter then will surely be stunningly beautiful.
There's a man who loves her and wants to marry her.
But thinking of this, I can't bear to look at her.
..."
Damn!
Someone, it's unclear who, was the first to utter this sound.
But it was met with countless echoes!
Fathers, especially those with daughters.
The most difficult part of their lives is likely watching their daughters get married. No matter how excellent the groom, they are reluctant to even consider such a scenario.
Sometimes, people deliberately avoid this issue, consoling themselves that their daughters are still young and don't need to worry about such things now.
Now, this song by Ting Yu has directly voiced it.
It hits home!
This isn't just hitting home.
It's piercing the heart with a thousand holes!
The old fathers were no longer ecstatic!!
"These are the words from my father's diary.
This is his life, a prose poem left behind.
..."
"The stories written there are a lifetime..."
When the last line was sung.
Jiang Xiao'e looked up at her father in the audience.
As the father and daughter made eye contact.
The difficult days of the past and those beautiful experiences all flooded their minds.
Beneath the heartache, there was even more boundless hope for the future.
They finally couldn't hold back, and tears streamed down their faces!
And then.
On the big screen.
A line of text appeared, causing the grown men in the audience to burst into tears!
"Perhaps Father could give me nothing, yet he gave us everything..."
...
ps: "A Prose Poem Written by Father" Original Singer: Xu Fei, Lyrics: Dong Yufang, Music: Xu Fei.