"I love the clear skies of the Mediterranean,
The snowscapes of Siberia,
The eagle soaring high above,
The kelp beneath my belly.
I give my all to love,
Until that day…"
As the chorus approached, Jiang Xiao’e rose from the rock. She slowly walked to the center of the stage. A blue spotlight shone down, and the surrounding lights suddenly extinguished, then transformed into scattered blue light spots.
These light spots flowed rapidly backward, like a time tunnel.
At a certain moment, they all stopped and began to orbit Jiang Xiao’e, pulsing like breathing.
Under this exquisitely beautiful stage effect, Jiang Xiao’e sang like an elf in the deep sea.
The next second.
“Your clothes are worn,
Yet your singing is gentle,
Accompanying me in aimless drifting,
My back is like a desolate hill,
But you smile and shake your head,
And treat it as the entire universe…”
At this point, everyone finally understood what the song “Listening to the Rain” was about.
It was about a lonely whale, after a long period of solitude, finally encountering a girl who loved to sing. This girl, on the whale’s back, accompanied it as it moved through the ocean.
In that moment, the whale was everything to the girl, but wasn’t the girl everything to the whale as well?
“So romantic!!”
“Is this a fairy tale?”
“It must be a feeling of mutual salvation. The whale was originally lonely, and the girl’s arrival and her singing finally made the whale no longer alone.”
“Damn it, even whales have girlfriends now, and I’m still single!”
Indeed, as the audience said, the story of this song was about mutual salvation. The whale gave the girl a place to survive, and the girl’s singing made the whale no longer lonely. It was a romantic story that connected the girl and the whale.
“You wave goodbye to the sun,
And greet the seagulls too,
Accompanying me in free love for everything under the sun,
It’s just a pity that in the end,
You cannot lie on my chest,
To admire the vast immortality of the night sky,
And place the stars in your eyes…”
One could only say the lyrics were as beautiful as a painting!
With poetic and beautiful lyrics, it portrayed the girl’s liveliness and cuteness, as well as the whale’s anxiety and hesitation.
The stage lights gradually brightened, as if moving from the seabed to the surface.
The slightly melancholic tone perfectly conveyed the whale’s complex emotions.
Even though it loved the girl deeply, it could not turn over to embrace her or watch the starlit night sky with her.
The interlude was also very gentle, like a breeze caressing the cheek, making one involuntarily close their eyes.
In this moment, there was no city noise, and all pressure seemed to be cast aside. All that was heard was beautiful music, like drifting in an ocean of sound, just like the whale.
“I am a blue whale transformed into a lonely island,
With the largest of forms…”
When the second verse began, even Su Yu couldn’t help but close his eyes, a smile of enjoyment on his lips. He knew that Jiang Xiao’e had fully grasped the song’s emotions and could perfectly convey that sentiment through her singing. After this song, a Jiang Xiao’e who would amaze countless people would…
Jiang Qian and the others also closed their eyes slightly, swaying gently to the music.
All the singers on stage had expressions of enjoyment, lost in this beautiful and dreamlike story.
“My nature is too cold and pure,
I fell for her in the sky,
But the clouds were too far and light,
After drifting, we each found our own fate…”
When she heard this, Zhou Qingshan, who knew Chang Yu best, slapped his thigh!
“Brilliant!”
That’s right, these few words perfectly explained Chang Yu’s experience and his worries.
The whale, being so lonely, fell for the clouds in the sky. But with the clouds’ departure, they each found their own destiny.
If the first part, which told the story of the whale and the girl, made people feel the song was a bit off-topic, then this stroke of genius here perfectly combined the story with Chang Yu.
He was the whale in the painting, and the girl was his assistant Xiao Wen, whom he didn’t know whether to accept!
“I have never entered the world of prosperity,
Never heard the clamor of voices,
Never seen many living beings,
Never felt passionate emotions,
So I never realized how quiet,
The center of the great ocean truly is…”
Poetic and picturesque!
Enchanting!
These four instances of “never” correspond to the four instances of “love” in the first verse, presenting the experience and the current situation.
In its current state, because of the girl’s appearance, the whale has many concerns. The previously lonely whale is now filled with hope.
There are still so many places it hasn’t seen, how can it give up now? It wants to take the girl along to see all the wonders of the world.
“Your clothes are worn,
Yet your singing is gentle…”
The second chorus, on top of the previous gentleness, carries a hint of regret. Since the lyrics are the same as the first verse, they serve only to emphasize and elevate the emotion.
At this moment, Mo Yan suddenly opened his eyes.
He felt that the song was perfect up to this point, but if the second chorus remained as it was, something would still be missing.
However.
The moment the second verse finished.
The moment the accompaniment faded.
All the lights on stage suddenly went out!
Then, light patterns resembling waves reflected from the sea began to drift slowly.
The next second!
“Your fingertips, so gentle,
Caressed all of me,
The ugly wounds carved by the storms,
In your eyes, there is spring and autumn,
Surpassing everything I’ve loved and seen,
All the mountains and rivers…”
Jiang Xiao’e’s incredibly gentle voice rang out!
It was like a chant suddenly echoing in the universe, or a call from the abyss.
It sent shivers down one’s spine!
Following this, a set of lights slowly illuminated, outlining Jiang Xiao’e’s slender figure.
The moment the lights re-ignited.
The accompaniment became intense again!
“I once thought my shoulders,
Were so broad and strong,
Enough to support that palace beneath the sea,
But after you arrived,
They seemed so thin,
I want to give you shores where you can run,
To make you like a queen…”
This last section deviates from Chang Yu’s story and describes the whale’s feelings towards the girl.
The girl caressed the whale’s wounds, healing them with her gentleness.
Love makes one feel small. Even a whale as massive as a mountain, when facing the girl it deeply loves, feels incapable of giving her anything.
However, the final line, “to give you shores where you can run, to make you like a queen,” is merely the whale’s wish.
But did it truly believe that this was what the girl wanted?
This song does not provide an answer. The answer is left to all who listen to it!