ECG -Chapter 23 Saying Goodbye Through Song

The song unknowingly came to an end amid the gentle yet sorrowful sound of the guitar.

The edge of the stage was already piled high with flower baskets. They had all been bought by the customers and personally placed on the stage.

Ever since the incident with Cao Yitui last time, Chu Yu had bought hundreds of flower baskets so they wouldn’t have to go through the trouble of buying them repeatedly, and so the customers wouldn’t make jokes about it.

Everyone was immersed in this unfamiliar sorrowful feeling. The guitar had already stopped, yet no one applauded.

“Clap clap clap!”

Chu Yu was the first to start clapping.

Then—

“Wow—!”

The thunderous applause seemed as if it could lift the roof off the building.

Suddenly, a girl shouted:

“Haoge, I love you!”

Once one person started shouting, a second quickly followed.

“Lin Hao, I want to marry you!”

“Lin Hao, tonight I’m taking you home!”

“I love you!”

“……”

Chu Yu glanced at Zhou Dongbing. Zhou Dongbing smiled at the corner of his mouth and softly said:

“Young people are really wonderful!”

Lin Hao leaned toward the microphone and said in a deep voice:

“‘The Outside World’ is dedicated to all of you!”

The applause erupted once again—

“Next, this song is one I wrote for Brother Zhou Dongbing!”

Zhou Dongbing was stunned. He never expected there would be a song written for him. His heart was touched, and he quickly stood up and applauded.

Er Meng and Chu Jiu at the entrance, as well as a dark and sturdy-looking man, also followed and began clapping.

“Time easily leaves people behind, turning cherries red and banana leaves green.”

“‘The Jianghu Laugh,’ dedicated to time, dedicated to love, dedicated to you. May you wander half your life, and when you return, still remain the same young man you once were.”

After Lin Hao finished speaking, the sound of the guitar began:

“Laugh in the jianghu, let go of grudges and grievances;

People trade blows, hiding blades behind smiles……”

The moment these lines came out, Zhou Dongbing’s nose suddenly turned sour.

Amid laughter and conversation, in the fading lights; after countless twists and turns, everything in the world is the jianghu!

Lin Hao’s voice had smoothly transitioned from the deep emotion of the previous song into a vast and desolate feeling. That sense of the jianghu came rushing toward everyone.

Keyboard Liu’er muttered:

“It’s a pity. If this had been accompanied by a band, it would definitely have been soul-stirring!”

The drummer nodded repeatedly.

“It’s really good!”

Zhou Dongbing turned his head and whispered a few words into Chu Yu’s ear. Chu Yu nodded.

After “The Jianghu Laugh” ended, the applause and cheers were noticeably less enthusiastic than for the previous song. That was understandable after all—it was a song dedicated to Zhou Dongbing, and there were many women in the audience. This kind of heroic jianghu spirit didn’t resonate with women as strongly.

Lin Hao had just wanted to say a few words and end his performance, but before he could speak, the excited women below started shouting:

“One more song!”

“One more song!”

“I haven’t heard enough! One more song!”

“Right! One more song!”

“One more song!”

“……”

Lin Hao smiled bitterly. He thought for a moment—this was his last night, so fine, he would sing one more.

Before this, he had insisted on only singing two songs every night. One reason was that he didn’t want people to think he was greedy for money, and the other was because he felt two songs were just right. Before people got tired of listening to him, he would already have left the stage.

“Tomorrow I will leave my hometown and go to the provincial capital to study. We have no choice but to part ways, so let me use a song to say goodbye.”

“No matter how long the future may be, cherish every moment we gather together. No matter how many springs and summers, autumns and winters pass, we will always be friends.”

“With gratitude in my heart, thank you Black Knight, thank you all for being here!”

“A song called ‘Farewell’ is dedicated to you all!”

Before Lin Hao’s guitar even began to play, several girls already had tears welling up in their eyes.

Everyone in the band exchanged glances. Shock was written on each of their faces. They hadn’t expected that this was another original song.

The guitar strings whispered softly, and Lin Hao’s voice became completely unadorned:

“Outside the long pavilion,

By the ancient road,

Fragrant grass stretches endlessly to the sky…”

His voice gradually grew hoarse.

The sorrowful melody was filled with the melancholy of farewell, and everyone’s hearts felt heavy and bitter.

Lin Hao’s voice also carried a hint of a sobbing breath. This kind of almost raw, natural sound touched people’s hearts even more.

“Ask you, when will you return from this journey?

When you come back, don’t hesitate…”

Amid a sea of choked sobs, Lin Hao put away his guitar and bowed deeply toward the audience.

Applause erupted, but it wasn’t as loud as before, because everyone still hadn’t escaped from the sadness of parting.

Lin Hao walked off the stage.

A few girls in short skirts immediately rushed over and surrounded him.

Watching Lin Hao, who was drenched in sweat and struggling to deal with the situation, Wu Xiaozhou said sourly:

“Looks like this kid was just messing with me. When we get to college, those kinds of girls won’t even spare me a glance! Damn it!”

One girl held a carbon pen in her hand, tears still hanging on her face, and insisted that Lin Hao give her an autograph. Lin Hao had no choice but to sign the back of her white T-shirt.

Once one person got a signature, the other girls refused to be left out. There was nothing he could do except sign them one by one.

Looks like he really needed to practice his signature properly. Otherwise, he might end up making people cry from how ugly it was…

In his previous life, he had practiced his signature like crazy just to become famous. But who would have thought this damn transmigration wouldn’t follow the usual script? The two people’s names were completely different. He was speechless to the point of tears.

The last girl was wearing a black T-shirt. Lin Hao said to forget it, but the girl refused and said that her inner shirt was white.

After saying that, she lifted up her T-shirt, revealing the white garment underneath, and even deliberately leaned closer toward him.

Amid a wave of deafening whistles, Lin Hao’s face turned red. With the shy look of a first-timer, he wrote his name on the right side.

While he was writing, the girl’s big eyes kept blinking at him.

The moment he finished, the girl bent down and whispered softly into his ear:

“Later, I’ll take you home?”

Lin Hao chuckled awkwardly.

“I still have friends… I still have friends!”

“It’s okay, I have friends too!”

“No, no, it’s fine!” Lin Hao quickly ran toward where Wu Xiaozhou and the others were sitting.

The girl stomped her feet behind him and shouted:

“Hey? Coward!”

Looking embarrassed, Lin Hao sat beside Wu Xiaozhou, his face covered in sweat.

Wu Xiaozhou glanced at him with disdain.

“Didn’t you tell me to think about it? I’ve figured it out!”

Lin Hao didn’t understand what he meant and looked at him in surprise.

“With how flirtatious you are, in the future, what campus beauties, class beauties, family flowers, wild flowers… am I ever going to get a chance to pick any of them?!”

Zhou Dongbing and Chu Yu both burst into laughter.

On the stage, the band had already taken their positions.

Liu’er stood in the center. In front of him was a black keyboard stand, with a synthesizer on top and an electric piano underneath.

The four of them shouted together:

“We are the Black Knight Band!”

A wave of whistles came from the audience.

Lin Hao frowned slightly. Looks like he really had to tell them later—introducing themselves like this was really stupid.

Fortunately, Liu’er didn’t say anything else, and the piano intro had already begun.

Lin Hao nodded.

On stage, most of the time, saying nothing was better than saying something. Too many words could easily lead to mistakes. Sometimes, staying silent was better.

“You find an excuse, so I can feel balanced…”

As soon as Liu’er sang those few lines, the whole venue erupted into applause.

Lin Hao felt his scalp tingle.

It was too similar. It was unbelievably similar—of course, except for the hairstyle.

Zhou Dongbing had never heard it before, so he was also completely stunned. He couldn’t believe his own ears.

Was this really the same group of people from before?

“Lin Hao, is this the new song you wrote for them?” Zhou Dongbing asked.

Lin Hao nodded.

“The effect is pretty good. Liu’er’s voice is really quite good!”

Zhou Dongbing looked toward the stage and nodded.