The lyrics of ‘A New Life ‘ were a narrative, telling the story of an undead spirit who wakes up from a deep sleep with no memory and is in the process of searching for a new life. After finding himself little by little, he strives to move forward and break through difficulties before getting reborn in the sun.

The story begins with a legend, with friendship as the groundwork, affection as the cornerstone, love as a spark, and finally ends with hope. Progressing from different emotions, it was the test of a singer’s ability to express all the emotions within the song. The bewilderment when waking up, the surprise of reuniting with his partner, the aggravation of being bullied and being comforted by his parents when he is about to black out. This is followed by the sadness when he finds out that his parents are only illusions, the loneliness when his parents disappear, the shyness, inferiority and hesitation when he meets his love. Then when he was too tired and wanted to give up on himself, the bravery when he decided to hold on tightly and pull himself together, finally rekindling his hope and flying toward a new life.

Perhaps because of this, Qi Cong became completely immersed in singing, forgetting that this was just pitch practice, and forgetting that there were many people around. He also forgot to pay attention to breathing, his emotions unconsciously rising and falling with the lyrics.

When singing about friendship, he thought of Shen Jia and couldn’t help but smile. When singing about family love, he thought of Qi Yin and Lin Hui, remembering their dedication and sacrifice. His pitch became slightly lower. When singing about love, he thought of fireworks, ice cream, chocolate, and the look in Gu Xun’s eyes when he promised to catch up–sour, warm, and grateful. Countless complex emotions piled up in his chest. Finally, when singing about hope he remembered his promise and the shooting star from the night before. The emotions that haunted and held him, also protected him and allowed him to rush forward before completely exploding.

Qi Cong’s voice was infused with new strength as his emotions rose to a peak and then exploded.

A scarred undead soul emerged out of the ground before he was exhausted, leaving behind the darkness that was chasing and trying to consume him. As the warm sunlight surrounded him, the deadly aura of the undead spirit began to fade and its scars began to disappear, revealing what he really looked like as a human being.  He then slowly adapted to the light and saw the bustling world. Seeing his friends, family and loved one not far away, he smiled, frozen before flying away.

A new life starts.

Then the song ended.

The room was quiet for a long time.

Qi Cong gained control of his emotions and found in hindsight that his hands hanging on the side of his body were clasped together and his fingernails were digging into his palms. It was very painful. He hurriedly unclasped his hands, adjusted his emotions and looked at his vocal teacher. Just as he was about to speak, a knocking sound on the door could be heard.

Everyone came back to their senses. Qi Cong looked towards the door.

Cao Dewen met Qi Cong’s eyes, smiled, pushed open the door and walked to Qi Cong pointing at the music score in Qi Cong’s hand. “I am Cao Dewen, I wrote this song, do you like it?”

Qi Cong was surprised and bowed to greet Cao Dewen properly.

Cao Dewen smiled in response to Qi Cong’s greeting and asked again, “Do you like this song?”

Of course he liked it, he could even say it was more than that. Looking at the score in his hand and then at Cao Dewen, whose eyes were warm and smiling, Qi Cong returned to his senses. “Mr. Cao thank you for letting me sing this song. This is a good start for me.”

Cao Dewen smiled and nodded, then he looked at Zhao Zhenxun who came forward to greet him. “Little Zhao, can you lend me this child for two hours?”

Zhao Zhenxun was eager to do so. “Of course.”

The practice room was emptied, leaving only Qi Cong, Cao Dewen and the photographer. After the last member of the staff left, Cao Dewen looked at Qi Cong, motioning him to follow, and asked, “How old are you?”

Qi Cong followed half a step behind and replied, “Twenty-four.”

“Not twenty-one?”

Qi Cong froze and looked at Cao Dewen.

“Didn’t you forget three years? It should be twenty-one, and you haven’t graduated from college yet.” Cao Dewen stopped at the piano at the corner of the practice room and smiled at Qi Cong. “Your agent told me a little about you and wanted me to change the lyrics of “A New Life ” to better suit your current ability.”

So that’s how it was. Qi Cong sincerely said, “I think this version of ‘A New Life’ is good enough.”

Cao Dewen didn’t deny it and pointed to the piano bench. “I heard that you have studied piano for more than ten years, can you play one of your favorite pieces for me to hear?”

Qi Cong, who was always polite and well-behaved to his elders, just nodded as he sat down in front of the piano and opened the lid. Adapting the tone of the piano, he looked at Cao Dewen.

Cao Dewen sat down in the chair next to the piano, waiting with an expectant expression. The two of them looked at each other as Cao Dewen motioned to Qi Cong to begin with his eyes.

Cao Dewen was behaving like an ordinary grandfather who was ready to enjoy his grandchild’s performance, without any posture of being an old veteran in the music industry. After looking at him behaving like this, Qi Cong’s mood suddenly relaxed. He withdrew his eyes, paused for two seconds and touched the keys with his fingers.

The light and gentle notes spread in the room. The first ten seconds or so were slightly rusty, as if they weren’t practiced for a long time. However he became more and more fluent and natural, after a whole minute they finally  integrated and became comfortable.

At the end of the song, Cao Dewen asked Qi Cong if he could play his least favorite song for him. Qi Cong responded and put his hand back on the piano keys.

After the two pieces were finished, Cao Dewen began to chat with Qi Cong. Cao Dewen jumped around various topics. One moment he was asking Qi Cong about his childhood anecdotes, the next moment quizzing Qi Cong about music theory and the next moment talking about his own creative experience. Just like that, two hours passed unnoticed. Finally Cao Dewen put away the score of ‘A New Life ‘ and asked Qi Cong to play ‘A New Life ‘ according to his memory.

Qi Cong did as he was told.

The song sung by his voice was now performed on the piano, making each feeling completely different. Qi Cong quickly discovered this difference. Singing was something he wasn’t very good at presently, but playing piano was something he learned for many years. So those things that were difficult to express in a clear way with a song immediately became something readily possible after switching to the piano.

The lyrics come to his mind, inspiring the emotions that he put with his fingertip onto the piano, then through the notes he expressed them perfectly.

Qi Cong unknowingly immersed himself in it again. After the song was over, he opened his eyes, dazed for a while and then looked at Cao Deven, who was quietly watching him with a smile. 

“Mr. Cao, I like this song.”

Cao Dewen looked at the first genuine smile that had bloomed on Qi Cong’s face since they met, and also smiled. “Not a single note was correct but it was still very good.”

 

…..

 

While Qi Cong was practicing his song, a discussion about Qi Cong was once again started on Weibo.

The discussion started when a blogger with a lot of followers recommended the movie and drama, pointing out that there was a 90 percent chance that the role of You Changqing, which was the subject of so much speculation, would be played by Qi Cong. In order to prove this speculation, the blogger posted a dozen sets of comparison pictures of Qi Cong and You Changqing. The comparison was very detailed, including height, nose curvature, jaw line, body shape, hand shape, lip shape. In short, almost all the places that could be compared were compared, making this speculation very convincing.

This Weibo post quickly become popular, one by one being bombed by several groups.

The first to blow up this topic was common melon eaters. They were purely eating melons so they didn’t pay much attention to the news of “Legend of Youth” and clicked on the post only because of Qi Cong. The popularity of his name was still pretty high due to other recent news about him.

Then they saw the photo of the black-clad, red-robed, immortal and handsome You Changqing.

Onlookers: ？？？！！！

The image of a bankrupt rich second generation, the poor little guy who was bullied by the scum, as well as the hot man who was suspected to be a bit fishy with Gu Xun, the cowardly guy with a slightly obnoxious temperament, the patient…

 The various images of Qi Cong flashed through their minds and shattered as they looked at the photo of You Changqing.

God! This Qi Cong was actually too good-looking! No, this was not the Qi Cong they knew!

The second explosion was due to the drama fans, a group of people who loved “Legend of Youth” and had high expectations for it. The excellent costume of You Changqing and the many fantasies about the actor playing this role, resulted in people guessing for a long time. From the high-quality new generation to the high-quality young actors…but the answer was that the good looking You Changqing was actually going to be played by that messy, news-ridden Qi Cong who had been frequently seen in the hot search these days?

The difference was just too big!

The third group was Shen Jia fans. Because of the guidance of the righteous overlord, this group of people accepted Qi Cong’s debut very well. Their bombing was due to pure suprise, mixed with a little shock, so after their bombing they immediately sent their blessings to Qi Cong.

…….

 

The popularity of this news reached its peak after the official Weibo of “Legend of Youth” retweeted this post and congratulated the blogger for guessing correctly, saying that they would send out a reward for guessing correctly soon.

This made it the official stamp that it was really Qi Cong!

The official Weibo of “Legend of Youth”also took advantage of this popularity to release all the photos taken of Qi Cong during his costume fitting.

There were five photos in total.

The first picture was still of the red-black robe but Qi Cong no longer wore the mask. He was walking towards the fitting room, eyebrows quiet, robe lightly swinging, waistline and long legs hidden, his head slightly lowered, and  green eyes blocked by his eyelashes. As he was facing Shen Jia’s smile, he gave out a slightly noble and cold temperament.

The second and third photos  had the same background, in front of a floor mirror. Qi Cong has been changing clothes. He stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling mirror in an azure bamboo robe, his long hair was scattered, his jade crown not worn. His waistline was outlined by his belt, setting off his body like bamboo, with a thin waist and long legs. The photos were taken of Qi Cong looking at the camera through the mirror, so Qi Cong was facing the camera slightly sideways. Under the lens, his green eyes became uncovered as light shone from behind him, his eyes quiet and deep like a pool, making it seem like he could see through our hearts.

The last two photos had a different background. Qi Cong was no longer in front of the mirror, but was sitting in a chair. His loose hair was all tied up and wrapped with a hairband, and his clothes were changed to a dark, sharp robe. After the long hair was tied up, the lines of his excellent neck became clearer and clearer, and the martial art robe that half covered his Adam’s apple, due to the dark green weave’s silver lines give off an ascetic feeling. In another photo Qi Cong leaned against the back of his chair and slightly raised his chin to look at the camera, while holding the mask in his hands that he had previously worn on his face. It was the same expressionless face, the same indifferent eyes, reflecting cold light given by a warrior who was ready for a fight. His turquoise pupils, like a deep pool or a poisonous silver snake gave off a feeling of danger and pressure.

Three sets of styles, three different styles, and three completely different feelings.

Previously, those fans who felt that  You Changqing’s temperament was too gentle and didn’t match the original work became silly. They looked at the last photo where he held the mask in his hand, covering half of his face and fans couldn’t help but suck back a cold breath.

So dangerous, so bad…so handsome! What gentleness? They must have been temporarily blind, this was a gloomy and lonely You Changqing!

Passers-by were also dumbfounded by this set of photos.

Shit, how can a person be so beautiful! This temperament, this aura, it was absolutely different from the annoying submissive Qi Cong in their memory!

The comment section exploded, question marks and exclamation appeared together with, “crap” and ”mom”mixing together as netizens’ jaws dropped everywhere. Everyone’s comments were surprisingly consistent – How can Qi Cong be so suitable for ancient clothes? How can he look so good? Was that really Qi Cong?

The public’s perception of Qi Cong that was vaguely fixed because of all the negative news was strongly torn open by this set of photos and began to reshape.

There was never a shortage of beauty loving people in the world! That night the set of pictures named You Changqing began to appear wildly in various circles: Weibo, Q&A, gossip forums, Cape Forum…. In all the places that were related to the entertainment industry, you could see this set of photos. Qi Cong’s name was mentioned by countless people as various comments came from people’s mouths. The first wave of promotion for “Legend of Youth” was successfully completed.

 

The author has something to say:

Gu Gu: Want to like, want to forward, want to …… no, no, no.

Zhao Zhenxun: No, you don’t.

 

Edited by: Antiope1

 

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