At that time, in another corner of the screen.
On the rooftop of the building, the night wind slowly swept across the concrete floor. This was a seven-story residential building with no elevator. The rooftop was cramped, chaotic, and carried an extremely unpleasant stench.
Most of the mess came from the garbage left behind by wild children who often ran up here to play. There were broken plastic bags, discarded bottles, scraps of cardboard, and all kinds of rubbish scattered around. There were even some stolen goods hidden among the piles of debris.
This was a place that nobody cared about.
There was no beautiful starry sky.
No refreshing night breeze.
No peaceful silence.
Looking down from the rooftop, all that could be seen was a dilapidated street stretching into the distance. An old black factory was still burning somewhere nearby, the flames flickering against the darkness and sending a faint smell of smoke into the air.
Arguments could occasionally be heard from the street below.
A motorcycle suddenly roared past, its engine blasting through the quiet night.
Everything was noisy.
Everything was chaotic.
Everything was decayed.
But none of these seemed to affect the person standing here.
Yu Ye leaned quietly against the edge of the rooftop, and he was alone. His eyes were no longer filled with the dull, lifeless light they had carried in the past. Instead, they were clear, shining faintly in the darkness like two small stars that had somehow survived beneath the dust of the city.
In his hand was an old, worn-out flip phone. It was the kind of phone he was normally reluctant to use unless absolutely necessary. After all, this phone was not something he used for entertainment. Most of the time, it was simply a tool for contacting people about business.
Food delivery.
Part-time jobs.
Temporary work.
Odd jobs that could help him earn a little money.
That was almost everything this old phone was used for.
But tonight was different.
Yu Ye slowly flipped open the phone, and the tiny screen illuminated his face. His fingers moved across the buttons with practiced familiarity. Then, he entered the song forum.
At this moment, the camera clearly captured the personal information displayed on the screen, and the audience saw his username.
[Flower Has Bloomed.]
The moment that name appeared...
!!!!!
Silence!
For a brief instant, the entire area seemed to freeze. Although the audience's discussion had already reached the verge of bursting, the Commentator and guests immediately raised their hands and gestured for everyone to remain quiet. They didn't want to ruin this moment. Not even a second of it.
Because at this moment... Decay and civilization seemed to exist together. The rot at the bottom of society and the romance at the top of the city somehow overlapped in the same frame.
The filthy rooftop.
The broken streets.
The burning factory.
The lonely man.
And the beautiful song coming from his old flip phone, it created an indescribable contrast. That man... He didn't seem to belong to this era at all. Because at this moment... This scene... Was simply too beautiful.
There was a kind of poetic beauty in it. It was as though someone who had once stood in an incomparable state of brilliance had suddenly returned to this world and begun speaking about poetry beneath the stars.
The man suffering from Alzheimer's disease... He began to hum. It wasn't a hoarse voice. It wasn't the rough, weathered tone of a folk singer. It wasn't even the voice of someone trying desperately to prove how much hardship he had endured. Instead, it was the bright and clear breath of youth.
A youthful voice seemed to blow directly against everyone's face, yet it was unbearably sad.
[Flowers Have Opened]
[The Fragrance Is Coming Again]
[Spring Breeze Enters The South Of The City]
[There Is No Cold In The South Of The City]
It wasn't because Yu Ye had suddenly become young again; it was his real voice. Even though he was already in his thirties, even though his body had been ravaged by illness, his voice still possessed that same clarity.
Clean.
Clear.
Every word distinct.
A youthful texture filled with delicate particles.
And on his face... There was a smile. A very sad smile.
Yu Ye wasn't singing about someone else; he was singing about himself.
About the life he had lived after becoming sick.
About the years after having a child.
About the invisible chains that had gradually bound him.
About all the ambitions he had once possessed but had never been able to release.
The dreams that had remained unfinished.
The things he had wanted to accomplish.
The roads he had wanted to walk.
All of them had been buried beneath the weight of reality.
Even if it had been trapped in a shallow pool for years...
Even if it had been forgotten by everyone...
Even if its wings had been covered in dust...
At this moment... At least for this one moment... It bloomed.
The singing suddenly became louder and clearer. It was as if all the strength hidden within his body had finally erupted.
Just for this moment, the sadness spread outward, and it seemed to fill the entire rooftop. Even the wind seemed unwilling to remain here. It was afraid that if it stayed too long, it would carry away too much sadness and eventually forget the road back home.
[Flowers Have Opened]
[Return Of The Southern Swallow]
[There Is A City South In The Sky]
[You Go And See The Flowers Bloom]
[Chengnan Flowers Have Opened]
[Spring Breeze Is Coming Again]
[Fog Has Buried The Building]
[Who Picks The Flowers For?]
Probably no one could have imagined it. No one would have imagined that Yu Ye's youthful voice could be so cold.
So proud.
So detached.
The picture he created through his singing was like that of a sick man walking out alone in the middle of the night.
He didn't know where he was going.
He didn't know where he should go.
He simply walked.
He was alone.
Standing at an intersection, he looked at the brightly lit and bustling city in front of him.
People came and went.
Cars passed by.
Lights illuminated the buildings.
The entire city seemed alive.
Yet for some inexplicable reason... There was sadness everywhere. It was the kind of sadness that had no clear source.
So the man lowered his head and looked at the stagnant water on the road. The reflection in the water was him. Only him. He stood there alone, and his reflection stood there alone. The whole world seemed to have disappeared, leaving behind nothing but that solitary figure.
But then... Yu Ye's voice suddenly pulled the entire scene away.
Away from the narrow rooftop.
Away from the broken streets.
Away from reality.
It stretched toward another latitude, another dimension, another ethereal space, and people began to hear something hidden inside the song. A man was saying...
People would eventually reach the end of time.
People would eventually leave.
But I will not forget you.
I will not forget that you once warmed my days.
That... Was the true voice of youth.
It wasn't loud.
It wasn't hysterical.
It didn't beg anyone for sympathy.
No matter how painful the sadness was, it remained calm.
It accepted the ending.
It calmly walked toward death.
That was true freedom. True ease. A mentality that transcended wealth, status, identity, and even class.
And yet... Nobody had expected that the person capable of explaining this feeling so thoroughly and so cleanly would be a lonely, ordinary man suffering from illness.
The contrast was simply too cruel. Too heartbreaking. Too pitiful.
At this moment, the entire studio descended into chaos. The atmosphere on the show instantly became explosive.
When the old director, Chen Xuejian, heard this melody, he was completely stunned. His eyes seemed to lose focus for a moment. It was as if he had suddenly thought of something. Then he slowly sighed.
He thought of the meaning behind the words... Father's love is like a mountain.
Heavy.
Silent.
Unshakable.
The most honorable achievement in his entire life had been the filming of "The Great Empire."
In the years that followed, countless viewers praised the television series.
They praised Ying Zheng as a child.
They praised the refined plot.
They praised the historical atmosphere.
They praised almost every aspect of the production.
But it wasn't until it replayed the series years later and he carefully watched it again that he finally noticed something I had overlooked.
The young Ying Zheng played by Yu Ye...
That cold and gloomy aura.
That frighteningly calm gaze.
That faint sense of ruthlessness hidden beneath his youthful face.
At the time, people had even called him a ruthless emperor.
But his nephew... he had almost no impression of him. Not because the child had been bad, quite the opposite. He simply felt that it was a pity. A tremendous pity.
If a young man like Yu Ye had made his debut in the entertainment industry at that time... If he had truly stepped onto that road... Then the reputation of "The Great Empire" would probably have exploded even further. Because Yu Ye really seemed as though he had walked straight out of history.
That was the first time he had seen such a side of him. It was also the first time he realized just how extraordinary this young man could be.
Later, it was only after he let his daughter go out and perform that Yu Ye finally appeared humbly in front of everyone.
He behaved modestly.
He smiled.
He didn't fight for attention.
He didn't deliberately show off.
He seemed almost completely ordinary.
But precisely at that moment... People finally realized something. This man... Had been hiding his brilliance all these years. He had hidden it so deeply that almost nobody had ever noticed.
The rest of the time, Yu Ye had concealed everything. Therefore, the labels people had given him from the outside were completely different.
Humble.
Smiling.
Honest.
Simple.
Sickly.
Rigid.
Dull.
Stubborn.
Those were the words people used to describe him.
Those were the images people had constructed around him.
Those were the identities everyone thought they understood.
But none of them... None of them... Was the real Yu Ye. And perhaps this song was the first time the world had truly seen him.