Chapter 489: Respect the Heavens and the Earth; the flow of time is a gift

However, after flipping through many past college entrance examination essay prompts, Seeing Jin Li discovered that not every topic was suitable for a Classical Chinese style.

For example, in one region's latest college entrance exam, the prompt used the three characters "Gu" (Ancient), "Gu" (Review/Look), and "Gu" (Estimate) to summarize social development.

Survey the ancient times, review the present day, estimate the future.

Question: From "Ancient" to "Estimate," is it truly necessary to "Review"? Please write an essay with the title "Ancient, Review, Estimate; Therefore, Lonely and Firm."

Seeing Jin Li: Emmm.

The small flame of inspiration that had just ignited was immediately extinguished.

Based on her years of experience chanting scriptures, she could spout Classical Chinese at the drop of a hat, but the theme and ideology might not necessarily be what the graders wanted to see.

Governing by non-action and maintaining quiet naturalness—that likely didn't fit the prompt "Ancient, Review, Estimate; Therefore, Lonely and Firm."

When netizens watched the livestream, they saw Seeing Jin Li's shifting expression and couldn't help but laugh.

【Cuckoo, cuckoo, if I were a cuckoo bird~】

【Some scholars use "Gou" (Miserable), "Gou" (Sketch), and "Gou" (Construct) to summarize three life attitudes: living miserably, sketching a blueprint, constructing the future. From miserable to construct, must one sketch? Please write an essay titled "Miserable, Sketch, Construct; Let's Go~"】

【The longest path I've ever walked is the pie-in-the-sky future the boss sketched for me T^T】

【Some scholars use "Miao" (Vast), "Miao" (Wonderful), and "Miao" (Second) to summarize the vastness of the world. Vast as a grain of millet in the ocean, wonderful as the great appearance of all beings, a second as the breath of time and space, thereby penetrating the mysteries of the universe. From "Vast" to "Second," is it really "Wonderful"? Please write an essay titled "Vast, Wonderful, Second; Depict, Distant, Seedling."】

【Good heavens, is this starting to get fantasy-like?】

After Seeing Jin Li analyzed this essay prompt, she looked up and glanced at the barrage, discovering that the netizens were all having fun, and she couldn't help but laugh out loud.

She felt the netizens were much more talented than she was.

In life, she was actually quite a boring person; the netizens' banter was clearly more vivid than her own life.

Her phone suddenly rang. Seeing Jin Li took a look, set the livestream room to mute, ran to the living room, turned on the TV, and switched to a certain channel.

The timing was perfect; it was time for the San Yue Tian stage.

Originally, when she finished the video call with Gu Cheng, she had intended to set her alarm for half an hour, but Gu Cheng heard her thoughts and told her to set it for forty minutes.

Gu Cheng smiled and said, "The extra time in between should all be commercial time."

Seeing Jin Li understood.

On the TV screen, the stage San Yue Tian contributed this time was a national-style performance.

In recent years, national-style themes have become very popular. Many dancers specifically design movements that look "ethereal," giving people a sense of "ascending to immortality."

Those movements look simple, but in reality, they all require a deep foundation in dance to execute, and even if the movements are correct, not everyone can produce that ethereal effect.

From the designed movements to the positioning angles, every lift of the hand, kick of the leg, and turn of the body was meticulously designed in every aspect to achieve the most visually stunning presentation.

Magnificent music accompanied by dense drum beats arrived. San Yue Tian adapted their original track and re-arranged it, and a roar of excitement erupted at the venue.

Seeing Jin Li tapped along to the rhythm, treating it as a way to stretch her body.

At the TV station's New Year's Eve gala venue.

Regardless of whether they were fans of San Yue Tian or not, everyone was screaming in wild excitement.

"I've never heard this song before, it sounds so good!"

"They re-choreographed and re-arranged it. The original song had that slow, leisurely Jiangnan vibe; I didn't expect it to be arranged so powerfully and passionately."

"Is it all live vocals? The sound is so pleasant!"

"It definitely is. Didn't you hear their vibrato while they were dancing and singing?"

San Yue Tian's stage lasted only three and a half minutes. After performing, they didn't need to stop to greet the host. Once the stage ended, the venue plunged into darkness, and San Yue Tian returned to the waiting area through a special passage.

Returning to the waiting area didn't mean they could rest; they went to the lounge, needing to change clothes and redo their styling.

There was an hour and a half until the next segment. It looked like plenty of time, but with makeup and styling, it was actually quite tight.

San Yue Tian's opening performance set a good tone. Everyone following them was a powerhouse singer. San Yue Tian didn't idle while getting their makeup done; they opened their phones to watch the TV station's livestream.

They were just worrying about who to find as guests for their concert; this was a perfect chance to hear which singers were performing well.

Seeing Jin Li finished watching San Yue Tian's stage, opened the Pink Girls group chat, discovered that Xi Sister Meng Ze's stage was coming up soon, and immediately adjusted the channel.

At this moment, she transformed into a fan, organizing a "New Year's Eve Gala Schedule" based on the order of appearance of the stars she wanted to see, just like other fans.

While she was waiting, Sui Lingfang made a video call.

Behind Fang Jie was a brilliant night sky.

The reason it was brilliant was that fireworks were constantly going off in the sky.

Sui Lingfang said happily, "Seeing Jin Li, Happy New Year's Eve, Happy New Year!"

Seeing Jin Li's eyes curved slightly; those eyes were large and round, like a gentle, cute cat.

"Fang Jie, Happy New Year's Eve, Happy New Year, let's enjoy it together!"

Sui Lingfang aimed the camera at the brilliant night sky, her voice crisp and bright: "I'm at Nancheng Square. There's a fireworks show tonight; it will last for an hour.

It's a pity Director Ye wouldn't let anyone go, otherwise I would have picked you up to watch the fireworks. How is acting going lately?"

Seeing Jin Li: "It's going quite well. Since signing the supplementary agreement, every actor has been performing more seriously. Today is New Year's, and the crew even ate together during the day; the food was very sumptuous."

If the crew were willing to let people go, many actors would likely be arranged by their companies to have a pile of New Year's Eve appearances.

Since they had to film again the second day of the New Year, Ye Weijie simply didn't let anyone go, to avoid the actors' minds wandering and them being unable to get into character.

While chatting with Fang Jie, the Xi Sister Meng Ze stage Seeing Jin Li was waiting for also arrived.

At the beginning of the New Year, the "Tear-Jerking Queen" Xi Sister Meng Ze didn't sing those sad emotional songs anymore, but instead sang a cheerful "Year After Year."

This was a new song that sang out the fireworks atmosphere of New Year's in the alleyway households. Xi Sister Meng Ze arranged the music herself.

Seeing Jin Li hadn't heard that she had also learned music arrangement recently, thinking to herself, it seems the friends are all working desperately in places she can't see.

Accompanied by the cheerful music, she looked up at the starry night sky outside the window, and a smile hung on the corner of her mouth.

When she was an immortal, time was the least worth mentioning.

But after coming to the human world, she suddenly discovered that the flowing time and the constantly developing changes were actually the most moving.

This was a vivid atmosphere that the unchanging Immortal Realm could not feel.

Someone once asked a question: If you wouldn't grow old, but the people around you would all slowly grow old and then gradually leave you, would you still choose immortality?

Many people initially swore they would, but after thinking about it carefully later, they felt they probably couldn't endure the endless loneliness.

It is said that a person must experience three forgettings to be considered truly dead.

The first death, physiological termination.

The heart stops beating, breathing disappears, biological death is declared.

The second death, the extinction of social identity.

The funeral ends, no one comes to pay respects at the grave, the identity in the human world is erased.

The third death, the memory of you disappears completely.

The last person who remembers you passes away, and you disappear completely from this world.

When the familiar people around you are all growing old, dying, and stepping toward an unknowable tomorrow, while you, immortal, remain stuck in today, isn't that also a kind of disappearance?

You are still alive in this human world, but there is not a single person in the world who will remember you anymore.

Although the Immortal Realm is unchanging, at least it has familiar friends and the Master who taught you.

Seeing Jin Li breathed the air comfortably, and with the starry sky, she first bowed to the sky.

This bow was to the Jade Emperor, respecting the Heavens.

Then she bowed to the ground, bowing to the Empress of Earth, respecting the Earth.

"Playing to the Boundless Realm of the High Heavens, reporting down to the Court of the Empress of Earth. Disciple Seeing Jin Li bows again and again, prostrating with sincere heart—blessed by the compassionate light of the Dao Ancestor, feeling the righteous energy of the universe, having tempered the Dao in the human world for three years, strictly observing the precepts of the Daoist gate... neither cold nor heat invades, all conditions are harmonious, enough to comfort the distant thoughts of the Master and Saints..."

After bowing, Seeing Jin Li's body felt a burst of relaxation as she walked into the room.

Suddenly, she felt a thick divine power coming from far away in the sky. Seeing Jin Li smiled, her eyes curving into crescent moons.

She whispered in her heart: Master, Happy New Year!

Sitting back in the living room, after waiting for more than ten minutes, she waited for the joint stage of Ji Qinglian and Qi Guan Mingzhu.

Everyone was from a girl group; Qi Guan Mingzhu had recently become very interested in stage performance, and the two had a high completion rate, unafraid of the challenge of all-live vocals.

Seeing Jin Li felt her own singing was average, but she still had the ability to appreciate music.

Pearl and Qinglian's stage was completed very well, and their strength was even more impressive than before.

After watching all the friends' stages one by one, Seeing Jin Li set two more alarms, prepared for the remaining San Yue Tian stages, and returned to the desk to continue brushing up on essay prompts.

And in this New Year's Eve feast, I'm afraid many stars didn't expect that the one to first ignite the hot topic was actually Li Xunfang!

But Li Xunfang didn't ignite the hot search because of the issue of live or lip-synced singing, but because after her performance, she stayed on stage to accept an interview from the host and suddenly said:

"I'm actually a bit dissatisfied with today's stage. I wanted to sing live, but the program team was worried my performance would be unstable, so they still made me lip-sync."

Once these words came out, the audience under the stage and the host on the stage were stunned.

The host only felt her scalp go numb, her heartbeat accelerate, and she wished she could faint.

How could she dare!

How could she dare to say such things!

Could it be that she hadn't been praying to the gods diligently lately, which was why she was so unlucky to take Li Xunfang's interview.

The female host could be considered calm in the face of danger. After being stunned for several seconds, she quickly said:

"Thank you, Xunfang, for wanting to bring us the most sincere stage. This is also Li Xunfang's pursuit of herself, showing sincerity to everyone in front of the screen. If there is a chance in the future, I hope you can bring us an even better stage!"

Li Xunfang nodded continuously and said, "Actually, I can sing live a few lines right now. Do you want to hear it?"

The smile on the female host's face was a bit stiff.

Just let her faint right now!!

Li Xunfang held the microphone and, without waiting for the host to answer, sang a few lines live on the spot.

Some netizens edited this video, and before long, the video of Li Xunfang singing live spread across the entire internet.

【No wonder they made her lip-sync. With this tone-deaf appearance, who would dare let her sing live? Is singing live meant to torture the audience's ears?】

【Why is she so confident, yet so ordinary???】

【She must be crazy to be famous! Although black-red is also red, not every black-red star can make it. It suddenly makes me think of a certain female star who faked fainting on the red carpet.】

【Eh, why is it all negative reviews? I think she's quite real and unpretentious.

Her voice is just like this. If you think it's not suitable for the stage, then don't invite her. Isn't this much better than those idol artists who are clearly tone-deaf but insist on saying they are the sound of nature?】

【It's not that singing live is bad, but since they had already arranged for you to lip-sync, why did you suddenly expose it? The TV station director probably wants to cry until they faint in the bathroom...】

【Live or lip-sync doesn't matter, but this interview of Li Xunfang is definitely a broadcasting accident. The female host responded very well, but Li Xunfang didn't deliver!】

Seeing Jin Li didn't see this hot search. By the time she saw others discussing it in the group and ran to check it, this hot search had already sunk to the 40th place.

In contrast, the artists who performed outstandingly tonight all made it to the top of the hot search, among which San Yue Tian made it to the top ten hot searches three times in a row.

Every one of their hot searches was praised for their strength.

The members of Pink Girls benefited from the misfortune, being carried by their teammates, and everyone rushed to the hot search, even Seeing Jin Li, Yu Lina, and Gong Zitong, who didn't have a stage this year.

Carp: 【Is this the taste of being carried by others (smug)】

NANA: 【This sky-high traffic has finally descended upon me (happy)】

Tongtong: 【Cough cough, I haven't danced much in the past few years. The netizens praised me too much. If they let me on stage, I'm afraid I'd be the one slacking off.】

The melon-eating Xi Sister Meng Ze rushed over and shared the first-hand news she had just learned.

【Family members, do you know why our hot search went up so fast? It's because the TV station is furious and spent a lot of effort to suppress Li Xunfang's hot search!】

【The company doesn't have to spend a penny; the TV station actively buys traffic for us~】

Seeing Jin Li was reminded by everyone, and only then did she go to look at Li Xunfang's hot search.

Carp: 【Is she not afraid of offending the TV station?】

Others analyzed—

【Didn't you notice this TV station is very small? They only invited five first-tier stars to participate in the gala, one of whom is Li Xunfang. They probably aren't afraid of offending them, so they did this?】

【Although the heat is suppressed now, I think it will soar again soon.】

【The eyes of the masses are sharp. They know what is truly hot. The comment section of Li Xunfang's hot search is arguing fiercely, and the heat is rising rapidly. I'm afraid it can't be suppressed.】

Seeing Jin Li was multitasking, eating melons online while brushing up on essay questions.

When she summarized several text narrative frameworks, she checked her phone again and found that Li Xunfang's hot search had rushed to the second place.

As for the first one, it was still San Yue Tian's hot search, currently still occupying the top spot.

However, looking at the heat difference between the two hot searches, I'm afraid it will soon be pulled down.

Originally, I thought the hot search would end here, but I didn't expect Li Xunfang to suddenly release her own complete live singing video.

Li Xunfang: 【I know I didn't sing well, but I want to show my most real side to my fans. I hope everyone can see my sincerity. (Video. vcr)】 ===== CHAPTER 490 =====