Chapter 3525: Legend of the Music World

At 7:30 p. m., the performance began on time.

Unlike the flashy, cool opening of previous concerts, Gu Qiuyi's final farewell concert did not adopt a high-profile opening.

The originally dark stage gradually lit up as multiple large LED screens brightened, and a beam of light illuminated the center of the stage, where a sand artist was painting on a glowing sand board with hands and fine sand.

In the image, a boy about two or three years old was holding the hand of a toddler girl learning to walk.

Then the music began, and Gu Qiuyi slowly rose from the lift platform, wearing a pure white long dress, and sang a song she had written herself, titled "Little Us."

The song tells the story of two innocent children, from infancy to childhood, their close relationship, and how they were separated due to family reasons; though they never had a chance to meet again, the girl never forgot the boy. This completely true background fully displayed her emotional journey before she found Ye Chen.

The sand artist skillfully coordinated with the song, constantly overturning and redrawing the sand painting. In the image, the two children gradually grew up; when the boy was seven or eight, he left the city with his parents. The girl cried, waved them off as they got into the car, and then chased after their vehicle for a long time.

Afterwards, the girl gradually grew up. Although she grew, studied, and played like other children, she never forgot the boy's appearance at their parting.

The girl gradually became poised and graceful, but she never found the boy's trace. As years passed, the trees by the Houhai budded and withered, withered and budded again; the ice on the lake that the children loved froze and melted, melted and froze again.

Fans who know Gu Qiuyi are aware that as the Gu family's only daughter, with a net worth of hundreds of billions, she chose to set aside her status as a capital city young lady and enter the entertainment industry solely to find that boy she had missed years ago.

But no one knows whether she actually found that boy.

In this song, there is no perfect ending; the final lyric still sings: "No matter where you are, please remember the little me and little us from back then."

This song is somewhat tender and somewhat sorrowful; judging by the performance effect, it is not suitable as an opening number for a concert.

However, Gu Qiuyi's fans know her years of deep affection and sincere efforts; hearing this song, they are even more moved than when listening to other energetic songs.

Combined with the fact that this is Gu Qiuyi's final concert, fans feel even more deeply connected; many in the audience were already weeping uncontrollably during the first song.

Ye Chen felt complex emotions; a line of poetry constantly surfaced in his mind: "It is easy to torment a talented scholar, but hard to bear a beauty's favor."

A girl silently devoted herself to her deep affection for so many years; even a heart of iron and stone would likely melt under this fervent sincerity.

What further bewildered Ye Chen was that the woman who had devoted herself so completely to him was not just Gu Qiuyi alone.

Gu Qiuyi's melodious and lingering voice, combined with the song's lyrics and the sand artist's painting, even moved Xiao Churan, who was beside Ye Chen.

At that moment, the snow, which had stopped for about an hour, began to fall again, gently and silently.

In the open-air venue, snowflakes drifted down, matching this moving song, making the audience feel stirred by the scene and deeply moved.

One song pulled tens of thousands of people into the warm spring of pure love; even as snowflakes continuously fell on their heads, they still felt warmth.

After Gu Qiuyi finished singing, she turned on stage and wiped her tears.

She knew Ye Chen was in the audience below, but she never dared to openly look directly at him.

Moreover, she had specifically instructed the on-site photographers not to aim their lenses at the audience below to capture candid shots, because she feared the photographers might unintentionally capture Ye Chen, and someone with ill intent might see it.

Seeing her turn and wipe her tears, the audience instinctively thought Gu Qiuyi must be sad because of this song, and thus inferred she had not yet found the boy mentioned in the song.

Afterwards, Gu Qiuyi adjusted her mindset, and the performance continued.

After singing three songs in a row, Gu Qiuyi finally took the opportunity between songs to speak into the microphone: "Thank you very much to the audience present tonight. This is my global farewell concert's final show, because I was born in Yanjing, grew up in Yanjing, and debuted in Yanjing, so I chose to hold this concert in Yanjing, hoping my entertainment career could have a beginning and an end, and conclude perfectly in this place of beginning, thus bringing down the curtain completely."

The fans were excited and emotional, shouting her name loudly in the audience, and some even shouted for her not to retire from the music industry.

Gu Qiuyi smiled slightly and continued: "Although I have been happy and honored over these years in the entertainment industry to have supporters like you, I believe there is no banquet that never ends; one must always choose a time to say goodbye to everyone. So I hope even more that, during my best years, I can say a proper and solemn farewell to you all, so you remember me at my best."

A female fan in the front row shouted hoarsely: "Qiuyi, you are forever the best in my heart!"

Gu Qiuyi smiled and said: "You must remember, nothing is forever the best."

After saying that, she half-jokingly, half-seriously told the audience: "Perhaps I am saying goodbye to you now, leaving in your minds the final impression of the best Gu Qiuyi; but if I were to say goodbye to you again in ten years, perhaps it would be the aging and faded Gu Qiuyi; if you waited another twenty years, and I still hadn't said goodbye by then, perhaps many of you would secretly gossip, wondering why that aunt named Gu Qiuyi hasn't stepped down from the mic, still clinging to the music industry at her age—really annoying, right?"

"No!" the fans shouted in unison, denying it.

Gu Qiuyi waved her hand, smiling: "Alright, I have already decided to retire, so I won't give you the chance to dislike me in ten or twenty years. So these are all hypothetical propositions. What I want to tell everyone is: high-quality companionship has never been about how long you stay together, but about being able to give your whole heart, no matter how long you're together, without regrets. I have always given my all in these years in the entertainment industry. To me, I have already done my utmost to accompany you well, so now, saying goodbye, I feel no regret. So, don't be sad, don't feel regret—you just need to know that the Gu Qiuyi who loves you has left her entertainment career forever at its peak."

Gu Qiuyi's heartfelt and sincere expression moved the fans to tears.

Many idols rack their brains trying to extend their peak, how to squeeze their fans' spending potential, and how to use various resources to keep rising higher.

But Gu Qiuyi has never entertained such thoughts.

She is self-disciplined, self-loving, and utterly sincere toward her fans, never pretentious or fake; over these years, every song, every performance, she has given her all, and she has indeed given her best self to her fans.

Moreover, the entertainment industry is cruel; no artist of both virtue and art can forever maintain popularity. As age increases, even heavenly kings and queens see their influence weaken, following the same trajectory as a person's life state.

If Gu Qiuyi continued in the entertainment industry, in five or eight years, she would inevitably begin to decline; no matter how hard she tried, she would gradually be defeated and replaced by fresh blood in appearance, stamina, and condition.

Now, she has retired directly from the peak of the entertainment industry, leaving behind for the entire Chinese-language music world a monument that has always advanced triumphantly, never walked a downward path.

Moreover, in the future entertainment industry, it will be very difficult, even impossible, to find another idol as pure, as dazzling, and as self-loving as she is.

For even if someone were as pure as she, they could never simultaneously possess her unmatched talent, her wealth rivaling a nation, and her spotless self-discipline.

These four points—perhaps someone in the world might have one, or two, or even three of them—but no one will ever have all four as she does.

Her decisive retirement at this time will inevitably make her the unprecedented, unmatched legend of the music world!