Chapter 713: A Work of a Century

Time flies like a shuttle, the sun and moon move like a weaver's loom.

A week passed in the blink of an eye.

Luo Mo had already finished all the new songs for the Spring Festival Gala.

He had also created new arrangements for some old songs suitable for the Spring Festival Gala.

As for the film "Let the Bullets Fly," which was being submitted for heritage status, he had finally finished the post-production editing.

In other words, this film could also be sent for review.

In Beijing, Mrs. Zhong Lin sat in her office, personally reviewing Luo Mo's new work as usual.

"Let the Bullets Fly."

"Genre: Comedy."

Mrs. Zhong Lin, dressed in a sharp professional suit, expressed her satisfaction with this.

Luo Mo's comedies were always particularly funny; for instance, "Hello Mr. Billionaire" had literally made her laugh until she cried.

Having a new comedy film to watch was naturally a happy thing.

These days, everyone's work pressure is quite high, and the people of Huaxia enjoy "involution," so there is all sorts of anxiety in life.

Therefore, a good comedy film is an excellent tool for stress relief.

At this very moment, Mrs. Zhong Lin opened "Let the Bullets Fly" from the perspective of watching a pure comedy film.

As previously introduced, on Earth, the view count algorithm of the small broken site Bilibili is different from other video platforms; its gold content is several times that of other platforms' algorithms.

And this film, which many people were calling to be submitted for heritage status, had a view count as high as 120 million on the small broken site!

130,000 people had rated it, and it still maintained a score as high as 9.9.

If one opened the bullet comments to watch, many people were spamming four characters: 【Recite the full text】.

And if this film were to be played on Blue Star, then it would be equivalent to Luo Mo unleashing a god-tier ultimate move in the very first second of the film's official start.

Because this film began by using the song "Farewell" as its entry point!

Pu Shu is a "white moonlight" level Singer in many people's hearts; in the eyes of many, he is different from most Singers.

And when he sang this song, he once choked up and said that if he could write a song like this in this lifetime, he could die right there on the spot.

"Heard the Dao in the morning, one can die in the evening."

Many people, when mentioning this song, use a word rarely used to describe a song—great.

Yes, many people call it a great work.

From which year does this song, which people still sing and listen to today, and which makes people hum along involuntarily when they see the lyrics, originate?

—It was written in 1915!

A true work spanning a hundred years!

Its Lyricist is named Li Shutong.

He was a famous musician, art educator, calligrapher, and drama activist.

At the same time, he is also hailed as one of the pioneers of Chinese Language drama and is the founder of Chinese Language drama.

He was also one of the pioneers of Chinese oil painting and advertising art.

It is worth mentioning that one of his disciples is also a resounding figure.

—Feng Zikai!

Yes, his disciple's achievements are top-tier; he is hailed as "the most artistic artist in modern China" and the "progenitor of modern Chinese comics."

A person of such overflowing talent as Li Shutong had a life that could be called incomparably legendary. He later shaved his head to become a monk and was revered by people as—【Master Hong Yi】.

At this time, inside the Review Department.

Mrs. Zhong Lin is a knowledgeable person; having received a good education since childhood, she possesses cultural depth.

She looked at the screen on the computer, the singing voice echoing in her ears.

"【Outside the long pavilion, beside the ancient road, the fragrant grass reaches the sky.】"

With just a few short characters of lyrics, the imagery was immediately established.

"【The evening breeze brushes the willows, the sound of the flute fades, the setting sun beyond the mountains.】"

Listening to the singing and looking at the lyric subtitles in the film, Zhong Lin could not help but widen her eyes.

She had already begun to keenly sense the power of this song!

"Is this definitely not poetry?"

"【At the edge of the sky, at the corner of the earth, old friends are scattered.】"

Upon hearing this part, that surge of emotion could be said to have been thoroughly rendered.

"【A pot of turbid wine to exhaust the remaining joy, tonight the parting dream is cold.】"

Hearing this, Zhong Lin directly pressed the pause button on the entire film.

"These lyrics are written too amazingly!"

So amazing that it gave her a feeling of being completely overwhelmed.

At this thought, Zhong Lin picked up her phone and sent a WeChat message to a man with a weak sense of presence.

This man was Mrs. Zhong Lin's husband.

"I'm sending you the lyrics to a song, take a look," Zhong Lin typed.

"Luo Mo's?" the man replied in a second.

"Mm," Zhong Lin said.

Mrs. Zhong Lin's husband regarded Luo Mo as his lifelong enemy.

Just imagine, your wife often locks herself in the study alone, not letting you in, and then cries and laughs for another man...

He felt that the emotional fluctuations he brought to Zhong Lin were nowhere near as great as those brought by Luo Mo.

The number of times she has cried or laughed for me is far less than the number of times she has for Luo Mo!

But it must be said that this did not affect their marriage; instead, it made the man increasingly attentive in their marriage and start trying to be a bit more romantic.

Their bland married life actually felt a bit like it had returned to the dating period.

Sometimes, to change a dull status quo, you need the addition of a new force!

——But I don't recommend everyone try this, ha!

This husband of Zhong Lin with the weak sense of presence is named Huo Lianzhou, and he can be considered to come from a scholarly family.

His father is a well-known domestic writer, Huo Yuan.

He holds a very high status in the literary world.

Precisely because of this, Zhong Lin felt it would be better to have her husband analyze it than to appraise it herself.

What's more, she also knew that her husband often got inexplicably jealous because of Luo Mo.

Although she didn't understand his thought process, she enjoyed it.

Therefore, she felt that Huo Lianzhou would be more pedantic and look at the lyrics written by Luo Mo with a more critical eye.

"Send it to me and let me see," said Huo Lianzhou.

"Then sign this thing first; an online signature will do," Zhong Lin sent something over first.

Both "Let the Bullets Fly" and "Farewell" had not been released yet, and the Review Department sometimes takes things to show to professionals, but these outsiders must sign documents first to avoid leaks and ensure nothing goes wrong.

Once signed, one must bear legal responsibility.

A certain outsider: "..."

I treat you as my wife, and you treat me as a roommate, right?

But Huo Lianzhou was also very clear that work is work, and life is life.

He quickly signed it online, and then couldn't wait to look at the lyrics written by Luo Mo.

"【Outside the long pavilion, by the ancient road, the fragrant grass reaches the sky.】"

"Long pavilion, ancient road, fragrant grass... aren't these all things others have used to death?" Huo Lianzhou thought to himself.

There are some images that, because everyone uses them so much, he just feels there is nothing strange about them.

"【The evening breeze brushes the willows, the sound of the flute is fading, the setting sun is beyond the mountains.】"

"Willow, flute, setting sun, mountains... another set of vocabulary that everyone has used to death," Huo Lianzhou thought in his heart.

His feeling after reading it was that the artistic conception and standard were not bad.

Placed in today's music scene, these lyrics are definitely top-tier; not many Lyricists can write to this level.

But if placed in the literary world, it probably wouldn't count as top-notch, right?

After he told Zhong Lin his thoughts, Zhong Lin did not think so.

"So what if you think these lyrics are vulgar? They are just written well!" Zhong Lin insisted on her own view.

With the couple at a stalemate, they needed a referee.

"Why don't you send it to Dad!" Zhong Lin suggested.

Her father-in-law, Huo Yuan, is a world-famous writer.

Many people don't even dare to read his books a second time.

Despair, it's too despairing!

Yet in his personal life, he is a very joyful person, a little old man who is smiling all day long.

But it must be said that in the field of literature, among the group of people who write books, he is indeed someone standing at the peak.

How Ox is he?

So Ox that many people would think he is already dead and no longer around.

It's very strange; when someone mentions a great writer in many people's hearts, a thought will arise in your mind: "Oh, he's still alive?"

You would mistakenly think he was a person from the beginning of the last century.

It's just that, as some of his interview videos gradually went viral, many people have already started treating Huo Yuan as a comedian delayed by literature.

A classic case of—the person and the works being famous in their own right.

When people mention his works: "Wuwuwuwu—, it's too heartbreaking, too despairing!"

When mentioning the person himself, they only recall some of his down-to-earth famous quotes from interviews.

"Was your childhood happy?"

He touched his nose, unable to suppress his smile: "My childhood was... well, I didn't have to go to school, so it must have been happy."

When he was little, he faked an illness and even had his father, who was a doctor, personally remove his appendix.

It is worth mentioning that his father, mother, and older brother also had their appendixes removed.

——The whole family couldn't scrape together a single appendix!

Many people say his writing style is concise, and he frankly replied: "Because I don't know many characters."

The ultimate goal of writing books is also to lie flat.

He embarked on the path of literature also because he didn't want to be a doctor, wanted to sleep in, didn't want to go to work, blah blah blah.

When he first started writing, his ambition was huge, and he would first submit his work to the most Ox magazines and newspapers.

After being rejected, he would also say with a smile that his psychological resilience was good, and after being sad for a moment, he would... send it to a lower-tier magazine.

Zhong Lin had read Huo Yuan's books when she was a student, and she never thought that one day she would become his daughter-in-law.

During her first visit, her heart was still full of awe.

After leaving, she thought to herself: "What a selfish little old man, giving all the sadness to the readers and keeping the happiness for himself."

She even suspected that when he was writing books, he was smiling while torturing this person and that person: "Hehe, this won't kill you with sadness, will it?"

One could say he is the Blue Star version of Teacher Yu Hua.

At this moment, the husband and wife called out in the family group chat, and Huo Yuan, who was proficient with smartphones, immediately popped up.

"Dad, we have a set of lyrics here that we'd like you to appraise," said Huo Lianzhou.

"Send it over. I received my royalties last week, so I won't charge you this time."

Huo Lianzhou's inner thoughts: "..."

"Dad, you need to sign something before you look at it," said Zhong Lin.

Huo Yuan signed it instantly, without even looking at what he was signing.

"You signed it so quickly?" said Huo Lianzhou. "You didn't even look, did you?"

"You're my only son, there's no need to scam you out of your inheritance, is there?" said Huo Yuan.

Huo Lianzhou again: "..."

Seeing that her father-in-law had signed, Zhong Lin immediately sent over "Farewell".

After sending it, they even started a voice call directly.

Because tone cannot be discerned from text, and sometimes, the tone in which a person speaks can often reflect something.

In the voice call within the group chat, Huo Yuan read the lyrics out loud.

When he read "Old friends are scattered," he couldn't help but let out a "Tsk—!"

Following the "Tsk," there was also a "Hiss—."

After reading the entire song, he didn't offer a critique, but instead asked directly: "Who wrote this?"

The devious Huo Lianzhou knew that his father was the most critical of things he wrote himself, so he deliberately said: "Is there a possibility that I wrote it?"

"Impossible, our family's genes couldn't write this," said Huo Yuan.

Huo Lianzhou for the third time: "..."

At the same time, he couldn't help but ask: "Are these lyrics really that good?"

"Hm? You think they aren't good?" Now it was Huo Yuan's turn to be bewildered.

He began to doubt himself, wondering if something had gone wrong with his education of his only son.

After Huo Lianzhou stated his reasoning, Huo Yuan said: "Don't embarrass me outside in the future. You don't even understand 'the greatest form has no shape, the loudest sound is hard to hear'."

"I feel that my education of you still has a long way to go."

Zhong Lin was laughing so hard in the office!

Huo Yuan began to analyze "Farewell".

"Look here, let's break these lyrics down first."

"The beginning writes of the pavilion, the road, the grass, the sky, and the wind."

"Later there are also willows, the flute, the sunset, the mountains, and distant mountains..."

"Do you understand now?" said Huo Yuan.

"Right, those are just very common images, everyone uses them," Huo Lianzhou was still stubborn.

Huo Yuan was silent for a moment to show he was speechless, then said: "The title is 'Farewell', this part writes of the 'farewell', the further you go, the further away it gets."

"Look, the long pavilion and ancient road, the fragrant grass connecting to the sky, the evening wind carrying the flute, the sunset and distant mountains, and mountains beyond mountains."

"I see you off, seeing you off until I can no longer see you."

"And you look at the latter part, what is written there is the 'parting'."

"Here, it is a case of being close despite the distance."

"He writes of the ends of the sky, writes of the corners of the earth, writes of borrowing wine to enter a dream..."

"A dream is even further away than the ends of the earth," he sighed.

"This is textbook-level."

"From the logic of space, from every aspect, he used the fewest words to play out the most tricks."

"The arrangement and combination of these images are irreplaceable."

"These are all incredibly Strictness."

"Yet under this structure, its artistic conception and its emotions are all perfectly in place!"

"What is called returning to simplicity?"

"This is called returning to simplicity!"

"Not a single word of 'farewell' or 'parting' is spoken, yet the meaning of a farewell is full."

"Look at the content that follows, like 'Ask you when you will return, do not hesitate when you come'. There is sorrow, there is magnanimity, there is anticipation, there is Blessing, using a minimalist mode to express all the emotions that should be expressed."

"Just these lyrics, you can't change them, you know?"

"Impossible to modify!" said Huo Yuan.

To be unchangeable is a very, very high form of praise.

You must know, on Earth, this is a century-old masterpiece. Over so many years, some have thought about changing it, some have tried to write a sequel, or followed the format to change the expression, and so on.

But what was the result?

What has been passed down to this day is still "Farewell" by Master Hong Yi, Li Shutong.

And it can be said to be a household name; the vast majority of people can Singing it.

Huo Yuan said so much, yet he still felt unable to express all the emotions and praise in his heart.

Of course, Huo Yuan is, after all, a writer praised by many for his minimalist writing style. Because of this, it is actually quite fitting for him to appraise "Farewell".

Therefore, at this moment, he also used the simplest vocabulary and the most ultimate arrangement and combination to express his ultimate praise as a modern person:

"Damn, this is written so Ox, holy shit!"

Huo Lianzhou: "."

Zhong Lin: "."

They could even sense from it Huo Yuan's immense envy that someone was able to write such lyrics.

After spewing profanities, Huo Yuan then remembered one very important thing.

He asked, "Who wrote these lyrics?"

(End of chapter)