Chapter 454
The blue light on the cheering stick flickered on and off. When the last light board in the group ticket area dimmed, the young man standing in the center of the stage holding the microphone slowly spoke.
Like a shooting star streaking across the night sky, refreshing sparkling water poured into an ice cup on a hot summer night, the clear voice is like a trickle of water, evoking endless fantasies about the future.
The introduction will give people goosebumps no matter how many times they hear it. When listening to Ji Shao singing it in person on the spot with their senses magnified countless times, Zhou Xiao believes that only those who are at the concert can truly feel the trembling deep in their souls like her.
The cheering sticks in the audience shook even more vigorously, and every shot the director switched to showed the fans' excited cheers. The song wasn't long, but it wasn't short either. But everyone could feel the emotions hidden within it.
Every sound was accompanied by the waving of thousands of cheering sticks. The colorful light signs had long since been turned off by fans, leaving only the lights of the cheering sticks, controlled synchronously by the central control panel, a grand and moving spectacle.
"Don't Say Goodbye" is a lyrical and healing song, and its inclusion as the final track at the concert was self-evident. To ensure a perfect ending to the graduation concert, even the tear-jerking anthem, often hailed as a killer song by fans, was removed from the Huayao setlist.
There is some effect from doing this, but it is not significant.
A tearjerker isn't defined by its composition, but by the audience, by their true feelings. When the softest part of your heart is touched, long-suppressed emotions burst forth with the song's climax.
For a song that clocks in at a precise 5:20, by the time the second and final chorus prelude hit, the audience had already begun to sob as they sang along. As if sensing something, the members on stage's eyes gradually began to well up.
The members' ability to sing the first half of the song in its entirety relied on their solid skills. But their skills were no match for the overwhelming emotion at the moment, and when they began to sing again, the tune was already out of tune.
"Walking through...hiccup...every breeze...hiccup...scene..."
The sound of sobbing echoed through the microphone, reaching everyone present. Even Zhou Xiao, who was crying along, was slightly amused. However, when she saw Ji Shao comforting the sobbing victim beside her, memories of the past subconsciously flashed back to her mind.
The two protagonists are the same, but the difference is that Liang Wendao was nervous about the audience leaving and the first performance of "Star 101". Now, he is facing over 100,000 "audience members" who will not leave early and his last performance as a member of NINE STAR.
The livestream cruelly yet honestly recorded the first time since their debut that all NINE STAR members broke their vocals on stage. Liang Wendao's unfinished line was taken over by Ji Shao, but his performance wasn't particularly good either.
"It's... our... journey together..." The dry, unpitched voice was a stark contrast to the introduction. Ji Shao, branded a perfect dummy and an AI robot by his haters, seemed to have begun to change at this moment.
"Ah, it's such a healing song, why are you all crying?" Ji Shao, holding the microphone, turned the tables, as if he wasn't the one whose voice had broken in pain. Of course, to listen to him, one had to ignore the smudge at the corner of his eye, which was not sure whether it was sweat or tears.
"Young Master" Chu Cheng took advantage of the break in the melody and pointed at the corner of Ji Shao's eye, "You are not much different!"
As soon as Chu Cheng said this, the members on the stage all laughed. Although some people's smiles didn't look good, it more or less diluted the sad atmosphere on the stage.
In the audience, Zhou Xiao took the tissue from Zhu Jian and started laughing and crying. It felt like her emotions were out of control tonight, as if she was deeply affected by the performers on stage.
She now understands why this part of the concert is so long. Could it be the small theater time reserved by the members for themselves?
Zhou Xiao thought so, but she also understood that with the conclusion of the NINE STAR graduation concert*, there would no longer be a definitive answer to this question. Perhaps, she would have to wait until someday in the future, when a stage would reveal it to her personally.
After a burst of laughter, the young people on the stage seemed to have let go. When they raised the microphone together, the ending left for the audience was the sentence:
“No goodbyes, our story continues”
“Bang!” “Bang!” “Bang!”
Before he finished speaking, countless streamers, accompanied by a series of explosive explosions, suddenly sprayed from the stage into the surrounding audience seats. Like a sky full of stars, this was the embodiment of the romance that is unique to the NINE STAR stage.
The stage no longer shone, but the heat remained. The nine members gathered in the center of the stage. As if sensing something, Ji Shao raised his head and stared blankly at this grand feast of ribbons.
A fluttering Q-version sunflower ribbon landed on his outstretched hand. The next moment, he passed it to Chu Cheng, who was still crying with his head bowed beside him. His face was unclear, but tears were falling drop by drop. The drops splashed onto the ground, forming a small teardrop.
The sobbing from the audience had already been intermittent, but at this moment, they completely collapsed. Through his blurred vision, Zhou Xiao felt as if several people on the stage were moving. No, it wasn't an illusion; the platform the members were standing on was indeed slowly rotating.
The lights dimmed one by one, leaving only a single ray of light at the center of the stage amidst the audience's cries of "No." The vibrant embroidery on the backs of the nine members was fully displayed to the audience for the first time tonight.
Ji Shao's neem flowers, Chu Cheng's sunflowers, Yan Shu's foxes... each member's exclusive representative embroidery was particularly bright and eye-catching under the lights, and then they slowly disappeared on the lift, leaving behind a dark hole.
"We didn't even make it to the second season of the group variety show," said Wu Yanyan, whose eyes were swollen like walnuts from crying.
"Hip... ask Sister Zheng Qian to give us... hiccup... another one," Zheng Shulin replied. "Then... hiccup... I'll be the host... the main MC! You all have to listen to me!"
"Brother Shao," Liang Wendao raised his head and sniffled, "Then you have to work with me on the theme song! We'll own the copyright!"
"Brother Xu, I'm reporting Xiao Liangzi for not playing with you." Chu Cheng hugged Xiang Rui, who was crying so hard that he could no longer make any sound, and said, "The two of us can act as the atmosphere group."
"Woo... why don't you guys answer&＃＊￥" Wu Yanyan's voice sounded even more sad, and the words that followed were garbled.
After a moment, Ji Shao's voice sounded faintly, "Our microphones are not turned off."
After a moment of silence, Ji Shao took down the microphone and said, "No need to look for President Zong. We can host our own show when the time comes."
"Brothers, are you feeling the itch to clench your fists?" After turning off the microphone, Xu Zhou gritted his teeth, ready to make a move. However, the moment the rotating lift paused, his clenched fists transformed into hugs, tightly embracing the members around him.
Under the deliberately cleared stage, the people inside were crying just as hard as the audience above. As time passed, it was finally time to leave.
It seemed like five minutes? Ten minutes? When the lights came on, the glare seemed to completely separate reality from fantasy.
The people in the darkness had shed enough tears. In the stadium that was as bright as daylight, some people subconsciously covered their eyes and wiped away the tears from the corners of their eyes. Then, they walked towards the stadium exit with the ribbons they had just grabbed.
"Woo woo" Qi Sisi, who had finished half a pack of paper by Zhu Jian, was about to stop crying, but when she saw the words on the ribbons that she had collected even though she was crying, she started howling again.
With the help of the bright lights in the venue, Zhou Xiao clearly saw a line of words printed on the pale purple Q-version outline of the neem flower -
Happy Chinese Valentine's Day, thank you for always being with me [love]——Xiao Ji will always be there^_^
…
Even at this late hour, the sports plaza was still incredibly bustling. After urgently applying a cooling patch to his eyes, Zhou Xiao, with tears-swollen eyes, declined his friends' offers to help him and headed to the previously prepared venue to wait.
The drones produced by the system can be directly operated by simply entering the relevant commands into the system. After discovering Zhou Xiao entering through a spontaneously opened passage, the group of security personnel waiting inside the "encirclement" also stood up.
Thousands of drones were neatly arranged in the square. If they hadn't registered their positions in advance, the area would have been completely overrun by fans. But the sheer scale of the display was simply too impressive, attracting a large crowd.
When Zhou Xiao arrived, the area was already packed with people. Even the onlookers in the trees along the road were eager to try, but only calmed down after being warned by the square staff.
"Sister Xindong!" "Teacher Xindong!" "Sister Zhou" "..." Zhou Xiao hardly needed to ask everyone to make way for her. When she approached the lively crowd surrounding the drone, some people had already recognized her and greeted her enthusiastically.
Everyone is curious. After the first curious passerby was struck by the scale of the drones in the square, online and offline discussions erupted, practically creating a whole "drone academy" of discussion. Combined with the blogger's description of the surprise, and of course, the fact that Zhou Xiao had previously prepared a drone operation, didn't the connection become so clear?
The fans in the forum didn't dare to identify her out of thin air, but offline, some people took Zhou Xiao's photo from the official website of "ZYQ" and asked the security personnel who looked tough at first glance whether she was the one who was going to organize the drone show.
The security guard was serious, but nodded.
Thus, Zhou Xiao finally experienced the treatment that only idol members could get. Zhou Xiao was a little embarrassed when he was surrounded by fans, but looking at the people around him with the same swollen eyes as himself, he felt that the distance between them was rapidly shortened.
"Hello, Ms. Zhou," the tall and mighty security guard in the lead gestured. After everyone else greeted Zhou Xiao one by one, he directed his men to take control of various places again.
Thousands of drones is no small number, and besides fans, the crowd at the stadium tonight was a mixed bag. Even the officials had to send people out to maintain order.
Zhou Xiao nodded, looked at the time on her watch, smiled at the people around her waiting to watch, and said, "There are about five minutes left, everyone wait a moment." After that, she called Zhu Jian who was still waiting for her news.
The Tiaosi group, representing about half the total number of participants, were undoubtedly the most cohesive. Of course, they were also the most closely monitored. Knowing in advance that they would be gathering offline to photograph the sea of light signs, and also that there would be a surprise for their all-important Sister Xindong, everyone was exceptionally obedient and disciplined.
Zhu Jian was standing next to Cheese at the moment. After receiving the message from Zhou Xiao, he greeted the other party immediately.
"Is Xindong ready?" Cheese's eyes lit up, and he quickly lowered his head and flipped the switch on the large speaker at his feet. Then, a large speaker appeared out of nowhere and he shouted to the densely packed crowd in front of him, "Everyone! Wait where you are! We're not in a hurry to shoot a cheering video right now. Everyone, head towards the stadium first!"
Zhu Jian, standing by, was practically on his knees! No wonder Cheese, the person in charge of the offline operations, hadn't found anyone for over half an hour this afternoon. It turned out they had expanded their equipment again!
“Wow, are they really drones?” “I saw a post on the forum, there must be thousands of them!” “Help me, I love Sister Angel so much!” “Awesome! It seems our fan club couldn’t rent a single drone this time. Is it because all the drones were borrowed by the teachers?” “You’re so stupid! How could we not be able to borrow one? The fan club failed to register the drone.” “…”
The crowd erupted in heated discussion, and Cheese watched without trying to stop them. Just kidding, with so many people, if there weren't a swarm of security guards nearby helping to maintain order, how could one speaker be enough? She was all thanks to everyone for giving her some face!
He glanced down at the time, and saw that it was still a few minutes before the scheduled time. Cheese and his friends quickly turned on their cameras and pointed them towards the stadium building!
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