The Nightingale in the Golden Cage (7)
Guan Jing walked out the door again without realizing it.
Then, Qu Chen released Guan Jing.
Qin Man quickly apologized to Guan Jing: "I'm sorry, Mrs. Rong, I'll take him back to the guest room first, and then you can go back to your room."
Guan Jing nodded: "Okay."
Qin Man and Jian Tanxi pulled Qu Chen back to the guest room, one on each side, and locked the door. This way, Qu Chen couldn't leave.
Professor Pan asked, "What was Xiao Chen doing just now?"
Qin Man recounted what had just happened and said helplessly, "I don't know what's wrong with this child, he actually did something like this. Luckily, Mrs. Rong has a good temper and didn't hold it against him."
Professor Pan chuckled, then seemed lost in thought and remained silent.
Du Jiaojiao complained, "What do we do now... We went through so much trouble to find Nightingale, but she's dead... Are we just going to wait to die? I don't want to be turned into a brooch..."
Hong Zicheng said, "How about this, we go find another live nightingale to replace this one. The Rong family garden is so big, there might actually be a nightingale there."
Jian Tanxi: "That's not appropriate. The referee can definitely tell whether the nightingale is the one in the golden cage."
Du Jiaojiao: "Don't all nightingales look pretty much the same? I don't believe the referee can tell them apart."
Jian Tanxi: "Don't challenge the referee's intelligence. What if you make things worse and end up in an even more miserable state?"
Du Jiaojiao fell silent.
There was a clock in the room, making a "tick-tock" sound.
Everyone looked at the clock and realized it was already four o'clock in the afternoon.
There are only two hours left before the player leaves.
A sense of urgency arose in everyone's hearts.
But now, there's nothing left for players to do.
Hong Zicheng said, "Why don't we run away?"
Du Jiaojiao asked, "Where are you going to run off to?"
Hong Zicheng: "As long as we're no longer with the Rong family, the referee might not be able to find us. So what if we spend the rest of our lives in City C? Survival is the most important thing. Even if aliens don't conquer Earth and we don't enter the game, we'll still live our whole lives in some city on Earth, no different from now."
Du Jiaojiao: "But I think the referee will definitely be able to find it... Even if he can't find it for the time being, he can search the whole of City C and find it."
Qin Man said, "Tanxi, aren't you the princess of the Red Strawberry Kingdom? I wonder if this identity can protect us... Shall we go back to the Red Strawberry Kingdom?"
Jian Tanxi: "But I don't know how to get to the Red Strawberry Kingdom... and I feel like we can't escape the referee's grasp."
Professor Pan suddenly said, “We’re all bound by our own preconceived notions. Who says there’s only one nightingale in the golden cage? Maybe there’s another golden cage somewhere in the Rong family’s house, with another nightingale inside. Let’s hurry up and go look for it; maybe we can find it before six o’clock.”
Hong Zicheng: "That's right. Time is of the essence, let's split up."
Du Jiaojiao: "Then I want to be in your group."
"No, Jiaojiao, we have to split up this time too. The more directions we take, the better our chances of winning."
Du Jiaojiao knew that Hong Zicheng's words made sense, so she agreed to his arrangement.
Except for Qu Chen, who couldn't be separated from his mother Qin Man, everyone else searched in one direction, hoping to find the second nightingale in the golden cage.
They walked out of the guest room, saying they just wanted to wander around, but the servants ignored them.
Jian Tanxi walked southeast and came to a storage room.
She pushed the door open and then quickly closed it.
The storage room was piled with too many odds and ends, blocking all the windows and making it very dark inside.
Jian Tanxi turned on the light and found the room to be a mess, covered in dust. It seemed that no one usually cleaned the room.
Nightingales certainly wouldn't be kept here.
Jian Tanxi was about to leave when her gaze was suddenly drawn to a magazine on the ground. The magazine had two words on it: "Nightingale."
The magazine was buried under several empty jars. Jian Tanxi finally managed to move the empty jars aside and pick up the magazine.
She blew off the dust and found two lines of large text printed on the magazine cover: "Her singing voice is her soul - An interview with 'The Nightingale in the Clouds'".
Below these two lines of text was a photo of a female celebrity. This celebrity looked very much like Rong Furen Guan Jing, only much younger, appearing to be only in her early twenties, with eyes full of confidence and longing for the future.
Jian Tanxi looked at it carefully and confirmed that the female celebrity on the cover was the current wife of the Rong family—Guan Jing.
She flipped through the magazine again and found that it contained an interview with Guan Jing.
It turns out that Guan Jing was a nationally famous singer when she was young. Because of her melodious voice, she was known as the "Nightingale in the Clouds".
She belongs to a band called "Spirit Birds" and is almost always in the center position at every performance.
She made a lot of money for the band and the company, and at the time of this interview, she was at the height of her career.
In an interview, Guan Jing expressed her love for singing and gratitude to her fans, hoping to bring them even better songs in the future.
In the interview, Guan Jing also recalled her early days in the entertainment industry. When she won her first singing competition, the prize she received was a sapphire.
The photo of the sapphire was also in the magazine. Jian Tanxi discovered that the sapphire in the magazine was the same sapphire found inside the stomach of the dead nightingale.
It seems that Guan Jing's prize was swallowed by Nightingale at some point.
No wonder the nightingale's corpse said that what was inside its belly was very important and asked the player to take it out.
After flipping through the magazine, Jian Tanxi had a strong idea in her mind: the nightingale that the referee asked the players to rescue was not that bird, but Guan Jing.
Guan Jing is known as the "Nightingale in the Clouds," and the luxurious Rong family, the richest family in the country, is just another golden cage.
Guan Jing is trapped.
Although she did not lose her personal freedom, her career and her life were bound by an invisible cage.
Since marrying into a wealthy family, she has lost her career and has to listen to Mr. Rong in everything. She doesn't even have the freedom to go to karaoke.
She may seem to live a life of luxury, but her vitality has long since been extinguished. That's why she looks so exhausted.
Her later life, like this moldy magazine, was confined in a golden cage and ignored by everyone.
No wonder Qu Chen insisted on pulling Guan Jing out earlier. Qu Chen wasn't being mischievous; he sensed that Guan Jing was the key to breaking the deadlock.
However, Qu Chen couldn't express it.
Jian Tanxi was very excited when she realized this. She wanted to tell her teammates, but they were all in different places.
Jian Tanxi didn't have time to look for anyone else, so she decided to persuade Guan Jing herself.
She ran back, passing through the living room, and saw the news playing on the television.
Jian Tanxi wasn't really interested in listening, but she suddenly heard about "Lingniao Ji," the band Guan Jing used to be in, so she listened to it briefly.
The news reports that Lingniao Group is holding a concert in City C, and tickets are extremely difficult to obtain, with scalpers selling them for as much as 10,000 yuan each. The performance will take place tonight at 6 PM at Yangfan Stadium.
Jian Tanxi hurriedly ran up to the third floor and arrived at Guan Jing's room.
Guan Jing was still playing the piano when she saw Jian Tanxi. She politely stood up and asked, "Is there something you need?"
"Guan Jing... are you the 'Nightingale in the Clouds'?"
Guan Jing exclaimed in surprise, "It's been a long time since anyone called me that..."
"Why doesn't the nightingale fly out of its golden cage?"
Guan Jing said sadly, "I can't fly out anymore."
"Why?"
“I haven’t worked for many years…and I’m getting old…”
"In my hometown, there's a proverb: 'The best time to plant a tree was ten years ago, the second best time is now.' In my country, some people become prime ministers in their seventies, and some become emperors in their sixties. Some people were scoundrels in their forties, but became emperors a few years later. Some people only started studying in their twenties, but became literary giants. No matter how old you are this year, it's never too late to start working hard now."
Guan Jing was somewhat persuaded: "But...but I'm not capable enough..."
"You have this idea because your abilities have been limited for too long. But a tiger kept in a cage for decades is still a tiger. You have to believe in yourself."
"I am not a tiger, I am just a nightingale."
"The nightingale may not be as strong as the tiger, but its voice is unmatched. Your voice is still there, so what is there to fear? I just found this inside the body of a dead nightingale."
Jian Tanxi handed the sapphire to Guan Jing.
Guan Jing exclaimed in surprise, "This was the prize I won when I first won a singing competition. It's been lost for many years... So, it's been inside the nightingale's belly all this time?"
"That's right. That nightingale is dead, perhaps because it wasn't happy in the golden cage. This gem is proof of your abilities. You won the championship when you were young, and you won't be any worse now that you've made a comeback."
I just heard that your old band, 'Spirit Birds,' is having a concert in City C tonight. Are you going to join them? I think they'd be thrilled to see you back.”
"No, they won't be happy... Back then, I left the team and married Rong Junchi... Because of my departure, the entire team suffered a great blow, and their income and reputation declined for a time. They must blame me and refuse to forgive me."
"How will you know the outcome if you don't try? Perhaps they've been waiting for your return for decades. The nightingale belongs to the forest, not to the golden cage. The golden cage can confine the body, but it can't confine the song. If your soul wants to fly, it can fly away."
Tears welled in Guan Jing's eyes as she looked sincerely at Jian Tanxi and said, "Thank you... I've decided to fly out and see the world..."
Guan Jing walked out, but when she reached the villa's entrance, she saw Mr. Rong had returned.
Mr. Rong asked Guan Jing, "Where are you going?"
Guan Jing: "Go find my band, I want to rejoin them."
"No way! You're the wife of the richest man now, how can you show your face in public and become a celebrity? My wife, Rong Junchi's wife, is only for me to see!"
"You have no right to restrict my personal freedom."
Mr. Rong sneered, "Do you still think you're a popular singer? Look at yourself now, old and frail, with a timid demeanor and a weary look in your eyes. What ability do you think you have to attract an audience?"
In the past, whenever Mr. Rong said this, Guan Jing would silently lower her head and stop talking.
But today, she mustered her courage, looked at her husband, and calmly said, "Thank you for giving me my aging years, my timid demeanor, and my weathered eyes. These were never truly mine, and today I'm letting them go. I am a nightingale in the clouds, and I will fly to my own forest."
"Stop right there! If you dare leave today, never set foot in the Rong family again!"
"Thank you, that's exactly what I wanted."
"you……"
Mr. Rong was so angry he couldn't speak, while Guan Jing calmly walked towards the car parked at the door. In her hand, she tightly gripped the sapphire.
Jian Tanxi followed behind her, and Guan Jing turned around and said to Jian Tanxi, "Can you drive? I can't, and it's too late to learn now. Over the years, I haven't learned anything except how to spend money."
Jian Tanxi nodded: "I can drive, just tell me which way to go."
“Okay. Actually, that stadium isn’t far, it’s only a ten-minute drive. Over the years, I’ve been so close to my dream, but I haven’t taken a single step…”
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