Chapter Sixteen: Hey young fellow, sing me a song of "The East is Red"

  It's almost the end of June and soon it will be July, even if I get up early, I still feel a bit hot. Especially when I have to carry two bags and walk more than ten miles to reach the countryside, it's even hotter.

  "I feel like I must look really stupid right now!" As he walked along the winding cement road in the countryside, looking at a motorcycle that had just sped past him, Tang Xiao, a muscular man with a height of around 1.75 meters and visible muscles, suddenly muttered to himself.

  "That's better than being treated as a mental patient!" A certain sinister system responded lightly.

  Upon hearing this, Xiao Sa's already unpleasant face turned even uglier. He couldn't help but recall his grandmother's words from two nights ago.

  "Do you know that everyone in the whole village is saying that you are mentally ill?"

  The sky was not yet dark when Grandma had already stopped playing cards in the teahouse and returned home with a black face. When she saw Tang Xiao Sao, who had finished packing to leave, sitting on the stone steps at the door drinking tea, she suddenly started scolding him in a low voice: "What have you been doing all day? Not only did you run to the slope and shout loudly, but also used your hands and feet to hit that big cypress tree. Are your hands and feet very hard? Why didn't you go hit stones instead? You've lost face for our Tang family."

  Tang Xiao sat calmly in the chair, not understanding Grandma's meaning at all, and stared blankly at her: "What...what did you say?"

  "Still pretending to be stupid?"

  Seeing Tang Xiao's expression, Grandma was even more furious. "You said you lost face in your own home, but now the whole village knows about it! I just went to the tea house to play cards, and Old Wang stopped me and asked if I had a grandson named Tang Xiao. I said yes, what's wrong with that? He told me, do you know that your grandson has gone crazy? Every morning he runs up the mountain, shouting and jumping around like mad! And the worst part is, he even uses his hands and feet to hit that big cypress tree! Cypress trees are so hard, and it's so big, don't you think his hands hurt?"

  Grandma said all this in one breath and felt a bit hoarse, so she stopped for a moment. Looking at Tang Xiao's embarrassed, depressed, and crying face, she continued: "Old Man Wang also asked me: Have you ever thought of treating him? At such a young age, even if he's crazy, it shouldn't be too serious, maybe there's still hope for treatment!"

  Grandma finished speaking, and "Wang Lao Tou" started talking about "Zhang Da Pao" again - "Zhang Da Pao also chimed in from the side, saying 'Li Da Niang, you'd better keep an eye on that madman. I think he's incredibly strong, the bark of the big cypress tree is all dented. If he were to hurt someone, your family would be held responsible.'"

  "Stop, stop it!" Just as Grandma was about to talk about other people's comments on being "crazy", Tang Xiao immediately stopped her with a painful and speechless cry. Then, he sighed deeply and seriously said to the dissatisfied grandma: "Grandma, I had actually made up my mind this afternoon and planned to leave tomorrow afternoon, and all the clothes were packed too. Look at how you've spread it around now, so I've decided to leave tomorrow morning."

  "Didn't you say just this morning that you wanted to play for a week? How come you suddenly want to leave now?" Grandma was originally going to scold him some more, but now she heard that Xiao Shuai Ge was about to take off immediately, and in an instant, she threw away all the anger in her belly, and even wondered if it was because she had scolded him just now, so he didn't want to stay at home anymore.

  "It's like this, I'm preparing to go to Shanghai to work, now that it hasn't started summer vacation yet is the best time when there are fewer people and it's easier to take a seat on the train." Tang Xiao didn't say he was going to become a star, because after what happened today, he temporarily didn't want to cause any more trouble. Everything will have to wait until he becomes famous, then he'll call his family to tell them.

  Grandma saw that he was very serious, and considering that he is indeed very embarrassing in the village now, so she didn't say much more, nodded and said: "Going out to work and earn money is a good thing, I won't stop you. You must work hard and pay attention to your safety at all times, don't waste your money when you have it..."

  This morning, when he formally went out, his grandmother was worried and wanted to ask his grandfather to send him off, but Tang Xiao obviously couldn't accept this. He immediately carried his two bags and ran out quickly, then strode along the highway and turned around a bend at the head of the village, disappearing from his grandmother's tearful sight.

  "I sneak away like this, and I'm afraid from now on the villagers will all firmly believe that I was sent to a mental hospital for treatment." Xiaosao's face turned black with gloom, he never thought that he would have a day of "being mentally ill", and it spread so loudly.

  "Alright, you'd better hurry up and leave now. It's the peak time for the fair, if it disperses and there's no one left, you won't have a 20-yuan income." The system was too lazy to continue chatting with him, and as soon as he opened his mouth, he threatened: "There are still over 10 miles of road ahead, at your speed, it'll take about an hour."

  Don't think Tang Xiao is unaware that time is a bit tight, he was in junior high school and read it in the countryside. This road has been walked by him no less than 100 times before the highway opened. He naturally understands how much time it takes. So his feet immediately quickened their pace and he walked with his head down.

  There is a poem that describes the road to Shu: The road to Shu is difficult, more difficult than climbing up to the blue sky. Although An county is not within this range of difficulty, there are numerous small hills like cow hair. As Tang Xiao walked, he had to bypass one bend after another, climbing up on one side and down on the other, a process so boring it made his head ache. Not until he saw the middle school in the countryside did he finally step onto the cement road again, walking into the main street that seemed unchanged for years along with motorcycles and pedestrians.

  The village is now just a street, purely formed along the direction of National Highway 319. The closer to the center of the street, the more crowded and noisy it becomes. The sound of car horns, the bleating of sheep and cattle, the crying and laughing of children, the quarreling of adults, the hawking of vendors... all these sounds converge together, making one's whole body tremble with discomfort.

  Xiao Sao's face looked very unsightly, he stood up and looked around for a while, speechlessly asking: "Do I really have to sing here? Are you sure someone can hear it with all this noise?"

  The system responded affirmatively: "That's right, you must move them with your deep and emotional voice."

  He nodded stiffly, then casually opened the guitar case in his hand and took out the guitar. After that, he placed the guitar case on the ground 1 meter in front of him. When all this was done, he took a few deep breaths to calm down his increasingly tense heartbeat, and his right-hand fingers heavily strummed the strings - ding ding ding...

  In this noisy environment, he couldn't muster up the spirit to play the guitar, so he chose a simple and easy-to-sing song with a relatively high-pitched voice, "Silver Birch Forest".

  A quiet village covered with white snow

  Doves flying under overcast sky

  The birch tree is carved with those two names

  They vowed to love each other for all their lives

  ……

  Tang Xiao sang very loudly, or rather, he was shouting the song loudly. If he didn't do so, let alone letting others hear his song, the sound of his guitar might not have carried far. As for getting tips, forget about it! He didn't open his eyes, but instead kept his neck stretched out and "sang" loudly, while his hands skillfully accompanied on the guitar. Therefore, he didn't notice that as soon as he started singing, he immediately caught the attention of everyone within a 10-meter radius around him.

  Actually, as soon as he opened the guitar case and took out the instrument, he had already attracted the attention of passersby around him, but Xiao Shuai was too nervous and didn't observe his surroundings at all.

  Just as he began to sing, the vendors who were originally calling out their wares, parents who were spanking their children, and butchers who were negotiating cattle deals... everyone suddenly fell silent at the same time, turning around to find Tang Xiaosha singing with her eyes closed.

  "Where did this young man come from?" A middle-aged woman carrying vegetables and watching the scene couldn't help but ask, looking at Xiao Sao's increasingly charming face.

  It was as if they were suddenly awakened, and the people who had originally calmed down also started moving again. However, this time the conversation content was almost surprisingly consistent: "Where did this young man come from?"

  No one knows the answer to this question, of course. First, Tang Xiao was not a street person, secondly, he used to be a bookworm who didn't like to go out and about, and lastly, his changes in just one week were too great, so much so that even he himself couldn't believe it. A taller, more handsome Tang Xiao now, even his former classmates probably wouldn't recognize him.

  The one in my heart, don't worry about me

  Waiting for me to return in that birch forest

  The sky is still overcast

  There are still pigeons flying around

  ……

  Xiao Swan didn't care how others looked at him or evaluated him, he continued to sing loudly with his eyes closed. This was real singing, not like the shouting at the beginning. If we say that at the beginning, he was indeed nervous and shy due to various reasons. But now, when he truly immersed himself in the atmosphere and emotions of this song, he no longer had any tension or shyness. He was just singing a story, a story about peace, nostalgia, and some sadness.

  The one I love died in battle on a distant desert battlefield

  She quietly came to that birch forest

  Gazing longingly and waiting there every day

  ……

  Even the longest song has an ending, when Tang Xiao finished singing with a lingering tone, his guitar also quickly reached the final stage of playing. He closed his mouth and opened his eyes - after being silent for about 5 seconds

  "Bang bang bang......"

  "Sing it again, one more time!"

  "It's great, really good, even better than the singers on TV!"

  ……

  It was unclear who started the applause and cheering, or who first shouted "Encore!", but by the time Tang Xiao returned to his senses amidst the thunderous applause and cheers, almost the entire audience had erupted into chants of "Once more! Once more!" - even an elderly man who looked nearly 80 years old and a 2-year-old child still in their mother's arms were joining in the chant: "Once more! Once more!"

  Is this the happiest moment for a singer? Xiao Tang excitedly got teary-eyed, and suddenly bowed deeply to the increasingly crowded and loud crowd. After standing up straight, without saying anything, he took advantage of the brief silence from the surprised crowd and immediately said loudly: "Good morning everyone, I am young singer Xiao Tang. This time, holding this kind of singing activity here is actually due to unavoidable reasons."

  He paused for a moment, then looked at the crowd that had slowly quieted down and was listening to him speak. He continued: "I plan to set out from our Double Dragon Village, trekking through Sichuan Province, Hubei Province, Hunan Province, Guangxi Province, Huangshan Province, Jiangsu Province, and Zhejiang Province, finally arriving at the Devil's City..." His tone suddenly turned somber as he spoke: "However, since my parents are unwilling to support this adventure of mine, I had no choice but to set out with just this instrument. Now I only have a few dollars left on me, so I hope you uncles and aunts, brothers and sisters can spare a dollar or two for me..."

  To be honest, rural people tend to be quite frugal, especially in today's harsh reality. If they don't save some money, what if someone in the family gets sick? What if their sons and daughters get into college or get married? In short, it's really not easy for anyone to squeeze out some cash from them.

  So, after finishing the above slightly fabricated story, Tang Xiao Sa became a bit tense and lowered his head again, and began to strum the guitar with a "out of sight, out of mind" attitude, preparing to sing two more songs...

  "Hey young man, sing me a song of 'The East is Red', and I'll give you 50 bucks!" A somewhat aged voice suddenly sounded in Tang Xiao's ear, he quickly turned his eyes to look over, only to find it was an old lady with completely white hair, who was smiling at him.