Chapter 86: Happy Breakup

He had no songs for the highest notes, and if he lowered the key too much, the piece would lose its flavor. Better choose another.

Huanzi glanced at Zhaoyan and suggested a breakup song.

Liu Xiaowei joined the fuss, echoing the idea with enthusiasm.

Zhaoyan understood why Huanzi had suggested that song, and she jabbed Huanzi in the waist from behind, scolding her not to make trouble.

After thinking it over, he agreed, but said it would sound better with piano accompaniment.

Then move seats, Zijing said. We should test the piano pickup first.

He set down the guitar, moved to the upright piano nearby, and readjusted the microphone.

In the chat, people saw him fussing about without actually singing, and complaints began to pile up.

Could this old guy even do it? Why was he dawdling so much?

A lazy mule always has plenty of excuses. My guess is this old guy is only average.

Jing, you got it wrong, didn’t you? A true genius would sing whatever people asked without a second thought. This old guy keeps wavering, and he is way too uncertain. What kind of genius is that? Ordinary talent at best.

Most middle-aged versions of that breakup song are terrible. I heard my boss sing it once at karaoke, and I nearly threw up. At that age, what kind of breakup happiness is there? Happy my ass.

...

Seeing the chat filled with these deliberately inflammatory doubts, Zijing was unhappy. She grabbed the microphone and snapped back at them:

If you have nothing to say, no one is mistaking you for mute. Can you just listen quietly?

Zhaoyan worried a little that Zijing was always so harsh with the fans.

She quietly reminded her to be more polite and stop lashing out all the time.

Zijing turned off the mic and told her that some people are born to be obnoxious, and if you do not put them in their place, they get worse. She was only scolding them for their own good.

Huanzi, crunching potato chips, snorted. You really think you are God, don’t you?

Zijing said smugly that she could not help it if she was naturally beautiful and impossible to ignore. If they insisted on worshiping her as a god, that was their problem; she did not even want the job.

Huanzi laughed and mocked her for having an enormous face.

Zijing shot back with quick wit, saying that even if her face were huge, it would still be only half the size of Huanzi’s.

Zhaoyan sighed helplessly and told them both to calm down and listen to the singing instead of bickering.

By then, he had already started testing the piano.

Kawai was, after all, a world-class piano brand.

Though this old Kawai was only an entry-level model, its tone was rich and moving.

After only a few notes, he was in the zone.

He launched into the opening of the breakup song.

The moment everyone heard that familiar melody, they fell silent and watched him intently.

Zijing put on her noise-canceling headphones and focused on the live sound, checking whether the microphone placement was right.

The piano playing came through beautifully in the stream.

It did not quite have the immersive closeness of the coffee shop, but it still carried a warm, flowing texture, like a river at sunset.

A great many keyboard warriors on the other side of the screen, hearing this intoxicating piano passage, stopped firing off comments and, for the moment, pressed pause on life itself, savoring the sight of this strange old man in a T-shirt covered with countless advertisements as he played.

Very quickly, he settled fully into the performance.

With his eyes closed, he began to sing in a weathered, story-filled baritone that rivaled Eason’s in expressiveness:

I cannot tell you whether compromise and self-denial can help,
But how I hate to let go of friends who love so painfully.
Love need not ask who is right or wrong;
At the very least, it can bring joy and tears.
If he is always holding umbrellas for others,
Why must you keep waiting for him in the rain?

Unlike the warm, healing feel of the original, when he sang a love song like this, there was always a trace of melancholy deep in his bones.

Perhaps because his own emotional experiences had been so profound and sorrowful, whenever he came into contact with music about love and heartbreak, his voice always carried an unspeakable bitterness, like a cup of sour liquor poured for himself, only for everyone who listened to be the ones made drunk.

A song everyone knew had, from the moment he opened his mouth, taken on a wholly unfamiliar flavor. The most immersed listeners in the cafe found themselves trapped in an emotional snare woven by his voice and piano, unable to break free.

Huanzi had hoped he would sing this song to comfort Zhaoyan and pull Zijing decisively out of the emotional pit of the past.

She had never expected that the moment he sang, what people would hear was a deep, aching confession of love too hard to sever.

If Zhaoyan listened to a song like this, would she sink even deeper?

Huanzi stole a glance at her just as he reached the last line of the first verse. She muttered a silent amen and truly hoped Zhaoyan would understand the lesson hidden in the song: if he is always sheltering others from the rain, why must you keep waiting for him in it? Foolish girl, hurry and walk away!

Breakup happiness, I wish you happiness. You can find someone better.
If you do not want to face winter, if you are tired of heaviness,
Then fly to a tropical island and swim.
Breakup happiness, please be happy.
Wave goodbye to the wrong one, and you will meet the right one.
Leaving old love behind is like taking a slow train;
Once the heart sees clearly, the sky will be bright.

No one can seize another person’s happiness.
You swear you will live with a smile.
You really are more beautiful when you are confident.

By the end, his singing had grown even deeper and more restrained, with no explosive force, only memory.

It was no longer something that could be judged simply as beautiful or not beautiful; it had become profound.

There is a saying that once bitten by a snake, one fears the well rope for ten years.

He was a little like that now. Whenever he met a song of feeling, the scar in his heart could not help but split open.

The song came from his mouth, but the emotion felt like the burden left in his heart by Chen Jia.

Breakup happiness is, in truth, a rather absurd phrase.

Even if everyone understands that sometimes breaking up is liberation, who can truly face and accept it with calm?

Let alone accept it happily.

That is only wishful thinking.

Even if there is real happiness, it is only joy found amid suffering.

The most painful breakup in this world is parting through life and death.

After all he had been through, when he sang this song again, every note was like salt being strewn over the wound of a grieving heart. There was no healing in it, only a scorching pain one would rather never touch.

Listening to this version of breakup happiness, the smile on Zhaoyan’s face gradually turned bitter.

In truth, she understood him quite well.

She had heard from her elders about the tragedy of his wife’s death.

She could also guess that, like her, this old man had not completely stepped out of a past love.

After hearing this song, she became even more certain of that judgment.

The deep feeling in his voice moved her.

Song stirred memory, and when she thought of her own past, she felt a kind of desolate, heartbroken happiness. Perhaps that was the true happiness of breaking up.

In the chat, after hearing his self-accompanied version of the song, the comments had begun to shift in tone.

This old guy can sing. He is really good!

This is the best version of this breakup song by an old guy that I have ever heard. Give Jing a like!

Hey, why are you thanking Jing? If you are giving a like, it should be for the old guy!

Is he really that good? I think he sounds pretty ordinary.

Jing said this old guy was exceptionally talented. I do not quite agree. But I have to say, he sings very well, better than most singers on the stream.

...

Zijing could not be bothered to read the comments anymore.

After hearing the song, she became even more certain of one thing: whatever song he sang, he could make it sound like his own. That ability was truly formidable.

At the end of his piano playing, Liu Xiaowei took a deep breath and praised him.

Teacher Huang, you sing so well! Can I request a song called Sparkle and Wash? I really want to hear you sing it!

He almost slipped off the piano bench. This chubby little waiter’s thought process was bizarre beyond belief. To jump from breakup happiness straight to sparkle and wash was absurd.

Sister Xu thought Liu Xiaowei was causing trouble and shouted at him to get to the kitchen and wash dishes. Since he liked washing so much, she would let him wash to his heart’s content.

Liu Xiaowei lowered his head miserably and said in a small voice that he did not want to wash dishes; he really did want to hear Sparkle and Wash.

Zijing looked down on him. Are you deliberately trying to mess things up, or did a door slam your brain? We are testing audio right now. Who uses Sparkle and Wash for a sound check?

Before she had finished speaking—

A rainbow flashed across the stream again.

A viewer who had sent a gift left a red message: This song got to me. A rainbow for you.

Zijing laughed and told him that someone had just sent him a rainbow; his songs were clearly worth money.

Worth money...

That evaluation left him speechless.

Seizing the chance, Zijing advertised the film again: If you want to hear Teacher Huang’s work, hurry up and watch Lovely Corpse. I will say it again: this movie is really, really good. It features a lot of original music by Teacher Huang, and it is all amazing!

He nodded at her gratefully. She was obnoxiously full of herself when she was smug, but when she was serious, she was genuinely serious.

That advertisement was so enthusiastic it was practically moving.

Huanzi had chosen the song in the hope of helping Zhaoyan, but who could have known that he would use it to rub salt deep into her wound?

Sensing Zhaoyan’s pain from her silence, Huanzi gloomily ate potato chips and asked him whether he had ever written songs that helped people break up.

Sing one for us.

I think I have not written a song like that.

Then have you written anything about a breakup that feels especially liberating, especially satisfying?

She was not only picking songs for Zhaoyan; she herself wanted to hear something like that, so she could finally crawl out of the ruins of her eighth failed online romance.