Chapter 471 – Singing
Zhao Hai had seen a lot of written invitations, but he had only seen two of them who specifically mentioned his name. One of them was from Charlie, before G.o.d’s Grace Day, and another was from Jason, sent the day before yesterday, this was the third.
The first two invitations that were given to Zhao Hai were expected, but this one came out of the blue.
He placed the invitation down and looked at Megan, “Megan, what do you think Terry wants to do? Or the Robert Family in that matter?”
Megan snorted and said, “I don’t know about the Robert Family, but what Terry wants to do was actually step on your reputation, shaming you. Makes you look ugly to me. Big Brother Hai, you need to be careful tomorrow. Otherwise, their plans would affect you.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “I’ll be fine. I’m also trying to deal with him. If I were to attend the Robert Family’s banquet tomorrow and all of their businesses get attacked at the same time, how could they possibly place the blame on me?”
Upon hearing Zhao Hai, Megan and the others smiled. They really wanted to know what response Terry and his family show when they receive the news that all of their businesses outside of the capital have been erased.
Laura smiled and said, “Right, I agree with Brother Hai. If we execute our plans, there shouldn’t be any loose ends.”
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “Now I really want to see how they plan to deal with me. It looks like they don’t intend to use force, my reputation as an 8th rank mage is already widespread. Their previous plan was good, I didn’t see that one coming. What methods can they use this time? Does it have to do with literature?”
Laura and Megan nodded, the two of them grew up in n.o.ble households since childhood, so they were quite familiar with how n.o.bles act. Therefore, they thought Zhao Hai’s words were quite acceptable.
Laura nodded and said, “If you can’t deal with someone using force, then one can embarra.s.s them in front of a crowd. One could make their enemy do a dance, recite a poem, or play some musical instruments. Brother Hai cannot dance, and I haven’t seen you play an instrument, poem? I think that may be a bit difficult. Brother Hai’s weakness really has to do with performances.”
Laura didn’t deliberately ignore this shortcoming of Zhao Hai. In Laura’s view, there are no such thing as a perfect person. Zhao Hai cannot write poetry, cannot dance, cannot play instruments, but all of these doesn’t overshadow Zhao Hai’s brilliance. For a recently fallen family like the Buda Clan, poems, dances, and musical instruments aren’t the talents that they currently need for a leader. They need someone who is tolerant, low-key, and decisive in his actions. And Zhao Hai was the latter.
Zhao Hai smiled faintly and said, “They really know my weak spot. Alright, I’ll sing. Is singing fine?”
When they heard Zhao Hai, Laura and Megan’s eyes turned bright. They looked at each other before Megan said, “Big Brother Hai, will you really sing? Are you good?”
Zhao Hai smiled bitterly, he knew that if he was allowed to sing, he could survive this situation. But he didn’t lie, although he cannot play any musical instruments, he was quite confident in his singing. This was because back on Earth, he only had three hobbies; singing, drinking, and reading books.
What Zhao Hai liked were pop songs, so it was natural that he would sing along. For drinking, he generally wouldn’t drink much, but he enjoyed doing it along with his friends. As for writing, there was no need to mention it, it was Zhao Hai’s most loved hobby.
To be honest, Zhao Hai was good at signing. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have proposed doing it. However, since he came to Ark Continent, he didn’t have any mood to do so, he had too many matters to think about.
One could say that if he was forced to write a poem, he can plagiarize one or two. But Zhao Hai didn’t want that. But if he really was pushed to doing it, then he wouldn’t be polite.
Man can lose face, but not in two occasions. The first one is in front of a love rival, and the other, in front of an enemy. Because if you do so, you would be losing your dignity.
When Laura said that n.o.bles would generally make a poem, dance, or play a musical instrument, Zhao Hai frowned. This was because these are not things that he was skilled in. So he proposed that he would sing. He wanted to know whether singing was allowed because he would prefer doing so. Naturally, if he said that he can sing, Megan and the others would certainly ask him to do so. And as expected, they did.
Laura became interested in what Zhao Hai said, “Brother Hai, you can actually sing? How come I don’t know about it? Sing one song for us quickly.”
Zhao Hai looked at their face and smiled bitterly, “Alright, I’ll go sing one for you. Hmm, what to sing, Alright, I’ll go sing ‘Bed of Chrysanthemums’”
Your tears glisten with pain in their fragility
The pale crescent hooks the past
The endless night has crystallised into frost
Who is it in the loft, dest.i.tute with cold hopelessness?
The rain slowly patters on the vermilion window
My life is a tattered page battered by the winds
Far-off dreams fading into mist
Your image has been dissipated by the wind
Wilted chrysanthemums are spread across the floor; even your smile has turned faintly yellow
The falling flowers induce sadness, and my thoughts languish
In the pa.s.sing of the north wind and the dusk, your shadow lingers on
And standing by the lake, I only have my own reflection for company
Responding to the dusk, the flowers shed their brilliant s.h.i.+ne
They wilter on life’s path, meeting a tragic fate
Don’t cross the river in melancholy
You may spend a lifetime drifting, never reaching the sh.o.r.e
Whose empire is it now? The sound of horse hoofs thunders in the distance.
My resplendent armour decays with the hounds of time
Your soft sigh heralds the first ray of dawn
The conclusion to another restless night
Wilted chrysanthemums are spread across the floor; even your smile has turned faintly yellow
The falling flowers induce sadness, and my thoughts languish
In the pa.s.sing of the north wind and the dusk, your shadow lingers on
And standing by the lake, I only have my own reflection for company…” [1][2]
This song wasn’t unfamiliar to average people. Jay Chou’s song has a very unique charm, and Zhao Hai really liked his works. What he liked in songs were the lyrics and the artistic style in how they were arranged.
This type of song was naturally not present in Ark Continent. What people generally listened to were songs that were like those sang in the opera. Pop songs were non-existed here.
Zhao Hai knew about this matter, but he cannot sing opera, only pop songs. He accepted Laura’s request because he wanted to see how they’ll receive this style of song. If the song was acceptable, then Zhao Hai can use this to deal with Terry’s plan. If they can’t accept it, Zhao Hai can only think of something else.
While Zhao Hai sang, Laura and Megan both wore very dumbfounded faces. From the moment he started to the end, the two’s expression didn’t change. This made Zhao Hai extremely worried.
After quite some time, the two somewhat recovered and stared at Zhao Hai strangely. Seeing how the two looked at him, Zhao Hai asked, “What? What’s wrong?”
Laura and Megan, now fully recovered, looked at each other before running outside. Zhao Hai didn’t know what was going on. He was very confident in Jay Chou’s song, this song had a lot of thought put into it, and Zhao Hai also sang it very well. Was it that bad? Why did they need to run away?
With a puzzled expression, Zhao Hai turned to Meg. Meg was strangely looking at Zhao Hai as well, then she said, “Young Master, how come I didn’t know that you could actually sing? When did you learn? Did you use this to attract other girls to your room?”
When Zhao Hai heard the first part of Meg’s response, he couldn’t help but have a cold sweat. He thought that Meg would get skeptical about his ident.i.ty. But when he heard the second part, he became relieved, Meg wasn’t suspicious of him.
In fact, Zhao Hai was completely overly concerned. Not only Meg, even Green didn’t doubt Zhao Hai. This was because Zhao Hai replaced Adam’s soul, not his body. From the time when he drank the Water of Nothingness to when he woke up, he never left Green’s sight. In this case, how could they doubt his ident.i.ty?
Zhao Hai relaxed, and at the same time, he turned to Meg and said, “Don’t talk nonsense. This is your young master’s talent, I made it myself. It’s good right? So tell me what those two were planning on doing.”
Meg smiled and said, “You’ll know in a moment.” Making Zhao Hai wait in antic.i.p.ation.
Before long, Laura and Megan came back. Nier was also following behind them. Carried in their hands were musical instruments.
Zhao Hai stared, then immediately understood what they want to do. They actually wanted to play the ‘Bed of Chrysanthemums”, very interesting.
Zhao Hai looked at the four instruments, there was something that looked like a harp, one was a violin, one was a cello, and the last one was a horizontal flute.
Laura looked at Zhao Hai and said, “Brother Hai, your song is very nice to hear. We haven’t had such a song in the Continent. We know how to play instruments, when you sing, we’ll will be giving you a musical background.”
Such an opportunity was rare, so Zhao Hai didn’t decline. He nodded and said, “Alright, let’s practice the song. If Terry wanted me to perform, then you will accompany me.”
Laura smiled and said, “Alright, go sing it again.” Zhao Hai nodded and then sang ‘Bed of Chrysanthemums’ again from beginning to end.
Including this time, Laura and the others have already heard the song twice, but they still had difficulties in playing along. But this obstacle didn’t stump them, they have all grown up in n.o.ble families, they learned these instruments from childhood. For n.o.ble families, it wasn’t surprising for their descendants to learn one of two instruments, even for Adam who didn’t learn anything.
Sauce – easiest chapter of my life xD