Chapter 22: The Emperor's Daughter

Although many people were angry about the Federation's current status, there was nothing they could do.

They were all just ordinary people, lacking the means to shake the position of such a powerful entity.

So, besides living their lives as best they could, what else was there to do...

To numb themselves, everyone cheered up again, focusing on the song Jiang Qin was about to sing.

Jiang Qin had already redeemed the song from the system.

Because this livestream could not afford a single mistake, she had primarily redeemed songs she liked and practiced in her first life.

This time, she switched to a different instrument.

[Huh? What instrument is that? It looks weird.]

[Where’s the class representative?]

[Here. I just took a screenshot and asked a professor. He said this should be an ancient instrument, an erhu!]

[Erhu? What’s that (┯_┯)? I feel like the illiterate one is actually me.]

[Same, I don't get it either... Could it be a string instrument made from the whiskers of a spirit beast?]

[If anyone calls Jiang Qin illiterate again, I’m really going to fight them. Who are they insulting? If she’s illiterate, then what am I...]

[Haha, you’re just a fool.]

[Drop your coordinates, upstairs. I want to duel you.]

[Can the chat calm down for a second? Jiang Qin is about to start playing that weird thing.]

Jiang Qin smiled lightly at the camera: "I just saw the chat asking if Cantonese has opera, which reminded me of this piece. It’s called 'Princess Changping' (Di Nü Hua).

As for this piece, it actually tells an ancient story.

For those interested, I can tell you about it another time.

For now, let’s just listen to the music."

After speaking, Jiang Qin lowered her head and began to play the erhu.

When the mournful melody emerged, everyone was stunned.

The advanced technology of the interstellar era could synthesize many types of sounds, but they had never heard a sound like this!!

Before she even started singing, they could already tell this was a song of sorrow.

"Falling flowers fill the sky, obscuring the moonlight, Borrowing a cup of wine on the phoenix terrace, The princess offers incense with tears in her eyes, Willing to lose her life to repay her parents~~"

If the sound of the erhu was a clap of thunder, then the moment Jiang Qin’s opera-style vocals emerged, it was like a deep-sea bomb.

A sound never heard before, a melody never heard before, a style never heard before!!!

A song unique to the entire network was born just like that, so vividly.

Everyone was bewildered, too shocked to even remember to type in the chat.

As they listened, a male opera voice suddenly appeared.

They only saw Jiang Qin’s small red lips opening and closing, yet the voice that came out was a man's!

"My heart hopes we can be buried together, A pair of mandarin ducks leaning on each other, Setting up a new bridal chamber in the underworld, Searching for the Pingyang gate and alley in the afterlife."

The person most deeply moved was Wen Jiaqi, who was far away on Water Blue Star.

Her ancestors were Cantonese speakers, and her family was among those who refused to intermarry with the various races of the interstellar.

Therefore, she had been deeply influenced by her family since childhood and loved everything about her home planet.

She had also learned the ancestral language, Cantonese.

The reason she entered this livestream today was also out of curiosity.

When everyone was egging the streamer on to sing another song in a minor language, she had been one of those frowning.

She didn't expect to suddenly hear the streamer say she was going to sing a Cantonese song!

A Cantonese song—the entire Federation’s music library couldn't even find ten of them. Only a few bloggers who liked ancient languages would write a few, spreading them in niche circles.

However, to be honest, Wen Jiaqi couldn't get into those songs at all. They lacked any charm and the colloquialisms weren't even standard.

So, after listening a few times, she stopped.

She still followed those bloggers, though; after all, it was already quite good that someone remembered Cantonese, and she appreciated their efforts.

She never expected that by just joining the fun today, she wouldn't just hear a Cantonese song, but Cantonese opera!

When she heard Jiang Qin was going to sing Cantonese opera, she immediately started screen recording.

She couldn't even imagine how shocked her grandmother would be when she sent her the video later.

So this is what opera-style singing is like...

As she listened, she felt her eyes grow warm.

There was joy, there was regret, there was unwillingness.

They really had lost too much!

***

Unlike Wen Jiaqi, Dong Haoning was not an enthusiast of ancient culture; he had only been forced to learn Cantonese.

Children of the Dong family had to learn Cantonese when they were young; if they didn't, the elders wouldn't give them pocket money.

Hobbies and obligations are different things.

So, when he was young, he resisted learning such a language—not to mention it was useless, it was also difficult.

But there was no choice; with the elders pressing down on him, he had no choice but to learn. He stopped speaking it entirely once he grew up.

However, although he couldn't speak it standardly anymore, he could still understand it.

Coincidentally, he had also entered this livestream today.

Jiang Qin had successfully kept him, a casual browser, based on her looks alone!

This little female was practically grown to match his exact preferences.

When he heard her say she was going to sing a Cantonese song, the shadow of being forced to learn it in his childhood almost made him want to leave the stream and come back later.

But out of support for his goddess, he held back.

When the erhu pulled out that mournful tone, he was involuntarily mesmerized.

Slowly, he was moved by the emotions of the piece.

That line, "My heart hopes we can be buried together," truly shocked him.

Could there really be such a bond in this world that didn't fear life or death?

He didn't know why, but as he listened, he seemed to see a story. He felt as if he had been transported into that world, watching such a pair of lovers from a bystander's perspective.

When the sound stopped, he finally emerged from that detached state.

Then, he was terrified by his own condition!

His body had completely beast-transformed!

It was well known that orcs had genetic issues; every time they beast-transformed in battle, it deepened their riot value. Once it reached 100%, they would completely go berserk into a mindless beast.

Therefore, people tried their best not to beast-transform if they didn't have to.

He had never experienced such an unconscious, full-body beast transformation before.

Could it be that because the song was too sad, his riot value had risen?

Since when was he such a sentimental person?

Too panicked to think, Dong Haoning quickly returned to human form and opened his riot value detector.

He was nervous; he had started beast-transforming unconsciously, so how high must his riot value be? At the very least, it had to be over 80%, right?

However, the result of the test was

70%!

It was one percent lower than when he tested it this morning.

In other words, his spiritual sea had been purified today.

The problem was, since waking up, he hadn't even left his bed, hadn't eaten anything, and had opened the livestream platform right after waking up.

And he had only been watching for a few minutes.

The only thing that was a bit unusual was that feeling of drifting in a fantasy, like dreaming, while listening to the song just now.

Could it be...

Thinking of this, Dong Haoning exited the livestream and searched directly on the StarNet.

【Can listening to music purify riot value?】

(End of chapter)