And now, in the seat at the end, next to Yu Ye, the young man named Zhang Ziju was extremely excited when he first learned about Yu Ye's identity. Even his girlfriend had been unable to hide her excitement at the time.
But now, after hearing the doubtful voices of the guests around him, Zhang Ziju's face had turned ashen. He was angry. After all, he had once been a huge fan of Yu Shuying, and he had also firmly believed that gifted children did not need ordinary education.
But when he saw the old man before him, when he saw the brightness that still remained in the old man's eyes, when he heard the old man say that God was dead, and when he saw the exhausted, deathly aura that now surrounded him,
Zhang Ziju was stunned. He looked toward Yu Shuying, who was standing on the stage, and let out a long sigh. "Yu Shuying, you probably never imagined that your father would be here."
His voice trembled slightly. "I will respect what the old man said. I'll help him onto the stage. He had been forgotten for so long before. Don't forget him now..."
Zhang Ziju's voice became choked with emotion. When he saw the old man looking as though he was about to die, he didn't know what would happen next. He didn't even know what he should do.
But at this moment, tears had already gathered in his eyes. A dying father was looking at his daughter with a smile at the very end of his life, and that daughter was aloof and unparalleled. Yet she didn't know that the man was quietly coughing in the audience, wiping away the blood that he had just spat into his hand.
"Cough, cough..." Yu Ye coughed several more times. His voice was hoarse and dull. "Why are you crying?"
"What did you do after that? Why did she not understand you so much?" Zhang Ziju sobbed.
For some reason, he suddenly missed his own father, the man whose arms had once felt as strong and steady as mountains.
Yu Ye smiled and gently rubbed his head. His eyes were warm and bright.
At the same time, the playback continued. Yu Shuying knew it. Her fans knew it as well.
"Next is the real rise of Little Shuying. She defeated her classmates on the piano. This is true!"
"She was also invited by a pianist to participate in a piano musical and perform together with them. That's true as well!"
"Afterward, she composed the piano piece Chengnan Flower Has Bloomed."
The fans began talking excitedly about Shuying's outstanding past because all of these achievements had been accomplished by Shuying herself. None of them were fabricated. None of them were false.
As for Yu Ye, the fans had lamented his astonishing singing talent, but when it came to the piano, they eventually discovered his true talent as well. That man had merely awakened the artist's talent hidden within Shuying.
The screen continued playing.
Another week passed. Saturday, ten o'clock in the morning.
Shuying now had five opponents sitting beside her. Those little girls looked at her proudly, their eyes filled with the confidence of children who believed they could win. This time, the piece was a sad song.
Facing those gazes, Shuying's heart remained as firm as a flame burning in the darkness. One reason was the disappointment she had seen in her father's eyes. The other was the tone of the patient whose heart had blossomed because of Chengnan Flower Has Bloomed.
At this moment, she began to play, and the mournful melody suddenly filled the room. Musical notes flew through the air like invisible butterflies.
On the piano bench, Shuying closed her eyes in enjoyment. Her fingers seemed to fly across the keys, and a smile slowly appeared on her face. Her mind was filled with that man's voice.
"That man, this time I won again! It's useless even if you don't like me. I'll just defeat you again and again. Mister, did you see that? I'm starting to defeat my enemies. I'm going to compose a song for you!" She smiled proudly, and her eyes were warm and bright.
And around her, the kids of the same age were dumbfounded.
"How did she suddenly become so confident?"
"She's even more confident and amazing than before..."
Shuying's confident performance continued to unfold before everyone's eyes.
In the program group, Nana the commentator watched with fascination, and her voice became increasingly excited. "That's it. This is you. This is the real you. Have you all seen this? Little Shuying has risen! And now she is finally showing her own ability. She is relying on herself!"
On the internet, countless female netizens became excited after seeing this scene. There were also countless comments flooding across the section.
"That's her real talent."
"She really became a light. It's hard to imagine that at seven years old, she already possessed the embryonic form of a piano artist. At eight, she took first place in the host competition and even earned a reputation as a writer."
And now, the playback continued. One scene showed Little Shuying practicing the piano with confidence, no longer timid or afraid.
Another scene showed a piano teacher in another piano room staring at her in astonishment. "Your daughter is making tremendous progress."
Beside him was Yu Ye, who watched through the small window, and a smile slowly spread from the corner of his mouth, reaching all the way into his heart. He was satisfied.
Afterward, he rode his electric bicycle home. But when he arrived at an intersection, he suddenly stopped. He stood there in confusion, staring at the road ahead. "Who am I? What am I going to do?"
The Yu Ye in that scene looked utterly confused. He pushed his electric bicycle and stood alone at the intersection, completely lost.
Now, on the stage of the program group, in the guest area, Yuan Quan and Alejandro sighed.
"This is memory loss. At a certain moment, he suddenly forgets himself. This kind of memory loss may cause a person to permanently forget certain memories, or those memories may suddenly return at some unexpected moment. A person's intelligence may remain normal for years, but during that period, their memories can continue to wander between fragments of their past."
"This is one of the sequelae of chemotherapy during the early stages of brain cancer," Alejandro spoke slowly.
At the time, he had been the one who explained these possible aftereffects to Yu Ye while the man was lying on the hospital bed, but the man's eyes had remained bright.
He had shown neither fear nor worry; instead, he had simply looked at Alejandro and asked: "Once a memory is forgotten, how can I remember the most precious thing in my heart?"
Alejandro fell silent. "You'd better not know."
"Thank you, but I have to know."
"Pain, or some of the most important memories, can stimulate the brain instinctively and cause it to recover those memories."
"Thank you."
Alejandro sighed. He did not quite understand the fatherly love that existed, but somehow, he felt that it was more believable than believing in God.
The current playback continued. When Yu Ye's brain cancer sequelae struck again, many people watched the scene with worried expressions. There were also many young people who felt increasingly distressed about Shuying. They felt sorry for her. They truly felt that Shuying had suffered too much. Her father was already like this.
Yet she still managed to participate in musicals and become known as a four-handed piano performer with other pianists. She could compose piano pieces while her father was sick. She could participate in reading debates and host competitions for her future. She could even become involved with animation producers and countless other activities. She was truly strong.
Many people couldn't help but sigh.
But now, as the picture continued to replay, they saw another scene. It was the scene of a man who had forgotten himself for a moment.
A traffic police officer came over. "What's wrong with you?"
"What is your name?" the traffic police officer asked.
"I don't know." Yu Ye's eyes were dull.
"Where is your home?" the officer asked again.
"I don't know." It was as though everything had suddenly been erased from his mind. Yu Ye was sluggish as he answered in an old-fashioned, almost mechanical manner.
"Where is your partner?"
"I don't know." His answer remained calm. It was as though the questions being asked by the traffic police were too shallow to reach the depths of his mind.
"What about your children?"
At that moment, it was as if a dead fish had suddenly come alive. The man's stiff expression changed.
He subconsciously muttered: "My child... Yes, yes, my child. I have to make her piano go one step further. It's not enough yet. It's still not enough."
Yu Ye began talking to himself, then he smiled. He didn't care about the people around him. He simply pushed his electric bicycle and walked alone toward the end of the road. After the traffic police repeatedly confirmed that he was all right, they finally allowed him to leave.
Looking at his back, the traffic police officer was stunned. When the officer mentioned words such as home, wife, friends, and other familiar relationships, the man showed no reaction at all. It was as if he had never possessed any of them. But when the officer mentioned his child, the man had awakened instantly. He had immediately begun muttering something that the officer couldn't understand.
"What piano? What does it mean to make the piano go further?" The traffic police officer muttered in confusion.
And at this moment, on the stage of the program group, Alejandro was stunned, then he sighed. Those words were still engraved in the man's bones.
Yuan Quan also sighed. "He only remembers his daughter's piano, and he remembers that he has to help her."
After Yuan Quan finished speaking, the commentator replied with a bitter smile. "But Shuying went to a piano musical and was valued by a national treasure-level pianist; she was even invited onto the stage to perform a four-handed piece. But that has nothing to do with Yu Ye."
She sighed, and the others sighed as well. It was as if Yu Ye had completely disappeared from the light.
"Impossible. I believe in you. You have stood up for so many years. How could you be willing to admit defeat?" Yuan Quan straightened his body and stared at the playback screen.
He still remembered that when Shuying had first gone to learn the piano, Yu Ye had seemed to be ridiculed in a sarcastic, yin-and-yang manner. Afterward, he had silently gone to the piano room and watched his daughter struggle to learn alongside her peers.
At that time, Yu Ye was still muttering to himself: "Not enough. As long as the belief is firm enough, it is definitely possible. Definitely possible."
Yu Shuying stood quietly. Because she knew that from the next period of her life onward, that man would no longer be able to show her the way. He should have already succumbed to fate. He should have stood there humbly, unable to do anything more.
But she didn't understand why he remembered her name so clearly. If he really cared about her that much, why couldn't he be a little quieter? Why couldn't he understand himself a little better after he became sick?
Reading debates.
Host competitions.
Animation character design.
Songs.
After every one of these difficult achievements, she had continued forward with enormous effort. She had felt exhausted. She had felt incredibly tired.
"Fortunately, after I defeated my peers, my piano has never relied on anyone. I went to musicals and performed together with piano artists. I created 'The Flower Has Bloomed'. It's already blooming." She said.
There was a trace of relief in her voice. Because now, Yu Shuying felt that none of these achievements had anything to do with that man anymore. Everything she had accomplished afterward had been achieved through her own ability.
The screen continued to play back.
By the end, the piano teacher at the piano shop had already declared that she could no longer find an opponent among children her own age. The only opponents left were older students.
Those kids of the same age stared wide-eyed at Shuying. She was dressed in ordinary clothes, yet she was overflowing with confidence. Her radiance was dazzling. Even the tragic melody she played seemed to transform into an epic song beneath her fingers.
After school, she sat in the electric car on the way home. She was proud and confident.
At the dining table, Shuying waited patiently for Yu Ye to speak.
"How's the piano?" Yu Ye asked casually.
"There is no opponent." Shuying stared at him with a proud expression.
Yu Ye curled his lips. "This is the reward your piano shop teacher gave you, right? He said you could use it to go to City Grand Theater and watch a national treasure-level pianist's musical. It seems some foreign musicians are performing too."
"What's the use? It's better to sell it for money." Yu Ye said this disdainfully while continuing to eat.
"What do you know!" Shuying immediately became annoyed, and she snatched the ticket away.
She couldn't understand the superficial father sitting in front of her. This was a national treasure-level piano artist. If she could listen to such a performance even once, just once would be enough.
She believed that after hearing it, she would be able to create the piano piece The Flower Has Bloomed even more perfectly. This had been Little Shuying's dream at that time, and it was also the first scene before her eventual invincibility.