This led to the mention of the song “He Bi Xi Xiang.”
In theory, Qi Shejiang should sing it now; the audience was eagerly anticipating it.
The host smiled, “Whether it’s the modified version of ‘Ten Questions and Ten Answers’ or ‘He Bi Xi Xiang,’ both remind us of a person: the lead singer of the Guanshan Band, Zhang Yue.”
The live audience was momentarily stunned before they erupted into excited shouts.
The program team informed Qi Shejiang, but they didn’t tell the others, who were completely clueless. Upon hearing this surprise, their reactions were extreme, “Zhang Yue? Zhang Yue really came?!” “Oh my god, are we going to sing ‘He Bi Xi Xiang’?” Qi Shejiang also raised the microphone, “Ahem, please welcome our Zhang Guifei.” Zhang Yue just walked out from backstage, “……………………” The cheers in the venue rose again, mixed with laughter and shouts calling for the Guifei, especially since Qi Shejiang led the excitement, and the fans had to follow along. Zhang Yue turned around and walked back. Qi Shejiang hurried over to pull him back, encouraging the audience to clap and bring him back. Zhang Yue had a somewhat dark expression; he even brought his guitar, clearly unhappy about the earlier situation. “Then do I not need to say much?” the host laughed. “Please,” Qi Shejiang extended his hand. Holding the guitar, Zhang Yue’s gloomy expression gradually disappeared. One held a guitar and the other held a sanxian; Qi Shejiang played a passage of interlude on the sanxian before switching to Zhang Yue’s guitar accompaniment, starting to sing.
This time, Qi Shejiang was not just responsible for the singing part of the sub-disciples’ song; he had previously communicated the arrangement with Zhang Yue over WeChat, but they hadn’t confirmed it backstage. However, after practicing together, they developed a tacit understanding, and the interplay between the sanxian and guitar, followed by a duet, felt extraordinarily natural and harmonious. Once the song ended, the host joked, “No wonder the tacit understanding comes from day and night of practice. Now, let’s have Zhang Yue share his thoughts. Did he encounter any issues while adapting the song?” After Zhang Yue finished speaking, Qi Shejiang sang the original version of “Shi Wen Shi Da” to let everyone feel the difference. The current version retained the original’s unique charm while enhancing its melody, truly a successful improvement.
The recording was nearing its end. “You guys sang a lot just now, but they were mostly traditional art forms. I want to ask, can Jesse sing pop songs?” the host asked. This wasn’t something they had planned; it wasn’t in the script. Someone in the audience immediately shouted, “‘Qiu Shui’!” “Sing ‘Qiu Shui’? The original singer is sitting right here; I’m afraid I’ll ruin the song,” Qi Shejiang said. But aside from ‘Qiu Shui’, he really didn’t know what else to sing.
The audience shouted various requests, and after thinking for a moment, Qi Shejiang replied, “I’ll sing a new song. It came out in 1937.” Laughter erupted from the audience. “Tian ya ah hai jiao, mi ya mi zhi yin. Xiao mei mei chang ge lang zou qin, lang ya zan men liang shi yi tiao xin……” Qi Shejiang sang softly with his head down, singing slowly. “The Song of the Wandering Singer,” the interlude of the 1937 film “Ma Lu Tian Shi,” was indeed a new song for Qi Shejiang. He learned it to sing for the audience, who loved it. Starting from the third line, the sound of the guitar joined in. Qi Shejiang looked up and saw it was Zhang Yue; suddenly, the song felt much fuller. “Jia shan ya bei wang, lei ya lei zhan jin……” Qi Shejiang recalled the times when he performed on the streets, singing this song when people would sing along. The audience gradually fell silent, listening to Qi Shejiang’s gentle and clear singing, filled with emotion, carrying a hint of sorrow. “Xiao mei mei xiang lang zhi dao jin, lang ya huan nan zhi jiao en ai shen.” Qi Shejiang’s singing was so infectious, the audience couldn’t help but hum along softly. Qi Shejiang was surprised and looked up.
However, at this moment, almost everyone began to softly sing along with the music, displaying remarkable familiarity. This song, after its debut, has been reinterpreted by countless singers over the past eighty years. The people present might not know which movie it was from, but they recognized the melody. Even Zhang Yue joined in, playing the guitar while singing along. Qi Shejiang slowly smiled, and his eyes glistened slightly. It seemed to be another moment of bittersweet joy, but in that instant, it felt like the first time he saw traditional cross talk on television; he suddenly felt much better and seemingly let go. The studio was filled with the sound of the audience singing “The Song of the Wandering Singer,” just like eighty years ago.
Chapter 35 After the recording of “Shui Diao Ge Tou” was over, Qi Shejiang took photos with fans on-site, fulfilling everyone’s autograph requests one by one.
Everyone could clearly feel that his attitude was different from many stars; it was beyond just being down-to-earth; it was as if he was truly cherishing everyone. While signing, he chatted, humorously making jokes as if he were performing cross talk. They never expected that coming to watch an interview would also give them a free stand-up performance.
“Is this nice? Can you send it to me?” Qi Shejiang asked a fan after taking a group photo. The fan stared for a second, then squealed, “Sure—” Well, Qi Shejiang still finds taking photos very interesting. Zhang Yue was sitting at the edge of the stage, watching this scene. Although Qi Shejiang didn’t say it outright, everyone else assumed he was emotional and teary-eyed. Qi Shejiang seemed to have an epiphany, as if he had let go of some burden; this could be seen from his relaxed state while chatting casually with the fans. Zhang Yue felt quite happy about this. He quietly watched as Qi Shejiang finished interacting with all the fans, walked over in his direction, backlit, making it seem like there were little angels flying around him.
“Are you hungry?” Qi Shejiang happened to walk beside him. “I have a dinner appointment; otherwise, let’s go together.” “Sure.” Zhang Yue stood up.
They walked towards the backstage, where those departing fans glanced back and called out reluctantly, “Teacher Zhang Yue, keep it up!” Zhang Yue stumbled, nearly falling. Qi Shejiang led Zhang Yue to a roast duck restaurant. His guests had already arrived in a private room. The waiter guided them over, opened the door, and Zhang Yue saw a person sitting inside—just one person, wearing a trench coat, young, no more than twenty-four or twenty-five, looking fair and pleasant. Zhang Yue didn’t know this person. He was preoccupied and thought upon arriving, who is this, a relative or friend of Jesse? “This is my friend Zhang Yue.” Qi Shejiang began the introductions, finishing with the young man who stood up and then turned to introduce Zhang Yue, “Zhang Yue, this is my partner introduced by Teacher Meng, Xu Siyu.” Zhang Yue: “…………” Xu Siyu extended his hand: “Hello, hello, you’re Zhang Ge, right?” Zhang Yue: “………………” Zhang Yue felt a bit insane. What kind of tone is this from Qi Shejiang? Is he introducing his partner or his love interest?
