Many people were angry about the Federation's current status, but there was nothing they could do about it.
They were just ordinary people, lacking the power to shake such a massive entity.
So what else could they do but try to live their lives...
To distract themselves, everyone cheered up again and focused on the song Jiang Qin was about to sing.
Meanwhile, Jiang Qin had already redeemed a song from the system.
This stream couldn't have any mishaps, so she chose songs she had loved and practiced in her first life.
This time, she switched to a different instrument.
[Huh? What kind of instrument is that? It looks strange.]
[Where's our resident expert?]
[Here! I just took a screenshot and asked my professor. He said it's probably an ancient instrument, an erhu!]
[An erhu? What's that? (┯_┯) I'm starting to think *I'm* the real illiterate one here.]
[I don't get it either... Is it an instrument made from an Alien Beast's whiskers?]
[If anyone ever calls Jiang Qin illiterate again, I'll fight them. Who are they insulting? If she's illiterate, then what does that make me...?]
[Haha, a total moron.]
[Commenter above, drop your coordinates. I'm challenging you to a duel.]
[Can you guys quiet down in the comments? Jiang Qin's about to start playing that strange thing.]
Jiang Qin smiled at the camera. "I just saw a comment asking if Cantonese has its own opera, which made me think of this piece. It's called *Emperor's Flower*.
There's actually an ancient story behind this piece.
If anyone is interested, I can tell you all the story later.
For now, let's just listen to the music."
After she finished speaking, Jiang Qin lowered her head and began to play the erhu.
When the mournful melody began, everyone froze.
The advanced technology of the Interstellar era could synthesize many kinds of sounds, but they had never heard anything like this!
She hadn't even started singing, yet they could already tell it was a song of sorrow.
"Falling flowers fill the sky, obscuring the moonlight
With a cup of wine, I pay my respects on the Phoenix Terrace
The Emperor's Flower offers incense with tears in her eyes
Willing to sacrifice my life to repay my mother and father~~"
If the sound of the erhu was a clap of thunder, then the moment Jiang Qin's operatic voice emerged, it was like a depth charge exploding in the water.
A voice they had never heard, a song they had never heard, a style of singing they had never heard!!!
A song unlike any other on the entire network was born, so vibrant and new.
Everyone was dumbfounded. They were so shocked they even forgot to post comments.
As they listened, a male operatic voice suddenly emerged.
Everyone saw Jiang Qin's small, red lips opening and closing, but the voice that came out was male!
"My heart longs for us to be buried together
A loving couple, nestled side by side
We'll build our bridal chamber anew in the netherworld
And in the Underworld's gloom, find our Pinyang Lane once more."
The person most deeply moved was Wen Jiaqi, who was far away on Water Blue Star.
Her ancestors in the Wen Family spoke Cantonese, and their clan was one that refused to intermarry with the Interstellar Myriad Races.
As a result, she had been immersed in her family's culture since childhood and deeply loved everything about her home planet.
She had also learned their ancestral language, Cantonese.
She had entered this livestream today out of curiosity as well.
When everyone had been clamoring for the streamer to sing another song in a niche language, she had been one of those frowning.
She never expected to suddenly hear the streamer say she was going to sing in Cantonese!
Cantonese songs... you couldn't even find ten of them in the entire Federation's music database. Only a few content creators who liked ancient languages would write some, and they only circulated within niche communities.
But honestly, Wen Jiaqi couldn't stand listening to those songs. They had no flavor, and even the pronunciation was off.
So, after a few attempts, she stopped listening to them.
Still, she followed those creators. After all, it was impressive enough that anyone remembered Cantonese these days, and she appreciated their efforts.
She never thought that by tuning in for a bit of fun today, she'd not only hear a Cantonese song, but a piece of Cantonese *opera*!
The moment she heard Jiang Qin was going to sing Cantonese opera, she started screen recording.
She couldn't even imagine how shocked her grandmother would be when she sent her the video.
'So *this* is what operatic singing sounds like...'
As she listened, she felt her eyes grow warm.
A mix of joy, regret, and resentment.
They had truly lost so much!
***
Unlike Wen Jiaqi, Dong Haoning wasn't an enthusiast of ancient culture. He had simply been forced to learn Cantonese.
When the children of the Dong family were young, they all had to learn Cantonese. If they didn't, the elders wouldn't give them any allowance.
A hobby is one thing; a requirement is another.
So, when he was a child, he'd resisted learning a language he found both useless and difficult.
But he had no choice. With the elders breathing down his neck, he had to learn it. He just stopped speaking it entirely once he was old enough to stand on his own.
Though his pronunciation was no longer perfect, he could still understand it.
Coincidentally, he had also found his way into the stream today.
Jiang Qin's appearance was enough to make him stop his channel surfing and stay.
This young female... it was as if she'd been created just for him, perfectly matching his tastes.
When he heard she was going to sing in Cantonese, the shadow of his forced childhood lessons resurfaced, and he almost left the stream to come back later.
But the thought of supporting his "goddess" made him stay.
When the erhu's mournful tune began, he found himself unconsciously captivated.
Gradually, the music began to stir his emotions.
The line, "My heart longs for us to be buried together," struck him to the core.
'Does a love that transcends life and death truly exist in this world?'
For some reason, as he listened, he felt as if he were watching a story unfold. It was like he had been transported into that world, observing the two lovers from the sidelines.
Only when the music stopped did he snap out of that trance-like state.
And then he was terrified by his own condition!
His body had undergone a full Beastification!
It was a well-known fact that the Beastman Gene was flawed. Every Beastification during combat increased a person's Riot Value. Once it hit one hundred percent, they would devolve into a mindless, feral beast.
Therefore, everyone avoided Beastification unless it was absolutely necessary.
He had never experienced this kind of sudden, involuntary, full-body Beastification before.
'Did my Riot Value go up because the song was too sad?'
'When did I become so sentimental?'
Without a second thought, Dong Haoning quickly reverted to his human form and activated his Riot Value detector.
He felt a surge of panic. 'If I'm starting to transform involuntarily, how high must my Riot Value be? It has to be over 80%, right?'
However, the test result was...
70%!
It was one percent lower than his reading from this morning.
In other words, his Spirit Sea had been purified today.
The thing was, he hadn't even gotten out of bed since he woke up. He hadn't eaten anything, either. He had just opened the streaming platform right after waking.
And he'd only been on for a few minutes.
The only unusual thing that had happened was that feeling while listening to the song, that dreamlike sensation of being lost in a fantasy.
'Could it be...?'
At this thought, Dong Haoning exited the stream and immediately began searching the Star Network.
[Can listening to music purify Riot Value?]