Respawn Entertainment: Days of Glory

Chapter 923 "Like a Jar"

As the show was about to start, the crowd at Royal Plaza was no less than that of Hatter, and unlike previous shows, the proportion of Chinese music fans was significantly higher.

Tang Dafeng, who was preparing on stage, estimated that at least half of the music fans tonight were from China: "There are so many compatriots here today! It feels like all those who wanted to come before have come today, as if they made an appointment."

Bian Lang, who had just come up, glanced at the crowd and said, "There are indeed a lot. Could it be that they've all been putting in their best effort for this match?"

“It’s possible. The ticketing process was a bit rushed this time…” Pan Jianhu, who came to help, hadn’t finished speaking when Tang Dafeng laughed and said, “Brother Hu, do you not look at the reports here when you’re in China? With Rolling Stone’s ticket-grabbing speed, even if they opened the ticketing a year earlier, it would still be difficult to get tickets!”

"That's not what I meant. I meant that this last show gives everyone more time to prepare and come watch."

"That's true! Tiger, if you don't explain, I'll really think you don't care about what's going on here!"

Hearing this, Pan Jianhu laughed and scolded, "You're supposed to be a veteran of Nanyin music, how come you don't consider my feelings at all when you speak like this..."

"Oh dear, aren't we all family now? Why are you getting jealous..." The three chatted for a few more minutes before they heard Olaf's voice calling for preparation through their earpieces: "5 minutes countdown!" The three exchanged glances, and Bian Lang and Pan Jianhu went offstage.

When Dengbian and Pan appeared at the isolation zone, the first wave of cheers before the start of the show arrived as expected:

Rolling Stones are awesome!

Bian Lang, I love you!

"Give me back my Queen Chu!"

This sentence was particularly striking. Upon hearing it, Bian Lang immediately turned around and threw a provocative look in the direction from which the sound came from!

An Feng laughed so hard he couldn't straighten up: "No... Bian... Bian Lang, why are you acting like a little kid! By the way, where's Sister Chu Chu?"

"She was on the phone with Sister Kuan in the back, I don't know what it was about..."

"Seriously, isn't your story a bit too legendary?"

"Legend? Are you cursing us to die sooner? There's no such thing as a living legend." The two were quite familiar with each other now, and they didn't hold back when joking around.

The fans closest to the two exclaimed, "Bian Lang, that beast! He's got Empress Chu and he still wants to flirt with the goddess!"

"Exactly, Bian Lang's luck with women is truly unmatched..."

However, these complaints stopped as Bian Lang whistled and the curtain rose!
Against a backdrop of two large, scarlet characters reading "Da Feng" (Great Wind), the band Da Feng boldly and directly revealed their trump card: "We are Da Feng, and our song is 'Da Feng Song'!"

Even if they hadn't heard the song, almost every Chinese person present knew the line "The wind rises, the clouds fly." So the foreigners were somewhat puzzled by the unusually high spirits of the Chinese people.

It's not their fault; they're not foreigners who are well-versed in Chinese culture, so of course they don't know the influence of the stories of Liu Bang and Xiang Yu on the Chinese people.

From Mr. Li, who wrote "Thinking of Xiang Yu to this day, who refused to cross the Yangtze River...", to the heroes with explosive combat power in many mobile games today, this is a kind of inexplicable cultural bond.

But that doesn't matter. When Lao Wu played the ocarina, it produced that ancient and desolate Chinese melody, a sound that is similar to psychedelic rock, and immediately attracted the attention of foreign music fans!

"The ruins of the Epang Palace stand desolate, where foxes and rabbits once again roam... All the extravagance has become a fleeting dream, leaving behind only sorrow throughout the ages... Do not ascend this ancient plain, for tears are hard to hold back as the sun sets in the west... Wild geese fly south, and the Wei River flows east..."

Kang Zhiyu's lyrics aren't exactly famous, but the moment you hear that classical charm, even Chinese music fans who don't know the source will exclaim in their hearts, "Bian Lang's ability to change poetry is truly amazing!"

Seeing the foreigners' expressions of confusion, enjoyment, or shock, the pride in the hearts of Chinese music fans immediately reached its peak!

The large number of Chinese music fans present this time wasn't actually a group of European fans who planned to attend the final show together; more than half of them were Chinese fans who came from China. Moreover, they decided to fly over at the last minute after Bian Lang's music career was banned.

Seeing this scene, their video cameras are all pointed at foreign music fans: "Listen, this is our national style rock! Look, this is the recognition that audiences in developed countries of rock music have for us!"

When they sang, "My strength could uproot mountains, my spirit could cover the world, but the times are against me and my steed will not go. My steed will not go, what can I do? Yu, my Yu, what can I do?", these Chinese music fans, although they didn't know the melody, still had the ability to memorize it!

Suddenly, Tang Dafeng on stage felt like a general in ancient times, challenging his troops on the battlefield, with tens of thousands of music fans below as his soldiers! He had inadvertently led his men across the Berlin Wall, and the feeling in his heart was indescribably wonderful!

The metallic electric guitar solo in the interlude took foreign music fans, who couldn't understand the lyrics, soaring along with it.

"The wind rises, the clouds fly... My might extends across the land, I return to my homeland... Where can I find brave warriors to guard the four directions... Where can I find brave warriors to guard the four directions..."

In a foreign land, more than 10,000 Chinese music fans shouted this together. Anyone who wasn't a traitor would have shed tears in their heart, even if they appeared calm on the surface.

Since the foreign affairs departments had all been giving the same answer, how could Ambassador Liu not be present today? He had originally planned to watch the show in the quarantine area, but ended up bringing his entourage and blending into the crowd of Chinese music fans.

He joined in the singing, and after finishing, he excitedly grabbed the hand of a young man next to him and said, "Did you hear that? Bian Lang brought the ancient charm of China to Berlin! We must let our compatriots back home know the real situation here..."

The young man, a college student, couldn't resist the provocation: "Definitely! I'll post the video tonight!"

In fact, although the conversation between the two was not recorded, given Ambassador Liu's special status, the cameras on site would occasionally pan over, so this scene was still recorded.

Of course, not everyone present was a regular music fan. Among them was a teacher from a Chinese university on exchange, who was moved to tears by the mournful outro. A foreign student who had come with him asked curiously, "Ms. Zhou, do these lyrics have any special meaning?"

Zhou Ying calmed herself down a bit and organized her thoughts before speaking:

"When Xiang Yu, surrounded by enemies on all sides, knew he was no match for Liu Bang, he committed suicide at Wujiang. Whether he was as strong as a mountain or as powerful as a storm, history had come to an end. Kang Zhi said, standing on the ruins of the Qin Dynasty and the desolate hills of the Han Dynasty, the setting sun dyed the ancient plains before my eyes. The Song Dynasty was about to perish, and the change of dynasties was inevitable. Thirty years have passed in Hedong."

A sharp-eared Chinese music fan, upon hearing this, couldn't help but cast an extremely admiring glance at Zhou Ying! At the same time, he whispered, "Will these foreigners be able to understand your statement?"

Upon hearing this, Zhou Ying revealed a mysterious smile and said, "If you could understand it, what use would a teacher like me, who came here for an exchange, be!"

Then the two of them burst into laughter at the same time: "Hahaha!"

At this moment, Bian Lang also thought to himself with emotion: "Dou Wei, Faye Wong, Ding Wu, Zhang Ju, Black Panther, Magic Rock, and even Tang Dynasty are all kings who changed hands on the stage, but they also became the thirty years of their own history.

It's really been thirty years.

Fortunately, Bian Lang's transmigration was like a rebirth with these works. Perhaps when he finally goes down to the underworld and meets Lao Ding and the others, he can boast, "I really made your songs famous in another world!"

With the Big Wind Band's performance, the first half of the show was set to be entirely in Chinese. When Rolling Stones came on stage and Bian Lang announced, "The first half will be all in Chinese!" the entire Chinese audience went wild!
"Worth it! Worth it! Berlin! The entire first half was in Chinese, and there were so many foreigners. Rolling Stones really dared to come!"

In the past, artists who came to Europe to hold concerts mainly sang in Chinese, and even mostly in Chinese, but they were targeting the overseas Chinese music fan market! Even if they sang some English songs, they would just cover one or two classic old English songs, as a way of adapting to local customs.

But Bian Lang is different! He didn't come to Europe to fleece Chinese music fans; he came to fleece European music fans! Moreover, his original English songs are top-notch, so making this decision at the end of the season is undoubtedly very risky.

If things go wrong, it's not impossible that European music fans could listen to it and cause the previously built-up good reputation to collapse!
So even if Bian Lang performs an all-English show today, Chinese music fans can only understand.

But Bian Erlang insisted on doing the opposite, dedicating the first half entirely to Mandarin, not only to flex his muscles but also to give Chinese music fans a sincere gift. As Lao Niu filmed, he already had a subtitle in mind for this segment: "It doesn't matter if I, Bian Erlang, am banned, I can still sing Mandarin songs for you all abroad!"

This was clearly somewhat provocative, but he felt it was a perfect match for Bian Lang's performance at that moment.

When Bian Lang first proposed this plan, Evelyn and the rest of DGM felt it was a bit risky. Ultimately, Olaf successfully brainwashed them.
"Don't worry, there won't be any problems. With 'Comfortably Numb' hanging in the air, European music fans won't have any issues. Besides, even if they don't understand the Chinese lyrics, Bian Lang's composition and arrangement will still captivate them!"

So when it came time to test the results, Evelyn and the others were all a little nervous, although there didn't seem to be many complaints on the scene.

In reality, European music fans don't care about language at all. Many people think, "As long as the rhythm is strong enough and the solo is cool enough, I don't care what you're singing about..."

As the prelude to "Dreaming Back to the Tang Dynasty" began, all the Chinese music fans present wanted to follow the notes and dream back to the glorious Tang Dynasty, a time when "the fragrance of paper and ink filled the air, poems and essays flowed like rivers…heroes and heroes shone brightly across the land!"

If a rock music fan from the original Earth, China, were present, they would definitely complain, "Holy crap! How many great songs did they plagiarize? They even squeezed 'Dream Back to Tang Dynasty' into the opening!"

European music fans were also captivated by the plaintive solo and Guo Sichu's even more professional Peking Opera-style vocals!
Thor, who was already backstage preparing to sing a song today, exclaimed, "Thank God! I'm still not too old to play the piano. Such an excellent arrangement is actually a Chinese rock song. I must record a version with Rolling Stones someday!"

Previously, I didn't understand, but after Thor crammed on the knowledge of Chinese rock, I realized that the lyrics of Chinese rock are much stronger than the music and arrangement.

Even setting aside the prodigy Bian Lang, this argument still holds true even when bringing in veterans like Zhang Ting and Pan Jianhu. Their English lyrics are truly awful; a direct translation would probably be at the level of a Chinese middle school student's essay.

But Bian Lang, this prodigy, managed to elevate the arrangement of Chinese rock to a level that even a veteran like Thor acknowledged. Crucially, the arrangements for Bian Lang's English songs are even more...

After listening to four songs from Tang Dynasty's album, the foreign music fans at the scene were completely immersed in the music, and Evelyn and the others were finally able to relax.

"From now on, whatever Wave says about the concert will be the final word. I will never question him again!"

"He's really impressive, but I doubt anyone else would dare to take such a risk."

"I can't even imagine how strong Rolling Stone's ticket-driving ability will be if we do it again next year!"

This is the last match. All the top executives of DGM have arrived. Seeing this scene, no one still has any objection to fighting against CCA.

They didn't get along before, but some people felt it wasn't worth it for a Chinese person.

But after seeing Rolling Stones' performance today, they feel they've been overestimating themselves. This time, it should be Bian Lang and Rolling Stones leading DGM to fight together!

The mini-climax sparked by the four consecutive performances by Tang Dynasty had just ended when Bian Lang took a sip of water and began interacting with fans: "At next year's Berlin Film Festival, we have a very long and excellent film from China that will be participating. We at Rolling Stones are honored to have composed and performed the theme song for this film..."

As the conversation continued, the clips Duan Yu had edited began playing on the large screen behind them.

At the same time, the two large characters "Ru Weng" appeared on the screen!

Looking at Bian Lang again, against the backdrop of the moving images, he puts on a pair of red-framed sunglasses.

Without any prelude, the sound, like a roar from a mountaintop, ripped open the eardrums of every Chinese music fan present, along with their indifference and bewilderment at a particular passage:
"This is a million yuan dowry."
A vow to love you only.
The letter has been slipped into the factory manager's pocket.
The only tomorrow I can give you...

The close-up of Bian Lang's hoarse face, paired with the desolate rural scenery of Northeast China, made even those who had seen the rehearsal feel that they truly understood the song!
When all the male musicians on stage shouted together, “Like a jar!”

Duan Yu felt confident that his film was a sure thing. Seeing the extremely excited expressions of the foreigners at the scene, he believed that even if it didn't win any awards, the film would still be liked by European film distributors!
(End of this chapter)