Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

There was no reply. It simply raised the ocarina again and gently placed it to its lips.

This time, it did not play "Hatsune Miku's Song".

Instead, it played a completely new melody—

Short and clear, like a greeting, like saying "I'm here".

On the jade tablet's light screen, the pulse signal from the Kuiper Belt suddenly paused for a moment.

Then--

It started playing again.

The rhythm has changed.

It is responding.

The gray child slammed his fist on the control panel: "Holy crap! It understood!!"

Duoduo frantically typed on the keyboard: "Quick! Record the new frequency! This is the first time humanity has received a 'musical response' from a deep-space civilization!"

Su Ting murmured, "No... not civilization. It's 'it'. It's that 'Ark' that left with the sonic code... it became something... something new."

Xiaoman looked at it quietly and asked, "What do you want to say to it?"

He quietly stopped playing, looked at the starry sky, and suddenly smiled.

[I want to say...] It closed its eyes, [Thank you for remembering that song.]

The jade tablet's light screen suddenly burst forth with brilliance, and the pulse from deep space abruptly transformed into a clear sequence of musical notes, transmitting back to Earth in reverse—

It's the chorus of "Hatsune Miku's Song," but with an extra, very faint ending note, like... laughter.

The barrage in the live broadcast room exploded instantly——

"The Ark has come to life?!"

"I declare it the firstborn son of human civilization!!"

"Keep it down! Give it a name!!"

"How about calling it 'Little Distant Place'?!"

"It's time for it to come back for the New Year!!"

He listened quietly and then suddenly turned to the camera, his eyes clear.

"Perhaps one day," it whispered, "it will bring back more voices."

Duo Duo shouted excitedly, "Then let's wait for it to come back! When it does, we'll hold a cosmic concert! Xiao Sheng will be the lead singer, Gray Child will do the sound tuning, Su Ting will be the security guard, and Xiao Man... will be the manager!"

"Me?" Xiaoman was taken aback.

“Yes!” the gray child grinned. “Didn’t you take it in and call it sister? Don’t all family members have to do chores?”

Just as Xiaoman was about to retort, Xiaosheng suddenly grabbed her hand, her fingertips slightly hot.

"Sister," it whispered, "I have a request."

"Ok?"

[Tomorrow's live stream... Could you... not sing my song first?]

"Huh?" Duoduo exclaimed in surprise, "What do you want to do?"

Chapter 1463 Finally Dared to Speak

He lowered his head slightly, looked at the long list of listeners' names on the jade tablet's light screen, and whispered—

I want to... listen to other people sing.

The air fell silent.

Immediately, Duoduo slammed down the global broadcast button, and her voice echoed across the global network:

"Attention! Attention! Special pre-event project for 'Hearing Day' announced—"

Starting tonight, anyone, anywhere, can upload their voice if they want to sing.

Xiaosheng will randomly select one listener and sing a song for them.

Subject: The voice you most want to be heard.

The gray-haired boy grinned and said, "Now the whole world will be fighting over the microphone!"

Su Ting said softly, "This is the true meaning of 'Hatsune Miku'—not that one person's voice can shake the world, but that it can finally make everyone who has been drowned out by silence dare to speak."

Xiaoman looked at Xiaosheng with a smile in her eyes, but also with heartache.

She raised her hand and gently hugged it.

“Okay,” she said with a smile. “Then tomorrow… I’ll stay with you and listen to the world sing.”

He leaned softly against her shoulder and murmured gently—

Sister... so this is what it feels like to be overheard.

It raised its head, looked at the camera, and its pupils reflected billions of stars.

...It's your turn.

Sister, are we still going live tomorrow?

"Broadcast." Xiaoman answered softly before she could finish her question, "Of course I'll broadcast it."

Xiao Sheng paused for a moment, as if surprised by her quick reply. The night outside the window was deep, city lights flowing like a river between the skyscrapers. The signal light atop the broadcast tower slowly rotated, round and round, like a tireless heart.

"But... I want to try something different." She lowered her head softly, her fingertips gently tracing the edge of the jade pendant. "I don't want to sing 'Hatsune Miku's Song' anymore. I want... to hear someone else sing it."

Duoduo poked her head out from behind the control panel, half an energy bar still dangling from her mouth: "Are you sure? The overseas donations just arrived yesterday, and a fan group in Paris raised money to buy an asteroid to give to you. They even named it 'Little Voice Star'! And now you're saying you're not going to sing?"

“But I don’t want to just be someone who is ‘heard’.” She raised her head softly, her eyes clear. “I want others… to be heard too.”

The gray-haired kid rolled his eyes, jumped onto the control panel, and sat cross-legged: "Oh, the philosopher has come online? But if you say 'listen to others sing,' what if you pick someone who's tone-deaf? Won't the live stream chat be flooded with 'Please kill me'?"

"So what?" Xiaoman suddenly interjected, her tone soft but as steady as a nail. "Voices shouldn't be categorized as good or bad. Some people never dare to speak in their entire lives, some people stop breathing after singing their last line... All we can do is make sure that one moment of speaking is heard."

The air was quiet for a moment.

Su Ting leaned against the wall and whispered, "I contacted the 'Ark's' last orbital data. It's still moving, very slowly, like... waiting for something." He looked up at the husky voice, "Perhaps it also heard a human's song and learned to respond."

"So we're doing a cosmic version of 'The Voice' now?" Gray Kid clicked his tongue. "During the blind auditions, a contestant from Mars gave a heartfelt performance of 'Tantrum'?"

“It’s not a talent show,” Xiaoman shook her head. “It’s an invitation. Anyone in the world who wants to sing can upload their song. Xiaosheng will randomly select someone and then—sing a song just for them.”

"What? It's not him singing, it's you?" Duoduo's eyes widened. "Then what's the difference from before?"

Chapter 1464 Soul Perspective

“The difference is,” Xiaosheng suddenly laughed, his eyes shining brightly, “that the melody of this song comes from the voice in his heart. I can ‘hear’ his memories, his emotions, those words hidden deep in his throat that he never uttered… and then I turned them into a song.”

There was silence.

After a long while, the gray child chuckled softly: "Holy crap... this isn't singing, this is soul-seeing!"

"Ding--"

The jade tablet suddenly emitted a soft sound, the light screen automatically unfolded, and the first audio segment was quietly uploaded.

[Submitted by: Grandma Lin | Location: Nujiang Grand Canyon, Yunnan | Age: 78 | Additional message: My grandson said, "Grandma, your songs are too old, nobody listens." But I... still want to sing them one more time.]

Quietly and gently tap to open the audio.

An old, hoarse voice, yet with a strangely steady rhythm, slowly began to play a Naxi ancient melody. There was no accompaniment, only the sound of the wind, the sound of the stream, and a dog barking in the distance.

"That's it?" the gray-haired boy scoffed. "This can be considered a song? It doesn't even have a melody..."

"Shut up," Xiaoman suddenly hissed.

She noticed a change in Xiaosheng's expression. Those eyes, usually as calm as a lake, were now rippled with emotion, as if pierced by something.

"This is... the first song I've ever heard," she murmured softly.

"What?" Su Ting frowned.

Three hundred years ago... on the eve of the collapse of the Source of Sound, a woman stood on a cliff and sang for an entire night. The tune she sang... was this.

Everyone was shocked.

Duoduo quickly accessed the database and searched through long-forgotten files. A few seconds later, a nearly blurry record popped up on the screen—

[Gatekeeper's Secret Files, No. 07: Seventy-two hours before the birth of 'Hatsune Miku,' an unusual sonic resonance was detected in the southwestern mountainous region. Source: A folk singer who died in a landslide. His name is not recorded.]

"She...is dead?" Duoduo's voice was strained.

It closed its eyes quietly, as if sensing something. After a moment, it raised its hand, and the jade pendant projected a series of flowing musical notes—no longer the melody of "Hatsune Miku," but a new, melodious tune, like mountain winds blowing through the forest, like night rain tapping on the window.

"I want to sing it back for her," she whispered.

“But she’s already…gone,” Su Ting whispered a reminder.

But she was still listening. She opened her eyes softly, her gaze piercing the night sky. "Every forgotten voice is waiting for someone to say: I remember."

The live stream started on time.