Huayu 2014: From Traffic Stars to Superstars

Chapter 79 Fans

The music software lists Gao Huan as the lyricist and composer, and also as the arranger.

The melody of this song is clean and warm, with piano as the base and guitar coming in during the interlude. The rhythm is not heavy but very steady, like a person walking slowly at night, with small steps but each step is very steady.

Gao Huan's voice came in at the tenth second, softer than when he usually sings, closer to speaking, as if he were whispering to someone.

"In my eyes, in my heart, your presence brings a clear blue sky. The castle of dreams, guarded by love, is where the most beautiful moments linger—"

In the chorus, all the instruments come in together, but the sound doesn't become heavier; instead, it becomes cleaner.

The world is constantly changing, and people are constantly flowing.

All I want is for you to be by my side every sunset.

If one day you forget our promise, it's okay. At least I have this song, and I'll sing it for you again.

The second verse is lower than the first, as if recounting something that happened a long time ago.

"Lonely planet, how long have I wandered before you came close to me. Youth is turbulent, growth is painful, you frown, let me give you tenderness."

The bridge section is the most emotionally intense part of the song, and Gao Huan's voice softened slightly, as if he was restraining something.

"Our experiences yesterday give each other courage for tomorrow, because you will have no fear of the future."

When the chorus ends on the last note, the piano doesn't stop immediately, but instead continues with a few more chords at the end, like someone slowly walking away in the twilight.

"Perhaps in the future, you will cry for someone else."

Please remember there's another song, "I'll only sing for you, girl," it's your song.

"The whole song is less than four minutes long."

When the last line of lyrics came down, the last note lingered in the air for a moment before slowly fading away.

Within half an hour of the song's release, the comment section of NetEase Cloud Music was flooded with tens of thousands of comments.

The comment that was pushed to the top of the front row wasn't from fans controlling the narrative, but from a user named "Galaxy First Star": "He said I was his starlight. But I want to tell him that you are the one who has always been shining."

That comment received over 100,000 likes within half an hour.

Liu Haocun heard this song in his dormitory.

During her lunch break, she sat on the top bunk, her headphone cord pulled up from under her pillow and wrapped around her fingers.

She was very excited when she clicked on the link. She had listened to all of Gao Huan's songs, from "One Meat, One Vegetable" to "Medal," and she liked every single one of them. However, she also felt that he was not the kind of person who would write songs specifically for his fans.

She felt that the phrase "specially given to fans" was mostly a marketing tactic arranged by the studio; it was still the same song, just with a different wording.

Or perhaps Gao Huan released this song for some other reason.

She was still scrolling through her phone when the intro started.

Ten seconds later, his voice came in, and she stopped.

"In my eyes, in my heart, your presence is like a clear blue sky."

Her fingers stopped moving as she stared at the lyrics on the screen.

Her eyes suddenly stung with tears.

She recalled that in the autumn of 2014, she was watching "Gu Jian Qi Tan" on her phone in her dormitory. When Baili Tusu appeared, she sat up in bed and exclaimed, "Who is this?"

That night, she searched for all of Gao Huan's information, browsed his Weibo, entered his super topic, and joined his fan group.

At that time, Gao Huan's fans didn't have a name yet. They discussed what to call her in the group chat, and dozens of names were suggested. In the end, she typed two words: "Huanxing".

Gao Huan's Star.

Joyful stars.

The ladies in the group all thought it was a good idea, so we decided to go with it.

Later, the studio adopted this name, making it one of the official names.

When she thought about it, tears were already falling; she didn't even realize it herself.

"How long has this lonely planet been spinning before it finally encountered you and came close to me?"

She recalled how she often worked until two or three in the morning to organize support activities. Once, she was still working on a light board design late at night. Afraid of disturbing her roommates, she hid under the covers and used a flashlight. Her eyes were sore, but she still sent the design to the group on time the next day.

When someone asked her, "Aren't you tired of doing this?" she replied, "No, it's all for Huan-ge."

She didn't feel tired at that time because it was something she wanted to do.

"Youth is turbulent, growth is painful, if you frown, let me give you gentleness."

She recalled the night last winter when Gao Huan attended the National Drama Awards.

It was several degrees below zero in Beijing. She and several of her friends stood outside the red carpet railing from around 4 p.m. until 7 p.m.

Her hands were frozen and she couldn't hold the light sign steady, so she switched between holding it with both hands.

As Gao Huan walked down the red carpet, she heard fans next to her shouting her name, the sound as loud as a tsunami.

She was shouting, but her voice was drowned out; she couldn't even hear herself.

But he glanced in their direction.

Just one glance, his gaze swept over them, as if he saw them, yet also as if he didn't.

But at that moment, she felt that all the cold wind she had endured for so long was worth it.

Later, she watched that video hundreds of times, playing it frame by frame, to confirm that he was indeed looking in their direction, not elsewhere, but at them.

She took a screenshot of that picture, saved it to her album, and named it "The second he looked over".

Hearing the lyrics, "If one day you forget our promise, it's okay, at least there's this song, I'll sing it for you again," she suddenly realized that he sang this song not just for everyone. It was for everyone, a response to that "one second he looked over at me."

After singing the last line, "It's soothing," Liu Haocun took off his headphones and sat on the upper bunk, lost in thought for a long time.

Her roommate on the lower bunk called her back to the teaching building for class. She responded, but didn't move.

She opened Weibo and typed: "He said I am his starlight, but I want to tell him—you are the one who has always been shining."

After sending the message, she locked the screen, placed her phone next to her pillow, got out of bed, put on her shoes, and went to class with her roommate.

When she stepped out of the dormitory building, the sun was shining brightly. She looked up at the sky but didn't see any stars.

But it doesn't matter, she knows where that star is.

Zhang Ruonan was in her apartment in Beijing's East Fourth Ring Road when she heard this song.

The house isn't big, just two bedrooms and a living room, but it's clean and bright.

The living room faces south, and the afternoon sun shines into an entire wall. There's a potted green ivy on the windowsill, which Yangyang Jin casually placed there when she last visited.

The sofa was light gray, and several art exam textbooks were spread out on the coffee table, with a half-finished cup of warm water next to it.

After she signed with Gao Huan's studio, Yangyang Jin gave her the keys to the apartment.

It was said that the studio provided dormitories for its signed artists, but Zhang Ruonan later found out that many other companies' newly signed artists did not actually have this benefit. It was Yangyang Jin who specially applied for it, or rather, Gao Huan who nodded in approval.

She remembered that when Yangyang Jin handed her the keys that day, she said, "Take good care of yourself and don't overthink it. Focus on your exams; the studio isn't in a rush to make you money."

-

Zhang Ruonan's hands trembled slightly when she took the keys.

She lived in a university dormitory in Hangzhou for almost a year, with four people crammed into one room and having to queue to take a shower. Needless to say, it was the worst living environment she had ever experienced since childhood.

I never imagined that one day I could live in an entire house all by myself, with a sofa in the living room, green plants on the balcony, and a refrigerator and microwave in the kitchen.

But she still wasn't quite used to it after moving in.

The house is too big; it always feels empty living alone.

Every night when she returned to her apartment and turned on the lights, the living room was quiet except for the sound of her own footsteps.

Sometimes she would sit on the sofa in a daze, feeling like it was all an illusion. She dropped out of school, ran away from Hangzhou to Beijing, and moved into the apartment provided by Gao Huan's studio to prepare for the entrance exam for Beijing Film Academy.

All of this is because of Gao Huan.

She converted the south-facing living room into a temporary study room.

The coffee table was pushed aside, and the desk was placed by the window, where the textbooks and notes were placed in the sunniest spot.

Every night after returning from tutoring school, she would sit at that desk and study until late at night, occasionally glancing up at Beijing outside the window. The lights of Guomao were still on, and the traffic on the Third Ring Road was still flowing.

She felt herself getting closer and closer to him, not just because of the geographical distance, but because she was stepping into a world where he was also present.

On May 20th, it was already dark when she returned to her apartment.

She sat cross-legged on the sofa without turning on the light, the light from her phone screen reflecting on her face.

The announcement of Gao Huan's new song release has been flooding the Super Topic, and her fingers were trembling slightly when she clicked on the link.

As soon as the intro started, she suddenly felt that the south-facing living room, the window that could see the lights of the CBD, and this apartment where she was still not used to living alone, were all like another kind of promise he had given her: you just keep moving forward, and someone will take care of the rest for you.

When she heard the lyrics, "How long has this lonely planet been spinning before it finally met you and came close to me," she held her phone to her chest, closed her eyes, and cried out.

She didn't know why she was crying; it was just that her emotions surged up in that instant, like a wall suddenly collapsing.

BJ is big, but everything in this living room belongs to her.

She thought back then that if one day she could stand in front of him in another identity and say to him, "I became who I am now because I like you," that would be wonderful.

Even if they eventually break up, it doesn't matter.

"If one day you forget our promise, it's okay, at least there's this song, I'll sing it for you again."

She clutched her phone to her chest, closed her eyes, and burst into tears.

The room suddenly felt very small. The curtains were drawn, and all that could be heard was her breathing and the music playing on repeat from her phone.

She cried for a long time, so long that her phone screen went dark, so she turned it back on and played it again.

That night, she posted a message on Weibo with just a few words: "You are my starlight, and I am your star. Thank you for remembering us."

After sending the message, she thought for a moment and added, "I'm working hard to prepare for the Beijing Film Academy entrance exam, so I can be closer to you!"

After sending it, she felt a little more at ease, washed up, turned off the lights, and went to sleep.

She has classes tomorrow. In the dialogue class, she has to memorize a long monologue, and in the physical education class, she has to practice a split that she can never seem to do.

With her eyes closed, she could still hear the melody of that song playing in her mind in the darkness.

The phrase "The world keeps changing, and people keep flowing" was like a small lamp that lit up her apartment all night.

Within three days of its release, the song had garnered over 50 million plays across the internet.

-

The Weibo hashtag #ToYourSong# has surpassed one billion views, and the super topic is filled with screenshots and comments from fans.

Some people hand-copied the lyrics and posted them online, some wrote short essays about their experiences supporting the cause, and some made a music video.

This is a mashup of all of Gao Huan's works from his debut to the present, with this song as the background music.

That montage video was shared over 100,000 times, and was even shared by Gao Huan's official studio.

Gao Huan himself did not repost it, but he liked the video.

When he came across that video during a break on set, his finger paused at the top of the screen and tapped the heart icon.

Then he locked the screen, put his phone in his pocket, and turned to walk back to the film set.

That day, we were filming another chase scene from the movie. He ran through the mud and water more than a dozen times. After he finished, he was covered in mud and his face was unrecognizable.

But when he stood behind the monitor watching the playback, the corners of his mouth were turned up.

Yangyang Jin later asked him, "What are you laughing at?"

Gao Huan said, "It's nothing."

He recalled a scene cut from the video: the 2014 National Drama Awards, where the red carpet was lined with blue light boards and banners.

He was taking photos in the middle of the red carpet when he heard someone shout from the side, "Huan-ge, look this way!" He turned his head and saw a girl holding a handwritten light board with crooked handwriting that read, "Go for it, Gao Huan."

He saw the girl's face clearly and remembered the sign.

Later, a comment under that video was pushed to the top. It was left by an ID called "Galaxy First Star": "I was on the red carpet that year. The handwritten light board you saw was written by me."

He neither added her as a friend nor replied to that comment.

But he saved a screenshot of that sentence.

Yangyang Jin later asked him, "Why didn't you reply to that fan?"

Gao Huan thought for a moment and said, "Sometimes not replying is better than replying. As long as she knows I saw it, that's enough."

That night, Gao Huan sat on the hotel balcony for a while longer.

He couldn't see many stars in the Bangkok night sky, but he knew that in some direction, those stars were shining.

He recalled a line from that song: "The world keeps changing, and the crowds keep flowing."

He thought he would probably remember this day forever.

I've been a fan of theirs for a lifetime.

He also remembered the girls standing outside the barbed wire fence, their sunburned faces, their hoarse voices, and the tears they shed when they received the song.

The breeze blowing from the balcony carries the warm, moist air of the Mekong River.

He took out his phone and sent a message to Gao Beibei: "Auntie, I released a new song."

Gao Beibei replied with three words: "I heard."

Then she posted another message: "It sounds good. Your fans must be very happy."

Gao Huan looked at the words and made the call.

A dozen minutes later.

He locked the screen, put the phone in his pocket, stood up, and walked back to the bathroom.

Liu Shishi, who resembled a young woman but was not quite a young woman, was waiting for him there.

Perhaps in the future, someone will be waiting for him there.

That's enough.