A song from Chengdu revived a closed-down pub.

After making arrangements for Qin Shen and Jiang Yi, Su Fan made his escape.

He knew that today's drinking session was purely about personal feelings, not business.

Drinking too much is bad for your health, drinking too little is bad for your relationship; it's better to just leave.

At this moment, Fancheng Bar was packed with people.

On the first day of business, Fang Cheng put on quite a show.

On stage, someone was playing guitar and singing folk songs.

The audience enjoyed wine and music.

Su Fan pushed open the door and went in. Before he could even look around, someone at the bar recognized him and shouted, "Village Chief Su is here!"

That shout drew everyone's attention in the bar, followed by a round of applause.

Su Fan laughed and said, "You don't need to do this. Anyone who didn't know better would think the provincial governor has come to inspect our work!"

Everyone laughed.

At this moment, someone stood up with a wine glass in hand and started urging, "Village Chief Su, come up on stage and sing a song!"

As soon as he finished speaking, more people joined in the shouting.

Sing one!

Sing one!

……

Su Fan drank some alcohol today, but he wasn't drunk; he was just slightly tipsy.

So Su Fan readily agreed: "Okay, then let's sing one!"

Upon hearing this, everyone became excited and began speculating which song Su Fan would sing.

"I bet 'Sorrow' is perfect for this slightly tipsy vibe!"

"Could it be 'The New Drunken Concubine'? Wouldn't the operatic singing be enough to blow the roof off?"

"I wish I could sing 'The Ordinary Road'!"

……

Su Fan walked onto the stage, took a guitar from the shelf, hugged it to his chest, bent down to tune the strings, and casually strummed a few notes.

Someone in the corner had already started a live stream on their phone, and the comments on the screen instantly started appearing.

"Why is Su Fan out again? Didn't she already sing at Mawei Post Station?"

"This bar looks nice, where is it? I want to go too!"

"Wait, why is he holding a guitar again? Is he going to sing again?"

"Is this the start of her solo concert?"

……

Just then, Su Fan plucked the strings of the zither.

The intro begins, but it's not the arpeggios of "Chengdu".

It's not the somber interlude of "Sorrow".

It's a melody with a slightly retro feel.

Immediately afterwards, Su Fan sang:

A car drove by after the rain.

Drive through the pale twilight

Old metal sheet drives south

My lover is gone.

……

The bar fell silent.

It's not "Chengdu".

It's not "Sorrow".

It is not any song that Su Fan has sung.

Some people have already taken out their phones to search for lyrics, but after searching around, they couldn't find the song.

Everyone's emotions instantly became excited.

"New song! It's definitely a new song! I've never heard this song before!"

"Su Fan, did you secretly write a hundred songs and save them? What kind of divine melody is this one?"

"I was just guessing he was going to sing an old song, and he just threw out a brand new one! Su Fan, with that output, you're the king of the Chinese music scene!"

"I need the song title! I need the full version! Su Fan, can you release songs as fast as you write them?"

……

The song Su Fan presented was a song written by Tang Yingfeng and composed and sung by Chen Hongyu on Earth.

That's right, it's that song "Ideal Thirty Years".

This song has a soothing melody and lyrics that are full of a calm reflection on youth and ideals.

It perfectly matches the relaxed, emotionally heightened, and rationally moderate state of being slightly tipsy.

Su Fan's decision to retrieve the song was closely related to his current slightly tipsy state.

As the saying goes, the first decade is for dreams, the second for love, and the third for oneself.

The strings were still vibrating gently, and Su Fan's voice seemed to be drifting from a great distance.

Listen to the poetry radio station under the thick smoke

An emotionless cough at least looks like

The journey home was still lovely.

The strings have lost their grace

The child who listened to songs at night is gone forever.

……

As the words were spoken, a middle-aged man drinking alone in the corner gently put down his glass.

He recalled his youth when he used to listen to obscure radio stations late at night.

I fell asleep while listening.

When I woke up, all I could hear was a hissing noise.

Back then, the days seemed endless, so long that I couldn't see the end.

Looking back now, it's so short that only a few scenes remain.

Su Fan didn't pause; the singing continued.

"Time Flies: A Monologue"

Turn the turmoil into a cassette tape

"Withered sentiments have been trampled into the annals of time."

……

Fang Cheng, sitting in the audience, leaned against the bar, having put down the rag he was holding at some point.

He recalled the years he had spent traveling from Shaanxi Province to Sichuan Province.

Wandering aimlessly, like a headless fly.

He turned the best years of his life into a cassette tape, which, when played back, is nothing but static.

But now he doesn't think that way anymore.

Because Su Fan just sang "Turning the hardships into a cassette tape".

It's not about grinding it up and throwing it away.

It has been honed into something that can be listened to repeatedly.

Those hardships later turned into songs.

"Just grow old, and loneliness will never wake up."

The departure you long for

There's just nowhere to stop.

Sing a song, squint your eyes

And the collapse of hot tears

"Just an existence that hasn't arrived yet"

……

Su Fan's voice became more relaxed in these few sentences.

Like a person sitting by the window late at night, talking to the moon.

He didn't deliberately try to evoke emotions.

It simply expressed the words hidden in everyone's heart in the most unadorned way.

"The nameless heart"

Spending time in frivolous gatherings and partings with laughter and merriment

After going through many transfers, I still couldn't reach the right platform.

If wandering is an inevitable signpost on the road to growth

You awaken in the years

That barren future

Like unrequited love in a season of regret

Every page of the poem was smudged.

The most painful confession of kissing

"And the wind has blown this far, there's no need to let it go."

……

This lyric contains a very moving narrative of a loser.

It was not a tragic defeat.

Instead, they gradually and calmly accepted the sense of compromise that comes with ordinariness during their wanderings.

In other words, all the laughter, anger, and curses were just a play staged for themselves by nameless people on their journey to their destination.

The song slowly came to an end.

"Just endure it sweetly"

Stars dampen the windowsill

The flickering light and shadow seem to whisper love in drowsiness.

No more pointless sighs

"I thought I understood that the place where my dream collapsed is now covered with moss."

……

The song ended, and the bar became quiet.

No one applauded, no one cheered.

Only the lyrics resonate repeatedly in everyone's heart.

Those dreams shattered in my youth.

Those places that we thought we would never be able to stand up again.

Now, moss has even grown on it.

It's not barrenness, it's another kind of vitality.

The live stream chat finally started filling up again.

But it's no longer a massive, overwhelming flood of posts.

Instead, it's about touching the heart line by line.

"I've never heard this song before, but every line feels like it's describing me!"

"Su Fan, did you secretly read my life diary?"

"This isn't about writing a song; it's about writing about each and every one of us!"

……

Su Fan raised his head, looked at the silent faces below the stage, and smiled.

He leaned his guitar against the wall and walked off the stage.

As they passed the bar, Fang Cheng handed him a glass of warm water.

He took it, drank a sip, leaned against the bar, and let out a long breath.

Zhao Jie raised his glass to Su Fan without saying a word.

Su Fan raised his water glass in response.