"Wear your mask."
Zhou Xiaoli laughed as she reminded Zhao Ying Ge.
As one of the most influential talent shows in the Qin Continent, the attention to "Bloom" was high every year. Zhao Ying Ge, the annual champion of the show, was quite well-known and could easily be recognized by fans in the cinema—
Today was a Tuesday.
The day the movie "Dragon Fish Dance" was released.
Zhou Xiaoli, who had pre-purchased tickets, directly came to the cinema with Zhao Ying Ge.
The film had a moderate budget, and it didn't have a top-tier cast, but fans of this genre were not few. The screening room where Zhao Ying Ge was sitting was filled with quite a few people.
After they took their seats,
The movie began quite quickly.
Zhao Ying Ge and Zhou Xiaoli, munching on popcorn while watching the movie, felt very relaxed.
The big screen lit up.
The opening of the plot told the story of a little girl and her parents who, during a trip, accidentally entered a magical world through a mystic tunnel.
The world was both beautiful and dangerous.
Monsters, strange occurrences, and strong fantastical feelings poured out, colorful and vivid.
Arriving here,
The parents of the little girl were captured by a witch who practiced sorcery because they broke the rules of this world out of greed. The little girl was left alone wandering in this dangerous world.
She had several near-death experiences.
But when she was about to be eaten by a beautiful yet deadly snake spirit, she was saved by a powerful white dragon that could change into human form.
However, the little girl did not expect,
That the white dragon served the sorcery-practicing witch.
At first, the little girl was afraid of the white dragon and even showed some resistance because the witch, who was the master of the white dragon, had taken her parents away. But as time went by, she was affected by the friendliness of the white dragon.
Gradually,
The two became good friends who could talk about anything and went through a lot together.
However, the little girl was always preoccupied.
She never gave up on rescuing her parents.
Sensing the little girl's desire, the white dragon made a difficult decision. He betrayed the witch and helped the little girl save her parents.
But
The moment he rescued the girl's parents, he himself suffered from a malicious curse from the witch.
It turned out,
He was under the control of the witch.
He could never betray his master as a white dragon; once he did, the curse would strike. He would lose his dragon form and human figure and could only live in the deep sea and never come ashore again—
He became a fish again.
An extraordinarily large fish.
Barely resisting the pain of the curse, he flew across the sky with almost miraculous strength. Using his massive body to guide the girl, he escorted her and her parents out of this dangerous place.
When they were about to reach the exit,
They passed an ocean.
The white dragon, now a big fish, couldn't hold on any longer. He moaned and plunged into the sea, bidding the girl a final farewell.
This was a magical sea area with a powerful force that could trigger people's memories.
So, the movie went on to tell the source of this story in reverse.
As it turned out, when the little girl was young, she had saved half a month's worth of pocket money, intending to buy her favorite snack.
But while strolling by the seaside, the young girl saw the fishermen selling a beautiful fish, and she thought that the fish was pitiful. So she bought the fish and released it back—
That very fish was the white dragon.
Then came the white dragon's memories.
When he was still a fish, he worked hard countless times and finally crossed the Dragon Gate. He obtained the body of a white dragon and powerful cultivation skills, also finally gaining the human form he had long dreamed of.
He tried so hard because...
He wanted to find the little girl and repay her.
However, he didn't expect that the moment he ascended into a dragon, he was caught by the evil witch and forced to become her pet.
The origin of the story caught the audience by surprise.
As it turned out, this accidental encounter was a long-awaited reunion.
What really moved the audience to tears was a song that echoed with the waves of memory, abruptly arising: "The soundless waves drown the evening in deep shades of nightfall, creeping across the corners of the sky's end. The big fish swims through the slit of the dream, gazing at your sleeping silhouette..."
Piano music cascading.
A song wafting.
The movie theater falls silent.
Listening to the ocean-wave-like song in her ears, Zhao Ying Ge's popcorn-holding hand froze in mid-air, as if struck by something. She was lost in a trance.
"Afraid you'll fly far away
Afraid you'll leave me
More afraid that you'll stay here forever
Every tear
Flows towards you
Back into the sea under the sky..."
In the reluctant farewell of the Big Fish and the girl, the song echoes the story. At this moment, the stunning harmony wrapped around everyone's ears like it was from the magical world in the film, causing many to feel shivers down their spines.
"Hiss."
Whimpers could be heard throughout the cinema. Zhao Ying Ge's neighbor, Zhou Xiaoli, took out a tissue. In a blink of an eye, half the pack was used, her eyes red and swollen from crying.
The movie theater became even quieter.
This song at the end of the movie, coupled with the plot, was like a tear-gas bomb. The harmony part of the song exploded this tear bomb in the whole theater, sparing no one.
Friendship?
Love?
The movie never made it clear. But when the Big Fish returned to sea, only its broad back could be seen disappearing into the sunset. The girl, her tears streaming, was still frantically waving goodbye.
Far off at the horizon.
The Big Fish dove back into the seabed.
The end of the movie was the end of the song. But the final lyric, filled with tremble, was like a dagger, stabbing the hearts of countless audience members: "Every tear...flows towards you...going back...to our initial meeting..."
...
As the credits rolled, no one in the cinema left. In the slightly sour atmosphere, discussions were accompanied by nasally tones from crying:
"I held back tears for more than an hour, but this song made me lose the fight..."
"Each line in the song is like a knife, aiming straight for my heart. The last line landed a critical hit. I'm dead..."
"I doubt I have the courage to watch this movie again unless they cut out the final song..."
"Who wrote this song? Does it think I feel nothing when crying?"
"Now I think the whole movie is just a music video for the final song..."
"I was too naive. I thought it was a healing film, but instead it's a depressing one. The final song was devastating!"
"..."
Among them was a woman, her eyes red from crying, mocking the man next to her, "Honey, didn't you say that you never cry when watching movies? Didn't you say you despise all this emotional manipulation? That all this sentimentality is just a trick from directors to make viewers cry? Why are you crying like this now?"
"I didn't cry when I watched the movie...until I heard this song."
That was the man's last act of stubbornness.
"I've run out of tissues, do you have any left?" Zhou Xiaoli, rubbing her nose, nudges Zhao Ying Ge's arm with hers.
"..."
Zhao Ying Ge doesn't respond, her reddened eyes fixated on the last credit of the movie.
"What are you looking at? The movie's over."
Unable to find a tissue, Zhou Xiaoli was forced to wipe her tears with her sleeve.
Zhao Ying Ge still doesn't respond. Not until she sees the last line of the credits, the information she has been searching for since the end of the movie--
[Insert Song/Theme Song/OST/Ending Theme: "Big Fish"]
[Lyrics/Music/Arrangement: Xian Yu]
[Singer: Jiang Kui]
[Special thanks: Xian Yu]
"Big Fish..." she mutters under her breath. Suddenly, it seems like she remembers something, a blush creeping onto her face:
"Xian Yu, Xian Yu!"
"What Xian Yu?" asks Zhou Xiaoli, who has just stopped crying, with a nasal tone, "Why are you babbling?"
"Xian Yu!"
Zhao Ying Ge's voice shakes, "The soundtrack of the movie was written by Xian Yu. Wasn't the song that Starlight sent last time also written by Xian Yu?"
Zhou Xiaoli seems to come to a realization, "I think so..."
Zhao Ying Ge suddenly stands up, "Let's go home and listen to that song!"