Chapter 1347 - Who will come out for the finale?

Translator: Legge __ Editor: Legge

The Spring Festival Gala continued.

The red packet war was also getting increasingly fierce. Regardless of gender and age, everyone was joining in to grab the red packets that were given out.

They grabbed.

They laughed.

They scolded.

“Wow, I grabbed a red packet with 3 yuan in it!”

“Previous poster, that’s a pretty generous red packet!”

“Haha, I grabbed one with 60 cents in it. Thank you to Sister Zhang for the red packet!”

“Thank you, Sister Ning. I grabbed one from Sister Ning that has 30 cents in it!”

“Oh, Sect Leader Huo also gave out some red packets!”

“Damn, why did I get Zhang Ye’s red packet again!”

“Me too, I got his as well!”

“This is infuriating! There’s only 1.2 cents in it? What kind of an odd figure is that!”

“I received 2.8 cents! How am I even suppose to claim that 0.8 cents?”

“This Zhang Ye is such a cheapskate!”

“Ahh, I’ve never seen a celebrity who’s so stingy!”

“Hahahahaha, this is too funny!”

“Zhang Ye, show yourself! I promise not to beat you to death!”

“Zhang Ye has always been a cheat. It’s not like you guys didn’t know that.”

“And why can’t I get my hands on the work dedication card still!”

“I don’t have it either. I’ve already collected three sets of the other four cards of fortune! But there’s no work dedication card to be seen at all! They’re just trying to stir up trouble!”

“We’re just 20 minutes from midnight!”

“This event is going to end at midnight! Oh, my work dedication card!”

“Hurry, hurry, it’s our final chance to try and get it!”

“This year’s Spring Festival Gala is spectacular. It’s so fun that I forgot to grab red packets!”

“Yeah, there’s no room to be distracted!”

And at this moment.

On TV, Zhang Yuanqi’s act was finally starting.

At the beginning, the audience was only expecting that the Heavenly Queen would sing a song. It shouldn’t be too different from the other songs that came before, except that the song was a Zhang Ye original. It wasn’t until the cameras cut to the stage that the TV viewers realized that this song was apparently different from the others.

A photo album appeared onscreen.

On it, the pictures flipped by until they animated.

A young father and mother were with their little girl. On each picture, the dates were shown at the bottom together with the little girl’s age.

The first picture: The girl was one year old.

The second picture: The girl was two years old.

The third picture: The girl was three years old.

The audience was taken aback!

They were all watching in bewilderment!

Whose pictures were those?

What were they supposed to mean?

Zhang Yuanqi sat at a piano with closed eyes and played softly as she sang 1 .

“The old tree at the door has grown new shoots.

“The dead tree in the yard flowers new fruits.

“All my life, I’ve kept what I’ve wanted to say

“hidden within my now head of gray.

“I remember a girl with tiny feet,

“and a pouty little mouth of meat.

“I gave her love all my life, I had,

“just to hear her call us Mom and Dad.”

In the pictures:

The girl turned 18.

The gray hairs on her parents’ heads were starting to show.

Zhang Yuanqi sang loudly.

“Where has the time gone to?

“I didn’t get to enjoy my youth and I’m already old.

“Raising children my whole life.

“My head is filled with children’s cries and laughter.”

The girl was now grown up. In the pictures, her parents were gradually getting older. The only thing that stayed the same were the smiles on their faces. They were still as kind and doting as ever. The girl in the pictures was not someone unknown. By the time they were showing the ten-year-old her, everyone had already guessed it. They recognized who it was!

It was Zhang Yuanqi!

The girl in the pictures was her!

Zhang Yuanqi sang.

“Where has the time gone to?

“I didn’t get the chance to see you grow up, and I’m already going blind.

“Taking care of daily chores my whole life.

“In the blink of an eye, all that’s left is a face full of wrinkles.”

…

At the venue.

Some of the audience members started crying.

Some of them started hugging their parents beside them with their eyes reddening.

…

Backstage.

“Little He?”

“Hm?”

“Why are you crying?”

“I-I’m just missing home.”

…

At Zhang Ye’s maternal grandma’s house.

His mother furtively wiped away her tears.

His father looked at her. “You’re crying?”

She glared at him. “Who’s crying! Can’t I rub my eyes?”

His father said, “OK.”

…

The song ended.

It blew up online.

“This year’s Spring Festival Gala is such a tearjerker!”

“Teacher Zhang, you’re such a cheat!”

“The design of this song is really good!”

“Old Zhang sang it even better!”

“This year’s Spring Festival Gala is so fun to watch!”

“Yeah, the acts thus far are finely crafted! I’m impressed!”

“They get more and more touching, and more and more amazing!”

“Every one of the acts can be considered a work of art!”

“Did you guys realize something? Zhang Ye treats Sister Zhang quite differently. All of the other acts that Zhang Ye came up with were acts that he couldn’t take himself, all except for this one that Sister Zhang just performed. Zhang Ye can clearly sing this song too, but he actually gave this great song to Sister Zhang.”

“That’s true, the two of them have quite a long friendship.”

“Haha, the cheapskate has finally relented.”

“Only Sister Zhang can get something out of him.”

“I like this song so very much!”

“This performance is a crowning touch!”

“Yeah, the earlier acts were all fantastic too!”

…

At Director Li Ke’s house.

The entire family was watching the Spring Festival Gala.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

His wife said with a smile, “Old Li, you regret calling it quits now?”

Li Ke shook his head and said, “What’s there to regret? Even if I went through with the job of this year’s Spring Festival Gala, even if I had thrown everything I had into it, I couldn’t have done it to such an extent. This year’s Spring Festival Gala Organizing Committee made one very correct decision, which was appointing Zhang Ye as the gala’s executive director. They were right to get Zhang Ye because, based on his skills and talent, he was the only person who could’ve reversed the fate of the Spring Festival Gala.”

His wife said, “It’s really quite good.”

Li Ke said, “Yeah, Little Zhang is truly capable. All there’s left to see is how the Spring Festival Gala will end. I wonder who’s the finale act.”

His wife gave a wry smile. “That’s quite difficult. There were so many good acts at the beginning, so who can live up to the expectations as the finale?”

Li Ke said, “Yeah, if it were any other Spring Festival Gala, the performers would all love to be the finale act. But this year’s Spring Festival Gala probably didn’t attract any volunteers to the final test. This is really not an enviable task as the earlier acts have set the bar too high. It’s so high that it’s probably all the way in the sky. It’s easy to step onto the stage, but the issue is who can leave it with their heads held high!”

His wife said, “Then what can be done?”

Li Ke chuckled and said, “Hur hur, that’s a problem for Little Zhang to bang his head against.”

…

Time was passing too fast!

It didn’t feel like this year’s Spring Festival Gala took long before midnight started approaching!

The netizens were startled when they checked the time.

“Ah!”

“There’s just a little over ten minutes left!”

“We’re almost into the new year already!”

“Who’s the finale act this year?”

“I don’t know, the program list isn’t arranged in order of appearance.”

“How many acts are left?”

“I don’t think there’s that many.”

“The tradition every year is to have a skit or crosstalk for that, isn’t it?”

“Damn, could it be that Zhang Ye will personally take the finale act?”

“Hahaha, then the pressure on Zhang Ye will be enormous!”

“Based on the momentum of the earlier acts, who can carry the finale?”

“The skits were all getting more and more amazing. If Zhang Ye, Yao Jiancai, and Dong Shanshan’s skit were put at the end, then what level of a skit would they have to come up with? Could they possibly do better than the earlier ones?”

“Who knows!”

“We’re gonna find out soon.”

The so-called finale of the Spring Festival Gala did not usually mean the last act of the evening. This was because after midnight had passed, some acts would still be performed for the audience. Most people would generally refer to the last act that was shown just before midnight as the most important finale. Without a doubt, this was what the audience and the entire world’s Chinese population cared about the most. They looked forward to it and paid a lot of attention to this act which was the most important and heavyweight performance of the entire Spring Festival Gala of the year. Nothing else came close!

What would the act be like?

Who would take the finale?

Could they give this year’s Spring Festival Gala a perfect end?

Everyone watching TV descended into chaotic conversations!