114: Chapter 114 You'll Never Know What Lin Chen Can Do

"Respected patrons, do you all think what Teacher Lin just said was funny?"

Seeing that the atmosphere had been built up enough, Guo Degang walked back to the front of the stage and asked loudly.

"Funny—!"

The audience spoke in unison.

Guo Degang turned his head to ask Lin Chen, "Teacher Lin, have you ever studied Crosstalk professionally before?"

Lin Chen shook his head decisively, "Never touched it. A complete layman."

Yu Qian chimed in from the side, "That's truly amazing. A layman who can hit the timing so accurately?"

Lin Chen rubbed his chin and thought about it very seriously, "Maybe... it's simply because I'm a once-in-a-century genius."

"Boo—!"

The entire theater erupted in familiar booing again.

"Alright then! Since Teacher Lin is so confident, I'll hand the stage over to him completely!"

After saying this, Guo Degang turned around and walked towards the backstage. He took two steps, stopped suddenly, turned back to look at Yu Qian, who was still standing there, and scolded, "Teacher Yu, why are you still standing there? Haven't you had enough of being the foil and humiliating yourself?"

Yu Qian smiled, cupped his hands to the audience, and retreated backstage with Guo Degang.

On the vast stage, Lin Chen was suddenly left standing all alone under the spotlight.

Before Lin Chen could catch his breath and speak, a sharp soprano voice suddenly came from the front row: "Teacher Lin! I want to have your babies—!"

Because everyone had been waiting for Lin Chen to speak, the venue was exceptionally quiet.

This shout traveled directly through the speakers to every corner of the theater.

The audience was silent for a second, then erupted into thunderous laughter and screaming.

There wasn't even a flicker of emotion on Lin Chen's face.

He turned his head slightly, looked at Guo Degang hiding behind the curtain, and said slowly into the microphone, "Teacher Guo, has the employee welfare at your Deyun Society become this competitive? If you're offering wives on stage, then regarding the investment matter you brought up at the dinner table last night, I can officially give you an answer now: I'm in."

"Hahahaha!"

The audience went crazy with laughter again, and Guo Degang behind the curtain laughed while waving his hands repeatedly at the stage.

"Alright, enough joking. Let's talk from the heart."

Lin Chen put away his joking expression, and his tone became casual, "Coming here to perform today was purely an accident. I was drinking with Teacher Guo last night; he asked me on a whim when he was drunk, and I agreed on a whim when I was high, and so it was decided so hastily."

"Why am I emphasizing this? I want to remind everyone, and also remind Boss Guo backstage: I didn't take a single cent for appearing on stage today. To make it here in time, I didn't even have time to eat dinner!"

"Hahahaha!"

"Boo—!"

"Since I didn't take a cent, expecting me to work hard and perform breaking a slab of stone on my chest is wishful thinking. So, today I'll just stand here and sing a little ditty to get by."

"Of course, don't feel shortchanged. Being able to hear a few lines sung by me, Lin Chen, means your ancestors must have accumulated virtue for eight lifetimes."

"Boo—!"

The audience laughed while giving their most enthusiastic boos.

Lin Chen ignored the heckling from the audience and turned to wave at the side curtain, "Boss Guo, do you have a sanxian? Let me borrow one."

"Yes, yes! Quick, get the sanxian to Teacher Lin!"

Guo Degang commanded from backstage.

Soon, a staff member ran onto the stage carrying a finely crafted sanxian and placed a master's chair in the center of the stage.

Lin Chen lifted the long hem of his gown and sat down on the master's chair in a bold, imposing manner.

He held the sanxian in his arms and strummed the strings with his long fingers.

"Zheng—Zheng—"

The crisp, melodious, and highly penetrating sound of the instrument instantly spread throughout the venue via the microphone.

The sanxian is a traditional plucked string instrument widely circulated in China.

It has a very long neck and a square resonator box at the bottom, covered with snakeskin on both sides.

This thing is typically "easy to start, extremely difficult to master."

Anyone can strum it a few times, but to play with style and flair, you can't show it off without ten years of hard work.

Coupled with the fact that popular instruments are all the rage now, this traditional instrument is becoming increasingly niche, and people who can play the sanxian with supernatural skill are even rarer.

But this was nothing for Lin Chen.

With his Master-level instrumentalist skill, let alone the sanxian, even if you gave him a broken basin, he could knock out the texture of a symphony.

The theater, which was just noisy, was now instantly so quiet you could hear a pin drop.

Thousands of eyes stared fixedly at the man in white as snow on the stage, filled with anticipation and curiosity.

Everyone wanted to hear what kind of magical ditty this wildly arrogant genius could sing.

Guo Degang, standing at the side curtain, didn't even blink.

In his impression, Lin Chen had sung pop songs and performed Ventriloquism on Divas Hit the Road, but had never shown the ability to sing traditional ditties.

Of course, he didn't believe for a second that Lin Chen's words earlier were meant to be dismissive.

Based on his understanding of Lin Chen, for a man with pride carved into his bones, as long as he agreed to go on stage and said "I'll try," he would definitely bring out 100% of his ability to stun the entire audience.

...

Also hanging on the edge of their seats were Yang Mi, Tong Liya, and Dilraba, sitting in the VIP seats.

The three women's gazes were glued to the man on stage in white, looking free and otherworldly, as if stuck by superglue.

It might be hard for anyone to believe.

Although they lived under the same roof as Lin Chen, rolled in the sheets on the same bed every day, and even knew exactly how many moles were on his body, being his legally recognized wives.

In reality, their understanding of their own man was pitifully little.

Lin Chen's foul temper, his wicked sense of humor, and his preferences in bed—they knew all of that clearly.

But as for how many shocking, world-defying skills were hidden in Lin Chen's brain, none of them could figure it out.

It wasn't really that Lin Chen was deliberately hiding things; it was purely because this man was too monstrously talented.

He was like a bottomless treasure cave; you never knew what magical weapon he might pull out in the next second.

You think he's just a househusband who cooks well? He could turn around and play a chart-topping hit on the piano.

You think he's a musical genius? As soon as he puts on a costume, he can make veteran actors from professional backgrounds on set afraid to breathe.

You think his acting is explosive? He could show off a few tricks of Ventriloquism, and you'd doubt if you were born with fake ears.

You think his Ventriloquism is the best in the world? He could just pick up a deck of cards and perform magic that would shock the whole internet.

You think...

This was the thing that drove these three women the most crazy and also the thing they were most obsessed with.

You can never define him, because he is always breaking the upper limits of your cognition.

"Have you ever heard our husband sing a ditty before?" Yang Mi stared at the stage without blinking, leaning slightly to the side, and asked Tong Liya in a low voice.

Tong Liya had the same obsessed expression and shook her head, "Never heard it, not even once."

"Singing a little ditty... hehe, why does that phrase sound so suggestive? It feels weirdly improper."

Dilraba leaned forward, resting her elbows on her thighs, her hands cradling her collagen-rich cheeks, smiling like a little fox that had just stolen some food.

As soon as she finished speaking, she felt a chill down her back.

She didn't need to turn around to know it was definitely those two sisters shooting death rays again.

Dilraba immediately wiped away her playful smile, quickly adjusted her posture, straightened her back, looked straight ahead, and put on a serious expression that said, "I wasn't the one who just farted."

On stage.

Lin Chen tuned the sanxian and said into the microphone in a steady voice, "This ditty is called 'exploring qingshui river.' Everyone, just take it as entertainment; I think you should like it."

After speaking, without waiting for any reaction from the audience, Lin Chen plucked the strings with his long fingers.

"Zheng—Zheng—"

The crisp, dry, and unique timbre of the sanxian instantly rippled through the theater.

There were no deafening drum beats, no complex electronic chords, only the pure sound emitted by a few strings.

The melody wasn't explosive at all, even a bit monotonous, yet it exuded an indescribable elegance and softness, as if it were telling a distant, old story.

Like a murmuring stream flowing over bluestone slabs, or like fallen leaves in late autumn swirling in the wind.

"On the tip of the peach leaf"

"The willow leaves cover the sky"

Accompanied by the sanxian, Lin Chen's clear, penetrating, and pure voice pierced through the microphone, echoing throughout the entire theater.

Just this first line of singing was like an electric current piercing through everyone's crown!

That feeling was like gulping down a large mouthful of ice-cold cola on a thirty-degree summer day, refreshing you from your throat all the way to your stomach, with every pore of your body feeling comfortable!