After the short commercial break, the live camera cut in again, and Alan DeJanis sat in the crowd of auditors, smiling at the camera and saying, "I'm sitting in Zac Efron's place because he's about to take the stage." Ladies and gentlemen, Zac Efron!"

On the right side of the stage, Zac Efron appeared in front of everyone with a smile on his face.

"Good evening, it's an honour to stand here and introduce the next performer. "How should I describe this performer, an actor, a singer, an artist, a dream lover for women around the world, a role model for every dreamer, or ...... Ranley Hall?"

No more language was needed, a name was enough, and the applause of the audience rang out eagerly, and Zach also stretched out his right hand, "Ladies and gentlemen, the moving 'Death of Queen Jane' in the 'Drunken Country Ballad', let us welcome, Your Excellency Lan Li-Hall." ”

Who would have thought that for the first time in history, Lan Li's official performance at the awards ceremony would not take place at the Grammys, but at the Oscars?

Applause, whistles, cheers, screams...... The entire Dolby Theater comes alive with excitement, and everyone expresses their inner anticipation in their own way.

The lights are turned off.

When the spotlight came on again, Levien-Davis appeared in front of everyone: a white-washed dark green plaid shirt with a collar that seemed to have fluffed, a crumpled dark brown coat with coffee stains faintly visible on the shoulders and hem, a slightly curly short hair that looked messy and uninhibited, casually drooping down to hide the melancholy of his eyebrows, and a slightly lowered head, the light spilled through the hair and eyelashes, outlining the vague outline of the face.

A guitar. A chair. A beam of light.

In a trance, time is back to the kerosene lamp bar of the sixties.

He sat on a four-legged stool, his guitar resting on his knees, without any fancy stage backdrops, without any fancy costumes, and even on the Oscar stage, he was still the down-and-out folk singer who was stuck in place in circles, and nothing seemed to have changed.

The performance did not begin immediately, but was silent for two seconds, and the audience couldn't help but hold their breath, and then they could see the light passing through the guitar strings, and the dust fluttered up and down between the strings, quiet and agile, and for a moment, time seemed to stop on the slender and powerful knuckles, freezing the light and shadow.

It's an outlier.

In the course of the Oscars, time suddenly slowed down and took on a completely different style. Everyone is complaining that the Oscars are getting longer and longer, and the loss of audiences is getting more and more serious, and now Lan Li is deliberately slowing down the pace, isn't this against the ratings?

But this is the "drunken country ballad", this is the "death of Queen Jane", this is the blue courtesy-hall.

If someone is willing to settle their minds, be more patient, it doesn't take too long, two seconds, just two seconds, let yourself be quiet, and then wait seriously, the impetuousness and eagerness of life will take on a different look.

The strings, plucked.

The soothing and melodious melody is incompatible with the atmosphere of the Oscar scene, and even seems to be two completely different worlds, but the pause of the first two seconds wonderfully isolates time and space, and the mind slowly settles down, and I can't help but tilt my head and quietly begin to appreciate it, as if entering a time and space tunnel constructed by musical notes, from the Dolby Theater in 2014 to the kerosene lamp bar in 1961.

"Queen Jane lay in the delivery room for more than nine days and nine nights, until her maid was exhausted and could no longer support herself...... No longer able to support it. ”

The melodious melody sounds familiar, a bit like the song "Hang me, hang me" at the beginning of "Drunken Country Ballads", but the rhythm and melody are more soothing, like the breeze sliding in the ears in early spring and March, with a little chill and a little warmth, gently and softly falling on the softness of the chest, inadvertently pulling out a faint sadness and loss.

"My good servant, my good servant, dear you, can I plead with you, cut open the right side of my body, and find my baby? ”

Music seems to have such a wonderful magic, in the murmuring melody and gently humming songs, everything around is quiet, and then there is a faint sound of the bonfire crackling in the ears, and the surrounding light is imperceptibly dimmed, as if it is a bitter winter, everyone sits around the campfire in the wild, holding a bowl of hot potato soup in their hands, pulling the blanket draped over their shoulders, rubbing their left and right feet against each other, trying to find some warmth.

Just then, a passing bard approached with his horse.

I saw him tie his horse to the dead tree next to him, take off his hat, and sit down beside the bonfire, took out the old pipe from his bosom, knocked it on the sole of his shoe, and then slowly refilled the pipe with tobacco, and after lighting it, he told the story of Queen Jane in a vicissitudes of life and hoarse voice, and the eloquent voice was stained with a little sadness and regret in the cold wind of Xiao Xiao.

"'Oh, no,' cried the maids, 'this is something we must not do, and we will report it to King Henry at once to hear his decision.'" ”

"King Henry heard the bad news, and King Henry felt the delivery room, and he said, 'Oh, look what happened to my woman, why are your eyes so gray?'"

"King Henry, King Henry, can you please do something for me? Can you please cut open the right side of my body and find my baby? Find my baby?"

But there is lingering sadness and pain hidden in the gentle tone, not the despair of crying out loud, nor the heart-rending struggle, but the lingering tiredness, the faltering steps after the weather, it seems that it can no longer carry the weight on the shoulders, just stumbling all the way, but not seeing the end or the direction, the once vivid hope is like the baby in Queen Jane's womb, it seems to be dying out little by little.

Lamplight. Guitar. Song.

The whole world is so simple and yet so pure that it seems that there is no room for the slightest heterogeneous color, yet it is so moving and so wonderful that it seems that anything added to it is superfluous.

"'Oh no,' cried King Henry, 'this is something I must never do. If I were to lose the Flower of England, I would rather lose her branches and leaves. I'd rather lose her leaves as well. ’”

Lan Li's singing voice does not have too many ups and downs and embellishments, in the clean and clear string accompaniment of the guitar, it is only presented in the most simple way, but the faint loss in the tail note is like a ripple. In a trance, it seemed that he could see the back again, walking alone in the ice and snow, the vast white snow around him was tightly covered, and it seemed that there was no one else to see except him, but he was still moving forward, tired and dazed but never stopped.

Slowly, Lan Li raised his head and met the audience's gaze head-on.

In the light and beautiful interlude melody, Lan Li's eyes accepted all the scrutiny frankly and sincerely, the calm after the vicissitudes of life, the exhaustion after the stormy waves, the resolute firmness, quietly hidden in the eyes, in the fluttering and carving of strings gradually became clear, the perseverance after loss and confusion, the persistence of still refusing to surrender and give up in the midst of the bruises, like a touch of tender green blooming in no man's land - rekindling hope.

Oh, God!

This...... Could this be...... Could this be an extension of the ending of "Drunken Country Ballad"?

It was too bold and too crazy, but it couldn't contain it and it began to swell through my mind.

At the end of the story of "The Drunken Folk", Levine stumbles at the mouth of the alley of the bar, staring blankly into the distance, but leaving no answer. No one knows whether Levien will continue to persist or choose to return to the ordinary, and the answer is hidden in the hearts of every audience.

And now, at this very moment, on the stage of the Oscars, the blue ceremony of "The Death of Queen Jane" is being performed - or rather, Levine Davis, who is getting back on his feet, even if he is scarred, even if he is exhausted, even if he is aimless, he will continue to walk.

In this moment, the music and the characters fit together perfectly, the melody and the performance are intertwined, and then the guests return to the 1961 Kerosene Lamp Bar to enjoy Levien's re-appearance, who is singing in a low voice:

"People sang and danced on the day of the prince's birth, but poor queen Jane, whom I loved the most, lay like a cold stone and rested forever. ”

There is no melody, just a cappella, the sad and lonely lyrics turn between the lips and teeth, telling all the indescribable mixed emotions clearly, leaving every listener to chew and savor, and only they can experience the taste.

"Eternal sleep. ”

When the last lyrics were sung, he slowly closed his eyes. Slowly, slowly, the endless exhaustion flowed out little by little, and then those emotions slipped from between the eyebrows to the corners of the mouth, and then slowly slid down the shoulders, and the spotlight that spilled down outlined the contours of the tired shoulders.

Singing, it's over.

The director of the scene also seemed to be stunned, he didn't pinch off the lights for the first time, didn't cut into the follow-up for the first time, and didn't even transfer the camera for the first time, but let the emotions slowly spread in the air like this, one second, two seconds...... It seems to echo the two-second silence at the beginning, wonderfully erecting the barrier of time and space again, and quietly leaving the memory of the kerosene lamp bar in the depths of each guest's heart, becoming his own unique private corner.

No one can find out.