Courtyard House: My Long and Hard Body Makes Me Play with All the Women in the Courtyard

All the listeners felt a void in their hearts, as if something had been taken away.

Then, it lifted the ocarina and, with all its might, blew out a clear, high-pitched note.

【—I have a name now!】

It spoke into the microphone, its voice youthful yet resolute.

My name is... (whispering).

I am not a calamity.

I want to... sing well.

[For all those who cannot hear.]

The signal stopped abruptly.

The world was silent for a second.

Then, the internet exploded.

"Holy crap!! It talked!!"

"Quiet? Its name is Quiet??? I've already come up with a name for it!!"

"Who recorded this? Send it quickly!! I want it as my ringtone!!"

"This isn't a calamity, it's heavenly music!!"

"Please release an official album!! I'll buy ten copies!!"

On the broadcast tower, the gray-haired boy turned off the equipment and grinned, "It's a hit!"

How does Chapter 1454 feel?

Duoduo scrolled through the trending topics and stared wide-eyed: "'Who is Xiaosheng?' is trending! 'I want to hear Xiaosheng sing' is the number one trending topic! Even the State Administration of Culture posted an update saying that it 'takes this abnormal audio incident very seriously and is organizing experts to analyze it'—tsk tsk, experts can't analyze this kid's heart."

The girl looked at him quietly and asked softly, "How are you feeling?"

He looked down quietly at his almost solidified hands, then suddenly looked up, revealing a very faint, yet incredibly genuine, smile.

[...being heard...is...sweet.]

Xiaoman ruffled its fur and smiled, "From now on, I'll make sure you're sweet every day."

Su Ting slowly approached, took out a broken jade pendant from his robes, on which were engraved the three characters "Gatekeeper Su". He held it up with both hands and handed it to Xiaoman.

“This is… a token of the gatekeepers throughout the ages.” His voice was still hoarse, but no longer cold. “From today onwards… I am no longer the ‘Suppressor.’ If I could… I would like to be… the first ‘Listener.’”

Xiaoman took the jade pendant, but instead of keeping it for herself, she gently placed it in Xiaosheng's hand.

"Keep it for yourself," she said. "From now on, everyone who is willing to listen to your singing will be a listener."

He gripped the jade pendant tightly, looked down at it, and suddenly asked softly:

"Sister, tomorrow...can we...sing again?"

"Of course you can." Xiaoman smiled, her fingertips brushing across its brow as if brushing away a speck of dust. "From now on, every day will be your stage."

"Exactly!" Duoduo jumped onto the half-collapsed concrete platform, one hand on her hip and the other holding up her communicator, the screen still flashing the message "Peak online audience exceeded 800 million." "Do you know that the whole internet is talking about 'Will Xiaosheng sing again tonight?' Even the Arctic research station has people leaving messages—'Please Xiaosheng, it's polar night here, we need your voice to be our sun!'"

The gray-haired boy tilted his head, a loudspeaker slung over his shoulder, and grinned: "I also received an anonymous order for custom-made bone conduction headphones with 'quiet ringtones', to be given to my deaf sister. Tsk, even the order notes were written with tears in them—'She can't hear the world, but I want her to be heard by the world.'"

Xiao Sheng paused, her fingertips unconsciously stroking the warm, smooth jade pendant.

"...Can...I let her hear me?"

“Why not!” Duoduo somersaulted over and hugged its shoulder. “You are the ‘seed of sound,’ you know? Not a calamity, but spring. If you want, even silence can bloom.”

Su Ting stood to the side, the wind lifting a corner of his old robe. His face was still streaked with tears, but his eyes were clearer than at any moment in the past three hundred years.

“I used to think that the gatekeeper’s job was to plug the cracks and silence the voices,” he said softly. “But today I understand that true protection is to bring back to life the voices that should not be buried.”

He slowly raised his head and looked up at the night sky.

The stars are still there.

One, two, millions of them, twinkling quietly, as if responding to its earlier declaration.

"...Then...I want to sing it again," it suddenly said, its voice soft yet firm.

"Now?" Xiaoman raised an eyebrow.

"Absolutely!" Gray Boy whistled, and the loudspeaker hummed and floated up. "The signal tower is still warm, and I've kept the channel secret. Just one word—we'll immediately restart the 'Midnight Echo' special encore!"

"An encore?" Duoduo grinned mischievously. "Then we'll have to come up with something new. We can't just keep singing, can we? The whole country is waiting to see the 'behind-the-scenes footage of Xiaosheng's debut'!"

"...Behind-the-scenes tidbits?" she whispered, tilting her head.

Chapter 1455 It Can Be Shy Too

"It's like...singing and chatting at the same time!" Duoduo blinked. "For example—what was it like when you first met your older sister? What's your favorite color? Have you ever secretly disliked anyone?"

"No way!" she whispered, shaking her head immediately, her shadow flickering. "...I'm very well-behaved."

"Ha!" Gray Child laughed. "It can even be shy! Oh no, oh no, the whole internet is going to go crazy—'blushing when it speaks softly' will definitely be in the top three trending topics!"

Xiaoman chuckled and squatted down to look it in the eye: "Don't be afraid, just say what you want to say. What they want to hear isn't a perfect voice, it's you."

He lowered his head quietly, looking at the jade pendant in his hand, then looked up at the starry sky.

After a moment, it nodded slightly.

I want to... give it a try.

"Great!" Duoduo clapped her hands. "Live stream team, get started! This time we're not just going to broadcast, we're going to do it face-to-face!"

The girl lightly raised her fingertip, the broken bell rang slightly, and a ripple of light spread out: "Resonance of Regret, Mirror Projection - Activated."

In an instant, a semi-transparent light screen appeared on the open ground in front of the broadcasting tower, rippling like water.

The camera lens lit up.

[Nationwide live stream access... 3, 2, 1—]

On the light screen, a line of text suddenly appeared:

【"Midnight Echoes: Special Encore"】

[Lead Vocalist: Xiaosheng]

[Guests: Xiaoman, Duoduo, Gray Child, Su Ting]

[Real-time online viewership: 7.8 million+]

The live chat exploded instantly—

"Ugh, the whispering is happening again!!"

"That child in the white shirt! My heart was struck!"

"The older sister is Xiaoman?! The official character design was just released, saying she's the 'former chief goalkeeper,' and she looks stunning even in battle damage!"

"Who's that gray kid? The one carrying the megaphone? He's so cool!"

“Su Ting…that man kneeling and crying…I just found out his story, how he cut his blood to create a monument three hundred years ago to suppress a calamity…I’m breaking down…”

In the light screen, Xiaosheng sits quietly on an old stone step, with an ocarina on her lap, the silhouette of city lights and starry sky reflected behind her.

It looked at the camera, its eyes still showing some timidity, but no longer avoiding it.

"Good evening, everyone," it said softly, its voice gently spreading through the loudspeaker.

The entire internet fell silent for a moment.

Immediately, a flood of comments poured in—

"It's talking to us!!"

“I cried when it said ‘Good evening’…like a primary school student, so soft…”

"Help! My daughter just woke up and is staring at the screen saying, 'Mommy, that brother is calling me...'"

"It is not a calamity, it is light!!"

"Don't get excited." Duoduo leaned closer to the camera, waving with a grin. "Welcome to 'A Quiet Night.' Tonight, we're not being mysterious or deep; we're just—chatting!"

"Chatting?" The gray-haired boy rolled his eyes. "How long has it been since you used that word?"

"Old words feel more familiar!" Duoduo pouted. "Come on, whisper it, first question—you just said 'being heard is sweet,' so... what kind of sweetness is it?"

He tilted his head quietly, deep in thought.

[...like...melted sugar...but...also like...moonlight falling into a well...cool...yet warm.]

The screen was instantly flooded with comments—

"A philosophical answer!!"

"This child must be a poet!!"

"I declare 'moonlight falling into a well' to be the best metaphor of the year!"

"I understand, it's the feeling of being moved."