[Rule Horror] [Supernatural Folk Music] [Suona Sends Off the Gods] [Old Gods Awaken] [Rising from the Bottom]
After the Heavenly Sound descends, the world is corrupted by “sound.”
If a drum sounds three times at midnight, the living must report to the sports field. When the erhu begins to play, anyone who looks back will have their shadow stolen. If a guqin string snaps, an entire building will forget someone’s name. When the chimes ring, every citizen in the city must acknowledge a new king.
Humanity establishes the Music Calamity Division to contain musical disasters, ban ancient scores, and train musicians. The guqin, pipa, chimes, and war drums all carry high-rank destinies. Only the suona is deemed low-class folk music: vulgar, dangerous, and outside the orthodox tradition.
When Chen Jiansheng wakes up, he’s playing the suona at a funeral.
There’s no dead person in the coffin, only a bride in red. From behind her veil, she says to him:
“You’re playing the wrong tune.”
Everyone thinks the suona is just a coarse instrument for funeral processions.
Until Chen Jiansheng hears the wrong note in the rules and plays the old suona known as “Weeping for Heaven.”
A wedding becomes a funeral, and the bridal hall becomes a mourning hall.
The dead are sent away. The old gods withdraw.
Later, a thousand cities ring as the gods demand that humanity play music to welcome them.
Standing before a rift in the Heavenly Sound, Chen Jiansheng raises his suona.
“I don’t know how to welcome gods.”
“But sending them off? That I know.”
