Chapter 46
After An Zhiyan furiously stormed off, the entire place was in an uproar.
Without a host to lead, and the judges inexperienced in controlling the event, the measures by staff to maintain order had little impact. Chaos ensued.
Qiao Nuo stood on the stage, startled as An Zhiyan slammed the microphone. He watched in terror as An Zhiyan departed.
In the midst of chaos, Qiao Nuo stood alone on the stage, awkward and terrified. With all eyes focused on him, it felt like a cruel form of punishment.
He knew, of course, about the show's earlier arrangement: not to challenge Su Jinli.
Yet, among the top contenders, he didn't have the confidence to outshine any of them. Only if Su Jinli were injured, would he stand a chance to win.
He didn't want to leave this stage.
If he left, returning to Muzitao, he wouldn't know when he would be able to formally debut.
Last time when he returned the phone, he had also noticed how popular the show was becoming. If he could stay a bit longer, he could gain more recognition.
He was well aware that he was only sent by the company to follow An Zhihan's antics. No one thought that this program would gain such momentum.
The other outstanding trainees in the company hadn't come, but when he spoke in a discussion group last time, the rest of the trainees he was never able to surpass admired his current popularity.
He didn’t want to leave...
Therefore, he had to resort to this trick.
Now, he had obviously annoyed the show team to the point where even An Zhiyan stormed off without hosting.
This threw him into a panic. He held the microphone, wanting to give up the challenge, only to find that the show team had shut off his microphone.
What should he do now?
At this moment, Su Jinli stood up from the chief’s seat. Wu Yu, who was sitting next to him, tried to hold him back.
An Zhihan also tried to stop him from the front: "Don't bother with him."
Su Jinli looked at the stage and then surveyed the audience. Despite all, he stepped forward to Qiao Nuo’s side to accept the challenge.
According to the rules of the competition, this should be how it proceeds.
At this time, Cang Ai was sent out as a temporary host. He walked up to the stage and started explaining with a microphone in hand, "You are probably unaware that Su Jinli lost his voice recently, so his current condition isn't the best."
Cang Ai tried to explain the circumstances, but the phrase "lost his voice" did feel a bit over the top.
Lost his voice, and he's being so overly dramatic?
How precious is he?
The audience jeered, its sound particularly grating.
Someone started shouting, "Are you too afraid to compete?"
"Drama queen!"
"Just step down if you can't."
"Being arrogant, huh? You're not even famous yet!"
Su Jinli stood on the stage, trying to appear unfazed by these voices.
However, his hearing was sharper than others, making it impossible for him to completely shrug off the comments. His expression, unsurprisingly, was one of disappointment.
At this time, Cang Ai, with a microphone in hand, started interviewing Su Jinli, "How are you feeling now? Are you able to accept the challenge?"
Taking the microphone, Su Jinli hesitated for a moment before saying, "Hmm, I'm okay."
His voice had a gritty resonance, like the sound of sand sprinkling on glass and getting crushed under a shoe sole.
The face-off still proceeded.
The first round was singing, with the defending party going first.
Holding the microphone, Su Jinli hesitated for a while before singing a song that he was familiar with.
It was still that song, "Stubborn."
"I and my proud stubbornness, I'm singing loudly in the wind, this time I'm going wild for myself, just this once for me and my stubbornness…"
His voice was coarse and dry, filled with huskiness. The tune was right, but the voice wasn't flattering and it was even uncomfortable to hear.
People were still jeering from the crowd below, plunging him into anxiety. He felt like crying, so he simply closed his eyes to prevent others from seeing his reddening eyes and he stubbornly kept singing.
An Zhiyan, standing backstage, had a bunch of staff members surrounding him and trying to soothe him. He was initially angry but closed his mouth abruptly when he heard the singing.
This kind of singing was like a needle pricking at An Zhiyan's heart, one after another, wreaking havoc on his emotions bit by bit.
He turned his head and saw on the monitor the image of Su Jinli, eyes closed, singing.
Eyes closed, eyebrows furrowed, there seemed to be wetness on his eyelashes, but it wasn't obvious.
Perhaps the previous song, "Unforgettable Love," wasn't performed to the fullest because Su Jinli had never been in love. However, this kind of spirit, of facing difficulties head-on, provided a fitting interpretation of this song, "Stubborn."
If only his voice hadn't given him problems.
Wait...
Su Jinli had said that he's never been in love, and he was a child who didn't lie.
An Zhiyan, looking at the screen, turned his head to ask the show crew, "Do you plan to eliminate him?"
"This... well..."
"His singing is terrible. If we vote for him, wouldn't that seem unfair to Zhou Wenyuan who was eliminated in the last round?"
"This is indeed something we can't control."
Just as An Zhiyan was about to curse, the show crew suddenly became chaotic and announced, "Su Jinli has finished his performance. Let's hand him a pipa, are you ready?"
"Pipa?!" The show staff were shocked.
"He must want to demonstrate his talent."
An Zhihan walked to the backstage and saw Su Jinli standing at the edge of the stage, looking at Qiao Nuo singing, his expression quite calm.
He asked for the pipa, desiring to have one last shot.
Su Jinli hasn't given up yet.
"There's one in the storehouse, I'll go and get it," said one of the staff members and immediately ran off.
It took quite some time to retrieve the instrument, and so, they had Qiao Nuo continue and finish his song and get straight onto his dance performance while Su Jinli stood waiting on the side.
Even after Qiao Nuo completed his dance, there was still a five-minute wait before the pipa requested by Su Jinli was ready.
Su Jinli took the pipa, observed that the equipment had been set up on it, then he put on the fake finger picks, and tested its sound.
Once confirmed, he walked onto the stage with his pipa, then he took off his suit jacket, unfastened his shirt collar and went on to unbutton the next three buttons so as not to constraint his performance.
Nowadays, many pipa performances are done sitting down, with the pipa on the performer's lap, focusing solely on playing the instrument.
However, Su Jinli's was not like that. His performance was meant to be an expressive one, with movements accompanying his playing.
His movements were expansive and integrated traditional dance, a blend of softness and strength, like water flowing yet powerful. His playing demonstrated accurate tonality; it was clear that he had a solid foundation in this.
When Su Jinli lifted the pipa and played it upside down, only a few people applauded.
This was because only a few understood the difficulty of such a move.
There are stone reliefs in Dunhuang that have led many to speculate that upside-down pipa playing is a mere legend.
It has been said that there might have been magical individuals in ancient times, possessing the skill to master this art, performing the upside-down pipa.
However, such feats are hardly seen today.
Just posing for a shot in such a form takes a considerable amount of effort, let alone actually doing it whilst playing the pipa.
This performance can even be considered as part of intangible cultural heritage now.
Whistling is one skill.
Upside down pipa playing is another.
Su Jinli's physique is elongated and highly flexible. Even though it is a male performing this move, it doesn't seem effeminate; on the contrary, it exudes a natural sense of beauty.
This was indeed a sight that could move souls. Gradually, the applause on the scene became stronger and stronger.
To some in the audience, this was a scene they didn't fully comprehend, yet it appeared very impressive.
However, those in the know were truly astonished.
From the initial jeers to the rolling applause towards the end, Su Jinli successfully dazzled the stage with his talent.
Qiao Nuo, standing on the sidelines, originally thought she had secured a win after hearing Su Jinli's song. But, she was taken aback when Su started to showcase his “acrobatic” skills, especially while playing pipa. Such skills certainly cannot be mastered in less than several years.
Su Jinli was truly playing the fool to catch the wise!
However, unknown to them, Su Jinli, in his early days of becoming a koi immortal, once saw a performance in the human world.
A young maiden playing the pipa upside down had caught the emperor's favor because of this skill, eventually becoming the emperor’s favored concubine.
He and Shen Cheng were fortunate enough to have seen it once. Now, he simply replicated what he had seen previously on the stage.
He didn't want to leave this stage either.
Ever since the first time he performed live and heard a group of fans shouting his name, he gradually grew fond of this feeling.
Thanks to this stage, he had made many friends and struggled together with them in the training camp.
He didn't want it to end like this. So, he worked hard.
An Zhiyan did not return to the stage until the scoring had finished.
An Zhihan was sitting in the judge's seat, a little anxious: "Hurry back; otherwise, Su Jinli will be one vote short!”
Wu Yu too was serious, thinking although Su Jinli's second performance was outstanding enough, his first song wasn't that great.
The scoring this time was still more risky than promising.
Su Jinli and Qiao Nuo stood side by side on the stage, both equally nervous.
Qiao Nuo suddenly turned on the microphone and said to the judges who were discussing: "I hope the teachers will give a fair evaluation."
This time, it really left everyone in shock.
An Zhihan couldn't sit still. He never thought that Qiao Nuo could be so shameless. He stood up, went to the judges' bench, snatched the microphone from Gu Ju’s hand, and questioned: “You still have the face to talk about fairness?”
Qiao Nuo did not expect An Zhihan to make such a move. After all, they belong to the same company!
The venue erupted in surprised exclamations.
“I still remember when Su Jinli was sent to the hospital for emergency treatment, you were laughing and saying, 'finally a spot is opened up.' I'm telling you, even if a spot is opened, it won't be yours because you're a person of low moral character.” After An Zhihan finished speaking, he handed the microphone back to Gu Ju and returned to his seat.
Once again, the audience was thrown into an uproar.
Indeed, while An Zhihan is close to Su Jinli, he wouldn't be so confrontational with a teammate from his own company who he had teamed up with for the first round of the competition, would he?
An Zhihan has a straight-forward personality and clear judgment of love and hate; he had been restrained a lot in the show after being warned by An Zhiyan.
For him to react in such a way, Qiao Nuo must have done something extremely outrageous.
And… emergency treatment?!
What was that all about?
Wasn't it just a simple case of Su Jinli losing his voice?
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