Seeing their two colleagues on the verge of an argument, the remaining three quickly tried to intervene.
After this incident, the judges refrained from further comments, offered some routine feedback, and then called for the next contestant.
Returning to his seat, Xia Yu felt someone grab his hand—it was Zhong Yunze.
“You actually tied the world record!” Zhong Yunze stared excitedly at Xia Yu’s fingers.
“Only sixty-six seconds,” Xia Yu replied.
“Only sixty-six seconds?” Zhong Yunze was at a loss for words.
For Xia Yu, it really was just that—had the tempo been manageable, he could have been even faster.
“At least you’ll advance. Poor me, I’m just here for the ride,” Zhong Yunze sighed, somewhat disappointed.
Too lazy to console Zhong Yunze, Xia Yu turned his attention to the next contestant, Feng Ma, someone he knew.
Feng Ma performed decently, and after brief comments from the judges, he was quickly dismissed.
After the fifteenth contestant finished performing, the morning session of the competition came to an end.
At two in the afternoon, the competition resumed with the remaining fifteen participants.
After listening to the three contestants (excluding An Siyao) that Zhong Yunze had mentioned as definite qualifiers, Xia Yu understood the level of this regional competition.
As expected, these three were at the upper end of level 3, the same as Xia Yu’s current actual level.
As for An Siyao, she was likely at the upper end of level 4 or even level 5. Due to his skill limitations, Xia Yu couldn’t tell precisely.
In any industry, there are always a few prodigies who outshine others by a significant margin.
The third round was still some time away. By then, Xia Yu estimated he would reach level 4. Though still far from An Siyao, he would have no problem making it into the finals.
After some calculations, he continued listening to the performances.
An Siyao was scheduled to perform last, likely due to behind-the-scenes manipulation by the organizers. They wanted to prevent An Siyao’s extraordinary performance from unsettling the earlier contestants and also avoid making the subsequent performances seem dull in comparison.
When the second-to-last contestant stepped down, everyone in the venue—including the judges—adjusted their posture and straightened their clothes, preparing to enjoy An Siyao’s performance.
As soon as An Siyao took the stage, the audience immediately stopped their side activities and became serious.
Only then did Xia Yu notice that An Siyao’s gown looked familiar.
The style was the same as the one she had worn at the banquet hosted by her stepmother when he had visited Fangzhang City.
An Siyao adjusted her skirt slightly before sitting down at the piano and placing her hands on it.
A smile appeared on the girl’s face, and she even glanced intentionally toward the camera.
“Damn, she’s actually smiling. Does that smile mean ‘finally getting to crush you all’?” Zhong Yunze remarked.
Xia Yu ignored him; An Siyao had already pressed her fingers down.
A somewhat chaotic prelude began.
Closing his eyes and listening to a few notes, Xia Yu recognized the piece An Siyao was playing.
It was “The Aimless Saintess,” a relatively basic composition.
Yet such a simple piece, under An Siyao’s interpretation, exuded intense emotion.
This was the very quality and soul that the judges had praised in Xia Yu’s “Old Wolf of the Flan” earlier.
The somber piano tones echoed in the hall. Beneath the delicate notes, the audience’s hearts gradually tightened.
Their emotions slowly sank into the music.
“Aimless Saintess”—aimless meant blindness, and blindness meant darkness, which evoked fear.
The first part of the melody conveyed precisely this sense of fear.
The audience closed their eyes, feeling the blind saintess’s anxiety and terror.
Gradually, the melody changed, with a few cheerful notes interspersed among the fear and unease.
It was an event or a person entering the saintess’s world.
The proportion of cheerful notes slowly increased, reaching nearly half, and began to clash with the somber tones.
The audience’s hearts alternated between calm and panic. The calm periods gradually lengthened, the panic receded, and the notes became increasingly flowing until finally transforming into a cheerful tune.
The final note resonated and faded away, followed by applause in the theater.
“This melody flows like a stream descending from the mountain, smooth and natural, with emotions like playful fish swimming joyfully. Truly a rare piece!” the first judge smiled.
The second judge looked at him for a while and said, “I think the same.”
The third judge opened his mouth and gave the first judge a melancholic glance.
“I agree as well.”
“The description was spot-on.”
“Truly amazing.”
After all five judges had given their comments, the competition concluded.
However, Xia Yu wasn’t yet free to return. The rankings would be announced the next morning, and those who qualified would each perform three pieces in the theater.
Leaving the theater and returning to the hotel room, the principal, who had held back all the way, finally couldn’t resist asking.
“Your violin playing is actually this good?”
“Actually, I play guzheng better,” Xia Yu replied.
“Hahaha!” The principal burst into laughter, thinking Xia Yu was joking around with him in the style of Second District humor.
After finishing his laughter, he continued recalling the violin performance just now.
Although he preferred piano over violin by far, that piece had still left him in awe.
An Siyao was also thinking about Xia Yu’s violin performance.
The girl felt a bit upset. Although her technique was superb, all the spotlight had been stolen by Xia Yu.
She didn’t really care about others’ attention, but what if “he” watched the live stream or the recording and shifted his focus to Xia Yu instead?
After her brief mood passed, An Siyao started thinking about something else.
That boy could play both violin and piano—just like “him.”
Frowning, the girl fell into thought.
“Him” played piano much better, and she had only seen “him” play violin a few times.
Unable to judge rationally, An Siyao tried to rely on intuition.
But comparing someone without a physical presence through intuition was too difficult.
By the time Xia Yu entered An Siyao’s body, she still hadn’t figured it out.
“Your performance was great,” Xia Yu complimented the girl.
“I’ll play even better tomorrow!” An Siyao replied.
“Mm.”
After a brief silence, the girl spoke again. “Do you like the violin? I can play it too, although I can’t play ‘Flight of the Bumblebee’ as fast as sixty-six seconds.”
Xia Yu was startled, almost thinking An Siyao was testing him. But upon reflection, he realized this silly girl simply lacked such cunning.
“I still prefer piano a bit,” Xia Yu said.
“Mm.” The girl became happy.
Her sudden joy left Xia Yu puzzled. Even with his high emotional intelligence, he couldn’t fully grasp the girl’s intricate thoughts.
After chatting with the girl for a while, Xia Yu washed up and went to bed.
Since he had taken a nap using Black Cat’s body last time, Xia Yu discovered that sleeping in different bodies offered different sensations.
Anyway, sleeping time also earned him game points.
“Good night,” Xia Yu said to An Siyao.
“Good night.”
An Siyao’s body wasn’t as comfortable for sleeping as his own body or Black Cat’s.
It took Xia Yu quite a while to finally fall asleep.
Eight hours later, he returned to his own body.
The next day, the competition results were announced: five people advanced, with Xia Yu ranking second and the guy with the gold-rimmed glasses fifth.
During the second day’s performance, the gold-rimmed glasses contestant avoided him.
Xia Yu completed his performance normally and returned to Zilang.
His classmates invited him to dinner that evening; Youxue called him, excited; and Kong Hanyue also asked him to come over to receive mission rewards.
He declined his classmates’ dinner invitation, first went home to have dinner with Youxue, and then headed to Kong Hanyue’s villa.
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