After the banquet, all the contestants learned their competition numbers.
Xia Yu was Jia-32.
This meant the thirty-second contestant on the first day.
This was a district-wide competition, with more than eighty participants, so it was divided into two days.
Number thirty-two would perform in the afternoon, so in the morning, he could go check out the adoption situation at the white cat’s place.
He hoped An Siyao’s performance would also be later; otherwise, he would only be able to watch the recording.
At six in the morning, Xia Yu arrived at the white cat’s location. Eight hours later, at two in the afternoon, he would come back to watch the afternoon session.
At six o’clock, most of the children had not yet woken up. Xia Yu leaned next to Tina, waiting while playing with the girl’s hair.
At seven, the staff at the orphanage began their work, supervising all the children as they washed up and changed into clean clothes.
At nine, a bus pulled up outside, and more than a dozen people got off. They were the prospective adoptive parents.
Although numerous, many among them were couples coming together, so they could only take up to ten children from the orphanage.
Using the cat’s body, Xia Yu wandered around this group, but felt nothing particularly special.
All these adoptive parents had been screened, filtering out most of the unsuitable candidates.
Among the dozen or so people, two families had their eyes on Tina.
Golden long hair and sapphire-blue eyes were rare even among whites in the Second District.
Some radical groups even called blond hair and blue eyes the purest bloodline.
The orphanage did not allow adoptive parents to take a child just because they had chosen one; the child’s feelings also mattered.
So the elderly administrator asked Tina, who thought of her grandmother and didn’t know what to do.
She looked at the Xia Yu in her arms, and Xia Yu shook his head at her.
Among the dozen people, two individuals had a somewhat pleasant aura for a cat, but unfortunately, these two families did not possess that.
Therefore, the girl declined both families.
The elderly administrator clearly noticed that Tina’s refusal was because of the white cat. She intended to persuade her but then recalled how the white cat had saved her before.
In all this time, the white cat had never left the orphanage. How could it have appeared just in time on the day she went out?
Perhaps this was a cat with a spirit.
She said nothing further and recommended other children to the two families.
Around one in the afternoon, adoptive parents who had found their desired children went to complete the procedures, while those who hadn’t found one returned disappointed.
At two o’clock, Xia Yu returned to his own body. At that moment, he was sitting under the stage, and the afternoon competition had already begun.
Liu Ronglan was not among the judges, to avoid conflicts of interest.
The first contestant to perform was a girl Xia Yu didn’t know. Judging from the sudden seriousness in the surrounding audience, she must be a formidable competitor.
The girl wore a plain white Hanfu dress, and she carried a guzheng in her hands.
In this world, the guzheng was also a world-class musical instrument, so it wasn’t strange to encounter another contestant who played the guzheng.
After placing the guzheng properly, the girl adjusted her finger picks and began her performance.
A cheerful melody echoed through the venue.
After listening to the prelude, Xia Yu identified it as “Songstress of the Amusement Park.”
This piece contained a sense of longing and unfulfilled desire. Although the surface was cheerful, the melody carried deep sorrow.
In the first section, the sadness wasn’t yet intense. Listening to the music, one could feel the joy and despair caused by the beloved’s every move during pursuit.
In the second section, sadness gradually became dominant—rejection of pursuit, impossibility of companionship. Alongside this emerged a hint of obsession.
If you like it, I will transform.
The music briefly turned cheerful again, representing the joy of striving toward the goal and seeing a bright future.
However, in the third section, the mood suddenly shifted. The cheerfulness vanished abruptly, the tempo quickened, and the previously cheerful emotion suddenly became chaotic.
This was the breaking of false cheerfulness, finally realizing that trying to conform to the other’s preferences was futile. Emotion was simply an irrational thing.
But the emotion did not sink into silence. The chaos slowly faded, and cheerfulness reappeared. A dead heart continued its hollow response.
After the girl finished playing, applause erupted in the venue.
Xia Yu clapped along and assessed the girl’s skill level. Her technique wasn’t much different from his own—he was currently at the early stage of level 4, while she might be at the middle to late stage.
The five judges on stage gave the girl some praise before letting her leave.
Next came someone Xia Yu knew—an acquaintance from Kaiyang who had harassed An Siyao. The bespectacled man’s skills were top-notch in Jiangsu Province, but in the district-wide competition, they were insufficient.
Ten more contestants performed, and then it was Xia Yu’s turn.
Arriving backstage, Xia Yu changed into his performance outfit. After the previous flutist contestant left the stage, he took a deep breath, activated Elegance, and walked on.
The judges on stage whispered to each other.
“The next contestant is the one known for both violin and piano, right?”
“He has great potential in violin, but his piano skills are just average.”
In the district-wide competition, the judges were somewhat biased. Xia Yu’s piano skills could place him among the top in Jiangsu, but they were merely rated as average.
“He might struggle to make it into the top ten, though there’s still a chance.”
“Let’s talk about that later. The ‘Bumblebee’ from the video didn’t sound quite right. It’ll be good to hear it live this time.”
“Heh, I even brought a professional timer.”
One judge took out a stopwatch.
They looked eagerly toward the entrance, waiting for Xia Yu’s appearance, never questioning whether he could play “Bumblebee” at all.
Until Xia Yu appeared.
Looking at the young man in Hanfu clothes carrying a guzheng, the five judges stirred:
“Who is this? What’s going on? The schedule clearly says the next one is Xia Yu!”
“Did he get lost backstage? How could such a basic mistake happen?”
“Wait, maybe it’s correct after all.”
“The face really looks the same!”
They exchanged glances, eyes filled with disbelief:
“This is the one who played piano in the first round, violin in the second, and now guzheng in the third?”
“His violin is better than his piano, but can his guzheng skills surpass even the violin?”
Compared to the judges on stage, the audience below was much calmer.
They were somewhat distant from Xia Yu, and since he wasn’t wearing a suit but Hanfu, none of the audience recognized him, so they weren’t surprised at all.
But at this moment, they left a deep impression on the audience.
This was because Xia Yu used Elegance. His blue-robed figure carrying the guzheng and walking gracefully made the audience feel as if a true ancient nobleman had emerged.
Among those who loved this Chinese aesthetic, some noblewomen’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Compared to the judges on stage, the audience below was much calmer.
They were somewhat distant from Xia Yu, and since he wasn’t wearing a suit but Hanfu, none of the audience recognized him, so they weren’t surprised at all.
But at this moment, they left a deep impression on the audience.
This was because Xia Yu used Elegance. His blue-robed figure carrying the guzheng and walking gracefully made the audience feel as if a true ancient nobleman had emerged.
Among those who loved this Chinese aesthetic, some noblewomen’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
After bowing to the judges, Xia Yu placed the guzheng on the stand in front of him and sat down gracefully.
A group of noblewomen felt even more excited in their hearts.
How handsome was his sitting posture!
With his hands hovering above the guzheng, Xia Yu plucked the first string.
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