All-rounder Artist

The song ended.

The music ended.

The venue was eerily silent!

All eyes of the audience were trained on the figure on the stage, but the emotions in their eyes were vastly different from when Prince of Lanling first took the stage.

Finally…

Whoooosh!

The sound of applause rang out!

From those in the audience who couldn’t help but stand up halfway through the song, the applause he received was overhead!

Who knows how long it lasted.

Host Anhong patted his chest and laughed, “If you keep clapping like this, I won’t dare to go on stage. After all, all the cheering and applause belong to our Prince of Lanling!”

“Prince of Lanling is awesome!”

An almost broken voice screamed from the audience.

Anhong couldn’t help but laugh.

The audience erupted into laughter.

Meanwhile, the audience finally got a chance to calm their emotions a bit while the host was handling the stage, quickly discussing with each other–

“That was amazing!”

“Full firepower!”

“I must apologize to the guy earlier, I shouldn’t have said that all Prince of Lanling can do is switch between male and female voices. This performance was too damn explosive. Let me show you a live demonstration of turning from a hater to a fan!” ṛΆꞐȰBĚＳ

“It was indeed explosive!”

“When the first line of the lyrics came out, I got goosebumps. For the first time, I felt that the power of the human voice could match the beat of the drums so perfectly, and the occasional pipa really hit me hard!”

“That was a guzheng.”

“Who cares what it was, anyway, I absolutely love this song. I used to love watching martial arts dramas, and this song really showed me the spirit of a warrior, with both assertiveness and subtlety.”

“… …”

Voices of the audience were reverberating, but when the host called the judges, the audience immediately stopped their discussion. They wanted to hear what the professional big shots would say about Prince of Lanling’s performance.

“Breathing life into the landscape!”

The first judge to speak was Mao Xuewang, who used an idiom to describe it: “I heard a strong taste of the martial arts world in this song. I’d even say that this song encompasses the entirety of the martial arts. You have chosen to hold back with a smoky and husky voice for this song, it fits perfectly for mine and everyone’s brain waves. I can’t tell if you were holding back before or if this is a recent transformation. Your singing performance tonight was very solid, there are virtually no flaws to pick!”

“I feel the same.”

The one beside spoke up, Liu Xu.

Laughter filled the scene, and someone even murmured “me too”, but Liu Xu wouldn’t be slack:

“Your smoky vocal is too good.”

She said seriously: “A very masculine song. I am now more inclined to believe that you are a male singer, even though you have mastered using female voices. But I don’t believe a girl could have such a captivating husky male voice. This song and the last two songs you performed are completely different. Either you were hiding your real strength before, or you have made tremendous progress. It is really incredible to achieve this in a week!”

“It was well sung!”

Wu Long on the side couldn’t wait: “I am now sweating for the next singer to perform. Your husky voice is the most neglected by everyone, but from today’s performance your husky voice is actually your strongest weapon. Moreover, as Liu Xu said, your progress is obvious. If it’s not progress, maybe you hid yourself before, this is your true strength!”

“This performance was perfect.”

This time the one who spoke was Yang Zhongming.

He smiled and said: “I like the term ‘great music is simple’, or the greater truth is the simpler. You abandon the flashy composition technique, discard the complicated arrangement procedure, and express your emotions with the most primitive passion. This is a sophisticated creative technique. Xian Yu didn’t slack off this time in lyric writing. Although the composition seemed lazy, it is actually the level of a master. Your singing also beautifully conveyed the emotions in the song. I know you were under pressure for this competition and want to address all those who’ve been freely commenting about you. You all have made a mistake.”

“What mistake?”

The host knew how to play along.

Yang Zhongming laughed: “You greatly underestimated how terrifying Xian Yu… cough, I mean you all greatly underestimated Prince of Lanling’s abilities from the very start of the first round.”

Lin Yuan was stunned.

He felt something was off.

If it hadn’t been for that seemingly natural, yet jarring cough, Lin Yuan wouldn’t have noticed anything amiss. But now, Lin Yuan felt that Yang Zhongming was trying to cover up and remedy a subconscious conclusion he made.

However…

No one else seemed to realize how unnatural Yang Zhongming’s cough was. They thought Yang Zhongming just had a bit of a sore throat. What really caught everyone’s attention was Yang Zhongming’s statement.

Underestimate Prince of Lanling?

True, after the second round, everyone did underestimate Prince of Lanling. But not in the first round. In the first round, everyone still had high hopes for Prince of Lanling!

So that was also underestimating?

The Swan backstage couldn’t help but muse: “Actually, I felt it when he sang ‘Boy’. Prince of Lanling is improving. It’s just that the second song required a lot of garnishing, and it’s hard for the audience to take it in at the first listen.”

“Father Yang is right!”

Robot hummed: “This round was too intense, even more than his first two rounds combined. Am I the third to perform today?”

He looked towards his assistant manager.

The assistant manager nodded.

Robot burst out laughing, despite knowing beforehand that he was the third to perform, he couldn’t help but confirm it again. It wasn’t that he couldn’t handle following Prince of Lanling’s performance, rather, he would be affected, which could potentially lower his rank.

On stage.

After the judges’ comments, the host’s gaze turned to the jury.

But upon seeing a certain sight, the host’s facial expression suddenly became strange–

There was a slightly chubby figure on the jury side awkwardly trying to hide in the crowd, as if trying to disguise himself using the bodies of the people around him.

He was also trying to find a place to hide his head. It seemed like he wanted to bury his head in the ground.

Host Anhong, who had great eyesight, recognized him.

It was Leng Quan.

Thinking back on Leng Quan’s comments before the competition, Anhong’s expression became even weirder.

What was even stranger was that the show’s aerial cameras were accurately capturing Leng Quan’s current situation.

So…

All of Leng Quan’s attempts to hide himself were being broadcast by the show’s cameras, which made him appear rather comical!

“Stop hiding.”

Leng Quan’s buddy next to him couldn’t take it: “You’re about to crawl into my crotch!”

Leng Quan remained silent.

In the host’s earpiece, it seemed that there was a voice.

Then, the host laughed: “Teacher Leng Quan, it seems that you have a lot you want to say?”

Hearing this, Leng Quan, who was trying to hide, turned pale. He wished he could let out a profanity!

Does your production team even have a sense of honor!

“I’ve made such a fool of myself, and you dare to call out my name?”

He was out of options.

All he could do was raise his head.

However, due to the deep bowing earlier, he felt a bit dizzy, and stumbled as he got up.

Instantly, the whole audience burst into laughter!

Clearly, everyone was aware of some of the ‘predictions’ Leng Quan had made before the competition.

Swish, swish, swish!

All eyes were on Leng Quan, even the judges couldn’t help but glance at him, a mocking look in their eyes.

Leng Quan’s face felt hot and flushed!

If only he could find a hole in the ground to crawl into, he would’ve done so to provide everyone with a live ‘magic show’.

“Teacher Leng Quan…”

The host Anhong, called his name again.

Leng Quan was immediately tongue-tied, “Uh… Okay!”

And then he began to applaud loudly, “Prince of Lanling sang so well, so well!”

In the silent room, only his applause echoed awkwardly, softer and softer till it died away…

Clearly…

Leng Quan was aware how embarrassing his reaction was; by this point, his face had turned from pale to the color of a pig’s liver, and he subconsciously started looking for the exit…

He was filled with regret.

Why did he even come today?

And why on the day of the third competition!

Why did he come on the best day of Prince of Lanling’s performance!

It seemed like he had personally delivered his face for Prince of Lanling to slap!

And to make matters worse, Prince of Lanling happened to be the first on stage to perform!

Slap, slap, slap!

The sound of the slap was so loud and it came so fast!

He felt like a clown, making a spectacular spectacle of himself, ready to burst from the humiliation!

“Ah, that’s right!”

A certain bold celebrity judge suddenly piped up, “I watched Teacher Leng Quan’s live stream. He said that if Prince of Lanling could prove him wrong, he would eat his chair on the spot!”

“Nonsense!”

Leng Quan immediately retorted and stammered, “How could you… I didn’t… I said I’d bow in apology to Prince of Lanling … I never mentioned anything about eating a chair…”

He emphasized the point seriously.

Everyone rolled their eyes.

Then why was he hiding?

No one was asking him to eat his chair!

By now, Leng Quan knew he couldn’t escape the situation, so under public scrutiny and unable to deny his words, he swallowed his shame, and bowed to Lin Yuan.

It was quite some time before…

He got back to his feet.

Not that he wanted to bow for so long, but he thought that the longer he stayed bent, the less people could see his upset face, and besides, his back was really hurting, so he couldn’t straighten up anyway…

At this point, Leng Quan was somewhat relieved.

Luckily, he was clever enough not to say anything absolute.

He had been sitting on the chair for half a day, and clearly felt that it was made of metal, particularly cold to touch. If he did eat it, not even a steel-eating beast could withstand it.

It wasn’t about getting his stomach pumped.

It was about his teeth not being strong enough to chew it.

“Say something more!”

The audience started making a commotion.

Even though among the commotion, there were people who had said similar things to Leng Quan.

But they had conveniently developed amnesia.

Leng Quan murmured, “I’m sorry, Teacher Prince of Lanling, I admit, I spoke too soon previously, but I was just commenting on the situation…”

Commenting on the situation?

The audience laughed aloud.

He was still arguing!

However, amidst the laughter, Prince of Lanling suddenly picked up the microphone and spoke softly, “Listen to the song more when you get home.”

Listen to the song more?

Leng Quan was stunned for a moment, and then felt even more uncomfortable.

He probably understood the meaning of Prince of Lanling’s words, just like the lyrics he sang today—

“Laugh, O sea!”

Probably it would translate to:

“I don’t care what you said.”

That’s how Leng Quan interpreted it in any case.

Applause broke out.

Who dares to say that Prince of Lanling lacks emotional intelligence?

What he said was so emotionally intelligent!

Not swaggering…

Not being pretentious…

Different people could have millions of interpretations to his words.

For example, this sentence could also be interpreted nastily as “Listen more, talk less, trouble brews from talks” or “Is this song good enough to swell your face.”

But the host hadn’t forgotten to control the stage, smiling he redirected back, “How about Teacher Leng Quan make a new prediction for the ranking now?”

Was he trying to smooth things over?

It was more like a soul-crushing move!

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ps: A small revision, does not affect the plot.

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