Chapter 233: The Little Princess In The Blue Skirt
Eight people stood in a row on the stage, some male some female, some tall some short, wearing different clothes, but all with the same serious expression.
This was the recording site of the Tian Xia Hao Ge Qu program. Besides the mentors and students, there were packed audience seats, as well as the judging panel composed of dozens of professional judges. With so many people, even if everyone kept their volume low and just whispered, the combined noise was like a fully operating old hard drive.
“Mentor Peng Xiaoya’s specially selected original album has been revealed. But among these eight original songs, we still need to select two featured songs to participate in the finals of the next episode…”
Wang Heng and Han Yixuan sat in the audience seats, listening to the host’s voice, but their gazes remained fixed on the smallest young girl among the eight.
The competition format was still not complex. The eight contestants would perform one by one, the 51 people on the judging panel would score and vote, plus 5 points each from mentors Liu Jiang, Liang Kun, and Chu Tianjian, and the highest scorer would advance directly. Then, as the main selection mentor, Peng Xiaoya could directly select one more contestant. This way, the two featured songs would be selected, and the two contestants advancing to the finals would be revealed.
After the host finished introducing, the contestants went off stage.
Mentor Peng Xiaoya went on stage, said a few words, and sang a song of a contestant who had already been eliminated.
The music paused briefly, Peng Xiaoya casually adjusted a strand of hair by her ear, gathered her thoughts, and said:
“My core requirement for original Chinese music is that you should have your own ideas. This program said from the beginning, we don’t want melodramatic stories, we don’t want clichés, we want the individuality of the new era, to grab the audience’s ears and hearts with sincere expression. So the next student to take the stage, I thought about it for a long time, her song should be the most suitable to go first, to inspire every subsequent student…”
In the audience seats, Wang Heng and Han Yixuan whispered to each other.
Han Yixuan: “She’s talking about Xiao Le!”
Wang Heng: “Yeah, didn’t she say yesterday that she would go first herself.”
Han Yixuan: “Going on stage first, won’t there be a lot of pressure?”
Wang Heng: “Hard to say, there are pros and cons… Suppose you’re scheduled later, and you see several people getting really high scores, wouldn’t that create even more psychological pressure?”
Han Yixuan sighed: “We can only believe in Xiao Le.”
Wang Heng turned his head to look.
From her tone just now, he could only hear worry and concern. It seemed that Han Yixuan really cared deeply for Pei Ningle without any ulterior motives?
This was truly a good sign.
“I followed the full rehearsal the day before yesterday,” Han Yixuan said softly again, “She rehearsed on stage five times. To me, all five times were great, but Xiao Le adjusted very carefully each time. So I think, with Xiao Le being this serious, there definitely won’t be any problems.”
Wang Heng recalled. Except for not following the rehearsal the day before yesterday, other times, like Pei Ningle pondering repeatedly before coming to the Imperial Capital, and after arriving in the Imperial Capital how she discussed arrangement and singing method with Peng Xiaoya, Wang Heng had witnessed all of it firsthand. But he knew even better that the difficulty of this program was not to be underestimated.
After hesitating for a few seconds, he said: “But the other competitors are also very dedicated.”
Han Yixuan: “But Xiao Le is a genius!”
Wang Heng didn’t speak again, just quietly watching the stage.
Peng Xiaoya had already gone off stage, and now the young girl with determination all over her small face walked up.
She was wearing a knee-length blue dress today. The upper part was light blue, getting darker toward the bottom, and in that deep blue were dotted many stars. Under the stage lights, those stars shimmered with light, dreamlike—but Han Yixuan and Wang Heng knew the dress wasn’t expensive, and the glowing parts were just tiny pieces of glass embedded on it.
In the past, Pei Ningle always had a ponytail hairstyle like a middle school student, occasionally pigtails, all straight hair anyway. But tonight, the ends of her straight hair were curled, cascading down, not appearing particularly mature, but adding a touch of princess-like gentle elegance.
The young girl held a guitar in both hands, sitting on the round stool at the center of the stage. The microphone stand was set in front of her, so she didn’t need to hold the microphone and could play the guitar properly.
She took a deep breath, strummed the guitar strings, and began to sing.
“I want to let go of every dream from the past,
Let go of the impulse to pursue perfection,
Let go of the dazzling vanity,
Hide in a cave for one person…”
Her still stable singing style was like a young girl in poetry murmuring her own sorrow.
This time, she didn’t close her eyes. Sometimes looking at the guitar in her hands, sometimes toward the audience seats, trying to find that familiar person in the darkness against the light.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t find him from on stage.
But as she sang, the young girl recalled the bits and pieces of time spent with him, imagining him watching her live performance right now—no, the fact was he was in the audience, he was really watching her.
So in the final chorus climax, she smiled, raised the pitch, and the whole song bloomed like a flower.
At the same time, the lights spread out, illuminating the band musicians in the corner of the stage. The drummer, keyboardist, bassist, and the additionally added cello all sounded together, playing a brief but gorgeous passage.
“…I see those brilliant rainbows,
Shining into the lonely dream,
I hear the harp playing crystal,
Weaving into beautiful poem,
I see you…”
On the last line of lyrics, Pei Ningle gazed affectionately at the audience seats. She didn’t know his exact seat in the audience seats, but at least, she could imagine that familiar handsome face emerging from the darkness.
The song ended, and the full lights came back on.
On the mentor seats, Peng Xiaoya rushed to say: “Amazing, really amazing!”
Liu Jiang commented: “This arrangement fully brought out your voice, excellent.”
Liang Kun laughed: “This puts a lot of pressure on the contestants coming after, you’ve set a very high bar for them!”
Chu Tianjian slowly shook his head: “Surprise, another surprise. The emotion in the ending was perfectly controlled, so captivating.”
Peng Xiaoya gave him a look: “Joke, she’s the little princess I selected!”
Liang Kun: “Not just you, we selected her too.”
Peng Xiaoya: “But she didn’t select you.”
Liang Kun: “…”
At this time, the host said: “Now, it’s time for our professional judges to vote. The 51 professional music critics from various radio stations and websites, please give your opinions. Let’s see what score the first contestant Pei Ningle will get.”
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