Chapter 1046: What to Outperform Her with
Many other candidates shared that sentiment and looked at Xia Ling gloatingly.
Xia Ling’s brows furrowed slightly. Never would she have expected that Li Bingman would know a song in a foreign language; the concept she had of singing was just… Chinese songs. But since she was the one issuing the challenge, there was no way she could back out now. She calmly and proudly raised her head high.
Ha. Li Bingman was sneering on the inside. Little feral girl, let’s see how long you can keep up this pretense.
She lifted her long skirt and elegantly walked towards the stage. Behind her, a five-man band took their seats.
“Wow, the Diva’s sister is the Diva’s sister indeed, she even brought her own band to the selection,” one of the candidates said in envy. The rest of them had just brought their music recording instead.
Li Bingman could not help but grin upon hearing that.
For this selection, she had specially hired this band and practiced hard with them. After day and night of rehearsing together, they had only perfected no more than three songs. Most of the time, those who got into the final round of selection would prepare two to three songs, just in case anything cropped up at the last minute—such as someone else singing the same song, or someone else managing to perform a similar genre better and so on.
As for Li Bingman, this Russian song was her backup.
Although it was in a foreign language, the pitch range of this song was wide and extremely complex in its layers. It tested the fundamental skills of a singer, and it suited Li Bingman’s disposition very well.
Offstage, a few candidates understood what was going on. “Li Bingman must have practiced hard with this band. Xia Ling is really going down this time.”
“Haha, that country b.u.mpkin deserves a lesson.”
“Li Bingman, go for it!” Someone cheered her on.
“Go for it!” More people chorused.
Li Bingman’s lips curled up. As she had thought, she was indeed the star of the show, the one everyone admired. She got to the center of the stage, bowed gracefully to the examiners and began singing with the accompaniment of the band.
It was a beautiful and complex Russian song indeed.
Li Bingman managed to execute it extremely well. On some notes, it felt deep as the ocean, and in other verses, one could practically visualize the shooting stars and fireworks lighting up the night sky. With her careful management of each and every lyric, she managed to bring her audience into an alternate virtual world.
“Amazing…” The others applauded once she was done singing.
Li Bingman lived up to the status of being the Diva’s sister. Her voice was clear and melodious, and she managed to display her plethora of singing techniques. The few examiners exchanged glances and felt that she had the potential to be a Diva in the future as well.
“9.3!” Her final score was 9.3.
A commotion was sparked among the candidates. The highest score in the previous year was 9.2, but Li Bingman had surpa.s.sed it!
“Just look at how good Li Bingman is. Ha, and someone is still silly enough to challenge her.” After the score was announced, the other candidates could not wait to watch how Xia Ling would embarra.s.s herself. This was the highest score of this cohort, and she was thinking of beating it? Haha, feral child, just you wait.
Li Bingman looked at Xia Ling haughtily, as if saying: Feral child, afraid now?
At this point, however, Xia Ling was no longer nervous at all. She knew that she couldn’t speak Russian. Hence, she put in all her effort to listen closely when Li Bingman was singing. When it came to music, she had an astounding talent—for any song that she put her heart to listen to, she was able to remember almost every part of it. Although it was in Russian this time, she had managed to secure the majority of the details of the song. She had Li Bingman to thank for singing it so well. Every beautiful song had a sort of cadence, whether in its pitch, tone or otherwise, and it made people feel comfortable when they listened to it.
As for Xia Ling, she was very sensitive to such a feeling.
She did not understand what the lyrics meant, nor did she bother to. But the t.i.tle of the song itself, its melody and the emotions that Li Bingman poured into performing it gave Xia Ling a good enough understanding of the song’s essence. Visual imagery of the song flashed in her mind like a movie of its own. With her stunning gift for music, she felt that she could give it a shot.
“Xia Ling, if you can’t do it, just admit it.” Teacher Chen urged her. “What matters in the camp is your actual level of competence, you can pick a song that you are confident of. Of course, you’ll also have to apologize to Li Bingman.”
Xia Ling made her way to the stage as if she had not heard what Teacher Chen just said.
“Hey!”
“Xia Ling!”
Teacher Chen and a few others began yelling at her, wondering if she was in the right frame of mind. At this point, was she still trying to fight her way through? Teacher Chen called out, “Xia Ling, are you deaf?!”
Xia Ling walked to the center of the stage, not bothering about the rest of them. She closed her eyes.
She had no other distractions as she went through the song over and over again in her mind, each time making adjustments to improve it. She did not have the heart to bother about Teacher Chen now. She needed to focus on this song, this inspiration that she was getting. As it involved a foreign song that she had never heard before this, such a distraction could be “fatal”.
Light poured in through the windows and onto her as if it was a spotlight.
Many of them suddenly realized that this girl in an ordinary blue dress was so… so beautiful and pure when quiet. Gradually, the whole room quietened down.
Teacher Chen was about to say something more, but Feng Kun grabbed her arm and shook his head.
Everyone was waiting for Xia Ling. A while later, she opened her eyes.
“Are you ready?” Feng Kun asked with a smile. When Li Bingman was performing earlier, he had observed this girl for a long while. He noticed that the way she was so focused on listening to the song, almost as if she’d poured all her heart and soul into it. The fact that she was still able to do this even under so much pressure proved that her psychological quality far surpa.s.sed most other candidates. This was a quality that would serve artistes well during live performances in the entertainment industry.
“I’m ready,” Xia Ling said.
Feng Kun glanced at Li Bingman’s accompanying band and said, “We’ve got to trouble you to play it one more time.”
The band members had no objection and were ready once again.
But Xia Ling said, “Wait, can the accompaniment be adjusted?”
The band looked up at her and Feng Kun was taken aback as well. “How?”
“I’d like to raise the whole song by one tone,” she said.
Everyone gasped when she said that—they’d already thought of her as a madwoman, but even more so now! Li Bingman was already singing in a very high tone and struggled a little to reach the highest notes of the song. The other candidates figured that they wouldn’t have been able to reach it comfortably either, but Xia Ling was thinking of raising it even further!
This difference of one tone was crucial.
At such a high pitch, even a semitone could make all the difference!
Even Feng Kun was shocked. “You’ve thought it through clearly?”
Xia Ling nodded. Although she’d memorized the Russian song, she did not know the meaning behind the lyrics, after all. Hence, her expression and enunciation would not be as good as Li Bingman.
The only thing she could beat her in was her pitch.