Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love) Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Semifinals

Dress rehearsal arrived quickly while everyone was in a frenzy preparing. All together, the dress rehearsal would span two days. Since there were a lot of people, schedules were distributed to all contestants. Each contestant only had to go to attend the dress rehearsal during their own time slot and the rest of the time could be spent training.

After the two days of dress rehearsal had pa.s.sed, the staff members organized a lottery. The semifinal was structured as duels where the 40 contestants would confront each other 1v1. The loser would be eliminated and the winner would advance.

Ding Meng and a male contestant both drew number 9. She rejoiced that like her, he was also in the non-professional group. Although everyone had trained together for several days, she still didn’t even know his name.

She had just been contemplating whether or not to say h.e.l.lo and conveniently scope out the enemy when the enemy beat her to it. “h.e.l.lo, you’re Ding Meng right? My name is Jia Shuai.”

Ding Meng looked at the person who had walked in front of her and opened her mouth in astonishment. “What a coincidence.”

Jia Shuai took a moment to follow her train of thought. “Do you know another friend called Jia Shuai?”

Ding Meng shook her head. “No, I had a cla.s.smate called Zhen Shuai.”

T/N: Zhen Shuai sounds like very handsome, and Jia Shuai sounds like more handsome. That may be why it’s more coincidental?

Jia Shuai, “…..”

In any case, the two sized each other up and then left to return to their respective homes.

Qiao Yichen had been the one cooking dinner for the past few days and Ding Meng had become a happy leech. At the dining table, Qiao Yichen asked about how the compet.i.tion was going. “Who did you draw in the lottery?”

“Jia Shuai!” Ding Meng set down her chopsticks and looked at him with a face full of excitement. “Do you still remember back in Cla.s.s 3 there was a Zhen Shuai? You even had a love scandal with him!”

Qiao Yichen, “…”

His complexion rapidly darkened and he silently stared at Ding Meng.

“Sigh.” Thanks to her animal instincts, Ding Meng felt a bit of danger. She didn’t want today’s training to become more intense. “About that, I have since thought it through and realized that when you took my love letter, you were actually trying to help me pa.s.s it on, not confess, right?”

Qiao Yichen laughed coldly, “You needed twelve years to think this through?”

Ding Meng, “…”

Sorry orz.

Qiao Yichen picked up some rice with his chopsticks and, acting as if he didn’t care, coolly asked, “Do you still like him?”

Ding Meng felt like this question was a bit inconceivable. “I’ve stopped liking him since a long time ago. I can’t even remember what he looks like anymore.”

“Ah.” Qiao Yichen casually replied, but his complexion became much less tense. When they had met at the coffee shop, it seemed as if she had recognized him with a glance.

After dinner was the inescapable special training. Even though the official compet.i.tion was tomorrow, Qiao Yichen still calmly trained Ding Meng on the basics. Ding Meng was also in no rush to ask him to give her pointers on her compet.i.tion song. She figured he was doing things this way for a reason.

Only after the special training ended and Ding Meng turned around to return to her room did Qiao Yichen stop her to say, “Goodluck in tomorrow’s compet.i.tion.”

Ding Meng paused and then flashed him a smile, “Okay, Great one!”

T/N: In pinyin, she’s saying “Hao da, Dada!” Hao da means ok and Dada is used to refer to an expert and expresses deep admiration. Great one sounds kind of weird, but Dada sounds…. So lame in English…

Qiao Yichen watched her close the door and, smiling slightly, he returned to his room.

Since the program didn’t provide compet.i.tion clothing Ding Meng could only pick a more formal looking white gown from her closet. Letting her black hair down, she went off to partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion.

When she arrived, a staff member saw her makeup-less face, and dragged her off to apply a light coverage. There was an unending stream of staff members and contestants busily pa.s.sing by. Ding Meng was affected by the atmosphere and began to feel nervous.

This semifinal was divided to take place over two days, and performing tonight were contestants who drew a ten or below. This summed up to 20 people. 20 contestants needed to sing in one afternoon, causing time to be a pressing matter.

Ding Meng and Jia Shuai were in the middle of the lineup. She thought their position was pretty good. They didn’t have to wait very long and could also understand the strengths of the contestants before them. When her and Jia Shua’s time came, Jia Shuai went on stage first.

He sang the t.i.tle song of Gu Xin’s third alb.u.m Wild Sound. Earlier during training, the instructor had advised he change his song, but it appeared he didn’t follow the instructor’s advice.

Therefore, Ding Meng came to the conclusion that he must really love Gu Xin.

Jia Shuai’s performance of this song was quite average. Although there weren’t any big mistakes, there also weren’t any outstanding points. Gu Xin’s songs were originally difficult to sing, but adding the fact that the original singer had formidable singing skill, Jia Shuai’s performance just now seemed even more ordinary.

Ding Meng felt some pity for him. He had a nice voice and he had singing technique. If he had listened to the instructor and changed his song to one he could better master, he would have performed much better.

The judge’s opinions were about the same as her own. Only, when the words came out of Qiao Yichen’s mouth, the damage inflicted increased by several fold. “Many people out there hope they can become the second Gu Xin when they step onto the singing stage. Having a goal is a good thing, but while your skill is still far below Gu Xin’s, rashly competing with his song will only make you look like a bridge jumping clown.”

……How cruel. Diing Meng couldn’t bear to look at Jia Shuai’s expression.

However, there also wasn’t enough time for her to think too much. After Jia Shuai left the stage, it would be her turn.

This was the first compet.i.tion where there was music to accompany the lyrics. When Ding Meng went on stage, her heart started beating uncontrollably. Strangely enough, when she met Qiao Yichen’s gaze, she inexplicably became much calmer.

Clearly, his expression was still very fierce.

After introducing herself, Ding Meng completely relaxed as she began the easygoing prelude. “Somewhere over the rainbow, Way up high, There’s a land that I heard of once in a lullaby, Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue, And the dreams that you dreamed of, Dreams really do come true….”

A gentle Over the Rainbow soothed the nervous energy in the broadcast hall and caused everyone’s hearts to slowly become more peaceful. This time, there wasn’t any need to worry about the performance getting interrupted halfway by Qiao Yichen. Ding Meng threw herself into the song, and even as the final note disappeared into the air, she still thought she was floating high up in the clouds.

T/N: Here’s Eva Ca.s.sidy’s version of Over the Rainbow. Compared to other versions of the song, hers is definitely more jazz influenced and also one of the more soulfully sung ones.

After the performance ended, the judge on the left began his evaluation, “I’ve already said this before during the last compet.i.tion, but your voice is very clean, making it well suited for jazz songs. Not only this, but when singing, you also have a remarkable trait of throwing yourself into your emotions. You are able to easily bring your audience into the world you are describing.”

The other judge spoke, “Looking at your background information, you really haven’t had any professional training. However, over this past week, your progress really makes a person amazed. If last time you were, as Great Producer Qiao put it, signing karaoke, then this time your performance can already intimidate many amateurs. To speak the truth, I am rather astonished. Are our training camp instructors actually this amazing?”

Ding Meng’s instructor was sitting off stage watching the compet.i.tion. At this moment, he also couldn’t help but feel some doubt. Was he underestimating his own abilities?

Only Ding Meng thought in silence, it was probably, perhaps, should be, might be, thanks to Qiao Yichen’s contributions.

“Of course, you still have a lot of room to improve. I’m full of antic.i.p.ation.” The judge smiled at her and ended the evaluation.

Ding Meng relaxed a great deal after obtaining the approval of those two judges. In order to save time, the program organizers only arranged for two judges to comment on each performance. Therefore, this time Qiao Yichen didn’t say anything. Jia Shuai walked up onto the stage and stood with Ding Meng, preparing to accept the three judges’ votes.

As expected, the two judges that had approved of Ding Meng earlier gave her their vote. Without a doubt, the one to advance would be Ding Meng. The last one to cast a vote was Qiao Yichen. Even though his vote wasn’t actually important anymore, Ding Meng still earnestly looked at him.

Qiao Yichen adjusted the microphone and spoke. “Next time, I want to hear you sing a Chinese song. If you continue to sing in English, I will immediately eliminate you.”

Ding Meng, “…”

Just now, why did she actually think she wanted to hear him speak?

“I am giving my vote to Ding Meng.” Qiao Yichen finished speaking and leaned away from the microphone.

Probably because she had been tyrannized by Qiao Yichen for so long, this indifferent vote of his actually made Ding Meng burst with joy. By getting the votes of all three judges, Ding Meng smoothly made it to the top 20.

By the time she finished her match, half of the contestants had still yet to go up. She didn’t rush to leave and instead, like many of the other contestants, stayed to watch all the remaining performances in this group. After the compet.i.tion ended, the program organizers announced that tomorrow everyone could either come and watch the second group’s compet.i.tion or have a free day, but training camp would take place in the morning at 8:30am in two days.

When Ding Meng left, she purposefully glanced at the broadcasting hall and saw that the program director and people from Xing Yao Entertainment were still chatting with Qiao Yichen. She blinked and left first on her own.

She had believed that Qiao Yichen would be held up by social obligations for a long time or at least go out with everyone to eat dinner. Unexpectedly, he ended up returning home while Ding Meng was eating.

Ding Meng choked on the rice in her mouth, clasping her bowl as she looked at him, “Cough, I thought you were going to eat out, so I only made two dishes.”

“That’s fine.” Qiao Yichen took off his suit jacket, went to the kitchen to wash his hands, and walked out after scooping a bowl of rice. Ding Meng lightly ate two mouthfuls of rice and asked, “Do you want me to make a soup?”

Even though the contract stated each person would live their own life, she had freeloaded off Qiao Yichen’s dinners too many times and couldn’t help but have a guilty conscience.

Qiao Yichen saw her begin to stir and spoke, “No need. Drinking water will be enough.”

“Okay.” Ding Meng heard his words and ran to pour two cups of water and placed one in front of Qiao Yichen.

Qiao Yichen looked at the water in front of him and his lips curved up. “Is there juice?”

“We have juice! What kind do you want?’

“Grape with watermelon with lemon.”

Although it sounded rather complicated, the hardworking little bee Ding Meng still ran to the kitchen to press the juice. Qiao Yichen’s home had a very high-quality juicer which pressed juice very quickly and could even do the peeling. Ding Meng didn’t take very long to bring over two gla.s.ses of freshly pressed juice.

“Thanks.” Qiao Yichen drank a mouthful, his mood very cheerful.

Ding Meng also drank a mouthful and admiringly nodded her head. Even if her home’s blender was a hundred times faster, it still couldn’t match up to a high-quality juicer.

“Congratulations to you for advancing.”

Qiao Yichen spoke without any warning. Ding Meng eyes curved, but before she even managed to say a thanks, Qiao Yichen continued, “But if the person you had drawn wasn’t Jia Shuai, or if the song Jia Shuai sang wasn’t Wild Sound, you wouldn’t have advanced this easily.”

Ding Meng, “…”

She used the tip of her tongue to lick her lips and looked at Qiao Yichen speaking, “When you speak in the future, can you just say the first half.”

Qiao Yichen mildly laughed and spoke, “You won’t improve if you only want to hear praises.”

Ding Meng laughed, “When have you ever spoken praises?”

Qiao Yichen glanced at her and raised corners of his lips. “Today you were very beautiful.”