They're already in university, and the primary school system is only just starting out?

Sunday night had already fallen.

After a full day of studying, Chen Lin walked alone on his way back to his dormitory from the library. The evening breeze carried a hint of summer heat, rustling the trees along the roadside.

His mind was still replaying everything that had happened in the bar last night, especially the last song, "The Ordinary Road," and the scene of the whole audience singing along. Even now, thinking back on it, it still felt somewhat unreal.

He took out his phone and opened his chat with Brother Wang.

Around 1 a.m., Brother Wang sent him a photo of him standing in the center of the stage, with everyone in the audience holding up their phones or arms and cheering him on.

The photo is a bit blurry, but the enthusiastic atmosphere is palpable.

As Chen Lin looked at the photo, the smile on his lips unconsciously widened.

Looks like I'm not dreaming.

He remembered the little red flower that the system had awarded him.

This is the second one he received.

He thought back carefully. Last time he competed in singing with Senior Song Cheng, although the audience's reaction was quite enthusiastic and the amount of rewards broke records, the system did not give any special rewards.

As Chen Lin walked, he pondered and gradually sorted out his thoughts.

The title of "Little Singer" guarantees him perfect pitch and rhythm. But what truly touches people's hearts is the emotion he pours into his performance, his understanding and expression of the song's meaning.

In the last competition with Song Cheng, although I was technically impeccable, I was still quite immature in terms of emotional expression and singing awareness.

Last night, especially when singing the last two songs, I was truly moved by the lyrics and melody, and I completely immersed myself in them, sharing my personal feelings.

It was this genuine emotion that ignited the feelings of everyone present, ultimately leading to a full-scale sing-along.

It seems I really learned something valuable from Senior Song Cheng.

Thinking this, he had already arrived at the dormitory building.

Pushing open the door to room 406, you see Wang Tao, Fatty Zhao, and Monkey Li huddled together like three groundhogs, intently staring at Monkey Li's phone screen, occasionally letting out exclamations of "Holy crap!" and "Awesome!"

Chen Lin had just changed into his slippers and hadn't even had a chance to speak when the sharp-eyed Li Houzi spotted him.

"Brother Lin is back!"

With a loud shout, Li Houzi dropped his phone and pounced on Chen Lin like a hungry tiger, grabbing his arm.

"Quick! Confess! How many things are you hiding from us?" He shook Chen Lin's arm hard, spitting as he spoke. "It's one thing that your math skills suddenly became so amazing, but now you're almost singing like a professional singer?!"

Chen Lin was completely bewildered by his sudden display of force.

"What's going on? What are you talking about?"

"Stop pretending!" Fatty Zhao also stood up from his chair. He picked up his phone, tapped a few times on the screen, and then shared a link to the dormitory's WeChat group.

See for yourself!

[406 Hidden Dragons]

Fatty Zhao: [@Chen Lin]

Fatty Zhao: [Link]

Chen Lin clicked on the link in the WeChat group with a puzzled look, and it turned out to be another post from a campus forum.

The post's title is eye-catching: "A Hidden Singing Prodigy at Yenching University? A Near-Professional Live Performance Discovered at a Backstreet Bar!"

He clicked on it, and the main page only had a video link to Bilibili.

The video's cover image is of the small stage at the bar last night, with a blurry profile facing the microphone.

Chen Lin pressed play, and the familiar violin prelude began, it was his song "Fallen Leaves Return to Their Roots".

The video was clearly recorded on-site with a mobile phone, and the sound quality was mediocre, somewhat noisy, but his singing was still relatively clear. Soon, the video switched to the second song, "The Ordinary Road," and during the chorus, the audience's singing started, almost drowning out his own voice.

Chen Lin returned to the forum post and began reading the replies below.

[1L - Original Poster]: Guys, I recorded this video! The phone's sound quality isn't great, so please bear with it. I have to say, hearing it live is ten times better than in the video! The energy was incredible! Especially the last two songs; even I, a grown man, got teary-eyed. Later, the bar owner told me that the singers were classmates from our school. Does anyone know them?

[2L]: Isn't that Chen Lin? The one from the Chinese Language and Literature Department. He often does various part-time jobs on campus, delivering food, running errands, handing out flyers. A lot of people probably know him.

[3L]: I know him. He used to sing at a backstreet bar, but I've never heard of him singing this well. He seems to be on a completely different level than before.

[4L]: To be honest, just listening to this video, the sound quality is indeed a bit poor; you can only tell that the pitch is correct and there's no off-key singing. But looking at the audience's reaction, they were all acting like they were on steroids, which is a bit exaggerated. Are there any music connoisseurs who can analyze this?

[5L]: Ahhh! This guy's profile is so handsome! And he sings so well, I'm in love! Girls, does anyone have his WeChat? (drooling.jpg)

[6L]: Replying to the comment above, same here! This kind of talented and handsome guy is simply a treasure!

……

By this point, Chen Lin's face had become expressionless.

He scrolled down further and found that someone had posted another link.

【15L】: Stop bragging, is this what you call a singing god? [Link] Look at this, Song Cheng, a senior from the art college, competed with him once before, and the difference in skill was obvious.

Chen Lin clicked on the link, and sure enough, it was the video that Brother Wang had edited for promotional purposes, showing him competing against Song Cheng.

Back to the post, a tall building immediately sprang up below this floor.

【15L-1】: Senior Song Cheng is one of the top ten singers in our school. He's very professional, right? He would definitely crush Chen Lin.

【15L-2】: Don't be so harsh on me, I listened to both videos and I couldn't hear a significant difference. They both sound pretty good.

[15L-3]: The layman hears the noise, the expert sees the details. Song Cheng's storytelling ability is something Chen Lin can't match.

……

As I was watching, someone opened up a new floor below.

[28L]: To be fair, I'm currently studying music performance at an art college. I happened to have watched both videos, so I'll give a brief analysis.

First of all, in the competition between Chen Lin and Song Cheng, Chen Lin chose "Moonlight," which was far more difficult than Song Cheng's "Longing" in terms of both vocal range and singing technique.

Moreover, Chen Lin's performance was extremely well-executed, with almost no flaws. To be honest, apart from the original singer, I have never heard a live performance with a higher level of perfection than his.

But why did Song Cheng ultimately receive more tips from the audience? Because his singing awareness and emotional expression were superior. He conveyed the vicissitudes of time in his singing, quickly drawing the audience into the atmosphere of the story he created. This was something that Chen Lin, who focused on technical skill, lacked at the time.

As for the new video posted by the original poster, although the audio quality is poor, I can tell that Chen Lin's emotional delivery has improved significantly compared to last time. If last time it was 90 points of technique and 60 points of emotion, then this time it's at least 90 points of technique and 80 points of emotion.

【28L-1】: Holy crap! A true expert! Your analysis is spot on!

【28L-2】: I'm in awe of you! Now I understand!

【28L-3】: So the conclusion is that Chen Lin is now more awesome than Senior Song Cheng?

【28L-4】：Bullshit! Our Song Cheng is the best!

……

The thread quickly went off-topic, turning into a heated debate about who had better singing skills, him or Song Cheng.

Chen Lin browsed through it with little interest, found it uninteresting, and locked the screen.

However, when he looked up, he met three pairs of eyes that seemed to say, "Confess and you will be treated leniently; resist and you will be punished severely."

"Brother Lin, that's not very fair of you," Fatty Zhao was the first to speak up. "We're all roommates, when do you ever secretly practice singing without telling us?"

"Exactly!" Wang Tao chimed in, "Don't we know what kind of person you were when you sang at karaoke before? Just a regular karaoke hog, how come you suddenly sing so well?"

Li Houzi put on a heartbroken expression: "Tell me! Are you in a relationship? Otherwise, how come your singing has improved so quickly all of a sudden? You must be secretly practicing every day to sing love songs for your girlfriend!"

"Get lost!" Chen Lin was amused by them and laughed and scolded, "You guys have too much imagination. You're just making things up on your own. The more you sing, the better you'll become."

"I don't believe you for a second!"

"Confess! Which department is your girlfriend in?"

"Is it Shen Yan?!"

The dormitory was instantly filled with a joyful atmosphere again, and the four of them laughed and joked around.

……

……

Time flies, and in the blink of an eye, the sweltering month of June has reached its midpoint, officially kicking off the final exam week.

October 6, Wednesday.

The exam for "Appreciation of Chinese and Foreign Literary Trends" just ended this morning.

Chen Lin packed up his stationery, walked out of the examination room, and breathed a long sigh of relief.

After a month of intensive review, the exam wasn't too difficult for him. Most of the questions were within the key points highlighted by Professor Wang, and he answered them quite smoothly. He wouldn't dare say he got a high score, but at least 70 or 80 points was more than enough.

He stood in the shadow of the teaching building, pondering whether to go straight back to his dormitory to rest or go to the library to continue preparing for tomorrow's "Modern Chinese Literature" exam.

Just then, my phone vibrated in my pocket.

Chen Lin took it out and saw that it was a voice call from Shen Yan.

He swiped the screen and answered the voice call.

"Feed?"

"Chen Lin, are you free now? I hope I'm not disturbing your studies?" Shen Yan's cool yet concerned voice came from the other end of the phone.

"No problem, I just finished an exam," Chen Lin replied casually, leaning against the wall.

"That's good," Shen Yan seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, then got straight to the point, "It's about the modeling competition; the schedule has just been set."

Chen Lin raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What do you mean?"

"We have our presentation on July 7th. Our team received the official notification from the organizing committee yesterday, which means we've at least secured first prize in the regional competition." Shen Yan's tone revealed a hint of barely perceptible joy.

"That's amazing!" Chen Lin praised sincerely.

"Then, a week after the defense, around July 15th, the organizing committee will invite some of the outstanding teams that won the national first prize to Beijing to participate in an offline exchange and the final award selection."

Shen Yan paused for a moment, then continued, "There are two awards: one is the 'Advanced Mathematics Cup,' and the other is the 'Application Tool Innovation Award.' Our school's competition instructor said that these are basically just different ways of saying 'champion' and 'runner-up.' The instructor also said that based on the quality of our paper this time, we're basically guaranteed a national first prize, and we have a very good chance of competing for the final award."

A hint of anticipation crept into her voice: "So, I wanted to ask you, if we were to go to Beijing for an offline exchange, would you still go?"

Chen Lin considered it in his mind. He had already promised her, and such an opportunity to travel to the capital at public expense and meet the nation's top students was rare.

Moreover, I've already planned to change my major, so this trip is a good opportunity to communicate and exchange ideas with the teachers or leaders of the school's mathematics department.

"Yes, of course I'll go," he replied without hesitation.

Shen Yan on the other end of the phone seemed completely relieved, her voice even becoming a little lighter: "That's great! Then I'll report your name to the school as well. The school will arrange and reimburse your round-trip high-speed rail tickets to Beijing and your accommodation there."

"OK."

"Oh, right, there's one more thing," Shen Yan added. "The school offers prize money for winning competitions. If you get first place in the national competition, each official team member gets 500 yuan. If you win the Advanced Mathematics Cup, the whole team gets an extra 10,000 yuan, and the Application Tool Innovation Award is 5,000 yuan."

"I've already discussed it with Li Zihan and the others. We've made it this far in the competition entirely thanks to you. So, no matter how much prize money we win in the end, we'll give you half of it."

After hanging up the phone, Chen Lin stood there, feeling great.

My first time giving Shen Yan free guidance for a modeling competition was definitely worthwhile!

In this world, good people are indeed rewarded!

Shen Yan had talked to him before, and she and her roommates had participated in the modeling competition mainly to secure a place in graduate school.

According to previous students, winning the National First Prize only adds points to the postgraduate recommendation process, but winning the Advanced Mathematics Cup basically guarantees a postgraduate recommendation.

So from this perspective, Chen Lin could indeed accept the money with a clear conscience, because it was equivalent to him providing a major consultation for Shen Yan and her team to help them get into graduate school, and it was the kind of consultation with a definite result.

The bonus allocated to him was equivalent to a consulting fee, and it was reasonable that it was higher than Chen Lin's original consulting fee.

Therefore, from this perspective, it was indeed necessary for Chen Lin to attend this offline exchange in the capital.

Normally, Chen Lin was teaching Shen Yan the optimal solutions provided by "Little Mathematician" for modeling problems.

However, no one knows which expert committee members will ask what questions when they go to the capital. With me there, even if some experts try to make things difficult for her, Shen Yan, the academic genius, can't handle it. As long as it's a math problem, I can save the day.

In any case, I must make sure I get this 6000 yuan income.