Entertainment: A song that brought his deceased wife back to life.

Of the 1,200 audience members, not a single person uttered a sound.

Even breathing stopped.

Then, Zhang Xiaohua, a girl wearing a white T-shirt, stood up in the middle of the first row.

She clapped her hands.

Before the second take was even finished, the entire studio erupted in chaos.

Applause, screams, whistles—all the sounds erupted at the same moment, rolling from the front row to the back, rushing from the first floor to the second-floor viewing area, the sound waves layering upon layer, utterly unstoppable.

Someone is crying.

Not just one or two, but a whole area.

The girl in the middle row who was covering her mouth had cried so much that her makeup was ruined, and her boyfriend next to her couldn't find his pocket to hand her a tissue.

The person who stood up in the back row was still standing, with both hands raised above his head, clapping until his palms were red.

On stage, Luo Qianyu still had her eyes closed.

Xu Qing placed the guitar on her lap and didn't move.

The applause lasted forty seconds.

The host stood at the side entrance, opened his mouth twice, but couldn't get it in.

Fang Hong stood up from the judges' panel.

He pushed his teacup aside, stood ramrod straight, facing the stage, and clapped repeatedly.

Wen Xiaoman also stood up. Her eyes were red, and she wiped them with the back of her hand.

Zhou Zhengping remained seated without moving.

Yang Fan didn't move either.

But the expressions on their faces were... well, quite interesting.

Zhou Zhengping's mouth was half-open, as if he wanted to close it but couldn't, looking like he had eaten a whole lemon but didn't dare to spit it out.

Yang Fan's eyes darted around, glancing at the stage, Fang Hong, and the scoring board in front of him, but avoiding the camera.

The applause gradually subsided.

The host wiped the sweat from his brow and walked to the front of the stage.

"I have been in this industry for twelve years—"

He paused for a moment.

"This is the best live performance I've ever heard. Bar none."

Another round of applause.

The host quickly waved his hand.

"For the scoring phase, we'll proceed according to procedure. First, we'll announce the audience voting results."

The big screen lit up.

First place: Bluebird Flying Fish - 98.5 points.

Second place: Suman - 91.2 points.

A seven-point difference.

Fault.

An absolute fault.

The audience cheered again when they saw the score.

Xu Qing sat in the waiting area to the side of the stage, his guitar resting against the chair leg. Luo Qianyu sat next to him, her hands still trembling.

"Don't let your hands shake."

"I wasn't shaking."

"You've been shaking for four minutes."

"That's excitement. Excitement and nervousness are two different things."

Xu Qing didn't respond.

Luo Qianyu secretly slipped her hand under Xu Qing's arm and clamped it there.

Xu Qing glanced down.

Are you a koala?

"If you don't like me, just say so."

"I don't mind. Don't squeeze so tight, my hands are getting numb."

Luo Qianyu relaxed a little.

It clamped shut again a second later.

On stage, the scoring process moved into the music critics' commentary phase.

Fang Hong was the first to pick up the microphone.

He was standing.

I have three points.

"First, the arrangement of this song, with its 24-track live string recording and at least seven layers of harmony, and the key shifts in the viola part during the chorus are the most exquisite harmonic design I've heard this year. Not just one of them."

"Secondly, the harmony between the two singers' voices is something I've only ever seen in my seventeen years in the industry, during post-production mixing in a recording studio. They achieved that live."

"third--"

Fang Hong paused for a moment.

He turned towards Zhou Zhengping and Yang Fan.

"In the last episode, some people said that Qingniao Feiyu's arrangements were 'thin' and that their songs were 'bubbly pop songs'."

Zhou Zhengping clenched his fist under the table.

Fang Hong's voice wasn't loud, but every word was clearly audible through the microphone.

"Now I'd like to ask, is this song still too weak?"

The entire room fell silent.

All the cameras were pointed at Zhou Zhengping.

A fine layer of sweat appeared on Zhou Zhengping's forehead. He twitched his lips twice, forcing out an expression.

The host tried to smooth things over, saying, "Shall we ask Professor Zhou to give his comments first?"

The microphone was handed to Zhou Zhengping.

He took it and cleared his throat.

"The arrangement is indeed a significant improvement over the last episode, especially the string section... well... it's quite rich."

He carefully considered his choice of words.

"But personally, I feel that the song's emotional tone is rather melancholic, which doesn't align with our program's slow-paced lifestyle theme, 'Echoes from the Clouds'—"

Fang Hong raised the microphone again.

"Teacher Zhou."

Zhou Zhengping stopped.

Fang Hong looked at him.

"Last time you gave it a score because the arrangement was weak. This time they brought out a top-tier orchestral arrangement, and you say it doesn't fit the theme."

"So, I'd like to ask, if they put on a symphony for the next episode, are you going to say, 'It's too noisy'?"

The audience laughed.

But that kind of laughter wasn't kind.

Zhou Zhengping's face turned red.

"Teacher Fang, I was just expressing my personal aesthetic sense—"

"Aesthetic tastes can vary," Fang Hong interrupted him, "but if even a 24-track live string recording is being called 'out of tune,' then the Chinese music scene might as well just shut down."

After those words were spoken, the entire audience was silent for half a second, and then burst into applause.

Zhou Zhengping opened his mouth twice, but said nothing.

He put down the microphone.

Yang Fan quickly picked up his water glass and took a sip, pretending to look at the notebook in his hand, wishing he could bury his face in it.

Wen Xiaoman picked up the microphone and spoke calmly:

"I'll just say one thing. The arrangement of 'Coral Sea' is so good that it wouldn't be embarrassing in the competition section of any international music festival. I agree with every word Professor Fang Hong said."

It's time to give a score.

Fang Hong finished writing and held it up.

100 points.

Full marks.

The audience erupted in applause once again.

Wen Xiaoman holds up a sign.

97 points.

Then there's Zhou Zhengping.

His hand hesitated noticeably.

More than a thousand eyes were fixed on him from below the stage. Fang Hong's words still lingered in the air, and the audience vote score of 98.5 was still lit up on the big screen.

Zhou Zhengping slowly raised the scoring board.

93 points.

He gave Qingniao Feiyu a score that was a full thirty-one points higher than the previous score.

Someone in the audience scoffed.

Yang Fan followed suit.

91 points.

It was also nearly 30 points higher than the previous issue.

Both of them looked very unwell.

If the score is too high, it's tantamount to admitting that the score was deliberately lowered in the previous episode. If it's too low—Fang Hong's words are still there, and the whole country is watching.

No matter how you fight, you'll lose.

The overall score has been determined.

The large screen refreshes.

First place: Bluebird Flying Fish - Overall score 96.8.

Second place: Suman - 93.1 points overall.

Bluebird and Flying Fish, ranked first overall.

The first one, crushed and overwhelming.

The cheers from the crowd almost lifted the ceiling.

Xu Qing sat in the waiting area, her expression unchanged.

Luo Qianyu released his arm and then turned to look at him.

"We won."

"Um."

"You won, Xu Qing."

"I heard you."

Luo Qianyu's eyes reddened.

She opened her mouth as if to say something, but didn't. Then she pounced on him, wrapped her arms around Xu Qing's neck, and buried her face in his shoulder.

Xu Qing was knocked backward by her.

The guitar almost fell over.

He held the guitar with one hand and patted Luo Qianyu on the back of the head with the other.

"Get up. The camera's on you."

"I'm wearing a mask."

"A mask covers the face but not the movements."

Luo Qianyu raised her head, her eyes shining brightly.

"I don't care. Let them guess."

Xu Qing looked at her but didn't say anything more.

Two seconds later, he reached out and adjusted her mask slightly.

"The koi fish is crooked."

......