Page 47

"..."

No one dared respond.

Even the slowest among them should have realized something was wrong by now.

"Before class officially started, I asked Class A and Class B the same question." Jiang Xiaoting's smile faded, and her gentle voice was like fine snow striking their faces. "Not only did nobody tell me they hadn't received the lyrics, but several people had even memorized them all. How did they manage that? Did the lyrics appear in their heads out of thin air?"

She continued, "You had an extra morning compared to them, and you could even borrow their printed lyrics to read. You also have more people than both their classes combined. By rights, shouldn't more of you have memorized the lyrics? Is it difficult to memorize them? Do you have to be a great dancer or singer to do it?"

Lai Yudong lowered his head and counted the nonexistent ants on the floor.

Although the atmosphere was terrible, unlike in dance class, he wasn't one of the people being scolded this time. He could let the words go in one ear and out the other with a clear conscience.

He thanked his past self for seizing every moment to memorize the lyrics yesterday, even while eating.

Jiang Xiaoting sighed. "Has anyone memorized them?"

A few seconds later, a sparse scattering of hands went up among the crowd.

[Who raised their hands? I can only recognize Yuzu]

[Wang Yiwen is one of them too]

[My face blindness is acting up]

[So few, only six. That's even fewer than Class B]

[Can't be helped, they spent their time practicing dance]

[They practiced so many times, they should've learned it just from listening]

[Is it possible they aren't good enough to keep up with the music hahaha]

Six people, or one seventh of them.

That really was a little low.

"You can put your hands down." Jiang Xiaoting shook her head helplessly. "Keep it up. Those of you who haven't memorized them need to work harder."

After that terrible opening, the lesson officially began.

Since there were so many students and time was limited, the teacher couldn't possibly listen to each of them sing the whole song, so she opted for a relay instead.

"I'll play the backing track in a moment. From left to right, take turns singing two lines according to where you're standing. Once the track ends, I'll play it again, until everyone has had a turn," Jiang Xiaoting said as she handed out the lyric sheets. "I won't interrupt you the first time. I'll listen to how well you handle the song as a whole."

Two lines per person didn't sound too difficult, but only one word could describe the actual result: disaster.

The first person came in ahead of the beat, causing the next few to do the same. That wasn't even the worst of it: the pitch went up and down, some sang off-key or had their voices crack, and one person even missed half a line, leaving a few seconds with nothing but the backing track and no vocals.

[My ears are bleeding /smile]

[I guessed it would sound bad, but I didn't think it would be that bad...]

[Do they really have to put on this show?]

[Pei Lan brought it back]

[The model guy can sing pretty well]

When it was Lai Yudong's turn, he fell into a strange silence.

Silence in the literal sense.

It wasn't that he didn't want to sing, but his assigned line and the backing track couldn't be said to have no connection—they were completely unrelated.

Counting down the order, his assigned lyrics should have been "Insignificant as I am, you chose me." But someone earlier had either looked at the wrong section or misjudged what was coming and sung his line ahead of time. The next person had followed the mistake and kept singing, and so had the person after that.

In short, by the time it got to him, everything was in complete disarray.

Lai Yudong was on the verge of breaking down.

These people...

They don't know the song at all!?

[Poor Yuzu baby, they really screwed him over]

[Where are they in the song? I can't tell either]

[Seems like they moved forward one line]

In despair, Lai Yudong had planned to ignore the backing track and grit his teeth through his original line. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he happened to catch the hint in the bullet comments. He calmly listened to the backing track and, relying on his familiarity with the original song, actually managed to make something out.

That was right, they had moved forward one line. This line was "Dreams are no longer bubbles that burst at a touch."

He had actually figured it out!

At the same time, Jiang Xiaoting trembled slightly as she clutched the lyric sheets. The theme song, which had been repeatedly bouncing between generally awful and especially awful, had raised her blood pressure. She hadn't expected something even more outrageous: they could still sing the wrong lyrics while looking right at them.

She was even less prepared for the next two people to go along with the mistake, showing no intention of getting things back on track.

Just as she was about to break her promise and interrupt, a softly hummed melody reached her ears, matching the beat of "bubbles that burst" perfectly.

Jiang Xiaoting looked up at the sound. The light-blond-haired young man standing at the very edge held an A4-sized lyric sheet in both hands, his chest lifted, stomach drawn in and shoulders open. His long lashes were lowered in the direction of his gaze, and his posture was so proper that he looked as though he were holding a manuscript for a poetry recitation competition.

He took another breath and sang clearly, "Please look at me, don't give up on me."

His cool-toned low voice had a natural advantage, highly charismatic and distinctive. After so many people had sung in succession, he was the only trainee whose vocal timbre caught the ear, giving a fine interpretation of those lyrics—please look at him, don't give up on him.

The beat was right, and so were the lyrics.

But the shortcomings were obvious too: his singing technique needed improvement.

[Holy shit, he brought it back]

[Since when did Yuzu sound so good singing?]

[His singing is pretty average, KTV level, but his vocal tone is seriously strong]

[I don't know what his technique is like, I just know he looks really good singing /doge]

[In a way, it counts as a feast for the eyes and ears hahaha]

Lai Yudong was so nervous that his heart was about to leap out of his throat. The bullet comments, whether amazed, complimentary or dismissive, couldn't sway his emotions. Only one thing mattered to him.

He restrained his trembling, slowly lowered the lyric sheet and cautiously glanced at the vocal teacher.

Jiang Xiaoting gave no further reaction. She calmly shifted her gaze to the other end, where the first person in the next row was due to sing the next line.

No reaction was the best possible result.

Lai Yudong let out a relieved breath. That had been close; he'd almost thought he wouldn't get a chance to sing.

If the teacher had interrupted during his part, even though he was just an unlucky person caught up in it, judging by how it would have looked, he would not only have been unfortunately punished by association, but would also have given the audience the false impression that he was the trigger.