Initial Evaluation

Lai Yudong didn't think much of it. Assuming it was just a coincidence, he returned the smile politely.

Then something unexpected happened.

Xu An walked straight over to the bewildered light-blond-haired boy, looking awkward and nervous. "You... You Shu, can I call you that?"

Lai Yudong: "??"

Author's note:

A quick explanation—

System: You entered the wrong name, so your screen name became your real name.

Lai Yudong: Oh! So I have to pretend to be a foreigner.

System: Your own experiences were used as the basis.

Lai Yudong: Oh! So apart from being a foreigner, my other details are pretty much the same.

His understanding: The name on his ID card was changed to his screen name.

One little dummy who heard the name, jumped to the conclusion that he was a foreigner, and didn't ask any further questions.

Chapter 4: Initial Evaluation

Nothing was more terrifying than having the original singer come looking for you right after you'd butchered their song.

The smile on Lai Yudong's face stiffened slightly. He felt the awkwardness and guilt of a defendant meeting the plaintiff outside the courthouse, but what made him even more nervous was the identity he had to remember at all times: an overseas contestant.

He wasn't mentally prepared to communicate normally with a human being yet.

In an instant, sentences from shattered language systems flashed through his mind: "I am a foreigner," "Sawasdee kha, watashi a foreigner seumnida," and so on.

Come on, I can't say a single one of those out loud!

So why? Why would Xu An go out of his way to talk to me!?

The system was the first to be placed at the top of Lai Yudong's suspect list.

Lai Yudong: [Did you add a bunch of random settings again?]

System: [Please do not question my professional ethics.]

Lai Yudong: [Then what's going on now?]

The system sounded aggrieved: [I don't know either, but this identity was copied wholesale from your own experiences. So is it possible that you're the problem?]

Lai Yudong: [...?]

Although Lai Yudong had been caught off guard, Xu An looked even more uneasy. He sat down in the empty seat beside him, fingers interlaced, his thumbs twisting around each other as though unable to find a comfortable position. He was practically tying a Chinese knot.

Lai Yudong wanted to break the ice, but his persona had him by the throat.

All he could do was stare like someone with social anxiety at the black-haired boy, whose face had turned bright red. After a long while, he tentatively squeezed out a single word:

"Hi."

He couldn't say anything more.

As someone born and raised in the Celestial Empire who had even passed the CET-4 oral exam, Lai Yudong's English pronunciation wasn't good enough to be mistaken for a native speaker's, but Japanese-accented English was asking far too much of him.

Xu An: "...Hi."

For a while, the atmosphere was painfully awkward.

"Next up, please welcome trainee Liu Qichu from Qihuan Music."

Fu Hanyu's voice brought the show back on track, and the camera cut back to the stage. The bullet comments stopped paying attention to the little episode in the Class F area and focused instead on the younger guy onstage, whose first impression was exceptionally sunny.

The moment Liu Qichu opened his mouth, he naturally brought a lighthearted, goofy energy. His radiant smile was like bright sunshine, and in no time at all, he pulled everyone out of the shock of the previous performance.

Lai Yudong could clearly feel the black-haired boy beside him relax a little.

"Um..." Xu An raised his head. "Thank you for being willing to sing my song. I'm really happy."

Lai Yudong's eyes widened in surprise.

He understood how it felt to have someone cover your original music, but could Xu An really be happy after he'd sung it so horribly?

Calling it a cover was a bit of a stretch. It was more like an innovative rearrangement of the entire song.

Xu An smiled sheepishly. "That song doesn't get many plays. Choosing it for such an important stage gave me a lot of encouragement... I'm not just saying that to be polite. I'm happy from the bottom of my heart. So my music did get heard."

"I..."

Lai Yudong moved his lips, unsure for a moment how to respond.

The entertainment industry changed so quickly that anyone who wasn't active enough would be forgotten.

Even a champion and popularity king once hailed as a genius boy was no exception. He had gone from competing before packed houses to finding it a luxury just to be heard, and the enormous gulf had left him less and less confident.

But when he spoke of his own inconspicuous work in a music scene filled with stars, those ink-black eyes shone like stars in the night, hoping for more recognition and support.

He longed for listeners.

Xu An had bared his heart so sincerely that Lai Yudong couldn't very well grin and tell him the ill-timed truth:

Haha, actually, I haven't heard it either. The system picked it at random.

That would put humor above basic humanity.

Although Lai Yudong didn't know exactly what Xu An had been through, he could infer a thing or two from the scattered bullet comments and Xu An's reaction. Most likely, his company had played a great hand terribly and left him withdrawn to boot.

Good songs going unheard were nothing unusual in an entertainment industry where traffic reigned supreme.

But—

It was hard to say whether anyone had heard it before, but they definitely had now.

Lai Yudong knew today's wicked netizens all too well. The "Lose Heart" he'd sung so horrendously would surely be clipped and compared with the original. They might even make it a dual-channel version for an even more devastating effect.

Weren't the listeners coming right to him?

If this opportunity could get Xu An more exposure, that insignificant contribution might ease some of Lai Yudong's guilt over never having heard the original.

The problem now was how to respond to Xu An.

Lai Yudong considered many things to say, such as "Your fans have been waiting to see you perform," "A good song will definitely be discovered someday," and "I hope you can debut successfully this time." But he wasn't sure whether saying them would be OOC. After turning it over in his mind, the only thing he was certain couldn't go wrong was "Keep it up."

Isn't that a little too perfunctory?

Just as Lai Yudong was still agonizing over what to say, Xu An went on, "But that song's vocal range doesn't suit you."