So Annoying, Boo-hoo-hoo

"Next up is Dawei Tianlong, performing an original song: 'A Hill.'"

Backstage, at the host's introduction, Lin Mu walked onto the stage.

He'd already asked the staff to change the song he would perform.

It was an original song with live accompaniment either way, so they didn't need to redo the backing track. They only had to change the title.

By then, a curtain had been drawn across the stage to hide the contestants, and the lights had dimmed.

During the brief pause, Lin Mu took a look around his performance area.

Besides the usual instruments, there was a screen nearby showing the four mentors and the audience behind them.

As soon as Lin Mu came onstage, he spotted Feng Bingbing on the far right.

The girl on the screen had fair cheeks and delicate features. Her long hair, which reached her waist, was tied into a ponytail and hung loosely down her back, giving her a fresh, neat, and lovely look.

She wore a simple white T-shirt, but some of her curves were so prominent that they made the loose shirt look skin-tight.

This woman was playing dirty!

Lin Mu didn't let his gaze wander any lower. There was nothing below her neck he could describe.

Soon, Lin Mu frowned slightly.

On the screen, Feng Bingbing narrowed her eyes and leaned forward a little, as if she were trying her hardest to see through the curtain in front of him.

Damn it, she really does suspect me.

Lin Mu sighed. It was a good thing he'd changed songs; otherwise, things would've gotten troublesome.

"Contestant Dawei Tianlong, please begin your performance," Zhang Zheng said from the mentors' panel.

Lin Mu picked up a guitar, sat on a tall stool, and gently closed his eyes.

For some reason, his heart gave a faint tremble.

It wasn't nerves, but an inexplicable stirring.

Suddenly, images unrelated to the moment appeared in his mind:

Late at night in the Literary Society, a girl hugged herself and sobbed in despair:

"I still can't sing. When there are too many people, I just can't sing. I'm scared... Auntie, I'm sorry. I can't sing anymore."

A boy pushed open the door and stood beside her. He was silent for a moment, then suddenly burst into song.

He was off-key, the song was a mess, and his howling could have made heaven and earth change color.

When he finished, the girl looked up at him in a daze.

The boy lowered his eyes to her and grinned. "I can sing this badly and still have the guts to do it. What the hell are you scared of?!"

"Contestant Dawei Tianlong?"

Zhang Zheng's voice drew Lin Mu back to the present.

Damn it, women only slow down my playing!

Lin Mu shook his head, cleared his mind, and plucked the guitar strings.

The guitar sounded through the microphone, drifting into the ears of the audience and the mentors.

"So he's playing guitar this time?"

Wang Xinzhe and Zhang Zheng exchanged glances, a little surprised.

Before the show was filmed, Chen Xin had shown them clips of the standout contestants from the preliminaries.

That included the five contestants who'd earned S Cards.

Pure Voice had five preliminary divisions, and each division could award one S Card.

Last season, only three divisions had awarded an S Card. This season, the overall standard of the contestants had clearly improved, and all five divisions had produced an S Card winner.

Naturally, the show was keeping a close eye on these five contestants during the Top 100 round.

One or two of them might even become breakout stars.

Chen Xin had shown the mentors their performances in advance so they could keep a special eye on them and give them a push when appropriate.

The essence of a talent show was to make contestants famous, then use their success to benefit the show.

After watching the preliminary clips, all four mentors agreed that three of the five S Card winners deserved special attention.

Xiao Bai from the Northern Division, Doraemon from the Sichuan Division, and Dawei Tianlong from the Jiangsu Division.

Dawei Tianlong was the only singer-songwriter among them, so he'd made a strong impression on all the mentors.

His piano-accompanied performance of "Quiet" in the preliminaries had amazed both Wang Xinzhe and Zhang Zheng.

Now, when they heard Dawei Tianlong start playing guitar, the two men immediately perked up.

Well, men liked people who could play instruments and sing.

Zhang Zheng leaned toward Feng Bingbing and quietly said, "This dragon sure can do a lot."

Feng Bingbing stared fixedly at the heavy curtain onstage and murmured,

"He's really bad at singing."

"Huh?" Zhang Zheng froze.

"Uh, it's nothing. Let's listen to the song."

Feng Bingbing snapped out of it, smiled at Zhang Zheng, and gave him a perfunctory answer.

Just then, singing rang out from the stage.

"There's still so much I want to say, but haven't."

"I've kept it inside because I wanted to write it into a song."

"To let people sing it softly, remember it faintly."

"Even if it's finally forgotten, it was worth it."

The voice was slightly hoarse and filled with the weariness of age. It sounded like a middle-aged man, reminiscing over a drink about the successes and failures, the trials and joys of the first half of his life.

In the end, it had all become faint notes, gathering into the song he was singing now.

Wang Xinzhe was stunned.

Some songs could strike a chord with people of a certain age from the very first line.

This song, "A Hill," seemed to have been written for middle-aged men like him.

"Maybe we never truly grew up, never understood, and now we're almost old."

"Though the one living in my heart is still that young man."

As the song continued, especially when that line rang out, Wang Xinzhe felt goose bumps rise all over his body.

It wasn't the kind of emotion that came from being overwhelmed to tears, but a sadness and resentment that slowly welled up from deep within.

Like his once thick, jet-black hair, which had grown sparse with the passage of time.

When you reached middle age and suddenly looked back, you realized your youth was gone.

Even though the person living in your heart was still that young man.

Wang Xinzhe suddenly raised a hand to touch his hairline.

Am I really old?

He wasn't the only one. Zhang Zheng, who'd been smiling the whole time, gradually fell quiet too.

Listening to the song made Zhang Zheng think uncontrollably of the days when he'd sung for a living in bars,

and how he and a few friends had gotten drunk and decided to form a band, only to part ways in the end because they had to make a living.

He'd been lucky enough to become famous.

As for his old buddies, one had gone abroad, one had returned to the countryside to farm, and one had died in a car accident last year.

"Old Lei, Old Cui... Let's all stay well. Old Hei, I'll bring you some good wine and food tomorrow and come see you."

Zhang Zheng suddenly realized that he, too, was nearing forty.

The successes and failures of the past were probably just what they were.

Zhang Zheng suddenly clenched his fist.

Damn it, why do I suddenly feel like I'm already old?

As for Feng Bingbing, she was completely dumbfounded.

Why did that voice sound so weathered?

He sounded like a middle-aged man, didn't he?

Why was he completely different from the preliminaries?

She'd wanted to listen carefully to "Dawei Tianlong" again and see if he was Senior Lin.

But the moment she heard him, Feng Bingbing was completely thrown into chaos.

What was going on?!

Had she been overthinking it?

That couldn't be right. In the preliminaries, Dawei Tianlong's voice had clearly been Senior Lin's.

How could this happen?

It was just so annoying, boo-hoo-hoo!