Hearing Nana Li's name, Lin Tian looked even more shocked.
Her?
She could get in too?
If they only looked at results.
Nana Li was merely a foreign contestant who had just arrived, with almost no domestic honors in cello. The only thing she could show for herself was making it to the quarterfinals of the Parrot Qin Cup.
Of course, there were differences even among quarterfinalists.
There was no need to mention the weaklings.
Some faced a whole crowd of overwhelmingly strong opponents and still could not win despite giving it everything they had. Even in defeat, they were honorable.
Others clearly had a chance at the championship, but popped champagne at halftime, got brutally beaten, and then stubbornly insisted that they were not quarterfinalists, but "seventh-place, sixth-place, fifth-place" competitors after a scientific comparison. Then they would add, "Making the quarterfinals or Round of Sixteen is still better than staying home."
And in Lin Tian's eyes, Nana Li was clearly the former.
Nana Li had every right to say something too.
In the same provincial competition, what opponents were you facing, and what opponents was I facing?
Among those quarterfinalists, which of Bai Xi, Gan Yan Yu, and Yun Qiuqiu was human?
I competed in Qingjiang Province, so I deserved to be thrown into a hell-level dungeon?
"..."
All things considered.
Lin Tian still acknowledged Nana Li's strength.
Put her in any other province, and she would definitely be a championship favorite.
But he had never imagined that she would make it into the national competition.
"Because she's Nana Li, I suppose."
He Zhichen said,
"Nana Li's family has enough influence in the cello world that even the Celestial Dynasty Musicians Association would give them some respect."
"Oh."
Once he said that, it did not seem so strange anymore.