Chapter 52: Submit Chen Yuan’s Name

Chapter 52: Chapter 52: Submit Chen Yuan’s Name

There were 15 contestants in total, but none of them would get to finish their song.

Liu Jinlong and Qi Chen would stop them after the chorus. All they needed was to get a sense of their skill level to avoid wasting time.

Just then, Fang Youning and Fan Siyu appeared at the entrance of Room 201, but they didn’t go inside.

"Ningning, you’re the professional singer here. How do they sound?"

"They’re all quite good." The talented singer gave a high appraisal.

"Any of them have a shot at second place?"

"Why second place?"

"You’re first place, that’s not even up for debate. No matter how well these other people sing, the best they can do is fight for second," Fan Siyu said with conviction.

Fang Youning was a little embarrassed by the compliment.

"I’m not as amazing as you make it sound. There are plenty of good singers at this school; they’re just more low-key about it."

"I think you’re the one being low-key. You’re already widely considered number one," Fan Siyu said, certain.

"That song you sang at the welcome gala got tens of thousands of likes after the school’s official account posted it online. The comments about you were extremely positive."

"I just got lucky. I’m sure there are people better than me. Maybe I’ll even run into one today."

"Being overly humble isn’t a good habit, you know."

Fan Siyu craned her neck to peek inside, and her gaze quickly locked onto Chen Yuan.

"Looks like it’s Chen Yuan’s turn. Let’s see how he sings."

Fang Youning didn’t say anything, just looked into the lecture hall, a little expectant herself.

Chen Yuan walked to the front and used the computer to play his backing track.

When the backing track started playing, everyone in the lecture hall was dumbfounded.

Just from the cheerful intro, they could tell it was a children’s song.

Liu Jinlong: ???

’Is this guy for real? Is he here to mess around?’

’It’s not like children’s songs are forbidden, but singing one now just feels... off.’

"Chen Yuan, what song are you singing?" Qi Chen asked.

"’Burst of Courage.’ You even did a cover of it on TikTok."

Outside, Fang Youning and Fan Siyu were also taken aback. Under normal circumstances, no one would sing a children’s song at an event like this.

"That was for a TikTok video. This is completely different," Qi Chen said, pressing a hand to her forehead, feeling a wave of second-hand embarrassment.

"A children’s song is still a song. Don’t be discriminatory, Senior."

"Fine, fine, go ahead and sing."

"A little seed is sown in my heart, da la di la da~"

"It grants my little wishes, with its wondrous magic~"

Hm?

At first, Liu Jinlong and Qi Chen were just listening for laughs. But as Chen Yuan sang, they realized he was actually on to something. His pitch was perfect.

The only drawback was that the song was too simple. It wasn’t challenging at all, so it was impossible to gauge his true skill level.

Still, one thing was certain: Chen Yuan could definitely sing, and he was actually quite good.

"Okay, stop, stop." Qi Chen cut Chen Yuan off.

"What’s wrong, Senior?"

"Can you sing a different song? Something a bit more challenging."

"Sure, but I don’t have a backing track for it."

"A cappella is fine."

AHEM, AHEM...

"I awaken the oceans, awaken the mountains~"

"Stop, stop, stop," Qi Chen cut him off again.

"Can we please not do another children’s song? Sing a pop song."

"I don’t know any others. I can only sing children’s songs."

"Alright then."

The Arts Department auditions came to an end, and Fang Youning and Fan Siyu quietly slipped away.

"Chen Yuan is a little out there, but he sang those two children’s songs pretty well," Fan Siyu said, looking at Fang Youning.

"Give me your professional assessment."

"He’s good. It’s just that the songs were too simple to tell what his true skill level is."

"That’s what I don’t get. If he can sing, why sing children’s songs? If he sang a proper song, he’d have a real shot at competing for the title of campus heartthrob of the University of Science and Technology."

Fang Youning didn’t answer. She was pondering the same question.

After lights out, the girls’ dorms would have their own pillow talk sessions.

Girls tend to be gossips, and their latest topic of discussion was exactly who deserved to be named the University of Science and Technology’s campus heartthrob.

Her other three roommates each had their own candidate. They even secretly found their TikTok accounts and critiqued them.

Fang Youning had seen the guys her roommates had crowned as potential heartthrobs, but she wasn’t impressed. They were just okay.

If she really had to choose, she thought Chen Yuan was better than any of the guys her roommates had picked.

’He can play basketball, he can sing, and he even knows how to change diapers. Those should all be bonus points.’

After the two of them left, the other contestants began to trickle out.

Chen Yuan decided to skip evening self-study and went straight back to his dorm.

BZZZT—

He received a message from Li Yingying.

Li Yingying: "Where can I buy a Xuenai? I’ll go get one for you."

From Li Yingying’s perspective, it didn’t matter what he sang. The fact that he showed up was a show of support for her work, so she had to buy him something to say thank you.

Chen Yuan: "I’ve had too much Xuenai lately. Get me a Zhonghai. I want to taste if it’s salty or sweet."

Li Yingying: "What flavor?"

Chen Yuan: "Fruit tea or lemonade is fine."

Li Yingying: "OK."

...

Back in Room 201, Liu Jinlong and Qi Chen stayed behind. With the Ten Best Singers competition just around the corner, they had to finalize the results today.

"Let me see the list of people you picked."

While the contestants were singing, the two of them had been scoring them mentally, making a simple ranking and picking out their personal top five.

Liu Jinlong pushed his list over.

The people they chose were nearly identical; only their final pick was different.

"Qian Jiajia’s high notes are decent, but her pitch is a little off," Qi Chen said.

"Your fifth pick was Li Baichuan. He sang well enough, and his emotion was on point, but folk songs are at a disadvantage on the Ten Best Singers stage," Liu Jinlong said.

"We have to pick the best of the bunch, even if the bunch isn’t great."

By their standards, neither Qian Jiajia nor Li Baichuan were quite up to snuff. It was just that the other contestants were even further behind them.

"You know, I actually thought Chen Yuan sounded pretty good," Liu Jinlong said.

"But he sang children’s songs! If he’d sung just one proper song, I might have picked him."

Qi Chen sighed and rolled her eyes.

"I swear, that guy... This isn’t the time to be pulling a stunt like that."

"But we can be sure of one thing: he can definitely sing. His sense of melody is spot on. In that respect, he’s better than all the others."

Qi Chen thought for a moment, then nodded in agreement with Liu Jinlong.

"So you have another idea?"

"Look, both Qian Jiajia and Li Baichuan are lacking. Even if we put them forward, they’ll just get eliminated in the round that cuts 70 contestants down to 30. We might as well send Chen Yuan. At an event that formal, he can’t possibly still sing children’s songs and mess around, right?" Liu Jinlong suggested.

Qi Chen twirled her pen, mulling over Liu Jinlong’s words.

"You actually have a point. I bet he just isn’t taking the Ten Best Singers competition seriously. Li Yingying is in his class and also in the Arts Department, so he probably just did it for the sake of participating. Otherwise, there’s no way he would’ve sung children’s songs."

"Exactly. Besides, what kind of person who can actually sing *only* knows children’s songs? That’s impossible."

"Then it’s settled. Let’s put Chen Yuan’s name down."