Chapter 37  Competition

Song Meishi clenched her fists tightly and looked away. Her eyes shining in unconcealable malice. She walked into the school with a very bad expression.

"Why so angry?"

Song Meishi looked up in mild confusion. This voice was familiar to her, but why would they be talking to her?

Rong Li leaned against a column, his mouth pulled into a smirk full of mischief. "Why pull such a long face when you could be smiling. Its best not to bottle up too much."

Song Meishi looked at him in annoyance. She rolled her large eyes before looking at him and huffing. "Why say that when you have nothing to worry about. You are the Rong Family's precious third young master, what worries could a pampered man such as yourself have."

Rong Li's smile widens, "Your right. I won't despute that fact. But why should you sulk to yourself when you can cause the person who is behind your anger the same bitterness you feel."

Song Meishi's eyes brightened a bit before she turned to look at Rong Li in mild suspicion. She had seen this pretty boy around before, and she knew a lot of his fangirls. She knew a lot about him, and one such fact was his aloofness. Why would he suddenly give a nobody like her advice. "Why are you telling me this?"

"I wouldn't like to see such a wonderful person like you bothered so I said my two pieces. Anyway, you don't have to listen to my advice." Rong Li turned to walk away. "Just know that you have a lot of power. You just haven't used it in the right ways."

Power? What power? Compared to Su Qingtang what power did she have to speak of?

"Meishi! Why are you over there standing alone in a daze. Come over here!" A young girl ran over to Song Meishi. "Meishi, Im throwing a party, you have to come!" She took in Song Meishi's frown before interjecting. "Come on Meishi! You have to come, ah! Everyone loves you and would be happy if you came!"

Sudden realization seemed to dawn on Meishi. She looked at the girl's bright eyes and smiled. Her eyes twinkling in delight.

"If everyone loves me so much and wants me there, who am I to disappoint, ah!"

------------

After the school day ended Su Qingtang decided to brave the cold and didn't take the car back with Su Rui. She watched in sadness as the car drove away and she could do nothing but pull her clothes tighter around her.

Su Qingtang hailed a taxi, and gave an address as she waited in silence. The driver didn't make any conversation so they sat in silence as he drove her to the large building. Su Qingtang politely thanked him and walked into the building.

Various girls in various colors talking animatedly was what greeted her when she entered the building. Su Qingtang looked around curiously before going up to the reception.

"Hello," She greeted. "Im Su Qingtang. I came for the contest."

"Hello, Miss Su. It's a pleasure to have you here today. Please sign your name on the register and take a number and sit in your corresponding seat."

Su Qingtang did as told. She looked at her number.

#65

She looked around for a seat with her number and went to her seat without attempting to cause too much of a fuss just standing in the way and doing nothing. Sixty five didn't seem to be low of a number if they were going in ascending order, so Su Qingtang could only blame herself for not arriving earlier.

The surrounding girls chatted quietly all of them glancing around to somewhat gauge the competition, many of them having anxious facial expressions or a calm façade, few appeared actually calm. Su Qingtang wasn't one of them. She looked around nervously as she chatted with the system.

"Ah! I'm nervous."

"Why should you be nervous." The system asked. "Don't you believe in me?"

The original had quite a good singing voice but with her mind elsewhere she didn't even think of pursuing music. The host didn't really want to join the music scene either but for the exposure, Su Qingtang was willing to try anything.

In truth, Su Qingtang didn't need the 'singing skills' she exchanged for, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

Skills entailed understanding a craft. While Su Qingtang was smart in her original time she had no talent in singing so she had no understanding of how it would work. By exchanging for singing skills she needed not worry about understanding how to sing.

Su Qingtang was nervous as this was not something she had tried before. There was a novel feel that only came when one tried something new.

A stage is quickly set up and a lady comes to stand on it. Su Qingtang checked the time.

4:00

Su Qingtang noted their punctuality with a smile. No one liked lateness after all.

"Hello, Welcome to Shining Light Singing competition." The lady smiled brightly as she took in the audience of girls, she noted the good turnout this year with pride. "My name is Song YunYao. It's a pleasure."

The audience smiles and gives a low response of greetings.

Song Yunyao does a small polite bow in greeting before turning to a panel of people who sat beside the stage, they had a good view of the contestants on stage while people in the audience could see them as well. The placement was impeccable. "These are our judges, two of which you may know. Our Xi Lei, a well known composer and music connoisseur, in the music industry. He has written and produced music for many famous stars and the composer for many famous movies. Next to him we have the beautiful Ying Luo. A retired singer in the entertainment industry, you might have heard of her most famous song 'Wing Rushing From the East'"

A lot of people nodded, but Su Qingtang frowned a bit. It seemed she needed to gain more information about the music industry.

She didn't like wading into murky waters when she had no clue of the depth of it.