12 Chapter 12: Singing Contest

Finally, it was time for Chang Yue School's annual singing competition. The auditorium was completely filled with students, parents, friends, and representatives from other schools in A City. Multiple cameras are set up around the stage to record the entire program. The event is considered one of the most important of the school. It serves as a way for the students to showcase their talents and be scouted by other prestigious secondary schools. Chang Yue School itself is known to be a respectable establishment for the working and middle class families despite being only a tier 3 school. It has built a reputation for producing talented young singers. Every year the first and second place winners of the contest get to participate in A City's interschool singing competition (ACISC). ACISC is an annual wide scale competition for primary and secondary school contestants and could be said as the main stage for these young aspiring musicians to be recognized by scouts from entertainment companies.

Since this was Su Ning's first time participating in a contest she was fairly nervous and excited. Mother Qin and Father Su had first dropped her off at the backstage room to get ready. Although they are both happy that their daughter is engaged in school activities, they don't want their daughter to be saddened by failure. Mother Qin and Father Su possess a parent's indulgent heart which allows them to believe their daughter is the best. But this doesn't mean they are not realistic; they are aware people are talented in different areas and some individuals are more talented than others. "NingNing, whatever happens mom and dad love you okay." "Yes. NingNing just do your best. Don't worry about winning or losing." "Okay. Okay. I will listen to mom and dad." Su Ning answered with a smile. Su Ning noticed some movement on the side and saw her friends Li Youqing and Lin Miao also came to give their support. "Good Luck Su Ning!" said Lin Miao. "Class 1-3 is cheering for you! MiaoMiao drew the banners!" bragged Li Youqing. Su Ning really felt touched to have family and friends in this life. "QingQing, MiaoMiao, thank you!!"

At 9:00am the order of the contestants' performances are determined by random drawing monitored by the portly and bespectacled school principal, Mr Peng. Previous winners will have the option to change their number with another contestant should they choose to do so. There are a total of 24 contestants from Junior High 1 thru senior high 3; the program is expected to close around 12:00pm and the school will be let out the rest of the day. Su Ning drew a 24 and felt a bit stuffy in her heart. Initially, she wanted to sing earlier so she could properly focus on the other's performances. Qing Mei initially drew a 5 but seemingly inexplicably she decided to exercise her right to exchange and switched with Chu Han who drew a 23. Chu Han who heard about Qing Mei's dislike of Su Ning felt bad for this pretty, soft spoken girl. Knowing that this is Su Ning's first time performing in a school contest, he deduced that Qing Mei must want to pressure Su Ning by going immediately before her. This strategy will allow the crowd to clearly see the difference in their abilities.

In other words, Qing Mei wants Su Ning to be a foil. Chu Han didn't normally like to involve himself in girls' quarrels but he felt the need to leave Su Ning with some words of encouragement. "Su Ning Classmate, don't think about other things when you go on stage later. You know yourself how much effort you put. Good Luck." Su Ning was surprised to hear her upperclassman's kind words. Chu Han is known as an ice prince in their school and doesn't normally associate with others outside his small friend group. "Thank you, Chu Han Senior. I will remember your kind words. Good luck on the competition as well." Su Ning smiled beautifully and cheered for her senior. Qing Mei who felt like she had been ignored by the two felt even more anger in her heart.

By 9:50 am, the emcees had kicked off the program and introduced the panel of four judges. On the panel was the school's music director, Xu Ting, popular singer and Chang Yue alum, Fang Ji, renowned vocal coach, Huo Ran, and actor Zhou JiHeng. The prizes are also particularly attractive to the students: 1st place Gold Medal & 2,000 cash prize, 2nd place Silver Medal & 1,000 cash prize, 3rd place Bronze Medal & 500 cash prize.

And so, one by one the contestants took the stage. Su Ning was unable to pay much attention to the stage. She ended up listening to senior Chu Han sing xin ru dao ge (Heart Wrenching) by Jackie Cheung. His voice is husky and deep, overall pleasant to the ears. He also clearly expresses the gut wrenching feelings of heartbreak in his emotional singing. Su Ning was suddenly reminded of chatty Lin Miao's words from earlier, "Chu Han Senior is very serious. He doesn't play alot like kids his age. I heard his family's financial situation isn't well. So he really wants to win the contest and eventually get scouted by an entertainment company." 'Aiiiii, it's really hard not to have money. I hope things workout for him. He is very talented.' thought Su Ning.

In the meantime, Su Ning was doing some guided meditations using her phone; this was a habit she acquired in her past life. It was free and helped her manage the stress of public accounting. She also often used it to relieve her insomnia caused by her depression in the latter part of her life.

Soon the contest was coming to a close and there were three participants left. Participant no. 22 was Teng Anna, a cute girl with curly hair who sang Li Xing Qing Ren (Ideal Lover) by Rainie Yang. Her voice was soft and sweet albeit somewhat shaky at parts. Qing Mei was watching Teng Anna and thinking that the latter was probably nervous to be singing before her. 'Soon it will be my turn. Let's see if you can still lift your head up after this.' Qing Mei thought as she glanced at Su Ning.

Participant 23 Qing Mei took to the stage and began to sing Chu Dian (Electric Shock) by SHE. Her pink dress shook lightly as began to sing in a lively high pitched voice. 'Qing Mei is good, no wonder she is arrogant.' thought Su Ning as she nodded along to the song. However, the song was originally sung by three people with different voice types. The program does not allow recording of backing vocals or guide vocals. So mistakes can easily be seen. In several parts, the song transitions very fast and has to be sung in the same breath. Nevermind even trying to hit the high notes, hopefully she properly trained and increased her lung capacity or she'll likely run out of breath in the middle. 'Aiii, why did she choose a song with this level of difficulty.' worried Su Ning. True enough by the middle of the song Qing Mei's voice was showing visible signs of exhaustion. She wasn't able to properly hit the high notes and had to switch to ad-libbing by the last chorus of the song. Objectively speaking, Qing Mei's rendition of Chu Dian still sounded very good to layman's ears but a trained vocalist or musician will likely not give it higher than a 7 or 8 out of 10. It seems Qing Mei was aware of this as well as she left the stage with a stiff smile on her face amidst the audience applause.

After a minute or so, the final participant, Su Ning was called and introduced by the emcee on the stage. She began to sing Xin Dong (Tempting Heart) by Lin Xiao Pei. She had a clear and ethereal sounding voice that immediately caught the audience attention. She wore a long boho style flower lace dress with a half braided hairstyle. She would alternately look at the different cameras set up on the stage allowing the auditorium lights to fall on her long hair at different angles. She appeared to twinkle under the lights like an angel thanks to Li Youqing's styling her hair with glitter.

Previously, Su Ning had been singing by ear, intuitively correcting her mistakes that way. (It's similar to how a native speaker would be able to speak and write the language and correct his/her grammatical errors naturally without knowing the specific rules he/she is applying.) Her vocal coach didn't have time to teach all the technicalities and concepts of music in a month and a half's time so she was pleasantly surprised at Su Ning's natural talent. Her choice of song plays a major key to her success. It is not unnecessarily difficult nor is it too easy to sing. However, it was challenging enough to show Su Ning's range, the beautiful texture and soft tone of voice. Once the final note had been sung, the auditorium erupted into loud applause.

- Who is this fairy like classmate?

- Class 1-3's Su Ning? I didn't know she can sing?!

- Wow, I didn't know our school has this hidden trump card.

- So pretty like an angel!