Chapter 155, Part 155 (Second Update)

155:

"What's going on?" Mu Shaoting asked in surprise, "Why do their choruses sound so similar?!"

Li Jing chuckled, "I knew it sounded familiar."

He Han on stage had long since lost her smile. She looked at Wang Huai, her face deathly pale, and her hand gripping the microphone tightened unconsciously.

"What's going on?" the audience whispered. "Why do the two songs sound so similar?"

"Could she have plagiarized?"

"No way, why sing it if it's plagiarized?"

"Yes, it's already down to the top ten or the top five, there's absolutely no need for this."

The show's director and other judges also looked at the stage in surprise, then at Wang Huai, caught off guard by this sudden turn of events.

Wang Huai finished playing the song at a leisurely pace, and then put his phone away.

"This song is one I wrote five years ago. It wasn't popular or widely sung, but I'm its author, so no matter when or how it changes, I can recognize it at a glance."

Looking at the girl in front of him, whose expression had long since lost its previous ease and joy, Wang Huai said, "I'll ask you one more time, was the song you just sang one you wrote yourself? From the lyrics to the music, you did it all by yourself, without any plagiarism or borrowing?!"

He Han: ...

"Wow!" The audience erupted in excitement again. "Teacher Wang is so intimidating!"

"After all, it was Teacher Wang who was plagiarized. Teacher Wang was already very polite by not interrupting her during her performance."

"Teacher Wang seems genuinely angry. What will He Han do now?"

Ye Qingxi blinked, somewhat surprised.

The current situation He Han is experiencing is so similar to what his aunt went through in the original book.

However, his aunt did not plagiarize the judges' songs herself. Instead, under Yang Yu's guidance, she chose a song that plagiarized a less popular song by the judges, which led to her being condemned by the judges and forced to leave the stage.

And now, it's He Han.

So, what role did Yang Yu play in this?

Yang Yu stared blankly at the monitor screen in front of him until he felt a pain in his fingers. He looked down in alarm and found that the cigarette was almost burned out and had burned his hand.

He quickly threw the cigarette in his hand into the ashtray, his hands trembling.

It's unbelievable... it's unbelievable that it's a song by Wang Huai.

Yang Yu felt a throbbing pain in his head.

How could it be that it's a song by Wang Huai?

Yang Yu didn't understand.

Ever since He Han forced him to start creating, he has been writing lyrics and composing music day and night, writing and discarding, discarding and writing again. During this time, he did listen to some songs in order to find inspiration, but he did not listen to Wang Huai's songs!

Yang Yu pondered deeply.

He thought about it again and again, going through the whole thing from the beginning, sorting out his thoughts step by step, and finally seemed to have figured it out.

Because he had heard this song before.

He has always enjoyed discovering niche and obscure songs, so the more obscure and less widely sung a song is, the more likely it is to end up on his playlist.

However, he had only heard Wang Huai's song five years ago, and deleted it when he updated his playlist later.

Later, when he was composing a song for He Han, he heard another song. He felt that its chorus was a bit flat and that it would be better if it were changed. So he hummed it repeatedly and changed it repeatedly. In the end, he unconsciously changed it to the chorus version of Wang Huai that he had heard five years ago.

He hadn't listened to this song in a long time, so he had long forgotten about it.

The revised song no longer resembled the original song that had inspired him, so Yang Yu naturally didn't find anything wrong with it.

He naturally regarded this song, which he created, as a brand new, unique, and original song.

He had too much faith in himself, and He Han trusted him enough.

Neither of them checked the lyrics and music of the song, which led to today's accident.

Looking at the monitor screen in front of him, and at the woman on whom he had placed so much hope, Yang Yu felt utterly defeated.

After something like this, can He Han still make it into the top five?!

Can she successfully re-enter the entertainment industry and maintain her current popularity?

Yang Yu was genuinely afraid!

After all, he was truly prepared to make money off his girlfriend.

He Han was even more afraid than him.

She held the microphone, but didn't know what to say.

She looked at Wang Huai, who seemed like a piece of paper about to fall over. He didn't even need the wind to blow her over; if he just opened his mouth and blew a breath, he could knock her down.

She couldn't say that it wasn't her creation but Yang Yu's work. That would be tantamount to lying in front of everyone, showing that she had no original talent and was trying to pass off someone else's work as her own.

Even if she clears herself of plagiarism, the judges and audience will still dislike her and continue to condemn her.

However, if she doesn't name Yang Yu, the accusation of plagiarism will be placed on her head, making it seem as if she actively plagiarized Wang Huai's work.

At this moment, He Han felt a deep hatred for Yang Yu, hating how useless he was!

He found himself in a dilemma, unable to admit it or not!

Murong Qing wrote so many songs, and none of them had this problem. She only asked him to write one, and he actually plagiarized it!

She even copied the judge in front of her!

How could he be so useless!

They're more trouble than they're worth!

"I...I might have heard your song before, Mr. Wang Huai, so when I was writing the song, I wrote it down unconsciously. I'm sorry," He Han apologized. "I didn't mean to."

"Then this isn't original work, and you shouldn't claim to have created an original song," Wang Huai said coldly.

"I understand," He Han said in a low voice. "I won't do it again."

"No one stipulates that you must sing original songs in the competition. Writing songs is not a simple thing, and writing good songs is even more difficult. I respect true originality, but I despise fake originality. He Han, by performing this song on this stage, you are not only disrespecting me, but also disrespecting this stage. Therefore, I will not let you advance. My comment is: do what you are capable of, don't be overly ambitious and pursue things you don't have. You have failed to advance."

After Wang Huai finished speaking, he put down the microphone.

He Han's tears fell instantly.

Ye Qingxi was almost certain at that moment that the one who eliminated Mu Shaoting in the original book was definitely Wang Huai!

He said that He Han's statement about disrespecting the stage was exactly the same as what the judges said about Mu Shaoting in the original book!

Unexpectedly, this time, he wasn't talking about Mu Shaoting, but He Han.

Ye Qingxi had just found it strange that He Han had never sung any original songs in the original book, and had only sung other people's songs. But now, she was doing something different from the original book.

At that time, however, he didn't think much about it.

Looking back now, it was probably his appearance as an "external force" that allowed Mu Shaoting not only to overcome the hurdle of advancing from 100 to 60, but also to lead the pack and become the most popular contestant.

He Han's brilliance was almost overshadowed, and she was unwilling to accept this, so she wanted to follow in Mu Shaoting's footsteps and even surpass her—she created her own works.

However, due to a lack of professionalism, they completely messed up on stage.

There's no need, Ye Qingxi thought. Creation relies on inspiration and talent.

That's why there are so few singer-songwriters.

Being able to sing well is already a great achievement; you don't need to be able to do everything.

If He Han hadn't been so unwilling to accept defeat, and hadn't insisted on competing with Mu Shaoting, but had instead steadily progressed at her own pace, then given that she was the protagonist's sister, she would have been able to reach the finals no matter what.

Even Ye Qingxi himself couldn't guarantee that he could get Mu Shaoting to defeat the brother-sister duo of He Han and He Yao, who were overshadowed by the main characters, without having Mu Shaowu come to help him sing in the finals.

But now that this has happened, can she still make it to the finals?

After expressing his strong dissatisfaction, Wang Huai stopped speaking.

The other judges were also somewhat embarrassed and at a loss for what to do.

They had a good personal relationship with Wang Huai, and since they were both musicians, it was impossible for them not to hate plagiarism.

But when He Han stood on the stage, she looked so pitiful that it was hard to bear seeing her like that.

Ultimately, the judges gave two votes for advancement, two votes for elimination, and one abstention.

This essentially hands over the decision-making power to the audience, letting them decide whether she can advance.

This is a new mechanism introduced after the competition entered the top ten, in which the advancement results depend on both the judges and the audience.

The top five will be determined by combining the judges' advancement results and audience votes.

Viewers had differing opinions on He Han's performance, with some voting for her to advance and others for her to be eliminated.

The final combined score did not completely overwhelm the eliminations, and He Han entered the waiting area.

If any contestants are undecided in the upcoming matches, He Han will need to compete against them.

If no contestants are on the waiting list, then she may be eliminated.

As expected of the protagonist's sister, Ye Qingxi thought, even after such a big incident, there is still a 50% chance of her staying on the stage.

Unlike Mu Shaoting, who was eliminated simply for singing a plagiarized song (which she didn't even plagiarize herself), and the audience didn't even know she had ever been there.

He Han left the stage in tears.

Ye Qingxi then stood up as well.

"I'm going to the restroom," he said.

After saying that, Ye Qingxi looked at Li Jing and said, "Uncle Li, will you come with me?"

"Okay," Li Jing replied.

This was also one of his duties. Mu Shaoting was a girl, so it was inconvenient for her to take Ye Qingxi to the toilet. However, Ye Qingxi was only five years old, and Mu Shaoting was afraid that he would encounter bad people if he went to the bathroom alone. Therefore, she always asked Li Jing to accompany him.

Over time, the two of them got used to it.

Ye Qingxi went out, but did not go straight to the toilet.

Instead, he strolled leisurely down the corridor to the lounge where He Han was. He saw He Han enter the room before quickening his pace to walk towards her lounge.

Li Jing: ? ? ?

Li Jing pressed down on his shoulder, "Isn't this the way to the restroom?"

Ye Qingxi smiled and raised her hand to her mouth to shush.

Li Jing was both amused and exasperated.

"Uncle Li, I'll go see what's going on. Otherwise, I'm afraid they might do something bad to my aunt later," Ye Qingxi said with a sincere and innocent expression.

Li Jing had never seen such a worrisome child.

Other children of this age are sitting at home waiting for their families to treat them well, but Ye Qingxi is always worrying about others, afraid that they will treat her aunt badly.

No wonder Mu Shaoting likes him so much that he's willing to bring him along even for important events like competitions.

"Then be gentle," Li Jing instructed.

Ye Qingxi nodded, "Don't worry."

And didn't he specifically bring Li Jing with him?

She was afraid that if she were discovered, she would be alone and unable to defeat Yang Yu.

He's very safety-conscious!

Ye Qingxi tiptoed to the door of He Han's lounge and heard a heated argument coming from inside.

"Tell me! Did you do this on purpose?! Do you still like Mu Shaoting, so you deliberately made this plagiarized song for me to sing?!"

He Han cried until her eyes were red. "I finally made it this far. My brother even said that when the finals came, he would retweet my Weibo post, expose our relationship, make me trend on social media, and help me win the championship. But now, because of you, I'm on hold! Do you know what being on hold means?! I might just stop at the top ten!"

"Yang Yu! Are you doing this on purpose?! You never intended to help me from the beginning, did you?!"

Ye Qingxi: !!

Good heavens!

He Han didn't even write that song himself!

It was written by Yang Yu!

This is truly a huge bombshell!

Ye Qingxi quickly activated the recording function on his smartwatch and started recording through the crack in the door.

He waved to Li Jing while recording.

Li Jing bent down and leaned in to listen, and heard Ye Qingxi's soft voice, "Uncle Li, you should record one too, so we have double insurance!"

Li Jing: ...