Tu Nian stood among the musicians and looked at the lead singer in the front row. She felt an inevitable itch in her heart, but when she thought of the last song, she felt indifferent about it.
Seeing the atmosphere was getting a bit heavy, the guitarist mustered up the courage to clear his throat and said to everyone, "Everyone, work harder. The performance is almost over. Don't let your guard down."
Everyone else, including Tu Nian, hummed in agreement. Lead singer Zhou Zihong, however, snorted disdainfully, glanced at him, and said, "Don't even mention letting me down. If anyone doesn't perform amazingly later, I'll be the first one to punish them."
Zhou Zihong's words were unpleasant to hear, but no one dared to offend him.
They all knew in their hearts that in this performance, except for the last three songs, their songs were indeed the most difficult and the most outstanding.
Since they were arranged by Bo Qiu to be the third group to perform, they had to perform better than the other two groups.
With the final drum beat, the second band's set came to an end. The stage lights followed their figures off the stage and then dimmed suddenly.
"Let's go and give them a good beating."
Zhou Zihong finished speaking and was the first to walk onto the stage. The remaining four followed closely behind, each taking their place in the positions they had rehearsed so many times.
The applause from the audience for the previous band had not yet completely died down, and whispers were still heard.
After making sure that everyone was ready, Zhou Zihong signaled to the lighting technician, and the stage instantly became as bright as day. Almost at the same time the light came down, Tu Nian started.
The third five-piece band opened the third part with this keyboard-based song.
The third band was a truly impressive finale. Their voices were even more beautiful and their music even more captivating as they sang. Even those in the audience who didn't understand music theory couldn't help but think, "This is far superior to their predecessors." It would have been fine if this was the only audience, but there were also quite a few talent scouts in the audience, drawn to the fame of the "Second Opera."
There is a famous saying among the brokerage companies, which has always been regarded as a guiding principle by everyone: "It is better to pick up a blade of grass than to lose a treasure." This saying is particularly applicable to performances under the name of Erxi.
Everyone in the industry knew that Erxi held at least one special performance a year to discover new talent. Strangely, the songs he used didn't differ much each time, but he always put extra effort into the arrangements, tailored to the different vocalists.
Even more bizarre is that agencies, with their endless stream of talent shows and development programs, large and small, never seem to find any promising talent. Yet, in these few performances, the Second Opera always manages to find exceptionally gifted and malleable musical talent. For example, Luo Zhan and Song Chengming, who will be the final performers today, were both found this way.
"The second drama has a rare talent-attracting physique in the circle," various brokerage companies believe.
So starting from last year, whenever there was a performance held under the name of Erxi, there would always be a lot of scouts sneaking in, hoping to sign a few actors who were left out by Bo Qiu but had potential.
Of course, there are many people who are shameless enough to poach people.
In this situation, apart from the music idiots who come to listen to the excitement and the half-baked people who know a little about music, the rest are just a few experts who come to enjoy the music, and these old-fashioned scouts who can't even chew a bit.
That being said, this performance, up until the second band's end, deserved a perfect score in terms of both effect and quality. While the third band's performance, in the eyes of most, was the highlight of the entire show, it was seen quite differently by these discerning talent scouts.
It's common knowledge that a band's keyboardist is responsible not only for instrumental harmonies but also, in many cases, for vocal harmony. However, the talent scouts in the audience were surprised to discover that the band's keyboardist hadn't played a single note since the first song.
Zhou Zihong had noticed it, of course. Their group's performance of the first song was absolutely perfect, both his singing and the others' performances were top-notch.
He thought that today's performance would end smoothly, but from the second song onwards, the woman in charge of the keyboard no longer sang harmony for him.
At first, Zhou Zihong thought she was just excited and had forgotten. But when he clearly heard that she was trying to replace the harmony with more changes in melody and tone, he realized that she was doing it on purpose.
He suppressed his emotions and tried to communicate with Tu Nian during several long interludes and the small gaps at the end of a song, but in the many times when he "naturally" turned back to his perspective, Tu Nian just stared at the piano keys with a serious expression and did not even raise his head.
Ridiculous! Zhou Zihong no longer wanted to communicate with her. He tried his best to keep singing, but he was already furious.
This woman is so clueless, how dare she ignore the performance effect just for the sake of showing off her skills? Who does she think she is? Can she afford the efforts of so many people?
The other three members of the band soon realized something was wrong with the keyboard, but they didn't have the chance to question her. The performance couldn't be interrupted, so all the four of them could do was to accommodate Tu Nian's impromptu changes and keep the piece as complete as possible.
The piece was finally completed successfully. Of course, if Tu Nian's inexplicable mistake was not counted, their performance was indeed quite satisfactory. Several people bowed and left the stage.
Zhou Zihong's eyes were filled with anger, and he was about to explode. After making sure he had disappeared from the audience's sight, he jumped off the stage impatiently. His eyes swept over the remaining people and finally fell on Tu Nian.
Tu Nian followed at the end of the team, with a dull expression, his lips trembling slightly, and he looked very strange.
When the other three saw her like this, they held back their words of blame for a moment and couldn't help but wonder what was wrong with this girl.
But Zhou Zihong had no intention of sympathizing with the lady. He rushed forward, grabbed Tu Nian's wrist fiercely, and shouted: "What's wrong with you!? Do you think you are so great? So many people are working hard to make this performance more perfect, what about you!?"
Tu Nian's wrist was held tightly in Zhou Zihong's hand, and her body swayed several times with his movements like a puppet with its strings cut off.
As Zhou Zihong roared, she slowly moved her dark eyes, which had lost their luster, to the man in front of her, but her mind was still blank, with only one sentence repeating over and over again.
"Speak!" Seeing that she still didn't answer, Zhou Zihong shook off her wrist and pushed her back hard, then cursed fiercely: "Useless trash."
"Don't you have any manners? How can you talk like that?" Yu Tianhe suddenly appeared from nowhere and caught Tu Nian, who was about to fall. He glanced at Tu Nian, who was dressed exquisitely but looked almost human, and angrily said to Zhou Zihong, "How can you be considered a man if you touch a girl?"
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