Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love) - Chapter 21

Chapter 21: She actually fell for his evil tricks!

Everyone in the audience waited for Qiao Yichen’s reply. Ding Meng watched him, unconsciously holding her breath.

Under the stares of a thousand watchful eyes, Qiao Yichen leaned slightly toward the microphone. His deep, magnetic voice traveled through the speakers. “I’m giving my vote to Ding Meng because her performance moved me.”

No one expected that Qiao Yichen would go ahead and immediately declare the result. Everyone had thought he would draw out the suspense before announcing his decision. At first, the spectators in the audience were shocked silent. Then they broke out in cheers.

“Congratulations Ding Meng for successfully advancing into the top 4!” The female presenter’s excited voice echoed across the stage, accompanying the audience’s applause. A buzzing began to ring in Ding Meng’s head.

The male presenter spoke, “Even though Qiao Yichen has already declared the result, we still need to ask him to comment on the two contestants’ performances.”

Qiao Yichen nodded and spoke, “Ever since the beginning of this competition, Mu Shuang has continued to perform her own original songs. I rather appreciate this aspect about her, even though in my opinion, the songs she has written are still lacking in many regards. The quality of her voice is also very good and unique. Right now, it is impossible to find a second female singer in the music circle with that kind of voice. However, her singing has one big flaw, or perhaps it can be called a bad habit.” He looked at Mu Shuang, “You only sing for yourself to hear. You never try to emotionally resonate with your audience. The primary purpose of a song is to convey something to others. Even though you had thrown yourself into the song, your emotions were sealed tightly.”

Mu Shuang simply nodded her head solemnly after listening to his words. Then Qiao Yichen looked toward Ding Meng, causing her tense up with nervousness.

This time she didn’t have a symphony orchestra or a youth choir or fancy stage effects. At least he couldn’t fault her on those points again!

“Ding Meng is just like Mu Shuang in that she also has a good voice. However, where she is completely different from Mu Shuang is the fact that her singing can easily resonate with others. Her techniques aren’t the best, but her understanding of a song’s emotions and ability to convey them is the most impressive among all the contestants. Her performance just now moved the audience and also moved me.” There was a second of pause here, “However, I think you can be considered to have exceeded expectations today. This ability to balance technique and emotions, you definitely aren’t able to use at will.”

Ding Meng, “…”

The first half had really moved her! She had actually believed that Qiao Yichen had finally turned over a new leaf! She actually fell for his evil tricks!

“Thank you for your comments Qiao Yichen. Now that all our top 4 contestants have been chosen, let’s invite the other three contestants to also come on stage!”

Under the presenter’s direction, the four contestants stood together on the middle of the stage. The presenters enthusiastically made a concluding statement, drawing today’s competition to a satisfying end.

When Ding Meng returned backstage, Liao Qian sincerely congratulated her. “I didn’t expect you would actually PK off Mu Shuang! Next time during the finals, you must remember to help me take revenge by ruthlessly suppressing Tang Shiran.”

Tang Shiran coincidentally walked off the stage at that moment and smiled at the two of them before directly departing. Mu Shuang returned backstage right behind Tang Shiran. She cast Ding Meng a glance and also walked away.

Liao Qian pat her stomach and spoke, “How scary. Mu Shuang really is a moving block of ice. I thought she would definitely come over here and hurl some insults but she unexpectedly just left like that . Anyways, getting back to the original topic, there actually weren’t any shady deals in this competition. How unconventional!”

Ding Meng didn’t say anything. Staff members from the director group came over to round up the top 4 contestants, explaining that they needed to attend a small meeting. She said her goodbyes to Liao Qian and went to attend the meeting. The person in charge seemed to know that everyone was really tired and simply handed over some plans for what was to come and let everyone go home.

Ding Meng changed her clothes and immediately went home. She took a hot shower in the bathroom and fell onto the bed, not wanting to move. This period of time had been very tiring as her body and mind had both been placed in such high pressure situations. Luckily the competition was approaching its conclusion. After next week….she would be able to eat chuan chuan!

With that motivational pillar, she quickly relaxed and fell asleep. Later, she finally woke up thanks to Qiao Yichen’s obnoxiously loud knocking.

“Coming, stop pounding.” Had he decided to break the door? She rubbed her eyes as she ran over to open the door. Qiao Yichen stood outside wearing an apron. “You’re not even excited to eat?”

Ding Meng frowned. “I fell asleep. Did you have to knock so loudly?”

Qiao Yichen responded, “I also hadn’t wanted to. This is my door. If it broke, I’d be the one in pain. But I called for you outside for so long. How was I supposed to know if you weren’t inside trying to kill yourself?”

Ding Meng, “…”

Why would she kill herself after winning! Even if she had lost, she still wouldn’t have killed herself! “Why don’t you go write plays for a living since your imagination is so vivid?”

“Wasn’t I just trying to leave some food for someone?”

….Ding Meng weakly went to sit at the dinner table.

Today Qiao Yichen had made mapo tofu and even sweet and sour pork which were all dishes Ding Meng liked. Ding Meng figured he was definitely helping her celebrate, but his method was a bit shabby.

She sat across from Qiao Yichen and silently began to eat. Even though she had won today’s competition, her mind was still unsettled. On one hand, she didn’t think Qiao Yichen would vote for her just because of their personal relationship. On the other hand, what if she was just too charming and he really couldn’t control himself?

After all, no one could be completely impartial.

Qiao Yichen’s voice suddenly traveled across, “Eating in that manner can easily lead to constipation.”

Ding Meng, “…”

Did he have to bring up constipation while eating!

She pursed her lips and rolled her eyes at him, setting down her chopsticks. “Did you really vote for me today because I sang better?”

Qiao Yichen replied, “I didn’t say you sang better. I only said your singing moved me more.”

“……Ah.” In short, it shouldn’t have anything to do with her charm.

“Since the top 4 training will begin tomorrow, let’s postpone today’s training. You should rest up and get adjusted.”

Ding Meng couldn’t believe her own ears. Great Producer Qiao unexpectedly took the initiative to suggest she rest!

Probably because her expression was too startled, Qiao Yichen lifted his head to look at her.

“If you’re feeling enthusiastic about winning your competition, we can also train two times as hard today.”

“…..You have must have misunderstood. I’m not even a bit enthusiastic. Really.” Look at her sincere expression.

Qiao Yichen chuckled. “Then focus on eating.”

“Yes sir!” Ding Meng hastened to follow orders, afraid that if her movements were too slow, her rest tonight would be compromised.

After eating, she helped Qiao Yichen wash the dishes before returning to her own room. Originally, she had planned to spend the night surfing the web, but before long she began to get sleepy. She reluctantly turned off her computer. After she lay down, she switched to her phone and noticed that Qiao Yichen’s penguin was actually online.

T/N: QQ messenger? Its mascot is a penguin.

Eh, wasn’t he always on invisible mode?

She pressed on his profile and sent a message: 「Goudan, why are you online? 」

Qiao Yichen didn’t reply immediately. She waited a bit and fell asleep. At midnight she woke up once and, noticing her phone was still clutched in her hand, she conveniently looked at it. There was a reply on penguin ——

Qiao Yichen: 「Didn’t you know there’s an option to let someone see you even when you’re invisible? 」

Perhaps because the dead of the night makes a person sentimental, Ding Meng realized she had actually been moved by his words. While emotionally sighing that she was getting old, she set up her settings to appear visible to Qiao Yichen as well.

She sent him a message: 「Thanks for your vote. I will continue to work hard. 」

After the message was sent, she quickly logged off the little penguin.

The next day, the training for the contestants who had entered the top 4 officially began. Ding Meng arrived to the training camp on time and waited with the other contestants to receive instructions. Soon after, the program’s lead organizer came over. Instead of distributing their training assignments, she brought them all to a conference room.

Sitting in the conference room was a man wearing a suit. The lead organizer introduced him, “This gentleman is Xingyao Entertainment’s representative. The main reason he came today is to discuss the matter of signing a contract.”

The lead organizer nodded to the Xingyao representative and handed the conversation over to him.

“Hello everyone. I’m surnamed Geng, and I am Xingyao Entertainment’s representative. You all should know that the program Heavenly Voice is a joint venture by Xingyao Entertainment and A City TV station. The reason we made this program was to discover a group of outstanding rookies and sign them to Xingyao Entertainment. You are the top 4 in the nation. Of course you are all extremely outstanding. We intend to formally sign contracts with all of you after the competition ends.”

He distributed the documents in his hand to each of the top 4 contestants. “I came today to talk to everyone about the song contract matter. According to our promise before the competition began, we will hire Qiao Yichen to help produce a song for this competition’s winner. I have just given you all the business contract for the song. Go ahead and take a look. Feel free to ask me questions if anything is unclear.”

Ding Meng held the business contract and looked it over. The contract’s main point was that she would promise to record this song for Xingyao Entertainment in the event she became the first place winner. Under similar conditions, she would also need to promise to sign a long term contract with Xingyao Entertainment. In return, Xingyao promised to invite a famous songwriter to write the first single and have Qiao Yichen act as the producer. Xingyao Entertainment would be in charge of distribution. Further down, the contract also read that the singer could receive royalties. Even though Ding Meng didn’t know the fair market price, she felt, wow, the price seemed a little low.

The last section pertained to breaking the contract. If either party violated the contract, that party would need to pay the other one million in penalty fees.

To an entertainment company, one million was merely a drop of water in the ocean. However, it was still more than enough to scare a little rookie who hadn’t even formally entered the field.

“Signing this agreement is completely voluntary. We won’t make things difficult.” Even though the representative’s words were said like this, he believed no one would be so foolish to refuse.

Xingyao Entertainment was still a well known entertainment company in the country. Under its banners, it had contracts with many of today’s popular idols. Signing a contract Xingyao was a good choice as a rookie. Even though the price for the song appeared to be a little low, the song was very well designed. It was definitely going to be popular after release. Ding Meng contemplated for a while. Seeing that all the other contestants had already finished signing their signatures, she also picked up the pen and signed her name.

The lead organizer picked up and inspected the contracts. Not seeing any problems, she put away her copies. The contracts came in duplicates so the contestants could also keep their own copy. Ding Meng took her contract and thought, how about she show it to Qiao Yichen tonight and let him take a look, just in case there was some catch inside?

Ah, little rookies like them really didn’t seem to have much value. But since the contract was only restrictive to the first place winner, this sort of worry…she might as well wait until she actually won before thinking about it again.