Chapter 102: Chapter 102: New Imperial Concubine Drunk

Once they were ready, the stage lights dimmed.

The holographic projection showed a lavish, ancient-style palace.

Jiang Qin’s fingers were beautiful—slender and fair. With the nude pink polish she had deliberately applied, they looked like works of art.

No one with a thing for hands could resist such a pair of beautiful hands.

Especially when they were playing the Zither.

A single, casual pluck was enough to draw everyone’s eyes to those hands, making them forget her face.

As Jiang Qin played the intro, Ethan began to sing:

“That year, snowflakes fell as plum blossoms bloomed on the boughs,

That year, by Huaqing Pool, too much sorrow was left behind.

Don’t speak of who was right or wrong, of love’s mistakes and truths…”

The lyrics were beautiful, the scenery was beautiful, and the melody was beautiful.

There was nothing wrong with Ethan’s voice, and his singing technique was passable. Aside from being a little plain, it had no other flaws.

Over the past three days, Jiang Qin had made him practice the vocal turns at the end of each line relentlessly.

For someone who had never encountered this type of music before, it was indeed quite difficult.

He couldn’t understand why the notes had to turn that way.

Jiang Qin had to teach him over and over, even using operatic vocals to cue his lines, before he finally learned it.

…

Snowflakes gradually began to drift down onto the stage.

They fell gracefully upon Jiang Qin.

A favored concubine playing for her emperor in the palace—this must have been the scene. Braving the winter cold to present her most beautiful self.

Just as everyone thought the song would continue on its placid, beautiful course, Jiang Qin began to sing:

“Love and hate decided in a fleeting breath,

A cup raised to the moon, a love as vast as the sky.

…”

“Drunk in the monarch’s embrace,

Dreaming back to a Great Tang love~”

A gracefully winding strain of operatic vocals suddenly burst into everyone’s ears.

!!!

The judges, who had been listening intently, straightened their backs, their eyes wide with shock.

The audience members’ jaws dropped.

My god, what is this?

Did a sound from the heavens just suddenly appear out of nowhere?

The twist was just too huge!

After the operatic section ended, Ethan resumed his heartfelt singing:

“The golden sparrow hairpin, the jade hair scratcher, were gifts from you,

For you I’ve danced the Rainbow Skirt and Feathered Robe through lifetimes…”

The song, which had at first felt merely beautiful in its simplicity, now seemed to have been injected with a soul.

It took on a unique flavor and was suddenly filled with a sense of story.

Fearing the Interstellar People wouldn’t understand the lyrics, Jiang Qin had once again added annotations to the background projection.

The Ancient Culture Research Institute was currently scrambling to copy down the lyrics.

Ahh, so many ancient words!

They simply couldn’t fathom how the ancients could convey so much with such concise and elegant words and phrases!

It was hard to imagine how cultured the people of that era must have been.

They could speak in such beautiful phrases so effortlessly. Unlike them, who would normally just say things like: “The flowers here are very pretty.”

“That couple seems to be getting along well.”

But the ancients could take those same things and directly compose poems and write lyrics…

Of course, their external consultant, Miss Jiang Qin, was also incredible!

She must be a chosen one from ancient times.

“Professor, do you think the Great Tang in Miss Jiang Qin’s lyrics is the same Great Tang from the ancient era?

Do you think she knows about that dynasty too?

Could we invite her to come in and share what she knows next time?”

Professor Gu also believed that the Ancient Tang Dynasty in the lyrics was the historical one.

Perhaps the song even described a story from that era.

But Jiang Qin was still with the program’s production team, so they couldn’t contact her at all. No matter how anxious they were, they could only wait.

***

Meanwhile, Jiang Qin was completely immersed in playing the Zither.

She loved many instruments, and every one of them enchanted her.

’If I weren’t on a show,’ she thought, ’I’d want to shut my mouth and just quietly listen to the unique sound of the Zither.’

’Never before have I felt my own singing was so superfluous.’

However, the audience and judges didn’t find it superfluous at all. They were completely mesmerized by that winding, operatic passage.

Even Ethan’s parts had become the most anticipated moments.

Because after he finished singing, the operatic vocals would begin!

Jiang Qin’s Spiritual Body emerged again, but faced with an audience of over a billion people, her tiny bit of Calming Power didn’t even make a ripple.

Everyone just assumed she was so lost in the music that her Spiritual Body had lost control again.

The people immersed in the song didn’t even have time to consider feelings like concern, worry, ridicule, or discrimination.

Even after the song ended, everyone remained lost in the scene it had conjured.

It was as if they had just truly seen an ancient emperor joyfully drinking with his favored concubine—who was somewhere between drunk and sober—in a lavish palace.

When they remembered that the favored concubine was just one of the three thousand beauties in the emperor’s harem, they couldn’t help but feel a pang of pity for her.

Imagining Jiang Qin, in her outfit today, in that position made them grit their teeth in frustration.

A beauty like her deserved the world’s exclusive affection!

Although her Calming Power was diluted, the empathetic force of Jiang Qin’s singing was still incredibly strong.

At that moment, everyone in the audience wished they were that monarch and Jiang Qin was their favored concubine.

They would surely give her a love that was hers and hers alone!

It was a good thing they weren’t monarchs. Otherwise, they’d probably all be love-struck fools, going down in history as infamous rulers in a matter of minutes.

But being love-struck had its benefits.

Because Jiang Qin’s vote count was constantly rising. It had already surpassed thirty million and finally stopped at over forty-three million votes.

The judges uniformly gave high scores of 90 or above.

The mainframe judge also gave a high score of 97.

The final average score was: 96!

All the composers in the venue fell silent. The ones with weaker mental fortitude were already on the verge of breaking down and wanting to quit the show.

How could they possibly compete with this?

One person had taken nearly half of all the votes.

Her average score was nearly perfect!

If one of the judges hadn’t been suppressing the scores, she might have even reached 99 points this round!

All the composers were expressionless, unable to squeeze out even the slightest smile, even though the cameras were pointed at them.

The netizens in the livestream chat were amused.

[Hahaha, I never thought Mr. Karl would see this day! Last episode at this time, he was so arrogant and insufferable!]

[To be fair, even as an Imperial, I can’t find any fault with this song.]

[The theme hit the bullseye, the ancient instrument was a bonus, plus those unique operatic vocals… Ethan wasn’t outstanding, but he didn’t drag her down. It would have been hard for her *not* to get a high score.]

[First place for this round has already been decided.]

[Honestly, the ancient-style category is totally Jiang Qin’s comfort zone.

Does anyone remember her song, Blue and White Porcelain? And Beauty’s Song and Emperor’s Flower that she uploaded on the Federation network!

Those three are also fantastic ancient-style songs that incorporate elements from the ancient era.]

…

In the live audience, three people had yet to come back to their senses.

Bai Mufeng stared blankly at the charming and gorgeous female on stage.

Sitting next to him were his two good friends, Lan Shaoyu and Gu Tianyou.

The last time at the bar, after Gu Tianyou heard her song, he had unconsciously transformed into his beast form. That’s when they knew this female was special.

They weren’t sure at the time, and worried about their friend, they could only leave the bar in a hurry.

After getting a physical check-up, they received an urgent mission and had to leave Blue Star.

They never expected to hear her name again in the Empire.

Since they happened to be here as well, they pulled some strings to get three tickets to come in and test their theory again.

However, at this moment, none of them remembered what they had come here to do. Even though they weren’t people who particularly loved music, they were completely captivated by its beauty.

Her Magic Power was as potent as ever.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep