Chapter 84: Chapter 84: Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Three days wasn’t a long time, but it certainly felt short.

Jiang Qin wasn’t on good terms with the other composers, so she had no idea how they were doing.

In any case, over these three days, aside from letting Sak get familiar with things on the first day, she spent the second and third days practicing with him.

By the morning of the third day, once she was satisfied with his progress, she told him to stop singing and rest his voice.

The last thing they needed was for everything to be ready tomorrow, only to find his voice was worn out.

***

Wen Jiaqi and Wen Xueli, who had struggled to get tickets, finally met up with everyone from their group chat who had also managed to get one.

So, once today’s show began its live broadcast, Jiang Qin, sitting in the guest area, noticed quite a few fans holding up signs supporting her.

’It warmed her heart.’

After all, it wasn’t easy to make a trip to the Empire. The Spaceship Tickets alone were quite expensive.

At 6:00 PM sharp, the production team started the live broadcast.

The hosts were, as before, a male and female pair of Chaoyang Yellow Oriole Beastmen from the Empire.

“Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the live broadcast of *Interstellar Composer*. I’m your host, Minos.”

“And I’m your host, Judith.”

“Today is the first episode of the show. The theme is ’freestyle,’ and in the end, the top eighty contestants based on a comprehensive evaluation will advance.”

“This means twenty of our composers will unfortunately be leaving us today. Let’s see which eighty will be the ones to triumph!”

The two hosts spoke in alternating lines.

“Without further ado, let’s have the big screen randomly select the performance order for our 100 composers!”

Once the official competition began, following the previous order wouldn’t be considered fair or public, so they used a machine-selected random drawing.

The wonders of advanced technology. In just a few seconds, the performance numbers for all one hundred composers appeared on the big screen, with the singers’ names noted after them.

Jiang Qin drew a very early slot.

9.

’She thought it was perfect.’

If it were too early, she worried Sak would be nervous. If it were too late, she was afraid the long wait would affect his state of mind.

After spending three days with him, she had identified one of Sak’s problems: he lacked self-confidence and was always second-guessing himself.

Even when his singing was already fine, he would still try to find some flaw to correct.

Of course, she admired such a cautious singer who strived for perfection.

But pushing too hard could make him seem overly focused on technique, sacrificing the emotional expression of the performance.

So she’d spent a lot of effort counseling him, telling him not to be so tense, as it would affect his ability to warm up his voice.

’To be honest, she was quite worried right now, too.’

It was just that the singers were in the waiting area while the composers were in the guest section, so they couldn’t communicate.

Looking from a distance, she could see Sak sitting silently, his expression unreadable.

*

The first to perform was the singer for Xini’s song, Noah from the Elf Clan.

The Elf Clan’s innate sensitivity to music was no joke; every Elf could learn a new song very quickly.

As a result, they were the only race that could rival the Mermaid Beastmen.

The Elves of the Interstellar age didn’t use Magic, have wings, or come in palm-sized forms.

They were the same height as Beastmen; their only differences were fairer skin, pointed ears, and uniformly emerald-green eyes.

Other than that, there wasn’t much difference between them and Beastmen.

However, they disliked their homes turning into cyber cities, which is why the Elf Clan were also known as natural-born survivalists.

Xini’s song was titled *Space Echo*.

The prelude was a series of beeps, like Morse code from a telegraph, before leading into the first line of lyrics.

“The abyss is calling to me…”

The lyrics were roughly about passing through a region of space and hearing the sound of a distress beacon.

I followed the sound and found your broken form, along with a field of tombstones.

Federation Soldiers were buried here. They would forever remain in this expanse of space, and though they could no longer make a sound, their faith still had an echo.

It had to be said that while there might not be a hundred million songs like this in the Interstellar era, there were at least tens of millions. Still, if fans promoted it on the Star Network afterward, it would likely pull in a lot of votes.

After all, songs about such grand ideals didn’t have to be good. As long as the theme was noble and righteous, many people would support it out of sentiment.

The number of warriors who died in space each year was in the hundreds of millions. Songs that eulogized these warriors would always be popular.

The second composer’s piece was somewhat similar in type to Xini’s.

Among the singers who performed from third to eighth place, a full three of their songs were also of a similar type.

So Xini, performing first, was actually quite lucky. Being the first song, the audience was still in a sentimental mood.

They were more likely to get swept up in the passion and vote.

But one after another like this would drain the sentiment from even the most patriotic person.

It was obvious the audience’s enthusiasm was waning.

The votes for this type of song eulogizing warriors began to get cut in half.

The scores from the judges were also conservative. If the songs hadn’t been about such grand ideals, they might not have even given a baseline score.

The only reason they gave a baseline score was to avoid getting mobbed online.

They couldn’t very well have netizens flame them for not being moved, for being unable to empathize with songs that memorialized warriors, and for only caring about whether it sounded good, right?

’But Jiang Qin could tell that most of the composers weren’t taking this round seriously.’

’They were probably just aiming to make the top eighty baseline, saving their truly good songs for the finale.’

’Their lack of effort was just too obvious.’

’She was even starting to feel a little sorry for the audience and the judges.’

“Next up is the singer from the Sea Clan, Mr. Sak!

He will be performing a piece composed by Miss Jiang Qin, *Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing*!”

The netizens in the show’s live broadcast channel all started laughing:

[A *Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing*? Given he’s from the Sea Clan, shouldn’t it be ’A Fish in Wolf’s Clothing’?]

[A Beastman with Wolf Clan Genes would never be willing to put on sheep’s skin and pretend to be a sheep!]

[I hereby declare this Wolf Beast has been stripped of his Wolf Clan Genes! He’s too weak, having to rely on disguise to hunt.]

[Wolf Clan Beastmen are supposed to be brave and fierce!]

[No wonder this Sea Clan person is actually wearing wolf ear decorations. I’m dead. LMAO.]

…

Jiang Qin also stood up, walked to a corner of the stage, and began to play the Southern Flute.

As the sound of the flute rang out, a sense of desolate sorrow pierced everyone’s heart and soul.

It was the loneliness of walking alone through a barren desert.

Sak, who had been a little tense, instantly relaxed upon hearing the sound that had become so familiar over the past three days. He completely immersed himself in the emotion.

When he opened his mouth to sing, his voice carried a sorrow full of stories:

“I cautiously draw near,

Afraid to startle you from your dreams.

I just want to give you a gentle kiss,

Don’t you worry…”

The Southern Flute in the background amplified this sorrow to its peak.

In that moment, Sak’s voice and the unique sound of the Southern Flute blended in perfect harmony.

“We come from different worlds,

You always feel that being with me

Is an endless, chilling fear.

I truly love you…”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep