Chapter Eighty-Nine: Improvised Accompaniment-Empire Superstar(Hepburn Downstairs)

Gleaming costumes, exquisite harmonies, a hint of vintage hairstyles, and hypnotic choreography revealed the allure of young femininity to perfection in that instant.

Especially the chorus, which was irresistibly infectious, igniting the entire audience’s fervor in a heartbeat.

"I am like a wounded rose,
Still being watered by tears.
You hide away this sorrow,
Not even daring to look back.
Wanting to bear alone the haggard ache of longing...
I-want-nobody-nobody-But-You..."

People rose to their feet without realizing it, waving their glow sticks with all their might while frantically shouting the name "Liao Meiqi."

Again and again, in perfect unison.

Even the casual spectators were swept up by the searing atmosphere at that moment, their blood surging as they joined the crowd in shouting "Liao Meiqi" at the top of their lungs.

Backstage, Xie Yuxuan, who had just stepped offstage, saw this through the television screen and immediately changed color.

The teammates beside her subconsciously tightened their grip on their clothes.

"So this is the confidence they rely on?" someone asked in a low voice.

No one answered.

The singing and images coming from the television left the entire Jade Tree and Flower ensemble in silence.

Xie Yuxuan bit her lip hard, the confidence she had carried only moments ago vanishing without a trace.

Onstage, beneath the glittering lights, the girls wagged their right index fingers. In rhythm with the music, they shaped both hands into pistols, and at that moment, as though launching arrows of love, they sent the live audience’s otaku boys into a storm of howling and screaming.

"Liao Meiqi!"

...

One week later, at the Mercedes-Benz Cultural Center.

Liao Yuan once again arrived at the performance venue of the One Emperor and Four Kings Piano Competition.

After the first round of the preliminaries and the group-stage matchups, more than half of the twelve hundred contestants were eliminated in an instant.

The six hundred pianists who remained and appeared on-site would face another brutal elimination battle over the coming week.

The rules of this stage called for improvisational accompaniment. Thirty-six singers would be present, from which the contestants would choose at random.

The pianists had to provide accompaniment that matched the melody while the singers chanted or sang.

The style was not fixed; whether classical or popular depended on the melody offered by the singer, requiring the performer to make the proper choice.

Improvisation or accompaniment both demanded a profound musical foundation and broad experience. Thus, the second stage tested the pianists’ understanding of music theory as well as their basic improvisational skill.

Improvisation was not random pounding at the keys.

In a sense, there are three realms of improvisation.

The first is the beginner stage. Most novices and amateur hobbyists remain here, and many of them think improvisation simply means playing anything at will.

The result is that, though it may look improvisational, what emerges is a scale with no logic, no development, no surprise, and no true flavor.

It is little more than boring noise.

Mid- and high-level pianists are far more formidable. At this stage, they are roughly comparable to players ranging from advanced amateur level to concert-level performers.

Most of them have memorized a great many chords.

They understand harmony, counterpoint, the use of notes outside the key, and how to play with structure, logic, taste, and interest, making the whole process feel carefully designed.

But the problem is that people at this stage are like enormous libraries of chords.

They have inner strength to spare, yet cannot properly unleash it, leaving listeners with the helpless feeling of a punch landing in cotton.

The final stage is where true professional ability is tested.

Because in the eyes of laymen, such masters and beginners are all lumped together as "just banging randomly on the keys."

Yet once the notes begin to spring forth one after another, people can still sense the absolute difference.

So what are masters thinking when they solo?

Certainly not scales, fingerings, or complicated rhythms and chords.

What they think of is very simple: sounds.

Those sounds may be a brief motif of a few notes, a simple singable melody, a wave of tone woven from countless single notes, a highly harmonized chordal mass, or a percussive block of sound struck down in one blow.

For example, Ronald Spielberg, the world-renowned grand pianist who won the first One Emperor and Four Kings title, had repeatedly displayed his famed hammer-piano technique in improvisation, a wild and mesmerizing posture that captivated the entire world.

But when he hammered the piano with his fists, one blow after another, it was not the same as an ordinary person pounding a piano with their fists.

The former knew exactly what effect that strike would produce, how much force to use, what kind of rhythm it required, how long it should last, and how to carry it forward into the next phrase.

The latter was merely smashing the piano.

Though both may appear to be "playing randomly," the greatest difference is this: before a master even plays, they can already hear in their mind what they are about to play, and they possess enough skill to bring that sound to life.

This requires absolute understanding of sound in all its forms.

Among the more than six hundred pianists present, very few could reach Spielberg’s transcendent realm, where even a reckless fist could coax out beautiful tones.

But that did not hinder the second stage from proceeding. After all, this part merely tested the contestants’ ability to improvise accompaniment. As long as they reached the passing line, they could basically advance safely.

Even so, more than half the contestants would still be eliminated in miserable fashion after a week.

"Hello, dear audience. Today Little Fox Spirit will be bringing you the full live coverage of the East Sea division of the One Emperor and Four Kings competition. First, let me proudly introduce a big shot from our music section on J-Station: Uncle A!"

Fu Xiaoci held up a selfie stick and cheerfully pulled Liao Yuan into frame. "Uncle A, say hello to everyone."

Liao Yuan wore a mask. He raised a hand to the camera, then narrowed his eyes and carefully looked toward the upper-left corner of the phone screen.

Online viewers: 184,324.

One hundred and eighty thousand?

Though that could not compare with the more than two million viewers of the official livestream, it still surprised Liao Yuan.

He instantly viewed Fu Xiaoci in a new light.

He had thought she was merely a down-on-her-luck streamer, but she turned out to be something of an internet celebrity?

That said, after discussing it with Liao Yuan, Fu Xiaoci had also yielded to temptation and resumed her old profession.

This did not affect Liao Yuan’s performance.

Moreover, many pianists on-site had personally taken up livestreaming. Each pianist’s room had nearly thousands, sometimes tens of thousands, of viewers, and the occasional gifts and tips they received were enough to cover their living expenses for the period leading up to this competition.

Especially for the more famous contestants, whose rooms were showered with gifts nonstop. This made Fu Xiaoci itch with envy, and even the top female streamer Lingling Yao had started streaming during breaks to interact with her fans, earning several tens of thousands in tips in a single day, which only made Fu Xiaoci more desperate.

So after a little preparation, she immediately began streaming.

The room title was eye-catching: "That Night, The Story Between Uncle A and Me."

However, Liao Yuan wore a mask and maintained a cool, aloof persona.

Fu Xiaoci simply could not flirt him into submission, so she could only sigh and chat idly with the viewers.

Even so, the viewer count rose like a rocket, and the barrage of comments filled the screen.

"Easygoing streamer, goes live on a whim."

"The streamer’s chest is huge; I can’t control my right hand anymore."

"Passing by and asking by the way: when are we driving?"

"Wow, Uncle A has such presence!"

"666!"

"An indecent streamer! I’m calling the police!"

"Limited-edition Adi-Nike, sold at a special discount, not from the counterfeit Putian line. Everything at thirty percent off. Message me if you want one!"

"Why hasn’t it started yet? Unsubscribed!"

At first, the stream had only a few thousand viewers. In just half an hour, it shot up to one hundred and eighty thousand.

Though still twenty thousand short of Lingling Yao’s audience, it had already broken into the top ten in the entire One Emperor and Four Kings streaming section.

At last, the host stepped onto the stage, and the second stage of the preliminaries officially began.