A Star Reborn: The Queen's Return

Chapter 1048: Record Breaker

But some of them were not convinced.

Li Bingman argued. “On what grounds? Her enunciation isn’t even right!”

Xia Ling looked at her with a grin. “Yeah, but I’m still better than you, hmph!”

Teacher Chen cleared her throat and looked at Xia Ling sternly. “You should be humble, knowing that you didn’t enunciate the words correctly. And is this the way to treat your classmates?” It was practically set in stone that Xia Ling and Li Bingman were both going to be selected. Hence, it wasn’t wrong to call them classmates in advance.

Xia Ling kept quiet, but the look on her face spelled disapproval.

Teacher Chen was fuming on the inside. This girl did not even know basic manners!

Li Bingman looked toward Teacher Chen with a pout. “She can sing falsetto, but does that necessarily make her better than me? This is unfair. Her Russian enunciation is inaccurate, and she sang wrongly in some parts. How could she come in first?”

Xia Ling quietly said, “What’s the big deal.” She had never learned Russian before, and it was already marvelous that she could perform it at this standard. Li Bingman was obviously finding fault for the sake of it just because she had the advantage of knowing the language.

But Teacher Chen felt that Li Bingman made sense. “Teacher Feng and examiners, for fairness’ sake, we should give Xia Ling a score too. Xia Ling sings well, but her imperfect enunciation is a huge issue in this song. Moreover, Li Bingman’s more graceful in her performance... To determine who should come in first, let’s give her a score.”

Teacher Chen was evidently biased against Xia Ling.

Feng Kun asked Teacher Chen, “You said her enunciation is inaccurate?”

“Yes!” Teacher Chen was insistent.

“For which words?”

“I...” The cat got Teacher Chen’s tongue. How was she to know? She didn’t speak Russian!

Feng Kun smiled and looked around. “Who else thinks that Xia Ling’s enunciation is inaccurate?”

The other examiners and candidates exchanged looks but kept silent. While it was evident that Teacher Chen was biased towards Li Bingman, it wasn’t any less obvious that Feng Kun favored Xia Ling! The current situation was extremely delicate and sensitive.

Li Bingman tried her luck. “The first word of the first line! And the third and fifth words of the second line! At the back, she mispronounced ‘star’ too... We can forget about those minor ones, but Teacher, you’ve got to believe me! You can check Xia Ling’s version against mine.” She knew that Feng Kun wasn’t all that easy to convince, but for the sake of the “Best Student of the Year” title, she had to give it a shot.

Feng Kun did not get angry. Instead, he said to her nicely, “Enunciation is only one component of a song, it’s not a determinant of one’s singing ability. In fact, I’m in favor of forsaking the nitty-gritty of enunciation for the greater effect of making the ambiance of the performance more infectious and enjoyable. But everyone has a different mindset and style, and you can maintain your own stand on this.”

This got many of the other candidates to think carefully about it.

It was already a privilege to be able to receive judgment and critique from such an outstanding composer. In fact, for many of the candidates, this would probably be a once in a lifetime opportunity. But this particular statement of his was even more powerful and meaningful, and many of them found themselves nodding in agreement.

But Li Bingman felt that Feng Kun was simply shielding Xia Ling. She did not believe that the influence and power of one’s singing could be achieved without technical precision. Even if it was possible, it wasn’t a level that the country bumpkin Xia Ling could attain! “I want it to be scored,” she said stubbornly. “Teacher Feng, please give me a fair fighting chance.”

Feng Kun glanced at Xia Ling.

Xia Ling didn’t mind it. “So be it.” She was happy that Feng Kun made her first without scoring her, but if she really wanted to take the easy way out, she wouldn’t have needed to come for the selection at all. Since she had chosen to be here, she had no fear of fair competition. She looked up and smiled at Li Bingman. “Even with the score, you’d still lose.”

She knew exactly how well she performed.

Besides the enunciation, she had beaten her opponent in all other aspects.

If Li Bingman still came in first despite this, then something was really wrong.

Feng Kun spun his fountain pen casually. “Alright, let’s give a score.”

After the highest and lowest scores were removed, the final result was—

“9.6!” Everybody was utterly surprised at the score. This was a record-breaker! It did not just surpass the highest score of the previous year, it was also a first in all of Imperial’s training camp history! Before Xia Ling, the highest ever was just 9.4!

“Gosh, what sort of monster is she?” The candidates were chattering again.

Li Bingman’s face went pale. No, how could this be? How could this feral child’s score be so absurdly high? She didn’t believe it... she wouldn’t!

“Li Bingman, what do you have to say now? You’re a full 0.3 points lower than me! 0.3! You didn’t even break the record, haha.” Xia Ling went on to agitate her.

Li Bingman took a few deep breaths to compose herself. She looked towards her coldly and said, “Isn’t it just your falsetto? This only shows that you’re talented, it doesn’t mean that your singing is better than mine!”

“Exactly, I’m simply more talented than you, so what?” Li Bingman had gotten on her nerves time and again, boasting about her singing. This was payback time.

Li Bingman was almost losing it. This feral child was really... really too much!

“Anyone has a problem with this result?” Feng Kun asked.

This time, no one said anything, not even Teacher Chen. She was the one who gave the lowest score, the one that was not taken into consideration. Well, she tried her best, but still could not stop Xia Ling from coming in first. Li Bingman still couldn’t take it lying down, but she knew that if she went on about it, it would only look bad on her. Hence, she kept quiet and put on an expression that suggested: “I won’t stoop to Xia Ling’s level”.

Xia Ling hummed a merry tune and added, “You guys were really creating trouble. Teacher Feng already said we didn’t need scoring, that would’ve saved us time. But you insisted on it. And look, aren’t we back to square one?”

Feng Kun smiled, realizing that he liked this proud little girl pretty much. Candid people like her were few and far between in the entertainment circle. He was already looking forward to seeing what this little girl would grow up to be like.

Having come in first, Xia Ling happily went home with the chauffeur.

At dinner, she told Pei Ziheng about everything that happened that day. At the very end, she concluded. “That Teacher Feng Kun had the best judgment! Teacher Chen is a fool! Li Bingman is a meanie!”

Pei Ziheng was cutting her steak for her. “You like Feng Kun?”

“He sounded pretty cool when he said those stuff,” she muttered a little inaudibly with her mouth full of steak. “He really likes my singing.”

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