Chapter 14

“Good evening, dear viewers in front of your televisions! Welcome to this episode of Hear Your Voice, sponsored by Bordeaux Wine from France. This program will select the most beautiful voice from among one hundred top voices from all across the country…”

The host’s voice from the studio slowly drifted backstage. Jiang Xian was already fully prepared. She wore a purple strapless gown, its fishtail hem trailing along the floor. Ruffled edges spread evenly across the ground like a blooming purple water lily. Her exposed long legs, shoulders, neck, and arms glowed with a smooth wheat-colored luster, making her appear noble and elegant. The true finishing touch was the purple eyeshadow. If anyone else wore that shade, it would undoubtedly look tacky beyond belief, but on Jiang Xian’s face, it became the perfect accent.

She stood before a full-length mirror, admiring herself in solitude. She looked from top to bottom, from strands of hair to toes, clicking her tongue inwardly. The original owner’s skin and bones really were high-class. Even without a good voice, Jiang Xian believed she could still carve out a bloody path in the entertainment industry with that face alone.

While she was immersed in her own beauty, a person suddenly appeared in the mirror. Yoyo walked over with a smile. “Sister Jiangjiang, it’s almost time to enter.”

The other three mentors had already entered one after another. As the heavyweight guest, she was naturally the last one to make her entrance.

Jiang Xian straightened her body, held her head high, and said, “Got it.”

The studio had invited a total of one thousand audience members. They filled the pink seats to the brim, holding blue support signs in their hands with words written on them: Jiang Xian; the Little Orca of the Chinese Entertainment Industry; a voice kissed by an angel; a top-tier alpha combining both talent and beauty… exaggerated phrases like that. At first, they quietly gathered in one corner, the light boards in their hands like a cluster of blue flames that wanted to burn but had not yet caught fire. Then the whole stage went dark. The host’s invitation spun beside everyone’s ears. High heels clicked against the exquisite mirrored stage, approaching step by step. A beam of light shone down and landed on the woman in purple, like a match striking and igniting a flame. In an instant, it lit the half-dying, half-extinguished blue fire in the audience.

The entire venue immediately boiled and burned.

“Sister Jiang! Sister Jiangjiang! Sister Jiangjiang!”

The air-conditioned studio was cooled to eighteen degrees, but Jiang Xian did not feel cold at all. The fans’ enthusiasm had long since surrounded her like a bonfire.

How embarrassing.

Jiang Xian drew on the original owner’s memories of interacting with fans. Instinctively, she lifted her right hand slightly and raised her index finger to her lips. With the posture of an emperor, unauthorized copy she looked down at the people beneath the stage. The fans’ passion slowly receded like the tide, settling into quietness and staying there, neither too close nor too far.

The host was a woman with straight bangs wearing a white strapless evening gown. Her smile was warm and graceful. She enthusiastically welcomed Jiang Xian’s arrival. When the fans below heard the host introduce her, another small commotion was inevitable, but Jiang Xian used gestures to stop their overly excited behavior.

Everything proceeded smoothly. Jiang Xian also gave simple answers to the host’s basic questions. After standing for a long time, her eyes occasionally drifted toward the mentor seats. She wondered when this part would end so she could hurry back to her mentor’s chair.

“Then next, let us invite Jiang Xian to bring us her famous song, Whale. Please welcome her with applause!”

At first, Jiang Xian did not hear clearly. She was still immersed in her fake smile and even nodded. Halfway through nodding, she suddenly reacted, her body jerking as if she had been electrocuted.

“What?”

She looked at the host in confusion.

The host turned back and looked at her with a smile.

What was going on? Wasn’t there supposed to be no singing segment?

There were five minutes to prepare. Jiang Xian forced her expression to remain steady and walked offstage. The moment she got down, her face stiffened as she told Yoyo, “Go invite the director over. I have something to say to him.”

Half a minute later, the director appeared in the waiting lounge. He was a middle-aged man with a buzz cut and gold-rimmed glasses. His voice was low and deep.

“Teacher Jiang, I’m sorry. This segment suddenly appeared, and I’m also partly at fault. The main reason we didn’t discuss it with you is that this matter was indeed decided at the last minute.”

Jiang Xian had both legs propped up on the coffee table. One ankle turned her high heel back and forth, and every now and then, she flicked bailiantales.com dust from her nails. Hearing him say this, her thick lashes lifted, her gaze arrogant.

“Since it wasn’t discussed with me, I won’t sing. Who came up with this idea and made such a big decision at the last minute?”

Director Wang continued explaining, “This was all requested by the fans. They haven’t heard you sing for too long and miss it terribly. So after Teacher Cao mentioned it casually, the fans all became excited and insisted that you sing the opening song.”

Mentioned it casually? Teacher Cao? Cao Lin?

Jiang Xian’s eyes narrowed slightly. She thought, Cao Lin did not know about the problem with her throat, so she should not be deliberately harming her. Could it really have been mentioned casually? Wait. The restroom. Cao Lin had also gone to the restroom. So she knew everything.

She knew there was a problem with Jiang Xian’s voice.

See? There were always treacherous subjects trying to harm this emperor.

Jiang Xian was furious, but right now, she had to solve the problem as quickly as possible. “My throat is uncomfortable. I can’t sing.”

Director Wang pushed up his glasses in surprise. “Uncomfortable how? It sounds fine.”

…

Jiang Xian helplessly tightened her fingers. Her chest felt stuffy, and she could not speak. She could only seek help from the system.

The system was usually in sleep mode. At a critical moment—hey, it was still in sleep mode. Jiang Xian tried for a long time and cursed inwardly, Dropping the ball at the critical moment!

At this moment, the director beside [Read on BaiLianTales]her took her silence as agreement to sing and was hurriedly called away by the staff.

Before leaving, he did not forget to cheer her on. “Teacher Jiang, everyone is waiting to hear your heavenly voice.”

I’ll listen to your m—

What should she do now? While she was scratching her head in anxiety, Yoyo beside her had already called Xie Yu. She reported everything that had just happened one by one and waited for Xie Yu’s instructions.

Jiang Xian crossed her arms and said with absolute certainty, “Tell her I’m not recording anymore.”

After saying that, she brought her legs down from the coffee table and began walking away with loud clicks of her high heels.

Seeing this, Yoyo hurriedly followed her while advising her. At the same time, she switched the call to speaker mode.

Xie Yu seemed to have sensed that Jiang Xian wanted to act like a hands-off boss and shouted loudly, “Jiang Xian, stop being willful. Do you know that this is a turning point in your career? All the directors, mentors, live audience, and the entire nation are waiting for your performance. And what about you? You say one sentence about not filming anymore and just throw down your burden and quit. How much longer do you think you can afford to be arrogant?”

Jiang Xian understood her worries, but she was not the original owner. How could she have that ability to sing? If she went onstage, would she not be exposed? If she really walked onto that stage, then unless something unexpected happened, she would take a terrible fall. Never mind now; even in the future, her reputation would no longer exist. The Ziwei Star of the music industry would wither overnight and fall forever.

“President Xie, I’m not… My throat really is uncomfortable.”

“If it’s uncomfortable, then warm up your voice. You’re just lazy. I’m not talking to you anymore. I’m hanging up.”

A beeping sound came from the other end of the phone, like a cold wall blocking off Jiang Xian’s last escape route.

Jiang Xian stood where she was, thinking for a long while. Now, [unauthorized copy]calling to the heavens would get no answer, and calling to the earth would get no response. What else could she do? She could only force herself through it. If her career was ruined, then so be it.

She swallowed, still having to pretend to be calm, and stepped onto the stage where the band had already taken their positions.

At the center of the stage, Jiang Xian took the cold microphone from the stand and looked around. In her heart, she sighed. How many fans would this farce disappoint? How many people would watch her become a joke…?

The melody slowly entered, like a whale roaming through the deep sea, like water slowly flowing. It was muffled, lonely, resentful, constantly, constantly rushing upward from the bottom of the sea.

As if it were about to burst out of the water and break through the sky.

At that exact moment, a white line crossed through Jiang Xian’s mind, rushing down violently from the Baihui acupoint at the top of her head. Numbness traveled from the back of her skull down to her spine. In an instant, it was as if her Ren and Du meridians had been opened, bursting through the crown of her head. The blood throughout her body also began to roar along with it.

The original owner had her own muscle memory!

A surge of qi from her dantian rushed upward. First, she felt her throat itch, as if tiny grains were rolling over it, both painful and pleasurable. Immediately after, when the moment to begin singing arrived, she naturally raised the microphone over her head, tilted her head back slightly, and released a whale-like sound she would never have been able to produce in this lifetime.

“Ah~”

This section was the opening note, and also the most difficult and highest part of the entire song. Jiang Xian had sung it thousands of times. She had sung out the muffled, lonely, wild beauty of a solitary whale. This time, there seemed to be a trace of fear in it.

Cao Lin had originally been waiting to watch Jiang Xian make a fool of herself. But the moment she heard Jiang Xian’s voice come out, it was as if a bucket of cold water had been poured over her head. She stiffened in place like a clown frozen solid.

The opposite was true of the one thousand audience members below the stage. Although not all of them were Jiang Xian’s fans, at this moment, being able to hear that heavenly voice live made their enthusiasm flare like a raging fire, burning so hot that Cao Lin’s eyes reddened and her flesh ached.

In front of the television, Jing Lian had finished dinner and was quietly watching the opening of Hear Your Voice. For some reason, she kept feeling that something about Jiang Xian had changed, yet also had not changed. So a few thoughts arose in her, thoughts of wanting to understand Jiang Xian better.

In the past, she had known that Jiang Xian was rich, arrogant, and promiscuous. Seeing her performance today, she gained a new impression.

She sang quite well.

After dinner, Xiao Ya prepared a fruit platter. The sliced cantaloupe and Meilong honeydew were arranged into petals. The longans had already been peeled, each one gleaming like a large pearl. The grapes had also been peeled halfway, and the cherries and strawberries were ready as well.

She carefully reminded her, “Miss Jing Lian, cantaloupe and Meilong honeydew are both rather cooling. You should eat less of them.”

Jing Lian did not like eating fruit. Eating cooling foods made her stomach uncomfortable. She glanced at the platter, nodded, and did not speak.

Xiao Ya followed her gaze and saw that the television was showing her own boss’s face and voice. Seeing Jing Lian watching so seriously, joy could not help rising in her heart.

Miss Jing Lian still cared about her boss, didn’t she? Xiao Ya cleared her throat softly, leaned down, and said, “Miss Jing Lian, our Miss Jiang sings beautifully, doesn’t she? You were completely absorbed listening to her.”