Chapter 85 - 71: Momentary Blizzard, Instantaneous Blossom

Chapter 85: Chapter 71: Momentary Blizzard, Instantaneous Blossom

Li Yingying: "I like Golden Retrievers. Can I just give birth to one of those?"

’Getting abstract, are we.’

Li Yingying: "I already talked it over with Brother Wei. We’re going to cheer together."

Chen Yuan: "Brother Wei doesn’t need to join in..."

Soon, the host took the stage and began the opening announcements.

"A warm welcome to all our university leaders..."

He offered a few simple pleasantries, providing a dose of emotional validation for the university leaders. The only drawback was that the words were a bit hollow.

’There are six university leaders in the front row. They should be served six platters of braised carp, with the fish heads all pointing their way. Eating while listening to handsome guys and pretty girls sing—that’s the kind of treatment a leader deserves. Otherwise, what’s the point of being a leader?’

Soon, the first contestant took the stage.

He was from the School of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, his name was Li Shihui, and he was singing Chen Yixun’s "Ten Years."

The intro began to play, and Li Shihui raised the microphone to sing.

"If those two words hadn’t trembled, I wouldn’t have realized how much I was hurting..."

"How could I say it? It was nothing more than a breakup..."

The moment he started singing, Chen Yuan was stunned.

"Holy shit! The very first contestant is already this good?"

"Our class has nearly 4,000 new students. It’s not that hard to pick 15 good singers from a group that large."

Fang Youning’s small, snow-white hands gently tapped out the rhythm, a gesture that looked very professional.

"This is more than just good; it’s amazing. If I closed my eyes, I’d think it was the original artist," Chen Yuan said.

"We should give him a drug test after he’s done singing. I suspect he’s doping."

"Pfft-hahaha..."

Fang Youning laughed hard. "But he really is very good. The first act needs to make a strong impression, to give the students a bit of a jolt..."

"Can’t argue with that logic."

"So..."

Fang Youning hesitated, seeming like she wanted to ask something.

"What is it?"

"What are the ’two words’?"

"Which two words?"

"The ones in the song. ’If those two words hadn’t trembled’—which two words are they?"

"Probably ’bride price’."

Fang Youning’s expression froze. That was an angle she had never considered.

But on second thought, if the two words really were "bride price," it was surprisingly logical.

It was a serious problem in modern society. Plenty of couples who had great relationships ended up breaking up because of issues with the bride price.

"I don’t want a bride price." Fang Youning’s voice was very soft, like a young girl’s quiet musings on a cloudy afternoon.

"Huh?"

Chen Yuan was baffled. ’I wasn’t asking you about a bride price.’

"I just don’t want a bride price, that’s all. Say no to feudal customs. I’ll even throw in a car as part of the dowry."

"Hey beautiful, how about you consider me?"

"Hee-hee..." Fang Youning covered her mouth as she laughed, the twin peaks on her chest quaking all the same. "That’s not up to me; my mom’s the one who calls the shots. If she’s in a good mood, she might even throw in a house."

"So it’s your mom who holds the purse strings."

"Yep."

’Then why would I even bother with you? Your mom’s probably in her early forties at most, not even menopausal yet. I’m young, and I can even help out during the postpartum period. It’s a perfect match.’

’Call me Daddy!’

When Li Shihui finished singing, he received a thunderous ovation.

After "Ten Years" concluded, the following contestants took the stage one after another.

"Trojan Horse City," "Goodbye," "Pantheon," "You Belong With Me," "Loser"...

One after another, a series of familiar, hit songs were brought to the stage of the Campus Top Ten Singers competition.

Originally, Chen Yuan had thought that with his professional-level children’s song-singing skills, he’d be able to indiscriminately slaughter everyone in a competition of this level, with the possible exception of Fang Youning. Now, it seemed he had been a bit naive.

’Every single one of them is a beast, like they’re all on fucking drugs or something.’

While listening to the songs, he was also chatting with Jiang Wanyi, telling her about his situation.

Chen Yuan: "Something came up tonight. I’ll be over a bit later."

’Based on his calculations, the competition would end around eight. Factoring in some travel time, he could make it there by nine at the latest.’

’On any other occasion, it would be so late that not going wouldn’t be a big deal.’

’But he had a mission to complete. Getting there a day earlier meant finishing it a day sooner.’

Jiang Wanyi: "No rush. Take care of your business first."

Looking at Jiang Wanyi’s message, Chen Yuan felt that she actually did want him to come over.

Otherwise, given her personality, she probably would have said something else, telling him not to wear himself out and to just come tomorrow instead.

Jiang Wanyi: "Bring your dirty clothes over. I’ll wash them for you."

Chen Yuan: "No, no, it’s fine."

Jiang Wanyi had said this more than once, and Chen Yuan believed she wasn’t just being polite. Still, he knew he had to be mindful of his boundaries.

About an hour later, the 12th contestant was on stage, and Fang Youning began to make her final preparations.

She claimed to be nervous, but her body was telling a different story. She was visibly relaxed, even casually sipping from a bottle of mineral water.

"Next up, please welcome contestant number 12, Zhang Yutong from the School of Economics and Management, who will be singing ’Moonlight’!"

After the host’s announcement, thunderous applause erupted from the audience, concentrated in one specific area—likely her own classmates.

"Wow, someone’s actually singing ’Moonlight’? I hear that song’s pretty tough."

Chen Yuan was no expert. He didn’t even listen to a lot of music, so he was in no position to judge a song’s difficulty.

But on TikTok, he’d seen countless professional musicians say that this song was notoriously difficult to sing—so much so that even the original artist supposedly couldn’t perform it a second time.

From that perspective alone, it was easy to see how challenging the song was.

"It’s definitely hard. I can’t sing it well either," Fang Youning whispered.

"I actually advised her not to sing this song before. It’s easy to not place with it. But she insisted, saying she’s been a fan of *The Legend of Qin* for years and just wanted to sing it on this stage."

"That’s nice too. She’s fulfilling a dream for herself."

"Mhm. After all, it’s just the Campus Top Ten Singers. The important thing is to participate."