Alien world

Chapter 1441 75. The Last Hour
South, swamp, Conch City.

The judges had to admit that people living in the southern swamps were not really suited to artistic activities.

I finished an oil painting today, and a few days later I found that the paint had smudged into a twisted mass as if it had been splashed with water.

You work hard on a literary work, only to find after a while that moisture has blurred the ink.

Even opera singers and bards had their voices corroded by the miasma, and their singing sounded hoarse and rough, as if there was a pile of sand stuck in their throats.

The only place where normal performances can be performed is in the theater, but the locals don’t like works that explore human nature and delve into ethics. They prefer works that explore sex and delve into ethics.

So far, only one person from Conch City has passed the two candidates to be selected - this is despite Annan's requirement that one candidate must pass from each commercial street.

After finding out, Idilia thought the judges from Conch City were too harsh, so she swapped the judges with those from other commercial streets. It turned out that it was not the judges' fault, but the overall level of Conch City was not enough.

The environment here is so harsh that there are not even rat people.

Generally speaking, the place where rat people are is not necessarily a fertile land, but the place where rat people are unwilling to come is definitely a harsh environment.

The fact that they would rather go to the freezing northern border than come to the swamp shows how bad the environment here is.

There are only a few hours left before the semi-finals are over.

The contestants are wasting their time...eating and drinking in the cafeteria.

In the staff dormitory on the commercial street, bursts of childish singing could be heard from the hall.

Bean stood aside with his arms folded, watching the invited opera teacher teaching "Ruth" to sing.

He put Ruth on stage last, just to give him more time to practice. Although the hope of advancing was slim, at least he could eat in the commercial street for a few more days.

After teaching for a few minutes, the opera teacher asked Ruth to continue practicing and walked towards Bean.

"How about it?"

"His vocal range is excellent, but unfortunately..." The opera teacher looked back at Ruth who was practicing hard and shook his head regretfully, "The lower class people in Conch City are really not suitable for singing."

This problem is not innate, but acquired...

Bean still remembers that when he first came to the commercial street, he saw many low-income people eating "black bread" - different from the black bread mixed with sawdust or wheat flour that people are familiar with, the bread here is flour mixed with a black mud called "bread mud".

After all, there are no more trees in the swamp than there is wheat flour.

The mud was like slime that had swallowed gravel, a little rough and elastic, but not sticky. Bean didn't know what the first person who invented black mud bread was thinking, but he admitted that the guy was a genius.

Although black mud bread will not kill you and can fill your stomach, it is definitely not delicious. Not only does it become more bitter the more you eat it, but some of the broken sand in it is more irritating to the throat than sawdust.

The only advantage is that it can be recycled... because it is not digested, it can be washed and made into black mud bread after being pulled out.

The advantage of children's voices is that they are pure and have a high range that is difficult for adults to reach, but Ruth has eaten too much black mud bread, and her voice is no longer so pure. When she sings high, her hoarseness becomes apparent.

The same is true for the poor in other places, so the poor in the capital of art will send their children to the opera house. Even if they can guess what their children will encounter in the opera house, in order to avoid suffering themselves, they can only pray to the goddess of luck for mercy.

If there wasn't this problem, Ruth would have a chance of getting the pending award.

"Is there no other way, like healing with magic?"

"Mr. Bean, magic can only heal wounds, but it can't restore them..." The opera teacher apologized, "Maybe divine magic can help, but..."

He didn't say the rest.

"I understand."

Bean looked at Ruth, whose forehead was covered with sweat from singing, and walked towards him.

He squatted down and wiped the sweat off Ruth's face: "Take a break." "No, if I make it into the top 1000, you can be my mother!"

Bean pursed his lips.

He had already decided to adopt him and Jack whether Ruth passed or not.

Anyway, the salary paid by Liberty City is enough for him to support his two children, and if he sends them to school, he can exempt them from the cost of food and accommodation.

But he didn't tell Ruth and let him continue practicing.

Even if he fails, it will be a valuable asset for his future life.

The childish voice stopped for a moment and continued to echo in the hall.

……

Late at night, the Conch City Commercial Street is still bustling with people.

The semi-finals were coming to an end, with only a dozen or so contestants left to go on stage.

Bean led Rose and Jack to the front of the stage.

"Dad Bean, I'm nervous..." Jack also shouted following Rose, but he called Dad.

No matter how he and Bean corrected Ruth, Ruth just called Bean mom.

"You don't have to go on stage, why are you so nervous?"

Bean asked the two little ones to watch the game carefully.

More and more contestants were eliminated, and most of them were not as good as Ruth. Bean brought Ruth here in advance just to tell her that many people here could not sing as well as him.

There was a small incident on the stage, when a bard walked onto the stage. He held a lute, but instead of playing and singing, he told a little joke, which made the crowd laugh, and then he took advantage of the situation to sing a funny song.

His singing skills were slightly worse than Ruth's, but his breath was more stable, and he set the mood, so the judges gave him a pending rating.

If nothing unexpected happens, Ruth should also get the pending position, unless she performs better than the Bard...

Ok?
Bean caught a flash of inspiration, squatted down and said to Ruth: "Ruth, when you go on stage later, don't rush to sing, just say this first..."

A few more contestants were eliminated, and in the last hour of the semi-finals, it was finally Ruth's turn.

He hurriedly ran onto the stage, but because he was nervous he missed a step and fell, causing a burst of cheers and laughter.

Ruth got up silently, walked to the center of the stage, glanced at Bean in the audience, and mustered up the courage to say: "Hello everyone, I am an orphan..."

The noise from the audience faded, leaving only the occasional cough.

Ruth did not sing, but talked about how he and his companions were wandering in the lower class. He heard that the competition was giving out free food, so he came to sign up.

Because a name was required for registration, they took the names "Jack" and "Ruth" that they overheard and applied them to themselves, and then they met Bean's mother.

"Jack told me that I should call Bean Dad, but other children said that there is a kind of person called Mom who will be nice to you, and he is very good to me, so it must be Mom..."

Amidst laughter, Ruth looked down at the stage, and the crowd and judges followed suit, and saw a young man standing there with a big smile on his face.

"Mother Binn took me out to eat and taught me to sing. She also said that if I could make it into the top 1000, she would be willing to be my mother."

Ruth's face was full of seriousness: "I want to try it."

(End of this chapter)