Please, come home and practice the piano

Chapter 1298, Section 518: The competition begins with a draw! But who is she?!
After a period of continuous rain, Chengdu welcomed its first rays of sunlight of the week.

However, even more enthusiastic than Chenguang were a group of children.

Before seven o'clock, the private group chat for the children's No. 4 music room was already buzzing with excitement.

Today, it's not just Shuren and Shipo schools that are participating in the choral competition.

Ah Liu was the first to send a message in the group: "Let's warm up our voices!"

Following closely behind was Qiao Zhizhi: Good morning, friends! Keep it up!

Xiao Bei: Good morning, Liu! Good morning, Zhizhi! Keep it up!
Tang Xiaoxing: Keep it up! Everyone's up so early!
Marco: Good morning, guys. By the way, what time are you guys going to arrive at school? Our school has an assembly point at eight, right?

Xiao Bei: So late? We meet at 7:30, I've already left, @Xiao Xing, Lin Lin! You're not up yet, are you?
Wang Xiaohu: We also meet at 7:30.

Tang Xiaoxing: @Xiaobei, the teacher said Linlin went out for a morning run, but she was gone when I woke up!

Wang Xiaohu: That's really powerful.
Marco: No wonder he's a racing legend!

Qiao Zhizhi: As expected of Sister Linlin!

Xiao Che: Hahaha, good morning everyone! @Wang Xiaohu, I just ran into Aunt Xu Li, she bought you some xiaolongbao!
Ah Liu: What kind of filling is it?
Xiao Bei: Hahahaha

Wang Xiaohu: Ugh, what a coincidence! You'd better hurry upstairs and get ready, or you'll be late.
Car: We're downstairs now! Good luck everyone! Let's hope to see Yunxi tomorrow!
Ah Liu: Absolutely! Who can't make it into the top four!
Marco: Uh, I might be in a bit of danger.
Marco: It's okay! I'll definitely come over tomorrow to cheer you on!

Senior Sister Ji Yang: Good morning, everyone! So, where should I go today? I'm so conflicted!

Xiao Bei: Good morning, Senior Sister!

Today is the district competition. The top four schools from each district will be selected to participate in tomorrow's citywide competition, which will also be held at Yunxi Middle School.

The cart returned upstairs with two bags of steamed buns and three cups of soy milk. "I'm back!"

Ang Lee came out of the bathroom and saw the breakfast Xiao Che was carrying, saying, "It's been a long time since I've had steamed buns."

Xiao Che chuckled: "I ran into Aunt Xu Li at the entrance of the steamed bun shop just now. She was buying breakfast for Wang Xiaohu."

Li Anle: "So we basically got a free meal."

Little Car: "Haha, yes! Little Star's ready to eat!"

Then Tang Xiaoxing's voice came from the cabin, "You didn't even invite me to come along!"

To be honest, Xiao Che hadn't planned on going for a morning run. After waking up at 5:30 because he needed to pee, he was too excited to fall back asleep. Afraid of disturbing Xiao Xing's sleep, he secretly sent a message to the teacher.

Not to mention, after a lap of exercise, I felt refreshed and invigorated, and my body felt incredibly comfortable.

Tang Xiaoxing: "Call me next time!"

Car: "Yeah!"

Ang Lee: "Alright, you two, hurry up and eat. I'll take you to school in a bit."

Despite the teacher's offer, the two girls shook their heads, indicating that they wanted to go to school by themselves.

Little Car: "Teacher, we're rivals today!"

Tang Xiaoxing: "Opponent!"

Ang Lee: Okay, okay, then you two be careful on the road, and we'll see you on the field.

The competition in Yudong District was held at the Yudong Cultural Center, which is not too far from either of the two schools.

After the meal, Li An drove to Yudong Cultural Center first. Since Yan Zhen, Lao Tang, and school teachers were leading the group, he didn't need to make the trip himself.

Today, Ang Lee is merely a spectator and does not participate in the judging of the music competition.

After parking his car, putting on his hat and work badge, he entered the lobby of the venue and, guided by real staff, entered the competition area ahead of schedule.

The concert hall at Yudong Cultural Center isn't very large; it could probably only hold less than 240 people, but that would be enough for today's competition.

Ten teams registered for the Yudong District competition, and a draw was held before the competition began.

After the draw, the first three teams to appear do not need to enter the audience seats, while the remaining teams enter their seats and wait.

Staff have marked out a rest area for the teams preparing for the competition with red barriers, with the judges' seats in one row.

The last two rows outside the red isolation zone were the spectator area. Li An entered and chose a corner to sit down.

"Old Tang, I've arrived. Have you all gotten on the bus?"

moment.

"I just left the school gate, I'll definitely be there in twenty minutes."
-
Within half an hour, buses arrived at the entrance of the cultural center.

One by one, the teams from Yudong District participating in the competition arrived at the scene.

Before 8:30 a.m., the area outside the cultural center was filled with the laughter of children.

It's understandable; a third of the summer vacation has already passed, and the children who are here now must have gone through continuous, high-intensity rehearsals.

The day of the competition has finally arrived, how can everyone not be excited?

We'll see what happens on stage soon!
Wang Xiaohu was the first to get off the Shuren bus. As soon as he got off, he saw the team from Shipo not far away already gathering and lining up.

Arlene and Tang Xiaoxing were at the front of the line helping Teacher Fangzheng organize the team. Seeing this, Xiaohu felt a strong fighting spirit!
Although they are good friends in private, he will not hold back when it comes to competitions held on a school-by-school basis.

"Come on, let me see Shipo's strength."

"A youth without being a bit immature is a wasted youth," Little Tiger muttered to himself, just as he and Little Car made eye contact across the distance.

Tang Xiaoxing raised his hand and gave him a thumbs up, and he laughed and returned the gesture with a thumbs up.

Then he turned around and said, "Form ranks, everyone keep discipline, and remember that we are here to represent the people!"

To be honest, Brother Tiger's shout had a bit of a leader's feel to it, and soon after, all the members of the Shuren Choir lined up and assembled.

Compared to teams from other schools, the Shuren team truly demonstrated a very high level of discipline.

After they lined up, no one spoke. Coupled with their neat black uniforms, they looked like an elite force.

Despite the frequent glances from the surrounding teams, Wang Xiaohu simply stood calmly beside Lao Tang, waiting for the next instruction.

Soon all ten participating teams had assembled, and at 8:30 a.m. sharp, the on-site draw ceremony began outside the venue.

The lottery method used was the most traditional red box lottery.

Some schools sent teachers to draw lots, while others sent students. However, at a glance, most of those who walked out of the queue were students.

Xiao Guan stepped forward from the stone slope, while Lao Tang from the scholar's side sent Wang Xiaohu, who in turn sent Qiao Zhizhi. So Qiao Zhizhi stepped out of the line.

"Go Zhizhi!" Lin Ziyang shouted.

Wang Xiaohu thought to himself that he didn't care what he drew, but he couldn't help but pray that he would appear after Shipo.

Just as the lottery was underway, another staff member came to the front of the group of people.

"Please come in and try out the pianos, piano accompanists."

As the staff member finished speaking, the accompanists from each team stepped out of their groups.

The necessity of this step is that the competition will begin immediately after the draw, and no team can wait for the piano accompanist to test the sound before starting.

Therefore, each team's accompanist is given two minutes before the competition begins to get used to the stage.

This was supposed to be a perfectly normal procedure, but after hearing what the staff member said, Fang Zheng couldn't help but smile.

Then I saw that the other teams' accompanists were all adults.

When they arrived at the stone slope, there was a burst of "hehehehe".

Amidst the quiet encouragement from his classmates, Xiao Che, dressed in a simple black formal suit, strode out of the group.

On the Shuren side, Wang Xiaohu, Qiao Zhizhi, and the others also looked at the Shipo team first after the staff member finished speaking.

"So handsome!"

Seeing Sister Linlin walk out of the stone slope group, Wu Yifan couldn't help but get excited. Wang Xiaohu coughed, "Is this really necessary?! Don't we even know who our opponents are now?!"
"Go, Teacher Tang!" Wang Xiaohu retorted, not to be outdone.

Old Tang smiled, stepped out of the line, and said, "I'll be waiting for you inside."

While thinking of him as an opponent, Wang Xiaohu's gaze kept drifting towards the car's retreating figure.

Actually, he was very proud! No wonder she's our Ah Lin!
This was the situation known to those in the know, but for the other teams who were unaware, the scene seemed particularly bizarre!
At first, no one noticed; it was only when the car went up the steps that everyone realized it!
Which school does she go to?

"Bravo!"

Can students play piano accompaniment?

"What's the big deal? Our school is all about students playing instruments."

A commotion arose.

At this moment, Xiao Bei chuckled in Yu Dong's experimental team and whispered to his friends, "This is A Lin!"

Unlike the students, the teachers who had gathered together already knew about the short-haired man's background.

The winner of the Rongcheng Cup Gold Award, the only contestant to date to achieve six perfect scores in the finals of the Xiao Xiao Competition, recently completed a solo recital at the National Centre for the Performing Arts.

Most importantly, she is Ang Lee's most prized student.

It's not that the piano accompanists are being modest; to be honest, they really can't compare to this young girl in terms of skill.

So when everyone walked together, for a moment no one knew who was the teacher and who was the student.

That's just not fair!

Good morning, Teacher Tang!

Good morning, you look beautiful today.

"Hehe, thank you, Teacher Tang! You're handsome too!"

And then there's this bald guy. After he organized two training sessions for young piano teachers at Piano Classroom No. 4 some time ago, people in Chengdu have become quite familiar with this Mr. Tang from Shanghai.

The head teacher of Piano Classroom No. 4, Li An's right-hand man, has an exceptional level of professional competence.

It's too difficult. The group wasn't complaining. Most of them were piano teachers at the school, and even if they majored in piano in college, their current position seemed rather awkward compared to the two people, one big and one small.

Although today is a choral competition, accompaniment is also a very important part of the competition.

Before the competition even started, the difference in skill between the two players was already starkly apparent.

This is indeed a bit disheartening.

With ten teams vying for the top four spots, who among them didn't come with the mission of advancing to the second round?

All we can do is lament that the matchmaking system in this region is not perfect.

The group of teachers followed the staff into the building. Ang Lee turned around at the sound and smiled when he saw what was happening.

It's quite amusing to see the little car mixed in with a group of teachers.

The little car was so busy talking to Teacher Tang that it didn't notice the teacher in the corner.

Ang Lee took out his phone, took two photos, and sent them to Old Car.

"Teachers, let's hurry up."

The staff didn't care about all that; once they brought the group of piano accompanists onto the stage, her task was complete.

It's good to hurry, who wants to go first?
The piano is right in front of me.

At this moment, a female teacher in a red dress stepped forward with a polite smile, "Then I'll go first."

The pianos prepared by the cultural center for the competition have been tuned, and there should be no problem with their pitch.

The teacher in the red dress simply played a few notes, then grabbed a couple of chords and got up from the piano to let everyone get used to the sound of the keys and the environment.

Then a male teacher dressed in black stepped forward. Compared to the female teacher from before, this male teacher seemed much more serious, and he adjusted the piano bench for a while before raising his hand.

"when!"

After playing a few short notes, he pressed the sustain pedal and repeated a short passage.

"Does your voice sound a little dry?" the male teacher asked, looking at everyone. "It sounds a bit dry to me."

Ang Lee, who was in the audience, had noticed this as early as when the female teacher was playing.

After all, it's just a stage in a cultural center, so the sound system can't compare to that of a professional concert hall.

A dry piano sound means that the volume of the entire chorus will be difficult to produce, which is indeed a problem.

However, the conditions are the same; it all comes down to each team's ability to adapt.

Because the audience members on stage were closer to the piano sound source, they didn't hear it as clearly as Ang Lee, who was in the last row of the audience.

For a moment, everyone couldn't help but look at Old Tang.

"Teacher Tang, why don't you give it a try?"

The male teacher in front of the piano stood up to give up his seat, and Old Tang sat down, played a few notes, and then nodded and said, "It is indeed a bit dry."

Seeing this, a staff member stepped forward and explained, "We have microphones specially prepared for accompaniment."

Microphones solved most of the problems for piano accompanists, but Lao Tang and another teacher chose not to use microphones.

Finally, after all the teachers had finished their tests, the little car walked towards the piano.

He sat down, raised his hand, and moved his fingers with an indescribable fluidity.

"Clang clang clang clang".

After playing a slow two-handed scale, she tried pressing the sustain pedal and played another scale.

Indeed, just as she had heard, each note dissipated quickly after it rose to the surface.

It was just a minor issue, so she didn't suggest trying to turn on the microphone. She pressed the key a little harder.

"Clang clang clang—"

After picking up four sets of chords in a row, she had a good idea of ​​what to expect.

The teachers around were amazed when they heard the car produce these four chords. Compared to the sound the car had just played, these four chords sounded like they were being played in a concert hall.

What is level?
"I don't need a microphone, thank you."

He stood up, explained the situation to the staff, and the car returned to Teacher Tang's side.

Just then, she turned around and saw the teacher wearing a hat sitting in the last row. Before she could react, the teacher gave her an OK sign.

Now she was completely relieved.

The results of the draw were announced at the same time.

Wu Yifan lived up to expectations and brought back the number seven playing card.

Xiao Guan was also lucky, drawing number five to participate.

In comparison, Yu Dong Experimental School was a bit less lucky; the second group to perform had to go backstage to prepare.

After the draw, the teams from each school, led by their teachers, entered the competition venue.

Shortly after, the judging panel from Yudong District entered the room, led by Jiang Zhigang, an old friend of Ang Lee.

As the host took the stage, enthusiastic applause erupted from the audience.

"Wow—"

The moment the applause rang out, the tension of the competition instantly rose.

(End of this chapter)