Please, come home and practice the piano

Chapter 1301, Section 521: An Unacceptable Result?! Teacher Li's Precautionary Measure
The applause around him grew louder and louder, and Ah Qian's face turned red from the applause, but Xiao Che's expression seemed out of place.

Although she was clapping, her face was blank.

She was actually still immersed in the lyrics she had just heard.

She listened very carefully; there were three changes to the lyrics of the entire piece.

In the verse, "love" was changed to "memories," "I wish I could hold you tight" was changed to "I wish I could still walk with you," and in the final chorus, "I want to follow every Instagram post" was changed to "I want to follow my story."

It's clear that the revised version is more suitable for middle school students.

Xiao Che didn't know who changed the lyrics, but she admired the person who adapted them.

Especially the final changes.

When she first heard it, she even looked it up. The "ig" in the original lyrics "want to follow every ig" is an abbreviation for Instagram, which means social media platform. It makes it easier to understand when placed before the line "not to miss your tracks".

However, changing it to "I want to follow my story" still connects to "I won't miss your tracks," and considering the first line of the verse, "When memories are left behind as relics," the meaning here is worth considering.

After removing all the elements related to love and affection, the theme of this song has nothing to do with love. From Xiao Che's perspective, this revised version of "Want to See You" seems to describe a feeling of looking back on the past.

It feels like there's a dialogue between my present self and my past self.

It was the final change that gave her that feeling.

'Want to follow my story and not miss your footsteps?'

Although two personas are used here, she perceives them as the same person.

I represent the present me, while you represent the past me.

Another place that evoked the same feeling for her was "walking with you".

Well--

Who changed it? The teacher?
She felt it was very likely her teacher, who wanted to see her, wanted to see her, wanted to see her. Did her teacher want to see her past self?
What an interesting scene.

In short, she really liked the revised lyrics.

so good.

Little Tiger did a great job directing; he really got the hang of it.

To be honest, she personally thinks Wang Xiaohu has made great progress in his conducting, but she can't say exactly where that progress lies.

To put it simply, she felt more like a conductor than during the Children's Day performance.

Hey.

The thought that it might be many years before Xiao Che could see Hu Zi directing the team again made him feel a little melancholy.

August is almost here, and there's less than a month and a half left before Tiger goes abroad.

You wouldn't believe it until you do the math; there are less than six weeks left!

Why hasn't the teacher told Tiger yet?
She felt it was about time; she couldn't wait until the last week to inform Tiger, could she?
Based on her understanding of Hu Zi, if that were the case, Hu Zi might not be able to handle it.

So the teacher definitely wouldn't let that happen, right?
"Wow————"

"Next up is the No. 13 Middle School Choir."

After the book sellers finished, the subsequent lines seemed somewhat insignificant.

Actually, Yu Dong Experimental School, which came on later, also sang very well, at least as well as Qi Zhong, but it can only be said that no one can control the order of appearance.

To use a phrase that's no longer popular, people's threshold has been raised after the rise of the book people.

Indeed, looking at the whole event, it felt a bit like the Shuren Choir was stirring up trouble in a fishpond when they came to participate in such a competition.

Even so, the members of the Shipo Choir do not believe that their final results will necessarily be worse than those of Shuren.

Finally, after the last team finished performing, the judges began to tally the final scores, and the atmosphere in the audience became lively.

Only four out of ten teams will be able to represent Yudong District in tomorrow's city finals.

Who wouldn't want their team to be one of them?

Tang Xiaoxing was confident that Shipo would advance smoothly, but she was more concerned about their performance in this round.

Today is Tang Xiaoxing's first time participating in a music competition, not in a formal sense, but as her first experience.

"Linlin, do you think we can get first place?"

"Hard to say."

The little car, big and small, has been through many races, and experience tells her that in these kinds of situations, it's best to just wait for the results.

"What do you think?" Tang Xiaoxing's voice was even softer.

After a moment, the car replied, "If I were a judge, I would give first place to the book reader."

Upon hearing this, Ah Qian immediately exclaimed, "I'm awesome!"

Tang Xiaoxing did not show any resentment upon hearing this, but in her heart she felt that Shipo's overall stage performance deserved first place more than anyone else's.

While they may not be as good as Shuren in terms of singing, their works are more varied and challenging to perform in terms of vocal arrangement.

After these two factors are offset, they have another advantage: a steel accompaniment.

Tang Xiaoxing: "According to the scoring rules, students who provide accompaniment will also receive extra points."

Ah Qian: "Exactly!"

Xiao Guan, who was in charge of recording the whole process, chimed in, "That's right!"

The little car chuckled to itself; logically, that was indeed the case, but...
"Let's wait a little longer, the results should be out soon."

Before Xiao Che could finish speaking, chaos erupted in the front of the stage. The children looked over and saw a person dressed in casual clothes standing up from the judges' panel.

The little car immediately recognized that this was Uncle Jiang Zhigang, the teacher's good friend.

Amidst the expectant gazes of the crowd, Jiang Zhigang walked onto the stage with a microphone in hand.

"After review by the judging panel, Shuren Bilingual School won first place in this round of the competition with a final score of 99.8."

"Whoosh—"

As Jiang Zhigang finished speaking, applause erupted in the audience, and Shuren taking first place was no surprise to most people.

The children of the book lovers in the audience cheered at the same time.

Tang Xiaoxing sighed slightly, thinking that there was still the final tomorrow.

But shortly after, when she heard Shi Po's score, she immediately thought she had misheard.

"Shipo Middle School came in second place in this round of the competition with a final score of 97.8."

"Wow————"

He was actually two points worse than the scholar?!

"Linlin, how many points did we get?"

Despite the cheers of his friends, Tang Xiaoxing was not happy at all!

"97.8."

Knowing that Tang Xiaoxing would be unhappy to hear this result, Xiao Che said in a relaxed tone, "This result is very good. Don't forget that our secret weapon is for tomorrow!"

Even so, Tang Xiaoxing still felt very uncomfortable. Why was there such a big difference?!
In her opinion, a score difference of 0.5 is normal. Although the quality of Shuren's performance is very high, if they can only get 97.8, there is no reason for Shuren to get 99.8.

However, not wanting to spoil everyone's fun, Tang Xiaoxing didn't say anything more, but she thought bitterly to herself that they must defeat the Book Man tomorrow!

"The third-place winner in this round is Rongcheng No. 7 Middle School, with a final score of 96.75." *Whoosh!*

"These kids from No. 7 Middle School sang really well," Li An thought to himself as he clapped along.

As for the difference in scores between Shipo and Shuren, he was somewhat helpless.

In Ang Lee's view, it wasn't that the author's score was too high, but rather that Shi Po's score was too low.

What frustrated him was that the reason Shipo was penalized was because of him.

If he and Shuren didn't have some connection, the score difference between the two schools couldn't have been so large.

Hey.

"Yudong Experimental School, which finished fourth in this round of the competition, scored 96.3 points."

"Wow——————"

Just as Li An predicted, all four schools recommended by Yudong District were selected.

I'll wait until tomorrow.

Lee Ang left before the results were announced.

After driving all the way home, there was no time to cook, so Li An ordered two large portions of Er Mao Mala Tang (a type of spicy hot pot).

Half an hour later, the two children arrived home before the food delivery.

Ang Lee was looking at his phone on the sofa when he heard the door open, so he got up to greet it. He thought Xiaoxing might be a little upset, but to his surprise, Tang Xiaoxing looked a bit sullen.

"You're back! Are you rehearsing again this afternoon?"

Tang Xiaoxing: "Line up!"

Xiao Che laughed: "Teacher, when did you leave?"

Ang Lee: "I'll leave after hearing the results. What time is your rehearsal this afternoon?"

Car: "Meet at three o'clock."

Ang Lee nodded: "Hurry up and change your clothes and rest for a while. The takeout will be here soon. You can sleep for a while after you eat."

The takeout arrived while the two children were changing clothes.

"Wow!"

As soon as I stepped into the dining hall cart, I smelled a familiar aroma. "Thank you, teacher!"

Tang Xiaoxing: "Thank you, teacher!"

“Don’t just stand there,” Li An beckoned to Er Hai, then looked at Tang Xiaoxing and smiled, “Xiaoxing, you seem a little unhappy.”

Tang Xiaoxing was a little embarrassed when the teacher exposed her, but she couldn't pretend to be happy: "Teacher, I just don't understand."

“Let’s talk while we eat,” Li An said, sitting down first and taking apart the chopsticks. Xiao Che quickly pulled his friend to sit down as well. “That’s how competitions are. Maybe we could have won first place if we had a different group of judges. Xiao Xing, let’s not think about it anymore. Your stomach is growling.”

Li Anle: "No, no, Xiaoxing, tell me, what's it that you can't figure out?"

Tang Xiaoxing sat down and took the chopsticks handed to her by the teacher. After a moment, she said, “We have no reason to be two points worse than the team leader. We have adapted popular songs for our selections. We also use the same four-part mixed voices. Our performance is just as good as theirs. The only thing we are not as good as them is in terms of uniformity. We have more people, but that is not enough for them to surpass our average score by two points. So I would like to hear your thoughts. Linlin said she prefers Shuren’s works.”

Ang Lee: "Do you believe your piano partner would lie to you?"

Tang Xiaoxing: "Of course I believe it. Even before the results were announced, Linlin said that she thought the person who wrote the book was better."

Ang Lee: "That's fine then. If she were a judge, she would give the author a higher score. Personally, I think the two-point difference is reasonable."

Tang Xiaoxing: "Huh?"

Ang Lee: "Music is completely subjective, so sometimes I would say that music competitions are inherently unreasonable. Once you participate in a competition and there are judges in the competition seats, you have to accept the final result, no matter what it is."

Tang Xiaoxing: "But..."

Ang Lee: "I understand your thinking. You've put yourself in the position of a judge, which is fine. Now I'll ask you a question. If you were a judge, how would you score the performances of your two teams?"

Tang Xiaoxing hesitated for a moment: "Shuren 99, we 98.5."

Ang Lee: "In other words, you acknowledge in your heart that the stage for writers as a whole is slightly better than yours, but the gap is very small."

Tang Xiaoxing: "Yes, teacher, what I can't understand is why the final result was so different."

Ang Lee: "You have your judging criteria, and the judges have theirs. As I just said, music competitions and music itself are contradictory because music is entirely subjective."

"Let me ask you again, Linlin got six perfect scores in the Xiao competition, one of the judges was a Russian named Novak, you know him, right?"

Tang Xiaoxing: "Mm."

Ang Lee: "But do you know how many points he gave Xiao Jingchen, who came in first place? 97.4 points. Do you think that's reasonable?"

Tang Xiaoxing was speechless for a moment, but she seemed to understand.

As Li An spoke, he picked up his chopsticks again: "There were even people who gave Linlin a perfect score but gave other contestants scores in the eighties. Do you really think your friend is that much better than those contestants who got scores in the eighties?"

Tang Xiaoxing shook her head, and after a moment, she showed a ashamed expression: "Teacher, I understand. I didn't consider things thoroughly and was too self-centered."

Xiao Che smiled upon hearing this, picked up a slice of tender beef, and placed it in Tang Xiaoxing's bowl.

Ang Lee: "No, no, Xiaoxing, remember this: you must always maintain this self-centered attitude towards music. If you don't, your music won't be your music. I always believe that maintaining your individuality is the bottom line for a professional musician."

"Music competitions are objective. Their judging criteria include technical accuracy, musical expressiveness, and formal innovation, among other things. These criteria are based on certain rules and objective facts."

"Music itself is an art form that often reflects the performer's emotions, thoughts, and intentions."

"Therefore, different listeners may have different feelings and understandings of the same musical work due to their personal experiences, cultural background, emotional state and other factors."

"That's why music and music competitions are inherently a pair of contradictions."

"You both need to remember that as musicians or performers, their mission is to convey and express through music. They can work in any setting except the competition arena."

"If you choose to participate in the competition, you must first be mentally prepared to accept all the results."

"Whether it's a choral competition or the Chopin Competition, there is essentially no difference between the two."

The two little girls were startled by what they heard.

"Of course, people always tend to describe life as if it follows a perfect, fixed formula."

"But when you encounter a similar situation again, you might as well think of Bruckner, wasn't he great?"

The two children exclaimed in unison, "Great!"

Ang Lee nodded, saying with some emotion, "But he was not recognized as a symphony composer until his later years."

"If there had been a symphony composition competition held every four or five years back then, he probably would have had to participate in ten consecutive competitions and still not win any major awards."

Seeing Tang Xiaoxing's familiar smile finally appear on his face, Li An felt a sense of relief: "Hurry up and eat! You two! If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have ordered this junk in my next life!"

Ha ha ha ha--

I love you!

I love you!

To be fair, Ang Lee also used this incident to give his two children a heads-up.

If that day ever comes, he hopes this injection will bring some comfort to his two children.

At 2:30 p.m., the two children happily set off for rehearsal, while at the same time the children of the Shuren Choir had already begun rehearsing.

By 4:30 p.m., the list of sixteen teams participating in the finals had been finalized.
-
The next morning at 8:30, sixteen spirited teams gathered in the auditorium of Yunxi Middle School.

The final draw is about to begin.