Being a gigolo was too much for him, so he had to become a music superstar.

"Okay, I always leave hastily after dawn—"

"The most absurd people are those who are sober."

He sang the last line twice.

"The most absurd people are those who are sober."

The guitar is being played. The right hand gently presses down on the strings.

Stopped.

There is no unnecessary outro, no deliberate omission.

It's stopped.

The studio fell silent.

one second.

two seconds.

three seconds.

Snapped.

Fang Yizhou was the first to applaud.

Then came Xue Xinghe, Zhou Wanting, and Deng Ziheng.

Finally, the entire audience.

Applause erupted, mixed with screams, whistles, and many sobs that couldn't be contained.

Lin Buyi sat in the center of the stage, holding a guitar, his whole body soaked in sweat.

He watched the scene below the stage, which was almost out of control, his chest heaving violently.

He did it.

……

After the room quieted down, the mentors began to give their comments.

Fang Yizhou picked up the microphone first. He looked at Lin Buyi for a long time before slowly speaking.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-one."

Fang Yizhou shook his head slightly: "Twenty-one years old. How could you write a song like this?"

He turned to the other mentors: "I've been making music for twenty-five years and have listened to countless songs. But the lyrics of this song are not something a twenty-one-year-old should write. Every glass of wine carries the desolation of half a lifetime."

"Your technique is rough. Your breath control, pitch, singing style—there are flaws everywhere. But you know what? These flaws don't matter in the face of this song. Because the weight of the song itself has already overwhelmed everything."

Fang Yizhou paused for a moment.

"This is the best song I've heard all day. Bar none."

As soon as he finished speaking, the entire audience erupted in applause once again.

Xue Xinghe stood up, walked directly to the professor's table, and said to Lin Buyi:

"I said during the preliminary rounds that you sing with sincerity. At the time, I was wondering if sincerity alone could carry a big stage. Now I've taken back my hesitation."

"The song you sang today made all the previous performances on this stage seem like mere appetizers."

He paused for a moment, then smiled.

"I'm so glad I made the right bet."

Zhou Wanting's evaluation was the most emotional. She took off her glasses and wiped her eyes.

"It's been a long time since I've been moved to tears by a song on a talent show. You reminded me of what music should originally be like—not something packaged, not something bought with money, but something that comes from a person's life experience. Thank you."

Deng Ziheng's comment was the shortest.

He only said one thing: "If your technique can reach half the level of this song, the championship is yours. Practice hard."

Lin Buyi stood up. He put his guitar back on his back and bowed to the four mentors.

Thank you, teachers.

His voice was steady. But only he knew that the hand holding the guitar neck was covered in cold, sweaty sweat.

……

Lin Buyi returned to the backstage area.

As he walked through the passageway, the gazes of the contestants and staff who had previously ignored him were now completely different. Some stared at him blankly, some whispered among themselves, and some had an indescribable look in their eyes.

Shen Yihe waited for him in the waiting area. When she saw him return, her eyes were red—she had watched the whole thing on the monitor.

"How...how could you sing that kind of song?" Her voice was somewhat out of control.

Lin Buyi looked at her and suddenly smiled—this was the first time he had smiled on the show, though it was very faint.

"Because I have no way out."

Meanwhile, Zhou Qian leaned against the wall.

He unconsciously dented the mineral water bottle in his hand.

He watched Lin Buyi's entire performance on the monitor.

His technique is far superior to Lin Buyi's. His pitch is far more precise than Lin Buyi's. His training has been a hundred times more systematic than Lin Buyi's.

But for the first time, he felt a strange, indescribable feeling.

Is it defiance? Curiosity? Or being moved?

He couldn't explain it clearly. He only knew one thing—Fang Yizhou's words, "The best song of the day, without a doubt," made him move the name Lin Buyi from being uninterested to a different place in his mind.

A position that needs to be taken seriously.

……

In the VIP room on the second floor.

Su Nianwei said she would come to watch the game.

She did come, but she didn't sit in the audience—she used her connections to get access to a VIP box, where she sat alone in a soundproof booth, looking down at the entire stage through a one-way mirror.

When she saw Lin Buyi walking onto the stage wearing that faded hoodie, she frowned inwardly—she should have forced him to change into something else.

But when the guitar intro started, her body tensed up.

She had heard this song before; it was the one she heard at the basement stairwell that day.

But listening in a basement and listening on stage are completely different things.

The stage lights shone on Lin Buyi, who sat there alone. The man who was usually silent and reserved in her presence, who dared not resist when she pinned him down, was now…

"One cup to liberty, one cup to death."

When she sang that line, Su Nianwei's hand holding the wine glass trembled slightly.

She didn't know why he could sing such songs. She didn't know what he had endured during those days and nights when she took from him and toyed with him.

"That bastard..." her voice was very soft, "When did he become... so captivating?"

She looked down and found that her palms were sweaty.

The red wine in her glass had gone cold, and she hadn't drunk a drop.

She stood up, straightened her dress, picked up her bag, and left the VIP room.

There weren't many people in the corridor. She walked towards the elevator in her high heels, and as she passed a floor-to-ceiling window, she saw her reflection in the glass.

Her eyes were indeed a little red.

Su Nianwei stopped, quickly pressed her fingers against the corners of her eyes to make sure her makeup wasn't smudged, and then continued walking.

When she arrived at the parking lot, her personal driver, Lao Zhou, was already waiting.

"Young Miss, shall we go back?"

"Um."

Su Nianwei opened the back door and got in.

The car started.

She took out her phone and opened Weibo.

Several trending topics are rapidly climbing the search rankings.

Lin Buyi, a rising star among amateur contestants, is ranked eighteenth and is still climbing higher.

Xiaochou – Ranked 23rd.

One toast to freedom, one toast to death—thirty-first.

Fang Yizhou burst into tears on the spot – 28th place.

The show hasn't officially aired yet, but videos secretly filmed by audience members are already everywhere.

Su Nianwei clicked on the most viewed clip. The video was shaky, the camera angle was off, and the sound quality wasn't great, but she could still clearly see the man in the black hoodie sitting alone on the stage, holding a guitar and singing with his head down.

The comments section went crazy.

"Holy crap, what an amazing song! I cried after listening to it just once."

"Fang Yizhou said there's no one else like him?? What level is that?? I need to search for this person!"