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

His breath control, pitch, rhythm, and emotional expression are all extremely precise.

This level of skill far surpasses that of a twenty-year-old. This genius has demonstrated a vast difference between himself and others through his talent.

The entire song is four and a half minutes long.

Lin Buyi didn't look away for even a second.

The expressions of the other contestants grew increasingly grim. One girl lowered her head, her lips trembling. She knew she was no match for Zhou Qian.

When Zhou Qian finished with the last high note, her voice lingered for several seconds under the dome of the studio before fading away.

The entire audience stood up and applauded.

I was truly stunned.

Fang Yizhou closed his eyes in the mentor's seat.

He is digesting.

He hadn't heard vocal technique at this level before, ten years ago, at an international vocal competition. And that contestant was already thirty-five years old.

Fang Yizhou opened his eyes and picked up the microphone.

"Zhou Qian".

"Teacher Fang." Zhou Qian stood in the center of the stage, her voice as calm as if she had just drunk a glass of water.

"The quality of your performance today has exceeded what a talent show should be. Technically speaking, I can hardly find anything to criticize." Fang Yizhou paused for a moment. "You shouldn't stay on the talent show stage anymore. You should go to a bigger place."

Applause rang out once again.

Zhou Qian bowed slightly and stepped off the stage.

The atmosphere backstage plummeted to rock bottom.

Two more contestants were scheduled to perform, but everyone knew that their performances would pale in comparison to Zhou Qian's.

The sixth contestant went up. She sang well, but compared to Zhou Qian, she was nothing.

The seventh one is the same.

Then--

"Next contestant, Lin Buyi."

The last one in Group C.

In front of the monitor backstage, several staff members exchanged a glance.

Li Ang's agent leaned against the wall, arms crossed, with a look of anticipation on his face.

Wang Ke took off his headphones and looked up at the monitor—he also wanted to see what this ordinary person, praised by Fang Yizhou, could bring out after Zhou Qian.

Zhou Qian sat in the corner, wearing headphones, but the headphone wire wasn't plugged into his phone. He was listening.

Lin Buyi stood up.

He picked up the guitar and slung it over his shoulder.

When he walked out of the waiting area, there was only the sound of his footsteps in the corridor.

He walked neither fast nor slow.

My mind was quiet, without tension or fear, and without any urge to prove myself.

He only had one thing on his mind—

What is the cutoff score for the next round?

He needs to survive.

It's not to prove anything, it's just that my sister's surgery fees are still far from being covered.

He paused for two seconds when he reached the stage entrance.

Take a deep breath.

Then he went outside.

The stage lights shone down, and the scattered whispers from the audience reached my ears.

"It's the one who sang 'Sorrow' last time—"

"Being ranked after Zhou Qian, how terrible!"

"Let's see what he can come up with this time."

Lin Buyi walked to the center of the stage and sat down.

Place the guitar on your lap.

I adjusted the microphone height.

He didn't introduce himself. He already did in the previous round, so there was no need to do it again.

He said only one sentence.

"This song is called 'A Person Like Me'."

Then he lowered his head and plucked the strings with his right hand.

The guitar intro is very simple.

It's simpler than "Sorrow".

The melody is quite bland, with several chords switching back and forth.

Whispers began to circulate among the audience. After Zhou Qian's dazzling and explosive performance, the extremely rudimentary arrangement did indeed seem shabby.

But Lin Buyi didn't care.

He closed his eyes and his fingers moved across the strings for four measures.

Then he opened his mouth.

"Someone as outstanding as me should have lived a brilliant life."

When the first sentence was uttered, the studio fell silent.

People quieted down to try and discern what was in the sound.

This kind of quiet is completely different from the quiet when listening to Zhou Qian. When listening to Zhou Qian, people are quiet because they are impressed by the technology, and their brains are processing the information "How can this voice be so perfect?"

When listening to Lin Buyi, people were quiet because—

The line he sang really hit a nerve.

"How come after more than 20 years, I'm still just drifting in the sea of ​​people?"

Lin Buyi's voice is not splendid. Compared to Zhou Qian, his tone is rough, his breath is uneven, and you can even hear obvious rough edges when he turns his voice.

But these rough edges represent authenticity.

It's like someone sitting on the edge of their bed in a rented room late at night, talking to the air, as if singing to themselves.

"Someone as smart as me has long since said goodbye to naivety. How come I still ended up with a body full of scars after exchanging a relationship for one?"

"People like me who are lost, people like me who are searching."

"Someone as mediocre as me—"

He paused for about half a second when he sang this part.

A half-second silence.

There were nearly two thousand people in the entire studio, and not a single person made a sound during that half-second.

How many other people have you met?

When that sentence was uttered, a man in his thirties in the front row of the audience, wearing a shirt and with his work badge still hanging around his neck—he must have come straight here after work—leaned back slightly and pursed his lips when he heard the words "mediocre and unproductive."

A young woman next to me, fully made up, had put down her phone sometime earlier. Her eyes were red because she had heard herself.

On the mentor's panel, Deng Ziheng's smile had long since vanished. In the previous round, he had thought Lin Buyi was just a lucky folk singer, but now he dared not think that way anymore.

The second verse.

"A vulgar person like me has never liked to pretend to be profound."

"Why do I sometimes find myself lost in thought when I hear old songs?"

Zhou Wanting took off her glasses.

Her hands were clenched into fists under the table. She had cried the last time she heard "Sorrow," and she didn't want to cry again this time. But this song wouldn't give her that chance.

"A coward like me always has to leave some room for maneuver in everything."

"How could I have ever thought of risking my life for someone?"

Fang Yizhou's fingers remained motionless on the table. He stared at the young man on stage, who was alone and holding a guitar, his gaze filled with complex emotions.

A 21-year-old shouldn't be able to write a song like this.

He had this question about the song "Sorrow" before. That song contained the desolation of half a lifetime, something a twenty-one-year-old couldn't possibly understand.

But this song—

This song is even worse.

"Sorrow" at least has a sense of grandeur, with wine, passion, and a "respect for freedom and death" attitude.

There is no such book as "A Person Like Me".

It doesn't have any particular posture.

It's like someone peeling away their layers of fig leaves, showing you how ordinary they are, how confused they are, and how unwilling they are to accept their fate.

This kind of naked self-analysis requires more courage than any show of skill.