Lonely Rock: Love Songs Dedicated to the Stars

However, Yuzhen immediately noticed something was wrong. Boqi had just chuckled a few times, and Yuzhen felt that she was probably planning to do something stupid again.

He immediately got up and found Hongxia: "Keep an eye on Boqi, and whatever you do, don't let her do any talent shows that will just be a flop."

Hongxia nodded to indicate that she understood.

She was about to go to Pochi's side when she was interrupted by a loud argument. She turned around and saw that it was two girls.

Looking at the two girls, Yuma remembered that they were members of "Beast Ria".

“They should be members of ‘Beast Ria’,” Yuma shared with the four of them. “Their lead singer is an art university student; he sounds like a very talented person.”

“But they actually started arguing.” Xingge also came over. “Did they have a fight? This is not a good time.”

"Let's disband here," said the girl on the left.

'They really had a falling out. But is it really okay to bring up disbanding at a time like this?' Yuma thought to herself.

The girl on the right said, "I don't really care, it's better than trying to attract attention."

Suddenly, the girl on the left knelt down and hugged the girl on the right's leg.

"Why don't you understand! If you make a joke about musical instruments being like Takeda Shingen's fan, everyone will laugh so hard they'll fall to the ground!"

"It's going to be awkward!" The girl on the right tried to pull her leg out, but it was held too tightly, and her shoe fell off when she pulled it out.

The two continued arguing about the round fan reference.

'Are you two any different from just trying to attract attention?' Yuzhen looked around at the people around them, all of whom were staring at the two of them.

Listening to the two arguing, Yuzhen glanced at Boqi as if possessed, only to find that Boqi's face was full of a defeated expression.

'So you're also planning to use the round fan meme?'

After the band finished, everyone noticed Pochi's expression. They silently thanked Beast Ria in their hearts; she had really helped them a lot.

Afterwards, they met members of SIDEROUS. Yuma remembered that the girl wearing a mask was named Hasegawa.

After the band finished, Yuma followed Hasegawa into the dressing room, where he saw Otsuki anxiously tapping on her phone.

She was just tapping on her phone, swiping left and right on the home screen, turning the phone off and on again, without actually trying to open any particular app.

Seeing familiar faces from the band that had ended, Otsuki breathed a sigh of relief, but she immediately snorted and turned her face away.

Yuma found the child very interesting and nudged Hoshika next to him: "Look, Otsuki's personality is just like yours."

"Does it look like that?" Hoshika recalled Otsuki's appearance just now. Is that how she usually is?

"They're quite cute."

"Who are you calling cute?" Xingge turned and glared at Youzhen. "They're still children..."

"I wasn't talking about Otsuki." Yuuma sighed and turned back to the bar.

Xingge caught up with him and followed beside him. The two of them returned to the spot where they had been sitting.

"Even if you praise me like that, I won't be happy." Xingge took a big gulp of juice. "The word 'cute' doesn't suit me."

"What's wrong with it?"

“We’re both thirty years old, and to say that a thirty-year-old is cute... well, I feel really awkward about it.”

“Really? I don’t think so.” Yuzhen looked at her. “I think this word can describe everyone. Hoshika is so cute.”

"Shut up."

"Xingge is very cute."

"I told you to shut up."

"Even when Xingge says something fierce in a shy tone, she's still cute."

Xingge snorted and lay down on the bar without replying.

……

After the draw, the band came out of the dressing room, and Yuuma noticed that Nijika looked dejected.

Yuzhen asked around and found out that during the lottery, Hongxia volunteered to help everyone get a good performance position, but she ended up drawing fifth place.

With a total of thirty bands, being the fifth to perform is definitely not a good position.

"It's over." Liang remarked upon seeing the number.

"It's okay, just do your best," Yuzhen quickly reassured everyone.

Then he took out several bento boxes: "These are what I made this morning. Everyone, eat first. You'll have the energy for the rehearsal this afternoon if you're full."

Kita opened the bento box and saw the chicken cutlet rice that Yuma had made: "What a cute bento!"

She took a photo with the performance hall as a backdrop and the bento box, then posted it on the band's official account.

"Kenzaki-san is a great philanthropist." Ryo, meanwhile, was wolfing down his food.

Seeing everyone enjoying the meal, Yuzhen felt happy too. However, he soon realized that he had cooked an extra portion because he had gotten into the swing of things this morning.

Xingge looked at the remaining bento box in his bag and asked, "Are you having two?"

"I accidentally made too much."

"How much more can be done?"

As the two of them were discussing who should receive the bento box, they suddenly felt a sharp gaze upon them.

Hiroi came over after smelling the aroma and told everyone that she was very hungry.

In order for the opening performance to proceed smoothly, Yuma gave the extra bento box to Hiroi.

Chapter 135 Unity Band

After lunch, the bands that participated in the performance review returned for rehearsal.

Yu-ma and Hoshika could tell that the four members of the band were already a little nervous even before the performance officially started.

After Kita finished his audition, it was Pochi's turn to audition. His high-speed fingerstyle guitar performance then shocked everyone in the performance hall.

"Is Pochi-chan/Ichiri-chan going to go all out during the audition?" Nijika and Kita wondered, looking at Pochi next to them.

"Who's on stage!?"

Xiao Yin and Guang Jing heard the guitar music as soon as they got back, and they both looked up at the stage with everyone else.

Then everyone lost interest; it turned out that Pochi was too scared and was trembling. She had unconsciously played the piece by relying on the frequency of her trembling body.

The other band members went to do their own things, but Yuzhen and the others knew that even without that coincidence, Boqi's strength was more than enough to reach that level.

After the band finished their rehearsal, Beast Lydia and SIDEROS also finished their rehearsal.

"These are all bands with pretty good potential," Hiroi remarked, sitting next to Yuuma.

Xiao Yin also finished his work and was resting here. He had also become fascinated by these new generation bands.

Backstage, Hongxia felt a little uneasy at the thought of the upcoming performance.

"What's wrong? Why do you look so gloomy?" Yuzhen came into the lounge and sat down next to her.

"How did my brother get here?"

The backstage area is reserved for staff and the 30 shortlisted bands.

Hongxia noticed that Yuzhen was wearing an identity tag around her neck; it belonged to Xiaoyin.

"It was lent to me by Xiaoyin." Yuzhen waved the ID card in front of Hongxia. "Still nervous?"

"Because this is a competition, it's different from usual." Kita also came over to the side.

“What’s the difference?” Yuma looked at Nijika and Kita. “Aren’t you both just finishing up a band’s away performance and going on stage? Were you this nervous when you performed in Ikebukuro?”

Listen, Nijika, Kita, Pochi, and Ryo, this is a trial.

Whether you advance or not, there will always be audiences who discover your strengths. You are a band, and your ultimate goal is to showcase your rock music to the audience.

Forget about rankings, focus on the performance, and show them your thoughts and feelings through music. That's what you need to do now.

"My brother is giving us motivational speeches again."

"What does it have to do with anything?" Yuzhen looked at their smiles as they regained their confidence. "Don't you guys really like drinking this kind of chicken soup for the soul?"

Hongxia smiled too, and she thought of a way to enhance cohesion and increase confidence: "Let's stick the band's mascot on the instruments."

She pulled out a sticker; it was of a strange creature with cable ties binding its body.

"I don't want to post those kinds of things from dubious sources." Liang turned her head away.

But she was immediately forced to fall to the ground by Hongxia and had the mascot stuck on her bass.

"Isn't this your design?" Hongxia glared at Liang, her cheeks puffed out.

Kita stuck Pochi's sticker on the end of the guitar, but Yuma noticed that Pochi started grinning again, and she kept sticking stickers on the guitar while laughing.

Yuzhen, who suffers from trypophobia, couldn't stand the guitar and quickly left the lounge.

"Aren't you going in to check on them?" Yuzhen said to Xingge outside the door after closing it.

“You’re enough.” Xingge stood leaning against the wall with her arms crossed. “Aren’t they very motivated? We don’t need me anymore.”

"Then let's go see a show."

The two of them went outside, and Yuzhen felt her phone vibrate. She took it out and glanced at it.

The band ended by posting a photo on their account.

"The photo is great; it could be used as an album cover," Xingge commented after taking a look.

“That’s really good.” Yuzhen smiled as she looked at the energetic children. “They’re quite united now.”

……

The auditions finally began, and only two out of the thirty bands would be selected to advance to the final stage.

Sick Hack, who was performing at the opening ceremony, had already taken the stage, but everyone noticed that Hiroi was not in a good mood.

"I've been hungover for two days." Hiroi was completely drunk and spoke weakly. "Please allow me to sing for everyone with a vomit bag in my hand."

"What did she do this time?" Yuzhen looked at Xiaoyin beside her. "Wasn't she slightly tipsy after dinner? What's going on now?"

"Well..." Xiaoyin scratched her face sheepishly, "Zhima and I didn't keep an eye on her, and she secretly drank some wine."