Chapter 16: The Album of Youth

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Despite feeling disgusted, Ru Meng had no intention of stepping forward to undermine Lilia. After all, this situation was extremely advantageous to her. If Lilia won, then Jiang Qin’s reputation would be further tarnished. Given her mother’s prideful nature, she would likely never acknowledge her publicly for the rest of her life. On the other hand, if Jiang Qin won, Lilia might very well be expelled. At that point, the dormitory would be free of such an annoying presence, so Ru Meng was more than happy to watch the tigers fight from the sidelines.

***

Faced with Lilia’s provocation, Jiang Qin remained calm on the surface, even though negative comments were flooding in at a rate of three per second.

“I’m not here to argue about the originality of those three songs today,” Jiang Qin said. “Aren’t you a top student in the Music Department at Doran University? Then surely you’d dare to accept a challenge from a female artist from a barren planet like me?”

Lilia raised an eyebrow. “Challenge what?”

“Simple,” Jiang Qin replied. “Let’s compete in your specialty—composition, lyric writing, and vocal skills. We’ll use software to generate the questions and score us. Fair, right?”

Lilia didn’t respond but kept smiling, her eyes darting repeatedly to the side. After a minute, a confident smile reappeared on her face; it seemed she had been reassured. It was easy to guess—someone must have prepared numerous songs for her to cheat with.

Jiang Qin wasn’t worried at all. No matter how many songs Lilia had prepared, could they possibly outnumber those from Earth?

Sure enough, once she felt confident, Jiang Qin immediately accepted. “Fine, I’ll compete with you. But if you lose, you must admit to plagiarism and return the copyrights of those three songs to me.”

“Agreed,” Lilia replied. “Likewise, if you lose, you must admit to slandering me, record a video apology to be posted publicly online for seven days.”

With stakes agreed upon, they applied to the platform for a mainframe arbitrator match.

The mainframe arbitrator was a branch of the Federation Star Network’s central AI. It was absolutely fair and impartial—no one could influence its judgments or sway its decisions. Its scoring was precise down to the decimal, making it far more reliable than a human judge in Jiang Qin’s eyes.

Soon, the mainframe arbitrator accepted their request, and a small robotic icon appeared on the livestream interface. Both Jiang Qin and Lilia were given a “ready” option.

Once both selected their readiness, the arbiter began drawing the challenge prompt.

[First challenge: With graduation season approaching, please perform a new song live on the theme of school, graduation, and youth.]

[Ah, this prompt is good—I like songs of this type.]

[Unconsciously, graduation season has come again. How many new faces will appear on the battlefield this year?]

[Kids, cherish your school days, because once you graduate, you will face the harsh reality.]

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[I heard this year’s cold wave will arrive early; the beast tide will be fiercer than in previous years.]

...

They had twenty minutes to compose each song. They could perform unreleased songs from their repertoire, but they had to ensure they owned the copyrights.

The order of performance was decided by drawing lots. Simply clicking “start” would generate a number.

Jiang Qin went to draw after only five minutes. Seeing this, Lilia quickly followed and cast her lot, throwing Jiang Qin a challenging glance.

“Oh, sorry, Miss Jiang. I was hoping to go first to give you more time to prepare, but I never expected my luck to be this good,” Lilia said with a smug smile.

Indeed, composing, writing, and preparing to sing within twenty minutes was tight. Without time to warm up, mistakes were easy to make, so going first was a disadvantage.

But this suited Jiang Qin perfectly. She feared Lilia would lose and then use the excuse to make excuses—given Lilia’s shamelessness, this was a real possibility.

Jiang Qin had no interest in playing along with her act. She calmly picked up her guitar, tested the sound, and began to play.

“Take my heart as a keepsake,
This love is fresh whenever you open it,
With me by your side, all hardships turn sweet...”

[Another unfamiliar style of song, but it’s of the same type as those three songs she released before.]

[Right, although the style is different, the genre is similar—focused on emotional expression with clean tones.]

[Most Federation songs use sharp synthesized sounds, completely unlike Jiang Qin’s pieces.]

[Clearly, these songs come from the same source, representing a new musical style.]

[Tsk tsk, this plagiarism case is quite intriguing.]

“Last summer,
Counting shells and waves by the seaside,
We prayed that on this day next year,
We’d still wear carefree smiles...”

Though Jiang Qin had been irritated before, the moment the guitar sounded, her mood settled. The song gradually moved her emotions, as if she was seeing a scene she had once yearned for.

Wearing a school uniform, holding flowers in her hands, surrounded by classmates, all smiling at the camera.

Yet, in her life, there was no graduation photo.

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“No matter how fierce the storm, I will bravely move forward,
Our love is engraved in the album of youth...”

Pan Yangxia, who had come just to support his idol, was instantly captivated by the song.

He excitedly told his roommate, “I know what we’ll sing at this year’s graduation party! This song—it can be divided into parts, and we can all sing together at the end.”

“Is this a new song? I’ve never heard it before.”

“It hasn’t been released yet. It’s my idol Jiang Qin’s new song. She’s battling someone right now.”

The others nearby immediately gathered, curious. The two beautiful faces on screen instantly captured the hearts of these single young men.

“Wow! Both these girls are gorgeous! Who’s your idol?”

Pan Yangxia pointed to Jiang Qin. “That’s Miss Jiang Qin. See what she’s holding? If I’m right, that’s an ancient instrument—the guitar.”

“What? Playing an ancient instrument live?”

Another person was shocked. “No way! Someone actually plays without software, using a real ancient instrument? That’s awesome!”

“Exactly!” Pan Yangxia said. That’s why he admired Jiang Qin so much.

No matter the doubts from others, he believed in her.

He didn’t think someone skilled in multiple ancient instruments would need to steal others’ scores.

This new song was proof.

Soon, the mainframe arbitrator scored Jiang Qin.

[High-quality new song, full marks for emotional impact, correct theme, bonus for tone quality, slight vocal mistakes, score: 96.35.

Bonus: +3 points for ancient instrument performance.

Final score: 99.35.]

Next, it was Lilia’s turn to sing.

Though she was a music student, and her vocal skills weren’t terrible, Jiang Qin found her singing painful to listen to.

Some of Lilia’s melodies were shrill and abrupt, and her lyrics were painfully transparent and cliché.