"Thank you for your favor, Sister Na!" Qin Tian said gratefully.
"Alright, alright, let's get down to business. Qin Tian, why don't you introduce yourself?" Huan Ge skillfully steered the topic back to the flow of the show.
"Hello, teachers! My name is Qin Tian, and I'm from the beautiful city of Harbin. I just turned eighteen this year, and I'm currently a rising high school sophomore, a fresh little hunk," Qin Tian introduced himself humorously.
"Qin Tian, at such a young age, how did you manage to write such a fantastic piece? Can you share your creative process with us?" Yang 32 asked curiously.
"Teacher Yang, you asked a great question! I've been a novel lover since I was a kid, and almost all my pocket money in junior high went to the bookstore's rental service. I remember in *Wukong*, Xuanzang has a line: 'I want this sky to no longer cover my eyes; I want this earth to no longer bury my heart; I want all living beings to understand my intent; I want all those Buddhas to vanish like smoke.' I love that line, especially Sun Wukong's indomitable spirit—it's simply explosive! So, I wrote this song based on that background." Qin Tian answered so fluently that he secretly congratulated himself for having prepared his script in advance.
"The Wukong written in the song, although terrifyingly powerful, has lost his joy and even regrets beating demons to death. The entire song vividly portrays Wukong's boundless magical powers, his past youthful vigor, his experiences on the journey to fetch the scriptures, and his inner struggles," Qin Tian added.
Although the four coaches hadn't read the novel *Wukong*, they could still grasp the general meaning of the lyrics, and they all praised the lyrics as truly wonderful with an extremely high artistic conception.
Teacher Harlem asked curiously, "Are you a music major?"
"Teacher, actually, right after my middle school entrance exams, I suddenly had no homework and felt bored, so I signed up for a music class to enrich my extracurricular life. I ended up falling madly in love with music, and I've been studying it ever since!" Qin Tian replied with a smile.
Sister Na followed up by asking, "I saw in your lyrics that the past glory pierced through the sky, but now there's a sense of helplessness. Did you run into some difficulties in life?"
Qin Tian waved his hands. "Not at all! I'm just an ordinary person living an ordinary life. Even though I'm not wealthy, I'm happy and fulfilled!" But inwardly, he was complaining: *What's this? Do you really have to make me play the sympathy card? I refuse! There are way too many questions here, I'm going crazy! Good thing I came fully prepared.*
Seeing this, Huan Ge continued, "I see you've studied outside of school for about a year. Can you tell us about your learning results? Do you have any other works?"
Inwardly, Qin Tian screamed in frantic rejection: *Oh man, I don't want to!* But on the surface, he maintained his smile while roaring inside: *People who sing well have high demands! But my Wukong was already stunning enough; if I sing something inferior to this, won't it look like that's my limit? I can only pull out something even better. But if I sing something even better, the audience's expectations of me will just keep rising, and what am I going to do later? I still have to sing four or five songs by the finals!*
*Ah!! Ah!! Ah, how annoying!* Qin Tian complained inwardly, but outwardly he calmly said, "I do, Teacher. Let me sing an acapella snippet for you."
This was definitely a bonus performance and simply could not be refused. Qin Tian quickly searched his brain and finally thought of a song that matched his student identity and was quite outstanding—Zhang Jie's "The Young China Speaks" from 2018. Even though he hadn't recorded it yet, the copyright had already been registered.
Watching Qin Tian's confident look, Huan Ge sighed once more, "It's great to be young! Although his study time hasn't been long, he looks awfully talented."
As Qin Tian's singing rang out:
"The red sun rises, its way is brilliantly bright; the river flows forth from its source, a vast and boundless ocean. The dormant dragon leaps from the abyss, its scales and claws flying; the milk tiger roars in the valley, all beasts tremble in awe. Youths naturally have a youth's wildness; their bodies like mountains and rivers, supporting their spines. Daring to measure the sun and moon once more, today I alone am the youth. Daring to ask the heavens and earth to test our edge, pushing through thorns and brambles, who can block us? The world laughs at me, yet I am self-reliant, living up to our youth!"
With the song finished, Qin Tian bowed deeply once more, "Thank you, teachers!"
"Wow, what's the name of this tune?" Sister Na shouted excitedly. "Qin Tian, I was the first one to turn around, you know! This song of yours went straight to my heart. Are you willing to teach me how to sing it?"
"Hey, hey, hey, starting the snatch right away?" Yang 32 was dumbfounded, caught completely off guard by Brother Kun.
"Don't you guys rush to butt in!" Sister Na interrupted with overwhelming dominance. She was the Queen of Love Songs, and moreover, she had produced the most winning teams on the stage of The Voice. When it came to grasping pop trends, Sister Na was absolute authority.
When it came to professional teaching, Huan Ge might have the upper hand, but when it came to pop music, you still had to look to Sister Na. Back in the day, she had also risen forcefully to become a Mainland queen despite the fierce bombardment of Hong Kong and Taiwan music. There were only a handful of recognized Mainland queens—Tian Zhen, Sister Na, Wei Wei, and Mao Amin—and now Sister Na was the only one still active on stage.
*Putting everything else aside, a show that attaches this much importance to "Wukong" will definitely push it hard, and your song itself has a high probability of becoming a hit. That song you just sang is clearly a positive-energy song that could make it to the Spring Festival Gala. Even though we don't know the title yet, if I can pull a talented student like you into my team, even if we don't win the championship, building a good relationship is still a win. Who knows, I might even get one of Qin Tian's original songs; making it big is just a matter of time for him!* Sister Na had already mapped it all out in her heart.
"Qin Tian, I'll just call you Xiaotian; it sounds more affectionate." Move one: closing the distance.
"I was the first one to turn around, you know!" Move two: "I see your songs are all brimming with youth, and I'm sure you definitely have other songs about youth, too. You're about the same age as my son, so I can have you guys hang out together, and then you can teach me how to get along with kids. My son isn't nearly as obedient as you! I also know a lot of teachers in the industry; you must have heard of my relationship with Faye Wong, right? At your age, you surely like artists from Hong Kong and Taiwan—like Jay Chou, for instance. I can introduce you to all of them. How about that?"
This rapid-fire combo was simply too dazzling to keep up with.
"Of course, you can also choose other teachers, but they definitely don't like you as much as Sister Na does." Finally, Sister Na appealed from an emotional standpoint, though this was also her heartfelt thought. This kid was a real talent!
First Blood! Double Kill! Triple Kill! Quadra Kill! Penta Kill! Ace! Hahahahaha, game over, everyone was dumbfounded.
Coming out of the gate so fiercely, this was definitely the most epic talent-snatching battle in the history of The Voice! A Wangpai right in the first round—just thinking about it made her heart flutter a little.
"I have 32 concerts, and I'll invite you as a guest to every single one of them. You can sing whatever original songs you want and directly experience the feeling of a big stage. Besides, I also debuted with love songs; you and I can get along like buddies, and I'll take you riding big motorcycles—young people definitely love the thrill!" Yang 32 said, refusing to be outdone.
"Who needs Faye Wong when you know Jay Chou? I'm super close with him, I can take you straight to hang out!" Harlem chimed in to join the fun. "Look at me, I dabble in many different music styles. I can see your style isn't fixed either, so we can make music together!"
"My style isn't fixed either, okay?!" Sister Na had always been fiercely competitive. "Xiaolin, where are you from?"
"I'm from Harbin."
"See, I could tell right away you're from the Northeast! We're hometown buddies, what a coincidence! The two of us can constantly learn from each other in the future," Sister Na said enthusiastically.
Seeing that Sister Na was about to steer things completely out of control, Liu Huan quickly stepped out to take control of the situation: "You guys haven't even asked Qin Tian which mentor he wants to choose yet!"
That was true, the mentors' attention was finally redirected. Everyone had been too excited today; a lot of the procedures that should have been followed were missed. So who did Qin Tian want to choose in the first place?
*Choose what? At that moment, all I was thinking was: I'm going to be famous! I wasn't thinking about anything else, okay? Who knew there would be a four-chair turn? I thought getting even one turn would be pretty good!* Qin Tian was still in a daze.
A daze tree bears daze fruit, under the daze fruit stand you and me.
*If I want to refine my music in the future, I'd definitely choose Huan Ge. If I want to make movies, then it has to be Harlem; she has resources in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Even though Taiwan province isn't doing great right now, it's still got a lot of years left! Sister Na knows people in both the mainland music and film circles. Yang 32 is genuinely loyal; Jin Zhiwen only became the team champion—braving all the abuse—because he already knew Yang 32. Look at how badly Ping An's fans got cursed out!* Qin Tian thought to himself secretly.
"Before I went on stage, the one I originally wanted to choose was Teacher Harlem."
Hearing this, Harlem was instantly thrilled! She originally hadn't held out much hope—was he going to choose her after all? She immediately said, "Come to my team, and I'll tailor-make a song just for you!" The subtext of this sentence was: I've got your back!
"He can write his own songs!" Yang 32 provoked from the side.