Xia Zhi had no idea that Leona and Axis were already trying to figure out a solution for her situation.
After wrapping up a friendly interaction with her livestream fans, she said, “Alright, babies, see you in the Shanyin Good Voice livestream room.”
Then she ended her own stream and connected to the Shanyin Good Voice account.
Xia Zhi was the last anchor to get connected—the other three had already arrived.
In the mic order, Xia Zhi was placed last.
“Alright, everyone’s here. I’m going to connect with Teacher Li’s account now.”
Soon, Li Mingda’s video call connected successfully.
“Now, please have today’s four contestants introduce themselves in mic order,” Xiao Shan began hosting in a proper tone. “After the introductions, we’ll roll dice in the chat, and the order of singing will be determined by the numbers rolled.”
After a round of operations, Xia Zhi was unlucky enough to roll a 1—meaning she would sing last.
She muted her mic and saw her own fans’ messages flooding the chat, which eased her nerves a little.
Nezuko: [Zhizhi, fly without fear—we’ll always be right here.]
Strawberry Candy: [111111! Transaction successful!]
Zhizhi: [Thank you, babies.]
Meanwhile, the other three anchors were also interacting with their fans in the chat. And they were quite direct about it, explicitly asking their fans to help them gather more votes.
Xia Zhi watched the chat for a while but didn’t spot Leona or Axis.
Remembering that those two also hadn’t said anything earlier when she’d asked her fans to help her get votes, she couldn’t help but wonder: Had they still not finished watching the review video from yesterday’s stream?
Her mind wandered nervously for a moment, and by then, the first singer had already finished their chosen song and entered the voting phase.
This anchor’s representative gift was the little heart. With over 30,000 viewers currently in the room, she received 23,465 votes.
The second anchor was a male streamer who had chosen a grand, classic old song—”Loyalty to the Nation.”
By now, Xia Zhi was fully focused on listening to her competitors’ performances.
The second singer, that male anchor, had very stable vocal technique. His high notes carried rich breath support, his singing style had a strong sense of atmosphere, and his deep, resonant voice suited the song perfectly.
On top of that, his livestream traffic spiked during his performance, and he managed to secure 30,081 votes.
The third singer, a female anchor, chose the classic song “Ambiguous.” Her voice matched the song beautifully, conveying the aggrieved, wistful emotion of the original with great clarity. She received 28,904 votes.
Finally, it was Xia Zhi’s turn.
She started the instrumental track.
“Hello everyone. The song I’ll be performing today is Cyndi Wang’s ‘The First Person I Loved.'”
The moment she finished speaking, Xia Zhi spotted her own fans’ IDs appearing in the chat.
Leona: [Go, Lady Zhizhi!]
Axis: [You’ve got this.]
Nezuko: [You can do it!]
Strawberry Candy: [Zhizhi’s the best!]
Xia Zhi smiled softly, then closed her eyes and quickly slipped into the song as the accompaniment played.
“The First Person I Loved” was, in essence, a heartbreak ballad. She imagined loving someone with her whole heart and then losing them, and began her performance from a place of sorrow.
Leona and Axis tensed up.
From the moment they’d discovered that both Xia Zhi’s speaking voice and singing voice possessed a certain Soothing effect, this was now the third time they’d heard her sing.
Unexpectedly, the second line Xia Zhi sang plunged them into a state of fury.
As if they truly witnessed Xia Zhi suffering a heartbreak, Leona’s brows knitted tightly, flames of rage burning in her chest, itching to make the male who had upset Xia Zhi pay the price right then and there.
Axis also subtly noticed that this song stirred in him a desire to settle scores with other males.
And this mindset of stepping into battle actually sent his Evolution Crystal spinning at high speed once more.
Axis quietly sent Leona a message: [Uncle, what are you feeling?]
Leona saw Axis’s message but ignored him.
Her heart pounded violently. When she heard Xia Zhi sing the lyrics “my tears” and “slowly dying,” what appeared before her eyes was Xia Zhi’s tear-streaked face.
Then Leona realized that more than wanting to fight that male, she longed to gently console Xia Zhi.
Only after Xia Zhi finished the entire song did Leona finally notice Axis’s message.
Leona glanced at the Pollution Value on her Identity Bracelet and replied to Axis: [The Pollution Value has dropped.]
Axis: [That’s all?]
Leona: [Mm.]
Axis fell silent.
Leona: [First, vote for Miss Zhizhi.]
After the two cast their votes, they turned their attention to Xia Zhi’s voting bar.
Xia Zhi was watching it herself too.
As she sang, the livestream’s viewer count surged from 40,000+ to 50,000+. The barrage was flooded with exclamations of praise, and the roses representing her votes kept climbing. When the one-minute rose voting window ended, she had earned an astonishing 43,321 votes!
That tally placed her in first place!
[This girl really can sing. Of course, there’s still a gap compared to the original, but she’s captured the essence of it. I feel so sad listening.]
[Boo hoo, it reminds me of my first love. I was going to vote for you, but I’m too upset now, so I don’t want to.]
[The person above is a bit capricious. Her making you think of your first love proves her voice is moving—that’s a good thing.]
The barrage was lively, mostly praising Xia Zhi, when suddenly someone said: [A small show like this needs ten bucks to hire paid shills? The young lady’s attempt to boost her account is way too obvious!]
[Check my profile—I screen-recorded the whole process of fans of streamer Zhizhi going to other livestreams to solicit votes.]
Xia Zhi froze for a moment, then clicked into that person’s profile.
There really was a vote-soliciting video, and the accounts doing the soliciting were unmistakably the uncle-nephew pair who had, at some point, changed their IDs to just “Leona” and “Axis.”
Although this livestream program didn’t explicitly prohibit such vote-soliciting, making fans spend money that way just to win would inevitably turn viewers off.
Xia Zhi furrowed her brow.
Shanyin Haoshengyin spoke up at that moment: “No way, so Zhizhi’s vote count is pretty inflated. We don’t restrict vote-soliciting, but spending money to find people to vote… that strays a bit from the original intent of voting because you genuinely like someone.”
“Zhizhi, this… sigh, it puts me in a tough spot. If we compete again, it wouldn’t be fair to the other streamers.”
The implication of these words was that Xia Zhi’s votes would be voided.
Xia Zhi lowered her eyes, feeling a pang of sadness.
And just as she was about to apologize directly, admitting she truly hadn’t known the rules and that was why this situation had arisen, the tide of the barrage suddenly shifted.
[I was drawn in by the ten-buck-per-vote offer, but I’ve already sent the money back. Zhizhi genuinely sings beautifully.]
[Yeah, anyone with ears can hear it—the voice is so ethereal, the vocal runs are handled beautifully, and even the humming parts are absolutely incredible.]
[It’s only ten bucks—sure, that could buy four starch sausages, but this college student is saying it loud and clear: I gave that vote willingly, and I’ve already refunded the ten yuan to Zhizhi’s fans!]
Under the accounts of these commenters, there were indeed screen recordings of them voluntarily refunding Leona or Axis.
Xia Zhi’s heart skipped a beat, and belatedly, she thanked these netizens in the comment section for speaking up for her.
It was at this moment that the elderly Mr. Li Mingda also spoke up.