Wang Yifan and Zhao Lusi played games for two hours, with both wins and losses.
After they finished, it was already past one in the afternoon.
The event had already begun, but it wasn’t yet time for their performance.
The two walked over to the window and looked outside.
There were still countless cars parked along the roadside.
“Xiaofan, how are we going to get there later?”
“I’ll take you around the back and use the small path. After the performance, we’ll come back the same way. That way, we won’t have to worry about the crowd.”
“Okay!”
Actually, Zhao Lusi didn’t really want to perform.
This wasn’t her usual environment, and there were far too many people.
If she appeared, the situation could easily get out of control, especially since there were no security personnel.
If there had been proper security, she wouldn’t have been worried.
But with so many people showing up today, she had an uneasy feeling.
Seeing the worried expression on Zhao Lusi’s face, Wang Yifan asked, “Baby, what’s wrong?”
“Xiaofan, there are so many people. I’m worried that things might get out of control after I finish performing. There are no security guards here, and that could be dangerous.”
Hearing this, he immediately understood her concern.
She was right.
When he had originally asked Zhao Lusi to sing at the village New Year Gala, it was because he couldn’t sing himself.
At the time, he had assumed that only people from their village would attend.
He never expected so many outsiders to come.
If Zhao Lusi went on stage now, something really could happen.
Thinking about this, he became conflicted.
“Baby, how about you don’t go? I’ll perform myself.”
“But can you sing?”
“Don’t worry. I can manage. You can stay somewhere they can’t see you and listen to me. I’ll come find you after I’m finished.”
“Okay. It’s not that I don’t want to perform. I’m just worried something might happen. Next year, once you’ve arranged proper security, I’ll definitely perform.”
“I know. You’re right. I didn’t expect so many people to come either.”
“Exactly!”
Wang Yifan was secretly relieved.
Fortunately, he had obtained professional-level singing ability from the system earlier that day.
Otherwise, he would have been in trouble.
It was a shame that he couldn’t take Zhao Lusi out to properly experience their village’s New Year Gala.
He still couldn’t figure out how the news of Zhao Lusi being there had spread.
If nobody had leaked the information, Zhao Lusi could have walked around the village without any trouble.
It was probably one of his cousins or other relatives who had spread the news.
For the rest of the afternoon, he stayed at home with Zhao Lusi.
The two stayed together until it was almost time for his performance.
Only when his parents called and told him to come over did he take Zhao Lusi through the small path toward the stage.
They went directly backstage.
People below couldn’t see this area, so Wang Yifan told her to wait there.
Once his performance was over, they would return home together.
Finally, the host finished the introduction.
Wang Yifan walked onto the stage with a microphone.
But when the audience saw that he was alone, the outsiders who had been eagerly waiting to see Zhao Lusi were completely confused.
Wasn’t Zhao Lusi supposed to be the final performer?
Where was she?
Some of them were practically ready to complain, but this wasn’t their village, so they didn’t dare cause trouble.
Even the villagers were confused.
Wasn’t Zhao Lusi supposed to sing?
Could she be coming out later?
With that thought, they started playing the instrumental track for Zhao Lusi’s song “You Are Here.”
The accompaniment played for quite a while, but Zhao Lusi still didn’t appear.
Instead, Wang Yifan raised the microphone and began singing along with the music.
“The first time we met, your opening line…””There was no rehearsal, yet somehow it was unexpectedly adorable.”
Everyone had assumed that Wang Yifan couldn’t sing.
But the moment he started, the entire audience was stunned.
Even Zhao Lusi, the original singer, stood backstage in shock.
There was something almost magical about Wang Yifan’s voice.
It sounded incredibly pleasant.
More importantly, Zhao Lusi realized that his pitch was astonishingly accurate.
He was nowhere near as off-key as he had claimed before.
In fact, his pitch was even more precise than hers.
And most importantly…
She felt that he actually sounded better than she did!
Her cheeks immediately puffed up.
She was clearly annoyed.
She couldn’t believe Wang Yifan had lied to her.
Once they got home, she was definitely going to teach him a lesson.
Down below, the audience fell completely silent.
The people who had been quietly chatting before suddenly stopped talking.
After recovering from their surprise, they stared at Wang Yifan on stage in disbelief.
“Damn! Wang Yifan can sing this well?”
“He sounds amazing. Now I finally understand why Zhao Lusi chose to be with him!”
“Before, I thought Wang Yifan was just living off his girlfriend. Turns out he actually has real talent!”
…
Wang Baoshan stared at Wang Yifan on stage with gritted teeth.
He had never liked Wang Yifan.
And now that Wang Yifan was displaying such impressive ability, he disliked him even more.
Li Jiali looked at Wang Yifan on stage, then at Wang Baoshan beside her.
The more she compared the two, the angrier she became.
Unable to hold herself back, she kicked Wang Baoshan in the leg.
She didn’t hold back at all.
She even glared at him angrily.
Wang Baoshan didn’t dare fight back.
This only made his resentment toward Wang Yifan grow stronger.
Suddenly, an idea occurred to him.
Wang Yifan hadn’t been able to sing before.
So how had he suddenly become this good?
Could he be lip-syncing?
He suddenly had an idea.
If he turned off the accompaniment and Wang Yifan continued moving his mouth without any sound coming from the microphone, it would prove that he was faking the performance.
If he exposed Wang Yifan for lip-syncing, everyone would see his true colors.
Maybe Zhao Lusi would even break up with him!
The thought excited Wang Baoshan.
“Jiali, I’m going for a walk.”
Li Jiali didn’t even look at him.
She simply continued watching Wang Yifan perform.
Wang Baoshan said nothing more and quietly left.
After leaving the audience area, Wang Baoshan secretly made his way toward the equipment controlling the accompaniment.
Two people were sitting there, monitoring the computer that was playing the music.
Wang Baoshan stopped behind the equipment and stared at the computer.
If he wanted to turn off the accompaniment, however, he first had to get past the two people guarding it.
The good news was that one of them was Wang Wei, who also disliked Wang Yifan.
The bad news was that the other person was Wang Yifan’s female cousin.
However, shortly after Wang Baoshan arrived, his cousin suddenly announced that she needed to use the restroom.
This gave Wang Baoshan the perfect opportunity…