Chapter 162 Fierce Competition

Huang Guolun offered sincere praise for the young woman performing on stage: "Her voice is truly exceptional. If I am not mistaken, she must be formally trained with a very profound foundation in vocal performance."

Sun Yanzhen exclaimed with great emotion, "Why are all the people who come to Music Daoist so 'freakish'? Ordinary people simply cannot compete with these professional singers. Could she be a plant brought in by the restaurant owner?"

Huang Guolun chuckled, "Probably not. Only one bill is waived per hour, so the owner has no reason to hire a plant. How much is a waived bill anyway? Hiring a plant would certainly cost much more than that."

Sun Yanzhen thought about it and said, "That is true. It seems Music Daoist is becoming increasingly famous, and these struggling professional singers are all coming here to join in the fun."

"I bet the owner of this place loves to see this kind of scene. Through the competitive process among these professional singers, the restaurant saves the money it would have spent on hiring resident singers, while also increasing the entertainment value. It kills many birds with one stone—truly clever. I must talk to the owner. If the opportunity arises in the future, I should partner with them to open a few franchise stores and make this style of music restaurant boom."

"Oh? Your mind is quite active, isn't it? I thought you were never interested in making money."

"I am not interested in making money for its own sake."

Huang Guolun was speaking the truth. His family had a long-standing tradition of giving away wealth; most of the money they earned was distributed to others to avert disasters through charity. Therefore, Huang Guolun had never felt that making money was particularly thrilling.

Since whatever he earned would eventually be given away, why bother earning it in the first place?

Of course, the most important reason for this mindset was that his family was not short of money, which further extinguished any enthusiasm he might have had for wealth accumulation.

However, when it came to matters related to music, Huang Guolun grew much more interested.

He changed the subject and said to Sun Yanzhen, "I just feel that this kind of music restaurant format is very interesting. It gives more people the desire and opportunity to step onto a stage. Besides, if managed properly, it shouldn't lose money and can develop sustainably."

Sun Yanzhen laughed and said, "Given your family's financial strength, if you really opened a chain of these music restaurants and opened a few more locations, they might actually take off."

Huang Guolun picked up a shrimp and said, "Well, I find the owner of this place rather interesting. The style of the restaurant he opened and the style of the chefs he hired are very much to my taste. After we finish eating later, I have a good chat with him. ... Oh? Is the owner of this place a man or a woman, and how old are they? Have you seen the owner when you came here before?"

"I have. The owner of this store is a super handsome uncle with the nickname 'Xilipu Kaneshiro Takeshi'."

"Xilipu Kaneshiro Takeshi?" Upon hearing this nickname, an image of an extremely handsome middle-aged man immediately popped into Huang Guolun's mind.

"The owner used to play rock and roll and still keeps his hair very long—he's super cool. I don't know if he's here tonight; I just took a look around and didn't seem to see him."

As she spoke, Sun Yanzhen stretched her neck and looked around, but still failed to spot the fiercely handsome and overwhelmingly cool figure of the store owner.

"Stop looking for now, hurry up and take a sip of water to settle yourself, it's almost your turn to go on stage," Huang Guolun reminded Sun Yanzhen.

Suddenly, Sun Yanzhen grew nervous and brushed it off, saying, "I can't sing as well as these professional singers. Why don't you just go sing instead?"

Huang Guolun was chewing on a shrimp and replied regardless of his image, "I haven't eaten my fill yet. What singing?"

Sun Yanzhen urged him, "Didn't you always say 'eat before blowing, sing on an empty stomach'? It's perfect that you haven't eaten your fill!"

"Stop flinching. Since you've already decided to sing, stage fright at the last minute won't do. You go sing."

"The crucial thing is... even if I sing, it'll be for nothing. I definitely won't get a free meal."

"You're still thinking about a free meal?"

"Of course! When you come to Music Daoist, you have to get a free meal to make it truly thrilling!" Sun Yanzhen urged Huang Guolun, "Stop eating, hurry up and wipe your mouth, take my place and go sing!"

"I'm not taking your place, I'm enjoying my meal right now and I'm not singing. If you're not going to sing, just cancel it and let the people behind you go first. But since you've already signed up, you might as well sing. Stop always thinking about getting a free meal; just consider it a way to cultivate your sentiment, sing a little, and be happy. No matter how you sing, I'll be right behind you."

Hearing Huang Guolun's final words, Sun Yanzhen finally regained her confidence.

With such a genius music teacher standing behind her, what did she have to be afraid of? She could just think of it as singing for fun.

Even if she got crushed by others, she believed that with Huang Guolun's ability, he would definitely be able to help her win the match back!

However, she needed to manage her time well.

It was already close to half-past eight in the evening. The eight-to-nine prime-time supremacy battle was already halfway through, and there were still three tables of guests waiting to perform behind her.

On average, each table took about five minutes to sing. Adding it all up, when these people finished, it should be past eight-fifty. This didn't even account for the possibility of new performers joining the queue in the meantime.

Sun Yanzhen said to Huang Guolun, "I'm going to sing. But as soon as I finish, you must immediately hit the queue button. That way, when you sing, you should still be able to catch this time slot."

"Go ahead and sing with peace of mind. At worst, the two of us can order a few more dishes and eat for another hour—we'll just compete for the championship in the next time slot. If we get first place in the next time slot, the meal will still be free, right?"

"Can you afford to spend this much time here? Don't you need to go home and accompany Taozi? If you can stick it out, then I'll stick it out with you."

Huang Guolun was finally out for a day of relaxation, and his repressed mood had finally cleared up. He didn't want to go home so early, so he told Sun Yanzhen, "Taozi's grandmother is keeping him company tonight, so I don't need to go back too early. It depends on your schedule; we can stay as late as you like."

Sun Yanzhen happily said, "That's wonderful! It's rare for both of us to have free time! Since that's the case, let's go see a movie after dinner! I've been dying to watch *Youth*, everyone says it's amazing! I've wanted to see it for a long time but never had the time. If you're free tonight, keep me company and let's go—you haven't seen it yet, have you?"

"I haven't seen it yet, and I've also heard that *Youth* is very good."

"Then let's go see it!"

"Alright... fine. Then we need to leave early; that movie is quite long. If we linger at the restaurant until ten o'clock before going, we'll probably end up watching it in the middle of the night."

"Then let's hurry up and strive to win the championship for this time slot! Let's enjoy a satisfying free meal! As soon as I finish singing, you must press the queue button right away!" Sun Yanzhen was in high spirits and ready to go all out.

While she was instructing Huang Guolun, the song played by the girl on the stage was coming to an end.

She had maintained a consistently high level of performance throughout.

Although there were diners like Huang Guolun and Sun Yanzhen who were distracted by conversation and did not listen to the girl's performance from beginning to end, her singing still won the support of most people present.

"What score should we give her? Three points?" Sun Yanzhen asked Huang Guolun while wiping her mouth with a wet tissue.

"Give her five points. This girl sang wonderfully. If we don't give five points for a performance like this, our morals would be bankrupt."

"You're too confident, are you really giving her five points?" Sun Yanzhen hesitated slightly.

"Just give it," Huang Guolun remained as steady as a mountain.

"Alright, then I'll give it!"

Following Huang Guolun's advice, Sun Yanzhen gave the girl at table 21 a full score of 5 points!

Quite a few diners at other tables also gave the girl five points, but some competitors gave this strong girl minus five points.

The final result was out.

The girl at table 21 received 151 points!

That was 14 points higher than the uncle at table 7 from earlier!

However, because two tables of newly arrived diners had begun dining, the total number of scoring tables had increased to 37, making the theoretical maximum score 185 points.

The 151 points obtained by the girl at table 21 translated to a scoring rate of 81.6%, which was still higher than the uncle at table 7.

She firmly claimed the top spot on the leaderboard for this time slot.

Next up was the performer from table 20 to take the stage!

Sun Yanzhen took a mint out of her pocket and popped it into her mouth to calm her nerves.

Huang Guolun wiped his mouth and hands clean with a wet towel and cheered Sun Yanzhen on: "You can do it."

"Mmhmm!"

Sun Yanzhen nodded confidently at Huang Guolun, and with a breath full of cool fragrance, she walked with her head held high toward the stage area.

Her delicate, refined appearance and graceful figure immediately attracted the gaze of many diners.

Sun Yanzhen was long used to being stared at like this, and she didn't mind it at all.

What she cared about at the moment was that a new entrant had appeared in the queue area on the big screen—table 7!

Clearly, the uncle at table 7 was deeply unconvinced after being overtaken by the girl at table 21, and was determined to fight her to the bitter end!

The competition rules of Music Daoist stated that contestants were allowed to perform repeatedly, as long as time permitted.

However, for competitions within the same time slot, guests from the same table could only take the stage twice.

She hadn't expected the competition for the free-meal supremacy battle at Music Daoist to be so fierce now; everyone was ready to risk their lives for a single meal!

Seeing that the uncle from table 7 was going to sing again, Sun Yanzhen felt a small pang of conflict in her heart. Calculating the time, if anyone else squeezed into the queue behind them, Huang Guolun wouldn't get a chance to sing at all.

If Huang Guolun couldn't sing, this time slot would depend entirely on her!

The pressure was immense!

Sun Yanzhen had made herself extremely nervous.

Walking onto the stage and holding the guitar, her face turned a little pale, and her smile looked somewhat forced and stiff.

It wasn't until a diner whistled and cheered for her that Sun Yanzhen managed to pull herself together slightly.

Her appearance gave her a natural advantage over the previous diners; even before she made a sound, just seeing her face added a few points to her score.

Sun Yanzhen was well aware of this and was trying hard to regain her confidence.

Huang Guolun stopped using his chopsticks and focused entirely on Sun Yanzhen's performance.

He had seen Sun Yanzhen play the guitar and sing on her own before, but her skill level was quite ordinary.

At this moment, following those professional singers onto the stage to play and sing by herself required a great deal of courage. Huang Guolun transmitted his utmost encouragement to Sun Yanzhen with a calm gaze.

Sun Yanzhen glanced at Huang Guolun, and her mood indeed quieted down considerably.

A smile carrying a hint of innocent childhood memories bloomed on her face. Sun Yanzhen forced herself to enter the world of the song, gently plucked the strings with her fingertips, and began a performance that would make everyone reminisce about the flowing years of the past: