Chapter 16: Youth Scrapbook

However, even though she found it disgusting, Jiang Rumeng had no intention of jumping out to undermine Lilia.

After all, the current situation was far too advantageous for her.

If Lilia won, Jiang Qin’s reputation would be further ruined. Given her mother’s obsession with face, she would likely never publicly acknowledge her for the rest of her life.

And if Jiang Qin won, Lilia would very likely be expelled as a result.

Then, there would be no more such annoying people in the dormitory, so she was more than happy to sit back and watch the tigers fight.

***

Facing Lilia’s provocation, Jiang Qin remained calm, even though the negative comments below were scrolling by at a rate of three per second.

"I didn't come here today to argue with you about who the original creator of those three songs is.

Aren't you a top student in the Music Department at Doren University? Then you should dare to accept a challenge from a female from a barren planet like me, right?"

Lilia raised an eyebrow and asked, "Compete in what?"

"It's simple. We compete in your specialty: songwriting, lyrics, and singing technique. We'll use software to set the topics and score us. That’s fair, right?"

Lilia didn't speak. She kept a smile on her face, but her eyes frequently darted to the side.

A minute later, that confident smile appeared on her face again; it seemed she had received some sort of reassurance.

The answer was easy to guess—someone had likely prepared plenty of songs for her to cheat with.

Jiang Qin didn't feel panicked at all. No matter how much they prepared, could they possibly have more works than those from Earth?

Sure enough, once she felt confident, Lilia immediately agreed.

"Fine, I'll compete with you. But if you lose, you must admit that you plagiarized and return the copyrights of those three songs to me."

"Agreed. Likewise, if you lose, you must admit that you slandered me and record a video to apologize publicly across the entire network. The video must remain posted for seven full days."

Both sides agreed on the stakes and then applied to the platform for the Mainframe Arbiter to judge the match.

The Mainframe Arbiter was a branch of the Federal StarNet Mainframe.

It was an absolutely fair and impartial entity; no one could interfere with its judgment, nor could anyone sway its thoughts.

Its scoring was precise down to the decimal point, which made Jiang Qin feel more at ease having it as a judge than any human.

Soon, the Mainframe Arbiter responded to their application, and a small robot appeared on the livestream interface.

A "Ready" option appeared in front of both Jiang Qin and Lilia.

After both sides made their selections, the arbiter robot began to draw the topic.

[First Topic: With graduation season approaching, please perform a new song on the spot about school, graduation, and youth.]

[Oh, this topic is good. I like this type of song.]

[Before we knew it, graduation season has arrived again. How many new faces will appear on the battlefield this year?]

[Kids, cherish your time in school, because once you graduate, you will be facing the cruel reality.]

[I heard the cold wave is coming early this year; the beast tide will probably be more violent than in previous years.]

………

The time allowed for composition was twenty minutes per song. They could sing new songs from their inventory, but they had to guarantee they held the copyright.

The order was also decided by drawing lots.

One only needed to click to start the draw for the performance order to receive a number.

Jiang Qin went to draw after only five minutes. Seeing this, Lilia followed suit immediately and gave her a provocative look.

"Oh, sorry, Miss Jiang. I was actually thinking of singing first to give you more time to prepare, but I didn't expect my luck to be so good."

Lilia smiled at her with some smugness.

After all, composing and writing lyrics within twenty minutes was really rushing it.

Moreover, without time to warm up, it was very easy to make mistakes, so the person who sang first would be at a disadvantage.

But this was exactly what Jiang Qin wanted.

She was afraid that if the other side lost, they would use this as an excuse to quibble. After all, given Lilia’s thick skin, the probability of that happening was quite high.

However, Jiang Qin couldn't be bothered to play along with her act. She just calmly held her guitar, tested the sound, and began to play.

"Giving you my heart as a memento, This love is fresh whenever you open it. With me by your side, no matter how bitter, it turns sweet..."

[It's another type of song I've never heard before, but it's the same style as the three songs she released earlier.]

[That's right. Although the style is different, the genre is similar. They are all focused on emotional expression and have a very clean sound.]

[Most of our Federation's songs have sharp, synthesized tones, completely different from these few songs by Jiang Qin.]

[It's very obvious that these songs can basically be confirmed to come from the same source. You could say it's a new style of music.]

[Tsk tsk, then this plagiarism accusation becomes quite intriguing.]

"Last summer, On the beach counting seashells and waves, We prayed that this time next year, We could still keep such carefree smiles..."

Jiang Qin, who had been feeling a bit of anger, felt her mood calm down the moment the guitar rang out.

Her emotions were gradually infected by the song, as if she saw the scene she had once longed for.

Wearing a school uniform, holding flowers in her hands, with classmates by her side, smiling together at the camera.

Yet, in her own life, she didn't have a single graduation photo.

"No matter how big the waves, I will forge ahead, Our love is embedded in the yearbook of youth..."

Pan Yangxia, who had originally just intended to come in to support his idol, was instantly won over by this song.

He said excitedly to his roommate, "I know what song to sing for this year's graduation party! Just this one. We can sing it together; I feel like we can split it into sections and then sing the chorus together at the end."

"Is this a new song? I've never heard it?"

"It's a song that hasn't been released yet. It's my idol Jiang Qin's new song. She's in a PK battle with someone."

The few people next to him immediately leaned in curiously.

The two beautiful faces on the screen instantly struck the hearts of these single males.

"Wow! Both little females are so pretty. Which one is your idol?"

Pan Yangxia pointed at Jiang Qin, "She is Miss Jiang Qin. See what's in her hand? If I'm not mistaken, it should be an ancient instrument, a guitar."

"?? Playing an ancient instrument live?"

Another person was also shocked, "No way? Is there actually someone who doesn't use software to play, but uses an ancient instrument directly? That's so cool!"

"Right!" Otherwise, why would he admire Jiang Qin so much?

No matter how many people questioned her, he would believe in her.

He didn't believe that someone who could play multiple ancient instruments would need to steal someone else's sheet music.

This new song was proof.

Soon, the Mainframe Arbiter gave Jiang Qin a score.

[High-quality new song, full marks for emotional resonance, correct theme, bonus for timbre, minor errors in singing technique, judged at 96.35 points. Bonus points: Ancient instrument performance +3 points. Final judgment: 99.35 points.]

Next, it was Lilia's turn to sing.

It had to be said that she was a student in the Music Department after all; while her singing technique wasn't great, it wasn't too bad either.

But Jiang Qin found it very uncomfortable to listen to.

Because some of the melodies in this song were too sharp—the kind of sudden, jarring sharpness—and the lyrics were even more plain and uninspired.