Marriage Concerto (Small Thing Called Love) Chapter 23

Chapter 23: Quickly call an ambulance, quickly!

Ding Meng didn’t want to talk to Qiao Yichen.

She sat alone in her room, listening to the First Flowers of February track that Qiao Yichen had just given her.

The high part of this song’s chorus was exactly as Qiao Yichen had described. It was different from what she had sung in the past. With her current singing abilities, the high notes and powerful vocals wouldn’t be a big issue. However, she wasn’t sure if her breathing could stay even.

Sigh, her lung capacity still wasn’t large enough. Looks like the intensity of her physical training would have to be increased.

Ding Meng listened several more times and then closed her computer to sleep.

The next day during training, she informed her instructor of her plan to sing First Flowers of February. The instructor was dumbstruck. After he recovered, he sincerely urged her to sing a different song. “These are the finals after all. You’re better off singing what you’re good at.”

Ding Meng comforted him, “It’s fine. This is only a compet.i.tion. Winning or losing isn’t a big deal. More importantly, I want to use this compet.i.tion to see more of my potential.”

The instructor, “…”

Since the contestant was this optimistic, he didn’t have anything else to say.

After he made Ding Meng sing First Flowers of February once for him to hear, he figured it may not be impossible for Ding Meng to sing First Flowers of February. Her voice met the conditions, she easily hit the high notes, and her powerful vocals had developed through training. Only, her breathing couldn’t match up to her high notes and powerful vocals which made the road ahead look difficult.

“During this period of time, the focus of your training should be on increasing your lung capacity and controlling your breathing. Singing is a physical labor. You still need more practice.”

Ding Meng nodded her head, “Understood, thank you instructor.”

Later, while the other contestants were all practicing their compet.i.tion song, Ding Meng was running, inhaling, and exhaling. Seeing her work so hard made the instructor extremely pleased. After all, basic skills training was the most tedious type of training and also the one that tested a singer’s patience the most. Calmly training like this during the crucial time period before the finals made her seem even more remarkable.

It may have been difficult to see any changes during this period of training. However, similar to a transforming b.u.t.terfly, it amazes everyone during the moment it emerges from the coc.o.o.n.

After five days of training ended, the lead organizer gathered them together for another meeting. “The dress rehearsals will begin tomorrow. Even though this time there are only four contestants, we have still allocated two days’ time for rehearsals in the hopes that your performances on the day of the compet.i.tion can be even better.”

As she spoke, she distributed the dress rehearsal schedule. Ding Meng looked at the plans. Tomorrow morning, the four of them would attend dress rehearsals together. The main goal was to complete a walk through of the program. Performance wise, they only needed to sing the first song. Starting tomorrow afternoon, everyone would get an hour per half day to rehea.r.s.e alone. The other contestants were not allowed to observe.

Apparently, the program organizers wanted to uphold the secrecy to the end.

Ding Meng was actually a little worried. Would Tang s.h.i.+ran also sing First Flowers of February? After all, she was a diehard fan of Sima Xiaoxiao. However, even if she worried herself silly, Ding Meng had no way of confirming anything. She could only use hard work to improve her own singing.

After the lead organizer finished explaining the dress rehearsal arrangements, she brought up another matter. “For the finals, everyone can invite their friends and family to the venue for moral support. The number of friends and family per contestant may not exceed ten. The broadcasting hall will have designated seating for your friends and family, but they won’t be able to partic.i.p.ate in voting. You all get to decide who to invite. I have the entry tickets here so come grab them from me. Each person only has ten tickets. When the time comes, your friends and family will be able to enter the venue using these.”

Actually, Ding Meng was a little hesitant. It was already embarra.s.sing enough that Jiang Nanqing and the others could watch her compete on TV. If they also came to the venue….

However, all the other contestants had gone over to pick up their entry tickets. If she didn’t pick hers up too, she’d end up being the only one without any family and friends. That seemed a little pitiful.

Therefore, she still went over to get the entry tickets and planned on giving Jiang Nanqing a call when she went home.

In the evening, she still had guitar and vocal lessons. Qiao Yichen was just about to make Ding Meng sing First Flowers of February when the cellphone Ding Meng placed on the table began to vibrate.

Ding Meng didn’t even look before telling Qiao Yichen, “That must be Jiang Nanqing. Tonight Heavenly Voice aired. She must be calling for some attention again.”

Qiao Yichen nodded his head without speaking. Ding Meng ran over and answered the phone, “Nanqing……”

“Ding Meng, mother I’m breaking off my relations with you! You actually sang me to tears!
Do you know how wonderful it is to cry like a stupid idiot in a chuan chaun restaurant!”

Even Qiao Yichen who was standing far away in the distance could hear Jiang Nanqing’s roaring. He let out a light laugh.

Ding Meng, “I actually sang myself to tears. Isn’t that even more stupid…….”

Jiang Nanqing unhesitatingly agreed, “That’s pretty true.”

Ding Meng frowned. “Oh right! Today the program organizers told us that we can invite our friends and family to come watch the finals. The number of people is limited to ten. I’ve already sent the entry tickets to you through express delivery, and I’ve Included details about the time and place.”

The sudden arrival of good news sent Jiang Nanqing into a daze. She stalled for a long moment before clutching her heart and speaking, “You’re saying I’ll be on TV too?”

“…… En.” The cameras would probably give them one or two seconds of camera time.

Jiang Nanqing was silly with happiness, “This is going to be my first time on TV! This won’t do. I’ll need to dress up properly! Ah that’s right. I’ll gather the Little Lemons to come too. When the time comes, we’ll all cheer for you!”

“Please….” don’t ah.

However, Jiang Nanqing had already hung up the phone.

It’s all over now. She could already envision what sort of mentally addled group of people would appear on the day of the compet.i.tion.

This Jiang Nanqing ordinarily looked quite reliable, but when she became crazy……

No. She had better not scare herself.

She put down her phone and asked Qiao Yichen by her side, “Do you still want me to sing First Flowers of February?”

Qiao Yichen thought and then changed his mind. “No, never mind. I’ve said everything that needed to be said. The biggest determining factors now will be how well you’ve trained and how well you perform on stage.”

Through the past several compet.i.tions, he had realized that Ding Meng was a live performance type of contestant. Every time she arrived on stage, she would sing better than she did during her usual training.

“Even though your recent focus has all been placed on First Flowers of February, you can’t neglect your first round’s song.”

“I know. I’ve been practicing every day. The instructor also helped me rearrange the music. Now I’m just waiting to see the results tomorrow at the rehearsal.”

Qiao Yichen nodded. “Then that’s good. If you’re attentive during rehearsal, you’ll be able to spot many of your weaknesses.”

“Got it!”

Even though the real compet.i.tion had not yet arrived, a faint smell of gunpowder floated among the four contestants at dress rehearsals. This week of training had been completely secretive. No one knew how much the others had improved over the past week. They could only use the morning’s group rehearsal to glean a clue.

Unfortunately when the dress rehearsal came, everyone intentionally concealed their strength and no one sang with their all. However, when Ding Meng performed on stage, Tang s.h.i.+ran could still somewhat detect that her breathing had become more steady. When she sang, she seemed more relaxed than before.

Could it be that she had been practicing basic skills this entire week? However, that didn’t make much sense. Compet.i.tions only judged a brief display on stage. In fact, focusing on mastering one particular song was actually a rather quick and efficient strategy.

Today, Qiao Yichen had also came over to watch the morning dress rehearsal. He entered while Ding Meng was singing. Listening to her performance, he could tell her basic skills had improved again. Looks like she had trained really hard this past week.

He walked to the side of the stage without anyone noticing. Everyone was drawn by Ding Meng’s performance.

Just as Ding Meng’s performance was wrapping up, Qiao Yichen suddenly noticed a small stage light was swaying above Ding Meng’s head. The blinding light flashed past his eyes.

One second later, this small light detached from the stage’s fastenings and plummeted straight down.

“Be careful!” Without even thinking, he dashed on stage at an astonis.h.i.+ng pace. Before Ding Meng realized what was going on, she had tumbled onto the ground while enveloped in someone’s embrace. A pair of arms wrapped tightly around her waist.

She laid on the ground in a daze. The weight of the person on top of her made it hard for her to breathe. The sound of smas.h.i.+ng gla.s.s, the sound of people yelling, it all sounded so far away from her. However, the soft voice of the person on top of her clearly entered her ears.

“Are you okay?” Qiao Yichen propped up on his arms, slightly increasing the distance between the two of them to look down at her.

Di da.

A drip of blood flowed down Qiao Yichen’s forehead, falling right onto Ding Meng’s face. Then came more and more blood, dyeing Ding Meng’s vision completely red.

Ding Meng’s eyes were already filled with tears. Her mind was so panicked that she couldn’t even utter out complete sentence, “I, I’m okay, but you’re…….” bleeding.

A burden seemed to have been lifted from Qiao Yichen. He smiled at her and spoke softly, “As long as you’re okay…..”

This sentence seemed to have used the last ounce of his strength. His long eyelashes fluttered twice, his eyes slowly closed, and he collapsed on top of Ding Meng.

“Quickly call the ambulance, quickly!” Staff members lifted Qiao Yichen off Ding Meng and applied some emergency measures to stop the blood flow. Additional workers walked over to lift up Ding Meng and they worriedly asked, “Are you okay? Are you inured anywhere?”

Ding Meng had many blood stains on her. They didn’t know which were hers and which were Qiao Yichen’s.

“I’m fine….” Ding Meng shook her head and walked over to the unconscious Qiao Yichen’s side. Her tears bubbled up and fell from her eyes, “How is he?”

The staff member next to her who was stopping Qiao Yichen’s blood flow quickly responded, “He was. .h.i.t by a light. Fortunately, it was only a small stage light. The ambulance will be here very quickly. There shouldn’t be any big issues.”

“How could there be no big issues after losing that much blood?” Ding Meng thought, “So as long you aren’t the one getting injured, you don’t think its painful huh!” Luckily though, the ambulance did come very quickly. Qiao Yichen was swiftly taken away.

The morning dress rehearsal was forced to end early because of this matter. Every worker
in the stage effect and stage prop groups was preoccupied with inspecting and reinforcing the stage’s lighting fixtures and props.

The program organizers specially arranged a staff member to accompany Ding Meng. Even though she hadn’t sustained any external injuries, they figured that she had definitely received a big scare. The staff member went with Ding Meng to the restroom to wash off the blood on her face, but Ding Meng dashed out right afterwards.

The staff member quickly chased after her. “Where are you going?”

“The hospital!”

The staff member was worried that something had happened to Ding Meng. As she chased, she yelled out, “We’ve sent staff members to accompany Qiao Yichen, and we’ve already contact his family members. There won’t be any problems, you can relax!”

Ding Meng spoke without turning her head around, “I’m worried that I might have internal injuries. I’m going to get an inspection done just in case!”

The staff member, “…”