Chapter 110: The Audition Venue

December 1st, Huanglong Stadium in Hangzhou.

Contestants from all over the country had gathered together.

As it was an invitation-only event, there were not too many people. Even so, the first-floor venue still felt slightly crowded.

The competition format was divided into two rounds: the preliminaries and the semi-finals.

In the preliminaries, contestants performed a song of their own choice, and the judges evaluated whether they would advance to the next round based on their performance and vocal characteristics.

For the semi-finals, the contestants who passed the preliminaries would perform again for a second round of scoring by the judges.

Once everything was completed, the contestants who advanced from the preliminaries would be ranked by their scores. Those who ranked within the admission quota would qualify for the official competition.

When Su Chen arrived at the venue, he could see from a distance that people were gathered outside in groups of three and five.

Some were tuning their instruments, while others were practicing their singing. Beside them, perhaps their relatives or friends, were chatting and laughing. Every now and then, they would point out flaws in the performances and discuss them together—it was a bustling and lively scene.

Walking into the venue's corridors, he realized it was far more crowded inside than outside. The hallways were virtually packed with people waiting for their numbers to be called to perform.

“Excuse me, coming through!”

The people in the corridor looked on in surprise as Su Chen opened the door and walked straight into the audition room.

Who was this guy? He looked to be in good shape; was he a contestant too? But weren't they all supposed to wait for their numbers to be called? How did he dare?

Su Chen had entered through the back door, accidentally making a bit of noise as he came in. The contestant currently performing was momentarily interrupted by the disturbance.

Instantly, everyone in the room turned their gaze toward Su Chen.

Su Chen quickly waved his hands apologetically. “Sorry... my apologies... Please, carry on!”

The judges looked slightly displeased and were about to say something when they noticed Su Chen looking in a certain direction. They glanced back and saw Ji Lin waving at Su Chen.

Ji Lin quickly pressed his hands together in a gesture of apology to the judges.

Though a bit puzzled, the judges gestured for the contestant to continue.

Su Chen walked over to Ji Lin and took a seat beside him.

“Mr. Ji, how are things looking right now?”

Ji Lin leaned in slightly and spoke to Su Chen in a low voice.

“We’ve invited a total of two hundred contestants from all over the country this time. With both the preliminaries and the semi-finals, the auditions will probably last until mid-December. We'll filter it down to one hundred in the first round, and then to fifty in the second round.”

Su Chen nodded.

At a pace of ten minutes per contestant—including their performance and the judges' feedback—it would take at least five working days just to get through the first round of two hundred contestants. Although the second round would have fewer people, they also had to account for other unforeseen factors in between. Ji Lin’s estimate of finishing by mid-December was actually quite conservative.

“How is the quality of the contestants' singing?”

Hearing this, Ji Lin shook his head awkwardly. “It's hard for me to say. After all, I'm not a professional. To my ears, they all sound pretty good.”

Su Chen smiled helplessly, realizing he had overlooked that detail. While Ji Lin belonged to a professional production team, he didn't have any deep expertise in music.

“Let me have a listen!”

After saying this, Su Chen sat quietly, listening intently to the contestant's singing.

Ji Lin sat quietly to the side, not wanting to disturb him. He only occasionally gave instructions to the camera crew. Even though these were just auditions, Su Chen had instructed him to keep video records, so he had to ensure this was handled properly.

The previous contestant finished singing and left.

The next contestant was a man in his thirties who looked somewhat weathered by life. After a brief self-introduction, he began to sing.

“In this noisy city... I carry too many burdens... I’ve walked many roads, and suffered many hardships...”

He was singing an old song, and the choice suited his vocal characteristics well. His raspy voice conveyed a sense of helplessness.

*Hmm... very emotionally expressive!*

However, he had major issues with breath control and vocal transitions.

After listening to several contestants in a row, Su Chen realized that most of these invited singers had received no professional training. While their voices and other qualities were decent, most lacked professionalism or systematic training.

To the average listener, they might sound excellent, but from a professional standpoint, they were at best on the level of karaoke superstars.

By Su Chen's standards, none of the people who had just performed would have passed. Surprisingly, however, three out of the five who had just performed advanced.

This made Su Chen frown slightly.

But after a moment of thought, he understood.

This was only the audition phase! The first round of screening had to filter one hundred people out of two hundred. They couldn't evaluate them by the standards of the official recording. If they were too strict, they might not even have enough contestants for the next round.

He would wait and see. If the final selection turned out to be too poor, they would have to expand the scope and invite more contestants. But they shouldn't resort to that unless absolutely necessary. The team had only just been assembled and needed time to gel. Furthermore, given the current team structure, they couldn't handle such a large-scale operation anyway.

For the next season, they could consider holding large-scale auditions; that would be true public participation.

While he was lost in thought, another male contestant walked in.

Su Chen was slightly taken aback. This contestant looked a bit like... someone with a physical condition. He looked to be in his twenties, but his height was estimated to be under 1.5 meters.

After a brief moment of distraction, the judges prompted him to introduce himself.

There was nothing particularly unusual about his introduction. However, once he finished speaking and opened his mouth to sing, he instantly stunned everyone present.

His high notes were crystal clear—a voice in a million!

This kind of high register was slightly different from Luo Jiahang's. Luo Jiahang's high notes carried a raspy quality when pitched very high, which was precisely why Su Chen had him sing "Boundless Oceans, Vast Skies."

But this contestant’s high notes were completely flawless. Even when the key went extremely high, it retained a bright, transparent quality.

It was hard to imagine that such a small body could unleash such immense power. It was truly rare!

Most importantly, besides his vocal talent, his singing technique and emotional delivery were also impeccable. Even a layperson hearing this performance would have to praise it as absolutely mind-blowing!

The judges clearly hadn't expected to encounter such a talent. Their initially casual attitude suddenly turned serious. Gradually, they became immersed in the performance.

It wasn't until the song ended that everyone snapped out of it.

“Your name is Niu Jun, right? Have you studied music before?” one of the judges eagerly asked.