Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Su Xingyao was wearing a full-body mascot costume with a headpiece.

His entire figure and appearance were completely disguised, bearing no resemblance to his original self.

Even Fu Qingyan, who had once been very familiar with him, was standing less than twenty centimeters away and still didn’t recognize him.

Fu Qingyan immediately assumed Su Xingyao was a stranger and politely apologized on behalf of his bodyguard for the incident.

Hearing Fu Qingyan’s words, the bodyguard who had accidentally pushed Su Xingyao in a hurry quickly stepped forward and apologized, saying he hadn’t noticed anyone there.

While the bodyguard caused the trouble, Fu Qingyan was the one who apologized.

Compared to those arrogant stars in the industry who constantly act superior, Fu Qingyan, already a film emperor, handled the situation with grace.

If the person inside the mascot suit had been an ordinary individual, they would have accepted the apology and commended the film emperor for his demeanor.

But Su Xingyao was thinking about something else.

He had to be careful not to speak without a voice changer—especially at this moment.

Fu Qingyan is sharp enough to recognize him by his voice alone.

Although Fu Qingyan is someone Su Xingyao doesn’t want to see, his silence wasn’t out of fear of facing him but because he didn’t want to blow his cover before even stepping on stage.

He noticed Fu Qingyan’s direction and guessed he was likely heading to record *The Voice of Heaven*.

Thinking of this, Su Xingyao didn’t let his gaze linger on Fu Qingyan too long, just waved his hand side to side to signal he was okay.

Noticing the other couldn’t speak, Fu Qingyan’s eyes showed a hint of surprise.

Always gentle and considerate with everyone, he didn’t continue to speak but instead offered an apologetic smile to the “mute figure” before turning to leave.

Su Xingyao looked up and watched Fu Qingyan walk away.

Sure enough, Fu Qingyan headed straight for *The Voice of Heaven’s* entrance.

Next, Fu Qingyan might end up recording the show alongside him.

Realizing this, Su Xingyao wasn’t too worried.

Desperately needing water at the moment, he went to find a nearby vending machine.

After grabbing a bottle of water and resting briefly under a tree, he pulled out the access pass the program team had sent him earlier and walked toward the building.

His outfit was odd, but luckily, the staff only gave him a few curious looks.

After verifying his identity, they let him through smoothly.

Since he had brought his own performance costume, Su Xingyao skipped the step of getting makeup done on stage.

While others were getting their makeup and changing clothes, he found Xiao Li and retrieved the voice changer prepared by the program team.

Finding a quiet corner, he secured the voice changer inside the costume.

“Hello, hello.”

Su Xingyao flipped the switch and tested it, noticing his voice had changed through the voice changer, gaining an ethereal and cool tone.

His original voice was warm and gentle.

When he spoke, this tone was neither too aloof nor too casual, hitting just the right comfortable note.

But now, the voice changer had altered his tone, the mechanical sound masking the warmth, making his voice sound cool and elegant.

He had expected the show's team to give him the typical deep male voice, common in the industry, but Su Xingyao was pretty happy with this voice.

After getting used to his new voice, he headed straight to the contestant waiting area.

The official recording was still a few hours away, and most contestants were still getting their makeup and styling done.

Su Xingyao, with nothing to prepare, was the first to arrive.

In the large room, aside from a few staff members moving around, he was the only contestant there.

He glanced at the empty seats, picked one nearby, and sat down. Then he pulled out his phone and earphones, ready to listen to music and kill time.

But when he opened his phone, he saw that Lu Jiuxu had sent him a message half an hour ago.

Lu: You here yet?

Su Xingyao quickly typed a reply.

"Just arrived."

After that, he propped up his phone, snapped a photo of the empty room, and sent it to Lu Jiuxu.

But the signal here was spotty, and the photo was taking forever to send.

By the time the photo hit 76%, Lu Jiuxu had already replied.

Lu: What time's it starting?

"At two."

Lu: Have you eaten?

"Yes."

After sending that, Su Xingyao noticed the other side had gone quiet.

Just as he was wondering if he should start a new topic, the other side started typing again.

Lu: Why are you the only one there?

Seeing Lu Jiuxu's message, Su Xingyao realized the photo had finally gone through.

Lu Jiuxu hadn't replied earlier because he was checking out the photo...

"They're still getting made up, I don't need to."

After replying, Su Xingyao added an emoji out of habit.

"Cat wagging tail.jpg"

The cat in the emoji was Coral, who he'd filmed in a short video and thought was adorable, so he turned it into an emoji for himself.

A few seconds after sending Coral's cute emoji, Su Xingyao saw that Lu Jiuxu quickly replied with a photo of Coral.

However, the photo Lu Jiuxu sent was one he had taken of Coral.

Next to Coral, a sunset was also trying to sneak into the frame.

Lu Jiuxu: He said to cheer you on.

Su Xingyao quickly enlarged the photo.

Through the screen, he met the gazes of the sunset and Coral looking at him.

Looking at the adorable cat and dog, he recalled Lu Jiuxu's words, and a smile unconsciously spread across his lips.

The boredom from waiting was replaced by a wave of joy.

As Su Xingyao chatted with Lu Jiuxu, a staff member approached him.

"Sir, please put your phone in this bag for the privacy of today's recording. You can get it back afterward."

The staff member then handed him a card to reclaim his phone later.

Su Xingyao glanced at the staff member and quickly typed out a message.

"The staff asked me to hand over my phone."

Before turning off his phone, he took one last look at the screen.

And there, he saw the last four words Lu Jiuxu had sent: "Good luck in the competition."

Though the message was simple, Su Xingyao felt a strange emotion when he read it.

For most people, such a message might not mean much.

But for him, this ordinary yet heartfelt concern was a first.

He hadn't participated in many competitions throughout his life.

Apart from today, the only other time was in high school when he joined a physics competition.

Back then, his parents only realized they had forgotten to cheer him on when he brought the trophy home.

At the time, he didn't think much of it, even finding it a bit exaggerated to see other competitors accompanied by their parents.

But now, he finally understood.

Parents being present wasn't about independence but about care.

Because they cared, they kept such things in mind.

Just like today's competition, Lu Jiuxu's timely messages and the simple "good luck" at the end.

This was the first time he felt the warmth of being cared for and remembered.

It was a wonderful, comforting feeling.

"Is anyone sitting here?"

As Su Xingyao was lost in thought, a somewhat cute voice sounded beside his ear.

He looked up in the direction of the voice.

The speaker was a boy wearing a cute outfit, his large, deer-like eyes staring intently at him.

Realizing the boy was talking to him, Su Xingyao quickly shook his head.

"No one. Would you like to sit here?"

As soon as Su Xingyao spoke, the boy beside him widened his eyes in surprise.

"Wow, your voice..."

The young man sounded unmistakably surprised and excited.

The guy in front of him was already eye-catching in his cute cat costume, but his voice was unexpectedly cool and ethereal, with a slight mechanical tone!

The contrast was just amazing!

"Your voice is so nice. Are you using a voice changer?"

The young man quickly sat down next to Su Xingyao and asked curiously.

Voice changers are usually easy to spot, but Su Xingyao didn’t hesitate and nodded.

"Yes."

Hearing this, the young man immediately gave Su Xingyao a thumbs up, "Dude, you're so cool!"

He wasn’t just saying that.

He really seemed to like Su Xingyao’s cat costume, and after getting Su Xingyao's permission, he carefully reached out to touch the soft fur on his arm.

"This style is so unique—I’ve never seen anything like it."

"I designed it myself."

The young man was once again astonished.

"Designed it yourself? No wonder it's so exquisite! Dude, you're amazing!"

After saying this, he couldn't resist touching Su Xingyao's ears again.

"Ahhh, it’s so beautiful! Too bad the show crew took my phone—I can’t take a photo with you."

After a moment, he stretched out his hands, pretending to take a photo of himself and Su Xingyao.

"Guess we’ll have to settle for a pretend photo for now."

His pretend photo was pretty funny, and Su Xingyao couldn't help but laugh.

While they were talking, most of the contestants in the waiting area showed up.

A few people were now sitting in front of Su Xingyao.

The first two rows were close together, so many had overheard their conversation.

Just as Song Yingming had guessed earlier.

Although the contestants invited by this show are not singers or stars, most participants are eager to join, apart from a small number like Su Xingyao who genuinely love music and simply want to showcase and compete. The rest, however, are more or less hoping to gain popularity through the show.

Many of these contestants are even somewhat famous online singers and influencers, each with their own hidden agendas.

So far, these agendas are reflected in their makeup and outfits.

Some influencers, already somewhat famous, opted not to use the show’s makeup artists and instead brought their own stylists.

They either dressed to look stunning, radiating star quality, or chose unconventional styles that made them stand out.

Basically, they wanted to catch everyone’s eye right away.

However, no matter how exaggerated their makeup was, it still fell within the range of what people had seen before, and their outfits were still within the realm of clothing.

But all their elaborate styling efforts were completely outshone by Su Xingyao’s mascot outfit.

Once he donned that costume, it was impossible not to notice him.

That’s exactly what happened.

From the moment Su Xingyao sat down, every new contestant couldn’t help but glance his way.

His unique outfit sparked some malicious speculation about his motives.

Particularly the two in front, who, noticing his voice changer, started sniping.

"Wow, he’s really pulling out all the stops for the spotlight."

"Right? Even a voice changer—who thinks of that?"

"With all that prep, he’d better be gunning for the win."

The two of them bantered back and forth, occasionally letting out a few disdainful laughs.

They seemed to want Su Xingyao to hear, making no effort to keep their voices down.

"Look at that guy with his own stylist—what a hassle. And then there’s this one, so sneaky."

"Haha, clever, sure, but also kind of hilarious."

Their chatter grew more and more ridiculous.

Thanks to them, not just Su Xingyao but others nearby started staring.

Some even jabbed fingers in Su Xingyao’s direction.

Noticing the odd looks, the guy next to Su Xingyao rolled his eyes.

He plopped down beside Su Xingyao and reassured him, "Ignore them, man. Your outfit’s awesome. The show never said no mascot costumes. I don’t get why they’re so bitter."

Su Xingyao had dealt with online hate since day one, even enduring people throwing eggs and stones at him.

After all that, Su Xingyao was no stranger to this kind of nonsense.

While the gossip didn’t bother him, Su Xingyao was touched by this stranger’s support.

He gave the guy a nod and murmured, "Thanks."

Originally, Su Xingyao wanted to ask for the young man’s name, but the show had a confidentiality agreement stating that during the first recording, everyone had to keep their identities secret, even if they recognized each other, they couldn’t mention each other’s identities on the show.

Therefore, Su Xingyao did not ask the young man's name.

The young man didn't ask either.

His outfit was adorable, his personality lively, and he was quite talkative.

Once seated, he kept chatting with Su Xingyao without pause.

Towards the end, he even pulled out a small cat plush toy from his bag and hung it directly on Su Xingyao's outfit.

"Alright everyone, quiet down, please."

The young man was about to say more but was suddenly interrupted by a staff member.

"To ensure fairness, today's initial selection order will be determined by drawing lots. I will bring the lottery box over now, and everyone will come up one by one to draw their performance number."

After saying this, the staff immediately rolled out a blind box dispenser.

The numbers had been placed inside the blind box dispenser, and everyone just had to spin the dispenser to get a box containing their number.

The show's director, Director Song, was famous for his love of blind box toys, and Su Xingyao had heard a bit about it.

He hadn't expected to see it in person and participate so soon.

As soon as the staff finished speaking, a dozen people quickly went up to draw their blind boxes.

Su Xingyao, seated far away and not fond of crowds, was among the last to go up.

By the time he drew, most of the boxes had already been drawn.

However, he didn't care much about his performance order and just gave the dispenser a casual spin.

Soon, with a clatter, a yellow box dropped out.

Su Xingyao opened it to find a bouncy ball with a watermelon print inside.

"Hey, what's your number?"

The young man who had drawn with him came over to Su Xingyao, asking for his performance number.

As he asked, he showed his number, "I'm number 77."

After saying this, he smiled somewhat helplessly, "So late, it's going to be a long wait..."

There were ninety contestants in total today, and with so many participants, number 77, being near the end, wasn't exactly an ideal position.

Upon hearing the other's complaint, Su Xingyao immediately turned over his watermelon ball.

On it was clearly written... number 78.

Not a great number either.

The young man, who had been frowning, suddenly perked up upon seeing this number.

He happily placed his hand on Su Xingyao's shoulder, his worries swept away, "You know, we really are fated."

Su Xingyao nodded; they did seem to get along well, even ending up next to each other like this.

However, it's not just the two of them who are connected by fate.

The two sitting in front of Su Xingyao, who had been leading the charge against him earlier, coincidentally drew numbers 76 and 79 respectively.

After a quick glance at Su Xingyao and his companion's numbers and realizing they were all closely grouped together, they sneered and walked off.

A few minutes later, all contestants had drawn their numbers.

The staff turned the microphone back on and told all contestants to use their numbers as identifiers for today's recording.

Then, they had everyone rearrange their seats based on their drawn numbers.

With the preliminary preparations done, the clapperboard operator took the stage.

He looked down at the ninety contestants and slammed the clapperboard down.

"The recording of 'The Voice of Heaven's first episode..."

"Let's get started!"