Chapter 39: College Entrance Exam Results

The “Sound of the Future” competition hosted by Piggy Music finally came to an end, and unsurprisingly, the championship fell into the hands of Lin Xiyue and Xia Jinnian.

Perhaps to calm public anger and demonstrate its sincerity, Piggy Music even added an extra 500,000 yuan to the champion prize, along with a higher-tier debut promotion package—proof enough that their desire to survive was strong.

The very next day after the competition ended, a promotional photo of Lin Xiyue and Xia Jinnian was already displayed on the giant screen in downtown Guangnan. Entertainment magazines began printing soft articles about the two, and their posters appeared across many streets and alleys.

This was actually the first time Lin Xiyue had experienced offline promotion at such a large scale. It made her understand why offline publicity remained mainstream—its unique charm was undeniable.

These tangible promotions integrated into real life, feeling almost within reach, gave an energy and warmth that pure online marketing couldn’t replicate.

But ultimately, this kind of large-scale promotion was too expensive. Ordinary companies or artists simply couldn’t afford it. Even popular stars would only invest this heavily when releasing a major new single. This time, she had simply benefited from Piggy Music’s desire to fix its image.

Of course, Piggy Music was not generous enough to spread this level of promotion nationwide. They limited it to Guangnan City. In bigger cities like Shangjiang or Gusu, only a few posters were put up, and in smaller cities, the coverage was negligible.

As for Piggy Music, Lin Xiyue felt neither love nor hatred.

You can’t view a company as a person. Whether it was previously protecting Wu Li or now compensating Lin Xiyue, everything was simply driven by business reputation and interests, not personal grudges.

And in fact, dealing with such companies was easier—show enough value, and they would invest in you. No need for all the twists and turns.

As for how Wu Li was doing now, whether she had gone mad with anger—Lin Xiyue and Xia Jinnian didn’t care, and had never cared from the start.

She acted that way—why shouldn’t you just let her face the consequences?

Lin Entertainment — Recording Studio

“If we change this part of the chorus to make it more sorrowful… would it sound better?”

Inside the recording studio, Lin Xiyue discussed the new song with Xia Jinnian. This had become their daily routine during the week following their championship win.

She had accepted the A-level job offer and began creating her first mainstream composition themed around “Fleet of Time.”

The overall mood was obvious—youthful tenderness, regret, unwillingness, and quiet heartbreak. And in this area, Lin Xiyue naturally had plenty of experience.

Her emotional history with Xia Jinnian in her past life fit these traits very well.

Only, in the end, their relationship had ended abruptly and explosively, whereas this song emphasized an ambiguous relationship fading quietly.

But just as her mother said—songwriting is art. It doesn’t need to follow reality perfectly. Otherwise, would every master of tragic love songs have to break up once for every song?

“If we can’t meet again with teary eyes, can we at least blush?”

Xia Jinnian softly hummed the lyrics. This was already one of many revised versions of the melody, though the lyrics had barely changed since the first draft.

Because the moment Lin Xiyue finished those lyrics, everyone knew they were exceptional—succinct yet powerful, vividly expressing conflicted and tangled emotions without cliché. Truly the work of a top student infused with real feelings.

Even Xu Wei was stunned when she first saw them, speechless for a long moment, realizing she had underestimated her daughter’s talent in songwriting.

But lyrics were only part of a song. And according to StarNet’s scoring system, composition weighed more heavily than lyrics. So whether or not her work would be accepted still remained uncertain.

After all, she didn’t meet the minimum requirement—the composition had to be A-level. And she wasn’t even close yet, let alone competing with industry veterans.

“I feel like my skill and experience aren’t enough to give meaningful suggestions anymore. Xixi, why not upload it to StarNet and check the score and feedback?”

Xia Jinnian stretched lazily. She genuinely enjoyed these discussions—it made her feel like she and Lin Xiyue were artistic soulmates.

“Sure.”

Lin Xiyue uploaded the latest version to StarNet. The score would appear in a day or two, so they turned their attention elsewhere.

“It’s almost noon. Nervous?”

Xia Jinnian suddenly asked. Today was the day Guangnan released its college entrance exam results—scores would be available at 12 p.m.

Of course she was nervous. As the time ticked closer, Lin Xiyue entered her admission ticket number, name, and other info, waiting for the moment the clock hit 12 before clicking “Search.”

The screen loaded for a moment, then—

[System Busy]

“…Huh?”

The two exchanged helpless looks.

After refreshing countless times, the results page finally loaded. A bright red banner appeared at the top of the homepage:

[Congratulations to Guangnan No.1 High School student Lin Xiyue for winning the Ten-Province Exam Top Scorer title]

This year, nine other provinces used the same exam paper as Guangnan—making ten provinces in total. “Ten-Province Top Scorer” meant Lin Xiyue ranked first out of all candidates across all ten.

“My god—how high is your score?!”

Xia Jinnian was stunned. She always knew her best friend was amazing—but this amazing? She’d never been this monstrous in previous joint exams. Why did she suddenly explode on the real thing?

Lin Xiyue skimmed through her score. She had lost one point in math for unknown reasons; everything else was full marks—including the heavily subjective Chinese essay.

For the first time in her life, she truly felt the joy of being a top student. And her first time was an explosive one.

Top scorer in ten provinces—proof of strength.
Missing one point—proof of no cheating.

“This is insane…”

Still in shock, Xia Jinnian checked her own score. She ranked second in Guangnan, right behind Lin Xiyue, though she only placed somewhere in the teens across the ten provinces.

But at this level, rankings were just for show. When it came to choosing universities or majors, everything was wide open—they were both far above any threshold.