Chapter 55 - Showing Her Talent/ Kylie Downfall

With the fiasco of the Molly representation, people's energy was down. All the excitement of the other shows they had seen had worn off, leaving only a sense of deception, even her own fans feeling a little cheated. To rekindle the audience's excitement, the hosts announced the next performances, taking special care to mention the competition between Alex and Kylie, and of course, they didn't forget to mention the final performance that everyone was eagerly waiting for: Ethan as a singer!

Before the two women were allowed to perform, one of the hosts asked who wanted to perform first. Without even a moment's thought, Kylie, who we could see from a big screen in her waiting room, announced that she wanted to perform first, with a sinister smile on her face.

When she took the stage five minutes later, people were a little taken aback. She was wearing a long black silk dress and her long black hair was swinging in glamorous curls making her looking beautiful and sexy, but her outfit didn't really match the instrument she was going to play because her dress was somehow too tight for her to sit comfortably, making people wonder what had gotten to her to choose a dress like that.

She made an effort to sit as elegantly as possible and began to play her instruments. At first, the audience was captivated by the tune, which was a beautiful, sad melody. It was a familiar tune from Florelia, so people were happy and nostalgic when they heard the music. But at some point, the note played became more and more discordant and the sound became restless.

At first, it was not noticeable, but soon the audience was hearing the wrong notes. At this point, Kylie began to feel that the audience was not so easily tricked, so she ended her performance by saying that it had been a long time since she had played, but she still hoped they liked the first part of the tune and bowed to apologise. 

Even if she had botched her performance, she was sure Alex could not beat her. After all, she had learned to play as a child, and even if she had not practised much last year, she had been one of the best in her school at the time. That was why she had chosen a difficult song earlier, not knowing that she would forget part of it halfway through. 

After her, it was Alex's turn. When the emcee called her to the stage, she did not come. A minute passed, two, five minutes, and still no one was on stage. Fearing that something might have happened, one of the emcees went backstage to see if everything was alright, while the other asked the audience to be more patient. While Kylie fans began to speculate that Alex was afraid her performance would not be as good as Kylie's, the other fans disagreed and stated that Kylie's performance was not even that good for someone to fear her.

When the emcee saw Alex backstage, he immediately sensed that something had happened. Alex smiled apologetically at him and showed him her instrument. The emcee was stunned, one of the strings had broken. Having been in this business for so long, he knew full well it was human doing, someone had sabotage her instrument. 

He then looked at Alex and instinctively glanced at Leila who was standing next to her with her arms crossed, her face expressionless and devoid of emotion, she just looked creepy. As he looked at her a thought crossed his mind, "Who's the scum messing with RoyalStar? I don't want to have problems with them because of someone else!" Helplessly, he told Alex that he would do anything to find the person behind this accident. 

But the problem was that he still didn't know if he should cancel Alex's appearance or not, because unfortunately, they didn't have Guqin at the studio. He thought about asking Kylie, but something told him that she would not be willing to help him. Just as he was about to ask her what she wanted to do, Fidelia came out of breath and handed her a new guqin. The host was relieved, returning to his seat and introducing Alex once more. 

As she took the stage, her fans clapped as loud as they could. She gave them a small smile and took a seat on a small cushion on the floor. She wore a simple Florelian traditional dress, a long flared cotton dress with a long red fringe ring dangling from her waist and her long black hair falling loosely back. She was sitting on the cushion that lay on the floor, and on the screen behind her was a beautiful scene showing a beautiful sakura tree. 

She began to play her song. Many people couldn't recognise the song at first, but the "Ocean Eyes", her fans instinctively recognised the song, it was one of the songs of the fan club. It was a song very close to Alex's heart, as it was one of the songs her mother loved to sing when she was alive, so naturally, it became one of her favourites. It was a happy, traditional Florelian song that is usually sung on feast days, and soon the entire audience recognised the song with happy smiles on their faces. 

A minute later, a husky baritone voice could be heard performing the song with the perfect notes of Alex's guqin. Everyone looked to where the beautiful and mesmerising voice came from, and everyone was in a trance and surprised to see Ethan slowly appearing in another scene right in front of Alex. He was sitting on an artificial tree, wearing a beautiful red Florelian traditional male robe. 

As he began to sing, everyone in the public recognised the song and everyone felt even happier. This song was one that represented happiness, love, and life in their country. He sang a little, and his voice matched Alex's musical note perfectly. The picture they showed was so beautiful that some fans had tears in their eyes. What they showed on stage was simply a masterpiece. 

The fans of the two stars were overwhelmed by the performance and many speculations started circulating saying that it was undoubtedly proof of their relationship as this song could be sung for a confession of love. They speculated that Ethan was surely singing for Alex and confessing his love. Many posts on Weibo have already talked about the stunning performance of the two and claimed that this might be a confirmation of their relationship. 

Actually, Alex was the most surprised. She even made a fake sound when she saw him singing in front of her, luckily it's seemed that no one had noticed. He had not told her he was going to sing while she played, this was all a surprise to her as well. When they had that little time to prepare, he did ask her what song she would be performing, but she was far from imagining that he would be singing along while she played the song. 

Like everyone else, she was mesmerised by his voice and when she heard it, she could not help but let out a pretty smile. Truth be told, their clothes and the atmosphere on stage did not match the song they were singing, she was more made for sad songs, but it was that difference that made the performance unique and people liked it, in fact that why she wanted to dress as simply as possible, to let people only focused on the song.

But they were not done yet, when at some point the melody of the song sounded from the speakers. Alex left the guqin aside and started to dance the traditional Florelia dance that was made for this song. And she was simply stunning, swinging her hips like a belly dancer. The audience was just too excited and couldn't help but stand up and applaud her. Who would have believed that someone who did not grow up in the country could play and dance the traditional song so perfectly? Ethan was at his turn the one to be surprised as his eyes looked lovingly at Alex perfect moves from the start till the end of her performance.

After their performances, everyone was very happy to discover Ethan voice and Alex's skills. It had nothing to do with the way Kylie had played, Alex was much better, even on another level. 

Even the other artists present were taken by this performance, they harmonised so well that they started to think that only men like Ethan could keep up with a girl like Alex. The only ones who were angry and scolding in their seats were Kylie and Moly. They couldn't understand how she could play so well after cutting one of the guqin's strings. One could see anger and frustration on their faces.. Since they couldn't humiliate her on stage, they decided to try it when they would play games.