But in just a moment, the piano that was hidden in the storage room was moved onto the stage.

When Alaricka saw this piano, she was a bit surprised. This piano wasn’t as bad as she thought. On the contrary, things like the tone and material were actually pretty good. It just wasn’t as good as the previous one.

When Alarieka sat on the piano bench, Paloma’s voice came from the judges’ table. “Alarieka, the tuning of this piano really wasn’t as good as the last one, but this was your decision, so you had to take all the consequences of switching pianos yourself.”

Alarieka’s voice was calm: “I understand.”

Paloma said, “Then you start.”

When her finger pressed the first piano key, Alarieka already had a way to pass the preliminaries and hide her skills in her mind. She deliberately played a small wrong note, but overall, the piano piece she played was still smooth and pleasant to listen to. It was definitely good enough to pass the preliminary round.

The song ended, and just like Alarieka expected, there was barely any applause from the judges or the audience, which honestly matched how she performed.

Alarieka got up from the piano bench and gave a slight bow to the judges and the audience. She looked up and saw Paloma’s slightly furrowed brows, and a few contestants’ disgusted looks.

“I thought she was really something, but turns out that’s it, she’s nowhere near as good as Rochelle.”

“How did she even dare to go against Rochelle? With that level, they probably couldn’t even get past the prelims. I was the first one up, I thought Rochelle had a good chance of getting first in the prelims, and Alaricka had a good chance of getting last.”

There were ironic laughter sounds all around, and the contestants shoved each other.

“Alright, alright, they heard you and are about to cry. If they cry, you go comfort them.”

“Bullshit coaxing, I was too busy yelling at her.”

“But Rochelle was really lucky. She had such a good family, was so pretty, played the piano so well, had such an excellent boyfriend, and her childhood friend cared about her a lot too. That was a life you just couldn’t ask for.”

These sounds were soft and low, but they were still pretty noticeable in the quiet stadium. Even Alarieka, who was standing on the stage, heard it clearly.

Alaricka listened quietly and didn’t react at all. These words fell on her ears and didn’t stir up any feelings. She didn’t care, and she sure wasn’t going to argue with them. It was actually the way Paloma looked at her that surprised her a bit.

Chapter 72

Paloma’s look had a kind of why can’t you do better and regret in it, which made Alaricka’s heart skip a beat.

The discussion in the audience got louder and louder. Roschelle pressed her lips together, lifted her eyelids and gave Kieran a gentle, shy look, then turned to the audience behind and said softly, “Don’t say that, Alaricka already tried really hard.”

Someone curled their lips, “So this was the result of her hard work? That’s really funny.”

Paloma turned her head and said to the audience in a low voice, “Quiet, why are you making noise in the competition area?”

The audience went silent and didn’t dare say another word. As Alarieka walked off the stage, her heart grew heavier. Looking at Paloma’s expression, did she not even make it past the preliminaries? Thinking of this idea, Alarieka couldn’t help but feel annoyed at her own cleverness, and even purposely played a wrong note.

When sitting in the last row of the audience, Alarieka’s brows were already tightly furrowed. The man and woman in front of Alarieka turned to look at her, smiling with contempt and pride.

“Alarieka, you looked so upset. Was it because you knew you didn’t play well? That tune you messed up just now, we all heard it clearly.”

In her palm, Alarieka looked at the man and woman in front of her and didn’t say a word. She raised her hand, covered her mouth and nose, frowned a little, then waved her hand like she was trying to get rid of the bad smell around her nose.

The man’s voice stopped right away, and his mouth shut tight. The woman frowned, “Alaricka, what did you mean?”

Alaricka’s voice was muffled in her palm: “Didn’t you guys smell something bad? Smells like bad breath.” As she spoke, Alaricka also hesitated and looked at the man and woman in front of her, her suspicious eyes searching their lips.

Alarieka spoke seriously, and the faces of the man and woman slowly turned a little red.

“Alarieka, you!”

The two of them blushed, quickly turned their heads, and faced away from Alarieka.