People from all over the world stood up, offering warm applause to the girl at the center of the stage, like fleeting starlight in the night, surging at this moment.

No one noticed that the girl's hands had long clenched from pain. Tang Xin's face was pale as she slowly lifted her skirt and curtsied once more to the audience below the stage.

The girl had just forcibly used the gentle flow of water to cut and heal the long-damaged vocal cords. This kind of healing was like draining the pond to catch the fish, extremely short-lived like a firefly, and equally painful. The girl had almost exhausted her future, stubbornly finishing the song.

This was a song she wrote for all the ordinary people of the Star of Art.

It was also the final confession written for the blonde girl.

Representing her determination and many words she didn't have time to say.

Gradually, the sparse applause from the audience weakened, the scattered lights dimmed, and those in power sensed that something was wrong. Their gaze, along with the girl's, turned to several figures at the judges' table.

Belvedere sat behind the long table carved from ebony, his eyes seeming to sink deeper. Beside him, Zel, who had been clapping enthusiastically earlier, realized the sudden heaviness of the atmosphere and stopped clapping, shrinking his shoulders.

As an elder representing the Withered Flower family at the Starry Gallery, he understood the importance of timing better than anyone. Even if his face did not show it, he was quite certain that the old vampire beside him was enraged. The slow blood flow would make these long-lived beings' emotions inscrutable.

Who dared to provoke this old vampire's dignity, especially at the Starry Arts Academy? Who didn't know this was his lair? To provoke him under his very nose? Were they tired of living?

Zel really couldn't figure it out until he suddenly noticed that Belvedere's deep-set gaze had never moved away from the girl named Tang Xin.

He suddenly thought of something, and a terrifying guess rose in his heart. Could it be the song sung by that Star's daughter?

"Yain, she is your adopted daughter, isn't she?" Belvedere slowly asked.

Seated in the Lindong family's seat, Yain felt the pressure suddenly increase, quickly lowering his head: "It's my fault for not disciplining her well."

At the same time, Yain's heart was churning with terror. He hadn't expected that the other side had been in such a hurry to widen their influence in the city just to do something so crazy...

Yain silently prayed that his daughter would not do anything foolish and just quietly withdraw from this stage.

The people present were confused, and for a moment, the Opera House was so quiet that only the sparse discussions of people could be heard.

After the performers finish, it's time for the judges to score, and they were still looking forward to what kind of evaluation the principal would give.

[:Sevia is bound to be the champion of this Starry Art Competition, no doubt.]

[:Most of the seeded contestants with championship potential have all quit; the previous contestants performed so unsatisfactorily, who else could be the champion?]

[:Even if those seeded contestants were here, the highest score would definitely be the Star's daughter. She's already conquered my heart with her song.]

[:I can already see a cosmic great star rising; after the competition, she will surely be like Ms. Marlene!]

Meanwhile, in a small box directly opposite the judges' table, the great artists sitting around a dark blue-red wooden table looked serious, glaring at each other.

No one knew whether they should break the silence at this moment.

After a relatively long and anxious time passed, the girl on stage finally spoke.

"Everyone, don't you feel this city is already sick?"

Her slightly hoarse voice resounded under this dark stage, clearly reaching everyone, whether those ordinary people behind the curtains or the students rehearsing for the year-end academy gala, or the dignitaries from all over the world.

The dignitaries near the judges' table were as silent as cicadas in the cold, looking in unison toward Belvedere seated at the center, praying internally that the old vampire wouldn't notice them at this moment.

"Doesn't it feel strange?"

"When did we in this city become isolated individuals, indifferent to everything around us?"

"Standing up to pay respects to the tragedy on stage, yet turning a blind eye to the tragedies happening around us?"

"Enough, Ms. Sevia." The face of the student council member hosting turned pale instantly. He was just about to go on stage to stop the girl when someone from the audience pulled him and drowned him in the crowd.

Almost at the moment Tang Xin said these words, the paparazzi from major media outlets rushed to start recording, driven by the instinct that what was about to happen would surely become tomorrow's big news!

In an instant, the blue-haired girl became the focal point of countless recording devices, golden light sequins fluttering around her. At this moment, nearly ten thousand people in this grand theater had a unanimous and silent understanding in their hearts.

Whether the girl truly became the champion of this Starry Competition or not, her name would be remembered by everyone.

And her fate,

Would be exceedingly tragic.

"What's happened to Senior Sister Sevia?"

"She was performing so well just now; why did she suddenly..."

In the Opera Club, the students stopped what they were doing, looking at each other. The lead actor in "The Last Queen and Her Round Table Knights" had already been replaced twice, and the black-haired girl responsible for playing 'Lancelot' loosened her ponytail and walked to the door of the club under everyone's watchful eyes.

"Hey, Lin Yaqing, where are you going? We haven't finished rehearsing yet!"

Lin Yaqing turned back, her gaze calm as a pool of dead water.

"Revenge."

...

"Since when did this city become like this?"

"Was it since the comprehensive implementation of the foster home system?" Tang Xin glanced toward everyone in the audience. "Or was it when this city was officially named Star of Art that the seeds of illness were deeply buried in the snow?"

"Ask yourselves, do you truly love art?"

These words, even to an ordinary office worker in a subway station, made clear what the girl was trying to do, widening their eyes in surprise.

"Are you truly passionate about creating?"

"Or does it only bring you inner exhaustion and pain, feeling a visceral repulsion at the mere sight of these two words?"

"To cater to the rules, frameworks, and orders of this society, do you always bend over backward, deliberately pleasing art, willing to hurt yourself all over, just to prove to others that you're not an outcast, so you won't be rejected by society."

"But what if, from the very beginning, this society is what's pathological?"

"Art is noble and unquestionable, Sevia, do you really understand what you're saying!" someone loudly rebutted. "Get down from the stage immediately!"

"Stop it, we are all blessed by the Stars, with unending inspiration, of course, we love art." Someone murmured in a plea. "The Master of the Stars watches us all equally."

"If that's the case, then why are there always new incidents of Exhausted people hurting others on the news every day?" Tang Xin amplified her voice to question.

"Why does 'artist' become born in the creations of people?"

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