Ivy Shen's ghostly, wolf-howling singing was so shocking that everyone was stunned, but they still ended up crying, moved by how real it was. Honestly, living in this world without your own mother is like being stuck in winter, and if you end up with a stepmother, that's just an ice block in the middle of winter!
So, Ivy Shen breezed right into the second round.
Honestly, Ivy Shen actually has an amazing singing voice. If she sang for real, she'd blow everyone away. But she didn’t show off her perfect voice—she went with the wolf-howling act, mainly because she figured these pythons wouldn’t appreciate anything as classy as human music anyway!
After the first round, only ten contestants were left on stage. But the real shocker? The judges for round two weren’t the audience anymore—they were Yvonne Li’s dozen or so male pets standing behind her.
This time, everyone except Ivy Shen smiled happily—because the second-round topic was super easy. The lyrics just needed to mention something related to those male pets, so everyone started prepping with high hopes.
But plot twist! The first four singers all chose topics related to the male pets—stuff like daily life, work, and so on. Weirdly enough, the dozen male pets looked completely bored and shot them down, even though those contestants were super confident.
Out of the remaining six, Summer totally flopped. Ivy Shen thought her song was actually pretty nice—it was all about a bright future and a happy life—but the human-妖 crowd still couldn’t care less. Poor Summer got eliminated just like that.
Then came Ivy Shen’s turn. As the one who’d moved everyone to tears in the first round, she got pushed up next. With nobody else passing so far, everyone pinned their hopes on her. And, surprise! She sang so smoothly it stunned the crowd…
“Two pythons, two pythons, swimming fast, swimming fast. One is shedding its skin, one is growing legs—how strange, how strange!” Honestly, she sang it so smoothly because she genuinely thinks pythons growing legs is weird! It’s a total unsolved mystery to her!
“Good, very good!” All ten male pets waved their handkerchiefs and unanimously gave her the thumbs up. Adrian Night and Lucian Vane, watching from the sidelines, were instantly left sweating in embarrassment by the whole scene.
After that, Ivy Shen stayed in a daze, just thinking about which children’s song to search for next. Yep, the simpler the better—otherwise, with the IQ of these pythons, there’s no way they’d get anything complicated.
"Alright, now we’re entering the final round! This time, our City Mistress will personally judge," the pink-robed announcer shouted.
Hearing that, Ivy Shen snapped back to reality. Wait, the competition’s already at the last stage?
"Madam, we really are fated to meet," Caleb Miles grinned at her.
"Wait—you passed? What did you even sing? How did you get through?"
"Of course! Who do you think I am?" Caleb Miles raised his eyebrows, looking smug as ever.
Hearing that, Ivy Shen glanced back and realized—besides her, four other contestants had actually made it to the finals too.
"Alright, now I’ll announce the final challenge: it’s called the yin song. Whoever can sing in the most soul-meltingly seductive way will be the winner," the pink-robed announcer declared, biting his lip.
"Huh? A silver song? What kind of song is about money?" Ivy Shen blurted out, totally confused.
Hearing that, Caleb Miles gave her an evil grin, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, "Madam, it’s not silver as in money—it’s yin as in lewd."
"What?" Ivy Shen shouted. Isn’t this topic way too risqué?! She immediately turned to Caleb Miles, anxiously asking, "If you win, can you give me that man?" She pointed at the chained guy.
"No way," Caleb Miles shot her down. "I’ll tell you straight—I joined this competition because I got paid by my employer. So, the first prize and all the bonus gifts go to them."
"I’ll pay you double!" Ivy Shen blurted out—there’s no way she can pull off a yin song!
"What do you mean? I’m a man of ethics! How could I just swap employers like that? No deal." With that, he picked up his abacus and started calculating again.
Seeing this, Ivy Shen rushed over to Winter Plum and asked, "You can win, right?" Winter Plum was one of Adrian Night’s people, and Ivy remembered Adrian had promised that if Winter won, she’d get the man.
"S-sorry, miss, I can’t—I’m quitting," Winter Plum stammered, looking super embarrassed. She’s an unmarried maiden; there’s no way she could sing something like that!
Caleb Miles strolled over, grinning. "Ha! Just give up already. First place is mine, so stop dreaming about it."
Hearing that, Ivy Shen instantly blew up. "Abacus man, you’re way out of line! You really think I’ll lose? I’m telling you now, first place is mine!" (Seriously, does he think she’s just here to play nice?!)