My Extraordinary Achievements #Chapter 163 - Leech Songs for Experience - Read My Extraordinary Achievements Chapter 163 - Leech Songs for Experience Online - All Page - FREEWN

Chapter 163: Leech Songs for Experience

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

They drank from 11 o'clock to 2 o'clock. Meng Fan didn't know how much he drank, but he knew roughly how many songs he sang. There were 36 songs in total. This was because the girls had stopped trying to take the mic after singing with him in the latter half of the night. Otherwise, there would be fewer songs.

Meng Fan initially planned to sing 20 songs in an hour, including the breaks he would take in between. He should have sung at least 50 songs within three hours… Unfortunately, the net result was much less than what he anticipated.

Of course, if Pao and the others didn't come, he could only leech songs from other rooms. Although it would be more efficient, the method was a bit shameful.

After leaving the KTV, Pao and Da Fei took 2 separate cabs to take the girls home. Meng Fan ended up walking home alone as it was very close.

He was on his way back when he remembered the human rental APP. He had been checking Wechat as he was singing to talk to Wu Tong above all else. He momentarily forgot about the human rental app and only realized after opening it that someone had accepted his order. The person who accepted sent him a message saying they couldn't get through to the number Meng Fan had left.𝚗𝞸𝓥𝑒𝑙𝑛𝑒xt.𝚌𝗈𝑚

Meng Fan smiled bitterly. He had long ago blocked all unknown calls from his phone. Of course, it wouldn't get through.

Did that count as ditching?

He quickly responded, "Something came up, and I didn't see, sorry. If you have time tomorrow, I will double your pay as compensation."

There was definitely a cost for not showing up. The deposit fee was 6 HXB.

Meng Fan was a bit embarrassed by this.

After entering the apartment and changing into his slippers, he saw the response. It was only one word: Heh.

The uncle who accepted his order seemed to have a good temper.

The next morning after running, he spent the morning finishing up the poster jobs. Meng Fan sent the drawings to each beneficiary and left a message saying contact him if they had more work.

This kind of work drawing promotional posters paid a high price per unit and was the fastest way Meng Fan could currently make money. Of course, he had to pick up more.

After his afternoon classes ended, Meng Fan dragged Zhang Zhou Wei and Xing Ta Ge, refusing to let them go. "Why don't you guys come sing with me!"

As for Chen Da Qiang… He was bitterly working on the post-production for the manga.

Xing Ta Ge shook his head decisively. "Are you crazy? Who wants to sing during the day!?"

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However, Zhang Zhou Wei was extraordinarily high spirited. "Why do you suddenly want to sing? Go go go, of course, let's go! But you have to tell Ya Nan you needed me for something."

It was obvious Zhang Zhou Wei's afternoon plans or Wang Ya Nan's plans for him was to squat in the library.

Afterward, Meng Fan and Zhang Zhou Wei sandwiched Xing Ta Ge in between them as they headed to a nearby KTV.

This KTV was open in the afternoon.

"Fatty, what's up with you? Why do you suddenly want to sing?" Xing Ta Ge still couldn't understand.

Meng Fan let out a long sigh. "I've been too high-strung lately. I just want to relax a bit."

"Yes yes yes, you must loosen up!" Zhang Zhou Wei raised his hands and feet in support. "You've been working too hard lately, so hard that we don't even recognize you anymore! You really need a break! Why are you working so hard? Ya Nan keeps using you as an example to compare me to when she lectures me! On your word fatty, whenever you want to relax just ask me. I'll show up on demand! When you're working hard, I can't help much, but when you want to relax… I will absolutely be of service!"

Zhang Zhou Wei was quick-witted when it came to slacking off.

Meng Fan and Xing Ta Ge collectively gifted him a middle finger.

Three people in one room… Meng Fan could sing the entire time!

From two o'clock in the afternoon to almost three, Meng Fan ended up churning out 46 experience points. This was much more efficient than yesterday.

Not long afterward, he had hit 117 experience points.

After singing, he went for his run and then ate dinner. He then gave senior Ah Ning a call, telling him it was his turn to reciprocate, inviting the entire basketball team and its cheerleaders to KTV.

His turn?

Senior Ah Ning recalled that last night's expenses had been paid for by the school. Could it even be reciprocated?

Of course, since the Iron bro had spoken, everyone gladly obliged. It was better to just go.

This time around, they met up before seven o'clock and dispersed at eleven before the school gates closed.

Meng Fan gained 64 experience points. Pretty efficient.

After everyone scattered, Meng Fan walked to his community's gate, but he thought about it and headed back to the KTV. This time, he put on the hat that masked his presence.

At this hour, there was nothing he could do if he went home, and it was not like he could sleep either. He decided to go back and work on completing the task—be it shamelessly or not.

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He had just entered the KTV before stepping back out. He walked to the street and hailed a car, telling the driver, "Sorry, but can you take me to a KTV with better business?"

Go big or go home. Meng Fan decided to go to a better place to gain experience.

The driver uncle was stunned. This one seemed to be doing fine. He thought about it and told Meng Fan the name of another KTV, asking Meng Fan if it was okay. Meng Fan nodded, and they drove off.

Of course, Meng Fan still looked like a student, so the driver did not bring Meng Fan to the kind of place that actually provided an 'accompaniment' service. He only drove him to another KTV that was farther away.

After leaving the car, Meng Fan put on his hat and went in.

"Be careful."

Meng Fan saw an uncle appear from the bathroom who had drank a lot. He wobbled as he walked, so Meng Fan headed over to help.

"Huh? Oh, thanks."

The guy's eyes were blurred and forgot about Meng Fan after seeing him. His brain was blurry, but Meng Fan's hat also made him forget there was someone supporting him altogether.

They opened the door to a room, but the guy snorted and joked, "Ah sorry sorry, I-I-I came to the wrong room."

He then pushed his way into the room next door. This time he got it right.

Meng Fan helped the guy inside. It was a large room with over a dozen people, and the atmosphere was pretty upbeat.

"Chen bro, where did you go? There's a washroom here! Did you throw up, haha? It's good to throw up cause it means you can drink more."

A woman who seemed at least ten years younger than him came over and draped herself on him, bringing him over. She glanced at Meng Fan, thinking he was a friend of the guy. But she forgot about him as soon as she turned her head.

Seeing the upbeat atmosphere, and there were several drunk people, Meng Fan felt this room was just right. He was a little embarrassed to find a spot in the corner to sit down. He connected his microphone and began to sing.

He sang five or six songs straight. Meng Fan even selected some songs for himself, and even when the people realized something was strange, the atmosphere remained normal.

He sang for a bit longer until he saw the empty bottles on the table. He went to press the service bell, and when the waiter came, Meng Fan took off his hat and ordered two boxes of alcohol and food. He paid with his phone, and then he put on his hat again and continued to sing.

When the order went through, the waiter had a record. At most, he had forgotten who ordered it. He wouldn't misunderstand which room had placed the order.

Although everyone there wouldn't have cared for the cost of the alcohol, Meng Fan felt he more or less leached their songs, so it made sense to buy them alcohol in return.

Hehe, okay. He did that, so he could also work toward the wealth distribution task along the way.

The room Meng Fan had snuck in was very helpful. They were long gone but still stayed and hung out until 2:00 am. One by one, they happily wobbled off and slanted at various angles.

Another fifty or so experience points were added. He was already at 232/1000! Although he couldn't achieve singing 200 a day, this was decent progress.

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Chapter 164: Red Bean Wild Rice Congee

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Zhou Wei, wanna go sing?"

"Okie dokie."

"Zhou Wei, wanna go sing?"

"Okay."

"Zhou Wei, wanna go sing?"

"Can I not go?"

"Zhou Wei, wanna go sing?"

"I'm not going! I have to squat at the library with Wang Ya Nan today!"

Meng Fan's frequent karaoke sprees had become a burden to Zhang Zhou Wei, who initially treated it as a copout to slack off. He then began to think of ways to slack off from singing.

Of course, Zhang Zhou Wei wasn't the only one Meng Fan was asking. Meng Fan couldn't complete the task with just him, anyway.

Xing Ta Ge and Chen Da Qiang were long gone, hiding from him. Thankfully, there were other students in the class, and they always had a pretty good relationship with each other. They could reject his confession, but they couldn't refuse to sing!

As for Qu Jing Jing and the others, he was definitely planning to ask them, but he didn't dare ask too many times.

He also successfully ordered from the human rental APP a few times.

And then there was Da Fei and his squad.

"Fei bro, wanna sing?"

"Fei bro, I've asked you so many times to sing. It should be your turn to ask me now!"

"Pao bro…"

In the next few days, Meng Fan asked every potential person at least once. At first, he thought it was strange to be in a KTV every day.

Now, he discovered the human rental APP's efficiency was not high, and he suddenly realized his classmates didn't find it weird that he hung out at karaoke all day. Why would it be weird? Even so, was it as weird as running from Hangzhou to Shanghai or suddenly being the holder of a world record?

Only a few of the people he asked many times were annoyed, as most were quite happy. After all, they were being paid to sing, and alcohol and drinks were plenty too.

So, Meng Fan set his mind on them.

During the day and early in the evening, Meng Fan would invite his friends to sing. After eleven pm, however, he would head for a KTV further away and leach songs from other peoples' rooms.

When he realized they were out of alcohol, Meng Fan would usually replenish the supply.

Of course, this wasn't the case for all of them.

For example, one night he came across a group of men who were absolute scum. They had tried to take advantage of girls when they were drunk and passed out. Meng Fan not only refrained from ordering them alcohol, he had tripped them several times each. He tripped them very properly too, completely destroying their desires to make a scene.

Over the past few days, Meng Fan averaged 130 songs per day. Some days there were more and some less. He still had classes to attend after all, and several jobs at hand. Counting the experience from before, he had accumulated 870 points by Sunday.

On Sunday, Meng Fan woke up for his morning run. Wu Tong arrived shortly too, but she didn't run this time. Instead, she did some simple stretches and walked along the side, reciting words from her headphones as she strolled.

Wu Tong studied traditional art, but she also had a passion for language. In addition to reaching a literal translation level in English, she was also studying German and Portuguese. It didn't mean she intended to apply it, she just wanted to learn the logic hidden in each system and the way it influences her way of thinking. One of the most important things gained from learning a new language was no doubt the logic and the thinking process it could bring.

Meng Fan wasn't dumb enough to ask Wu Tong why she wasn't running today, but he also wasn't dumb enough to run 10 kilometers like he usually did. He slowed down after running for a while to match Wu Tong's pace. Although he was running, his pace was as if he were walking. Wu Tong saw this and took out her headphones, and seeing Wu Tong make no gesture indicating for him to keep running, his jog naturally slowed down into a stroll.

They walked a few laps and went off to breakfast together.

"Are you still pressing a deadline today?" Meng Fan helped Wu Tong carry her food over and sat down.

Wu Tong smiled and shook her head. "I'm finished. I don't want to go anywhere. I just want to eat and go back and take a long nap. I want to bundle up and watch some documentaries."

Meng Fan was a person with many sisters and understood that girls during this certain time of the month did not want to move. He thought about it and asked cautiously, "Then, do you want to come to my place? It's just that… I have an apartment near the school right behind campus. You can watch a documentary in the living room; it would be much more comfortable than watching in the dorm. It's also more convenient if you want to eat or grab something to drink."

Wu Tong raised her head and carefully looked at Meng Fan. "You're not busy?"

Meng Fan paused. "I'm busy, of course, I'm busy. But I usually work on my deadlines at home, so I won't disrupt your documentary."

Wu Tong laughed out loud and then teased him back. "I was asking, are you not busy with your singing?"

Meng Fan rubbed his nose bridge. "How do you know?"

Wu Tong responded, "I have Zhang Zhou Wei, Qu Jing Jing, and Wei Zhi Xue's on Wechat. These last few days, I've seen them post about going to karaoke with you several times."

Meng Fan bellowed with laughter. "They always make fun of my bad singing, so I think of ways to screw with them."

"Is that why you didn't invite me to go?" Wu Tong took a napkin and wiped her mouth and looked at Meng Fan who was still wolfing down his food. "I'm going to go home and take a nap first; I'll see how I feel when I wake up." She paused for a moment. "You're not going to tell me you have several rooms over there, right?"

Meng Fan shut his mouth tight.

They went their separate ways, and Meng Fan hummed a tune as he happily left the school. He then strolled around and brought back some jujubes, white fungus, red beans, purple rice, ginger, brown sugar, rose tea and other ingredients to bring back, as well as several fruits that were suitable to be heated.

Meng Fan didn't know if Wu Tong would come, but it was good to have this kind of stuff prepared. What if she came? It would be useful eventually.

Although he wasn't sweaty, he took a shower anyway when he got home and changed his clothes. He soaked the red beans and wild rice first. Even if Wu Tong didn't come, he could eat it himself.

Before 8:00, Meng Fan completed the nineteenth chapter of "Guide To Campus RoMANce", and the seventh chapter for "There's A Spirit Underground", and uploaded them respectively.

Xing Ta Ge had completed the script for "Guide To Campus RoMANce", so it would end in a dozen or so more chapters. Xing Ta Ge did not plan to extend the storyline since it was a short story. Meng Fan also had next to zero foundations on how to flirt with girls, so he naturally did not continue the story.

Presently, the light novel's collections had reached 400,000.

As for "There's A Spirit Underground", it was presently sitting at 450,000 collectors. Although it only had seven chapters published in total, the novel could be considered to "bring its own traffic" because Penguin Animation Network continued to recommend it after they signed their contract.

Next, Meng Fan began to work on his manga, checking his phone every few minutes. His efficiency was extremely low this morning.

Buzz.

His phone vibrated and Meng Fan immediately picked it up. It was from Wu Tong. "I'm up. I'm too lazy to move and don't want to go anywhere."

He couldn't tell if this expression was because she was actually too lazy to move or couldn't get to him.

After having his hopes shattered, Meng Fan was naturally upset. It was hard to ask about this kind of stuff no matter how one phrased it.

But Meng Fan occasionally had some wits about him. He ran to the kitchen and took a photo of his soaking red bean and wild rice and sent it over, finding a poor excuse. "I was just preparing congee for lunch. Want me to bring you some?"

There were some things that one did for others that didn't have to be told but some things did.

Wu Tong sent a shifty eye emoji. "Conveniently? Red bean and wild rice?"

Meng Fan feebly explained, "I'm trying to lose weight and be healthy, so I've been drinking congee a lot. Today just happened to be the day I tried red bean and wild rice congee."

"Wow, that is a coincidence! But what if I only want to eat ice cream in the next few days? (Stubborn Emoji)"

"That's okay! What brand and flavor do you want? I'll buy it. I'll heat it up and bring it over for you."

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Chapter 165: Mic Hog Completed

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

After delivering the congee, Meng Fan was bored out of his mind. It was the weekend, and Zhang Zhou Wei and the others were all out on dates when he asked them to go out. When he asked Da Fei, they were all busy as well. Meng Fan did not know where to go by himself.

[Mic Hog] only had 130 songs left, and he felt uncomfortable leaving the task when it was so close to completion. Smack! He suddenly slapped his head. How could he forget the fickle netizens!

The Shi Zhan Youth!

Meng Fan remembered he had his WeChat and immediately sent him a voice chat invite that was answered not long after.

"Are you busy this afternoon?"

"Nope! Meng host do you need a car? I'll head over now!"

"No no no. I don't need a car." Meng Fan interrupted him and continued. "Out of all our netizens, how many do you know of that are in Hangzhou?"

"Several! Didn't we run into a bunch in Song Cheng last time? Us Hangzhou folk have created a chat group, and aside from watching your stream, we've hung out together too."

"That's incredible. I'll treat you guys to karaoke this afternoon. Wanna come?"

"Of course! Where are you, I'll come right now!"

"… Uhm, can you keep the headcount below ten people though? I'll send you the address now."

"I understand, I'll call them now!"

Twenty minutes later, Meng Fan welcomed the Shi Zhan youth and his two friends into his booth. Next, a new person arrived every few minutes until there were nine. Four guys and five girls, so including Meng Fan, it was perfect to couple up. This Shi Zhan Youth had some next-level organizational abilities.

Since there were only 130 songs left, and he was with a group of internet friends, Meng Fan was too embarrassed to directly hog the mic. He let go and enjoyed his time, singing, eating and drinking.

Although the ten of them were meeting for the first time, their ages were similar and had similar interests and passions. It wasn't difficult to hang out together, and the atmosphere was harmonious as well.𝚗𝞸𝓥𝑒𝑙𝑛𝑒xt.𝚌𝗈𝑚

In the afternoon, Meng Fan ended up only getting forty or so experience points. After karaoke, they went off and shared a meal together before dispersing.

In the evening, Meng Fan did not continue to invite people to go out and went to another KTV wearing his hat. From 7:00 pm, he sang until 12:30, completing the last 90 songs.

"Ding! You've sung 1000 songs by hogging the mic at KTV. You've completed the task [Mic Hog]; Reward: Points 1000."

"Ding! You've completed the task [Mic Hog, gaining the title [Mic Hog] (Singing skills 5, voice appeal 3)"

At this time, Meng Fan was in the third booth of the night.

He didn't enter this booth because it was all girls inside; it was because they seemed to be having a good time. These six girls completely entered the zone when Meng Fan entered, drunkenly singing and having a good time. They had no perception of the extra voice and the extra person in the room.

At this point, they couldn't even sing what was meant to be sung.

When the song "Give me a Reason to Forget" came up, Meng Fan was about to leave but hesitated for a moment. He picked up the microphone once again.

He wanted to test his newly added attributes.

"The rain has stopped…"

After singing the first line, Meng Fan was stunned. When his singing skills increased, it came with improved vocal performance, added pitch, range, tone, and sound quality. Meng Fan didn't even have to think about it, it just sounded so good!"

"… but why is the sky still Gray? I remember you said we have to be happy."

Meng Fan sang and unconsciously entered an emotional state.

Suddenly, the girls in the room who had been crazily singing suddenly quieted down. Their expressions were shocked as if they just heard some heart-wrenching voice. But it didn't sound like that. However, the corners of their mouths slowly lifted into a smile.

"… I feel like I'm alone. Every time I smile, my heart is bitterly crying."

At the moment, Meng Fan was curious to see what his voice sounded like with both his new voice and the added validation. He was worried the hat would mask its effects and had taken the hat off in the spur of the moment.

"Give me a reason to forget, the you that loved me so much."

As Meng Fan took off his hat, the six girls were stunned when they saw him. They didn't scream but were carried away by Meng Fan's voice.

One of the girls began to break down, sobbing heavily.

"Some love seems more clear when you are far away…"

When Meng Fan finished singing, the five girls, including the one who was crying the loudest, were all stricken with tears.

This was a song about heartbreak and the disappearance of love. It was easy enough to provoke tears on its own, not to mention these girls were already long gone. Plus, with Meng Fan's 4 vocal skills…

After the song, Meng Fan put on his hat to leave but paused at the door. Suddenly, he couldn't help but remove the hat and erupted into laughter.

His laughter was filled with happiness and vocal appeal plus his added smile appeal… The girls who had just been overwhelmed with tears suddenly began to laugh with tears in their eyes.

"This… this is taking it too far!"

Meng Fan grimaced but didn't know how to explain. He could only put on his hat and slip away. He bought some food and drink from the counter and brought it to the booth as if it were some form of compensation.

When he left the KTV, Meng Fan could confirm the 6 singing skill and 4 voice appeal from his tasks, and the black magic microphone was a terrifying trait. His singing skills weren't on a professional level, but with the voice appeal, he was way more attractive than professional singers were.

He wasn't sure about anything else, but at least he could make a crowd cry. If he included his smile appeal, it was even easier to make them laugh.

He stepped outside the KTV and passed a convenient store. Meng fan took off his hat and entered. "Boss, do you guys have wa hahahahahaha?"

The boss heaved with laughter. "You guys hahaha are all poison hahahaha you're the fourth one today hahahaha!"

Meng Fan was a bit embarrassed. He managed an "early blessing for the new year" and slipped away.

He was just outside the store when his phone rang.

It was almost 1:00 am, who could be calling at this hour? He assumed it was Meng Cai Wei, but he was stunned when he answered the phone.

Su Qing Cen!

He had exchanged Wechat information with Su Qing Cen before, but they had never contacted each other. His idol was calling him late at night, and Meng Fan was both excited and nervous.

He took a deep breath and picked it up. "Hello."

"Sorry to bother you so late. I didn't disturb your sleep, did I?" Su Qing Cen said apologetically.

"No, of course not. I haven't slept yet."

"It's like this. I had some work today in Hangzhou, and I just finished. I've been in a bad mood for various reasons and wanted to talk to someone about it. I didn't want to find someone in the industry and remembered you were in Hangzhou, so I gave you a call. It sounds like a stretch, but I really want to see you laugh. Your smile is kind of… magical. Seeing it seems to make people happy."

Meng Fan froze. Could it be his presence was so great after taking off his hat that it had drawn Su Qing Cen who was in a talkative mood toward himself?

He then smiled. "What do you mean magic? You can just say it's poison. Then how about I send you a video?"

Although he had already seen Su Qing Cen, his heart skipped at the thought of video chatting with his idol.

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Chapter 165: Mic Hog Completed

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

After delivering the congee, Meng Fan was bored out of his mind. It was the weekend, and Zhang Zhou Wei and the others were all out on dates when he asked them to go out. When he asked Da Fei, they were all busy as well. Meng Fan did not know where to go by himself.

[Mic Hog] only had 130 songs left, and he felt uncomfortable leaving the task when it was so close to completion. Smack! He suddenly slapped his head. How could he forget the fickle netizens!

The Shi Zhan Youth!

Meng Fan remembered he had his WeChat and immediately sent him a voice chat invite that was answered not long after.

"Are you busy this afternoon?"

"Nope! Meng host do you need a car? I'll head over now!"

"No no no. I don't need a car." Meng Fan interrupted him and continued. "Out of all our netizens, how many do you know of that are in Hangzhou?"

"Several! Didn't we run into a bunch in Song Cheng last time? Us Hangzhou folk have created a chat group, and aside from watching your stream, we've hung out together too."𝚗𝞸𝓥𝑒𝑙𝑛𝑒xt.𝚌𝗈𝑚

"That's incredible. I'll treat you guys to karaoke this afternoon. Wanna come?"

"Of course! Where are you, I'll come right now!"

"… Uhm, can you keep the headcount below ten people though? I'll send you the address now."

"I understand, I'll call them now!"

Twenty minutes later, Meng Fan welcomed the Shi Zhan youth and his two friends into his booth. Next, a new person arrived every few minutes until there were nine. Four guys and five girls, so including Meng Fan, it was perfect to couple up. This Shi Zhan Youth had some next-level organizational abilities.

Since there were only 130 songs left, and he was with a group of internet friends, Meng Fan was too embarrassed to directly hog the mic. He let go and enjoyed his time, singing, eating and drinking.

Although the ten of them were meeting for the first time, their ages were similar and had similar interests and passions. It wasn't difficult to hang out together, and the atmosphere was harmonious as well.

In the afternoon, Meng Fan ended up only getting forty or so experience points. After karaoke, they went off and shared a meal together before dispersing.

In the evening, Meng Fan did not continue to invite people to go out and went to another KTV wearing his hat. From 7:00 pm, he sang until 12:30, completing the last 90 songs.

"Ding! You've sung 1000 songs by hogging the mic at KTV. You've completed the task [Mic Hog]; Reward: Points 1000."

"Ding! You've completed the task [Mic Hog, gaining the title [Mic Hog] (Singing skills 5, voice appeal 3)"

At this time, Meng Fan was in the third booth of the night.

He didn't enter this booth because it was all girls inside; it was because they seemed to be having a good time. These six girls completely entered the zone when Meng Fan entered, drunkenly singing and having a good time. They had no perception of the extra voice and the extra person in the room.

At this point, they couldn't even sing what was meant to be sung.

When the song "Give me a Reason to Forget" came up, Meng Fan was about to leave but hesitated for a moment. He picked up the microphone once again.

He wanted to test his newly added attributes.

"The rain has stopped…"

After singing the first line, Meng Fan was stunned. When his singing skills increased, it came with improved vocal performance, added pitch, range, tone, and sound quality. Meng Fan didn't even have to think about it, it just sounded so good!"

"… but why is the sky still Gray? I remember you said we have to be happy."

Meng Fan sang and unconsciously entered an emotional state.

Suddenly, the girls in the room who had been crazily singing suddenly quieted down. Their expressions were shocked as if they just heard some heart-wrenching voice. But it didn't sound like that. However, the corners of their mouths slowly lifted into a smile.

"… I feel like I'm alone. Every time I smile, my heart is bitterly crying."

At the moment, Meng Fan was curious to see what his voice sounded like with both his new voice and the added validation. He was worried the hat would mask its effects and had taken the hat off in the spur of the moment.

"Give me a reason to forget, the you that loved me so much."

As Meng Fan took off his hat, the six girls were stunned when they saw him. They didn't scream but were carried away by Meng Fan's voice.

One of the girls began to break down, sobbing heavily.

"Some love seems more clear when you are far away…"

When Meng Fan finished singing, the five girls, including the one who was crying the loudest, were all stricken with tears.

This was a song about heartbreak and the disappearance of love. It was easy enough to provoke tears on its own, not to mention these girls were already long gone. Plus, with Meng Fan's 4 vocal skills…

After the song, Meng Fan put on his hat to leave but paused at the door. Suddenly, he couldn't help but remove the hat and erupted into laughter.

His laughter was filled with happiness and vocal appeal plus his added smile appeal… The girls who had just been overwhelmed with tears suddenly began to laugh with tears in their eyes.

"This… this is taking it too far!"

Meng Fan grimaced but didn't know how to explain. He could only put on his hat and slip away. He bought some food and drink from the counter and brought it to the booth as if it were some form of compensation.

When he left the KTV, Meng Fan could confirm the 6 singing skill and 4 voice appeal from his tasks, and the black magic microphone was a terrifying trait. His singing skills weren't on a professional level, but with the voice appeal, he was way more attractive than professional singers were.

He wasn't sure about anything else, but at least he could make a crowd cry. If he included his smile appeal, it was even easier to make them laugh.

He stepped outside the KTV and passed a convenient store. Meng fan took off his hat and entered. "Boss, do you guys have wa hahahahahaha?"

The boss heaved with laughter. "You guys hahaha are all poison hahahaha you're the fourth one today hahahaha!"

Meng Fan was a bit embarrassed. He managed an "early blessing for the new year" and slipped away.

He was just outside the store when his phone rang.

It was almost 1:00 am, who could be calling at this hour? He assumed it was Meng Cai Wei, but he was stunned when he answered the phone.

Su Qing Cen!

He had exchanged Wechat information with Su Qing Cen before, but they had never contacted each other. His idol was calling him late at night, and Meng Fan was both excited and nervous.

He took a deep breath and picked it up. "Hello."

"Sorry to bother you so late. I didn't disturb your sleep, did I?" Su Qing Cen said apologetically.

"No, of course not. I haven't slept yet."

"It's like this. I had some work today in Hangzhou, and I just finished. I've been in a bad mood for various reasons and wanted to talk to someone about it. I didn't want to find someone in the industry and remembered you were in Hangzhou, so I gave you a call. It sounds like a stretch, but I really want to see you laugh. Your smile is kind of… magical. Seeing it seems to make people happy."

Meng Fan froze. Could it be his presence was so great after taking off his hat that it had drawn Su Qing Cen who was in a talkative mood toward himself?

He then smiled. "What do you mean magic? You can just say it's poison. Then how about I send you a video?"

Although he had already seen Su Qing Cen, his heart skipped at the thought of video chatting with his idol.

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Chapter 166: Voice Acting

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Is that okay? Give me a minute."

Su Qing Cen hung up and sent Meng Fan a video call request.

After accepting, Meng Fan could tell she was in her hotel and had just finished her work. She was dressed very professionally, and her make-up was elaborate as well.

Su Qing Cen saw the blacked-out sky and speckles of light in Meng Fan's background and asked curiously, "Huh? You're outside?"

"Mhmm, I was about to go home." Meng Fan smiled. "Then should I follow procedure and chat for a bit or start laughing now?"

Su Qing Cen heard this and smiled. "No no no, don't. You don't have to be so literal. I already feel a bit happier just talking to you. Or are you trying to be toxic right now?"

"You saying that is making me nervous. Why don't I just start laughing now?"

Meng Fan hailed a cab. At first, he was a bit nervous, but he managed to calm down quickly. Probably because he had a famous sister at home, so he did not place the celebrities he idolized on a pedestal. He couldn't reach them if they were too far away, but when they were close, he could calm his emotions.

"Oh right, you said you're working? Is it a concert? Isn't the second round of your tour in Hangzhou? You should be rehearsing now, right?"

"We already began rehearsing. I was at a publicity job for a variety show today."

"What show? And when will it air?"

Meng Fan talked with Su Qing Cen naturally. She did not speak of what had put her in a bad mood, so Meng Fan did not ask. It was like a fan casually interviewing their idol.

After talking for a while, Su Qing Cen deflected the topic and asked Meng Fan about himself. She was very curious about what happened with the world record.

The two left the video chat on, talking about the concert, reality shows, breaking the world record, or Meng Fan's manga. The taxi driver heard and had his jaw dropped several times and was on the brink of turning around. 'Can you guys stop bullsh*tting. I'm feeling awkward for you two!'

After driving for less than ten minutes, Meng Fan departed the car and entered the community.

Su Qing Cen was not surprised at Meng Fan's home outside of school, and seeing that he was almost home, she thought about it and said, "Thanks, I feel a lot better now. You should rest soon."

"Okay, good night."

"Night."

After hanging up the receiver, he returned home. Of course he wasn't going to bed early. He was not sleepy at all; he was feeling excited instead. It wasn't because he just video called his idol; it was because of his vocal appeal!

He hurriedly took a shower. He put on his pajamas and burrowed in the study, opening his laptop.

When he was studying how to become a voice actor before, he had downloaded several related software. The programs contained some clips that he enjoyed and wanted to test out.

He found an original soundtrack and familiarize himself with it before beginning to practice.

It couldn't really be called practicing since he was just familiarizing himself with the changes brought about by the attributes to his voice.

With this test, he also discovered that his vocal range, tone, and sound quality had undergone great changes.𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

These changes would allow him to adapt to different kinds of roles.

Slowly, he found he was able to control his voice better, at least four or five times better than before!

Meng Fan was not impervious to these changes and knew that they were better because of his increased singing skills. After all, vocal range, sound quality, tone, volume, pitch, biting, resonance, breath, vocalization, etc were the basic skills required to be a singer. If his singing skills were enhanced, these base skills were naturally enhanced. This came as an unexpected surprise for Meng Fan.

"So the singing task still needs to be completed and could be finished with a more advanced procedure."

After he gained better control of his voice, his sound mimicry abilities also improved.

Meng Fan's original tone was on the lower end, and after training hard, the specialty he managed to grasp was maintaining a deep and solid sound. Now he tried again with a medium tone. It had to be thick, full, vigorous, and consists of the characteristics of a low tone, like dullness, heaviness, sadness, softness, hoarseness, darkness, dryness, integrated level, and emptiness. He could perform all of these traits to a certain standard, but he had to practice to grasp them accurately.

As for the bright, crisp, and sharp features of an alto voice, they were much harder to grasp. After all, his current vocal range was not universal even after the enhancement.

But overall, Meng Fan's tone changes were much stronger than before, which made his ability to interpret characters better.

Zoro from One piece had always been Meng Fan's favorite role to voice. Of course, he had only done it for fun and posted some videos on 8station at most. Well, he was the only one who thought it was interesting. His videos didn't have much views.

Meng Fan found a fragment from the "Terrorist Sangui Sailing" chapter, where he used a meatball to pop off all of Luffy's injuries from battling Kuma.

The clip wasn't long and began when Kuma injured Zoro at the beginning and ended with "nothing happened." It was actually just this sentence and a few screams of respite.

Meng Fan particularly liked this paragraph, but if he wanted to depict the tragic and stubborn will power from this single line within a scream or a gasp several times, it would be very difficult. He attempted it several times and was nowhere near the quality of the original soundtrack.

After carefully thinking about the characters, he decided to do it again.

Then, Meng Fan excitedly tested other roles.

These were all roles Meng Fan liked and was suitable to his tenor. Doing these roles was naturally much easier, and if Meng Fan wanted to imitate the original CV, he could at least get 70% of it right. Sometimes he could even reach 90% similarity, almost indifferent from the original.

Meng Fan could say the lines in Japanese for most of these anime clips.

Voice dubbing was Meng Fan's dream, and now that he suddenly had the ability to realize his dreams, he was happier than a two hundred pound child. He couldn't even calm down until 4:00 am and only slept after trying all kinds of characters. When he was about to sleep, he would laugh from time to time; he was unable to conceal his happiness.

After sleeping for about two hours, he dragged himself out of bed and went downstairs. As he walked, he sent Wu Tong a Wechat message. "It's a bit cold this morning. You shouldn't come today."

"Okay." Wu Tong responded quickly.

"Then… Should I bring you breakfast after my run?"

"Okay."

Meng Fan went to grab breakfast after his run and happened to run into a girl from his class, so he asked her to bring it to Wu Tong, so she didn't have to come down.

His classmate heard it was for Wu Tong and gave him a big thumbs up. "Ballsy, you're at this stage already! Add oil!"

When everyone first found out Meng Fan liked Wu Tong, everyone thought he was a toad trying to eat a swan's meat. Slowly though, people began to forget about this "metaphor" and no longer assumed Meng Fan was being too aspirational. To be fair, there was nothing wrong with him pursuing Wu Tong, and some people even felt they were quite compatible.

Part of his physical appeal was from slimming down, but his internal appeal had began to surround him in a glowing aura as well.

After grabbing breakfast for himself, Meng Fan showered. He ate and then tirelessly began playing around with dubbing again.

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Chapter 167: Voice Acting Applications

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Forgetfully, he played around with it for an entire morning. During the process of dubbing, Meng Fan also tried to control the appeal of his voice the same way he controlled his smile appeal in addition to controlling his sound. Simply put, it was how much emotion he was putting in. To put it in a more complicated manner, he was controlling the density of energy that was being put in.

Meng Fan's original voice was average. The increased singing skill brought a wider vocal range, better tone, and sound quality in his voice. Even if he wasn't completely stage-ready, his voice was very charming. If he spoke seriously, his emotions could be felt heartily. Meng Fan felt he could talk to Wu Tong in this voice, but it was a bit inappropriate to speak like so to anyone.

The thought of talking that way to Wu Tong made Meng Fan's body tremble with silly laughter.

Including the time he spent yesterday, he had been practicing for a total of seven or eight hours. He was quite familiar with it, so he decided to carefully select a clip to dub and use it as his "resume".

With his dubbing abilities, Meng Fan wanted to try actual voice acting and use his voice to shape a character in the process as well.

In this regard, Meng Fan had resources and connections. Meng Cai Wei aside, he made friends with a group of people through dubbing who had the same interest; there were several people in one group alone.

It wasn't just voice dub enthusiasts in this group either since some were actual practitioners too, including voice actors, dubbing guides, vocal directors, and so on.

Of course, most of these practitioners worked through the internet or online dubbing, and they mostly participated in network dramas or online TV series. Most of them didn't have professional backgrounds and were all enthusiasts like Meng Fan who didn't have the proper education.

This was the largest group of dubbers in the industry as well.

Speaking of enthusiasm, making money had nothing to do with this group. It wasn't that they had enough and didn't care, but it was because they really couldn't make money in this industry.

If they wanted to make money, they had to convert to the business sector which was basically commercial dubbing.

Simply put, dubbing in the business sector was essentially just famous people dubbing. These were the top practitioners in the dubbing industry and were very rare.

Not including the internet, nowadays as Chinese TV series come and go, it was basically the same four people in a relationship back and forth.

It was excessive, but this was a fact.

These four voice actors were not only incredible and trusted by the crew, but they also reflected the scarcity of Chinese voice actors.

The main reason for this scarcity, of course, was undoubtedly the low pay.

Several hobbyists had entered the profession based on their enthusiasm, but they quit after two or three years because they got jobs that actually filled their stomachs. There weren't many people at the base of the pyramid, so there was less who emerge on top. Because of this, there weren't many crews and production companies that specialized in this industry, so they could only give little pay. The less these films pay, the fewer people enter the industry.

This negative cycle had been going on for years.

But recently, with the booming development of the entire otaku industry, there was a bigger demand for dubbing for both animes and video games. This enabled more network partners and even businesses to have more choices and a larger development platform. At the same time, it further highlighted the value of voice actors, allowing the entire industry to move in a straight path.

For example, in the past, animes were usually introduced directly from Japan and America. There weren't many that were aired on TV, so there were no Chinese dubs for them. The rest were screened online with the original soundtrack. There were some famous shows that were dubbed in Chinese, but those were all done by hobbyists free of charge.

Nowadays, the annual output of domestic animations was pretty high. As long as it was an animation, it would need voice actors. Since there was a demand, the salary naturally became high as well.

Being able to make money from a profession that a person loved was the cornerstone of development for every industry.

Besides, to solve the problem of low income for voice actors, "Bian Zhang Qiao and Ji" and other famous voice actors began their own forms of experimentation, such as setting up a voice acting studio or becoming a voice director for a film crew and starting a related platform that offered teaching institutions and platforms to interested students.

It might sound like a stretch, but in Japan, the most developed land of anime, the voice acting culture was already very mature. They had evolved from basic sound-shaping characters into the seiyuu era. The seiyuu not only act as voices for animations but also work from behind the scenes all the way to the big screens, working on albums, photoshoots, posters, TV programs and even hosting concerts.

In addition to his idol Shan Jin bro, Meng Fan's idols consisted mostly of these famous CVs!

Before his reincarnation, he had flown from Singapore to Japan just to see a CV's concert!

Having said that, Meng Fan had gone to vocal training with the help of Meng Cai Wei, so the teacher had been pretty great. The group formed by this teacher was also pretty impressive, and most of the voice actors in it were capable of professional dubbing. They also had some guiding and directing jobs on hand as well.

Of course, it was because the teacher knew Meng Fan was introduced by Meng Cai Wei, so he didn't kick Meng Fan, who had no qualifications and previous works, out from his group in recent years. He was hidden deep in this powerful chatroom of many connections.

Meng Fan went around to send his voice-over clip to a few dubbing directors and then waited for the result. Although it was possible to find a dubbing job through Meng Cai Wei, he was not in a rush. He became anxious when he thought about it though. Besides, since his vocal abilities have changed so much, he could say he had been practicing hard and Meng Cai Wei would still ask around.

After sending out the clips, Meng Fan went to school to eat with Wu Tong. They had classes in the afternoon, and he had no plans of skipping.

He didn't physically skip, but Meng Fan was focused on drawing his manga during the entire lecture. Qin Jiao, who had been lecturing on the podium, did not even look at him or say anything to him. However, she did call him over after class.

"The money you transferred last time has been donated under your name. Here's the receipt." Qin Jiao handed a certificate to Meng Fan, gesturing for him to leave now. "Are you busy this afternoon?"

"Busy with what?" Meng Fan asked.

"Did you know that your sister told everyone that I started a studio in order to find you work?" Qin Jiao asked. Seeing Meng Fan nod, she continued, "So I established one."

"You… made one?" Meng Fan was stunned this time. "Isn't this a bit much?"

"It's alright." Qin Jiao walked onto the road and took out her car keys, pushing the button. "Let's go. I'll take you around the studio. We can sign the contract on the way, too."

"Why am I signing a contract all of a sudden? What does this have to do with me?"

"What do you mean 'what does this have to do with you'? The studio was made because you wanted to find poster drawing work, right?"

"…"

"Come up quick, or else I'll tell Wu Tong who your mom is."

Meng Fan heard this and wanted to say she already knew, but on second thought, he swallowed his words and compliantly stepped into the car.

Of course, he trusted Qin Jiao enough to know she wouldn't force him to sign an unfair agreement. Plus, he really wanted to see the studio.𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

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Chapter 168: Da Mei Studios

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Hangzhou had the title of China's anime capital. In the past ten years, when businesses across the country wanted to develop the anime industry and theme parks as an alternative to real estate operations, Hangzhou was already steadily growing its animation industry.

For the last ten years, there were virtually no animations produced from Zhejiang province, but now there were more than 300 animation and video game related enterprises. These companies formed an industrial group of one board of directors running each company, and one GEM listed company plus 10 new companies with third listing groups. Their annual revenue had exceeded 25 billion.

In Hangzhou, there were several creative theme parks, and each one had an animation related industry.

And Qin Jiao wanted to bring Meng Fan to the Xizi cultural park near the campus which was a creative theme park focused on animated video games.

Soon the car drove into the cultural park, turning left and then right before stopping at a house that looked like a factory.

"Is this all of it?"𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

Meng Fan looked around. There was a large courtyard surrounding the premises, and there was nobody in the house. There was no company or office listed.

Aside from the massive courtyard, the house was at least a thousand square meters and had three levels… The area was way too big!

Seeing Qin Jiao nodding and walking in, Meng Fan followed her, swearing along the way. "I could tell that you are a rich woman! You were probably just pretending when you cry about being poor before!"

"I wasn't crying about being poor. I'm really poor." Qin Jiao pushed the door open and entered before telling Meng Fan the whole story. "Because of the school, I have a position in this cultural park. This is mostly tacking onto the reputation of the school since they also support it. Hence, the cultural park gave me a reasonable price and coupled with policy support, it doesn't cost me too much to rent this studio. Of course, even if it's not a lot, I borrowed quite a large amount from your sister. It's her fault for suggesting it, anyway!"

Meng Fan smiled. "Her money does nothing but gather interest in the bank, anyway. It's good she's taking it out to do some investment."

"Yeah, nevermind investments, I don't have that ability to make money. If it weren't for the low rent, I wouldn't dare to rent it. I wasn't planning to make money from it. I'll be happy if it can just operate normally every year."

She opened a window to let some air in and made some calls to tell the cleaning staff to come here. Then she turned to Meng Fan. "I originally established this studio to give our graduates a choice or a transitional place for them. Even if they graduated from our school, there are many people who choose to work in other industries. Among them, there are many who give up due to external factors. In addition, although some are still engaged in the industry, they are not happy, primarily because they can't make money. Hence, I don't hope to profit from this studio, but I really hope that the students who join can make money and pursue what they want."

If someone else said that, Meng Fan, who had never experienced the real society, would definitely have thought it was a sugar-coated statement, but since it came from Qin Jiao, he chose to believe her.

Qin Jiao pulled out a prepared contract from her bag and handed it to Meng Fan. "Let's sign."

"I think I'll pass." Meng Fan waved his hands and smiled. "I've received a lot of work myself recently, so I don't need to make money on the reputation of your studio. Besides, I was just trying to make some temporary pocket change."

"I know. That's why I wanted you to sign first." Said Qin Jiao.

???

Meng Fan was puzzled. "When you said you wanted the students who joined to make money, did you not mean me?"

Qin Jiao nodded. "You understand me very well. You don't need money, but you have the ability to make money, so I need you to make money to support the studio."

Meng Fan wanted to cry. "What did you learn from my mother? Nothing but ways on how to troll me!"

Qin Jiao saw this and laughed out loud. "Look at the contract again."

Meng Fan looked and was even more confused. It really wasn't a contract binding the member to the studio, but a contract insinuating collaboration with the studio.

"Your sister said she doesn't want the money back, so she'll count it as an investment in the studio. Hence, you will possess the stocks. She doesn't understand them, anyway. If it's lost it's lost, count it as a toy for you to play with. It's best if you make money and share some to her if you want." Qin Jiao said. "Of course, the studio should try to make money. Only my dividends from my shares will be used to educate and train talents and replace the members. Since you hold 49% of the shares, you can figure out what to do with the money you make."

Meng Fan was stunned for a long time. He was not prepared to invest in an entire studio.

"Let me think about it for a moment."

Meng Fan thought about it for a long time as he sat on the side. The cleaning staff had come to clean when he finally asked Qin Jiao. "Do you have a large degree of freedom with your shares?"

"Hey kid, you're looking into this too deeply!"

Qin Jiao smiled and said, "Although this studio was rented on behalf of the school, it's just a facade. Since it's purely face value, of course, what I say goes. Besides, who knows if my studio can make money or not. Of course, if I really can make a profit, as I said earlier, I will voluntarily fund the education and training programs."

"That's fine. But I'll say this now, even if I have shares, I won't participate in any of the administration."

"Sign the contract first. It's not like I'll make you do anything you don't know how to do!"

After signing the contract, Qin Jiao happily collected it and took out some more copies of the contract from her bag. She smiled. "These are the members I've signed, most of whom are graduates of our department, and a few of them are currently students. These people are good at illustrations and hand painting posters since our studio's main projects in the near future consist of illustrations and posters."

Meng Fan heard this and waved his hand. "This has nothing to do with me!"

Qin Jiao squinted at Meng Fan, and her voice went soft. "I know you've received a lot of illustration and poster work, but you're the one who took them; it's got nothing to do with the studio. I didn't tell you, the boss, to earn money for this studio either. It's just that you're familiar with both parties, and you have the ability. If you have time, can you at least be a guide?"

Since his time was flexible, Meng Fan could only accept.

"I signed the contract. Can I leave now?"

"Don't you think you have to do something before leaving? For example, help me move the stuff over there…"

"You really are my mom's student. My sister's best girl friend!"

He inexplicably became the owner of a studio and helped arrange stuff for over an hour. Meng Fan did not have the temperament to argue!

It made sense. The money came from his sister, and the administration process, business, and recruitment were all covered by Qin Jiao. Thinking about it carefully, he really was just sitting and enjoying the title, so he had no right to be angry.

Moreover, although the studio didn't have to make money right away, it could solve several of Meng Fan's problems.

For example, the [Professional Manga Artist] task's requirement of single-paged publications, or the progress for his own manga that Da Qiang couldn't catch up with. He could throw some of those work to the studio.

As for the title of the studio, Meng Fan was too tireless to trash talk and couldn't trash talk either. Da Mei Studio. After all, Qin Jiao had taken out all three words from the national art academy!

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Chapter 169: It's Impossible to Sing Well

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Let's go back together. I'll treat you to dinner."𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

"Looking like this? What am I eating, dust? Besides, who knows who's treating."

Meng Fan helped move the furniture around and slipped out immediately. He left the cultural center and called a cab, arriving at his apartment eight minutes later.

He called some takeout before taking a shower, so it arrived once he finished.

He ate as he checked his mailbox and chat group, but it was silent.

These dubbing directors surely received several submissions and emails every day, but Meng Fan felt that with his own sense of presence, they should have seen his messages long ago.

And Meng Fan believed that the quality of his submissions should be passable.

This was kind of upsetting for Meng Fan.

In fact, the directors—who Meng Fan submitted to—did see Meng Fan's submission and had no problem with the quality of his clips. But the problem lies in the fact that Meng Fan's dubbing clips were all f*cking lead male character roles.

Also, they couldn't help but admit that the dubbing clips that Meng Fan submitted were suitable for a male lead as well. His tone was charming, emotionally endearing, and deep!

It was just that what kind of male lead roles would go to a nameless guy like Meng Fan; he didn't even have one legitimate credit!

Big productions aside, several small scale male vocal leads had higher requirements than this. They would at least hire trained voice actors.

After all, top-rated voice actors were not expensive, and the popular and trustworthy ones were not expensive, either.

If Meng Fan casted some clips that weren't of a male lead's dubs, the director might have been more tempted and assigned him some less important characters' roles.

Naturally, Meng Fan didn't know of the ridiculous yet fascinating mistake he made.

He could dwell in sadness all he wanted, but he wasn't too anxious. There were still many things to do at hand.

He didn't run at night nor go on night tours, let alone KTV.

In the last couple of days of grinding [Mic Hog, not only Zhang Zhou Wei and the others were uncomfortable, Meng Fan was quite disgusted with himself as well. Who wouldn't be after singing a thousand songs in just three days? Plus the people he met while he was leeching songs were all kinds of strange.

He worked on his manga at night and opened his stream.

After gaining 10 million viewers for [Famous Streamer, the next level of reward came 90 million views later for the 100 million mark.

The rewards made Meng Fan's mouth water, but it was so hard to achieve.

To be honest, Meng Fan was pretty adamant about completing this task, so he didn't have an interest in streaming these last few days. However, he couldn't be too lazy about the stream for he still wanted to maintain his connections with his fickle netizens, in addition to completing the rest of the missions and getting their rewards.

Were netizens the only ones that provided experience for [Famous Streamer]?

Of course not.

These fickle netizens were connected to other tasks like the [Collector of Millions]. If it wasn't for the popularity brought about by the stream, it would be ten times more difficult to complete this task.

Plus the [Professional Manga Artist] task. This task required 100,000 sales of ten published works. If he wanted this level of sales, he had to rely on these netizens.

He had to treat them well!

Thinking of this, Meng Fan suddenly felt the rewards from the [Mic Hog] task were finally of use.

Working on his manga as he streamed at home, Meng Fan didn't have to remain speechless like he did previously in the studio. He could talk as loud as he wanted at home and even play music along with it.

Meng Fan was definitely not one of those streamers, who after gaining 6 singing skills and 4 voice appeal, would offer to sing joyously for his viewers.

He was very low key.

He worked on his manga and conversed with his viewers, and as they talked, he began to hum along to the music.

It was such a normal thing to do; what drawing streamer wouldn't hum along to their music once in a while.

"Until the end of life, you're the one who buys vegetables. You're the one who cooks and the one who receives the mail. You're the one who cleans the dishes, takes out the trash, and unclogs the toilet."

Meng Fan's voice was not too loud, and he seemed to be very casual as well, but his articulation was clear, and the viewers in the stream heard him word for word. Plus, his emotions were all there since he had been going the emotional route all along.

"Huh? Meng boss is singing?"

"Hahaha, did I misheard the lyrics?"

"F*ck! I didn't know Meng boss had such a nice singing voice!"

"Jesus f*cking Christ these lyrics sound more and more strange. It makes a manly guy like me want to wash dishes for him!"

"Okay okay, it's all on me as long as you're the one with me!"

When the netizens discovered that Meng Fan's singing sounded good, he stopped singing. Naturally, he began to discuss the ornaments he was drawing. "This Yin spirit in the novel outlined by Mr.Sleepy doesn't feel suitable for her role as a character in the late Qing dynasty, so I'm gonna alter it a bit. You see, this special style produced in the late Qing Dynasty kind of adds a unique flair to her, doesn't it? It's a bit strange, but you have to admit the lines I just drew are very beautiful!"

Interact with the viewers, roast Mr.Sleepy, and boast about himself. Check.

Then he began to hum along to the music halfway through the chatter again. "Because of vocabulary, I will not fall in love. So my English is still at middle school level. Because of vocabulary, I haven't grown and forgotten everything with two bottles of beer…"

"Wait a minute, can you f*cking stop singing for a moment!"

"These lyrics are too heart wrenching! I'm reminded of my fourth-grade exams!"

"I'm surprised! Meng boss can actually sing so well!"

"Meng boss, can you sing louder!?"

"It's my first time falling in love with the host's voice from watching a drawing stream!"

"Meng host's voice is really pleasant!"

Meng Fan quieted down after singing for a while and talked once again. The netizens were not pleased. Quickly, the phrases "Keep singing" appeared in the live comments.

With such a big commotion, Meng Fan couldn't ignore the comments. He smiled and said, "To force an art streamer to sing, you guys are taking it overboard! Alright, I'll sing. But now that you mention it, I don't know what to sing… Let me sing one for you without music."

Meng Fan put down his pen, and with a serious expression, he began clearing his throat. He then started to sing. "Don't wait for a thousand years to pass. Cao Cao said to me, fairytales are all lies. I'm not your monkey bro~ monkey bro. You're really incredible. Five great mountains cannot suppress you, but a gourd baby jumped out~gourd baby~ seven gourds on one vine. You're not afraid of the wind or rain, ah~ah, ah ah ah black cat police officer…"

Meng Fan entered a joyous mood as he sang to himself.

"Can you please be more serious!"

"Are you nuts? Hahaha!"

"Can't you just sing properly?"

Meng Fan paused to look at the live comments and let out a hmph. "You guys are nuts, forcing an art streamer to sing. Don't you guys have a clue how serious I am?! It's impossible to be a good singer. I'll never sing well in this lifetime."

Meng Fan's voice faltered. He imitated the voice and accent of Qie Grava, whispering in a raspy tone, "I don't know how to be a singer, and art is the only thing that can maintain my way of life. Entering the stream is like going home, but the stream feels more at home than my house does. Everyone in the stream is a genius and speaks highly of me. I really like it."

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Chapter 170: Online Flirting

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Are you nuts? Ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Is that you, fatty wallah?"

"666!"

"Didn't know Meng fatty had such a nice tone!"

"An art streamer is singing for you then follows up with an imitation show. Do you respect him yet?!"

"Another!"

Meng Fan's voice was pretty clear. In the stream, it came as a surprise to most of his viewers. Since it was a dumbass statement, several netizens began to laugh out loud at their screens. Once the live comments thickened, the gifts naturally followed.

"Can't you guys just quietly watch me draw?"

Meng Fan smiled and paused his music. He picked up his pen and continued to draw. However, his lips did not stop as he continued to banter. "Doesn't everyone have a dream? I have one too. Drawing is one, and the other is voice dubbing. I always wanted to become a seiyuu, so I've been practicing. Today, I applied for a few dubbing positions, but nobody's responded yet. It's probably done for."

He chatted with them as if he were talking to a group of friends. He did not stop the artwork at hand. He spoke plenty of interesting events and people he encountered while studying vocal dubbing, but of course, he did not mention any names.

Most of the fickle netizens in the stream were manga enthusiasts, so they were interested in this category of work as well. After bringing it up, all the viewers who had chided for Meng Fan to continue singing went quiet.

Aside from the appealing content, Meng Fan's vocal range and rhythm were something they were willing to continue listening to as if they were hearing a story.𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

The scene was quite harmonious.

Meng Fan kept talking although he could feel the atmosphere through the screen, and he could see new netizens tuning into his broadcast as well.

There were several live comments, but it was like a calm kind that couldn't make a ruckus.

Meng Fan didn't expect this; he could really just chat with his viewers, and it would count as stream content.

And it worked too.

When beauty guru streamers gossiped, they always drew a large audience.

Of course, there were also some manly folks who did stand-up.

Only Meng Fan was a bit different. He didn't gossip nor performed a stand-up. He just talked.

Meng Fan was comfortable with this method.

In the blink of an eye, it was 11 o'clock already. Meng Fan continued to draw, but he stopped streaming; it was not good to stream the entirety of the content he was drawing.

"Last one before I log off. You guys sleep early too."

As he was drawing the last piece, he suddenly remembered a piece of information from the original novel. A playful thought appeared in his mind. "I don't know how many fans of the original "There's A Spirit Underground" novel there are here, but I feel like Mr.Sleepy wrote this part very eloquently. Let me read it for you guys."

Then Meng Fan's nasally voice sounded from the stream. "…Ah Ruo kept feeling a stickiness on her hands, and as she twisted open the faucet, she felt the ice water flow. She retracted her hands and awaited the hot water to flow through. Steam emerged from the faucet, but the water was red—scarlet red—and came with a wretched stench. A bug. A purple bug crawled out of the faucet. It had a face, and it was grinning. Ah Ruo's soul left her body as she stepped back in shock; she then bumped into a person. A person? How could there be a person in her house!? She turned around and saw a girl holding a cat, smiling at her. "Let's learn to meow together, meow meow meow…"

"Holy f*ck!"

"Are you crazy!"

"I'm unsubscribing!"

"I was already in the mood, wtf!"

"I was ready to be scared but not like this!"

"Meng Boss, you're going to break a limb like this!"

"I have a weak heart!"

"…"

After pressing down his voice, it was indeed possible for him to create a horror-like atmosphere. And based on what actually happened to the girl in the book, it was quite terrifying as well. When Meng Fan had read the excerpt, he felt goosebumps taking over his entire body.

Meng Fan knew the appeal of his voice and read the original manuscript. The viewers in his stream must have been scared, and he didn't have the heart to keep going since he wanted to end it on a more optimistic note, so he decided to be cheeky for a moment.

"Hahaha." Meng Fan awkwardly uttered a polite laugh and shyly said, "Uhm, it was just a joke. How about I read you guys a love poem to fall asleep to?"

"Are you crazy? Who asked you to do that!?"

"This is too gay. I'm reporting you!"

"Run!"

"S.e.x.y. Host is flirting with people online!"

"I don't believe anything else you say!"

"I'm not listening. I'm not!"

"Sleep my as*! Meng, if you want to sleep with me just say it!"

"I'm leaving. It's getting more and more cheesy in here!"

"If you don't want to listen, then leave. We still want to hear it!"

"What are you guys doing? There are girls in this stream too! We girls want to be flirted by Meng host!"

"Hurry hurry hurry! Nobody has ever read me a love poem in my life!"

The live comments had several people who rejected the idea, but the number of online viewers did not decrease.

Meng Fan no longer cared about being rejected or not. Immediately, he got in a passionate mood and began to recite,

"Oh how I hope, there is a doorway

the sun shines on the grass

We are standing

Holding onto our own door

The door was low, but the sun was bright

The grass is knotting its seeds

The wind is shaking its leaves

We are standing, but not speaking

It was perfect

There was a door, but they won't open

It's ours, and it's beautiful

…The grass behind the wall no longer grew

It only touched the sun with its fingertips."

Meng Fan finished reciting the poem "Front door" then leaned towards the camera, continuing his passionate verse. "There's a last verse. I love you, and a poem is not enough to portray my feelings. So if you can, let me live in your heart. Three meals a day, four seasons a year."

He reached out and covered the camera, and the screen went dark. He logged off.

"Holy sh*t, does it need to be this cheesy?"

"Oh, my goodness my ears!"

"What will happen now? I've been struck by him!"

"Is this the f*cking Meng fatty I know?"

"My whole body is having goosebumps!"

"Is this a drawing stream or a flirting stream? You have so many tricks up your sleeves!"

"I'm going to cut the last line from the poem and listen to it while I sleep. Do any other sisters want a copy? I'll send it to the group!"

"…Can a brother request a copy?"

When Meng Fan logged off, the comments in the live chat continued. Soon, the fickle friends were in a heated debate.

"This is interesting!"

Meng Fan took a sip of water. He had never said anything this cheesy before. Wait, he had said a few awkward slurs and cringey pickup lines during the Good Person task. That was really a wonderful experience.

Maybe his voice appeal also touched other people.

Meng Fan felt that his current vocal ability was enough to reach people's hearts.

He wanted to use this opportunity to find a dubbing job, but it seemed a bit difficult. However, this didn't mean his voice appeal was completely useless after obtaining it.

If he could pick up girls on stream, he should be able to do it in real life too… right?

Meng Fan took a look at the peak count of viewers online once again. The data surprised him.

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Chapter 171: Super Experience

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

320,000 viewers online, 430,000 total viewers.

The peak number of online viewers was considerably high, although the press release for "There's A Spirit Underground" had reached 700,000 viewers. However, that was only because of the book fans Mr.Sleepy had brought along, and the lucrative prize pool, not to mention Ms.Bun's bun army and the recommendations they brought about. After that stream, all his following content had reached 100,000 viewers.

Do not doubt 100,000 is too little; it was considered the numbers of a big streamer on 8th station, nonetheless the drawing category.

300,000 or so viewers was a high figure even amongst the big streamers.

It wasn't the numbers that surprised Meng Fan, but the amount of viewers. Strictly speaking, 380,000 viewers wasn't such a surprise, but for there to be 320,000 online all at once?!

Generally speaking, the ratio of Meng Fan's online peak count to viewer count was 1:2 or more. This ratio was already pretty good. The lower the ratio, the more it means you retain your viewers.

Today it was at 1:1.34!

What did this mean?

It means that most of the fickle netizens did not leave the channel during today's stream!

And he'd been streaming for a while!

So many netizens had watched until the end!

Meng Fan's drawing stream was already pretty good at retaining an audience, in addition to pick up lines, it seems his ability to maintain an audience was pretty strong!

On the other hand, it means that he could attract people with his voice.

Meng Fan was pleased that he could bring in new viewers for himself.

He decided he could converse more and sing more in future streams. Like when he streamed running and shooting previously, he undoubtedly wanted to attract more people to his stream, then he could finish the task faster as well.

Meng Fan was tired just thinking about completing this task. But seeing the 10 charm that came with the rewards for [Famous Streamer, he felt energetic and began to ponder ways to quickly receive the rewards.

After all, he had obtained this system after being reincarnated, and it's been proved many times that he could quickly finish seemingly difficult tasks as long as he used his brain diligently.

Of course, the guidelines for tasks like [Travelling Deity] and [I am a Champion] were too tight and difficult to cheat on.

[Famous Streamer] had some rigid rules that Meng Fan thought made it hard to complete before. He thought it was enough to achieve task phase three and gain 1 million viewers, but as he became more powerful with the added attributes, it became faster to gain the experience.

As he pondered, his phone buzzed with an incoming call.

"Did you just finish streaming? Are you hungry? Want to grab some late-night food?"

The call came from Su Qing Cen's number, but the voice on the other end was Bai Zhi.

Twenty minutes later, Meng Fan appeared outside the hotpot restaurant near the Huanglong stadium.

This hotpot restaurant had a great business. It was almost midnight, but the place was still packed, and you could see the steam rising and smell the fragrance of all kinds of spices. Meng Fan was hungry to begin with, but upon entering became even more hungry.

He knocked on a door and entered a private room.

The room was large, and so was the table, but there were only three people inside it. Su Qing Cen, Bai Zhi, and Bai Zhi's assistant. It seemed like the dishes just arrived not long ago.

"Sister Bai, Shan Jin bro, Ms.Sun."

Meng Fan greeted them. Meng Fan decided he didn't have to be cautious at this kind of private meeting where they all knew each other, so he went off to adjust his sauce.

There was already some in the room, so he didn't have to leave.

Seeing it was a yin yang pot, he mixed two bowls of sauce, one for sesame, fermented curd, sesame oil and minced chives, and the other for beef sauce, sesame sauce, chili oil, minced garlic, cilantro, and shallots.

"Sister Bai, are you here to open for Shan Jin bro again?"

Meng Fan finished mixing and sat down, dipping a few pieces of lamb in the clear soup pot. He covered it in the sauce bowl to his left. The heavy flavor of the sesame sauce and fermented bean matched the taste from the chives, and began shoving it in his mouth, Meng Fan felt the immediate bliss. His soul was comforted.

"I already appeared as a guest on Qing Cen's first concert stop, you can't have the same guest twice in a row." Bai Zhi saw Meng Fan eating comfortably and put her own cooked meat in Meng Fan's plate as well. She had seen Meng Fan several times before, and when eating in private, it wasn't an exaggeration to say she treated him like half a little brother.

"I came to Hangzhou this time around to prepare for my own concert. Actually, it's a meet and greet too, with about 2000 people. I can't be compared with your Shan Jin bro's large scale concerts hosting hundreds of thousands."

"Sister Bai, if you continue to be like this, it'll be hard for us to remain friends!" Su Qing Cen said. "My tour only happens once in a blue moon, but you can host yours whenever you want, can it be compared? To be honest, I envy you. You can pick the most comfortable way to interpret the music you want to perform… Besides, your concert only has 2000 live audience, but it's in the format of a live stream, if we really counted, you'd definitely have more viewers than me!"

Although she didn't regard Meng Fan as a normal fan, Su Qing Cen still decided to swallow the following words.

As a popular singer, even if the idol tried their best, it was still not as liberal.

Meng Fan's ears shot up at Su Qing Cen's words.

Without continuing the subject, Su Qing Cen turned and smiled at Meng Fan. "When Sister Bai was waiting for me during rehearsal she watched your stream and showed it to me too. I didn't know you could sing too! Although you weren't singing very seriously, I can tell you're pretty good. Your vocal range is very charming."

"That's an understatement!" Bai Zhi smiled and continued, "In the end, you touched your Shan Jin bro's heart!"

This made Meng Fan blush.

After eating hotpot, the two professional singers suddenly entered a mood and insisted on taking Meng Fan's singing.

"You guys practice everyday, but you still want to go to karaoke?" Meng Fan wouldn't' understand.

"We're not singing, we're going to listen to you," Bai Zhi responded very curtly.

???𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

He couldn't push it and went along.

There was a KTV nearby, so it was a five-minute trip after they finished eating.

Bai Zhi took the initiative and picked a song for Meng Fan, which just happened to be the first song Meng Fan had been humming during his stream. "The rest of my Life". Only Meng Fan had changed the lyrics during his stream.

He sang the entire song, maintaining a serious composure. He'd been nervous at first but began to loosen up eventually.

Clap clap clap.

Su Qing Cen and Bai Zhi and even her assistant began to applaud.

"See, I knew Fan was good at singing!" Bai Zhi was overjoyed, and said to Meng Fan, "Fan, do you have an interest to come to hang around at my concert? For this event, I usually ask a few guests, one of them had an emergency and couldn't make it, so I have to find someone to substitute for them. If you can sing, then it's gotta be you! I'm too lazy to search otherwise."

"Sister Bai, you're not serious right? I've never experienced performing on stage before, are you not afraid I'll mess it up?"

Although Meng Fan wanted to agree after hearing the invitation, as he was already motivated after discovering it was a streamed event from Su Qing Cen. This was an elite chance! No, it was a BOSS with super experience!

Only, he still modestly asked just in case he messed it up for real.

"You don't have stage experience, but you have streaming experience! My concert will be streamed, so it will just be an extra 2000 people for you. And you're already such a famous streamer, you can bring some traction to my concert! If you don't object, it's settled!"

"Just like that?"

Chapter 172: Ears are Burning

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"What are you saying? You invited Fan to appear at your concert? Are you crazy?"

"He accepted? Is he crazy too?"

"Big sister Bai, are you trying to ruin your singing career and become an actress?"

Meng Cai Wei, who had entered the crew a bit earlier than planned noticed Bai Zhi's message and immediately called her. Her voice was so excited that it scared the assistant who was bringing her breakfast.

"Why are you talking so loud?"

Bai Zhi who was still half asleep yawned and said, "Fan's good at singing, and I happen to be missing a person. What's wrong with asking him?! Besides, this concert is about playing with music and doesn't specify they have to be professional singers. It makes me happy, and can fulfill my contract with Tiger Cat streams."

"Fan's singing sounds good?" Meng Cai Wei said incredulously. "What happened to your ears? His throat sounds like a broken bell, how can he sing well? Let me tell you, there is no music cell in our family!"

"That's you, don't drag Fan into this, Fan's musical talent is almost too good!" Bai Zhi yawned again and continued, "I'm just gonna borrow your brother for a bit, don't be so worked up. Are you worried Fan is going to enter the entertainment industry? It's just one concert, and a small scale one too. It'll be the same as when he streams. Anyways, I'm going back to bed for a bit, I still have rehearsal later today!"

At this, she hung up the receiver and went back to sleep.

"What's going on?"

Meng Cai Wei was a little stunned. Immediately, she called Meng Fan.𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

Meng Fan just finished running, showered and was getting ready to eat breakfast. Seeing Meng Cai Wei was calling, he answered the phone. Hearing that it was related to Bai Zhi's concert, he knew that Meng Cai Wei was going to call him sooner or later regarding it and had long already made up his explanation. "I thought it sounded fun so I accepted."

"What do you mean fun? Bai Zhi said you're good at singing, what's up with that? When were you good at singing?" Meng Cai Wei asked.

"What, just because I can't sing doesn't mean I can't practice until it sounds good!"

Yes. This was Meng Fan's explanation after thoughtful consideration.

Meng Cai Wei didn't believe him for a second.

"Meng Fan, I noticed you've been really strange recently! Just wait, when I have time, I'm going to thoroughly interrogate you!"

Meng Cai Wei angrily hung up the receiver.

"This temper, I haven't even told her about the studio."

Meng Fan smiled bitterly and headed to class after finishing his breakfast.

He had arranged to eat lunch with Wu Tong. She had washed and cleaned his thermos and brought it back for him, with an extra apple inside it. According to her, it couldn't be returned empty.

As they ate, Meng Fan told her about Bai Zhi inviting him to her concert and asked Wu Tong if she wanted to attend his afternoon rehearsal.

"I have class in the afternoon. When's the concert? I'll go… cheer you on crazily."

Wu Tong already knew of Bai Zhi and Meng Cai Wei's relationship, and she'd met Bai Zhi too. Although she didn't watch Meng Fan's stream yesterday, she had recorded the VOD and watched it later, so she knew Meng Fan could sing. After discovering this, she was a bit surprised but did not doubt his abilities.

Curiously, she asked, "Are you trying to break into the entertainment industry?"

Meng Fan shook his head. "I just think it's fun, I didn't think about it that much."

Wu Tong smiled. "It's said that everyone's life is a game. Some people are in easy mode, others are in hard mode, and some are in random mode. You're in custom mode."

A thought suddenly flashed through his head as he gazed at Wu Tong, saying genuinely, "It depends on what it is. Regarding some things, I can choose to get by in easy mode but somehow ended up doing it in hard. Because only in difficult mode can you unlock the hidden plot."

Wu Tong paused for a moment, then laughed. "Are you flirting with me?"

Meng Fan was defeated.

Wu Tong pretended to inadvertently move her loose hair behind her ears, and as her fingers brushed passed, she felt her ears heating up.

Bai Zhi's concert wasn't at the Huanglong gymnasium, but at the Hangzhou Concert Hall. It was a bit far from Huaxia art academy, so when Meng Fan headed over after eating, it was already 1:00 pm.

At the time, Bai Zhi was already there in addition to some others as well. Aside from the band and the staff, and a singer that looked familiar but Meng Fan couldn't name until Bai Zhi introduced her, Meng Fan had searched up everyone else on his live stream aid and roughly checked them out.

This female singer's name was Tao Tao, a relatively easy to remember name. Meng Fan still couldn't remember her, probably because she wasn't very famous. However, he did remember listening to some of her songs.

Meng Fan noticed this Tao Tao was an independent musician. She wrote her own songs and composed her own music. As for her singing… When Meng Fan arrived, she'd been rehearsing. Listening to a few verses, he decided her vocal skills were good. She was relatively good looking too and seemed to be the artistic indie type. She probably wasn't famous then because her music style catered to a relatively small audience.

Meng Fan was indeed an outsider to the industry. In this business, there were way too many people who were attractive and can sing well, yet very few that actually blew up.

Gold will always find a way to shine?

Yeah right.

More like gold will always find a way to be spent.

Of course, the fame he was referring to was a high degree of national fame. In reality, Tao Tao was quite famous within a certain range. No matter what, even Meng Fan has heard several of her songs.

Bai Zhi then took meng Fan to meet the live band responsible for accompaniment. They were all very experienced, and although there weren't any big name members in the band, they were still very well known among the music circle.

Of course, the group was very polite towards Meng Fan. Before his arrival, Bai Zhi had told them of the guest coming to the concert today. He wasn't a celebrity, but her cousin who was a streamer.

Bai Zhi wouldn't allow Meng Fan to come across any awkward situations. She had to tell everyone on site about her good relationship with Meng Fan.

Meng Fan was going to sing two songs at the concert. One was "The rest of our life" that had been recommended by Bai Zhi. This song was famous, and easily resonates with the audience, so people will react regardless; the other song was Bai Zhi's song, "Long Term Plan", which they would sing together.

Meng Fan's focus during the rehearsal was on this duet. As for "The Rest of our life", he just had to polish it with the band.

At the moment, it was Tao Tao's turn to rehearse. Meng Fan had nothing to do at the moment, so he took out his phone and entered his stream after asking Bai Zhi for permission.

Long before he arrived, Meng Fan had announced in his stream header that there would be a surprise in this afternoon's stream.

Seeing the reminder of Meng Fan's stream, several fickle netizens who followed his live broadcast entered the channel. After entering, they saw Meng Fan standing in a big concert hall. The sound of a band playing on stage and a singer could be heard.

"What's going on?"

"What's he playing today, is he taking us to watch a performance?"

Then the fickle netizens saw a beautiful woman appear in the stream.

"What?"

The netizens recognized her immediately, and it was Bai Zhi!

Bai Zhi was a nationally famous female celebrity!

"What's going on?"

"Hello everyone."

Bai Zhi waved at the camera and smiled. "In four days, I have a concert in Hangzhou. Your Meng host will be my guest. When the time comes, the concert will be streamed on the Tiger Cat platform, so please come watch us and give us your support."

She had actually used Meng Fan's stream channel to promote herself.

Of course, it hadn't just been for self-promotion; it was mostly to help Meng Fan.

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Chapter 173: Live Accompaniment

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Bai Zhi?!"

"What's going on!"

"Guest appearance at a concert?"

"This is too much information!"

"Let me buffer for a moment!"

"What kind of presence does Meng fatty have?!"

"…"

Soon, the number of viewers in the stream reached 10,000 and then continued to soar.

In this day and age, it wasn't strange to see a celebrity stream. Various websites and APPs on different platforms often hosted celebrities and their streams. After all, we have entered an era of national streaming, with various capitals floating about the market. The money raised by these platforms is fully enough to invite celebrities to use their stream.

Moreover, live streams have a market and are popular as well. Plus, streaming could attract popularity and increase exposure. Hence, several celebrities are willing to participate in the stream.

However, after the initial novelty and its normalization, even after some celebrities began promoting their streams, it was still difficult to attract a large viewer base. In the end, it was just their own fans watching them, alongside a few netizens.

The reason was simple. After all, the most important thing about live streaming in this form of entertainment is interaction. In general—regardless if they're famous or not—most celebrities can let go of their image, but they can't let loose completely. They have too much emotional baggage and an image to maintain, and they were hesitant. Not only was it difficult to be down to earth, but the feeling of real interaction was also lacking. From the perspective of a viewer, they are not as interesting as actual streamers.

Of course, there are some exceptions. For example, those who play video games, or ones with grounded character, who are very honest and straightforward…

Some time ago, a platform invited a female actress to share her shopping experience and recommend some products. The actresses who wore high priced items, which was aligned to their own net worth, would recommend clothing and cosmetics to their netizens and describe their usage. It sounded pretty down to earth.

Then a female celebrity who had a bad taste in men suddenly very seriously recommended a bag in the 6 digit price point, sharing that when buying diamonds you should not buy any under 1 carat because 'anything under one carat can be considered wasted dust', and was not worth any money… Although the netizens may not be able to afford everything that's recommended to them, because it revealed the real consumption habits of an actress, she actually drew a lot of stress.

Having said that, after the first wave of interest towards celebrity streaming, it became difficult for celebrities to rely on streaming to gather fans. However, streaming was still a good way for stars to self promote. They wouldn't give up the channel just because it was hard to gain fans. There are still many celebrities participating in these streaming events.

Of course, on the contrary, the attitude of the netizens towards these celebrities is not so enthusiastic.𝓝𝗈𝒱𝞮𝗅𝓃𝖊xt.𝓬𝑂𝗆

It was interesting that these celebrities and their companies and their powerful promotions were not appreciated by the netizens. But when someone like Bai Zhi suddenly appears on the screen, it made many netizens' hearts skip!

Why?

Of course, the accidental factor was one reason, another was that the subconscious would assume a sudden appearance would be more real, rather than a promotional appearance after being packaged—Even if the appearance was sudden and there was no difference.

Of course, there was another important reason; that was because Bai Zhi appeared in her "element".

To make an inappropriate comparison, it's like when you are not interested in a celebrity, no matter how famous they are, but when one appears in your hometown, no matter how well known or not, you are sure to pay more attention!

And Bai Zhi was pretty well known!

Immediately, they all rushed to tell each other, as if they discovered something abnormal.

"Whoa, my Bai goddess! She's so beautiful!"

"Bai goddess looks so good in such a simple outfit!"

"Bai Zhi's figure is too good!"

"She looks so good without makeup, and her skin is glowing!"

"Idiot, it's called natural makeup not no makeup!"

"Sister Bai looks so approachable!"

"Take a photo with her!"

"Hey hey hey, I just want to know what's going on!"

"How did Bai Zhi find Meng host?!"

"Oh no, our Meng fatty cannot be hidden anymore!"

Bai Zhi had streamed before as well, so she naturally directed her eyes towards the live comments. It appears that these comments from Meng Fan's stream were a lot more chaotic than her own stream. Yes, it was chaotic but way more interesting. She read them for a while and smiled, talking to the netizens, "Didn't you guys make him sing yesterday, I thought he was pretty good, and we were missing a guest. Conveniently, he's in Hangzhou, so I invited him."

"The goddess has great taste!"

"The goddess watches Meng boss's stream?"

"Does Bai Zhi know Meng Fan from before?"

"Although you're a goddess, I have to disagree when you say we edged him on. We forced him okay?"

"Is Bai Zhi a fan of Meng host's manga or his shooting skills?"

Seeing Bai Zhi was willing to interact, the netizens in the stream couldn't contain their excitement.

On the other side, Tao Tao ended her rehearsal. She walked over to greet Bai Zhi and was just about to turn and leave when Bai Zhi stopped her.

As for Meng Fan… He could go die somewhere else. He wasn't wearing his hat, but at this moment his presence was at an all-time low.

When Meng Fan saw this, he approached the stage. Either way, the bad was now free, so why not practice on his own?

He had no stage experience, nonetheless singing; alongside a live band as well.

Although he didn't quite understand the difference between a live band and a recorded soundtrack, Meng Fan was able to distinguish if there was a difference. It wasn't a problem to sing along to a soundtrack, but it might not go as smoothly with a live band.

He gestured to the bandleader and told them curtly that he has no experience whatsoever performing on stage with a band. The band seemed to know of this already and warmly proceeded.

"It's okay, I'll familiarize myself with it first. I will tell you when to begin at which drum beat, it's very simple." The leader of the bad was a middle-aged man called Mao bro. He wasn't bald; in fact, he had a lot of hair that was long and black and shiny. Tied into a small ponytail, he looked pretty cool.

They went through it once.

Mao bro coughed lightly. "Uhm, can we go through it again?"

The band members knew Meng Fan was a streamer, and one of them even rummaged his videos and watched them. They admitted his voice was decent, and since Bai Zhi already warned them of his lack of performing experience, they already were prepared to deal with him, only… He had zero foundation and no musical sense!

Practicing with him was not just regularly difficult.

But after going over it a few times, the band members let out a sigh of relief.

Meng Fan had zero musical sense indeed, but his vocal skills contained a variety of basic skills, in addition to the sound range, tone, pitch, sound quality, etc. he also had a feel for music.

If his pitch accuracy could make his sound match the sound of the band, then the feel for music meant he could more accurately grasp the rhythm of the music.

Meng Fan slowly grew accustomed to the accompaniment and was able to rely on the 6 attribute to work in harmony with the band. He was not out of touch, or ahead of the beat, but firmly grasping the rhythm.

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Chapter 174: Can You Dance?

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

Bai Zhi indeed gave Meng Fan a lot of reputation. She interacted with the netizens for a long time by herself, even dragging Tao Tao along to join the fun.

Tao Tao was not as famous as Bai Zhi, but she had some famous songs. Plus her aura was indie and artful beyond compare, and her voice sounded great too. She was in a great mood and even happily hummed along to her own song. The fickle netizens were bustling once again.

Of course, a few minutes was okay to chat with them, but it was impossible to ask Bai Zhi to hold the phone for an hour and converse with the netizens.

After Meng Fan rehearsed the song a few times, Bai Zhi brought the phone over to him.

"I will not show you guys the content from my rehearsal. Everyone, please come early on the day of the stream."

Bai Zhi waved and handed the phone over to Meng Fan.

Meng Fan knew he couldn't stream the content from his rehearsal, and he'd already reached the goal for this afternoon's stream.

One was to announce his participation in Bai Zhi's concert. This was something that could increase the cohesiveness of his netizens, as they could watch step by step how their host became a famous person's concert guest in a qualitative leap. Yes, he's upgraded and will be honored.

Of course, this kind of validation had to be cultivated, and can't be formed based off of just one appearance by Bai Zhi, or only her.

Meng Fan had thought about this kind of "cultivation" method before and decided he could do with it.

"Then I'm going to go rehearse if there's anything else we can talk about it during the evening stream."

He took the phone and logged off.

Checking the numbers, he had attracted over 300,000 viewers in a short span of time. This made Meng Fan more sure that using celebrities was a fast track way to complete the [Famous Streamer] task.

However, this wouldn't even compare to the traction streaming the concert would bring.

After all, Bai Zhi had so many fans, they would surely help promote him. She also had the recommendation given by the Tiger Cat streaming platform, so Meng Fan was confident she would get a million views with ease, and maybe even exceed other millions.

Of course, he couldn't hope to stream a concert as well. But he could allow a celebrity to be on camera once in a while.

The following rehearsal went quite smoothly after Meng Fan became accustomed to the accompaniment from the live band. Meng Fan was able to perform his singing to the best of his abilities. As for the duet, Bai Zhi was very patient and cooperative, so it went smoothly as well.

Two hours later, after the rehearsal ended, he only needed to come in one more time the day before the event for the final rehearsal to become familiar with the routes.

After finishing with everything, Meng Fan finally let out a sigh of relief. Before this, he was more or less a little worried. One, he'd imagined the rehearsal to be more difficult, and two, he was scared to make trouble for Bai Zhi.

Now, based on the reactions of the band members, Meng Fan could confirm he'd made the cut.

After his rehearsal, Bai Zhi had to continue her own. Meng Fan took the chance to chat with Bai Zhi while she was on break, and then prepared to leave.

"Meng boss."

He was just about to leave when a group entered the event hall. Leading them was Su Qing Cen, and the people who followed seemed to be her full-time dance troupe.

Su Qing Cen calling him Meng boss had come from following his netizens. She thought it was fun to say it.

Su Qing Cen was here for rehearsal as well. Since Bai Zhi had appeared at her concert as a guest, Su Qing Cen was here to return the favor.

Bai Zhi's concert was small, with only 2000 live audiences, but since it's being streamed online, the scale wasn't determined by the audience alone. There would be appearances from not only small name artists but big name ones as well.

The Tiger Cat streaming platform did not treat this lightly either, as the platform had just launched a heavy series project this year, the 'live streamed concert'. A concert with tens of thousands of people required a large ticket sale, plus with the car wreck that was another famous singer's streamed concert last year, the Tiger Cat platform was temporary reluctant to host another one, so they began to focus on small scale concerts and music festivals.

Bai Zhi and the Tiger Cat platform had a cooperative relationship. One streamed concert was only a part of it. Her concert with them this time would be Tiger Cat's third in their series, so they saw it to be very important. They had sent a top tier live stream team and has been promoting it heavily as well.

The Tiger Cat platform was very happy that Bai Zhi was able to invite Su Qing Cen to be a guest star at her concert, even increasing the budget and resources for promotional material.

As for Meng Fan's sudden addition to the concert, the Tiger Cat platform was already aware. They had a lot of questions, but since they agreed Bai Zhi and her team would have full control regarding the performances—Including guest selection—They could only provide technology and manpower for powering the stream. They had just mentioned the issue to Bai Zhi and were immediately rejected, so they felt quite helpless.

"If I knew you were coming this early to rehearse, I would have come earlier too."

The dance troupe went off to get ready while Su Qing Cen curiously asked Bai Zhi, "How's Meng boss's rehearsal going?"

Bai Zhi laughed. "Real good."

The three chatted for a while, and when Meng Fan realized the following rehearsal was going to be for the duet between Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen, in addition to a dance routine, he decided he wasn't going to leave.

Su Qing Cen was a great singer and dancer, so of course, Meng Fan wanted to watch. Plus it was his first time witnessing it from such a close distance. Even closer than at her concert!

Plus, Bai Zhi dancing… Meng Fan anticipated this too!

Speaking of which, Bai Zhi looked really good when she danced. The root was that her figure was great, but it didn't just refer to her figure, but also the way her body moved about. After all, She was a graduate of a figures class, hence her body posture was very good. Plus, she had great rhythm and coupled with an actress's unique interpreting skills, she had a certain charm about her when she danced.

Of course, she also worked hard and learned it as well.

They practiced several times, and Meng Fan watched through all of them.

While they were on break, Meng Fan wanted to chat a bit more before leaving. Unexpectedly, Bai Zhi descended the stage and asked him, "Can you dance?"

"I can!"

Meng Fan responded and began to laugh. He then performed his thumbs up dance for Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen. The two girls and their dance troupes went insane.

Meng Fan's 'Thumbs Up dance' was already a bit psychotic. Plus his smile appeal and his voice appeal, the magic really became boundless.

Initially, he'd thought they must be tired from rehearsing and he wanted to give them a light hearted laugh. But two minutes later, Meng Fan realized his mistake. How could they rest? Once the laughing fest began, it seemed even more exhausting than rehearsing.

Better leave!

It took Su Qing Cen and the others a long time to recuperate from their laughter after Meng Fan left.

"Sister Bai, this guy is definitely poisonous. You must watch out during your concert! It's best to tell him not to laugh, otherwise, he'll take the entire concert astray." Su Qing Cen said as she rubbed tears from her eyes.

Bai Zhi was still heaving. "If he likes to laugh let him laugh, aren't we having a good time?"

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Chapter 175: Unexpected Gains

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

His evening stream was still about drawing. Only he had added some content regarding his concert and his singing. Of course, he mainly focused on chatting. As for singing, it was just him humming tunes to tease his viewers.

There were several new netizens during the evening stream, as most of them were fans of Bai Zhi. They were all curious as to what kind of person her temporary guest star was, and how a stream host can become a guest at Bai Zhi's concert.

They came in and took a look, but were immediately taken aback by Meng Fan's superb drawing skills.

Then, most of them became immersed in Meng Fan's fascinating voice.

Although Bai Zhi was a female singer, she still had more female fans than males, as her fanbase was mainly based on girls.

The vocal tone Meng Fan described was very attractive to women. As for the male population, it might affect a small portion of the population, even more than it affected women!

Striking the iron while it was still hot, Meng Fan headed to the Huang Long gymnasium right after class the next day. He had announced in his stream that he'd be watching Shan Jin bro's rehearsal, but he didn't say he would let Su Qing Cen enter the lens.

As a result, it was impossible to stream Su Qing Cen's rehearsal. After all, it was confidential. Instead, Meng Fan showed his viewers something even more brazen. That was, a stream of him eating and chatting with Su Qing Cen!

The fickle netizens in the stream knew that Meng Fan was a fan of Shan Jin bro. When he ran from Hangzhou to Shanghai, it had been for Shan Jin bro's concert. Later, the black magic of the laughing fever happened during the concert, and their last interaction occurred when he broke the world record with his basketball machine scoring and Shan Jin bro forwarded a weibo status congratulating him.

In the eyes of the netizens, Meng Fan was undoubtedly a happy fan. He had successfully got his idol to notice him through his own hard work, and even receiving recognition from his idol. And they could sit down for a meal together too.

Of course, they were envious, but they weren't jealous. Thinking about it, it felt very positive.

Therefore, the correct way to pursue a star, to the netizens at least, was demonstrated by Meng Fan flawlessly.

What's the most important about chasing an idol?

Making yourself a better person!

What was an idol? Of course, someone who provides guidance to their fans, and a person that encourages their fans to work hard to become better versions of themselves.

Yes. at least, this was what the fickle netizens believed.

However, if the netizens were to find out that the main reason that allowed Meng Fan to eat lunch with Su Qing Cen was that Meng Fan had a sister who was even more big shot than Su Qing Sen… Sigh, where would that positive energy go?!

Meng Fan's stream this time around was not long. It began when the two of them appeared at a restaurant, where Su Qing Cen greeted the camera and answered some questions from the netizens. It was no different from conducting an interview, except the interview duration was a bit long.

Following this was Meng Fan and Su Qing Cen's conversation. As for the content, Meng Fan understood a little, for it's been a long time since Meng Cai Wei debuted. He was clear regarding what he was allowed to speak of and what he was to avoid and was able to grasp the scope quite well. Everything they talked about was within the scope of what was already publicly available regarding the idol.

And Meng Fan was very concerned about the image of his idol as well, so naturally, he wanted to show off her best side to his viewers, including parts of her character that were lovable that could be shown to his netizens.

If you don't mention it, Meng Fan's business skills were only increasing in level.

The stream ended once the dishes were delivered; he couldn't demonstrate the eating process as well.

The following day, Meng Fan rushed to watch Bai Zhi's rehearsal in the afternoon, practicing by himself once again, then during dinner… He streamed dinner with Bai Zhi.

The next day was Bai Zhi's dress rehearsal the day before her concert.

During rehearsal, all the lights were in place and Meng Fan arrived in the morning. He was mainly there to practice his positioning. In the afternoon, they followed a regular concert procedure and rehearsed one more time.

Su Qing Cen was there, and so was Tao Tao. Hence after the rehearsal, dinner was another round of "mukbang", or food stream. But this time, the content wasn't them chatting. Instead, it was a promotional stream for the concert at 7:30 pm the next day.

This time, it wasn't just Bai Zhi giving Meng Fan face, but legitimate publicity. Bai Zhi didn't even believe it herself. In the last few days, Meng Fan's stream had mysteriously become one of the most important promotional windows for the streamed concert.

Bai Zhi's talent company and the Tiger Cat platform also had been promoting the event, but they could only be considered as official announcements, while Meng Fan's stream was a "small scale message distribution center". All kinds of interesting and unofficial news were sent from there.

And the result was surprisingly great too. Most of the topics on Weibo related to #baizhiconcertstream were mostly be attributed to Meng Fan's stream.

There weren't many people watching his stream, a couple hundred thousand at most, but there were several video clips regarding the stream floating around on Weibo. They were all forwarded and shared a high number of times; that kind of number couldn't be compared to his live viewer count.

If Bai Zhi didn't tell Meng Fan of these posts, he'd still have no clue!

Meng Fan could only attribute these unexpected gains to his large presence.

The day of the concert was November 5th.

When Meng Fan's morning class ended, he headed straight for the Hangzhou music hall. After dinner, they engaged in one final rehearsal, mostly to test out the venue's equipment.

Around four in the afternoon, the concert began to get busy. Meng Fan started his makeup at 5:00 pm. Eh, at this hour? Meng Fan couldn't oppose them since he knew how important makeup was to appear on TV.

Don't assume male celebrities don't wear makeup. In most cases, male celebrity makeup was even more… thicker than female celebrity makeup. It had nothing to do with being prissy, even if you were the wolf warrior you still had to wear makeup, just not that refined at all. It was mostly for the camera anyways.

Meng Fan's makeup was rather simple too. It only deepened his facial lines, eyebrows, and added some highlights to the protruding areas of his face—yes, Meng Fan's face at this stage had a figure! His double chin was gone, and looking closely, he kind of had a jawline!

Meng Fan's current image was already very attractive in reality. Floating in the camera, because of his photogenic appeal, he was closing in on the borders of being handsome.

It was six in the afternoon when Qin Jiao drove up to the female dormitory and rolled down her window, speaking to the girls waiting for her. "Is everyone here? Four of you that's perfect, it might be a squeeze through."

Wu Tong, Wang Ya Nan, Wei Zhi Xue, and another girl embarked on the car as they drove towards the music hall.

Meng Fan had asked Bai Zhi for five concert tickets, giving three to his roommates, one to Wu Tong, and the last one to Qin Jiao.

Since the brazen mouthed Zhang Zhou Wei wanted to escape the library tonight, he had flaunted to Wang Ya Nan his concert ticket, telling her he'd be busy in the evening. Shortly after, his ticket came into the possession of Wang Ya nan.

Then, it took only one Wechat message from Wang Ya Nan to Wei Zhi Xue for Chen Da Qiang to also present his ticket on a silver platter.

As for Xing Ta Ge, his current girlfriend wasn't acquainted with Wei Zhi Xue and Wang Ya Nan, but he'd given her his ticket anyways. Since Chen Da Qiang and Zhang Zhou Wei weren't going, it was boring to go alone anyways.

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Chapter 176: The Trainwreck Came All Too Sudden

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The backstage of the concert was in full swing, and Meng Fan was done with makeup and was properly dressed. He had nothing to do and was sitting in the break room chatting with Tao Tao.

Tao Tao's voice was nice, and her words had meaning. Although her temperament was a bit cold and bleak, she was still happy to chat with Meng Fan, and Meng Fan was also happy to talk with her.𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

She wasn't a top figure in the music industry, barely even a middle-level one. She had legitimately come from nothing and built herself up, and the scope of her activities was catered towards a small audience, so she was very down to earth. Talking with her, Meng Fan was able to gain a lot of insight and learn plenty of interesting things. These interesting events were things Bai Zhi nor Su Qing Cen had ever encountered before.

As for Su Qing Cen, she had not arrived yet, since she was the finale of the concert. She would probably arrive an hour before the rehearsal site.

After talking over two topics, the two didn't continue to force more conversation. Tao Tao began to browse her phone, and Meng Fan also sent a message to Wu Tong asking if she arrived. He then sent another message to their roommate's chat room.

"You guys didn't come?"

"Hehe. Zhang Zhou Wei arrogantly flashed his ticket and it got confiscated by Wang Ya Nan. Then Wei Zhi Xue found out too. Then, I gave my ticket to my girlfriend as well," Xing Ta Ge replied.

Meng Fan smiled and responded, "That's fine, you guys can obediently watch the stream."

There were only 2000 seats. It wasn't possible to ask for more tickets.

Zhang Zhou Wei and the other two were already awaiting the stream in an internet cafe. Since their girlfriends were at the concert, they had at least two or three hours to relax, how could they not play a few rounds?

Wu Tong responded that she was at the door and that she was with Qin Jiao and the other girls. She told Meng Fan to prepare with peace of mind and not to worry about them.

Meng Fan responded with a smiley face, then went to browse the Tiger Cat stream platform. As soon as he opened the APP, he could see the content regarding Bai Zhi's concert stream. The channel was open as well but was blacked out for now. There were already plenty of people in the channel already though, about 300,000 online viewers.

They waited until seven in the evening, the viewer count remaining at three hundred thousand or so. By 7:20 when the concert began, the viewer count began to rise. There were two million viewers by the time the concert started.

The Tiger Cat platform had a strong attraction. In addition, Bai Zhi had a large fanbase as well, and they'd been promoting it for a long time. At this time, the number of online viewers was just a start. The forecasted viewer count by Tiger Cat was at a peak number of five million.

The concert began on time at 7:30. It was likely that the stage effects and venue set up were super gimmicky, except maybe for the lighting that had been carefully considered. The large projection screen in the back was also very high tech.

The live accompaniment began. Bai Zhi didn't have any excessive entrances but appeared quietly as she began to sing. This signaled the start of the concert.

Bai Zhi's singing skills were considerably good. There was such a saying that she was the best singer that could act, and the best actress that could sing. She could hold her own at a concert, kill it in the cinema, and hold down the TV industry too. By dominating all three industries of film, television, and singing, she was well recognized by the industry and her audience.

A person's energy is limited. There weren't many people in the industry who could dominate all three categories. There were plenty who claimed this though, relying on this to hold onto their namesake. The most frightening thing was that these people were able to deceive others by flaunting their success in all three industries. It was already good enough they could admit they were crossing a large border. For example, Hang Jiao Zhu. Everyone doubted his singing abilities, and he was sincere in stating that he was only an actor and that he couldn't even act, so why judge his singing skills?

Of course, there were a select few who have received top honors in all three industries, but they were all children of natural selection only appearing once in a blue moon.

This was also based on the times. There were a few of these spectacles in the 90s, but there weren't many artists who debuted in the 21st century that could be found.

Someone like Bai Zhi, who had won the best actress in one out of the top five awards for Chinese cinema, and participated in multiple TV dramas and sang several chart-toppers could be considered a top candidate for a person dominating all three industries.

Furthermore, anyone who could win five famous film awards, a few mainstream TV female lead awards, produced five albums and five songs that were top of the charts… Aside from the few Hong Kong gods, and oh right, and Taiwan's Liu Ruo Ying, nobody else had these titles altogether.

Of course, it was difficult for Bai Zhi to continue improving. However, she was still young, and it seems she can continue to develop in all three aspects of film, television, and music. After gaining some experience, she might just settle down and focus on one industry.

"The world is too small, and we are fated to be, it's a pleasure to meet…The gossip, rumors, I know what you said…"

The first song Bai Zhi performed was "I know", one of her most well-known songs that have rotted the streets in the last few years. It wasn't a derogatory term; the music literally broke the speakers playing it on the stores along the streets.

After singing the first song, Bai Zhi greeted the audience and chatted a bit before beginning the second song. The second one was a slow song where Bai Zhi sat at the piano and sang in a serene fashion.

After the concert stream began, the number of viewers in the channel suddenly shot up to nearly 4.5 million.

Bai Zhi then sang five songs in a row before introducing her first guest, Tao Tao. Tao Tao and Bai Zhi sang one of Bai Zhi's songs together, and then Bai Zhi stepped down to change costumes and rest. Tao Tao had brought her own guitar and performed one of her famous songs.

Tao Tao was a folk singer with distinctive characteristics. Only, it wasn't very market-friendly. Her fanbase was small, and although her songs were popular, she herself was not. Many people heard her songs and realized she was the original singer, but in a moment they could only remember the song and not the artist.

Meng Fan was the second guest of the concert. After Tao Tao performed two more songs alone, Bai Zhi went up once more to perform four songs before inviting Meng Fan up.

At this time, there were over 5.3 million viewers in the channel. They had completed the Tiger Cat platform's set target.

Based on these numbers, if Meng Fan got up there, he should be able to gain experience from 5 million viewers. That was a good number; it was the equivalent of a dozen live streams on his channel!

Of course, Meng Fan only had time for two songs. If it took too long, there'd be more people coming in and out of the stream, and he'd gain more views.

Whoosh!

The backstage staff brought Meng Fan to the entrance position, while another staff member came over to fix his clothing and makeup. Meng Fan, who wasn't nervous to begin with, suddenly felt the nerves when they began operating on him in such a way.

"….Where is your gentleness, I don't want to hide."

Bai Zhi wasn't done her first line when a short interlude began. At the sound of the drumbeat, Meng Fan had been counting too, and he entered the song on time. The song was affectionate, his voice was charming, and as he walked out, he could be considered appealing, although he was a bit large. He was even more attractive on stream because of his photogenic appeal.

The two looked at each other and began to sing the chorus, "Secret love is not a long-term strategy, your eyes can't keep secrets from me…."

There was a high note here, and Meng Fan, who was being dearly gazed at by Bai Zhi while holding her hand, with no stage experience at all, experienced a voice crack. By accident, his high note had broke, and the sound was overwhelming!

Chapter 177: Nobody Can Escape

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Tiger Cat Platform, Bai Zhi's concert stream.

During the song "Long Term Plan" when Meng Fan's part came in, several comments relating to Meng Fan began to emerge in the live chat. In no time, they had occupied the entire channel.

While Meng Fan streamed, it was normal to have 100,000 or even 200,000 viewers, and he'd gain over 800,000 total viewers in one go too. In the last few days, meng Fan had been promoting this concert during his stream, hence all the fickle netizens from 8th station had tuned in to support him.

Maybe not all 800,000 viewers were present, but there were at least 200,000.

These 200,000 netizens had all heard Meng fan sing before, and knew he was going to perform the song "Plan for Today". When his voice appeared, they had to cheer for him!

There were about five million viewers in the stream right now, so 200,000 was not a lot mixed in the jumble. However, it was still quite terrifying when all of them began to spam the live comments at once.

"Meng Fatty is here!"

"I can confirm the voice, and see the fatty!"

"Meng boss's voice sounds so f*cking good!"

"Meng boss 666!"

"He's so badass!"

"Hahaha here he comes, our Meng fatty can't be hidden. Just look at his tonnage!"

"Meng fatty is obviously not fat anymore okay?"

"He's actually quite handsome!"

Seeing that the chat room was suddenly occupied by texts related to Meng Fan, most of the other viewers were puzzled. Who the hell was this Meng boss? They've never heard of him; and it seemed like he's very popular, too.

Of course, there were also some people who recognized him despite not being one of his netizens. This was because all the recent news regarding Bai Zhi's concert had leaked from Meng Fan's direction, making it hard to avoid. Also, some of them had searched it up and discovered he held the world record for seven point arcade basketball—What the hell kind of a record is that?—And his run from Hangzhou to Shanghai, the laughing frenzy at the concert, and his dabbling in art.

"What the f*ck, how can this arcade basketball player sing so well?"

"Isn't this host an art streamer?"

"He's the one who's adapting "There's A Spirit Underground" into a manga!"

"His vocal tone is so attractive!"

"Are all streamers nowadays this multifunctional?"

"He's really an amazing singer!"

"Could this guy f*cking be lip-synching?"

"… His voice cracked! It's definitely not lip-synced!"

"This voice crack is terrifying ahahahaha!

"LMAO!"

"This is the best voice I've heard this year, no doubt!"

"This year's Voice of China champion is you!"

"666!"

Everyone who watched the stream was there for the commotion. Plus Meng Fan's voice crack was really some ecstasy. A sudden barrage of ridicule and coquettishness erupted in the live chat.

Of course, many of the comments were cursing him as well.

On the stage, Bai Zhi was also stunned by the voice crack. Out of habit, she continued to sing a few more lines before her voice changed. It was as if she had been struck by laughter but couldn't let it out. Soon, there was laughter on the verge of bursting from her song. Painstakingly, she managed to hold it in and sing the last few lines, and when it was Meng Fan's turn to sing again Bai Zhi put down her mic and began to laugh.

The audience couldn't see Bai Zhi laughing, but everyone could see her shoulders twitch.

What could Meng Fan do? He was desolate!

He had no idea how his voice suddenly cracked. Being too affectionate and holding hands might have been the cause. Mostly, it was probably due to his lack of experience.

Seeing Bai Zhi turn around to laugh, Meng Fan wanted nothing more than to put on his hat.

It was his turn to sing again.

Meng Fan closed his eyes. No matter what, he refused to look at the audience.

Meng Fan sang a few more lines before it was Bai Zhi's turn again. Bai Zhi tried hard to restrain her laughter, turning around. When she saw Meng Fan singing with his eyes closed, she couldn't hold it in anymore. She dropped the mic and began to bellow with laughter. She reached out and stopped Meng Fan, waiting for him to open his eyes, she gestured for him to help her sing her part. Regardless, she needed to let the laughter out.

Meng Fan froze up but still continued to sing compliantly. Although this was already a disaster, he couldn't stop singing. In a rush to begin, his voice didn't crack this time, but he came in too early. Then, he went off the pitch… Maybe it was his presence that suddenly began to work its metaphysical properties, for when Meng Fan came in early then went off the pitch, he took the live band with him too.

Once the band deviated from the beat, Meng Fan was no longer able to keep up. He tried to force two more lines before putting his microphone down. He looked around, realizing Bai Zhi, the live band, and the live audience were all laughing…

Laugh laugh laugh!

Why don't they all just keep laughing?!

Nobody can escape!

What could Meng Fan do? He could only clutch the mic to his chest in a praying motion and reveal his smile.

To be honest, Meng Fan did not have much "foresight" towards this concert. He had only prepared to sing seriously. As for smile appeal or the [Concert Killer] task, he didn't even think about it.

But now, the disaster has come to this. The best method now was to reveal his mysterious smile.

Maybe when everyone was in a laughing frenzy they would forget about his voice crack and off pitched singing.𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

Meng Fan thought, since it's been decided, he couldn't just rely on his smile appeal. He would launch his voice appeal as well. He took the mic and spoke, "This wasn't what I wanted either."

Then he began to chuckle stupidly along with everyone. His laughter traveled through the microphone, very clear and penetrating.

Without a doubt, the laughter frenzy scene from Sun Qing Cen's Shanghai concert was repeating itself at the concert of Bai Zhi!

The scene was covered in laughter, and the channel was lively as well.

"This guy is psychotic hahaha!

"It's here it's here, the legendary poisonous smile!"

"Did he f*cking do this on purpose?"

"He did this at Shan Jin bro's concert last time too! What the f*ck can being funny do though? Hahaha!"

"So happy today!"

"Oh my god, my tears are coming out!"

"This guy's definitely poison!"

"Ruined! This fine concert's been ruined!"

"…"

Su Qing Cen, who had gone backstage to fix her makeup was clutching her head as it shuddered from laughter, her whole body was shaking. "I knew it hahahaha I knew it!"

She then stood up and walked to the side of the stage, taking out her phone and opening her conversation in WeChat with Meng Cai Wei. Turning on her video chat, she pointed the camera towards the stage, her hands shaking almost as much as her voice. As she filmed, she described the scene with her voice, "Sister Wei, your brother is really poisonous hahaha! Bai Zhi's concert has completely been affected!"

She let go of the button and sent it out.

After a minute, Meng Fan finally retracted his smile and laughter. After a few seconds or so, the laughter in the surroundings also began to subdue. There were still some people who still silently twitching from laughing though.

"Ding! You've completed task phase 2 of [Concert Killer]; Reward; points 100, validation 1, photogenic appeal 1, singing skill 1."

At this time, an alert sounded in Meng Fan's head.

The lethality portion of the [Concert Killer] task referred to the degree of damage he could cause at a concert, and the amount of guidance his influence had, The system could only judge once every hour during the concert, hence once it decided that lethality couldn't increase anymore, it made a judgment.

The result was a score of 97!

Adding to the lethality points accumulated during Su Qing Cen's concert, he had over 100 points, allowing him to complete task phase 2 directly.

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Chapter 178: The Rest of Our Lives

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Huh?"

If it weren't for the sound alert, Meng Fan wouldn't have remembered this task.

Nonetheless, he'd completed task phase 2.

Thinking about it, it made sense.

This task had been triggered after the laughing frenzy at Su Qing Cen's concert. Only, this task was way too destructive as he had to cause havoc at someone else's concert. Plus, all the focus had been on the poisonal metaphysical property of his smile appeal.

The 21 points of lethality at the time had allowed him to complete phase 1 directly. The reward from this process included 10 points, and the attributes were the same as that of phase 2. Both rewarded 1 validation, 1 photogenic appeal, and 1 singing skill.𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

Calculating it carefully, he had a total of 7 singing skills after adding the black magic microphone's attributes.

This time, he'd been rewarded with 97 points of lethality. Including the 21 points from before, he was at a total of 118 lethality points. He'd completed task phase 2, and now his singing skill was at 8.

Meng Fan was very taken aback by the 96 lethality points though; it was four times the previous score.

Meng Fan couldn't figure out the process for calculating the degree of damage, and the guiding strength. For example, Meng Fan's method of destruction was his mystical smile. Then the degree of laughter from the audience must be one of the determining factors. But does it have anything to do with the number of people watching?

This time around, everyone was at the same level of laughter as they were during the Su Qing Cen concert, with some on the verge of pulling a muscle, yet the score awarded was four times what it had been. Could it be because this time it was on stream and there were more people watching?

Or was it because he had been in the audience last time, and he was a guest star this time, so it impacted the level of the effect he had on the concert?

As an audience, he could only stir havoc from the spectating stands, but on the stage, could it count as a real concert disaster?

If this was so, then it made sense for his score to be four times the amount.

It made sense. As an audience, the most damage you could do was still just an interlude. But a guest star could impact the entire concert, including even the nature of the concert.

To make a comparison, in a soccer game, there was always a tradition of fans rushing to the field after the game. No matter how crazy they were, it was just a 20-second interlude to the entirety of the match, and the game would return to its original track very soon after. They were not able to change the course of the game. But if it was a player who rushes the field and starts a frenzy, it would alter the game. At the very least, you'd be sent off with a red card. How could this not affect the nature of the game?

Of course, at this time Meng Fan was not ushered off the stage but rewarded instead.

All the live audience were cheering and clapping for him in good faith, while the people in the live chat were genuinely made happy from his performance despite scolding him for it.

Even if Meng Fan's appearance at both Su Qing Cen's concert and this one was intentional, the problem was that people still followed his laughing craze. Who could argue with that reality?!

"I know your laugh is poison, but I didn't think it was this lethal!"

Bai Zhi stopped smiling. She took the microphone out and spoke this directly. She wasn't worried that Meng Fan's laughing would ruin the concert since she had already done some psychological preparations beforehand. She let go freely and allowed him to continue his path of destruction to see how far he could take it.

"I'm going to hand the stage to you, let's see what you do!"

Bai Zhi said this into the microphone then stepped off the stage with relief.

Of course. All the audience can still hear the sound of laughter spasms in the audience, and with Bai Zhi's statement, the laughter loudened again.

This kind of live scene was too damaging!

Meng Fan was a bit embarrassed to smile at the audience directly… He chatted for a second before retracting himself. He then saw the smiles on Wu Tong and the five other girls and her cheering gesture, he suddenly felt a burst of encouragement similar to when she cheered him on during his first run. This lifted his spirit.

He took a deep breath and sat on the high chair prepared by the staff, placing his microphone on the stand.

The reason why he had to sit and sing this song wasn't because he couldn't stand for such a long time, but because he felt more stable and secure while seated.

If he stood, Meng Fan unilaterally thought he would make a few gestures while he sang, but he had zero dancing experience, nonetheless stage experience. With Bai Zhi, he could still spare the occasional glance and hold her hand, but alone, he looked like an awkward stick.

Sitting down, it was okay to remain still for the entire process, and it wouldn't seem like he had no stage experience either.

Of course, the most important point was that Meng Fan was used to singing while seated. After all, he'd been sitting and singing in karaoke all along.

After sitting down, he gave the musicians an okay.

The intro began.

Meng fan wanted to close his eyes and enter along to the beat. But his eyes remained on Wu Tong, unable to move.

"Looking for the sun in a place where there is no wind/ becoming the sun when you are in a cold place/ in a crowded room/ you're too naive/ for the rest of our lives/ I only want you…"

After focusing on Wu Tong and meeting her glance, all the complicated thoughts in his mind disappeared. The laughter, the audience, and the concert… They were all gone. There was only Wu Tong in his eyes, only Wu Tong in his world.

His voice was unlike the raspiness of the original singer. Instead, his voice only contained gentleness and affection.

The raspiness of the original song tells a story of a life full of surprises and loss. They had delightful encounters, but also heartbreaking memories. But life always moves forward, with no one to pity you. Regardless if it's the end of the play or the intermission, one should pursue their dreams and live their best life.

Meng Fan's affection and tenderness only demonstrated these pleasant encounters. Like that day on the track field, when Wu Tong entered his life unexpectedly like a gust of wind.

"For the rest of our lives / the winter snow is yours / the spring flowers are yours / the summer rain is yours/ the autumn leaves are yours/ all four seasons belong to you/ my gaze/ belongs to you…"

Meng Fan looked at Wu Tong and desperately wanted to tell her, he wanted to give her the willows, the cicadas, the fallen leaves, the white snow. He wanted to give her the clouds, the sea, the sunset, and the desert. In my eyes, you have no seasons, and there was no space.

Once I met you, my life is you. One couple in one lifetime was definitely not just a saying.

Mornings consisted of you, evenings did too and waking up in the middle of the night, all I can think of is still you.

"For the rest of our lives/ you are my storms / you are my simplicity/ I will choose you in poverty/ I will choose you in wealth / my heart is gentle because of you / my gaze will only fall/ on you."

When the last note fell and the music stopped, Meng Fan's gaze was still locked on Wu Tong. He leaned forward, and a smile couldn't help but form on the corner of his mouth. "Life is full of greed and full of poison. Life is bitter on earth, but it's sweet with you."

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Chapter 179: You Look Handsome When You're Serious

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

When Meng Fan began to sing another song, the audience had quieted down. Including those who had been laughing so hard they'd endured a spasm, who'd been cured by his singing. They had been completely absorbed by Meng Fan's singing and lost all traces of the joy they had felt just now.

Meng Fan's voice was very charming, and since he had been staring at Wu Tong the entire time, the affection had unintentionally "triggered" the infectiousness of his vocal appeal on the audience. Soon, some people in the live audience found their vision beginning to blur, completely falling for Meng Fan's voice.

The live chat was also quieter than it had been. The comments still came, but the barrage was much thinner.

Even if they were opposite the screen, they could still feel the emotion in Meng Fan's song.

"For the rest of our lives" was one of the hottest songs of the year. Based on the general consensus of popularity, it could only be rivaled by the brainwashing god-tier 'meow meow meow' song. The song had blown up from a short video platform, and after it became popular, the original singer also followed, along with several cover artists as well.

Among the many cover artists, there was no lack of affection. But there were very few that could genuinely sing with real affection. Meng Fan's song had the effect of sound appeal 4, and his endless gaze at Wu Tong. In terms of affection alone, no one could control him! It really moved people!

Meng Fan's kind of 'moving' was as if a small deer suddenly crashed into your chest and ran away. Bang bang bang, it bumped against your heart. Maybe it was because he had sung with affection and longing, specifically for love, so his voice contained a strong urge to be in love.

Of course, there were one thousand Hamlets in the eyes of one thousand people. There must have been several people who had read some other emotions from his singing and felt the emotions of their memories.

For some, it even had an eye-watering effect.

For example, after the first chorus, there were about a dozen people in tears in the audience, Some of whom must have felt the sadness in remembering that special person they had promised to spend their lives but ended up parting with, while there were others who felt the warmth and sweetness of holding the hand of that 'person' sitting next to them. Most importantly, there were those who looked forward to reassuring themselves there was no need to panic about the future, and they would meet someone who would redefine the meaning of 'love'…

There were also many people with red eyes filled with tears in the audience, moved by Meng Fan's singing.

If you don't look, you'll never know when you cross that line of emotions. Once you touch it, there would be an echo.

In the stream, there were even more people touched by his singing.

When Meng fan finished his song and a smile formed on his lips, many people in the audience as well as on the stream began to smile along as well. It wasn't the sort of bellowing laughter nor stupid giggles that appeared before, but a sweet, genuine smile from the heart. There was no sound, but it was more lethal than the previous uproar.

"Life is full of greed and full of poison. Life is bitter on earth, but it's sweet with you."

Meng Fan would never know how many people he'd touched with that sentence, let alone how many people had the urge to be in love after this sentence and the motivation to confess to the person in their heart.

There were actually a few of these in the audience.

A female college student sitting in the back row of the concert hall with tears streaming down her face had taken out her mobile phone and determinedly sent a confession to her long-time crush.

The senior, who had graduated and working also harbored feelings for the girl. He responded, "I don't have a car or a house. You are naive, but I cannot be."

The girl responded quickly, "If you are poor, I will be your luggage, learning from you for the rest of my life. My dream in this lifetime is to hold your hand and face the world together."𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

Then, she got up and wiped her eyes, gratefully smiling at Meng Fan who was still on the stage. Hastily, she turned and left the concert hall. She was going to find him!

Dummy, I'm not naive, nor do I need a car or a house. I just need you!

Of course, there were people who were just simply fascinated by Meng Fan, both in the audience and among the online viewers. Since Meng Fan had lost quite some weight, several people could see his transformation from a chubby kid to a tall guy. Their first impression of him had changed from a horizontal vision into a vertical vision.

Wasn't there a saying that fairness could hide a 100 girls' ugliness? For guys, height could make you three times more handsome too.

Although he hasn't lost much weight so far from running, he had lost a lot of fat. His double chin was gone, and his face was noticeably slimmer. His cheekbones were starting to be more defined, and his features were starting to depict the positive features of the Meng family. With his added 5 charm, he had become quite attractive.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have been able to attract his maid army, nor the prettiest girl Pao had brought to KTV that night.

Meng Fan's affectionate singing didn't just impress people, but also made them impulsive to fall in love with him.

Most of the audience on the scene couldn't see who he had been staring at. No, accurately speaking, they had all thought that Meng Fan was staring at themselves. Especially those in the stream. To them, Meng Fan definitely had the buff of a halo with his 8 photogenic appeal.

The camera had been pointed directly at Meng Fan. Of course, the fickle netizens in the stream thought he had been affectionately staring at them.

"Meng boss! I like you!"

"Meng host! I love you!"

"I'm in love with the host!"

"My young girl's heart!"

Once this song ended, a lot of confessions began to appear in the live comments, and among the audience as well.

A girl among the audience suddenly stood up and screamed loudly at Meng Fan, "Meng Fan, I love you!"

Closely followed by the screams of other girls and some guys as well.

It was necessarily a confession of love between a man and a woman, but a fan's love for their idol. They were smitten!

The screams were finally able to yank Meng Fan out of his two-person world with Wu Tong. At this time, the stunned Wu Tong felt as if her soul had suddenly returned to her body. She bit her lip slightly and smiled sweetly at Meng Fan, eyes sparkling with joy.

Seeing this, Meng Fan clenched his fist discreetly, then bowed sincerely to the audience and the online viewers and stepped off the stage.

Although the first song was a disaster, he had redeemed himself during the second performance by the looks of the audience.

After stepping down, he ran into Su Qing Cen. Embarrassingly, he scratched his head, then asked uneasily, "I redeemed myself a little bit, right? I hope I didn't ruin sister Bai's concert."

"The concert is definitely ruined," Su Qing Cen teased. Then she sighed and spoke more sincerely, "But your song just now was really great. You look handsome when you're serious, very charming as well."

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Chapter 180: I Only Have Streaming Experience

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Nobody else knew Meng Fan had been affectionately staring at Wu Tong. But Qin Jiao, Wei Zhi Xue, and the three other girls sitting next to Wu Tong knew very well.

Qin Jiao lightly bumped Wu Tong with her shoulder and smiled. "You didn't expect it right, for this kid to confess like that? Are you moved?" Then teasingly she sighed. "Ah, it's so good to be young and crazy for love."

Wu Tong didn't respond. She appeared to be calm, but Qin Jiao being so close could see that she had been holding in her composure. Besides, the subtle tears in her eyes couldn't lie.

That kid really had a few tricks up his sleeves. No wonder he never spoke of his mom to Wu Tong despite how much she'd worshipped her. He was quite sturdy. Only, she didn't know what Wu Tong would think after discovering Meng Fan's mother was Liang Qing.

Qin Jiao couldn't help but picture a scenario in her mind. One of them being when Meng Fan and Wu Tong were together, and he'd take Wu Tong to meet his mom, and then… Wu Tong's expression will be very wonderful!

Thinking about it this way, Qin Jiao felt slightly eager for that day to come. She decided she must pay close attention to them so she could be present when it happens.

Naturally, Qin Jiao wasn't aware of Wu Tong and Liang Qing's relationship as of now, for if she knew… Then the scene would be Qin Jiao watching on the side as Wu Tong called Liang Qing her mother. What kind of incredulous expression would she have then!

Qin Jiao wasn't aware of Wu Tong's relationship with Liang Qing, but Wu Tong knew very well that Qin Jiao was a student of Liang Qing. Naturally, she wasn't surprised that Meng Fan would invite her to the concert and that she'd accept, not that she was surprised by Qin Jiao's teasing.

Wu Tong actively paid close attention to the students Liang Qing accepted. She was a master of Chinese painting, but not all of her students studied Chinese painting, with about 50/50 being the ratio. This was a difficult feat to accomplish in the industry. Of course, Liang Qing was famous among practitioners for her strange temperament, and everyone knew of this.

Wei Zhi Xue and Xing Ta Ge's girlfriend both looked towards Wu Tong with envy in their eyes, as well as their blessings.

Wei Zhi Xue knew that Meng Fan was a special guy the moment she met him. He was very powerful, funny, and warm all at once. Then, she had learned of the series of things that occurred to Meng Fan. In the beginning, people thought Meng Fan pursuing Wu Tong was like a toad pursuing swan meat, Wei Zhi Xue was confident he'd be able to eat… Catch Wu Tong.

Although Xing Ta Ge's girlfriend had never officially met Meng Fan, she knew of his reputation for being the Iron Hero. She had finally witnessed the cruelty of this hero firsthand. To confess in front of so many people at a concert, a streamed concert; my goodness!

Wang Ya Nan also looked towards Wu Tong and smiled. Only, in her heart… She let out a long sigh.

My little Dot, you could have had a chance if you confessed early. The further you dragged it, the more you will lose sight of him. It wasn't just because Wu Tong was willing to accept Meng Fan more and more, but because Meng Fan was becoming more and more outstanding!

This fatty wasn't a fatty anymore. He would run faster and faster; if you don't pursue him now, you won't be able to catch him.

"Isn't Meng boss handsome?"

Bai Zhi walked in the stage and looked toward Meng Fan's direction. Smiling, she turned towards the audience. The audience responded unanimously with a 'yes'. She then asked, "Are you moved? Do you guys suddenly feel the impulse to be in love?"

The audience responded, "Yes!"

It seemed like Bai Zhi was asking the audience, but Wu Tong knew, Bai Zhi was directing it at her. Immediately, her ears began to burn up.

Bai Zhi retracted her gaze from Wu Tong, then smiled at the audience. "But this can't erase the fact that his smile is still poisonous!"

The audience and the fickle netizens all held their breath. Ma'am, let's not bring this up again.

"Sister Bai really loves you a lot."

Su Qing Cen looked at the awkward Bai Zhi trying to "host" the event on stage and felt a little envious. The previous guest, Tao Tao did not receive this kind of treatment, and she probably wouldn't receive this treatment either. At most, she'd get a few words of thanks as usual. She turned to look at Meng Fan and smiled again. "You have to promise me now when I go on stage, you won't appear anywhere that I can see you and start laughing at me."

Meng Fan was helpless. "Am I really the type of person who stirs havoc like this?"

Su Qing Cen was very sure. "You are."

Meng Fan knew he couldn't explain it anyways, let alone to Su Qing Cen. The memories from her last concert were still vivid in his mind.

Peace out.

Obediently, Meng Fan retreated to the resting area.

Tao Tao had already taken off her makeup and changed out of her performance clothes. She saw Meng Fan and smiled. "Congrats, your performance was very successful!"

Meng Fan smiled bitterly. "I almost ruined the concert, sister Tao are you making fun of me."

Tao Tao was very serious. "I don't think so." She then waved her hand. "I'm gonna head out first, I have a plane to catch."

"Okay, see you."

Meng Fan saw her off then returned to the resting area. He pulled out his phone and began to look for the number of online viewers for Bai Zhi's concert stream.

Although he could view the data anytime through his virtual interface, he had been very focused during his performance and was occupied conversing with Tao Tao and Su Qing Cen when he'd stepped down. Now he finally had time to check it.

6.7 million was the number of viewers currently online.

Meng Fan estimated that there must have been more than 6.5 million people watching his performance, but… Checking the numbers for the [Famous Streamer] task from his system, He'd gained 5 million views!

That's a 1.5 million difference from the online viewers!

Technically speaking, the number of views should be more than the number of online viewers!

Exaggerated, it was almost 2 million less!

What happened here?

Could it be that the people had closed their eyes during his performance?

That's not possible!

Did the system have a glitch?

Or could it be… bots?!

It must be f*cking bots infiltrating the users in the stream. This 6.7 million wasn't the actual number of real online users!

Meng Fan didn't care for anything else, but if the stream really had bots, the system would definitely be able to tell!

He'd long heard about several streams having bots among their viewers, but he didn't think there'd be so many… Thinking about it, it wasn't that much compared to the rumors.

There were several rumors about streamers who had millions of viewers, with only a couple hundred thousand of them being real.

Before the last guest of the concert, Su Qing Cen, appeared on stage, the number of online viewers suddenly skyrocketed to over 9 million!

Meng Fan wasn't sure how many of these were bots.

When Su Qing Cen's performance ended, Meng Fan could hear the cheering and screams from the rest area.

"You've been here all along?" Su Qing Cen saw Meng Fan and felt a little sorry. "Actually, I can't laugh that easily."𝗇𝐎𝑽𝓮𝑳𝗇ℯxt.𝑐𝑜𝐦

Meng Fan was innocent! "Let's just pretend I laugh easily."

Su Qing Cen revealed a small smile and went to change. Returning to the rest area, she said to Meng Fan, "I thought about it carefully just now, and I want to invite you to guest star at my concert as well."

"What?"

Meng Fan was surprised.

Su Qing Cen once again confirmed her decision.

"Will your concert be streamed?" Meng Fan asked.

Su Qing Cen shook her head.

Meng Fan shook his head. "Then I think I'll pass. I only have streaming experience; if it's not streamed, I can't sing."

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Chapter 181: 11/11 Gala

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"You can't sing if it's not on stream?"

It was the first time Su Qing Cen had heard of such a saying.

Meng Fan nodded earnestly. "Really. You see, I almost messed up today's broadcast. If it wasn't a stream, the pressure would be too much. When the time comes, my voice will definitely crack and go off-pitch. It'll ruin your concert!"

To be honest, Meng Fan was very tempted to perform on stage alongside his idol. But after careful consideration, he still chose to refuse.

First of all, he was genuinely worried that he would mess up Su Qing Cen's concert.𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

Like Bai Zhi's concert today, there weren't many live audiences since it was mostly a streamed concert. Meng Fan more or less understood what online streams entailed. Although there were bound to be mishaps everywhere, at least not everyone had paid to enter the venue, so any trainwreck that occurred would be taken lightly with a hint of humor.

Su Qing Cen's concert required tickets to enter the venue, so his mentality was different. People came because they paid and weren't there to screw around and watch a commotion. Besides, Meng Fan was also her fan and was very aware of what would happen if he screwed up singing alongside his idol. Maybe they wouldn't drag him off the stage and beat him ruthlessly, but he would definitely be received with hostility, to say the least.

To be honest, Meng Fan didn't even like singing that much. Although he sounded pretty good now and enjoyed his voice from time to time, he still wasn't very keen.

Lastly, the concert wasn't streamed, so he couldn't obtain experience for the [Famous Streamer] task.

As for the [Concert Killer] task, it was okay to tease a few smiles from the audience as an audience member, but he didn't see the need to mess up the concert on stage or impact it with his reputation as a guest.

If Su Qing Cen's concert was streamed and she invited him, Meng Fan would have accepted for the experience. At most, he could restrain himself from causing havoc.

"Really?"

Su Qing Cen wasn't unhappy but slightly disappointed.

She invited Meng Fan to her concert firstly because she thought Meng Fan wanted to enter this industry, and she wanted to help him regardless of her relationship with Meng Cai Wei. Secondly, she really thought he was a good singer. His voice was distinctive, and he could definitely hold his own at her concert.

The company also didn't refuse after hearing Su Qing Cen's request. After all, they knew Meng Fan was a fan of Su Qing Cen, and he was a fan with a world record. Also, he was good at singing too. This kind of mystical person was very likable.

Meng Fan nodded. "It's too much pressure, really… I can't really explain it."

Su Qing Cen heard that and didn't press him anymore. Although she was regretful, she still smiled and said, "Alright then. If you can overcome your psychological barrier, let me know, and I'll invite you again. Oh right, you can still watch a concert, right?"

Meng Fan smiled. "If you're not worried about me causing another laughing frenzy, I'd love to come!"

Su Qing Cen spread her arms and mimicked Bai Zhi's words. "Let him laugh, aren't we having a good time?"

Having said that, Meng Fan had sidetracked both concerts, but the result was not necessarily bad. He actually added a lot of fun elements to the concert. This was the case at Su Qing Cen's concert, and although he hadn't received any feedback from the parties involved, it couldn't have gone too awry.

The concert ended around 10:30, and the live audience applauded before leaving the venue reluctantly in an orderly manner.

Meng Fan sent a Wechat message to Wu Tong and the other girls. Although Wu Tong had met Su Qing Cen and Bai Zhi, the other girls hadn't. Of course, they wanted to see them up close. An autograph and a photo was the definition of a top tier concert experience.

"Jiu Jiu."

Bai Zhi saw Qin Jiao and the others being escorted backstage and welcomed Qin Jiao with a hug, grabbing her hands. "We haven't seen each other in almost three months!"

Qin Jiao's face was sullen. "So what if it's three months, it's not like you wanted to see me anyways. You've been in Hangzhou all these days, and not mentioning having dinner, you didn't even invite me to your concert!"

Bai Zhi held onto Qin Jiao's arm. "I was trying to find you and ask you for dinner after the concert! You know I'm a person who holds onto things. If I don't finish my work and eat with you, I might not feel at ease during dinner. Then that's not fair to you. As for the concert, I knew Fan was going to give you the ticket."

"You hold onto things, I hold grudges!"

Qin Jiao rolled her eyes at Bai Zhi but couldn't hold it anymore, breaking into laughter.

Wei Zhi Xue and the three others were curious and surprised. They didn't expect Qin Jiao to know Bai Zhi, and for the two to have such a close relationship too.

Wu Tong was quick to figure out the relationship between them. Qin Jiao was Liang Qing's student and learned from her since a very young age. She must be familiar with Liang Qing's daughter of the same age, Meng Cai Wei. And since Meng Cai Wei was college roommates with Bai Zhi and had a close relationship, it wasn't surprising they knew each other.

From another perspective, Qin Jiao must be really close to Meng Cai Wei as well.

After the two greeted each other, Qin Jiao introduced the other girls before they proceeded to take a group photo and ask for autographs.

Su Qing Cen had noticed Qin Jiao next to Wu Tong during the concert. She didn't know who Qin Jiao was, but she felt this woman was very beautiful and had good taste. She knew this woman was definitely somehow related to Meng Fan, but she didn't expect her to know Bai Zhi as well.

The staff on the side also noticed during the photoshoot the dazzling aura of Wu Tong and Qin Jiao. Not only were they eye-catching, but these two fans who came to take photos did not lose in appearance to either Bai Zhi nor Su Qing Cen.

The other three girls were very beautiful as well but were at a huge disadvantage standing next to these four ladies.

After the concert, they had an afterparty, which was a dinner. One, it was a successful stream, and two, the staff were all very hardworking. They had to take the chance to relax. It wasn't just hard work from the hours during the concert, but all the efforts that went into preparation for rehearsal till now.

Qin Jiao and the others had already left, leaving Meng Fan by himself. Even if he wanted a ride back, he wouldn't fit.

This was Meng Fan's first time participating in this kind of gathering. In the beginning, he found it to be quite interesting, but slowly he began to lose enthusiasm, especially when the big brothers in the music circles began to persuade others to drink. Meng Fan had a good alcohol tolerance, but he was no match for the complexities of tabletop manners and alcoholic talk. In no time, he guzzled a copious amount of wine.

He rushed to the bathroom and put on the hat to slip out.

"Huh?"

Just as he was about to leave, Meng Fan paused after hearing a few band members chattering.

11/11 gala stream!

These words jumped in Meng Fan's ears. It was like a new boss had entered the battlefield!

There would be so many people watching this 11/11 gala being broadcasted from satellite TV!

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Chapter 182: The Sky is Raining Sand

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

The 11/11 gala, the famous carnival night, was the grandest stage for brands to display their products, creatively linking television to the internet and the economy. Since the first year of its making, it had invited top tier production teams, host lineups, and guest lineups to be a part of the process. The live broadcast would be streamed on a satellite TV platform as well as multiple streaming platforms. It was a massive live stream with almost as many viewers as the New Year's gala broadcast!

What was this then?

The largest temple fair in the world!

The sacrificial procedure before people start purchasing!

If one were watching, even if the time was short, the number of viewers would be terrifyingly high. Maybe not incredulously high, but the number of viewers in a minute would exceed the amount one had in a month!

Meng Fan felt he needed to listen to this information.

Two of the band members chatting seemed to be participating in the gala as accompaniment and even spoke of a background singer from Bai Zhi's concert that was also planning to attend the 11/11 gala as a harmony singer. Aside from that, Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen were also guests for this year's event!

This was important news, bolded and underlined.

Meng Fan took off his hat and walked up to Bai Zhi—Su Qing Cen had left soon after the dinner started—and blocked a few shots for her. Bai Zhi used Meng Fan as an excuse and dragged him away, avoiding the alcohol.

"Whew. I think I had too much."

Bai Zhi asked for a glass of water. Although she spoke of drinking too much, she was still in a good state. Her cheeks were flushed red, but regardless, she wouldn't lose control at a gathering like this.

The two chatted for a bit longer, and Meng Fan naturally brought up the 11/11 gala. "I heard you're guest-starring at this year's 11/11 gala?"

Bai Zhi nodded. Smiling, she asked, "What, you want some tickets? I think I have a few left."

"Yes please."

Meng Fan chuckled and nodded. All else aside, he had to at least enter the venue. He thought that based on his presence, he had a 100% chance of being caught on camera as it scanned through the audience. Even if it was just a few seconds, it would still net a high number of viewers.

As for performing live on stream, Meng Fan wasn't so arrogant that he would perform on stage with his singing skills. That was basically impossible.

It wasn't like his singing was actually any good. As for reputation, he was kind of known in the industry, but the organizers would have to be delusional to actually invite him to participate.

Sing with Bai Zhi?

This wasn't Bai Zhi's concert. Even if she was willing to bring him, the organizers might not agree. Of course, if Bai Zhi insisted, they wouldn't turn her down completely. But the premise to this was that Bai Zhi felt Meng Fan was 100% dedicated to performing at the gala. Otherwise, she couldn't force the organizers either.

Even if Bai Zhi was his sister by blood, Meng Fan wouldn't make such excessive demand. It was much too troublesome.

Besides, Meng Fan and Bai Zhi had talked about the 11/11 gala, Bai Zhi's first response had been giving him an admission ticket, which alerted Meng Fan as to how difficult it was to get in.

It was not that Bai Zhi brought up the tickets to ruin Meng Fan's idea of joining the concert, but she did not even think that Meng Fan wanted to perform for the gala.

This was subconsciously very important.

Looking toward the band members conversing, Meng Fan was slightly envious. If he was slightly competent at an instrument, he could be passable and be confident enough to ask Bai Zhi or Su Qing Cen to open a backdoor for him; singing in the chorus would work too. Only, singing in the background was not exactly the same as regular singing, and because of his tone, he was not suited to be a backup singer. A background singer was supposed to harmonize and support the singer's voice. If he were to harmonize, he would only drag the singer. His voice was that good.

Although accompaniment and background singers were very important, they could be 'strategically sourced' to a certain degree. If Meng Fan was adequate enough and wasn't too demanding, it wouldn't be difficult to get him a spot.

It was okay to play a supporting role, but it was impossible for him to take a main role in the background chorus.

Aside from accompaniment and singing chorus, what other supporting roles were there?

Background dancers!𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

He couldn't even be f*cking sourced for this!

Although Meng Fan wasn't close to being handsome, he would stand out for sure. His mass couldn't be hidden!

Meng Fan sighed. He better gave up that notion. It was pretty nice to just quietly be an obedient audience member that would be filmed during the gala.

"Fan."

Bai Zhi's phone began ringing with a video chat request. After speaking a few words, she called Meng Fan over, pointing the camera at him. A dirty and chubby figure appeared on the other end, scaring Meng Fan out of his skin. He then began to laugh. It wasn't just a random dude, but Meng Cai Wei!

"What are you doing? Did you fall into the mud?" Meng Fan asked.

"I just finished filming and haven't cleaned up yet."

Meng Cai Wei didn't give two damns about her current appearance. Even in her current state, she still gave off an attractive aura. She maintained the stance of a lady, who had just climbed out of a mud pit but was still the most beautiful person on earth.

"You little brat…"

After Meng Cai Wei watched the video Su Qing Cen had sent her, she had searched up the relevant information regarding today's live stream of Bai Zhi's concert. Several of these articles were related to Meng Fan, to the point where Meng Cai Wei fully understood what Meng Fan had done at Bai Zhi's concert.

Meng Fan chuckled. "You're done filming, so shouldn't your main focus be on losing weight? You shouldn't be wasting your precious weight loss time here bartering with me!"

Meng Cai Wei laughed coldly. "Of course I have to lose weight, I've already come up with a plan. Boxing is especially great for weight loss, and it won't delay me from beating your ass."

Bai Zhi couldn't help but giggle at the siblings' interactions.

She was so envious!

As an only child, Bai Zhi was very envious of anyone who had a brother or a sister!

When the dinner was almost over, Bai Zhi took off slightly earlier with Meng Fan following close behind. Bai Zhi's hotel was nearby and had wanted to book a room for Meng Fan, but since he wanted to go back, she sent him off with a driver.

Although he had a lot to drink, it wasn't too much of a hassle. Sitting in the back of the car, all he wanted to do was drift off. Seeing this, the driver played some music at a comfortable pace.

"I think love makes people cruel. The person you wanted to love has become a needle in your heart…"

Meng Fan listened to the song, and his eyes suddenly burst open. He then asked the driver, "Mr.Driver, what song is this, it sounds familiar."

The driver smiled and responded very sarcastically. "This song is related to our Hangzhou town. The song's title is a place in Hangzhou, In the Sand."

"The sky is raining sand. It's laughing at me…"

Meng Fan listened as You Yong Ming sang the song into a romantic ballad with his raspy, detached voice and suddenly smirked. He really was too dumb!

He didn't know how to be a background singer or a dancer, but he could draw, couldn't he?

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Chapter 183: Professor, I Want To Learn Sand Painting!

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Sand art!

While Meng Fan was being humored by this "Into the Sand" song, a form of art classification appeared in his mind.

Drawing as an art couldn't be performed or be suitable for performance… until sand painting appeared.

The art form of 'sand painting' appeared relatively late in history and even later in the eyes of the public. Initially, sand painting was just static sand painting. Using glue or latex as a base layer, people would sprinkle sand over it to create art. Slowly, a more dynamic form of sand painting was developed in the late 1970s until recently where it had become popular.

Sand painting performances were ephemeral. When combined with its unique charm, staging, and beautiful background music, it allowed the audience to enter a fantastic realm of visual enjoyment with a high value for appreciation.

Meng Fan wasn't sure what was the first song that accompanied the first live sand painting, but he knew the most famous combination in China—the music video for Eason Chen's "Nothing to do".

He was very sure that sand painting could be incorporated into a large performance, especially a fast-tracked sand painting performance.

If he had incredible sand drawing skills and proposed to accompany Bai Zhi… as an artist… It wouldn't be difficult for her to recommend him to the organizer, and they would most likely agree as well.

If Meng Fan wanted to be good at being a backup singer or dancer, it would be very difficult, since these skills required him to learn starting from the basics. Even if he had 8 music sense and could learn much faster than a regular person, it would be a long time in order for him to reach an "incredible" level.

However, sand painting was different. Meng Fan's current drawing skills were at 23. In addition to his existing attributes, he was godlike!

Plus, this 23 drawing skill wasn't just for manga. It included a wide scope of other artistic mediums, only he had never tried them before. If it was impossible to have 23 for every category when he first started, he could just familiarize himself and adapt to the medium.

How long would that take him though?

It would take a long time to reach 23 level, but it should take no time to reach 10 or 15 level, which was more than enough!

The attributes of imagination, set design, scriptwriting, etc were all required for the creativity involved in creating sand painting performances. Also, Meng Fan had a hand speed of 16, which was perfect for real-time sand painting!

No no no!

At this moment, Meng Fan felt that the attribute value he had just described wasn't that accurate because an alert had just sounded in his mind.

"Ding! The total number of collectors for your manga has reached 1 million, completing the [Collector of Millions] task. Reward: 100 points."

"Ding! You've completed the [Collector of Millions] Task, receiving the title [Collector of Millions] (Drawing skills 3, set design 3, screenwriting 3)"

The number of collectors for his manga had already reached 800,000 in the last few days and had been increasing since then. When Meng Fan uploaded the latest chapter yesterday, the two books had accumulated just over 900,000 collectors. In a day, it had gathered 100,000 collectors; this data was somewhat abnormal.

One would understand the reason for this abnormality after one opened the manga.

There were several comments and messages below it that were related to the concert. They must have been curious after watching the stream and searched Meng Fan up and naturally found the manga under related searches.

With the attribute bonus that came with this title, Meng Fan's attributes had improved another step further. His drawing skills wouldn't change much, but his set design and screenwriting skills had been doubled which was very helpful.

"Who knew that after finishing this task, the attributes won't be used on the manga first but sand painting."

The car arrived at the community quickly. Meng Fan thanked the driver and headed home. Right away, he dug up several videos relating to sand painting performances. It was already pretty late when he left the gathering place, and by the time he finished watching everything, it was past 3:00 am already.

The next day, he went for his morning run and naturally ran into Wu Tong. Meng Fan pretended as if the singing and confession did not happen the previous day, and Wu Tong seemed her usual self as well. They warmed up. They did their run and chatted. After their run, while they stretched, Wu Tong suddenly said, "A lot of netizens think your version of the song sounded better than the original. I listened to it several times, and I think they are right."

Meng Fan paused for a moment. What was the meaning of this?!

Wu Tong then changed the subject. "You, will you become a singer?"

Meng Fan shook his head very decisively. "Probably not. In fact, my singing is very average. This song only sounded good because of the sentiment involved. Anything else won't sound this good."

"Oh."

This time, Wu Tong did not bluntly inform him of his flirting. Instead, she switched her stretching position to a direction that didn't face Meng Fan.𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

Gulp.

Unwillingly, Meng Fan gulped. Although he and Wu Tong often warmed up, ran, and stretched together, he still wasn't immune to the effects of some of the postures that she carried out.

Wu Tong was never one to take the sexy route, but sometimes, she was deadly!

"Professor Wen."

At 9:30 in the morning, Meng Fan knocked on the door of an office.

"Is the famous singer here?"

Wen Wan, who had been pouring water, turned around and smiled at Meng Fan. She teased him and asked, "Do you want tea or coffee?"

Meng Fan was surprised at the friendliness. "Water is okay."

Wen Wan placed the freshly poured water on the coffee table and gestured for Meng Fan to sit. Curiously, she asked, "I heard Qin Jiao say you wanted to talk to me?"

The art of performing sand painting only became popular in recent years. Nowadays, there were several famous sand painting artists, who mostly transferred from other artistic mediums or studied it part-time. So far, there hadn't been a famous sand painting artist who had been studying the art from the beginning. Major art academies and colleges had only recently begun teaching sand painting courses.

Wen Wan also belonged to the group of people who picked up sand painting halfway. She received her art education from a young age and graduated from the National Academy of art. She specialized in drawing, oil painting, and gouache. In 2008, she was introduced to performing with sand art and could be considered one of the few female sand painters in China. She was a dynamic pioneer of sand painting who had excellent stage performance. Three years ago, she returned to her alma mater to teach part-time while also running her own art studio.

If Meng Fan wanted to learn sand painting, it wasn't enough to just watch videos online. The Chinese saying goes, if he wanted to enter the pagoda, he had to earn the moon. It was pretty convenient to find a teacher at the Academy of Fine arts too.

Although Wen Wan didn't have any teaching work today, she had received a call from Qin Jiao saying Meng Fan had asked her to introduce him. She had originally planned to visit her studio but immediately turned back toward the school.

It was one thing to respect Qin Jiao's wishes, but more importantly, she had been very curious to meet Meng Fan in person.

If there was any student from the Academy that was famous, it was undoubtedly Meng Fan. She heard of every kind of award and honor related to art, but Meng Fan? He was fresh.

Meng Fan nodded and got to the point. Very seriously, he said, "Professor, I want to learn sand painting."

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Chapter 184: Fast Learner

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Why do you want to learn sand art?"

Wen Wan had already guessed this possibility before Meng Fan arrived. She knew it was the most likely, otherwise, he wouldn't have come to her. She asked the question out of courtesy, but she was also genuinely curious.

Meng Fan was famous, and in addition to doing strange things, everyone was still willing to mention him because there was the premise that he was very good at his specialty. Otherwise, these strange things would just be out of professional merit instead of for entertainment. If that was the case, his classmates would still talk about him, but professors wouldn't approve.

Many people had seen Meng Fan's manga and his illustrations, including Wen Wan, and they could all see that Meng Fan's drawing skills were among the highest in the industry.

Because of this, Wen Wan was curious.

Most sand painters transferred from manga artists and not sketching or oil painting since sand painting was very similar to manga in terms of the creative techniques required.

Meng Fan's response was more or less honest. "I think sand art is pretty cool, and I'm very interested."

"Your answer is pretty cool too."

Maybe it was already preconceived, or maybe his charm was working, regardless, Wen Wan had a very good impression of Meng Fan. She even accepted Meng Fan's sloppy response as a gesture of his coolness and continued to ask him, "How would you like me to teach you? Do you want to go to class or come to my studio?"

Meng Fan was overjoyed. "You agree to teach me?"

Wen Wan smiled. "There's no reason to say no."

Meng Fan thought for a while and said a little sheepishly, "I want your one on one teaching course. It's like this, I think I have a good foundation for drawing, and I'm a fast learner as well… Uhm, most importantly, I have a lot of questions. If it was a regular class, I'm afraid I'll just waste the other students' time with too many questions."

Meng Fan wanted to find a teacher to get him started quickly, so he could have a sense of direction and became familiarized with the process. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to transition regardless of how great his drawing skills were. It was not like his drawing skills had its own "memory" that would allow him to know sand painting without even learning it.

"You mean you want to learn fast?"

Wen Wan didn't doubt Meng Fan's self-confidence since facts had proven that sand painting wasn't a skill heavy form of art. Regardless of what category of art one chose to paint, sand art was easy to learn as long as one had the foundations set. And if one had their own drawing style, their sand painting style would be unique as well.

In addition, strong calligraphy skills would also greatly help with sand painting.

Even if one began from zero, one had to spend a lot of time on their foundations which required a lot of effort.

Of course, it didn't mean that other skills were required to paint with sand which was the same as… if one learned oil painting, one might not be good at Chinese painting. After all, the tools and methods were different, and nothing was certain.

In retrospect, with Meng Fan's current painting skills in sand painting, Wen Wan believed Meng Fan would have a great advantage.

"I want to see how fast you really are."

Wen Wan smiled. "How about this. I was going to head to my studio today, so why don't you come with me. I'll ask a staff member to share some basic knowledge and props with you, and when I'm done with my work, I'll give you a proper lesson. If you really are fast, then I'll go one on one with you."

Otherwise… Did she even have to continue?

Either she didn't teach them, or she treated everyone equally.

Meng Fan nodded fervently. "Then thank you in advance."

"My studio is right next to the school. Let's go there."

As they spoke, the two left the office and headed toward the school gates.

"Iron singer!"

"Badass!"

"Hello, Meng Fatty!"

Along the way, they ran into a lot of people who greeted Meng Fan, and even those who didn't say hello also looked at him a few times.

At Bai Zhi's concert yesterday, the largest audience group by far was the student and faculty from the Academy. Most of them had watched it, and those who didn't catch up with the videos, especially the two songs that Meng Fan sang.

In addition, the video of Meng Fan's two songs on Weibo had received a high number of shares and retweets. It was even popular on some short video sharing platforms.

It was a pity that these clicks and retweets couldn't be converted into viewers. Otherwise, Meng Fan didn't even need to study sand painting for the double eleven gala since that would have completed the task already.

"Those who don't know probably think you're famous."

As they left the school, she said with a smile and pointed toward a direction before walking there. Not long after, they reached a neighborhood near the school. Coincidentally, Wen Wan's studio was in the same neighborhood as Meng Fan. Although they weren't in the same building, they were only one unit apart. If he really looked, he could see the studio from his apartment.

Wen Wan's sand painting studio was called Wen Wan Sand Art. It occupied the second and third floors with a relatively large surface area. The third floor was for meetings, guests, research, and some teaching. The second floor was mostly used for practice and other creative functions.

"Ding."

Wen Wan took Meng Fan into the second-floor studio and spoke to a guy who had been tossing sand. "I don't have to introduce him, do I? Can you take him around to familiarize with the tools, and teach him some basics for sand painting as well. I'll be joining you two in a moment."

She then turned to Meng Fan. "If you want to know anything just ask him."

After this, she headed for the third floor.

"Hello, iron hero!"

Ding was a student from the academy as well; of course, he knew Meng Fan.

More than half of Wen Wan's students at this studio were from HuaXia academy. A quarter of them were graduates from the academy, and a handful of the rest was from the National Art Academy.𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

Wen Wan was just like Qin Jiao when it came to helping students.

Of course, the academy was still the best resource for studios like these. If one didn't pounce when the treasure was right under their nose, where else would one go?

Ding asked him a few curious questions and then began to introduce the tools once he got a better understanding of Meng Fan. The most important tool out of these was the sand used for the art.

The sand came in several different types and colors to satisfy various requirements.

Ding had been learning sand painting since his first year at the university and entered Wen Wan's studio in his second year. He was legitimately Wen Wan's student and was already appearing solo at several performances at the beginning of this year. His foundations were solid, and he was a creative guy. And slowly but surely, he developed his own style.

Naturally, he was very professional.

After introducing Meng Fan to the tools, Ding began to teach him starting from the basics since he knew Meng Fan had zero foundations, to begin with.

He talked for a dozen or so minutes as he acted out the techniques.

"The basics for sand painting include spreading, like this…Then it's spreading… dotting…"

Ten more minutes later, Ding let Meng Fan try it out himself.

After explaining the basics, one naturally had to try it out on their own. He grasped the sand and began to 'paint'. This way, he would be able to better digest the knowledge; otherwise, the lesson would just go through one ear and out the other.

About two hours later, Wen Wan went down the stairs and entered the studio. "It took longer than I thought. Coincidentally it's dinner time, you guys can pick it up after we eat. You understand the basics right?"

At this time, Ding's expression was a bit strange. "Professor, uhm, he already completed an entire painting on his own…"

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Chapter 185: Sand Art Skills

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"He finished a painting by himself?"

Wen Wan was suspicious. She entered the studio and approached the two. Looking at the table, there indeed was a drawing. It depicted a pagoda with a complete structure, detailed lines separating it evenly, and was overall pleasing to look at.

Wen Wan scrunched her brows and asked Ding even more suspiciously. "He drew this?"𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

Ding nodded.

Wen Wan's brows creased even more as she looked toward Meng Fan. "You've learned this before?"

Meng Fan shook his head.

Ding said, "He definitely didn't. Professor, you don't know, but before we began, this iron bro didn't even know how to spread the sand… But in an hour, he was able to grasp the techniques for sand painting! Then he did these paintings. It was like he could watch once, learn, try it, try it again and he'd know it by heart. Not only is it an exact replica, but he could also one-up you!"

"He's really that fast?"

Wen Wan was still in disbelief. Instead of going out to eat, she looked at Meng Fan again. "Is Ding telling the truth?"

Ding was innocent. Why would he lie?

Meng Fan nodded, so Wen Wan insisted he perform it for her.

He nodded again and waved his hand, wiping away the pagoda on the table. He then reached out and grabbed a handful of sand and began spreading it on the stand, easing his grip as he moved along. Slowly, the form of a fish appeared. He then made a few dashes with his fingers, and the eyes, fins, and gills became evident as well. In no time, a lively fish appeared on the table.

He then took the remaining sand and placed them in the corner, drawing a few more circles and pushing his fingers down. A water lily appeared.

He grabbed a few more handfuls of sand, and in less than a minute, he realized a scene of peaceful fish among water lilies.

Meng Fan only realized his attributes were beneficial to sand painting after he started learning it. It was too fitting!

The most efficient attribute that was transferred was his hand speed. Initially, he thought hand speed could only help his drawing skills, but after officially experimenting with sand painting, he realized how much power and skill this hand speed really could bring.

If his hand speed was fast, that meant all the nerves in his hands were more sensitive as well, and their muscles were more prominent. Overall, that meant he had better control of his hands!

It didn't feel like much while he was drawing manga, but his control had been incredible when he was playing arcade basketball. When it came to sand painting, which required using one's hands like a brush, Meng Fan realized this was the biggest gain of all.

While he was drawing his manga, he had the assistance of a universal pen. But for sand painting, he had his blessed hands. To be a bit excessive, they were basically universal pens!

Wen Wan didn't see the process for the pagoda painting, only the result, but this time, both were right in front of her. Clean, fast, clear, powerful, bold… his technique was fluid with no extraneous actions. His drawing was abnormal, beautiful, and delicate, producing a painting that was pristine and beautiful. He already expressed the art to its absolute finest!

Although he was lacking a lot in artistic skill, the time it took Meng Fan to learn everything was enough to stun even Wen Wan, who was accustomed to teaching students with incredible talent and skills. It was a shock!

"Don't need to see it, let's eat."

After taking a look at the drawing, Wen Wan knew Meng Fan had mastered the technique. In less than two hours, including the time it took to discuss the skills, Wen Wan was speechless at the rate Meng Fan learned.

No wonder he had the confidence to boast he was a fast learner.

There was a kitchen on the third floor with some take out. After eating, they went back downstairs where Wen Wan began to teach him. As for Ding, he maintained his strong sense of curiosity and followed them into the studio, helping out where he was needed.

"I won't go on about the basics, you just need to practice. Just a reminder, since you came from a manga background, then you should keep your manga style; there's no need to avoid it.

Wen Wan lit some sandalwood out of habit, although it had nothing to do with sand painting. But every time she taught or performed, she would light some sandalwood no matter where she was. This was her signature.

"Next, I'll teach you some skills, composite techniques, combination techniques, and color balance techniques. Afterward, we'll study composition, overlaying, and white space. Then lastly, we will go over telling a story through the sand."

"Let's begin with compound techniques and combination techniques. The two are very similar. The former is an advanced form of a single technique, while the latter is a combination of multiple techniques."

"The premise of the compound technique is to loosen your fingers. Each finger, in addition to your palms, knuckles, and even the wrist and elbow, is a tool for sand painting. You must remember, you can rely on the most flexible of these, whether it's a finger or any part of your body. But never rely on it completely, as it will constrain you and limit your abilities. You should know this from the start."

Wen Wan's method of teaching was very simple. Hand to hand demonstration in addition to a vocal lesson. It was not only in-depth, but brief, and allowed information to be grasped in an easy format. She would show it to a person, then explain the reasoning behind it.

Her method of teaching was very flexible and was constantly adjusting to cater to Meng Fan's understanding and progress. Some she only had to show once, while others were more difficult and had to be repeated.

Her demonstration was also quite dazzling. Her fingers were very beautiful and flexible as well. There were very beautiful transitional movements, regardless of what she was drawing. The beauty brought out by her fingers alone could be considered a gift from god.

"Color-balance technique, also called visual technique, is the biggest difference between sand painting and manga and other painting types. Other forms of art will use it but not often, unlike sand painting which uses it frequently. The most simple example is if you were to draw a cabbage, other art forms would just paint a cabbage, but in sand painting, you can choose to do this…"

Wen Wan waved her hand across the sand table, undulating slightly. After covering the surface with sand, she cleared out a blank space, which formed the outline of a cabbage.

This method of painting was basically painting the areas that didn't need to be painted, and what was left became her subject.

But doing so in sand painting was obviously because spreading the sand would make it easier, and one could 'erase' the parts one didn't want very quickly.

She flipped the painting.

This was Meng Fan's biggest joy.

After trying it, it felt so right and was quite fun as well.

"Human faces are like this too…."

Wen Wan demonstrated this to Meng Fan then began to explain the techniques behind it…

"Next… Let's talk about composition."

Wen Wan realized that she had gone over all the skills and paused for a moment. This progress was a bit fast. She felt as if she had been ranting on about the technique to herself while Meng Fan was in the background keeping up with her ramblings. It wasn't just that he understood her words either, but his movements were able to keep up as well. If he wasn't already so adept at the skill, she wouldn't have advanced so smoothly.

"There's not much to say about composition. Your original foundations are enough. Let's skip forward to overlapping compositions. Sand painting happens very fast. The process requires a lot of coverage in the beginning, so it's very important to know how you use some elements from the previous painting in the next painting. Otherwise, there's not much performance in painting one piece and wiping it away."

"The narrative telling method is the same as above. In the end, it all comes to conception, which requires skill. But most importantly, it depends on the artist's own cultivation, and their understanding of the world…"

At four-thirty, Wen Wan stopped her teaching, realizing there wasn't anything left to talk about.

It wasn't that she had gone over everything, but that Meng Fan's current performance showed that she did not need to go over the rest.

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Chapter 186: Just Need Practice

After the additional attributes, his 26 drawing skills were even more transferrable.

Throughout this process, Meng Fan compared himself to the sand painting technique demonstrated by Wen Wan. He could feel the speed of his transformation. In a few hours, he was already considerably fast. When compared to his expectations, he was even faster.

Meng Fan could confirm his transitional skills could reach Wen Wan's level in a mere three days if he continued to practice and practice even more.

Of course, this was just pure technique. As for stage experience, and storytelling, it wasn't transferable from his drawing skill.

If a sponge learned from others by absorbing water, then Meng Fan was a well of oil, and Wen Wan was someone who was drilling for oil. Each time she knocked on the well, some oil spurts out, then she would tap it again and enter the chasm… The rest would have to rely on practice and stage performance!

Meng Fan was happy being extracted. He discovered Wen Wan had stopped working and curiously asked, "Professor Wen, why did you stop? Did I do something wrong?"

Wen Wan handed over a glass then happily said, "What are you saying, I've been wrung dry by you!"

"Huh?" Meng Fan was stunned.

Wen Wan took a sip of water then took a deep breath. "I've covered everything I need to; there's nothing more to teach. What you need to do next is practice, and digest this information yourself. I really have nothing left to teach you. At most, after you've finished practicing, I can give you some pointers once you perform on stage. Otherwise, there's nothing more. But if you run into any problems, come find me anytime. I'm happy to discuss anything with you."

"Huh?"𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

Meng Fan was still stunned. However, he made sense of it in no time. He only wanted to remain shocked; after all, he couldn't appear like a know it all.

"Huh Huh Huh, what are you saying that for?!"

Wen Wan was angry but was smiling. "I'm a little depressed. I've never met anyone like you. How can we teachers survive?! If Ding didn't tell me you started from scratch, I would suspect you were pretending. Your rate of progress is terrifying. You can practice, for now. I have to buffer for a bit. This is too hurtful!"

Wen Wan really left, leaving Meng Fan a little embarrassed. On the side, Ding stared at Meng Fan as if he were a mythical creature. Calculating it carefully, it would take him a semester to reach Meng Fan's current level!

And with this progress, Ding felt Meng Fan could catch up to him in just two days!

Only God knew when Meng Fan opened the third door to humanity and developed his godlike skills!

This kind of player was too terrifying!

Of course, the surprise was only a part of it. Wen Wan and Ding were both in disbelief, as sand painting required a sturdy drawing foundation. Meng Fan's drawing foundations were already at a top tier level, and even though he was really fast, it was no otherworldly shock.

Understanding through analogy.

This was a normal occurrence in the art world.

Meng Fan looked at the time then looked toward Ding, chucking. "Senior Ding, can you point me in a direction to practice?"

After eating dinner, Meng Fan decided to stay. Like a couch surfer, it was like he decided he wasn't going to leave.

Dinner was on Meng Fan, who directly called take out from the waterfront restaurant. It covered the entire table and was much more filling and diverse than what they had for lunch. Some of the employees in the office, who had planned to go home or go out, decided to stay and eat first before leaving. Although the waterfront restaurant was beside the school, it was a considerably pricey place. Even if most art students were decently well off, it wasn't something they got to eat every day.

To Meng Fan, being a good man meant it was important to pay more heart to maintain good connections, or in this case, pay more money. Normally, if he spent a bit more, it would save a lot of time and trouble.

A man should be generous; that was what his family had taught him while growing up.

Of course, one should also avoid being at the center of injustice.

There weren't many people in the studio at night, and Wen Wan had left long ago.

Around 10:00 pm, Ding was genuinely tired.

Meng Fan had been practicing nonstop, and he was watching from the side the whole time. He couldn't just watch him dryly and went off to the side to practice as well.

It was already 10:00 pm, but Meng Fan didn't show any hints of stopping. Ding was utterly defeated.

Does the iron hero purely rely on talent?

Probably not.

Adapting to sand painting so quickly, one could say it was because of his incredible drawing skills. But his drawing skills were the result of hard work and practice!

Ding had seen Meng Fan's stream before and knew of Meng Fan's terrifying drawing abilities from some other sources as well.

He was envious of Meng Fan's talent but also of his perseverance.

He felt he had to work harder too!

It was already 10:00 pm. He had been in the studio since 8:00 am in the morning and already felt exhausted from practicing all day.

"Iron bro."

Although he was a year above Meng Fan, Ding was still willing to address him as his superior. He used this nickname because it was interesting but also because he respected him.

"Are you gonna keep practicing? The school's closing in a bit."

"It's alright if the school closes, my place just happens to be in this community too. Only…" Meng Fan looked outside, assuming everyone else in the studio had left already. "There's nobody left in the studio?"

"Your home is here?"

Ding was really surprised. He also knew what Meng Fan was worried about. "If you want to keep practicing, you'll be fine. There's always someone in the studio, I'll let them know."

"Then thanks a bunch."

"No problem."

Shortly after Ding left, a studio member Meng Fan had met earlier at dinner approached him and told him to close the doors and lights before leaving. He seemed to be in a hurry to be somewhere.

Meng Fan practiced for a while and then took a break to chat with Wu Tong after seeing her message. He then sent Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen a message, asking them what their setlist was for the 11/11 gala.

"Let me show you something cool."

While waiting for their response, Meng Fan sent a video to Wu Tong.

The video was of course of his sand painting. As for the content, it was quite shameless.

Meng Fan first grabbed a handful of sand and wrote the characters for "Wu Tong" in cursive. As he wrote, he grabbed another handful of sand and changed the text into a sycamore tree, which was synonymous with her name. He then wrote the characters for "Meng Fan." Using the "Fan" character as a foundation, he easily changed it into a bird flying with its wings spread. The bird landed on the sycamore tree, and then he used the tree as the base and drew out… two people, but they weren't a couple.

He then combined it with some music, which was irrelevant to the sand painting, but relevant to the two of them. A segment from the song "The Rest of Our Lives".

Bzz bzz.

Su Qing Cen and Bai Zhi responded very quickly and briefly.

Su Qing Cen had a solo performance, and Bai Zhi was performing a duet with a male singer. Both were only performing one song.

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Chapter 187: Team True Love

Ding Quan Kai didn't have class at the moment and was interning at Wen Wan's sand painting studio.

He was already freelancing his own performances, like performing at wedding ceremonies and painting for company events. He was an employee who was able to bring profits consistently to the studio and was a person who could make a living off of sand painting alone.

He didn't have any work recently but would still come to the studio early every day just so he could practice and create some videos to submit online. This included work for some short film platforms that provided revenue.

"Huh?"

Ding Quan Kai immediately saw Meng Fan when he came into the studio. Curiously, he asked, "Iron bro, did you not go home last night? You're here so early!"

Meng Fan smiled. "I got up early."

He was early indeed. He had come after running ten kilometers, showering, and eating breakfast. It was just that it was still very early for Ding Quan Kai and the others.𝑵𝑂𝐯𝖊𝐥𝑵𝑬xt.𝚌𝒐𝓂

"When did he leave yesterday?"

Ding Quan Kai asked a staff member who was on duty last night.

"I'm not too sure, but I got up at 2:00 am, and he was still here." The guy said. "This guy is too hardcore! And he came so early, what a god."

Ding Quan Kai let out a sigh. "Some people are successful for a reason. You don't know how talented he is at sand painting…"

The entire morning, Ding Quan Kai's practice time and his time spent observing Meng Fan didn't even come close to how much he had been talking about Meng Fan to other people. It was almost like he wanted the world to know Meng Fan was an insanely talented and hardworking individual.

At around 10:00 am or so, Wen Wan dropped by. She watched Meng Fan for ten minutes or so before being unable to take it and went off. She then gave Qin Jiao a phone call, curious as to what kind of person Meng Fan really was.

What could Qin Jiao say, she still couldn't figure out how Meng Fan's drawing skills had improved so much in the last few days. She couldn't repeat what Meng Fan said and tell Wen Wan he was a small genius… But that was all she could say.

Otherwise, Qin Jiao was curious about how good Meng Fan was at sand painting to make Wen Wan this startled, so she asked her to send a video over.

She watched the entire thing.

Qin Jiao was a bit stunned. He was very good but not that great at the same time. It was just a regular sand painting video with nothing super outstanding.

She thought about it again then understood.

He had only been learning for a day!

Actually, Wen Wan didn't mention that this video was recorded at 9:00 pm the night before by Ding, who forwarded it to her. If he filmed it today, then it wouldn't just be regular but very good!

Learning made one happy and practicing made one lose their sense of time while being serious made that person as a whole… His stomach rumbled; a timely reminder to Meng Fan that it was time for dinner.

From seven-thirty in the morning until now—5:00 pm—Meng Fan had been practicing the entire duration with the exception of a quick lunch. He had indeed forgotten about the time and was in deep concentration with efficient transition speed. Meng Fan felt that up until now. He was able to transfer about 8 or 9 of his drawing skills into his sand painting.

Because there was no bottleneck effect for his skill transfer, Meng Fan believed that he could reach 10 if he practiced enough tonight. As long as his sand painting was precise and reached a certain level, then he could design a sand painting routine for Su Qing Cen and Bai Zhi's respective songs. When the time comes, he would film it and send it over which would make it acceptable to request such a thing.

If his sand painting wasn't at a level of performing on stage, Meng Fan didn't want to trouble them too much. Meng Fan didn't bother to think about what would happen if they or their organizers rejected him. If they refused, then he couldn't force it; he could only go as an audience member and hope to get some cameos.

Meng Fan was working so hard because time was limited. It was already November 7th, only a few days from the 11/11 gala. He had to quickly transition his skills into an acceptable level for performance, on the 9th at the latest. Otherwise, no matter how good his sand painting skills were, the organizer wouldn't allow such a last-minute addition. He had to give them time to process it.

He had to leave time for practice and rehearsal.

So time was limited.

Meng Fan continued after eating dinner.

"Still working?"

It was 8:00 pm when Wen Wan finished her work at hand and was prepared to leave the studio. She looked at Meng Fan in the studio and curiously asked Ding Quan Kai, "He hasn't stopped?"

Ding Quan Kai nodded furiously. "He's crazy!"

"All the greats are crazy." Wen Wai remembered the days when she was learning sand painting herself. She then turned to Ding Quan Kai. "You should work harder, otherwise, he'll catch up to you."

Ding Quan Kai smiled bitterly. "You don't know. He's already better than me!"

What else could Wen Wan say? Was sand painting that easy?

At around 3:00 am, Meng Fan yawned as he stumbled home. He took a shower and went to bed, where even his dreams involved various versions of the music video for the song "Into the Sand". It was said that water could enter people's brains, but it seemed Meng Fan's brain has leaked sand instead. All he could think about every day was sand, so was it strange to dream of it too?

Several variations of sand with several variations of sand painting.

"You're learning sand painting?"

The next morning after their run, Wu Tong asked him curiously. In the last two days, Meng Fan had been sending her videos of his sand art, all containing cringeworthy and shameless content. She couldn't help but be curious.

"Mhmm, I think it's pretty fun, something else to stream." Meng Fan nodded. He was scared to bring up the videos he'd been sending her.

Wu Tong smiled. "Why don't you learn some sand sculpting? I've seen a few sand sculpting shows; they're pretty interesting*."

In Chinese, sand sculpting (Sha Diao) can be a slang term for dumbass.

Meng Fan's skin was thick too. "If I really were to learn, I'd only sculpt you."

Wu Tong "angrily" shoved Meng Fan, who was barely able to maintain balance in his current stretching posture. With this push, he fell flatly onto the ground. His expression and posture were quite dumb. Wu Tong saw this and immediately began to laugh.

"Huh?"

"Holy sh*t!"

There weren't many people on the track, but it wasn't empty either. Seeing Wu Tong laugh so openly, all their eyes and ears were on the two.

In the beginning, the entire school had rejected the idea of Meng Fan Wu Tong. But slowly, they had grown used to it; they were even hoping for Meng Fan and Wu Tong to end up together. Others straight up wanted them to go public with their relationship.

In private, several boring people had given them several couple nicknames already. For example, WuMengDa CP, Chinese Painting and Manga CP, morning run CP, running date CP, Rice Tub CP, same house CP, and several other strange CP names. The most common however must be calling them Team True Love CP.

The Tea in team came from being synonymous with Iron for Iron hero, while the M came from the Mu making up the Tong character in Wu Tong's name. True love of course meant that Wu Tong and Meng Fan being together had to mean it was true love. At least, Wu Tong must have felt true love when she was with Meng Fan.

Of course, if Meng Fan were to choose, he of course wanted…

"Already fighting like a couple?"

"I've never seen the Chinese Painting Department's beauty laugh like this."

"She could push the iron tower to the ground! Is the Chinese Painting Department's beauty that strong?"

"No wonder you're single. You can't even understand such a simple concept! He's obviously letting her!"

To come outside and run so early and be able to see some PDA as well, it felt so… good!

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Chapter 188: Test Your Skills

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Shenzhen's largest stadium had been preparing for the 11/11 gala since November began. This wasn't the first time this stadium was the main host for the 11/11 gala so preparations generally went pretty smooth. On the fifth, after the gala's director arrived, the singers and celebrities would start coming in for rehearsal.

On the afternoon of the 8th was Bai Zhi's first rehearsal. Her duet partner was a first-tier male actor, and the two had just finished collaborating in a TV show. It had great ratings, and the male actor had been growing in popularity over the last couple of years as well.

This actor had also participated in a cross-border singing show not long ago. Although he didn't win, his voice still drew quite a number of new fans. He was pretty good at singing.

Taking advantage of these two waves of popularity, he formed a partnership with Bai Zhi and stepped onto the stage of the 11/11 evening gala.

The rehearsal had gone smoothly, and the director was evidently very pleased. Bai Zhi was adequate, while the actor seemed a bit obnoxious and kept trying to act out. This was understandable, as people tend to act cool and make excessive movements to compensate for their lack of singing skills. It was able to attract the screams of the audience, but… a deputy director in the director's group that was responsible for the vocal rehearsals was not very satisfied and felt the performance lacked meaning.

"Take a break."

They practiced it several times, but the director's group couldn't be too harsh.

The next rehearsal was Su Qing Cen's. It wasn't a coincidence. It was because Su Qing Cen arrived in Shenzhen together with Bai Zhi and booked their rehearsal times together.

The actor of course had to be compliant. It had nothing to do with being a gentleman but more a matter of who was a bigger deal.

Su Qing Cen's rehearsal ended shortly since her stage performance had no problems. Everything was okay after just going over it once. All that's left now was to wait for the dress rehearsal in two days.

Of course, Su Qing Cen could have come two days late and attended the dress rehearsal with the regular rehearsal in one day, but she just happened to have plans in Shenzhen. Hence, she arrived a day early with Bai Zhi to rehearse.

After the rehearsal, she didn't leave and waited for Bai Zhi to go over it again before they left together.

When another group of celebrities arrived, Su Qing Cen went to the side and waited for Bai Zhi. She waved at the actor and happily left with Bai Zhi as they chatted.

Buzz buzz.𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

At the same time, the two of them received a WeChat message from Meng Fan. They were of the same video. Their phones began to play the music of their performance for the evening, and a sand painting performance.

"Huh?"

They finished watching at the same time as their eyes lit up.

The sand painting performance they witnessed was very suitable to play in the background during their performances and was beautiful and creative enough to even be cut into a music video!

"Did Meng Fan send you yours too?"

They asked together. They then exchanged phones and watched it again.

"What's going on?"

The two were curious, so Bai Zhi called Meng Fan.

Meng Fan briefly spoke of his intention to Bai Zhi, even boasting a little, making himself seem kind of arrogant. He told them that he was inspired and created sand paintings for their songs and even laughed as he said it would be even better if they wanted to use it for their concert. They always took care of him so much, and this was an act of gratitude.

As for being their art… accompaniment at the gala, Meng Fan didn't get the chance to mention it when Bai Zhi hung up the phone after asking him to hang on.

She hung up and immediately approached the director and his crew, showing him the video. Then, she spoke to the associate director in charge of the vocal performances. "Director Sun, what do you think about adding a sand painting show to this group of performances?"

"Sand art mixed with singing?"

Director Sun was no stranger to this, as this kind of performance had been done before several times. The effect was pretty good, and it was definitely doable. Then again, this was the 11/11 gala. Any form of performance could be done if they wanted to.

He thought about it carefully. "We could, since the songs from your group are pretty suitable for sand art, only…" Director Sun paused for a moment then asked Bai Zhi. "Is the performer your friend or a family member?"

Bai Zhi nodded.

Director Sun thought about it again then said, "Then, why don't you call him over to perform and see how it looks during rehearsal. Of course, the final result will still be decided by the head director."

Director Sun had seen his fair share of sand painting and singing performances. The video Bai Zhi sent over was only average from a spectator's perspective; there was nothing special about it.

Of course, this was only relative to all the other sand art performances he had seen. Of these, most performances were top in the industry!

At this time, Su Qing Cen handed her phone over as well.

"Huh? There's more?"

Director Sun was a bit puzzled. After watching it, he could tell the style was similar, confirming it was by the same person after asking.

"Then try this too. But let's settle this first. This sand art performance can only be done with one song. No matter how suitable it is, we can't have both songs be accompanied by sand art."

"We know that."

Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen both nodded. As for who gets the sand art, it would have to depend on the results of the rehearsal. Neither was desperate to have it.

Bai Zhi gave Meng Fan a call again.

Su Qing Cen murmured under her breath, "This kid's trying to get into this gala, isn't he?"

He refused her offer to appear at her concert, but why was he so ecstatic now?

Could it be… For the stream!

After thinking it through, she felt even more strange. Why was this guy so obsessed with streaming? Could it be that he really only had streaming experience and got nervous otherwise?

Who was he trying to fool?!

Su Qing Cen was no child. She wouldn't be fooled that easily.

Yes!

Meng Fan answered Bai Zhi's call and chuckled before running off to find Wen Wan.

"You want a good sand painting table, the kind that can be attached to a projector? For what?"

"To perform."

"Perform? Where?"

"The 11/11 gala. But right now, they just want me to rehearse. I might not actually make an appearance."

"11/11 Gala?"

After hearing this, Wen Wan began to doubt humanity.

It had only been a few days. How was he able to find such a big gig?

Maybe she misheard what Meng Fan said?

Or was the 11/11 gala's planning committee crazy?!

"You wait… Come, come!"

Wen Wan dragged Meng Fan to the studio and pointed to the table. "Let me see your skills! How did you get into the 11/11 gala?!"

Five minutes later, Wen Wan wanted to commit violence.

"You…You're almost at my level! What the hell are you?!"

Meng Fan's learning ability completely subverted Wen Wan's expectations. She felt like her last ten years of sand art education was wasted on a dog. If she wasn't backed up by her years of experience, Meng Fan would have reached her dozen or so years of skill after just three days!

It wasn't just his drawing skill either but storytelling as well.

Using Sand art to paint and tell a story that could be understood by the masses wasn't something that could be done in a moment's time!

"Wait, wait, you wait!"

Wen Wan was still trying to compose her emotions and her words. She glared at Meng Fan. "You better not tell me you wanted to learn sand art just for this 11/11 gala?!"

If this was the case, it was too horrifying.

His ability to learn wasn't the scariest trait. The most terrifying thing was that he could predict how strong his learning ability was and even made sure he could reach the level of such a grand performance before the date of the gala!

Was he even human?

Meng Fan scratched his nose. "Then I'll just not… tell you?"

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Chapter 189: Hit Him? No Need

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Transferring to sand art from manga took less time than Meng Fan anticipated. He had practiced the night before until 3:00 in the morning and felt that he transferred around 12 to 13 points to his sand art.

Aside from Meng Fan's crazy practice regimen, This was also because transferring his skills meant he didn't have to bottleneck his skills into one profession. As long as he put in the work and improved as he went along, there would be no obstacles.

With 15 drawing skills, Wen Wan felt he was already at her level when she saw his work. But realistically, Meng Fan's drawing skills had already exceeded Wen Wan's, but he was just lacking experience.

Additionally, creativity and storytelling could be compensated by his imagination, but creating the 'mood' wasn't something that could be easily learned. Life in experience and knowledge of the environment was something Meng Fan was lacking compared to Wen Wan.

Therefore, this was the biggest difference between Meng Fan and Wen Wan.

After confirming his schedule for the performance, Meng Fan became more and more shameless. He sweetly looked at Wen Wan and said, "Professor Wen, no matter what, I was still taught by you. If I attend the 11/11 gala, I can't lose face for you right? I'm flying to Shenzhen tomorrow, but I still have time today. Can I get some last-minute coaching please?"

Wen Wan rolled her eyes at Meng Fan. "Qin Jiao was right, you are the definition of "the more familiar you are, the less respect you will show"." She then waved her hand. "You head down first, I'll come down after I'm done with my work."

"Okay."

Meng Fan accepted the scolding and bowed, exaggerating as he backed up. Bang, he hit the door. He shook his bum a few times and continued to retreat.

If he wanted to learn some last-minute techniques, he had to have the right attitude. At least, if he didn't try to make the coach happy, how would he leech their experience?

Experience!

Stage experience was very important.

Meng Fan did not have any sand art performing experience, and it was too late to increase it anywhere else. The best method was to learn from Wen Wan last minute.

Theoretical experience was still experience!

Wen Wan arrived soon after Meng Fan. She brought a notebook and began to share her experiences with Meng Fan after rolling her eyes at him.

Wen Wan had a good impression of Meng Fan from the start as she felt this kid was pretty interesting. He then went on to surprise her with his talent and was genuinely touched by Meng Fan's hard-working attitude. But after finding out Meng Fan just wanted to attend the 11/11 gala… She didn't know what to say at this point anymore.

How could a person understand their own talent to this degree? Was this pure confidence? Or inflation? This was pure shamelessness!

Regardless, she could curse him all she wanted, but she was still happy to see Meng Fan improve.

She was very curious as to how this kid reached this step. No, how this kid reached the step of the 11/11 gala in just a few days.

Wen Wan was sure in the next two days before the 11/11 gala Meng Fan would see even more improvement.

It was possible that he had even exceeded her in skill!

Of course, everything else aside, as an educator in sand art, and an artist who had reached the top of the industry and retired to open her own studio, the greatest thing she could hope for was to see her students improve and exceed her—their teacher!

"I thought about it, and the regular method is not suitable for you. Let's just analyze these cases. I've prepared a few of my previous performances into a dozen or so videos. They contain wonderful performances, fantastic ideas, and performance errors as well as ingenious responses to these accidents…"

Wen Wan played the video and paused it shortly after. Not only did she explain the advantages and disadvantages and precautions to take, but she also described her insights and experiences along the way. Many points were described in detail, while others were glossed over briefly. It was completely catered to Meng Fan's situation.

Meng Fan listened carefully while recording the whole process with his live stream assistant at the same time, so he could check it again whenever he wanted to.

It took from 4:00 pm to 11:00 pm to explain everything contained in all thirty cases.

"Now I really have nothing left to teach you!"

Wen Wan took a deep breath after sighing. She looked at Meng Fan's condition, and then with an exhausted expression, she waved her hand at him. "Alright, looking at your face, it's not possible for you to buy me dinner. Continue! You're really crazy!"

She didn't even bring her notebook as she turned and left the studio.

Meng Fan really wanted to keep learning and felt very embarrassed. "Then professor Wen, I'll treat you to a meal when you're back."

Wen Wan raised her arm and waved it again, not even putting the effort to turn her head.

"What's wrong?"

There were still people left in the studio who could see Wen Wan's expression. They knew she had been in Meng Fan's studio this whole time, but they still couldn't help but be curious.𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

Ding Quan Kai had entered and watched for a while but left not long after. The reason was simple. He understood everything but couldn't digest it. The information Wen Wan spoke of wasn't something to be missed. But it contained a lot of information, and if one listened carefully, one's head would explode.

Hence, Ding Quan Kai unwillingly left. It was too much to bear.

Seeing Wen Wan leave the room with a "seen it all" expression, he asked, "Did you get shocked again! The iron hero is a monster!"

Everyone watching knew why she looked so wrung out for they were amazed. They were angry!

The studio that usually closed at 10:00 pm still had people practicing at 11:00 pm. They didn't have the talent, so they have to compensate with hard work.

"I have to head to Shenzhen, so I won't be running today."

The next day, Meng Fan woke up early and sent Wu Tong a WeChat. Then he called Xing Ta Ge, confirming their plans.

Xing Ta Ge cursed as he yawned, climbing out of bed. He then drove into the neighborhood and helped Meng Fan move his drawing supplies into the car.

Meng Fan forced two cups of coffee down Xing Ta Ge, and they drove off to the airport.

After checking in and dropping off their bags, Meng Fan rode the 7:30 am flight to Shenzhen.

A plane!

This was Meng Fan's first time riding a plane since his reincarnation. His heart was panic-stricken. Even though he knew that there wouldn't be a hijacking in China, he was still worried.

He had to overcome it!

He couldn't avoid planes for the rest of his life!

In two and a half hours, the flight landed smoothly. Meng Fan took off his hat.

He would be lying if he said he was not scared. The hat kept him safe!

Bai Zhi had scheduled someone to pick him up. They headed for the hotel first as the rehearsal was scheduled for the afternoon.

This hotel had been fully booked for the 11/11 gala. Meng Fan could find an employee everywhere he looked, including musicians, dancers, and actors. He had also run into some celebrities, all of whom Meng Fan knew.

Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen had just woken up at this time and were eating breakfast at the cafeteria when Meng Fan was brought over.

Bai Zhi's face was dark?

Meng Fan looked closer to see who was sitting in front of her.

Zhu Yu, the same singer who publicly announced his fake relationship with Bai Zhi to boost himself. What event did they meet at again? He had harassed Bai Zhi on the red carpet and was tripped by Meng Fan as he entered the venue.

It seemed like he was harassing her again.

What kind of B.S. was this?

For him to run into such an event!

Meng Fan thought about it. Shouldn't he follow the lead of internet novels and smack him across the face?

Bam!

Before Meng Fan could process it, the angered Bai Zhi raised her glass and poured her juice on his face, with great force and loudly as well, spilling the liquid everywhere.

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Chapter 190: Breaking Vases and Fake Fainting

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Huh?"

This cafeteria mainly catered to celebrities and did not have many people at the moment. However it wasn't empty either, and after hearing the commotion, they all looked toward her.

Bai Zhi spilled juice on Zhu Yu's face!

This was headline-worthy news!

They were rumored to be seen together too; there must be more to it!

Everyone's eyes were lit with the flame of gossip.

Zhu Yu sat frozen in his seat, covered in juice. He knew Bai Zhi had always been stubborn, but he didn't think she would be rash enough to dump juice on him in broad daylight. He had prepared to be dismissed by Bai Zhi with a wave of her hand, but he was not ready for this.

"You're crazy!"

Zhu Yu looked like a wet cat, screaming. This time, not only the people in the cafeteria turned their heads, but the ones walking by did as well.

Bai Zhi threw her empty cup aside and said to him coldly. "Get out."

"What did I do to deserve this?! You better give me an explanation!" Zhu Yu broke down. He did not care about the onlookers.

He did not get lost but walked toward Bai Zhi instead.

"Let's go."

Su Qing Cen's expression was also sour, but looking at the crowd of onlookers and then back at Bai Zhi, she could only restrain Bai Zhi.

"Nobody leaves until I get an explanation!"

How could Zhu Yu Let them go? He barricaded the exit.

Only once he blocked them, he felt a powerful force grasp him and felt himself uncontrollably toppling to the side. Then, he landed on the floor.

Everyone looked toward the force that shoved Zhu Yu—Meng Fan.

Meng Fan looked innocent as he put up his hands. "I… touched the vase?"

All the onlookers stifled their laughter. Of course, he was shattering a vase!

Everyone could see that Meng Fan did not use much strength to push Zhu Yu; no, it couldn't even be considered a push. It was obvious he wanted Zhu Yu to move, and even though this chubby guy looked tall and strong, he only lightly shoved him. No matter how light Meng Fan had been, he couldn't have shoved him over so excessively.

Zhu Yu wasn't a weak person either, always sharing pictures of his muscles online. Could these muscles be fake?

If his muscles were fake, then the fall was fake too!

"Uhm, are you okay? Let… Let me help you up, don't be stingy with me."

Meng Fan quickly reached out to help Zhu Yu with frightening hand speed. The angry Zhu Yu couldn't avoid it and before he knew it, he was clamped by an unmoving force. He couldn't struggle even if he wanted to.

"Hey hey, wait wait! Come on, don't faint!" After grabbing Zhu Yu's arms, Meng Fan suddenly called out, alarmed. He then proceeded to shake him, talking frantically at the same time, "Who did this? Are you really playing me?! I'm just a student. You can't do this to me! Everyone saw just now. I only lightly shoved you, but you fell over. Your fall wasn't even hard, not like you hit anything; how are you unconscious?!"

Zhu Yu was utterly stunned. 'I'm not trying to faint, okay? Please let me go. If you keep shaking me, I'll really faint!'𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

Only Meng Fan's method of shaking was quite tedious; Zhu Yu couldn't even speak through the tremors.

The people standing on the side had seen the event happened very clearly, leaving Bai Zhi, Su Qing Cen and Bai Zhi's manager, Ms. Sun, who lead Meng Fan over, stunned. Their faces were originally sour, but now, they were stifling a laugh.

As for the other bystanders, they were not sure what happened as it was hard to see. It was not their fault Zhu Yu was lying on the ground. Even if they were curious, Meng Fan's tonnage would have blocked their vision anyway.

"I've always heard Zhu Yu was not a good character. Rumors can't lie man."

"Of course, why else would Bai Zhi dump juice on his face?"

"I heard the rumors about him, and Bai Zhi being a CP was spread by him. I've never seen someone so shamelessly try to be popular!

"Trying to latch on to Bai Zhi as soon as he saw her was just a tactic for the paparazzi to film him!"

"Bai Zhi is a hothead too! I heard Bai Zhi wanted to teach him a lesson for a long time already, but she tolerated it because they shared a company."

"What a sh*tty person!"

"Most importantly, his acting skills suck! How could he fall over and pretend to fall when someone just bumped into him?! He's evidently bullying the tall guy!"

"If no one paid attention, you'd really think he was pushed!"

The entertainment circle was so big. Outsiders couldn't determine what trivial issues really happened between Bai Zhi and Zhu Yu. But those in the industry all knew what was happening. But for news like this, it was best to avoid it since there was already so much going on inside the industry. It was best to keep to themselves and stay out of other peoples' business.

Now seeing this, they were all chuckling under their breath.

Of course, there were people with sharp eyes who always felt something was off. Especially about this tall guy.

Who was he again?

Why did he bump into Zhu Yu?

Most people in the industry would try to avoid this kind of event if they could. Nobody wanted to be a part of such a big scene.

This tall guy though had burst in right away.

He must be a friend of Bai Zhi or Su Qing Cen, right?

And it seemed like this tall guy had done so intentionally too. He was exaggerating, but his acting skills were on par.

Could it be that he was only making up the fact that Zhu Yu had fainted?

Not to mention, the people watching were all despising Zhu Yu anyways, so it was working.

He shook him twenty or so times when Bai Zhi spoke to him, "If he wants to fake unconsciousness, there's nothing we can say. Fan, let's go."

"Huh? He's faking? How can he be so mean!"

Meng Fan heard this and loosened his grip, throwing Zhu Yu on the ground. He looked at Zhu Yu with the hurt expression of a person who had just entered society and met a person with a sinister heart, full of grievance and innocence. He then disgustingly looked at Zhu Yu on the ground and frantically followed Bai Zhi and the others out.

Zhu Yu, who was still lying on the ground, felt as if his brain had completely shut down.

What was he planning to do again? How did it end up like this?!

In about a minute, Zhu Yu finally managed to stand up. He felt his sticky face. It was basically dry from all the shaking, leaving just some sugar powder left. He saw the judgemental looks on the bystanders' faces. He could also feel how many of these judgemental looks contained disdain.

He originally wanted to blow this up, but he didn't think Bai Zhi would inexplicably just leave.

Zhu Yu sighed. Even if they left, he couldn't let it end like this!

"Zhu Yu!"

At this time, his manager arrived shortly after hearing Zhu Yu was in trouble. His face was even darker than Bai Zhi's just now!

"Hahahahahaha!"

"You're too mean!"

"That dumbass was so stunned he couldn't even speak!"

"That's too satisfying!"

As soon as they entered the room, Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen couldn't contain it anymore.

Meng Fan thought to himself. This was nothing. Last time, he straight up booted the guy into the venue. At least this time, he knew who did it.

Bai Zhi's assistant still looked worried. "How can you guys be so rash and do such a thing without thinking of the consequences!" She asked with concern.

Looking closely, she admitted defeat. Bai Zhi and Su Qing Cen did not seem to care in the least.

As for Meng Fan… Ms. Sun knew who he was. With a sister like that, did he even know what fear was?

Her head was swelling!

Chapter 191: In Pursuit of Perfection

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Bai Zhi and the others finished eating lunch before leaving the hotel, where there were already paparazzi and journalists waiting outside. They ended up leaving through the basement garage.

Bai Zhi pouring juice on Zhu Yu's face was naturally big news, stirring up all the paparazzi in the area.

Who let this incident leak out?

There's no such thing as a windproof wall. Nonetheless, it wasn't just one or two people who'd seen their quarrel. Even if they didn't mention it, it must have leaked out from some other conversations. There were many people willing to spill this news to large media companies and their corresponding journalists; it could be considered a favor even.

As for Zhu Yu, who really wanted this to blow up, at least on Wei Bo, had already been stopped by his manager. They also restrained him from speaking of the situation in public. Not a peep!

Before, Zhu Yu always leeched popularity from Bai Zhi, which company let slide, even defending Zhu Yu in front of Bai Zhi on certain occasions. The reason was simple; company profit.

Zhu Yu had signed a long term contract at their company, and there were still five years left. During this time, they were happy to see any improvement in Zhu Yu's popularity and rating.

And rumors were rumors, so they can easily be suppressed and prevented from damaging Bai Zhi's reputation. It might even bring Bai Zhi more popularity too. Although she was very unhappy with the arrangement and complained several times, the company would always chuckle and avoid the problem.

This time, the company's method of treatment was very simple as well. Company profit.

No matter what, this incident was going to harm Bai Zhi's reputation! The company would be crazy to ask Zhu Yu to do such a thing!

Based on popularity and revenue earning alone, Zhu Yu couldn't even be compared to Bai Zhi.

Zhu Yu felt wronged and couldn't suppress himself, but the company's response was simple. Deal with it!

As for Bai Zhi, the company had hoped this incident would go away on its own, and even suggested the guy who'd pushed Zhu Yu, Meng Fan, apologize in private to Zhu Yu. Seeing Bai Zhi's firm rejection of this request, they could only wait it out.

As for Su Qing Cen, the company had asked Zhu Yu's manager to personally apologize to her. Although it had nothing to do with Su Qing Cen, she was still present at the time, and the manager had apologized for disrupting her dining experience.

If Su Qing Cen had been under the same company, the process would be much easier, but unfortunately, she wasn't. Who knew what her company must think?

Why must they be so feeble?

They couldn't afford to anger her of course!

However, the incident couldn't be covered up when it came to the public. But at least there were no photos or images, or photos of Bai Zhi pouring juice. Let them guess. As long as the people present didn't say anything, the whole incident would blow over in a couple of days.

The 11/11 gala had a relatively lax rehearsal schedule. Basically, you rehearsed whenever you arrived, since there was a large portion of celebrities attending who didn't sing or dance. The ones who sing and dance only made up a dozen or so.

After all, all the singers performing were all top tier celebrities.

Of course, the final rehearsal was very strict. Unless you were so incredible you didn't have to show up. Everyone had to follow the procedure.

Bai Zhi and the group arrived early after lunch and didn't see any other celebrities there. The director saw them and immediately scheduled their rehearsal.

The only thing that surprised the director was this sand artist. He was almost too young, definitely a student that hasn't graduated yet. Only, he seemed to be very close to Su Qing Cen and Bai Zhi, who were willing to adjust their schedule for him, and willing to give him the time to adjust, no matter how long. The director also had plenty of time on his hands and did not object to this.

Only this young sand artist said his previous videos weren't good and wanted to replace them, which made the director and his crew very displeased.

It wasn't a big deal that he wanted to change the video, but his attitude was offensive!

We aren't playing, kid!

"huh?"

After watching the entire video in slightly irritation, the director and his crew lit up.

The associate director responsible for the dancers was confused as he asked Meng Fan. "Were the previous two videos by you as well? It's totally on a different level!𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

If director Sun had thought the last two videos were average, then the two new ones made him give two thumbs up. This was top-notch in the industry!

He then lifted his head and looked again. It doesn't make sense, he's too young.

Meng Fan, however, maintained his honesty. "The last two were just for fun. When I heard Shan Jin bro and sister Bai wanted me to perform at their rehearsal, I had to focus and record a few good videos to bring here.

Director Sun had no choice but to accept this explanation. "Are you a student? Who's your teacher?" He asked curiously.

"I go to Hua xia art academy, and my sand painting instructor is Wen Wan."

"Wen Wan?! No wonder. A famous master always has incredible disciples!"

Director Sun not only knew of Wen Wan but has also collaborated with her on a few occasions before. Then he muttered to himself. " Two months ago I needed a sand artist for an event and asked her for a recommendation. Your name wasn't on the list she gave me. She's been hiding you deeply!"

It was just talked though, as he didn't call her to inquire about the matter on due to their previous collaborations together.

"Then let's begin."

Director Sun instructed the staff to plan accordingly, and personally explained in detail some techniques vital for a good performance to Meng Fan. There was more than one projector at the event, and the different positions and directions they are set at would create differences in the effect of his sand. Meng Fan had to know this.

Bai Zhi's duet partner hadn't arrived yet, so Su Qing Cen rehearsed first.

She finished in one take with unquestionable singing and dancing expertise. Meng Fan's sand painting performance went smoothly as well, but there were some angles that still had to be figured out.

In about half an hour, Bai Zhi's duet partner arrived and they went over it again. Meng Fan's sand painting was still very refreshing, receiving several nods of approval from the director.

He'd absorbed so much performance experience from Wen Wan yesterday, and practiced it hard for the entire night. Now Meng Fan's drawing skill transfer was at 18. In addition to his imagination and storytelling attribute, and terrifying hand speed, he had already exceeded Wen Wan in terms of visual effect.

Director Sun was touched by this. In two runs, he felt that Meng Fan's performance was even more attractive than Wen Wan's.

Here before him was a superstar in the sand painting world!

They then went over both performances, and after some discussion, the director's crew decided Su Qing Cen's performance would best suit the sand art. They didn't give a reason, but everyone could guess it was because Bai Zhi's duet partner sucked too much.

From a collaboration perspective, Su Qing Cen's performance was better for the overall visual effect.

Of course, the directing crew also considered another reason. The event had to be explosive, and since Su Qing Cen was already an explosively popular personality, they had to add more extravagance to her performance. The best and most extravagant addition at this point was Meng Fan's sand painting performance.

Bai Zhi was a bit regretful by this but didn't say much. She could speak to them when they return. No matter what, Meng Fan was going to collaborate at least once with her, no, at least seven times!

The male actor was also pretty upset that they received nothing after working for so long, but maintained a smile and expressed his remorse as well.

To be honest, he wanted to be accompanied by this sand art as well!

After confirming, they rehearsed the routine two more times before leaving.

On the evening of November 9th, the official dress rehearsal began.

Only about half of the celebrities participated in this dress rehearsal since the rest of them were only planning to appear on the morning of the 10th for the final dress rehearsal.

"What? You want to switch it up again?

The next day during the second round of dress rehearsal, director's Sun's eyes almost popped out of his head when he heard about Meng Fan's request right before Su Qing Cen's rehearsal.

Meng Fan was a little embarrassed, but he was at a 20 transfer rate with his drawing skill and wanted to express his bold thought. We should always pursue perfection, right?

"We're already at the dress rehearsal, are you kidding me? I can't make the decision, go ask the head director!"

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Chapter 192: Fairy

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"AiyoNotFat?"

"ImZhuiZhui?"

Outside the entrance for Shen Zhen's gymnasium next to a garbage can, two well known fickle netizens from his stream met for the first time. After confirming who they were, their expressions were stunned.

"You're a girl?!"

"You're a girl?!"

The two voices said unanimously.

After pausing for a long while, they both opened up their mouths to talk. "Why do I feel like you look kind of like me?"

The two leaned in without a word and took out their phones to take a selfie. The more they looked at the image, the more they felt they looked similar.

AiYoNotFat raised her head. "Were we sisters in our past life?"

ImZhuiZhui thought about it carefully. "I think I have to ask my mom!"

The two chuckled at that, their laughter even sounding eerily similar.

"Which, which year were you born?" AiyoNotFat asked.

"1996." ImZhuiZhui looked at AiYoNotFat's expression. "You too? I was born June 6th…"

AiyoNotFat's expression immediately perked up, so excited she could barely utter the words. "666!"

ImZhuiZhui was shocked as well. "You too?!"

They looked alike and shared the same birthday. This was the real-life version of a doppelganger!

AiyoNotFat smiled. "No, I was born on August 8th. I just think your birthday is too good!"

ImZhuiZhui paused for a moment and began to laugh as well. "You almost scared me there, how could there be such a coincidence?!"

Only, while the two were introducing themselves, the air became eerie again, as both were named Nana. Only, one's last name was Lin, and the other was Zhu Ge.

They both shouted out the name of the shojo manga. This manga was about two girls with the same name having their fates intertwined after they met.

It was once adapted into a TV series too, called "Me from Another World".

Their fates have indeed been intertwined, and it was because of Meng Fan. Because of Meng Fan's stream, they had communicated online, and met up by chance using the entrance ticket Meng Fan gave away on stream.

Meng Fan had requested two tickets from Bai Zhi, in case he couldn't perform on stage and get filmed. After confirming his performance, he gave the tickets away.

The process was simple too. He'd asked who in the stream were in the vicinity of Shen Zhen, then hosted two lotteries to draw. The winners just happened to be these two Nanas, AiYoNotFat and ImZhuiZhui.

Zhu Ge Nana, or AiyoNotFat called someone, and immediately one of Bai Zhi's staff members came out with the tickets. The two successfully entered the venue to their seats, which were very good as well.

After sitting down, they felt the awkwardness in the air as they remained silent for a moment. Then they both took out their phones and took a load of photos and videos for Weibo, WeChat, the netizens' chat room etc, and shared their strange meeting with the netizens as well as their real friends.

"Omg I didn't know AiyoNotBad and ImZhuiZhui are both girls, and beautiful ones as well! My eyes!"

"I've been trying to pick them up thinking they're girls this whole time…"

"What do I do, I'm turning straight!"

"They look so similar!"

"Was this planned by god?"

"It's terrifying if you think about it!"

"Meng Fatty's lottery draw must have been done by god!"

"It's already lucky enough to win the draw, but who knew they could also meet a doppelganger. I'm so envious!"

"I'm revealing my photo, is there a brother out there who looks like me? If so, show me now! No matter how far away, I'll fly over!"

"…Sorry, there's no one here who can match your appearance!"

"Hahahahaha Ruhua you're being naughty again!"

"My name is Ouyang Zhao, is there anyone here with the same name?"

"Go find a shaman to perform the ritual for you!"

The netizen's chat room was livid. The 11/11 gala also began to liven up as more and more people entered the gymnasium.

The tickets for the 11/11 gala were not for sale; you could only receive them from these draws. There weren't many tickets either, since the gymnasium only fit 11,000 people. It was estimated that less than half the seats were for public use, since they were reserved for media personnel, video platforms and their representatives. These commercial companies took up a majority of the seats.

This year's 11/11 gala was going to be streamed on all three main satellite TV channels, which was quite a feat. The stream began at 7:40 pm.

By 7:00, the venue had filled up, and the directing crew had begun several preparations. As for the live audience, well of course they were all taking selfies, photos for their WeChat moments and Weibo.

At 7:40, the stream began. The audience as well as the TV viewers, and the online users officially saw what the stage looked like.

After a montage of short videos describing the celebrities and some commercials, the performance started with a very creative opening. The hosts appeared on the stage, next to two celebrity hosts, all three of them; the top pick from their respective channels.

Recalling upon the future of the exhibition, the first performance was a female singer from England who had stirred up attention in the last year in Huaxia. She had an incredible live presence, and was very explosive when performing live.

At around 9:00, two hosts brought up a group of celebrities to play an exhibition match with a soccer celebrity. Afterward, the host is known as the Tongue of China, and the evening's main host, Hua Shao, introduced the next performer. It was Su Qing Cen, performing one of her famous songs: "Fairy".

Su Qing Cen, wearing a green veil slowly rose onto the stage. Normal people couldn't pull off a full green veil, but Su Qing Cen really looked like a fairy in the outfit. She was so beautiful that people lost their breath as the audience quieted down. Everyone anticipated the incredible performance that would follow.

There was no dance crew, as Su Qing Cen was the only person on stage.

She'd performed this song many times before, but it wasn't suitable for solo performance.

Where were her dancers?

Usually this song always had a hoard of powerful dancers to express its explosiveness.

At this time, a beam of light shot towards the side of the stage where a guy sat next to a table.

"Huh?"𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

Appearing at this time meant it had something to do with the song. But he was so far away, how are they going to collaborate?

Of course, the viewers in front of the TV and on the stream could see the words depicted in the subtitles.

Sand Art: Meng Fan.

They then understood this was sand art accompaniment to the performance.

Most people had seen the sand painting before, so they waited in anticipation.

Out of these, a small number of them were very excited. Obviously, it was the fickle netizens who knew Meng Fan was attending this gala. Only, they didn't know Meng Fan could do sand art as well, thinking it was a duet. After all, Meng Fan's singing was very appealing.

The music sounded and the lights flickered.

"I remember those wonderful moments/like a fleeting phantom/I followed the sound/ and saw a dream-like fairy…"

Su Qing Cen's moving voice sounded, cueing Meng Fan, who was shrouded in light to begin his performance. The contents of his sand painting appeared on the rear projection, where a beautiful fairy appeared amid a blooming lotus flower.

It looked like the flower was really blooming in real-time. Nobody had seen this kind of animated sand painting before, but they could see it with their naked eyes that the artist was using a particular technique to spread the sand to create this effect.

The fairy inside the flower was very beautiful, depicted with surprising detail.

"…Storms come and go/the demon wakes somewhere…"

At that moment, the stage Su Qing Cen was standing on suddenly lit up, and the projection of his sand art appeared at her feet. The two hands spreading the sand moved very quickly, and in no time, Su Qing Cen was shrouded in a forest. It was a forest ravaged by the wind, with its branches flying, and even Su Qing Cen herself was swept up!

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Chapter 193: Dreamlike

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

Usually, they were apathetic to the 11/11 gala, but this time, Zhang Zhou Wei and the others didn't just watch but gathered a group of people to watch it together. There were boys and girls present, as they had booked an entire theatre from the school.

Only after arriving, Zhang Zhou Wei and the other guys who had brought their girlfriends felt remorse immediately.

11/11 was an endless abyss, just because Meng Fan was performing, it didn't mean they had to jump into the hole as well!

Before the day even began, all major online retailers were already releasing discounts and information regarding the sale. Girls aside, several guys even had filled their shopping carts in advance. After arriving at the theatre, the biggest topic of discussion among the girls was regarding which online stores had which discounts, which stores had new products, and what they had to buy this year.

Normally, the girls would discuss this among themselves, but today their boyfriends were present, so they had to inform them as well.

"Honey, I think this shirt will look good on you!"

"Baby, I have to buy you these shoes!"

"Hubby, it's almost winter and your face can't take this cold. I got you some face masks for men, oh and some toner and moisturizer as well. You have to use it!"

"I got this heat pack for you, isn't it cute?!"

"The sleeves on this jacket comes with gloves, you see, and it's big enough for two hands. When we walk I can reach in and hold your hand. How cute is that?"

Are the girls asking their boyfriends to buy out their shopping carts?

Of course not!

All the sisters in our brilliant academy are new-age independent women, okay?!

Instead of asking their boyfriends to buy out their shopping carts, they actually considered buying a lot of things for them.

As for how the guys dealt with their girlfriends' kindness, and how they should go about it, it was all based on personal awareness.

What happens if your awareness is low?

Haha, that's funny. Would someone with low awareness have a girlfriend?

"It's coming it's coming!"

Zhang Zhou Wei and the others perked up as they heard the host introduce Su Qing Cen. This group of prodigal girls was still discussing what to buy as they watched the event, and the various commercials that kept appearing did not help the situation. It's all a hoax to spend money!

Guy: I make so much money but you spend it on another man

Girl: Explain, who am I spending it on?!

Guy: Jack Ma!

Girl: That's my daddy!

This was basically the situation in the audience as well. When it was finally Meng Fan's turn, the prodigal girls were able to drop their Jack Ma daddy for a moment.

"Sand art?"

Everyone was stunned when they saw that Meng Fan was going to perform sand art. When did he learn this? Wasn't he singing?

Xing Ta Ge finally understood what that giant table he'd help carry the other day was for.

Everyone in Wen Wan's studio knew that Meng Fan was going to perform sand art, including Qin Jiao, who Wen Wan had dragged over.

"You better look and see what you're lacking!"

Wen Wan did not need to talk for long, as everyone's expression changed ten seconds into Meng Fan's performance.

Professor, we can't reach this level no matter how hard we try. He's basically a god!

Wen Wan's face also went sour, as she saw the difference in skill between Meng Fan and her.

"It's only been a few days, how could he improve so much?!"

"This technique… I don't understand it!"

"Are his hands too fast? Fast is one thing, but he also has a special trick up his sleeves!"

They then looked at the projections below Su Qing Cen's feet, and its content. Wen Wan suddenly shot up.

Sandpainting was usually flat, but how was he drawing it in all three dimensions?!

When Su Qing Cen was swept up by the "tornado", Wei Wan understood it was from the mechanics of the stage. But Meng Fan's sand art looked like it was sitting up straight on the stage. Wen Wan couldn't understand!

He drew it to have a 3D effect?!

This painting technique wasn't uncommon in street art, but Wen Wan had never seen this effect reflected in sand art.

She'd thought of creating this effect before, but it was delusional and impossible. The "lines" in sand art was composed of sand, which has randomness in itself. If you wanted colorful sand to be drawn well, each grain of sand had to be carefully selected. There's no way you could make a tower out of beach sand.

However, Meng Fan's drawing wasn't stacked. It was purely a visual effect!

How deep of an understanding did you have to have on sand art to reach this degree of control and technique?!𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

To Wen Wan, the most terrifying thing was still Meng Fan's hand speed and accuracy.

Suddenly, the sand art in the stream began to change. Using the power of technology, the cyclone from before was kept on the ground, then Meng Fan opened up both hands, scribbling lines throughout the forest and clearing out a void space. It made the perfect figure of a person, or more specifically a demon who had just crawled out of the ground.

Wen Wan was confident she could draw human silhouettes quickly using this technique, but she found it hard to make the outlines clear.

The next scene stunned Wen Wan once again, as well as everyone present.

All the dots created by his hands all connected into one entity, another demon!

It was like he'd made a face using a collage of photos.

But those were put together after a long time of computer editing and calculation. Meng Fan's performance was a live broadcast, where the entire process took less than 10 seconds!

His imagination was exquisite, and his control was terrifying… How great an imagination do you need to achieve this?!

Su Qing Cen, who was still floating in the sky continued her performance, not only singing but dancing as well. Her movements were to the rhythm of the sand art. For example, she would exaggerate the motion of releasing the demon, and a sand outline of a spear would appear in the projection behind her. She'd turn her body, and two sand drawn wings appeared behind her.

Technically, to be precise, the sand painting was being done to Su Qing Cen's dance moves.

Hovering, Su Qing Cen's movements couldn't have been that accurate, and they didn't get to practice much either, so how could they be in sync?

What happens if you're not in sync?

This was the first question the director asked after hearing Meng Fan's request. Meng Fan's solution was that Su Qing Cen followed her own actions and rhythm, and leave the rest to him.

Reality proved that Meng Fan didn't boast, as the director was satisfied after the first rehearsal, and slightly surprised as well. He then agreed with Meng Fan's solution and organized a copious amount of resources to help Meng Fan. For example, many of the screens on stage had been specifically rearranged for him and even adding an aerial camera.

The spear flew out of Su Qing Cen's hand as she released it and hit the demon. The demon then exploded and turned into a blooming lotus flower. Su Qing Cen fell from the air and stood on the flower. At that moment, she became a pure, dreamlike fairy.

Reality and sand painting were perfectly intertwined, creating a dreamlike effect.

Su Qing Cen stepped forward, a flower blooming under her foot at each step. When the song ended, all the lights suddenly dimmed, leaving a thin beam of light on Su Qing Cen. She was breathtakingly beautiful!

Oh, and another beam of light shone on Meng Fan, far away.

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Chapter 194: Will You Be Streaming?

Translator: Dragon Boat Translation Editor: Dragon Boat Translation

"Amazing!"

This time the 11/11 gala's director was a famous director for festivals and events from America. He'd seen every kind of performance imaginable, and out of all the performances tonight, none had managed to touch him like this one did. At most, he gave a nod to the better ones. But after the song "fairy" was performed, he emotionally waved his hand in a fist.

Of course, this fist was for the sand painting performance. Su Qing Cen was a great singer and had performed well today. She was pretty good at live performances, but at most would only receive a nod from the head director, David.

David had seen several sand art performances before, and even collaborated with those at the top of the industry, but he'd never seen Meng Fan's style of the sand art performance.

His sand painting skill was one thing, and his wild imagination was the other. Combined, the visuals created were unimaginable.

David was sure Meng Fan could make it to the Las Vegas show performing sand art alone!

When Su Qing Cen's rehearsal ended, David had sent Meng Fan an invite to this performance, but this tall happy go lucky guy actually had the nerve to reject him.

'Can he stream his performance?'

'Are there a lot of viewers?'

These questions all puzzled David. 'Have you heard of anyone streaming the Las Vegas show?'

Artists had a temper, that David knew, but this was the first of its kind.

"Chen, your rhythm is good."

David shook his head and threw this useless conversation aside, congratulating the program director.

David had brought his own crew, but one of these famous program directors came down the stomach flu, so he could only ask a director from Mainland to fill in that he'd once worked with.

A program director was crucial to the streaming of these live events, and would heavily impact the show if David did not communicate with him, no matter how good a director he was.

And this man from China, last name Chen had caught David's eye from the beginning of the gala. He was much better at controlling the field and performances than the last partner, especially during Meng Fan and Su Qing Cen's performance. His production skills reinforced David's long-time desire to collaborate with him.

Meng Fan's performance required a high degree of cooperation from the program director. The scene required several camera degrees already, and several segments had to be added. If there were any defects or regularities in the transitions, the picture would be chaotic; heavily impacting the overall visual effect.

When the audience saw Meng Fan on stream, from his sand art alone, they were able to visually enjoy the show, and feel the visual impact. All the stage effects like lighting took 10% of the credit, while the program director accounted for 20% of the credit and the technological features accounted for 20%, while Meng Fan's personal charm took 50% of the credit.𝐧𝒐𝗏𝑒𝑳𝓝𝑒xt.𝒸𝑶𝓂

At least to the live audience, the performance was not as wonderful as what the online viewers saw.

A good performance didn't rely on one person, but collaboration amongst a group of people.

At this time, the sand art performer, Meng Fan, let out a deep sigh. He didn't see the streamed content, but he was sure his performance went smoothly. His idea to cooperate with the organizer had succeeded. He felt really great!

He was in a lively mood.

But he refrained himself from laughing.

He was afraid that once the light focused on him, the stream would turn to him too. If he laughed, he'd ruin the beautiful scenery.

He'd gained his artist's conception from his skill transfer, for it wasn't something you could learn.

Although he would start another laughing frenzy, and earn a lot of experience for the [Concert Killer] task, Meng Fan held it in.

He didn't know when was the next time he could experience such a fun performance.

After all, these kinds of shows did not happen often, and you don't run into such a nice organizer often either.

Best hold it in!

He would be very grateful if he could just gain enough viewers today!

Of course, even if he couldn't laugh, he could still smile.

In the beam of light, Meng Fan smiled and waved to the camera. After the light moved, he naturally left his position as well.

When the stage lit up again, the host appeared on stage, and Su Qing Cen who was still on the other end was invited for an interview, and to greet the audience as well. There would also be a lottery at the gala.

As for Meng Fan… He was no popular figure no matter how good he was at sand art, so nobody invited him to be interviewed. At most, he was mentioned by the host, "Thank you to our sand art performer Mr. Meng Fan for bringing us such a wonderful performance". At best, he could be filmed a few more times and shown on stream.

Sand art performing artist?

Meng Fan thought this name flowed well, and only it was only uttered by the host. If the System could give him such a name, then he'd earn even more sand performing attributes.

"Ding!"

At this moment, an alert sounded in his mind.

Is the System actually giving him the title?

Of course not.

It was an alert notifying Meng Fan of the lethality score from this event.

Although he didn't laugh, or provide any "negative guidance" , he still had an impact on the concert. And the score was relatively high too.

248!

It was even more lethal than Bai Zhi's concert.

Seeing this, he determined his impact was based on how many people it affected. Otherwise, how could he earn so many points when he'd just been obediently performing? It's almost 250 points!

Including the 188 from before, he had 366 lethality points in total, which was a fair distance away from the 1000 points required to complete the task.

Of course, Meng Fan thought at first he'd have to attend a dozen concerts to complete this task, but it seems like it won't take that long now.

He then checked the viewer count for the [Famous Streamer] task.

Originally, his total views had reached 18 million, but now it leaped to over 52.25 million!

He'd gained 34 million views!

Basically, during that one song, there were that many people watching the 11/11 stream.

To be honest, it was less than Meng Fan anticipated. Pondering about it though, he was really overthinking.

It wasn't hard for the 11/11 gala to reach 100 million viewers, but it was a lot to have 34 million viewers for those three or four minutes.

Meng Fan's strong presence was to thank as well!

Facts have proven that Meng Fan's presence was powerful. In the statistics listed after the gala ended, the "fairy" performance was the second most-watched performance from the entire show.

The most-watched was of course the performance by a world-famous superstar, who the organizer's had been promoting for half a year.

"Mr…Meng?!"

After going backstage, Meng Fan was greeted by a few celebrities before he even entered his room.

These guys probably didn't know what to call Meng Fan. Originally, they wanted to call him professor Meng, but he was way too young.

"Mr. Meng, I want to invite you to perform at my concert, would you be available?"

"Mr. Meng, we're currently filming a show called… Are you interested?"

These were all celebrities who had finished their performances and were dressing down backstage and had watched Meng Fan's performance just now on stream. They were all touched! So they took it into their own hands and waited for Meng Fan to come out and offer him these jobs.

They were all pretty famous, so Meng Fan knew who they were. Very seriously, he asked, "Uhm, will your concerts be streamed?"

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