I am Really a Superstar 3

by Little Merger

Zhang Ye was originally a mundane college graduate with aspiring dreams to become a star, but unfortunately has below average looks and height. However one day, he woke up and suddenly found himself in a parallel world!It’s like the same world, but wait a minute…many brands, celebrities and even famous works from his world changed and are gone in this new world!

6. 1021

I am Really a Superstar #Chapter 1021: Petal Shower vs. Sunflower! - Read I am Really a Superstar Chapter 1021: Petal Shower vs. Sunflower! Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 1021: Petal Shower vs. Sunflower!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

"Petal Shower!"

"Petal Shower!"

"Petal Shower!"

"Petal Shower!"

The excitement in the studio was hitting a fever pitch!

Many in the audience were shouting her name!

Petal Shower did not say anything. She just bowed and exited the stage.

Zhang Xia openly commented, "That was fantastic! There's only one such female singer like her in the music scene!"

Yao Jiancai quickly asked, "You've recognized her?"

Zhang Xia smiled and said, "I'm quite certain of it."

Chen Yidong said, "But her voice doesn't sound familiar to me. Why can't I tell?"

Wang Zhuishu had also more or less guessed who she was. He was astonished. "She changed her vocal register on purpose and made her voice sound different." He looked to Zhang Xia and said, "Is it really her?"

Zhang Xia said in amusement, "Don't ask me, ask Old Chen."

Then, the judges looked over to Chen Guang.

Chen Guang scoffed and threw his hands up, saying, "I don't know anything. Why would you ask me?"

Amy said excitedly, "There's something to look forward to now! It's gonna be difficult to predict who wins and loses!"

Wang Zhuishu gave a wry smile and said, "Yeah, Petal Shower just showcased her specialty. If we considered just this performance, no one could beat her except The Clown since he's always so unpredictable. Since no one can predict what he's going to do, we shouldn't count him out." The vague meaning to this was not spelled out clearly, but Petal Shower had turned in a heaven defying performance with this song. However, with Li Yu exposing himself and with so many fans supporting him, it would be difficult to predict how the audience would vote in the end.

In the corridor to the backstage.

Petal Shower was returning.

Spinach said excitedly, "Big Sis, y-you were amazing!"

Yesterday's Daylily said, "That was so cool! Senior Sis, could it be you?"

Petal Shower looked at him. "You are?"

Yesterday's Daylily said, "I'm a newcomer to the company. Uh, if I haven't misidentified you, we even dined together at Dongzhimen last month."

Petal Shower laughed. "Oh, it's you."

Yesterday's Daylily was shocked. "So it's really you then? Aiyo!"

But Spinach still could not recognize her. She hurriedly asked, "You are?"

Sunset Glow didn't seem to have figured it out either and was looking at her deep in thought.

The Clown did not say anything and ignored them. He already knew who she was, so he was even less inclined to speak as he was afraid that he would get recognized.

Onstage.

Dong Shanshan was saying, "Let's welcome our next singer—Sunflower in the Starlight!"

At this, the audience raised another racket!

"Ah?"

"Li Yu is next?"

"He's facing off against Petal Shower?"

"Aiyo, this is so exciting!"

"Uh, this…"

"Brother Li Yu, you can do it!"

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

"Let's go! Li Yu will definitely win!"

Many of Li Yu's fans were screaming their hearts out!

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Sunflower walked onto the stage slowly as the crowd cheered him on. There was a sense of heaviness in his stride. After he came to a standstill, he took two deep breaths. Petal Shower's amazing performance had pressured him too much. He really had not expected that Petal Shower could sing a rather unknown song so well. It was an incredibly heaven defying performance and whoever took the stage afterwards to face her would have it quite hard. If this as before, Sunflower knew that he would have lost to her for sure. But it was different today, since everyone knew who he was. With his popularity, as long as he could perform up to par, he would definitely become the Masked King!

Sunflower was convinced of it.

Besides, he had chosen a song that would flatter him today!

The lights dimmed.

The music started playing.

The title of the song appeared on the display overhead the stage: "Mother Said."

"It's a Mandarin song?"

"Why isn't he singing a Cantonese song?"

"Li Yu is definitely saving that for the finale! Haha!"

"It's almost Mother's Day, so this song is a good choice too!"

"But isn't it a rather niche song?"

"Anything that Li Yu sings is good. So what if it's niche? The song that Petal Shower sang was even more niche!"

The audience was getting quite enthusiastic.

However, when Spinach and Yesterday's Daylily saw the title of the song, they felt even more contempt for Li Yu. He had broken the rules, cheated by soliciting support, and even chose this sort of song to resonate with the audience on Mother's Day? He could really resort to any kind of method just to become the Masked King? How could he still have the cheek to sing a song about a mother's love!

Sunflower sang.

"Mother, oh mother.

"I've always kept your words in mind.

"I finally understand why you told me to be wary of those around me.

"Mother, oh mother.

"I've always kept your words in mind.

"You said that life is like an abyss that none of us can escape."

This was a very gloomy song.

It portrayed the singer's sense of confusion.

"Loneliness.

"I've gotten used to it.

"Hurt."

"I've suffered it.

"Can you tell me those words again?

"Mother, where are you right now?"

In the studio, some people started to cry.

Zhang Ye's mother also felt a little touched and kept sniffling.

Zhang Xia, Amy, and the others nodded lightly. Disregarding everything else, Sunflower's singing was really one of the best in the music industry. The potency of his high notes was striking, and his technique was good. He could consciously control his voice to insert a slight sobbing tone, which made his singing particularly catchy!

The song ended.

Applause rang out through the studio!

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

A lot of young ladies were so moved by the song that they screamed as they shed tears!

As today was Mother's Day, this song had clearly resonated with the audience!

Sunflower was very satisfied with himself. He smiled to the audience while waving at them and bowed to show his appreciation.

Dong Shanshan went back onstage and invited Petal Shower back on as well.

Finally, the tensest moment arrived. The voting was about to take place!

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Spinach watched, not blinking.

Yesterday's Daylily got butterflies in his stomach.

Hou Ge, Xiao Lu, Dafei, and others from the program team were all looking in that direction too. They were also looking forward to the results of the voting, but could not do anything to help. None of them wanted Sunflower to win and were wishing that he would get eliminated in this episode. Otherwise, if Sunflower really became Masked King for every future episode, King of Masked Singers would end up a personal stage for him to build up his popularity. That would defeat the purpose of having their contestants appear in masks!

But then, could Petal Shower really beat him?

Could she really beat Li Yu's popularity?

And so, the judges would play their roles to their greatest effect.

Zhang Xia said, "I like Petal Shower's performance. The only word that can describe her singing today is 'perfect!'"

Yao Jiancai commented, "Although Sunflower's song was nice to listen to and the sentiment behind it is just right, it's just too pessimistic and depressing. I also prefer Petal Shower's 'That's Me,' especially that last verse with the 'last cry.' It was the best! To be honest, I've never heard someone who can sing this well!"

Amy expressed, "Comparing the two of them, Petal Shower's performance was the more outstanding one today."

The judges unanimously preferred Petal Shower.

Petal Shower nodded in thanks.

Sunflower remained silent. He did not seem to care what the judges were saying as he still did not think that he would lose, so he let them say whatever they wanted.

However, when the voting began, Sunflower's expression finally changed!

The moment it started, Petal Shower went into the lead!

It was not much, just seven votes!

Li Yu's fans in the audience were infuriated!

"What the heck!"

"Do you people even understand music?"

"Give your votes to Li Yu!"

"Give them all to Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

"He should be the Masked King!"

Li Yu's fans flared up as his vote count soared!

Sunflower overtook Petal Shower and went into the lead by more than 20 votes!

The program team staff looked peeved!

Spinach and Yesterday's Daylily stamped their feet in frustration!

The judges' comments were very professional. To be fair, Petal Shower's singing was really leaps and bounds better than Sunflower's. But due to Li Yu's despicable tricks, many of those present in the studio disregarded the point of voting. They no longer cared about the singing and whether the song performed was good. Some of these audience members were even explicitly supporting the person and not the performed piece. No matter what Li Yu sang, they would give their votes to him!

Sunflower looked at the tallies and smiled.

Petal Shower did not even turn around to look at the votes.

Fortunately, there were still plenty of people in the audience who were rational.

Zhang Ye's eldest younger sister said, "I'm definitely voting for Petal Shower!"

His father said, "Right."

His mother disagreed, "But Sunflower sang very well."

His third sister said, "I didn't like Li Yu's song as it was too pessimistic. Why does it paint everything in life so darkly? Why must we be cautious of the people around us? Although I like Li Yu, I still think that Petal Shower sang better today!"

The burst of votes from Li Yu's fans was only temporary. For that moment, a lot of people gave their votes to Li Yu, but it could not gather enough momentum!

Petal Shower had sung too godly!

She was so amazing that some of Li Yu's not terribly diehard fans defected and voted for Petal Shower instead!

Both their tallies kept rising!

Finally, the results were out!

Dong Shanshan said, "I hereby announce that the winner is—Petal Shower!"

Petal Shower: 252 votes!

Sunflower: 248 votes!

It was only a difference of 4 votes!

Petal Shower had won!

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Chapter 1022: 'Life's More Than the Grind'!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

This result shocked many people!

Sunflower's expression darkened!

Assistant Xu was dumbfounded!

Spinach was so astonished that she nearly screamed out loud!

Yesterday's Daylily and the employees on the Beijing Television program team nearly laughed out loud!

She won?

She really won!

What a release! This was a great way to vent their anger!

"Li Yu lost?"

"That's impossible!"

"Who on earth is Petal Shower!"

"Sunflower revealed himself, yet he still couldn't win?"

"Why didn't he sing a Cantonese song!"

"If he sang a Cantonese song that he's skilled at, he would definitely have won!"

"Yeah, Sunflower probably intended to save that song for the battle for the Masked King? How could he have known that he would run into a freak like Petal Shower! And make an early exit?"

"It's over! Li Yu can't fight for the crown of the Masked King in this episode!"

"He'll definitely make it through the elimination round, though, so he has to wait until the next episode."

"Ai, he underestimated his opponents!"

"But there's really nothing to argue over about this win by Petal Shower!"

"If Li Yu had sung a Cantonese song, Petal Shower probably wouldn't have won."

A lot of the audience members were giving their objective evaluation of the outcome.

But a lot of Li Yu's fans did not accept this result.

"What the heck!"

"There's a conspiracy!"

"Do they even understand music? How did they vote?"

"It was clear that Li Yu sang better! Why does it seem like no one understood that?"

"Just like Teacher Li Yu had sung in his song, life really is like an abyss. We're surrounded by so much darkness that even if we try our hardest, no one gives us any recognition!"

"I'm pissed off!"

"How could Petal Shower win?"

"My heart aches for Brother Li Yu!"

Seeing that Li Yu had lost, some of his female fans were heartbroken for him and crying!

Crestfallen, Sunflower left the stage in a terrible mood!

A few of the judges looked at each other, finding it rather funny.

Executive Director Hu Fei felt very happy!

Deliberately planning for this to happen? To checkmate everyone? And even spending money on a PR campaign in the media? And openly soliciting votes on Weibo? But as it stood?

He had lost in the first round!

This was truly a slap to the face!

This was truly painful!

Zhang Ye laughed. That was beautifully done. Leave the rest to me.

The uproar in the studio lasted for five minutes.

After Dong Shanshan finally maintained a semblance order, she said, "Let's welcome the next contestant—The Clown."

The Clown was the third to appear and was matched up against Spinach.

This dragged everyone's attention back to the stage.

Petal Shower did not return to her waiting room. She stood with Spinach, Yesterday's Daylily, and the others in the wings and waited to see The Clown's live performance. They were all very curious about this mysterious singer who had taken the throne of the Masked King twice before, curious about his unguessable identity. There was not even a candidate they could think of. It was as though this godly person had suddenly appeared out of nowhere in the music industry, so much so that even Petal Shower dreaded him a great deal.

Amy clapped. "It's The Clown's turn!"

Yao Jiancai had been looking forward to this and said, "Is he going to sing yet another original?"

"I'm not sure." Zhang Xia stared at the lyrics teleprompter but did not yet see the title of the song displayed.

The audience looked to the stage.

Spinach was nervously observing The Clown.

The Clown walked over to the house band and exchanged a word with them.

Bai Yuanfei was taken aback. "You're really going to choose this song to perform?"

The Clown gave a determined, affirmative grunt.

The guitarist said, "This song is too monotone and isn't a good choice."

The Clown smiled. "It's fine. I'm choosing it."

The house band replied, "OK."

This song was one of the four songs Zhang Ye had chosen. Before this, he was still undecided on which to perform, but he could now make a decision.

Looking at the stage.

Zhang Ye's mother exclaimed in surprise.

His father turned to her. "What's the matter?"

His mother pointed at The Clown. "Nothing much, but Little Ye also seems to have that pair of shoes he's wearing."

His father said, "Oh, really? I hadn't noticed."

His mother said, "I bought them for our son. They're pretty expensive."

His second sister added, "Of course, celebrities usually wear brand name stuff since they're all loaded."

None of them cared, nor did they think anything of it.

The studio quieted.

One second.

Two seconds.

The lights slowly dimmed.

A nursery rhyme-esque melody played by a harmonica floated into the air.

Zhang Ye stood at center stage with his eyes closed and smiled. He did not know why he was smiling. Thinking about Sunflower's "Mother Said," which Zhang Ye had heard for the first time, he could honestly say that he really didn't like the song. Life was an abyss? Life was about suffering? Be wary of others? Get used to loneliness?

Why was it like that?

This wasn't what life should be about.

This isn't what a mother's love should be like.

At least, my mother's love is not like this.

Zhang Ye thought of how his mother was stingy, long-winded, and loved bragging. He would never forget his first day at university when his mother went with him to report to the campus. She carried so many big and small suitcases along with her while looking for Zhang Ye's dorm room with him and even helped him fit the bed sheets, pillowcase, and blankets. When she realized that the bed sheets were not properly fitted, she took them off and fit them again.

After that, his mother's eyes inexplicably reddened.

Zhang Ye had attended Media College in Beijing and he would be back home every weekend. It wasn't actually that bad since he was allowed to go home. Even Zhang Ye himself was looking forward to his time away from home and did not feel unsettled by having to stay away from home for the first time in his life.

But his mother very nearly cried.

Study hard—she left after saying those words.

At that time, Zhang Ye felt that his mother was just making a fuss.

Zhang Ye did not understand what his mother had felt even when he was in his final year at university. But just now, as he stood on this stage, realization dawned on him. Zhang Ye understood what had gone through his mother's mind at the time and understood what his mother had meant by "study hard."

The guitar strummed.

It drifted through the air with a youthful spirit.

Zhang Ye opened his eyes and sang in a gentle voice 1 that resonated through the studio.

"Mother sat at the door,

"Humming to flowers and kids she'd cared for.

"Although it has been years,

"I still recall her tears.

"Those dark and gloomy years,

"That tenacity and those fears.

"At the door before departing,

"Mom looked into my eyes, imparting."

The drums kicked in.

Zhang Ye sang.

"'Life's about more than just the grind; poetry and distant fields we can find.

"'You were born into this world with bare hands; to strive for that sea you cast off from lands.'"

In the audience, his mother was stunned!

The judges were stunned!

The audience was stunned!

You're singing a song related to your mother as well?

Life's about more than just the grind? Poetry and distant fields we can find?

These lyrics…

His third sister put a hand over her mouth. "Oh my god!"

His eldest sister said excitedly, "This song is so beautiful! How can this type of song exist!"

During the rehearsal, The Clown had just hummed through it. So the house band was hearing The Clown sing the lyrics for the first time as well. They were instantly moved!

The Clown smiled.

"She sat across from me,

"Head down, bidding farewell.

"Although it has been years,

"I still recall her tears.

"Times of those joyful beams,

"Times of those vows and dreams.

"Parting beside the street,

"She hugged me tight and said,

"'Life's about more than just the grind; poetry and distant fields we can find.

"'You were born into this world with bare hands; to strive for that sea you cast off from lands.'"

His mother's eyes suddenly reddened!

Amy looked deeply touched!

Zhang Xia was affected by the images conjured by the song!

An audience member was half-listening to it when all of a sudden, she covered her mouth and started crying. She had been brought back to her teenage years when she insisted on coming to the capital city to chase her dreams. Her father had strongly disagreed and locked her up at home. Not even a hunger strike could change his mind. But she would never forget when her mother quietly unlocked her door one night and handed her an already packed suitcase along with 2,000 yuan. She told her, "Your dad fell asleep, so hurry and leave. If you don't make it in Beijing, just come home."

This was what a mother was!

The greatest person in the world!

The Clown had a very gentle tone that was not intended to show off his singing. It was as though he were reading a story, narrating at an appropriate clip. But it was exactly this plain singing, coupled with those poetic lyrics, that somehow managed to bowl them over and make their hearts flutter a bit!

The story was still moving forward.

The Clown was still singing.

"I've traveled far and alone."

"Now I have a kid of my own.

"He is growing day by day,

"And will leave home someday.

"Watching as he grows up,

"Watching him toughen and look back.

"I know that there will be a day,

"I'll smile to him and say."

All of a sudden, The Clown jumped octaves.

"'Life's about more than just the grind; poetry and distant fields we can find.

"'You were born into this world with bare hands; to strive for that sea you cast off from lands.

"'Life's about more than just the grind; poetry and distant fields we can find.

"'You were born into this world with bare hands; to strive for that sea you cast off from lands!'"

Faith.

Hope.

Dreams.

Love.

Legacy.

They were all mentioned in this song!

Spinach smiled bitterly.

It was her turn next, but could she win?

With this guy singing this song, how could she possibly win!

Many people were even more astonished because they had thought that Sunflower's defeat by Petal Shower was already quite face-smacking, but none of them expected for The Clown to take the stage after that and give another vicious faceslap! Sunflower's song had been about life's abyss, darkness, loneliness, and hurt. But The Clown had outright rejected him by attacking him with his song!

Life's about more than just the grind!

Poetry and distant lands we can find!

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Chapter 1023: The Clown admits defeat!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The music stopped.

The song ended.

The Clown bowed and turned to walk off the stage.

There wasn't any screaming in the studio nor the explosive atmosphere like after Petal Shower had performed. There wasn't even any shouting like after Sunflower in the Starlight's performance. This was a reflective song, one that was not sung in hopes of competing on this stage. However, a lot of people in the audience suddenly started to silently stand up.

One clap.

Two claps.

Han Qi was clapping as she wiped away her tears!

Music Director Bai Yuanfei was clapping with a smile on his face!

Hu Fei, Hou Ge, Dafei, Yao Jiancai, Amy, Chen Guang, Zhang Xia, and everyone else were clapping!

It became a round of constant applause that didn't stop for a long time!

Some of their eyes were brimming with tears.

While some of them had a sad look in their eyes.

This song had given them such a swirl of emotions that it was very difficult to speak or scream to express what they were feeling inside. Those who had similar experiences were moved by the song, whereas those who hadn't gone through such a stage in life and had been affected by Sunflower's gloomy and dark "Mother Said" were now baptized by this "Life' More Than the Grind." They felt like their lives were suddenly brightened by an influx of indescribable emotions that felt very comforting.

"The Clown is so great!"

"I like him, I like him so much!"

"Me too! His songs are just so full of feeling!"

"But this song was neither intense nor lively. Will others be able to understand it?"

"Uh, this song is not exactly suitable for a competition and was not a good choice."

"I don't care about others. In any case, I understood it and I think it's wonderful!"

"I can't use words to describe how much I love The Clown. In my eyes, he poured in every ounce of his emotions into singing this song!"

The audience was chattering away.

A wry smile hung from Chen Guang's lips. "He's sung so many songs, but no one can identify him from his voice?"

Zhang Xia shook her head. "I can't think of who he might be!"

Amy said irritated, "I can't tell from his voice either!"

Yao Jiancai spread his hands and said with a laugh, "If you people from the music industry can't identify him, then I definitely can't guess who he is."

There were no deafening high notes.

There was nothing uncontrolled in his technique.

The Clown used his extremely magnetic voice to tell a story without any hint of showing off.

This song was so advanced!

This singing was so advanced!

" Life's More Than the Grind 1 " was performed by Xu Wei in Zhang Ye's previous world and Gao Xiaosong was the songwriter, with both the melody and lyrics written by him. Zhang Ye had not planned on singing this on today's stage and had prepared it as a backup piece. But when he took the stage, he could not suppress the thought of it. He just suddenly wanted to sing this song, so he sang it.

In the waiting area.

Petal Shower, Spinach, and the others were all there.

As the applause did not stop, Dong Shanshan did not invite the next singer onstage even though she was already there herself. She was simply waiting for the atmosphere to calm down.

The Clown returned to the waiting area.

Petal Shower looked deep into his eyes. "That was amazing."

The Clown changed his vocal register and said, "Thank you."

Sunset Glow looked at him. "I really liked that song. Can I cover it?"

The Clown laughed and said, "Sure."

Spinach smiled bitterly. "You, you guys are too good! Godly seniors, please lead the way for us!"

Yesterday's Daylily asked, "Teacher Clown, which big name in the industry are you?"

The Clown chuckled. "I'm just a newbie in the music industry." He really wasn't lying.

But how could others believe him? In fact, they were floored!

A newbie?

Stop pretending already!

To Spinach and Yesterday's Daylily, The Clown and Petal Shower both belonged to the type of singers with elite singing skills, even if they had completely different singing styles. It was very difficult to judge who was better and more of a case of beauty being in the eye of the beholder. But compared to themselves, these two teachers would definitely annihilate them in a singing competition.

Spinach pulled a long face and said, "I don't want to go out on stage anymore."

The Clown smiled and said, "Sing well and you're sure to win."

Spinach said, "Please don't try to comfort me. Who can beat you after that song?"

Yesterday's Daylily suddenly said in amusement, "Teacher Clown's song was such a divine stab!" He could not prevent himself from bursting into laughter. "Aiyo, I'm dying of laughter!"

Spinach, Sunset Glow, and Petal Shower burst into laughter as well.

Indeed. This stab was really too vicious!

A coincidence?

Bullshit! What coincidence?

How could there be such a coincidence? Sunflower had just finished singing a song about how life was dark and a grind, and then you came along and sang about how life's more than just the grind. The Clown must have definitely done this on purpose!

Li Yu is probably in his waiting room, his face green with anger!

"Teacher Petal Shower is also amazing!"

"Yeah, she straight up prevented Li Yu from advancing to the next round!"

"Hai, but Li Yu will still be able to make a comeback next episode."

"Yes, he won't be stopped in the elimination round."

"If he sings a Cantonese song, then…"

"Yeah, it's difficult to say who'll end up as the eventual winner if that happens."

"Li Yu is really good at Cantonese songs."

The masked singers were on quite friendly terms as they chatted. Li Yu's backstabbing had led the other contestants to become wholly united against him and they grew close as a result.

...

Onstage.

The audience was still applauding.

Dong Shanshan had no other choice but to smile and speak into the microphone, "Shall I tell everyone a joke?"

Only then did the applause lessen.

Dong Shanshan said, "There was once a host who wanted to tell a joke to her audience, but the audience did not laugh. That's all. That's the joke, so let's welcome our next contestant—Spinach!"

The audience was tickled.

"Pfft!"

"What a bad joke!"

"How is that a joke!"

"Hahahaha!"

But with that interruption from Dong Shanshan, the audience was drawn away from the emotions brought on by the song.

Spinach took a deep breath. "I'm going on!"

The Clown said, "Break a leg."

Yesterday's Daylily looked at her with sympathetic eyes. "Just do your best."

Spinach forced a smile and quickly walked onto the stage.

The music started.

The melody was very familiar.

When Zhang Ye heard it, he got slightly surprised and then smiled.

Spinach sang softly.

"To my dear Mom and Dad. How are you two?

"Have you been busy working? Are you healthy?

"I'm in Beijing, it's pretty good.

"Mom and Dad, don't you worry for me."

It was "A Letter to Home," which Zhang Ye had sung at Beijing Television's Spring Festival Gala.

The audience was stunned!

She was singing really well!

She was singing it incredibly well!

Zhang Ye, Yesterday's Daylily, and the others had not expected that Spinach could sing so well either. Her singing style was very silky, her crystal-clear voice sounding fantastical. When she sang "A Letter to Home," it felt completely different from Zhang Ye's version. It carried a unique flavor!

After the song was over, some of the audience were in tears.

Soon after, The Clown was invited back onstage.

Dong Shanshan smiled. "Let's first have the guessing panel of judges say a few words."

Chen Yidong was the first to speak. "Spinach's singing and voice were quite good. The emotions were on point and I was moved when she sang that last part of the song. But compared to The Clown, she's probably not at his level yet."

Spinach humbly bowed. "Thank you, Teacher."

Zhang Xia asked, "Spinach, have we ever worked together?"

Spinach coughed. "Yes."

The audience gasped.

Zhang Xia immediately probed further. "Was it at that gala last year?"

Gala?

What gala?

Nobody could understand what she meant.

Spinach smirked and said, "The director isn't letting me answer."

"Alright, I get it." Zhang Xia said, amused, "So it really is you. No wonder you can sing this well."

But Chen Guang was not in the know. "Who is she?"

Amy said, "Grandma Zhang, please tell us."

Zhang Xia smiled and said, "I can't say who she is aloud, but I can give you a hint. This young lady is not considered as someone from the music industry or someone with a musical background." Then she told Spinach, "You sang very well, and us two are like old friends. But if I had to vote, I would still vote for The Clown. Please don't blame Grandma."

Spinach laughed and said, "It's fine, Grandma Zhang."

The judges' attitudes were very obvious.

The audience felt the same.

Spinach was indeed not bad. She could sing well, her song was good, and her singing touched people. But The Clown's song had already reached a level where it couldn't be distinguished between good or bad. He had sung to another plane!

...

In the waiting room.

Sunflower watched the television, utterly uninterested in the results. He knew that The Clown would definitely win. In the next round, Sunset Glow was certain to get through as well. Then only he, Spinach, and Yesterday's Daylily would be left to compete in the elimination round. Since it came down to that, he knew that he would still be able to win even without singing. Therefore, he was not worried at all. He was in a terrible mood right now and had not expected that things would turn out this way, nor that Petal Shower would perform so exceedingly well.

He had not managed to fight for the position of Masked King today!

Then he'd just have to leave it for the next episode!

Or the episode after that!

In any case, he still had plenty of future chances. He would stop underestimating his opponents' talent in the future and sing the Cantonese songs he was best at to sweep everyone aside!

...

In the studio.

Dong Shanshan nodded and said, "Alright, please get ready to vote."

There wasn't much suspense to the voting, though.

The Clown was going to win this for sure.

In the wings, Hu Fei started talking with his coworkers.

Dafei asked, "Brother Hu, do you think that Spinach can eliminate Sunflower?"

Hu Fei shook his head. "There's no chance of that."

Hou Ge added, "Even if Spinach excels, she's still not a match for Li Yu. Moreover, there are so many Li Yu's fans in the studio today."

Xiao Lu said, "Yeah, don't expect too much from Spinach and Yesterday's Daylily. Even if Sunset Glow somehow loses and goes into the elimination round, she still won't be a match for Li Yu. He is a tenor singer and his next song will definitely be a Cantonese one. Even if Petal Shower went up against him again, I think it would still be difficult to beat him!"

Han Qi came over. "Then wouldn't Sunflower still act smug onstage tomorrow? He's so annoying!"

Dafei said, "Then what should we do? Petal Shower defeating Li Yu even when he had all the advantage was already a miracle. Other than Petal Shower and The Clown, who amongst the other contestants can stop him?"

But a voice shocked everyone!

The Clown suddenly spoke up and his words dumbfounded everyone in the studio!

"Please wait a moment." The Clown lifted his microphone as he said with a chuckle, "Spinach sang admirably this round. If the voting begins, I'm afraid that the votes would be too disproportionate and I would lose badly. So why don't we skip the vote and I admit defeat instead!" Then he looked at Dong Shanshan and asked, "I am allowed to admit defeat, right?"

Dong Shanshan was stunned!

Hu Fei was shocked!

Zhang Xia, Yao Jiancai, and the other judges were surprised!

In the waiting room, the look on Li Yu's face became one of thunder!

The audience exclaimed!

Han Qi was dumbfounded!

Petal Shower and Sunset Glow were stunned!

Spinach nearly fainted on the spot!

Admit defeat?

You're admitting defeat?

A second later, realization dawned on many people!

He was doing this on purpose!

He was definitely doing this on purpose!

Petal Shower had gotten rid of Li Yu in the first round!

And now, The Clown wanted to follow up on it by taking him on in the elimination round!?

Dammit!

Have you gone crazy?

Isn't this as good as going for broke?

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Chapter 1024: A sudden turn of events!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

On Weibo.

Li Yu's fans were all laughing happily.

"Have they finished recording the show yet?"

"I have no idea."

"Brother Li Yu is definitely going to be the Masked King."

"Right, recording might have already ended."

"Just based on Teacher Li Yu's reputation alone, who can best him?"

"Ah, I really wanted to attend the recording and listen to Brother Li Yu sing!"

The media was still plugging this news.

Many of the PR campaigns that Li Yu's team had spent money on were still bombarding the public space with news.

"No suspense as to who will become the third episode's Masked King!"

"Li Yu: The darling of the music industry!"

"Sunflower has been holding back in the competition all this time!"

"A Sunflower that sings Cantonese songs is unbeatable!"

"Only a matter of time before Li Yu returns to the A-list!"

"Sunflower's popularity to usher in a career high if he becomes grand champion of King of Masked Singers!"

The speculation in the outside world was getting intense.

Even the onlookers started to believe that Li Yu would definitely become this episode's Masked King.

But unbeknownst to them, Li Yu had already lost the right to compete in the third episode's battle for the Masked King. Neither did they know that the recording studio was currently in chaos!

...

At the studio.

The Clown's words had shocked everyone!

Dong Shanshan forced herself to calm down and said, "You want to admit defeat?"

The Clown nodded. "That's right."

Dong Shanshan asked, "Are you sure?"

The Clown said, "I'm quite sure."

"There aren't any rules about this, so I can't make the decision. I'll need to ask the program team." Dong Shanshan immediately looked to Hu Fei and the others in the wings.

Many of the audience members stood up looking confused.

"Why is he admitting defeat?"

"Afraid that you'll lose by too much? You must mean to say that you're afraid you'll win by too much!"

"Why did The Clown do that?"

"He clearly sang really well!"

"This song can easily sweep Spinach aside!"

"Yeah, The Clown would definitely have won. So why did he admit defeat?"

"Didn't all the judges only have good things to say about him?"

"This fellow must have gone crazy, right?"

"If he admits defeat now, he'll have to go into the elimination round and take on Sunflower. Sunflower will definitely sing a Cantonese song, and then wouldn't The Clown get eliminated? Then he'll have to take off his mask!"

"Yeah. Although I also want to know who The Clown is, it's just the third episode. I don't wish for him to be eliminated so early in the competition!"

His mother was also stunned. "What's going on?"

His eldest young sister said anxiously, "I don't know."

A lot of people were confused by what was going on.

But some people understood exactly what was going on.

Hu Fei and the others could vaguely guess what The Clown was thinking. When The Clown decided to admit defeat, it set their pulses racing with excitement!

Li Yu had become a ticking time bomb that could bring everyone down with him. The program team could not wait to get rid of this cancerous tumor. But during their earlier discussion, they had concluded that among all the contestants, only Petal Shower and The Clown had a chance to put up a fight against him and that it was impossible for the others to win. Even though Petal Shower's and The Clown's chances of winning were very slim, with Petal Shower performing exceedingly well and eliminating Sunflower in the first round, the program team staff thought that this was the best possible outcome and a miracle as well. They had not expected that anyone would be able to kick him out of the competition in the upcoming elimination round.

But The Clown came forward!

No one could have known this would happen!

Hou Ge said excitedly, "Teacher Clown!"

Dafei stammered, "This, this…"

Xiao Lu was extremely touched. "How righteous! Teacher Clown has such strong sense of justice!"

Han Qi was panicking. "No! He absolutely must not do that!"

Another staff member said, "What if The Clown loses? Then…"

"He's planning for it to be a deathmatch!"

"We're not talking about the first round here! This is the elimination round! Whoever loses will get eliminated!"

"He's going all out!"

"The Clown is quite interesting!"

"How brave would you need to be to do that?"

"Fucking hell! This is super exciting!"

"Director Hu, what should we do?"

"Director Hu, everyone is waiting. How are we going to handle this?"

The program team staff congregated and were in complete disarray!

On the stage.

Spinach experienced the most complicated of feelings as she finally understood what The Clown meant when he said "Sing well and you're sure to win" before her turn to take the stage. At the time, she thought that The Clown was just comforting and encouraging her as he was afraid that she would be too nervous. But she understood now that even before she'd gone onstage, The Clown planned to concede the match. The Clown knew that Spinach was definitely not a match for Li Yu, so he wanted to take him on by himself!

Before the competition started, Petal Shower had said it.

Why not just stop Li Yu from advancing to the battle for the Masked King?

Why not just get Li Yu eliminated from the show?

No one took her words seriously then. But now, they were getting closer and closer to realizing those words, especially after The Clown announced that he would concede his match!

They've gone mad!

One was Petal Shower, who clearly knew that her opponent was Li Yu, but still switched spots with Spinach!

The other was The Clown, who clearly knew that Li Yu would sing a Cantonese song to the best of his abilities in the elimination round, yet still took the risk of possibly revealing his identity by admitting defeat so that he could knock Li Yu out in the elimination round!

These two were lunatics!

These were two lunatics who had very strong self-confidence and were fearless!

Spinach quickly said, "Teacher, I…"

The Clown waved it off and laughed.

Dong Shanshan communicated through her earpiece, "Alright, alright, I understand."

The program team staff had come to a decision.

At once, everyone's eyes landed on Dong Shanshan.

Amy was so anxious she was already standing. Honestly, she really liked The Clown a lot and did not wish for him to go up against Li Yu. If that were to happen, The Clown would be more or less done for!

Li Yu's assistant was staring from the wings.

Dong Shanshan spoke, "The program team has decided: They will allow the contestant to admit defeat."

Everyone flew into an uproar!

The audience blew up!

Dong Shanshan announced, "I hereby announce that the winner of this match is—Spinach!"

No one applauded.

Seeing this, The Clown started clapping very hard and gave Spinach a thumbs up. Then he raised his hands and gestured for the crowd to give her their applause.

With that, applause started to ring out in the audience.

Spinach hurriedly bowed to give her thanks.

However, Li Yu's assistant could not accept this!

Assistant Xu went straight to Hu Fei and the program team and sought them out. "What is the meaning of this? Does the show have a rule about being allowed to admit defeat? Isn't this messing things up? He clearly did that on purpose!"

Hu Fei looked at her. "Are you the director?"

Assistant Xu choked.

Hu Fei shouted, "This is our Beijing TV show! Do I need you to tell me what to do?"

Li Yu and his team's arrogance had infuriated the program team staff beyond recognition. It was our show to begin with! You people breached the contract by taking the liberty of revealing who he was, broke the rules, used underhanded methods to ask for votes, and paid for PR campaigns! Yet you still have the balls to accuse us of messing things up? Breaking the rules?

Fuck off!

Who the fuck do you think you are!

Did you think this show belongs to you? That you could do whatever you liked?

Assistant Xu was also angered and wanted to argue with them!

Hou Ge called over the security guards. "Throw her out of here!"

Dafei said, "Who let this person in? This is a workplace for our employees and restricted for non-staff. Guard this place closely in the future and don't just let any Tom, Dick, or Harry enter!"

Tom, Dick, or Harry?

I'm Li Yu's assistant!

In the music industry, who doesn't talk to me courteously and politely?

Assistant Xu was furious. "Great, great, just watch!"

Xiao Lu spit out, "What an asshole you are!"

Assistant Xu said angrily, "Who are you insulting?"

Xiao Lu pointed at the assistant's nose and said, "I'm insulting you!"

What sort of a television station was this?

What sort of a program team was this?

Assistant Xu yelled, "You're going to speak to me like this? Ah? Do you believe I won't expose you to the media!"

Xiao Lu stalked toward her like a little tigress and said, "Go ahead and expose us! Do it!"

Dafei sneered, "You're fortunate that Teacher Zhang Ye is not around today. If he were around, with that temperament of his, you'd probably leave this place on a stretcher!"

They were all Zhang Ye's old colleagues. In fact, their behavior and temperament were not like this in the past. Even if they were faced with some annoyance, they wouldn't have lambasted someone like they had now. Further, this person was even a former A-lister's assistant. It was only after they had been around Zhang Ye for a long time that they had changed a fair bit, so it was inevitable that they got influenced by some of Zhang Ye's bad habits. They might not have even been aware of this themselves.

So perhaps this was where Zhang Ye's unique charms lay.

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Chapter 1025: 'I Really Hate You'?

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

In the waiting area.

As soon as The Clown and Spinach came back, they were surrounded by Yesterday's Daylily, Petal Shower, and Sunset Glow.

Petal Shower said in shock, "Are you serious?"

The Clown laughed. "Yeah."

Sunset Glow gasped. "How sure are you that you can win?"

The Clown shook his head. "I don't know."

"You don't know but you still did that?" Yesterday's Daylily had to take his hat off to him in admiration.

Petal Shower thought for a moment before saying, "If Sunflower's first song had been a Cantonese one, I probably wouldn't have won. I've checked with Bai Yuanfei and Sunflower's second song is gonna be a Cantonese one, so be careful." She had always known that in order to eliminate Sunflower today, it would take more than her alone because she could only face off against Sunflower in one round. She needed someone else who could sing as well as her to finish the job. But Petal Shower did not make this clear as she could only ask this of herself, not the others.

She did not expect that someone would understand her intentions.

And all the more did she not expect that someone to be The Clown!

This man had always felt especially mysterious to Petal Shower. He seemed familiar, like he was someone she knew, yet was somewhat unfamiliar because she had no impression of anyone like that at all.

The Clown was quite calm. "I will."

Spinach clenched her teeth and said, "You must win!"

The Clown chuckled, "OK."

Could he win?

Zhang Ye wasn't sure, but he was also too lazy to think about it. He just found Sunflower to be unpleasing to the eye and so wanted to knock him out. This was Zhang Ye's style. Even with a mask on, his attitude was the same as before. If this fellow saw something that he didn't like, he would have to get involved. Could there be anything more enjoyable than this in life?

...

In Sunflower's waiting room.

Assistant Xu came rushing back in anger.

The camera in the waiting room was turned off as they requested not to be filmed.

Assistant Xu said, "That Clown did it on purpose!"

Sunflower grunted. "I know that."

"If he goes to the elimination round, his next opponent would b-be you?" Assistant Xu said in worry.

But Sunflower simply smiled. "Do you think that I'll lose today?"

Assistant Xu said, "But the first round…"

Sunflower said, "I'll be singing in Cantonese for my next song."

Assistant Xu immediately rested assured!

Cantonese?

Then the win would be a sure thing!

Even if The Clown was a amazingly talented singer, he wouldn't be able to use a Mandarin song in today's' setting and atmosphere to beat Li Yu, who was going to sing a Cantonese song. As the news had already spread, many of those who came to attend today's recording had the mentality that they would be listening to Li Yu sing a Cantonese song. With such anticipation, there would surely be an outpouring of emotion once Li Yu appeared onstage. At that time, it wouldn't matter who took the stage!

...

In The Clown's waiting room.

On the television, the match between Sunset Glow and Yesterday's Daylily began.

Han Qi came back in all angry. "Teacher, you're taking a huge risk!"

The Clown smiled. "It's not that bad."

Han Qi said anxiously, "But this is Li Yu we're talking about! He's the biggest name of all the contestants here!"

The biggest name?

That wasn't true now, was it?

Zhang Ye chuckled but did not say anything.

Everyone thought that Sunflower was the biggest name of all the contestants on King of Masked Singers. But in reality, nobody, not even the program team, knew that this unknown Clown was actually a much bigger name than Sunflower!

Comparing who was more popular?

Would I be afraid of you?

Zhang Ye even had the confidence to say that if he were to take off his mask and reveal his identity, even if he were to sing " The Hottest Ethnic Trend 1 ," he could take the throne of the Masked King. But there was no meaning to that. Zhang Ye did not come here to compete with popularity; he was not here to swagger before others. The point of the show was for the celebrities to cast aside their popularity and reputation to compete solely on talent. But of course, he didn't dare take off his mask at this time. He was afraid that it might halt the broadcast of the show. As such, when faced with an arrogant Li Yu who had resorted to using his popularity to beat the others, Zhang Ye despised him.

I didn't use my popularity against you, yet you want to use you your popularity to stifle me?

It had been Zhang Ye who personally knocked Li Yu off the A-list Celebrity Rankings.

So Zhang Ye found it rather amusing.

Hmm, which song should I choose?

Which song would be most suitable?

Zhang Ye started pondering. He had prepared a total of four songs today, and "Life's More Than the Grind" was just used. Now there were three songs remaining.

That one?

Or that one?

Should he combat him indirectly?

Or clash with him head on?

He was a little undecided as it was difficult to make a choice.

So he simply gave up on thinking. Zhang Ye turned his attention to the television to watch the match between Sunset Glow and Yesterday's Daylily.

He didn't feel anxious, but Han Qi said in panic, "Teacher, what are you doing?"

Zhang Ye said, "Watching their match."

Han Qi said in disbelief, "We're faced with elimination yet you're taking things at your own pace? What if we get eliminated in the next round? Have you thought of which song you'll sing? I heard that you rehearsed four songs?"

Zhang Ye laughed. "Let's think about it when the time comes."

When the time comes?

But it's coming right up!

Han Qi gave up. She truly believed that The Clown didn't have much of an advantage. If she were to be blunt about it, today's stage was Sunflower's home field. Even if The Clown could sing a little better than Sunflower, he still couldn't beat him, unless he was like Petal Shower who could crush him with both her song and singing skill!

Singing skill?

Everyone knew that The Clown had that!

But as for the song choice?

What song could take on the Cantonese song that Li Yu was going to sing?

...

Sunset Glow and Yesterday's Daylily finished singing.

The voting began.

The results were decided very quickly.

Unsurprisingly, Sunset Glow won by a huge margin!

Yesterday's Daylily was not surprised. He smiled sadly as he congratulated Sunset Glow.

This match was very exciting to watch and the audience got quite a bit of enjoyment out of it. But when they thought about how the elimination round was coming up, much of the audience got distracted once again.

Sunflower?

The Clown?

Yesterday's Daylily?

Of those three, two had to leave the show? Only one of them could remain?

How cruel was this! Can this episode get any more exciting than this?

The Clown and Sunflower were currently the two contestants with the highest popularity. In the eyes of many, these two were supposed to be fighting for the crown of the Masked King and were both capable enough to do that. But today, these two had ended up fighting for the right to "survive" on the show? One of these two had to be eliminated? This development came out of left field!

The elimination round was about to begin!

The audience was getting so excited it was like they were on an adrenaline rush!

"It's starting!"

"The first round is over! It's time for the elimination round!"

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu will prevail!"

"There's no suspense to this! We don't even need to watch!"

"Haha, Li Yu's going to perform the songs he's best at!"

"Cantonese songs!"

"Come and sing the Cantonese song!"

"Yeah, we've been waiting so long!"

"We came here today just to see Li Yu sing in Cantonese!"

The studio was heating up.

Many of Li Yu's fans were waving their fluorescent glow sticks to cheer on their idol!

At the panel of judges.

Zhang Xia asked, "Who do you guys think will win?"

Chen Yidong smiled and said, "Definitely Li Yu, I guess."

Wang Zhuishu thought about it. "Actually, I'm hoping that The Clown will win. But I can't think of a reason why Sunflower would lose. He has the advantage of being in just the right place, at just the right time, and as the just right person."

Amy was worried. "The Clown is in danger!"

Yao Jiancai did not quite understand. He asked, "Didn't Petal Shower beat him just now?"

Chen Guang explained, "Sunflower will be singing a Cantonese song. As a Hong Kong singer, him singing in Cantonese and Mandarin are two totally different things!"

Yao Jiancai simply said, "Oh, so it's like that."

Onstage.

Dong Shanshan raised her cue cards and recited some advertising messages. Then, with a smile, she said, "Next we head into the elimination round. Let's welcome our first competitor—Sunflower in the Starlight!"

Cheers erupted instantaneously!

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

He was incredibly popular!

Even before he started to sing, a lot of those in the audience were already standing!

Then, the title of the song was shown on the teleprompter screen overhead. When some of the audience members saw it, they screamed even louder!

This was a purely Cantonese song!

It was a love song!

It was one of Li Yu's representative works!

"I Really Hate You."

Lyricist: Xu Fei.

Composer: Li Yu.

This was Li Yu's debut song. Back then, the song wasn't terribly well-known but held a very special meaning for Li Yu. He performed this song at almost every concert. Since then, many fans gradually became familiar with the song and also started liking it!

"This is great!"

"I love listening to this song!"

"Li Yu's maiden work! I'm looking forward to it!"

"There's no hope for The Clown now!"

"That's right!"

Chapter 1026: The Clown vs. Sunflower!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Onstage.

The man with a sunflower mask took to the stage slowly.

There were screams and shouts coming from the audience, each one louder than the last!

Zhang Ye's mother said, "I rather like this guy."

His father nodded. "Mhm."

His second sister said in anticipation, "His Cantonese songs have always been great!"

"It's starting, it's starting!" His third sister held her breath.

The music played and the studio turned quiet. The audience was very cooperative and accommodating toward Sunflower. Those girls who had been making a racket during Petal Shower's performance were now covering their mouths, afraid that they would cause a disturbance and affect their idol.

Cello strings.

Piano keys.

A familiar melody floated on the stage.

Many in the audience were so familiar with this song that they started humming along to it in their heads.

Sunflower raised his head and gripped the microphone.

"I really hate you.

"Those memories…

"I really hate you.

"Have forgotten me."

A female fan looked enchanted!

A lot of people had closed their eyes to listen to the song. They were enjoying it to the utmost!

It was wonderful!

This was what a Cantonese song should be!

Previously on this stage, only The Clown had performed a Cantonese song. It was done informally as he sang something about a "hamlet" or something, talking about the "villagers" and "goats and cows." At that time, his singing pronunciation was rather inaccurate and had badly shocked many people. Thus, the Cantonese song Sunflower was presently performing would be considered the first true Cantonese song to be sung on King of Masked Singers. Compared to Zhang Ye's previous world, Cantonese songs occupied half of the industry's market share here and wasn't considered a niche market. The reason that no one had yet to sing a Cantonese song on this stage was not that Petal Shower and the others thought Cantonese songs niche, but that they couldn't sing them. Performance of these songs largely depended on the singer's hometown. If there were any signs of bad pronunciation during the song, it could easily cause the listeners to lose interest in the entire performance.

But as Li Yu was a born and bred Hong Konger, there was no need to talk about his pronunciation. Moreover, he had started out singing Cantonese songs, and more than 80% of his released albums were in Cantonese. Since this was his livelihood, it would be a wonder if he couldn't sing it well. The audience was very receptive to his performance!

At the judging panel.

Chen Yidong praised, "Great singing."

Amy agreed, "It is pretty good."

Li Yu was considered a veteran in the entertainment industry. When everyone learned he was going to perform a Cantonese song, they all knew that it wouldn't be bad even without listening. He had the ability to sing well, and the song was good too.

Zhang Xia commented, "There's no surprise here."

Chen Guang stated objectively, "It's good, but I've heard him sing this song too many times and it's always much the same. It's not a song that can really raise our spirits."

Wang Zhuishu said, "Sunflower today seems?"

Zhang Xia replied, "Yeah, he's fairly average."

Yao Jiancai turned around to look at the audience's warm reception and said, "But the audience seems to be buying it."

Yes, a lot of the audience members were convinced by the performance. As long as it was Li Yu singing, they'd think it was good. They did not care about whether the tenor of this song was appropriate or if the particulars of the singing were handled well.

On the stage.

Sunflower knew it himself. He had been affected by the previous round, thinking that he should be fighting for the throne of the Masked King today. But with Petal Shower stopping him, he was in an awful mood and rather upset as well. He regretted not singing the Cantonese song he was best at in his first appearance, which would have ensured his victory. He had underestimated his opponents. These thoughts kept running through his head even while he was performing, and it definitely affected how well he was doing. But fortunately for Sunflower, he was very experienced and had a good singing technique. That was enough for him to handle today's situation. As he got to the latter half of his performance, he actually sang better!

"I hate you, hate you, I hate you.

"Why can't I forget the past.

"When you said you loved me,

"It was so beautiful.

"Why did you leave me in the end?

"I really hate you.

"Those memories…

"I really hate you.

"Have forgotten me."

Some of the female audience members were screaming at this point!

They stood up and clapped, thrashing their fluorescent glow sticks!

Several of the judges on the guessing panel were stunned by this. They hadn't expected that Sunflower could readjust his emotions and handle the latter half of the song so exquisitely. If they had to give him a score, they would give him 85 points out of a 100 for this performance. This was a very good performance, much better than the Mandarin song he had performed!

Zhang Xia, Chen Guang, and the others looked at one another.

This was the end for The Clown!

He didn't stand a chance!

Sunflower was relying on his popularity with the audience. Even the Mandarin song he sung averagely almost evened out with Petal Shower's amazing performance, although he narrowly lost at the end. With this "I Really Hate You," The Clown's chances of winning had nearly fallen to nil. No one was optimistic about his chances.

...

Backstage.

In the waiting room.

Zhang Ye was listening to Sunflower's performance, not speaking.

"I Really Hate You"? He didn't like this song either. Perhaps his values were far too different than Li Yu's, and they were two people who didn't go well together. So Zhang Ye stopped focusing on listening.

Now that he was by himself in the waiting room, he found his bag and took out his cell phone which he kept on silent mode. He had wanted to check the netizen's comments about the contestants but saw some unread text messages that his mother had sent to him instead.

His mother: "Son?"

His mother: "Where are you? Why don't I see you anywhere?"

His mother: "Didn't you get here really early today?"

Zhang Ye immediately replied: "Yeah, but I'm busy right now."

Very quickly, his mother texted back: "Did you get the money?"

Zhang Ye smiled. "Yes. Thanks, Mom. It was quite an achievement to get 10,000 yuan out of you."

His mother: "You rascal, don't spend it recklessly now. When you find a job, you must pay me back. It'll be a loan to you for now. By the way, Mother's Day is coming soon, but you don't have to worry about buying me anything. I don't need anything, and I don't like anything either. Consider that as a heads up in case you're thinking of planning something, got it? Also, if you have the time to do that, quickly find a job. Go out and network some more, ask around too. If there's still nobody who wants to hire you, then screw those idiots and come back and rest at home. You won't have to do anything anymore! You can even save yourself their incompetence!"

Zhang Ye felt his heart warm. "I understand."

His mother: "OK, I'm gonna stop talking now. Your dad and I are listening to Sunflower sing and I think it's pretty good."

Behind him, the door opened.

Han Qi came into the room. "Teacher, you're almost up."

"Alright." Zhang Ye placed his cell phone back into his bag and exhaled. Then he turned around and walked out.

Sunflower had finished singing, but the thunderous applause in the studio could still be heard backstage.

Han Qi was very nervous. "You can do it, Teacher!"

Hu Fei saw The Clown approach. "The Clown, break a leg."

Dafei cheered, "Teacher, go get him!"

Xiao Lu added, "You'll definitely do well!"

Petal Shower looked at him.

Sunset Glow nodded at him.

Spinach raised her hand and gave him a thumbs up from not too far away to cheer him on!

However, in comparison to that overwhelming applause in the studio for Li Yu, everyone's cheers for him felt underwhelming.

Could he win?

A lot of the program team staff sighed.

Today's Li Yu had turned completely shameless!

Paying for PR campaigns in the media!

Exposing himself!

Asking for votes!

Causing trouble!

And he even performed his breakout song!

Unless The Clown had an even more astonishing song, he wouldn't stand the ghost of a chance of competing against Li Yu. What could he possibly do?

So did Zhang Ye have such a song?

The answer was a resounding yes!

He definitely had one! In fact, he had many!

The other times he was onstage, Zhang Ye had performed some of the less mainstream songs in the competition. But this did not mean that he didn't know how to sing mainstream songs. He just didn't bring them for the audience to hear because he thought it wasn't time for that yet. But today, Zhang Ye did not plan to hold back anymore. He was ready to bring one of them out to compete against Li Yu!

Which song should he choose?

He considered the song that Li Yu performed.

Cantonese?

"I Really Hate You"?

Instantly, Zhang Ye made a decision!

That one!

Chapter 1027: The Clown's Cantonese song!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Onstage.

Dong Shanshan smiled and said, "Let's welcome our next singer—The Clown!"

Applause rang out.

"He's comin'."

"It's The Clown."

"How unlucky of him to have to appear after Li Yu."

"Haha, it doesn't matter what he sings now."

"Li Yu sang really well."

"But of course. That's his signature song."

"Li Yu is still the best when he sings in Cantonese!"

"No one can sing Cantonese songs on this stage except for Li Yu. That in and of itself is an overwhelming advantage for him. Even if The Clown performs exceedingly well like Petal Shower did today, it's unlikely that he'll win in this round like she did in the previous one. This round will be decided by the type of song, and even if The Clown sings really well, a lot of people won't compare his song to Li Yu's Cantonese song. There's no way to compare them as they are totally different styles and languages. Since there's no comparison, it won't matter who sings better. No one will be able to distinguish whose singing was better, so the only thing left to compare is their popularity. And how many people in the studio today don't know Li Yu? Who wouldn't spare him some face!"

"Then is The Clown definitely going to lose?"

"Of course."

"He can only blame himself for admitting defeat just now."

The audience was applauding, but it did not sound very enthusiastic and felt more like a symbolic welcome. Although there were still a lot of people who were not Li Yu's fans looking forward to The Clown's performance and wondering if he would be singing yet another original, the outcome of this round was already very obvious to many of them.

Li Yu did not return to his waiting room and just waited around at the holding area. He looked at The Clown and sneered internally. He even admitted defeat on purpose so that he could try knock me out in the elimination round?

Alright then!

Bring it on!

What kind of Mandarin song are you going to sing this time? I'm all ears!

The Clown took the stage and walked straight to the house band.

The band looked at him and asked, "Which song will it be?"

The Clown replied, "The third song we rehearsed."

Music Director Bai Yuanfei was shocked. "Are you sure?"

"I'm quite sure." Zhang Ye smiled.

The band's guitarist said in a speechless manner, "Why are the songs you choose always the ones we don't feel optimistic about? Of the four songs you rehearsed, it was the other two songs we were optimistic about. So why did you choose these two songs to perform?"

Zhang Ye said, "Because you guys haven't listened to me sing it yet."

Indeed, The Clown had just hummed along to the melody during the rehearsal. He did not actually sing.

The drummer said, "Are you sure?"

Zhang Ye said, "It must be this song!"

Bai Yuanfei nodded. "OK, you're the singer, you decide."

After changing scores, the band did a little warmup.

The audience became confused when they saw that.

Looking at the stage, Zhang Ye's father asked, "What's the matter?"

His eldest sister wondered, "Could he have only just decided which song to sing?"

His mother replied, "Can you even do that?"

His eldest sister said, "Generally, no one does that because it's too risky."

At the judging panel.

Zhang Xia sighed and said, "If The Clown gets eliminated, it would really be such a pity."

Amy felt that this discussion of theirs would not be aired, so she did not hold back. "More importantly, it's unfair. This isn't a music and singing competition anymore. With Sunflower's antics, it has turned into a popularity contest."

Chen Guang said, "The Clown has a chance to win."

Yao Jiancai asked, "Oh? How?"

Chen Guang said, "He can also reveal who he is by removing his mask onstage."

Amy gave a bitter smile. "The Clown would never do such a thing!"

Chen Guang spread his hands. "That's why he won't win. Under the premise that Li Yu had already exposed himself as a Hong Kong singer, and with this atmosphere, it's almost impossible for him to win if he uses a Mandarin song to verse Li Yu."

Amy said, "There's no hope for him then."

Everything was ready onstage.

The band nodded to The Clown.

The lights dimmed.

Everyone instantly focused their attention on The Clown.

One second.

Two seconds.

The music did not start yet because The Clown was still adjusting his breathing.

Several of those female fans of Li Yu's started shouting again without warning.

"Hurry up!"

"Why isn't it starting yet?"

"Let's go, Brother Li Yu!"

"Li Yu is the best!"

In the silence of the studio, those voices cut through the air!

When they finished shouting, they looked at each other and laughed!

In the wings, Li Yu was smiling.

Backstage, Assistant Xu was gloating.

However, the judges frowned.

Some of the nearby audience members looked at them in disgust!

Zhang Ye, though, was in no rush to begin and did not seem to hear the commotion. He was no longer bothered by the outcome. All he could think about was his mother's messages from earlier. He couldn't refrain from raising his head and looking in the direction of where his parents were seated. He couldn't quite make them out in the distance, but he still managed to locate where they were sitting.

His parents were looking at him as well.

At this moment, he suddenly felt a pang of guilt.

As Zhang Ye was in a good mood these days, he had helped them buy breakfast for two days and did the laundry twice. But in the end, his parent's behavior nearly made Zhang Ye laugh. They thought that there was something wrong with him? They thought that he was in need of money? They thought that he had something to ask of them? And they even quickly transferred 10,000 yuan to him?

It was truly a very funny incident.

But right now, Zhang Ye could not muster up a smile at all.

He felt very guilty about how little his contributions to his family were. That just by doing a few minor chores at home, his parents felt overwhelmed by his actions. Thinking back on things, Zhang Ye felt very embarrassed as he suddenly thought that he had not been a good son. All of a sudden, he felt like he had a lot of things that he wanted to say!

The music started.

It was very soft guitar strumming.

The title of the song was projected onto the teleprompter screen.

The moment when they saw the title of this song, many audience members were stunned!

" I Really Love You 1 "!

Zhang Xia was stunned!

Chen Guang was surprised!

Petal Shower and Spinach were both taken aback!

Li Yu was dumbstruck and a dark expression spread across his face!

The audience stared and their jaws dropped!

"I Really Hate You"?

"I Really Love You"?

Zhang Ye was facing his parents. He gently raised his microphone. The moment he sang the first line, everyone in the studio—including the program team, judges, contestants, and the audience—were dumbfounded. They could not believe what they had just heard. Some of the audience members even jumped out of their seats in shock!

The Clown sang softly.

"Those hands that cannot be beautified.

"Forever warming me from behind.

"Nagging but still caring for me.

"I'm guilty of not seeing your love."

Amy screamed, "Ahhh!"

Zhang Xia stared, slack-jawed!

Chen Guang stared wide-eyed!

Petal Shower said in a speechless manner, "What?"

Spinach said in a daze, "He, he…"

Hu Fei was dumbfounded!

The audience was also dumbfounded!

A Cantonese song!

The Clown was singing a Cantonese song as well!

And why did his Cantonese sound so fucking standard?

Why?

Oh my god!

Oh my god!

Everyone in the studio looked like they had seen a ghost!

The band playing the accompaniment was shocked!

The Clown closed his eyes and sang.

"Absorbed in music she did not like.

"But a mother's love never dies.

"With tenacity and joy, I strive.

"To return your love at last.

"Your lessons and gift still warm my soul.

"Looking after me without complaint."

Suddenly, the guitar accompaniment stopped!

Half a second later, the drumbeat kicked in as the guitar accompaniment came back along with the bass and drum set all at once. The music exploded through the studio!

The entire studio was shocked!

Everyone felt like their blood was erupting with energy!

The Clown pointed into the audience.

"It's you!

"With those loving eyes!

"You taught me to face the future with grit!

"You urged me not to quit when I fell down!

"I can't explain how to return your love!

"Your immense love is endless!

"So, please, permit me to say 'I really love you!'"

Dad.

Mom.

I'm not too good with words and don't know how to express myself that well. I can talk a lot with other people. When I meet my friends, I can chat with them day and night. If someone offends me, I can scold them for three days and nights. But in front of you two, I sometimes can't even speak a single word. I don't know what to say or how I should express myself.

But…

I really love both of you!

I, I really love both of you!

In the audience, his mother suddenly burst into tears. For some reason, she had started to cry!

Zhang Xia was also in tears as she looked at her pair of aging hands. Tears streamed down her face for whatever reason. When she reached up to wipe them away, she realized that her tears were increasing even as she tried to wipe them away.

In the studio, a lot of mothers were crying!

Many children clenched their teeth!

They did not know what was happening to them, just that they thought this song was amazing!

It was really great!

Zhang Ye continued singing.

"Those hands that cannot be beautified.

"Forever warming me from behind.

"Nagging but still caring for me.

"I'm guilty of not seeing your love.

"I still recall your loving hands.

"Taking care of me unchangingly.

"My dream has finally come true; I hope I can share the glory.

"Your lessons and gift still warm my soul.

"Looking after me without complaint."

The music stopped!

And exploded again!

Zhang Ye sang loudly.

"It's you! With those loving eyes!"

At this moment, a lot of people could not help but stand from their seats and wave the fluorescent glow sticks in their hands to the rhythm. A lot of them were shocked and had tear stains on their faces. No one could believe that The Clown could actually sing such a song!

"You taught me to face the future with grit!

"You urged me not to quit when I fell down!

"I can't explain how to return your love!

"Your immense love is endless!

"So, please, permit me to say 'I really love you!'"

Screams!

Applause!

He was about to upend the studio!

Suddenly, the music stopped again.

There was no sound at all!

The audience unconsciously stopped clapping and covered their mouths. Hypnotized, they stared at The Clown onstage as the entire studio went eerily quiet!

The Clown raised his microphone.

Dad.

Mom.

Thank you.

Thank you for bringing me up.

Thank you for teaching me right and wrong.

I…

I..

The Clown raised his microphone again and lowered it again.

One second.

Two seconds.

Everyone was looking at him.

The Clown raised his microphone for the third time:

"So please permit me…

"…to say.

"'I really love you.'"

Chapter 1028: Professional face-smacking athlete!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The Clown's final line in a cappella unleashed an outpouring of emotion from many in the audience!

Some of them started crying!

Some were desperately holding back their tears!

They all understood the song as its lyrics had triggered tears in many of them. The Clown was not singing "I really love you" or "I'm telling you that I love you very much" or even "do you know that I love you." What he sang was: "Please permit me…to say…'I really love you!'"

Please permit me!

It was completely different from telling you!

It was completely different from asking to say it!

"Please permit me" had an apologetic tone that carried a sense of guilt!

Especially during that last line The Clown sang in a cappella. He had raised his microphone twice and lowered it twice because he could not manage to sing it. It wasn't until the third time that The Clown raised his microphone that he was finally able to sing it! That kind of emotional struggle, that sense of guilt and reservedness were all thoroughly portrayed in this moment. This was no longer a matter of singing skill anymore, it was a sublimation of emotions!

There was no pretentiousness to it!

There was no affectation!

It was all natural!

The emotions he displayed throughout the song were so real that everyone found it hard to believe! No one knew that The Clown's parents were actually seated in the audience!

The music started and ended with a cappella.

The Clown lowered his microphone and bowed deeply.

The performance ended.

His mother stood up crying!

Zhang Xia also stood up in tears!

Applause erupted!

Cheers rang out!

"That was great!"

"That was so unbelievable!"

"It was a Cantonese song! It was actually a Cantonese song!"

"The Clown wanted to compete against Li Yu with what he's best at!"

"I don't know what to say! Oh my god! Isn't this song too good? And it's even an original? Who the fuck wrote this song? Who wrote it?!"

"Earlier, I thought that Li Yu would win. But I'm thinking differently now!"

"Me too! Who said that The Clown would lose?"

"There are two songs I've listened to this year that have made me cry. The first one was 'A Letter to Home' that Zhang Ye sang on the Spring Festival Gala stage; the other is this one. I'm not attracted by the singing, but by the lyrics and emotions poured into the song. It was so great and so amazing!"

"Is this who The Clown is? Everyone has underestimated him!"

"I have no words! I can no longer express what I'm feeling!"

All of a sudden, someone shouted, "The Clown!"

Then shout after shout sounded!

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

The shouting was syncing up!

The voices were getting louder!

Zhang Ye walked off the stage.

Han Qi rushed over to him.

Spinach, Sunset Glow, and Yesterday's Daylily, and the others went up to him together!

Her cheeks stained with tears, Han Qi exclaimed, "You're incredible! That was fantastic!"

Looking shocked, Petal Shower said, "How'd you do that?"

Sunset Glow stared at him and said, "There are only two possibilities as to why he can sing a Cantonese song so well. The first possibility is that the singer already knows Cantonese, so he naturally wouldn't have a problem with the language. The second possibility is that if he is a singer who doesn't know Cantonese, he sings this song repeatedly and continually. He would have to listen to the original version hundreds to a thousand times and then practice it dozens to hundreds of times to be able to have such a good pronunciation! Teacher Clown, you're way too astonishing! How'd you manage to do it?"

Though she'd been in the competition for a long time now, this was the first time that everyone heard Sunset Glow talk so much. She was usually a reserved person who didn't talk much.

Yesterday's Daylily said anxiously, "Yeah, h-how did you manage to do it?"

The Clown did not answer. He just laughed it off.

Dozens of times?

Hundreds of times?

Surely it was even more than that!

This song was extremely famous in Zhang Ye's previous world. All those songs he had sung would not have the reach and influence that this song possessed even if they were all grouped together. How could Zhang Ye have only listened to it several hundred times? He would sing this song every time he went out for karaoke and would hear it at all kinds of places from time to time. If it were any other Cantonese song, Zhang Ye would probably not know how to sing them because he really did not know Cantonese. He could only understand some simple sentences and his pronunciation was not good, in addition. But if it was " I Really Love You 1 ," he could handle it without any problems! It would be impossible to get the song wrong!

In truth, Zhang Ye had not intended to use this song. It wasn't that he didn't like this song, but because this song would seriously make him look like a bully! He had wanted to use a song that was mainstream, yet how was this considered a mainstream song? It had already surpassed the boundaries of mainstream. It was a well-known classic in his previous world! But if Li Yu wanted to play dirty? If he wanted to bully others by using his popularity? Then Zhang Ye had no choice but to bring this song out! Moreover, Mother's Day was approaching. He had really wanted to sing this song so that he could convey some words to his parents. There were some things that Zhang Ye could never say to them under normal circumstances. Since he could not say them, then he would use this stage and song to tell his parents!

The crowd was still applauding!

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

In the waiting area.

Li Yu's face turned green with rage. He never expected that The Clown would choose to sing a Cantonese song! Not only him, no one else expected it either! Logically, as Li Yu was a Cantonese singer from Hong Kong, it was normal for him to sing a Cantonese song. Since that was his mother tongue, he could sing such songs almost effortlessly and had been doing so for a decade now! Even if they thought with their feet, no one should have used a Cantonese song versus Li Yu in the crucial elimination round!

But that was exactly what The Clown did!

And his Cantonese was not even any worse than Li Yu's!

It was too professional!

His pronunciation was too standard!

Even if it were Li Yu who went out to sing, it wouldn't get any better than this!

Why?

What the fuck was this?

How did he know how to sing a Cantonese song?

Li Yu had no way to understand it! No one could understand it!

Could this person really be a singer from Hong Kong? But that was impossible! That was absolutely impossible!

Everyone had thought that The Clown would not win because they had taken today's atmosphere and circumstances into account. Everything was advantageous for Li Yu and nothing indicated that The Clown, who sang in Mandarin, could secure a victory. This was because Cantonese and Mandarin songs were two different musical genres that could not be compared. As long as they could not be compared, even if The Clown's singing were better and he performed exceedingly well, things would be meaningless. A lot of the audience members would support Li Yu based on their feelings because of his popularity!

But what shocked everyone was that The Clown had fucking sung a Cantonese song!

And even the title of the song was smacking Li Yu's face!

The Beijing Television program team staff saw that The Clown had left the stage and were looking at him in astonishment, as if they were seeing some kind of kind!

It's similar circumstances to your last song!

He sang about how life was dark and a grind?

While you sang about how life's about more than just the grind?

He sang a Cantonese song!

You also sang a Cantonese song!

He sang "I Really Hate You"!

And then you fucking sang "I Really Love You"!

Fuck your big brother!

Are you a professional face-smacking athlete?

Are you planning to bash his face so hard that it becomes swollen?

This is slapping him to his fucking death!

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Chapter 1029: Double play!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

In the wings.

Yesterday's Daylily sighed and said, "It's my turn."

Spinach cheered, "Break a leg, Brother Daylily."

"What kind of name is that?" Yesterday's Daylily said, "Hai, do I even need to go onstage?"

Spinach smiled and said, "You can't make it through regardless, so let loose and sing."

Yesterday's Daylily looked at her, speechless. "Are you trying to console me?"

Spinach nodded. "Well, yes."

Yesterday's Daylily almost burst into tears. "Thanks a lot."

It took a lot of effort for the audience to calm down.

Then Dong Shanshan immediately announced that the next contestant take the stage.

Yesterday's Daylily took a deep breath and strode out onto the stage. He knew that he definitely stood no chance today. Whether it was against Sunflower or The Clown, they were both much better singers than he was. Moreover, the two of them had already accumulated a lot of popularity on this stage. As a result, Yesterday's Daylily let himself go since this was his last song on the stage. All he wanted now was to show the best side of himself.

Going into the performance with this thought, he managed to do much better than expected when singing his song!

The judges were surprised.

The audience was also surprised.

Even Yesterday's Daylily did not expect it. He had sung his second song much better than his first, surpassing his usual level!

The elimination round performances ended.

Dong Shanshan smiled and said, "Alright. Now let's welcome Sunflower and The Clown back on stage."

Sunflower and The Clown returned.

When the audience saw them, they gave them a thunderous round of applause!

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

"Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

The shouting started again!

Dong Shanshan maintained order. "Hur hur, everyone, please calm down. Shall we have the judges give their comments? Who are you cheering for in this round? Who do you think will make it into the next episode?"

The judges were silent for a bit.

Dong Shanshan named one of them. "Teacher Yao?"

Yao Jiancai chuckled and said, "I'm just a layman, so I can't make any professional judgments here. Let's listen to what the other teachers have to say first."

Zhang Xia spoke, "I'll talk about Yesterday's Daylily first. I still can't recognize who you are, but I think that you should be somewhat well-known in the music industry. You were a little nervous during the first song and overly cautious about making mistakes, so you didn't manage to perform to your potential. But for the second song, you sang very well and the choice of song was good as well. You gave me the feeling that you're like a younger version of Chen Guang and full of potential."

Yesterday's Daylily bowed his head. "Thank you, Teacher Zhang Xia, but I don't deserve to be compared to Teacher Chen."

Zhang Xia thought for a moment. "Then, for Sunflower in the Starlight, a lot of people already know who you are. For you to be sing like that, I completely expected it. But of course, it did not manage to surprise me as a result. I believe that you did not manage to perform to your best today. As for The Clown, I still have nothing else to say besides the fact that you're outstanding. This "I Really Love You" truly made me cry. Thanks to you and the team behind you for writing such a song!" She was speaking without bias and on the performance itself.

But Amy's comments were more skewed. "If I were to choose, I would definitely pick The Clown. Whether it's his singing or the song, they raised the bar over the other two performers. And I was disappointed with Sunflower's performance today. Although it was nice to listen to, it did not reach that quality I was looking for!"

Sunflower did not say anything.

The Clown kept quiet as well.

Actually, Sunflower did not perform as poorly as Amy had said. It was because of Li Yu's behavior and extreme methods that Amy didn't have a good impression of him. How could you expose yourself outside the show? Paying for PR campaigns? Asking for votes? Using your popularity to muzzle the other contestants? Alright then, us judges can do the same to you and restrain you on the show! Haven't you heard the saying "only the official is allowed to light the fire"?

Some members of the audience were not having any of this.

"What the heck!"

"What are you saying!"

"Li Yu sang so well!"

"What lousy song was The Clown even singing!"

"Is there something wrong with your hearing?"

"What kinds of judges are these? Are you sure they're professionals?"

"Ptui!"'

Some of Li Yu's fans were annoyed by the judges' comments!

Chen Guang did not care about the commotion in the crowd. He asked, "The Clown, are you actually a singer from Hong Kong?"

Wang Zhuishu also asked, "Are you?"

When The Clown sang the Cantonese version of "Our Villagers," his pronunciation was not too standard. It was even so funny that it made a lot of people double over with laughter, and no one thought that he was a Cantonese singer. But with today's song, he had confused everyone again!

Who could he be!

Just where was this singer from?

Chen Yidong stared at The Clown. "Can you give us some clues?"

Amy asked as well, "You mentioned that you were at least a B-lister? Is that true? Also, where are you really from?"

They were very curious!

They were so curious about who this man was that they would die to find out!

The Clown thought for a moment before raising his microphone and singing.

"My home's in the northeast!

"On the Songhua River!

"There are hills and dales covered with soybeans and sorghum 1 !"

He could switch between two different accents!

The judges and audience fainted!

Bro!

Could you please stop messing around?

Just stop it!

What the heck was even happening!

You were just a Hong Konger, and now you've become a northeasterner!?

Everyone had to take their hat off to this person. They were completely taken in by this person's ability to sing spontaneously about anything, and he could even do it so convincingly!

Dong Shanshan didn't know how to react as she stood beside him.

What sort of person was this?!

Why does he never say anything truthful?

Sunflower's eyes underneath his mask were staring coldly at The Clown!

Yao Jiancai looked at him curiously. This person was really too wondrous, wasn't he? In the entertainment circle, other than his long-time partner Zhang Ye, was there another person who was like this?

Dong Shanshan quickly said, "Alright, let's begin the voting. As this is the elimination round and there can only be one contestants who stays in the competition, everyone should consider their votes carefully before casting them!"

In a heartbeat, the atmosphere turned tense!

Sunflower looked into the audience.

The Clown did not say a word.

"Give it to Li Yu!"

"Give it to The Clown!"

"'I Really Love You,' that's the best song I've ever heard!"

"Do you even know Cantonese?"

"The lyrics were shown on the big screen, can't you read?"

"'I Really Love You' is the only song that I fell in love with immediately after hearing it! It's goddamn amazing! It even suits the occasion well! Mother's Day is coming up! These two songs of The Clown's were incredibly touching! I could hear from his performances that he truly sang them from the bottom of his heart! I used to think that The Clown was very godly during the last two episodes, but I've realized that he's even more godly in this episode!"

"I liked that 'Life's More Than the Grind'!"

"Hurry up and vote already!"

"Ah, Li Yu's ahead!"

"What?"

"The Clown!"

"The Clown!"

"Li Yu!"

The audience members were nearly coming to blows!

Zhang Ye's father didn't really know how to operate the voting device. He was getting on in age after all, so it was difficult for him to pick up something new. As a result, he handed the voting device to Zhang Ye's eldest sister and said, "Dandan, help me to vote."

His eldest sister said, "Sure. Who do you want to vote for?"

His father didn't hesitate. "The Clown!"

His mother also said, "Help me too."

"Who do you want?" His eldest sister looked at her.

His mother said, "The Clown."

His third sister exclaimed, "What? You're all voting for The Clown? Then me too!"

His mother said seriously, "Even if Zhang Yuanqi were to come today, or whichever Heavenly King, I would still give my vote to The Clown!"

His second sister said, "Me too! I was actually here to support Li Yu, but when those two Cantonese songs were sung, it was too obvious who sang better! The difference between those two songs is too obvious!"

"I Really Hate You"?

It was just a petty love song.

But "I Really Love You"? This was a song about a great love!

The tallies were ever changing!

Sunflower had taken the lead and never relinquished it!

The Clown was in second.

Yesterday's Daylily was in last place.

10 votes…

50 votes…

100 votes…

When Li Yu saw this, he heaved a sigh of relief. He thought to himself how his popularity was still holding up. No matter what The Clown sang, he shouldn't lose. He used to be an A-lister after all, a big name who was famous throughout the country, so how could he possibly lose to an anonymous singer whose identity no one knew?

However, when the voting was coming to a close, Li Yu expression finally changed!

The Clown was catching up!

Then, The Clown overtook him!

Li Yu's expression instantly darkened!

What was happening?

What the hell is this?

Keep voting for me!

All of you, give me your damn votes!

What the hell are you people doing? Just what?

Hurry up!

Hurry!

The Clown, on the other hand, did not turn to look at the big screen and just stood there quietly.

Close to the end, Li Yu was too scared to watch. His dark look was facing the audience and he was really panicking now. He had chosen to offend Beijing Television and the other singers by revealing himself, which had led to this situation, all because he wanted to get to the throne of the Masked King and become the grand champion of the show. He had wanted to use King of Masked Singers to garner more support and make his return to the A-list Celebrity Rankings! But right now, even he himself did not know why he wasn't in the versus round for the crown of the Masked King. Instead, he was actually facing the risk of elimination? How could this be possible?! This…this didn't make any fucking sense!

Finally, Dong Shanshan announced, "Alright, voting has ended!"

The entire studio fell silent!

A lot of people looked angry!

But many others were gasping!

"The winner is…" Dong Shanshan announced, "The Clown!"

Instantaneously, applause filled the studio!

Sunset Glow felt excited!

Spinach was screaming!

Hu Fei shouted, "Great!"

Han Qi was so excited she nearly cried. "He won! He won! Teacher Clown has won!"

My god!

This was too unbelievable!

Petal Shower took the first round while The Clown handled the second round!

It was a double play!

The two of them had killed off Li Yu!

The task that had seemed impossible to everyone had been completed by Petal Shower and The Clown! The Beijing Television program team staff did not know what to say!

Some of them could not believe it!

Some of them were dumbfounded!

Assistant Xu, who was backstage, almost smashed the things around him! Son of a bitch!

Onstage, Li Yu couldn't breathe!

Why?

How did this happen?

Petal Shower?

The Clown?

Who the fuck are you people?!

Dong Shanshan suddenly said, "Teacher Sunflower, Teacher Yesterday's Daylily, sorry, but you have been eliminated. The two of you did quite well, and the judges have given both of you their comments. Right now, you can choose whether to reveal yourself or not. Would you like some time to think?"

Sunflower's face stayed under the cover of his mask.

Dong Shanshan had to ask again.

Sunflower said, "I choose not to take my mask off!" He stormed off the stage without even making a speech!

How embarrassing!

How face smacking!

Right now, Li Yu no longer had any face left to reveal himself!

His face had been smacked "swollen"!

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Chapter 1030: Troublemaking fans!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Sunflower left the stage dejectedly!

When many of Li Yu's fans saw this, their hearts broke!

"Brother Li Yu!"

"Li Yu!"

"How could you eliminate Li Yu?"

"This is such a shady show!"

"They were trying to take down Brother Li Yu!"

"Unfair! This is unfair!"

Some of his diehard fans were having none of it. They started shouting and screaming as though they were intent on causing trouble!

When Hu Fei and the program team staff saw this, they could only shake their heads lightly. This was indeed a case of a celebrity having fans of similar temperament. Li Yu's integrity was already questionable as he had started doing things unscrupulously. In order to fight for the crown of the Masked King to garner popularity for his status, he resorted to underhanded methods. Looking at his group of fans, it seemed that many of their characters were the same as his. They did not know of the severity of their actions, nor did they care about respecting others.

The program team staff then thought about Teacher Zhang Ye.

Looking at Teacher Zhang's fans, they didn't usually show much support for him in normal times. Whenever he met with trouble, his fans would always appear to gloat at him first by fooling around and ridiculing him. But once Teacher Zhang encountered real trouble, his fans would always gather their support and contribute their strength without a moment's hesitation. This was because they knew what respect was and could differentiate between the severity of an incident. They understood when it was right to make jokes or fool around and when not to do so. They knew better than anyone!

This was where they were different!

And this was the only difference between their fanbases!

...

Yesterday's Daylily took off his mask!

The judges were all shocked!

"It's you?"

"Hey, so it's you!"

Chen Guang knew him.

Amy also knew him, but was not really close.

Yesterday's Daylily was not exactly a rookie in the industry. He had debuted in the music industry around four years ago but hadn't made much of an impact so far. He wasn't that well-known but was given some songs to sing for a few movies and television dramas in the past year. Lucky for him, those projects were very well-received and his songs became popular along with them. Perhaps not many would know his name, but if there was any mention of those songs, most people would immediately recognize them!

"I've heard his songs before!"

"I like him!"

"His singing's actually not that bad."

"Right, it was simply because his opponents were too strong that he got eliminated!"

Many of the audience members gave him their applause!

However, Li Yu's fans started booing, with a lot of them noisily leading it. Beijing Television could only send someone over to give them a warning!

In the wings.

The Clown had just returned.

Petal Shower, Spinach, and the others met up with him over here.

Petal Shower put out her hand. "Nice teamwork?"

The Clown shook her hand. "Nice teamwork."

Spinach exclaimed, "You two were really shocking!"

The Clown and Petal Shower both shook their heads and laughed.

That was Li Yu!

That was fucking Li Yu, goddammit!

He was knocked out the show just like that by these two people? He got eliminated?

Especially The Clown, who faced the former A-lister who specialized in Cantonese songs. This…this…just who the hell was this guy? He managed to bring Li Yu to the point where he didn't even dare take off his mask?

Actually, if The Clown had beat Li Yu by just singing normally, Li Yu might not have ended up leaving the show in such a way. After all, he had come onto the show to garner more support. If he had taken off his mask, that would surely have helped him gain more popularity even though he had lost the competition. But as things turned out, Li Yu did not take off his mask. There was no way he could do it, because The Clown had really been too much of a jerk! First, he took a hit while he was down. Then came another two blows! "Life's More Than the Grind" and "I Really Love You" had given Li Yu a hard slap one after the other! He even destroyed him with a Cantonese song, the area Li Yu was supposedly most skilled in! If it were someone else, they would have chosen not to take off their masks too!

How could they!

Just why would they want to take off their mask?

Han Qi came over. "Teacher!"

The Clown looked at her. "Hey."

Xiao Lu came up to them in astonishment. "Teacher Clown, did you really win?"

Han Qi was finding it difficult to express herself. "I…you…"

Dafei also came up to them. "'I Really Love You' made Little Han cry again! In fact, it also made me crying. It was so good, that song was so damn good!"

Han Qi and Dafei often listened to songs, but had never cried because of one. They never once thought that anyone could possibly cry because of listening to a song. It wasn't until they heard The Clown perform live, and after listening to Petal Shower's and the others' performances, that they finally understood that listening to people sing live was a totally different experience. The song, "I Really Love You," that The Clown had performed today was earth-shattering!

Sunset Glow suddenly asked, "Did your agency write this song for you?"

Zhang Ye did not say anything. He just laughed.

Spinach said in amazement, "What kind of a musician can write a song like that?"

Petal Shower suddenly said, "Could Zhang Ye have written them for you?"

Zhang Ye was startled and couldn't help letting out a chuckle, although he still did not say anything.

Sunset Glow said, "Yeah, Zhang Ye is very good at writing songs, but he doesn't write them for just anyone." Then she looked at The Clown and said, "Well, it's fine if you don't wish to tell us. We won't ask anymore."

They had a lot of guesses, but none of them could have expected that the man standing in front of them was Zhang Ye himself!

Not far away, Dong Shanshan could be heard saying, "Next up, let's head into this episode's battle for the Masked King."

...

An hour later.

The recording of the show ended.

At some point in time, Zhang Ye, who had already changed out of his costume and taken off his shoes and mask, was walking around among the program team staff.

Many of the staff greeted him.

"Eh, Teacher Zhang!"

"Why didn't we see you around all this while?"

"Did you watch the recording today? It was wonderful!"

"Petal Shower was the Masked King in episode three!"

"You know, The Clown stood a chance as well."

"Teacher Zhang, I think Director Hu was looking for you."

Show recording was a very busy process and there were a lot of things to handle, so no one really took note of Zhang Ye and did not think much of his sudden disappearance or appearance.

In an office.

Zhang Ye found Hu Fei and went inside. When he came in, he saw that his parents and cousins were around as well. Obviously, Hu Fei brought them over from the studio after the recording ended.

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "Brother Hu."

Hu Fei pointed at him. 'Your parents have been looking for you for the longest time, but you couldn't be found anywhere."

Zhang Ye said, "I was watching the recording studioside the entire time. Mom, Dad, let's go."

His parents stood up and said their goodbyes to Hu Fei.

Hu Fei smiled and said, "Auntie, Uncle, feel free to come by often." Then, he turned to Zhang Ye's cousins. "Come by whenever you want to watch a live recording of our show. Hur hur, there's no need to bother your cousin in the future, just come and look for me and I'll bring you in." Such treatment was not even afforded to the assistant directors. In the entire program team, only Zhang Ye's family members would have such preferential treatment. No one could raise any objections against it.

His third sister exclaimed, "Thank you, Brother Hu!"

Zhang Ye raised his chin and said, "What? Just once is enough. Do you really think you'll be coming here every episode?"

His second sister pouted. "Brother, you're really petty!"

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. "Do you think that other people do not need to work? Stop giving them unnecessary trouble."

Hu Fei said in amusement, "Don't listen to him. If you all wish to come, just come. I am the boss, and the entire program team listens to my decisions!"

The sisters cheered!

Then they left the office.

His mother exclaimed, "I got such a kick out of watching the performances!"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "It's not too shabby, right?"

"It was great!" His mother had experienced many emotions today. "Especially when The Clown sang that 'I Really Love You.' Aiyo, I just bawled." Then she glanced at her son and shook her head. "Look at him, then look at you. When will you sing something like that for your dad and me?!"

His third sister teased, "With that lousy voice my brother has, even if he tries to sing, would you want to listen?"

His mother nodded in seriousness. "True. I guess he better not sing then."

His family all laughed.

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes again and tapped his third sister on the head. "How dare you trample over me?"

When they were about to reach the exit, they could suddenly hear arguing.

People were squabbling outside the door!

There were over a dozen young men and women shouting and screaming outside!

"This is such a shady show!"

"You people rigged the results!"

"This episode's Masked King should have been Li Yu!"

"How can you eliminate Brother Li Yu?"

"Ah! This is pissing me off!"

"We need an explanation today!"

"When Brother Li Yu left the stage, he was so crestfallen! You people were such bullies!"

"Get your boss out here right now!"

"Right, call your boss out here!"

These dozen or so people blocked the staff exit and did not budge for anyone. With them there, none of the staff could leave!

A few employees on the King of Masked Singers program team staff were trying to talk sense into them.

"What are you doing?"

"This is a staff zone!"

Someone had called the security guards and they came over.

When the security guards were about to chase them away, Li Yu's fans started shouting!

"Don't you dare touch me!"

"The security guards are hitting us!"

"Someone, come here!"

"Are there any reporters?! This program team is shady as fuck!"

They were completely shameless!

More and more people had gathered by now!

It didn't matter if anyone came to chase them off or talk with them!

His third sister said, "What kind of fans are these?"

His eldest sister shook her head. "These people are so awful."

His father knitted his brows. "Right when we're about to go home too?"

Nobody could leave. Some of them were pointing at the door, while others could not hold back from complaining angrily.

However, that group of Li Yu's fans did not seem to hear anything and linked arms to blockade the exit. "If you people don't give a proper answer to Brother Li Yu, don't even think of leaving today!" It was the same bunch of people who had created trouble during the recording.

No one could do anything. Such irrational fans were the most difficult to deal with!

Zhang Ye could no longer sit back. He squeezed through the crowd and pushed forward.

His mother was taken aback. "What are you trying to do?"

His father said, "Little Ye!"

Beijing Television staff spotted Zhang Ye coming to the front and made room for him. "Teacher Zhang, look at them. Aren't they just trying to make trouble?!"

Being shady?

Even if there were someone being shady, it would be Li Yu!

Here, in full view of the crowd, Zhang Ye made his way to those diehard Li Yu fans who had formed up a human chain to block the exit.

When they saw that it was Zhang Ye, all of them were stunned and instinctively took a step back.

Zhang Ye simply stood there and stared at them without saying a word.

"You!"

"Uh…"

"Cough, ahem."

Those people immediately lost their hostility.

A boy in the group tried to speak. "Brother Li Yu was—"

A companion next to him quickly pulled at him. "Let's go."

The boy said angrily, "Why do we need to leave?"

That person whispered, "That's Zhang Ye."

Zhang Ye.

The hooligan of the entertainment industry that everyone was afraid to encounter!

Causing trouble? Beating someone up? Scolding others? He had done all of that before!

They knew that they could be unreasonable with other people because they were sure that Beijing Television's security would not risk laying a hand on them, and neither would the staff in front of them try to do so. But Zhang Ye was different. If he decided to get rough, he would even curse at the president!

"This isn't over!"

"W-We'll talk about this another time!"

"Just you wait!"

A few of them acted tough and shouted a few threats before turning tail!

Zhang Ye turned around to his parents and three sisters. "Alright, let's go."

A bunch of the bottlenecked staff didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

"Thank you."

"Thank you, Teacher Zhang."

"Teacher Zhang still commands the most respect around here."

"Director Zhang, thanks for your hard work."

"Haha, your appearance still works best!"

They had shouted at the troublemaking fans, called security, and even threatened to involve the police, but none of that worked. In the end, when Zhang Ye came over and stood there, the fans left without uttering another word!

His third sister blinked hard, then giggled. "So your reputation really is that infamous, huh, Brother?"

Zhang Ye had no response. What are you even saying!

When the staff around them heard that, they broke into fits of laughter!

"Pfft!"

"Hahaha!"I am Really a Superstar #Chapter 1031: The third episode is broadcast! - Read I am Really a Superstar Chapter 1031: The third episode is broadcast! Online - All Page - NOVEL NEXT

Chapter 1031: The third episode is broadcast!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Saturday.

Evening.

The third episode of King of Masked Singers was about to be broadcast.

After the last two episodes' build up, the show was getting more and more popular. Those who had not noticed or viewers who were not optimistic about the show at first were now attracted to it with the massive amount of talk the show had generated. Coupled with Li Yu revealing himself before this episode was recorded, the discussions on Weibo had exploded since yesterday after everyone knew that he was competing in the show. With today's official broadcast, it had pushed the show to its highest point on the trending lists!

"It's starting!"

"I'm so looking forward to it!"

"My Brother Li Yu!"

"Someone mentioned that Li Yu got eliminated?"

"Damn, you really believe that?"

"Haha, it must be a rumor."

"Even if Brother Li Yu did not get crowned as Masked King, he definitely wouldn't get eliminated. Are you stupid? How can you believe that?"

"That's right. There isn't even anyone who can eliminate as a talented singer as Li Yu on this stage, unless it's someone on the level of Zhang Yuanqi, Chen Guang, or Fan Wenli!"

However, when they saw that Petal Shower won her match against Li Yu, many people went crazy for a moment. It was totally unbelievable!

"What?"

"Goddammit!"

"Petal Shower won?"

"This…"

"There's really no doubt about her victory!"

"Petal Shower must have been on adrenaline today!"

"Uh, I think I know who Petal Shower is. At the very least, it should only be a select few candidates!"

"Petal Shower's singing was wonderful!"

"Sunflower cannot be blamed for this loss."

Still, there was no one who felt that Li Yu would get eliminated.

Then, it was The Clown's turn to take to the stage.

"'Life's More Than the Grind'?"

"Pfft, isn't this face smacking?"

"Fuck!"

"Damn, The Clown is way too mean!"

"Yeah, Li Yu just lost, but he's kicking him when he's down?"

"Aiyo, I'm so entertained by this song!"

"Does he need to be so ruthless?"

But they had yet to find out that the even more ruthless event was about to place.

The Clown admitted defeat!

A lot of the people were dumbfounded by this decision!

"Admit defeat?"

"What's he planning?"

"Oh my god!"

...

Within the music industry.

At a recording company.

Many people's expressions changed.

"The Clown intends to go into the elimination round?"

"H-Has he gone crazy?"

"He hasn't gone crazy! He wants to verse Li Yu!"

"Isn't that crazy? He has no chance of winning against him!"

"Unfortunately, he already did."

"How do you know?"

"Yesterday's industry news. I heard that Li Yu's hand was forced to the point that he didn't even take off his mask and left the stage in dejection!"

"That's impossible!"

"I don't believe it either. Could it be a rumor?"

"Hur hur, just wait and see then."

...

At a talent agency.

Today, many people were watching King of Masked Singers while working overtime. It was not that they were lazing around, but that they had been tasked by their boss to do so. Ever since the premiere, this show was no longer treated as just a simple entertainment show. It had become an industry benchmark and a case study to follow.

"When did such a person pop up in the music scene?!"

"Who is this Clown guy?"

"Can we sign him?"

"How mysterious!"

"We don't even know which celeb he is!"

"I've already contacted some of my friends at Beijing Television, but their mouths are all zipped shut and they won't reveal any information. It's possible to guess who the other singers are as there are some likely matches, but there are zero details when it comes to The Clown! If we want to sign him from his previous agency, we'll have to establish his identity first!"

...

On Weibo.

"'I Really Hate You'?"

"Li Yu has finally sung a Cantonese song!"

"Yeah, he's finally used his trump card!"

"Haha, he's definitely going to win!"

"The Clown was too confident. He should be dumbstruck now, right?"

"Li Yu sang well!"

"Yeah, Li Yu performed well!"

"Ah, it's The Clown's turn!"

"What's this song about?"

"Fuck! 'I Really Love You'? Is he trying to contradict Li Yu?"

"When was there ever such a song? Is this yet another one of his originals? Where did he get so many originals! Who could've written all those songs for him?"

"Oh my god!"

"It's a Cantonese song!"

"It's a fucking Cantonese song!"

"The Clown is competing against Li Yu with a Cantonese song?"

"Heavens!"

"Is he crazy?"

"When it comes to singing Cantonese songs, who can beat Li Yu?"

"Yeah, how many years has Li Yu been singing Cantonese songs? Does he think it's funny to do the same? Isn't this a joke?"

"Stop chatting. Listen to it!"

"This song…this song…"

It suddenly went quiet online!

When the viewers listened The Clown's performance on television, they were all stared and their jaws dropped!

"It's great!"

"Holy shit, it's so good I'm crying!"

"Please permit me to say 'I really love you'?"

"This singing…my fuck!"

"Can, can the song be any more amazing than this?"

"It's time to vote!"

"He won!"

"The Clown won!"

"Li Yu really got eliminated? Fuck, I still thought that that was a rumor!"

"Is The Clown even human?"

"There's really no question about him winning!"

"By performing this song, how can he expect anyone to compete against him?"

"He can't really be a Hong Kong singer, right?"

"Uh, your home's in the northeast? On the Songhua River? He said that he is a northeasterner?"

"Pfft, do you guys really believe that?"

"This dude is full of bullshit!"

There was an explosion of comments on Weibo!

The results of the third episode's competition exceeded everyone's expectations. In no time, the Internet was filled with discussions related to this episode of King of Masked Singers. Whether it was on Weibo or the forums, they were similarly flooded with messages!

...

The next day.

The viewership rating of King of Masked Singers was out!

The third episode had once again ushered in a significant increase to the viewership rating and was steadily climbing!

The staff of Beijing Television were bursting with joy. Meanwhile, the King of Masked Singers program team staff were just as excited, and their celebratory cheers could even be heard in the hallway outside their office!

The Top Chinese Music Chart was also updated!

On this day, the Top Chinese Music Chart was once again dominated by King of Masked Singers!

#1: The Clown's "I Really Love You."

#2: Petal Shower's "That's Me."

#3: The Clown's "Life's More Than the Grind."

From the fourth to the twelfth place, more than half of the songs were from King of Masked Singers.

Although Petal Shower became the third episode's Masked King and it was her first time getting the title, the number one song on the Top Chinese Music Chart still belonged to The Clown. In fact, it was far ahead based on the statistics. "I Really Love You" had even shot up directly to the fourth spot on the monthly chart, with the second and third spots also belonging to The Clown at this moment. They were "Wild Rose" and "Opera," respectively, both of which had charted for more than a week now. According to this momentum, there was no doubt that "I Really Love You" would take the place of the monthly number one. It might even storm onto the annual chart! Petal Shower followed closely behind. No one else on the entire chart was a match for these "masked series" of singers!

It was too popular!

The show, its singers, and the singers' songs had all become extremely popular!

Even a lot of the well-known musicians and producers in the industry were tongue-tied and wide-eyed!

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Chapter 1032: The Ugliest Celebrities Rankings!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Monday.

Zhang Ye woke up early.

Zhang Ye browsed the latest Celebrity Rankings Index and saw that his popularity had dropped a little again. Actually, it was not considered a drop as the popularity scores still rose. However, if it rose too slowly or remained constant, then with the other celebrities' overall popularity scores rising, it caused his popularity to appear like it had dropped. Although King of Masked Singers was created by Zhang Ye single-handedly, he was not credited as the show's executive director nor was the host. He did not even appear onscreen. As a result, even though King of Masked Singers became popular throughout the country, the popularity it gave to Zhang Ye was limited. On this point, he was not surprised and even felt that it was expected, so he did not treat it as something serious at all. As long as he did not go down in the rankings, things would be fine.

Zhang Ye turned his attention to the other celebrities.

Amy's popularity had soared.

Yao Jiancai's popularity had soared.

And it was the same for Chen Guang as well.

The judges who were part of the guessing panel on King of Masked Singers all experienced an increase in their popularities due to the show's vast exposure and viewership. This was the most prominent for Dong Shanshan. As the show's solitary host, her position was a special one. Although she did not have many lines in the entirety of the show, she gained the greatest increase in her popularity score!

It was the same for the contestants who had revealed their identities.

After "King of Oddity" was eliminated in the first episode, his popularity kept rising and there were constant inquiries for him to take on commercial appearances. There was even talk about how his value had increased by 50%. "Yesterday's Daylily," who revealed himself two days ago, also saw a surge in his popularity. In today's morning news, it was revealed that he was going to hold a nationwide concert tour, and his talent agency was already promoting it heavily. Before this, Yesterday's Daylily's popularity would at most enable him to hold a medium-sized concert in a first-tier city like Beijing. But now, he was talking about holding a nationwide concert, though the attendance numbers were still in question.

What about The Clown?

Petal Shower?

Sunset Glow?

As far as they were concerned, everyone knew that once these people took off their masks to reveal themselves, there would definitely be an explosion in their popularity. It would assuredly be much more than all the contestants whose identities were already revealed put together. And their popularity was still accumulating right now. As for who the final winner would be, it all depended on the latter part of the competition to see who could remain until the end and be crowned as the grand champion of King of Masked Singers in the grand finals!

In any case, the show had made a lot of people even more popular than they used to be.

Of course, there was also an exception, Sunflower Under The Starlight—Li Yu.

Li Yu also gained an increase in his popularity, although it was not enough for him to get back onto the A-list Celebrity Rankings. Based on Sunflower's popularity and momentum before this episode, if Li Yu had revealed his identity onstage, his popularity should logically have experienced the greatest increase. But no one could have expected the factors of the competition to change so unpredictably. Who could have thought that Li Yu would lose so badly after Petal Shower and The Clown worked together to "team kill" him? The Clown was even the most vicious of all, kicking him while he was down, then repeatedly "kicking" his face so badly to the point that Li Yu wouldn't even remove his mask and just left the stage quietly. His Weibo had remained inactive ever since. This incident affected his popularity greatly and had paid the price twice over. Not only did his popularity not increase by much, his reputation was tarnished as well. He was now getting farther and farther from the A-list rankings and was unlikely to make a comeback anytime soon.

That about summed it all up.

Zhang Ye was still in a good mood and was humming a tune in bed.

Di di.

The chat app notification on his cell phone sounded.

Someone had mentioned him in the Goof Group.

Ning Lan: "Boss Zhang, are you still unemployed?"

Zhang Ye sent a smiley face. "I've been sitting idle at home."

When he looked at the chat history, he saw that a lot of messages had accumulated. Although this group consisted of the Heavenly Kings and Queens, as well as A and B-listers, it was always very active with the chat members constantly shooting the breeze. As Zhang Ye was not much of a chatty Cathy, he had muted the group some time ago.

Ning Lan: "Sister Zhang was looking for you."

Zhang Ye wondered: "Hm? What's the matter?"

Zhang Yuanqi popped out. "I'd like to ask you about someone."

Zhang Ye typed: "Ask away."

Zhang Yuanqi: "Who's The Clown?"

Zhang Ye got anxious for a moment and lied: "I don't know either."

Ning Lan: "Aren't you on the program team?"

Zhang Ye: "I was only in charge of pre-production. I didn't take part in the production itself."

Zhang Yuanqi: "@ChenGuang What about you, Old Chen? Do you know?"

Chen Guang also appeared. "I'm just a judge. If Director Zhang doesn't know, all the more I wouldn't know. I've also been trying to guess who The Clown is. Actually, the entire music scene is trying to guess who he is!"

Fan Wenli showed up. "Does anyone have any idea at all? I'm also curious."

Spring Garden's Xiaodong: "Hehe, Sister Fan. Tell us the truth, did you go on King of Masked Singers?"

Fan Wenli: "I didn't."

Ning Lan harrumphed. "Liar!"

Fan Wenli: "…"

Chen Guang tried to change the subject. "Xiaodong, did Li Xiaoxian from your group go on the show?"

Xiaodong: "How would I know?"

Chen Guang: "You don't even know about your team member?"

Xiaodong: "And you don't even know about your wife."

Chen Guang: "Pfft!"

Ning Lan: "Boss Zhang, did you write those songs for The Clown?"

Zhang Ye blinked several times. "No."

Ning Lan: "Is that so? @HuoDongfang Was it your company's Old He who wrote the songs?"

Huo Dongfang appeared as well. "I don't think so? Old He rarely writes songs for people he doesn't know."

Zhang Yuanqi: "What if it's someone he knows? All of The Clown's songs were each better than the last. It's impossible for them to have come from nowhere, right? Quick, please tell me if any of you know who The Clown is."

Chen Guang: "Tell me too. I'm already planning to work with him!"

Ning Lan: "Old Huo, are you The Clown?"

Huo Dongfang: "Ah? What are you talking about!"

Xiaodong: "Eh, why do I get the feeling that Sect Leader Huo is guilty? Could it really be you?"

Huo Dongfang: "…"

There were all sorts of guesses and random accusations.

Then, a big shot actor said: "Stop talking about The Clown. Old Li is still in this group, so let's leave some face for him, hur hur."

"Hai, Old Li sure was unlucky."

"Forget it. Let's not talk of it."

Everyone stopped speaking about it. Although a lot of them felt that Li Yu had indeed handled the situation improperly, they would still leave some face for him. However, they knew that Petal Shower and The Clown were not to blame for getting mad over the issue either.

"Eh? There's a poll on Weibo again?"

"Oh, it's that!"

"Haha, it's time for that poll again?"

"What poll?"

"There's a link posted. See for yourself."

Zhang Ye tapped it in curiosity. Weibo's front page popped up onscreen with a headline that was extremely eye-catching. It turned out to be a celebrity attractiveness rankings poll held by Weibo, similar to the annual Most Popular and Unpopular Celebrity Awards poll that was also organized by Weibo around the Chinese New Year period.

There was always a lot of attention on these two polls each year.

At 12 noon, the domestic celebrity attractiveness rankings poll officially began!

The chat messages in the Goof Group were flooding in.

Xiaodong: "Who participated in this poll last year?"

Huo Dongfang: "Ning Lan was last year's champion, with Sister Zhang coming third while I was ranked eleventh? Or was it twelfth?"

Ning Lan was a little embarrassed. "My company helped to boost my votes to create hype back then as I had an upcoming movie. Please don't mention it anymore."

Zhang Ye asked naively: "You can even do that?"

Ning Lan: "What did you think?"

Zhang Ye: "This industry is a real mess."

Xiaodong: "Pfft! Teacher Zhang, you're also part of the industry, alright!"

Chen Guang reminded everyone: "Hur hur, how can Director Zhang possibly be in the same industry as us? Have you ever seen a person as carefree as him in the entertainment industry?"

Ning Lan: "I'm not going for it this year. Old Chen, why don't you help your wife contend for it? It would do her popularity good."

Chen Guang: "She has no chance. I think I have a better chance."

Ning Lan: "Dream on! I think you're better off contending for the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings."

Chen Guang: "…"

Zhang Ye asked: "There's even an ugliest category?"

Ning Lan: "Of course there is, Boss Zhang. You really don't pay much attention to the entertainment industry's affairs, do you? Although it's not an official ranking, there's always been a great deal of interest in it. The winner's sure to make a few headlines."

Zhang Ye mocked himself. "I've been busy fighting people at all times since I've entered the entertainment industry. Where would I have the time to pay attention to any of these things?"

At this, everyone cramped up with laughter!

"Hahahaha!"

"That's true!"

"In the entertainment industry, the only person I'll submit to is Zhang Ye!"

"Yeah, when'll you change that temper of yours!"

...

In the afternoon.

His parents had made lunch.

Zhang Ye was browsing Weibo while eating at the same time.

His mother asked, "Can't you eat normally? What are you so distracted with?"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I heard that there's a ranking poll that's quite the talking point, something about a 'Beautifulest Celebrities Rankings' poll that ranks celebrity by their looks. I wanna see if I'm in the rankings."

His mother rolled her eyes. "Why don't you eat instead."

His father was speechless for a second. "What looks do you have?"

When Zhang Ye finally found the poll, he saw that he was indeed not in the rankings. There hadn't been much attention on him recently, and he had barely had any public exposure as well, so his topicality naturally decreased.

On the Beautifulest Celebrities Rankings poll.

First: Zhang Yuanqi (720,000 votes)

Second: Hu Xue (650,000 votes)

Third: Petal Shower (610,000 votes)

A Heavenly King was fourth.

And Huo Dongfang was seventh.

Dong Shanshan had actually gotten into the rankings as well and was ranked 17th.

Hu Xue was a female C-list celebrity who looked very pretty, but she wasn't considered very popular. Obtaining such a spot in her first appearance in the rankings was probably the result of getting outside help like what Ning Lan had done last year. What surprised Zhang Ye was that Dong Shanshan and Petal Shower had also appeared in the rankings. Dong Shanshan being in the standings was understandable since she was quite beautiful and was currently the host of the highly popular King of Masked Singers. But what about the third place Petal Shower? She had not even shown her face yet, so how could the audience know whether she was good‑looking? Could it be that everyone had already guessed who Petal Shower was? But that wasn't possible!

Then, Zhang Ye moved his hand and tapped on the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll to browse through it.

As of 12:30 PM.

The rankings were as followed:

First: The Clown (990,000 votes)

Second: Zhang Ye (710,000 votes)

When Zhang Ye saw the rankings, he slammed his chopsticks onto the table and nearly cursed out loud!

His mother was shocked. "What's the matter? You're in the rankings?"

Zhang Ye went green with anger!

"Let me see." His mother took his cell phone and looked. She chuckled. "The Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll? You're in second place? Pfft! This isn't too bad. It shows that the people's attention is still on you. Although you don't have a job right now, your fans are still thinking of you."

Zhang Ye fumed, "What's the use of this kind of attention!"

His mother pointed at the screen. "Alright, alright, you're merely in second place. Isn't there someone who's preventing you from becoming first?"

At the mention of this, Zhang Ye almost burst into tears!

Your sister!

First place is also me!

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Chapter 1033: Someone provokes The Clown!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Goof Group.

The big names in the group were engaging in intense conversation.

"Sister Zhang is in first place now."

"But she's not leading by much."

"Little Hu is catching up too? Oh, that's right, she's promoting her new show right now."

"Haha, quick, go and take a look at the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll."

"Ah?"

"Aiyo, Boss Zhang has gotten onto the list again!"

"In the Most Unpopular Celebrity Awards poll a few months back, Zhang Ye took first place without a doubt. Pfft, and now he's in the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll too? Second place? Not bad, not bad."

"I'm dying of laughter."

"Boss Zhang's social skills are terrible!"

"Who told him to offend that many people!"

"Yeah. Just two days ago at Beijing Television, he drove away those fans of Old Li's as well?"

"Why is The Clown also on the poll? He's even in first place?"

These people sounded rather happy.

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes and typed: "Don't bother me. I need some quiet time."

This has gone too far! Why do I always end up on the negative polls? In the past, it was OK since the worst that could happen was me taking first place. But look at this now! I've taken both first and second place!

...

On Weibo.

The netizens were laughing nonstop!

"Zhang Ye has appeared once again!"

"Hahahaha, there are always bits of Teacher Zhang in these polls!"

"I nearly pissed myself laughing!"

"Why did everyone give their votes to Zhang Ye? Teacher Zhang might not exactly be handsome, but he still looks decent and is considered average!"

"Teacher Zhang has offended too many people. Just look at those comments of many of Li Yu's fans, all scolding him and voting for him. They're even calling on others to vote for Zhang Ye in the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll, so it'd be a wonder if he didn't have a ton of votes. But I'm not surprised that Teacher Zhang got second since those diehard fans of his are all people who enjoy such polls and would surely have voted for Zhang Ye as the ugliest celebrity. That's just how his fans are, treating Zhang Ye more ruthlessly than others would, haha. But why would The Clown be in first place? That's something I can't work out!"

"The Clown purposely conceded so that he could head into the King of Masked Singers elimination round to knock Li Yu off the show. That alone is enough for all the hate, so how would Li Yu's fans not answer the call?"

"That's true."

"Besides, the idea of a clown 1 is already pretty ugly!"

"Actually, I've done some analysis and found that The Clown is likely not good‑looking either. Why? Here's my explanation. We've stated before that The Clown mentioned on the show that he's at least a B-list celebrity. But after speculating for the longest time and with all the comparisons, there wasn't anyone on the B-list and above who could sing that well or even someone who matches his figure. Coupled with him singing those lines of 'My ol' home is right in this hamlet' and 'My home's in the northeast,' we know that his words are untrustworthy. Rather, we should consider him a nonsensical person who isn't even a B-lister to begin with. Therefore, I have reached my conclusion. A person who can sing this well and has such good songs but still isn't at least a B-list celeb? He's managed to stay unnoticed by the audience all this while? There can only be one reason for this. His looks are probably not that good, or perhaps even ugly, so even if he could sing great, no one bothered to listen to him. Thus, he went unnoticed all this time!"

"Godly analysis!"

"Good reasoning!"

"Right, that's very logical!"

"Wow, you're right!"

"Holy cow, godly prediction there. Give us your name!"

"Name yourself! This thread will definitely go viral!"

When this analysis was posted, a lot of those who read it felt that it was a very justified and on point argument.

As a side effect, The Clown's votes increased even further. By 1 PM, The Clown was far in the lead in the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll!

Meanwhile, the Beautifulest Celebrities Rankings poll was still a very close and intense competition.

"The Clown has already secured first place!"

"Hahahahaha!"

"Yeah, there's no more suspense to the results!"

"If there's anyone who could catch up, only Zhang Ye has a chance!"

"Teacher Zhang, we're cheering you on!"

"Go, go, go, The Clown!"

"Let's see which of them will get ranked as ugliest!"

...

At home.

Zhang Ye nearly vomited blood a few times as he browsed through the Weibo comments!

Fight for the ugliest?

Fight, my ass!

They're both fucking me!

Who the hell came up with this poll? Could they be any more mean than this? Who in the world voted for me? Could they be any more awful than this?! His own fans, Li Yu's fans, the fans of those celebrities he had offended, all of them were rushing to vote for him. Zhang Ye had no words!

And yet, someone decided it was the perfect time to come and provoke him!

Due to the masked singers not being able to reveal their true selves, Beijing Television had even prepared some verified Weibo accounts based on their stage names. However, these accounts were not really used much other than the times some of the singers used them to say a few words of gratitude after they were eliminated.

Out of the blue, someone posted on one of these Weibo accounts.

The Weibo name was: Masked Singer "Flowing Time."

Those who had watched King of Masked Singers until the third episode would know that "Flowing Time" and another contestant were the replacement singers for the fourth episode. They had been given a special introduction in a clip of the next episode's preview. In the clip's introduction, Flowing Time had left the deepest impression on everyone. The narration introduced him as someone who only came onto the show after great efforts by the program team to invite him. He was a very famous singer in a niche genre in the industry and had very few rivals in his field. As such, after the audience had seen the preview, a lot of them started guessing as to who Flowing Time was.

But today, Flowing Time had fired a direct shot at The Clown: "I've been a good friend of Li Yu's for many years. After watching the third episode, I can't help but say a few words. Is this a tag team competition? How could Petal Shower and The Clown take turns like that? There was even a need to admit defeat so that he could get into the elimination round? Is such behavior even allowed in the rules? And Petal Shower and Spinach switching their appearance orders, isn't that horrible?"

This Weibo post resonated with quite a few of Li Yu's fans!

"Those two bastards!"

"Right!"

"This is going too far!"

"It was a tag team tactic!"

"Brother Li Yu was cheated by them!"

"Especially that Clown, he's vile!"

"Well said! Supporting Teacher Flowing Time! There's finally someone who's willing to put in a fair word for Brother Li Yu! I can see that The Clown is not a good person. Just look at how he's already first place on the Ugliest Celebrity Rankings poll!"

"Li Yu lost in such an unfair manner!"

"Teacher Flowing Time, please avenge Brother Li Yu!"

"Right, kill The Clown!"

"Destroy him!"

Of course, more of the reactions were questioning voices.

Quite a few people who saw the post were shaking their heads.

"Li Yu broke the rules by paying for PR campaigns and revealing himself. If you want to criticize others, why don't you criticize that so-called good friend of yours of many years instead?"

"Li Yu is clearly a sore loser."

"After asking for all those votes, he still lost?"

"I don't think that Petal Shower and The Clown went overboard!"

"That's right. Li Yu was in the wrong to use his popularity to crush the other contestants. How laughable. Why are there still people trying to seek justice for him?"

"Haha, someone who doesn't side with reason has made an appearance!"

"No wonder he's good friends with Li Yu! These two people are cut from the same cloth! They can't even differentiate between right and wrong? Or are they pretending not to know?"

In reality, the problem Li Yu caused had been resolved some time ago. After Beijing Television broadcast the third episode, a statement was released to announce that Li Yu had breached his contract, thus his agreed upon joining fee would be reduced by half. On top of that, Beijing Television's higher management also expressed that they would no longer collaborate with Li Yu. Li Yu's team had yet to comment on the matter.

The media reported this.

The fans discussed it.

But no one expected that someone would come and "defend" Li Yu at this time. It was even one of the replacement masked singers scheduled for the upcoming episode!

It could be seen from this that Flowing Time and Little Yu's relationship was especially good. And Flowing Time posted on Weibo again. "What's happened has happened and whatever's said won't matter, so I won't harp on it. @MaskedSingerTheClown Dare you compete honestly against me in the next episode? Dare you accept my challenge?"

The netizens were puzzled.

"Who's that?"

"He's talking this arrogantly?

"Hur hur!"

"Could it be another big shot?"

"That might be possible!"

"This person should be a somebody."

In the end, the Weibo of Masked Singer Petal Shower showed that she came online. She replied: "I don't think it's nice to send a Weibo like this, is it? An honest competition? You make it sound like the match we had was not honest. If you're unhappy for Li Yu, let's meet onstage. What's the point of saying all this?"

The conversation stopped at that.

The reason for that was because the posts on Flowing Time's Weibo were deleted very quickly after that. The same happened for Petal Shower's Weibo, so obviously, Beijing Television intervened. Such negativity and infighting among the show's contestants were definitely not something they wanted out in the open. These Weibo accounts were all officially registered by Beijing Television, so they naturally could delete any posts or take back the singers' access rights.

But the netizens had already taken screenshots of the exchange.

Instantly, another uproar broke out on Weibo!

"Flowing Time wants to challenge The Clown!"

"Yeah, the next episode is gonna be exciting!"

"Who could Flowing Time be?"

"He's definitely a famous singer in the industry!"

"Haha, the next episode's competition is going to be intense as well!"

"Where does Flowing Time's confidence come from?"

"Li Yu's good friend? Li Yu has too many friends, but if it's someone who is very close to him, there seems to be only one person? Could it be his sworn brother, Zhao Qiquan?"

"Ah?"

"Teacher Zhao Qiquan?"

"Aiyo, that might be possible!"

"Their tempers are also alike. The two of them are of the same mind!"

"I was wondering how he could be so bold. But if it's Zhao Qiquan, then that's just how he is!"

Zhao Qiquan.

A famous Hokkien 2 singer.

In this world, Hokkien songs were considered a very niche market in the music industry. Not many people sang them and there weren't a lot of good songs either. However, there were still famous Hokkien singers around. If there had to be one representative of Hokkien singers, then Zhao Qiquan would definitely be the first person to come to mind! In the genre of Hokkien songs, Zhao Qiquan indeed had no rivals. He was even very popular as a Hokkien singer and had a large score of diehard fans from the region!

Could it be him?

If it was him, it would be really difficult to say who would win and lose!

The Clown had been singing for three straight episodes, and starting contestants who made it this far into most singing shows would enter an audience appreciation fatigue period. The audience would know the style of the singer and how well they could sing by this point, so there was nothing fresh for them to look forward to. Unless you could step it up in your singing, or come up with something novel, it would be very difficult to impress the audience. But it was exactly at this time that the incoming contestants had an advantage since the audience had not seen them before. As a result, as long as they could perform good enough, the audience would love them!

And since Zhao Qiquan was obviously a supporting pillar of the Hokkien music scene, there were no doubts about his singing. There was also no one who could compete against him in this market, making him a unique personality in the industry!

...

It was late afternoon when Zhang Ye found out that somebody had openly challenged him.

The Goof Group also discussed this event.

Ning Lan: "Is it really Zhao Qiquan?"

Huo Dongfang: "It's probably him. I heard from a friend that Zhao Qiquan sidelined all activities this week and said that he would be coming to Beijing, so it should be him."

Xiaodong: "Big Brother Zhao is quite the rash person!"

Chen Guang commented: "But he's a very strong competitor."

Zhang Yuanqi said: "In the area of Hokkien music, it's all about Old Zhao. If the audience truly gets impressed by his performance, The Clown might not be able to beat him."

When he read that, Zhang Ye chuckled in spite of himself.

I can't beat him?

Bullshit!

Zhang Ye was in a terrible mood today. Yes, if it anyone placed first in the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings, they wouldn't be in a good mood either. And now that someone had come to provoke him over an obviously unreasonable matter, how could Zhang Ye not get angry!

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Chapter 1034: Getting his hands on his girlfriend's house keys!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Tuesday.

Early in the morning.

Zhang Ye had set his alarm the day before. When he woke up, the first thing he did was check on the Weibo organized Beautifulest and Ugliest Celebrities Rankings polls. The voting had ended and the results were published!

The Ugliest Celebrities Rankings polls:

First: The Clown (10.7 million votes)

Second: Zhang Ye (8.85 million votes)

Third: Zhao Xiaoyan (2.7 million votes)

There were no changes to the rankings whatsoever. All that had changed was the number of votes, with the numbers increasing from before. Whether it was the first place Clown's votes or his own votes in second place, the tallies were several times higher than the third place's votes. There was essentially no suspense to the outcome!

The netizens were still gloating over it.

"Hahaha!"

"Teacher Zhang's ranked firmly in second!"

"I love what I'm seeing!"

"So The Clown still ended up in first place?"

"This result is defying all common sense!"

"Who voted for him? Damn, why are there so many votes?"

"I did!"

"I contributed 10 votes to The Clown from my household!"

"I contributed seven votes to my idol, Teacher Zhang Ye!"

"I registered several accounts and gave all my votes to The Clown!"

"Pfft, do you guys have nothing better to do?!"

The Clown's name was really a hot topic now. Ignoring he was attractive or not for now, at least there were people who knew about him and paid attention to his happenings and thus gave him their votes. This was also a reflection of The Clown's current level of fame. This was not previously seen on Beijing Television's King of Masked Singers' official website when the show's contestants' popularity polls were held. The individual singers had each gotten hundreds of thousands of votes over several days at the beginning, which rose up to the millions later on. This was because the reach of Beijing Television's official website was small, and it was not accessed by everyone. But it was a different case for Weibo since virtually everyone had access to it. A singer who had not taken off their mask and who nobody knew could garner this many votes? This was a miracle that would never be replicated!

At home.

The main person involved in that poll was getting unhappy with the outcome and got up from bed listlessly.

His mother was sweeping the living room floor. "Eh, why are you up so early?"

Zhang Ye mumbled in response.

"I haven't made breakfast yet," his mother said.

"I'll go out and eat then." Zhang Ye yawned and went into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

His mother made a sound in understanding and said with a smile, "What's the matter? Are you still angry over the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings? Don't be bothered by it. They're all just having fun. Besides, this clearly shows that your popularity has not dropped."

Zhang Ye said, "I'd rather it dropped a little."

He changed clothes and went downstairs to get his car.

On the road, he called Wu Zeqing.

Du du du, du du du.

After four or five rings, the call finally connected.

Zhang Ye: "Old Wu, are you up yet?"

Wu Zeqing: "I'm awake now."

Zhang Ye: "Were you still sleeping? It's about time to go to work, isn't it?"

Wu Zeqing: "Yes."

Zhang Ye: "What time are you leaving?"

Wu Zeqing: "At eight, but I'll be eating breakfast first."

Zhang Ye: "Don't bother making it. I'm coming over now. I'll get you something on the way."

He heard a graceful sounding yawn. "Alright, I'll get changed then."

When he reached Old Wu's house, it was just a quarter past seven.

In the villa.

Wu Zeqing was already up and watering the plants in the yard.

Zhang Ye ran in. "Quick, eat it while it's hot. I got held up on the way here when someone recognized me. The breakfast stall's boss insisted that I give him a signature and even asked me in disbelief why a famous celebrity like me would eat breakfast. I didn't even know how to answer him."

Wu Zeqing laughed gently and set the things in her hands down. "Alright, what did you buy?"

"Soy milk and fried dough sticks, and there's also a tray of buns. Have whatever you like."

"You haven't eaten either?"

"Not yet. I just got up too."

They started eating.

The two of them sat at the table and shared the food.

As Zhang Ye ate, his gaze fell on Wu Zeqing's face. He was happy just to see her. "How's the taste? I bought this from that roadside stall on Taiping Street."

Wu Zeqing nodded. "It's pretty good." Then she smiled and looked at him. "If you're coming over in the morning next time, you don't have to go out of your way to bring me breakfast. There are quite a few people who can recognize you even if you have your sunglasses on, so just come over. There's food at home, and I can always make breakfast for you."

Zhang Ye said happily, "How would that do? You have to go to work early every day, so don't make yourself any busier than you have to. I'm just twiddling my thumbs at home nowadays anyway, so I have plenty of time."

After breakfast.

It was 20 till 8 AM.

Wu Zeqing suddenly said, "How do I look today?"

She was dressed in a bog standard gray women's suit over a white dress shirt.

Zhang Ye took a look, smiled, and said, "You look fine."

"Does fine mean middling?"

"Hai, you look good no matter what you wear."

"Why don't you help me to choose something to wear then?"

"Sure!"

"I don't even know what I should wear to work these days."

"Let me think for you. I'm a professional!"

Zhang Ye volunteered himself and went upstairs with Wu Zeqing. He went to her wardrobe and searched through it, even lowering his head to a drawer and opening it. In there, he saw undergarments of all kinds of colors before coughing and quickly closing it.

But Wu Zeqing did not mind and sat down next to him, smiling and watching him.

A moment later, Zhang Ye took a pair of pants off their hanger and walked over to Wu Zeqing, gesturing to her. "How's this? It's also gray, but it's slimmer than the one you're wearing. Those pant leg openings are wider and look ungainly. It doesn't seem all that put together."

Wu Zeqing glanced at it. "OK."

Zhang Ye nodded. "Here, change."

When Zhang Ye was about to leave the room to let Wu Zeqing get changed, he was startled to see that Old Wu had already taken her belt off with a click after taking the pants from him.

Ah?

She's taking it off just like that?

Zhang Ye got nervous and instinctively turned away. "I won't look. Please change."

"OK."

He could hear rustling behind him.

Zhang Ye could not resist the thought of turning around. Then he remembered that he had successfully proposed to her, so what would it matter if he turned? If Old Wu did not avoid him or say anything, why couldn't he just watch?

It would be such a waste to not look!

After a moment's struggle, Zhang Ye turned around.

He even tried to cover his actions. "You're done?"

Her new pair of pants were up to her fair and supple thighs, although they weren't fully put on yet and just slightly above her knees.

"Almost," Wu Zeqing said.

Zhang Ye blinked.

Wu Zeqing finally put her belt back on.

Zhang Ye snapped his fingers. "These pants look good!"

Wu Zeqing walked to the mirror on the front of her dresser and took a look. Then she smiled and said, "Yes, this is pretty good. I'll wear this." She glanced at her watch and turned around, saying, "Alright, I've got to get to work. Any later and I'll be late."

Zhang Ye said, "Hurry up then."

"That's right," Wu Zeqing said as she suddenly walked to her nightstand. She pulled open the drawer and took out a set of keys for Zhang Ye. "These are the keys to my house. Whenever you wish to come over, you won't need me to open the doors for you anymore." She pointed at a large number of keys at the top of the set and said, "This is for the main door, this is for the gate to the yard, this electronic one is for the garage, this one is for the master bedroom on the second floor, and this is the master key for the cabinets, although I don't usually keep those locked."

Key to her house?

Zhang Ye held the keychain in his hand. "Are you serious about giving this to me?"

Wu Zeqing asked, "Why?"

"Nothing." Zhang Ye smiled. "Then I'll tuck them away."

Wu Zeqing said, "OK. Don't rush to get a job. Take a break for a while."

Zhang Ye said, "Thanks."

Wu Zeqing said, "If you're still sleepy, you can sleep here before you leave. You can sleep in the other room or my room, whichever one you prefer. I'll be leaving now."

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "I won't see you off, then. If someone spots me sending you to work early in the morning, I bet the entertainment industry will blow up!"

Wu Zeqing smiled and said, "Alright."

This was no joke.

If someone found out that Zhang Ye and Wu Zeqing were going to get married?

The SARFT would be thrown into disarray!

The entertainment industry would be tossed in chaos as well!

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Chapter 1035: Teaching Taiji!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

In the morning.

After Old Wu had gone to work, Zhang Ye stayed at her home and started thinking about which songs to sing on the show. He had to come up with two songs for the upcoming episode and practice them, as well as get a sense of how they'd do.

There were some songs that were indeed good songs and classics, but they were unsuitable for him as everyone's voice was different. There were just some things in singing that you couldn't control. The timbre of vocal registers was also different, leading to a different type of feel which would determine whether that song was suitable for him or not. Zhang Ye had to try singing first before he would know. It was fortunate that Old Wu's villa had good sound insulation. He didn't need to worry that anyone would hear him. He could just sing as he desired, and even if he screamed, no one would care. Unlike at home. If he were to sing a little louder than normal there, the neighbors upstairs and downstairs would surely complain.

This song sounds fine.

Well, this song seems good too.

He decided on a tentative four songs that he was quite satisfied with for the time being. As he could feel his voice tiring, he walked out of the villa and locked up before driving off. Since he had nothing to do at home, he decided to drive over to Rao Aimin's and Yang Shu's place to have a look. He realized he hadn't been there in quite some time.

Jiaomen East.

When he drove into the neighborhood, he was stunned by what he saw.

In the neighborhood's public square, over a hundred people stood in formation and were holding stances. There were all kinds of people in the dense crowd, with elderly men and women accounting for at least half the numbers. There were also young and middle-aged men and women, and some parents even brought their ten-year-old children with them. The district's public square was very large but was almost entirely packed by these people. This formation of people was as large as you could imagine it to be.

What's going on?

Is there a multi-level marketing meeting taking place?

Or is it a plaza dance event?

Then Zhang Ye spotted Yang Shu. Yang Shu was standing in a stance that was different from the others. She stood facing everyone and was shouting some commands at them. Occasionally, she would gesture like she was demonstrating something.

"Relax your shoulders! Don't tense them up!

"Uncle Sun, your stance is wrong!

"Auntie He, don't keep your knees so straight!

"Little Wang, your stance is too rigid. Loosen a little! That's it!

"Come on, everyone, copy my stance!"

Yang Shu shifted stances.

The crowd tried to imitate her.

"Do as I do."

"Teacher Yang, is this correct?"

"That's correct, Little Zhou. Well done."

"Master Yang, what about me?"

"You're a bit off. Continue to work hard."

"Alright!"

Only now did Zhang Ye understand what was going on. These people were all shadowboxing, which was a simplified form of Taiji Fist. He was rather dumbfounded and rapidly parked his car. When he got out of his car, he observed them from afar for a short while. Every previous time Zhang Ye came here, he would get recognized by people and they would walk up to greet him. After all, Zhang Ye had lived here for quite some time and was considered a part of the community. However, no one recognized him today, probably because no one noticed him in the first place. They were all practicing Taiji under Yang Shu's guidance. Some people would take their child and leave the square from time to time to bring them to school. At the same time, people from other neighborhoods would come over and join the crowd, making the number of people gathered here increase!

Ding.

Behind him in the building's foyer, the faint sound of the elevator arriving could be heard.

Chenchen's voice suddenly rang out, "Zhang Ye, what're you doing?"

Zhang Ye turned around and saw Rao Aimin dragging Chenchen as they came out of the foyer. He immediately said in surprise, "I was watching them practice. What's going on here?"

Rao Aimin was clearly about to send Chenchen to school. "It's been going on for many days now. That junior sister of yours started teaching those people how to do Taiji some time ago. At first, it began with just one or two people learning from home. Then, two days later, even people from the nearby neighborhoods were attracted to her. Quickly take her in hand. Estate management has already come to me several times. If this carries on, the neighborhood's public square will be out of space soon."

Zhang Ye wondered, "How did she get so many people?"

Rao Aimin tilted her chin upward toward Yang Shu. "Did you forget about your apartment's windows getting smashed? When Little Yang jumped out from upstairs to chase after the crooks and took the three of them on all by herself, many of the neighbors witnessed it. On that very night, someone approached Little Yang to learn kung fu from her. She taught him a few moves and then it ended up like this, with more and more people joining."

Zhang Ye was secretly surprised. "She seems quite charismatic, doesn't she?"

"Within one kilometer, there had better not be anyone who speaks ill of your junior sis. If they do, they'll get ganged up on and scolded by a bunch of people." Rao Aimin glanced at him. "Even your influence in this area is no match for her anymore. Alright, enough talking. I have to send this kid to school."

Rao Aimin led Chenchen away.

Zhang Ye quickly called out, "I'll be eating lunch at your place at noon!"

"Yeah, yeah," Rao Aimin said impatiently.

Chenchen yelled to Yang Shu, "Old Yang, I'm going to school."

As Yang Shu turned to look and wave at her, she spotted Zhang Ye. Taken aback, a look of embarrassment appeared on her face as she busily instructed the crowd of people. She coughed, then shouted to them, "Alright, that's all for today. Go back home and practice on your own what you learned today. If you can't grasp the gist, practice more and you'll be fine. If you really still can't get it, you may come back and find me tomorrow. That's all then."

"OK!"

"Thank you, Teacher Yang!"

"Little Yang, thanks for the hard work."

"Master Yang, thanks for all your work."

The crowded started dispersing and went their separate ways. Some of them were even sharing their experiences as they left.

Yang Shu timidly walked over to Zhang Ye. "Senior Bro."

Zhang Ye said expressionlessly, "Let's go upstairs and have a talk."

Upstairs.

In the apartment.

The moment they entered the apartment, Zhang Ye put on a stern face and criticized, "Taiji Fist is a martial arts meant for fighting. In this modern era, a lot of the other martial arts are being promoted as something to practice for the strengthening of one's body and mind. But as to what it really is, I would have expected you of all people to know better! Strengthening of one's body and mind is just a secondary effect. Taiji Fist's primary goal is to inflict hurt on others and stop an enemy's attack. There were so many people downstairs just now, but did you question if any of their characters and minds are suitable to learn the art? Were you just going to teach any person that came along? How could you do that? What if you teach them and they use what they learned to go out and commit evil? There were so many of them. Did you test them one by one?"

Yang Shu lowered her head. "I was just teaching them some simple moves, not real Taiji."

Zhang Ye said, "You call that simple? The set of moves you taught included techniques that could hurt others. Besides, with so many elderly uncles and aunties learning, you actually risked teaching them? What if something happens to them while they're practicing what you taught them? Are you going to take responsibility? That set of moves is totally unsuitable for older people! Something will surely happen if they keep practicing it!"

Yang Shu lowered her head even further and didn't make a sound.

Zhang Ye got angrier as he went on, pointing at her and saying, "You're really daring, huh, not even discussing something this important with me?"

Yang Shu muttered, "But you weren't around."

"Oh, so you can run wild just because I'm not around?" Zhang Ye said, "Luckily, I came back today and found out early. If I came back a month or so later, there'd surely be trouble!"

In Zhang Ye's previous world, the Taiji Fist that people popularly knew about was the simplified version of the original. It could be said that it was almost no different from common aerobic exercises and was indeed practiced to strengthen one's body and mind. There weren't any techniques that contained any lethality and they all existed in many styles 1 , like the Yang forms and Chen forms. But none of these techniques were considered true Taiji Fist since the true form was an internal style, the purpose of which was to stop an enemy's attack, and had a deadly lethality. Anyone who did not have a martial arts background and was too advanced in age would only hurt themselves if they blindly practiced an internal style. Of course there were exceptions, but for most people, this was definitely not a good thing. Practicing an internal style was absolutely not simple! That was the reason why a lot of internal style martial artists did not teach the people outside of their schools. Even if they did, they had to see who the person was and judge if they had the moral character to learn the martial art.

Yang Shu did not speak.

Zhang Ye was afraid that she would not know the seriousness of the matter, so he rambled on for over half an hour. "Don't go around teaching other people anymore. Today will be the last time!"

Rao Aimin came home from sending her kid to school.

She pushed the door open and came in after hearing the yelling. "Whoa, you're still on about it?"

Yang Shu finally raised her head. "I was just hoping to spread the art of the Taiji Fist, that's all."

"There are many other ways to spread the art!" Zhang Ye reproached, "You're too anxious to achieve that and brought harm to others in the process!"

"I'm not!" Yang Shu bit her bottom lip, feeling aggrieved.

Rao Aimin smacked her lips and mediated, "Alright, alright, it's not that big a deal. But Little Zhang is right. You shouldn't be teaching internal style martial arts to people so easily. It's not that we're keeping this knowledge to ourselves and refusing to share with others, but that learning an internal style can be quite harsh. If it isn't practiced properly, it can cause one's body a great deal of damage." Then she added, "But I've also seen the set of moves Little Yang was teaching, and they're very simplified. Although, some of the moves, even if not to the extent of causing harm, are still not suitable for the middle-aged and elderly to learn since the movements are too sweeping."

Yang Shu looked at her. "Then, Master Rao, how can we further simplify Taiji Fist so that we can teach it to everyone?"

Rao Aimin spread up her hands. "It's not like I know anything about your Taiji branch of martial arts. There's only the two of you in this world that know Taiji Fist, so why are you asking me?"

Yang Shu immediately looked to Zhang Ye. "Senior Bro."

Zhang Ye said, "What?"

Yang Shu said, "You must know."

Zhang Ye said in exasperation, "Why would I know?"

"Can you help me simplify the moves of Taiji Fist?" Yang Shu said seriously, "I would like to let everyone learn it. Just look at our neighbors, all of them really enjoyed practicing it!"

Zhang Ye sat down on the sofa without replying.

"Senior Bro." Yang Shu quickly poured him a cup of tea and brought it to him with great respect. "Have some tea."

Zhang Ye took it from her and drank.

Yang Shu said, "I understand what you were trying to tell me just now. I was too anxious and I realized that I was wrong. Senior Bro, please guide me."

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Chapter 1036: Hiring a female bodyguard!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Giving him tea.

And pouring water.

Yang Shu kept herself busy while she helplessly watched Zhang Ye.

Zhang Ye knew that his junior martial sister had a one-track mind and was a somewhat rash person. If there was something she had made up her mind about, she would see it to the very end no matter what anyone had to say. Thinking about it, it was her life's goal to glorify the martial art of Taiji Fist. After arriving in Beijing and depending on him for so long, all she could do was stay at home doing nothing and also occasionally borrowing some money from Zhang Ye. Yang Shu probably felt dejected with nowhere and nohow to expend her energy. With people suddenly recognizing her, all the neighbors and even people from the nearby neighborhoods were now coming to learn Taiji Fist from her. They even kept addressing her as Teacher Yang or Master Yang, so Yang Shu certainly found value in this and also saw it as a way to promote Taiji Fist to the entire country, and perhaps even to the world. Naturally, she was being very diligent about it.

"Senior Bro!

"Senior Bro.

"Please teach me.

"Senior Bro!"

Zhang Ye was just about to speak.

However, Rao Aimin smirked and said, "Even if you beg him, it might not necessarily lead to anything. He has to first know how to go about doing it."

Are you trying to goad me?

Hur hur!

Do you think I'll fall for that?

Hmph! Alright, I'll really fall for it!

Zhang Ye stared at her. "Hey, who says that I don't know how?"

Yang Shu's eyes lit up. "Senior Bro, you really know how?"

If it were anyone else, they would probably not know how to go about handling this. It would not only require a lot of time to plan to simplify a set of internal style boxing techniques into something that could be practiced by the ordinary people, but would also require time to continuously refine and tweak it. Without spending three to five years, it would be impossible to complete the simplification. This was because it wasn't purely about simplifying the moves. After doing that, there was still a need to bring it in line with the essence of Taiji Fist and reflect the discipline behind it. Therefore, it was an especially difficult task, especially if a person was a master Taiji Fist martial artist. As they were already at a more advanced stage, it would be very difficult for them to see what the ordinary people were seeing.

But it was different for Zhang Ye since he was from another world. In his previous world, Taiji Fist had long since been simplified into countless versions. Whether it was the 42-form Taiji or the 24-form Taiji, Zhang Ye had seen it all. He even knew that the earliest 24-form Taiji, which was introduced in 1956, had used the Yang-style Taiji Fist as its basis for simplification. Further, the country was involved with its implementation at the time. Led by the Sports Administration in 1979, another version was introduced, the 42-form Taiji, which also used the Yang-style Taiji Fist as a basis but added the essence of other Taiji Fist styles. These were the two forms of Taiji Fist mainly practiced by the people in his previous world.

So he decided that he would teach her.

There was nothing to hide anyway.

Zhang Ye got to his feet and said, "Watch carefully."

Yang Shu immediately widened her eyes in interest.

Rao Aimin narrowed her eyes and also watched with great interest.

"This is the 24-form Taiji Fist!" Zhang Ye then demonstrated the opening stance!

First form: Initiation.

Second form: Part the Wild Horse's Mane.

Third form: White Crane Spreads Its Wings.

Fourth form: Brush Knees and Twist Step.

He executed the movements in a flowing motion!

Yang Shu was dumbfounded by what she was seeing!

Rao Aimin's eyes narrowed even more.

Zhang Ye continued, "Next, this is the 42-form Taiji Fist!"

Initiation!

Grasp the Sparrow's Tail, Right Side!

Single Whip, Left Side!

Raise Hands!

As he went through the stances, he finally reached the closing stance.

Zhang Ye asked Yang Shu, "How much can you remember?"

Yang Shu replied, "I've memorized everything!"

Zhang Ye was stunned. What? She had memorized everything? Did she need to be so full of herself? He said in disbelief, "Then show it to me. I want you to show me both the 24-form and 48-form sets."

"Yes, Senior Bro!" Yang Shu seemingly turned into another person and looked sharp. She demonstrated both sets without missing a thing!

Only then was Zhang Ye convinced.

This was what talent was. It wasn't worth it to compare people.

Yang Shu said excitedly, "Senior Bro, was that OK?"

Zhang Ye's eyebrows rose a little as he nodded and said, "It was very good."

Suddenly, Rao Aimin looked at Yang Shu and said, "Are you interested in learning from me? Transfer to the Eight Trigrams Palm? I can guarantee that you will achieve the usage of concealed power within half a year."

Yang Shu was stunned. "Ah?"

Zhang Ye panicked. "Hey, hey, hey, what's the meaning of this, Old Rao? Are you trying to steal my people?"

Rao Aimin smiled and said, "Your junior sister is a very talented person and quite suitable to learning the Eight Trigrams Palm. Her foundations are there and she has also attained great understanding, so it's not a problem for her to start learning the Eight Trigrams Palm now."

Even though Zhang Ye wasn't that fond of his freeloading junior martial sister and would talk to her impolitely at times as well as order her around, Zhang Ye would definitely not allow Old Rao openly trying to steal her from him. "There are so many disciples in the Eight Trigrams Palm School, and only two left in Taiji, so why are you trying to steal her from me? Have you no heart?" He immediately said to his junior martial sister, "Don't listen to her and continue practicing Taiji Fist. There's no point in learning some random lousy fist and palm techniques."

Rao Aimin looked at him. "Who are you saying has lousy fist and palm techniques?"

Zhang Ye stared at her and said, "Whoever tries to steal my people!"

The two of them nearly got into a fight.

Yang Shu quickly said, "Senior Bro, Master Rao, please don't argue. Master Rao, thank you for your kindness. Taiji Fist was handed down through my family, so I definitely wouldn't learn any other martial arts."

Zhang Ye nodded his head firmly. "That's the right way!"

Even if Rao Aimin's social ties were extremely poor in the Chinese martial arts world, she was still a grandmaster. Besides, other than Chenchen, she had not taken any disciples of her own yet. When he learned that Old Rao was eyeing Yang Shu, Zhang Ye was truly afraid that his junior martial sister would get stolen away. It wasn't easy for him to get a fellow junior martial sister, was it?

Rao Aimin stopped trying and turned away. "You can look for me anytime if you want to learn the Eight Trigrams Palm. Oh right, come over for lunch this afternoon."

Yang Shu said, "Thank you, Master Rao."

Zhang Ye asked, "What are we having for lunch?"

"You're not invited!" Rao Aimin strolled off.

Zhang Ye had no response.

Later that morning.

Zhang Ye taught some more simplified Taiji Fist sets to Yang Shu.

Yang Shu virtually did not need him to repeat his demonstrations as she could almost always remember the routine after observing it just once.

Zhang Ye was fully satisfied and felt that Yang Shu was becoming more and more pleasing to the eye. "That's about it. Take some time to digest what I've taught you. As for how you want to teach it to others or which sets to teach, I don't care. You can decide by yourself."

Yang Shu gave a fist and palm salute to him and said sincerely, "Thank you, Senior Bro!"

Zhang Ye said in amusement, "We are both practitioners of Taiji, so why are you still being so polite with me?"

Yang Shu nodded solemnly. "Alright, then I won't be so polite with you." Then she looked at him and said embarrassedly, "Senior Bro, can you lend me some money again?"

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. "You're broke again?"

Yang Shu said, "Yes."

Zhang Ye said, "You didn't collect any money for teaching Taiji Fist?"

Yang Shu said, "They all liked Taiji Fist a lot, so I-I was too embarrassed to collect any money from them."

"Then how can you ask money from me?"

"Didn't you say that I didn't have to be so polite with you?"

"Did I say that?"

"Yes, you said that just now."

"I've already forgotten."

"Senior Bro."

"Fine, fine. I got it already. Here, take it."

"Thank you, Senior Bro."

Seeing her in such a miserable state, Zhang Ye couldn't bear refusing her. When he thought about that, he took out all of the money in his wallet, which totaled over 10,000 RMB. "Alright, I'll give all of this to you."

Yang Shu furiously waved it off. "I don't need that much."

Zhang Ye said, "I'm not sure when I will be coming over again, so just keep it for now. Remember, if you run out of money or meet with any troubles in the future, let me know"

Taking the money from him, Yang Shu nodded. "Senior Bro, you're really nice."

Zhang Ye said indignantly, "Cease with the niceties. They're useless against me. You should find a job in your free time. You have to be able support yourself before you can teach others about martial arts."

Dispirited, Yang Shu said, "I've interviewed, but nobody needed me."

Zhang Ye asked curiously, "What kind of job did you interview for?"

"A bodyguard position," Yang Shu said.

Zhang Ye said in surprise, "Ah?"

Yang Shu spoke angrily, "When they saw that I was a woman, they did not even give me a chance for an interview."

Zhang Ye chuckled. "As a Chinese martial arts master, why would you need to interview to be a bodyguard? Who could hire you? Even the head of state wouldn't have such a privilege, no?" His junior martial sister probably did not think of it that way. But Zhang Ye knew that with Yang Shu's skills, she would belong to the top of the Chinese martial arts world. She also practiced Taiji, and could even be considered the most authentic successor to Taiji Fist in this world, yet she wanted to become someone's bodyguard? How shameful would that be!

Yang Shu said, "But I only know kung fu and nothing else." She then thought of something. She blinked and asked, "Senior Bro, do you have a bodyguard?"

Zhang Ye said in bewilderment, "What are you planning?"

Yang Shu pleaded, "Let me be your bodyguard!"

Zhang Ye said in a speechless manner, "Will I be protecting you or the other way round?"

Yang Shu's excitement faded. "That's true. Your skills are so much better than mine, so you won't need anyone protecting you. Then I'll just keep looking and see if anyone requires a bodyguard."

Pfft!

You're still thinking about being a bodyguard?

Zhang Ye could no longer bear to listen and waved her off. "Come on! With your status, how can you think about becoming a bodyguard for others? Even if you don't feel ashamed, I feel ashamed for you! What about this? You can be my bodyguard and I'll call for you whenever I have any activities or matters to handle. You just need to shield me from the fans and reporters. As for your salary, I'll pay you 50,000 RMB a month for the time being, though that figure may rise in the future. That's right, do you know how to drive? Have you learned how?"

Yang Shu immediately nodded. "Yes!"

Zhang Ye decided, "Alright, it's settled then. In the future, you'll just need to drive and shield me from people. But of course, I won't call for you every day, so you can do whatever you need to as usual, since I won't need you for most situations. Open a bank account later and I'll transfer your salary to you every month."

Yang Shu was very happy. "Understood, Senior Bro!"

A celebrity with Zhang Ye's status would usually have bodyguards and a full-time chauffeur. Even if they did not hire anyone themselves, their talent agencies would still arrange it for them.

Today, Zhang Ye had finally gathered a full team of his own.

His agent was a Chinese martial arts grandmaster?

And his bodyguard and driver was a Chinese martial arts master?

In the entire entertainment industry, there was truly no one else who could assemble such a team!

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Chapter 1037: Recording the fourth episode!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

Friday.

In the morning.

On the day of recording the fourth episode of King of Masked Singers.

On the way to Beijing Television, Zhang Ye sat in the car with his heart in his mouth. It was Yang Shu's first time chauffeuring and bodyguarding today, and she was feeling quite nervous as well.

"Hey, hey."

"What's the matter, Senior Bro?"

"Drive slowly!"

"OK, Senior Bro."

"Hey, don't drive on the lane markers!"

"Yes, Senior Bro."

"Turn right, turn right here!"

"Understood."

"Are you sure you have a driver's license?"

"Yes."

It was obvious that Yang Shu was the kind of driver that had not touched a car since obtaining her driver's license. Furthermore, she was an extremely reckless driver just like her rash nature. She would keep driving straight at an extremely fast speed and was a typical example of those women drivers who would send a shiver down one's spine.

They arrived at their destination.

However, there were quite a few reporters clogging the entrance. Perhaps they had received some news or they had just been waiting there, but when they saw the car, around seven reporters immediately piled toward it.

"It's a BMW X5!"

"It's the bulletproof version!"

"That's Zhang Ye's car!"

"Quick, quick, quick!"

As the car was blocked from entering, Yang Shu had to park outside.

Zhang Ye said, "Get out and shield them off for a bit."

Yang Shu immediately got out of the car. "Please, could all of you make way! Make way!" Yang Shu was dressed in a black suit and even wore a pair of sunglasses at Zhang Ye's request. She was dressed as a typical bodyguard.

Zhang Ye also got out of the car.

A male reporter immediately raised an audio recorder and asked loudly, "Teacher Zhang, King of Masked Singers is getting very popular these days. As the executive producer, you deserve the credit. Would you accept an interview with us at Beijing Times?"

Zhang Ye smiled and waved it off. "I just did the pre-production. I haven't contributed much to the show itself, so let's drop the interview. But you guys can arrange one with Director Hu Fei."

A female reporter squeezed her way over to him. "Director Zhang, the netizens voted you into second place a few days ago in the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll. What are your thoughts on this?"

Zhang Ye walked forward while smiling. "I feel lucky that I didn't come in first place."

The reporters laughed.

"The Clown got first place. Do you know anything about this contestant?"

"I have no idea."

"Can you reveal anything about The Clown to us?"

"I don't know anything."

"The replacement singer, Flowing Time, has issued a challenge to The Clown. Who do you think will win?"

"The competition hasn't even started yet. How would I know? Alright, I have to go to the program team now to discuss some things, so let's end it here?"

When Yang Shu heard Zhang Ye say that, she immediately took two steps forward and cleared a path for him. "Please make way, thank you."

A reporter had wanted to squeeze his way past her, but when Yang Shu held him arm that was holding a microphone, that burly male reporter looked dumbfounded as he got pushed back by her. Another reporter wanted to rush up, but Yang Shu used the same move to stop that person.

Inside a two-meter radius, no one could get close to Zhang Ye!

All the reporters were dumbfounded!

Who was that woman?

Did Zhang Ye hire a bodyguard?

And why was she so strong?

When he reached the television station's entrance, several security guards ran over to block the reporters and allowed only Zhang Ye in.

Zhang Ye turned around and told Yang Shu, "You can drive back. I'll probably finish in the afternoon or evening, so pick me up when the time comes."

Yang Shu nodded. "OK!"

A number of reporters got curious and quickly snapped some pictures of Yang Shu. Had Zhang Ye hired a beautiful female bodyguard? This was news too!

In the television station's courtyard.

Hu Fei and Xiao Lu saw what had happened.

"Zhang'er." Hu Fei waved at him.

Zhang Ye walked to him. "Why are there so many reporters out there?"

Hu Fei laughed and said, "The show is very popular. I was trapped out there for a long time too."

Xiao Lu chuckled, "Director Zhang, did you hire a bodyguard? What a beauty!"

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "She's a friend of mine. Since she was sitting idle at home, I hired her to be my bodyguard."

Xiao Lu wondered, "Can a woman be a bodyguard too? Does she have the skills?"

"Her skills?" Zhang Ye said, "Against ordinary people, she could hold off more than 20."

Xiao Lu exclaimed, "That's such an exaggeration!"

Hu Fei also laughed. "More than 20 people?"

A woman?

And such a beautiful woman?

Hu Fei and the others did not believe it!

Zhang Ye just smiled without saying anything. There was no need to explain anything to these laymen. Even if he explained, they would not understand. Yang Shu was no ordinary bodyguard. Most celebrities whose bodyguards were tall and well-built—or knew some karate, taekwondo, or martial arts, or might even be retired soldiers—could not take even three attacks from Yang Shu. She was the genuine successor of the Yang-style Taiji Fist, an internal style master who was more legitimate than Zhang Ye.

Hu Fei said, "Let's go in and talk. So, that day some of the contestants used our official Weibo accounts to make those posts, that was something we hadn't expected. When we finally got around to taking emergency actions to stop it, it was already too late."

Zhang Ye said, "It's fine. Just treat it as promotion."

Hu Fei looked at him. "Do we need to tell the masked singers to stop posting with their Weibo accounts?"

"There's no need." Zhang Ye said, "It's unnecessary, so let the contestants settle it themselves."

Hu Fei snapped his fingers. "OK, I'll take your advice."

Although Hu Fei and the King of Masked Singers program team had produced a lot of shows, the scale of those past shows had always been very small. They had never taken part in a project that had such a huge investment and had never produced a dominant show with such high nationwide viewership ratings before. Only Zhang Ye had experience doing so, even on more than one occasion. As such, Hu Fei went to Zhang Ye for his opinions on a lot of matters. Having known each other for so long, there wasn't really anything to be embarrassed about. Everyone wanted this show to succeed!

...

An hour later.

As Zhang Ye finished his work, Hu Fei and the program team staff started getting busy with theirs. So Zhang Ye disappeared from sight and changed into The Clown's costume and mask.

After a phone call, Han Qi rushed over.

"Aiya, Teacher Clown!"

"I'm sorry I was late."

"The band is waiting for you."

"OK, I'll head over straight away."

He had already rehearsed one song yesterday and needed to rehearse the second one this morning.

On the way over, Han Qi rambled on.

"That Ugliest Celebrities Rankings thingy was pure nonsense."

Zhang Ye smiled.

Han Qi said angrily, "You haven't even revealed your face yet, so how could they mess around like that? How could they vote you to first place in the polls? And it's even in some Ugliest Celebrities Rankings?! They have really gone too far!"

They bumped into Dafei and Hou Ge.

Dafei stood still. "Teacher Clown, you've arrived?"

The Clown greeted him.

Dafei said, "Please don't be bothered by that poll."

Hou Ge added, "It's just the netizens joking around."

Han Qi said, "Just joking around?! That was downright insulting!"

The Clown said, "It's fine."

The masked Sunset Glow happened to come out of the rehearsal room at this exact moment.

The two of them saw each other and exchanged a few words.

"The Clown?"

"Hello."

"Are you actually unattractive looking?"

"In any case, I'm not handsome."

"Oh, I'm not pretty either."

Han Qi was wondering why Sunset Glow would straightforwardly ask someone whether they were unattractive. But when she heard her next words, she realized that Teacher Sunset Glow was taking a different tack to comfort The Clown.

The impact of the poll that was organized on Weibo a few days ago was still huge. Many people had participated in it, which was obvious from the millions and tens of millions of votes cast. Zhang Ye had gotten second place in the Ugliest Celebrities Rankings poll, but everyone already knew that he was quite an unconcerned man when it came to such things. Moreover, he had frequently featured as one of the front runners in many of these negative rankings before, so everyone was used to it. But as it was The Clown's first time in such a poll, everyone was unsure whether he had the mental fortitude to cope with the result. After all, not everyone could be as carefree as Zhang Ye. For example, if it were any other male or female celebrity who gained this title of being the ugliest, they would have long since cursed and sworn.

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Chapter 1038: An unforeseen situation at the venue!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The door closed.

The rehearsal room cleared out.

The Clown started rehearsing.

"Teacher, you're still not going to sing the lyrics?"

"Yeah."

"Alright then, let's begin."

"Thanks, everyone."

The reason why Zhang Ye kept insisting on not singing during rehearsal was that he did not want to consume too much of his emotion and fervor. He was the type of competitor who would always do things spontaneously, which required him to be in the right condition to perform well. Sometimes, the more times a song was sung and the more focused one was, the easier it was to lose the original feeling for the song. That would only lead to a worse live performance compared to what was practiced during rehearsal. No singer could keep singing a song with fully invested emotions since they would get sick of it if they sang it too many times. So Zhang Ye needed to restrain himself as he hoped to leave his best performance for the actual stage.

Music Director Bai Yuanfei and the Miracle Wheels band members were used to this. However, when they got the score and saw the title of the song, they glanced at The Clown.

Eh, this song?

It's something worth looking forward to!

Half an hour later, they finished rehearsing after practicing the song about four times. Zhang Ye did not waste any time as the next contestant was still waiting their turn. After thanking the band, he got ready to leave the rehearsal room. When he opened the door, he saw an unfamiliar man wearing a mask and resting on the sofa outside. His mask looked very similar to Zhang Ye's own mask. It was a very artistic, silvery mask and even had some ethnic cultural elements emblazoned on it. It was clear that the mask had been meticulously created by the designer. His costume was very colorful and eye-catching as well.

Who was it?

Could it be Flowing Time?

As Zhang Ye studied him, the other person did the same.

That person stood up and looked straight into The Clown's eyes. "You should've seen what I posted on Weibo, right? You even admitted defeat just so that you could eliminate Old Li. Was there really a need to go that far?"

It was Flowing Time.

Zhang Ye chuckled.

Flowing Time said, "I don't like you."

Zhang Ye grunted.

Flowing Time said, "You're a Mainlander, right?"

Zhang Ye still did not say anything.

Flowing Time said, "Since when did it become popular for Mainland singers to sing Cantonese songs? Were you deliberately trying to knock Old Li out? We're all fellow industry peers. Did you need to be so extreme? You didn't even leave some face for him? Or leave some leeway for yourself? I also sing minority language songs. If you're so capable, why don't you sing another Cantonese song later?"

Zhang Ye gave him a look. "Are you done talking?"

Flowing Time said, "Yes, for now."

Zhang Ye curved two fingers up, one after the other. "First, I'll decide by myself if I'll sing a Cantonese song or not and what song I will sing. I don't need you to tell me that. Second, if you're here to defend Li Yu's actions, feel free to do so. But there's no need for so much nonsense. Let's leave it all on the stage." He turned around and walked away.

Flowing Time shouted after him, "Sure! Let's meet on the stage!"

When they walked far off, Han Qi, who was beside Zhang Ye all this while, said angrily, "Is that guy crazy?"

Zhang Ye said, "Who knows?"

Han Qi said, "Li Yu's punishment has already been decided. He was the one who didn't abide by the rules and interrupted our show's progression. Does he even think he has a case here?"

Zhang Ye threw his hands up.

Han Qi asked, "Is that really Teacher Zhao Qiquan?"

"I don't know."

"Since he said that he sings minority language songs, then he might just really be Zhao Qiquan. A lot of netizens were guessing that it's him. Teacher, I'll be cheering you on. Beat him!"

Zhang Ye nodded. "Mm."

...

Online.

There was a press release with a picture attached.

"Zhang Ye's Mysterious Female Bodyguard!"

"Wow!"

"What a beauty!"

"Yeah. Although I can't see her face clearly since she's wearing those sunglasses, from her profile and that figure, she must definitely be a beauty. Did Teacher Zhang hire a bodyguard?"

"A female bodyguard? Is she just for show?"

"Who knows? I heard that Teacher Zhang's newly hired agent is also a very beautiful woman!"

"Teacher Zhang has offended too many people. I guess it was about time for him to get a bodyguard."

"All I care about right now are the results of King of Masked Singers' fourth episode!"

"Who on earth is The Clown?"

"The industry is still guessing as well. No one knows who he is!"

"Flowing Time has challenged him. If it's really the Hokkien singer, Teacher Zhao Qiquan, then it will surely be interesting to watch. It would be even more wonderful if they end up fighting!"

"I wonder what song The Clown will be singing today."

"I'm so looking forward to Flowing Time's performance!"

"I still prefer Petal Shower!"

"Haha, I'll be headed to the studio soon for the recording."

"Ah, does the previous poster have a ticket?"

"Yeah, I got it through my company."

"I'm so jealous of you!"

"You gotta stream from the studio!"

Even before the show's recording, it had drawn the attention of the people!

As long as it was a topic related to the King of Masked Singers, it would be hotly discussed!

...

In the afternoon.

At Beijing Television, the drawing of lots began.

Before long, the matchups and appearance sequence for today were set.

The order of appearance was as followed:

First: Spinach

Second: Flowing Time (Replacement masked singer)

Third: Marshal Persona (Replacement masked singer)

Fourth: The Clown

Fifth: Petal Shower

Sixth: Sunset Glow

It was not yet time for the audience to be admitted into the venue. There was still plenty of time until then.

As such, Executive Director Hu Fei decided to organize a simple tea party at a small backstage dining area and invited all of today's contestants. Afternoon tea was served with some snacks, even including red wine. "This is the first time that all the contestants have gathered together. Let me briefly introduce our two new replacement singers. This is Teacher Flowing Time, and this is Teacher Marshal Persona. So then, everyone please feel free to have some tea and chat, hur hur. This part will not be broadcast anyway."

Marshal Persona was the first to greet everyone. "Hello, everyone. I'm a newcomer. Nice to meet all of you."

From his voice, he didn't sound that young. He was perhaps in his 30s or 40s?

Flowing Time smiled and said, "You don't sound like a newcomer."

Marshal Persona laughed but did not say anything.

Petal Shower looked at Sunset Glow. "The two of us are facing each other today."

"Please go easy on me." Sunset Glow smiled shyly.

Petal Shower smiled and said, "I was about to ask you the same. I'm not in too good a shape today."

Sunset Glow looked off to the side. "Then today's main event will have to be between The Clown and Flowing Time."

The Clown simply shrugged it off.

Flowing Time chuckled, saying nothing.

When the others heard that, they also looked at those two. Everyone already knew about the provocations by Flowing Time on Weibo and wanted to find out who would be the better singer between the two of them. But as they were not matched against each other, they would not get to meet each other in the first round. So the prerequisite was that the two of them had to get through the first round before they could meet in the second round.

Outside.

In the recording studio.

The audience had started to line up in advance to get into the studio.

"Wow, the venue is so big!"

"The set design is really nice."

"This is all Zhang Ye's creation. I heard that Teacher Zhang personally decorated the set."

"It's just somehow better with Zhang Ye taking part in the production. He's currently the country's best television show director and producer after all."

"Ah, is that Dong Shanshan?"

"It's her, it's her. She's testing the microphone?"

"Where's Petal Shower?"

"And where's The Clown?"

"Don't bother looking for them. They're definitely backstage."

Suddenly, a large group of people arrived from outside. They all seemed like they knew each other and were even wearing the same outfit, which had a company's name printed on it. A rough estimate put about 70 to 80 people in the group. When they opened their mouths to speak, they were all talking in Hokkien!

The audience members around them all turned to look at them.

Many of the program team staff were momentarily stunned.

With The Clown attending the tea party, Han Qi was left with nothing much to do. So she came over to the studio to help out with work. However, when Han Qi witnessed this, she started to feel a little panicked and went to look for Dafei immediately.

Han Qi tugged at him. "Brother Fei!"

Dafei turned around. "What's the matter, Little Han?"

Han Qi pointed to the audience. "W-Why are there so many Fuzhounese?"

When Dafei saw this, he also found it a little odd and went to check with someone. Only then did he learn what was what was going on. He said to Han Qi, "They're from a company based in Xiamen and are a second-tier advertising sponsor for our show. They had asked for some tickets from us, so Brother Hu allocated 70 to 80 tickets for them. We originally thought that they were going to organize a lucky draw to give away the tickets, which was what they had claimed as well. We hadn't expected that their company employees and families would come to Beijing for a meeting. They decided to organize a tour while they were in Beijing and now they're here. The majority of the employees are from Xiamen, and they speak Hokkien over there."

Han Qi asked, "Then will they be allowed to vote as well?"

"Of course," Dafei said.

Han Qi was badly worried now. She ran off to look for The Clown. When she got there, the tea party had just ended. "Teacher Clown, come with me, quick. There's something urgent!"

Back in the waiting room.

The Clown asked, "What's the matter?"

Han Qi said, "There are nearly a hundred people in today's audience who speak Hokkien!" She related the matter to him and asked, "What should we do now? If Flowing Time is really Teacher Zhao Qiquan, then he's one of the best Hokkien singers around. Wouldn't those hundred votes go to him almost by default? How could anyone compete with him if that's the case? Just think about it. If the abilities of two people are on par and the 500 audience members vote equally for each person, that will give them each 250 votes. Even with a slight deviation, ten votes would already be a huge margin, not to mention a hundred votes. But fortunately, Hokkien songs are slightly more niche. Other than this hundred people from the Xiamen sponsor company, the rest of the audience members would probably not—"

All of a sudden, someone knocked on the door.

Han Qi went to open the door.

Xiao Lu was standing outside. She quickly said, "I won't be going inside. Just let Teacher Clown know that a company from Chaoshan with roughly 40 to 50 people has arrived. They came to Beijing for a meeting a few days ago. The program team hadn't expected that these two groups would come to the recording session together. I'll be going as I still need to inform the other singers. We've made a mistake in our planning by not properly arranging for the attendees."

Han Qi was a little confused. "What's about the company from Chaoshan?"

The Clown spoke, "Teochew is a branch of the Min language. There's about a 60-70% similarity."

Han Qi exclaimed, "What?"

Xiao Lu sighed. "That's the issue I'm talking about."

The Clown said calmly, "I understand."

"We're terribly sorry," apologized Xiao Lu before leaving in a hurry.

"How can that happen!" Han Qi said, "Those 70, 80 people are already enough to mess the results up, but now there are another 40, 50 others? Wouldn't that be over a hundred people in total? Wouldn't today's stage become Flowing Time's home field then?"

Previously, the program team had been very particular with the audience composition. For example, when it came to age demographics, they would not only get young people to attend. They would invite people of all ages from their teens to their 50s. As for gender, it would basically be half-and-half with at most a 10% difference. As for the language they spoke, this was not a consideration at all. Since this was the Mainland, they couldn't possibly bring in half the audience from Hong Kong and the other half from the Mainland just to show that they were fair to the Cantonese singers. Moreover, Cantonese songs were quite mainstream and well recognized by Mainlanders, so there was no need to do that. As such, what was happening today was indeed unexpected. No one had expected that such a coincidence would happen, that so many people who spoke Hokkien would come to attend the recording! And from the apologetic attitude of Xiao Lu, it was crystal clear who Flowing Time was. He was definitely a Hokkien singer!

The other contestants gradually learned about it as well.

Petal Shower did not say anything.

Sunset Glow simply acknowledged that she understood.

Spinach had the biggest reaction. She felt she didn't need to take the stage anymore!

A lot of people were wondering if all of this was planned by Flowing Time himself. Could he have happened to know the CEOs of those two companies? So he got them to ask for more tickets for people to cheer him on? And that was why he dared to openly challenge The Clown on Weibo even though he had already been crowned Masked King twice?

Was that how it was?

No one knew!

In any case, the other contestants could only be sure of one thing: In these circumstances, it was going to be too difficult for anyone to beat Flowing Time!

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Chapter 1039: Who is his opponent?

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

In the recording studio.

All of the audience had taken their seats; the cameras were about to start rolling.

Dafei found his way over. "Brother Hu, some contestants have expressed their views on the matter."

Hu Fei sighed. "What did they say?"

Dafei smiled wryly. "Last time it was Li Yu, now it's Flowing Time. One of the masked singers said that if she were allowed to bring people from her hometown to attend the recording, she could even beat Petal Shower and The Clown!"

"Brother Hu, what do we do now?" Xiao Lu came back after informing the contestants.

Hu Fei said remorsefully, "What else can we do? All we can do is record. Since everyone has arrived and they're from our sponsors, we can't possibly chase them off, right? We only have ourselves to blame for not clarifying and asking clearly what they needed the tickets for when they requested them. We just assumed that they would use it for a nationwide lottery event. If it was that, the gender and geographical demographics would've been more evenly distributed. Hai, we can only blame ourselves for being inexperienced at handling such a large singing variety show like this one. That's why it led to a series of consecutive problems occurring like it had. It was all due to my negligence. If Zhang Ye had been appointed as the executive director, such things would not have happened! If I had known that it would be like this, I would have made him accept the position of executive director no matter what. I'd have just stuck to being the executive producer and supervised from the side! That would have been so much easier!"

Dafei immediately said, "We can't blame it on you. We don't have the necessary experience either."

Xiao Lu wondered, "Has Director Zhang gone missing again?"

"He probably went back?" Dafei turned and looked around.

Hu Fei said, "Let's just go ahead and record. Things can't be changed no matter what. I'll personally go and talk to the contestants after we finish recording. Come, we'll start record in one minute."

...

Applause rang out through the studio!

"Hello, everyone."

"Welcome to this episode of King of Masked Singers!"

"I'm your host—Dong Shanshan."

Many in the audience started to scream in excitement.

And a lot of the guys were wolf whistling.

This scene was not planned by the program team beforehand. They had not requested for the audience to clap and scream to enhance the recording effects, but was rather the most authentic representation of the atmosphere in the studio. As Dong Shanshan had gotten very popular now and the King of Masked Singers becoming the top rated show in the nationwide viewership ratings, everyone was very excited that they could come attend the live studio recording where they could also vote to determine the "life and death" of the contestants. Their emotions were running high right from the start.

Dong Shanshan was still wearing that black women's suit and those gold-rimmed glasses.

After a string of advertising messages, Dong Shanshan looked at the audience and said with a smile, "I saw on the Internet that a lot of people are asking me why I keep wearing the same outfit for every episode."

Quite a few audience members looked at her curiously.

Dong Shanshan said, "It's because the program team does not have any money!"

In return, the audience heckled her!

"Yi!"

"Yi!"

"Hahaha!"

No money?

You're the richest program team in the country right now, alright?

Hearing that, Dong Shanshan looked at Yao Jiancai, who was seated at the judging panel, and said with a smile, "What a familiar sound this is! Teacher Yao, are they jeering at you?"

The other judges laughed.

Yao Jiancai pointed at Dong Shanshan. This Little Dong is even making fun of me now?

The host had a bigger part in the recording of today's episode. It was rare for Dong Shanshan to get the opportunity to say more than a bit during the opening speech, even though it was just a few lines. "I know that everyone has been waiting. Now, let's hand things over to the contestants, so please welcome our first singer onto the stage—Spinach."

The contestant was ready and waiting in the waiting area.

The audience started applauding!

"She's coming out!"

"It's Spinach!"

"She's the first one today?"

Spinach came onto the stage feeling a little unhappy. But she managed to recover from it very quickly after a few deep breaths while she stood onstage. Then she nodded at the band to signal that she was ready.

The music played.

She began to sing.

It turned out that Spinach chose a song that was based heavily on opera music and was aptly titled "Chinese Opera." There were parts of the song where it was sung in the controlled pitch style of Peking Opera 1 . When these notes went higher, the audience responded excitedly with round after round of applause!

When she finished performing, Spinach bowed and exited the stage.

Chen Guang exclaimed, "This?"

Wang Zhuishu was also stunned. "She is?"

"Now you know who she?" Zhang Xia said with a smile.

Chen Yidong said, "I think I've got it!"

"It's her?" Amy seemed to have recognized her as well.

Zhang Xia enjoyed a good relationship with Spinach, and they had worked together a few times as well. So Zhang Xia figured out who she was during the previous episode while the other judges finally guessed her identity today.

Yao Jiancai commented, "Her singing is quite good."

Zhang Xia smiled and said, "When she gets older, she'll definitely be even better."

Onstage, Dong Shanshan said, "Let's welcome our next contestant—Flowing Time."

The audience immediately cheered and screamed enthusiastically. Compared to the reception when Spinach came onstage, it was louder by several times, especially in two areas where there were about a hundred people. Many of them were wearing the same outfit and were cheering in Hokkien for Flowing Time. Maybe they had also read the online news, but a lot of them probably assumed this person was Teacher Zhao Qiquan.

Amy looked into the crowd. "They're all speaking in Hokkien?"

"Why are there so many of them?" Yao Jiancai exclaimed.

Zhang Xia knew a little about this as she had heard from the program team staff before recording began. "They're employees from one of the sponsors." Then she filled them in on the situation.

Chen Guang said, "There are this many of them?"

Chen Yidong said, "It's gonna be very difficult for the other contestants to win."

"It's far more than very difficult." Amy said in a speechless manner, "If it's really Teacher Zhao who has come onto the show, then the results are already set, aren't they? He practically has over a hundred guaranteed votes!"

They thought the audience was too one-sided this time. Did they come and attend the recording session solely because of Flowing Time?

Flowing Time took the stage.

Applause sounded once again.

In the end, Flowing Time slowly pressed his arms down to signal the audience to be quiet and finally halted the applause.

Flowing Time smiled. At the same time, the music started.

Everyone was looking at him and waiting for him to open his mouth.

"Please look at me.

"Is this the person you loved so deeply?

"Why, when you were in your hardest times, did she turn to go?

"Please look at me.

"Is this the friend you trusted so much?

"Why, when you were down on your luck, did he never look back?"

It turned out to be a Mandarin song!

It was that very famous song called " Please Look at Me 2 "!

The audience was very excited!

"It's in Mandarin?"

"Shouldn't he be singing a Hokkien song?"

"Could it be that he is not Zhao Qiquan?"

"That's not right, just listen to his accent!"

"His Mandarin has a Hokkien accent to it!"

"That's right, it's indeed so!"

"It really sounds like it's from that area!"

"It's really Zhao Qiquan!"

"This is awesome! His singing is so wonderful!"

"Looks like there's something to look forward to today! Teacher Zhao has really joined the show!"

"Haha, The Clown has met his match this time!"

The cheers of those Xiamen and Chaoshan people were especially deafening. The majority of them were Zhao Qiquan's fans and loved listening to Hokkien songs!

When Spinach saw this from the wings, she felt only a sense of powerlessness.

When he finished performing, Flowing Time bowed in thanks. He was clearly quite pleased with his performance today.

Spinach was then invited back onto the stage by the host, Dong Shanshan.

The judges began commenting.

Zhang Xia said, "They were both great, truly great."

Wang Zhuishu said, "I felt very satisfied listening to those two songs. They were quite enjoyable."

Chen Yidong said with a smile, "I like Spinach's performance more, and I think I have guessed who you are as well."

Spinach nodded in thanks.

Yao Jiancai said, "I prefer Flowing Time's performance more as I feel that he sang with deeper feeling."

"Each of them has their individual strong points, so it's really difficult to judge who was better." Chen Guang looked at them and said, "Hur hur, let's leave this difficult decision to the audience."

The styles of their songs were completely different with no overlapping qualities, so it was really quite difficult to say whose singing was better. Spinach was superior in terms of her clearer voice that had more carrying power, while her operatic parts had a very special feel to it. Meanwhile, Flowing Time was superior in terms of his experience and the control of his voice, and the projection of his emotions was quite good as well. Therefore, the judges considered the first match quite even. Even if Flowing Time was slightly better, the difference was not that great. But when the voting started and the outcome was shown, the judges fell silent!

The voting ended!

Spinach: 107 votes!

Flowing Time: 381 votes!

Flowing Time emerged victorious!

The difference was much too great!

Almost all of the audience had given their support to Flowing Time!

The program team staff looked at each other in dismay.

The other contestants who were in their waiting rooms looked downhearted!

Clearly, the audience has already recognized Zhao Qiquan through his slight accent and voice even though he had not sung a Hokkien song yet. He had only demonstrated a bit of his Hokkien accent through his Mandarin pronunciation, yet he had nearly four times more votes. With an advantage this overwhelming, if Flowing Time actually sang a Hokkien song, who would be his match?

This "home field advantage" he had was simply too great!

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Chapter 1040: 'I'm Ugly But Tender'

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

It was time for the next matchup.

Marshal Persona vs. The Clown.

Yao Jiancai said, "This episode's battle for Masked King is going to be a difficult one."

Zhang Xia agreed, "That's right."

Chen Guang said, "Let's watch how this match will turn out."

Amy said, "Let's see which other two contestants will advance to battle Flowing Time for Masked King."

Wang Zhuishu asked, "Who is this Marshal Persona?"

Chen Yidong said, "His mask looks really good."

Marshal Persona had already come onto the stage, dressed in an overpowering, martial outfit that grabbed everyone's attention.

...

Backstage.

Zhang Ye did not get affected by anyone and was getting ready for his turn onstage. He closed his eyes and did some Taiji breathing exercises to calm his mind. No matter who his opponent was, no matter where the audience was from, all he needed to do was to sing to his best.

It was just that simple, no?

His impulsiveness gone, he was now in great shape.

A moment later, Han Qi knocked on the door and came in. "Teacher Clown, Marshal Persona is almost done performing."

After two seconds, Zhang Ye opened his eyes and stood up. "Alright, let's go."

Ahead of them was the waiting area. Surprisingly, Flowing Time was standing there with his arms folded. No one knew if he was there to watch Marshal Persona perform up close or if he was waiting for The Clown.

Flowing Time looked at him. "I'll be waiting for you in the battle round."

The Clown glanced at him.

Flowing Time said, "But from the look of things, you might find it hard to advance."

Somber, Han Qi looked to the stage.

Marshal Persona's smoky voice was extremely charming to listen to.

He was singing.

"Years after we're no longer together,

"I still can't forget your warmth.

"You said you weren't good-looking enough for me.

"Well then,

"I'll let you go."

He finished singing.

Many audience members were intoxicated by his performance.

"He's such a strong singer!"

"He's absolutely an impressive singer!"

"What a display!"

"Great!"

The judges were also clapping as they found it to be quite a good performance.

Zhang Xia said, "Have any of you recognized him?"

"His voice sounds familiar." Chen Guang was thinking hard.

Dong Shanshan announced, "Next, let's welcome—The Clown!"

Yao Jiancai was taken aback. "The Clown is going up against Marshal Persona?"

Amy said, "It won't be easy for The Clown today since he's facing two great opponents! If he goes through to the battle round, Flowing Time will be there waiting for him. The immediate problem is that he might not even be able to win in the first round."

Zhang Xia made a noise in agreement, then analyzed, "Since it's already the fourth episode, unless he can come up with something extremely surprising, everyone knows how well he can sing. Although the audience still likes him, there's nothing fresh to expect from him. They would also have higher expectations for his performances. Him and Petal Shower progressing to this point in the competition has actually made it more difficult for them to move on. Let's see what he'll sing today, since that's gonna be the crux of the matter."

Chen Guang said, "Getting first place in Weibo's Ugliest Celebrities Rankings has surely affected him, in addition. At least, I think that some of the audience might change their view on him."

Amy turned to him. "That's just a poll for fun, isn't it? No way it'll be that bad, right?"

Chen Guang said calmly, "Because you're pretty, you don't understand how average-looking people like us find it hard to survive the entertainment industry. It's incredibly difficult."

Amy replied, "Aren't you doing rather well now?"

Chen Guang laughed bitterly, "But you didn't see how much we went through to get to where we are."

Yao Jiancai was deeply moved. "In this industry, even if we work five to ten times harder than some people, we might not be afforded the same opportunities."

Zhang Xia sighed. "I can understand."

Amy, Wang Zhuishu, and Chen Yidong fell silent.

The Clown slowly walked out and onto the stage.

Han Qi was cheering in her head, Go, Teacher Clown! Go!

Petal Shower went to the waiting area.

Sunset Glow also went.

The two of them did not expect each other to be thinking the same thing.

Sunset Glow asked, "What are you doing here?"

Petal Shower answered, "Any song that The Clown sings should be listened to live."

Sunset Glow laughed. "Agreed."

Petal Shower offhandedly asked, "Is The Clown really not good-looking?"

Sunset Glow said, "Yup. When I asked him this morning, he said that it was so."

"Who do you have your money on?"

"The Clown. He always manages to surprise us."

The audience's response was very different from the two contestants'!

Some were cheering!

Some were booing!

"It's finally The Clown's turn!"

"I'm looking forward to it!"

"What are you looking forward to? The image of my prince has been shattered!"

"Yeah, I had imagined The Clown to be very handsome!"

"You haven't even seen him yet, so how would you know he's not?"

"Someone online analyzed it and pretty much determined that he's indeed just average. I prefer a more handsome male singer!"

"Me too."

"I actually quite liked The Clown, but I can't bring myself to like him now! I'm all about the looks! Sob!"

"Marshal Persona is a handsome man for sure!"

"That's right! I've already decided to give my vote to Marshal!"

"I still can't decide. Is The Clown really that ugly?"

The girls especially could not accept the fact that The Clown was not a handsome guy. All of them were caught in a dilemma.

The lights dimmed.

But The Clown did not start singing.

This was a habit of his that everyone knew about, so the crowd fell silent.

Flowing Time was watching him from the wings. This was his first time listening to The Clown sing live.

The judges and audience were also looking at The Clown.

Zhang Ye stood onstage and took in everyone's attention. For a moment, he did not know how to sing. A complex swirl of emotions seemed to roil within him! His journey so far had been very difficult. Others could see some parts but not all. Zhang Ye had grit his teeth and walked step by step to get here. As he was just average-looking, he had nearly tripped right at the start without getting into the entertainment industry. Due to his mediocre looks, he had experienced countless criticism and doubt, as well unfair treatment! There were even people who would judge his personality and character based solely on his appearance! He had seen this on more than one occasion. Some Korean celebrities got praised as kind and good people by their fans, who would go crazy all because the celebrities said hello, even though the fans didn't know whether their idols had gotten plastic surgery. Meanwhile, Zhang Ye, who had gotten into a fight over a bullied fan, and scolded others as he sought justice for the people, had done a lot for others. He had done so much, truly, yet no matter what he did, he would always incur the wrath of others!

Why?

Why was it like this?

Zhang Ye raised his microphone and looked down as he rested it near his mouth 1 .

The soft and gentle strings of a guitar thrummed.

"In the nightly wilderness of my dreams, I stand a proud giant.

"But every morning, before the bathroom mirror, I realize I'm living on the razor's edge."

When everyone read the title of the song, they were stunned!

Chen Guang was stunned!

Amy looked shocked!

The audience also looked startled!

This…

This song…

Zhang Ye closed his eyes and sang.

"In a jungle of reinforced concrete, in a life of being ordered around,

"I think about the gulf between dreams and reality."

Please believe me!

Everyone, please believe me!

I am not a bad person!

I, Zhang Ye…really am not a bad person!

Suddenly, he opened his eyes and looked at the audience. He looked at all of them as he thumped his chest. Then, he used his shocking voice to sing loudly to everyone.

"I'm ugly,

"but I am so tender.

"Cold on the outside,

"passionate inside.

"That's who I am!"

Listening to this, Chen Guang rose to his feet!

"I'm ugly,

"but I have music and beer.

"A little lowly,

"a little fearful,

"but I'll never cower!"

Amy was screaming, "Oh my goodness!"

Spinach was dumbfounded in the wings. "What the fuck!"

Sunset Glow looked at Petal Shower in astonishment. "This…"

Even Flowing Time was stunned!

The audience was also stunned, to the point they even forgot to cheer and clap. How could this be! How could he still have such a song?!

Today, Zhang Ye was particularly sincere and couldn't control the emotions in his voice. Some of his pitch changes were all over the place as he didn't even try to control his voice! That was because this was a song he had wanted to sing for a while now, because this song contained all the things he had always wanted to say!

Yes.

I am not handsome!

In this entertainment industry filled with all kinds of handsome men and beautiful women, I'm not at all considered good-looking. I might be a TV host, but there are times when I really do not know how to express myself. I do not know how I should tell you what I'm feeling inside. I, Zhang Ye, have never harmed anyone nor ignored my conscience. I'm willing to give my all for you guys. I can go through all kinds of hardship for my country and fellow people, but I just don't know how I should tell you!

I can dig my heart out for all of you to see!

Would you like to see it?

I truly can dig my heart out for you to see!

It's red, really, and scalding!

Do you guys get it?

Do you…understand?

"Every morning,

"at the edge of the city,

"I wear a lonely mask.

"But in the nightly

"wilderness of music,

"I turn into a heartfelt, roaring giant.

"On a stage that stretches forever,

"on the other side of not being understood,

"I come alive with ego and dignity."

All of a sudden, Zhang Ye grabbed the shirt over his chest, held onto it for dear life. He grabbed it with so much strength that it was like he was trying to dig his heart out.

"I'm ugly,

"but I am so tender.

"Dull in the day!

"Eternal at night!

"That's who I am!

"I'm ugly,

"but I have music and beer!

"Sometimes soaring!

"Sometimes humble!

"But always good at waiting!"

Yao Jiancai had at some point clenched his fists!

Chen Guang's eyes had reddened without him knowing. All the things he wanted to say had been said for him by The Clown. This song had given voice to his innermost feelings so much that wanted to rush up on stage with a microphone and sing along!

The audience was getting pumped up!

On the big screen, the cameras captured several male audience members crying as well!

This was not done for the effect of the show, and they definitely weren't people recruited by the program team. They were crying from the live atmosphere in the studio and The Clown's heartbreaking voice. It made those who were in the same boat lose control of their emotions!

Yes! They were ugly and lowly!

But they were really tender and would never cower!

The girl who had said that she was someone who judged others based on their appearance was now wiping away her tears. "I only like handsome guys. I don't like celebrities who aren't good-looking, have never, and definitely won't ever! But can anyone tell me what's going on with me right now? Why do I like The Clown so much!"

Suddenly, the music stopped.

The entire studio fell so silent you could hear a pin drop!

Zhang Ye raised his microphone and, singing in a cappella, his voice reverberated through the studio.

"I'm ugly,

"but I am so tender.

"A little lowly,

"a little fearful,

"but I'll never cower."

Flowing Time was silent.

He had been silent ever since The Clown sang his first line. He asked himself if he could have won if he had used that Mandarin song versus The Clown.

The answer was no!

He realized that he would probably not have won!

No one could beat The Clown and his song!

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