I'm Really a Superstar

Saturday.

The fourth episode of King of Masked Singers was broadcast!

All over the country, countless people waited at their televisions and tuned into Beijing Television to catch the broadcast. As the show went on, a lot of people were getting excited and astonished by it. There were many discussions happening online as well!

"It's starting!"

"Wow, Spinach's singing is quite good!"

"Someone revealed that she is Liao Yiqi!"

"Ah? The Peking opera singer? Surely not?"

"It's true. Just listen to her singing. It really sounds like her!"

"It's Flowing Time's turn!"

"Damn, there's already no need to guess anymore based on that accent. It's definitely Teacher Zhao Qiquan!"

"He's the best singer in the Hokkien music scene! So he can also sing in Mandarin this well?"

"Haha, wait till he sings a Hokkien song. Then you'll know just how amazing he really is!"

"It's The Clown turn now!"

"Let's see what he's gonna sing!"

"The country's ugliest celebrity, lol."

"That poll was so funny! I keep laughing each time I see it!"

However, when The Clown's first song began, a lot of them could no longer laugh.

...

At a recording company.

"Don't be like this, OK?"

"Brother Liu, can you please listen to my song?"

"There's no need to. You won't make it. The company won't sign someone like you."

"Brother Liu! Give me a chance, I—"

"Don't tell me any more. I've already made it very clear to you, so just leave already. You don't have the looks, so my advice to you is to not take this route. You won't make it in this industry."

The young man silently left the recording company. With the dark night sky hanging overhead, he walked on feeling quite lost. He did not know where to go and how he should continue on from here. That was already the third company he approached. Every time he sent a demo to the recording companies, he would always get invited for an interview. However, when they saw him in person, those companies all turned him down without an exception. This was all because he did not have good looks nor the face of a star!

He liked music. In fact, he liked it so much that he felt that it was as important as his life. However, there was an insurmountable wall in front of him that he could not breach!

He had no way of doing so!

He really did not know what else he could do!

Give up?

Or maybe he should just forget about it?

Suddenly, he heard a voice singing.

The young man stopped in his tracks and looked toward a street food stall. When he saw the singer on the TV and heard his singing, he was shocked.

"I'm ugly,

"but I am so tender.

"Cold on the outside,

"passionate inside.

"That's who I am!"

The singer on TV put a hand over his chest.

"I'm ugly,

"but I have music and beer.

"A little lowly,

"a little fearful,

"but I'll never cower!"

The people who were eating at the street food stall were all dumbfounded when they heard the song. They could only stare in shock at the television.

The young man was also stunned in his tracks. Suddenly, a gush of tears poured from his eyes.

By the time the song finished, the young man's fists were tightly clenched. He wiped the tears off his face, then turned to walk off toward a bright light in the distance. His footfalls contained an unprecedented determination!

Thank you, Mr. Clown!

I know what I have to do now!

...

On Weibo.

"How spectacular!"

"Damn! This song is bursting with greatness!"

"I'm ugly, but I am so tender?"

"I cried listening to it!"

"Holy shit, I was the same!"

"I can't stop crying. Goddammit, what song is this!"

"It's such a nice song!"

"He came up with this song right after he got voted as the Ugliest Celebrity?"

"The champion, he'll definitely become this episode's champion!"

"Don't forget that there's still Flowing Time."

This "I'm Ugly But Tender" created a huge shockwave online. Countless netizens joined in the discussion as many of them were touched and inspired by the song!

Soon after.

When it was time for the battle for Masked King, everyone was once again shocked!

"Flowing Time really is Zhao Qiquan!"

"This Hokkien song is great!"

"Of course! This is Zhao Qiquan we're talking about!"

"This is the easiest singer to guess by far!"

"Let's see how the matchup between him and The Clown will go. Have you guys noticed that a ton of people in the audience are speaking Hokkien? Just listen, they're all cheering in Hokkien!"

"Yeah, what's with that?"

"Then won't Zhao Qiquan win for sure? Will there be any suspense to the results?"

Then The Clown sang.

"Don't despair when you're in the mourn.

"Don't be afraid when you're forlorn.

"Passing time without any hope,

"Going down every day to tope,

"A person without a soul is like a scarecrow."

The netizens were dumbfounded!

The audience was dumbfounded!

The industry insiders who were watching the show were also dumbfounded!

It was Hokkien!

The Clown could also fucking sing a Hokkien song?

And it was even an original that no one had ever heard of?

"This is bad for Flowing Time!"

"How painful!"

"Pfft! I'm dying of laughter!"

"Teacher Zhao Qiquan's fine reputation will be destroyed today!"

"He has as good as fallen to The Clown!"

"He's worse than The Clown, yet he still clamored for a match against him. Seems like he's the fool this time!"

"This 'Strive Hard to Succeed' sounds like an extremely good song!"

"Godly tune! An absolute godly tune!"

"He sang it so well!"

"Where does he get all his songs from?"

...

Meanwhile.

Zhang Yuanqi was currently on the phone with her manager, Fang Weihong.

"Are you watching King of Masked Singers?"

Fang Weihong said loudly: "I'm watching it. Who on earth is The Clown!"

"I was just about to ask you: Have you found out who he is yet?"

Fang Weihong said: "I totally can't find anything. You're not the only one who is concerned about this—everyone else in the industry wants to know who he is as well. But there are no clues to follow at all, and now he's even singing a Hokkien song too? He's a singer who knows how to sing Hokkien songs? This has widened the scope even further! The clues are too confusing! I suspect that The Clown is deliberately confusing the public because he's afraid that he'll get recognized. He's purposely trying to mislead us!"

They were completely confused!

...

At a recording company.

A vice president of the company made five calls in a row.

"Check! Check thoroughly!"

"But—"

"No buts! I want an answer as to who The Clown really is!"

"President Qi, I really can't find out. I-I've already asked everyone!"

"Then ask again! I don't believe that he broke out of some stone. Who in the industry would not know a singer as amazing as him? How can that be possible?! I want to know everything about him. If he doesn't have a contract with any recording company, we'll sign him immediately. If he's already contracted to one, then we'll steal him away at all costs! Can't you see? This man has the makings of a king!"

"I-I understand!"

...

On TV.

The voting for the episode's Masked King began!

The netizens were either anticipating it or feeling nervous. Many of them were "shouting" for their favorite singer's name online. When the netizens saw that the final results indicated a tie between The Clown and Sunset Glow, and with Dong Shanshan announcing the implementation of a tiebreaker match, they got excited!

"Awesome!"

"We can get to listen to another two songs now!"

"Go, The Clown, go!"

"Sunset Glow, you can do it!"

Afterwards.

The Clown went on stage.

The studio was filled with a song that became extremely popular for several years back in Zhang Ye's previous world, "Ms. Dong."

The Clown strummed his guitar as he sang.

"Ms. Dong.

"You've never forgotten about your smile.

"Even if you're like me, eager to get senile.

"Ms. Dong.

"When your lips curl downward, it's so pretty.

"Like the pure water under Anhe Bridge in the city."

...

The next day.

Sunday morning.

The air quality today was quite good. When Zhang Ye looked out the window, he saw white clouds and a blue sky.

Zhang Ye stretched his back before getting out of bed. Seeing the rather rare blue sky, he was feeling quite satisfied as he had played a part in contributing to it. Although he had been castigated and hated by a lot of people after the reveal of Zhang Ye's Documentary on Air Pollution in China that eventually led to his soft ban, Zhang Ye did not feel a tinge of regret whenever he saw a sky like today's.

After breakfast, he went to read up on Weibo.

He was stunned to find that there were many critical voices on his Weibo notifications.

For a person like Zhang Ye who often offended people on a large scale, his first reaction when he saw these critical voices was to wonder whether they were all aimed at him. This was because out of all those large scale scolding battles that happened on Weibo, the forums, or Tieba each year, 60-70% of them were targeted at Zhang Ye. He was feeling a little guilty, but this bro hadn't really stirred up any trouble recently, had he? I haven't even appeared much in public, no? When he read more carefully, he realized that the online criticism was not aimed at him!

"The Clown lost? Go fuck yourselves!"

"Were those judges all blind?"

"Do you all know music? How can 'Ms. Dong' not be nice? Oh my god!"

"I really have to give it to those judges on the guessing panel!"

"Amy was the only one with taste!"

"I could not hold myself back after I listened to this song once yesterday and played it on repeat over 20 times through the night! Over 20 times! How could the judges not vote for The Clown? I really have nothing to say to that!"

"That song was really great!"

"There should be a version of a 'Ms. Dong' in everyone's heart as well! But clearly, there's nothing at all in the hearts of those judges!"

"The Clown sang really well! Why wasn't he crowned Masked King this episode?"

"I like Sunset Glow too and I feel that she performed incredibly in the most recent episode. But I have to admit that for the two songs at the end, it was The Clown who sang better!"

"'Ms. Dong' was judged to be not good by Chen Guang, Zhang Xia, and the others. I'm speechless!"

"The entire song tells a story!"

"I don't know who The Clown was singing it to, but when I heard the song, my tears fell. No matter who that lady is whose surname is Dong, I would also like to wish her a 'Happy birthday, Ms. Dong!'"

Countless netizens were refusing to accept the result. They were all complaining on Weibo, and some of them were even flinging abuse at the outcome!

There were also sudden changes on the Top Chinese Music Chart!

The daily music chart's ranking had been published!

Some people felt that Sunset Glow's second song should have been ranked first. However, that song was only ranked in third place. Some people thought that The Clown's "I'm Ugly But Tender" should have been in first place. However, that song was only ranked in second place. "Strive Hard to Succeed" was ranked fourth on the daily music chart!

As for which song was in first place?

It was actually "Ms. Dong"!

And it was even far ahead of the second and third place songs!

This song had been a hit since last night. And today, it got even more popular, so popular that things got out of hand. All over the Internet, people were discussing this song and the controversy of why The Clown had not become the Masked King in the most recent episode!

...

Old Chen's house.

Fan Wenli had already made breakfast. "You misjudged it, didn't you?"

Chen Guang looked at his phone and couldn't help but give a wry smile. "I've been face smacked, right?"

"Yes," Fan Wenli laughed.

Chen Guang rubbed his cheeks and could somehow feel a little pain.

At other locations.

When Wang Zhuishu saw the Top Chinese Music Chart's rankings, he was dumbfounded!

Chen Yidong was speechless.

So was Yao Jiancai.

And Zhang Xia.

This ranking had caught them completely off guard!

That "Ms. Dong" which none of them had thought well of turned out to be the most talked about and widespread song of the songs sung yesterday! Now, they could not deny it even if they wanted to. This was because the market's reaction to a work was the most direct and fastest judgment of all!

They had misjudged the song!

They had truly misjudged the song!

This Clown was way too scary!