Chapter Ninety-Eight: Artful Musical Scoring

The live broadcast went on.

With excitement in his chest, He Hao walked onto the stage and asked loudly, “Friends in the audience, friends in the audience, did you enjoy that song?”

“Yes!”

The entire hall answered at the top of their lungs, the roar echoing through the studio and lingering long after.

“Then let us give these young people another round of applause,” He Hao said, leading the applause himself.

Clap, clap, clap...

Once again, thunderous applause rolled through the venue.

He Hao turned toward the judges’ seats and asked, “Even though there’s no judge voting segment tonight, I can see Judge Huiying seems to have something to say.”

Noticing the host had called on her, Zhang Huiying adjusted the headset by her ear and said, “I do have something to say. I never expected Fang Xing could handle a classical-style song, and he even wove in traditional arts. It was astonishing.

“Also, Teacher He, who told you judges weren’t allowed to vote?

“I bought a membership to Penguin Video too. Of course I can vote, and I cast a full ten votes.”

As she spoke, she even held up her phone to prove she had voted.

He Hao smiled and nodded. “Right, that was my mistake. Viewers across the country can vote for our contestants in the Tomorrow’s Star section on Penguin Video, and the four judges can as well.”

Then He Hao looked to Liang Yusong and asked, “What about you, Teacher Yusong? Did you vote?”

Liang Yusong chuckled. “Of course I did. I even had the employees at my company vote too. I imagine Chairman He of Tidal Sound Culture will have his employees vote as well. That seems perfectly reasonable, doesn’t it?”

“Of course it does.”

He Hao then turned to Chen Chaonan. “And what about Professor Chen? Any thoughts on this stage?”

Chen Chaonan thought about it carefully before offering his critique. “As for the two songs Crimson Gown and Fireworks Gone Cold, there’s something about them that has a little to do with me.

“Two weeks ago, Fang Xing’s manager came to me and asked if I could find a doctoral student in the zither program at East Wind Music Academy to help record a zither accompaniment.

“I introduced them to Professor Lin Yongmei from the zither department, originally hoping Professor Lin could find a doctoral student in zither performance to help out.

“But after listening to the demo of Crimson Gown, Professor Lin loved it and decided to record the zither accompaniment herself.

“So the zither part we heard in Crimson Gown earlier was played by Professor Lin Yongmei.

“Later, Professor Lin listened to the demo of Fireworks Gone Cold and loved that one too.

“Fireworks Gone Cold needed pipa accompaniment.

“So Professor Lin invited another professor from East Wind’s pipa department, Ms. Liao Yufang, to play the pipa accompaniment for Fireworks Gone Cold.

“Perhaps saying all this now will affect the audience’s voting, but I still want to say that in terms of traditional instruments, these two songs are art of the highest order.”

After Chen Chaonan finished, thunderous applause rose once more through the hall.

...

Once the performance of Fireworks Gone Cold aired, the publicity plan that Stone and Pine Records’ marketing department had prepared in advance was set into motion.

Several media outlets working with Stone and Pine Records simultaneously released a feature on Fireworks Gone Cold.

It told the heart-wrenching story behind the song.

Fireworks Gone Cold shot rapidly up the trending charts, and together with the tragic tale of the Temple of Dharma Clouds, it gave rise to a new hot topic.

A tragic story in the rain over the Temple of Dharma Clouds: Fireworks Gone Cold.

After this topic surged up the trends, it drew a flood of comments from the internet’s more absurdly funny crowd:

“What is this supposed to be? Voting wasn’t enough, so now you have to make me cry too?”

“I had no idea there was such a story behind this song. No wonder the atmosphere is so heartbreakingly beautiful. Listening to the rain at the Temple of Dharma Clouds, yearning for eternity.”

“You’re really off in style here. When other companies go to war outside the arena, they dig up dirt on their rivals. What the hell are you doing, tricking our tears out of us?”

...

After the performance of Fireworks Gone Cold, it surged to the top two spots on the trending list alongside Crimson Gown.

Prominent music critics across major platforms all reposted and commented, showering the two songs with praise.

Ni Hongdan: Before tonight, Fang Xing had never sung a classical-style song. The whole question of “classical style and classical charm” was originally meant to target his repertoire. Instead, Fang Xing used these two songs to hand in a perfect answer sheet.

Luo Siwei: Just as Fang Xing said, once his team finished singing Fireworks Gone Cold, whether the other teams sang or not no longer mattered. Beneath the blazing sun, the light of one or two fireflies is meaningless.

These critics were posting their reviews while the livestream was still underway.

He Hao was following the schedule, bringing Wu Junchen’s team onto the stage for the final performance.

But with a masterpiece like Fireworks Gone Cold already before it, Wu Junchen’s team, placed in the closing slot, could not stir much interest from the audience.

Classical-style songs are not quite the same as Korean pop dance tracks.

Even if a Korean pop dance number loses on song quality, at least the stage spectacle can still be impressive.

With classical-style songs, once the song itself cannot match up, the atmosphere can even fall flat.

The audience was still immersed in the melody of Fireworks Gone Cold and never truly came out of it for Wu Junchen’s group.

Apart from the fans still shouting themselves hoarse, the atmosphere in the hall was very subdued.

With such a brilliant piece preceding them, no matter how Wu Junchen’s group sang, the audience kept comparing them to Fireworks Gone Cold.

And after a little comparison, the audience realized that every line and every phrase of Wu Junchen’s song Leaning by the Railings to Listen to the Wind fell short of Fireworks Gone Cold.

Even when Wu Junchen finally pushed himself to the limit, squeezing his throat and driving the chorus up to C5, he still could not change the audience’s impression.

Most ordinary viewers had a scale in their hearts and cast their votes according to their own sense of fairness.

So before hearing every song, many people chose not to vote yet.

By the time Wu Junchen’s Leaning by the Railings to Listen to the Wind had finished, the only songs that had left a truly powerful impression on the audience were two.

The first was Crimson Gown, with its stubborn vow never to forget the nation’s suffering despite humble station, along with Li Caiwei’s water-sleeve dance as a Kunqu performer and that B5 vocalization that released emotion to the very limit.

The second was Fireworks Gone Cold, a song paired with the tragic story behind it, about two people who missed each other across a lifetime of smoke and war, loving yet never able to be together.

Thus, after every stage performance had ended, the ordinary viewers began to vote.

Most of the votes went to Crimson Gown and Fireworks Gone Cold.

This directly sent Fang Xing’s popularity value in the Tomorrow’s Star section soaring by geometric multiples, approaching Wu Junchen’s red line several times over.

After all the performances had concluded, He Hao announced the results of the second round of voting:

“Fireworks Gone Cold has set a new stage record tonight with 21.85 million votes in a single round.”

Meanwhile, Wu Junchen’s Leaning by the Railings to Listen to the Wind only received 18.23 million votes, even fewer than the first-round Peach Blossom Love.

The main reason was that the two explosive hits, Crimson Gown and Fireworks Gone Cold, had swept up all the casual votes.

Meanwhile, fan-funded ranking support had entered a sluggish period.

Tidal Sound Culture had milked its fans so hard that they were almost down to the roots, and the crowdfunding behind the rankings could no longer keep pace, causing the vote count to drop.

Fang Xing’s team claimed another two straight victories tonight, once again pushing the program to a fever pitch.

On Weibo, short-video platforms, and every major online platform, people were all discussing the Tomorrow’s Star finale night.

The show’s popularity was so high that it was already showing signs of becoming a phenomenon-level variety program.