The next day.
Early in the morning, his parents had gone out to buy groceries.
After was.h.i.+ng up, Zhang Ye closed his bedroom door and stayed inside to make a list of songs. Although it was still some days away until the official recording of King of Masked Singers, he definitely had to make some preparations beforehand. Frankly, with so many songs in his head, he did not know which song he"d pick to sing when he got on stage.
This song?
No, it was too normal.
That song?
That wouldn"t do either as it was unsuitable for him.
Or that song?
Mhm, that song was alright, so he shortlisted it as a backup.
After working at it for one full hour, Zhang Ye was still not finished with the song list and was forced to lay the thought to rest for the time being. Since he did not have any inspiration today, he would stop thinking about it for now. He would decide on which song to sing at a later time. As such, he chose to practice his singing, as it was going to be his prime weapon. If his voice was not good and he did not sing well, it would be pointless even if he chose the best songs, since he wouldn"t be able to move the hearts of the audience. Together with his stage presence, the musical arrangement, and the control of the live studio atmosphere, all of those might affect the audience"s auditory and visual perception, which would then be reflected in the final score.
He still had many things that he needed to practice in the coming days.
So it was better to take it slow.
"Ah, woooo.
"Ah, haaaah.
"Ah, yi, yaaaah."
He began doing vocal cord warmups to train himself. This was the same as martial arts. Just learning wasn"t enough. One would still have to practice diligently. Otherwise, though Zhang Ye had eaten 500 Fruits of Charm (Voice) and 500 Singing Skill Experience Books, he could not wield them effectively.
Coupled with the audition at Beijing Television yesterday, he realized that there were many other masked singers with astonis.h.i.+ng voices. The pressure on him was great, so naturally he would have to do more prep work. Zhang Ye knew that if he went onstage in his current shape, he would definitely not win. Those singers were the country"s cream of the crop, surely consisting of some professional singers who might already have been singing for ten or twenty years. This was something that Zhang Ye could not compare with.
One day.
Three days.
Five days.
He did not do anything other than practicing and refining his vocals every day during this period of time.
The octave his high notes reached.
How long his falsetto could last.
What the auditory feedback of his low notes were.
How to control his breathing and whether his modulations were mellow.
He had to understand everything. Through experimentation, Zhang Ye gained a deeper understanding of his voice and singing techniques during these several days. Only by knowing his true skill could he exert his strength to the fullest. That would allow him to capitalize on his strong points and minimize his shortcomings.
The promotions for King of Masked Singers were in full swing.
On this day, a call from Hu Fei arrived.
"Zhang"er, we"re going to film the promo soon."
"OK."
"Do you have any suggestions?"
"Since you"re the director, I shouldn"t be making any suggestions. But if you need me to come up with a tagline or something, that"s not a problem. As for how you want to film it, I"ll leave it entirely to you."
"Are you really planning not to partic.i.p.ate?"
"Hur hur, didn"t I tell you already? I"d only be responsible for the pre-production. Brother Hu, I"ve been banned at long last, so why don"t you let me rest a couple days."
"That won"t do. Let"s go together. You can give some advice while we"re there."
"Where are you filming?"
"Not too far away. Just around the Beijing area."
"Well, OK."
"This will only be a concept-based promo, so there"s no need for the contestants to personally take part. We plan on creating an atmosphere like a martial arts conference, with masked experts from all walks of life facing off against each other in a battle to the death. We need the feel of experts fighting each other, so we"ve booked a training hall for the setting. The view over there is not bad, and the atmosphere is also suitable for what we want. We"ll head there first to get a feel for the place and see if we can create the effect we want."
"A training hall?"
"Yeah, that land is owned by the "Lian Family Style School." They"re a martial sect with a real martial arts lineage, unlike some training halls that hold deceptive recruitment drives and demand joining fees. They don"t usually welcome outsiders. There"s an old film called Death Battle, have you watched it before? The latter half of the movie was filmed there, so it"s quite a famous place. The two houses that appeared in the movie became quite popular later on. Some tourists were even attracted by its fame to the point it nearly became a minor tourism spot. I heard that a film Ning Lan will be starring in will also be going there to do some on-location shooting in the next couple days."
The Lian Family Style School?
He didn"t know about them as he was not very familiar with the martial sects and schools of the Chinese martial arts world.
"Forget it, Brother Hu. I think it"s better that I don"t go."
"Ah? What"s the matter?"
"If you"re going to a training hall, I won"t be joining you guys."
"But why? We"re setting off tomorrow morning and can be back by evening at the earliest, so it wouldn"t really delay anything for you. Hey, you"re unemployed. What can be keeping you busy?"
"It"s better that I don"t go."
"Didn"t you just say that you would go?"
"Man."
Would he have to tell him that it was because he was a notorious figure in the Chinese martial arts world?
Even if he told him that, Hu Fei wouldn"t believe it!
Zhang Ye briefly discussed the concept for the promotional clip with Hu Fei and brought up some of his ideas before hanging up. Regarding the Chinese martial arts world, Zhang Ye"s current stand was: "If you people do not provoke me, I will not provoke any of you. Let"s just stay far away from each other so that we can save the trouble of finding each other an eyesore." He would not worry about the promotional video. Since the promo was getting produced, it meant the broadcast of the show was approaching. Zhang Ye had to make the best of it and practice his singing.
He practiced his singing for yet another day.
As well as wrote down a few concepts regarding some musical arrangements.
He was certain he wanted to go onstage with original songs, so his workload was much greater than everyone else. He had to arrange many of the songs himself, or at least come up with some ideas so that he could communicate them to the band members and music director who were invited to King of Masked Singers.
The next day.
Between 8 and 9 o"clock in the morning.
Zhang Ye was still under the covers, sleeping, when he heard his cell phone beep nonstop. They were notifications from the chat app, with messages coming in one after another, waking him up.
Who was it?
Why would anyone send so many messages in a row?
Groggy, Zhang Ye checked his cell phone. Oh, so the message notifications came from the Celebrity Goof Group, where almost all of the Heavenly Kings, Heavenly Queens, and A-list celebrities were members.
Since he was already awake, he casually browsed through the messages.
With over a hundred messages, Zhang Ye became more startled the more he browsed.
The first morning message was actually sent by Ning Lan around ten minutes ago.
Ning Lan: "Please help."
Huo Dongfang: "What happened?"
Xiaodong: "What happened, Sister Ning?"
Fan Wenli: "What"s the matter?"
A lot of people appeared and responded.
Ning Lan sent a bitter smile emote and said: "We came to Lian Jia Gou for filming this morning. Due to a minor misunderstanding, someone in our filming team offended the Lian Family Style School. It blew up into a rather big affair and now our equipment has been withheld by them and they refuse to let us leave!"
Huo Dongfang: "Lian Jia Gou?"
Chen Guang said: "Old Ning, are you alright?"
Ning Lan: "I"m alright for now."
At this moment, Zhang Yuanqi appeared. "Have you called the police yet?"
Ning Lan: "Already done. The police are here and are talking with them. But it looks like it"s gonna be pointless. We suggested compensating them monetarily but they wouldn"t accept, so is there anyone here who can help us out? Please contact me, thanks."
Zhang Yuanqi: "I"ll help you ask around."
Ning Lan: "Hurry up!"
Zhang Yuanqi: "Don"t rush me. I"m already making some calls."
Everyone in the entertainment industry knew that Zhang Yuanqi and Ning Lan were close friends with a very good relations.h.i.+p. Although Zhang Ye had never met Ning Lan—who was an A-list celebrity in the film industry—in person before, they had chatted together in the group quite often.
Zhang Ye was still reading the chat history at the moment.
Zhang Yuanqi: "I"ve checked with a few people for you, but they can"t do anything about it. The Lian Family Style School is a martial sect of the martial arts community whose unarmed fighting techniques are an intangible cultural a.s.set. They don"t have much interaction with the outside world, and the martial arts teachers that I approached were unqualified to talk to them. Old Jiang is in their circle, right? I"ll help you @ him. He"s a member of the martial arts community, so he should be able to help out. @JiangHanwei." Then Zhang Yuanqi said: "If he"s not here, you can just call him."
Xiaodong, who was on extremely good terms with Jiang Hanwei, added: "@JiangHanwei Uncle Jiang, Sis Ning has met with some trouble."
Jiang Hanwei was also one of the chat members in the group, though Zhang Ye had not seen him say anything yet. Of course, this was partly due to the fact that Zhang Ye had recently joined the group.
After seven or eight messages.
Jiang Hanwei"s name finally came up. "I just saw this. I don"t really have any connections with the Lian Family Style and have not had any dealings with them before either. But I"ll make a call to help you ask around and see if they"re willing to give me some face."
Ning Lan: "Thank you so much, Brother Jiang."
Jiang Hanwei: "Don"t mention it. Let me try making a call."
Jiang Hanwei was extremely skilled in martial arts, though his status was a little bit more aloof in the entertainment industry due to his big brother status. But he knew many people and was highly respected by them. But in the Chinese martial arts world, Jiang Hanwei"s reputation was not really that great as he did not belong to any martial sect or school. He was previously a disciple of the Huashan Sect, but was later expelled for reasons unknown. At most, he could be considered a former disciple of the Huashan Sect, although that wasn"t exactly much of a good reputation either. In the Chinese martial arts world, seniority and pedigree were emphasized with even more importance than in the entertainment industry. Even if the Jiang Hanwei Stunt Team had a sparkling reputation in the entertainment industry and around the country, many people in the real "martial arts community" refused to acknowledge him.
A few minutes later, sure enough.
Jiang Hanwei said: "I called them, but they aren"t willing to give any face to me."
Xiaodong was a warm-hearted girl. "Uncle Jiang, you have such a high status, yet they won"t even give you any face? What gives them the right to do that!"
Jiang Hanwei said helplessly: "The Chinese martial arts world is different from the entertainment industry. The "martial arts community" is a more sealed off place. There are more rules as well. Once you"ve violated their taboos, they might really take it to the bitter end with you. Ning Lan, I heard about your people stepping on their Heavenly Rock that was pa.s.sed down by their ancestral founder. No wonder they risked their lives."
Ning Lan sighed and said: "It was because one of our cameramen wanted to find a better angle to shoot from. But he didn"t know that the rock held significance, so he crossed the fence and stepped onto it. We apologized, but it was no use! Everyone is trapped here now! We can"t even retrieve our equipment!"
Jiang Hanwei advised: "Try to think of another way. I have no means to handle this. I really can"t do much to help you."
Fan Wenli said: "Even reporting it to the police doesn"t work?"
Chen Guang: "But still, they can"t detain you like this!"
Xiaodong: "Then what can we do?"
Ning Lan: "The police is afraid to lock horns with them too. More and more of their sect members are gathering around now! Things look bad! Brother Jiang, you used to be part of the martial arts community. What do you think we should do?"
Jiang Hanwei: "Even monetary compensation didn"t work?"
Ning Lan: "It didn"t work, they wouldn"t accept!"
Jiang Hanwei: "Such a problem is not easy to handle."
Xiaodong: "@Everyone Does anyone have a solution? Please rescue Sister Ning!"
This was the latest message in the group chat.