Next Sat.u.r.day.
In the evening.
The television was on and tuned into Beijing Television.
His mother was sitting on the sofa and chomping on melon seeds. "Why isn"t it starting yet?"
"Little Ye, is today the revival round?" his father asked.
Zhang Ye said, "Yes, and next week will be the grand finals."
His mother asked, "Who will be revived today? Hurry up and tell us!"
Zhang Ye laughed and said, "How would I know? I wasn"t at the recording yesterday, so we"ll find out later as we watch. I feel that Spinach has got quite a good chance though."
His mother said, "That King of Oddity from the first episode is quite good too!"
Ring ring ring. His cell phone rang.
Zhang Ye answered: "Sister Xiaodong?
Xiaodong immediately asked: "Teacher Zhang, whatcha up to?"
"Hai, just watching TV at home," Zhang Ye said.
"Ummm, it"s almost time for the college entrance exam. Did you not get selected to be a question setter this year?"
Zhang Ye chuckled and said: "I wasn"t called up this year. They originally said that I would be asked to do it again, but with all the negative publicity surrounding me recently, and coupled with the questions that I set at last year"s Beijing college entrance exam being a little too difficult, the examinees and their parents started protesting against my appointment two months ago. They were all afraid that I would become the national examination question setter this year, so I ended up not getting appointed. Actually, I don"t really want to go too. It"s really a thankless task."
"Then about that matter I brought up to you regarding my relative?"
Zhang Ye said: "It"s always been on my mind, and I"ve already asked around for him. As long as your relative"s score pa.s.ses the Peking University cutoff grade, he"ll be guaranteed an admission spot for any major that he chooses!"
This was a favor that Xiaodong had asked of him when he first joined the Goof Group last year. He hadn"t forgotten all this while and had already helped her ask around. When it came to favors that people asked of him, Zhang Ye had always made sure to do the best he could.
Xiaodong laughed happily. "Thanks, Teacher Zhang."
"Don"t mention it. It was no trouble at all." Then, he suddenly remembered the rules of the grand finals and how he didn"t have a guest partner yet. He offhandedly asked: "Oh right, Sister Xiaodong, do you have any plans next Sat.u.r.day?"
Xiaodong was taken aback. "Next Sat.u.r.day? Isn"t that day the night of the King of Masked Singers finale?"
Zhang Ye coughed and said: "Yes."
"Won"t you be present at the venue that day? I have something to do that day, so I"ll be going too."
Zhang Ye understood immediately. "Oh, so it"s like that."
Xiaodong asked: "What about that day?"
"It"s nothing. I was just wondering."
Turned out, Xiaodong was going to be at the grand finals.
Actually, Zhang Ye had already figured it to be so, but he wanted to make sure.
Who else was there then? There were only a few other people who he knew who could sing!
The revival round began.
Spinach, King of Oddity, Flowing Time, Marshal Persona, and several other contestants who had either been eliminated or not taken the throne of the Masked King before were all taking part in this episode, with the exception of Li Yu—Sunflower in the Starlight. Due to what had happened, Beijing Television excluded him after vowing never to work with him again, so only Li Yu was not present today.
This week"s episode was intense and pa.s.sionate.
The audience had already gotten to know some of the contestants whose ident.i.ties have been revealed. At the same time, there was a lot of suspense for those who had not taken off their masks yet, with the ident.i.ties of a few contestants still remaining a mystery!
"The whistling winds!
"Sailing through the waves!
"When will my heart rest easy!
"Vast skies and wide lands!
"The corners of the world!
"But where are you, my dear!"
Spinach"s (Liao Yiqi) song shocked the studio!
Compared to her previous performances, Spinach"s progress was obviously a big leap forward. Zhang Ye also heard about how Grandma Zhang Xia had personally given her some guidance to help her polish her technique so that she could bring out the best points of her singing. The song she was currently singing may have also had a little to do with Zhang Xia"s suggestions to her.
Sure enough, it was quite effective!
She sang this song really well!
"Aiyoyo.
"Are you coming?
"Heyoyo.
"Where are you?"
Yesterday"s Daylily did not perform too well today. He had chosen an older folk song to sing and even rearranged it, but it did not manage to catch the attention of the audience.
He was probably going to miss out on the grand finals.
Performance after performance.
All of the contestants gave their very best!
They threw out all the tricks they had left, all for a ticket to the grand finals!
In the end, the results were out.
On TV, Dong Shanshan announced:
"The first contestant to advance to the grand finals is—Flowing Time!"
A round of applause rang out.
Flowing Time had the most votes out of all the contestants.
"The second contestant to advance to the grand finals is—King of Oddity!"
King of Oddity got very excited and threw his hands into the air!
"The final contestant to advance to the grand finals is—Spinach!"
When Spinach heard, she cried there on the spot!
She was crying!
They were tears of joy!
She had said that she would be back, and now, she had really come back!
With that, the three tickets to advance to the grand finals had all been a.s.signed. The others would miss out on the night of the grand finals, and the eliminated singers gave their blessings and encouragement to the three who made it. They wished for them to carry a part of their desire into the grand finals and hoped that they would get a good place and gain fame along with it!
The revival round was over.
But the show was not done yet. In the closing minutes, a video introduced the finale. It introduced the compet.i.tion format, how it would be broadcast live nationwide, and the first round segment involving a celebrity guest partner for each contestant. There were even a few gimmicky catchphrases thrown out to increase everyone"s antic.i.p.ation of the grand finals.
A voiceover sounded.
"Sunset Glow"s heavyweight celebrity guest partner to aid her in the grand finals!"
The video onscreen cut to the back of a woman who was wearing a mask. But as her back was facing the screen, the viewers were unable to recognize who she was.
"Petal Shower"s big name celebrity guest partner from the music scene is someone that no one does not know of."
The picture onscreen was overlaid with the words "mystery guest"!
Following, the celebrity guest partners for Spinach, Flowing Time, and the others were confirmed. Due to the show having been recorded just the day before, the program team had contacted the contestants on the day of after they had made it through to the grand finals to confirm their celebrity guest partners and communicated everything in detail.
The gender of Spinach"s celebrity guest partner was unknown, with the image unclear after being pixelated. Only an introduction was made, which did not reveal the person"s ident.i.ty at all.
It was the same for Flowing Time and King of Oddity!
Gimmicky catchphrases were used!
Smokescreens were put up to mislead!
But it was undeniable that this really whetted the appet.i.tes of many who were watching. After the introductions were done, everyone was guessing who the invited celebrity guest partners were! They were extremely curious!
Back at home.
His mother wondered, "Why wasn"t there an introduction for The Clown"s celebrity guest partner?"
"Yeah, he was the only one who didn"t have an introduction for his guest partner," his father wondered as well.
Zhang Ye gave a wry smile and thought to himself, That"s because this bro doesn"t know who to invite yet!
At this moment, a call arrived.
It was The Clown"s cell phone.
When Zhang Ye saw that, he immediately went into his own room and answered with a disguised voice: "h.e.l.lo."
Han Qi asked immediately: "Teacher Clown, have you managed to invite your celebrity guest partner yet?"
Zhang Ye stayed silent for a moment. "Not yet."
Han Qi said anxiously: "There"s only a week left until the live broadcast of the grand finals. The program team kept urging me to contact you many times. This…"
Zhang Ye said: "Give me a little more time. I"ll definitely find someone."
Han Qi said: "Alright, alright. Please hurry then. You really have to get it done as soon as possible. How can someone like you who can sing so well be unable to invite any friends of yours to come? You must be asking for a lot, aren"t you?"
Asking a lot, my a.s.s!
This bro really doesn"t have that many friends to begin with!
Before long, the news spread all over the Internet.
On Weibo.
"Who could Sunset Glow have invited? Why"s it so mysterious?"
"That back looks a little familiar!"
"If she"s the person that everyone"s guessing she is, then could she have invited our G.o.ddess Xiaodong?"
"Wow, are you sure?"
"That would be wonderful!"
"Petal Shower seems to have invited a big name as well!"
"Could it be an A-list celebrity?"
"I heard that an A-lister has really been invited onto the show this time."
"Who, who?"
"I don"t know. The biggest name on this stage should have been Li Yu. But he"s no longer an A-lister anymore, so could there really be an A-lister coming?"
"I can"t wait!"
"Eh, what about The Clown?"
"That"s right, we didn"t see anything regarding The Clown"s celebrity guest partner, right?"
"Why didn"t they make any mention of it?"
"I"ve heard something about that. It seems like The Clown"s celebrity guest partner has not been decided yet."
"Surely not, right? He was the among the first batch of contestants to be confirmed for the grand finals. How long has it been since then? The grand finals are next week, but he still hasn"t found a partner? Could it be that there"s no one he can choose? Or maybe he couldn"t get anyone to come onto the show? If that"s the case, that"d mean that The Clown lied when he said that he was at least a B-lister. He"s probably just some artist who"s not that famous. Although he"s really shot to fame, since he does not know any fellow big name artists, he couldn"t invite any of them onto the show."
"That"s quite possible."
"f.u.c.k, can he really be that pathetic?"
"Even if he does not know any big names, he should at least know a few small-timers. Why can"t he get them?"
"If he really invites a small-timer as a celebrity guest partner, wouldn"t it be as good as giving up on the crown of the Masked King? This is the grand finals we"re talking about. The others have all invited big names who"re at least B-listers, or if worst comes to worst, C-listers. It"s been rumored that there"s even an A-lister coming onto the show, but I don"t know if that"s true or not. If The Clown invites some unknown artist to support him, it"d be awkward if no one knows who that person is when they go onstage. He might even get eliminated right in the first round and lose his qualification to battle for the throne of the Masked King!"
"That"s true."
At night.
Zhang Ye was lying in bed and getting ready to sleep. He kept this problem over in his head, unable to fall asleep. So he started browsing his Weibo and saw those comments. He suddenly sat up on his bed and rolled his eyes!
I"m not famous?
I don"t know any big names?
Hey, don"t make me mad!
All of a sudden, Zhang Ye thought of someone. Then he started thinking about how he should broach the subject and in what way he should do it. He knew that this person would be extremely difficult to invite!