Things got out of hand!
The place blew up!
The entire live broadcast venue was reverberating with The Clown"s scream of madness at the end. All that oppression, confusion, rage, and determination were let out with that final scream. He blew up entirely and screamed to the point that his lungs almost tore apart. The artistry and soul of this song from beginning to end were all a.s.similated into this last outburst!
The entire song.
All of the lyrics.
Every part of his singing.
It could only be described as shocking!
Fan Wenli was shocked!
Zhang Xia, Xiaodong and the rest were also taken aback!
What kind of song was this?
What kind of person was this?
Li Xiaoxian was already in tears. She raised her hand high and gave a thumbs up!
In the staff area, Han Qi was also crying. She was covered in gooseb.u.mps and was so emotional that she did not know how to express herself. All she could do was vent in the most primitive of ways by shouting, "The Clown! The Clown! The Clown!"
In the audience.
His mother stood up and shouted, "The Clown!"
Zhang Ye"s three sisters literally jumped out of their seats. "The Clown!"
Ha Qiqi shouted, "The Clown!"
Zhang Zuo raised both his hands and shouted loudly, "The Clown!"
A male audience member screamed, "The Clown!"
A female audience member was in tears and saying, "The Clown!"
"The Clown!"
"The Clown!"
"The Clown!"
One person!
A hundred people!
A thousand people!
The shouting was becoming more and more united!
The shouting was getting louder and louder!
Suddenly, someone in the audience shouted out something different that caused everyone to follow suit!
That person shouted, "Cham-pi-on!"
"Cham-pi-on!"
"Cham-pi-on!"
"Cham-pi-on!"
"Cham-pi-on!"
His mother was shouting!
His father was also shouting!
The audience was shouting like crazy. With this song, the previous performances by Flowing Time, Petal Shower, and King of Oddity had all been thrown to the back of everyone"s minds. None of those songs mattered anymore!
Onstage, Zhang Ye"s voice had gone hoa.r.s.e. Even after the music had stopped, he was still deeply immersed in the emotions of his singing. It was the shouting that brought him back to reality. When he saw the sea of people in the audience standing up and chanting his stage name, mixed with calls of "champion," Zhang Ye froze for a moment. He suddenly understood why he was able to persevere up till now.
Hu Fei sighed, "He"s really, really great!"
Xiao Lu wiped away her tears and said, "Why, why am I reminded of Teacher Zhang!"
Hou Ge said, "Yeah, these lyrics also made me think of Teacher Zhang. He"s just like The Clown, always encountering those difficult situations along the way and getting ignored by people. Others may not know and simply criticize him. But those who have ever worked with Teacher Zhang know! Do they even know how much hard work Teacher Zhang puts into making his shows? Have they seen it for themselves? Whether it"s Teacher Zhang or The Clown, both of them really have not had it easy!"
Dafei said, "The lyrics were so well-written!"
This song was called "Exaggerated."
The original wasEason Chan"s Cantonese version1, but Zhang Ye chose to singTerry Lin"s Mandarin version2for his performance. These two versions were both very good songs and he liked them very much as well. However, the meanings behind them were polar opposites. He had chosen to sing the Mandarin version because it expressed the exact situation that he was in now, and it was also what he had been hoping to say all these years!
In all fairness, this was not a song that one would be amazed with when they first heard it. At least, Zhang Ye did not feel this way when he first heard the song. Whether it was the Mandarin or the Cantonese version, he did not feel much for either of them and could not remember the lyrics either. In fact, he did not even know what the songs were trying to convey. The melody was also not that beautiful. But when he listened to it for the fifth time, and then the tenth time, he suddenly felt very surprised by it. Afterwards, it was only a matter of falling in love with the song.
This was the type of song that slowly became nicer with time. But today, Zhang Ye made it popular almost immediately due to the atmosphere, setting, and message behind it!
Zhang Ye walked off the stage.
Using the window of time before he returned to his seat, Amy looked at Chen Guang and asked, "Teacher Chen, if you had joined the compet.i.tion and faced The Clown onstage, who do you think would win?"
She did not mean it maliciously.
Amy really was just being curious.
For those at today"s taping, if they mentioned the two best singers present at the venue, the best would definitely be Zhang Yuanqi. But second best would not be Fan Wenli, Zhang Xia, Li Xiaoxian, nor Xiaodong. It would be Chen Guang—this was not Amy"s personal ranking of them, but the long accepted opinion of the public and the industry.
Chen Guang smiled wryly. "I wouldn"t want to think about that."
Amy did not understand. "Ah? What do you mean?"
Fan Wenli laughed and said, "What Old Chen is trying to say is that he wouldn"t want to be standing on the same stage and competing against someone like The Clown." Then, she gave Chen Guang a look. "Afraid you"d lose?"
Chen Guang rolled his eyes but did not answer.
Would he lose?
Chen Guang did not know.
He only knew one thing. To beat The Clown…it would be extremely difficult!
Especially this song The Clown sang today called "Exaggerated." Even if it was Zhang Yuanqi competing against The Clown, she might not be able to beat him. The Clown was really insane today. This song was insane. His singing was insane. Everyone who was here today was seemingly baptized from head to toe by this song! This was the charm of song, the charm of music. But most importantly, it was the charm of the singer. Chen Guang questioned whether he could sing this song as well as The Clown if it had been given to him. That final scream at the end was a mixture of complex emotions and not something that just anyone could sing!
He could not do it.
Fan Wenli could not do it.
Li Xiaoxian could not do it.
Flowing Time could not do it.
Even Sister Zhang would probably not be able to do it.
That scream could only have come from The Clown!
In the outside world.
Shock had also descended upon everyone watching at this moment!
Among the viewers who were watching the King of Masked Singers grand finals on their televisions, nine out of ten were stunned by what they saw!
They hadn"t been interested in listening to The Clown"s last song originally, thinking that the results had already been decided. Every one of them knew that The Clown would not have a chance of being crowned champion anymore. But when Wild Rose"s mask fell off, when "Exaggerated" played on TV, almost all of them got a shock!
They had been shocked by "Exaggerated"!
They had been shocked by The Clown"s determination and anger!
"Quick, tune into the live broadcast!"
"Holy s.h.i.+t!"
"The Clown has blown his top!"
"This song is just too G.o.dd.a.m.n awesome, isn"t it?"
"Oh G.o.d, I"m going crazy from listening to this!"
"What"s this song called? G.o.ddammit!"
"It"s called "Exaggerated"!"
"How can there be such an awesome song in this world! It"s even an original? Today"s the first time it"s been sung? f.u.c.k, who the h.e.l.l wrote this song for him!"
"It"s the last song of the finals? Ah! Quickly go and vote!"
"Oh right, voting is still ongoing!"
"I already voted for Flowing Time. What do I do now?"
"My vote has been cast as well. I f.u.c.king gave it to King of Oddity! f.u.c.k, curse these hands of mine! If only I had known, I wouldn"t have voted so early on! I would definitely, 10,000%, have voted for The Clown! I can"t even take back my vote now! No, I can"t just let this be. I"ll go get my parents" cell phones to vote!"
"Hurry, everyone!"
"We don"t have much time!"
"Comrades, give your votes to The Clown!"
"If a singer like him were to place last in this compet.i.tion, that would really be too deplorable! That would be an insult to the entire music industry!"
"I"m here!"
"I"ve voted!"
"d.a.m.n, do we need you to tell us? I"ve voted already!"
"I"m gonna call my sister and brother to get them to vote as well!"
"Just based on this song, I don"t care who The Clown turns out to be after he unmasks himself. I will f.u.c.king become his braindead fan for life! For life! With this post as my witness!"
"Count me in!"
"Count me in too!"
"Since "The Internationale," I"ve been a diehard fan of The Clown. But with this "Exaggerated," I"m going to turn into a braindead fan from now on!"
"No impulsiveness, no exaggeration, no bluffing! The Clown is the only true singer!"
"He"s the only person to sing with all his soul on this stage!"
There was an explosion of comments on Weibo!
The industry insiders were blowing up with excitement!
"Exaggerated" had shocked the world!