I’m Really a Superstar

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

On Weibo.

Someone broke the news.

"The Clown won!"

"Seriously?"

"Yes, seriously! I\'m at the fucking recording studio right now! The program team took everyone\'s cell phones, but this bro has two of them! I\'m in the bathroom secretly connecting to the Internet!"

"By how many votes?"

"300 votes to 100. The gap was massive!"

"What! The Clown has been singing amazingly for four episodes now! How does he continue to be so awesome?"

"This, this isn\'t scientific!"

"He wasn\'t just awesome! The Clown was godly today. I won\'t spoil for you guys, so watch it on TV tomorrow and find out for yourselves! Oh yes, Flowing Time also won his first round match. He won by a huge margin and steamrolled Spinach! And there was an unexpected incident that happened today. Your sister! When I saw the people attending the recording, almost all of them spoke Hokkien. I was dumbfounded. After I asked around, I found out that they were the employees of the show\'s sponsors from Xiamen and Chaoshan. There are close to two hundred of them! I\'ll reveal a little more. Flowing Time\'s identity is as good as confirmed. He\'s the flag bearer of Hokkien songs—Teacher Zhao Qiquan! Even though he sang a Mandarin song during the first round, we could still hear his accent!"

"Almost all of the audience are Hokkien speakers?"

"Damn, then what\'s there left to compete on!"

"What are these circumstances?!"

"Flowing Time will definitely win today!"

"What\'s wrong with Beijing TV?"

"Who knows! What a terrible mishandling of things!"

These Weibo messages were deleted soon after they were posted.

No one really knew if the messages were deleted by the person themself or if Beijing Television found the person and made them delete them.

...

At the television station.

In the waiting room.

Zhang Ye was watching the competition through the TV.

Flowing Time was the first person to proceed to the battle round while The Clown was the second to get through. The fight for the last spot in the battle round was about to begin.

Petal Shower vs. Sunset Glow.

In the previous episodes, Petal Shower had directly or indirectly come up against Sunset Glow. Based on prior experience, Petal Shower\'s chance of winning was up to 90% and she held a big advantage. Petal Shower performed very well onstage today as she once again went back to the type of falsetto that she had used in the first and second episodes. As she sang entirely in falsetto, her voice sounded ethereal. Although she did not sing to her third episode\'s godly level, it was still remarkable and she did quite well. Essentially, she had performed the song to her usual level.

That was how the judges saw it.

That was what the audience thought as well.

Zhang Ye also felt that Petal Shower would win.

But when Sunset Glow went onstage and raised her microphone, a lot of people were stunned!

It was still a slow song like before.

It was a love song.

But the Sunset Glow today was just too amazing. Be it her singing skill, voice, or song selection, it gave everyone a completely different view of her. It was a heaven-defying performance and she placed herself in a fantastic position!

This was what it was like being a singer. Talent was only one factor; the ability to perform onstage was another. For example, Zhang Ye was the type of performer who always did things spontaneously. Normally, his singing would probably be average. But when he got into the right mindset, he was able to perform exceedingly well. Today, Sunset Glow was undoubtedly in this frame of mind as well. She had sung a very classic oldie called "How Often Does the Sun Set in the West" to a very godly state. She had been tepid in her performances so far and had been keeping relatively quiet for the past three episodes. But in the fourth episode\'s recording, Sunset Glow had finally broken out!

Even Zhang Ye was utterly convinced after listening!

In the wings, Petal Shower was applauding Sunset Glow!

When the results came out!

Petal Shower: 218 votes!

Sunset Glow: 281 votes!

Sunset Glow won her match against Petal Shower to become the third person to get through to the battle round!

This was something no one had expected. But when they listened to this matchup\'s performances, it was still within reason. Someone had analyzed that even if The Clown were to go against Sunset Glow in the first round, it would have been very difficult to decide a victor between the two songs and who would win or lose. In this competition, it was not only The Clown and Petal Shower who knew how to sing. Those who could appear on this stage were all people who could suddenly burst onto the scene someday. In fact, everyone was more or less at the same level!

And the key reason that many people had analyzed the potential matchups before today\'s competition was that there was too much attention on Petal Shower. Ever since the first episode, discussions about her had never stopped. After three episodes, the audience had become all too familiar with her singing, style, and choices of song. This led to their anticipation lowering. Instead, it was Sunset Glow who had never excelled so far to suddenly perform so well. This surprised the audience greatly!

Thinking of this, a lot of people were feeling even less optimistic about The Clown\'s upcoming performance. Like Petal Shower, there was too much attention given to The Clown in the previous episodes. He was in the same situation as Petal Shower was earlier. Moreover, today Flowing Time also held the "home field" advantage in the studio!

The first round ended.

There was a 15 minute intermission between rounds.

By rights, the next round should have been the elimination round in which two contestants would be knocked out. But soon, the singers received a notification.

Han Qi knocked on the door and came in. "Teacher."

Zhang Ye looked at her. "What\'s the matter?"

"Please get ready." Han Qi said, "It\'s gonna your turn soon."

Zhang Ye asked, "Now?"

Han Qi nodded and said, "Teacher Petal Shower has a bit of a stomach ache, so the program team decided to record the battle round first. That\'s why it\'s gonna your turn soon."

Zhang Ye nodded. "Alright."

He was ready at any time.

Han Qi cheered, "You can do it!" In reality, she was feeling quite aggrieved and was not confident at all. If it were normal circumstances, she would feel that The Clown wouldn\'t lose today. But the problem was that the circumstances were not normal. At least a small half of the audience present today spoke Hokkien. Under such conditions, how could The Clown compete against Flowing Time? Even if he sang really well, it would still be a Mandarin song and the audience might not like it!

...

In the studio.

The judges were also notified of the schedule change.

Dong Shanshan went up onstage and told the audience, "There has been a last-minute change of plans. We\'ll be moving up the recording of the battle round."

With that announcement, the atmosphere in the studio immediately changed!

"They\'re going straight into this week\'s battle for the Masked King?"

"Flowing Time is returning to the stage soon?"

"This is great!"

"I\'ve been waiting for some time!"

"Flowing Time is going to face off against The Clown?"

"I\'m looking forward to it!"

"What\'s there to look forward to?"

"What\'s the matter?"

"Just look over there and you\'ll know. There\'s no suspense to the results of this battle round!"

Many of the audience members looked over.

They saw two groups of many people in the audience wearing the same outfit and shouting in Hokkien. Some of them were cheering while others were shouting Flowing Time\'s name. When they heard that Flowing Time and The Clown were going to come back onstage next, the atmosphere at their spot in the audience immediately grew frenzied. Many of those who came to attend the recording today were waiting for just this moment. The challenge that Flowing Time had issued to The Clown had caused quite a commotion throughout the country and everyone was waiting to see how it would turn out!

The cameras started rolling.

The battle for the Masked King has begun!

The host\'s voice resounded, "Let us welcome—Flowing Time."

A round of applause rang out!

"Flowing Time!"

"Go for it!"

"Teacher Zhao, you can do it!"

"Can you sing a Hokkien song please?"

"Don\'t sing Mandarin songs anymore!"

"Flowing Time, I love you!"

Flowing Time came out onto the stage with a smile. When he saw the audience\'s expressions and heard their screaming, he got into a great mood and became very confident as well, although this was no longer a matter of whether he was confident or not. On today\'s stage, it almost felt like he had home field advantage. Flowing Time didn\'t think that he would lose at all, nor was there any reason to think so. It was just impossible for him to lose since he was the only Hokkien singer here today. He already had an overwhelming advantage, so all he had to do now was sing well and the title of Masked King would safely go to him!

Just a while ago, The Clown\'s performance had indeed left him stunned.

Later, Sunset Glow\'s performance had greatly surprised him.

If he had sung a Mandarin song, Flowing Time felt that he definitely wouldn\'t have beat the two of them. The two of them were in excellent shape today, but it would totally be a different story if he sang a Hokkien song! Even without counting those numerous audience members in the studio who could speak Hokkien, Flowing Time still had his own reasons to be confident. Although the Mandarin song he sang in the first round was very good, that was not his true talent. As a Hokkien singer, his forte was in singing Hokkien songs. His talent was totally different when singing in these two languages. It was like he was two completely different people!

Translator\'s Thoughts

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