Chapter 1017: A Masked Singer's identity is exposed!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Friday.
On the day of the recording.
In the morning, while his parents were still sleeping, Zhang Ye strolled downstairs, bought breakfast, and brought it home. Then he woke his parents up for breakfast, even humming a little ditty as he did.
Our people!
Are so happy today!
He had been humming this tune for several days now.
His mother wondered, "What's gotten into you?"
Zhang Ye asked, "Wha?"
His mother said, "You're like a completely different person these days, buying breakfast and doing the laundry. Did something happen to you? Tell us if you have any problems so that your dad and I can mentally prepare. I'm so unused to seeing you this hardworking out of the blue."
Zhang Ye laughed. "What problems could I possibly have? Mother's Day is coming up, so of course I've got to do a little something for you."
His mother did not believe his drivel. "Is it money you need? I still have some money in my account. Tell me if you need to borrow some. Don't feel embarrassed."
His father nodded and said, "Right, your mom is rich."
Zhang Ye was floored. "Why would I need to borrow money?"
His father said, "There's no shame in asking."
Zhang Ye saw red. "I don't feel ashamed!"
His mother asked, "So how much do you need?"
"I need…why would I need anything? You two have confused me." Zhang Ye did not know what to say or how to react. He spoke, "Alright, you two should eat breakfast quickly. I have to go to Beijing TV now to see how the production is going. I've already told them about your ticket requests, so you two can head over right after breakfast."
"Alright, we understand."
"I'll get going first then."
"You really don't need any money?"
"…I really don't need any!"
He shut the door behind him.
Zhang Ye was both amused and annoyed as he headed downstairs to drive off to the office.
But before he could drive out of the entrance to the neighborhood, he received a message on his cell phone. He received a 10,000 RMB transfer from the account with the last four digits of XXXX. This account number looked quite familiar and probably belonged to his mother.
Zhang Ye really had to take his hat off to her!
She was serious about lending him the money?
He was currently unemployed and had never taken any commercial appearances, so didn't have too much money, but at the same time, he didn't exactly spend money! He wondered to himself just how lazy he was in his parents' eyes. All he had done was by breakfast and do the laundry for two days, but his parents were already starting to get suspicious of him?
Where could he seek redress from?
He had just been really happy for the past several days since his proposal had succeeded, with Old Wu agreeing to marry him. Even when Zhang Ye was promoted to the A-list, he did not feel as excited as now. This was Wu Zeqing we were talking about here, the wife he had been dreaming of all this time. By achieving it just like that, he felt like he was dreaming. Even though the details of wedding planning, how to introduce their parents, and of when exactly to get married had yet to be decided, the decision to get married was already set in stone. Old Wu could no longer slip out of his grasp. As such, Zhang Ye felt the load on his mind being lifted. He was now full of energy and had never been so full of fighting spirit before! This sort of attitude naturally affected his daily life. It even ended up making his parents misunderstand him!
Some people would give presents or money during Mother's Day.
But not only did he not give anything to his mother, he even received a sum of money from her.
Hai, whatever, he should just accept it. Since it was a token of love from his parents, Zhang Ye shamelessly accepted it. It just so happened that his car needed some maintenance, so the money would come in handy.
...
At Beijing Television.
In the rehearsal room.
Zhang Ye had long since changed into The Clown's mask and costume.
"Musicians."
"Hi, Teacher Clown."
"Teacher Clown, you're here?"
When they saw The Clown, the band members went up and greeted him with great enthusiasm.
The Clown choked his voice and said, "You guys aren't busy, are you?"
The guitarist said, "No, Teacher Petal Shower's rehearsal isn't for another hour. Although we finished rehearsing with her yesterday, she said that she still needed another round or two of rehearsals to help her get into the rhythm."
The Clown said, "Then can you give this hour to me?"
The guitarist smiled and said, "Sure."
The Clown said, "I would like to rehearse another two songs."
He handed the scores to them.
Music Director Bai Yuanfei and the band members were stunned.
Curious, Bai Yuanfei asked, "Didn't you rehearse two songs yesterday?"
The Clown said, "I would like to add two more songs as backups since I haven't decided which songs to sing yet. I'm still considering."
"You really are striving for perfection." Then Bai Yuanfei looked to the band members.
The band members thought for a while before readily agreeing, "No problem, let's do it!"
Among the masked singers, only The Clown had truly gotten to know the band members. Be it "Wild Rose," "Wolf," or "Fake Monk," all those songs suited their tastes quite well. Since they had all started out by dabbling in rock music, and since only The Clown had performed a rock song on this stage, they naturally felt that they had something in common.
In the audience, Han Qi watched them nervously.
The rehearsal began.
During this rehearsal, The Clown once again did not sing the lyrics and just hummed along to the music. He mainly wanted to get a grasp of the rhythm to refine any details and problems with the arrangement. Zhang Ye was the type of singer who liked to do things spontaneously and would habitually surprise and shock the audience. As a result, he did not like to reveal the lyrics beforehand as that would make his performances meaningless. To the other singers, this sort of rehearsal was simply unbelievable. How could he just go onstage without even singing once? Only a person with such strong self-confidence as Zhang Ye would dare to do that. Back when he was still hosting, this fellow was famously known as a madman. He even had the courage to go on a live broadcast without preparing any lines or script to speak from. There was no one like him in the entire industry!
An hour later, Petal Shower arrived.
Zhang Ye ceded the rehearsal room to her.
Following, Sunset Glow came to do her sound checks.
Just when everyone was preparing for the afternoon's recording session, something happened in the outside world that no one could have expected. Zhang Ye, along with the other masked singers and the King of Masked Singers program team, were dealt a sudden blow!
A masked singer had revealed his identity!
...
The origin came from Weibo.
After King of Masked Singers became popular, many people started guessing who the masked singers were.
The Clown, Petal Shower, Sunflower, and Sunset Glow had continually dominated the last two episodes of the show, and had undoubtedly garnered the most attention from the audience as well. The netizens were all guessing as to who they were.
"I really can't figure out who The Clown is!"
"He's the hardest to guess!"
"At least a B-lister? But there's no one that matches!"
"He might only be joking and is probably not a B-list celebrity."
"Could Petal Shower be Zhang Yuanqi?"
"No."
"How is the singing of Spring Garden's Xiaodong?"
"Uh, she sings very well. But since I haven't heard Xiaodong singing these types of songs before, the chance of her being Petal Shower isn't that high."
"Sunflower in the Starlight has to be a singer from Hong Kong."
"Right, I'm 90% sure about that as well."
"A Hong Konger who can sing this well? Li Yu?"
"It's possible!"
"Or it could also be Li Nianhe!"
"Li Yu was a big name A-lister in the past. Although he has dropped to the B-list now, he is still extremely popular. Would he have come to compete? Surely not, right?"
"He hasn't sung any Cantonese songs yet, so we still can't identify him from his voice."
Everyone made all kinds of guesses.
Finally, someone went straight to Li Yu's Weibo to ask if he was Sunflower. In truth, there were several netizens who went to ask some of the other Hong Kong singers if they were Sunflower. Their guesses did not focus on Li Yu alone. Perhaps even those netizens did not expect Li Yu to actually reply on Weibo.
Li Yu posted on Weibo: "You could even guess that?"
He actually admitted to it!
This came without any warning!
With that reply, it exploded online!
The media reacted like they had been injected with adrenaline!
"It is Li Yu!"
"Damn!"
"Sunflower is Li Yu!"
"A former A-lister?"
"W-What a big name!"
"Oh my god! They even managed to invite Li Yu to the show?"
"He must be the most famous singer on King of Masked Singers!"
"That's impossible. If he really is Li Yu, with his talent, if there aren't any other big shots of the music industry like Zhang Yuanqi or Chen Guang on the show, shouldn't he be crowned Masked King every episode? Would he even have any competition? So why has he not come within reach of Masked King even though the third episode is about to air?"
"Are you dumb? That's because he hasn't sung any Cantonese songs yet!"
"Yeah, Cantonese songs are what Li Yu is best at!"
"He can still perform on par with those singers by singing Mandarin songs. If he had sung Cantonese songs instead, the throne of Masked King would definitely have been his!"
"I'm really looking forward to it!"
"It's really Li Yu!"
"Ahhh, I'm a braindead fan of his! I will definitely support him!"
"I'll be attending the recording today as I won a ticket from a lucky draw. Hahahaha, no matter what song Li Yu sings, I'll vote for him! I've always liked his songs and movies a lot!"
Awhile later, Li Yu posted on Weibo again. "I'll perform two songs to my best for everyone today. Thank you for your support!"
The fans went crazy!
"That's for sure!"
"We'll definitely give our support!"
"My idol, I love you!"
"Teach them a lesson!"
"Right, teach them a lesson!"
"The Masked King's crown will surely be yours!"
"We'll all vote for you!"
"So it's Sunflower who is the hidden god-tier contestant!"
"So will there be any suspense in this upcoming episode?"