Chapter 1070: The Clown's turn to take the stage!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
At TVs.
There were numerous sets of eyes focused on Beijing Television.
"King of Oddity is first, while Sunset Glow and Spinach are second and third, respectively!"
"This is so intense!"
"Did King of Oddity really sing that well? How is his tally so high?"
"He did say that he would donate to charity, after all!"
"Isn't that way of canvassing for votes a little disingenuous of him?"
"Yeah, it's too phony. But people still buy into it!"
"I don't like King of Oddity's way of canvassing for votes. If we're talking purely about the songs, Liao Yiqi (Spinach) should be in first place! If not, it should be Sunset Glow instead!"
Many people understood how things ought to be.
But more people who were confused seemed to be around.
Some people did not care about what you did and only cared about what you said. If you said it well and put it beautifully, claiming to do all sorts of extravagant things, then everyone would think that you were good. Furthermore, King of Oddity's outfit was indeed overly extravagant and his invited guest partner was also a big name B-lister. Coupled with his declaration to donate to charity, it was completely within reason that he had such a tally. But as for how he had performed, it probably did not matter any longer.
However, when it came to the next contestant's turn, a lot of people finally understood what it meant when people said that there was always someone who could do something better!
...
The next contestant to appear was Flowing Time!
He was the famous Hokkien singer—Zhao Qiquan!
Flowing Time sang one of his own Hokkien songs but the lyrics had been changed by him. His part in the song was sung in Hokkien but his partner's portion was sung in Mandarin! His partner's singing was not very good and could even be considered amateur. He barely managed to stay on-key, although his intonation wasn't too bad overall. His singing voice was also fine but if it were really to be assessed, then it couldn't be considered good at all. Anyone could come along and probably sing more professionally than him.
At the beginning, the audience was even feeling somewhat disappointed.
But when they came to the end of the song, Flowing Time's guest partner ripped off his mask!
With that, the audience became so excited that they jumped to their feet!
"Holy shit!"
"Jiang Hanwei!"
"It's Jiang Hanwei!"
"Old Jiang got invited onto the show?"
"Indeed! Flowing Time has well-connected friends in the entertainment industry!"
"Even Old Jiang is here?"
"Damn, there's really an A-lister on the show!"
"Yeah, I heard someone mention it before. I thought it was just a rumor!"
"King of Masked Singers has finally managed to invite an A-lister!"
"This is so awesome!"
"Old Jiang sings pretty good!"
Jiang Hanwei!
A famous martial arts star!
The number one star of martial arts movies!
A famous A-lister from China!
Jiang Hanwei had sung the theme songs for his movies before, but he was not a true singer and only did so in the capacity of a guest or as a side job. So he wasn't going to be a complete professional at singing. However, his popularity was still a force to be reckoned with. In fact, he probably did not even need to sing. He could just show his face and the votes would still come in! Zhao Qiquan did not have this kind of influence. His popularity was not considered to be that widespread, but it was different for Jiang Hanwei. He was a true-blue A-list celebrity who was not ranked at the bottom of the A-list rankings!
"Let's vote!"
"There's no need to think any further! Let's just vote for Flowing Time!"
"I'm Old Jiang's diehard fan!"
"Old Jiang must be the most famous celebrity among all the invited guest partners!"
After they finished singing.
Dong Shanshan went back onstage. "I had not expected that Teacher Jiang would be here."
Jiang Hanwei laughed loudly as he clapped Zhao Qiquan on the shoulder. "I had to come and give my support since this old friend of mine invited me. Everyone, please remember to vote for Old Zhao and vote generously. If Old Zhao is crowned as the grand champion of King of Masked Singers, I promise to reveal Old Zhao's wife to everyone!"
Flowing Time gave a wry smile. "Must you be so hard on me?"
Dong Shanshan was surprised. "Teacher Zhao got married?"
Flowing Time coughed, "Yes."
Be it the live audience or the people watching on TV, all of them flew into an uproar!
"What?"
"Didn't Old Zhao get divorced just the year before last?"
"He got married again?"
"With who?"
"Why wasn't there any news about it?"
"Holy shit, what the hell have the paparazzi been doing?"
"Hurry up and tell us! Who is Old Zhao's wife?"
Jiang Hanwei suddenly added, "Haha, I can divulge this right now: Old Zhao's wife is also a celebrity, and you all definitely know who she is!"
All at once, everyone's curiosity was piqued!
Jiang Hanwei said with a laugh, "I promise on Old Zhao's behalf that as long as he gets crowned as the grand champion, I'll expose her to the world! May I do that, Old Zhao?"
Flowing Time said helplessly, "Alright, alright, I give."
The media present at the venue went on high alert!
Jiang Hanwei shouted, "Hurry up and vote. I'll be counting on all of you!"
Flowing Time bowed slightly as he went off the stage with Old Jiang.
The audience at the venue was screaming nonstop.
"Jiang Hanwei!"
"Jiang Hanwei!"
"Jiang Hanwei!"
There was hardly anyone shouting Flowing Time's name. Most of them were directed at Jiang Hanwei. No one present today had not watched Jiang Hanwei's movies before. Almost everyone here was a fan of his!
Immediately, the TV audience started voting!
500,000!
1 million!
2 million!
3 million!
Flowing Time's tally went over 3 million votes!
He had firmly taken first place!
He was far ahead of everyone else!
Zhang Xia laughed and said, "This Old Jiang really knows how to get the votes."
Amy had returned to her seat by now. "He's in first?"
Wang Zhuishu suddenly looked to his left and right. "Eh, where's Old Chen?"
"I don't know. He was still around just a while ago." Chen Yidong was also puzzled.
The next minute, they were surprised to see a familiar figure appearing on stage. This person was wearing the same outfit as Chen Guang had when he was seated beside them earlier. The only difference was that he was now wearing a mask!
It was time for the next group's performance!
They were "Petal Shower" and "Humble Light"!
Petal Shower sang, "Why aren't you leaving yet?"
The Humble Light faced her and sang, "I wanna watch the sea with you here."
This was a song by Chen Guang and Fan Wenli!
It was originally a duet sung by them!
By this point, the audience knew who they were even if they had not yet taken their masks off!
Petal Shower was Fan Wenli!
Humble Light was Chen Guang!
"I guessed long ago that it was Old Fan!"
"It's really her!"
"I like her! I really, really like her!"
"I knew it had to be her!"
"Hahahaha, Old Chen is a judge!"
"Giving the couple who perform together a Like!"
"Their singing is wonderful!"
"Old Chen and Old Fan are so impressive!"
"The two biggest names in the music industry have joined together, and they're even a couple with great understanding. On this stage, who else besides The Clown will be a match for this pair?"
"Even The Clown might not be able to beat them!"
"Right, The Clown's invited guest partner seems like a newcomer."
The performance ended!
Everyone stood up and applauded them!
Dong Shanshan walked onto the stage with a smile. "So Petal Shower's actually Teacher Fan Wenli! No wonder you sang so well. I am a fan of yours."
Fan Wenli smiled and said, "Thank you, Shanshan."
Dong Shanshan looked at Chen Guang. "Teacher Chen has always been a judge on the guessing panel. I understand that the program team had also invited you to join the competition, so why didn't you choose to participate?"
Chen Guang chuckled. "I was considering it, but my wife told me out of the blue one day that she was going to compete on King of Masked Singers to challenge herself. I thought it was better that I didn't join since I was really afraid that it would be too embarrassing if I lost to her on the show."
The audience was tickled!
They chatted for a while but did not ask for any votes.
Chen Guang and Fan Wenli had always been like this. Even if you requested that they shout "quickly vote for me" to the television audience, they would not do it.
When Zhang Ye saw their tally, he frowned again.
Flowing Time was still in first place with 3.8 million votes.
King of Oddity was in second place with 3 million votes.
Petal Shower had taken over third place with 2.9 million votes.
The audience was stunned.
"How can this be?"
"She's only in third place?"
"Old Chen and Old Fan sang so well!"
"Yeah, this song should be the best sung one today, followed by Spinach's song. But why is Petal Shower merely in third place? And why is Spinach in last place?"
"Was it simply because she did not ask for people to vote for her?"
"It shouldn't be like this."
"I didn't vote for Petal Shower because I already knew that she was Fan Wenli and guessed that Chen Guang would be her guest partner. Their performance had nothing to look forward to!"
"Yeah, there was more to look forward to in Flowing Time's performance. Who could his wife be?"
"No one was able to guess who Flowing Time's and King of Oddity's guest partners were!"
"Petal Shower and the others were given too much attention during the course of the competition. So there's nothing fresh and exciting to look forward to with them."
"But Petal Shower sang really well!"
"The other contestants publicized performing charitable acts or exposing their love life. They even invited some big names and spared no efforts in canvassing for votes, so how could Petal Shower and Spinach possibly compete with them? There's nothing wrong with these tallies. If they really want to catch up in the rankings, there's still a chance to do so in the second round where they'll be performing solo!"
"Hopefully, Petal Shower can catch up. I feel that she deserves to become the grand champion!"
A lot of people were very surprised by this tally.
Including Zhang Ye, who was quite unhappy.
If Petal Shower and Spinach had truly sung badly, he likely could have accepted this. But the issue here was that both of them had sung outstandingly. From a professional point of view, they were the two groups who had performed the best today. Hence, Zhang Ye could not accept that they were not higher in the rankings!
It was his turn next!
It was time for him to take the stage!