Chapter 1029: Spring Festival Gala Affairs (II)

ps. Sorry for the bad experience caused by the anti-theft measures, friends. Starting tomorrow, we will no longer implement anti-theft.

Main text:

The second rehearsal went very smoothly. Shan Shan, who arrived late, got off the plane and rushed straight to the "Big Underpants" (the newly built broadcasting tower of Central TV, whose abstract exterior resembles a pair of underpants, hence the nickname "Big Underpants" given by netizens).

She hadn't even warmed up her seat before going on stage to perform.

However, the two siblings have collaborated many times before, and their coordination is seamless. After a brief discussion, they finalized the performance plan and executed it flawlessly.

Luo Quan originally had a sketch prepared, but as mentioned earlier, it was canceled due to force majeure, so the rehearsal workload suddenly became much lighter.

After the program ended, Luo Quan started playing with her phone in the audience, while the sketch performers' loud voices and slightly awkward lines echoed in her ears.

"This year's sketch quality is going to be terrible again," Leon said, not playing with his phone but instead watching intently from below.

Earlier, he had asked his older sister how to quickly master classic Chinese jokes and popular phrases.

Her answer was to watch Spring Festival Gala sketches from before 2013, especially those featuring Zhao Da Ye, Chen Da Ye, and Zhao Nai Nai.

Leon found a compilation on Bilibili and laughed nonstop for two full days.

"This is way more fun than those foreign stand-up shows," he said—this is the line he repeated most often while watching sketches.

But after watching all the excellent ones, and when the Spring Festival Gala stage no longer had these veteran artists, Leon put on a painful expression.

After Zhao Da Shu retired, especially after 2016, the sketches could only be described as not particularly outstanding.

As for this year's sketch, Leon watched it and couldn't bring himself to laugh.

He actually has a very low threshold for laughter—he usually laughs until he doubles over at short video clips—but this time, he couldn't laugh at all.

Although the following sketches weren't as outrageously bad as the first one, they weren't good either.

The only one worth watching was the sketch by the Happy Youtiao group—it passed the threshold, but compared to the veterans, it was still far behind by more than just a little.

"Not living up to expectations is the theme of artistic creation, especially in recent years," Luo Quan said, her tone remarkably calm, after all, she's long been used to it.

"Hey Luo Quan, you're so relaxed," a familiar voice said at that moment.

Luo Quan looked up and smiled: "Yo, isn't this Host Sa?"

The one greeting her was Xiao Sa, the host from Central TV, considered one of the most popular hosts among young people today—so much so that even saying "one of" feels unnecessary.

In recent years, almost all of Luo Quan's official variety show appearances have been hosted by him, so they're old acquaintances.

"You've been under a lot of pressure lately, huh? Those dark circles." After saying hello, Luo Quan noticed Xiao Sa's face didn't look good.

As the host of the "Big Underpants" and the official face of the network, Xiao Sa always appears energetic and radiant on stage.

Especially during the Spring Festival Gala, he radiates festive joy, making people want to smile just by looking at him.

In this year's lackluster Spring Festival Gala, many netizens felt he was the comedy anchor.

But today, he looked extremely exhausted—his face was dark, his eye circles and bags were heavy, as if he'd pulled three consecutive all-nighters.

"I'm actually doing okay—look at Xiao Ni." Despite his poor state, Xiao Sa remained cheerful, even taking some pleasure in others' misfortune.

Following Xiao Sa's finger, Luo Quan looked over and saw another Spring Festival Gala host, Xiao Ni, sitting in the audience with her head down, seriously reviewing the script, her expression stern and focused.

His dark circles, however, were so severe they could be described as frightening.

"What's going on with you two? Are hosts really under this much pressure?" Luo Quan asked, puzzled. "I remember the last time we met, your faces weren't this bad—just a few months and now you're like this?"

"Spring Festival is coming, everyone's busy," Xiao Sa said naturally, smiling without complaint.

In this position, enduring greater pressure and workload is inevitable, especially as major holidays approach.

Of course, being mentally accustomed doesn't mean the body can keep up—overwork fatigue shows up very visibly on the face.

After chatting a bit, Xiao Sa left, probably because he still had things to attend to.

Meanwhile, Luo Quan received new news from the director team: she was to compose two songs for the Spring Festival Gala, requiring ethnic elements.

At the same time, she overheard several sketch performers nearby discussing that the program had changed again—previous rehearsals would have to be scrapped and redone.

Combining this with her own experience of having her sketch replaced, Luo Quan finally understood why Xiao Sa and Xiao Ni looked so terrible.

The director team keeps changing orders overnight, constantly revising the program—anyone would be exhausted to the point of breaking down.

Now it's finally come back to haunt her, but luckily it's just two new songs. With over a week left until the Spring Festival Gala, even high-level singers can pull it off with some all-nighters.

For him, it's even less of a challenge—he could finish it in minutes.

So Luo Quan immediately replied: "I already have a new song ready, the accompaniment is done—I can sing it as soon as it plays."

"That's quite a coincidence!" the director laughed happily.

"It was originally made for the Art Olympics elimination round, but pulling it out early is fine—it's New Year's, after all."

Luo Quan's response was exactly what every leader dreams of in a subordinate: highly capable and highly efficient.

Thus, Luo Quan, who originally had only one program, now also has a solo performance.

The director asked for two songs, but since the Spring Festival Gala has no precedent of an artist occupying three slots, the second song was given to someone else to sing.

Luo Quan's new song accompaniment was quickly handed over to the control room for playback preparation.

As for backup dancers and such, we'll talk about that later—the director wanted to first see how this song turned out.

The result? Luo Quan belted it out, and everyone in the broadcast hall who was about to doze off instantly woke up.

Beautiful music can make one feel carefree and uplifted, but Luo Quan's song has the effect of refreshing and invigorating the mind.

After finishing the song, even the audience broke into applause.

Those who can rehearse in this broadcast hall are the ceiling of domestic artists—just the national music team alone has over twenty members, all of whom are top-tier veterans.

But even with so many heavyweight figures gathered, Luo Quan still managed to astonish everyone—proof of how excellent her singing is.

"That's it!" the director exclaimed excitedly.

The Spring Festival Gala reserve programs are countless, but this is probably the one he approved the fastest.

The song's concept, melody, and performance are all flawless—whether viewed from a leader's perspective or the general public's, there's no reason to reject it.

As a director, he's extremely satisfied and truly admires Luo Quan, a pop singer, for achieving such a high level in ethnic singing—no wonder she was named the New Century's First Singer by Rolling Stone magazine; indeed, fame well-deserved.

"Awesome, sis—I listened to this song and felt like walking straight to heaven along the road."

After the performance, Gao Liang gave a thumbs-up to Miss Luo Quan as she returned to her seat.

"This is just a solo performance; when we add backup dancers, backup singers, and live visual effects, the effect will definitely be even better."

Miss Luo Quan also wore a slightly proud expression, after all, opportunities to appear before so many senior figures are rare.

Looking back a few years ago, netizens were still reporting her as the hope for revitalizing the Chinese music scene, and now she can sit on equal footing with these senior figures from the national team—her rise has been so rapid that even she herself probably didn't anticipate it.

However, the faster and more aggressively one advances, the more cautious one must be; cases of joy leading to sorrow are common online, and Miss Luo Quan does not wish to become a negative example one day.

Therefore, despite her fame and strength having reached a considerably high level, her attitude in dealing with people and matters remains humble and gentle, leaving no room for criticism.

Although tired, if it allows her "perfect artist" label to continue, then this fatigue is still quite worthwhile.

In contrast, Gao Liang on the China New Rap show was simply unrestrained to the point of excess, with the corners of his mouth seemingly permanently twisted.

That kind of three parts disdain, three parts aloofness, and four parts sinister charm—such a character is standard fare for domineering CEOs in female-oriented novels, but in real life, others would likely think you've had a stroke.

Miss Luo Quan had previously told him about this, but his reply was: "If you don't act arrogant, how will others obey you?"

In the rap scene, there's no talk of gentleness, goodness, respect, frugality, and yielding—it's all about showing off; if you succeed in showing off, you're awesome; if you fail, you're just foolish.

Fortunately, he manages to pull off the act every time, so he's remained awesome up to now.

And the people in the scene still eat this up—now he belongs to the top tier among top tiers in the China rap scene.

Miss Luo Quan could not refute her younger brother's statement.

But the pop scene and the rap scene are still somewhat different; if she adopted the same attitude in her circle, she would likely offend many people.

"After the Spring Festival Gala, my position in the Chinese hip-hop scene will probably rise another level."

On the way back to the hotel, Gao Liang expressed his inner excitement to his older sister.

Miss Luo Quan smiled: "That's for sure—you're probably still the first person to perform rap on the Spring Festival Gala."

Although Chinese hip-hop has existed for a long time, it only truly became popular in recent years.

Even now, when hip-hop is exploding in popularity, mainstream views still regard it as unsuitable for refined halls, and local New Year's Eve galas are already the limit.

CCTV actually had a proper rapper perform before, though not on the Spring Festival Gala—just on a music variety show.

Gao Liang performing rap on the Spring Festival Gala should be the first ever.

And he, who cannot keep secrets, already revealed this news to fans during a livestream; everyone was very happy, feeling this is a milestone for Chinese hip-hop entering the mainstream.

However, after sharing this good news, Gao Liang poured a bucket of cold water on it—namely, that his rap content is not substantial, and there are almost no segments demonstrating rap skill, making it rather mediocre.

Moreover, to bring hip-hop into the mainstream, having just this song is definitely not enough.

But at least it's a solid step forward, and thus worthy of praise.

After celebrating hip-hop's appearance on the Spring Festival Gala, Gao Liang's abstract fans began asking again whether they saw the thimble in this year's Spring Festival Gala.

This person, one of the largest material libraries in the abstract scene, has considerable popularity.

People dislike him, yet they still want to see him frequently appear on these stages to seek amusement.

This contradictory psychology is actually the true portrayal of abstract amusement-seekers: denying everything while simultaneously entertaining everything.

"I didn't see the thimble, but I don't rule out the possibility that he had something come up and couldn't come—after all, I don't have the program schedule, so I don't know who's supposed to perform."

Gao Liang's reply left a suspense, and the fans' barrage comments were even more filled with humor:

"I just asked, and they said the thimble came to Jingcheng on horseback, but the horse disappeared halfway, so he switched to a car and is now on the way to Jingcheng."

"Haha, so that's how it is."

"Really or fake?"

"Another new emoji pack is coming out."

……………………

Gao Liang's barrage comments have always enjoyed stirring up trouble; Miss Luo Quan watched for a while and then turned it off.

If this continues long-term, something will likely happen—has any abstract streamer not been banned?

But Gao Liang is about to return to the United States soon, so whether he gets banned or not doesn't matter anymore, so Miss Luo Quan didn't advise him to adjust his livestream style to be more proper.

Back at the hotel, Ye Zheni had just finished bathing, lying in bed studying world history.

Seeing Miss Luo Quan, she immediately put down her phone: "My love, you're back so soon? Weren't you supposed to be busy until tonight?"

"Today's rehearsal went relatively smoothly, and we canceled a few programs, so I came back early."

Miss Luo Quan threw her coat and scarf onto the sofa, then kicked her boots to the side: "What do you want to eat tonight? I've prepared to order."

"I'm not hungry, my love—just order for yourself." Although she was curious about the food in this world, if it wasn't personally prepared by her love, she had no desire to eat.

"By the way, my love, how did you manage to recruit Xu Yanqing?" Ye Zheni suddenly asked.

Xu Yanqing also came to Earth; Ye Zheni initially didn't know.

Although the two met, Xu Yanqing didn't recognize her, but she did recognize Xu Yanqing.

As one of the few great beauties of the Holy Tang Celestial Dynasty, with such an explosive figure, Ye Zheni had once been moved for a period of time.

However, due to busy state affairs, she never brought this up to Xu Yanqing, and didn't expect to now become her love's subordinate.

"She and I hit it off immediately, talked about many life matters, and in the end was subdued by my personal charm, deciding to follow me."

Miss Luo Quan smiled proudly, but then said: "However, judging by Your Majesty's attitude, are you also very interested in Xu Yanqing?"

"How could that be!" Ye Zheni firmly denied: "I am not the kind of person who loves one person after seeing them?"

"However, I must admit, this Miss Xu really is very beautiful and distinctive."

"Hehe, under heaven, there is no emperor who is not fickle." Miss Luo Quan scoffed at Ye Zheni's statement.

"How can my love so doubt my sincerity?" Ye Zheni expressed feeling hurt.

"Just talk from experience." Miss Luo Quan pursed her lips, thinking that yesterday during dinner, your eyes didn't linger little on Xu Yanqing.

However, such matters are hard to speak plainly, and perhaps knowing the truth, Xu Yanqing herself would be quite happy about it?

So Miss Luo Quan decided to turn a blind eye and close one eye.