Chapter 185

Whether a work is good or not depends on whether the creators put their hearts into it.

But whether it can be known by more people is a matter of promotion and publicity.

In the entertainment industry, marketing investment has always been huge; some of the effort put into marketing even accounts for half of the entire drama's investment.

It used to be that good wine didn't fear the depth of the alley.

Now, it's that practicing without talking is a stupid trick.

No matter how good a film or television drama is, if no one knows about it, it's all in vain.

Jin Li said: "This drama was shown to me by Gu Cheng. It was originally agreed that he would be the male lead, but because of censorship issues, the TV drama couldn't be filmed, so they thought about taking the internet movie route."

Sui Lingfang lowered her head and pondered: "The censorship for internet movies is a bit looser."

Hearing that it was Gu Cheng who was going to film it, her heart settled halfway.

Even if Gu Cheng's eye for scripts wasn't great, at least he had Zhang Guang to help him keep an eye on things.

If Gu Cheng could take it on, Zhang Guang must have read the script and felt it was okay before letting him take it.

Sui Lingfang said: "Since it's somewhat reliable, invest if you want to invest."

Jin Li smiled, a flash of cunning in her eyes.

"I want to ask, is Chenxi Entertainment interested in this drama?"

Sui Lingfang was stunned, "What? Can Chenxi Entertainment still get involved?"

With Gu Cheng as the lead actor and investor, everyone would think this drama would be held in the hands of Tianding Entertainment.

With one entertainment company involved, there basically wouldn't be a second.

Jin Li nodded and said: "Yes, Gu Cheng told me to try to pull in more capital, so that filming, editing, and going online will all go more smoothly."

Sui Lingfang understood.

For a newcomer entering the investment circle, it's definitely better to have someone leading the way.

Her eyes flickered constantly, "Can I see the script first?"

Jin Li's expression moved; she knew Fang Jie was tempted.

"Of course you can. I can show you the TV version of the script; the movie version hasn't been adapted yet."

At the same moment.

After the first round of competition, *I Am a Singer* finally revealed the list of those advancing to the next round.

To the netizens' senses.

Tonight, the biggest winner wasn't the contestant who advanced.

It was the commercials!

"Taste the good tea of China, selected from high-mountain Dongding tea leaves, refined through multiple layers, restoring the original taste of tea..."

"Thirsty? Drink Master Rong green tea! Master Rong iced black tea, added with cool mint factors, bringing you a refreshing and icy experience!"

"Insist on using Darlie toothpaste to cultivate healthy gums and a good complexion! Added with probiotic baking soda, fresh breath, whitening is visible..."

Especially the closer it got to revealing the list, the more these commercials popped out, and you couldn't even click the 'X' to exit!

Whether you are a regular user, a noble VIP, a super noble VVIP, or a joint diamond-level super member... in front of commercials, all beings are equal.

【Holy crap, that's 5 commercials already, how much longer do we have to wait?】

【It's been ten minutes, oh my god!】

【Pass the order down, the biggest winner tonight is the advertiser!】

【Can't hold it anymore, going to the bathroom first...】

Finally.

The long commercials ended, and coming to the announcement interface, Director Hong said in a deep voice: "Next, the list of those advancing will be announced. Those advancing are—"

At this moment.

He seemed to feel immense pressure too, took a deep breath, opened the newly launched sugar-free version of Oolong tea from Nongfu Sweet Spring, and took a sip.

【Still coming???】

【Completely convinced!】

【Who exactly started this bad trend? Oh, it turns out it's *I Am a Singer*. They played like this a few years ago, and now that it's finally restarted this year, they're still playing like this?】

Not to mention netizens being tortured to death by this series of commercials, even the stars' patience had vanished while waiting.

Finally!

At the very, very end!

Director Hong stopped playing tricks and announced the list of those advancing.

"Those entering the King of Singers Championship Grand Final are—Congratulations to Little Chili! Congratulations to Luo Yingying! Congratulations to Wang Jie!!"

Once this list came out, the singers offered their congratulations one after another.

The stone in Xi Sister Meng Ze's heart finally fell to the ground. Afraid of being caught by the camera with a bad expression, she hurriedly turned her head to look at Little Chili beside her.

She hurriedly offered a hug.

"Congratulations on advancing to the Grand Final!"

Little Chili said happily: "Thank you, your performance tonight was also great!"

Other singers offered their blessings to the advancing singers, except for Girardi.

She didn't hear her name, and the expression on her face was a bit ugly.

Seeing a camera, she immediately turned her head, took a few deep breaths, gently wiped the crystal clear tears from the corners of her eyes with her hand, and took a few more deep breaths.

This scene.

Although it wasn't caught by the camera.

But the camera deliberately filmed her back, giving people a sense of loneliness.

Especially since the surrounding singers were all hugging each other, and only Girardi was alone, adding a bit more loneliness.

【Girardi clearly performed so well, why didn't she make it into the Grand Final?】

【Xi Sister Meng Ze's overall performance over many rounds has always been quite good, why didn't she make it?】

【Wang Jie and Luo Yingying... these two made so many mistakes tonight, Pineapple TV is just dead-set on protecting them!】

【The other powerhouse didn't make it into the Grand Final either. Luo Yingying shouldn't have made it into the Grand Final; she should have been eliminated long ago.】

Once this list of those advancing came out.

The singers on site hadn't reacted yet, but the public opinion on the internet exploded.

Everyone was discussing the authenticity of the list, not understanding what the criteria of the on-site judges were—those who should have gotten in didn't, and those who shouldn't have gotten in did.

A bunch of video accounts immediately popped up on the internet.

Some bloggers appeared on camera, or used cartoon anime idols, to analyze the reasons behind this list for netizens.

A real-person blogger showed his face, released a video, and quickly hit the top ten trending searches.

He said confidently:

"From this list, one can imagine that this was considered by the production team after weighing many parties."

"For example, the two foreign singers—they are strong, but this is a Chinese program. It's impossible for the top three to be swept by foreign singers, right?"

"Although the production team publicly declared: Winning is not the goal. Welcoming is the goal."

"However, music has no borders, but musicians have nationalities. If foreign singers really climbed to the top, let alone the production team, I believe most netizens would not be happy to accept it."

"In addition, analyzing this list from the perspective of human relationships."

"Luo Yingying will definitely be selected because she was invited by the production team time and time again. For a singer of her status to be able to participate in such a competition program, the production team must have made some interest transfers."

"Xi Sister Meng Ze and Girardi are even easier to understand."

"Both of them have been persecuted by the production team to varying degrees. One had her ranking suddenly lowered and publicly sang *Exaggerated* to slap the production team in the face."

"One was at odds with the assistant arranged by the program, even unfollowing each other during the competition, and Girardi also expressed disgust for the sugar-free tea drink of the sponsor, Nongfu Sweet Spring, many times."

"Stars who are hard to control are time bombs for the production team, so they definitely won't be promoted..."

This blogger being able to hit the trending searches also meant he had some skills.

In just ten minutes.

He accurately and incisively expounded on this list, which was born after final weighing, from multiple angles such as politics, competition system, connected people, and advertisers.

Netizen's divine comment: 【Impartial, correct, and hits the nail on the head!】

But the climax of *I Am a Singer* didn't stop there.

The guest singer invited by Girardi, a genius high-pitched singer from abroad—Gao Erxi, actually forgot to turn off his mic while congratulating Little Chili!

He hugged Little Chili, offered her blessings, and whispered:

"They said, the first place must be given to a Chinese singer."

Little Chili wasn't dazed, nor was she stunned. She nodded extremely quickly, as if she had expected it long ago, and replied softly:

"Okay, no problem."

【Holy crap, 666!】

【Actually forgot to turn off the mic, this is a live broadcast!】

【Haha, what I like most is watching live broadcasts. Sure enough, it's very interesting, with surprises every day!】

【Gao Erxi: I told you to sing well, why are you blurting out the truth?!】

This scene of Gao Erxi and Little Chili communicating was quickly screenshotted by netizens into a GIF, or edited into a video and spread out.

The titles netizens gave this scene were varied—

"Guard against everything, but it's hard to guard against the thief in the house—the backstab from Gao Erxi, the singer personally promoted by Pineapple TV!"

"The Banishment Journey of Honest Guy Gao Erxi"

"Watch carefully, this man is Gao Erxi. One day, he was invited by a singer to be a guest singer, but he made a shocking move..."

【Ang ang ang, laughed until I made goose sounds!】

【Pineapple TV has always been topic-first, competition-second. This grand event is just as they wished!】

Xi Sister Meng Ze was on the scene.

Coincidentally, Little Chili was next to her.

So when Gao Erxi came over to talk to Little Chili, Xi Sister Meng Ze heard it.

She couldn't help but be stunned. Little Chili wasn't at a loss, but she herself was caught off guard.

Is he really this honest?

Is it really good to tell the truth like this?

Damn, what kind of reaction should I have??

Xi Sister Meng Ze lowered her head, her first reaction was not to look at the camera, because even she herself couldn't control her expression.

Fortunately, Brother Jie next to Little Chili reacted quickly. After Gao Erxi finished that sentence, he immediately walked over to give Gao Erxi a hug, which interrupted the conversation between the two.

The situation looked under control.

But it fermented rapidly on the internet.

Xi Sister Meng Ze returned to the dressing room, looked at Ji Qinglian, and was about to say something.

Ji Qinglian shook her head imperceptibly.

Xi Sister Meng Ze immediately changed her expression, sat beside her, and watched the rest of the competition with a straight face.

The final result was no surprise.

It was Luo Yingying who took the title of "King of Singers"!

Neither Xi Sister Meng Ze nor Ji Qinglian wanted to get involved in what followed, so they left immediately after the program ended.

Now they finally understood why Luo Yingying had suddenly called out to Xi Sister Meng Ze before, asking if she wanted to have a gathering together.

It turns out it was just to pave the way for winning the championship on the program!

If before, Xi Sister Meng Ze wasn't sure if the King of Singers was reserved, Luo Yingying's behavior was undoubtedly a confession without being asked.

In the car.

Xi Sister Meng Ze and Ji Qinglian opened their phones while discussing this matter.

Xi Sister Meng Ze: "So she invited me to dinner in advance, was it to explain to me, and she also felt very sorry, hoping I wouldn't have any hard feelings?"

Ji Qinglian pondered for a while, "A high-EQ approach should be like this."

Xi Sister Meng Ze asked: "What about low-EQ?"

Ji Qinglian: "Simple, come over to show off to you."

Xi Sister Meng Ze thought about it and said: "Then she must have chosen the low-EQ approach. Sister Yingying is just honest with her mouth, it doesn't mean she's stupid."

"If you're not in the singer circle, offending you is offending you, anyway, we're not in the same line of work. But we are all in the singer circle, and we see each other all the time. She probably wanted to explain to us afterwards."

Ji Qinglian said 'mm'.

"There's another possibility, we're overthinking it. She just purely wanted to initiate a farewell gathering."

Xi Sister Meng Ze said very bluntly: "If this King of Singers title was well-deserved, I would agree with the last view, but her performance tonight wasn't very good."

Good-sounding is good-sounding, bad-sounding is bad-sounding.

On the live competition stage, there is no tuning, and what the audience hears is the most real sound.

Everyone has ears, and whether it's sung well or badly, it's really not impossible to judge.

As the competition progressed to the later stages, singers often performed quite well, so the judges voted according to their personal preferences.

But Luo Yingying's performance tonight wasn't so hard to judge as good or bad.

Ji Qinglian scrolled through the trending searches.

#Little Chili unexpectedly won third place! #

#Luo Yingying won the championship and became the King of Singers! #

#Gao Erxi didn't turn off the mic! #

# "I Am a Singer" Black Curtain! #

Ji Qinglian couldn't help but shake her head, "I see this situation will continue to ferment. Don't go online these few days. After half a month passes, netizens will forget."

Xi Sister Meng Ze said with a grin: "It just so happens that I applied for a vacation with Fang Jie, and she agreed. Originally I only planned to rest for a week, it seems I can rest for another week!"

Ji Qinglian said helplessly: "You!"

If it were her, while the heat was still there, she would definitely take on a few more announcements.

She only told Xi Sister Meng Ze not to go online, but didn't tell her to take a vacation!

However, thinking of Xi Sister Meng Ze's personality, she didn't mention it anymore, let her agent have a headache.

Jin Li got off the plane.

She immediately took out her phone to scroll through the trending searches.

Although she knew it was slim for Meng Meng to win the championship, she also hoped they could achieve good results.

The ranking hadn't been released yet, but the news of #Luo Yingying won the championship# was being pushed overwhelmingly.

But accompanying this trending search was a comment with 100,000+ likes—

【Undeserving!】

Jin Li's heart skipped a beat, her first reaction was: the fewer the words, the bigger the matter.

She hurriedly clicked on the trending search and found that netizens all thought Luo Yingying didn't deserve to be the King of Singers. This time the song choice wasn't good, the performance wasn't good, and they felt sorry for Little Chili.

Jin Li searched again and finally found the performance video of Xi Sister Meng Ze and Ji Qinglian.

After getting into the car, Jin Li took out her Bluetooth earphones, one for her and one for Fang Jie, to listen to their performance first.

Even Sui Lingfang, who didn't understand music, felt it sounded quite good, it was just that choosing this song on the competition stage, wouldn't it be a bit too simple?

She voiced her doubts.

Jin Li had already started listening to other singers' audio.

While listening, she said: "It is simple, but simple means it's hard to make mistakes."

"At least the stage they performed, whether it was breath, pitch, or high notes, didn't have any mistakes, and they performed very well."

She considered this stage qualified.

Even if viewed from the perspective of a professional singer, no mistakes could be picked out.

After all, the upper limit was right there; for a song that was too simple, wanting to make a mistake was actually a bit difficult.

She listened to the songs of the other few singers.

Jin Li finally understood why netizens were so unhappy for Xi Sister Meng Ze.

Jin Li said to Fang Jie: "Technically speaking, Meng Meng should have advanced, because the mistakes of the other singers were more obvious. Those two foreign singers performed well, but the production team couldn't possibly let both of them enter the Grand Final."

Sui Lingfang was thoughtful: "So, Meng Meng was screwed over in the end?"

Jin Li shook her head: "Hard to say, the song chosen was still a bit too simple. They could have let her advance, but they could also eliminate her. Even if she was eliminated, netizens wouldn't be able to make a fuss."

Sui Lingfang scrolled through the trending searches while replying to work messages.

Suddenly, her expression paused, and she saw the vacation application sent by Xi Sister Meng Ze.

Sui Lingfang was angered into laughter.

"Giving her a week off is already good enough, she actually wants to ask for half a month. Is she the artist or am I the artist? Why does it feel like she's my boss and I'm working for her?"

Jin Li listened from the side.

She smiled secretly, not daring to speak. ===== CHAPTER 186 =====