Chapter 108: Paying the Price

Inside the pool, water splashed everywhere, and screams and Shouting rose one after another.

The live infectiousness of "Midsummer Light Year" is very strong, and because this song is rebellious enough, it can better stir up everyone's emotions.

The scene ignited instantly; even though the water in the pool was so cold, it couldn't cool down the audience's emotions.

The organizers of the water park music festival were stunned.

They have hosted countless water music festivals, but today's effect was the most explosive.

There is no helping it; you can always trust the professionalism of Mayday when it comes to concerts.

This was simply not a performance at the level of a music festival!

But thinking about it, that makes sense; although Luo Mo is a Newcomer who hasn't held a solo concert yet, you have to look at how terrifying this band's lineup is!

Not to mention Cao Lei, who is among the most senior people in the music scene.

Liu Qinghong can also be considered a cutting-edge Singer.

Wei Ran and Li Ge are even first-tier singers.

Didn't you see that even the national little sister, who has always been known for being well-behaved, brought a brilliant drum kit accompaniment?

Not to mention, a beautiful girl playing drums is also very pleasing to the eye; that kind of contrast is simply too lethal for those who care about looks.

The main thing is, why do many people need to go to the scene to feel the charm of rock? It is actually mainly about the visual sense.

Like the electric guitar and drum kit, if you watch them live, the impact will be even stronger.

For example, look at Li Ge; he doesn't look like much, like a security guard, but once he picks up an electric guitar or bass, he can actually play with a feeling of "Laozi is the most handsome in the world."

That is the kind of energy needed!

Backstage, Ning Dan looked at the image on the monitor with a smile and nodded slightly.

In her eyes, this young man named Luo Mo indeed carried a rebellious aura, just like the lyrics of this "Midsummer Light Year".

He is different from most mainstream young people in the current entertainment industry.

He does not have that docility, nor that feeling of being tamed.

He crashes into the rules time and time again, and even breaks them directly!

Perhaps it is precisely because of this that Luo Mo has a unique charm in the eyes of many people.

"This song is indeed very suitable for him," Ning Dan thought to herself.

In fact, after the two songs were finished, Cao Lei, who has extremely high Seniority in the music scene, had a bit of appreciation for this young man.

These days, I don't know when it started, but "full live singing" (all-live mic), which is a basic quality for a Singer, can frequently make it onto the Hot Search.

It seems like if a Singer doesn't lip-sync, it is a very Ox, very Glory thing.

It is just like an Actor who is willing to properly memorize lines and is willing to actively act can receive countless praises, or even eulogies.

But it shouldn't be like this.

One can only say that in this environment of competing to be the worst, those who can do their basic work well will appear very prominent.

Cao Lei felt Luo Mo's live strength.

Although this rock song is different from the rock songs of that era and leans more towards pop, Cao Lei felt that Luo Mo still handled it very well.

He appreciates this kind of Singer with live infectiousness.

To what extent has the current situation rotted?

After "full live singing" became something worth praising, many singers stopped working hard to practice their singing skills and live performances, and instead started studying how to pretend that they are "full live singing."

Many microphones nowadays are very advanced, and the backstage will perform control.

Sometimes you watch a Singer singing on stage, but their microphone actually has no sound.

When the microphone has sound, they will deliberately make a small stage mistake, the kind that does no harm, or change the key temporarily, or have a few interactions with the audience, thereby disguising that the microphone has been on and has had sound all along.

One by one, those who sing are better at acting than those who are Actors.

This phenomenon is also very common on Earth; Zhang Yadong once talked about this kind of "technical" lip-syncing on a program.

At the very least, Cao Lei felt that by accompanying such a young man today, he personally had a great time and found that feeling from his younger days.

At this very moment, the entire band began to bow to the audience, ending today's performance.

Amidst the brilliant fireworks, this music festival that caught the audience completely by surprise came to an end.

Almost everyone felt that the trip was worth it; you have to know, the ticket price for the music festival was not high...

This price-performance ratio is heaven-defying!

Most importantly, unless you are sitting in the front rows of the inner field at a concert, you are very far from the stage.

But a music festival is different; the stage of a music festival is very close to the audience.

Many female fans were still joking on the way back: "I didn't expect that one day I would wear so little and stand so close to Luo Mo!"

"He saw me; is he going to be responsible for me? Hahahaha!"

"Go away, there are over a thousand girls; can he be responsible for all of them?"

Meanwhile, backstage, everyone had already left under the protection of the production team.

Wei Ran and the others had to catch a flight, so they left first.

It was the three young people whose flights were later, so they could still chat for a while.

Luo Mo glanced at Ding Xiaoyu, whose temples were slightly damp, and said, "How is it? Did you have fun?"

"Mm!" Ding Xiaoyu nodded vigorously, her eyes shining.

This emotional release was different from acting on set, but it still made her feel particularly comfortable.

Ding Xiaoyu looked at the drum kit being moved off the stage, her eyes showing a bit of reluctance.

She had originally learned it secretly, and this time it was equivalent to being exposed.

She wasn't sure if her family and agent would let her continue playing drums, or if from now on they would forbid her from playing such an un-elegant Yueqi.

"What, didn't play enough?" Luo Mo looked at her and said.

Perhaps because the past few days of getting along had been relaxed enough, Ding Xiaoyu was already quite open in front of Luo Mo, saying softly, "Actually, I learned it secretly; I don't know if they will still let me keep playing."

Luo Mo smiled; he had originally wanted to raise his hand to pat her head like he did on the set of *Cat Demon*, but after thinking about it, he withdrew his hand.

He said, "Don't rush, let's see the effect after *Walking and Singing* airs."

"Huh?" Ding Xiaoyu didn't quite understand.

Liu Qinghong, who was to the side, said, "Luo Mo means that if the response to these two performances is good after it airs, they might not restrict you from learning the drums anymore."

Upon hearing this, Ding Xiaoyu couldn't help but feel a bit excited.

This girl had been constrained by many rules and regulations; this wasn't allowed, that wasn't allowed.

It's like when you go to watch a movie on a normal day, you feel it's nothing. But if it's during your school days and a class is suddenly used to show a movie, that can make you happy for the whole afternoon.

Such a small matter was enough to make Ding Xiaoyu elated.

This even made her feel a bit grateful to her cheap master.

She snuck a glance at Luo Mo and saw that Liu Qinghong was currently asking Luo Mo for advice.

Even though Liu Qinghong had debuted for many years and was older than Luo Mo, at this moment, he was truly humbly asking Luo Mo about some of his own problems.

He could intuitively feel Luo Mo's stage charisma, but for some reason, when his songs were broadcast on the show, the bullet comments were all praise, yet after the show aired, the download and play counts were quite average, and the conversion rate was very low.

Luo Mo had also watched Liu Qinghong sing live today, and he personally felt that Liu Qinghong was showing off his skills a bit too much.

Most of Liu Qinghong's songs were composed by himself, while the lyrics were written by professional Lyricists.

After thinking for a moment, Luo Mo said, "I personally have a small, immature opinion: sometimes, complexity and high quality are not necessarily linked."

Like Zhou Jielun's music, which is recognized as strong; many of his songs from ten years ago, if you listen to the music now, still beat the vast majority of people.

Some of his music can just use a few simple notes to create a melody that leaves everyone with a deep impression.

And as for Liu Qinghong, he loves to create melodies that go against the grain; where the Masses might be more accepting of a rising pitch, he insists on lowering it, feeling that only then does it have style.

At the same time, he also likes to "add things," crazily stuffing all sorts of things into his music.

Sometimes, too much is not necessarily a good thing.

Luo Mo was not close with Liu Qinghong; they had only recorded this one episode of the show.

Every creator has their own stubborn points, and Luo Mo wouldn't say too much or go too deep, nor would he be overly direct; he just touched upon it.

In his view, Cao Lei was an experienced person, and since both he and Liu Qinghong were regulars on *Walking and Singing*, it was very likely that he had already offered similar advice long ago.

But the results were right before their eyes.

Luo Mo checked the time and said, "I should be going."

Hearing this, Ding Xiaoyu immediately looked up at him.

Although their time together was short, she was quite willing to be close to Luo Mo.

She and Liu Qinghong went together to see Luo Mo to his van.

Before parting, Luo Mo first waved goodbye to Liu Qinghong, then turned his head to look at Ding Xiaoyu.

Just as Luo Mo waved, Ding Xiaoyu suddenly raised her hand and, in a mischievous manner, put it behind her head to smooth out her ponytail.

Seeing this scene, Liu Qinghong was somewhat surprised.

In his impression, Ding Xiaoyu wouldn't usually play such little tricks. One could hardly see that kind of liveliness of a young girl in her.

She was indeed well-behaved and sensible, but in private, she sometimes gave people the feeling of being like a pool of Dead Water.

Luo Mo didn't mind this at all and followed suit by putting his own right hand, which was waving goodbye, to the side of his hair to smooth his hair as well.

"Off I go then," he said.

This future Best Actress-level young Actor nodded vigorously and then refused to look at him.

Ning Dan and Luo Mo were on the same flight back to Shanghai, so they left in the same car.

She had already gone into the car early to wait.

Luo Mo took one last look at Ding Xiaoyu, and after getting into the car, he muttered, "Didn't even say goodbye, what a rude little brat."

But his face was always carrying a rich smile.

On the other side, after Liu Qinghong had also left, Ding Xiaoyu sat alone in front of the drums and began to play the music for *Midsummer Light Year*.

It was just that she would still look outside from time to time, and then raise her hand to lower the brim of the baseball cap she had just put on.

……..

……..

In the first-class cabin of the plane, Ning Dan looked at Luo Mo and said, "How are the discussions going with Xinyu and Ke Ming?"

She was referring to Luo Mo participating in *King of Love Songs*.

Looking at the timeline, in about half a month, the first episode of this show would be recorded.

"Quite smoothly," Luo Mo said.

The conditions offered by Ke Ming were very good; there wasn't a single flaw to pick out.

"So, is it confirmed that you're participating?" Ning Dan asked.

Luo Mo nodded and said, "Basically, yes."

Ning Dan glanced at him and said, "Then I can tell you that over at Pineapple, the Heavenly King Zhao Xueqin has already signed the Contract."

"Is that so? Impressive," Luo Mo praised.

Ning Dan looked at this calm young man and said, "Looking at the time, when *King of Love Songs* airs, it will be around the time you release your album, right?"

Luo Mo estimated the time and said with a smile, "Hey, you're right!"

Ning Dan stopped there and didn't say more.

In this way, the battlefield would not just be on the stage of *King of Love Songs*, but also outside of this variety show!

Run Jie turned her head to look at Luo Mo again and said, "By the way, you should already know, *King of Love Songs* is being broadcast exclusively on Penguin Video."

Luo Mo nodded and said, "I know."

This point is very useful; with the good relationship he has with Penguin, he doesn't need to worry about being treated differently.

In fact, Ke Ming had also asked Xinyu about when Luo Mo's first solo album would be released.

After all, "King of Love Songs" is a Singer competition show; good grief, you should just debut already!

Upon learning the approximate release time of the album, Ke Ming was overjoyed.

This is very close to the show's broadcast time, so they can drive traffic to each other.

At the same time, what thrilled Ke Ming, the General Director of "King of Love Songs", most was that Heavenly King Zhao also wanted to release a new album during this period and wanted to drive traffic to each other as well!

"This topic is going to explode!" Ke Ming thought to himself.

As for the boy band NINE-T, they are set to release the lead single "Giant Shark" from their first album next week.

These days, many Singers don't specifically design a lead single for promotion when releasing an album. Pineapple listed this song as the lead single mainly for the sake of the Great God of lyrics and composition, Huang Xishan.

The album Luo Mo is producing for Tong Shu has no intention of picking a lead single, because it is truly a bit hard to choose.

Over at Pineapple, they have already been promoting the first album of the boy band NINE-T with great fanfare, creating a massive buzz.

After all, as one of the four major companies, the resources they hold are truly abundant.

Everyone then looked back at Luo Mo Studio, which hadn't released a single piece of news.

They had previously said that two albums were in preparation, and then, amidst everyone's anticipation, they vanished without a trace.

Luo Mo discussed this matter with Xinyu's marketing team, and was surprised to find that everyone had the same idea.

It is obvious that Pineapple wants to use the method of a head-to-head challenge to stir up hype and then wash away their shame.

Judging by the current popularity, the nine members of NINE-T combined are not as popular as Luo Mo.

Following them with grand, high-profile promotions would be too much of a loss.

Therefore, they decided to do the opposite: reveal absolutely no information and only announce a specific release time to the public.

Oh my, what a coincidence, we are releasing songs on the same day; it really is fate!

Just accept the challenge.

And then, we can all piggyback on your overwhelming new album promotion.

We must use your money for our own benefit.

The appearance fee needs to be settled, after all.

If you want to drag us into the water, you have to pay a price in advance, don't you?

The most fatal part is that Pineapple is still completely unaware, thinking that the one they are going to fight against is definitely the duo of Luo Mo and Tong Shu!

This also has something to do with Penguin Music keeping their lips sealed.

Time flew by, and it was the eve of the song release.

Tomorrow is—the Shark Hunting moment!

(PS: Second update, 4000 words, requesting monthly tickets! Also, thanks to book friend "Liangchen Mengjing Kong Renxin" for the Alliance Leader tip!)

Recommending a book, Zongma Kunlun's new book "The Past-Prime Star Just Rated B Class", also known as "Superstar Starting from Competitive Variety Shows".)

(End of this chapter)