Chapter 152: Now It's My Home Court (Begging for Double Monthly Tickets!)

On stage, Luo Mo cradled his guitar, the spotlight hitting him; the light was warm, as if it were the warm sun.

Everything seemed to have returned to that afternoon, returned to the campus.

"Common Jasmine Orange" had reached its end by this point.

"【All night—my love overflows just like rainwater,

The butterfly on the windowsill is like a beautiful chapter fluttering in a poem.

I continue to write,

Writing 'Love You' forever into the end of the poem,

You are the only understanding I desire.】"

The singing had ended, and the music at the end of the song maintained an echo with the pre-chorus.

Finally, one could hear the sound of wind chimes created by the chime bells, as well as the sound of the summer wind.

This was like pulling everyone back from their memories into reality.

——Pre-chorus Kill and Ending Kill!

The composition and Arranger of this song were truly marvelous; even if laypeople couldn't pinpoint exactly where the brilliance lay, they would just feel it was high-class when listening!

High-class that appeals to both refined and popular tastes!

Luo Mo was seen picking up his guitar, rising to bow toward the audience.

Cheers rose one after another, and the audience at the scene shouted his name.

"Luo Mo! Luo Mo!"

"This is the favorite song I've heard this year!"

"Ah! I thought the previous episode's 'Sunny Day' was already peerless, but this episode's 'Common Jasmine Orange' is hard to distinguish from it in my heart!"

In reality, over these years, major platforms have frequently called upon netizens to vote for various songs by Zhou Dong.

And in the two major themes of youth songs and love songs, the battle in voting between "Sunny Day" and "Common Jasmine Orange" is always the most intense.

It is as if a show of Zhou Jielun fighting Zhou Jielun, a grand show of personal left-hand versus right-hand combat, is being staged.

Therefore, people on the internet often say: "The only one who can defeat Zhou Jielun is Zhou Jielun."

The reason Luo Mo chose Zhou Dong's "Sunny Day" and "Common Jasmine Orange" consecutively, besides fitting the themes of these two episodes, was mainly because the songs were simply invincible.

The former was simple to the extreme, while the latter was actually complex to the extreme.

Two extremes, yet also two peaks!

Luo Mo now didn't care at all about how Zhao Xueqin would critique it.

For these two songs, even his teacher Huang Xishan couldn't reach this level, let alone the Heavenly King Zhao.

This was a true, genuine trump card, a crushing victory in youth love songs!

The most ridiculous part is, back in '03 and '04, you would have a feeling of being crushed when listening to these two songs, and even after more than ten years, this feeling is still there...

Amidst the cheers of the audience, Luo Mo began to step off the stage.

The host quickly went on stage at this time to maintain order and thank the sponsors, while also stalling for time to prepare for Zhao Xueqin's stage.

At the same time, during these four or five minutes, the cameras would aim at the professional judging panel in the private rooms, recording their critiques and... arguments.

Yes, 30 professional judges, each with their own tastes; everyone has their own preferences, so they often argue.

This was a segment Ke Ming liked very much; he felt that only in this way would a variety show have highlights.

A few individual music critics who took the sharp route didn't have much skill themselves, but they were always saying "trash" at every turn, looking down on the lyrics and music brought by many Singers.

Their slogan was: can't one critique a chef's level if they can't cook?

Ke Ming didn't care about this; anyway, it wouldn't be directed at him.

However, at this moment, the private room was terrifyingly quiet.

Those few sharp-tongued music critics looked at one another, their eyes telling the other: "You go!"

Not a single one dared to stand out to grab attention.

This group of people all understood music theory; while they were criticizing, they would spout a large amount of professional terminology to support their statements, which could leave laypeople stunned.

But "Common Jasmine Orange" was too incredible; the more you understood music theory, the more you could realize how terrifying the composition and Arranger of this song were!

Ke Ming, watching the footage from various cameras backstage, began to call out: "Speak! Critique segment!"

His voice reached the ears of every professional judge through their earpieces; in the end, it was Ji Hu, the composer with the most Seniority and the highest status in the industry, who spoke first.

"In my opinion, the composition of this song is one of the peaks of the current music scene." As soon as the over-fifty-year-old Ji Hu spoke, he seemed to want to define the song.

If he weren't afraid of offending people, and since he felt several other songs composed by Luo Mo were also extremely stunning, he might not have added the words "one of."

"The melody sounds simple, but it is actually a realm that almost all composers and arrangers cannot reach."

"The pre-chorus, interlude, and the slightly grand strings in the chorus of this song are all incomparably stunning."

"When I heard this pre-chorus, I felt that this pre-chorus would become legendary in the future. Of course, this is already the second time I've had this feeling."

"The last time I had this feeling was with that song 'Sunny Day' by Luo Mo, ha!" He gave a dry laugh, quite filled with the emotion of the older generation facing the new.

Ji Hu looked at everyone and said: "I think everyone actually has many points they want to evaluate in their hearts. Personally, I will only talk about the one point I most want to mention, and that is the 【chord progression】 and 【melodic movement】 of this song."

"Regarding the chord progression, I will only mention the alternating use of Am and minor triads; this creates a sense of tonal ambiguity, unexpectedly adding a hazy beauty."

"The melodic movement is even more of a stroke of genius; the continuous use of 1 and 7, as well as the random addition of 345, makes this song extremely catchy. While it gets better the more you listen, it also has a subtle sense of Dancing."

"I'll just say this much. If you let me praise it freely, I'm afraid I could praise it for half an hour." Ji Hu smiled at the camera and spread his hands, expressing helplessness.

Honestly, he really had an urge to record a critique video specifically to post online after this episode aired.

The magical aspects of this piece were truly too many; he really felt that if he were to analyze it in detail, talking for half an hour wouldn't be difficult.

As a first-tier composer in the industry, Ji Hu had a good personal relationship with Zhao Xueqin.

Although his level had a gap compared to Huang Xishan, he was still a person with high status in the industry and had many representative works.

At this moment, he said in his heart: "Old Zhao, why did you have to go and critique Luo Mo's music in the first episode?"

"This is great, I've dug a hole for myself, lifting a rock only to drop it on my own feet." Ji Hu sighed in his heart.

If it weren't for the fact that this song and "Sunny Day" both came from the hands of the same Newcomer, he would have wanted to call them textbook-level songs directly.

Of course, in his view, as Luo Mo's Seniority grew deeper, the four words "textbook-level" would be bestowed upon him sooner or later.

After Ji Hu finished saying these things, the other professional judges followed suit and began to speak.

Everyone also started arguing, but this argument seemed different from the usual ones.

Usually when they argued, it was someone saying they didn't like this song, and someone else saying they liked this song very much.

Then they would start debating.

This time, their debate was more like pushing this song to an even higher peak.

"I think the strongest part is the intro, the Arranger work is incredible."

"I don't agree with that; from a music theory perspective, the interlude is the most stunning part in my opinion."

"Are you all ignoring the strings in the chorus? Where is the prestige of my strings?"

"No, why is everyone talking about the music? I think the lyrics are also wonderful, and it even has a dream-like connection with 'Lanting Xu'. Many of the words inside naturally carry a sense of nostalgia; there is no piling up of flowery language, yet the imagery is extremely strong, and the emotions are very sincere."

Backstage, Ke Ming wore headphones, listening to the argument in the private room, his mouth grinning almost to his ears.

Judging from the reactions of the live audience, the behind-the-scenes staff, and the professional jury, it seemed that the vast majority of people thought this song was very good.

Since this is a music-themed variety show, it must have enough big hit songs with sufficient weight to hold the program up.

Intuition told him that "Sunny Day" and "Common Jasmine Orange" were exactly that!

"I thought his album 'Red' was already explosive enough, enough to establish his own school," Ke Ming said in his heart.

"I didn't expect that Luo Mo would insist on not taking the ancient-style path in the show, and the effect produced would be top-tier!"

"This year's strongest Newcomer King in history is Afraid to leave a heavy, colorful stroke on the music scene."

This summer belongs to Luo Mo.

Actually, how could it just be the summer?

……..

……..

At the stage entrance, Zhao Xueqin waited in agony.

If this were a fantasy cultivation novel, it would be that the Heavenly King Zhao's Dao heart was a bit unstable.

He had already been waiting at the entrance for seven or eight minutes, but they still hadn't called him to enter.

Ke Ming had clearly reserved more time for "Common Jasmine Orange" to provide commentary and collect details the production team wanted to edit in.

At the same time, Heavenly King Zhao was also very clear that because he had criticized Luo Mo's song as not good in the first episode, in every subsequent episode, the audience and professional insiders would take the initiative to compare his songs with Luo Mo's.

This made him incomparably annoyed.

What was most annoying was that Luo Mo had another identity as a creator, while Heavenly King Zhao did not.

If he won, the song wasn't written by him, so what did it have to do with him?

If he lost, it was a direct slap in the face—that's what you get for acting arrogant!

When the staff arranged for him to go on stage to perform, Zhao Xueqin even took three deep breaths first.

Fortunately, a Heavenly King is a Heavenly King after all; what great storms and waves had he not seen, what stage accidents had he not seen?

Therefore, his performance in this round remained stable, and he did not make too many mistakes because of this.

When the song ended, looking at the reactions of the live audience, Zhao Xueqin felt a bit uncertain.

After Wei Ran also finished his performance, the substitute Singer went on stage to perform.

Her name is Lu Bingqi, a First-line Singer, known as the Queen of Sweet Songs.

A First-line Singer aggressively challenging the show made the entire program increasingly cruel.

However, with Luo Mo's pearls of wisdom preceding them, everyone suddenly felt that Lu Bingqi didn't seem so scary after all; after all, Luo Mo wasn't writing songs for her.

The live stage recording of this episode of "King of Love Songs" officially ended after Lu Bingqi's performance was successfully completed.

Everyone gathered in the hall again.

This time, Zhao Xueqin took the initiative to walk up and shake hands with Luo Mo.

This Heavenly King wore a warm smile on his face, making him, who was already elegant in temperament, look even more easygoing.

"Great performance, if there's a chance, let's collaborate," Zhao Xueqin said.

A dignified Heavenly King actually took the initiative to offer a step down!

Luo Mo looked at him and said modestly, "I wouldn't dare, I wouldn't dare."

The brief confrontation made Sun Yi, who was standing to the side, feel terrified.

He could hear the backbone of his own boss, but he himself had suffered losses in this regard and had been Xuezang for several years.

But when he recalled the various things Luo Mo had experienced, he knew deeply that he was completely different from himself.

"I feel like Director Luo's zodiac sign is a hedgehog; whoever wants to manipulate him has to pay the price of their palms bleeding," Sun Yi said in his heart.

Luo Mo had been constantly encountering the so-called bullying of those in power.

Sun Yi could empathize with all of these things.

It was just that every time Luo Mo faced bullying, he would let these so-called superiors know what "Daddy's Arrival" meant.

The show had only been recorded for three episodes, but all the competing Singers already knew who the real hidden big demon king was in this show, which featured a dignified Heavenly King-level Singer and a First-line Singer aggressively filling in!

Sure enough, when Ke Ming came to announce the rankings, Luo Mo won the championship again, becoming the first double-champion in "King of Love Songs".

Zhao Xueqin still ranked second, and the substitute Singer Lu Bingqi ranked third.

As for Sun Yi, he rushed to fourth place, only one step away from the top tier.

Poor Wei Ge suffered a defeat in this round, falling to fifth place, missing the top three for the first time and losing the qualification for the song-promotion segment.

At the same time, he had to endure ninety seconds of mental torture from Luo Mo!

Luo Mo was seen walking into the pile of Yueqi, and in the end, he sat down in front of the keyboard.

He started off with "10:30 at the Airport" by Tao Jiji, who is known as the Godfather of R&B.

Following closely were "Why Do I Love You So Much," "How Could You Let Me Be Sad," "Love Me, Don't Go," and others.

Since the theme for the next episode is 【Losing You】, it is clearly a battle of sad love songs.

Therefore, during the song promotion segment this time, Luo Mo deliberately stopped at the song "Good Intentions."

After all, when it comes to sad love songs, Zhang Yu is definitely a representative figure in this genre; as soon as he opens his mouth to sing most of his songs, they are just so bitter!

"【You say you want to escape,

Yet you are destined to land,

The passion is extinguished, the love is gone,

Do you still want what remains of this Hollow heart.】"

Listening to this "untitled" medley, Ke Ming felt an increasingly strong urge to buy the naming rights.

However, the production team had recently spent their funds on inviting replacement Singers, deciding that for every replacement, they would target First-line Singers or even higher.

"King of Love Songs" was a hit in the first episode, so why don't we broaden our horizons and just invite big names for everyone!

"It's agonizing!" Ke Ming fell into a state of conflict.

"I really want to pay him money and then name this medley 'King of Love Songs'!" Ke Ming was in immense pain.

As for Wei Ran, he had already started fake-smiling; the moment Luo Mo went on stage, he became like a fake-smiling old boy, squeezing an unnatural smile onto his face and tilting his head to express his protest.

After the three of them finished promoting their songs, it was time to fill in the 【King Power Points】 again.

The camera swept across every Singer, and it could be seen that most of them were struggling immensely.

For no other reason than that Luo Mo played his cards openly, giving 30 points directly, which made everyone feel it was very difficult to deal with.

They didn't want to be grouped with him, and even less did they want to perform before him.

Sun Yi, on the other hand, was thinking about the competition with the other Singers.

This damn financial management segment set up by the flashy General Director is simply giving us a hard time, forcing us to engage in a psychological game and a brainstorm.

——What a worry!

Only Luo Mo, in 0.39 seconds, wrote down 【30】 points and then sealed it inside a very unnecessary envelope.

Immediately after, while the others were still writing with their heads down, he raised his head to face the camera, leaned back, rested his back against the sofa, revealed a relaxed and casual smile, and rested his right wrist on his thigh, leisurely spinning his pen with his fingers.

(PS: Second update, 4200 words, asking for double monthly tickets at the end of the month!)

(End of this chapter)