Chapter 178: 《King of Comedy》

"Why?" Xu Chujing listened to the question from her agent, Li Jie, without saying much.

She simply said: "Because I am more optimistic about him."

Li Jie smiled and said: "So, does this count as an investment?"

Xu Chujing did not reply.

Li Jie also had no intention of continuing to press the matter.

She had been Xu Chujing's agent for many years, from the moment Xu Chujing debuted until now.

She watched her go from a Newcomer to the Heavenly Queen Superstar she is today.

Li Jie knew very well that this Heavenly Queen was single-mindedly focused on her career; her career was the center of her life.

Calling it an investment seemed to have a certain degree of persuasiveness.

But this time, they were facing a behemoth like Pineapple.

To abandon Pineapple for the sake of a Newcomer—wouldn't this investment be playing a bit too big?

Li Jie did not continue to ask, and left Xu Chujing's office.

Then, she took out her phone and made a call to a paparazzi boss who was relatively reliable and with whom she had past dealings.

"Find two experienced people, don't give me any greenhorns."

"Yes, that's right, three days from now, Tuesday night."

On the other side, Luo Mo and the others had already boarded the van, heading to Hangzhou.

Over the past few days, the three songs could be said to have been rampaging across all the major charts.

Chen Shanqi was very excited; this made her realize that the throne of a First-line Singer was already beckoning to her.

The heat brought by "King of Love Songs" was considerable; her Weibo followers began to surge crazily, the topic popularity began to climb step by step, and the online discussion about her had also multiplied several times over compared to before.

With such massive exposure, any female singer at Xinyu would be envious. It was precisely because of this that she was full of gratitude toward Luo Mo, as she was handpicked by Luo Mo to fill the spot on the show.

To be precise, this substitute spot was originally gifted to Luo Mo by Ke Ming, not to Xinyu.

This Tao Jie, who possessed a peach-like butt, felt that her previous decision was incomparably correct.

"I Am Not Sad" was the song with the highest popularity for her currently; although she had handed over the singing rights with both hands and would need to obtain Luo Mo's approval and share the profits whenever she sang this song at any commercial event in the future, she still felt it was worth it.

"As long as I sing 'Lovers Not Yet' well in this episode, with the explosive popularity of 'King of Love Songs', I should be able to ascend to First-line soon!" Chen Shanqi thought to herself.

Quasi-First-line and First-line might seem to be only half a step apart, but making a breakthrough based on two songs was also extremely shocking.

This meant that there were no more dissenting voices within Xinyu; everyone no longer felt it was so absurd for a man of only 24 years old to ride on everyone's heads and serve as Music Director.

He wasn't just leading the company's musical direction; he was waving his hand and whipping up a hurricane!

Don't forget, Music Director Luo had already sung a large medley of songs during the song-promoting segment.

Although it was unknown what the full versions of these songs were actually like, they were very much worth looking forward to, weren't they?

The audience's appetite had already been whetted, which meant that once the full versions of these songs were released, they would come with their own built-in popularity.

Just thinking about it made one's heart itch, feeling itchy all over.

"General Manager Shen is wise!" This was a compliment Shen Shaoqiu heard frequently of late.

But this sentence not only acknowledged Shen Shaoqiu's vision and boldness, but also acknowledged that Luo Mo possessed the ability to be a leader.

This lame man publicly stated at the shareholders' meeting: "From now on, regarding all matters, big or small, in Xinyu's music field, I hope everyone can listen more to Music Director Luo's opinions."

The van soon arrived in Hangzhou; the Live Broadcast was in the evening, and they still had plenty of time to familiarize themselves with the stage and then briefly walk through the flow.

The Live Broadcast made everyone a bit nervous.

It was normal for Sun Yi to be nervous, because he had been away from the stage for many years; this was his first live stage in years.

Chen Shanqi was nervous because she was only one step away from the First-line throne.

The two of them, on the contrary, felt that Music Director Luo looked the least nervous; instead... he was quite excited.

"This person seems to be born for the stage," the two thought to themselves.

Clearly, what you have to face is the triple-threat combination of a Heavenly King plus two Great God lyricists and composers!

Along the way, Luo Mo still had the mind to communicate about the Semi-finals, asking: "Chen, are there any female singers in the company you want to collaborate with?"

Chen Shanqi immediately said: "Xiao Shen and Jiang Jiang are both fine."

She did not consider anyone else.

This Tao Jie knew very well that Music Director Luo had a very good relationship with these two girl group members.

He can ask for my opinion, but I need to be sensible!

Collaborating with anyone is still a collaboration, why not choose someone close to the Music Director?

What's more, Chen Shanqi already had a good personal relationship with them, and Shen Yinuo was the company's daughter, so her status was different.

Luo Mo nodded and said: "I'll discuss it with them when we go back."

When the van arrived at the Live Broadcast venue, General Director Ke Ming was already waiting at the entrance early on.

Being greeted personally by the General Director was a treatment most people couldn't handle.

But who could say otherwise when, for the explosive popularity of "King of Love Songs", Luo Mo alone deserved at least half the credit?

"How is it? Are you confident in your new song?" Ke Ming asked.

Luo Mo smiled and said: "Not a big problem."

Ke Ming glanced at him, not knowing whether to say that a newborn Ox is not afraid of a tiger, or that young people just have that kind of drive.

But you couldn't even say he didn't know the immensity of heaven and earth, because he had indeed already beaten Heavenly King Zhao three times in a row.

Since it was the show's first Live Broadcast, Ke Ming was also very busy and had a lot of work to do, so he didn't stay with Luo Mo for too long, letting them go walk through the flow themselves, and then they could go to the stage to rehearse a little.

When he finished his work and prepared to go see Luo Mo's rehearsal, he discovered that the rehearsal had already ended.

The three young girls from the production team were hiding in the corner under the stage, wiping away tears the whole time.

"What's going on? Huh? What happened?" Ke Ming was shocked.

The three young girls raised their heads with red-rimmed eyes, shaking their heads repeatedly, their voices choked with sobs: "It's too moving, Luo Mo's song today is just too moving!"

Ke Ming: "???"

This heartless old man was even thinking about whether to arrange for the three little crybabies to be in the audience.

"Crying like this, it's worth three close-up shots!" he thought to himself.

The sky was growing dark; the first live broadcast of the fifth episode of *King of Love Songs* was about to begin.

Penguin Video had already opened the live broadcast channel, and although the official footage had not yet aired, a large number of netizens had already flooded in, watching advertisements while scrolling through the barrage.

"Hello everyone, I'm here to watch the live broadcast's shady dealings and see what kind of dirty tricks Heavenly King Zhao will be subjected to again."

"Music Critic Master, fly freely, the master detectives will follow forever."

"This show is too Evil, I must come and properly criticize it."

"Waiting quietly for Luo Mo's four-kill moment."

"Say, can we give Yuan Hewen some face?"

"Yeah, I'm so nervous!"

With ten minutes left until the show started, the barrage in the live broadcast room was already dense.

The popularity was so high, it was terrifying!

Once the fifth episode officially began and the opening sequence started playing, the popularity soared once again!

After the opening sequence finished airing, the female host appeared and began thanking the gold-master daddies.

Then the scene switched to the backstage area.

The six Singers sat together, about to announce their wagers for the 【King's Power Points】, while the substitute Singer remained mysterious in the lounge.

As the audience watched this segment, the barrage began to fill the screen again.

"Wow! It's time for the tense and exciting point-guessing segment again!"

"Shh! I'll tell everyone a secret, Luo Mo is going to bet 30 points!"

"This Prophet is here, Luo Mo told me in a dream that he's betting 30 points!"

"It's so hard to guess, Luo Mo is so hard to guess!"

"I'm stumped, I've been stumped by Luo Mo!"

The silly netizens began to amuse themselves; originally, everyone wanted to see how this group of Singers would "manage their finances" in this segment, but because Luo Mo bet 30 points every episode, it gave this segment a new point of interest.

Not only did they not feel bored or feel there was no suspense, but they actually wanted to see how the other Singers would deal with this Great Demon King.

Sun Yi and Chen Shanqi had a tacit understanding, both of them only betting 20 points.

They were determined to perform before Luo Mo to warm up the stage for him.

Luo Mo was the creator of all three songs, which would provide a boost.

And if they sang after Luo Mo, the effect of this boost would be slightly worse.

Luo Mo looked at the two of them with slight surprise; he wasn't nervous at all about the competition in the fifth episode, but it was clear that Sun Yi and Chen Shanqi were very nervous for him.

However, when Zhao Xueqin announced his points, the barrage in the live broadcast went instantly wild.

Because this time, Heavenly King Zhao did not bet 35 points like before, but also wrote down 30 points!

"A direct head-on clash! Rare for Heavenly King Zhao, getting tough?"

"Whoa, interesting, interesting, the variety show effect is maxed out!"

"This is clearly intentional to sing right next to each other!"

"Nice, nice, I just love this kind of segment with gunpowder."

Since many people had the same points, they had to draw lots on the spot.

The final result was that Sun Yi went on stage first, followed by Chen Shanqi, and then Heavenly King Zhao and Luo Mo.

Finally, it was that first-tier female Singer and Wei Ge.

Zhao Xueqin didn't care at all about being scheduled before Luo Mo.

He was still very confident in his new song, "Master".

It just so happened that his performance could break up Chen Shanqi and Luo Mo, which could to a certain extent reduce the mutual boost of the three songs.

At the same time, he had brought a folk music band with him this time.

Luo Mo insisted on not singing songs with ancient charm, which would lead to a sense of fragmentation between their two performances.

Sun Yi stood up at this moment and began to walk toward the stage passage.

The audience began to look forward to it one after another; for a theme like 【No Love Involved】, what kind of song would Luo Mo write for Sun Yi?

When the lights on the stage came up, Sun Yi was seen still wearing a suit, only there was an extra... clown mask on his face!

This made many audience members involuntarily recall the short story Luo Mo told during that episode of *Walking and Singing*.

"【There is a man who goes to see a doctor, saying he has depression, life is so mean and harsh, he is lonely and desperate.】"

"【The doctor says: The most famous clown is in town, go find him, he can make you happy.】"

"【"But doctor," the man suddenly cries: "I am that clown!"】"

The core of Comedy is often Tragedy.

A surprise appearance of a clown!

The audience was already looking forward to it immensely.

"Dream collaboration, it's a dream collaboration again!"

"My interest is piqued all of a sudden!"

"Last time I watched the show, I was saddened by this little story."

Wearing a clown mask, Sun Yi held the microphone on the stand with one hand, and the song title began to appear on the large screen.

——"King of Comedy".

(PS: Second update, requesting monthly votes.)

(End of this chapter)