Chapter 198: A Single Line Is Enough

The King of Love Songs semi-finals concluded amidst cheers and applause.

The live broadcast ended, and the audience began to leave in an orderly fashion.

Xu Chujing did not linger, merely exchanging pleasantries with everyone before saying to Luo Mo, "I am heading back to Shanghai first."

Luo Mo nodded at her and said, "Let's stay in touch after you get back."

Luo Mo was not entirely sure when Heavenly King Zhao and Heavenly Queen Xu had left, but it was clear that when the two stood together, the atmosphere was incredibly heavy and awkward.

Xu Lianying was absolutely furious inside; she never imagined that she had come only to make a fool of herself.

This resulted in her assistant not daring to speak after she got into the car, for fear of provoking her anger.

She took out her phone directly, dialed her manager's number, and began to vent her emotions.

After returning to the company, this Heavenly Queen would surely pour her anger onto the various teams.

In her view, the company had truly shot itself in the foot this time.

This guest appearance had merely proven to the world once again the gap between herself and Xu Chujing!

She hadn't gained a single benefit, but instead, the reputations of Luo Mo and Xu Chujing had soared to the heavens.

Besides being furious, Xu Lianying also felt deeply aggrieved.

"You, Yuan Hewen, want to prove yourself—what does that have to do with me?"

"President Chen wants to obtain some resource exchanges from Pineapple—what does that have to do with me?"

Whether it was Yuan Hewen or President Chen of Magnetic Dragon, they were both considered big shots behind the scenes.

Yet she, Xu Lianying, was the one who had to stand in the spotlight.

She was the one who looked the most foolish!

……..

……..

On the other side, Heavenly King Zhao also sat in his van.

After getting in, he looked completely dejected; when the driver asked him where to go, he seemed not to have heard at all.

This was the biggest hurdle he had faced since his debut.

The main thing was that there were simply too many memes about him.

Those memes created by netizens would follow him for the rest of his life.

The damage to his reputation and prestige would be continuous.

Under these circumstances, it would also indirectly affect his commercial value and impact his long-term earnings.

Zhao Xueqin took out his phone and opened his contacts, but hesitated for a long time before dialing Huang Xishan's number.

He would not call Wang Shisong now.

President Wang's frustration and rage were no less than his own.

He had only lost a competition because his skills were inferior, but Wang Shisong had acted like a fool this time and would likely become the laughingstock of the industry.

He had spent so much effort inviting Xu Chujing, only to end up inviting her to Luo Mo's side; it was too ridiculous.

After taking a deep breath, Zhao Xueqin pressed the call button: "Hello, Teacher."

Huang Xishan's voice sounded over the phone, but his tone was extremely calm.

"I watched the live broadcast; actually, the loss wasn't unjust."

Zhao Xueqin opened his mouth but didn't know what to say.

After a long while, Huang Xishan's voice came through the phone: "I am preparing to move up my retirement plan again; tomorrow, I will hold a press conference to announce my withdrawal from the music scene."

"What!?" Upon hearing this, Zhao Xueqin was struck as if by lightning and said, "But... Teacher!"

He wanted to say that the competition wasn't even over yet.

But he knew very well that Huang Xishan had been a sacrificial pawn this time, abandoned by everyone.

Huang Xishan laughed and said, "Honestly, I'm actually a bit grateful to Yuan Hewen now; he made me see things clearly all at once, and I felt instantly enlightened."

If only he had lost in terms of songwriting, there would be all sorts of messy rumors and gossip outside, all kinds of mockery and sarcasm, in every version imaginable.

But when Yuan Hewen also lost, it was equivalent to telling everyone that we were simply inferior in skill.

It wasn't that I, Huang Xishan, was too weak, but that Luo Mo was too strong.

He and Yuan Hewen had fought for over a decade, both wanting to suppress the other, yet they had always remained at roughly the same level.

Now, everyone had become a loser to Luo Mo; heh heh, still on the same level.

—Thanks to my old rival for providing the step!

Huang Xishan felt relieved now.

He recalled that he, too, had climbed to the top by stepping on the shoulders of many seniors back in the day, killing the competition as soon as he appeared.

Now, it was his turn to be a stepping stone for the younger generation.

"Can't help but admit I'm getting old," he said with a chuckle.

At the end of the call, he, the one who had become a sacrificial pawn, instead turned to comfort Zhao Xueqin, saying, "In our time as teacher and student, I will say a few heartfelt words to you before I retire."

"I advise you to keep a steady mindset and not care too much about winning or losing."

"Have you thought about it? Luo Mo's momentum today is even fiercer than Xu Chujing's was back then."

"And Xu Chujing is now a figure standing at the pinnacle of female singers."

"If Luo Mo continues to maintain this, he will very likely become an epoch-making Superstar in the music scene."

"In the martial arts world, everyone eventually loses to the world's number one, don't they?"

Zhao Xueqin fell into a long silence.

In Shencheng, Huang Xishan stood up, his expression relaxed, and he even began to plan his future retirement life.

This old man who loved drinking tea had not tasted good tea for a long time.

Now, his appetite was whetted.

Huang Xishan hummed to himself: "Better to Drink Tea."

……..

……..

On the way back to Shanghai, Luo Mo was in the same car as Run Jie.

He wanted to chat with Run Jie about the acquisition of the property in Xicheng to see if she had any intention of selling.

As it turned out, as soon as Ning Dan heard this, she smiled and agreed, saying: "I bought this apartment just waiting for it to appreciate. Housing prices have risen quite a bit over these years. If you want to buy it, just take it."

Well, that settled it; originally Luo Mo was just staying temporarily downstairs from her, but now it was equivalent to him living long-term downstairs from her home.

After the car drove back to Shanghai, Ning Dan saw that Luo Mo was also somewhat exhausted, so she didn't invite him over for a small drink.

After Luo Mo returned home, he washed up and chatted with Xu Chujing on WeChat for a bit.

"Jing, the movie theme song and trailer are being released tomorrow. Is there anything you need me to cooperate with for the promotion?"

"A simple promotion on Weibo or something similar will be fine," Xu Chujing replied.

"Alrighty," Luo Mo smiled and agreed.

As a Top Traffic, his promotional fees were actually very high.

But between a man and a woman, sometimes it's only interesting if you owe me a little and I owe you a little, isn't it?

Just like after finishing a meal, you have to say "I'll treat next time," and then you can naturally arrange the next meeting.

The night gradually deepened, yet the internet remained extremely lively.

The King of Love Songs semi-finals dominated the Hot Search list; every time you opened a major platform, it was full of news about The King of Love Songs.

Even if Pineapple and Magnetic Dragon wanted to suppress it, they couldn't suppress it at all.

Wang Shisong had another big argument with his own brother, Wang Shibai.

He hadn't notified Wang Shisong about Huang Xishan's early retirement, but had informed Wang Shibai instead; it was evident that having been treated as a discarded pawn, he had developed a grudge and used this to express his dissatisfaction.

As for Luo Mo and Xu Chujing's side, the internet began to crazily breed CP fans.

They came up with many names for the two, such as: 【Mo Jing CP】, 【Jing Mo CP】, 【Mo Xu CP】, etc.

Finally, everyone felt that the two characters "Mo Xu" sounded like "Tacit Consent," and since it had the highest level of sweetness, they designated it as the official name.

As a result, a scene that made everyone's jaws drop occurred.

The two characters 【Mo Xu】 topped the Hot Search list that very night, even higher than "Lovers Under Heaven"!

The most critical part was that when the two characters Mo Xu were combined with "Lovers Under Heaven," it inexplicably gave people the feeling of being fed sugar.

Many netizens fell asleep with auntie-like smiles.

Everyone began waiting for the full version of "A Carefree Life."

"I didn't expect that Luo Mo had already written a movie theme song for Jing."

"They actually had so much in-depth cooperation behind our backs!"

"It's real! The Mo Xu CP is definitely real!"

"That year, she was the top diva of the entertainment industry and the newly crowned Best Actress of film and television dramas, while he was just a trainee temporarily filling in on her show... Sorry, I can't control my hands, I'm already typing on my keyboard to write a story."

Amidst the clamor of the silly netizens, the night passed just like that.

The next day, at eight o'clock in the morning, the full version of "A Carefree Life" was uploaded to all major platforms.

Borrowing the heat from The King of Love Songs, as well as Xu Chujing's own powerful popularity, this song exploded in popularity instantly.

And the lyricist and composer of this song, Luo Mo, also became a god in the field of 【Jianghu Spirit】.

"Wow! Every song of this genre by Luo Mo feels so good!"

"I hope the crews of major martial arts dramas are sensible; I don't need to say who they should invite for songs, right?"

"It's a pity that martial arts dramas have fallen; the current dramas simply aren't worthy of these songs by Luo Mo!"

"Jing's unique voice paired with Luo Mo's lyrics and music is absolutely perfect!"

"Kill! Kill them all on the charts!"

The final result of this was that the new song written by Yuan Hewen for Zhao Xueqin and Xu Lianying not only failed to defeat "Lovers Under Heaven" on the charts, but was also overtaken by "A Carefree Life," which was released a day later.

Judging from the current trend, as long as there is enough time, the subsequent "Little One" and "Cool" might all blow this "Love Song" out of the water!

A new meme appeared just like that:

"Yuan Hewen: Luo Mo stood on my shoulders to pioneer Chinese Style."

"The Masses: Luo Mo is riding on Yuan Hewen's head to pioneer Chinese Style."

Luo Mo released four songs in one go; if you couldn't beat even one of them in the end, that would be too embarrassing.

When the afternoon arrived and Huang Xishan's press conference was held, the netizens were once again plunged into long-lasting shock.

Only this time, because Yuan Hewen was there to attract fire, and Huang Xishan showed enough grace, everyone didn't mock or ridicule him.

There were even many netizens calling for him to write one or two songs occasionally, just for fun.

When you retreat at the peak of your success, people actually become a bit reluctant to let you go.

It wasn't until eight o'clock in the evening that everyone thought the excitement of the whole day should be over, right?

As it turned out, the "Cat Demon" crew uploaded the first movie trailer.

The entire trailer was very short, only 30 seconds.

A large number of netizens flooded in to get a sneak peek.

At the very beginning of the movie, there was a scene in a bamboo forest.

Then, Xu Chujing's voice came through: "Demons are not tolerated by the world."

"Half-demons are even more despised by the demon race."

The scene shifted, and the camera began to focus on the bamboo leaves drifting down.

Then, a sharp arrow flew out, grazing past the bamboo leaves.

The sound of footsteps approached, and the sound of a rain of arrows spread out.

Immediately after, everyone saw a figure dressed in white drifting through the bamboo forest.

The face could not be seen clearly, only a dashing Back Shadow carrying a sword.

"Huh, that's kind of cool!"

"This shot is filmed well; it has a lot of atmosphere and feeling."

"Sigh, in many costume dramas nowadays, only the back is worth looking at; the cooler the Back Shadow is filmed, the more disappointed you'll be when the face is finally revealed."

"Yeah, it's better not to get your hopes up too high."

The scene switched instantly at this moment, followed by several grand, big-budget scenes from the movie, and the figure of the white-clad swordsman did not appear again.

Amidst the dense sound of drums, the screen turned dark, and lines of large text stepped to the beat of the drums, as if they were being smashed into the frame.

"【Starring: Xu Chujing.】"

"【Director: Guan Fei.】"

"【Screenwriter: Zhao Dongting.】"

"【Producer...】"

Just when the audience felt there was nothing left to see and were about to click the 'X', a line of large text suddenly appeared.

The drumming continued, but this time it felt as if it were striking forcefully against the hearts of the audience.

Countless people were plunged into shock and excitement.

——【Special Appearance: Luo Mo】!

(PS: Second update, requesting monthly tickets.)

(End of this chapter)