Chapter 288: The Only New Song

"Go shine, instead of being illuminated?" Jiang Ningxi watched the program, ruminating on this sentence.

"Judging by this parting advice from his boss, this Singer's career path probably hasn't been very smooth," she said.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"And from these words, we can tell that the company he is in likely has many true Superstar-level Singers," Jiang Ningxi put her mind to work, continuing to guess.

In the past, this person was a peripheral figure, an existence illuminated by the stars.

Now, he has boarded this new program, and his boss hopes he can radiate a light of his own!

Shen Yinuo looked at 【Superstar】 and said, "But, doing this is the same as exposing himself! Everyone was still guessing that he was a big name, and now that this has happened, the sense of anticipation has directly dropped."

"Yeah!" Han Ziyi shifted her long, silk-stockinged legs and said, "At first, I thought he was the trump card of the first episode. Now, there's a huge sense of disappointment."

Luo Mo just sat to the side and smiled, saying nothing.

Instead, Dong Dong said, "Huh? Am I the only one who thinks his boss is actually quite warm-hearted? This parting advice feels like he still has high hopes for him."

After she finished speaking, Luo Mo nodded deeply toward her and thought to himself, "If you know how to praise, then praise a few more times."

Jiang Ningxi picked up the thread of conversation, saying, "Indeed, 'Masked Singer' is equivalent to an S-tier variety show. This 【Superstar】 must be a frustrated Singer, and his boss being willing to give him such a good opportunity to compete must mean he has high hopes for him."

At this moment, in the program, the young lady in charge of the Backstage Interview asked, "Then, 【Superstar】, can you reveal a little bit of personal information about your boss?"

【Superstar】 immediately shook his head and said, "No, these things must be kept confidential."

As soon as this sentence came out, the "detectives" in the live comments section all mobilized together.

"Could it be some big company? Is it one of the four major companies?"

"Not sure, they can't even say the company name; it's mysterious enough."

"Sigh, still a bit disappointed. I thought it was some real Superstar who has been famous for years; didn't expect it to be a fake."

"No wonder the mask on his head is dim and lusterless, just like a fallen star."

"Am I the only one looking forward to him? Variety show tropes use 'suppression before elevation,' don't you understand?"

All the Backstage Interview footage for the Singers ended at this moment.

It must be said that this brand-new masked format had a lot of gimmicks in the early stages, raising the audience's expectations and creating a lot of suspense.

According to the program's competition format, six masked Singers would take the stage to perform in each episode.

In the first few episodes, one person would be subject to Elimination and one person would be held in reserve in each episode.

The other four would advance directly.

The reserved Singer would then face the challenge of the incoming challenger in the next episode, and it would depend on the two people's votes.

Whoever had fewer votes would be subject to Elimination.

And the person subject to Elimination in each episode would reveal their face on the spot, showing their true appearance to everyone.

The remaining Singers in the safe zone would not need to reveal their faces.

In each episode, there would be 500 audience members, 40 professional judges, and 4 celebrity guests on site.

The professional judges directly continued the lineup from "King of Love Songs," with 70% of the people inside being the same, and only 30% having been replaced.

For instance, the composer Lv Yi, who was relatively familiar with Luo Mo, also came to the recording site of "Masked Singer."

As for the four celebrity guests, they were not fixed and might be replaced.

The 500 audience members could each cast 1 vote per performance.

The professional judges could cast 0-10 votes.

The four celebrity guests could cast 0-25 votes.

The maximum score was 1000 votes.

Nowadays, many variety shows like to put more power into the hands of the audience, weakening the weight of the guests and judges.

The four celebrity guests combined only had a maximum of 100 votes, accounting for only one-tenth.

This could make things appear fairer on the surface, and at the same time, the guests would have less pressure, saving them from always having to be the scapegoats.

These days, many celebrities don't like participating in variety shows with a lot of behind-the-scenes manipulation. It was clearly the director's team that ordered the low scores, but the ones suffering the bombardment were the guests.

This is equivalent to trading personal reputation for money; it truly is—painful yet happy.

20 minutes had already passed in the first episode, and the program finally entered the main topic.

The first masked Singer was about to take the stage.

As for the four celebrity guests in the first episode, Luo Mo didn't recognize a single one in reality.

The first Singer to take the stage went by the code name 【Orchid Grass】 and was a male Singer wearing a formal suit.

He sang a love song called "Sun."

His vocal range was of the more magnetic kind, and at the same time, his use of breathy vocals while singing was also very distinctive.

"A bit like Zhao Xueqin," Luo Mo said with a smile.

"Yes, yes, yes! I was also thinking he sounds a lot like someone, but I couldn't think of it for a moment," Xiao Shen immediately chimed in.

"But he isn't Heavenly King Zhao; he's imitating him on purpose," Luo Mo said confidently.

An old defeated opponent; he was very familiar with him, and could tell as soon as he heard it.

Once the song ended and everyone finished voting, sure enough, a professional judge started guessing: "Could it be... Heavenly King Zhao Xueqin who has come to the program site!?"

Programs like this actually quite like to "touch porcelain" (name-drop for clout).

Sometimes, the people mentioned by the judges and guests feel fake to the audience, who think such people would never come to this program.

Of course, the judging panel definitely wouldn't be without that kind of old General on the stage, covered in flags, who would say with absolute certainty: "If he isn't Heavenly King Zhao, I will withdraw from the recording of our program!"

In reality, one could tell as soon as they heard this person that this Singer was an expert, likely able to last several rounds, and might even make it to the finals.

By the time he reveals his face and the program is over, withdrawing is just withdrawing!

But the audience finds it very exciting and thinks it's very interesting.

Many people in the live comments section also followed suit by setting flags, which was nothing more than trying to trick people into giving them food and drink, or using it to satisfy their own quirks.

Truth be told, Zhao Xueqin probably won't participate in Ke Ming's variety shows for the rest of his life; he's already been scared off, so how could he possibly come to *Masked Singer*?

It's not like he can just settle for second best and come to win the 【Singer】 honor if he didn't get the 【King of Love Songs】 honor.

The first masked singer, 【Orchid Grass】, received a total of 729 votes.

It's just that since they were the first to take the stage, the audience didn't know if this vote count was considered high or low.

The second singer to take the stage, codenamed 【Rose Girl】, had a crisp and melodious voice, but her singing style was a bit 【Niche】, and she ultimately sang a jazz-leaning love song.

Her vote count wasn't high, only 633 votes.

With two singers finished, the audience had a rough idea of the scoring criteria for this show.

One singer after another took the stage, yet the 【Superstar】 was slow to appear.

Everyone looked at the performance order and realized: "They are taking the stage in the order of the pre-recorded interviews shown earlier."

"The 【Superstar】's 【Motto】 was the last one mentioned, so he is the last one to perform."

The performance order for this show in the first episode was entirely up to the dog director Ke Ming alone.

The singers on *King of Love Songs* all have very high standards; if this show were any worse, he could order them around to his heart's content.

Finally, 5 singers had finished performing.

Luo Mo looked at the six girls from Aurora Girls and found that they were all watching with great interest, occasionally making a few snide remarks.

Watching this show is indeed suitable for everyone to watch together; this way, one can freely roast the guests and professional judges, doubling the fun.

At this moment, the camera focused on the stage tunnel.

The 【Superstar】 was already waiting in the tunnel.

The camera aimed downward at his right hand holding the microphone, discovering that his palm was gripping the microphone with slight force, making it feel like he was incredibly nervous.

"Are you very nervous?" asked a female staff member of the production team who was helping him tidy his clothes on the side.

The 【Superstar】 nodded.

Han Ziyi watched this scene and speculated: "Could it be that this person hasn't been on stage to sing for a long time? What do you all think of my guess?"

Judging by his level of nervousness, that should be correct.

The girls nodded, each of them sitting cross-legged with their long white legs crossed, their bodies leaning slightly forward, very curious about his solo stage.

Luo Mo looked at Li Junyi and also felt that this kid hadn't had it easy over the past six months.

In these six months, he indeed hadn't stepped onto a large-scale singing stage even once.

Tong Shu, who started at the same time, had already shown off his singing skills and vocal range on major variety shows, even went to the 【Semi-finals】 of *King of Love Songs*, and won the 【Best Newcomer Award】.

As for him, he had spent these six months following behind Tong Shu to participate in variety shows, acting as a peripheral character, being the scapegoat on the shows, and doing dirty and tiring work, yet he never had the opportunity to showcase his talents or sing.

You have to know, a big reason why Luo Mo took Li Junyi into his team back in *Creating Idols* was that he possessed a devotion to the stage.

He was incredibly hardworking and also incredibly eager!

The strangest thing was that, under such nervous circumstances, after taking a deep breath, this 【Superstar】 suddenly raised his arm, reached behind him, and forcefully slapped his own back.

After slapping it a few times, he seemed to not be nervous anymore.

"Huh? There's such a strange method?" Han Ziyi stared in astonishment.

Instead, Jiang Ningxi suddenly took a deep look at Luo Mo.

She remembered very clearly that in *Creating Idols*, Instructor Luo always loved to use his hand to slap his teammates' backs.

Rather than saying it was to relieve nervousness, it was more like "force produces miracles"—directly slapping someone silly so they instantly blanked out, and then they weren't nervous anymore.

The stage tunnel opened at this moment, and the 【Superstar】 holding the microphone began to take the stage.

After he stood in the center of the stage, the song title and a few lines of large text appeared on the big screen.

"【Lyricist: Earth.】"

"【Composer: Earth.】"

"【Arranger: Earth.】"

Looking at these lines, the long-legged girls were all stunned.

What kind of name is this? It looks weird.

Most importantly, they keenly discovered that the arrangements for the previous few songs were all handled by the 【Music Director】 of the *Masked Singer* show, and they were all new arrangements of old songs.

Only for this song was the arranger not him.

Moreover, the title of this song didn't bring a sense of familiarity to anyone.

This meant that this was either an unpopular, obscure song.

Or...

—It was a new song!

(PS: Second update, requesting monthly tickets!)

(End of this chapter)