Chapter 290: Who on Earth is He!?

As the song ended, enthusiastic applause erupted throughout the venue.

This song sang of many "people," bringing a strong sense of resonance to many in the audience.

At this moment, as everyone looked at the mask on the face of the 【Superstar】, they felt not that the mask hindered his performance, but rather that it added to the stage effect.

The host, Li Guang, stepped onto the stage at this moment and stood beside the 【Superstar】.

"Hello, 【Superstar】." He greeted the masked singer.

Then, he turned to the audience and said, "A very pleasant new song; even I on stage felt deeply moved while listening."

"Now, let us first cast our votes, and after the voting is complete, we will proceed to the critique and identity-guessing segment," Li Guang said.

Everyone in the venue took out their voting devices and began to vote for this new song.

"3, 2, 1! Voting channel closed." Li Guang held the microphone and looked at the short masked singer beside him.

"Four guests and forty professional judges, do you have any comments regarding the song 'A Person Like Me' that we just heard?" Li Guang asked.

Lv Yi was always the most impatient one; he picked up the microphone and said, "I just discussed it with Momo for a few moments. She feels this is a very heart-wrenching song, but I think the opposite—I feel it is a very warm song."

"Oh?" On the guest stage, a second-tier female singer turned her head to look at the judges' bench and said, "Teacher Lv Yi, I feel this song is quite depressing and heart-wrenching. Why do you feel it is very warm?"

Lv Yi said, "Then let me ask you a question: do you feel that the 【Superstar】's vocal timbre and singing style follow a depressing and sensationalist route?"

Everyone recalled for a moment and shook their heads one after another.

Indeed, looking at the singing style, it actually sounded quite warm, with a feeling of telling a story in a gentle, flowing manner.

Lv Yi continued, "In this world, in this society, many people feel that living is very tiring and very hard."

"Many people have already exhausted all their strength just to play the role of an ordinary person well."

"Society today can be described as crazily involutionary."

"Amidst all the voices competing over who climbs higher, who is more capable, and who is more of an Ox, he sits down and tells everyone: actually, we are just such ordinary people."

"We are arrogant, cowardly, and mediocre..."

"I feel this is a power of self-reconciliation and self-peace."

"A little self-pity, yet fully accepting."

After finishing, Lv Yi also asked, "【Superstar】, is this the meaning of the song?"

The 【Superstar】 holding the microphone was slightly stunned.

He had not expected to be asked directly.

Li Junyi was a person not good with words; he did not know how to express himself.

Even if he might have had an understanding of the song in his heart, he was already a bit nervous on stage and suddenly did not know how to speak.

Luo Mo had indeed spoken to him about his own understanding of this song.

The song is titled "A Person Like Me," but it actually sings for everyone.

Because even the greatest person has a small, ordinary side.

So he hoped that when Li Junyi sang this song, he would not be overly self-pitying, but rather have more warmth, more peace, and more Gentleness.

The 【Superstar】 seemed to recall something and began to speak: "The lyricist and composer of this song... uh, that is, Teacher 【Earth】, told me a story when he gave me this song so that it would be easier for me to get into the emotion."

"I don't know how to express it myself, so why don't I share this little story with everyone."

"Oh?" Li Guang stood to the side and said, "I didn't expect there to be a story to hear."

He smiled and said, "Tell us quickly; I think the audience is also impatient to hear it."

The 【Superstar】 held the microphone, his voice still unhurried, and narrated: "A man-eating beast appeared in the city; it ran and hunted people all along the way."

"Corpses lay across the fields along the rivers."

"Finally, a deity descended to earth, subdued the beast, and asked it: 'Having eaten so many people, what do you feel?'"

"The beast smacked its lips, as if savoring the taste, and then said: 'All living beings suffer.'"

The story ended.

For a moment, many people at the scene were stunned.

This story came to an abrupt end—how short and punchy it was!

It's just... why does this short and pithy feeling feel so familiar?

In the bullet comments, the audience expressed their thoughts.

"A bit interesting!"

"Depressed, I'm depressed!"

"It's not even ten o'clock yet, is it my time already?"

Lv Yi, however, nodded deeply after hearing the story and said, "Very clearly, I have felt the thoughts of this creator named 【Earth】!"

Everyone: "???"

You just suddenly got on the same wavelength like that?

Several judges commented a bit more; most were praising the song's lyrics and the whistling in the interlude.

An Arranger could not help but ask, "【Superstar】, I would like to ask, how did you think of whistling during the interlude?"

The 【Superstar】 wanted to scratch his head, but when he raised his hand to do so, he realized he could only scratch the mask, so he sheepishly lowered his hand and said, "It wasn't my idea; Teacher 【Earth】 told me that adding a bit of whistling might make the effect better."

"【Earth】! It's this 【Earth】 again!" everyone thought to themselves.

They had thought it was the singer's improvisation, but it turned out to be the creator's meticulous arrangement.

Lv Yi frowned and said, "This creator named 【Earth】 is truly capable of bringing 【Surprise】 to everyone. It's just strange; I've been in the music industry for so many years, but I don't recall such a person."

"【Superstar】, you are close to him; can you tell us what other works he has?" Lv Yi asked.

Li Junyi really wanted to tell him that there were too many works.

Things like "East Wind Breaks," which pioneered the Chinese Style; "Nocturne," which combined classical music with Rap; or "Blue and White Porcelain," which crushed the competition at the Spring Festival Gala... but how could he tell you these things!

Li Junyi shook his head and said, "This 'A Person Like Me' is 【Earth】's first work."

He said in his heart: "I didn't lie; this is the first work under the identity of 'Earth', I didn't say it was Brother Mo's first work."

"Is that so? Then that really is a very talented Newcomer!" As a senior, Lv Yi began to praise him lavishly.

I like this song very much, I like it a lot!

The last time I felt this much of a connection was on "King of Love Songs".

The song review segment ends here, and Li Guang said: "Then let us see, what is the vote count for 'Superstar' in the first episode of 'Masked Singer'..."

He turned his head to look at the big screen, and the score was immediately displayed on it.

"Eight hundred and ninety-three points!" Li Guang said loudly.

"Let us congratulate 'Superstar'! You have obtained the highest score of the entire show for the first episode!" Li Guang announced loudly.

The entire venue immediately erupted in warm applause; undoubtedly, this song, "A Person Like Me", was quite well-liked by the audience.

In the bullet comments, netizens turned on their repeater mode again: "Deserved!"

"Deserved!"

Li Junyi bowed slightly to everyone, as if this score also made him feel flattered.

The cheers of the crowd even gave him a slight sense of trance and dizziness.

He hadn't stepped onto a stage in a long time, and hadn't heard the cheers of so many people in a long time either.

Even in "Creating Idols", most of the cheers were for Brother Mo.

Strictly speaking, this was his first time stepping onto a stage alone and receiving recognition from the Masses.

After the score was announced, it did not directly let 'Superstar' leave the stage.

Because after everyone finished their reviews, they still had to start guessing the identity.

"Then I would like to ask, can anyone confidently state the identity of 'Superstar'?" Li Guang looked toward the guest seats and the judge's bench.

For a moment, it was a bit quiet.

This kind of quietness was actually quite awkward.

Because if you were a Singer who had been famous for many years and possessed a highly distinct personal style, by now, many people would surely have recognized you and started excitedly standing up one by one to point out your identity.

Yet, although the vocal timbre of 'Superstar' was clearly very distinctive, everyone was completely blank and couldn't recall anything at all.

The change in Li Junyi was too great compared to before; even his fans couldn't tell at all that it was him Singing.

In the end, it was Lv Yi who broke the silence; after a light cough, he said: "Doesn't the production team have a rule that one can ask the masked Singer two questions?"

"Of course, if you would like to ask," Li Guang said.

This kind of interactive segment is actually also for creating suspense.

Through a question-and-answer format, one can uncover the true identity of the Singer.

After thinking for a moment, Lv Yi said: "My first question is... have the songs you have sung ever reached number one on any music platform's charts?"

Li Junyi was stunned for a moment and said: "Uh, I suppose... I guess so."

He answered with some hesitation, because in "Creating Idols", the songs he sang alongside Luo Mo had all topped the charts.

In the live versions of those songs, he could be considered one of the performers, so strictly speaking, he had also topped the charts, it was just that the credit didn't belong to him.

As soon as these words were spoken, many people revealed expressions of surprise.

"To have topped the charts, then he is definitely not a Nobody!"

"Could it be that everyone guessed wrong earlier, and this person called 'Superstar' is really some big celebrity in disguise?"

"Someone who can sing a song like this is definitely not an ordinary Singer!"

Lv Yi nodded and did not continue to ask questions.

Hearing that this person's answer wasn't very certain, he guessed: "Could it be a Singer from some group who has now gone solo?"

At the celebrity guest table, that second-tier female singer who was too lazy to come up with a name said: "I'll ask the second question."

"Is your age over 30... no, is it over 35?" she asked.

She had originally wanted to ask 30, but after thinking about it, a woman's intuition told her that this person's age should be between 30 and 35.

'Superstar' shook his head and said: "No."

Once these words were spoken, everyone was still confused.

"Ah! Not old."

"Hard to guess, still no clue at all."

"He must be a master, he 100% disguised his vocal timbre and deliberately changed his Singing style!"

Seeing that everyone couldn't guess, and that no one was even making wild guesses or shouting out a bunch of random Singer names, Li Guang could only say: "It's okay, 'Superstar' has successfully advanced with the first-place result for this episode; we will have another chance to guess next episode! We can keep trying!"

He made a gesture of encouragement.

At this time, inside Xicheng in Shanghai, Shen Yinuo looked at Luo Mo and said: "Luo Mo, can you guess who he is?"

"I can, I guessed it the moment he opened his mouth," Luo Mo said directly.

"Ah? Who is it, who is it!" In an instant, the six women looked at him in unison.

Luo Mo looked at those six pairs of long white legs and shook his head, saying: "Hey! How could I tell you that?"

Shen Yinuo rolled her eyes, scoffed, and said: "Heh! Showing off!"

She felt that Luo Mo couldn't guess it either and was just teasing everyone.

The identity-guessing segment ended there, and 'Superstar' prepared to leave the stage.

Just as he was preparing to leave, Lv Yi suddenly said: "'Superstar', could you give me a way to contact 'Earth' later?"

He had the intention of befriending this talented Newcomer, and even had the intention of mentoring him.

The current music scene is like Dead Water, with only Luo Mo in his prime.

He felt that a hundred flowers blooming was quite good, and that more opportunities should be given to such talented young people who are just starting to show their potential.

"Uh, I have to ask for his opinion on that," 'Superstar' said.

Lv Yi nodded and asked again, "Then, will there be any more opportunities to hear songs written by him on the show?"

【Superstar】 nodded vigorously and said, "If I can avoid Elimination, there will be one in every episode."

In an instant, the entire audience let out gasps of surprise.

So they still had many collaborative works, not just this one, "Someone Like Me"!

"Looking forward to it!" The barrage began to flood the screen again.

Once 【Superstar】 left the stage, the Singer with the lowest score for this episode had to go on stage to reveal their face, and then be tragically hit by Elimination.

The one eliminated in this round was a female Singer with the code name 【Black Swan】; as soon as she revealed her face, many people were incredibly shocked: "It's actually her!"

"Ah! I haven't seen her for so many years!"

"I really liked her songs back when I was in school! But I couldn't tell at all just now!"

The Big White Legs were also stunned one by one, not expecting that 【Black Swan】 was actually the Singer Zhao Lin.

The women started chattering away.

"Tch! Just a moment ago, someone was swearing up and down that it was Chen Hui!"

"Hilarious, as if you guessed it right yourself!"

"Yo, well I wasn't like some person; that expression, as if they were a master detective, couldn't have been more confident."

The Big White Legs hit each other with throw pillows, one after another, twisting and turning on the sofa.

As for the others fighting, Luo Mo could watch it.

Only when Shen Yinuo was hit by a throw pillow, it was somewhat hard to watch.

Because her chest would bounce.

Luo Mo did not have much interest in the segment of guessing identities; he had not participated at all throughout, and had not guessed a single person.

At this moment, he took out his phone and shamelessly posted on his Moments.

"Masked Singer" had already aired, so the live versions of all the songs in it had also been uploaded to Penguin Music.

He shared "Someone Like Me" directly to his Moments and added the caption:

"This song is written with a bit of flair, huh!"

(PS: Second update, 4000 words, requesting monthly tickets!)

(End of this chapter)