Chapter 74: 《Daughter's Affection》

The fourth public performance officially began recording after the 1,000 live audience members were admitted.

The five celebrity mentors began to enter.

Xu Chujing and the two girl group members were still very pleasing to the eye.

Behind them followed the two men.

After the five mentors took their seats, the first group of trainees prepared to go on stage.

The performance order this time was decided by drawing lots.

Luo Mo's luck was neither good nor bad; the order he drew was the third from last to go on stage.

As for this order, he personally didn't really mind.

After all, once you finish performing, the audience starts voting on the spot; it's not as if the audience only starts reminiscing after everyone's performance has ended.

When Shen Mingliu went to draw lots, he didn't know if he was lucky or unlucky; the order this time was for them to go on stage right after the Anonymous Team finished their performance.

Shen Mingliu was full of confidence regarding his track and stage this time.

Since Luo Mo could make a "Ghost Wedding" a hit, we can certainly make a dark-style fairy tale come up with new tricks.

Today, they were all wearing black suits with sequins, their eyeliner drawn thicker than the next, their faces covered in very white powder, and they even wore lipstick with a hint of black.

Whether the female audience thought it was handsome or not, Luo Mo didn't know; in any case, it wasn't within his personal aesthetic range, and he always felt it was a bit non-mainstream.

From the attire of Shen Mingliu and Ji Kangdong, Luo Mo could roughly guess their stage style.

Regarding this, he didn't really mind, and he wasn't panicked inside.

In fact, having competed until now, he couldn't be bothered to target these "little brother" level people.

If he really wanted to target them, he could just come out with "The Seventh Chapter of the Night" by Zhou Dong, and they wouldn't even be able to play anymore.

He would just rub them into the ground.

This time, Luo Mo had decided on the Anonymous Team's performance track long ago.

The assessment theme this time was 【Book】, and when Tong Shu mentioned the Four Great Classical Novels, Luo Mo finally set his sights on Journey to the West.

Journey to the West in this space-time had its first television adaptation filmed in '92, which then became a classic that remains unsurpassed to this day.

It was also filmed later in '03, which simply couldn't be mentioned in the same breath as that '92 version.

To this day, TV dramas, movies, and anime with the "Journey to the West" theme... these are still emerging one after another, just like on Earth.

But Luo Mo personally believes that the '92 version of Journey to the West, which is regarded as a classic in this space-time, is not as good as the version filmed by director Yang Jie on Earth.

Many people might not know that the most classic version of Journey to the West filmed by director Yang Jie actually contains some content that does not align with the original work.

Many plot points that do not match the original work are still controversial to this day; some say they are good, others curse them as bad.

But there was one plot innovation that captured a different flavor, and even now, when people talk about it, it is basically met with universal praise.

Luo Mo is still the daring Luo Mo; he doesn't want to play with old things.

On the stage of Creating Idols, he is going to come up with some new tricks again.

"Since the theme this time is 【Book】, why not let everyone experience... a different Journey to the West!" Luo Mo thought to himself.

………

………

As group after group went on stage, the five celebrity mentors and director Ning Dan backstage were not particularly satisfied.

The assessment theme this time was also a bit difficult, and the trainees' performances were not too good.

Basically, no one chose original work, and those who did were a bit lackluster.

Many people, upon hearing the theme was 【Book】, would think about leaning towards an ancient style.

Especially with Luo Mo's excellent example before them, many people always feel that ancient style is the password to traffic, and as long as they lean in this direction, they can gain fans.

They are young, and very naive.

Many half-baked performances made Xu Chujing and Wei Ran frown frequently, while Jiang Ningxi, the female top student, was suppressing her desire to lecture them.

"What kind of nonsensical lyrics are these," Jiang Ningxi said in her heart.

Many people think that piling up some obscure vocabulary gives it an ancient flavor; this is actually a relatively low-level technique.

Finally, amidst everyone's anticipation, they made it to Luo Mo's group going on stage.

To increase the live audience's understanding of the songs, the production team would display a line of text on the big screen before each team went on stage to tell the audience what the upcoming song was about and where its relevance to the 【Book】 theme lay.

And before the Anonymous Team went on stage, there were only three words on the screen, yet it caused an uproar throughout the venue.

——Journey to the West!

Wei Ran looked at the screen and couldn't help but smile, saying: "Luo Mo is still as daring as ever."

"Last time for the thematic assessment, Jing gave the topic 【Righteousness】, and he dared to lean towards the grand scale of national righteousness. This time, because it's World Book Day when it airs, the topic is 【Book】, and he dares to play directly with the Four Great Classical Novels!" Wei Ran had already started to look forward to it.

He personally appreciated this attitude of Luo Mo's.

Wei Ran's good buddy Li Ge immediately nodded, starting his "husband sings, husband follows" mode, saying: "Actually, it's not just the film and television industry that lacks innovative content; the music scene lacks it too. With a contestant like Luo Mo, the show we are making is even more meaningful."

Xu Chujing nodded without saying anything, her gaze just looking back at the big screen.

Shen Yinuo, who didn't study well but had developed quite rapidly, suddenly got excited: "Journey to the West, I understand this!"

Most children have watched Journey to the West when they were young.

It is strange to say, but actually, Journey to the West doesn't have that many episodes in total; the number of episodes is pitifully small.

But in many people's impressions, it always feels like this TV drama accompanied their entire childhood; it seems like they were always watching it, watching it constantly.

Jiang Ningxi just looked at the big screen and said: "Look, there are new words."

They saw a new line of black text appear on the big screen.

"【Journey to the West, Chapter 54: The Dharma Nature Comes West to Meet the Women's Kingdom; The Heart-Monkey Sets a Plan to Escape the Flowers.】"

This was equivalent to telling everyone that this song was created revolving around the 54th chapter of Journey to the West.

As soon as this line of text appeared, the live audience immediately let out gasps of surprise.

"Daughter Kingdom, this Drama is the Daughter Kingdom!"

"I didn't expect it, it's actually this plot!"

"It's so unexpected!"

It wasn't just the audience at the scene; even the five star mentors on stage looked at each other in dismay.

Speaking of *Journey to the West*, everyone's first reaction is definitely Brother Monkey.

What pops into one's mind is "Monster, take a blow from Old Sun!"

But, among the Nine-Nine Eighty-One Tribulations, it seems this is the only tribulation where the protagonist is Tang Seng, not the monkey.

Many people, when they were young, probably felt that this plot was the most boring one.

This feeling is like when everyone goes out to play together as children, and you, young and naive, complain to your good brother: "It's so hard for everyone to finally get out to play, and you even called a girl out, making it so no one can have fun, it's really boring!"

But after growing up, the mindset changes, becoming: "It's so hard for everyone to finally get out to play, and you just had to call a girl out, making it so no one can have fun, it's really boring!"

Only after experiencing the feelings between men and women do many people understand just how hard it is to pass the so-called trial of love.

When young, one always felt this trial was too simple; after growing up, if you look at the appearance of the Queen of the Daughter Kingdom, you will know how high the difficulty coefficient is.

Shen Yinuo had watched the TV version of *Journey to the West* of this world countless times, and she couldn't help but say: "The content of this Drama is just Tang Seng hypocritically deceiving the Queen of the Daughter Kingdom."

Well, according to the original work, that is the content. Tang Seng uses a wave of scumbag tactics to clear the level directly.

"I am quite looking forward to what kind of new ideas he can bring to this Daughter Kingdom Drama," Jiang Ningxi said while looking at the screen.

At this moment, the members of the Anonymous Team arrived on stage one after another.

The whole venue instantly quieted down, and many people's gazes converged on Luo Mo in the Center Position.

The lights on the stage were dim, and everyone couldn't see very clearly.

On the big screen, the image shifted, showing a monkey, a pig, a bearded man, and a bald man riding a horse.

This was sand art.

Luo Mo had used Shadow Puppetry during *Red Actor*, so this time he communicated with the production team and specifically hired someone who could do sand art to create the video in the background to achieve the best effect.

After all, he was someone who had diligently practiced Opera for 19 years, so he had a different kind of affection for these traditional skills, and he was very happy to showcase these elements on stage.

"Dong, dong, dong!" The sound of a wooden fish began to echo throughout the venue.

Immediately after, the audience heard bursts of low murmurs.

They couldn't hear the content clearly, only feeling as if there was a monk, knocking on a wooden fish while chanting scriptures.

The wooden fish was knocked with great rhythm, neither fast nor slow, as if the state of the monk knocking the wooden fish at this very moment was—【Heart Like Still Water】.

"Dong!" Another sound of the wooden fish, somewhat forceful.

The scripture-like murmurs stopped at this moment.

The song's prelude began to play, still using Chinese classical Yueqi.

On the big screen, the sand art continued, converging into the song title.

——*Daughter's Love*.

This song comes from the *Journey to the West* directed by Yang Jie, which is the version by Liu Xiao Ling Tong that everyone is most familiar with.

When filming the content of the Daughter Kingdom, Director Yang Jie made a decision.

To be precise, during the filming process, after she heard Zhu Lin, who played the Queen of the Daughter Kingdom, call out that "Royal Brother" in a state of deep affection, she changed her mind on the spot.

She called the crew to discuss and finally decided to modify the content, not filming it completely according to the original work.

She wanted to film that Tang Seng had been moved!

The final result was that, although it was not explicitly stated in the show, anyone with a discerning eye could see that in this Drama, Tang Seng... had been moved by worldly desires!

This point is completely different from the *Journey to the West* of this world which followed the original work.

The purpose of this *Daughter's Love* and this adapted Drama is very simple.

It is to add a touch of humanity to Tang Seng's Buddhist nature!

The effect to be achieved can be summarized in a sentence made up by netizens:

"【Sun Wukong said: The Daughter Kingdom tribulation was the simplest, yet I almost couldn't save that monk.】"

(End of this chapter)