Chapter 59

After Su Xingyao received the song, the production team gathered all the contestants in the studio.

Once again, some were happy while others were anxious.

This was especially true for Sheng Yan’s group, who had received the “Internet Hit Song.”

When the mentor found out that his group had been assigned the “Internet Hit Song,” he looked like a wilting flower.

Wen Yun, sitting next to him, jokingly comforted him, “Your group is too strong.”

Not only were they strong, but they also had more members.

In the previous PK round, due to Su Xingyao’s group’s outstanding performance, all five members advanced.

These five new contestants had caused Sheng Yan’s group to end up with eight people in total.

This large number gave them a huge advantage compared to the other teams, which had only four, five, or six members.

Not to mention, there was also the musical genius, contestant 78.

As long as they made it through this round, they would smoothly enter the finals.

At this crucial point, many people naturally didn’t want to give the more advantageous songs to Sheng Yan’s group.

Sheng Yan, being someone who had come from a talent show, understood these dynamics very well.

But when it came to his own contestants, knowing the facts didn’t mean he could calmly accept them.

Especially when he found out that contestant 78 had been assigned the song “Fog,” he almost thought he was seeing things.

After repeatedly checking the big screen to verify the song assignments, he felt like he was about to spiral into depression.

It was like adding insult to injury.

The group that was a favorite to win the championship had ended up with this song…

When Su Xingyao’s song was announced, it shocked not only Sheng Yan but also the other contestants.

Everyone’s gaze unconsciously shifted to him.

Some felt sympathy, some were confused, some were just watching, and some were…

Happy.

For example, Wang Zhan from Xu Beizhou’s team, who was second only to Su Xingyao in popularity and attention.

Although the production team had arranged for the contestants’ identities to be revealed only in this episode,

Wang Zhan had already been recognized during the first episode as a trainee from one of the top domestic music companies, DH, that was heavily promoting him.

What the audience didn’t know was that before joining this show, the company had planned for Wang Zhan to use “The Voice of Heaven” as a springboard to debut and win a championship to elevate his profile as a “top-tier” trainee.

So, after Wang Zhan made his appearance, the company quickly arranged for people to “unmask” him and bought a lot of online influencers to boost his popularity.

Wang Zhan also proved to be capable.

In the show, he tried every way possible to showcase his charm and talent.

After the competition, Wang Zhan was even more active in managing his fanbase and securing his followers.

But despite all his efforts, Wang Zhan ultimately realized that his face couldn’t compete with that of a mysterious person who was constantly wearing a mascot costume and maintaining a mysterious persona on every show—contestant 78, whose appearance remained a mystery.

It was bad enough that the other contestant outshone him during the first stage, but what frustrated Wang Zhan the most was that in the last competition, he had struggled through a tiring sing-and-dance performance, only for his program to be completely overshadowed by 78’s acapella performance, which seemed to have no presence at all.

The company had even arranged publicity and marketing for him, but somehow all the attention was still drawn to 78.

Even when they bought trending topics, they couldn’t surpass the other contestant’s momentum.

Later, their team even tried to create a negative narrative about 78 by hiring a lot of online influencers to attack him, but the public’s tolerance for him was surprisingly high.

The difference between first and second place was only one person, but the gap felt as though it were an insurmountable chasm.

To everyone, only the champion at the very top could be seen.

Wang Zhan’s goal had always been to win first place.

So, being overshadowed by this unknown person at every turn was something he couldn’t accept.

But in the previous rounds, no matter what he did, he couldn’t manage to beat 78.

Who could have imagined that, just before the final, fate would suddenly give him a chance to turn things around?

Wang Zhan repeatedly looked at the song assigned to Su Xingyao.

In the end, when the camera wasn’t focused on him, he couldn’t help but smile slightly, a smile that he tried to suppress.

Su Xingyao had been stripped of his voting rights, so he had no idea how this song came about.

Actually, when the contestants voted for the teams, there was also an option to assign songs to the teams.

If there was a tie in votes, the vote would be invalid, and the order of the contestants’ rankings would determine who got to choose.

The highest vote count directly decided the song.

In this competition, Wang Zhan’s company, DH, had sent eight contestants to participate.

After two rounds, only four remained.

Although these four contestants weren’t in the same group, they privately banded together.

Therefore, this time, even though the production team didn’t give the contestants time to discuss and called them individually to vote,

It didn’t affect Wang Zhan’s small group at all.

Their goal had always been clear.

The goal is to send Wang Zhan to the champion’s position and find an opportunity to eliminate 78.

Fortunately, this time they were quite lucky.

Out of the four contestants from their company, Wang Zhan and the contestant ranked fourth in popularity both made it to the top three in the dance game.

He and the other contestants received an extra vote.

As a result, at least six votes were cast for Su Xingyao’s “Mist.”

Similarly, with the help of fellow contestants from the same company, Wang Zhan successfully secured “Beloved,” a pop song that was perfect for his style.

After the recording ended, Wang Zhan got into his manager’s car.

Once the door was closed, the two exchanged smiles.

Wang Zhan sent a red envelope to the other four contestants, then put on his sunglasses and looked out the window.

“This championship is mine for sure!”

“Then I’d better start preparing the announcement for your victory!”

—

While Wang Zhan was already celebrating in advance, as the script was unfolding just as he had hoped, many others were worrying about Su Xingyao.

When Fu Qingyan saw the song choice, he became quite worried about Su Xingyao. As he was leaving, he quietly approached him.

“Cat, are you sure you can sing this song?”

He didn’t know that Su Xingyao could write lyrics and arrange music.

Not wanting to see him eliminated because of an unsuitable song choice, Fu Qingyan took the initiative to offer advice.

“I know a few talented producers abroad. Maybe they can help you tweak the song.”

If it were before, Su Xingyao might have accepted his kind offer.

After all, they were once friends.

But now, he wouldn’t.

He took a step back, politely but distantly thanked him.

“Thank you, Mentor Fu.”

“I still want to try it myself.”

Seeing that Su Xingyao had been assigned such a song, Fu Qingyan thought that Su Xingyao must be feeling upset, and that he might be refusing the help out of pride.

After all, there were only two days…

Adapting a song wasn’t too difficult, but adapting it to fit the competition, the stage, and the audience’s tastes was challenging.

Such a task, which required great musical knowledge, was no simple matter even for a professional team, let alone an ordinary contestant.

Originally, he wanted to persuade him, telling him that the competition was important and not to act impulsively.

But before he could speak further, he saw Xiao Xiong already swaying his way out.

Su Xingyao wasn’t acting out of pride.

Although this song was almost universally regarded as a “death song,”

But as long as the program team didn’t forbid contestants from adapting the song, it wasn’t a difficult task for him.

After returning home, he went straight to the recording studio and spent six hours making a bold and drastic revision of the song.

The reason he was able to adapt the song so smoothly and quickly was largely thanks to Lu Jiuxu’s foresight.

When Lu Jiuxu had been renovating the backyard house, he didn’t know its purpose.

It wasn’t until last week when Lu Jiuxu handed him the key that he discovered Lu Jiuxu had secretly built a professional recording studio there.

The room was fully equipped with all the necessary music-related equipment.

Glancing around at the professional gear in the music room, Su Xingyao felt a deep sense of gratitude.

Back at the Shen family’s house, Shen Huaixi had his own professional recording studio but never bothered to use it.

Meanwhile, he, who loved music, had been repeatedly suppressed by his parents, and even passing by Shen Huaixi’s exclusive recording studio felt like a crime.

But Lu Jiuxu, who had never explicitly stated his support for him, had silently thought of so many things…

Having not written any songs for two years, Su Xingyao wrote freely tonight.

However, after finishing the song, he found himself unable to sleep.

He held the pen he used to write lyrics and made a few marks on a blank sheet of paper.

By the time he realized what he had done, he had drawn a simple sketch of Lu Jiuxu…

Su Xingyao picked up the drawing, and instead of throwing it away like he usually did with his random sketches, he took it back to his bedroom and tucked it behind the small night light photo that Lu Jiuxu had given him.

—

The next day, after Su Xingyao handed the background music to the program team, the staff gave him two backstage passes.

They even kindly explained the use of the tickets to him.

“You can invite someone important to you to the venue, or you can give the tickets to your big fans as a benefit for them.”

Hearing the staff’s suggestion, Su Xingyao focused on the phrase 【invite someone important to you to the venue】.

Because as soon as those words appeared, the first name that came to his mind was Lu Jiuxu.

During the last competition, Lu Jiuxu had asked if he could come to the venue.

But that competition didn’t have any backstage passes.

Now that he had the tickets…

He should fulfill his promise, right?

With that thought in mind, Su Xingyao immediately called Lu Jiuxu.

Recently, Lu Jiuxu had been very busy, so he hadn’t had time to reply to messages.

Thus, whenever Su Xingyao had something to discuss, he just called him directly.

After the call was connected, Su Xingyao thought he would have to wait for a long time.

But to his surprise, the call only rang twice before it was answered.

At the same time, a link appeared on his WeChat.

It was sent to him by Lu Jiuxu at the same time.

Su Xingyao instinctively opened it.

“The most beloved votes go to the most beloved person. ‘The Voice of Heaven’ invites you to support contestant 78~ 【link】”

Su Xingyao clicked on the link and found that Lu Jiuxu had sent him his own voting channel…

The production team of The Voice of Heaven had created a voting channel for each contestant at noon today.

The official statement from the program said that if a contestant’s vote reached one million, the direct recording of the song voted by their fans in the past few days would be unlocked.

But in reality, this voting was just a way to warm up the atmosphere for tomorrow’s competition, and had no real impact on the results.

Yet despite the voting being so useless, the busy Lu Jiuxu still took the time to vote for him immediately.

And to gain an extra voting chance, he even shared it…

Su Xingyao glanced at the sharing link.

Lu Jiuxu had voted for him, and…

He seemed to put some effort into it.

After Su Xingyao connected the call but didn’t speak right away, Lu Jiuxu spoke first.

“Why aren’t you saying anything?”

Su Xingyao quickly exited the link and put the phone to his ear. “I was looking at the link you just sent me…”

The man didn’t feel awkward at all about being caught, instead, he smiled lightly and casually said, “This?”

“Voting for the person I like.”

When the words “the person I like” came through the receiver, Su Xingyao’s ears turned a bit warm.

“Th… thank you…”

After struggling to say those two words, Su Xingyao suddenly forgot the reason he had called in the first place.

Lu Jiuxu, on the other hand, continued chatting leisurely with him. “The direct recording has been unlocked.”

Su Xingyao was a bit surprised. “So fast?”

If he remembered correctly, it had only been a few minutes since the announcement…

The person on the other end responded, “Yeah, there are a lot of people who like you.”

It was such a normal statement, and Su Xingyao understood the meaning behind it.

But for some reason, when he heard it, he felt that something about the tone was a little off.

Not picking up on Lu Jiuxu’s subtle jealousy, Su Xingyao finally remembered the purpose of his call.

“The program team gave me two tickets today…”

He had barely spoken half of his sentence when Lu Zhiyun’s urgent voice suddenly interrupted from the other side.

His voice was so loud that it completely drowned out Su Xingyao’s.

“Lu Tianyan is about to collapse.”

Lu Zhiyun had been trying to reach Lu Jiuxu by phone but the line was busy, so he went straight to his office.

Seeing that he was still smiling while on the phone, Lu Zhiyun quickly realized he had come at an inopportune time. He stopped speaking and gave his brother a frantic look, signaling him to hurry up. “Brother!”

Seeing the expression on his brother’s face, he knew he was talking to his wife!

He didn’t want to be the third wheel…

But…

The situation was far too urgent.

It involved the massive Lu Group, and his brother, as the heir, needed to be cautious, as any misstep could give others a chance to use it against him.

Lu Zhiyun was really anxious!!

Lu Jiuxu nodded to his brother, then stood up, still speaking softly to Su Xingyao.

“Su Cat, what were you going to say just now?”

Su Xingyao knew who Lu Tianyan was and understood the meaning behind Lu Zhiyun’s words.

At this moment, he didn’t want to press on with the invitation, so he immediately changed his words.

“It’s nothing…”

After thinking for a moment, he added, “Are you going out? Be careful on the road.”

“Okay.”

After a gentle reply, Lu Jiuxu walked to the elevator.

Before the doors closed, he told Su Xingyao:

“I’ll be there at the finals to cheer you on.”

Su Xingyao lowered his eyes and gently hung up the phone.

So, Lu Jiuxu knew what he wanted to say after all…

—

Lu Tianyan’s condition didn’t seem optimistic.

The next day, when Su Xingyao left for the competition, Lu Jiuxu still hadn’t returned.

Suppressing the urge to send him a message, he put on the little fox plush costume that Lu Jiuxu had helped him design.

Today’s competition, like the last one, was still broadcast live.

At eight o’clock in the evening, the program team began the live broadcast on time.

However, this competition was different from the usual ones, as this time, ten guest judges were invited.

In addition to participating in the voting, these judges would also provide commentary after each singer finished their performance.

Several of them were regulars on major variety shows, known for their sharp critiques, often reducing contestants to tears.

【Ahhh, why did they invite Liang Li? His tongue is so sharp, I’m afraid he’ll make someone cry tonight.】

【But I actually love watching them tear people apart. Even though they’re harsh, what they say still makes sense.】

【I wonder if tonight, our Mr. Cat can win over these harsh judges.】

【Whether he wins them over or not, I just really want to know what Cat’s identity is!】

【What identity??】

【Didn’t you see the preview today? After the contestants perform tonight, the program team will reveal their identities, regardless of whether they’re eliminated or not.】

【Is it really that exciting!!】

【Does this mean I’ll finally know who Cat is!!】

【Ahhh, this is amazing!! Director Song, you’re my god!!】

【Hurry, hurry! Please Mr. Cat, arrange for me to be the first to perform! I really want to know who he is.】

Once the program announced it would reveal the contestants’ identities, it was like tossing a fish bomb into the water, creating a huge splash.

The thought that the mysterious contestant No. 78 would finally reveal their identity tonight had the audience buzzing with excitement. Everyone rushed to tune into the live broadcast, afraid of missing the first moment.

As soon as the show began, even before the host and sponsors finished their introductions, the number of online viewers had already surpassed ten million.

Although the viewers were eagerly awaiting for their “Mr. Cat” to be the first to appear, things didn’t go as expected.

The first lucky contestant drawn by the judges was from the Wen Yun group.

According to the rules, this contestant needed to choose someone from another team for a PK (battle).

The winner would stay, while the loser would be eliminated immediately.

The first contestant out was naturally very lucky.

They had the widest selection range and could easily choose a contestant that posed less of a threat to them for the PK.

After thinking for a while, this contestant picked a relatively weaker member from Fu Qingyan’s group.

As expected, this contestant advanced smoothly.

Once this competition rule was introduced, the audience realized that contestants with weaker skills or poor song choices were at a high risk of elimination.

And sure enough, the weakest contestant from Sheng Yan’s group, a traditional-style singer, was eliminated first by someone from Fu Qingyan’s group during the fourth round.

Next, a rapper took the stage and, with his strong skills, eliminated a contestant from Xu Beizhou’s group, who was of a similar style.

The intense back-and-forth battles kept the audience on edge.

Silently counting the contestants who had already participated in PKs, and comparing them to the remaining contestants, everyone noticed that the later contestants were becoming increasingly fierce.

This was because among the remaining fourteen contestants, most of them were highly popular and strong in ability!

【Oh my god, this competition system is so exciting.】

【The later you perform, the more terrifying it gets…】

【I can’t even imagine who will face the top three strongest contestants.】

【I’m already starting to feel nervous for the contestants.】

【It’s better to be the one choosing your opponent. The ones being chosen must be shaking in their boots.】

【Right now, I’m just curious… who would dare to face Cat?】

【Probably the unlucky one at the end.】

【You can’t say that, what if it’s Mr. Cat who chooses someone~】

【Then I’d be even more excited.】

Just as the netizens were discussing who Su Xingyao would face, they saw one of the judges from the panel draw a number.

92.

As soon as the number was announced, a gasp went up from the audience.

Because this number corresponded to the contestant ranked second in popularity on The Voice of Heaven.

When Wang Zhan heard the host call his name, his joy was impossible to hide.

Everything was going so smoothly, it felt like the heavens were helping him rise to the top.

The host invited him to the center of the stage and, as usual, asked him who he wanted to face in the PK.

Wang Zhan pointed toward the elimination seats. “My brother Xiaojiu was just eliminated by Mr. Sheng’s team.”

After saying this, he clenched his fist and struck his chest twice.

“So, for this round, I want to pick someone from their team to battle.”

This intense statement added a lot of excitement to the show.

The crowd immediately erupted in cheers.

【Wang Zhan is so handsome!!】

【Sheng Yan’s team still has some strong players left, Wang Zhan is amazing!】

【Hahaha, let’s get this fight going! I love watching this kind of drama.】

Just as the netizens and fans finished cheering for Wang Zhan, they suddenly heard another number being announced.

“So for this round, I want to pick…”

“78.”

As soon as the other person spoke these words, the fans’ smiles immediately froze.

【?????? 78?】

【Are you serious? You’re going straight for the big boss in the PK?】

【This is a life-or-death decision, Wang Zhan, you have high popularity, but don’t act rashly…】

Seeing Wang Zhan on stage, confident and composed, fans who had no idea what he was thinking all sent the same five words at once.

【Wang Zhan, are you crazy!!!!】