Chapter 55

Yang Yunran now reacts anxiously whenever he hears the name Evan, his fingers trembling slightly.

He thought he could let go, but in reality, he couldn’t.

Because Jiang Yi continues to send him emails—one after another, not spamming, just maintaining a consistent frequency of one in the morning and one in the evening, trying to reason with him.

Yang Yunran wants to deactivate his email account altogether. However, today he couldn’t resist and logged in again. Since their breakup ten days ago, he has received a total of twenty emails.

The one sent this morning read: “Don’t act like a child, I will be back soon.”

During the day, Jiang Yi is busy with things, and in the evening, he delves into literature and research sites, trying to find evidence of what’s wrong with himself.

Clearly, that day in bed, he lasted quite a while the second time, but because Yang Yunran didn’t want to, he said forget it.

Yang Yunran is truly an unreasonable child.

Just a few days after returning to China, he changed his mind. Jiang Yi can’t help but suspect it’s because of his family, perhaps they arranged for him to get married, and Yang Yunran broke up with him reluctantly.

Jiang Yi originally wanted to take all his research results with him, but the Americans now won’t allow him to take them all. He must leave all his personal achievements in the lab.

Now he is negotiating with his boss.

“Evan, you can continue your research in China, but the resources the lab has provided you over these three years are invaluable, so you can’t take them all with you directly. Although these are your personal independent research achievements take another look at this agreement; the offer will satisfy you.”

Jiang Yi is eager to return to China. He glanced at the agreement; the offer was generous, but it wasn’t what he cared about.

William said, “You should care about the credit for this project. But I have to say, your research has not yet been completely successful. If you had succeeded before us, you wouldn’t have these worries. This is the best result I could fight for. If you’re unwilling…”

Jiang Yi is fine with leaving, but it might involve a rather difficult process.

All the data is in his mind, he wants to take it away, and once the person returns, it will be fine.

Glancing quickly at the contract, Jiang Yi signed it: “I want to return to my country this afternoon. Can I leave now?”

“Oh, Evan!” William said, “There’s a farewell party tonight.”

Jiang Yi checked the time: “I booked an evening flight to leave.”

This time, Jiang Yi didn’t spare his waist. He booked a business-class ticket. Otherwise, he worried that sitting for over ten hours on the way back might affect his performance, and Yang Yunran wouldn’t acknowledge it.

In the car.

Seeing he wasn’t interested in the talent show, Doudou took back his phone. Due to the glare, Yang Yunran couldn’t see the screen clearly either.

“But where we live is quite close to the theater. Apart from the final night, there are also some dramas, stage plays, and ballet performances.” Dou Dou said.

Yang Yunran replied, “I can go listen to musicals and the like.”

As for the trainees for the talent show, that was just it. It wasn’t that he looked down on them. Yang Yunran had been invited to be a mentor for such programs before. His company took them to earn money, and he had been forced to participate in the whole process.

To be honest, what sounded good to the audience after post-production was mostly because the sound was well-edited.

Credit goes to the sound editor.

As for the live show, it’s better not to watch.

He’s not interested in torturing his own ears.

Yang Yunran has been sad recently and is composing new songs, just to write a breakup song. Every time he writes it, he gets deeply involved and remembers his own love, which seemed very happy but ended in separation.

The company rented him a temporary house, not too big or too small, a three-bedroom apartment with floor-to-ceiling windows and a broad view. Doudou didn’t live with him because she was a girl, so she lived nearby.

Yang Yunran brought a guitar with him and continued to livestream and practice singing every night.

Recently, Lin Beibei came less often, but 099 came punctually, giving him a carnival. The screen was full of splendid fireworks, which dazzled Yang Yunran’s eyes.

Jiang Yi had thought about sending him a private message here, sending him “I’m not living badly, don’t break up,” but in the end, he didn’t do such a thing.

Because it seemed like Yang Yunran had said that the company was managing the account, he was responsible for the livestream, and the agent was responsible for managing this information and cooperation.

So sending this sentence out would probably just make his agent think 099 was funny.

Yang Yunran suddenly saw so many carnivals and was a bit baffled. But 099 occasionally gave him such things, so it wasn’t very surprising.

Yang Yunran affectionately called him: “Mr. 099, would you like to request a song? There’s a reserved track tonight.”

Jiang Yi replied with his account: “No need, I’ll go to bed early.”

Yang Yunran was stunned.

This tone…

Jiang Yi spoke and typed, with his unique rhythm and tone, cold and mixed with concern that made people drop their defenses.

Jiang Yi?

He wasn’t entirely sure because 099 had already spent several million on him, second only to Miss Lin Beibei.

Yang Yunran controlled himself from thinking too much and tentatively said, “Then should I sing a nursery rhyme, Mr. 099, how does that sound?”

099 said, “No need, rest.”

Since Jiang Yi hadn’t found him singing nursery rhymes online, it was just Yang Yunran singing alone. Jiang Yi didn’t allow him to sing to those netizens who were indiscreet and casually referred to Yang Yunran as their wife or husband in the livestream room.

“Then next time you want to request a song, just tell me.” Yang Yunran immediately went off the air. He is somewhat famous now, and his songs are popular too. The program team treats him well, with a nanny car to pick him up. He wore a duck tongue cap and a mask into the studio, and his assistant was also fully equipped, wearing a set of studio staff clothes.

Doudou was afraid of being recognized and having it revealed that Haliyeh was Yang Yunran.

Because Ran Ge had told her, “I want to work behind the scenes. I don’t want to be in front of the stage, so try not to let me be exposed by netizens.”

Today’s recording was minimal, and the program team put a lot of effort into keeping the singer’s identity secret, protecting the stars throughout the process, including those amateurs who signed up, who also wore headgear to sing.

Don’t give judges and viewers any appearance information, but the gimmicks are quite thorough.

Yang Yunran took off his mask, put on the program team’s headgear, and changed into a matching outfit.

The headgear was a bit stuffy, and the mouth was covered with white netting. Yang Yunran looked in the mirror and found it difficult to recognize himself inside.

“Teacher Ye Ye, actually your singing style is quite distinctive,” the director said, coming backstage to find him, the cameraman covering the camera. The director said, “I’ve heard you sing, very powerful. But initially, we hope the netizens don’t immediately recognize Harry Yeah Yeah’s voice. Could you change your singing style a bit?”

“I understand.” Although Yang Yunran was here just to mix a box lunch and collect some appearance fees, once the money was taken, he had to listen to the director.

Changing singing style wasn’t difficult, and Yang Yunran agreed. The director said, “Wait for fifteen minutes, then go up for rehearsal. We’ll start recording at five in the afternoon. If there’s anything wrong with the rehearsal track or earpiece feedback, you have to inform our sound engineer promptly to adjust it.”

Yang Yunran nodded again to confirm.

The director left but turned back, “I forgot what he looks like.”

This time, in the studio, when Haliyeh signed the contract, they signed with Wan Yan Entertainment, and Wan Yan’s CEO specifically discussed it with their stationmaster, so it wasn’t a third-party contract. The team’s documents were confidential, and even the director hadn’t seen Harry Yeah Yeah’s personal information.

Only the chauffeur who picked him up in the special car at the airport had seen him and said, “Quite handsome.” After all, men’s aesthetics still leaned towards the Wu Jing style. Saying “quite handsome” was already quite commendable.

It seemed that when Harry Yeah Yeah got off the plane, he forgot to wear a mask, and that’s how the driver saw him.

At this moment, the news spread in the program group chat, and everyone was curious, “How handsome is he??”

“Is he handsome enough to do this masked live broadcast thing?? It’s unlikely!!”

“When I entered the studio today, I saw him wearing a black duck tongue cap and black mask, dressed very low-key. His figure is slender, and his white skin is unbelievable, right??”

“It looks like he’s a decent, handsome guy…”

“Are there fewer online mask handsome fraudsters? [smoking] [smoking]”

“Director An, does Director An know the wind about this? What does he actually look like!”

Director An: “I don’t know, stop asking.”

Forget about not knowing, even if he does, he has to keep it confidential. Because Haliyeh’s contract specifically states this.

Ye Ye’s situation is a bit different from other contestants.

For other contestants, when the program team customizes scripts and selects songs internally, they already know who the person is.

But Haliyeh is a completely masked online singer!

The contract doesn’t even write his name and ID number!

Even the director doesn’t know, let alone anyone else.

Precisely because of this, although he’s not particularly famous, there are still top-tier talents hidden on-site. Everyone was more interested in watching Yang Yunran instead.

“I’ve heard his songs online. He must be using voice editing. It’s impossible to sing that well live.”

Yang Yunran was rehearsing. He wore a white opera headgear on stage, and the scene had a somewhat eerie aesthetic.

The accompaniment played was an English song with lyrics he had arranged and rewritten. Yang Yunran slightly adjusted his singing style and sang the first line —

In the audience:

“Damn!”

“Here comes the master!”

Midway through the song.

“The accompaniment! Where’s the accompaniment gone??”

There was a problem with the backstage sound system.

With his rich stage experience, Yang Yunran took off his in-ear monitor and continued singing acoustically, without any glitches throughout.

The director came over and pointed to an employee and said, “Xiao Pang, record it with your phone.”

After the rehearsal, Yang Yunran rested in the dressing room. Doudou covered the camera with her hand. Only then did Yang Yunran take off his headgear, revealing a face flushed from being stuffy.

The studio’s air conditioning wasn’t working well, making it a bit hot. He wore the headgear and almost fainted from being so stuffy.

Yang Yunran finally recovered after sitting in front of the dressing room air conditioner for a while.

Doudou handed him some water and also passed him the phone, “Ran Ran ge, Kevin ge just called looking for you.”

“What did he say?” Yang Yunran took a sip of water and called back.

Dou Dou: “It seems to be about the casting for the music video.”

“Oh.” Yang Yunran dialed the number.

Zhou Kai said, “How did the rehearsal go?”

“Just finished the rehearsal.” Yang Yunran said, “The recording won’t start until this afternoon.”

Zhou Kai: “Well, it’s only noon now, so you’ll have to wait.”

“Yes, Kevin, Doudou said you were looking for me about the music video casting?” Yang Yunran asked.

Zhou Kai: “Yeah, we selected someone for you initially, and you didn’t seem to have any objections, but…”

Yang Yunran: “But what?”

Zhou Kai: “How about I pull some strings for your boyfriend?”

Yang Yunran was stunned, “What do you mean…?”

Zhou Kai thought he was pretending, “I mean, Evan, he sent an email to my subordinate saying he wants to be the lead actor in your music video. After all, he’s your boyfriend, and we agreed to find him work. But I haven’t agreed yet. I said we needed to audition him first. If you’re okay with it, I’ll arrange for him to audition?”