Chapter 81

Xu Xing sat down.

Yang Liming patted Yang Yunran on the shoulder, intending to say something considerate, like asking if he had enough money, but upon seeing his biological parents there, he felt it was inappropriate.

Naturally, Yang Yunran also called Chen Fangru “Mom.” Chen Fangru smiled and held Zhao Youmo’s hand under the table.

Zhao Youmo referred to Yang Wanyu and her husband as “Uncle” and “Aunt.”

He was somewhat silent and didn’t say much throughout the meal, only responding when asked.

Yang Wanyu, sitting beside him, looked at Zhao Youmo for a long time, as if seeing the shadow of a child she once raised. A young, innocent face overlapped with the young man’s face in front of her. Finally, she shifted her gaze back to Yang Yunran.

The situation was not as awkward as Yang Yunran had imagined. Yang Liming, being a businessman, was amicable with everyone and didn’t put anyone in an uncomfortable position. The atmosphere at the table was quite harmonious. Chen Fangru shared many amusing stories from Yang Yunran’s childhood. Yang Yunran knew the ones from before he was three years old, but not the ones after, as it wasn’t his body being used then.

At the end of the gathering, Yang Liming still called him aside and secretly asked if he needed money because he noticed Yang Yunran was dressed too plainly, not as well as before.

Of course, he asked this behind Zhao Youmo’s back. Yang Yunran replied, “I don’t need any, thanks Dad. You don’t need to transfer me money. I spend little and earn enough myself.”

“How’s work? Is it going well? Is it tough?”

“It’s going well, not tough.”

Yang Liming asked a few more questions, and Yang Yunran’s answers were similar. With a complex expression, Yang Liming said, “Yunran, you’ve grown up. Dad is very pleased. You said you’re going to stay here from now on with your boyfriend, right? When you have time, come home together. As for Momo, he’s going to study abroad next year, and then it will just be Dad at home.” He didn’t tell Yang Yunran that Chen Fangru planned to accompany him abroad, fearing it would make him angry.

Yang Yunran nodded and agreed, saying he would visit when he had time. He bid farewell to the family and got into the car driven by the family driver. Two luxury cars drove one after the other, parting ways at a crossroads.

Although Xu Xing looked down on this family, he never mentioned it in front of Yang Yunran. He asked, “Is that Zhao Youmo going to attend an Ivy League school? Do you want to go, Ranran?”

Yang Yunran replied, “I don’t have an obsession with prestigious schools. I won’t go. I’ll just focus on working well. And Dad, his name is Zhao Youmo, you always get it wrong.”

“Oh. working is good too. I watched that variety show you were on; your singing was excellent, very impressive. Dad has already sent your signed album to your idol so he can listen to it and give you some positive feedback.”

Yang Yunran was momentarily confused. “Idol? You mean Williams?” In this parallel universe, Williams is a superstar whom Yang Yunran had met and followed. He is a singer who has won Grammys multiple times.

Xu Xing said, “Yes, that’s right. The last time we saw him was in Toronto. I don’t think his music is better than yours at all. Yours is far superior. That’s why I sent your album to him, to improve his taste.”

Yang Yunran held his forehead, “Dad, that was too presumptuous. You already sent it?”

Xu Xing replied, “Yes, he should have received it by now…”

Hearing this, Yang Wanyu also wanted to watch the variety show Yang Yunran was on, so that night, after returning home, Yang Yunran messaged Jiang Yi: “I’m going to watch the variety show with my parents. Replies might be delayed. I’ll call you after we finish.”

In the earlier episodes, Hakimi had already gained many fans with his excellent singing skills, emotional expression in his songs, and tall, well-proportioned figure. Additionally, a video of him singing live due to a technical glitch went viral online. Currently, he was ranked in the top three in public voting.

Because the show’s production team maintained strict confidentiality, Yang Yunran didn’t know who his competitors were.

He didn’t care about that either.

After all, he had already received 80% of the payment, and the remaining balance might be paid after he shot a few additional scenes.

Xu Xing asked, “What rank did you get in the end?”

Yang Yunran replied, “It’s confidential, I can’t say.”

“Not even to Mom and Dad?”

“Of course not.”

His mother asked, “Is it the championship?”

Yang Yunran hesitated, “…No! I can’t say. I really can’t!”

Each episode was only an hour long.

But towards the end of the episode, the previously highly favored Hakimi was almost eliminated!

The respected mentor, nicknamed “Music Poet” Tang Wenqiang, publicly criticized Yang Yunran for having pitch problems. The atmosphere was made extremely awkward in post-production, with repeated shots of his masked face and other mentors nodding in agreement.

Yang Yunran remembered that only Tang Wenqiang criticized him at the time, and the other judges did not express their opinions. However, now it appeared, through cleverly edited shots from different times, as though everyone agreed he had significant issues with his performance.

Seeing this, Yang Yunran realized it was malicious editing.

The show prioritized ratings over the well-being of individual contestants.

Editing was done to shape the show according to what the audience wanted to see.

The audience loved drama and gossip more than the singing itself. Especially since Yang Yunran actually argued back with the mentor, making it seem like he thought the highly respected mentor didn’t understand.

Xu Xing frowned while watching, “What’s this mentor’s name? Does he even understand music? That ‘Wolf Boy’ he praised, is his singing any good? It’s terrible.” Xu Xing threw the remote control.

The episode ended with Hakimi’s announcement of elimination, leaving him standing alone on the stage.

The camera didn’t capture his expression, only the discontent of the audience.

“Bring him back!”

“This is unfair!”

The audience shouted, “Bring him back!”

After watching, Yang Yunran picked up the remote and asked, “Do you want to watch anything else?”

Yang Wanyu said no. She worked in branding and interacted with many celebrities and TV stations. Seeing her child treated like this, she comforted Yang Yunran, “Ranran, don’t worry about this.”

Yang Yunran said it didn’t matter; he wasn’t bothered.

Yang Wanyu said, “I’ll have someone check if our group has any sponsorship deals with this show.”

Due to surgeries and finding her child, Yang Wanyu had only been looking at monthly financial reports and not paying attention to other details recently.

Seeing her child treated unfairly, she immediately called the advertising department, demanding the production team give Yang Yunran the best treatment.

On the third day, after the show aired and stirred discussions overnight, Zhou Kai drove over to find him but couldn’t. He called, “Did you cancel your apartment lease? Where are you staying now?”

“I’m back home,” Yang Yunran said after finishing breakfast, practicing an instrument in his room with headphones on. “What’s up?”

Zhou Kai hesitated, “Didn’t you watch the show?”

“I did. It seems they’ve arranged a revival round for me, forcing fans to spend money on voting. Isn’t this common?” Yang Yunran said.

“Yes, that was the plan, but your accumulated fans started attacking Tang Wenqiang, which inevitably dragged in the contestant competing against you, the ‘Wolf Boy.'”

Like Yang Yunran, the ‘Wolf Boy’ was heavily wrapped up, tall, and wore gloves. Because of his black wolf mask resembled Haliyeh’s white wolf mask, some suspected he was Haliyeh himself.

Zhou Kai said, “He sings pretty well.”

Yang Yunran wasn’t deeply impressed by this contestant.

He opened the app, listened to ‘Wolf Boy’ sing with his headphones on, and found it sounded quite different from the live performance, with heavy tuning.

His own part was also heavily tuned, introducing problems where there had been none.

Yang Yunran rubbed his temples.

Zhou Kai said, “I have insider information saying ‘Wolf Boy’ is actually a kept man of Tang Wenqiang’s former record company boss. His sponsor is Kang Lei, a very wealthy Malaysian. This sponsor is new, and now this kept man wants to debut, so he’s stepping on you to rise. The original plan was to step on a more famous singer, but then you released a bestselling album and became a popular singer. He wants to ride your wave and conspire with the mentor you offended. They hit it off immediately. Do you get it now?”

Yang Yunran understood, “Do many netizens think Tang Wenqiang is right?”

“About half and half. We need urgent PR. I’ll have the company send a car to pick you up. Give me an address. I’ll come over now.”

“I’ll be right there, we have a car at home.” Yang Yunran then got in the car and headed to the company. On the way, he read some comments. Due to Tang Wenqiang’s long-standing career, most netizens supported him.

“I don’t get why you all worship Hakimi. He’s just an amateur singer with no music education and inconsistent performance, and he even talked back to the mentor? How arrogant! No respect at all!”

“His singing is terrible! Stop hyping him up, it’s so annoying!”

“So many people are saying there’s a problem, so there must be a problem, right? Fans are just blindly defending him. His singing is bad, just get eliminated already!”

Yang Yunran arrived at the company.

Zhou Kai opened the door for him and led him to the conference room, “They hired trolls, and so did we. Their backer seems to be wealthier, though, so they have more trolls. I’ll request more budget…”

Yang Yunran said, “Do we really need more? I only made 1.2 million from this show, and the cost of hiring trolls is getting high.”

“We have to. Once you unmask and everyone knows you’re Harrier, this will affect your reputation and the company’s interests.” Zhou Kai then went to arrange the trolls, focusing on the general public’s perspective.

Yang Yunran mentioned that the show edited his performance to create pitch issues.

Yang Yunran thought for a moment and suggested, “What if we can get the unedited and untuned master tapes?”

Zhou Kai hesitated, “That’s unlikely, but it would be a solution. However, that would reveal your identity, as your voice is too distinctive. Let me report this to General Manager Lin. He might be able to help…”

Zhou Kai added, “GM Lin has more connections, but it might still be difficult to obtain…”

Soon, the trolls Zhou Kai hired began to appear.

“Neutral observer here, not a fan. I watched the live show, and Hakimi’s performance was excellent, just like his previous live shows. If you’ve seen his past performances, you wouldn’t doubt his level! Even if he had an off day, he was still better than ‘Wolf Boy,’ if not slightly better. The mentor shouldn’t have criticized him like that (just my personal opinion, don’t attack me).”

It sounded quite genuine.

Yang Yunran remarked, “Kevin, wow, your trolls are fast. It’s only been three minutes.”

Zhou Kai leaned over to take a look, “This one seems genuine, but the script is good. Copy it and send it to me. I’ll use it for marketing.”

Meanwhile, the small artist Liao Wei, who was competing under the guise of “Wolf Boy,” was lying on a recliner with eye masks on. He had recently been eliminated from a trainee program and had a fake relationship with Jiang Yifan, which ended badly, causing Jiang Yifan’s fans to attack him.

After the competition, he met a big boss at dinner and expressed his desire to join the masked singing show.

He was checking the show’s feedback, which was initially good, but today he found himself being criticized again!

“Wolf Boy dares to step on Hakimi? Has he heard his own singing? His pitch is all over the place, not to mention those height-increasing insoles almost flying out of the screen. He’s probably not even 170 cm.”

“Crazy! I am 170 cm!” Liao Wei cursed, feeling more attacked.

“This sounds terrible… How did he get 89 points? Hakimi only got 55 on stage. Clearly, the show rigged the votes!”

“Is this guy a royal? Singing so badly, this show is rigged. Not watching anymore!”

Liao Wei couldn’t stand it and shifted his hatred toward Hakimi. He called Tang Wenqiang and said, “Mr. Tang, we had an agreement. Can you say something? I’m being attacked, and so are you. How can you tolerate this?”

“Young man, it’s just a small matter,” Tang Wenqiang replied magnanimously, As he had been paid, he added reassuringly, “What’s the big deal? I’ll post on Weibo in a bit and have a few friends retweet it. This will blow over.”

Liao Wei breathed a sigh of relief, hung up the phone, and sent a message to his sugar daddy, expressing his hope that Hakimi would not be resurrected in the next episode and be eliminated for good. He complained about being scolded by netizens because of Hakimi.

In the meeting room, Yang Yunran was listening to music with his headphones on.

Doudou rushed in, “Tang Wenqiang just posted on Weibo! It’s trending.”

“What? Let me see!” Zhou Kai immediately grabbed Doudou’s phone.

[@Tang Wenqiang: woke up to a shock and suddenly got a lot of attention and a lot of curses. In my opinion, Hakimi’s performance in this competition was indeed inferior to Wolf Boy’s. The judging criteria are not absolutely fair, just based on my personal perception of the scene and my own musical knowledge, my comments are absolutely correct!]

The top-rated comments were very suspicious.

“No one would doubt Mr. Tang’s expertise. Your ears can’t be wrong! We believe in you!”

“Does Mr. Tang mean that Hakimi’s good performance in the broadcast is due to heavy post-production tuning? That he was actually mediocre live?”

“Exactly! That’s what Mr. Tang meant!”

Industry insiders could tell at a glance that these were bought likes.

How could there be thousands of comments and likes just ten minutes after posting, when Tang Wenqiang only has nine million followers?

Doudou said angrily, “Isn’t this implying that Ran-ge’s good performance in the show is due to post-production tuning and that he sounded terrible live? That’s impossible, I was there! He’s talking nonsense and disrespecting the young!”

Yang Yunran took off his headphones.

Outside, General Manager Lin knocked on the door and then walked in.

Everyone in the meeting room looked up at the same time.

GM Lin looked somewhat serious and said, “Mr. Yunran, I just contacted the station to request the original soundtrack of the show, but they didn’t provide it. They have arranged for you to be eliminated in the next episode and to go back and film a scene where you unmask and leave.”

Zhou Kai’s face turned ugly, “Why are they suddenly arranging for his elimination? Isn’t the contract—”

GM Lin replied, “We’ve hit a wall. They have a strong backer.”

Zhou Kai looked at Yang Yunran and said, “Isn’t your father also quite influential? He shouldn’t be much worse than Gao Lei, right?”

GM Lin shook her head, “It’s different. Mr. Gao has the resources and connections; this battle is unwinnable. It’s better to withdraw early than to be trampled on later in the show. Besides, the recording fee is already in hand, and since continuing to air isn’t very meaningful, we should leave it at that. What do you think?” She turned to Yang Yunran, “If you still want to continue to the top five, I can contact the station again. I’m quite familiar with the show’s producer.”

Yang Yunran, calm and composed, replied, “No need for that.” He added, “If I need to do reshoots, I’ll have to go home to get the show’s costume. Doudou,” he turned his head, “do you remember which box the costume was packed in?”

Yang Yunran thought to himself that it was just a shot of him taking off his mask and leaving dejectedly, but he still had to fly over to reshoot it. The production team contacted him, apologized profusely, and booked his flight and hotel. He planned to leave the first day and return the next.

After returning home, Yang Yunran acted as if nothing had happened, spending Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays with his family, and the rest of the week at Jiang Yi’s place.

Yang Yunran hadn’t faced many setbacks in his career; it had been smooth sailing. In his previous life, he had stuck to releasing albums, songs, and holding concerts, avoiding these kinds of conflicts.

On Saturday, when his elimination episode was to air, Yang Yunran didn’t watch it. As usual, he was cuddled up with his boyfriend, holding a hand warmer and watching a movie.

Suddenly, his phone rang.

It was an international call with no saved contact, showing an IP from Canada.

Yang Yunran answered, “Hello?”

The caller introduced himself, “I’m Tom, Williams’ manager. William listened to your album and is very interested in collaborating with you.”

Yang Yunran responded, “Huh?”

In the background, there was some noisy chatter.

“F**k, Tom! Give me the phone, give me. You’re not saying it right.”

Yang Yunran then recognized the voice as Williams, the superstar he had visited before. Although they hadn’t become close friends, they had a great conversation.

Williams’ voice was filled with excitement and peppered with colorful language as he praised Yang Yunran’s work, with a strong rhythm to his speech. Yang Yunran could almost picture him, wearing a big gold chain and a robe, swaying as he spoke. Williams said, “It’s astonishing! This album, you wrote it for your mother? It’s a magnificent album! I’m doing a world tour early next year, and I have a show in Taiwan in March. I need a guest performer! And of course, I mean you.”