Chapter 1001: King of Masked Singers premieres!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
Noon.
At Old Rao's house, the place was full of the smell of medicinal herbs.
Zhang Ye yelled while lying on the sofa, "Is it done yet?"
Yang Shu speedily answered, "Senior bro, it's almost ready, it's almost ready!"
Zhang Ye howled, "Hurry up! I can't take it anymore!"
"Master Rao, please hurry!" Yang Shu urged from the kitchen.
Rao Aimin shouted across the living room, "If you make another sound, trust me, I will throw you out! Concocting the medicine requires proper heat! What are you so anxious for! It's still being bubbled!"
Zhang Ye stopped pestering Rao Aimin out of fear and turned to Chenchen, who was doing her homework. "Chenchen, fetch me a glass of water. I'm thirsty, so be quick."
Chenchen said, "Not gonna."
"In that case, I won't help you do your homework in the future!" Zhang Ye harrumphed.
Chenchen became flustered. "Zhang Ye, are you really that weak?!"
Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. "Get me some water."
Chenchen begrudgingly went to get the water for him and nearly even had to feed it to him.
Zhang Ye lay there all relaxed and gulped down two mouthfuls. Then he said, rather displeased, "Why is the water cold? Bring me warm water next time, understand?"
Chenchen got annoyed and ran to the kitchen to complain, "Aunt! Who does Zhang Ye think he is!"
But Yang Shu said, "Senior Bro's old injuries have relapsed and he's a sick person now. Why are you arguing with him?"
Chenchen was exasperated. "But he's such a bully!"
From the living room, Zhang Ye shouted again. "The food isn't done either? Why is it taking so long! I've been hungry for a whole day! Does anyone care about me?"
Yang Shu immediately replied, "Senior Bro, I'll serve you the food!"
Only Zhang Ye's junior martial sister would readily be at his beck and call to take care of him.
"Senior Bro, sit up and eat."
"I can't move."
"I'll feed you then."
"My junior martial sis is the best."
"Open your mouth."
"Mmm, the chicken wing is not too bad."
"Try some of the red braised pork."
"Mmm, it's good too, but a bit salty."
"Ah, a little salty? Then what should we do?"
"Forget it, I'll make do with it."
Rao Aimin could not stand watching this any further and took a few steps out of the kitchen and said to Yang Shu, "Ignore him. This fellow's just trying to score some pity points! Just place the food on the table. I'll see if he wants to eat or not!"
Chenchen added angrily, "Old Yang, don't care for him!"
But Yang Shu did not listen to them as she continued spoon-feeding Zhang Ye.
Zhang Ye lay there comfortable as a lord, opening his mouth and swallowing the food, then opening his mouth again with the next spoonful already waiting for him. After they finished eating lunch, the medicinal herb concoction was ready. His junior martial sister spoon-fed him again. But after just two mouthfuls, Zhang Ye cried out that it was too bitter and refused to drink anymore.
"Senior Bro!"
"This is not something a human can drink!"
"If you don't drink it, how can you heal your injuries?!"
"What's inside this?!"
"A soil dragon."
"What's that?"
"An earthworm."
"The hell! Are you guys trying to poison me!"
With great difficulty, Zhang Ye finally finished drinking the medicine. Rao Aimin then began to treat him externally. She gave him a traditional Chinese massage to help with his qi and blood circulation. But with just two massage rubs, Zhang Ye cried out again.
The entire time the sun was shining, there was not a moment of peace in the house as every one of them took care of Zhang Ye!
It wasn't until evening that this fellow finally ceased his antics. This was because the King of Masked Singers' premiere episode was about to begin!
Zhang Ye had taken over the whole sofa and occupied it by himself, lying there with his legs up. Be it Rao Aimin, Chenchen, or Yang Shu, they could only move some chairs over and sit beside him.
On Beijing Television, the commercials ended.
Yang Shu said, "It's starting!"
Zhang Ye said, "Turn up the volume."
...
His first uncle's house.
His first uncle and aunt brought out a fruit platter.
In the living room, Zhang Ye's three cousins were all sitting there watching the television. They had arranged to meet up today to watch the King of Masked Singers' premiere episode together as it was a new show planned by their cousin.
"Wow, it's starting, it's finally starting!"
"The first contestant has appeared!"
"What? King of Oddity? What sort of name is this!"
"Holy shit!"
"Ah, he sang so well!"
"The pitch changes were really nice!"
"Who is he?"
"Greater China's Cui Long?"
"It's not him, it's definitely not him! The figure doesn't look like him at all!"
"Then could it be CAK?"
"The voice sounds super similar!"
The three cousins were excited and astonished by what they were watching.
His first uncle and aunt were seated near them and glanced at the screen. With this, they were immediately hooked on the show and joined in with their own guesses.
...
Peking University.
In one of the female dormitories.
Yao Jiancai's daughter, Yao Mi, did not go home for the weekend, instead staying in her dorm together with a few of her roommates to watch the broadcast of the King of Masked Singers. The more the merrier, they thought. Somehow, they'd gotten ahold of a 29-inch LCD TV, and they'd even hooked it up to an antenna in their dorm. There were a total of 11 people in the room, and all were watching the television in excitement, some of them even singing along.
"It's good! It's so good that I'm crying!"
"I really love Petal Shower!"
"There isn't anyone else in the music industry with such a falsetto!"
"Who exactly is she?"
"The panel of guest judges couldn't guess either?"
"Mimi, hahaha, your dad has spoken!"
"Your dad sure is funny! He definitely deserves to be a big shot in the crosstalk world!"
"It's sad that our Professor Zhang isn't around. It would be even more exciting to watch then!"
"When will Teacher Zhang come back and teach us again? Has he really been banned? Did the air pollution documentary affect him that greatly? How could they ban Teacher Zhang!"
...
Media College.
At the teaching staff's quarters.
Su Hongyan, once Zhang Ye's student counselor, was also watching the show on Beijing Television with some of her colleagues.
"This is really great!"
"Their singing is much more professional than those on The Voice!"
"It's gotta be. The selling point is different. The selling point of The Voice of China was its grassroots contestants, while for King of Masked Singers, the contestants are already famous singers, so of course their skills aren't the same! Frankly, the creativity of this show is great. Only someone like our Media College's Professor Little Zhang can come up with a show like this!"
"Sunflower sang well!"
"He's quite good, but I still prefer Sunset Glow. How did she lose to the others? Will she get eliminated? Who's gonna be crowned Masked King at the end of this episode?"
...
It blew up on the Internet as well!
Overwhelming exclamations and responses started appearing all over Weibo!
"This is really worth goddamn waiting for!"
"So this is King of Masked Singers!"
"Damn, it's 10,000 times better than I expected!"
"So this is what this show is all about! This group of people can really sing well, right? I bet they're all professional singers. And A or B-list big name celebs?"
"Who knows who King of Oddity is!"
"I really like King of Oddity too. His voice is really pleasant and his singing is pretty good, but compared to Petal Shower and the others, he doesn't quite measure up. Petal Shower and Sunflower, on the other hand, are gods!"
"Four contestants have already appeared onstage! And each one is more amazing than the last!"
"The next person is coming on right now!"
"The Clown?"
"I heard a rumor that he was this episode's Masked King?"
"That can't be! Probably a rumor?"
"Right, someone even said that Water Buffalo was the Masked King. Your sister's the water buffalo! There's not even a fucking contestant named Water Buffalo!"
"Look at how he's walking! He can't even stand straight!"
"Is he sick?"
The broadcast now cut to a different scene at an earlier time.
It was showing the moments in the infirmary.
Zhang Ye probably did not even know that while he and the program team staff were in the infirmary, someone had actually lugged a video camera in and recorded many of the scenes that had occurred inside!
A fever of 40 degrees!
A severe cold!
Inflammation of the tonsils!
"Give me a cortisone shot!"
"Are you sure!?"
"Do it!"
"Give me another shot!"
"Shoot me up again!"
"Do it!"
Three shots!
A total of three shots!
The man in the clown mask did not even make a sound!
The scene cut again, back to the moment when The Clown appeared onstage!
At this moment, everyone who was watching the program in front of their televisions gasped in shock. Some of the music industry insiders were also surprised by this!
A madman!
This person must be insane!
"This…this…"
"He's really risking his life!"
"Why's he still singing when he's like that? How can he even sing?"
"Yeah, he's definitely not going to be the Masked King. Those must've been rumors."
"True. It's hard to walk around or even speak with a voice like that, much less sing a song! Can he even make any noise? He won't finish singing, right?"
"How could he possibly finish singing in that condition!"
It wasn't just The Clown who had behind-the-scenes footage edited into the show. There was also behind-the-scenes footage for the other masked singers. For instance, Petal Shower when she was rehearsing her songs and Sunflower's comments on the other singers' performances while he was in his waiting room. But clearly, The Clown's behind-the-scenes footage was more shocking than the others'. The program team definitely knew this, so they purposely edited this scene in.
However, when The Clown took the stage and started singing, a lot of people got a great shock!
Petal Shower's falsetto had shocked them!
Sunflower in the Starlight's tenor had shocked them!
Sunset Glow's gentle and soothing voice had shocked them!
But those were completely different from the shock The Clown thrust upon them. The Clown's song shocked them because it was pure and resonated with their souls!
"I am a wolf that comes from the north.
"Padding through the boundless wilderness.
"The mournful northern wind blows by.
"The slow sand brushes by."
Everyone's had a dream before.
Everyone's pursued those dreams before.
But for the sake of that grassland, that dream, a person like The Clown faced the biting winds while wounded and continued limping forward. No one could say that they had gone that far themselves!
So they were shocked!
Touched!
"Who is he!"
"This guy has such stage presence!"
"A wolf that comes from the north?"
"Doesn't that sound so cool?"
"Does it sound that great? I think it's just average."
"Me too. I'm not really moved. And his voice is too hoarse!"
"That's why it's good!"
"What do you guys know! This singing is filled with so much emotion!"
"The song itself is good too! What song is this, goddammit! Why haven't I heard before?"
...
At Old Rao's house.
Zhang Ye watched his onscreen self and had mixed feelings about it.
Yang Shu was fascinated by the song. "This song is really good, really!"
Rao Aimin did not say anything. Actually, she seldom watched television shows, but ever since she became Zhang Ye's agent, she started paying attention to them.
Chenchen pointed at the television and said, "Just look at him!"
Rao Aimin said, "He insists on taking the stage while badly sick. This perseverance and resilience is not something that just any ordinary person possesses. This man's not bad."
Zhang Ye was elated when he heard.
Hehe.
Good enough.
Yang Shu immediately said, "My senior bro is also someone with strong perseverance!"
Rao Aimin glanced at Yang Shu and pointed to Zhang Ye, who was lying crooked on the sofa like a slob. "You talkin' 'bout this guy?"
Yang Shu was stumped. She wanted to speak up but hesitated and hung her head in silence, apparently rather embarrassed by him.
Zhang Ye couldn't defend himself.