The divorce comeback system arrived right after I was born.

Chen Zhi stood on the steps at the hotel entrance, watching the black Mercedes van merge into the traffic until its taillights disappeared completely around the corner, before finally taking his hand out of his coat pocket.

I took out my phone and turned on the screen.

The WeChat screen was still showing Pei Ningxue's message from last night: "Never mind, I won't ask anymore, goodnight."

Chen Zhi rubbed his face, then directly signed several PDF financial documents he had saved on his phone with an electronic signature, packaged them up, and sent them over.

They replied very quickly.

[Pei Ningxue: Is the flight back to Beijing this afternoon?]

Chen Zhi's fingers flew across the keyboard: [No reply. Tonight's finals are the most crucial promotional moment for the project; I need to be there on-site.]

[Pei Ningxue: Focus on projects or people?]

Chen Zhi didn't dare to respond to that. Instead, he forwarded the overseas server expansion plan that Dai Da Mao had sent to the work group the night before, forcibly changing the subject: "[This is the latest bandwidth budget. Take a look first, and we'll decide on it at the meeting next Monday.]"

There was no further reply from the other end.

……

Around 9 a.m., the area outside the broadcasting building was already packed with people.

The car couldn't get in at all, and Chen Zhi was forced to get out of the car two streets away from the gate.

Upon closer inspection, wow, they were fully armed.

The road was cordoned off with police tape, and the street, which was several hundred meters long, was filled with fans holding up support signs and banners.

The largest group was Zhou Chengyu's fan club.

Not only did they book the largest LED screen across the street to play Zhou Chengyu's music video 24 hours a day, but they also parked three food trucks with huge posters of Zhou Chengyu on the roadside to give away milk tea and cookies to passersby for free.

In contrast, Lin Wanwan's fans seem rather weak and isolated.

Dozens of girls huddled in an inconspicuous corner, holding up a few handwritten light boards, their slogans drowned out by the loudspeakers of Zhou Chengyu's fans next door.

Chen Zhi ignored the noise and entered the venue by scanning his face through the VIP channel reserved for staff.

Once inside the backstage dressing room, the atmosphere was completely the opposite of what it was outside.

The corridor was very quiet.

Security was at its maximum level, with a security guard every three steps and a director's team member wearing a name tag every five steps.

Chen Zhi pushed open the door to Lin Wanwan's private dressing room. This room was vacated by Director Wang overnight. It was originally a large public dressing room shared by several top singers, but now it has become Lin Wanwan's private room.

Lin Wanwan was closing her eyes while the makeup artist did her hair.

Su Man stood to the side, holding a stack of walkie-talkie procedure sheets. When she looked up and saw Chen Zhi come in, her back straightened instantly.

"Mr. Chen, you've arrived."

"Sister Su, there are no outsiders here, don't be so polite." Chen Zhi walked to the sofa and sat down. "Be normal, otherwise Wanwan will think you've been possessed."

Su Man coughed awkwardly. Yesterday, she spent the whole night searching through all the startups in China related to the keywords AI, Peking University, and valuations of billions. Finally, she found the four words "Deep Space Technology" in the corner of a financial news article.

The results of the investigation almost caused her to have a heart attack on the spot.

She'd managed many artists and met many investors in her life, but she'd never seen a financial tycoon who could casually throw out 4.5 billion US dollars in cash. The most outrageous thing was that this tycoon was only a freshman in college.

Lin Wanwan glanced at Chen Zhi in the mirror, said nothing, but made a face.

"How is Wanwan doing?" Chen Zhi asked.

"Absolutely perfect." The makeup artist, a long-haired man, praised enthusiastically with his delicate fingers raised. "His skin is so good you can't even see his pores, and the foundation goes on flawlessly with just one pat. What's most remarkable is his energy and vitality—it's so vibrant!"

Chen Zhi leaned back on the sofa. Nonsense, did you waste your time on the test paper that scored 61 points last night?

The live broadcast of the finals officially began at 5 PM.

The studio.

As the lights dimmed, the thousands of audience members erupted in deafening screams.

Chen Zhi sat in the VIP viewing area at the back of the stage. This position would not be captured by the broadcast cameras, but he could still see the entire stage and the reactions of the judges in the front row clearly.

David and two American bodyguards sat behind him, while Taylor's team sat in another private waiting area.

The performances of the first few singers were decent, nothing more than hitting high notes and showing off their skills, but they did manage to create a lively atmosphere.

Soon, Zhou Chengyu, the fifth person to perform, stepped onto the stage.

The entire venue erupted in cheers.

Huayu Entertainment invited a top-tier senior artist to sing a very difficult old song with him.

The two of them did manage to keep things in order.

Especially in the chorus, the veteran singer used his twenty years of accumulated singing skills to support him, and Zhou Chengyu also gave it his all. Although his breath control was not very stable for a few high notes, the audience could not tell because of the veteran singer's support.

When the song ended, the fans in the audience erupted in cheers.

Zhou Chengyu stood on the stage, panting, enjoying the thunderous applause from the audience.

The host walked onto the stage, beaming as he took control of the event: "Thank you, Cheng Yu, for the ultimate audio-visual feast! The next contestant is this season's biggest dark horse. Tonight, she will be the closing act, bringing us the final song of the grand finale."

The comments section was already buzzing with arguments.

"Is there even a need for a competition? Brother Yu's performance here is amazing! Let's just give out the awards!"

"Exactly, what was Hunan TV thinking, putting a newcomer as the finale?"

"Don't be so sour, Wanwan got to where she is today through her own hard work!"

"Stop arguing. I'm actually quite curious. Everyone else's guests have already been officially announced, but Lin Wanwan's guests haven't been announced yet. Could it be that she can't get anyone?"

"They obviously can't get any big names, so they're just making things mysterious."

on site.

The lights were completely turned off.

The venue was plunged into darkness.

Only a few subtitles slowly appeared on the big screen.

Song: "Love Story"

Singer: Lin Wanwan

A soft spotlight shone down from above, landing in the center of the stage.

Lin Wanwan wore a minimalist white floor-length dress without any exaggerated decorations, and stood quietly in front of the microphone.

The piano prelude flowed out slowly.

She closed her eyes and brought her lips close to the microphone.

"We were both young when I first saw you..."

With just that one sentence, all the noise in the venue instantly disappeared.

Kneel with your mouth open.

Her English pronunciation wasn't perfect, but her voice had a unique quality that gave this song, which had been covered countless times, a completely new emotion.

Backstage, Director Wang, wearing headphones, stared intently at the various data points on the monitor. The viewership ratings curve was climbing at an odd angle.

He swallowed hard; the little girl was in an unusually good state today.

As the first verse ended, the atmosphere reached its climax. Lin Wanwan opened her eyes and looked towards the VIP viewing area at the back of the stage.

Chen Zhi, sitting in the shadows, gave her a thumbs up.

Lin Wanwan smiled faintly.

The music enters the bridge section before the chorus.

At this moment, everyone was waiting for the backup singers to appear.

The live chat was also flooded with comments:

"Where are the guests? Is she the only one singing?"

"It's definitely going to be a disaster."

At that very moment when emotions reached their peak.

"Snapped!"

On the right side of the stage, a second blinding white beam of light descended from the sky.

The lifting platform slowly rose.

A tall foreign woman stood in the pillar of light.

Long golden hair and fiery red lips.

She plucked the strings directly, seamlessly following the last note of Lin Wanwan's last sentence.

"Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone——"

Sing this line in English.

The entire studio.

It solidified.

The five music critics in the front row all stood up from their chairs.

Several entertainment company executives sitting in the second row stared wide-eyed, their jaws practically dropping to the ground.

The live chat froze for three seconds; the server couldn't handle it.

then.

The live stream was instantly flooded with question marks and exclamations of "Holy crap!"

Holy crap!!!!

"Am I blind?! Tell me who that is!!!"

"Taylor?! Is that a live Taylor Swift?!"

"Hunan TV, are you fucking crazy?! You invited Taylor Swift as a guest?!"

After a brief moment of mental blankness, the audience erupted in the loudest roar since the studio was built.

Taylor took a step forward in her high heels and stood side by side with Lin Wanwan.

Lin Wanwan was completely ignited. She wasn't intimidated by Taylor's aura; instead, she became even stronger in the face of adversity. The harmony between the two intertwined perfectly in the final climax.

Backstage.

Zhou Chengyu stood at the entrance of the passage. At this moment, the mineral water bottle in his hand was already deformed from being squeezed, and he didn't even notice that water had spilled all over his hand.

His agent next to him looked ashen-faced, muttering, "It's over."

At the end of the song.

Taylor finished the strumming with an extremely cool move, then turned around and gave Lin Wanwan a big hug.

"boom--"

The entire audience stood up.

Thousands of spectators stood and applauded, the applause was thunderous, and even the fans who originally belonged to Zhou Chengyu were screaming Taylor's name wildly.

There was no need for any voting results; the champion of today's final was already decided the moment Taylor stepped up.

The host, microphone in hand, jogged onto the stage, his voice trembling with excitement.

"This is amazing! This is incredible! Ms. Swift, welcome to China! Welcome to the stage of 'Singer'!"

Taylor took the microphone, smiled, waved to the audience, and greeted them in newly learned Chinese: "Hello everyone, I'm Taylor."

The entire venue erupted in cheers once again.

The host turned to Lin Wanwan: "Wanwan, you really gave everyone a huge surprise today! Is there anything you'd like to say?"

Lin Wanwan's forehead was covered in sweat, and her breathing had not yet fully calmed down.

She held the microphone and stood there for two seconds.

Many people think I got here because of good luck.

The studio fell silent as she spoke.

"Today's song, 'Love Story,' was the first English song I learned when I was a child. Back then, I put Taylor Swift's poster on my bedroom ceiling and made a wish every night while looking at that face, hoping that one day I would stand on the biggest stage and become a big star."

She paused.

"Being able to sing this song with my idol is a gift from him."

He once told me, "You deserve the best stage."

"So tonight I want to win this championship as a gift to him."

The entire audience erupted in uproar.