Taking Liu Yifei back to Northeast China for the Chinese New Year has sent the entire internet into

At the same time.

Sanxiang City.

Boats sail on the Xiang River at night, their strings of lights casting long beams that seem to cut the river's surface in two.

Hua Yu nestled on the sofa in the penthouse suite of a five-star hotel, a tablet resting on her lap, her right index finger tapping the edge of the screen.

After the finale of "Going Home for the New Year", he didn't rest for a single day.

He led his team to Hunan overnight and went straight into the recording crew of Hunan TV's S-level music program "Peak Concert".

This show never plays games.

Singing skills, typhoon, song selection.

If any one aspect falters, the rankings will teach you a lesson on the spot.

For the first episode, Hua Yu stayed up for three long nights.

He practiced until his throat was hoarse, until even the choreographer told him to take a break.

The results were indeed impressive.

First place in the first phase.

First fault.

The number of votes was nearly four thousand ahead of the second place.

As soon as the recording was finished, the team released a press release overnight with a sensational headline.

[Hua Yu won the first round, dominating the entire competition.]

Normally, he would boast about this for half a year.

But now—

Hua Yu opened the Penguin Music Hot Songs Chart and her eyelids twitched wildly.

First, "Unavoidable Love" – Fang Yu.

Second, "The Sound of Falling Snow" by Fang Yu.

Third, "Don't Listen to Slow Songs When You're Sad" by Fang Yu.

Fourth, "Right Now" – Liu Yifei.

He scrolled down.

Fifth to eighth.

"Cotton Candy", "Sweet Honey", "The Big Sedan Chair", "Xiao Fang".

The singer section was filled with Fang Yu's name.

The thumb finally stopped.

Next, continue.

Ninth, "The Broken Crown" Live Version - Hua Yu.

Hua Yu stared at the "9" for a long time.

The tablet is placed face down on my knees.

He leaned back, his head hitting the back of the sofa with a dull thud.

"Are they even giving us a way out?!"

The curse had barely left his lips when he swallowed back the rest of the profanity, his chest heaving violently.

I fought tooth and nail to get this stage number one spot.

Unfortunately, they ran into Fang Yu, the living devil who was having a clearance sale.

This guy was like a wholesaler; within a few days, he dumped out one song after another from a backlog of songs that had been piling up for half a month.

With each song he loses, Hua Yu's ranking drops by one place.

What's even more heartbreaking is that Liu Yifei is right in front of him.

A national goddess with a serious acting background managed to push him, a top star, down to ninth place with just a Pepsi theme song.

Hua Yu tossed the tablet onto the coffee table, got up, and walked to the French windows.

The river breeze made his vision somewhat blurred.

He put his hands in his pockets, stared at the river, and exhaled a breath of stale air.

The white mist sprayed onto the glass, creating a thin layer of water vapor, which then dissipated slightly.

"Alright, ninth it is then."

"At least we're still stuck in the top ten."

These words sound like they're meant to comfort oneself.

But after saying it, Hua Yu felt guilty.

A top-tier celebrity, crowned king in the first season, now has his bottom line as "as long as he doesn't fall out of the top ten."

The phone screen on the coffee table lit up briefly.

A new message popped up in the program's work group.

Hua Yu picked it up and swiped it open; the pinned file had been updated.

The format for the seventh round of the competition has been announced ahead of schedule.

Subject: I would like to invite you.

Each competing singer can invite a friend from the industry as a guest performer to collaborate on a song on stage, and the score will be included in the ranking for that period.

Hua Yu's thumb hovered above the screen, his gaze fixed on those few lines of text.

He recalled what had happened two weeks ago.

Mohe, Kaoshantun, Fangjia Courtyard.

On the day he left, Fang Yu forced a handful of nuts into his pocket.

I politely replied, "Let's make music together sometime."

Fang Yu readily replied, "Sure."

In the entertainment industry, nine out of ten such remarks are just polite formalities.

But as for the last sentence, it all comes down to who has the thickest skin and dares to take it seriously.

Hua Yu took a ballpoint pen from the pen holder on the table and wrote on a sticky note.

【square……】

I just wrote this one character.

His pen stopped.

I quickly went through the calculations in my mind.

Inviting Fang Yu will definitely boost the show's popularity.

The stage quality is also absolutely top-notch.

But the question is—what about yourself?

Will he steal all the limelight?

Will the trending topics across the internet be—?

"Hua Yu asked Fang Yu for help, but Fang Yu turned the tables and dominated the entire arena?"

Hua Yu's eye twitched at the thought of that scene.

The pen tip plunged downwards.

The blue ink covered the two words completely, turning them into a tangled mess of lines.

Hua Yu crumpled the sticky note into a ball and threw it into the trash can.

Well, he has to save face.

We'll talk about the seventh phase when we actually live to see it.

And, most importantly—

Whether Fang Yu will agree or not is another matter.

……

the next day.

It was exactly 7 p.m.

Penguin Music's real-time hot song chart is updated.

First place: "Don't Listen to Slow Songs When You're Sad" - Fang Yu.

Second place, "Right Now" - Liu Yifei.

The topic immediately went viral, climbing into the top three, and the comments section had already turned into a massive celebration.

The screen was filled with congratulations, most of which were for Liu Yifei.

A former actor, this is his first time independently writing and composing music, and it's even a custom song for the Pepsi brand.

Although her ability to reach this position is inseparable from the "national goddess's" existing fan base and the massive boost in traffic from this "red vs. blue battle" topic.

However, it is an undeniable fact that the song itself is of high quality and has withstood market scrutiny.

Reaching second place on the hot song chart is something even professional singers would be proud of.

When it comes to Liu Yifei, netizens only have one sentence to summarize it.

That's outrageous, but I have to admit it's ridiculous.

As for Fang Yu's fans, their excitement no longer lies in today's rankings.

They all thought of the same thing.

Mohe Dance Hall.

Northeast Folk Songs.

One is a tearjerker masterpiece that has been requested by the entire internet for half a month and whose music video has been viewed over 200 million times.

Another song was the final performance at a gala for tens of thousands of people, sung amidst wind and snow, bringing tears to their eyes.

Fang Yu up to now—

The official version hasn't been recorded yet.

These two songs are like two trump cards, held firmly in his hands.

In the comments section, one comment was quickly upvoted and received many likes.

[Family members, think about it, Fang Yu is still holding two trump cards. What if these two suddenly appear together one day...? Will anyone else be left in the top ten?]

More than 20,000 replies quickly followed this comment.

I dare not think about it, I really dare not think about it.

[Hua Yu and other singers: Sorry to bother you, we're leaving.]

I think we should just rename the Hot Songs Chart to "Fang Yu's Exclusive Playlist"!

[We suggest that Tencent Music be renamed Fangyu Music!]

[A Hua Yu fan passing by, just saying something fair. My brother won first place in the first round with a landslide victory. Normally I'd brag about it for three months. But now? Now I can only say—ninth place is fine, just surviving is enough.]

Under this last comment, Fang Yu's fans collectively replied—

[Don't be discouraged, sister! Your family is pretty amazing! Being ninth isn't shameful!]

[Hua Yu's singing is indeed impressive; everyone here is a good singer (but Fang Yu is slightly better).]

[Delete the sentence in parentheses.]

It can't be deleted; that's a fact.