Life countdown begins, ice queen bursts into security room

On Thursday afternoon, Li Cheng sent me a WeChat message.

"The format for the second round has been confirmed. It will be a 1v1 challenge within the same track, with lower-ranked contestants having priority in challenging others. Zhao Tianyu will be challenging you. Times Media has hired a top producer to create a song tailor-made for him. How are you ready?"

Jiang Fan replied with three words.

"understood."

Li Cheng waited for a long time but received no response, so he couldn't help but send another message: "Aren't you nervous?"

On the phone screen, the chat box was as silent as a stagnant pool.

Li Cheng stared at it for ten seconds, then slammed the phone face down on the table and cursed, "What a troublemaker."

-

Friday, 7 p.m.

Shenzhen, the main studio of Tencent Video headquarters.

When Jiang Fan walked into the backstage corridor, the doors to the players' lounges on both sides of the corridor were wide open.

Makeup artists and stylists were coming and going, and the air was thick with the smell of hairspray and perfume.

As Jiang Fan passed by Zhao Tianyu's lounge, he glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

There were five or six people squeezed next to him.

Two vocal coaches were helping Zhao Tianyu with his final warm-up exercises. A man in a suit was repeatedly playing the arrangement demo on an iPad, while an assistant was standing next to him ironing his stage costume.

Zhao Tianyu sat in the makeup chair, closing his eyes to rest, with earphones in his ears.

It was quite a large-scale operation.

Jiang Fan withdrew his gaze, walked into his empty lounge, and leaned his guitar against the wall.

-

Recording officially began at 8:00 PM.

The studio lights came on, and five million online viewers flooded into the live stream.

The host, Teacher He, stood in the center of the stage with a gentle smile.

"Welcome back to 'Rising Star'! In the last episode's initial stage, the contestants from all three tracks delivered some truly amazing performances. But the competition has only just begun."

"The elimination process officially begins tonight."

The atmosphere at the scene suddenly tightened.

"The format for the second round is a 1v1 challenge on the same track."

Teacher He turned around, and the rules and regulations popped up on the big screen.

"Within each track, the lower-ranked contestants will challenge the higher-ranked contestants in turn. Each contestant will perform one song, and the scores will be determined by three celebrity judges plus a vote from the audience. The contestant with the lower total score will be placed in the waiting area."

"Contestants in the waiting area will face the risk of being eliminated directly in the final elimination round."

A commotion broke out in the players' stands.

The beauty filter competition has begun.

The 1V1 rounds ended quickly, and Lu Ming was not called upon at all, thus advancing directly.

He sat in the players' seat with a calm expression, as if it were perfectly normal.

-

"Next up—the solo track!"

Teacher He's voice rose half a tone.

The chat in the live stream instantly doubled in density.

[Here he comes! Jiang Fan!]

The standout track is the real highlight!

Who will Zhao Tianyu choose? He won't actually choose Jiang Fan, will he?

Soon it was Zhao Tianyu's turn.

Zhao Tianyu stood up and straightened his suit collar.

He did not hesitate at all.

"I challenge Jiang Fan."

The scene erupted in uproar.

Hua Xingyu's lips curled up almost imperceptibly.

Teacher He looked at Jiang Fan: "Jiang Fan, do you accept the challenge?"

Jiang Fan remained seated in his chair, without even standing up.

"catch."

-

Zhao Tianyu goes up first.

When he walked onto the stage, all the lights in the venue suddenly dimmed, leaving only a beam of white light at the top.

The moment the arrangement's intro burst from the speakers, Xue Zhiheng's eyelids twitched.

With synthesizers, string sections, and drums layered on top of each other, the production cost of this level starts at least in the six figures.

Zhao Tianyu's voice is clean and bright, with steady and powerful high notes, and his technique is mature.

The vocal transitions in the chorus are smooth and natural, with almost no obvious flaws.

When the song ended, the audience erupted in enthusiastic applause.

Xue Zhiheng leaned back in his chair and nodded slowly: "The production is excellent, and the singing is solid. The arrangement team put in a lot of effort."

He held up the scoreboard: 95 points.

Xu Qingya remained calm and flipped open the sign in front of her: 90 points.

Hua Xingyu smiled brightly: "Tianyu, this is your true strength! It's on a whole level better than your initial stage performance!"

He gave it an exceptionally high score of 98.

The large screen flickered, and the public vote results were then displayed.

448 votes! Total score: 731!

Extremely high score.

The comments section was filled with praise.

Zhao Tianyu's song is amazing!

[What level is this arrangement? It's two levels above the initial stage performance!]

Jiang Fan is in danger; this song is of extremely high quality.

Zhao Tianyu stepped off the stage and walked towards the contestants' seats amidst cheers.

He stopped in his tracks as he passed Jiang Fan.

Zhao Tianyu turned slightly to the side, lowered his voice, and chuckled softly in a volume that only the two of them could hear.

"It's your turn. Don't lose too badly."

Jiang Fan didn't even lift his eyelids.

He stood up, picked up the guitar leaning against the wall, and walked towards the stage.

The spotlight fell.

Jiang Fan settled down on the high stool and adjusted the height of the microphone.

Teacher He walked over: "Jiang Fan, could you please introduce the song you're going to sing?"

Jiang Fan placed the guitar on his lap and rested his right hand on the strings.

"This song is called 'Sorrow'."

On the judges' panel, Xue Zhiheng suddenly sat up straight.

In the live stream, the chat exploded within 0.3 seconds.

[To dispel sorrow?]

[Wait, wait, wait, "Xiao Chou"? Is that the song "Xiao Chou" on Douyin?!]

【No way, no way, really??】

[Is that really Brother Xiaochou?!]

Two weeks ago, a blurry cell phone video of a bar was uploaded to Douyin.

The video was shaky and the sound quality was poor; all you could see was a young man in black sitting in the dim light, holding a guitar.

But this incomplete clip, less than two minutes long, garnered over 80 million views within 48 hours.

The hashtag "Xiaochou Ge" (meaning "Brother Who Eliminates Sorrow") trended on social media for three consecutive days, but nobody knew who he was.

Now, he sits on a stage broadcast live nationwide and announces the name of the song.

Eight million online viewers simultaneously went wild.

Jiang Fan lowered his head and lowered his right hand to the string.

The intro begins.

The melody is exactly the same as in that blurry video—but this time, it's in its full form, enhanced by masterful vocals.

"When you step into this place of joy."

"Carry all your dreams and aspirations on your back."

As soon as he uttered the first sentence, the color drained from Zhao Tianyu's face.

All those elaborate arrangements and six-figure production costs—in the face of this broken guitar and this voice, they all become background noise.

Hua Xingyu's hand, which had been holding the water glass, froze in mid-air.

Xu Qingya, sitting on the far right of the judges' panel, suddenly had an astonishingly bright light in her eyes.

It was the first time she had heard Jiang Fan, a master singer, perform on stage.

"One cup to the rising sun, one cup to the moonlight—"

The moment the chorus exploded, not a single one of the five hundred audience seats in the entire studio could remain seated.

Xue Zhiheng placed his hands on the table, leaned forward, and his lips trembled slightly.

"One glass to tomorrow, one glass to the past."

"It supports my body and strengthens my shoulders."

Jiang Fan's breathing was steady, and each breath was precise.

Masterful vocal skills have raised the bar for this song to a whole new level.

The comments section is completely illegible now.

White subtitles covered the entire screen like a blizzard, and only the same sentence, appearing repeatedly, could be vaguely discerned—

[We've found the Sorrow-Relieving Brother!!!]

The last sentence.

Jiang Fan closed his eyes.

"One cup to freedom, one cup to death."

"Forgive my ordinariness, and the confusion will be dispelled."

"Well, I always leave hastily after dawn."

"The most absurd people are those who are clear-headed."

The last note of the coda falls.

The entire room fell silent.

Then--

The entire studio erupted in the loudest applause since the show's premiere.

Xue Zhiheng stood up and picked up the scoreboard.

He flipped directly to the last page.

100 points.

"Perfect score. No controversy whatsoever." Xue Zhiheng's voice was a little hoarse. "This is the first perfect score I've given in 'Rising Star'."

The entire venue erupted in cheers once again.

Xu Qingya picked up her scorecard. 98 points.

She didn't say much, just looked at Jiang Fan on the stage with a calm gaze, and only she knew the curve of her lips.

All eyes finally turned to Hua Xingyu.

Hua Xingyu's fingers gripped the scoreboard so tightly that his knuckles cracked.

In the last round, he gave it a score of 61, and was criticized by the entire internet for a whole week, losing 800,000 followers.

In this round, the national hit song with 80 million views made the original singer appear on the spot, and Xue Zhiheng gave it a perfect score.

If he gives it another low score—