Life countdown begins, ice queen bursts into security room

The only sound in the rehearsal room was the rustling of pages being turned.

Jiang Fan sat in a folding chair, his gaze sweeping over the seven musicians.

Three minutes passed, and no one spoke, but the disdain on everyone's faces disappeared.

"Finished reading?" Jiang Fan asked.

Seven people raised their heads.

"Let's do it once. Intro."

The guzheng player flexed her fingers and put on her fingernails.

Press the strings with your left hand and pluck them with your right.

The clear pentatonic scale resounded in the empty factory.

Immediately afterwards, the bamboo flute entered the scene.

"Stop." The voice abruptly ceased.

He looked at the bamboo flute player in the corner.

"In the third measure, there's an accidental. You played it a quarter of a note higher."

The bamboo flute player froze.

He did slack off slightly in his breath control, but such a minute deviation in pitch is almost imperceptible to the human ear without any other instrument as a reference.

"Let's start over." Jiang Fan didn't waste any more words.

the second time.

The intro progresses smoothly. The electric guitar and electronic drums enter in the fourth measure.

The cool, serene sounds of traditional Chinese music collided with the heavy, powerful sounds of electronic music in the air.

The transitional chords that Jiang Fan embedded in the arrangement acted like a lubricant, perfectly blending the two completely different musical systems together.

The atmosphere in the rehearsal hall has changed.

The musicians, who were originally just doing their jobs for money, are now all sitting up straight.

They are professionals, so they can naturally tell the quality of this arrangement.

"Chorus, come on." Jiang Fan leaned close to the microphone.

Master-level singing skills activated.

"The sky is the color of rain after a storm, and I am waiting for you."

"Smoke rises from chimneys, thousands of miles away across the river."

The moment Jiang Fan's voice came out, the drummer who was playing the electronic drums trembled and missed half a beat.

The erhu player suddenly opened his eyes, and the bow almost produced a strange noise.

Li Cheng leaned against the wall, oblivious to the burning cigarette on his fingers.

That voice, that pronunciation.

There was no deliberate attempt to imitate operatic singing, nor was there any piling up of so-called ancient-style vocal techniques.

The purest form of pop singing, every word that falls brings a picture to mind—green mountains, misty rain, and cooking smoke across the river, all contained in the sound.

The switching between true and falsetto voices is seamless, and every ending note is handled cleanly and crisply.

The song ended.

The rehearsal hall was deathly silent.

The guzheng player placed both hands flat on the strings, and her gaze towards Jiang Fan completely changed.

From doubt to admiration.

"Teacher Jiang," the guzheng player addressed her differently, "did you do the arrangement of this song all by yourself?"

"Yes. Is there a problem?"

"No problem." The guzheng player shook his head. "I've been playing the guzheng for ten years, and this is the first time I've seen someone combine folk music and pop music so thoroughly. This song deserves a Golden Melody Award."

Jiang Fan didn't reply, but looked down at his watch.

"The drummer missed a beat, and the erhu player entered a quarter of a second late. Let's continue. Nobody leaves until we've finished practicing together today."

For the next three days, the rehearsal room became hell for the seven musicians.

Jiang Fan has an extremely obsessive attention to detail.

If a single breath or overtone doesn't meet his standards, he'll start over.

No one complained.

On the third night, the final rehearsal ended.

Li Cheng tossed a bottle of mineral water to Jiang Fan.

"What kind of monster are you? This song, 'Blue and White Porcelain,' was written, composed, and arranged entirely by you? Which company were you working for before?"

"Tianyu Media." Jiang Fan picked up his backpack.

Li Cheng was stunned: "Tianyu Media? Which company does Xu Qingya work for? The songwriting department you signed with?"

"Security Department".

Jiang Fan slung his guitar over his shoulder and pushed open the iron door of the rehearsal hall.

Li Cheng stood there, stunned for a long time.

He took out his phone and opened Shen Nian's WeChat.

"You'd better come and see the recording tomorrow night in person. I guarantee you'll never see anything like it in your life."

The other party replied instantly.

"it is good."

Friday night, 8 PM. Tencent Video headquarters studio.

The recording of the third episode of "Rising Star" has officially begun.

The atmosphere in the backstage rest area was much more oppressive than in the previous episode.

For most contestants accustomed to pop and R&B, the Chinese style theme is a disaster.

Zhao Tianyu sat in front of the makeup mirror, letting the stylist fix his custom-made Hanfu worth 50,000 yuan.

His agent stood beside him, holding an iced Americano.

"I've found out. Jiang Fan found a few musicians who do freelance work and they rehearsed for three days."

Zhao Tianyu looked at himself in the mirror and a smile appeared on his lips.

On stage, the recording was already halfway through.

Teacher He held the cue cards in his hand, his voice loud and clear.

"Next up, please welcome our contestant from the Solo Track, Zhao Tianyu!"

Zhao Tianyu walked onto the stage. The lights dimmed, and white mist created by dry ice spread across the stage.

As the prelude begins, the chime bells, drums, and guzheng intertwine in a powerful and majestic manner. The song title, "Chang Ge Xing," appears on the large screen.

Zhao Tianyu was dressed in Hanfu, holding a folding fan, and deliberately added a lot of opera-style vocal transitions to his singing.

The lyrics are filled with words like "fading away," "heartbreaking," "the world," and "integrity," making them sound extremely ornate.

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

On the judges' panel, Hua Xingyu led the applause, his face full of admiration.

"Fantastic!" Hua Xingyu picked up the microphone. "This is true Chinese style! The grand arrangement, the profound cultural heritage, coupled with your perfect opera-style vocals. Tianyu, you've raised the bar for Chinese style music to a whole new level!"

Hua Xingyu gave it a perfect score of 100.

Xue Zhiheng frowned and gave it 90 points. Xu Qingya remained expressionless and gave it 80 points.

With the votes from the audience judges added, Zhao Tianyu has a total score of 750 points, currently ranking first in the entire competition.

Teacher He returned to the stage, glanced at his cue cards, and raised his voice by half an octave.

"Next up, please welcome Lu Ming from Sheng Hai Entertainment!"

The lights in the entire venue suddenly changed.

Lu Ming's stage showed everyone what it means to have "no budget limit".

Behind the stage, the lift slowly rose.

A full 30-member symphony orchestra, plus a 12-member folk music ensemble, appeared before the audience.

A holographic projection of countless peach petals fell from the sky.

Lu Ming stood in the center of the stage and sang "Rain in Jiangnan".

The arrangement is extremely complex, with various instruments taking turns to perform, showcasing technical skills to the extreme, and creating an auditory storm with sheer money.

As the music ended, the atmosphere reached its climax.

Hua Xingyu stood up abruptly and clapped vigorously.

"Perfect! Lu Ming, your stage performance was phenomenal!" Hua Xingyu lavished praise on you, "The top-notch arrangement that blends Chinese and Western elements, along with the massive band lineup—this is true respect for music! This is the right setup for Chinese music to go global!"

He gave it 100 points without any doubt.

Xue Zhiheng gave it 92 points, and Xu Qingya gave it 88 points.

The public voting has ended, and the numbers on the big screen have stopped.

Lu Ming's total score is 768!

It directly broke the highest score record since the show started.

The live chat exploded.

"Holy crap! Sheng Hai Entertainment is ruthless! How much did they spend on this stage design and band?"

Thirty symphony orchestra musicians plus twelve folk musicians? It's like they brought the National Centre for the Performing Arts here!

"It's over. With Zhao Tianyu and Lu Ming looming ahead, what can Jiang Fan do?"

On the contestant's platform, Lu Ming stepped off the stage, gave his manager a high-five, and then glanced defiantly in Jiang Fan's direction.

Two high mountains stood in front of us.

The anticipation and sense of pressure in the audience reached their peak at this moment.

Jiang Fan wasn't wearing his usual black T-shirt today.

Xu Qingya picked out a well-tailored shirt for him with a blue and white porcelain pattern.

Without any unnecessary accessories, she exudes a cool and aloof aura.

Jiang Fan walked towards the passage. Behind him, seven musicians carrying instruments followed.

This scene, captured on camera, caused an uproar throughout the room.

The barrage of comments exploded instantly.

"Holy crap? Xiaochou-ge has a band?"

"Guzheng, erhu, bamboo flute, and even an electric guitar and drum set? What kind of bizarre combination is this?"

"Oh no, oh no! Traditional Chinese music plus electronic music—that's the standard setup for a Chinese-style music car crash!"

Jiang Fan walked to the center of the stage. The seven musicians took their seats behind him.

Hua Xingyu sat on the judges' panel, looking at the scene on stage, and couldn't help but pick up the microphone.

"Jiang Fan, let me remind you. Traditional Chinese music isn't about throwing all the folk instruments on stage into a chaotic mess. Music needs hierarchy and restraint. Your setup could easily backfire."

Hua Xingyu's tone carried the admonition of an elder, seemingly well-intentioned, but in reality, it was subtly instilling in the audience the psychological suggestion that "this song will be very chaotic."

Jiang Fan stood in front of the microphone and adjusted the height of the stand with one hand.

He looked at Hua Xingyu.

"Teacher Hua," Jiang Fan's voice echoed throughout the venue through the speakers, "music doesn't need your definition."

The entire audience gasped.

That's outrageous.

An ordinary person directly confronted the celebrity mentors on the set of the recording.

Hua Xingyu's smile froze, and her eyes instantly darkened.

Jiang Fan ignored him, turned to look at the band behind him, and nodded slightly.

All the lights went out.

Only a beam of spotlight remained, shining on Jiang Fan.

On the big screen, three characters in calligraphy slowly appeared.

Blue and white porcelain.