As soon as she came out, she ran into her colleague Xiao Fang, who was coming out of another break room.

"Let me tell you, the new contestant, Li Zishu, is actually Min Zishang! Oh my god, the director actually managed to invite Min Zishang!" Xiao Fang said excitedly as soon as she saw Xiao Lu.

While Xiao Fang was in school, Min Zishang's songs became popular all over the country.

It can be said that Min Zishang's songs permeated Xiao Fang's entire youth.

Min Zishang is a singer-songwriter, but unfortunately, he is a typical example of someone whose songs are more famous than he is.

So, for Xiao Fang, it was a huge surprise that the show was able to invite such a contestant.

"Who is Min Zishang?" Xiao Lu looked at Xiao Fang in confusion, not understanding why she was so excited.

"It's that singer who sang 'The Boy Who Loves to Play Guitar' and 'Lonely Night for Lonely Me'..." Xiao Fang explained to Xiao Lu with gestures.

Xiao Lu suddenly realized and continued, "Then the competition for the King of Singers this time is very fierce. It's a pity that Min Zishang's strength is still no match for the Peacock Showing Off in the last episode."

Xiao Fang's face fell immediately upon hearing her words.

Kong Que has been swaggering around and has won the title of "King of Singers" for several consecutive episodes, making the other contestants mere foils for her.

Moreover, after two rounds of competition, the audience guessed her true identity based on her stage presence and singing style.

As a famous singer in Taiwan, audiences will only be more eager to vote for her in the upcoming competition.

So even if it weren't Min Zishang, all the contestants on site combined might not be able to win.

Xiao Fang sighed, then looked at Xiao Lu, "Who is Sexy Xiao Qiang? Is it possible for her to rival Peacock Self-Promotion?"

The contestant Xiao Fang was receiving was Kong Que Zi Zhao Yao, who was known for his diva-like behavior.

Xiao Fang really hopes that a contestant will come along to put down the arrogant fireworks of the peacock's self-proclaimed arrogance.

Those of them who work behind the scenes are quite familiar with the contestants' information, so Xiao Fang casually asked.

"Uh... I don't know." Xiao Lu scratched her head awkwardly.

"That's true, we're not professional judges, so we can't say which singer sang well," Xiao Fang muttered to himself.

Xiao Lu waved her hands repeatedly and explained, "No, I not only don't know how Sexy Xiao Qiang sings, I don't even know her real identity."

Xiao Fang suddenly became mute.

On the other side, Xu Yanyu sat alone in the lounge, her eyes constantly scanning her surroundings.

She sat on the sofa, opposite a large screen.

She had watched the show "Masked Singer" a lot and knew that the stage would be shown on the screen during the competition.

There's still quite a while before the show officially starts recording, so since we're just killing time anyway, we might as well find some fun to do.

Xu Yanyu took out her phone and logged into the Sina Weibo backend.

As soon as she logged into her account, a series of notifications popped up in the background, all from fans sending private messages and tagging her.

"It must be Wei Li scolding me again!"

Xu Yanyu could guess the content of everyone's private messages without even opening them.

She sang "The Laughter of the Mortal World" in a previous live stream. Some fans, not wanting to miss out on the fun, edited the entire song and posted it on Weibo, not forgetting to tag Wei Li's wife.

This annoyed Wei Li, and he stopped posting any muses or new creative inspirations as usual.

For several days in a row, he kept hurling insults at Xu Yanyu.

Xu Yanyu randomly clicked on a mention, and her personal Sina Weibo page immediately jumped to Wei Li's page.

[Xu Yanyu, I advise you not to sing. What kind of song is this? "Laughter in the Mortal World," from its composition to its theme, is filled with arrogant feminist rhetoric, just like you yourself—utterly unreasonable.]

That's the first point. Then there's a second, a third, a fourth...

Xu Yanyu's singing is terrible; even the squawking of a hen being strangled is more pleasant to listen to than her singing.

Tell her to speak less in the future and not to embarrass herself in public!

Some people are of poor character, have bad morals, and do not cherish old friendships.

That's why she ended up being abandoned by everyone, and even the agency that nurtured her was going to sue her.

Please stop inserting the audio of "Laughter in the Mortal World" under my personal account!

Listening to "The Laughter of the Mortal World" once gives me nightmares for several days in a row.

[Such awful songs, who's going to compensate me for the emotional distress?]

...

Many onlookers left humorous comments in Wei Li's comment section.

"Teacher Wei, you don't like 'The Laughter of the Mortal World,' but your wife really likes it! She seems to have liked a video of 'The Laughter of the Mortal World.'"

"Teacher Wei, to be fair, the song 'Laughter in the Mortal World' is quite beautiful. I hope you can put aside your personal prejudices and analyze the song for us from a professional perspective."

"Who are you calling a female boxer? There should be a female boxer to teach Teacher Wei what real boxing is like."

"Yan Yu, hurry up and reply, Wei Li misses you again! Do you still want to gain followers in your live stream? Hurry up and reply to @Xu Yan Yu."

...

Xu Yanyu scanned all the interesting news, then returned to her Sina Weibo homepage to post a message.

[Dear Professor Wei, thank you for your guidance! But I must explain that I think I sang quite well, and I believe you are being insincere.]

Otherwise, you wouldn't have listened to a song on repeat for so long, analyzing everything from the sound and expression to the breath and the meaning so clearly.

I wasn't as patient, meticulous, and dedicated as you when I was doing English reading comprehension exercises back in the day...

So I believe you truly adore the song "Laughter in the Mortal World".

As soon as she posted this message, someone commented immediately.

"Haha, Yan Yu, you're right, he loves it to death!"

"To be honest, if it weren't for the fact that it had already been looped 360 times."

He also failed to notice that you gasped for breath at 3 minutes and 30 seconds, and at the same time noticed that your pronunciation of the lyrics in the tenth line was a little unclear.

You won't even realize you almost burped at the end... Ahahaha, I'm laughing so hard!

"Professor Wei, please reply soon! I love watching your back-and-forth discussions on art and life these past few days... @Wei Li"

Meanwhile, Wei Li was backstage at "Masked Singer," waiting for the show to begin recording.

He's too busy to log in to Sina Weibo.

He is discussing art-related topics with other instructors.

So even if Sina Weibo sends a notification that someone he's following has sent a message, he simply doesn't have the time to check it.

Xu Yanyu sat on the sofa scrolling through her phone. Finally, half an hour before the start of the match, Xiao Lu pushed open the door to Xu Yanyu's rest area again.

Xiao Lu whispered, "Teacher Xiao Qiang, we can draw lots now."

"Oh, come on!" Xu Yanyu looked away from her phone.

Under Xiao Lu's guidance, Xu Yanyu used a mobile app to draw her competitors and the order in which she would play.

"Teacher, you're the second in the third group to go on stage. Your groupmate is Thorny Rose," Xiao Lu said sympathetically to Xu Yanyu, quietly telling her the draw results.