Chapter 101: The Star Wheel

The regular program for the singers' anniversary celebration includes covers of hit songs by singers from both the male and female teams, as well as the selection of some singers with relatively high popularity and talent to perform special performances or compete against each other.

After a lot of laughter and merriment, the final moments of the evening's revelry arrived.

However, although there were finally more microphones at this year's anniversary celebration, so that it was no longer necessary for one microphone to be used by a whole row of people, the tradition of "microphone grabbing" and other activities involving microphones and singers is still a long-standing tradition in the Hong Kong music scene. So, in the last part of tonight, a king-on-king style microphone grabbing game was arranged in a new way.

Last year's Red and White Battle, where the Four Heavenly Kings and Four Heavenly Queens sang each other's songs, was arguably one of the most classic and exciting duel scenes in the "Golden Diamond Gala" series.

Referring to successful precedents, Li Sishi simply shared her ideas with Pei Yansang, who then communicated with the men's team to gain their approval. Consequently, she indirectly "controlled" a portion of the program arrangements during rehearsals.

Pei Yansang greatly admired Li Sishi, a junior with many ideas, and said frankly that if she were to retire in the future, the captain position for the annual anniversary male and female singer battles would be a successor...

Li Sishi was both amused and exasperated upon hearing this, but she also felt a sense of anticipation. She genuinely liked Pei Yansang, not only because of Pei Yansang's unique and confident personality and stage presence, but also because Pei Yansang was the only ever-changing diva in an era dominated by male artists in Hong Kong's entertainment industry who managed to carve out her own niche in every aspect.

To become a true legend in this fiercely competitive era, one needs more than just a title like "beauty pageant legend." One must also develop to a certain level in all aspects of singing, film, and television to be truly memorable.

She wanted to write her own legendary story in the 1990s, the so-called golden age of Hong Kong entertainment, so that while people reminisced about the glory of the four Heavenly Kings of the 1990s, they would also remember that there was a “successor to the Heavenly Queen” personally named by Pei Yansang, who would succeed her as one of the “Four Kings and One Queen” of the 1990s.

Of course, she would be even happier if her rise to prominence led to more resources being allocated to female artists of her generation. While getting a bigger slice of the pie might satisfy her own hunger, making the pie bigger would allow her to satisfy not only herself but also many others.

Therefore, even though there were clearly more ideas to highlight her own, Li Sishi decided in the program design to allow more female artists to participate, such as the joint performance at the beginning, and also...

This time, the All-Stars Gala will continue the previous red-white battle format.

"The game is played by each team sending four people, including you and me, the two captains..." Pei Yansang began to explain the game to the audience, "But this time, it's not like last year where you duel in pairs. Instead, you'll be paired up and form a big circle in front of the microphone stand, rotating clockwise..."

"That's right. After the game starts, some background music will play. When you hear the background music for your song, go to the microphone and sing."

Meanwhile, the other players, if they are on the opposing side, will try to stop this person from singing, while the allies will help this person finish singing…” Hou Beihua added, “The team that successfully finishes the most songs in the end wins.”

"Wait a minute—it's not that I'm biased towards the girls, it's just that there's a difference in physical strength between boys and girls. Wouldn't the boys have a huge advantage in a pulling situation that requires a lot of strength?" Host Egg asked at the right time.

"It's not that the boys are getting the better deal, it's clearly that the girls are taking advantage of us boys!" Hou Beihua said with a laugh. "We've already discussed this issue beforehand, so the final decision is that the boys can only touch the girls' heads with their hands at most, but the girls are not restricted..."

At this point, he looked at Pei Yansang, who was chuckling beside him, with a wronged expression: "Dear viewers, I'm sure those girls will come up with a lot of tricks to stop us boys from singing."

"Yes, yes, I'll arrange for you to stand next to me. When you start singing, I'll tickle your armpits, poke your side, kick your legs, and stomp on your feet. Let's see if you can still sing!" Pei Yansang rubbed her hands together, eager to get started.

Amidst the groans of the four male team members and the laughter of the audience, the formation began to be arranged.

The first person to consider is Ban Shuyan, whose temperament is completely out of place in the women's team. She has a cold and glamorous aura, but her height is only 1.6 meters, and she is the smallest and weakest. Therefore, the two people arranged next to her are Shang Hanyou and Hou Beihua.

As two "tall people" in the women's team who are both over 1.7 meters tall, Ye Shanyun (173 cm) and Li Sishi (171 cm) were undoubtedly arranged to "sandwich" the tallest man in the men's team, Ling Chen.

Logically, Huo Gucheng, who was second in physical strength among the men's team, should have been assigned to Li Sishi's other side. However, Pei Yansang and Ye Shanyun both considered that this guy would become reckless and lose his strength when he got carried away. So in the end, they assigned Shang Hanyou, who was the best in physical strength among the men's team but also knew how to use his strength to shield Li Sishi, the youngest girl, to avoid her getting injured in the game.

So the entire line was arranged as follows: Ling Chen, Li Sishi, Shang Hanyou, Ban Shuyan, Hou Beihua, Pei Yansang, Huo Gucheng, and Ye Shanyun. After Ye Shanyun and Ling Chen, the two highest-ranking members of the male and female teams, successfully joined hands and formed a circle, the game was finally about to begin.

"Let's get started right away!" Host Egg Bro quickly called out, "Music!"

"My goodness!" Upon hearing the first background music, which was her classic children's song "Dr. EQ," Pei Yansang, who was only one person away from the microphone, immediately elbowed Hou Beihua, who was standing to her right, to move aside, and then rushed to the microphone to sing.

"Pull her back..." Before Huo Gucheng, who was standing to Pei Yansang's left, could finish shouting "come back," Ye Shanyun, who was standing next to him, quickly pulled him back, causing him to stumble.

The eight people, who had initially formed a circle with the tacit cooperation of best friends Pei Yansang and Ye Shanyun, immediately began a chaotic battle. There was no way around it; although friend and foe were clearly distinguished, the problem was that everyone was essentially in the same boat, and sometimes when trying to attack the enemy, it was inevitable that allies would get caught in the crossfire…

Among them, Ban Shuyan, who was the smallest and weakest, was particularly pitiful. When she sang, Shang Hanyou and Hou Beihua on both sides attacked her in perfect unison, pulling her like a sapling being blown about by a No. 10 typhoon. If it weren't for her short hairstyle, her bun would probably have been torn apart.

This is when you need your teammates' help the most!

Li Sishi and Pei Yansang exchanged a glance; one of them grabbed the bottom of the microphone stand, and the other grabbed the front.

Chasing after the staggering Ban Shuyan to deliver the microphone, Ban Shuyan, with the help of her teammates, also lived up to expectations and unleashed all her singing skills and strength. Even with a forearm's distance between them, she still sang her hit song "Dark Night Maze" in a cold and enchanting way.

The background music circled around and came to Li Sishi, as if it were a replay of Ban Shuyan's fate of being pulled from both sides by the people around her.

"Pull her up! Pull her up! Don't let her sing!" Ling Chen, who had no friends left after the show, was so excited that he even called out to Shang Hanyou on the other side.

But Li Sishi was performing the hit song "Glamorous Debut" at that moment, and unlike Ban Shuyan, she wasn't easily taken advantage of. So she bravely resisted the pulling force from both sides and managed to sing a chorus into the microphone: "Perform until you look at me differently, release the suppressed energy on stage!"

The next turn after the song was at midnight, just after passing the microphone stand. The game rules were clockwise, so midnight...

He immediately took advantage of his height and long legs, and with the support of his teammates, sprinted back to the microphone: "...But why in my heart—oh dear!"

After barely managing to finish singing the second half of "There's always affection," Ling Chen immediately looked at the real culprit who was stopping him from singing: Li Sishi's little hand that was causing trouble on his waist.

Discovering that the vengeful Li Sishi had actually learned Pei Yansang's dirty trick of poking the enemy's soft side, Ling Chen was both amused and exasperated. He changed his hand-holding to a hand-holding and used all his strength to hold down Li Sishi's clutches that were interfering with his singing. As a result, he sang a lighthearted love song with almost gritted teeth: "Your image in my heart will never change. You are my darling, my dear!"

It was rare to see Ling Chen, who is usually so cheerful when singing this song, sing it with such gritted teeth. Coupled with Li Sishi, who was causing trouble next to him but was stopped, and her frustrated little expression of wanting to struggle but being unable to get away, the whole audience burst into laughter.

The next song is Huo Gucheng's "Wild City". In order to support his teammates, Shang Hanyou had to do a lot of searching from afar and had a love-hate relationship with Pei Yansang, who was causing trouble next to Huo Gucheng. Therefore, when the last BGM came out, he had to struggle for a long time before he was able to break through Pei Yansang's counterattack.

Using all his strength, Shang Hanyou pulled the team around half a circle, then, panting heavily, he collapsed in front of the microphone stand amidst the laughter of the audience.

"And where's the microphone?!" Just as he was about to sing, he discovered that the microphone stand in front of him was actually just a stand. Shang Hanyou instantly revealed his comedic nature. His dumbfounded expression was so perfect that every frame was a meme. The audience, who had already been amused by Li Sishi's unexpected antics, burst into laughter again.

But while the audience laughed, they also pointed out the truth to him: "Left side, left side... 'Mai' is with 'May'! Hahahaha!"

The pronunciations of "Mai" and "May" are similar, and the audience couldn't stop laughing.

Shang Hanyou looked thoughtfully to the left.

Li Sishi, whose hands were being held by Ling Chen, was seen holding the missing microphone in her mouth. If he could see the replay, he would have seen that when he was leading the team in circles, Li Sishi suddenly reached out and grabbed the microphone stand as he walked in front of it.

Meanwhile, Ling Chen, who was to her right, was afraid that Ling Chen would mess with the microphone stand and disturb her teammates like Ban Shuyan had done earlier. So she grabbed Ling Chen's messy hand and dragged her away from the microphone.

As it turned out, Li Sishi was quite "carefree." Even without her mouth, she was still agile, using the dragging force to grab the lower half of the microphone, which she had secretly twisted open and lost its grip, and ran away...

Stunned for a second by Li Sishi's ingenious move, Shang Hanyou finally turned serious and looked at Li Sishi, who had deliberately snatched the microphone away with a smug little expression.

Without needing to say a word, the four words "What can you do to me?" were vividly demonstrated on the spot.

Seeing this provocative gaze, Shang Hanyou, who dared to accept the challenge, sternly stretched out his ruthless iron hand and forcibly pulled Li Sishi's head back, holding it down and fixing it in place. He then took the opportunity to lean closer to her face and, with a ferocious expression, sang the last line of the lyrics into the microphone that had finally returned to his mouth: "I, love, you, the, most! With me for this life OH~OH~ what fear is there of tomorrow~ the wind is high and the road is winding!"

This famous scene of "holding Leo's hand and pressing his face against Hanyou's" was later "respectfully" dubbed by netizens as: a modern-day version of "eating what's in one bowl while eyeing what's in another."