Chapter 349 High Hopes and Doubts
The production team of "Idol Era" has high hopes for the joint performance of Lu Yanhe and the other two.
This is the first stage show that has already generated two waves of discussion and buzz online even before it has aired. The reason for this popularity is that all three of them are currently popular stars, and it is also because this is their reunion after a year.
The chances of them reuniting for a performance are slim. Firstly, it's difficult to coordinate the schedules of all three, and secondly, Lu Yanhe rarely performs on stage anymore.
However, in order to ensure that there are no leaks on this stage.
Apart from the staff in charge of each department on site, the director cleared the area, requiring everyone to leave the studio, and assigned people to guard the entrances and exits of the studio.
This practice has caused some dissatisfaction among other artists who wanted to watch the rehearsal.
It's not that I'm unhappy that I can't see the rehearsal, but rather that I'm unhappy that I didn't get this treatment when my program was rehearsed.
However, the director team's response left them speechless.
—We've heard that marketing accounts are offering up to 100,000 yuan for any information about the three of them performing together. They're willing to pay 100,000 yuan for just a candid photo, even if it's not clear. So our production team has to increase our efforts to keep this a secret.
The implication is that if your stage hadn't been offered such a high price, no one would have taken the risk for money.
And that is indeed the case.
This left them speechless.
After this incident, everyone became even more curious about what kind of stage the three of them were on.
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“I can’t find out anything, all I know is that the theme is retro.” When the assistant returned, he said to Ma Zhiyuan, who was still in the lounge, “Also, this song was written by Lu Yanhe, who said it’s another song about youth, just like ‘Remembrance’.”
Ma Zhiyuan's brow relaxed. "Like 'Remembrance'? Are they crazy, singing this kind of song on this kind of stage?"
"Their styles might still be different," the assistant said. "I heard their performance this time was more relaxed and cheerful."
Ma Zhiyuan's smile widened.
"Lighthearted and cheerful? Haha, what are they treating this stage for?"
Seeing Ma Zhiyuan's reaction, the assistant wanted to say something more, but after thinking about it, he kept quiet.
In truth, no matter what you say, Ma Zhiyuan won't listen. He's lost his normal judgment in this matter due to the prolonged tension.
However, it's good to let Ma Zhiyuan be so confident; it's better than him suffering a major setback.
The assistant couldn't understand why Ma Zhiyuan cared so much about Lu Yanhe and the others' stage.
In his assistant's opinion, Ma Zhiyuan is already the top idol artist in China. Even if he thinks that this person is a mess in private, he has to say that his popularity and data are all real, unlike many idol artists who are fabricated.
Moreover, since participating in this program, Ma Zhiyuan has become more dedicated to his performances, and each performance has surprised his fans, keeping his data at the top.
Isn't that enough?
What the assistant couldn't understand the most was Ma Zhiyuan's annoyance when Li Zhibai became a huge hit because of "Baiyu Yao".
It's normal for someone else to have a hugely popular drama airing, so their popularity is temporarily higher than his.
Who can always stay at the top in this industry?
Even with Lu Yanhe's aggressive approach, there have been ups and downs.
However, he could only mutter and complain to himself in his heart.
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After the rehearsal for the combined stage, Li Zhibai and Yan Liang still had their individual stage rehearsals to complete.
Lu Yanhe waited for them to go back together, then sat down and watched them rehearse.
Compared to their performance of "Green Apple Paradise," the two-person stage performance had a much more modern and idol-like feel.
Li Zhibai added a popping dance with electronic music to the middle of "Bewitched", and together with the ten dancers behind him, the eleven people moved very fast and in unison on stage, creating a very shocking visual effect.
Lu Yanhe was astonished.
Yan Liang's "The Battlefield of Youth" is more story-driven. He has only six dancers, and the dance movements are in a more graceful yet powerful modern dance style.
However, because of Yan Liang's personality and style, the performance has a very "positive and inspiring" feel.
This was the first time Lu Yanhe had seen their complete performance.
Both rehearsals surprised the staff on site.
Because both songs are new, not adaptations. New songs naturally have a fresh feel to them. Furthermore, these two songs have different styles, completely different from "Green Apple Paradise," yet each possesses its own charm. Everyone's saying that Li Zhibai and Yan Liang are both putting in a lot of effort.
After the three of them left, the director remarked, "It's a real loss for the music industry that Lu Yanhe is focusing his main energy on acting."
The others were puzzled by the director's words and asked, "Director, Lu Yanhe's singing is not bad, but it's not to the point of being a loss to the music industry, is it?"
The director smiled and said, "I'm not talking about his singing ability, I'm talking about his songwriting ability."
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In the dead of night, someone posted a thread on the "Spring Sprouts" forum:
Did you know? Tomorrow's performances—Lu Yanhe, Li Zhibai, and Yan Liang's trio stage, Li Zhibai's solo stage, and Yan Liang's solo stage—are all based on new songs written by Lu Yanhe and tailor-made for them.
Although it was the middle of the night, this post still drew out many lurking netizens.
—Can Lu Yanhe also write songs?
—Upstairs, Lu Yanhe wrote "Remembering".
—Was "Remembering" written by Lu Yanhe?
—Lu Yanhe wrote three songs in one go? Holy crap, is he really that insane? He can write screenplays, and now he can write songs too?
—Genius! It's beyond our mortal imagination. I don't know how their brains are structured; it's unbelievable. When he announced so many film and television projects, I wondered when he would finish them all. I never expected him to quietly write three more songs.
—How high can the quality be if you write three songs in such a short time? I could write them casually too.
—Why don't you go upstairs and listen to "Remembrance" before saying such things? Why don't you try writing one yourself?
—How dare you bring up such a trashy song as "Remembering"? If Song Linxin hadn't made it popular, what would it be?
— Lu Yanhe's rendition of "Remembering" was already quite popular, ranking among the top on music platforms at the time. Don't talk nonsense if you don't understand.
...
Helan read the comments in the post, her emotions fluctuating wildly between anger and strong agreement.
Regarding Lu Yanhe, Helan still couldn't understand why someone would view Lu Yanhe with such malice.
He Lan couldn't see any flaws in Lu Yanhe. In He Lan's eyes, it was an incredible achievement for Lu Yanhe, a sophomore who was only twenty years old, to have managed to get to where he was in the world after such a "death start." Moreover, even now, he didn't have any of the bad habits of "successful people."
He openly admitted to being in a relationship, diligently attended classes and wrote papers, and did not ask for any special treatment because of his status as a celebrity.
He Lan always felt that Lu Yanhe was a model of excellence, doing everything he did with all his might, so why should anyone criticize him?
However, as more and more people replied, Helan began to feel uneasy.
Because she found that what everyone was saying... actually made some sense. Indeed, can the quality of three new songs be guaranteed if they're released all at once?
He Lan knew that a genius could easily create something better than an ordinary person could work hard for a year. But writing three songs in one go? Rationally, He Lan also felt that the quality of the songs written in this way might be compromised. Even as a fan, He Lan couldn't say for sure that Lu Yanhe definitely had such talent, or that his songs would necessarily be good.
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The song "Remembering" has fans.
Especially many female fans, particularly those in junior high and high school.
They are at an age where they are easily moved by the content and emotions in songs, and they can easily evoke their own emotions and integrate their own experiences with the songs.
So, although it hasn't gained much momentum online, there are actually some people who are really looking forward to Lu Yanhe writing songs again.
When this song was first released, many music bloggers and even professional composers expressed interest in it and gave it high praise.
People are always forgiving of a person's debut work—but whether someone has the talent or the ability to create something is immediately obvious to everyone.
The praise people give to Lu Yanhe is not just empty words, but a genuine expression of their expectation that Lu Yanhe will write more songs.
As a result, more than two years later, Lu Yanhe's performing career was getting better and better, but he never wrote any more songs.
On the day of the live broadcast of "Idol Era", everyone had just woken up from their sleep and was groggily and subconsciously checking their phones when they saw a message that had been circulating overnight and had successfully topped the trending lists on various platforms: Lu Yanhe wrote three songs for "Idol Era"!
What the heck?!
Li Xiaobin is a college student at Jiangguang University. He is not studying music, but he loves music.
His father was also a music lover. Li Xiaobin always felt that his love for music was influenced by his father, but his father later died in a car accident.
When Li Xiaobin was deciding what he wanted to do in the future, he actually considered it very seriously for a long time, wondering if he should try to become a singer.
But he ultimately gave up. After his father passed away, his mother worked so hard to support his education that her hair turned gray at a young age. Under these circumstances, Li Xiaobin couldn't bear to abandon everything to pursue his dream. So, he finally chose Electrical and Information Engineering as his major because it was popular and offered good job prospects.
Despite this, Li Xiaobin still watches various domestic music programs and listens to new songs. He also always joins his classmates when they go to karaoke. His classmates say he's very talented when they hear him sing, and some even suggest he should participate in talent shows, saying he might become a singer.
Li Xiaobin was also tempted by such words, but he hesitated to take that step.
Because I dare not dream easily, for fear that once I start dreaming, I will not be able to wake up.
He also watches the show "Idol Era".
It's not a regular music program; it's an idol performance show. However, idol performances still involve singing, and as the show progresses, more and more programs feature original songs rather than covers. Li Xiaobin's show features one or two new songs in almost every episode, which sets it apart from many other music variety shows.
Today's episode is the last one of the first half of the year.
Li Xiaobin also knew that this episode was very important, and all the participating artists would definitely give their best performances.
Especially since Lu Yanhe will also be participating in this episode—Li Xiaobin will pay attention to Lu Yanhe, not because of his acting or anything, but because a classmate said that his singing style is very similar to Lu Yanhe's.
Lu Yanhe doesn't have many opportunities to sing, especially in the last two years; he's mostly performed at galas. The sound quality at these galas is generally not very good, definitely not as good as versions recorded on music variety shows or in a studio.
After hearing his classmate's evaluation, Li Xiaobin went to see Lu Yanhe's performance live.
Upon seeing this, Li Xiaobin finally understood why everyone was saying that.
One classmate made a very good point: "You all have a very clear sense of youthfulness."
The only song Lu Yanhe ever wrote was "Remembering." While Song Linxin's version is more widely known, Li Xiaobin prefers Lu Yanhe's. He can hear the emotion Lu Yanhe conveys while singing the song, as if he's greeting his parallel universe self from across time.
Li Xiaobin sometimes wonders, if parallel universes exist, is there another version of himself in his world realizing his dream of becoming a singer?
Li Xiaobin was also curious to know whether Lu Yanhe would continue writing songs.
He hasn't written a new song in two years.
Li Xiaobin no longer dares to have such dreams.
However, he never dreamed that Lu Yanhe would release three new songs in one go.
He was stunned when he saw this trending topic.
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A music blogger who usually shares news updated their status: "Is this rumor true or false? Lu Yanhe is going to sing three new songs on 'Idol Era' tonight? Didn't he already transition to acting? Why is he going back to singing? Is he going to return to the idol artist track?"
Such doubts are just the tip of the iceberg in the entire online world.
When Li Xiaobin searched for Lu Yanhe's name, many people were discussing the matter.
The news that Lu Yanhe would participate in "Idol Era" has already attracted a lot of attention.
Li Xiaobin was going to go live tonight, but he didn't expect to be trending on social media less than twelve hours before the live stream.
Li Xiaobin, filled with doubt, browsed the internet for quite a while.
Especially on Lu Yanhe's personal homepage, his latest Weibo post has many comments.
There are expectations, but even more doubts.
When he clicked on the profiles of several skeptics who had received many likes and were ranked at the top, he discovered that most of them were actually Ma Zhiyuan's fans.
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“Many people still don’t know that you wrote the two songs that Li Zhibai and Yan Liang sang. They all think you sang them yourself,” Chen Ziyan said. “Some people even went to the program team to protest, saying that you are just a guest, so how come you have more stage performances than the regular guests?”
Lu Yanhe said, "Isn't this just the production team stirring things up? They're not explaining things clearly."
"That's fine too, let's keep everyone looking forward to it," Chen Ziyan said. "Most of those stirring up trouble online are fans of Ma Zhiyuan and a few other artists. They're deliberately trying to create drama and target you. But in reality, most people are just taking a wait-and-see approach. If we respond too much before the actual performance, it will only cause more controversy and affect our performance tonight."
"So we're not going to respond at all?"
"Of course I still have to respond. I said I just didn't want to respond too much," Chen Ziyan said. "The company will issue a statement soon, mainly addressing the issue of the number of programs you're appearing on."
Lu Yanhe nodded.
“Ma Zhiyuan is deliberately trying to downplay your influence,” Chen Ziyan said. “He’s taking this first place too seriously.”
“There’s no way to avoid it. Yan Liang had the hit show ‘Friends’ at the beginning of the year, and Li Zhibai had the hit show ‘Bai Yu Yao’ in April. He only has ‘Idol Era’, so of course he hopes to get a good ranking,” Lu Yanhe said.
Chen Ziyan said, "I don't know what to say. To be honest, it's just a half-year ranking, so it doesn't really have that much impact on them, especially the first and second place. To be honest, even if Li Zhibai gets first place, it's impossible for them to get any more investment. He's already at the top. And even if Ma Zhiyuan gets second place, so what? His influence is there. They're both at the top. They won't easily change their endorsements unless it's a Waterloo and their ranking drops too much."
Lu Yanhe: "How would you know? Now all the media outlets have turned this ranking into the most authoritative list of idol artists. They've created the impression that only the idol artists on this list are real idol artists, and those who aren't on the list are just products of manipulation. The ones ranked lower aren't very good."
Chen Ziyan: "We're building momentum like this now, but it hasn't reached that point yet."
“With all this hype already in place, how could Ma Zhiyuan accept not being number one?” Lu Yanhe knew Ma Zhiyuan’s temperament and personality very well.
Chen Ziyan: "If he can't accept it, then there's still a long competition ahead. Can he really stay in first place forever? As the show continues to air and its influence grows, almost all idol artists will come to the show to compete. Under these circumstances, it's simply unrealistic for him to hold onto first place. If he doesn't adjust his mindset soon, he'll suffer later."
Lu Yanhe thought to himself, if Ma Zhiyuan could adjust his mindset sooner, he wouldn't be Ma Zhiyuan.
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There's one more chapter coming up, so please check back tomorrow morning. Don't stay up all night waiting.
(End of this chapter)
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