24: Chapter 24 The Descendant of Sorrow!

On Thursday afternoon, Li Cheng sent a WeChat message.

"The format for the second round has been confirmed. It's a 1v1 challenge within the same track, and the lower-ranked contestants have priority in choosing their challengers. Zhao Tianyu will choose to challenge you. Times Media has hired a gold-medal producer for him, and they've tailor-made a song for him. How are you preparing?"

Jiang Fan replied with three words.

"Got it."

Li Cheng waited for ages without receiving anything further, so he couldn't help but send another message: "Aren't you nervous at all?"

On the phone screen, the chat box remained as silent as stagnant water.

Li Cheng stared at it for ten seconds, then flipped his phone face down on the table and cursed: "What a handful."

— — Friday, 7:00 PM.

Pengcheng, the main Studio at Tencent Video headquarters.

As Jiang Fan walked into the backstage corridor, the doors to the contestants' lounges on both sides were wide open.

Makeup artists and stylists were moving in and out, and the smell of hairspray and perfume was everywhere.

Passing by Zhao Tianyu's lounge, Jiang Fan swept a glance with his peripheral vision.

There were five or six people crowded around him.

Two vocal coaches were helping Zhao Tianyu with his final warm-ups, a man in a suit was repeatedly playing an Arrangement demo on an iPad, and standing nearby was an assistant ironing out wrinkles on his performance outfit.

Zhao Tianyu sat in the makeup chair, resting with his eyes closed, with earphones in his ears.

It was quite a spectacle.

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

— — 8:00 PM sharp, the recording officially began.

The Studio lights came on, and five million online viewers flooded into the Livestream Room.

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

"Welcome back to 'Tomorrows Star'! In the previous initial stage, contestants from all three tracks brought us some truly wonderful performances. But the competition has only just begun."

"Starting from tonight, the elimination process officially begins."

The atmosphere on set tightened instantly.

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

Teacher He turned around, and the rules appeared on the big screen.

"Within each track, lower-ranked contestants will take turns challenging higher-ranked contestants. Both sides will perform one song each. The three Star Mentors will score them, combined with votes from the public jury. The side with the lower total score will enter the waiting area."

"Contestants in the waiting area will face the risk of direct elimination in the final elimination round."

There was a stir in the contestant seating area.

The competition for the Beauty Track started first.

A few rounds of 1v1 ended quickly. Lu Ming was never called out and advanced directly.

He sat in the contestant seating area, his expression indifferent, as if it were a matter of course.

— — "Next up — the Solo Track!"

Teacher He's voice went up half an octave.

The comments in the Livestream Room instantly doubled in density.

[It's here, it's here! Jiang Fan!]

[The Solo Track is the real main event!]

[Who will Zhao Tianyu choose? He wouldn't really choose Jiang Fan, would he?]

Soon, it was Zhao Tianyu's turn.

Zhao Tianyu stood up and straightened his suit collar.

He didn't hesitate at all.

"I challenge Jiang Fan."

The venue erupted in an uproar.

The corners of Hua Xingyu's mouth curled up almost imperceptibly.

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

Jiang Fan sat in his chair, not even standing up.

"Accepted."

— — Zhao Tianyu went first.

When he walked onto the stage, all the lights in the venue dimmed, leaving only a single beam of white light from above.

The moment the Arrangement intro blasted from the speakers, Xue Zhiheng's eyelid twitched.

Electronic synthesizers, string sections, and drum beats were layered one after another; a production of this level would cost at least six figures.

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

The melisma in the chorus flowed like clouds and water, with almost no obvious flaws to be found.

When the song ended, there was enthusiastic applause in the venue.

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

He raised his score card: 95 points.

Xu Qingya's expression was calm as she flipped over the card in front of her: 90 points.

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

He gave a super high score of 98 points directly.

The big screen flickered, and the public jury's voting results settled.

448 votes! Total score 731!

An extremely high score.

The comments were also full of praise.

[Zhao Tianyu's song is amazing!]

[What level is this Arrangement? It's two levels higher than the initial stage.]

[Jiang Fan is in danger; the quality of this song is too high.]

Zhao Tianyu walked off the stage and headed toward the contestant seating area amidst cheers.

As he passed by Jiang Fan, his footsteps stopped.

Zhao Tianyu turned slightly, lowered his voice, and chuckled at a volume only the two of them could hear.

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

Jiang Fan didn't even lift an eyelid.

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

The spotlight fell on him.

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

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

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

"This song is called 'sorrow relief'."

At the judges' table, Xue Zhiheng sat up straight abruptly.

In the Livestream Room, the comments exploded completely within 0.3 seconds.

[sorrow relief??]

[Wait, wait, wait, wait, sorrow relief? You mean that sorrow relief on Douyin?!]

[No way, no way, no way??]

[Brother Xiao Chou is him?!]

Two weeks ago, a blurry mobile phone video from a bar was uploaded to Douyin.

The footage was shaky, the audio quality was rough, and one could only see a young man in black holding a guitar, sitting under dim lights.

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

The "Brother Xiao Chou" entry hung on the hot search list for three consecutive days, and no one knew who he was.

Now, he was sitting on a nationally broadcast stage, announcing the name of that song.

Eight million online viewers went crazy simultaneously.

Jiang Fan lowered his head and his right hand struck the strings.

The intro began to play.

It was the exact same melody as in that blurry video — but this time, it was in its complete form, bolstered by master-level vocals.

"When you walk into this place of joy."

"Carrying all your dreams and desires on your back."

As the first line came out, the color visibly drained from Zhao Tianyu's face.

Those elaborately arranged, gorgeous Arrangements that cost six figures to produce — in front of this battered guitar and this voice, they all became nothing more than background noise.

Hua Xingyu's hand, which was putting down his water cup, froze in mid-air.

And Xu Qingya, sitting on the far right of the judges' table, saw the light in her eyes brighten startlingly in an instant.

It was the first time she had heard Jiang Fan with his master-level vocals fully unleashed on stage.

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

The moment the chorus exploded, not a single person in the five hundred audience seats in the Studio could remain seated.

Xue Zhiheng braced his hands on the table, leaned forward, his lips trembling slightly.

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

"Supporting my body, weighing down my shoulders."

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

Master-level vocals pushed the limits of this song to a whole new dimension.

The comments were already impossible to see clearly.

The white subtitles covered the entire screen like a snowstorm, and one could only vaguely discern the same sentence appearing repeatedly —

[Brother Xiao Chou has been found!!!!!!]

The last line.

Jiang Fan closed his eyes.

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

"Forgive my mediocrity, dispel the confusion."

"Well, after dawn, we always leave in a rush."

"The sober ones are the most absurd."

The last note of the outro faded away.

The whole venue was silent.

Then —

The entire Studio erupted into the most intense applause since the show began.

Xue Zhiheng stood up and picked up his score card.

He flipped directly to the last page.

100 points.

"Full marks. Without any dispute." Xue Zhiheng's voice was a bit hoarse, "This is the first perfect score I've given on 'Tomorrows Star'."

The whole venue boiled over again.

Xu Qingya picked up her score card. 98 points.

She didn't say much, just watched Jiang Fan on stage with a calm gaze, the curve of her lips known only to herself.

Everyone's gaze finally converged on Hua Xingyu.

Hua Xingyu's fingers gripped the score card, his knuckles cracking.

In the previous round, he gave 61 points and was scolded by the entire internet for a whole week, losing 800,000 followers.

In this round, an internet sensation with 80 million views, the original singer himself had arrived on the spot, and Xue Zhiheng had given a perfect score.

If he gave a low score again —