After offending capital, my songs became more and more popular.

Chapter 190 "The Moon on the Fifteenth"

Narrative, lyrical, and metaphorical—when Shen Ming'en finished singing "Little White Poplar," the audience erupted in a thunderous roar!
"Oh!!!"

"Ahhhh!!!"

Someone shouted:

"I also want to go and guard the border for my country!"

"You'll regret joining the army for three years, but you'll regret not joining for a lifetime!"

"A true man should defend his country!"

The audience of "Chinese Music Center: Red Song Season" is incomparable to that of the audience of "Peak Singer Challenge" next door. Most of the audience here are fans of Shen Ming'en and they are very supportive of him.

When they hear a good piece of work, they don't hesitate to cheer and applaud, and they generously give the most sincere praise.

The chat in the adjacent online live stream also exploded at this moment, with many people spamming:
[Well, here's another piece that could be used in textbooks!]

[Those people can guess exactly how the Chinese teacher will do reading comprehension exercises, hahaha...]

[Don't say anything more, I'll copy it down word for word, and then I'll pretend to be an expert when the teacher assigns my son homework.]

[Pfft... This is the fourth round. If nothing unexpected happens, Shen Ming'en will pass again!]

Strictly speaking, there are still two rounds left, but judging from Shen Ming'en's current state, I feel that even if there were five or ten more rounds, he could still clear the game in one life!

The true value of those who frequently endorse revolutionary songs!

Do you even know what it means for Emperor Ming'en to rule with absolute power throughout eternity?

[Shen Ming'en: I'll say it again, hands in my pockets, I'll just kill whoever I want!]

……

Complete and perfect, Shen Ming'en's "Little White Poplar" may not be as catchy or distinctive as his previous works such as "One Two Three Four Song" and "Love My China", but it is really "down-to-earth" and easy for everyone to accept.

It touches people's hearts in silence.

This alone makes it unmatched by the works of other singers...

Admittedly, the singers' performances in this round were of high quality, but they were like people climbing a mountain. Although the places they stood on were getting higher and higher, there was always a mountain blocking their way, making them hesitate to move forward.

When they looked up, they felt they could see the top and the end of the mountain each time, but when they climbed to higher peaks, they found that they were only a tiny bit closer to the highest mountain.

I'm not willing to give in...

Desperate!
Every single singer backstage seemed to have been "defeated" by Shen Ming'en.

Especially Yue Huochuan...

Veteran singer Yue Huochuan is physically and mentally exhausted, making it extremely difficult for him to create another piece within a short timeframe. He has already informed the production team that he only plans to perform previously released material and cannot strictly adhere to the assigned theme. Otherwise, the production team might as well eliminate him...

He knew he couldn't possibly be a match for Shen Ming'en, and he had already planned to leave the show.

I just never imagined I'd be treated this "disgustingly" before leaving...

"Ugh……"

He first sighed silently, then Yue Huochuan's gaze swept towards Chen Chuan not far away.

He immediately launched into a pointed question to Chen Chuan: "You call this a sign of creative exhaustion?"

Just before Shen Mingen went on stage to perform, Chen Chuan said that Shen Mingen might have run out of ideas and couldn't compete with those capitalists anymore because he had taken the initiative to tell the production team that he wanted to withdraw from the show.

Now look what's happened! Shen Ming'en's high-quality border defense-themed work, "Little White Poplar," has directly slapped him in the face.

At this moment, Chen Chuan, the "dark horse," also had a twitch at the corner of his mouth. His expression clearly showed that he hadn't expected Shen Ming'en's performance to be of such high quality. To be honest, he was a little unsure of himself now. If it really was five rounds of PK plus the round that Shen Ming'en had added on his own initiative, making a total of six rounds, and even with their outside help, they still couldn't beat Shen Ming'en, then things would really get interesting!
That would be a blatant humiliation!

And now, things seem to be developing in that direction.

Let alone the fifth round, they don't even know what to do with the fourth round's "border defense" topic, or the second performance proposed by Shen Ming'en!

During Shen Ming'en's performance, their CPUs were practically burning out and they still hadn't figured out what to do next...

Many people followed Yue Huochuan's example and went to the program team to report that they couldn't write anymore.

There's nothing we can do about it...

If they don't report it beforehand and don't sing their previous "stock" songs, what if they cause a "stage accident" on stage?
Not everyone is willing to bite the bullet and go on stage.

They were like that, Yue Huochuan was like that, and Chen Chuan wasn't much better!

At this moment, this guy is still "comforting himself," saying, "He prepared five songs in a week, and the quality of four of them is already amazing. There's a fifth show coming up, so this last-minute addition probably won't be any better. Don't worry too much."

Then Yue Huochuan poured cold water on him at this moment, saying, "Since he dared to make such a suggestion, he must have been prepared in advance. Have you forgotten how fearless he was back then?"

"...It's not your mother's fault..." Chen Chuan was furious and no longer respected his senior. He asked, "Whose side are you on? Why don't you go and help Shen Ming'en fight against the capitalists?"

"I just can't stand you deceiving yourselves!" Yue Huochuan said.

"What else can we do but deceive ourselves?! Tell me what to do?!" Chen Chuan shouted, "I've already said what I wanted to say, am I supposed to kneel down and apologize? Will apologizing make him stop writing the second piece in the fourth round?!"

"Heh~" Yue Huochuan sneered.

He glanced at Chen Chuan, then turned and left the lounge.

I'm really too lazy to talk to these people...

All he could say was that these people had absolutely no idea how terrifying Shen Ming'en was!

……

After this round of performances, we moved on to the "announcement of votes" segment.

Perhaps because the focus of this fourth round was more on the second piece of the theme "Defense Line" proposed by Shen Ming'en, many people didn't pay much attention to the voting.

Of course, a bigger reason is also because there's not much suspense involved...

Although the works of these mainstream singers in this round are all at a higher level, and even comparable to Shen Ming'en's previous level, they are still no match for Shen Ming'en's "Little White Poplar" in this round.

In the end, Shen Ming'en received 499 votes in the live vote and over 14.58 million votes in the online live stream.

They maintained their dominant championship form throughout this round.

Fans couldn't help but say: "No matter how many rounds it goes, he'll always be the champion!"

To be honest, when the second round ended and the third round began, many people were a little worried about Shen Ming'en, fearing that his performance would decline. Everyone knew what performing five patriotic songs in a week meant... But in the fourth round, when Shen Ming'en won the championship for the fourth time with an absolute crushing advantage, and when Shen Ming'en even publicly provoked all the other singers before his performance of "Little White Poplar" in the fourth round, questioning whether they had written their own songs and demanding an extra song...

People are really not worried about Shen Ming'en anymore.

Because everyone could see his arrogance and fearlessness.

Everyone could feel his confidence!
In his eyes, you could tell that he had never respected those mainstream singers, yet they always seemed to see him as a thorn in their side.

Especially that rising star Chen Chuan, I don't know if his team has prepared some kind of "bundled marketing" strategy or what, but since this round of performances, his fans have been comparing him to Shen Ming'en in all sorts of ways. One minute they're saying he's definitely better than Shen Ming'en in this performance, and the next minute they're saying he's just as good as Shen Ming'en...

According to Shen Mingen's fans, he's not even qualified to be Shen Mingen's successor!

I've been wanting to teach these people a lesson for a long time, and now that scene is about to come true!
Thinking about it, the audience was actually quite happy.

"Okay, let's take a short break. The encore will officially begin in an hour!"

After the advertisement was read, the intense competition finally entered a short break, guided by the host.

The singers backstage also need time to do this brief "temporary creation".

Actually, this situation is quite interesting. After Shen Ming'en suggested "adding another round of songs at the last minute," it would be fine if the singers backstage could produce some original works, but if they couldn't, they would definitely have to "bring in outside help."

Even if they can produce a new work, if the quality of their work declines compared to their performance in the fourth round, the audience isn't deaf or blind, and they'll naturally understand.

So now, for the singers backstage, the best way to prove that they "didn't hire outside help" is to create a piece that is no less impressive than the one they created in the fourth round on the theme of "defense line".

But is this possibility really that high?

How can it be……

In order to counter Shen Ming'en, this group of 13 people became stronger with each round. When they came to the fourth round, the "Defense Line" challenge, they could be said to have performed at almost their highest level on stage.

To put it bluntly, they themselves find it difficult to surpass their own past achievements.

Originally, the intention was to target Shen Ming'en, which is why I arranged the quality of my works according to the order of performance. But I never expected that Shen Ming'en would trick me into this mess at the last minute...

Backstage, several singers, like Yue Huochuan, had given up hope and simply resigned themselves to their old material. Only Chen Chuan and a few others were still unwilling to admit defeat and were thinking of giving it a try.

It's worth mentioning that some of them shared Chen Chuan's opinion, saying something like, "Shen Ming'en probably needs to hurry up and prepare his encore. He's just as nervous as we are. Don't worry, we're all on the same starting line..."

That was her original plan, and she even asked one of the staff members to find out what Shen Ming'en was doing. But just a few minutes later, she regretted asking, because the staff member told her, "Teacher Ming'en said... he's sleepy and is going to... catch up on his sleep."

"Catch up on sleep???"

When they heard this answer, the singers backstage were all dumbfounded!

Ber……

We've been working ourselves to the bone here, and you've gone to catch up on sleep?!

Could this guy really be completely confident about this encore round, and have his song already prepared?!
That's an exaggeration...

It's fucking outrageous!
It's worth mentioning that although the competition was suspended, giving the creators time to compose and perform additional works, the online live stream continued...

After all, there are still a lot of advertisements that haven't been aired yet, so how could the production team bear to let go of such a large amount of traffic?

It was also because Shen Ming'en's popularity skyrocketed whenever the camera focused on him that during the intermission when the singers were creating and performing encore songs, the camera almost always focused on Shen Ming'en's dressing room.

Then, everyone could see Shen Ming'en lying there, fast asleep...

【…】

To be honest, at that time, in the live broadcast room where tens of millions of people were watching online at the same time, the barrage of comments went into a vacuum for a period of time.

You know, when the camera first focused on Shen Ming'en, many people were wondering if he was preparing for a project like everyone else...

They were even somewhat looking forward to Shen Ming'en's "creative process".

How can one not look forward to the creative process of such a talented and prolific creator?

But when they saw Shen Ming'en lying there fast asleep, many people had to admit that their brains almost short-circuited...

What's this guy doing?

[Did he spend his entire hour creating art sleeping?]

Don't tell me he prepared his work in advance. He prepared five pieces a week, four of which are now masterpieces. How could he possibly have the time and energy to prepare a sixth?

[…Isn't this a bit too disrespectful to the other singers?]

……

These days, audiences are just like Runtu (a character from a Chinese folktale), they love to find badger!

If singers on stage don't sing well, they're called awful; if they sing well, they're accused of showing off. But if someone sings beautifully without any technique, they're accused of lacking emotion...

Now, even if Shen Mingen takes a nap backstage, people are saying he's disrespecting the other singers...

The question is, why should Shen Ming'en respect them?
So what if I find them disgusting?

Many of Shen Mingen's fans and casual supporters are commenting:

[Have some people been hiring outside help for one or two phases already? Shen Ming'en was specifically targeting them!]

If their work was truly prepared by themselves, then they certainly deserve respect, but dare you say they prepared it themselves?

[I actually find Shen Ming'en's sleeping posture to be one of nonchalance and confidence. He always seems carefree and irresponsible, but he's always been incredibly reliable!]

[As I said before: You can always trust Shen Ming'en!]

……

Doubts and skepticism arose, and a group of trolls began attacking Shen Ming'en online.

The singers backstage at "Chinese Music Awards: Red Song Season" probably felt disrespected by Shen Ming'en, so they were all very angry. Some of them who originally planned to sing their old songs simply went to write songs, probably because they were all aroused by the fighting spirit.

What a pity...

Unfortunately, Shen Ming'en prepared "The Moon on the Fifteenth" for the next song, otherwise they might have had a real chance.

……

(End of this chapter)