Entertainment Era: Starting with Teaching Sister Meng to Sing

At 10:30 a.m., Wang Xiaozhou and others were still asleep, but the online buzz about Wang Xiaozhou's new song from yesterday had already reached its peak.

Currently, five out of ten trending topics on Weibo are about Wang Xiaozhou and the show "All the Way South".

The hashtag "【Wang Xiaozhou's new song】" also successfully topped the list, marking the first time Wang Xiaozhou has reached the top of Weibo's trending topics.

Clicking on the entry reveals nearly 100,000 comments, making it impossible to scroll to the bottom.

"From the moment Meng Ziyi first sang on The Voice of China, I searched for the personal information of lyricist and composer Wang Xiaozhou. I've always been interested in talented people, but I searched through all the websites and still couldn't find Wang Xiaozhou's personal information. That's when I knew he was extraordinary."

After that, all the songs Meng Ziyi sang were original, and the lyricist and composer was always Wang Xiaozhou. I became more and more curious about him, even to the point of being crazy.

It wasn't until Wang Xiaozhou made a short film that I saw him on screen for the first time. My first impression was that he was handsome, and then I thought he was young.

I just can't understand how someone who wrote songs like "Northeast Folk Song," "The World," and "As You Wish" could be as young as Wang Xiaozhou.

It wasn't until the end credits song of Wang Xiaozhou's short film came out, a song called "Preface to the Orchid Pavilion" sung by Wang Xiaozhou himself, that I knew from that moment on that talent knows no age, and that he was a true genius.

The same goes for "The You of the Past," a song written on the road. Although there are restrictions imposed by netizens, the artistic conception in the song is so strong that it makes people want to quit their jobs and go out to see the world.

The most touching thing in the world is sincerity, and I'm definitely going to be a fan of Wang Xiaozhou.

This is the most popular comment. Below it, there is another comment from a netizen named "[See Girl and Smoke]".

"Wang Xiaozhou's songs have always given me a grand and romantic feeling. From 'Northeast Folk Song' to today's 'Once You Were,' I have heard almost every one of these songs. In particular, the song 'Light,' which he wrote for Meng Ziyi and Teacher Wang Feng, was truly amazing on stage. The combination of a hundred-person choir, Meng Ziyi's heavenly voice, and Teacher Wang Feng's powerful vocals made me feel that this is how a singer should be."

I watched the live broadcast of "All the Way South" yesterday. To be honest, this episode was quite rushed for a variety show. I guess the reason was that they misjudged the travel distance, and the production team didn't want to break their promise, so they had to broadcast it on the road. This must have made the live broadcast very boring.

But Wang Xiaozhou is the kind of performer every director wants to meet. He was able to attract viewers with his personal abilities, making the number of viewers for the entire live stream increase rather than decrease. This ability is simply amazing.

The song was written based on randomly provided lyrics by the audience, and every line of the lyrics perfectly captured the theme, even matching the order of the lyrics provided. It was truly amazing.

Following this, some netizens also expressed their admiration for Wang Xiaozhou's acting skills.

"You're all discussing the songs, but no one seems to have noticed how amazing Wang Xiaozhou's acting is. I was blown away the first time he appeared in a short film. He was like someone who had truly stepped out of ancient times. His acting in 'The Return of the Soul' was even more outstanding. Zhang Kai's performance gave me chills. He's clearly a treasure of an actor."

Many people agreed with this comment, while others said that a talented creator like Wang Xiaozhou should keep writing songs. The two groups even argued about it for a while.

In short, regardless of the circumstances, starting from this live broadcast, Wang Xiaozhou truly entered the public eye, and many people finally associated his face with the name Wang Xiaozhou.

That's why so many celebrities are willing to participate in variety shows. If these shows become popular, they can really gain a lot of fans, and they're all die-hard fans.

The next day, when Wang Xiaozhou woke up in his room, the first phone call he received was from Wen Ye, who came to congratulate him and said that Wang Xiaozhou's Weibo followers had exceeded three million.

Wang Xiaozhou scratched the back of his head, not remembering that he had ever registered for this. He took out his phone and called Song Shihui, only to find out that it was Ganwei that was helping with the operation.

It's true that things are unpredictable. I worked so hard to boost Meng Ziyi and Mao Xiaotong's popularity, hoping to help them advance their careers, but after half a year of effort, it was not as good as me appearing on camera twice.

When someone is truly outstanding, there's no way to hide their brilliance; they can't hide it anywhere.

We went out and met up with everyone at the hotel restaurant. While having breakfast together, we discussed the plans for the afternoon.

"What are we doing on our live stream today? Playing games?"

Yellow Hair stuffed a large steamed bun into his mouth and asked indistinctly.

He was the only one in the room who dared to ask about the planning so brazenly while Wang Xiaozhou was working.

Wang Xiaozhou shook his head: "Travel variety shows should play fewer games and have fewer competitions. Let's just use the camera to show everyone scenery they've never seen before."

The blond-haired guy asked again, "Are we just going to walk around and look at the scenery? Won't the audience get bored?"

Wang Xiaozhou replied, "Then it depends on the personal charm of the guests. The audience mainly watches variety shows because of the person you are. If you are not interesting, no matter what kind of program effect you create, it will be boring."

But just walking around is a bit too monotonous, so let's have a competition! We'll divide everyone into three groups, each going out to explore the streets and bringing back a dish. Then everyone will vote on which dish is the best, but you can't vote for yourself. The group with the most votes will stay in a luxury hotel, and the group with the fewest votes will stay in the village hotel. How about that?

This time, Fumino pressed on, "Isn't the punishment too simplistic? Should we make it more severe?"

Wang Xiaozhou shook his head repeatedly: "Our kind of competition is just for fun. If the punishment is too severe, like making the guests do physical labor all day, the audience won't like watching it."

Okay, nominally Wenye is the program director, but Wang Xiaozhou still has to control the overall direction.

The style of the program and the specific segments are ultimately up to Wang Xiaozhou.

Since Wang Xiaozhou felt that the punishment shouldn't be too severe, then we should definitely listen to him.

After finalizing the program schedule, everyone ate breakfast and went back to rest. Huang Mao, taking advantage of everyone's inattention, secretly stayed until the end and pulled Wang Xiaozhou aside.

"Um... she contacted me. Like you said, I told her that your new movie needed a female lead, and then, I don't know how, she became really nice to me after hearing that, and she's on her way here now."

Wang Xiaozhou wasn't too surprised to hear this, but simply asked, "She came to Jingli?"

The blond-haired man nodded: "Yeah, what should I do now? Should I go pick her up? Should I avoid her when we're recording the show tonight?"

Wang Xiaozhou nodded: "Go pick her up, but when you're recording the show tonight, have her wait for you at the hotel. Even if she doesn't listen and goes out to find you, you have to pretend you don't know her in front of the camera."

The blond-haired man hesitated, "Isn't this a bad idea? We still have to do a live stream. If she causes a scene, it will have a terrible impact."

Wang Xiaozhou chuckled: "Who said she would cause trouble? Since she came all this way to find you, she must want something from you."

Listen to me, this time when you meet, be assertive and make all your demands on her. She won't dare to cause trouble.

Seeing that Huang Mao was still hesitant, Wang Xiaozhou raised an eyebrow: "Do you still want to play?"

"think!"

Wang Xiaozhou was really good at instigating these young boys. After accurately grasping their needs, he gave an order, and the blond-haired boy immediately rushed to the bus station like he was on steroids.

Why not a train?

Jingli does not currently have a train station.

Wang Xiaozhou went back to his room and took another nap. Around 3 p.m., a knock on the door woke him up. When he opened the door, he saw that it was Mao Xiaotong.

"Why did you sleep for so long? You didn't even eat lunch. I had the hotel make you a simple meal; take it and have a bite."

Wang Xiaozhou stepped aside to let the person in. Mao Xiaotong put her bag on the table, which contained a simple egg fried rice and two servings of pickled vegetables.

"I was too tired from driving yesterday. Besides, young people are naturally able to sleep, and I'm still growing, so it's normal for me to sleep a little longer."

After tearing open the outer packaging of the lunchbox, Wang Xiaozhou began to wolf down his food.

Mao Xiaotong was speechless for a moment. Wang Xiaozhou was already 1.83 meters tall, which was definitely considered tall among boys. How could he say that he was still growing?

That's not entirely wrong, because he's not even nineteen yet...

"Where is Meng Ziyi? Where did they go?"

Wang Xiaozhou had witnessed the power struggles between the two women over the years, and he didn't believe that Meng Ziyi's words at the hotel meant that Mao Xiaotong would have had the opportunity to deliver food to his room alone.

Sure enough, Mao Xiaotong rolled her eyes upon hearing this: "Xu Min doesn't know what she's up to. Lately, she's been trying to curry favor with Meng Ziyi. Meng Ziyi seems very smart, but in reality, she's completely naive. She's already been flattered. The two of them went shopping at the Jade City."

Wang Xiaozhou didn't know what Xu Min was up to, but without much guessing, he figured it was just a pretty woman trying to gain resources in the entertainment industry. Wang Xiaozhou understood and respected this, and even wanted to experience it for himself.

"She only contacted Meng Ziyi, not you?"

Wang Xiaozhou asked with some curiosity.

Mao Xiaotong still had the same expression as before: "Another daring second-tier female artist contacted me, but I'm not completely naive. They've all become seasoned veterans in the entertainment industry. They could easily trick me without me noticing. Why would I get so close to them?"

Wang Xiaozhou exclaimed "Ouch!", seemingly surprised that Mao Xiaotong possessed a certain wisdom in living a good life.

"Getting too close to them is indeed useless, or rather, with me around, it's useless for you to get too close to anyone. In the entertainment industry, I am the resource. You can just hang out with whoever you feel comfortable with."

But it doesn't matter if you act like Meng Ziyi; just do whatever you want and have fun.

"us?"

Mao Xiaotong narrowed her eyes, keenly noticing the flaw in Wang Xiaozhou's words.

Wang Xiaozhou nodded naturally: "That's right, as long as my friends are happy, nothing else matters."

Mao Xiaotong clearly didn't mean that, but who is Wang Xiaozhou? It would be strange if he answered such an easy question wrong. He easily changed the subject with a few words.

Seeing this, Mao Xiaotong stopped her pointless probing and instead invited him:

"This is my first time in Yunzhen too. When we first arrived, you were in a hurry to get going. Now, can you take me out for a look around?"

Wang Xiaozhou naturally wouldn't refuse such a request. He got dressed and went downstairs with Mao Xiaotong, then hailed a taxi to take a stroll around the border.

Jingli was the only time Wang Xiaozhou had ever traveled far from home in both his lives, so he was quite familiar with the area and would have no problem showing Mao Xiaotong around.

The two went to a duty-free shop near the border and bought two cartons of cigarettes. They looked at the cosmetics that Mao Xiaotong liked, and then went to the jade showroom to see the very extravagant prices.

About an hour later, when it was almost dinnertime, the two of them bought some seasonal fruit from a street vendor and carried it back home.

On their way back to the hotel, they ran into Meng Ziyi at the hotel entrance. When she saw Wang Xiaozhou and Mao Xiaotong each carrying a large bag, she immediately pouted and looked unhappy.

Mao Xiaotong cheerfully greeted the other party and, after receiving a response, went back to her room to pack up her spoils.

Wang Xiaozhou carried fruit to the hotel lobby and invited everyone to come down and eat together.

Before everyone else arrived, Meng Ziyi seized the opportunity to quickly ask Wang Xiaozhou, "What happened? Where did you two go?"

Just like when he was with Mao Xiaotong, Wang Xiaozhou casually touched his nose: "We just went for a stroll, took a look at the border gate, and then went to the duty-free shop. Oh, right, we also bought some fruit from a street vendor."

Seeing someone get off the elevator, Meng Ziyi sniffed:

"Hmph, let me tell you, you need to be careful when you're out and about. It's best to go in a large group when you're out for a stroll, so you can help each other out if something happens!"

Wang Xiaozhou nodded repeatedly: "Yes, yes, you're right."

Sister Meng's thought process seems quite peculiar. She was just a little angry that Wang Xiaozhou and Mao Xiaotong went shopping alone, but as soon as everyone came downstairs, she quickly forgot about it and only focused on praising the fruit that Wang Xiaozhou bought.

"This papaya is so sweet! I've never had such a delicious papaya in Northeast China. Where did you buy your fruit? This is such a pleasant surprise."

For reasons unknown, Xu Min looked at Meng Ziyi with a loving expression and spoke softly:

"This area is the southernmost part of the country, so there are many delicious fruits here. These fruits are picked before they are ripe and transported to the Northeast, where they ripen on the way, so they are not as sweet as the ones here."

"Wow, Min-jie, you really know so much!"

Although Xu Min had known Meng Ziyi for a long time and knew she wasn't being sarcastic, hearing such praise still made her blush. Being praised like that by a young girl was such an embarrassing feeling.

Just as everyone was chatting and laughing in the lobby, Huang Mao's figure suddenly appeared at the hotel entrance.

Everyone looked up and saw him leading a girl, walking towards them as nervously as a wooden statue.

"Um... hello everyone, this is my... girlfriend, she's also here to visit Yunzhen, we just started dating."