Entertainment Era: Starting with Teaching Sister Meng to Sing

Meng Ziyi's Weibo account was newly registered. At the time, she uploaded a lot of information to prove that she was a contestant on The Voice of China, which is why she was able to get a V-mark certification in the lower left corner of her profile picture. Now she has 12,000 followers.

The profile picture is a bit sloppy. The profile picture is a photo of Meng Ziyi's high school student ID. The homepage only has one Weibo post, which is a photo taken on the railway tracks that day. A fair and slender index finger hooks with an equally long pinky finger, with a caption below.

"A person has two moments of true feeling: the first is the first stirrings of love, and the second is doing something knowing it's impossible."

Sun Jiayi is a bit stubborn. Since she was little, the more others forbade her to touch something, the more she insisted on doing it. So, without even considering who the copy was for, she directly opened the comments section.

Then she discovered that there wasn't a single comment on the Weibo post that was related to the topic; everyone was just telling their own stories or writing about their feelings after listening to "One Meat, One Vegetable".

"I just can't seem to learn the lesson of parting. I'm 24 now, a year after graduating from university. I lost my father in my senior year and my mother in my sophomore year. I've experienced all the grief that only middle-aged people can understand. My luck has also been terrible. My boss dissolved the company in the middle of the year, and I still haven't found a job. I thought about going home to hide like my classmates, but I have no home anymore. Today was another day of being picked and chosen by interviewers. On the subway home, I watched The Voice of China and listened to Meng Ziyi sing. Now I'm crying as I type this."

"I've grown up, so I have people who love me on both sides."

"I have leukemia. A few years ago, my mother remembered that she had bought an insurance policy to raise money for my treatment. She was frugal all her life. She went to the supermarket and bought a bag of frozen dumplings with pork and scallion filling. After eating them, she jumped off the top floor of the hospital. But she didn't know that suicide is not covered by insurance. Her insurance policy had also expired a year ago. Since then, I have never dared to eat pork and scallion dumplings again."

"My grandfather passed away from cancer. The whole family kept it from him, telling him it was a polyp, not cancer. After he passed away, my grandmother quietly told me that he knew he had cancer all along, but he was just worried about me."

"My mom loved buying me fruit when she was alive. She always picked the freshest and tastiest ones. I've been craving strawberries lately because I'm pregnant. Last night, my husband went out to buy some for me, but he couldn't find any. Then I dreamt that my mom bought me a whole bag of strawberries. I told her that the strawberries didn't taste good, and she said, 'Wait a minute, I'll buy you some next time.'"

"Cry your tears, then cry yours, then cry yours again."

......

Sun Jiayi, with red and swollen eyes, left the comments section and closed Weibo. At that time, Meng Ziyi's homepage showed 383,000 followers.

She's really famous!

Sun Jiayi forced herself to think of happy things, and what made her happiest at that moment was naturally the fact that her best friend had become famous.

She's not only the best in art in her class, but she's also one step ahead of all of us; she's already got one foot in the entertainment industry.

Let's see what you jealous people have to say this time!

Ziyi only went out for a short while, and when she came back, there were rumors everywhere. Now that The Voice of China is airing, the rumors have been dispelled. I'm really looking forward to seeing how those idiots behave tomorrow.

Wait, no, tomorrow is Saturday.

Damn it, I can only look forward to Monday. I hope Ziyi can be a little more arrogant and give them a good slap in the face!

Just then, Meng Ziyi, whom Sun Jiayi had been longing for, had already rushed to the provincial capital again. Wang Xiaozhou had received news in the morning that the blind auditions for The Voice of China were nearing their end, and Teacher Ying had gathered her students to begin preparing for the song selection process for the competition.

Meng Ziyi was very enthusiastic about this and immediately booked a train ticket for that evening.

Wang Xiaozhou...

Wang Xiaozhou had been internally complaining all day. Were the staff of The Voice of China crazy? Why did they gather the contestants to choose songs on the very day the first episode aired?

I've been preparing diligently for almost two months, hoping for a miracle today. Now, I've been dragged to the provincial capital, and my sense of participation has been drastically reduced.

Reluctantly boarding the train at Meng Ziyi's pleading, Wang Xiaozhou could only console himself that he was just giving the first episode time to build up some buzz, and that he could pull off an even better performance after returning from the provincial capital.

After getting off the bus, they arrived at the same small hotel as before. Although Meng Ziyi was still eager to return home, the two of them had no source of income so far, and the travel expenses this time were even tighter than last time.

It was still a standard room. Wang Xiaozhou stood obediently outside the door and waited for Meng Ziyi to change into her pajamas before going inside to give her a lesson.

"When you take the USB drive to Sister Ying tomorrow, make sure you don't start singing. A master like Sister Ying can immediately tell the quality of a song. Just let the background music speak for itself."

"But in a duel, two contestants sing the same song together. Would the contestant who challenges me agree to that?"

"Whether he agrees or not is not important. As long as Sister Ying and the production team agree, that's fine. Besides, the contestants who are competing against you are not stupid. Everyone has seen the quality of your previous song. Without absolute confidence in winning the championship, leaving a deep impression on the show is the best way to maximize your benefits."

"oh..."

Sister Meng looked confused, as if she understood but not quite.

Wang Xiaozhou sighed and continued to urge, "It's almost certain that you'll continue to sing original songs in the competition. Both Sister Ying and the production team know that your continued singing of original songs will be the biggest selling point for the later stages of the competition."

What you need to remember now is that after Sister Ying agrees, you must make sure to clarify the copyright issue with the production team. Just say that the creator only allows you to perform the song, and has not granted you any other copyrights.

"copyright?"

Mencius scratched the back of his head.

Seeing this, Wang Xiaozhou immediately gave up on trying to make her understand: "Fine, just memorize what I'm saying."

Meng Ziyi was delighted: "Okay!"

"Also, could you change into something seamless under your clothes tomorrow? The silhouette of these tight-fitting pajamas is really frustrating for an 18-year-old."

Meng Ziyi blushed instantly, immediately burrowing under the covers to hide herself, leaving only half her head sticking out: "You pervert!"

At nine o'clock in the evening, just as the two were getting ready to go to sleep, Wang Xiaozhou's phone rang. It was Ma Xiaoping calling, and her voice sounded a bit fierce.

"You bastard, you're not coming home again this week. Did you go to the internet cafe again?!"

Wang Xiaozhou, seemingly oblivious to his mother's words, exclaimed in surprise, "What?! How did you two know my song became a hit on The Voice of China?! Who told you Meng Ziyi was going to win this year's championship?!"

After saying that, he hung up the phone and smiled at Meng Ziyi, who was looking at him strangely. He was grateful to his mother for giving him this opportunity to show off. It felt good!

Ma Xiaoping, on the other end of the phone, was stunned for a while after hearing the busy tone of the call being disconnected. Then, she suddenly threw her phone aside and ran to her neighbor's house.

Ma Xiaoping asked the young man from her neighbor's house, who was home on Friday, to find this episode of The Voice of China online. Ignoring her neighbor's disgusted looks, Ma Xiaoping sat in his house at 9 p.m. and watched all of Meng Ziyi's segments from the first episode of The Voice of China.

Pointing at Meng Ziyi on the screen and smiling, Ma Xiaoping said to her neighbor, "This might be my daughter-in-law. The song she's singing was written by Xiaozhou."

Ignoring the surprised looks from her neighbors, Ma Xiaoping ran back home, picked up the phone, and called her few relatives.

"Hey, ma'am, are you asleep?"

"I just fell asleep. What's up, Xiaoping, calling so late?"

"What? How do you know my son's song became a hit on The Voice of China? What champion? It's only the first episode, there's no way he's going to win yet."

This practice of forcing a change of direction without any real development seems to be a family tradition in the Wang family...