Trending topic alert: The mysterious fan site administrator of a top celebrity has been exposed.

The conference room door closed gently behind them, and Chu Yi and Cheng Yingzhi walked along the thickly carpeted corridor toward the elevator.

Cheng Yingzhi finally couldn't hold back any longer and nudged Chu Yi with his elbow.

"See that? Zhou Ai's eyes are practically glued to you. He even asked if you wanted a jacket and some potato chips!" Cheng Yingzhi exaggeratedly imitated Zhou Ai's tone. "I bought a lot of Golden potato chips, I can share with you—what kind of elementary school student flirting technique is this?"

Chu Yi calmly pressed the elevator button: "If you had his captivating eyes, you'd look at everyone with the same deep affection."

"Come on, I've known Zhou Ai for so many years, and I've never seen him be this proactive with anyone." Cheng Yingzhi shook his head. "But speaking of which, the fact that he actually arrived at the conference room early is truly astounding."

The elevator doors opened, and Chu Yi stepped inside without saying a word.

Meanwhile, Zhou Ai was kept behind alone in the meeting room by the program producer.

"Teacher Zhou, thank you so much for arriving early. We are truly flattered."

The producer rubbed his hands together, a smile plastered on his face. "However, I just received a call from your team saying that your concert schedule next week conflicts with the start date of filming for 'Heartstrings in the Distant Mountains'?"

Zhou Ai nodded casually, swiping her phone screen: "Yeah, the concert has been postponed by a day, so the original rehearsal schedule has to be adjusted."

A hint of nervousness flashed across the producer's face: "The schedule for the show..."

"Don't worry, I'll be two days late." Zhou Ai finally raised her head. There was no apology in her peach blossom eyes, but she also lacked her usual laziness. "I'll fly over as soon as the concert is over. It won't take too long."

The producer visibly relaxed, but then feigned concern: "Oh dear, this is too much for you! Should we make some adjustments..."

"No need," Zhou Ai interrupted him, putting away her phone. "I mean what I say."

At 11 p.m., the rehearsal room on the 17th floor of the Xingyao Entertainment Building was still brightly lit.

Zhou Ai was soaked in sweat. After completing a series of difficult dance moves to the rhythm of the music, she finally raised her hand to signal the music to stop.

He bent over, supporting himself on his knees, breathing rapidly, beads of sweat dripping from his silver-gray hair onto the polished floor.

"Let's do it again," he said to the choreographer, panting. "The final spin transition wasn't smooth enough."

The choreographer glanced at her watch. "Ms. Zhou, you've been practicing for six hours already. You need to rest. And the vocal coach is waiting."

Zhou Ai straightened up, picked up a towel and wiped her face: "Then let her come over. Singing and dancing at the same time is the real deal."

This is Zhou Ai's third consecutive night of rehearsals.

In order to participate in the recording of "Heartstrings in the Distant Mountains" on time, he had to compress his original week-long rehearsal plan into four days.

The vocal coach rushed into the rehearsal room, her face filled with concern: "Ms. Zhou, your voice needs rest. How about we practice again tomorrow?"

Zhou Ai unscrewed a bottle of water, took a sip, and shook her head: "There's no time. I still have to shoot a music video and a game for the next three days, so I can only practice now."

The music started again, and Zhou Ai sang steadily while performing a high-intensity dance, every note precise and accurate. In the rehearsal mirror, his eyes were focused, completely unlike his usual lazy and casual demeanor.

At 2 a.m., while the other staff members were exhausted and slumped over, Zhou Ai was still adjusting the stage positioning.

"The lights here can be dimmer, and the spotlight should follow my movement," he said to the lighting technician, pointing to the stage design. "During the interlude after the second chorus, I need five seconds to walk to the end of the extended stage, where you can place a spotlight."

Xu Yang walked over with a schedule in hand, his brow furrowed: "Zhou Ai, you need to rest. Tomorrow morning at seven, you have to shoot a concert promotional video, in the afternoon it's a magazine cover shoot, and in the evening you have to go to the MV shooting location."

Zhou Ai glanced at the time on her phone before turning to Xu Yang and saying, "We'll be done in half an hour. Let's compress the magazine shoot tomorrow afternoon and squeeze in an hour in the middle so I can go to the recording studio to re-record the harmonies."

"But…"

"No buts." Zhou Ai's tone left no room for argument. "I'll be in the mountains for the next twenty days, and I need to get all the work done now."

Xu Yang sighed, "Why do you have to work so hard? The production team can easily coordinate things..."

Zhou Ai suddenly interrupted her: "It's different over there." After saying that, she turned around and continued to discuss the movements with the dance teacher.

Xu Yang was stunned. He had followed Zhou Ai for so many years and had never seen him so concerned about a variety show.

The following afternoon, Zhou Ai did as he had said, taking an hour out of his busy magazine shoot to go to the recording studio. He sat in front of the mixing console, with monitoring headphones on his ears, carefully listening to the harmonies he had recorded the day before.

"The third note here is a bit off, let's re-record it," he said to the recording engineer, pointing to the sheet music. "The breathing sounds in the second bridge section are too heavy, let's fix that."

The sound engineer said cautiously, "Mr. Zhou, these things can all be handled in post-production, you didn't need to come all the way here..."

"If we make the corrections on-site, it will save time in post-production." Zhou Ai had already put on her headphones and walked into the recording studio.

An hour later, he left the recording studio on time and headed to his next work location.

---

Meanwhile, Chu Yi was also extremely busy, as he had been away from the hospital for nearly a month and needed to submit various documents and negotiate work schedules with his colleagues.

Fortunately, a colleague in another department of the hospital who needed to be promoted to attending physician happened to need to do a three-month rotation in the emergency room, which conveniently filled in for Chu Yi's month-long absence.

There were still three days until departure, and Zhou Ai's concert happened to be on the same day that filming of "Heartstrings in the Distant Mountains" began.

After settling things at the hospital, Chu Yi busied herself packing her luggage for the next twenty days.

Chu Yi had just stuffed the last windbreaker into her suitcase and zipped it up when her phone vibrated on the table. The screen displayed a notification from an entertainment app.

Entertainment Express | Zhou Ai's "Radiant Transformation" World Tour Second Show is About to Ignite City A!

【本报讯】顶流歌手周霭即将于下周三（8月27日）在A市文化中心迎来他2055年"曜·变"世界巡迴演唱会的第二站！继首场京市站创下3分钟门票售罄的惊人纪录后，本次A市站的门票更是在开票后1分28秒内被抢购一空，再次印证了"周霭效应"的恐怖号召力！

According to insiders, the stage design for the A City stop will be even more spectacular than the Beijing stop, with highlights including a 360° surround LED giant screen, holographic projection technology, and a custom-made fireworks show. Zhou Ai herself also posted rehearsal photos on social media with the caption "See you in A City," sparking wild speculation among fans about the possibility of a premiere performance of her new song.

It's worth mentioning that Zhou Ai was recently spotted by netizens at a hospital, seemingly due to a recurrence of an old injury caused by the intense rehearsals for her concert. However, her manager, Xu Yang, quickly responded: "It was just a routine check-up. Zhou Ai is in excellent condition and will definitely not disappoint her fans!"

Currently, scalpers are reselling concert tickets for up to five times the original price, yet they remain extremely difficult to obtain. Fans are actively using the hashtag #ZhouAiyaoTransformsACity on social media to express their anticipation for this audio-visual feast!

This station will continue to follow up and report on this story, so please stay tuned for further updates!

Chu Yi paused for a moment as he looked at the concert notification on his phone screen. He suddenly remembered that the concert time overlapped with the variety show's schedule. He also carefully retrieved the two concert tickets that Zhou Ai had given him and locked them in the cabinet.

Ding-dong-

A WeChat message came in.

Chu Yi clicked on it casually.

It is Zhou Ai.

Z.AI: [It seems I'm sorry, Professor Chu, you can't come to my concert.]

The text was followed by a animated emoticon—[a small dog with droopy ears and a listless tail dragging on the ground].gif

Chu Yi's gaze lingered on the line of text and the pitiful emoji for a few seconds.

Zhou Ai's messages always carried a strange penetrating power, easily breaking down the distance he deliberately maintained.

He could almost picture Zhou Ai's half-serious, half-joking, slightly complaining yet slightly coquettish expression when she sent that message.

Chu Yi's fingertips, hovering over the phone screen, twitched slightly. He was about to reply with an official and polite "Wishing you a successful concert" when Zhou Ai's messages kept popping up, as if she were talking to herself or broadcasting them live to him.

Z.AI: [Just finished rehearsal, my throat is a little dry.]

The next photo showed mineral water bottles and throat lozenge wrappers scattered on the floor in front of the rehearsal hall's full-length mirror, with the mirror surface densely marked with erasable pen marks indicating movement positions.

Z.AI: [The dance director said my last move wasn't 'explosive' enough.]

Another short video, the camera shaky, seemingly filmed secretly, shows Zhou Ai repeatedly practicing a finishing move that involves spinning rapidly and then suddenly freezing, her breathing rapid, her forehead soaked with sweat.

Z.AI: [Tomorrow is the last rehearsal, and then it's the concert.]

This time it's a GIF of a puppy holding a ticket, looking on longingly. The ticket even has a big X drawn on it.

Chu Yi stared at the messages one after another, remaining silent for a moment. The polite words he had prepared suddenly became hard to utter.

He glanced down at his already packed luggage, his finger hovering over his phone screen for a long time before he sighed silently and finally typed a reply:

Wishing you a successful and enjoyable concert.

The message was sent successfully. He thought the conversation would end there.

However, almost immediately, Zhou Ai's reply popped up:

Z.AI: [See you in the mountains, Teacher Chu.]

This is followed by an emoji—[a spirited little dog wearing a hiking hat and carrying a small flag].gif