I’m Really a Superstar

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The next day.

The tenth episode of I Am a Singer was broadcast.

Countless people were waiting before their television sets.

This episode was going to be very exciting as all the singers were fighting to get a place in the grand finals. All of them gave it their all and brought out their specialty skills for the performances. Zhang Xia surprisingly performed a rock song, while Chen Guang sang an emotionally charged love song and dedicated it to his wife, Fan Wenli. Xiaodong explosively leveled up her singing by performing an old classic to perfection. Even Amy managed to pull herself out of last place with her rap song shocking many people. Every line\'s delivery was fast and good as she showcased a strong ability that even a lot pro rappers could not achieve. Only the replacement singer failed to perform to expectations and had to miss out on the grand finals of the show.

As for Zhang Ye?

This fellow was still the same as before!

"That was so wonderful!"

"This episode is the best!"

"Yeah, the songs are great!"

"They\'re all powerhouses, all of them are extremely capable singers!"

The audience was very excited!

The evaluation from the industry was also extremely good!

Some people were amazed by Zhang Xia\'s song.

Some people were moved by Chen Guang\'s song.

And some people were touched by how tenacious Amy was.

But no one could have guessed that the most popular song of the tenth episode was none of their songs. It just had to be that goddamn song Zhang Ye sang, "Perturbed," which left everyone at their wits\' end!

Another viral tune was created!

It swept across the nation!

The moment "Perturbed" appeared, it took a spot on practically all of the music charts!

The netizens broke down once again.

"Again?"

"Oh my God!"

"Why is this happening?"

"His song has made it onto so many of the music charts again?"

"This crappy song can even get number one?"

"Wasn\'t he just randomly humming? I can do that too!"

"Hahaha, I\'ve finally realized something. Zhang Ye is only here to be funny!"

"It\'s a catchy song, so of course it would spread fast. But that\'s not important. Just refer to the rankings and you\'ll know, Zhang Ye was still placed in the bottom two."

"I\'m not optimistic about Zhang Ye in the grand finals."

"Who\'s optimistic about him, the fraud!"

"It\'s a miracle that he scraped into the grand finals, haha!"

"Yeah, that guy should\'ve been eliminated long ago. Who could have thought that he would make it into the grand finals by stumbling through the competition in either last or second to last place every time? That was super unexpected."

"There\'s still Zhang Xia and Chen Guang to watch in the grand finals."

"Xiaodong is pretty good too."

"Yeah, the three of them all have a chance of getting crowned champion."

"It\'s time for the revival round, and there\'s only one spot in the grand finals up for grabs. Let\'s see who can get it."

"He Huan and Xue Kaiqi have the best hopes."

"I\'m more optimistic of Zhao Wuliu\'s chances."

"In any case, we can just ignore Zhang Ye as the grand champion."

"Yeah, Zhang Ye is no longer good."

"That might not necessarily be true. We\'ll still have to see who Zhang Ye invites for the grand finals."

"That\'s right! I think they\'re still using the two-round format. The first round will have a celebrity guest partner like before. If Zhang Ye manages to invite Zhang Yuanqi again, that would be quite something."

"Yeah, true."

"Let\'s see who he\'ll invite then."

"I don\'t see it that way. With Zhang Ye\'s current form and the songs that he\'s written, whoever he invites won\'t matter. If I have to put it bluntly, of the singers who have qualified for the grand finals, Zhang Ye is the only one unworthy of his place. He only managed to get in on luck. I won\'t mention Zhang Xia and Chen Guang, or Xiaodong and Amy, but even the eliminated singers are much stronger than Zhang Ye. We can clearly see that he\'s lost his touch and can\'t come up with any more good songs with substance. All he knows is to produce these catchy tunes that we\'ve heard. But are such songs suitable for competition? They won\'t be able to get him a ranking at all. Zhang Ye has performed a song with no lyrics before. It was \'Opera\' that he sang on King of Masked Singers that I found so amazing when I heard it. But look at \'Perturbed.\' It\'s also a song without lyrics but the taste has changed. This shows that Zhang Ye is really out of ideas."

"Hai, this is the downfall of a singing champion."

"It\'s quite a pity."

"What has happened to Zhang Ye?"

"Who knows!"

"He suddenly became like this, so it\'s quite regrettable."

"That\'s right. I used to anticipate his songs, but who could\'ve expected that he can\'t write good songs anymore. Those garbage songs that he\'s been singing recently shows that he\'s of a different class from the other singers. Just listen to Grandma Zhang and Old Chen\'s singing, they\'re totally on a different level from him. That\'s what you call real singing and real singers. That\'s what true art is about. Otherwise, what\'s the difference between the songs Zhang Ye sings and the songs that normal people sing at the karaoke?"

"I\'m a fan turned passerby."

"Hai, the higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment."

"The main thing is that the opponents are too strong. Even if Zhang Ye can still write a good song, he can\'t beat Zhang Xia and Chen Guang."

"Agreed."

By this point in the broadcast of I Am a Singer, everyone had lost confidence in Zhang Ye. Many of the music industry\'s insiders came forward to give their evaluations as well. They felt Zhang Ye had entered a bottleneck and was losing his touch. It seemed like he could only go back to his old job from now on since he couldn\'t write any more good songs. It got so bad that even Zhang Xia, Chen Guang, Xiaodong, and the others were feeling the same way. A singer like Zhang Ye who had amazed countless people had faded to nothing overnight. He could no longer find that feeling that inspired his singing and songwriting. It was such a shame!

Criticism!

Doubt!

Derision!

Such voices were constantly keeping Zhang Ye company.

Even his studio\'s staff were panicking.

Ha Qiqi said anxiously, "Director Zhang, your reputation these days has been tumbling."

"Why don\'t we buy a song or two?" Zhang Zuo suggested. "We might be able to turn it around in the grand finals that way. We can\'t keep going on like this."

Buy songs?

Zhang Ye said, "I\'ve already written the songs."

Zhang Zuo sighed. "But the songs that you have been writing recently…" He was too scared to continue.

Everyone in the studio was frowning and sulking. Zhang Ye was getting more and more popular by the day, which was a good thing. But similarly, his reputation was just as important. Now that everyone was saying Zhang Ye couldn\'t sing anymore, they were getting very anxious. However, it seemed like Zhang Ye did not take it to heart and did not say anything about it no matter how much they asked. Actually, they understood Director Zhang quite well since they had known him for many years. On the surface, it might look like Zhang Ye was unaffected. He was always laughing, yet each time they could feel that Zhang Ye wasn\'t as happy as he looked after a performance.

Ring, ring, ring.

Hu Fei\'s call came in.

Zhang Ye answered: "Brother Hu, what\'s the matter?"

Hu Fei laughed loudly. "The viewership rating has hit a new high! It has set a new record again! It\'s fantastic!"

"That\'s good then," Zhang Ye said cheerfully.

"The grand finals will be coming up soon, great work."

"It was nothing."

"For the celebrity guest partner segment, are you sure about inviting that person?"

"Yup."

"But isn\'t that a little too…you know?"

"Hur hur, nobody\'ll be able to guess who it is. But I\'m sure the viewers will enjoy it."

Hu Fei said: "Well, alright then. We\'ll do it however you say. But your results might…"

Zhang Ye said: "I know."

After hanging up, Zhang Ye did not say another word. He quietly headed back into his office and sat there having a smoke, staring blankly at the empty wall. No one knew what Zhang Ye was thinking right now, nor did anyone know how he was feeling.

The task was completed.

This was good enough, right?

This…was all he had to do, right?

But for some reason, after Zhang Ye put out his cigarette, he clenched his fists so hard that his fingernails dug into his palms, leaving several deep, red marks!