Chapter 115: Have I Also Been Exposed? [Seeking First Subscription]
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The large screen on the stage displayed:
Patrick Star: 489 votes
Red Rose: 456 votes
Lone Wolf: 401 votes
...
“Congratulations to Mr. Patrick Star!”
The host, Ni Qiqin, enthusiastically offered her congratulations, and then the director stepped onto the stage to present a specially designed King of Singers trophy for the show.
Yu Zhile said nothing in his acceptance speech. After all, this King of Singers title only represented the champion of this episode, not the overall winner of the show, not the true King of Singers.
Therefore, a King of Singers would be crowned each episode.
But in the end, there would be only one true Masked King of Singers.
That King would be the most challenging and the most rewarding to claim!
Of course, this all assumed the production team did not engage in any backstage manipulation.
However, since this was Yang Bing’s show, and he had declared there could be no manipulation, the likelihood of any foul play was very low.
Because all the singers performed masked, the audience found it difficult to recognize their identities, which effectively prevented the phenomenon of mindless superfans voting solely for their favorite singer.
Overall, as long as the production team played fair, the live voting on this show was the most equitable Yu Zhile had ever witnessed in any variety program.
Backstage, they still needed to film the singers’ exits. Once filming wrapped, Yu Zhile hurried to slip away, and Yang Bing quickly came over to take him to their “secret base” to change clothes.
“Old Yu, you really crushed it today! Didn’t expect you to snag the King of Singers title in the very first episode!”
“Shh!”
Yu Zhile warned, “Don’t say it so loud—if anyone overhears, it won’t be good!”
Yang Bing reassured him, “Relax, it’s just the two of us here. Your identity is safe!”
Yu Zhile removed the Patrick Star mascot costume, quickly put on the clothes and shoes he had changed out of earlier, and checked himself in the mirror. His hair was a complete mess, tangled like a bird’s nest.
No time to fix it now!
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Fortunately, the production crew’s standard headset masked his hairstyle perfectly, allowing him to disguise himself as a crew member when leaving the studio.
“Old Yang, keep the trophy safe for me. I’ve got to dash to the parking lot!”
Yu Zhile hurried off, pulling out his phone set to silent. Two minutes earlier, his wife had messaged him, saying the recording had finished and she was heading toward the parking lot.
He quickly replied, “Honey, I’ll wait for you in the car!”
Speed was essential.
He broke into a jog. Luckily, when he reached the parking lot, his wife and Xu Ling hadn’t arrived yet.
Sitting inside the car, he removed the crew headset and hurriedly rifled through his wife’s handbag to find a comb. He tried to tame his disheveled hair, but no matter how much he combed, it remained a wreck from being crammed inside the mascot head.
“Forget it! I’ll just keep this mask on to cover it up!”
Soon, Qin Haiyu approached, led by Xu Ling.
Seeing the crew mask in the car, Qin Haiyu curiously said, “Honey, you disguised yourself as a staff member to sneak backstage? No wonder I didn’t spot you in the audience!”
Yu Zhile took off the headset mask, ran his fingers through his hair, and said, “I even sneaked backstage to watch you! I just didn’t dare to talk to you.”
“Pfft!”
Qin Haiyu laughed, “Your hair’s a total mess—like a bird’s nest!”
“Yeah, must be from wearing that thing too long,” Yu Zhile replied.
He released the handbrake and said, “Let’s go home and talk.”
Qin Haiyu got into the passenger seat while Xu Ling drove her own car, following them out of the TV station.
At that moment, Qin Haiyu began to grumble in mock grievance, “Honey, that Patrick Star is so annoying! He actually sang an original song! Otherwise, this episode’s King of Singers trophy would have been mine!”
“Yeah, I saw it! That guy did it on purpose! He must’ve known you prepared a folk song, so he sang one too to compete with you! So sneaky and scheming! Next episode, we have to give him a taste of his own medicine! It’s just an original song—next time, you sing an original one too!”
Yu Zhile, ever the playful actor, even fooled himself with his dramatic flair. Because of this, Qin Haiyu didn’t suspect for a moment that Patrick Star had any connection to him.
Qin Haiyu said, “Honey, aren’t you making it hard for me? I don’t compose songs—how could I sing an original?”
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Yu Zhile replied, “Silly, don’t you have me? What’s mine is yours! Next episode, you’ll sing the new song I prepare for you. The lyrics and composition will be credited to your show name. That way, it’ll mislead everyone into thinking you’re a songwriter!”
“You’re the best, honey!”
Qin Haiyu giggled. “But Patrick Star’s song ‘You Through Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter’ is really good! After this episode airs, that song’s going to be a hit. I wonder if the audience can guess who he really is?”
Then she suddenly asked, “Honey, could you tell who Patrick Star was when you heard him live?”
Yu Zhile shook his head. “No, I couldn’t. At first, I thought it sounded a bit like Chen Xun, but when he switched to falsetto later, I knew it wasn’t Chen Xun.
Although that guy stole your King of Singers trophy with an original song, honestly, based on his performance today, he deserved the title.”
Qin Haiyu hesitated. “What about the other singers? Could you guess who they were?”
Yu Zhile said, “If I’m not mistaken, Lone Wolf is probably Zhou Jian. Old Boy is likely Fan Di. The others—I couldn’t tell or recognize.”
Qin Haiyu was curious. “Lone Wolf is Teacher Zhou Jian? That can’t be right! His voice doesn’t sound like him at all.”
Yu Zhile smiled. “My silly wife, doesn’t your voice sound nothing like you to others?”
“Oh...”
Qin Haiyu realized, “Now that you mention it, the high notes Lone Wolf sang do sound a bit like Teacher Zhou Jian’s.”
Yu Zhile continued, “Wrong. The high notes aren’t really similar. I guessed it from his habitual singing gestures! Although his voice changed today, his habitual body language didn’t!
Honey, think back: when we watched ‘I Am a Singer,’ didn’t Teacher Zhou Jian always clench his fists and slightly bow his head whenever he sang with emotion?”
Qin Haiyu recalled and nodded, “Yeah, he did have that habit.”
Yu Zhile said, “That’s a habit formed over years! Even he probably never realized how well he disguised himself, yet he was exposed by those unconscious gestures!”
Hearing this, Qin Haiyu suddenly worried, “Honey, what about me? Do I have any habitual gestures that might reveal my identity?”
Yu Zhile said, “When you sing, you don’t have any distinctive habits, but there’s one thing that might expose you.”
Qin Haiyu asked curiously, “What is it?”
Yu Zhile reached out his right hand, stroking his wife’s smooth, fair leg—bare, with her black stockings removed and shorts on—and said, “It’s these perfectly straight legs and that killer figure of yours. Who else in the entire music industry, besides my wife, has such beautiful legs and such a striking figure?”
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