Chapter 167: That Man Has Returned [First Update]

After returning home, Yu Zhile found himself feeling somewhat bored.

Their older daughter had started kindergarten, and their second child at home was being cared for in turns by his mother and his wife, making it difficult for him to even lend a hand.

Recalling what his wife had said earlier, Yu Zhile felt that he really needed to find something to do. Thus, he sent a message to Yang Bing.

Nowadays, Yang Bing was considered a prominent and influential leading figure at Dragon Television.

Ever since *I Am a Singer* and *The Masked Singer*, which he had been in charge of planning, both achieved excellent ratings, he was hailed within the station as the Ratings King.

After all, as long as a program was under his charge, the ratings would never be poor.

Coupled with the fact that *Where Are We Going, Dad?*, a show created by Yu Zhile, was licensed to Dragon Television, the outstandingly performing Yang Bing became the show's director. Having spent a year learning under Director Zhang, he had now successfully advanced into the ranks of variety show directors.

Therefore, upon seeing Yu Zhile's message and learning of his intention to participate in the third season of *I Am a Singer*, Yang Bing immediately gave him priority placement for a challenger singer slot!

As it happened, one of the singers in this season was out of form, not very famous, and gave off a rather pretentious diva vibe, so he decided to kick that person out and bring Yu Zhile in instead!

Of course, Yang Bing did not mention this to Yu Zhile. After all, getting rid of that person required behind-the-scenes manipulation by the production team and the fabrication of false vote counts.

Given Yang Bing's understanding of Yu Zhile, telling him about such shady practices wouldn't be ideal.

Therefore, he simply stated that a singer happened to have a schedule conflict and couldn't continue recording, so Yu Zhile could just fill the vacancy.

Thus, after the recording of the next two episodes concluded.

According to the new tournament format and rules, the latest challenger singer failed and was eliminated, and the singer whose votes hit rock bottom for two consecutive episodes was also eliminated.

In this way, a substitute singer would join in the upcoming episode, and the new challenger slot was craftily arranged for Yu Zhile.

Consequently, the format and rules for the third season of *I Am a Singer* were exceptionally brutal!

Yet, precisely because the updated format was harsher, the competition would be fiercer and much more worth watching!

……

Time flew by. At home, Qin Haiyu cradled their feeding son and offered encouragement: "Honey, go for it! You must succeed in your challenge!"

Yu Zhile rubbed his hands together and said, "Don't worry, with your husband stepping in, success is guaranteed! Unlike you, who failed back when you did the challenger round, you really made a fool of your husband!"

Qin Haiyu huffed, "I failed on purpose back then! In terms of ability, I didn't lose to anyone at all!"

Yu Zhile put on his shoes and smiled, "Excuses are just cover-ups. I'm off! After recording the show, I'll drop by the kindergarten to pick up our daughter!"

Qin Haiyu then grew jealous on behalf of their son, saying, "Honey, you haven't said goodbye to our second baby yet!"

With that, she looked at her son, who was biting on his pacifier and drinking milk, and sighed, "Daddy is so biased! Whenever he went out before, he would kiss our older daughter with a look of extreme reluctance to part. Now that he's going out, never mind kissing the second baby, he didn't even say hello!"

"..."

Prompted by his wife, Yu Zhile realized that he might indeed be showing a bit of bias!

Whenever he went out in the past, his heart was full of thoughts about his daughter. Now when he went out, he completely forgot about his son!

Sure enough, compared to his daughter, his son had virtually no presence...

He walked back, grabbed his son's tiny hand, gave it a perfunctory kiss, and muttered, "Good son, your dad is off to earn milk money! Eat well and sleep well at home, and don't give your mom a hard time, you hear? Otherwise, when I get back, see if I don't spank your bottom!"

Qin Haiyu couldn't bear to watch anymore. Her husband truly favored daughters over sons!

When their daughter was this small, she cried and fussed just as much, if not more, than their son, but forget spanking, he hadn't even uttered a single word of complaint. Yet when it came to their son, the threats started right away! He was even talking about spanking him!

Mother Yu glared at him and scolded him on her grandson's behalf, "Hurry up and go record your show! Stop dawdling and being an eyesore around the house!"

"..."

How am I an eyesore?!

Yu Zhile was helpless. He gently patted his son's bottom, then quickly slipped out and drove toward the television station.

Meanwhile, inside the studio, the seven singers had been rehearsing since early morning, but a whole morning had passed, and they still hadn't seen the so-called "mysterious challenger singer," prompting them to discuss it among themselves.

"Who on earth is this round's challenger? Did they sneak in ahead of us to finish their rehearsal, or are they so confident that they don't even need one?"

"No need to worry! As long as we stand united and perform well to secure a spot in the top four, the challenger can forget about succeeding!"

"Right! No matter who it is, as long as they can't break into the top four, even if Teacher Eason Chan came to challenge, he wouldn't necessarily win against us!"

……

Thinking about how strong the previous round's challenger was and yet still being defeated by them, the singers were currently brimming with confidence!

Because this was a show that tested live vocal performance strength, even if a heavenly king or queen came to challenge, as long as their song choice was poor or they made a mistake during the live performance, they most likely wouldn't succeed!

This was precisely why they were so confident!

As their rehearsal concluded, Yu Zhile had just arrived at the television station and was getting a simple touch-up on his makeup and hair in a separate dressing room.

As the show's recording drew near, the seven singers in the Singer's House backstage resumed their perplexed discussions.

"Why hasn't the challenger arrived yet? The show is about to start recording!"

"They probably realized the pressure of facing an opponent like me was too great, so they got cold feet and fled!"

"Ugh, stop flattering yourself! I think there might have been some trouble on the road, so the recording is delayed. Or maybe they've already arrived, and the production team is planning to give us a surprise at the very last minute! Knowing the production team's style, I think the latter is much more likely!"

……

At that moment, Director Zhang suddenly laughed and said, "You guessed it right! That's right, the challenger has already arrived! They're next door putting on makeup and changing clothes right now. Whether it turns out to be a pleasant surprise or a fright, it's hard to say!"

"If you guys managed to invite Teacher Eason Chan, then that really would frighten me!"

"We're not scared at all, okay! Even if the Four Heavenly Queens came, we wouldn't be frightened!"

……

Heh, you guys are really getting full of yourselves!

The Four Heavenly Queens, you say?

Director Zhang chuckled!

Just wait!

When Yu Zhile finally steps out, let's see how you all react!

Soon, the official recording of the show began!

Led by his program manager Yang Bing, Yu Zhile pushed open the backstage door and appeared right before the eyes of the seven singers!

At that moment, some singers were stunned, evidently failing to recognize Yu Zhile at first, but other singers recognized him instantly!

Their suddenly dilated pupils were filled with disbelief and shock!

To think that this man was actually returning!