"Authentic Herbal Tea, Authentic The Voice."
"Welcome everyone to The Voice stage. Here,"
"Now, let me introduce the four mentors for this program!"
After the on-site host's passionate opening, the lights dimmed and the music began.
With top-tier lighting and sound effects, the show could be considered the most lavishly equipped talent competition around.
The four mentors sang a song together, appearing one by one before the live audience. Wave after wave of cheers echoed throughout the studio.
There was no denying that The Voice production team had put a lot of thought into choosing its mentors.
There was a highly respected veteran with decades of industry experience, a superstar singer who had been famous for ten or twenty years, a current pop-music darling, and Zhen Dongjun, who was in charge of creating entertaining moments.
With all these immortals gathered together, the result was sweet high notes, accurate mid notes, and deep low notes!
As for the overall impression of the song they performed... it was not great.
Everyone had their own distinctive style, and mixed together, they sounded like a hodgepodge.
There was no helping it. The song was not a very good choice.
Or rather, it was difficult to choose one that worked.
There were very few songs that could make people feel something no matter who sang them. There were always songs that suited some people and did not suit others.
Just like Bai Youlou could casually churn out several hundred songs in a short time if he went all out and never stopped.
But if even a third of those songs were suitable for him to sing himself, his vocal talent would already be extraordinary.
That was also why he needed Zhang Xiaorong and Long Ziqiang, his two "tools."
Whether he could sing everything himself was another matter, but if he did, he would definitely "ruin" quite a few songs.
Besides, if he sang everything himself, he could spend the next few years doing nothing but recording albums and still work himself to death.
"Hehe, I'm getting ready to go on!"
"A Qiang, sing properly. Don't embarrass us."
"I've followed Brother Lou to so many programs already. I can handle a little scene like this in minutes."
Long Ziqiang confidently flashed Old Zhou a hand signal before following the staff toward the stage without even looking back.
He was the first contestant in the first episode of this season of The Voice.
The Voice production team had indeed conducted a detailed background check on Bai Youlou and his attached talent, Long Ziqiang.
Putting Long Ziqiang first was meant to make an immediate impact.
Of course, Long Ziqiang's performance was not the only thing that needed to make an immediate impact.
In the little room for friends and family where Bai Youlou and Old Zhou were sitting, several cameras had already begun operating at some unknown point.
A female host wearing a short skirt and a light-colored polo shirt, with a highly infectious smile on her face, also came over to them.
The female host had apparently been briefed in advance. She was not surprised at all when she saw Bai Youlou and even smiled and greeted him.
She also conveyed the production team's hope that he would cooperate and create some entertaining moments.
"Create entertaining moments? Can't we just cheer A Qiang on from here?"
Old Zhou, a true behind-the-scenes worker, was a little nervous in front of so many cameras. He did not even know where to put his hands.
His nervousness came mostly from worry. Given Bai Youlou's current mental state, what kind of entertaining moment could he possibly create?
"Do you have a boyfriend?"
"Huh?" The female host froze, unsure how to answer. Once she realized what he had asked, she hurriedly waved her hands. "No."
"What's your zodiac sign, then?"
"This."
"Let's have breakfast together sometime."
Old Zhou: Nice.
Creating entertaining moments did not mean sexually harassing the female host, you idiot!
Onstage, Long Ziqiang displayed his singing talent and made the mentors turn around one after another. Backstage, Bai Youlou displayed his true hooligan nature and relentlessly harassed the host.
Three sentences were enough to send the previously energetic rookie host into a dazed state.
Mainly because she had not quite understood what "have breakfast together" meant.
Did people actually ask someone out for breakfast?
At that moment, the production team's reminder came through the female host's earpiece. "Host Xiao Liu, he's teasing you. Don't just stand there. Keep the conversation going and ask about his thoughts on original music."
The Voice production team had actually anticipated Bai Youlou's mental state.
That guy had already driven a self-destructing tank once a few months ago, leaving behind a running joke that was still spreading far and wide.
Netizens even jokingly called him very polite: after using someone else's things, he never forgot to leave a "good review."
However, the rookie host, Host Xiao Liu, did not seem to have much tolerance for pressure.
After a coworker explained what Bai Youlou's words meant, her entire face visibly began to flush with anger.
It was not the kind of flush caused by shyness. She was genuinely getting angry.
At that moment, Bai Youlou suddenly paused and smiled at her. "That bit just now should be usable, right? The footage of the friends-and-family group backstage is probably limited. It should be enough to highlight my hooligan nature and tie in with my image online. I guarantee everyone who sees it will hate me."
"Huh?"
"Hello. Now we can get properly acquainted. Although I'm already somewhat famous, my name is Bai Youlou, taken from the line 'Last night, the east wind blew again from the little tower.'"
"Last night, the east wind blew again from the little tower. It is unbearable to look back, beneath the bright moon?"
Host Xiao Liu quickly reconstructed the second half of the poem in her head. What a perfect "unbearable to look back."
For some inexplicable reason, it seemed to echo Bai Youlou's past experiences.
And Bai Youlou, who had just successfully acquired labels like straight man and frivolous flirt in her mind, suddenly became harder to define.
Unable to hold back, she asked, "You—you did that on purpose, didn't you? Why?"
"We've only just met—"
Bai Youlou thought, You're crossing the line, miss.
"Sorry, did I ask too much?" Host Xiao Liu said cautiously.
Strangely enough, the production team, which should have reminded her to "get back on track," remained silent at that moment.
They simply let Host Xiao Liu improvise freely.
A perfectly good singing talent show seemed to have turned into an interview program.
It had gone so far off topic that no one knew where the topic had ended up.
If Long Ziqiang onstage knew that his "friends and family" backstage had not even shouted a single word of encouragement, his mentality would probably have cracked too.
Unfortunately, Bai Youlou was not there to satisfy anyone's curiosity.
"It's over. Are we supposed to applaud?"
"Huh? Oh, right! A Qiang did great!"
Old Zhou very perfunctorily clapped along with Bai Youlou, inwardly marveling at how much better the bastard had become at flirting with girls.
When they left the friends-and-family studio, the female host even saw them off with lingering reluctance.
From Zhang Xiaorong's "fighting the world" to Host Xiao Liu's "setting them up before praising them," the tactics were dazzling to watch.
He really wanted to learn, but he felt he could never pull off Bai Youlou's style.
After all, Bai Youlou was genuinely a man with a "story."
From a certain perspective, that sense of having a story was fatal to young women.
By the time Bai Youlou and Long Ziqiang had reunited and the three of them had strolled arm in arm to the emergency stairwell to smoke, Host Xiao Liu finally came to her senses.
"I'm sorry, Director. I just—"
"It's fine. You did quite well."
Hearing the evaluation through her earpiece, Host Xiao Liu blurted out, "Are we really going to edit him to look that bad?"
Whether to edit him to look that bad naturally depended on which way the wind was blowing.
In the entertainment industry, right and wrong were not actually that important.
Put it this way: if the audience only saw the first half of what Bai Youlou had said just now, he would look like a shameless, desperate pervert whom everyone would hate.
But if they showed the second half and connected the two parts, it would give an entirely different impression.
Which section they used depended entirely on what the production team wanted.
Demon editing was nothing unusual in the industry.
As always, it depended on which way the wind was blowing.
If the overall trend was to destroy Bai Youlou, no one could save him. The Voice production team would not help "clear his name," either.
But if—and this was only an if—the kid truly defeated the scandals through his terrifying talent, then things would be hard to say.
Publicity was all about manipulating public opinion.
"Damn, did this kid do that on purpose? He deliberately paused between the two sections. No matter how you look at it, he did that to make it easier for us to edit."
Before you continue