After his first performance, Shen Huaian sang a newly released single, giving it its first promotional performance.
Yu Qing had already eaten barbecue by the time he took the stage. He picked up the microphone, rubbed his stomach, and said with a smile:
"My husband fed me too much. I think I'm already full. What if I can't sing well now?"
Yu Qing had gotten familiar with the villagers over the previous episodes, and everyone knew he and Shen Yu were husbands. As soon as he finished speaking, the audience burst out laughing and shouted, "It's okay!"
The bullet comments were also saying how cute wifey was. Yu Qing was an actor to begin with, so everyone was very easygoing about it. Some even joked that he should sing slowly, take his time, and not startle the little baby in his belly.
But to everyone's surprise, Yu Qing didn't sing. Instead, he beckoned to the man below the stage. "A-Yu, come up here."
The Double Jade husbands shared the frame and handed out sugar once again, turning everyone in the bullet comments into screaming chickens.
"Let the professionals do what they do best. A-Yu and I won't be singing. Instead, we'll present an adapted excerpt from The Art of Emperors."
The Art of Emperors was a classic historical danmei tale of political intrigue. It was also the drama through which the two of them had fallen in love. It was several years old and had been rerun on television a few times, so many residents of Peach Blossom Spring Village had seen it.
In the original ending, their romance ended in tragedy.
For the sake of his grand undertaking to build a flourishing empire, the emperor had been forced to abandon his general when beset by enemies on both sides.
Yet not only had the general held no resentment, he had led his army to turn the tables against the odds, ultimately defeating the invading cavalry of the Northern Frontier.
But he himself had been grievously wounded and exhausted, dying in battle at dawn the next day.
He had missed the arrival of the reinforcements his emperor sent to the city gates by less than an hour.
In the end, however, death had separated them, leaving a profound regret.
Countless fans of the drama had cried their hearts out over it.
The two had adapted the drama's ending. In the end, the general lived to see his emperor arrive, and through this discovered that the emperor had never abandoned him.
A Northern Frontier commander who switched sides at the last moment could prove it:
In the game the emperor had set in motion long before, his ever-victorious general had never been a disposable pawn.
[Ahhhh, this adaptation is so good! Even the logic and foreshadowing all line up!!!]
[Does anyone understand the weight of the emperor's final words?!
"Ziqing, you were never a pawn, but the lover who stands beside me as my equal."
Ahhhhh, we drama fans can die happy!]
[I hereby declare that this is the ending.]
When their performance ended, the two received cheers from the entire audience.
#The Art of Emperors has a happy ending#
#The general was never a pawn#
The two topics shot straight to first and second place on the trending list, each followed by a deep-red "Explosive" tag.
Feng Chi looked at the little fool sitting on a small stool, silently crying his eyes out, and wordlessly slipped an arm around his waist.
"That moved you so much?"
He was actually crying even harder than before.
"Waaah, you don't understand!" Even the grilled chicken wing in Wen Jiu's hand had lost its appeal. He took a huge, grief-stricken bite and said indistinctly, "Emperors and generals and all that are the fucking best!"
As he spoke, Wen Jiu raised the wooden skewer holding his chicken wing like a soldier charging after his general and shouted:
"Long live the general! Long live the emperor!"
Feng Chi: ...
Yu Qing was walking down the steps hand in hand with Shen Yu, not yet entirely out of character. Then he heard Wen Jiu's howl and couldn't help bursting into laughter.
[Um... my tears dried up instantly.]
[Same. Seeing someone crying even harder than me suddenly made me unable to cry.]
[I'll just watch wifey cry. He puts more feeling into it than I do.]
And so, just as #Wen Jiu, a heavenly voice# and #Wen Jiu: I came into this world# reached the top ten trending topics, #Wen Jiu seems to be playing me# knocked them down.
Clicking into it revealed a fucking GIF of him clutching a chicken wing and crying like an idiot.
Qu Feng, the manager who constantly monitored trending keywords: ...
Soon it was Lin Shuheng's turn. He had prepared a song-and-dance number from his boy group days, the kind with a strong beat that easily fired up a crowd.
Without gorgeous spotlights or audio effects to enhance it, the performance might have left something to be desired, but the previous acts had already thoroughly fired up the crowd. In theory, it shouldn't have fallen flat.
As long as it wasn't terrible, the audience would show their support.
The problem was that Lin Shuheng's singing and dancing were actually quite mediocre.
A good group performance could highlight each member's strengths. Even if there were flaws, the members' seamless coordination could cover them up-a few blemishes didn't obscure the jade's beauty.
Besides, most group performances these days used partially live vocals, rarely going without a backing vocal track. Some even needed a million-dollar sound engineer to come to the rescue-Lin Shuheng was one of them.
As a result, Lin Shuheng's solo performance was rather awkward.
Not only was he off-key, but his breath support was weak. His heavy panting came through the ordinary microphone like the wheezing of bellows.
Never mind professional musicians like Shen Huaian and Wen Jiu-even the residents in the audience found it hard to listen.
Some children even wanted to jump out and complain, only for their quick-eyed, quick-handed parents to clap hands over their mouths.
The silence was somewhat awkward.
Despite what had happened last time, Lin Shuheng's fans still hadn't learned their lesson. They accused everyone in the bullet comments of being disrespectful and uncooperative, while others praised their idol's wonderful performance.
Some fans also defended him by saying the earlier performances had raised the audience's expectations, making them more critical of the later acts.
The netizens couldn't stand it for even a second.
[I finally understand why so many people still follow Lin Shuheng. It's fucking idiot dad opening the door for idiot son-idiocy has come home.]
[His own skills aren't good enough and his professional abilities suck, yet he keeps blaming everyone else.]
[LMAO, why is the audience being so uncooperative? They're all busy cringing hard enough to dig a castle with their toes. I'm dying of secondhand embarrassment.]
[Honestly, even my dog sounds better than him.]
[At least a dog knows how to whine and bark, act cute, and give a performance some structure. Isn't its breath control better than Lin Shuheng's?]
[As a mom fan of Lin Shuheng, I can't keep quiet anymore. I used to see him through a stage filter. His singing and dancing really were decent when he debuted, and with his frail health, I practically thought of him as half a son.
But his performances have really gotten worse year after year. I'm embarrassed to even call myself his fan. I've come to my senses now, and I've decided to leave.]
[+1. I can't really call it disappointment, since I watched him regress bit by bit. Every time those kids mindlessly pick fights, it puts me off even more. I don't have the energy to keep following him either. That's it, then.]
[I'm leaving too. Always shirking responsibility and slinging mud at other people, never thinking about his own problems. Six or seven years and he hasn't changed at all. I'm embarrassed to even mention it.]
When Lin Shuheng finished his song, the audience gave him perfunctory applause and a few compliments. He actually took them seriously, shot Wen Jiu a haughty glare, and picked up his phone to look for himself on the trending list.
There was no trending topic, but he had lost quite a few followers.
His follower count had dropped straight from over 8.8 million to just over 7.5 million, and it was still falling.
Lin Shuheng barely restrained himself from hurling his phone away. He couldn't lose his temper in front of the cameras, either, so his face merely darkened. Looking at Wen Jiu's follower count, which had surpassed nine million, he wanted nothing more than to rush over and tear him apart.
Wen Jiu, who noticed his gaze: ???
What the hell?
Wen Jiu wasn't someone who would take things lying down. Getting glared at for no reason, he immediately snapped back, "What're you staring at your daddy for?"
Hearing that, Feng Chi also looked over.
Lin Shuheng was so frightened that he immediately lowered his head, not daring to look again, his hands gripping his phone case tightly.
Wen Jiu looked away, cursing, and still muttered, "Psycho!"
"A petty clown. Ignore him." With a cold expression, Feng Chi drew him closer. Even though Wen Jiu had already stopped looking that way, he still turned sideways to block his view.
Feng Chi didn't want Wen Jiu giving too much of his attention to anyone else, even if it was out of disgust.
As for Lin Shuheng and Li Peiqi, who had occupied Wen Jiu's gaze for so many years, he wished he could tear them limb from limb.
The man did his best to suppress the violent emotions surging within him, raising a hand to pat the young man's back. "Your turn. Go on."
He tried to hold back, but still couldn't suppress the dark desire to possess the young man right that instant.
Feng Chi had never been one to make things difficult for himself, so, in the moment when the young man stood up-
He swiftly kissed the tip of his ear.
Like a cat whose fur had bristled, Wen Jiu clapped a hand over his right ear and looked down at him in astonishment.
The kiss had landed.
This time, the forty million viewers in the livestream, the two million ship fans, and all 317 people present had seen it clearly.
Feng Chi had taken the initiative to kiss the ear of Wen Jiu, who was just about to go onstage.
The bullet comments exploded completely.