Chapter 1024: A sudden turn of events!
Translator: Legge Editor: Legge
On Weibo.
Li Yu's fans were all laughing happily.
"Have they finished recording the show yet?"
"I have no idea."
"Brother Li Yu is definitely going to be the Masked King."
"Right, recording might have already ended."
"Just based on Teacher Li Yu's reputation alone, who can best him?"
"Ah, I really wanted to attend the recording and listen to Brother Li Yu sing!"
The media was still plugging this news.
Many of the PR campaigns that Li Yu's team had spent money on were still bombarding the public space with news.
"No suspense as to who will become the third episode's Masked King!"
"Li Yu: The darling of the music industry!"
"Sunflower has been holding back in the competition all this time!"
"A Sunflower that sings Cantonese songs is unbeatable!"
"Only a matter of time before Li Yu returns to the A-list!"
"Sunflower's popularity to usher in a career high if he becomes grand champion of King of Masked Singers!"
The speculation in the outside world was getting intense.
Even the onlookers started to believe that Li Yu would definitely become this episode's Masked King.
But unbeknownst to them, Li Yu had already lost the right to compete in the third episode's battle for the Masked King. Neither did they know that the recording studio was currently in chaos!
...
At the studio.
The Clown's words had shocked everyone!
Dong Shanshan forced herself to calm down and said, "You want to admit defeat?"
The Clown nodded. "That's right."
Dong Shanshan asked, "Are you sure?"
The Clown said, "I'm quite sure."
"There aren't any rules about this, so I can't make the decision. I'll need to ask the program team." Dong Shanshan immediately looked to Hu Fei and the others in the wings.
Many of the audience members stood up looking confused.
"Why is he admitting defeat?"
"Afraid that you'll lose by too much? You must mean to say that you're afraid you'll win by too much!"
"Why did The Clown do that?"
"He clearly sang really well!"
"This song can easily sweep Spinach aside!"
"Yeah, The Clown would definitely have won. So why did he admit defeat?"
"Didn't all the judges only have good things to say about him?"
"This fellow must have gone crazy, right?"
"If he admits defeat now, he'll have to go into the elimination round and take on Sunflower. Sunflower will definitely sing a Cantonese song, and then wouldn't The Clown get eliminated? Then he'll have to take off his mask!"
"Yeah. Although I also want to know who The Clown is, it's just the third episode. I don't wish for him to be eliminated so early in the competition!"
His mother was also stunned. "What's going on?"
His eldest young sister said anxiously, "I don't know."
A lot of people were confused by what was going on.
But some people understood exactly what was going on.
Hu Fei and the others could vaguely guess what The Clown was thinking. When The Clown decided to admit defeat, it set their pulses racing with excitement!
Li Yu had become a ticking time bomb that could bring everyone down with him. The program team could not wait to get rid of this cancerous tumor. But during their earlier discussion, they had concluded that among all the contestants, only Petal Shower and The Clown had a chance to put up a fight against him and that it was impossible for the others to win. Even though Petal Shower's and The Clown's chances of winning were very slim, with Petal Shower performing exceedingly well and eliminating Sunflower in the first round, the program team staff thought that this was the best possible outcome and a miracle as well. They had not expected that anyone would be able to kick him out of the competition in the upcoming elimination round.
But The Clown came forward!
No one could have known this would happen!
Hou Ge said excitedly, "Teacher Clown!"
Dafei stammered, "This, this…"
Xiao Lu was extremely touched. "How righteous! Teacher Clown has such strong sense of justice!"
Han Qi was panicking. "No! He absolutely must not do that!"
Another staff member said, "What if The Clown loses? Then…"
"He's planning for it to be a deathmatch!"
"We're not talking about the first round here! This is the elimination round! Whoever loses will get eliminated!"
"He's going all out!"
"The Clown is quite interesting!"
"How brave would you need to be to do that?"
"Fucking hell! This is super exciting!"
"Director Hu, what should we do?"
"Director Hu, everyone is waiting. How are we going to handle this?"
The program team staff congregated and were in complete disarray!
On the stage.
Spinach experienced the most complicated of feelings as she finally understood what The Clown meant when he said "Sing well and you're sure to win" before her turn to take the stage. At the time, she thought that The Clown was just comforting and encouraging her as he was afraid that she would be too nervous. But she understood now that even before she'd gone onstage, The Clown planned to concede the match. The Clown knew that Spinach was definitely not a match for Li Yu, so he wanted to take him on by himself!
Before the competition started, Petal Shower had said it.
Why not just stop Li Yu from advancing to the battle for the Masked King?
Why not just get Li Yu eliminated from the show?
No one took her words seriously then. But now, they were getting closer and closer to realizing those words, especially after The Clown announced that he would concede his match!
They've gone mad!
One was Petal Shower, who clearly knew that her opponent was Li Yu, but still switched spots with Spinach!
The other was The Clown, who clearly knew that Li Yu would sing a Cantonese song to the best of his abilities in the elimination round, yet still took the risk of possibly revealing his identity by admitting defeat so that he could knock Li Yu out in the elimination round!
These two were lunatics!
These were two lunatics who had very strong self-confidence and were fearless!
Spinach quickly said, "Teacher, I…"
The Clown waved it off and laughed.
Dong Shanshan communicated through her earpiece, "Alright, alright, I understand."
The program team staff had come to a decision.
At once, everyone's eyes landed on Dong Shanshan.
Amy was so anxious she was already standing. Honestly, she really liked The Clown a lot and did not wish for him to go up against Li Yu. If that were to happen, The Clown would be more or less done for!
Li Yu's assistant was staring from the wings.
Dong Shanshan spoke, "The program team has decided: They will allow the contestant to admit defeat."
Everyone flew into an uproar!
The audience blew up!
Dong Shanshan announced, "I hereby announce that the winner of this match is—Spinach!"
No one applauded.
Seeing this, The Clown started clapping very hard and gave Spinach a thumbs up. Then he raised his hands and gestured for the crowd to give her their applause.
With that, applause started to ring out in the audience.
Spinach hurriedly bowed to give her thanks.
However, Li Yu's assistant could not accept this!
Assistant Xu went straight to Hu Fei and the program team and sought them out. "What is the meaning of this? Does the show have a rule about being allowed to admit defeat? Isn't this messing things up? He clearly did that on purpose!"
Hu Fei looked at her. "Are you the director?"
Assistant Xu choked.
Hu Fei shouted, "This is our Beijing TV show! Do I need you to tell me what to do?"
Li Yu and his team's arrogance had infuriated the program team staff beyond recognition. It was our show to begin with! You people breached the contract by taking the liberty of revealing who he was, broke the rules, used underhanded methods to ask for votes, and paid for PR campaigns! Yet you still have the balls to accuse us of messing things up? Breaking the rules?
Fuck off!
Who the fuck do you think you are!
Did you think this show belongs to you? That you could do whatever you liked?
Assistant Xu was also angered and wanted to argue with them!
Hou Ge called over the security guards. "Throw her out of here!"
Dafei said, "Who let this person in? This is a workplace for our employees and restricted for non-staff. Guard this place closely in the future and don't just let any Tom, Dick, or Harry enter!"
Tom, Dick, or Harry?
I'm Li Yu's assistant!
In the music industry, who doesn't talk to me courteously and politely?
Assistant Xu was furious. "Great, great, just watch!"
Xiao Lu spit out, "What an asshole you are!"
Assistant Xu said angrily, "Who are you insulting?"
Xiao Lu pointed at the assistant's nose and said, "I'm insulting you!"
What sort of a television station was this?
What sort of a program team was this?
Assistant Xu yelled, "You're going to speak to me like this? Ah? Do you believe I won't expose you to the media!"
Xiao Lu stalked toward her like a little tigress and said, "Go ahead and expose us! Do it!"
Dafei sneered, "You're fortunate that Teacher Zhang Ye is not around today. If he were around, with that temperament of his, you'd probably leave this place on a stretcher!"
They were all Zhang Ye's old colleagues. In fact, their behavior and temperament were not like this in the past. Even if they were faced with some annoyance, they wouldn't have lambasted someone like they had now. Further, this person was even a former A-lister's assistant. It was only after they had been around Zhang Ye for a long time that they had changed a fair bit, so it was inevitable that they got influenced by some of Zhang Ye's bad habits. They might not have even been aware of this themselves.
So perhaps this was where Zhang Ye's unique charms lay.