Chapter 50: Is It to Avoid Suspicion? Part 1

After recording the backup material, the seventh season of Sing My Heart Tonight basically had its outcome declared.

The five groups of Premier Singers faced the empty main broadcast hall without an audience, their expressions complicated.

Even though First Sister already held the winning position, she didn’t show any particular smugness.

It was clear that everyone’s emotions were more of a wistful melancholy.

A competitive music variety show packed with professional singers, where competition was maxed out, never had a happy, family-friendly ending. Just like words, once spoken, can’t be taken back, a stage performance was the same. You couldn’t ask the audience to sympathize because “I performed better during the rehearsal” when you made mistakes during the live show.

Even someone like First Sister, with a sure win in hand, had her regrets.

Of course, she couldn’t say anything; she had to keep them locked in her heart. Otherwise, it would just be taking advantage of a situation…

Recording for Night Heart Seven up until today had already secured a triple yearly champion across all platforms in advance. Whether it could become a classic depended on the final night’s live broadcast, and whether it could sustain a long-tail effect afterward to continue fermenting its reputation.

If so, great—everyone would continue to reap the benefits.

Even if not, the traffic gained so far was enough for a has-been to stage a comeback, for a struggling artist to return to the spotlight.

Li Tingzhou hadn’t thought much about it. As a Guest Singer, he had considered things very thoroughly from the start: Do his utmost within the limited room for creativity. If it brought one or two trending topics, great; if not, no disappointment either. As it turned out, everything exceeded expectations. Although this period had been busy, pushing energy and stamina to the limit, the returns were also quite substantial.

First Sister was a decent collaborator, provided she wasn’t so prone to wavering.

Other than that, Tide indeed had a seriously capable person, pushing the schedule relentlessly with no regard for their own life.

For now, Whale’s boldness couldn’t match Tide’s…

“What are you thinking about?”

Liu Lusi lowered her voice and leaned in: “Pan Jun wants to introduce you to someone.”

Li Tingzhou immediately snapped out of his daze and followed her to the backstage area. He saw Pan Jun standing with He Shi, the Music Director who had collaborated with Sing My Heart Tonight for a full four seasons. He Shi had also worked at CCTV in his early years and hadn’t moved since being recruited to Tide.

He Shi looked very scholarly, wearing a black-framed pair of glasses.

“Hello Mengmeng. I’m here today entrusted by someone—”

Clearly, He Shi was also someone who got straight to the point and disliked beating around the bush.

The reason he was willing to act as this intermediary was because of his wife, Zhao Xuan. Her old classmate and former colleague, President Maggie Liu, was in charge of that mature women’s talent show, and its progress was almost finalized. The participating guests were basically signed with letters of intent. The only remaining issue was that a few specific positions in the core creative team hadn’t found the right people yet.

Upon hearing the name Zhao Xuan, Li Tingzhou immediately thought of Zhao Zhining.

That kid had a reason for being so silly.

Leaving his parents aside for now, just based on his aunt and uncle’s professional skills and vast network, it was indeed enough to support him coasting through the three major platforms with sheer naivety.

As for President Maggie, the name was even more illustrious.

She was the one who originally gave Xu Yuenan an internal referral, strongly pushing for her to join Tide.

Maggie Liu had been deeply cultivated at the Tide platform for over 20 years, with extensive experience in production and executive production. Xu Yuenan was one of the extensions of her authority, the two bound in a very close relationship, a direct line nurtured by Maggie herself.

Just as Liu and Qu had chatted idly about, the internal factional struggles at Tide were fierce.

If even the female executives couldn’t unite the strength of women, then they truly couldn’t fight it out clearly.

Without this kind of reformist courage and innovation, Maggie Liu wouldn’t have needed to support Xu Yuenan. And Xu Yuenan hadn’t disappointed her expectations, managing to set up such a large team in less than two months, expanding and solidifying simultaneously, mobilizing all strength to assemble the best possible configuration.

A mature women’s talent show was still a talent show. And since it was a talent show, there would definitely be stages.

A big shot of He Shi’s level couldn’t be secured by Xu Yuenan.

But she could ask him to help make connections.

Just as Maggie Liu could be nominally listed as General Director or Executive Producer, He Shi could also be nominally listed as Music Director, letting the person who actually did the work but lacked seniority take the deputy position. This way, a powerful endorsement was provided, the responsibility system could be smoothly implemented, and the person capable of handling things could logically be pulled into the core creative team—killing multiple birds with one stone.

“I know this matter might disrupt your plans, but the opportunity is truly rare.”

He Shi had been in the industry for over twenty years. He knew all too well the sweetness and brevity of a youth-dependent career. If his life could be lived again, he would definitely learn and try more things when young. An extra path meant an extra possibility for the future.

Thus, when He Shi looked at Mengmeng, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of kindred spirit sympathy.

“President Maggie is approachable and down-to-earth, and Teacher Xu is also very responsible. They can ensure your initiative and control over the entire music group. No second person will come to share your authority. You don’t need to worry about that.”

The Senior Vice President of Tide, approachable and down-to-earth?

Li Tingzhou didn’t believe it.

Had He Shi’s own journey in Season 7 of Sing My Heart Tonight been smooth?

If he had encountered various obstacles even after three or four seasons, could Li Tingzhou, someone clearly associated with Hundred Blossoms and not even officially part of Tide’s structure, parachute into a new show and expect everyone to cooperate willingly?

But Li Tingzhou wouldn’t refuse He Shi face-to-face. Instead, he stated that he needed time to consider.

He Shi understood perfectly: “It’s good for you to think it over more.”

After he left, Liu Lusi said, “Pan Jun also helped put in a good word.”

Though Pan Jun was from Whale, that didn’t conflict with him facilitating connections for Li Tingzhou.

The three major platforms could lend personnel to each other and exchange resources, but couldn’t easily poach.

From his perspective, being a Guest Singer brought exposure and popularity, but was ultimately just a piece on the chessboard. Above him was the production team, beside him was his partner First Sister. Li Tingzhou’s scope of initiative was quite limited. A random old man sent by Diamond Records could sway decisions. Being the Music Director of a major show was different. The main responsibility for any backlash fell on the General Director, the secondary liability on the performers. If Li Tingzhou joined, he only needed to do his own job well.

Look how comfortable He Shi was?

Whether it was smooth sailing was another matter, but back during the Feng Mo incident, the General Director personally pulled the other groups of Premier Singers into sharing responsibility. The criticism was almost entirely concentrated on Feng Mo. No one ever wondered why He Shi didn’t come out to clean up the mess…

Li Tingzhou could tell Liu Lusi was very tempted. After they communicated their opinions, each held their ground.

“I think this is a really good opportunity.”

If doing something else was an efficiency of adding +1 experience, +1 credentials…

Then this was a direct leap to the level of +100, +100.

Difficulty was certainly there, and the pressure was equally imaginable. But what job wasn’t difficult? Others worried that if a new show couldn’t take off, it would drag down their reputation, and that such a project wouldn’t look pretty enough on their resume. Wasn’t this precisely the time for Mengmeng to show his decisiveness?

But Li Tingzhou had very limited expectations for this job: “Let’s wait and see.”

Liu Lusi thought for a moment and asked, “Is it to avoid suspicion?”

Li Tingzhou immediately denied it: “No, that’s not the reason.”

Liu Lusi was about to ask further when Eldan came in: “Si Yuan said that when he and Mao Maoyu went out to buy things, they were recognized by a fan. How big of a deal is this?”

“He didn’t come to ask himself?” Liu Lusi said instinctively.

Eldan mulled it over: “He probably felt too embarrassed to say it directly.”

“What’s there to be embarrassed about? I’m not his Agent; I can’t control him. Even less is Mengmeng his Boss. Even if he was disciplining him, he wouldn’t interfere this much.”

Outside, Mao Maoyu and Dai Jier were still consoling Si Yuan.

“Oh, what’s there to worry about! Your fans will find out sooner or later.”

Sooner or later, you’d have to take this cut.

Right now, he just met one fan who asked him a couple of caring questions about his whereabouts, and on the spot, he was so ashamed he couldn’t speak. What about the future? If it was indeed made public that he signed with Heartbreak, but because his skills weren’t enough, he couldn’t even be the substitute Lead Singer, let alone debut as a solo singer, facing questions from thousands of fans or netizens—what would he do then?

Dai Jier also nodded repeatedly: “Yeah, it’s still better than delivering food, right?”

Under their tandem of consolations, Si Yuan was hesitant to speak.

“Si Yuan, you’re still young. Listen to me; don’t go delivering food. That’s a job that becomes addictive. Once you fall in love with the feeling of racing through the city’s winds, your life is set on that path. The profession you’ve studied so hard for years will be scrapped. Your dreams will wither, your outer shell will shrivel and stink like wilting flower petals, losing all attractiveness. I’m not joking with you.”

Dai Jier wasn’t necessarily persuading him to join Heartbreak, but urging him to hold onto his dreams.

Si Yuan stared, half-dumbfounded, mouth slightly agape. His gaze shifted to the stage front, rows of spotlights like small suns, so bright they seemed to melt people right in front of the lens.

How could he not yearn for it?

But he couldn’t forget the cheers and screams of the fans when he was on stage.

He wanted to debut as soon as possible, not wait for a completely uncertain day.

But Mengmeng didn’t seem willing to give Si Yuan such a promise. The other party’s hesitation was not the same concept as Si Yuan’s own hesitation. He was just thinking: Is this person worth my effort to cultivate?

Accumulated popularity, fan expectations…

Those weren’t factors Mengmeng truly cared about.

Si Yuan could vaguely grasp some of Mengmeng’s thoughts, but deep down, he was unwilling to shatter his own illusions. As a trainee who couldn’t debut on a talent show, it only pointed to two reasons—