Chapter 62: A New Concept Music Variety Show

Every voice deserves to be heard.

This was the promotional slogan for the new music variety show—the creative music program that manager Song Yiwen had previously mentioned she would arrange for Yu Wei in advance.

The production team was extremely satisfied with Yu Wei. Not only did he come with overwhelming popularity, but he was also a musician with exceptional personal capabilities and a special knack for creating viral moments, making him quite simply the ideal candidate for a permanent guest.

Music Blind Box, a music reality show centered around ordinary people, downplayed the competitive nature of variety music shows. Instead, it sought out stories of ordinary life through music, emphasizing the warm core of music healing lives.

Before each recording session, the production team would select a few ordinary people from across the country to form teams with the guests in the format of a blind box, followed by a period of getting along.

During this process, the ordinary people were the protagonists, while the celebrities and singers served instead as witnesses to their stories. In the end, the celebrity guests would choose a song that best matched the story of the ordinary contestant, and the performance would be completed either as a duet or a solo by the ordinary person.

No competitions, only stories.

The show's selling point was the cross-over collaboration between musicians and non-musicians, showcasing the power of music to break down boundaries and allowing more viewers to resonate with their ordinary daily lives.

For instance, if Yu Wei drew a delivery driver guest, he would have to accompany the delivery driver in delivering food for a week and finally sing a song like Chasing the Dream's Innocent Heart; if he drew a teacher guest, he would have to attend classes and perform a rendition of The Stories of Time...

Compared to traditional music variety shows, it felt more like a lifestyle experience reality show, with the final music being merely the echo of ordinary people's mundane lives—hence the sentiment, "Every voice deserves to be heard."

Yu Wei was quite interested in this show because it truly gave off the feeling of opening a blind box, and moreover, it was refreshingly down-to-earth without forcibly imposing lofty values at the end; everything was contained within the songs.

The show did not arrange any so-called scripts. After all, the lives of ordinary people had no rehearsals; every day was a live broadcast, and no one knew what would actually happen.

This show was actually similar to the earlier Sing With Me, but it was bolder, incorporating celebrity lifestyle experience segments similar to Go Fighting!.

First experience and witness the story, then express it through music.

"Are any author friends signing up to participate? Wouldn't it be entirely logical for me to accompany them while they grind out words?"

Faced with Yu Wei's sudden brainstorm, the staff member in charge of the Music Blind Box agreement momentarily wore a troubled expression, turning to look for help at Liu Ning beside him.

He really loved typing words far too much...

"Just joking."

Yu Wei was merely speaking off the top of his head. He understood web novel authors well enough; part-time authors ran themselves ragged around the clock, while full-time authors stayed cooped up at home, all wishing they could magically gain three extra hours of rest a day. How could they possibly go on a show?

Most netizens would surely just look on at such a high-profile and somewhat troublesome affair, as no one really wanted an "observer" suddenly popping up in their daily lives.

However, the domestic population was massive; even if the proportion of people signing up was tiny, it still amounted to a staggering figure.

"A show like this should invite a few male idols, so their obsessive fans can frantically sign up and thoroughly take advantage of the idols during the recording period."

Yu Wei bantered while checking the contract details. The staff member did not dare to voice a peep and could only reply inwardly: drawing an obsessive female fan would be fine, but drawing an obsessive male fan would be...

The show had three permanent guests, with Yu Wei being one of them. The other two were veterans in the entertainment industry, though only one of them was a singer, while the other was an actor who had only ever sung television drama theme songs.

"This Teacher Meng Han must be Meng Lei's old man, right."

In Hello Roommate, Meng Lei, as a super-second-generation star, had left quite an impression on Yu Wei, and through that, he had remembered this highly praised veteran musician in the entertainment industry.

He might not have reached heavenly king status, but he was definitely one of the top singers and phenomenal creators in the Chinese music scene, the kind of representative work-creator whose songs ended up in music textbooks.

At the time, Meng Lei was also the only one who didn't show much emotional fluctuation after listening to his songs—his old man was simply in that exact line of work, after all.

"That's right. Teacher Meng is very interested in our show's format."

The staff member's words carried a hint of self-promotion, but it could be seen from this that Teacher Meng Han's personality must be quite good; someone who disliked socializing would never participate in a variety show of this nature.

It could only be said that the entertainment industry was a society of acquaintances; the longer one stayed in it, the more connections one accumulated, making it hard to encounter artists who were completely strangers.

On the afternoon of the contract signing, the official Music Blind Box account directly published an open audition announcement targeting ordinary people across the entire internet. It not only featured posters of Yu Wei and the others, but also heavily emphasized the theme of "Star-Citizen Co-Creation."

Want to give the guests a surprise? Want celebrities to experience your life? Want one of them to sing a song with you? This is a music story that exists because of you, come and sign up now!

"Su Xinnan is on it too, my goddess! I simply have to sign up now."

"Can a middle school student sign up? I'll make Yu Wei come and attend classes with me when the time comes."

"So true, bro, the wheat at home is still waiting to be harvested; I'll randomly pick a celebrity to come home and till the land."

"You guys are too hellish, I just want to elope with Teacher Meng Han..."

As soon as the show was publicized, it became immensely popular. Singing a duet at most counted as fulfilling a dream, but the potential for fun during this getting-along period was simply too high. Taking a celebrity around to visit neighbors and show them off wouldn't that feel insanely good?

The three publicly announced artists for Music Blind Box were certainly not lacking in popularity, and in terms of sheer recognition, Yu Wei was even slightly inferior to the other two.

Su Xinnan and Meng Han had both been famous for a long time, catching the period of rapid development in the domestic entertainment industry, and their audience affinity was extraordinary.

What was more, the production team also had a fourth guest artist, though the identity of this person would not be directly disclosed and would only be revealed on the day of recording.

The reason for keeping it confidential was simple: the unknown was what deserved anticipation the most, and revealing the guests too clearly would fail to attract passersby.

A variety show featuring such interactions between celebrities and ordinary people easily turned into a fan meeting. If all the guests were completely revealed, then by that time, four different fandoms would probably be the ones signing up.

As long as the fourth guest artist was not announced in advance, friends who were very interested in the show would look forward to it—what if it turned out to be the celebrity they loved?

By retaining the suspense, both participation rates and viewership would increase significantly.

Yu Wei's fan community had also been conquered by the news of the Music Blind Box sign-ups. The novel's standard plot tropes had completely lost any need for discussion; eating melons and watching the drama was much more entertaining.

"I've already signed up. When the time comes, I'll tie Yu Wei up and force him into crazy creative production—grinding out words by day and writing songs by night, and no food until he finishes. Am I doing the right thing, brothers?"

"Don't let him dwell on that crappy book! Tying him up at night to write songs, and tying him to a pillar by day to sing for you—isn't that way better!"

"My little leather whip is already thirsting for action!"

"The chosen fan, please drop your location when the time comes. I will definitely come to watch the spectacle."

"+1."

"+1."

Terrifying...

With twelve episodes in total, the probability of selecting one of his own readers was actually quite high, and it was a bit scary to even imagine.

Although the production team certainly wouldn't let them run wild, readers still had wild imaginations, especially since Yu Wei had tricked his readers a few times before. If he fell into their hands, how could he possibly come out unscathed?

Music Blind Box had zero barriers to entry, and he wasn't quite clear on what the show's selection criteria actually were. The show's main theme was musical stories, so it would likely revolve around storytelling.

As for singing proficiency, it actually didn't matter much. In variety shows of this sort, moments where someone sang out of tune easily went viral; what was wanted was precisely the show effect.

However, this program carried a certain degree of a talent show's nature, so when the time came, there would definitely be people signing up purely out of "musical dreams" to seize an opportunity on the show.

Looks, singing skills, and background didn't have much impact. To get chosen by the production team, the main requirement was simply to be interesting; the weirder the profession, the easier it was to be selected.

With easter eggs and punishments, a blind box was truly exciting only when it was full of thrills.

Looking at the "maliciously inclined" fan community, a bold idea suddenly sprouted in the depths of Yu Wei's mind: you all want to trick me, do you? When the time comes, I'll whip up a song like *Tension* for you lot to sing, and that'll straighten you right out!

This show was simply too well-suited for him. Readers seeing song titles in his book wouldn't yet know what was about to hit them, only to be completely in the dark when they received the songs a few days later...

Although it had nothing to do with the show's theme, since he was putting out new songs anyway, the production team would definitely turn a blind eye, provided that he could justify it logically.

Within the rules set by the production team, Yu Wei and his readers seemed to have reached a special, tacit understanding: the readers wanted to torture him, and he wanted to prank the readers.

Come on then, let's hurt each other!

"Shouldn't I arrange *Tension*, *Balloon*, and *Qinghai-Tibet Plateau* for you guys?"