Chapter 46: Century-Old Reunion with the D-List Star Sister Zheng! The Premiere of "Tomorrow's King of Singers": I'm Just Here to Witness History! [Monthly Votes Requested]

After hanging up the phone, Xiaoya buzzed around Lu Ming with an excited face, chattering non-stop: "Brother Ming, this is simply unbelievable! Kiwi and the Jiangzhe TV Station didn't even give Huayue any face for your sake, and they actually offered such a high-paying appearance fee!"

"We're going to be rich!!"

Lu Ming smiled calmly.

A 16.5 million appearance fee!

In the past, he would have only received ten percent of this sum, with the rest going entirely to the company. But now that he had regained his freedom, all of this money would go straight into his own pocket. Especially since he already had a strategic plan to establish his own studio—if he collected the payment under the studio's name, the tax rate would drop as low as 25%. This meant he would take home a full 12.37 million!

Combined with his current savings, the total funds in his hands would even reach 27.93 million!

Although there might still be a slight gap if he wanted to shoot all the episodes of *Soul Ferry*, by taking on the male lead role entirely, trying to cast less expensive actors, and tightening their belts, it would actually be barely enough to finish production.

No matter what, the project of *Soul Ferry* could be launched immediately. Any subsequent funding shortages could be made up by taking on other commercial appearances. Without Huayue sucking his blood, given his current traffic and popularity, his money-making speed would be terrifying!

Once *Soul Ferry* went online, all the capital he invested would be recouped manifold!

Thinking of this, Lu Ming's mood could not possibly have been better.

"Brother Ming, did you already know that Huayue couldn't do anything to you?" Xiaoya looked at Lu Ming's calm demeanor, recalling his confident look earlier, and even she finally figured it out.

"But why would this happen? As far as I know, both Jiangzhe TV and Kiwi have deep partnerships with Huayue. For them to do this is equivalent to slapping Huayue in the face... Aren't they afraid Huayue will burn the bridge?"

Lu Ming looked at Xiaoya, who was completely baffled, smiled, and pinched her slightly chubby cheek, explaining, "The domestic entertainment industry doesn't revolve around Huayue alone. Businessmen chase profits. In the face of profits, no one cares about meaningless things like surface-level courtesy."

"It's not that I need them, but that they are drooling over the hot, sizzling traffic your Brother Ming carries."

Xiaoya had a sudden epiphany.

Lu Ming temporarily didn't mention the web drama project to Xiaoya. The main reason was that Xiaoya knew him inside and out; if she knew he was going to invest his entire net worth into making a web drama, she might be frightened. The girl needed time to gradually accept it. Lu Ming handed the procedures for establishing the studio over to Xiaoya to handle.

The name would be 'Tomorrow Star Studio', letting people know at a glance that it was his own. After all, he was currently the facade of the studio, and of course, he needed to make good use of this wave of traffic to build momentum for his studio.

In other places, it might be a bit troublesome, but this was Hangzhou.

All procedures were fully implemented within a single day!

The next day.

Lu Ming headed to the Jiangzhe TV Station to meet the station director he had never met before. He signed a cooperation agreement using his studio's name, and after finishing up, Lu Ming left. To give credit where it's due, the efficiency of television stations was truly high. By the afternoon, the after-tax amount of 12.37 million had already arrived in his company's account.

During this period, Xiaoya had also completely severed ties with Huayue. She was merely an assistant with a monthly salary of eight thousand, and in a massive company like Huayue, no one cared about the coming and going of an ordinary beast of burden. Her resignation letter was approved in less than half an hour.

*Keep Running* recorded only one episode every two weeks, as the production team needed preparation time after each shoot, and during this period, celebrities naturally had other engagements to attend.

Lu Ming hadn't forgotten Gangzi's promise. He quickly had Xiaoya list all the currently popular variety shows in the domestic entertainment industry for him to choose from. Finally, Lu Ming selected a music variety show called *Tomorrow's King of Song*.

For no other reason than the fact that returning home rich without showing off was like wearing embroidered clothes in the dark—he currently had a wealth of musical talent with nowhere to display it. By using the stage of this music show, he could give those little haters who held prejudices against him a small auditory shock, while also turning around his public reputation, which had long since collapsed into ruins.

At the very least, it was time to strip away half of the "beautiful good-for-nothing" label.

Of course, the most important thing was that this competitive music variety show was heavily promoted under the banner of online audience voting and a completely rigging-free process. Furthermore, the championship prize was very generous, reaching a full ten million. This portion of the money would be classified as accidental income, requiring only a 20% tax, leaving him with eight million in hand.

What kind of appearance fee could possibly make money this fast?

With his foundational skills that easily surpassed the mentors, combined with a whole Earth's worth of small song libraries in his head, competing with a bunch of amateurs—wasn't that as easy as taking candy from a baby?

Although the rule where each mentor could add one hundred thousand votes to a contestant was a bit exaggerated, it didn't matter. There were only three mentors, which could at most create a gap of three hundred thousand votes. As the unrivaled variety show deity of the domestic entertainment industry, he only needed to make a slight move, and wouldn't the onlookers gladly flood him with millions of votes?

Thinking of this, Lu Ming immediately dialed Gangzi's phone.

He was determined to win this championship prize, and not even Jesus could stop him!

"What?" On the other end of the line, Gangzi was incredulous after hearing Lu Ming's request. "You said you want to participate in a music variety show? Little bro, what kind of stimulation did you get recently? This show doesn't have an appearance fee for you! Besides, it's produced by Penguin. If you go, you're just giving them traffic for free, and fundamentally speaking, pushing you to Penguin counts as aiding the enemy!"

"I want to go see the world," Lu Ming said.

"If you go, then *you* are the world. After all, with such ear-torturing sounds and going on stage to make a fool of yourself, very few people get to see such a grand 'world'." Gangzi was speechless. "I still suggest you switch to an outdoor-type variety show. With your current traffic, the appearance fee as a guest star wouldn't be small at all—two million per episode is a definite given!"

"No, the world's misunderstanding of me is too deep, and I insist on proving it to them!"

"Prove what? Prove a first-round elimination among the bottom sixty-four?" Gangzi delivered a sharp retort. "By then, Penguin will gain popularity, the netizens will gain laughter, and only you will gain curses and scandals."

"I don't care, I insist on doing it!"

"Fine... whatever!"

Although Gangzi couldn't understand why anyone would rush to make a fool of themselves, a word spoken was like water spilled. After hanging up, he immediately contacted the person in charge at Penguin. While the two platforms were opposing forces, they actually had some cooperative dealings behind closed doors; for instance, major productions during the New Year and Spring Festival slots required multiple investors to share the shares, and the major stakeholders were often these two internet platforms.

When the other party heard that Gangzi was sending a currently surging, cancelled-list celebrity to participate in their newly launched program—and a music variety show at that—they immediately cracked up.

Huayue's ban order was completely floating clouds in the face of skyrocketing traffic.

That very afternoon, Lu Ming added the person in charge at Penguin and signed the electronic participation agreement. Just two hours later, the official account of *Tomorrow's King of Song* released an announcement along with a promotional poster featuring Lu Ming as a participant.

Netizens who rushed over to watch were all dumbfounded.

[???]

[The cancelled star is going to participate in a music variety show? Is this for real?!]

[Just checked the calendar, today isn't April Fools' Day either. No, didn't this guy say earlier that he wanted to shoot a web drama that would make netizens exclaim in enjoyment, resulting in a nationwide boycott? Today he dropped another big one on his family and ran off to a music show? Are you kidding me?]

[You can tell he really doesn't want to let the netizens go!]

[Trying and failing to poison netizens' eyes, he changed his strategy and prepared to poison netizens' ears instead?]

[We have no grievances and no enmity, why must the cancelled star relentlessly hound us!]

[If I remember correctly, Sister Zheng only just officially announced her poster as a mentor not long ago?]

[The cancelled star and Sister Zheng reunited?!]

[Why am I suddenly a little bit looking forward to this?]

[Look forward your grandma, haven't you heard *Begging for a Loan* or that single by the cancelled star from a year ago that was taken off the shelves long ago? The million-dollar tuner became a laughing stock in the industry simply because he collaborated with the cancelled star once, and now he's changed careers to become a livestream shopping host!]

[I just finished eating this piece of gossip. Yesterday after *Keep Running*, the comment section of that year's tuner's livestream was all asking about the cancelled star's old single. The million-dollar tuner, who was originally laughing and shouting about securing welfare for his family, saw netizens bringing up the past, and immediately dropped the shopping cart, stopped talking about welfare, and a grown man cried in the livestream as if his dad had just died.]

[Hahahaha!]

[Although the cancelled star's singing is indeed ear-torturing, if he performs *Begging for a Loan* right in front of Sister Zheng, I'll definitely have to go check out what's going on.]

[Sister Zheng: How presumptuous of you!]

[...]

The news that the cancelled star was going to participate in a music variety show spread like wildfire. As more and more gossiping netizens learned about the matter, the Lu Ming haters, who were fretting over finding an excuse to make trouble, immediately banded together, crying out for the cancelled star to spare the audience's ears.

Aside from a few trolls who cared more about the program effect of the cancelled star and Sister Zheng being in the same frame, most netizens kept their distance from the cancelled star's musical cells. The Ming-plates (fans), who usually stood tall and straight while surfing the internet these days, immediately ran under Lu Ming's Weibo post upon hearing that their idol was going to open his mouth again, earnestly trying to persuade him.

Ancient times had Sun Quan urging study; today had the Ming-plates urging Lu.

The popularity, which was already fermenting rapidly, exploded instantly!

Seeing how enthusiastic the netizens were, Lu Ming also made a response.

He published a dynamic post, then tagged @[Not Chu Yuxun]: "A chance encounter brings people together from a thousand miles away."

Sister Zheng, who had just landed at Shenzhen airport and was preparing to get familiar with the program flow first, heard the special notification chime on her phone. She tapped it open, and her initially decent mood instantly plummeted. She backhanded a response consisting of four letters: "NXNM!" (Abbreviating a curse phrase).

She originally thought Lu Ming was suddenly going crazy to disgust her, but after surfing the internet on her way to the van for a while, Sister Zheng realized things weren't what she thought.

"Oh no, this bastard is coming for me!"

Sister Zheng was furious and immediately dialed Lu Ming's phone: "Hey, are you sick? You really'll do anything just to disgust me! I even paid you back your money, what else do you want! And aren't you already blocked by Huayue? How can you still show your face? Did you sell your ass?!"

"Are you going to speak?!"

"..." Lu Ming was silent for a moment, speechless: "Your little mouth is chattering non-stop, how am I supposed to speak?"

"Let me tell you, we are already over, and I won't give you any nice expressions anymore!" Sister Zheng still thought Lu Ming was coming to her for handouts because he had nowhere else to turn after being blocked, and immediately said arrogantly, "Begging me is useless!"

"Big sister, you're the one who called me, okay?" Lu Ming was speechless.

"Oh, right." Sister Zheng had a realization: "Although I don't know where you got your connections, this is a formal music variety show. Regarding your singing level, I'm not saying this to be mean—a first-round elimination among the bottom sixty-four is the lower limit of the rules, not your lower limit!"

"Does anyone else have the right to question my singing level, but you do?"

Sister Zheng glared: "Why can't I question it?"

"Based solely on the adaptation of a single song, a certain popular actress blushed, shed tears, and took out a ten-million-yuan loan on the spot to say I sang well!" Lu Ming explained.

Sister Zheng clenched her teeth fiercely, accidentally biting her tongue and causing her mouth to ooze blood. Groaning with a tearful voice, she spat out: "CNM!"

"You know I didn't," Lu Ming thought for a moment and said, "For the two of us to participate in the same show can also be considered fate. I heard that mentors can get ten million—no, one hundred thousand votes upon turning around. Given our friendship, you will definitely turn around for me, right? When the time comes, I'll sing your favorite *Begging for a Loan*. I'll just practice more during this period so that the whole country's audience will know our story."

"Fate your head, turn around for you? You really dare to say that! Rest assured, this old lady will definitely bring a basket of rotten eggs to make you look good!"

"You really have no manners now. Dumping you back then really was the most correct choice of my life."

"You... you actually dumped me?!"

Furious, Sister Zheng was about to hurl abuses when she heard a busy tone come from the other end of the phone.

In her rage, she logged into her Weibo account and furiously drafted a statement accusing Lu Ming of insulting music and using improper relations to skip the line.

As soon as the short essay was published, gossiping netizens responded rapidly.

In fact, *Tomorrow's King of Song* had indeed undergone a month-long audition process to select sixty-four rookie singers to enter the main competition for a more intense contest. For someone like Lu Ming, who was universally known for not being able to sing and having a demonic voice, to actually enter the main competition truly caused many people to feel a sense of unfairness.

However, that was the public narrative; in reality, most of the participating contestants were quietly designated and shoved in by various brokerage agencies beforehand, and the auditions were merely a show put on for outsiders.

It was just because this show was funded and supervised throughout by Penguin that the brokerage agencies couldn't blatantly designate the champion like in past music shows.

Even so, who could secure the thirty thousand votes from the three mentors turning around and who couldn't had long since been fixed.

Lu Ming didn't bother to fight with Sister Zheng. Once the main competition began, his strength would naturally speak for him. By then, not only Sister Zheng, but also those Ming haters who shouted every day that he was a beautiful good-for-nothing would have their jaws dropped in shock.

However, his lack of response only made the online controversy intensify. Even the fellow mentors Teacher Yang and Teacher Hua coveted this wave of traffic, successively offering sharp critiques of Lu Ming's singing level and his behavior of using improper relations to sneak onto the show.

Why use the word "again"?

Because these two weren't doing this for the first time.

As early as when the former body was at the peak of his traffic, his single flopped, and his breakup with Sister Zheng was exposed—causing him to be scolded across the entire internet as a simp—the two of them hadn't once or twice used Lu Ming as a topic for sharp commentary.

After all, a celebrity's tier ranking was determined by their traffic. If they couldn't produce good work for a year or a half, their tier would naturally drop. Eating human blood buns to achieve oneself was a common occurrence in the domestic entertainment industry. Whenever a controversy with high attention arose around a celebrity, let alone peers, as long as it was within this plot of land in the entertainment industry, even the dogs of the entertainment industry would stand up and offer a couple of sharp critiques to attract eyeballs.

During these few days of preparation, Lu Ming hadn't prepared anything at all: no practicing songs, no selecting topics, no writing lyrics or composing music.

He had only done one thing: hide in the spacious suite of the hotel, drinking alcohol to grow stronger.

Meanwhile, Dilraba would enthusiastically chat with him every day, proactively sharing interesting daily tidbits. As the two chatted, their relationship became much closer than before. But whenever the topic turned to the music show, Dilraba would also bluntly tease him about destroying the audience's ears, and every sincere response Lu Ming gave would draw more teasing from her.

This left him quite speechless.

The domestic entertainment industry's misunderstanding of him was still too deep.

...

Time arrived on May 25th.

At 7:00 PM, *Tomorrow's King of Song*, broadcasted live on the Penguin platform, officially made its debut before the eager gazes of countless netizens.

Host Zhang Dada used his slick style to introduce the three mentors one by one. As the mentors took their seats one after another—and seeing that the traffic in the livestream had completely exceeded their expectations at this point—the production team wasted no time. After letting Zhang Dada quickly read through the title sponsor's product endorsement, they immediately started serving the dishes.

Clearly, they wanted to firmly seize this wave of traffic.

As the studio plunged into darkness, the first participating contestant came onto the stage, singing a pop song.

Just upon hearing the first line of lyrics, Teacher Yang, who was sitting in the mentor's chair and currently facing the audience, furrowed his brows. As the most senior and capable veteran singer among the three mentors, he had the ability to evaluate a contestant's technical skill level.

This contestant's singing was simply too terrible!

So terrible that every single line of lyrics missed the pitch precisely. As the song reached the climax of the chorus, the contestant passionately singing on stage clearly began to panic, their breath support completely collapsing, and because of cracking their voice, they even let out an effeminate scream!

The three mentors looked at each other in dismay; even Sister Zheng, the crudest among them, found it excruciating to listen to.

At that moment, her manager's voice came through her earpiece: "Sister, the contestant is almost done singing, what are you waiting for? Turn around already!"

Sister Zheng: "?"

"We took fifty thousand from this person; they transferred the money before going on stage!"

The next second, Sister Zheng gritted her teeth and pressed the red button in front of her. With a violent spring of the seat, she turned to face the front, then forced a pure, innocent smile for the camera and let out a "Wow"!

Teacher Yang: "??!"

Teacher Hua: "?! ! "

The two of them stared wide-eyed at each other.

Is this how we're playing it?

Bang! Bang!

The two mentors pressed their turn buttons simultaneously the exact second only the final second of the accompaniment remained.

The contestant on stage had their heart in their throat, but seeing the two paid-off mentors turn around in unison, they were overjoyed.

Teacher Yang smiled and nodded in approval, while Teacher Hua clapped and gave a thumbs up.

[What the fuck?!]

[Are these three just messing around here?]

The next chapter will be released before midnight.