Chapter 112: The Ordinary Path (Part II) (Seeking Monthly Votes)

If not for the screens separating them, the audience and netizens would surely have grabbed whatever was within reach and charged forward.

Gone?
Gone?
The full version?
The full version?

The audience was bewildered. The top executives of the various companies hadn't reacted. Even Yin Mengna, who was preparing to contact her agent to speed up the termination of her contract, put down her phone, staring blankly at the television screen in a long, stunned silence.

In the video:
Li He put away the famous guitar he had borrowed from the company and sat on a stool further away from the three resident guests. He was very familiar with He Xi'er and Jiang Qi, and they knew his style of releasing songs well, so he didn't need to worry too much about them going ballistic from excitement.
He could handle them even if they did.
But the three resident guests were different. Li He felt anxious just looking at those three pairs of disbelieving eyes; one slip-up would lead to a disaster.

The production team was thoughtful enough to give a close-up of the "Master Composer" Xie Shun, whose half-open mouth was trembling.

After a long pause, Xie Shun said with a conflicted expression, "And the rest?"

This sentence stirred the hearts of hundreds of thousands of viewers.
And the rest?
This was exactly the question every viewer watching the premiere wanted to ask.
This was a formal broadcast, not a teaser or an easter egg that required suspense.
The audience and netizens were deathly quiet; the ten fingers hovering over keyboards stiffened in mid-air, and the barrage of comments fell into a strange, empty void.

The camera moved to show Jia Bei, who was holding a simple teacup made by Teacher He, taking a sip to clear his throat. Hearing Xie Shun’s question, Jia Bei turned the cup upside down in mid-air and, with an innocent tone, said something incredibly infuriating: "It's gone. Not a drop left."

The netizens were on the verge of a breakdown; this was not the answer they wanted.
It was too much.
Jia Bei then offered an explanation: "I told you before I sang it—the song isn't finished yet, and I wanted to ask Master Xie Shun for some guidance."

The production team zoomed in on Xie Shun’s constipated expression, and the expressions of the viewers at home were no better.
How were they supposed to bash him?
Jia Bei had said it before he sang: the song wasn't finished, and he was singing it early specifically to seek advice from the master composer, Xie Shun.
It sounded perfectly reasonable, yet it felt wrong, suffocatingly frustrating.

In an instant, the screen was flooded with comments, and the "war songs" began.
"Jia Bei, reported."
"I'm filing a formal complaint. Jia Bei has no integrity."
"I'm speechless. All these days of waiting for nothing."
"Is there any hope for this song?"
"The 'Never-to-be-Heard' series."
"Does Jia Bei remember his song 'Friends'? He stopped after writing half of that too because he lost inspiration. Now he's doing it again. He might as well stop writing songs and open a workshop on how to torture netizens instead."
"There's hope for the next episode. Will he sing the full version?"
"Ten thousand people are signing in blood for the full version."
...

Everyone was crusading against Jia Bei, all begging for the full version.
The comments were so dense that one couldn't even see the screen.
Discussions about Jia Bei, about "The Ordinary Road," and about "A Yearning Life" were everywhere.

*This Star Really Wants to Retire*

That night, the trending searches on Weibo and Douyin exploded, with the top spots all occupied by these topics.
The poor, struggling show "Slow Rhythm" dropped out of the public eye once again; the money Brother Entertainment spent on trending searches went to waste.

The official broadcast of the show and the fact that "The Ordinary Road" was only a truncated version caused such a massive sensation that the emotions of the netizens could not be calmed. The audience's expectations had been too high; everyone was waiting for the show to air so they could finally hear the complete version of "The Ordinary Road."

All the patience, all the torture of these days, it should have been worth it.
But there was nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
No full version.

The audience's emotions could not be suppressed; they were at a critical point, ready to explode at any moment. And at this point, the first episode was drawing to a close.
By now, the audience's anticipation had turned into despair.
The show ended.
The full version really didn't exist.

With the end of the show, the netizens finally exploded. Weibo and Douyin faced a new wave of impact.
After watching the premiere, Old Qin was so angry his teeth itched: "How could Wu Guang play this game? Why release it if you're not going to sing the whole thing? Isn't that just purely disgusting?"
Old Qin was on the verge of a breakdown.
He had spent days counting down to the premiere, and this was it?
It would have been better if it hadn't aired at all!
They shouldn't torture people like this.

In front of another screen, Chen Xueling was also stunned. Her face still held a look of shock and disbelief. She finally understood why her best friend kept telling her to watch this show and kept emphasizing that the planner of the show was Teacher Jia Bei.
The planner was indeed Teacher Jia Bei.
Teacher Jia Bei did indeed make an appearance.
And she did indeed hear "The Ordinary Road" through the show.
Suddenly, she took a deep breath and made a call.
"Hello?"
"I want to participate in 'A Yearning Life'."

If I can't hear it through the screen, I'll go to the scene, won't I?
If it's not there, I'll just keep pestering him.
A truncated version, huh?
No inspiration, huh?
Hmph!
Chen Xueling isn't afraid of that.
Her gaze remained locked on the credits that appeared after the show ended.
It just so happened:
Planner: Jia Bei, flashed by in a blink.

Chen Xueling wasn't the only one with such plans.
Chen Xueling’s motivation stemmed from her being a fan and her urgency for the song. But Jia Bei’s appeal to singers was far greater than what the actress Chen Xueling could compare to.

The show was over.
The netizens, with nowhere to vent their agitated emotions, began to bombard Jia Bei’s Douyin account.
In reality, this kind of bombardment would be more effective on Weibo, but unfortunately, Jia Bei didn't have a Weibo account.
The netizens had no choice but to leave the Weibo battlefield and move to Douyin to assault his latest video.
It wasn't just Jia Bei’s Douyin that was under attack; the show’s official account and the Shengshi Entertainment official account also suffered varying degrees of bombardment.

Half an hour after the show ended, Jia Bei’s Douyin account updated with a new video.
It continued his usual short-video style: on a piece of lined white paper, lines of small text popped out against a background of instrumental music.

"I know everyone is very eager to hear the full version of 'The Ordinary Road'."
"I also want this song to meet you all as soon as possible."
"But this song cannot be released on music platforms in August."
"As for the reason, I believe many friends already know."
"September, see you there."
"To make it up to you, I have prepared a gift for everyone in the second episode of 'A Yearning Life'."

The video continued, but no more text appeared, so the audience had to keep watching, wondering if he would say what the gift was or reveal some gossip.
Netizens were waiting for the next segment, to the point that no one even left a comment.
Finally, just as the video was about to end, new text appeared.
"Thank you!"
The video ended.

The netizens were dumbfounded.
They had stared at the white paper on their phones for over a minute, just for these two words?
Thank you.
Thank you for what?
The netizens were confused. What kind of mindset did Jia Bei have to leave the words "Thank you" at the end of the video?
What did "Thank you" mean?
Was it thanking them for staying until the end?

"Are the last two words for real?"
"I just want to know what 'Thank you' means!"
"What 'Thank you'? I didn't even watch until the end. Don't you know Jia Bei's video patterns by now? There wouldn't really be any fools who watched until the end, would there? Surely not! Surely not! Surely not! There couldn't really be such silly people, could there?"
"Can't be released on music platforms in August, see you in September. Can someone who knows tell me what that means?"
"Let me..."
"Let me..."
"Let me..."
"September is the month of the showdown between Shengshi and Cuanran, and it's also the battlefield for Jia Bei and Ding Zhong."
"The September song battle."
"Damn it, screw Ding Zhong and his song battle, making me wait another month."
"It must be because Ding Zhong challenged him to a song battle. Teacher Jia Bei needs to use this song for the challenge. After all, everyone can hear the quality of this song; high-quality songs aren't something you can just write on command. So, it's all that bastard Ding Zhong's fault."
"So, Jia Bei can't release 'The Ordinary Road' because he has to use it to face Ding Zhong's challenge. Damn that bastard Ding Zhong."
"Damn that bastard Ding Zhong."
"..."

...

In Qingcheng, Li He put down his phone and continued adapting the song he was to sing in the second episode.
The culprit was Ding Zhong; what did it have to do with Jia Bei?

Meanwhile, Ding Zhong, who was constantly keeping an eye on Jia Bei, was completely bewildered.
What does this have to do with me?
I didn't do anything, so why is everyone cursing at me?
And I'm on the trending list, for heaven's sake.
Who did I offend?
Ding Zhong was having a breakdown.