Chapter 1256: 'The Hottest Ethnic Trend' sweeps the country!

Translator: Legge Editor: Legge

The next day.

The entertainment sections of the newspapers were all reporting on I Am a Singer.

"I Am a Singer's viewership ratings hits a new high!"

"Viewership ratings of 3.49%—a legendary variety show!"

"Zhang Ye performs yet another divine tune live!"

"'The Hottest Ethnic Trend' tops the daily Top Chinese Music Chart!"

"Zhang Ye nearly gets eliminated!"

"Zhao Wuliu becomes the next eliminated singer!"

"Zhang Ye and Amy barely manage to stay in the competition!"

"Voting for Zhang Ye continues to be sluggish?"

"Zhang Ye ranked sixth in both the latest episode's knockout round and in the overall ranking over two episodes!"

"Experts are starting to doubt Zhang Ye's singing ability!"

Today, the country had been bombarded with news of I Am a Singer. Be it the topicality of discussions, or the viewership ratings, or on the music charts, they were number one in every aspect.

…

Back at home.

"The Hottest Ethnic Trend" was playing on a loop on the computer.

When Zhang Ye woke up, he opened the bedroom door and looked outside. "Who's playing the song?"

His mother looked back. "It's me, son. You're up already?"

"I got woken up by the noise you were making." Zhang Ye laughed bitterly. "I was so comfortable and dreaming that I was lying on soft and fluffy clouds until a crowd of aunties suddenly flew up there and started dancing. It scared me awake. So it was because you were playing 'The Hottest Ethnic Trend.'" To him, it was exactly this image he would think of whenever he heard this song.

His mother wondered, "Dancing? What are you talking about?"

Zhang Ye coughed and said, "Nothing."

Beside them, his dad said, "Your mom has listened to this song more than a dozen times since early in the morning."

"That's because I like it." His mother said excitedly, "This song is soooo good, son. That 'Exaggerated' or 'Wild Rose' that you sang before can't even compare to this one! This song of yours is really nice. In the future, you should sing more of such songs. It's exactly what I love to hear!"

Zhang Ye laughed, "Sure."

His father said in annoyance, "How is this good?"

"As if you know a thing." His mother stared at his father and said, "This song is really good and my son sings it very well too. People on the Internet are claiming that my son's singing has declined and that he's lost his touch at writing good songs. Ptui! What the hell do they know? This is what a good song is. Is mainstream art not considered art? No?"

But his father just said, "What are you singing next episode?"

"I haven't thought of it yet," Zhang Ye said.

His father said, "Why don't you start singing seriously?"

Zhang Ye laughed in response. "Dad, I'm already singing very seriously. Do you know how many days it took me to rehearse this song? I practiced it for three straight days and went through a dozen arrangements over a dozen rehearsals. It might sound simple when you're listening to it, but it isn't simple at all. Since I'm going onstage, every song that I sing must be sung properly. I would never hold back."

Did this song require any skill?

You even needed to practice it for three days?

And go through that many versions of the arrangement?

His father could not understand it, so he didn't say anything else.

Zhang Ye said, "I need to head over to the office today, so I won't be having lunch at home. I haven't been there in quite a few days."

His mother continued listening to the song. "Shoo, go then."

…

Jiaomen East.

A familiar tune was reverberating through the neighborhood.

Deng, deng deng deng deng, deng deng deng deng deng deng deng deng.

Deng, deng deng deng deng, deng!

Zhang Ye was startled. He even had the sinking feeling that he somehow returned to his previous world!

A group of aunties were standing there twisting about.

They were even led by someone who shouted out instructions every now and then.

"This movement should be done like this."

"Auntie Zhou, raise your hands a little higher."

"Big Sis Chen, you're not letting yourself go. Your movements are too limited."

"Right, that's very good."

"Everyone, follow my lead."

"I'll be teaching the seventh step next."

Zhang Ye's jaw dropped!

Dammit! The song was only released yesterday!

But today there are already dance moves for it?

Isn't this too fast?

Zhang Ye suddenly had a bad feeling about this. Was the plaza (square) dance careers and industry of this world going to achieve prosperity and reach a peak because of him?

Upstairs.

In the studio.

Everyone was here today, so it became noisy in the office when Zhang Ye arrived.

"Director Zhang!"

"Ah, Director Zhang!"

"The boss has returned!"

"Hahaha, we've all heard your new song!"

"Awesome!"

"Amazing!"

Everyone was feeling extremely excited.

Zhang Ye asked, "Can you guys get any more exaggerated than this?"

"Oh, we can." The moment Ha Qiqi came up, she chuckled and said, "While we were watching the episode last night, we got rather worried when we heard your performance. It was a little…you know. You didn't get a good ranking either at sixth place, which meant you were second to last and barely survived the knockout round. But to our surprise, when the Celebrity Rankings Index got refreshed after midnight, your popularity score actually went up by a little. We were all stunned. At your current level, even gaining a little bit of popularity is a huge deal. Your 'The Hottest Ethnic Trend' was several times more popular than your other popular songs like 'Exaggerated,' 'I Am What I Am,' 'Wild Rose,' 'I Really Love You,' amongst others. It was unbelievable!"

Zhang Zuo gave a wry smile. "Yeah, it was really frightening."

Wu Yi added, "All of us misjudged it!"

Little Wang said excitedly, "This song was amazingly good. With it, we've gained a surprisingly large number of middle-aged to senior citizen fans. This was something that had never happened in the past. Our influence in the middle-aged and senior citizens group has always been the poorest, but this song has totally made up for that and brought in a lot of new fans. It has increased the pie to a much larger size. This has an even better effect than increasing the cohesiveness of those long-time fans and will contribute greatly to the increasing of your popularity!"

Everyone knew how advantageous it was to expand one's fan base. If your fanbase started at 100 million, even if you were to convert all of them into diehard fans, there would still only be 100 million of them. But expanding one's fanbase was different. It could turn that 100 million fans into 200 million fans, or even 300 million fans. With the fanbase expanding, the increase in one's popularity would no longer be as simple as growing by severalfold. A celebrity's development space and potential would become much greater as a result!

Every celebrity and their teams knew this, but it was not something that most of them could achieve. A lot of people would not be able to go further once they reached a certain extent. For example, a singer like Chen Guang was already standing atop the music industry. Based on his fanbase numbers, his popularity had peaked, and it would be much harder for him to go any further. But Zhang Ye could do it. His fanbase was still expanding and extending. This time, he had extended his reach into the middle-aged and senior citizens group. This was undoubtedly inspiring and exciting news and proved that Zhang Ye's popularity could still grow much higher!

All of the studio staff were jumping for joy at this news!

This song's popularity had truly surprised them. And that spread of the other song, "I Feel So Drained," was also something they had not expected!

It had actually gotten that popular?

However, Zhang Ye was not surprised. It was because he knew how good this song was back in his previous world. Disregarding the song's depth and meaning, or even any other points, just its popularity and spread were things that practically no other song could match. Jay Chou? Andy Lau? Eason Chan? Whoever came its way would be left kneeling!

…

After handling some matters in the office, Zhang Ye left in a hurry again. There was still a load of work waiting for him at the television station. There was really no time for him to take a break.

Downstairs.

Zhang Ye took the elevator down.

When the elevator door opened, he bumped into Yang Shu and Chenchen.

Chenchen glanced at him and waved. "Hi, Zhang Ye."

Zhang Ye smiled and said, "You're so rude. You should be calling me Uncle Zhang."

Chenchen laughed, "Hur hur."

Yang Shu looked off. She only gave Zhang Ye one look and respectfully called him "Senior" before walking off without another word.

Zhang Ye said, "Junior Sis, recently how've you…"

However, Yang Shu had already walked up the stairs and did not seem to have heard him.

Zhang Ye was taken aback. He looked at Chenchen and asked, "What happened with your Auntie Yang?"

Chenchen pouted. "Old Yang is angry with you."

"Ah?" Zhang Ye was baffled and asked, "What is she angry at me for? I don't think I offended her?"

Chenchen didn't go up the stairs. She just strolled into the elevator. "How would I know about the things between you adults?"

Zhang Ye rolled his eyes. "What does a little adult like you not know? Alright, I'll go upstairs and see how she's doing." He followed her back into the lift and went upstairs again. His junior martial sister had always been very polite and respectful to him. She would always listen to him about almost anything he said, so Zhang Ye was rather concerned now that she was blowing him off.

At Old Yang's apartment.

The door was unlocked and could be pushed open.

Zhang Ye went inside while blinking. "Little Yang, what's the matter?"

Yang Shu was wiping down the table and did not say anything.

"Who got on your nerves?" Zhang Ye intentionally put on a stern face. "Tell me and I'll go seek justice for you!"

Yang Shu finally looked up at him and said, "Senior Bro, can you not sing such songs anymore?"

Zhang Ye was taken aback. "Why not?"

Yang Shu didn't bother holding back the moment she decided to speak up. "If I may be disrespectful, Senior Bro, I have to criticize you! Since this morning, all the nearby neighborhoods have been taken over by 'The Hottest Ethnic Trend.' Those uncles and aunties who used to learn Taiji Fist from me have also started telling me that they don't wish to continue the lessons. All of them went to join the plaza dancing clubs instead! Our Taiji Fist group has suffered a great loss, Senior Bro! There are only the two of us left in our Taiji branch of martial arts. You are the current generation's senior brother and the leader who represents us, so how could you go and aid others! How am I going to teach Taiji now that there isn't anyone left!"

Ah?

Was that it?

Zhang Ye was floored. "I was wondering what the big deal was!"

Yang Shu scowled and said, "This is a huge deal!"

"Aiya, Little Yang, you must set your sights further than this." Zhang Ye didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He said, "You're a young lady, yet you always go out to the streets to give out pamphlets. What are you always eyeing those retired old men and women for? If they want to dance, let them dance. They're dancing to my tunes anyway, so that'll increase my popularity. When your senior bro gets to the S-list and takes the place of one of those seven spots, my influence will grow. At that time, we can start a Taiji Fist martial arts school to give lessons, or even set up a company to do it. At that time, would we still lack for people? At worst, I'll film a film or a TV series, alright? I'll use it to promote and spread Taiji Fist. At that time, will you still be afraid that people won't know about Taiji Fist? So don't be too anxious, just wait until I reach the top!"

"Ah, really?"

"Of course!"

"Senior Bro, you have such great vision!"

"That's of course. How else could I be your senior!"

After a little bullshitting, he finally placated Yang Shu.

…

On this day.

"The Hottest Ethnic Trend" swept the country!

However, no one could have realized that this was just the beginning!

No one could predict that in another few days, this song would actually reach a state of hysteria!

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