Chapter 139: I Attain Buddhahood Without Reading The Sutras
“Grandmother, what if we lose?”
Before leaving, Qi Yuan asked Ye Ranzhi such a question. When these words reached her ears, the elderly woman’s gentle and refined aura seemed to ripple slightly.
Those eyes, reflecting decades of wisdom and weathering, widened ever so slightly, as if the lake surface had been brushed by a sudden breeze, ripples faintly rising before quickly returning to calm.
Will he lose too?
Everyone loses, but Ye Ranzhi had never seen Chen Ping lose. His individual ability was too strong; in that era of artistic pioneering, he was hard to beat…
What about now?
If his work were released now, could it still maintain that so-called Invincible Golden Body?
Ye Ranzhi instinctively wanted to deny it, but she was also very interested in this young man whom both her grandson and granddaughter valued.
“We’ll talk about it if we lose.”
Anyone who can beat him is definitely no ordinary person.
……
Grandmother’s words were still ringing in his ears as Qi Yuan stood on stage with a helpless smile. Just as he had feared, they had indeed lost.
He greatly admired Grandfather’s life, but the world turns without anyone. Rather than reminiscing about the past, it was better to witness a new legend with his own eyes.
Peaks exist to be surpassed. Qi Yuan was full of confidence in Yu Wei, but to ensure he stayed on the right path, he definitely needed to keep pushing him…
If he couldn’t be the lord, he’d be the capable minister.
With Yu Wei’s hard strength plus his wisdom, becoming the Entertainment Industry boss wouldn’t be easy?
Besides him, everyone else on-site was still in disarray.
Are you saying this young fresh meat who came from writing failure novels outright defeated the Entertainment Industry’s number one person?
Buddy, isn’t this span a bit too big?
They still couldn’t recover from the shocking mood. The explosive news just kept coming one after another—Chen old sir having a posthumous work released was one thing, but he actually lost.
Younger audience members were fine; “Chen Ping” was just a name to them. But for those who lived through that golden age, he was a true god-level artist, undefeated.
And yet, this undisputed top1 of the Chinese Music Scene had his peak-era work beaten by a new original from Yu Wei.
They had witnessed history without any warning, even unconsciously pushing the wheels of history forward with their own hands…
It wasn’t until Qi Yuan half-pushed and half-accepted their votes that the audience realized one thing: Yu Wei actually already had the qualifications to challenge the seniors.
He was too low-key, had no airs usually, and was still writing web novels while doing all sorts of things without slacking—often, people overlooked his strength.
The downside of being down-to-earth is that authority gets weakened. Being too amiable, over time, people stop taking you seriously—same reason.
Everyone was used to that approachable Yu Wei. Only upon looking back did they realize he had been progressing from start to finish.
He had been stepping up the stairs one by one, nothing much, but today he kicked the coffin lid off Chen Ping…
This was one small step for Yu Wei, but one giant leap for the Chinese Music Scene—a signal of era handover.
So the future belongs to Yu Wei?
Yu Wei indicated he didn’t want this burden. Though others probably couldn’t handle the burden of being “hung dog” either, he still didn’t want it.
In today’s internet environment, isn’t this thing just a target? Build up a god, tear down a god, tear down…
Vague and empty titles bring no benefits, just scrutiny from everyone—how exhausting.
Normally, in reality, there is no such thing as the Entertainment Industry’s number one person, because there will always be doubters. How good does one have to be to count as good?
Especially after the internet became widespread, there’s even less talk of a number one person. Strength declines, honors are outdated, achievements are faked, gold content is nonexistent…
Fields with competitions argue endlessly over the number one person title, let alone the Entertainment Industry with no competitions or standards—who decides first or second?
Just like on Yu Wei’s home planet Earth, there aren’t even many fair and just large-scale music competitions. Box office numbers are increasingly watered down, ratings increasingly brushed—it’s hard to have a well-deserved number one person.
But Blue Star has one because Chen Ping died early.
Rough words, sound reason. Yu Wei really felt Chen Ping went unquestioned because he died early—if he were alive now, even a slight dip would get him cursed.
Probably just not recognizing a young fresh meat’s name on a previous program would get fan circle fans team building…
His lack of controversy came partly from his sufficient strength, and partly from dying at his most successful moment.
For an artist, that’s a good thing.
In today’s internet environment, it’s basically impossible for a new era’s number one person to emerge— no matter how good, there will be doubts.
But because of Chen Ping’s existence, now there’s an express track…
Beat the number one person, and you’re the number one person, right?
The more undisputed the former number one person, the higher the gold content of the successor. I’ve never lost a match to him—you know him but not me?
Chen Ping’s existence made the abstract concept of “number one person” concrete—something Yu Wei hadn’t thought of before.
Of course, he’s still not enough now.
Number one person doesn’t step down after one loss, but without a doubt, after the program airs, Yu Wei’s gold content will greatly increase.
“Mind-blowing.”
On the guest seats, Meng Han let out a long breath, breaking the silence with a sigh that pulled the dazed crowd back.
The program had to continue. On-site, he had the most seniority and had interacted with both Yu Wei and Chen Ping, so he undoubtedly had the most right to speak now.
Yes, he had lost too…
In those few noisy minutes on-site just now, Meng Han thought a lot. As musicians who rose in the post-Chen Ping era, none of them could escape Chen Ping’s constraint, let alone surpass him.
But if it’s this kid, maybe there’s a real chance.
He wasn’t influenced by Chen Ping, had his own style, no one’s shadow on him at all, plenty of tricks up his sleeve, and his upper limit hadn’t even been tapped yet.
If someone had to climb over Chen Ping’s great mountain, Yu Wei was absolutely the most likely—he was the only variable.
But it’s not enough now. At least wait until more old folks recognize him, and his psychological issues seem not fully resolved…
At times like this, just wait quietly for the flower to bloom. Excessive myth-making and hype would harm Yu Wei’s growth instead.
Letting the program air like this directly wouldn’t do. Meng Han decided to gloss over this big event lightly, helping Yu Wei hide his edge.
“Why need a famous sword to act heroically.”
True heroes don’t need famous swords; they rely on their own realm. This line of his was downplaying the nature of Chen Ping’s posthumous work.
No need to treat that song as Chen Ping himself—it was now just a song, merely a sword of the swordsman.
Qi Yuan, wielding the famous sword, still couldn’t win, perfectly embodying “why need.”
Meng Han’s words successfully pulled everyone back from off-site associations. Yu Wei had beaten not Chen Ping himself, but merely Qi Yuan holding “Chen Ping’s sword.”
This summary affirmed Yu Wei’s excellent performance while limiting the topic to the competition itself, clearly controlling the fermentation of public opinion.
His meaning was clear: talk about the competition, don’t bring up irrelevant stuff…
But to say Meng Han was conservative would be false, because the second half of “Why need a famous sword to act heroically” is, I become Buddha without reading scriptures.
Reading scriptures is the path to Buddhahood—what need for scriptures if already Buddha? The unspoken second half was his true evaluation of Yu Wei.
They were all mere imitators in Chen Ping’s shadow; only Yu Wei, who doesn’t read scriptures, could be the true Buddha!
Meng Han’s words carried weight, shifting focus back to the program itself. Even if public opinion arose, it would be relatively controllable, not putting excessive pressure on Yu Wei.
As for whether he could ultimately become Buddha, that depended on his own fate…
Meng Han’s retract and release was quite clever; Yu Wei could naturally see it. Teacher Meng truly lived up to the title of teacher, considering the juniors at key moments.
Who would’ve thought this belligerent, stubborn big uncle had such a thoughtful side.
Yu Wei silently noted this kindness. There are still many good people in life, but he didn’t dare respond to the unspoken second half—failure’s self-awareness.
After everyone’s moods settled, the recording of the sixth episode of Music Blind Box came to an end.
Even though the director yelled to wrap up and go home, everyone on-site made no move, still digesting what they had just seen and heard.
Even the audience didn’t leave right away. Though Teacher Meng had reined it in, tonight’s events were still somewhat scalp-numbing.
They might never forget tonight’s performance in their lifetime…
The first to stand and leave was Yu Wei—his novel’s second chapter for today wasn’t updated yet. After recording, he still had to go back and write.
More importantly, he felt if he didn’t leave now, he wouldn’t be able to later. Off work, off work.
Seeing Yu Wei move, the others finally started packing up half a beat later. The person involved had run off, so no need for them to stand there like fools.
In the audience seats, An An and Shen Yutong were the first to bolt—they were easy to recognize too, perfect time to slip away while everyone was still processing.
Shen Yutong was basically dragged out forcibly by An An; she actually hadn’t reacted yet either…
So, did I just call Chen Ping an old antique?
More importantly, Yu Wei had already reached that level. Though still some distance from true summit, defeating Chen Ping’s work head-on—its gold content was beyond doubt.
Perhaps this era really needed a new legend; they practitioners couldn’t keep living in the past either.
“An An, do you think Yu Wei will become the new generation’s number one person in the literary and art world?”
An An definitely had the right to speak on this—after all, both had some connection to her.
“Don’t know.”
An An wasn’t doubting Yu Wei; she just didn’t know if he wanted to. He had been busy writing suspense novels lately…
Compared to that, she felt Yu Wei was more interested in writing books.
During variety show recording, on-site audience actually had confidentiality agreements. Audience self-discipline, program team control—many messages wouldn’t leak out.
Previous episodes of Music Blind Box were like that; before airing, netizens knew basically nothing about the content.
But this time was different. Today’s program was hugely topical; audience couldn’t hold back their sharing urge. With so many people, the program team couldn’t control it.
Almost right after recording ended that night, news of Chen Ping’s posthumous work premiering in Music Blind Box’s sixth episode spread like wildfire.
While netizens were shocked, they heard an even more astonishing message: the song had even lost…
Who, exactly who could pull that adult off his pedestal?
Could it be Teacher Meng Han finally getting revenge and washing away past shame?
