Chapter 247: Think About How Yu Wei Did It?
“This song is kinda interesting.”
Shen Yutong didn’t keep up with the novel updates. She only saw this song Obscure Characters after things blew up.
Arranging a bunch of obscure characters into lyrics, this idea is unbeatable. In a sense, it’s also regarded as a model of education through entertainment.
What’s strong has never been this song, but Chinese character culture. Using it as an entry point is still a clever method.
Before clicking play, she always prided herself on having a decent grasp of Chinese characters. After all, she had read quite a few books and could write decent lyrics for articles and songs.
However, the lyrics of this song taught her a lesson. Chinese culture is vast and profound, and there were still too many characters she didn’t recognize.
“Generations of descendants regarded as a model, dragon soaring every nook and cranny.” She tried humming along with the melody but kept stumbling over the pronunciation threshold.
This unfamiliar sense of frustration reminded her of the helplessness she felt the first time she encountered classical Chinese, only this time it was even stronger.
Although she knew it was deliberately designed to be difficult, she couldn’t help wanting to give it a try, just to broaden her horizons.
Challenging difficulties is a common trait in many people. This song is like a soulslike game—it’s precisely because they know it’s hard that they have the desire to overcome it.
When she finished digesting the earlier lyrics and continued scrolling down, the song officially entered the second verse.
More obscure characters came surging in like a tide: prison, dodder, covet, discord……
Shen Yutong widened her eyes, trying to find clues from the radicals of these characters, but with little success, she had to give up.
So much for knowing characters without recognizing them—how about recognizing half a character first?
Of course, she wouldn’t give up. This song was written by Yu Wei, which at least proved that Yu Wei himself recognized these characters.
As a fellow lyric writer, how could she be outdone in this aspect? It was one thing to lag behind Yu Wei in creation, but she had to catch up in vocabulary at least.
The strange competitive spirit increased.
……
“Yuan Shen, save me!”
After the vote gap was instantly pulled open, Zhang Lingye finally realized the severity of the problem. This song was formidable.
Although its musicality was barely there, this song maxed out on cultural symbol attributes. Combined with netizens’ damn competitive spirit and desire to win, its spread was explosive.
He finally understood why Yu Wei made him pick this song. Brother really had his best interests at heart—this song could really go viral.
Zhang Lingye wanted to pick it too, but obviously he had no chance now. Brother meant well, but brother had messed up the monster stats……
Me fighting Obscure Characters, for real?
This song’s spread was not on the same level as the previous discarded draft. The discarded draft was short, flat, and fast, and still disliked by many.
But this song cleverly seized cultural identity and curiosity. Almost everyone gets caught off guard on first listen—not worth replaying much, but the first time still stuns them.
How did they match me with such a strong opponent? I put brother in my heart, and brother kicks me into the ditch.
Zhang Lingye didn’t dare think about picking songs anymore. After all, he was about to go home from the top 48……
“This song is really hard to beat.”
Qi Yuan sighed helplessly. Forget Yuan Shen—nothing worked now.
He had actually helped advise on Zhang Lingye’s competition video. It was sung pretty well and should beat average AIs no problem, but who knew Yu Wei had arranged a top streamer.
And it wasn’t just any top—it was clearly on the path of cultural confidence, bound to get praised by official media sooner or later.
This song was different from the previous Youth. Youth still needed new lyrics, but this one already showed promise right away.
He could only hope the official media took their time. If they named and praised it now, Zhang Lingye definitely had no chance.
“I don’t want to get eliminated this fast.”
Fake competition champion is void champion—what’s top 48 then? Isn’t that just becoming roadside trash?
Even if scraping by, he wanted to last one more round.
“Then use the evil cultivator style. Can’t win in a head-on fight anymore.”
Zhang Lingye’s strength in Enthusiastic Praise Top Streamer was pretty high up, but the “organizer” wasn’t playing fair, matching him against an opponent way too high in rank. Fighting straight-on meant waiting to die.
Off-the-board tactics weren’t easy either. His fan circle fans were limited in number, and buying internet trolls cost too much. Ying Huo Hua Wen wouldn’t care about this mess and definitely wouldn’t step in.
Standard evil tactics for new gen obviously wouldn’t work. He had to look at the old gen’s evil tactics.
Jiang Si Heng and Xiang Huai Xue, those two seniors, both started off trailing the AI, but they both turned the tables. Think about how they did it……
“Then I’ll learn from Senior Jiang, post something saying if I win I’ll pick this song, and get fans to vote for me instead.”
Back then, Jiang Si Heng used this move to turn enemies into friends and win, even securing a song pick.
“That won’t work for this song.”
Now Qi Yuan had something to say. Senior Jiang’s move worked because the AI couldn’t sing that song’s emotion, so fans were thrilled at the big shot doing a cover.
What emotion does Obscure Characters have? It’s all about novelty, and the AI already nailed that. Him singing it wouldn’t improve much.
Analyze specifically: if netizens have no demand for a real person version and you jump out yelling, isn’t that just trouble?
“Then I’ll learn from Senior Xiang Huai Xue, post a song challenge video—should work, right? This song is really hard to sing, so succeeding in the challenge would get likes?”
“That song won’t work either.”
The Left Hand Points to the Moon challenge video went viral because of the high note—that kind of difficulty is talent, hard to reach with effort.
But Obscure Characters’ difficulty can be easily overcome if you know how to look up a dictionary. Even if a challenge video goes viral, internet celebrities would’ve already milked it dry.
Low-threshold popularity—who’s turn would it be for you?
After hearing Qi Yuan’s analysis, Zhang Lingye really had no moves left. This won’t work, that won’t work—might as well wait to die.
He couldn’t use anyone else’s tactics. Brother really gave him a big one this time……
“Don’t lose heart. At times like this, think about how Yu Wei handles it?”
Qi Yuan used Yu Wei’s example to comfort him. The dilemmas and challenges Yu Wei faced weren’t much harder than this, yet he still created miracles one after another, right?
The fundamental support behind it was an indomitable iron will and an unyielding stubborn heart that never admits defeat.
Especially in these critical moments, learn from brother’s spirit!
“You mean…”
Zhang Lingye seemed to get it, but hesitated: “Wouldn’t that be kinda bad?”
“What’s bad about it?”
Qi Yuan wasn’t happy hearing that. The achieved is the teacher—learning from Yu Wei, what’s wrong with that? Not embarrassing at all.
“Being brothers, in the heart!”
Zhang Lingye nodded solemnly. He really couldn’t give up easily. Think about how Yu Wei does it.
……
“Why are you listening too?”
When Yu Wei and Qi Luo An found Sakuraya Rio following the directions, she was wearing headphones listening to music—not anything else, but the AI version of Obscure Characters just released last night.
Chinese people challenging themselves is one thing, but what was this foreigner doing? To her, those lyrics might as well be a heavenly script?
“Lear… learning.”
Caught listening, Sakuraya Rio seemed a bit flushed, like a little girl whose secret was exposed, every gesture full of embarrassment.
Come on, just listening to a song—why blush like a teapot?
Listening to Obscure Characters to learn Chinese? Good luck with that. Language learning starts from the foundation—jumping straight to “advanced vocab” is putting the cart before the horse.
“Stop learning. Come do the task.”
How do Sakura people do song relay? Singing Japanese songs with mimsound homophones? Empty your few wah, wahahaha wahahaha—everyone’s faces lit up with smiles……
No need for Yu Wei and them to worry. Sakuraya Rio specially learned a Chinese song for this. She could mimic like a parrot.
“Later I finally learned how to love, but sadly you were long gone, vanished in the sea of people.”
Though the Chinese still felt a bit awkward in her mouth, thanks to her voice and basic skills, it surprisingly sounded great.
This child might become a songstress.
Hearing she had to learn a Chinese song, Sakuraya Rio picked Later right away. After all, she’d sung the Japanese version and seen Yu Wei’s stage performance, which left a deep impression.
Sea character? Qi Luo An instinctively followed with lyrics starting with “still remember”—that starting character is fairly common.
“Hi pineapple…”
Hearing Yu Wei’s response, the program team was floored. It’s black pineapple, okay? Teacher Yu Wei, don’t mess around.
Qi Luo An nearby felt a bit awkward upon hearing it, like a little girl whose secret was exposed, every gesture full of embarrassment.
That was Yu Wei joking earlier. He already had it figured out.
“Child, I’ve grown up
Standing guard to defend the nation
Not afraid of wind or rain.”
Everyone on site was stunned after hearing it through. Just this line told them it wasn’t simple—this song was too popular.
The staff jumped in shock. Teacher Yu was too serious—it was just a little game, no need, no need.
At this point, who in the program team could stop him……
They hadn’t expected Yu Wei’s inventory to have such a hit song. No wonder he could whip up a lyric version of Youth.
The program team exchanged eye contact. Looked like Yu Wei had plenty of big killers up his sleeve—who’d dare mess with him?
After recruiting Sakuraya Rio, their group was complete. Next, time to think about what song to write.
Qi Luo An was especially curious about this. What he and she sang could be a bit romantic, but for a nine-person chorus, better to go with something grand and well-written.
She didn’t know if Yu Wei had similar inventory, but she didn’t overthink it—whatever he had, write that.
No inventory? No big deal. Singing with Yu Wei was happy enough—what they sang didn’t matter.
After finding the person, Yu Wei finally had time to check the competition. Zhang Lingye’s votes were still way behind—no way around it, Obscure Characters was really hot.
Though the environment had changed, as long as the cultural atmosphere remained, this song was destined not to flop.
It wasn’t Yu Wei going easy. To get immense traffic, you had to pass the test—same with the competition.
Pass this level, and it’s smooth sailing ahead.
Zhang Lingye knew this reason too. He not only took Qi Yuan’s advice but remembered it firmly. At times like this, think about how Yu Wei does it.
He grabbed his mobile phone and started writing a Weibo post. He was a bit hesitant at first, but Qi Yuan’s words made it clear—nothing bad about it. Being brothers, in the heart.
Brother’s words, he remembered!
Soon, a fresh photo-text post was ready. The picture was a group shot from when they filmed Sound Mixer back then—though he was a corpse, he was still a main role.
Finally, he added the Follow Yu An topic tag, edited it properly, and solemnly posted it.
“Help me like it, listen to the behind-the-scenes story of ‘Follow Yu An’.”
So, how exactly did Yu Wei do it back then? He really needed to think hard.
