Chapter 160: 《singer 2025》 Challenges Chi Ye, Young Actor In His Twenties Guards The Nation’s Gate!
“Maybe… it’s to tell international friends that Chinese is really hard to learn.”
Chi Ye opened his mouth in surprise: “When did you become so sarcastic?”
Keke: “Circle the word ‘also’, it’s for the test.”
“Alright, pack up and get ready to go to Singer.”
Chi Ye clapped his hands and sat up.
Big Shot’s estimated filming plan is 2-3 months, but because Chi Ye’s acting skills have no issues, the progress is relatively fast, and it’s currently more than halfway done.
Literary scenes are basically all shot, and the second half focuses mainly on martial scenes.
— Big Shot’s investment is indeed not much, which can be seen from the filming speed.
So, after Chi Ye immersed himself and finished all the literary scenes in one go, he finally breathed a sigh of relief… His condition is fine, so the upcoming fight scenes will only be more exciting, and the speed should be similar to the literary scenes, not slower.
“Yeah, I’ll go pack my things.”
Keke nodded. This Singer announcement is quite important, so she plans to go with him personally.
And as Chi Ye’s current “big agent”, she is actually very nervous about his current popularity.
To be honest, if not for the Mid-Autumn Festival Gala boosting it, Chi Ye’s long absence from the public eye would really not be good.
……
On the other side, just as Chi Ye and Keke were packing, Jin Sui walked in hurriedly.
She still had a smile on her face because the two “big productions” recently invested in by the company—a youth-themed one and a kung fu theme movie—had both wrapped up smoothly.
If not for Singer blowing up by chance, with several king of singers and singer queens in her company still filling in, she would have probably returned to Hong Kong long ago.
Of course, her visit this time also had something to do with Chi Ye participating in Singer.
“What about the theme song you promised me? For the OST, you’ve only been painting big pies, not giving me a single one.”
After getting familiar with Chi Ye, Jin Sui dropped the pretense and spoke bluntly without holding back.
Chi Ye felt a bit awkward and said seriously: “I told you it would be included in the album. My first album is almost ready, and I’ll definitely give it to you before distribution.”
Jin Sui paused and said: “Then why don’t you sing it on Singer? No need to give it to me, just sing it there directly.”
Chi Ye: “?”
Jin Sui looked at him: “What? You really didn’t prepare anything?”
“How is that possible.”
Chi Ye certainly wouldn’t admit it. He really hadn’t taken care of his aunt’s “entrustment”. After thinking, he said: “I’ve already written the theme song for your youth-themed movie… As for that kung fu theme one… what was it called… um, it’s…”
Jin Sui stared at him and said irritably: “You didn’t even remember the name?!”
“……Oh.”
Chi Ye suddenly realized, remembered the name, clapped his hands: “I have it, Aunt, I have it.”
Jin Sui: “?”
She crossed her arms: “I’m telling you, Xia Xia hyped you up to the skies, and I believed it too. Now both movies have wrapped up, and we must have theme songs before promotion. They might be needed in post-production too, so don’t let me down.”
After hearing that name, Chi Ye was already “full of confidence”: “Don’t worry, it’s on me.”
He had just prepared to include that song in his new album, and it was indeed there.
“……”
Jin Sui stared at him for a long time, said nothing more, just nodded. Before leaving, she put on an elder’s demeanor and advised: “Singer’s popularity is very high recently. If you really have the goods, bring them all out as much as possible. If you perform well there, you should be able to take most of the market share left by Ji Hemming.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Chi Ye nodded.
He had that idea to begin with.
After Lao Ji’s iron gates, iron windows, and iron chains, a huge chunk of the traffic market opened up, but Chi Ye had no works releasing temporarily, so he couldn’t quickly turn into a taotie—Xing Ni hadn’t even wrapped up at that time.
So, that led to the later Bridge of Fate, which sucked in a little wave, but after all, it was a song, not a drama.
And for Xing Ni’s post-production, the studio and Director Liu’s team were already working overtime like crazy.
But for a TV series—note, the most conventional kind—excluding special effects, just editing, color grading, sound effects, and other post-production work takes days to a week per episode.
Xing Ni has 21 episodes total. Excluding post-production, even if the team throws big money at people and progress, averaging 5 days per episode would still take 105 days.
That’s three and a half months.
And that’s without special effects, but Xing Ni is a soft science fiction theme with a lot of special effects in the drama, so the time is even longer.
Director Liu and the others are now working overtime like crazy, and they’ve only just finished half of the post-production.
And the reason they’re rushing so much is to catch the hottest slot of the year, the New Year slot, to make Xing Ni the “big drama to kick off the year”.
With Lao Ji’s body not yet cold, the market is wide open, and other competitors like Lao Peng won’t wait for your new drama to air before making their move.
—Everyone is rushing production, and there’s now a hellish joke circulating in the industry: As soon as Lao Ji is gone, all the male stars’ teams and the production sides behind them go crazy, truly not treating workers’ lives as lives.
They’re all risking their lives to get dramas out first and lock in slots.
So, all things considered, for Chi Ye to take the majority of Lao Ji’s market first, he can only find another way.
The Mid-Autumn Festival Gala was a small test, and Singer is his real target.
Perfectly, his new album prepared for about half a year is basically ready. Is there a better stage than the current Singer for challenging?
That day.
Chi Ye left the Big Shot film crew and flew straight to Xiangnan TV Station.
……
Meanwhile.
Singer program team backstage.
Shi Jinwei sat in the lounge, looking at the sheet music while casually asking: “Has Chi Ye arrived?”
“Not yet.”
The little assistant paused and reminded: “Sister Shi, you’ve been asking since morning, this is the third time.”
Shi Jinwei: “?”
“I was just curious, what trick is he going to pull this time.”
She pursed her pliers-like mouth and commented: “This guy doesn’t stay quiet wherever he goes, like a plague god. I heard as soon as he arrives, everyone gets terrified.”
“There’s no ‘everyone’…” The little assistant said weakly: “Besides you, not many people seem to know him… They’re all international big stars.”
Sister Qianzi: “?”
“Go back and punish you by watching Ji Zhua Zhang’s suggestive videos a hundred times!”
“Ah?”
The little assistant looked ashen: “So vicious? Who did you learn that from?”
“I heard Chi Ye punishes his little assistant Xiao Liu like that.” Shi Jinwei smiled: “It really works.”
The little assistant: “……”
You not only “stole” Brother’s song, but also stole other things?
You came to steal everything, huh?
“Alright, I knew he wouldn’t miss a hot spot like this… Let’s go wait for him… What bad luck, how did I get involved with him.”
……
Airport.
Shang Youshu wore big goggles, sneaked out furtively, held her mobile phone, and whispered: “Where are you now?”
On the other end, Chi Ye was surprised: “Did you leave your vocal cords at home?”
“You haven’t come over?”
Sister Shang looked around, saw no one noticing her, licked her oily finger, and muttered: “I thought we might bump into each other this time too.”
Chi Ye: “……I’m almost at Mango TV. I need to challenge before the live broadcast ends, big sis…”
He was speechless, then curiously asked: “Are you a guest speaker this time?”
“No.”
“Not? Then what are you here for?”
Chi Ye was dumbfounded.
Sister Shang said slyly: “I’m a fan of Xiang Tiamo! She’s coming to China for the program this time, I wanted to come half a month ago but couldn’t find time. Finally this time…”
“Oh, I see.”
Chi Ye nodded in realization.
Xiang Tiamo, famous American blues singer, a true “international heavenly queen”.
She has multiple works that entered the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, and her albums have received gold record certification. Her star power and value are indeed among the highest since Singer started this season.
“That won’t do.” Chi Ye shook his head: “I’m participating, so you have to be my fan.”
Sister Shang: “?”
She muttered: “I support you and it still doesn’t count… Supporting you and Xiang Tiamo doesn’t conflict… Right, what gimmick are you planning this time?”
Chi Ye was stunned: “Huh?”
“Isn’t Sheng Ning coming? I heard Shi Jinwei is the replacement singer this episode. Oh my god, little Sheng Ning and Sheng Ning ‘on the same stage’, these two haven’t shared a stage in N years, you get it?!”
Sister Shang was excited: “You’re not planning to do something?”
Chi Ye: “……What can I do?”
Hearing this, Sister Shang was also puzzled: “Yeah, what big scandal can you stir up…”
Chi Ye: “Hanging up, gotta go, I’m here.”
“Hey, you…”
Beep beep beep.
Chi Ye had already hung up first.
Heh, woman, you daydream about seeing me make a fool of myself, huh?
No way!
He glanced at the Xiangnan TV Station building and walked in with his team.
……
Singer 2025 has now stirred up a wave across the entire internal entertainment circle. Major short video platforms and Weibo are dominated by hot searches almost every Friday on Singer live broadcast day.
Among them, the first internationalization is one reason, but more importantly, the invited lineup and format of this Singer are huge highlights.
This Singer has seven initial singers: international music scene big star Xiang Tiamo, Canadian-born Moroccan-descended female singer, known as the international music scene’s strongest post-00 “little diva” Fancia.
Hua Yichen, Second Hand Brother, and a certain Hong Kong little king of singers focusing on the sinking market.
As well as Teacher Na and Teacher Shi.
These seven initial singers have great star power, and the program effect is maxed out.
Second Hand Brother and Hua Yichen set up a red-and-white wedding/funeral shed on site and start performing rituals, not playing the yang side, only the yin side.
The Hong Kong “little king of singers” never imagined he’d be up against Xiang Tiamo in his life—pure fantasy.
Counting the even heavier international big stars like rumored challengers Adam and Disparity.
Singer can’t help but explode.
Especially since this program is Mango TV’s ace show. Before Singer aired, it was already hyped up everywhere. After airing, based on the topic discussions and performances of the first four episodes, there’s now a phenomenal explosive topic online—internal entertainment is doomed!
Just looking at Hua Yichen, the Hong Kong little king of singers, Second Hand Brother—these “Chinese music scene representatives”—their names alone are several levels below Xiang Tiamo and Fancia.
—People mix in the Grammys, while internal entertainment lip syncs and padding are routine. How can they compete?
In the end, after calculating, only Ying Zi is somewhat presentable, but she’s just the tallest dwarf.
So, topics like “fifty-year-old lady guards the country gate” and “the true doomsday of the Chinese music scene” have exploded in the recent internal entertainment circle.
Teacher Na: I want the foreigners to die!
Singer program team: Internal entertainment dies first!
Who’s dying anyway?
Based on the first four regular episodes, the Chinese music scene side has indeed been crushed by a “disparity”.
Except for Teacher Na salvaging some honor in the third episode, the other two episodes saw foreign singers complete the “slaughter”.
Unknown how this currently live episode turns out.
For this, netizens even directly “void” invite, shaking people everywhere, crazily commenting under Teacher Han, Teacher Sun, and even the heavenly kings and queens in Hong Kong and Taipei.
The topic #I am Chinese singer XX, I apply to fight# has exploded four or five hot searches.
#The Father of the Chinese Music Scene can’t do it anymore, the grandpa of the Chinese Music Scene come quick# was reported by Hua Yichen’s fans and taken down.
Teacher Han even played along with the meme and posted her first Weibo, but… whether she really fills in or challenges, no one knows.
Here we have to mention another reason Singer 2025 can explode the internal entertainment circle—its format.
The new Singer format is extremely brutal, divided into four stages: regular matches, challenge/attack matches, breakout matches, and the final king of singers battle in the finals.
Among them, the first four episodes are regular matches, where rankings only determine performance order, no elimination of singers.
But starting from the fifth episode, which is the one where Chi Ye officially competes, it enters the challenge matches, and the brutal format shows.
Once in challenge matches, every two episodes will eliminate at least one singer.
Challenge match can be seen as the old “kick hall”, but the difference is that challenge singers pick opponents in “blind box” mode, with netizens voting for a “blind box”, and whichever initial singer is drawn PKs with that one.
The winner stays, the loser is eliminated and can only fight a revival match in the breakout round.
Attack matches are the same as challenge matches, the only difference being that challenge matches are Chinese music scene singers “kicking hall”, while attack matches are overseas singers “kicking hall”.
“Attack” meaning overseas enemies attacking you.
Additionally, attack matches don’t use blind boxes; instead, the audience votes directly to specify which overseas attacker challenges a certain opponent.
At the same time, after entering challenge/attack matches, the seven initial singer slots increase by one.
Shi Jinwei is the fifth episode’s replacement singer, who will directly become an initial singer.
Chi Ye is a challenge singer, who will draw a blind box opponent today and do the challenge next episode.
—At least one big star eliminated per episode, top overseas singers dimensionally striking the Chinese music scene—these two elements combined, plus Mango TV’s foundation in hosting similar variety shows, it’s a well-deserved explosive variety!
Of course.
#Fifty-year-old lady guards the country gate# is indeed very “frustrating”.
Teacher Na has been under a lot of pressure lately. Although she gained unimaginable terrifying traffic + reputation turnaround, with her huge star power and high status, if she’s really eliminated in one episode, it would be… too embarrassing to face people.
To this, Chi Ye walking into Mango TV said: “Teacher Na, no need to rush. Since the pressure is so great, just don’t have any pressure.”
“Fifty-year-old lady guards the country gate? NO! I will take up your heavy burden, the grandpa of the Chinese music scene, a twenty-something young actor, reporting for duty!”
That night.
#Chi Ye challenges Singer#
#Singer fifth episode challenge singer official announcement#
#Chi Ye#
#Hua Yichen don’t be scared, “Ye” is here!#
#Tiger-fighting brothers, battlefield father-son soldiers#
#Twenty-something young actor guards the country gate#
Related hot words soared on the hot search list.
……
Hua Yichen stared at the #Don’t be scared# hot search term, his eyes immediately reddened: “Fuck you Chi Ye, you really want to be my dad, huh?”
He turned to Second Hand Brother: “Come on, Second Hand Brother, stop what you’re doing first. Let’s set up a spirit shed for Chi Ye together and hold a funeral ceremony in advance.”
Second Hand Brother, wearing floral shorts, was dumbfounded: “Ah?”
