Rebirth of the Godly Prodigal

Chapter 158: Zhang Gongyan

Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios

At the same time, Chu Zhongqin was facing an interview from a group of reporters.

A reporter asked, “Mr. Chu, do you have anything to say regarding getting only fifth place for this stage of ‘I Am a Singer’? Do you feel a lot of pressure?”

Chu Zhongqin: “I’m still OK. Everyone who joined this competition is very skilled. Sometimes, if you performed slightly worse, you will get a lower positioning. Therefore, I must put in even more effort in producing music and adjusting my myself.”

Another reporter asked, “Then, Mr. Chu, do you think that in the upcoming stages you will be able to get first place again?”

Chu Zhongqin: “I’m confident of this. After all, I have been doing music for a very long time, my foundation is still there. Naturally, I can’t just let the younger generation shine alone.”

He spoke very confidently on the surface, but once the interview ended, Chu Zhongqin hurriedly ran over to Hong Dali and cried out, “Young Master, save me! The competitors in ‘I Am a Singer’ are too fearsome, I have already dropped to the fifth place! Young Master, I don’t hope to get first place, but at least not eliminated! Otherwise, my entire face will be gone!”

It was no wonder Chu Zhongqin was so anxious. If it were someone else, they might not be as anxious as him, but some of the competitors joined as a sign of respect to him. If he were eliminated in just a few stages, it would be extremely embarrassing for him.

“Ya, I already knew that long ago.” Hong Dali sniffled. “You believe I don’t know what you are thinking? Let me say this first—I will not be doing any dirty tricks. If you’re thinking of asking me to control the audiences like the first stage, that’s impossible—there isn’t any meaning in that. I only ask you this, during the third stage, can you get... yup, can you get at least fourth place?”

“At least fourth place?” Chu Zhongqin thought for a while and affirmed. “If I use my most confident song, properly recompose it, and practice a few days, it should not be a problem! But even it’s not a problem, I’m afraid that the audiences won’t like it!”

Hong Dali grinned and said, “Don’t worry about that, just don’t get the last place. That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

“Of course, that’s for sure.” But Chu Zhongqin still had some queries. “But what about the fourth stage and the remaining ones...”

Hong Dali confidently said, “I promise that you will not suffer any loss. Oh right, we are lacking one person now, do you have any good suggestions? I need someone who is at least as good as Jiang Ruoyu.”

Chu Zhongqin was obviously shocked. “You still want more capable singers!? Young Master, if you still find someone capable, would that work? Didn’t Jiang Ruoyu already sign a contract with you? Why not use this opportunity to properly groom her?” Speaking of which, he was on the same boat as Hong Dali now and really thought for him. Of course, he also had his own reason—who was willing to find himself a powerful opponent?

“A contract is a contract, a competition is a competition.” Hong Dali humphed. “What point is there in a competition without any suspense? Hurry up and think of one!”

“Then, let me think a bit.” Chu Zhongqin thought for a long while. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and said, “Zhang Gongyan, Zhang Gongyan is not bad! Young Master, you can look for him!”

“Zhang Gongyan?” Hong Dali naturally had not heard of him. He directly asked Zhang Cai, “Sister Cai, what kind of person is this Zhang Gongyan?”

Zhang Cai was quite well-informed about the entertainment industry and answered without thinking, “I was about to recommend him to you too, Young Master. Zhang Gongyan debuted quite early, but his personality is a bit stubborn and doesn’t like to be constrained by entertainment companies. Therefore, there is currently no one willing to groom him, so he’s not very popular and well-known now. But in terms of singing skills, he’s definitely top-notch—at least as good as Jiang Ruoyu. Also, his image isn’t bad.”

“Oh, I see. This one is good.” Hong Dali directly decided. “Then, it’s him! Go and contact him, then put the news online that we found a strong competitor to join the competition. Remember to keep it a secret.”

“OK.” Zhang Cai thought for a while and asked, “But, Young Master, the popularity of our ‘I Am a Singer’ is very high now, quite a lot of famed and popular singers wish to join—some even for free. Do you think...”

Hong Dali humphed. “Ask them to wait. Those too popular are likely to have a high temper and are not easy to serve. Also, they are too tightly bound to their entertainment companies, there isn’t much point for us even if they came. It’s not like we are lacking their popularity. I don’t want them.”

Zhang Cai and Chu Zhongqin both sighed in unison.

This Young Master’s magnanimity and foresight wasn’t something that an ordinary person could accept.

If this were some other show and so many popular celebrities were willing to join for free, wouldn’t they be delighted over themselves and couldn’t wait to welcome them with eight large carriages ¹ ? As for Young Master, he didn’t even care to look before directly rejecting them.

But then again, with Young Master’s capability and strength, he would only spend money on the best effect in doing something or rather not do it at all.

If “I Am a Singer” were produced by some other company, it would at most be considered popular. But in Young Master’s hands, he actually threw in a lot of money to create a talent search show with a viewership rating to of over 5%.

It was indeed true that one’s foresight was limited only by their capability and strength.

...

Over the next few days, the Internet went frantic again!

Li Xiao, whose strongest ability was singing, was actually eliminated from “I Am a Singer”— of course, Li Xiao’s net worth did increase by quite a bit, and more importantly, Li Xiao was contracted to Caiwei Entertainment too!

What did this show? This showed that “I Am a Singer” was a true competition that relied on one’s own skills, and there weren’t dirty tricks behind it! Even their own contracted singer was eliminated, what dirty tricks could there be? Also, the audiences weren’t fools. Li Xiao did indeed perform badly due to immense stress. Therefore, he ended in last place.

Therefore, now that the audiences had a favorable impression of the fairness of “I Am a Singer” produced by Caiwei Entertainment, even the discussions of who would become the overall champion also became quite popular online.

Just at this time, Caiwei Entertainment threw another heavy bomb into the already close to boiling water!

A strong competitor would be joining the competition for the third stage!

The name was kept a secret! The age was kept a secret! Other than knowing that this was a male singer, everything else was kept a secret!

Therefore, in just two days, the popularity of topics discussing this mysterious person skyrocketed. Even on Xinhai Weibo, there was also hot debates regarding this. A topic that analyzed on who the mysterious person might be was supported for 100,000 plus times, more than the second-placed topic by an entire three times.

That was not all. Tianjing Satellite TV’s viewership rating continued to exceed past results, already achieving an astonishing 5.4%—comparatively, the drama produced by Huawei Entertainment was sadly last in place. The audiences soon formed a habit of watching “I Am a Singer” before going to sleep...

The site traffic of So Cool Video-sharing website was also constantly on the rise. The first episode of Unexpectedly! had exceeded 30 million views, and the total views of the first and second stage of “I Am a Singer” had exceeded 40 million views. As for Li Nianwei’s concert, it had already created a record-breaking viewing count of 60 million...

...

Hong Dali naturally wasn’t concerned about what was going on online. Currently, he was looking around in the first level of Chenhui Building.

When he just carried Quentin in, the entire first floor was filled with the sounds of dogs barking. Luckily, because of the super effective halo of “Animals’ Best Friend,” once Hong Dali entered the lounge, the entire first floor went quiet. This scared the animal groomers who were hired to look after them.

Although people were still used to calling Hong Dali the “Superprodigal from the Hong family” out of habit, their tone wasn’t filled with despise like before. After all, it wasn’t easy to squander in such artistic ways. Therefore, when the leader of the groomers saw Hong Dali carrying a tiger and entering along with Tang Muxin, Lin Zixuan, and his nine lackeys, he respectfully walked up to them and greeted. “Greetings, Young... Young Master!”

Hong Dali looked around. “Yup, good. You guys did well. Oh my, look at these cuties, they are quite well groomed, haha! Reward, everyone 3,000 each!”

“Thank you, Young Master!” The leader was very grateful. This was indeed the legendary superprodigal who was bold and had considerable magnanimity, he directly rewarded them as much as 3,000 each! There were at least 40 plus groomers on this floor. Thus, he spent hundreds of thousands just like that.

But although this was what the leader of the groomers thought in his mind, he didn’t think that Hong Dali was an idiot. Being able to become the leader of the groomers, he was someone who really liked small animals. Therefore, he didn’t forget to add in his mind, May the Heavens protect this God of Fortune so that he can live up to a hundred years of age so that more and more small animals will be able to get help from him in the future...

Hong Dali naturally wasn’t concerned with what the leader was thinking in his mind. What he was really concerned about was the future of these animals. “Hey, leader, these small things are really cute, but we can’t raise them forever. Do you have any good suggestion?” As he spoke, he touched the head of a small white Pekingese and praised. “Oh my, this little rascal, he wants to lick me, haha.”

At his side, Tang Muxin and Lin Zixuan were already excited to the point that they almost couldn’t contain themselves. They touched one dog here and touched another dog there since they weren’t dirty because all of them were already vaccinated and washed. Naturally, they could touch these dogs as much as they liked.

The leader was considering this for the past few days too. “Yup. Young Master, my suggestion is to wait until they are all groomed till they are pretty, then directly give them away to animal lovers. Actually, these fellows are really easy to raise—you just have to feed them, that’s all. They’re all stray dogs and cats, so they are not finicky. They will be happy just eating leftovers.”

“I think this is a reasonable plan, it’s decided then.” Hong Dali thought for a while, nodded and said, “Raise them here first, mainly checking if they have illnesses and such. Oh right, shave away all of their hair and burn them. I’m afraid that they might not have been washed clean and have louse in them. Also, make sure they are vaccinated with all the possible vaccines, then train them properly so that they will not bite people when they go out.”