Jiang Ye greatly appreciated his attitude, "You're quite brave, young man, you remind me of myself when I said I was going to take first place."

"But luckily, your situation should be a little easier than mine."

He Zhou: "How so?"

"When I was trying to debut, it wasn't just about my stage performance."

"But what decided whether you could advance was the audience's vote."

"Tomorrow, half of the audience voting will be professional judges, and half will be the general public."

"For the professional judges, you just need to do a good job with your work."

"But as for the public vote-"

Jiang Ye suddenly raised her head and stared at He Zhou for a while.

He Zhou's back instantly stiffened.

He was a little nervous being stared at by Jiang Ye, even his breathing stopped.

After a while, Jiang Ye objectively judged, "Your face itself has a lot of public appeal. So, I think even if you make a mistake, the public judges might still vote for you, sending you to the next round."

Even if he didn't know anything, he could still make it to the next round in a boy group survival show just by being a beautiful waste.

Presumably, the judges this season wouldn't be so unreasonable.

He Zhou: "..."

He really did overthink it.

He relaxed a little and said, "I'll try my best."

Jiang Ye: "That's good, work hard and make it to the finals, maybe Grandma will come see you."

Just like when she was in the finals.

Thinking about it, Jiang Ye suddenly exclaimed, "Look, our orphanage is a really lucky place, it actually produced two people who are related to the entertainment industry."

"Do you think if the orphanage ever wants to advertise, they should put up our photos?"

He Zhou: "... How would we hang them?"

"Simple."

Jiang Ye reached out and gestured, "One on the left, Jiang Ye, the top idol in the Chinese entertainment industry."

"One on the right, He Zhou, a young music creator."

"Across the top, Starry Sprout, Cradle of Top Stars, Talent Supply Base for the Entertainment Industry."

He Zhou: "..."

He Zhou couldn't help but laugh, "That's so weird, why would two people hang like that?"

Speaking of hanging photos of two people together.

He Zhou thought for a moment, and the only thing he could think of was a wedding photo.

Of course, he didn't dare to say it, he just let his thoughts wander for a while and his ears turned red.

"Why not?"

Jiang Ye blinked, "Door gods."

"... Oh, so we're going to ward off evil spirits?"

He Zhou actually thought about it and agreed, "That's pretty good, compared to other door gods, at least we won't scare the kids."

Jiang Ye clapped her hands, "I told you it would work!"

The initial awkwardness and unfamiliarity from not seeing each other for a long time gradually faded away.

As familiar childhood friends, their brains were on the same wavelength.

He Zhou thought for a moment and said, "But if that's the case, I don't think I'm qualified enough."

After all, he was still far behind Jiang Ye's level.

But Jiang Ye smiled.

"Although I don't think there's anything unqualified about it."

"But it seems like you have a new goal for the next round."

She clenched her fist, "Fight for it, He Zhou, to become a future door god for the orphanage!"

He Zhou: "..."

He Zhou couldn't help but smile, nodding, "Okay."

He would work hard to be on par with her someday.

•••

The public vote for the first round of elimination in 《Best Composer》 was available for purchase.

But before the show aired, who would want to watch a few unknown amateur music creators?

So, most people were still coming for the mentors and assistants.

Most of them were Jiang Ye's fans.

When the tickets were on sale, Jiang Ye's fans were the fastest to buy them.

【Wuwuwu, I miss my daughter, her second tour is at the end of the year, so I can only go to this show to see her.】

【Ah ah ah, go go go! Let's give our Jiang Mei some face for her first solo variety show!!】

As a result, they directly drove up the price of the tickets for the ordinary elimination round.

Other fans were deterred.

In the end, most of the public judges were Jiang Ye's fans.

But the good thing was that their votes were relatively fair.

After all, it was a team-based elimination round.

Without any conflict of interest involving Jiang Ye, they could vote more objectively as pure bystanders.

Jiang Ye was the host for a while today.

She walked onto the stage in her heels, heard the deafening screams from the audience, shushed them, then smiled, "It seems like I'm very popular."

"Although I'm not the main character today."

"But I also hope everyone can enjoy the performances to come."

This was Jiang Ye's first time hosting, but she wasn't nervous at all.

After a brief interaction with the audience, she introduced all the contestants, then returned to her seat at the mentor table and chatted with Teacher Chen Yi Ming.

The contestants were a little afraid of Chen Yi Ming.

Actually, Jiang Ye was also a little afraid of him when she was on Chasing Light Girls.

But now she knew that he was just serious on the surface, but actually, he wasn't scary at all, especially towards young people he liked, his attitude was even better, so she relaxed a lot.

As the contestants from the other group were moving their instruments, Jiang Ye quietly asked Chen Yi Ming, "Do you think anyone from our group will perform particularly well today?"

Chen Yi Ming looked at her and said, "Are you asking about He Zhou's situation?"

Jiang Ye blinked and nodded honestly.

After all, during the past few days of practice, the other contestants had all played their works for her.

Only He Zhou refused, saying that his unfinished work couldn't be shown, and he wouldn't let her hear it until the official competition today.

Although she thought that He Zhou's level definitely wouldn't result in him being eliminated in the first round, she was still very curious about his work after he had kept her in suspense.

Chen Yi Ming: "His style is very stable, he's the one I'm most optimistic about among my team members."

Chen Yi Ming paused and then said, "Also, his song choice is very smart."

Jiang Ye didn't understand what Chen Yi Ming meant at first.

But when the name of He Zhou's song was announced, she suddenly understood.

The style of He Zhou's song was very similar to his original work from the first round.

Instead of changing his style during the individual elimination round, he chose to perfect this style within his comfort zone, which was the best choice for a new creator like him.

He Zhou was sitting in the center of the stage.

As Jiang Ye had said, he did have a very likable face, his overall temperament was a bit cold, but very clean.

He was wearing a white shirt, his long fingers pressed against the guitar, the way he sat there, he looked like the kind of boy who would be secretly admired by countless girls just by playing one song at a university campus cultural festival.

Although this was a show that was supposed to judge based on the work, not the looks.

But most of Jiang Ye's fans who came to be public judges today were appearance fans.

Of course, they couldn't help but have a preconceived notion of liking someone who looked good.

Before he even performed, the cheers from the audience were pretty loud.

The guitar sound started.

The screen behind him displayed the name of He Zhou's rearranged song.

《Secretly Loving Someone》.

The stage design then transformed into a light drizzle, with rain falling.

The first two notes of the guitar were relatively low, creating a relatively depressing atmosphere.

But when He Zhou started singing, there was a slight smile in his voice.

"It's not your fault that you're across the time zone."

"You just see me as your extra."

Whether it was his melody or his singing style, it had a very strong narrative, like he was telling his own secret love story.

But as he entered the chorus, the style of the whole song changed.

He strummed his guitar, the emotion in the song gradually intensified, each section added another layer of emotional depth.

"You're clearly a dream I've never had."

"But I feel like I've lost you countless times."

...

"I envy every figure that walks beside you."

"I'm always a safe distance away from you."

...

It was a song that described how humble someone in love is.

But after He Zhou's rearrangement, the overall atmosphere of the song became much more open, and the melody was also a little lighter.

It seemed that the painful and heavy secret love in his heart was actually a comforting and enjoyable feeling for him.

The last two lines, in the original lyrics, it was about how he would rather never have known you than be just friends.

But He Zhou changed it to, rather than being lovers, he would rather accompany you like this.

When Jiang Ye heard the last part, she felt like she had been struck by something.

Rearranging someone else's work, especially a popular work, inevitably leads to comparisons, and it's often met with criticism.

It's like writing an essay, it's easy to revise your own essay, but it's much harder to revise a famous masterpiece.

However, He Zhou, on the premise that the original song was already very good, used his own rearrangement style to give the song a different meaning.

He didn't delve deeper into the essence of the original song, but he gave it a different narrative style.

It was similar to his usual love song style, bitter but not tragic.

Although it sounded more relieved on the surface, it was actually more painful when you listened carefully.

After he finished his performance, the audience was silent for a moment.

Someone couldn't help but quietly wipe away their tears, "Oh my god, what's going on, I'm actually crying."

"It's so good, even the original fans like this version."

Amidst the applause.

He Zhou put down his guitar and looked in Jiang Ye's direction.

Jiang Ye seemed to still be caught in the aftershocks of the song, but when she met He Zhou's gaze, she suddenly came back to her senses.

She smiled brightly and gave him a nod of approval.

He Zhou quietly breathed a sigh of relief.

He looked calm on the surface, but his palms were actually sweating.

The reason why he chose this song was also because he wanted to quietly sing this emotion to Jiang Ye.

There were so many people listening to his song, on stage, off stage, on the screen, and off the screen.

But his only listener was Jiang Ye.

Fortunately, she seemed to like it.

Then his wish was granted.

After He Zhou finished his performance, it was time for the mentors' comments.

Chen Ling, the mentor from the next group, spoke first.

"Very good performance."

"But if I remember correctly, the original work you brought to the first round was also a similar style song."

"Have you ever worried that the audience will get tired of your style if you keep performing the same type of song?"

She spoke lightly, but the question she raised was very sharp, "Are you too used to staying in your comfort zone?"

Jiang Ye felt a little dissatisfied when she heard this question.

This was only the first round.

Of course, it's better to play it safe.

The reason why Chen Yi Ming said his song choice was smart was because, out of all the songs provided, this song was the most suitable for him.

After the first episode aired, He Zhou would definitely attract some fans who liked this style of music because of his original work.

So, in the next round, he did not need to rush to change his style, he didn't need to challenge himself in areas he wasn't good at when his creative ability wasn't stable yet, he still needed to keep this group of fans.

The answer was obvious.

He Zhou picked up the microphone.

He wasn't very talkative, but when it came to his own music creation, he wasn't stingy with words.

"I think it's not a bad thing for a musician to have a fixed style."

"For example, my mentor, Teacher Chen Yi Ming, as soon as people hear his song, even if they haven't heard it before, they will quickly associate it with him."

"For a music creator, having a recognizable style is an honor."

"If one day, people can hear the intro, or hear the song for a moment, and then realize, oh, this is He Zhou's song, then that will be the day I succeed."

Chen Ling smiled, "Okay."

"Then I'll ask from another angle."

"You seem to be very fond of this theme of unrequited love, is it because you can relate to it more?"

As soon as this question came out.

The audience in the venue all started to make noise.

Usually, what a creator releases recently is very reflective of their current emotional state.

For example, singers who have just broken up will release a lot of sad songs.

And singers who are in love will mostly start creating love songs.

But whether it was his original work or his rearranged work, He Zhou chose to output a consistent style and emotion, which was indeed a bit intriguing.

Unlike idols, whose profession it is.

A creator's song inspiration comes from their emotions.

Works that are insincere are less appealing than those that are truly expressed, so the audience was happy to eat melons.

He Zhou was silent for a moment, then said softly, "Yes."

"Because I've been in love with someone for a long time."