I'm Really a Superstar

During the commercial break.

Some of the audience took a bathroom break.

Some of the staff made use of this time to check the equipment.

Li Xiaoxian (Sunset Glow) looked at Wild Rose, who was seated beside The Clown, and asked, "Big Sis, do you know who The Clown is?"

Wild Rose smiled and said, "I don't know, but I have someone in mind."

Xiaodong quickly asked, "Oh? Who?"

Fan Wenli added, "Do we know him?"

Wild Rose glanced at The Clown, then looked back at them. "Hur hur, the person I'm thinking of, you guys definitely know him. Also, I think you should be quite familiar with him."

When The Clown heard that, his eyebrows twitched a little.

Amy exclaimed, "Surely not, right? We're very familiar with him?"

Fan Wenli said with a frown, "Why do I have no memory of someone like that?"

Zhang Xia said, "Just who could it be?"

Wild Rose laughed and said, "It's only a guess. I might be wrong."

Chen Guang didn't know how to react. "If you're not even sure of who The Clown is, why did you agree to come in support?"

Wild Rose smiled without saying another word.

The others could not figure out if she was telling the truth or lying.

Liao Yiqi (Spinach) had not said anything all this time. Her celebrity guest partner, Celery, was talking her ear off, probably worried about her current tally of votes. After all, the numbers were not really ideal.

The host finished touching up her makeup.

The program team counted down to the return of the show.

Three…

Two…

One…

The commercial break was over. The show's broadcast signal came back on!

Dong Shanshan beamed as she announced, "Welcome back to tonight's finale of King of Masked Singers." She pointed down. "At the bottom of your screens, you can see the numbers to call for each contestant. Please support and vote for your favorite contestant so that they might become tonight's Masked King. Your votes decide if they will remain or leave after the first round. The contestant that comes in last won't continue competing tonight. Only five will remain in the battle for the Masked King in the next round. And now that our six contestants have all finished performing, let's bring the real-time tallies up onto the big screen behind me and have a look at the current rankings."

In an instant, the entire venue went quiet.

The TV audience also seemed to be holding their breath!

Spinach looked up!

Fan Wenli took a deep breath.

Flowing Time and Jiang Hanwei were smiling so widely they were squinting.

King of Oddity looked relaxed as he knew he would be safe from elimination with his current tally.

"Who's in first?"

"I don't know."

"Are the results out yet?"

"Who'll be the first one to get eliminated?"

Zhang Ye also looked up at the screen.

With a sudden flash, the tallies appeared on the big screen and updated in real time. The votes were changing every second as the numbers jumped.

When the audience saw the rankings, there was an uproar in the venue!

First: Flowing Time

Second: King of Oddity

Third: Petal Shower

Fourth: Sunset Glow

Fifth: Spinach

Sixth: The Clown

Fan Wenli said in surprise, "What?"

Zhang Xia couldn't believe it either. "The Clown is sixth? He's in the last place?"

Wild Rose gave The Clown a look.

The Clown did not react.

Amy cried out, "What's with this result?"

Flowing Time shook his head. That's what he gets for acting aloof and not wanting to take off his mask!

King of Oddity was also smiling on the inside. He knew that The Clown had sung very well, and he admitted that the best song that he has heard today was The Clown and Wild Rose's "Love of a Lifetime"! They had indeed sung much better than the other contestants by far. However, it seemed like that didn't affect anything at all since how many in the audience would look at their performance from a purely professional point of view? Most people just listened and watched the performances for the fun of it. If you did not take off your mask or ask for votes, and chose not to have any gimmicks to interest the audience, then who would want to vote for you?

Xiaodong was also finding it difficult to understand. "Even if The Clown isn't in first place, he shouldn't be in the last place! There was clearly nothing wrong with his song at all!"

Li Xiaoxian frowned and said, "I just cast a vote for Teacher Clown on my phone. He and Teacher Wild Rose really sang this song well, so how could…"

Even Dong Shanshan, who was currently onstage and facing the cameras, looked a bit startled when she saw the rankings. She hadn't expected to see such a result either!

Zhang Ye's mother was enraged. "What the hell!"

His father could not keep watching. "How are these people even voting?"

His eldest young sister said in shock, "The Clown and Wild Rose sang so great! They should be in first place! But why is their tally so low? This is impossible!"

Ha Qiqi gasped. "Isn't that too low?"

Zhang Zuo said, "No one wants to vote for The Clown? I might not be a professional, but even I could hear that The Clown and Wild Rose sang much better than the others!"

Others in the audience held opposing views.

"I'm giving my vote to Flowing Time anyway."

"Me too, I just want to know who his wife is. Hahaha!"

"The Clown and Wild Rose sang well, great, even. But who would know who they are since they were unwilling to take off their masks? They're probably just some unknown artists who are afraid to show their faces in the first place. Maybe they're scared the audience won't recognize them? Then we might as well give our votes to the celebrities we know. King of Oddity is a good choice to support since he has intents to support charity."

"Right, King of Oddity seems like he has a good character."

"I voted for Zhao Qiquan."

"Likewise, but I'm doing so because I'm giving face to Jiang Hanwei."

"Old Jiang has already done so much to get votes for Flowing Time, so we must definitely give him face! Hehe!"

In the previous episodes of the competition, the contestants were not allowed to speak or ask for votes after their performances, or even take off their masks midway through. There were also no celebrity guest partners at all. But the rules were changed in today's grand finals, and the outcome was clearly very different from before. The program team had not anticipated this, and they also did not think too much of it when Flowing Time and King of Oddity were asking for votes from their supporters. But at this moment, when they saw The Clown's tally, Hu Fei, Hou Ge, and the others suddenly realized that something was not right. This development had gone beyond their expectations and design of the competition format. It had gone utterly off track from their original vision of the competition!

...

In the outside world.

On Weibo.

The fans of the contestants were calling for support and votes everywhere.

"Please vote for Flowing Time! Thank you!"

"Where are King of Oddity's fans? Go vote for him!"

"Let's push King of Oddity up the rankings together! Don't let our big brother fight this battle alone!"

"Where are Old Fan and Old Chen's diehard fans? Let's give our votes to Petal Shower together!"

It was bustling online.

People calling for support everywhere, and some even offered to sell their votes. This was because every phone number could only be used to vote once, so many diehard fans of Flowing Time, King of Oddity, and the others were offering to buy votes for the contestants they supported. Although this behavior was prohibited, it was in fact very difficult to enforce.

Only Spinach and The Clown did not experience much support from their fans.

For Spinach, it was because she was not that well-known. As for The Clown, it was because no one knew who he was.

But there were also fans of The Clown who were very angry.

"Why is he in the last place?"

"The hell!"

"Are they all deaf?"

"Can you people not hear the difference between good and bad?"

"You guys should be voting for The Clown!"

"This is a singing competition! It's not about outdoing each other with gimmicks!"

"Are you kidding me? How can The Clown be last?"

...

At the venue.

Dong Shanshan checked the remaining time. "We're only two minutes away from the end of the first round."

By now, the front runners were leading by a lot of votes compared to those behind them.

Spinach, fifth place: 1.27 million votes.

The Clown, sixth place: 1.26 million votes.

There were only 11,000 votes between them!

There were still two minutes left!

It would be impossible for them to catch up to those in the lead in such a short time. The eliminated contestant would be either Spinach or The Clown!

Spinach looked toward The Clown and let out a sickly laugh.

The Clown looked at her in return.

Dong Shanshan said, "There's still a minute until voting closes. The voting is getting more and more intense."

The Clown had 1.28 million votes!

Spinach was also at 1.28 million votes!

Their two tallies were tied!

Counting down: ten seconds, five seconds, three seconds…

A lot of people were tensing up with nerves!

All of a sudden, Dong Shanshan announced, "OK, the voting window has closed!"

Instantaneously, the tallies on the big screen stopped changing!

Countless home viewers and the live audience immediately looked at it!

Fifth: The Clown

Sixth: Spinach

The difference between their two tallies was just 220 votes!

Spinach was eliminated and would not advance into the battle round!

Hu Fei heaved a sigh of relief.

Xiao Lu patted her breast. "I was scared to death!"

Han Qi's heart nearly jumped out of her chest. "How close! He nearly got eliminated!" Then she got furious and wondered, How could that have happened? Why did it become like this?

The Clown!

Wild Rose!

How could these two singers nearly get eliminated?

Are all of you deaf? Are all of you so easily deceived by those gimmicks rather than listening to their singing?!