Volume One, Chapter 101: I Chose the One with More Chinese Text—That Seems Reasonable, Doesn’t It?

"Did they put you in last place?"

Chen Tong was seated beside Jiang Yu, asking in disbelief.

Having drifted through so many variety shows and served as a mentor so many times, he knew better than anyone what it meant to be placed last.

Jiang Yu scratched his head. "After I got to the hotel yesterday, Guan Zongyuan came to chat with me. He wanted me to take the bottom spot and said a lot of nice things, so I agreed."

"You silly kid, they're making things hard for you!" Chen Tong frowned. "Later I'll do my best to keep them from tying. Just follow the majority."

Though he said that, both he and Jiang Yu knew the show would almost certainly end in a tie at some point.

Jiang Yu only smiled. "It's fine, Teacher Chen. Just vote the way the program arranged it. I don't really care. If they make things easier for me, I'll finish the show properly. But if they make it too difficult, then I won't play along anymore."

After the host finished the sponsor read and introduced the mentors, he stepped off the stage.

Then it was time for the contestants to come up.

There would be five rounds of voting.

Contestants took the stage one by one while everyone voted. The two with the fewest votes would be eliminated.

The six-to-four cut ended quickly. This stage was nothing much, and it was over in no time.

Jiang Yu kept giving very official answers the whole time.

Then came the stage where the top three would fight it out.

Though it was billed as a top-three showdown, one of them was really just there to round out the numbers. In truth, there were only two real favorites to win.

One was some guy called AKA Agou, with a row of dirty braids he clearly thought made him look cool. He was arrogant with everyone else, but around Honghua Club's Abin, another favorite to win, he acted like a little sidekick.

As for what exactly AKA and Honghua Club were in the rap world, Jiang Yu wasn't really sure.

But when names like Honghua Club and Abin came up, they stirred up an amusing memory in him, a memory from his youth about getting his hair done.

Though the two came from different camps and were technically competitors, their relationship seemed fairly good.

That Agou had even said before the competition that Brother Bin was far stronger than him, and that no one except Brother Bin could beat him.

That got him a brief trending spot, too.

Looking at the way the two of them were sharpening their knives for one another, they must have prepared thoroughly for today's final.

At last, the background music began, and the stage lighting shifted with the rhythm.

The host followed the beat. "Let's welcome AKA Agou!"

The audience immediately erupted into cheers. Jiang Yu was all too familiar with this kind of frenzy. The last time he'd heard a rhythm like that, he was in a nightclub.

Agou took the microphone, struck a pose, and launched into a wild dance.

"I always cram at the last minute, because I stand tall and draw attention..."

Jiang Yu was stunned. That was it? Just these two lines?

What the hell was this?

What were the audience supposed to make of a song like that?

Sigh. Hurry up and get it over with.

Finally, it was ending.

Next came Honghua Club's Abin.

That outrageous music started up again.

Then he began babbling away on beat.

Listening to the man onstage rap, Jiang Yu couldn't help laughing.

Maybe because of the cleanup, the lyrics certainly contained far fewer insulting lines.

But in their place came English. A whole mess of English.

What was the name of this show?

China Has Rap.

And yet here was a flood of English. China?

What made it even funnier was that these uncultured people did not even realize the English words were being used wrong. They were forcing rhymes together.

It was enough to make anyone laugh until their teeth fell out.

Mixing two languages together, along with muddy enunciation, made it sound unbearable from every angle.

This was the level of the finalists?

Jiang Yu couldn't help shaking his head.

Thank goodness this was the final episode. If he had been a mentor from the very beginning and had to sit through twelve episodes of who-knew-how-many songs like this, he really would have suffered.

The mentors' voting began.

The other unfamiliar mentors started giving their comments.

All kinds of official-sounding phrases spilled from their mouths.

After glancing around, they pressed their buttons.

One to one.

Two to two.

Two to three.

The other five mentors had already cast their votes.

Only Chen Tong and Jiang Yu remained.

Chen Tong glanced at him and cast his vote for the one with three votes.

The score became two to four.

Just as Jiang Yu was about to vote for the one with four votes and call it a day, a female mentor beside him suddenly shouted, "I'm sorry, I hit the wrong button just now. I wasn't paying attention. Can I change my vote?"

This mentor was named Mei Mei.

Jiang Yu had looked at her background before. Her real name wasn't that at all; it was Mei Xianglan. She had changed it herself because she thought her old name sounded tacky.

At that moment, Mei Mei wore an apologetic expression. "I like Agou's song better, but I pressed the wrong key just now. Teacher Jiang Yu, this might cause you some trouble. I'm sorry."

Pressed the wrong key?

Everyone on site froze. Something that should have been resolved in an instant had suddenly been interrupted by someone like this?

Backstage, Guan Zongyuan was furious, cursing out loud. Mei Mei hadn't discussed this with anyone.

All he could think about now was how he was going to explain this to Jiang Yu later.

Damn it, what an idiot woman.

"After the show is over, tell Mei Mei her three-season contract is void. Once this episode ends, get rid of her."

The assistant nodded and hurried off to handle the termination.

Guan Zongyuan's gaze fell on Jiang Yu, and he looked worried, hoping Jiang Yu wouldn't think this had all been arranged by the production team.

Jiang Yu, expressionless, looked at the woman, thought it over carefully, and realized he didn't seem to know her at all. They had no connection whatsoever, so why was she suddenly making trouble for him?

Backstage, Su Muyu had also been staring at the woman.

There were two possibilities now. One was that this had been ordered by the production team, but Guan Zongyuan had already warned her in advance yesterday, so that seemed unlikely.

The other was that someone behind this woman knew Jiang Yu was coming on the show and had deliberately made trouble for him.

Su Muyu's eyes flashed. "Find out what company this woman belongs to. See whether they're a competitor of ours or if there's some other grudge."

Assistant Xiao Zhu nodded and ran off briskly.

Onstage, Mei Mei looked at Honghua Club's Abin with a face full of guilt. "I'm sorry, I was careless. I made you happy for nothing. Can you forgive me?"

Though Abin's expression wasn't good, he could only agree for the sake of the mentors' face.

And then the pressure was pushed straight onto Jiang Yu.

Everyone turned to look at him.

Chen Tong gave Jiang Yu a reassuring look and was about to raise his hand to help him out.

But Jiang Yu unexpectedly pulled his hand down instead and said, "I vote for Agou."

So decisive.

The crowd below erupted in uproar. Seeing that the situation had been brought back under control, the host asked a routine question: "Teacher Jiang Yu, as a gifted singer, was your decision to cast your vote so decisively because Agou's song moved you?"

It was a very ordinary question. If anyone else had been asked, there would have been no issue at all. But because it was Jiang Yu, Guan Zongyuan immediately lost it. "Does this host have any brains at all?"

Jiang Yu, hearing the question, paused slightly. It had actually caught him off guard. Truthfully, both songs had been torture to listen to, and since he just wanted to get off work, he had picked one at random. He hadn't expected the host to ask about it.

So he replied casually, "Not really. I just feel the first song had two idioms in it, while the second song was all English. This show is called China Has Rap, so I chose the one with idioms in the lyrics. That seems reasonable, doesn't it?"