The second phase of the city competition had a rather unique style.
When "Zui Xuan Min Zu Feng" topped the plaza dance charts.
Liu Qiliang's song also followed, securing the second spot.
Liu Qiliang still had quite a few fans in the plaza dance community. Even though Ting Yu's song was incredibly catchy, it hadn't managed to pull far ahead.
However, Ting Yu's Weibo feed was completely different from before.
Due to his auntie fans, his Weibo was flooded with various middle-aged and elderly emojis.
There were emojis with colorful fonts spelling out "Jia You" (Come on), with a background of lotus flower GIFs.
There were also hands cupping a heart, with "Sending blessings to you" written on it.
Even more outrageous was a picture of a smiling Buddha, captioned "May you smile every day."
All sorts of emojis, giving off just two words: incredibly vibrant!
That's right, with just one song, Ting Yu had become friends with the middle-aged and elderly.
His "Zui Xuan Min Zu Feng" had directly won over the auntie fans.
"My mom didn't use Weibo before, but she asked me to download it for her. The first thing she did was follow Ting Yu, and then she immediately followed the Feng Ling combination..."
"Unbelievable, I actually have the same idol as my mom!"
"Can you imagine? An hour ago my mom was telling me to study more and surf the internet less, and now she's directly asking me to teach her how to use Weibo..."
"I used to think my mom and I had a generation gap, but now my mom is even more enthusiastic about following Ting Yu than I am. Is this the legendary generation gap terminator??"
"Haha, thanks to Ting Yu, my mom and I now have a common topic!"
Besides those heartwarming emojis, many viewers also expressed that they didn't have much to talk about with their parents before, but they unexpectedly found a shared idol with their mothers.
In Ting Yu's Weibo comment section, many fans were sharing amusing anecdotes with their parents.
Ting Yu's topics also dominated the Weibo trending searches.
#Ting Yu's latest song "Zui Xuan Min Zu Feng," this is the music the masses love!#
#Ting Yu gains massive auntie fan base with a down-to-earth plaza dance hit!#
#Liu Qiliang fans' large-scale defection, who truly understands plaza dance?#
#Ting Yu's new title, Auntie Magnet!#
After being the ancient style scholar and the healing producer, Ting Yu gained yet another new title: "Auntie Magnet."
However, long before this, he had already gained many uncle fans with his song "Fu Qin" (Father).
Someone analyzed online.
Ting Yu had covered all demographics, young and old, male and female, with only "young" left.
Children's songs.
This category mostly catered to kindergartens and elementary schools.
This group was quite large, but children's songs, while seemingly simple, were actually not easy to write. They needed to not only appeal to children's aesthetics but also carry positive educational meaning. Moreover, children's songs were often whimsical and had to be easy to sing.
However, some speculated that Ting Yu's path was in pop music, and children's songs were unlikely.
...
A high-end club.
Several people lay on chairs in a private room, their feet submerged in basins filled with milky white liquid.
These individuals were the ace producers who had been defeated by Ting Yu in the city competition.
However, they also held another identity: members of the "Shen Yin Zhe" (Hidden Ones), an organization dedicated to proving Ting Yu wrong.
At this moment, Hu Yang, their opponent in the regional finals and the strongest figure in the Yueyu (Cantonese) category, also joined their ranks.
As there wasn't much to do after the competition, they liked to come to this club to relax and get foot massages.
This had also become a gathering place for the Shen Yin Zhe.
They were all ace producers. After being thoroughly beaten by Su Yu, they had come to terms with it. There were always people better than you; why strive for first place? It was too tiring. It was better to gather a few friends and get a foot massage at a club, living a life that was relaxed and pleasant.
"Brother Hu Yang, what's being said in the group?"
The formal competition featured only top-tier producers.
Zhou Peng and Jin Lei, and others, didn't have that group.
Only Hu Yang was qualified to be in it.
"You guys can see for yourselves." Hu Yang sent over more than a dozen screenshots, all of Liu Qiliang's messages in the group.
In them, he almost constantly repeated his catchphrases.
Even after the competition, he still felt that Ting Yu winning against him was insignificant, and he believed he still controlled the plaza dance market.
Hu Yang had invited him to join the Shen Yin Zhe.
Liu Qiliang, with his arrogance, had directly replied: "Just a bunch of rabble, no interest."
That's right, Liu Qiliang held grudges. He was currently angry and didn't quite accept his defeat. Joining the Shen Yin Zhe seemed unlikely at the moment.
However, Hu Yang and the others didn't force the issue.
To each their own.
"Then should we still leak it?" Liu Quanlin asked.
"No rush for now. Liu Qiliang was bragging all over his competition district, he doesn't need us to leak anything. We leak internal information that the public doesn't know," Hu Yang waved his hand.
"Indeed, Liu Qiliang has so many songs in the plaza dance circle; losing once doesn't affect him much. People aren't going to only dance to Ting Yu's song."
Just then.
Jin Lei, who had been looking at his phone, suddenly sat up in shock!
"What's wrong?"
"What are you doing? Startling us like that?"
"Holy crap, you scared me!"
The others sat up abruptly, looking at Jin Lei with confused expressions.
"Heh heh... there's a good show about to begin."
When Jin Lei posted a song link into the Shen Yin Zhe group.
Everyone instantly gasped.
...
After the show ended, Liu Qiliang didn't go home.
Instead, he met three friends at a club to play mahjong.
"Old Liu, you lost, you lost. Don't get too worked up, it's not like you lost a limb."
"That's right, there are many factors in winning and losing, and it's not all your fault."
"I think we should blame those two singers, they just don't know how to sing plaza dance songs."
These three were singers who had collaborated with Liu Qiliang.
They were also quite well-known in the plaza dance circle.
All three had made their names thanks to Liu Qiliang. Seeing his grim expression, they naturally tried to comfort him.
This was an opportunity to show their loyalty and gain Liu Qiliang's favor, perhaps he might even write them another song.
"Hmph, second place is second place. Even the Yueyu master Hu Yang only got second against Ting Yu, so my result is understandable," Liu Qiliang snorted, no longer wanting to discuss these vexing matters.
He had invited his friends out today to relax by playing cards.
"Indeed, the impact isn't significant."
"He only has one song, what impact can it have?"
"Let's play cards!"
Amidst laughter, they began to play.
And these three singers naturally wouldn't win Liu Qiliang's money.
They had played together so many times, and an understanding had been reached long ago.
After a few rounds, Liu Qiliang had already won quite a bit.
A smile gradually appeared on his face.
"I'm not bragging, even if Ting Yu took first place, his understanding of plaza dance can't compare to mine. No one understands it better than I do..."
While taking a sip of water, Liu Qiliang glanced at his phone.
However, he was left bewildered by the push notification.
[Just after the city competition, Ting Yu releases another plaza dance song!]