Chapter 61: Sixty-one Fire

While Yan Duo and Ji Ran were enjoying their spring-like romance, the internet was also heating up. After the New Year’s Eve gala, an “insider” came online to defend Yan Duo.

“As is well known, to present the best effect, New Year’s Eve galas have always pre-recorded songs, allowing singers to simply lip-sync during the live broadcast. This practice has almost become an industry convention that everyone tacitly understands. The reason for Yan Duo’s minor mistake this time was that she was informed five minutes before going on stage that her song’s audio file was damaged, so she had to sing live. Her mistake likely illustrates why television stations opt for lip-syncing.”

No wonder I felt at the scene that Yan Duo’s voice seemed different when she sang—others could hear the autotune, but she didn’t. Now after reading the original poster’s explanation, it suddenly all makes sense.

I strongly suspect that the original poster said this intentionally to whitewash Yan Duo, and the authenticity of this statement is questionable!

Since you’re so certain, would you mind revealing your identity?

I’m the original poster, and I hereby solemnly declare that throughout the entire New Year’s Eve gala, only Yan Duo’s audio had issues.

If there’s even half a lie in what I’m saying, may I be struck by lightning and my whole family die! Additionally, I’m not a fan of Yan Duo, and I can’t disclose my identity. I just happened to witness the entire incident, and I feel that Yan Duo is a good girl who shouldn’t be misunderstood. That’s why I’m speaking out despite the pressure. You can question me, but please don’t make personal attacks, thank you!

【Actually, even if the original poster hadn’t explained, I didn’t think it mattered that she sang two notes wrong. This doesn’t affect my enjoyment of listening to her sing.】

【After reading the original poster’s words, I smell a conspiracy. Why did only Yan Duo’s audio have problems? Who is targeting her?】

【In my heart, Yan Duo has always been a girl who doesn’t compete for attention, has good acting skills, sings well, and feels a bit insecure when facing her excellent partner. From her debut until now, she has always been quite low-key, behaving appropriately without arrogance or impatience. With such a major “heat source” around her, she not only never thought of riding on his popularity but actually didn’t want to go public. Her self-analysis in “Men’s World” deeply touched me. I think she is a rare, genuine, and lovely girl, and I hope others won’t bully her!】

I now think Yan Du’s singing and dancing on stage were visually impressive throughout. While there were two pitch mistakes, they don’t overshadow the overall performance, so there’s really no need to keep criticizing her.

This brings up a question for discussion: would you rather hear flawless lip-syncing or potentially imperfect live singing? I’ll raise my hand first – mistakes are inevitable, and I prefer to hear live singing.

I choose live singing.

I think live singing is more authentic.

【Lip-sync, it’ll sound better.】

【I choose live singing.】

【Lip-sync.】

【If everyone lip-syncs, do singers even need to hold concerts? Couldn’t we just listen to Kuwo at home? So, I support live singing.】

…

At this time, the online discussion about Yan Dou’s off-key singing had been derailed, shifting to debate whether live singing or lip-syncing was better. This topic had engaged many people in participation. In the end, the voting results showed that more people supported live singing, and Yan Dou’s situation gained more understanding. Everyone believed that as an actress, her ability to deliver such a performance live was more outstanding than many professional singers.

Meanwhile, at the Fan residence on the other side of the city, Fan Xian was confronting his wife, Huang Rui.

“Was it you who caused the audio issue with Yan Dou?”

At 2 AM, Huang Rui, who had just fallen asleep, was awakened from her dream by Fan Xian, feeling extremely dissatisfied. She said impatiently, “Going crazy the moment you come back, aren’t you annoying!”

Fan Xian had originally promised to stay home with her for New Year’s Eve, but unexpectedly received a phone call after 9 PM and said he needed to go to the company to work overtime. Angrily, Huang Rui went to a bar. When she returned after midnight, she discovered that Fan Xian still hadn’t come back. Now awakened while full of anger, although she didn’t clearly hear Fan Xian’s question, it didn’t stop her from losing her temper at him.

Fan Xian repeated: “Did you tamper with Yan Duo’s audio?”

Huang Rui’s heart skipped a beat, but she maintained a calm expression on her face as she said, “I don’t understand what you mean.”

Fan Xian looked at her and asked coldly, “I remember warning you some time ago not to frame the company’s employees again. Have you forgotten?”

Huang Rui got angry when she heard this, “Just a ‘company employee’? Are you sure it’s not the person you’ve liked for over four years and still can’t forget?”

Before they got married, someone had told her that Fan Xian had liked Yan Duo for years. At the time, she didn’t pay much attention, instead thinking that Fan Xian was a loyal person and that after marrying her, this loyalty would surely transfer to her as well. But after they got married, Fan Xian often used work as an excuse to stay at the company and not come home. On one occasion, when Huang Rui went to the company, she unexpectedly found him staring blankly at Yan Duo on TV, and Huang Rui became wary.

When a woman becomes jealous, she can be terrifying. She might disregard her own company’s interests, ignore moral ethics, and commit utterly despicable acts—such as bribing the crew to cut the wire of Yan Duo’s safety harness, causing her minor injuries.

Although that incident didn’t succeed, Huang Rui didn’t understand how Fan Xian found out. Afterwards, Fan Xian patiently reasoned with her, telling her from the company’s perspective not to harm the company’s employees. But why would Huang Rui care about any of that? She just directly confronted him: “Are you still thinking about Yan Duo?”

Fan Xian’s response at that time is still fresh in Huang Rui’s memory, “Yes, I did like her before. It’s just like how you had boyfriends before marrying me. After marriage, all those past feelings become like smoke in the wind. Because I’m perfectly clear that the person I’ll spend my life with is you.”

At that time, Fan Xian’s frank and sincere expression made Huang Rui believe it was true. If it weren’t for one day later when Fan Xian called out “Duo Duo” in his dream, Huang Rui would probably have been kept in the dark.

The woman, consumed by rage and hatred, couldn’t bring herself to have a falling out with her newlywed husband, but that didn’t stop her from targeting Yan Duo. She vowed to ruin her career, without any consideration for the financial losses that Fan Entertainment would suffer if Yan Duo’s career collapsed. She tried every means possible to destroy Yan Duo, and making her a fool at the New Year’s Eve gala was just one of her schemes.

Fan Xianchui’s hand, hidden in his pants leg, clenched into a fist. “I told you, that was all  It’s in the past, I’ve already forgotten her.

Huang Rui wore a sarcastic smile as she slowly slid off the bed and stood opposite Fan Xian, saying through gritted teeth: “If you had really forgotten, would you still call out her name in your dreams at night?”

Fan Xian flinched slightly at her words. He closed his eyes to calm himself down, then retorted: “So, is this why you’re targeting her?”

Huang Rui stared into his eyes, answering word by word: “Yes! And I can tell you this, the New Year’s incident was just an appetizer. Before you completely forget about her, I’ll come up with even more ways to deal with her!”

Fan Xian never knew that the wife he had married was actually this kind of person. He gave a sarcastic smile, finally gave Huang Rui a deep look, and turned to leave the bedroom.

When Fan Xian’s figure completely disappeared, Huang Rui collapsed on the bed, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Before getting married, her mother had warned her that smart women only deal with men, while foolish women waste their energy focusing on the mistresses. There are so many other women, impossible to guard against them all, so it’s better to focus on dealing with the man and making him devote himself to you.

Huang Rui understood all this reasoning, but when she actually encountered a similar situation, she had already lost her sanity. Even though she knew in her heart that Yan Duo had no real feelings for Fan Xian, she couldn’t help but resort to any means necessary to make her fail, to make her disappear, and to finally uproot her completely from Fan Xian’s heart.

The facts proved that by doing this, she not only failed to succeed but also made Fan Xian drift further and further away from her.

But once an arrow is shot, there’s no turning back. Even though she knew it was impossible to succeed, Huang Rui still decided to continue down this path.

The next day was New Year’s Day. When Yan Duo woke up in Ji Ran’s arms, she felt too lazy to move. At this moment, neither of them was wearing clothes, maintaining skin-to-skin contact.

“What time is it?” Yan Duo scratched Ji Ran’s chest muscles and asked him.

Ji Ran had always been physically fit, with well-defined muscles that weren’t overly exaggerated—just the way Yan Duo liked them. His chest muscles were her favorite part to squeeze, partly because they were firm and would move, which was particularly interesting, and partly because of the mentality of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth—you like to grab me, so I’ll grab you back.” Ahem.

Ji Ran let Yan Duo play around on his body as he reached out to feel for his phone on the bedside table. After grabbing it, he opened his eyes to check. “Nine o’clock, still early. Let’s sleep a bit more.”

After looking, he put the phone back, hugged Yan Duo, and closed his eyes again.

The two had returned late last night, and later engaged in unrestrained intimacy several times. At three in the morning, they fell asleep without even having time to put on clothes. At this moment, Yan Duo did indeed want to continue sleeping, but Ji Ran, who said “let’s sleep a bit more,” was saying one thing while meaning another. Though his eyes remained closed, his body had awakened, unconsciously “exploring.”

Yan Duo looked up at him, “You can’t do this, or you’ll die!”

Ji Ran kept his eyes closed, his movements continuing: “Don’t worry, I saved up a lot during the last ‘vacation.’ I won’t die.”

Yan Duo could tell he really wanted to continue, and she immediately couldn’t sleep anymore, “You won’t die, but I will!”

After speaking, Yan Duo ignored whether it might be cold outside the covers, threw them off, and jumped out of bed to find her clothes. Fortunately, the heating at home was always on, so she wouldn’t feel cold even without clothes. Yan Duo then kept her distance from Ji Ran.

Yan Duo, who had said last night that she “wanted to eat until full,” was not just full at this moment, but somewhat stuffed. She refused to eat herself to death!

Ji Ran was speechless watching Yan Duo’s actions. Because of last night’s wild abandon, the little woman had turned into a frightened bird again. What a miscalculation.

After getting dressed and coming out of the walk-in closet, Yan Duo found that Ji Ran had already disappeared from the bed. She figured he must have gone to the kitchen to cook. Yan Duo wasn’t in a hurry to go downstairs, so she sat cross-legged on the sofa and scrolled through Weibo.

After opening Weibo, Yan Duo ignored the countless private messages and comments and checked the trending topics. She found that #YanDuoOutOfTune# was no longer on the list, but a new topic had appeared: #IsLiveSingingBetterThanPlayback#. After browsing through it for a while, Yan Duo’s mouth twitched. She really hadn’t expected that her mistake in live singing would spark such heated discussion among netizens. But regardless, this couldn’t hide the fact that she had indeed sung out of tune. Yan Duo felt she should apologize herself. After organizing her thoughts, she posted a Weibo.

Going off-key was indeed my mistake, and it has served as a wake-up call for me. In my future work, I will hold myself to a higher standard and strive to do better. Please everyone, hold me accountable!

After Yan Duo’s Weibo post was published, Ji Ran in the kitchen downstairs received it immediately. He directly forwarded the post and commented with several heart symbols to show his support.

Yan Duo’s proactive admission of her mistake and her promise to do better won her considerable goodwill from netizens. Everyone left comments under her Weibo post, hoping she would sing more songs and looking forward to her better performance next time.

After a sleepless night, Fan Xian saw Yan Duo’s Weibo post and a relieved smile appeared on his face. Sometimes he would ask himself, why Yan Duo?

Afterward, he found many excuses for himself: because she was beautiful, intelligent, eloquent, hardworking, and persistent. Most importantly, she never forgot her original intention.

He couldn’t protect her on the road ahead. He could protect and support her, but he believed someone else could do better than him, able to give her a love and a bright future that he couldn’t provide.Although reluctant, this had to be done! Fan Xian said to himself.