The whole world had its eyes on the World Cup. But when the host, Qatar, lost its first group match, nobody really talked about it. Nobody had high hopes anyway. Instead, Iran beating England set the internet on fire, and the dazzling opening performance became another hot topic.
"I couldn't understand most of the lyrics, but damn, my hands and feet wanted to move along. Gogogo!"
"It's a shame I couldn't be there in person. From the YouTube videos I watched, the atmosphere in the stadium was insane. Imagine someone getting eighty thousand fans to groove with a song inside a football arena."
"That final moment, eighty thousand people singing together, I thought I was watching a global superstar's concert. Music really is the oldest and most powerful bridge for human communication."
"I know him. I've even seen my friend buy his album. Honestly, I knew it, I've always believed this Chinese singer had it in him."
Those were comments left by Europeans and Americans online.
The internet really does shrink the planet into a village. Even a Russian chimed in with a reply that made people laugh:
"Isn't the most powerful bridge of human communication actually aircraft carriers and nuclear bombs? At least that's what I think Americans believe. Of course, Mr. Chu sings beautifully, but in our St. Petersburg, everyone knows Russia produces professional singers."
Another reply popped up, this time from India:
"Isn't this our little brother Jiu? Not bad, I suddenly feel like dancing. One day, you should come to my house for a concert."
That comment instantly got linked to "brother Jiu," since so many people online already called Chu Zhi that. Indians are often called "brother three" online, so them calling Chu Zhi "little brother" turned into a running joke.
Fans in Japan, Korea, and Vietnam were buzzing like it was a festival, bouncing off the walls spreading the news. The opening ceremony lineup had pop princess Megan, rap giant Holman, and Akenda Bell, the guy everyone thought would inherit the title of global king of pop. But to fans, none of them mattered.
What mattered was their idol stealing the show.
"Stop calling Professor just an Asian superstar. His influence goes way beyond Asia. He's got a strong following in Europe and America too. With his talent and looks, he deserves even more recognition. Keep going, Professor, your students will always support you."
"I saw a Chinese fan comment, 'After listening, I carried my husky up fifteen flights of stairs.' I tried the same, managed three floors, now I'm in the hospital. Gotta say, the hospital's Wi-Fi is great."
"Brother Jiu's songs always touch me differently. Every time I hear his voice, I think of my mom."
And that was just scratching the surface. You couldn't go online without bumping into more.
Of course, that much buzz had downsides too. Fans of Akenda, Megan, and Holman weren't thrilled. Nobody likes seeing their idol treated like a background prop, especially when some media reports started pushing that narrative. So naturally, their fans saw Chu Zhi as the guy stepping on their idols to climb higher.
The backlash came fast and heavy:
[Why do they all like this Chinese singer? Do Europeans and Americans just love his exotic vibe? I get it now. He was the only Asian on stage, so of course that gave him an advantage.]
['Who Lasts Till the End' is steady, efficient, and spectacular, words that describe Akenda Bell. And this Chinese singer? Poor language skills, weird Spanish-English mix, sloppy stage presence. Who really deserves the praise is obvious.]
[His style just happened to fit that stadium. Football fans are the most enthusiastic crowd, so the feedback looked big. Anywhere else, no way it'd work.]
[I've seen him around Wall Street types before. Why is the whole world hyping him like this?]
The irony? Another South Korean group, also made up entirely of Asians, had performed at the opening ceremony too.
But honestly, nobody cared about that detail. What mattered was exposure. For an artist, even controversy wasn't bad. At the very least, it meant brands noticed you.
Luxury brands didn't come knocking, but international streetwear labels did. Chu Zhi's team declined after reviewing, mostly because his main brand [Muzhire] already had him tied down. If not, he had his own label anyway.
Caught at the center of this storm, Chu Zhi didn't have time to read headlines.
There was too much work lined up. He couldn't record an English album and also prep a Chinese album themed on the Four Great Classics at the same time.
"Putting together the English album's gonna be tough," he muttered as he flipped through his packed schedule. With his current status, most business collaborations and events were booked months in advance.
Back from Qatar and heading into Christmas season, things only got crazier. Brands pushed their holiday campaigns, and events piled up nonstop.
"Coca-Cola ads take the most time," he mumbled after shooting a holiday spot for their new packaging. He sank into the van seat afterward, exhausted.
"Brother Chu, between Yuanqi Forest and Coca-Cola, which one do you like better?" Xiao Zuzhi asked softly.
"They're both fine," Chu Zhi answered. To be blunt, he didn't like either. He preferred plain water and wine. The wine was mostly to trigger his system skills, otherwise he drank less for his health. After all, he only had one system bro.
"I like Yuanqi Forest better. Zero sugar, zero calories. Coke makes me gain weight too easily," Xiao Zuzhi said.
The comparison made sense, since Chu Zhi endorsed both brands. Usually, contracts with a major company blocked you from endorsing direct competitors. But his Coca-Cola deal only restricted carbonated drinks, so he could still work with Yuanqi Forest. That kind of negotiation showed just how insanely popular the Emperor Beast was in Asia.
After chatting, Bamboo reclined his seat and let Ma Weihao start a massage. Chu Zhi closed his eyes to rest.
"System bro, you see I've been earning lots of personality coins lately, but my balance's nearly down to double digits again. Can you help me out a little?" he asked inwardly.
[Host, please state your request,] the system replied.
"Search for songs or theme tracks inspired by the Four Great Classics. I wanna put together something."
The system instantly pulled up a dense list of dozens of songs, many of which Chu Zhi recognized.
"'Wukong,' 'Cao Cao,' 'History's Sky,' 'The Rolling Yangtze Flows East,' 'Hopelessly Condemned Love,' so many. Some are too traditional or folk-style, not quite my type, but I'll find the right ones."
He'd always wanted to make an album based on the Four Great Classics. But with back-to-back albums like 25,117 Possibilities, Chu Ci · Ode to the Orange Tree, Chu Ci · Nine Songs, and Little Fruits Are Sweet, he only got the chance now for his fifth release.
The van ride to Tang City, near Beijing, would take over two hours. Normally the bullet train took just ninety minutes, but for him, driving was simpler than dealing with stations.
Thirty minutes of massage later, he sat up, refreshed, and went back into work mode.
"Have you picked the venue? Ordered the wedding rings yet?" he asked on the phone.
Wang Yuan reported back, "Venue's booked. The guy's planning to propose at Tianya Haijiao in Lucheng. He's even bringing all her parents and relatives there. Honestly, the kid's impressive, really capable. His girlfriend has no clue."
A surprise had to stay secret. Chu Zhi nodded along.
"The rings and everything else are ready too," Wang Yuan added. It was obvious the guy had planned every detail.
That meant everything was ready, and all that was left was for Chu Zhi to tweak a fan's wish.
The fan, nicknamed Little Bunny, had originally wanted him to record a cover of Like Smoke as a special gift for his proposal. That was Little Bunny and his girlfriend Xiao Qi's love song. They'd fallen for each other the night he sang it at karaoke.
But Chu Zhi suggested a change. "Write a new song called The Most Romantic Thing. Teach it to him, let him sing it live when he proposes."
He also planned to prep a VCR montage showing the fan's learning process with him, which would be revealed during the proposal. That way, the spotlight stayed fully on the fan, not the idol.
Why? Because "Like Smoke" didn't really fit a proposal mood, while "The Most Romantic Thing" would show his girlfriend Xiao Qi how much effort he put in.
For the fan, this was a miracle. His idol not only wrote him a custom song but also coached him personally. What kind of god-tier idol was this?!
Now, let's look at the fan himself.
Little Bunny's real name was Shen Hailian. He was 27, with one small flaw, standing just under 1.7 meters tall. But his skills and personality more than made up for it.
His girlfriend Xiao Qi loved champagne roses, whose flower language was, "Falling in love with you is the greatest happiness of my life." So he'd chosen 99 champagne roses for the proposal. But he suddenly worried it'd look odd without any red roses, so he called the florist to adjust.
With that settled, he practiced the lyrics.
🎵"The most romantic thing I can think of, is growing old with you slowly. Collecting every laugh along the way, saving them to share in rocking chairs later..."🎵
By 11 p.m., Shen Hailian connected with Chu Zhi on video call for another singing lesson. After two or three sessions, he felt almost ready.
He sang through once, finding his rhythm, confidence rising.
Most of the video lessons happened after eleven at night, and Shen Hailian gladly adjusted his schedule to match Chu Zhi's.
Bad news: Shen Hailian was a little tone-deaf.Good news: The Most Romantic Thing wasn't hard.Bad news: Progress over video calls was slow.Good news: They had enough time.
"Class ends here today," Chu Zhi stretched lazily, then opened the news on his phone.
He hadn't expected Cup of Life to blow up like this. As he scrolled, even he was surprised.
Spanish is the world's second most spoken language by native speakers, right after Chinese, concentrated in Spain and Latin America. Even Spain itself hadn't imagined Chu Zhi would perform the new opening song in Spanish. His pronunciation was a little off, sure, but the performance overall was solid, especially with how authentic the melody and arrangement felt.
Of course, the pronunciation issue was inevitable. Right now, the system had given him English, Japanese, French, and Russian as his "drawn" languages. Korean he'd picked up little by little from performing songs, but for Spanish he only had one song to lean on. There wasn't enough "experience stacking" to perfect it.
Globally, the performance was dazzling. But in Spain specifically, it hooked a wave of fans.
His earlier album The One Gazed Upon by Gods had sold just 19,000 copies there, maybe 20,000 total. Against a population of over forty million, that was practically nothing.
Then Cup of Life hit, and suddenly the album sold out in Spain (not that stock had been huge to begin with). Online orders flooded in, sales climbing by 37,000 more copies. More money, more influence.
"Chu Zhi's Spanish needs work, but his grasp of Latin music is spot on. I've been Spanish for 19 years, and I respect him."
"I've been Spanish for 26 years, and I swear this is the best Spanish song I've heard all year."
"For other opening ceremony performances, I could've gone to the bathroom, maybe smoked a cigarette. But the moment Chu Zhi stepped on stage, I couldn't look away."
"One song, and I became his fan."
Worldwide sales of The One Gazed at by Gods climbed to around 200,000, but Spain was the biggest spike.
Since Spain came up, let's talk about a funny story from Qatar. Holman and Leighton, good friends, happened to be booked on the same show. Naturally, they arranged to grab dinner together.
That night, both of them stood each other up. But since they both flaked, technically nobody had broken the promise.
Holman had been pulled into a royal banquet, while Leighton took four teammates out, trying to mediate rising conflicts in the group. He wanted to smooth things over before the band fractured.
The outcome? Madden and Dimitro got into a fistfight anyway.
The next night, with the World Cup still running, both men stuck around Lusail. Each turned up an hour late, finally meeting at an Italian restaurant.
"Fuck, the cabbie screwed me over. Kept driving in circles, that's why I'm this late." Holman greeted him with a curse.
"I ordered you a ham-and-cheese steak. Just make do," Leighton shrugged. He'd only just arrived himself.
The restaurant was packed thanks to the Cup, so the food came slow. Holman cursed at first, then quieted down once the steak turned out tasty.
"Tell me something, Leighton. Is my singing really that bad?" Holman asked suddenly.
"What?" Leighton blinked, not following.
"Friend, how much do you love that Chinese singer Chu Zhi's songs? At Wacken Open Air, at the World Cup opening ceremony, you kept hyping him up. Damn it, you've never hyped me like that!" Holman's voice rose.
"Keep it down, keep it down," Reton hissed, seeing people turn to stare. Earlier swearing had been low-key, but now all eyes were on them like knives. Stars had to watch their image.
When Holman finally lowered his volume, Leighton muttered, "It wasn't admiration. I was just using reverse praise, trying to backhand him. That's why I kept recommending him."
"Liar. You're lying," Holman shot back. "The first time at WOA, fine, maybe I believed you. But you saw his talent there, standing out even against Phoenix, Freezer, and all the other bands. And his World Cup performance? No way that was backhanded. Nobody's stupid enough to try the same failed trick twice knowing it won't work. Not even some shit-for-brains idiot.
Oh no, friend, this insults your own IQ. And don't tell me you dragged your bandmate Madden in just to 'reverse hype' that Chinese singer too? Fuck, now you're telling me it was all fake?" Holman's rap roots showed as words flew out like a machine gun.
Leighton's face went from sunny to stormy in seconds. After a long breath, he admitted, "Fine, you caught me. I really do like Chu Zhi's music. That's why I recommend him in public."
"Doesn't my music deserve recommending too?!" Holman glared, then his eyes widened. "Goddamn it, don't tell me you're gonna recommend him at your February concert too!"
"…"
Shit, this conversation was exhausting. Leighton didn't even know how to respond.
While Leighton was at a loss for words, Chu Zhi himself was simply drained. It was that kind of tired where you come home after work and don't even want to talk.
The next stretch of days was exactly as Chu Zhi expected, too busy to even think about recording. The Emperor Beast could only use off-hours to lock down the English album's theme.
[Working Title: All Nations
Theme: Blending the styles of many countries.
Examples: Russia's Moscow Nights, France's Champs-Élysées, Argentina's Don't Cry for Me Argentina, America's endless catalog (he planned to pick something from MJ). For China, he was still thinking.
If the first English album exploded, then the second had to go even further and crown him a god of music.]
Seal the gods, huh? Well, better not get ahead of himself. As the saying goes, two pies don't fall from the sky at once, because you can't eat them both.
The opening ceremony had been a gift pack. Spain's team, on the other hand, crashed out in the round of sixteen. Brazil won again, lifting the Cup for the sixth time.
By December 25th, Christmas was here. Stores put up festive decorations early. Some just shoved a plastic tree at the door, hung cheap bells inside, maybe handed out Santa hats for the staff to wear.
Meanwhile, the young couple Xiao Qi and Shen Hailian were on a Christmas trip to Lucheng…
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最浪漫的事 (Zuì Làngmàn de Shì / The Most Romantic Thing) – Original by Zhao Yonghua.
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Hi everyone! Just a quick announcement: I've hit the 20-novel limit on my Webnovel account, so I won't be able to upload any new projects here for now. To keep sharing my translations with everyone, I've decided to migrate my new uploads to AO3!
For my completed novels, I'll also be making them available in .epub format on Google Drive or TeraBox, so you can read them offline whenever you want. I'll put the links in the comment section. If you're reading on the app, it can be tricky to copy or open links there. In that case, please use your browser to access the web version at https://www.webnovel.com and, if needed, switch to desktop mode in your browser settings to copy/paste or access the links properly.
I've already started a new project there: "My VR Games Terrify the World"—I hope you'll enjoy it! Don't worry—all ongoing/serializing projects on Webnovel will continue here. I won't be abandoning anything you're currently following!
For extra safety, I'm also putting my translations on Royal Road (username: Reiya_Alberich) so they're accessible in multiple places.
If you'd like to follow my AO3 account, my pseud is Rikhi and you can find my profile here:https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rikhi/pseuds/Rikhi
Thanks so much for your support, and I hope you'll continue to enjoy all the translations—both old and new—no matter the platform! (๑˃̵ᴗ˂̵)و
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Meng Shu never expected to wake up in a parallel world where VR technology is everywhere, but horror games are painfully primitive. His saving grace? A game development system that's incredibly easy to use, with a unique currency: player fear.
Every scream, every jolt, every moment of pure dread his players experience fuels his progress. With this terror tax, he can unlock the blueprints for every classic horror game from his past world. While everyone else ignores the genre, Meng Shu sees a golden opportunity.
He begins to unleash a series of VR horror experiences that leave players traumatized. Outlast has them pleading for mercy. Visage keeps them perpetually on edge, jumping at the slightest sound. SOMA plunges them into deep existential dread, and Alien: Isolation teaches them the true meaning of helpless fear.
From Silent Hill to Resident Evil and Five Nights at Freddy's, Meng Shu's growing library of nightmares has one simple goal: to become the undisputed master of fear and make the entire gaming world scream.