Chapter 55: This One's Free, Next Time I'll Judge Your Performance

Zhou Le had only prepared a fifteen-minute routine. After all, this was at a restaurant, and the waitstaff knew who was inside.

Although out of professional ethics they wouldn't go around spreading rumors, staying in the room for this long was clearly suspicious. Even if it was just a massage, it wouldn't look good if someone saw them.

However, the essence of tendon-stretching lay in that final move.

Zhou Le kept pulling along the bladder meridian, bringing a sense of soreness, and moved all the way down. Finally, pressing down on the tailbone, he suddenly pushed!

Meng Ziyi didn't even have time to indicate that Zhou Le had already touched some sensitive areas before she suddenly heard a "crack" come from her body.

A wave of exhilaration shot straight to the top of her head!

In the past, she would sneer at such claims. Even when other artists in the industry had mentioned it, she only thought their descriptions carried heavily subjective personal feelings.

Yet this time, she finally understood what it meant to have one's entire body instantly cleared and refreshed!

"Ah~"

Meng Ziyi let out a startled gasp.

When she looked up again, she saw that Zhou Le had already started moving his limbs.

"Your body is still too thin, but there's no help for it. After all, that's just how female artists are."

Meng Ziyi lay prone on the stool, not getting up for a long time.

"Alright, it's over."

"That's it?"

"Yeah, fifteen minutes. Or did you want to extend the session? But the main issue is that the venue isn't convenient. If you want to experience a longer session next time, we can book another place. Consider this one a free courtesy, and next time..."

"Next time I'll pay!" Meng Ziyi said proactively and sensibly.

Yet Zhou Le shook his head: "I'm not short on money. A few thousand bucks is enough for a decent place outside."

"Then I'll treat you to a meal!"

"Eating is fine, but don't try to fob me off with a bowl of Zhajiang noodles."

"Definitely not. But is eating all you want to do?"

"Almost, but we'll talk about whatever comes up when the time comes."

Afterward, Meng Ziyi swiped her card to pay the bill, and Zhou Le went outside, hailed a taxi, and headed home.

Zhou Le liked giving girls massages not because girls smelled nice, were soft, looked good, and felt comfortable to the touch, but mainly because most girls couldn't take heavy pressure and had smaller frames, making it much less physically demanding to massage them.

Grown men were rough and rugged, feeling like they were carved out of marble—massaging them was both exhausting and time-consuming.

...

The next day, Li Ronghao's side made contact.

Zhou Le followed him to a professional recording studio.

These were things Zhou Le had only ever seen on television.

You know, a singer singing inside a room while a professional instructor sat outside through a glass partition.

"Brother Hao, a session here must cost a pretty penny, right?" Zhou Le asked.

Li Ronghao smiled casually: "It's nothing, doesn't cost that much. We're just using their place to record, and I'll mix it for you later."

"Alright then. But I brought you a gift."

As he spoke, Zhou Le took out a small plush puppy.

When Li Ronghao saw it, he laughed out loud: "Where on earth did you find this?"

Zhou Le looked at the plush puppy in his hand: "I had it custom-made. I happened to see it looked just like you back then, so I had one made."

"Haha, so thoughtful! I love it."

After greeting the people there, the two of them began recording the song.

It was precisely at this moment that Zhou Le realized singing in a KTV and recording a song in a recording studio were two completely different concepts.

Even if one understood music theory and tried their best to keep the vocals from going out of tune, there were still all sorts of elements like emotion and feeling that needed to be woven in.

At first, Zhou Le planned to nail it in one take, but as he sang, it turned into recording section by section, then sentence by sentence, and finally Li Ronghao had him record it word by word.

Zhou Le: "..."

"Brother, I don't think this is going to work. Even if I record it word by word, won't your post-production workload be explosive?"

Li Ronghao sighed: "There's no other way."

Zhou Le thought for a moment: "How about this, Brother Hao? Can you give me a minute or two to decompress and find the right feel?"

Although Li Ronghao was also mentally exhausted, this was his only task for the day. Besides, since it was his song, naturally he wanted to do a good job.

Wearing headphones, Zhou Le stood in front of the microphone and began muttering to himself.

He didn't even know what he was muttering about.

After just a few seconds like this, Zhou Le instantly slipped into the zone.

Then he flashed an OK hand sign.

Zhou Le had activated the Deity Possession skill.

This time, the entity he invoked was Li Ronghao himself.

In that instant, boundless regret and helplessness surged into his heart, his mind filled entirely with sorrow.

Although what Li Ronghao had described earlier differed slightly from the version he had in mind, the Li Ronghao whom Zhou Le summoned was simply the one who had written this song, not the Li Ronghao who had broken up back then.

After that, it took merely two takes to finish the recording.

Li Ronghao was utterly astounded.

"No, Le'er, did you possess a deity or were you just messing with me earlier? You're this good at singing?"

Zhou Le: "???"

The seer got executed!

Even if the other party had guessed correctly, Zhou Le could never admit to it.

"Nah, I just found the groove. The emotions suddenly welled up just now."

"Not bad, not bad, pretty damn awesome! You've already got my vibe. But we're pretty much done recording for today. Keep this emotional state, and when you go sing the insert songs for Han Shao and the others later, it'll be a breeze."

"Thanks, Brother Hao."

That evening, Zhou Le treated him to another meal.

After returning home, Su Yingxia also sent over Zhou Le's schedule arrangements for the rest of the year.

June to September: Filming *Dying to Survive*.

During the past period, due to censorship and market considerations, Xu Zheng and the others had changed the movie's title.

Moreover, amidst all this, Zhou Le still had to go complete the dubbing and recording of the insert songs for *Duckweed*.

However, in July, following the release of *Wolf Warrior 2*, Zhou Le would also have to go along to help promote it.

In September, he had to coordinate with *Look Up and See Joy* (The Sewing Machine Band) for pre-release promotions, carrying out preview screenings and roadshow events across the country.

At the same time, he needed to participate in a variety show, *Go Fighting!*.

Because Da Peng himself had to attend another show, *The Masked Singer*, and didn't have time to come here, he had fought for Zhou Le and squeezed him in.

In October, following the release of *Look Up and See Joy*, he would also need to cooperate with some interviews.

In late October, participating as the lead actor, he would begin filming the company's proprietary television drama *Like a Flowing River*, with filming expected to last about half a year.

However, Daylight Entertainment had previously promised Zhou Le a variety show.

Now, that variety show had also been finalized.

It was called *National Treasure*.

This variety show was also slated to be recorded around October.

As soon as Zhou Le heard about it, he felt this show must be quite high-end. So, by the next morning, he had Su Yingxia ask for more details.

"This is a CCTV variety show. It's rumored to have a very high production budget. Although it's filmed indoors, both the content and the stage design are executed with immense care. The specific format combines documentaries and variety shows, focusing primarily on museum national treasures."

"This is great!"

Hearing this, Zhou Le felt that he had truly struck gold this time.

No matter how other television stations produced variety shows, they could never possibly surpass CCTV's year-end blockbuster.