Chapter 142: Shaolin Martial Arts

Returning home late at night, Zhou Miao threw himself aggrievedly into Hu San's arms.
"Babe, someone is smearing me!"
Hu San looked at him with a mix of amusement and exasperation. Ever since they started dating, Zhou Miao had been acting more and more like a child in front of her.
"Who is smearing you again?"
"Zhang Tuo and Tan Yue!" Zhou Miao complained.
"How are they smearing you?" Hu San asked, a bit curious, as those two were deeply respected senior figures in the music industry.
"They sang the dirty words I once said all over again, and even wore my swear-word shirt for their performance!"
Hearing this, Hu San burst into laughter. "Is that even considered smearing you?"
Zhou Miao returned to normal, pinching Hu San's little cheek. "You're still laughing. Do you have any food at home? I'm starving."
Hu San hurriedly heated up some leftovers and served them to him, then sat opposite him, resting her chin on her hands as she watched him eat.
"Oh right, let me tell you, A-Li seems to really dislike that new girl An Qi. Whenever I brought up An Qi in conversation, the look in A-Li's eyes completely changed," Hu San said suddenly with a gossipy expression.
Zhou Miao frowned upon hearing this. Both An Qi and Zhao Li were good-natured people; how could their relationship be bad?
"You must have got it wrong. They're both easy to get along with, they should become good friends."
"I definitely didn't get it wrong. A-Li is just too innocent, whatever is on her mind is written all right across her face. If the two of them get into a physical fight, whose side are you taking?" Hu San asked with a smile.
Zhou Miao rolled his eyes helplessly. "There's no way they're going to fight, okay? No matter what, they're top female celebrities, how could they possibly tear off their public masks and fight?"
"I'm saying *if*, just *if*." Hu San was extremely curious about this.
"Even if they do fight, what does that have to do with me? I'm not anyone special to either of them. The most I'd do is close the door for them so nobody else could see," Zhou Miao said.
"You are so heartless. Isn't A-Li your good friend?"
Zhou Miao pinched her little nose. "Who is the heartless one here? You two are even closer friends, why are you sitting here imagining them fighting?"
Hu San slapped his hand away in embarrassment and annoyance. "I was just joking."
After a moment, Hu San asked, "What is your next round competing with?"
"Kung Fu."
Hearing this, Hu San's eyes instantly lit up. "Isn't that your specialty? What kind of Kung Fu are you planning to write about? Wing Chun? It's quite famous in the south."
After finishing his meal, Zhou Miao wiped his mouth, pulled the endlessly questioning Hu San into his lap, and said with a mischievous grin, "I'm planning to write about a long-lost Shaolin supreme technique."
"Shaolin? Is that from the south? What supreme technique?" Hu San asked like an inquisitive child.
Zhou Miao whispered softly into her ear, "The Grasping~ Dragon Claw Hand!"
As he spoke, he executed this long-lost Shaolin master technique, striking Hu San so severely with just a single move that she was left critically wounded and slumped against him, completely limp.
Seeing this, Zhou Miao grew somewhat concerned. He scooped Hu San up in his arms and rushed back to the bedroom to administer healing treatments.
Before long, the sounds of healing echoed from the room. Zhou Miao exerted all his skills, spending a good fraction of an hour transferring his entire inner Qi directly into Hu San.
Although he managed to cure Hu San, he himself became completely drained and listless from the loss of all his internal energy. Fortunately, it had not damaged his foundation, and a short rest would allow him to recover.
"Abbess, is this move of mine worthy of your discerning eye?"
"Puh! Disgusting!"
After a short while, Hu San slapped him in a mix of shame and annoyance. "What kind of weird antics are you pulling again?"
"This is another Shaolin supreme technique, the Flicking Flower Finger!"
...
On the day the second episode of *Southern Tunes and Northern Melodies* was broadcast, owing to the stellar reputation accumulated from the first season, numerous viewers waited eagerly in front of their screens for the new episode to officially go live.
And this episode did not disappoint the audience. Right from the first segment, *Quarreling*, the entertainment value was maxed out. In particular, the ghostly expression on Zhou Miao's face when he saw Zhang Tuo wearing his cultural t-shirt in the lounge had countless viewers laughing until their stomachs hurt.
Yet that wasn't even the funniest part. When Tan Yue took the stage second, the moment his song title *Zhou Miao, Get Out of the Entertainment Industry* appeared on screen, many viewers—just like Gu Xi—spat their tea all over their screens.
The lyrics of this song were high-energy from start to finish, once again taking everyone on a trip down memory lane to revisit Zhou Miao's sweet-talking mouth that was sweeter than honey.
The director knew what they were doing too. While Tan Yue was singing on stage, the camera kept focusing on Zhou Miao in the lounge.
Seeing his numb expression, the audience laughed so hard they couldn't catch their breath. Was this show actually a comedy variety show?!
Upon seeing this, Hu San doubled over with laughter, cupped Zhou Miao's head, and rubbed it fiercely. "Why are you so adorable?"
Zhou Miao managed to squeeze out a perfunctory smile before his expression went cold again. What on earth was so funny?
Once Zhou Miao finished performing *Embroidery*, the barrage of viewer comments finally began to return to normal.
It was yet another top-tier work by Zhou Miao. Told from the perspective of an embroiderer, it recounted the deep, humanistic ancient charm hidden within the thousands of stitches of embroidery. The lyrics and melody were delicate, gentle, yet poignant and sorrowful.
After listening to the entire song, anyone couldn't help but feel a pang of heartache and sympathy for the embroiderer who waited bitterly for her husband's return. With affection running this deep, what more could one ask for?
Meanwhile, after listening to this song, the hometown municipal committee felt both satisfied and not entirely satisfied.
The song was a great song, but unfortunately, the scope of embroidery was too broad and didn't exclusively refer to Su embroidery alone; all four major styles of embroidery were located in the south.
They even wondered if it would have been better had Zhou Miao changed the song title to *Su Embroidery*. However, they also knew the notification had come too late, and they were already quite satisfied to achieve results like this.
Zhou Miao's performance on *Southern Tunes and Northern Melodies* exceeded the expectations of many netizens. Previously, he had only stood out brilliantly among the younger generation of newcomers.
Yet this time, appearing on a show alongside several heavy-hitting powerhouses of the Mandopop music scene, not only did he hold his ground without losing out, but he actually performed exceptionally well.
His creative capability was thoroughly manifested in this prompt-based composition competition, with many fans even hailing him as the King of Prompt-Based Composition.
This instantly rendered speechless those die-hard nostalgic fans whose favorite talking point used to be that if Zhou Miao had been born twenty years earlier and competed with those legendary masters, he would have been utterly crushed. Zhou Miao used his sheer strength to slap those nostalgic apologists right across the face.
The next day, Zhou Miao arrived at the company. The assistant Gu Zhiyin had found for him had already arrived, and he needed to conduct one final round of interviews.
Walking into the office, Zhou Miao paused momentarily upon seeing the person sitting on the sofa. "Senior sister?"
The senior sister smiled and raised a hand in greeting. "Morning, Boss Zhou."
Zhou Miao hadn't expected Gu Zhiyin to pull in an acquaintance for him. The female assistant sitting on the sofa waiting for the interview was none other than one of the musicians who had once accompanied Zhou Miao on the stage of *The Pinnacle*, known at the Central Academy of Fine Arts as the Violin Queen.
Zhou Miao was somewhat surprised. "Senior sister, how did you end up interviewing to be my assistant?"
Even though the salary Zhou Miao offered assistants wasn't low, a single violin belonging to this senior sister was worth over three hundred thousand. How could she possibly care about this little bit of salary?