Chapter 164: Divided in Two

At this, Lu Kai looked over at Zhang Qiyang and said sincerely, "Ever since I met you, Master Pao, I've felt that your sprinting talent surpasses every single athlete currently on the national track team. Perhaps you are the only one who can truly put Sanduzhu that arrogant piece of work in his place!"

Peng Liang chimed in indignantly, "Master Pao, if you're as talented as Brother Kai says, you really need to go to the track and teach that jerk a lesson! Have you ever seen anyone so infuriating?"

Fatty and the others echoed the sentiment, believing that Zhang Qiyang should step up for the track and field team and for the dignity of the Chinese people on the athletic stage!

However, Zhang Qiyang had long since passed the age of being a hot-headed youth.

Yet, as a man, a fire was burning inside him.

The stunt Sanduzhu pulled was indeed going way too far.

As a Japanese athlete, instead of keeping a low profile upon coming to China, he actually dared to pull such a stunt on Chinese soil. This was beyond ordinary brainless behavior!

It was like having your most despised neighbor run into your living room to take a dump and then demanding that you smell how bad it was—who the hell could tolerate that?!

Even someone as refined and scholarly as Luo Zhi Kang would have had to throw punches by now!

Imagining a half-breed Japanese punk making a throat-slitting gesture at him in his mind, Zhang Qiyang felt a small flame of anger ignite.

Still, diving into track and field required careful deliberation.

During dinner that day, Zhang Qiyang had Lu Kai write down Qin Xueyang's contact information, planning to have him reach out to Qin in a few days when things settled down. They could arrange a meal or tea to discuss the matter further.

Seeing that Zhang Qiyang was interested in continuing the conversation, Lu Kai was overjoyed!

He figured that on Friday night, he would go straight to find Lin Chong, watch this episode of *Infinite Challenge* together, chat with Lin Chong about it afterwards, and then bring Lin Chong along to meet Zhang Qiyang. That would show true sincerity.

At 3:00 PM that afternoon.

Once the artists and crew had rested, the two teams resumed the second half of the competition.

By now, the Infinite Team had shifted from a posture of dominance to that of challengers, determined to win at least one round from the guest team.

Even if just to save face, they couldn't possibly let the guest team sweep them seven to zero, could they?

Alas, things turned out contrary to wishes. With Master Pao reigning supreme like a descending deity, they said they would win from start to finish, and indeed, they won from start to finish!

At 8:30 PM, after the final brutal battle between the two sides, the Infinite Team was left utterly demoralized, shut out seven to zero by the guest team!

In the final events, Wang Dawei and Xu Xian completely stopped holding back. They wanted to save face too! They didn't want to end up with a complete shutout either! In the end, they gave it their absolute all in every single event.

However, driven by Zhang Qiyang's overpowering momentum, the guest team had become an unstoppable force.

In the end, as the host team watched victory slip through their fingers time and time again, they had no choice but to accept the cruel reality of being utterly crushed.

Despite the brutal outcome, experiencing Zhang Qiyang's god-like performances repeatedly and hearing him joyfully belt out victory anthems round after round made the defeat quite pleasant for the Infinite Team's hosts, as they were utterly convinced and convinced of his prowess.

The crew members felt fortunate and honored to have participated in such a magical recording session!

At the start of the program's recording today, Xiao Qiang and Shen Yulin had both a strong intuition that they were about to hook a massive fish.

Yet the result far exceeded their expectations—they hadn't just hooked a big fish, they had reeled in an entire whale!

Xiao Qiang would bet with anyone that if this episode failed to cause a sensation, he would walk upside down whenever he went out!

In an extremely pumped-up state, Xiao Qiang personally led the post-production team to work through the night on the rough cut of the episode.

Knowing the tight production schedule, Zhang Qiyang headed straight to EastNet immediately after returning to the city from the Kate Estate that night to record the eight songs he had performed on the show.

With his spirits running high, he recorded both Mandarin and Cantonese versions of *A Man Should Stand Strong*.

That brought the total to nine songs.

Zhang Qiyang instructed EastNet to quickly put together a marketing plan. As soon as the final episode of *Infinite Challenge* aired on Friday, EastNet would release a *Infinite Challenge* music special for sale, offering a discounted bundle for fans who wanted to purchase all nine tracks.

As soon as the tracks were recorded at EastNet, Zhang Qiyang immediately sent them over to Xiao Qiang and his team to facilitate post-production.

The production team never expected Zhang Qiyang to record and send the music over so quickly.

Damn it, this truly was the speed of a genius!

Energized by Master Pao's strong support and encouragement, the post-production team worked through the night to complete the rough cut of the episode.

They made two different versions of the rough cut in one go.

One was a single-episode version, combining all the footage recorded today into a single show—though this wasn't the version they were most satisfied with.

The version they were truly proud of was split into two parts: a first and second half.

Reviewing today's recorded footage, Xiao Qiang, Shen Yulin, and the others unanimously agreed that the recording was simply too wonderful and the content far too rich; there were too many things they couldn't bear to cut.

A single episode's runtime was simply not enough. With this volume of compelling content, two episodes were an absolute necessity.

Fueled by bitter black coffee and countless cigarettes, Xiao Qiang and Shen Yulin didn't close their eyes all night. Early the next morning, they took both rough-cut versions of the season finale to see the head of East Entertainment's Variety Department.

They hoped the Variety Department could negotiate with Shanghai TV to expand the previously allotted one-episode broadcast into two.

They firmly believed that these final two episodes of *Infinite Challenge* would reverse the show's decline and restore dignity to East Entertainment's Variety Department!

Yu Niantian, the head of East Entertainment's Variety Department, personally watched the footage and was blown away on the spot!

Drawing on his twenty-plus years of experience in the variety show industry, he had never seen such a spectacular and exaggerated variety program!

Not long after watching the footage, Yu Niantian called the leadership at Shanghai TV to put forward East Entertainment's reasonable request.

At 2:00 PM, several persons in charge of the *Infinite Challenge* project at Shanghai TV held a joint meeting to watch the rough cuts of the final two episodes.

The shock they felt after watching it matched Yu Niantian's reaction precisely!

They had long known that the *Infinite Challenge* production team had invited Zhang Qiyang for the finale, and that heavyweight stars like Li Xuan would be anchoring the episode.

It was precisely because of the appearance of these focal celebrities that Shanghai TV had given *Infinite Challenge* this one final chance to broadcast, otherwise the show would have been axed last week.

Shanghai TV had simply hoped these big stars could help squeeze out the very last bit of value from the program, but who could have imagined they would shoot such a magnificent season finale!

Judging by the topicality and attention the finale was expected to generate, Shanghai TV could accept making it not just two episodes, but even three!

Just from watching the rough cut, they dared to puff out their chests and boldly predict that this finale would undoubtedly be a hit program with ratings expected to break 3 or even 4!

It might even instantly jump from the bottom of the ratings to become the ratings champion for the Friday variety slot!