I Became the Top Competitor in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 51.1

Su Mengyao’s hands hung down by her sides, clenched into fists, as she walked with a taut expression into the song selection area. The quiet space magnified the emotions in her heart. She bit her lip, her fingers gripping her skirt, and nervously looked at the five vocal tracks available.

As a B-class trainee, she only had audition access to three songs.

Which song will Sister Meng Meng choose? Su Mengyao wondered. What she had just said to Lin Tingxia wasn’t a lie; she genuinely wanted to be paired with Chi Meng and train with her.

Chi Meng, the subject of Su Mengyao’s thoughts, was sitting against the wall chatting with 019.

“It’s Mengyao’s turn to choose a song. Her condition isn’t right. The last time I saw her cry this badly was after the first public performance—she kept hugging people and crying when the ten teams left the stage,” Chi Meng said. “But even then, she didn’t seem this distressed. Did something happen?”

019, unaware of the female lead’s storyline, shamefully set off a tearful firework. Chi Meng planned to find Su Mengyao immediately after the recording ended, bringing Song Jiaqi along to help if she could. After a while, the sound of a door opening was heard, and the trainees scattered in the cubicles heard Su Mengyao’s sorrowful sigh.

The room labeled with the song title “Growing Up” was empty. Su Mengyao was the first. She sighed softly. The song was bright, lively, and cute. Although Su Mengyao wanted to be on the same team as Chi Meng, she knew that instead of gambling on other songs, it was better to solidly choose one that matched her personality.

However, the empty space she found after pushing open the door still made her sigh with disappointment.

Fortunately, the door soon opened again, and Lin Tingxia walked in. Su Mengyao’s deflated curly hair instantly perked up, and she high-fived Lin Tingxia in surprise.

Su Mengyao was ranked 12th in the first round of voting, and Lin Tingxia was 13th. After them, Du Bi, who was ranked 14th and a trainee from Lehaian, also walked in. Du Bi had real skill, which reassured Su Mengyao, and a happy smile broke out on her face, which was incapable of hiding her emotions.

The initially spacious room quickly became lively as three people entered in succession after Su Mengyao made her choice.

In the waiting lounge, Xie Tongyue said warmly, “Please, trainee Yuan Sike, rank 16, enter the song selection area.”

Yuan Sike greeted the trainees around her and walked into the corridor. Her position in the group was rapper. Upon entering the selection area, she first looked at the three rap songs, clicked on the tablet to view the choreography for each, and then opened the middle door.

Inside, a girl she knew all too well was leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, seemingly striking a pose. When Yuan Sike pushed the door open, she blew her fringe away. Her purple hair fluttered up and then down, and her beautiful eyes were full of smiles.

“Hey, you came?”

Yuan Sike: ???

Her eyes widened instantly. She took half a step back and looked up at the song title hanging on the door.

“To Do, To Err”

No mistake there!

Rap!

Yuan Sike’s pupils shook. She walked over, pointing at Xue Weiran, who was posing, and exclaimed in shock, “Who are you?!”

“Are you crazy??”

Xue Weiran laughed, scratched her head, and said casually, “I want to try it. You know I can’t hit high notes.”

So you chose rap?

If Yuan Sike hadn’t remembered the cameras, she would have rolled her eyes at Xue Weiran. Fine, fine, you’re trying this because you have high popularity, huh?

Xue Weiran sat down, tossed the half-finished milk up, caught it, tossed it again, and said lazily, “How will I know if I can do it without trying? Oh, right, I not only want to rap, but I also want to snatch the center position. What do you think?”

Yuan Sike thought: I want you to drop dead!

She finally rolled her eyes, and Xue Weiran burst into laughter.

Other trainees, hearing the commotion, pricked up their ears but couldn’t make out what happened because they were too far away. It sounded like a trainee had chosen the same song as Xue Weiran?

What luck…

Everyone shook their heads.

In the “Little” room, Lin Yuxin was silent and shook her own head. Diagonally across from her, Shen Zhu, sitting tucked into the corner of the wall, had her eyes closed and seemed to be asleep.

After Yuan Sike, Yu Jiazi, Su Yijia, An Kui, Su Shao, Hua Xiaowei… one trainee after another walked into the song selection area. Occasional sounds of surprise or alarm could be heard from the selection area, but no one was as “standout” as Ning Yuze had been earlier.

The instigator, Chi Meng, was lying quietly on the floor. She had taken off her jacket, folded it under her head, and used a sleeve to cover her eyes, already sound asleep.

Cameras? What are cameras? Are they important? Is anything more important than sleeping!

Ning Yuze, who was observing, was speechless. He was called out by the staff for a pre-interview. When he returned, Chi Meng was still sleeping, and no more people had joined the room.

Xu Siqi, ranked 23rd, curiously and simply pushed the door open and walked in. When she saw Ning Yuze, she was a little surprised but greeted him with a smile. Chi Meng, woken up by 019, dazedly removed the sleeve and sat up, saying groggily, “Hello.”

Ning Yuze clearly saw the smile on Xu Siqi’s face slowly disappear as Chi Meng sat up.

“Ah…” Xu Siqi’s voice was a little weak, and her smile was forced, “Hello.”

Demon Chi!

Ning Yuze empathetically pulled Xu Siqi to sit down together. Demon Chi’s training schedule was widely circulated in the training camp. This person not only “burned the midnight oil” herself but also pushed her teammates, yet somehow you couldn’t refuse! You just inexplicably got caught up in the rigorous training! From now on, they would all be teammates getting by under the command of Demon Chi, cherishing each other, sharing joys and sorrows!

“Haha.” Xu Siqi laughed, and seeing Chi Meng sleeping haphazardly, she wondered, “Does the demon get sleepy too?”

Ning Yuze understood and said, “Maybe now is just her designated sleep time.”

Nobody expected the production team to film in the middle of the night, right? Based on Chi Meng’s usual sleep schedule, 4 or 5 AM was precisely when the Demon got sleepy!

Xu Siqi nodded. Shoulder-to-shoulder with Ning Yuze, she etched the image of Chi Meng sleeping into her mind—it was so rare!

A little later, Du Yunfei—whose first stage performance of “Lucky Girl” had stunned everyone and who had even faced Chi Meng in a battle—pushed the door open, excitedly shouting “Open Sesame!” Chi Meng was startled awake and immediately sat bolt upright. Du Yunfei’s eyes narrowed, her knees buckled, and she dropped to the floor with a “thud,” kneeling.

“No—”

This theatrical reaction made the trainees in the other rooms extremely curious. Who did Du Yunfei run into?

The now-awake Chi Meng raised her hand and said gently, “My dear minister, rise.”

Du Yunfei’s voice trembled, “Your subject is humbled!”

She hopped and skipped to Chi Meng’s side and presented a bottle of Qingyuan fresh milk. “Your Majesty, please show mercy for the next week!”

Minister Du kneaded His Majesty Chi’s arm, which Xu Siqi angrily denounced as flattery.

“Come, Your Majesty, how can you do a trivial thing like twisting a bottle cap yourself? Let me!” Xu Siqi said.

Chi Meng remained unmoving, “Be my guest.”

“Don’t panic, everyone. I see that the choreography for this song is minimal. It won’t be as tough as before. As long as everyone trains hard, six hours of sleep a day won’t be a problem!” Chi Meng said with a smile.

Du Yunfei’s mouth twitched, and Xu Siqi silently twisted the cap tightly shut and tossed it into Chi Meng’s lap.

Six hours!

They usually slept at least seven hours during training! Plus, they had half an hour’s rest at noon. Six hours? Why don’t you just rob us!

Tyrant!

The country is in peril! The dynasty won’t last!

The two sighed until Ye Qing from Renxing walked into the room, completing their team of five. In the waiting lounge on the other side, Xie Tongyue happily announced that the vocal group for “Chapter” was full. Only then did the remaining trainees learn the name of one of the songs.

It filled up before we even had a chance to choose. Alas!

In contrast to the trainees in the lounge who didn’t get a chance to pick, the “Chapter” team felt a sense of relief. Five people meant that the trainee with the most votes in the public performance would receive a bonus of 50,000 votes. How to get those 50,000 votes would depend on their own ability.

Du Yunfei and the other two trainees glanced at Chi Meng and Ning Yuze. These two bigshots, ranked third and fourth in popularity, looked much calmer than them. Chi Meng even looked like she wanted to go back to sleep. Thinking about these two’s performance on stage, Du Yunfei gave a wry smile and wanted to shout “No!!” again.

After the room was full, Chi Meng was called out by the staff for an interview.

The interview area was in a small room behind the lounge. As she followed the staff out, Chi Meng heard familiar footsteps behind her. She turned around curiously, and someone leaned in close, whispering, “Ooh-wah!”

Chi Meng curved her eyes, raised her hand to cover her chest, and humored her like a child, “Wow!”

“Tsk, boring.” Song Jiaqi hadn’t managed to scare Chi Meng, so she dropped the corners of her mouth in boredom, reverting to her usual indifferent expression. The two walked side-by-side toward the interview area. With staff all around, they couldn’t talk about certain things. When they had to part, Chi Meng patted Song Jiaqi’s arm and said gently, “Do your best.”

Song Jiaqi had never done a pre-interview during the previous filming sessions. Chi Meng suddenly developed a strong interest in this segment, curious about the questions Song Jiaqi would be asked and her answers.

Song Jiaqi hummed a reply in a voice only the two of them could hear, her gaze fixed on Chi Meng’s face, raising an eyebrow.

Worry about yourself.

Chi Meng maintained her smile, and as she turned, she gave Song Jiaqi’s butt a quick pat before swiftly pushing the door open and slipping into the room.

The door closed with a “snap.” Song Jiaqi’s face went dark, and she rubbed her butt in annoyance. The young female staff member next to her was holding a clipboard, covering the lower half of her face, revealing only a pair of bright, sparkling eyes looking at Song Jiaqi.

The surrounding staff members were all laughing. The woman covering her face pushed open the door to the side room, and before Song Jiaqi went in, she smiled and asked, “Did you know that your and Chi Meng’s CP is quite popular online? ‘Jiaqi Ru Meng’ (Jiaqi like a dream), and you even stamped it yourself when you met Chi Meng on the first stage.”

These staff members seemed to spend a lot of time online shipping CPs.

Song Jiaqi: “…”

“I know now,” she said casually, not taking the matter seriously. After all, she had seen and been involved in CP-pairing too many times. Forget two people in the same crew or drama—fans could use their powerful imagination to create sparks between two people who had never even appeared in the same frame. Song Jiaqi had become resigned to it.

She was so calm that the staff member couldn’t tease her and urged her to go in.

The small room was warmly decorated. Pink wallpaper was pasted with the “Star Journey” light-up sign, twinkling colored lights were hung up, and there were fuzzy stuffed animals. A white cutout stood next to the stuffed animals. The area where the trainee sat for the interview was on a beanbag chair next to the cutout, in front of the stuffed animals.

Song Jiaqi settled into the beanbag chair, a slight smile escaping from the corners of her upturned eyes. She reached out and picked up a rabbit doll next to her, hugging it, and curved her lips at the camera.

The cameraman holding the camera couldn’t help but smile at the image on the screen, zooming in and taking many shots of Song Jiaqi.

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