I Became the Top Competitor in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 52.1

The staff watched Song Jiaqi’s departing figure with mixed feelings.

“Stay within your bubble, be careful and vigilant!” the two staff members warned each other not to flaunt their fandom in front of the actual people involved.

“True, but I’m an all-ships fan! Not just Jiaqi Ru Meng (Jiaqi is like a dream), I ship any pairing! Actually, Si Meng Fei Meng (Like a dream, not a dream) is also pretty good—the Double Dream Group, Chi Meng and Meng Yao~ Both their names have the character ‘Meng’ (Dream), and isn’t it cute that the slightly older one is willing to call the younger one ‘Older Sister’?”

The staff member next to her: The smile slowly fades.jpg

“No! Su Mengyao calls everyone ‘Older Sister’!” she stated firmly, looking at her colleague with a look of reproach and chastising, “Si Meng Fei Meng is just wishful thinking! Dreams are all fake, only Jiaqi Ru Meng is real! You need to wake up!”

Her colleague: …

Calm down, you overly invested fan! Everything is fake, everything is an illusion!

The colleague, who had sobered up, raised her hand and tapped her forehead with the clipboard. Thinking of the fox and the rabbit from earlier, she suddenly sighed.

“But they feel so real… boohoo.”

The colleague reached out, hugged her, and patted her head, feeling melancholy: “I get it!”

A passing colleague stared at the two people hugging, their expression strange and eyes filled with suspicion.

The two of them: …

“Ahem.” They naturally lowered their hands and pretended to be busy with work.

Chi Meng, who had returned to her room with the fox plushie, was met with curious stares from the other four trainees. She didn’t explain much, using the plushie as a pillow and her coat as a blanket, focusing on sleeping until Ning Yuze woke her up. Chi Meng followed the team out of the song selection hall. The passage and wall that had previously separated the two sides had been removed at some point, and the whole hall instantly became spacious. Thirteen teams were standing in front of their respective chosen songs.

Chi Meng glanced around and noticed that the teams varied in size; the largest had nine people, and the smallest, like theirs, only had five. To prevent prior collusion, the song titles had not been announced before the blind selection. The result of the blind selection was that trainees from the same company, even with similar styles, were scattered, having chosen different songs.

Among the trainees with relatively high rankings, she and Ning Yuze were in “Chapter”, Shen Zhu and Lin Yuxin were in “Little”, Yuan Yixin and An Kui in “Chasing the Wind” and the “Growing Up” rooms. Su Mengyao, Lin Tingxia, Dobi, Luo Guo, Yun Guo… seven girls with sweet styles gathered together. “Critic” had Jiao Xiaowei (rank 15) and Xinghuo’s Su Shao (rank 20). Compared to the other groups, this team was a vocal group with a slightly lower overall ranking, but since this PK was an intra-group PK, these two looked very cheerful.

In the dance group, which was also the singing and dancing group, “Worth It” had An Ran, Song Jiaqi, Hua Xiaowei (Chi Meng’s teammate from the previous stage), Chu Ziyue, Jiaxinbing Jian Zi, and Lin Xueyang.

“Strange Beauty” had the high-ranking trainees Liu Yuexin, Zhou Siyang, and Jin Jingqian along with four other trainees. “Multidimensional”‘s highest-ranking trainee was Jiang Yingyue. “Willing” had Qi Yan. “Multidimensional” and “Willing” were the largest teams in the venue, each with nine people, meaning the person with the highest intra-team vote could get 90,000 votes! The highest-ranking trainee in “Move Moon” was Jiang Jiameng, who was 37th.

Many trainees in the singing and dancing group cast envious glances at the “Move Moon” team.

In the rap group, the “Must Do, Must Err” room had Xinghuo’s Xue Weiran, Xinghuo’s Yuan Sike, Renxing’s Song Yingjun, Challenge Music’s Sun Weiwei, and Qingniao Menghe’s Rong Qian. The highest-ranking trainee in the “Go Away” team was Su Yijia (current rank 18), followed by Ge Jianing (rank 40). The highest-ranking trainee in the “Legend” team was Tong Siyu from Vision Culture (current rank 33). Ning Yuze sighed with relief at her choice and smiled.

Trainees from Xinghuo Entertainment and other teams looked at Xue Weiran at the front of “Must Do, Must Err” in shock, wondering if their eyes were deceiving them—Xue Weiran was going to rap?

Xue Weiran calmly accepted the gazes from all directions, her expression composed, looking like a decision made after serious consideration, not one made in a daze. Shen Zhu’s furrowed brow slowly relaxed, and she calmly looked ahead.

“Must Do, Must Err” instantly became the most anticipated stage of the rap group.

In this song selection, the order of choosing was determined by ranking, but everything else was luck. Now was the moment of revelation—some were happy, some were worried.

Xie Tongyue, who had been hosting all night, was still radiant after a makeup touch-up. She smiled and said to everyone, “The song selection for the second public performance is officially over. Please go back and train hard. We’ll see you on stage!”

“Yes!”

Xie Tongyue put down the microphone after finishing her hosting duties and was quickly escorted away by staff. The late-night recording today was because she had other engagements during the day and now needed to rush to her next announcement. The trainees, on the other hand, had to return to the camp. Their luggage was on the bus, and they were leaving immediately.

The nanny vans that brought the trainees were parked outside the parking lot. Most company managers had already left, but a few who had been waiting in their cars took the opportunity to speak to the trainees as they boarded.

Meng Limin was there too. The Renxing trainees surrounded her. After reporting their rankings, Meng Limin’s expression eased, and she couldn’t suppress a smile. She said, “Good, go back and work hard. If you need anything, just say so, and I’ll have someone send it over.”

The trainees were reserved in front of Meng Limin. Shen Zhu saw that Meng Limin had something to say to Song Jiaqi and led the others to the bus first. Meng Limin chuckled, patted Song Jiaqi’s arm, and said with gratification, “You’re a natural for this industry. Even with less camera time, your popularity is unstoppable!”

“Yeah.” Song Jiaqi was holding a rabbit plushie in her hand and looked at the girl standing next to her talking to Su Mengyao. She casually said, “I have an idea… just do normal publicity on your end.”

Meng Limin paused and asked, “What do you mean by normal publicity…”

Song Jiaqi pursed her lips and whispered, “The same as Shen Zhu and the others, normal.”

Meng Limin understood and laughed heartily, glancing sideways at Song Jiaqi. You were playing at being dispirited before entering the camp, and now that you’ve gotten 11th place in the voting, you’re happy and feeling competitive again? After managing Song Jiaqi for these past few years, how could she not know the arrogance hidden deep within Song Jiaqi’s bones!

“I’m leaving.” Song Jiaqi didn’t want to be scrutinized with that kind of look. Feeling a bit embarrassed, she urged Meng Limin to go back soon and walked off to find Chi Meng.

Chi Meng asked Su Mengyao about breaking down emotionally during the recording. Su Mengyao’s expression was a little dim, and her voice was low as she said, “I… I have to debut.”

“Something happened at home, so…” Su Mengyao took a deep breath, her eyes turning red again. With a crying voice, she said, “I must debut and become a big star.”

Chi Meng was puzzled and asked carefully, “Is it about money?”

Su Mengyao nodded, then shook her head.

At this moment, Song Jiaqi walked up and stood behind Chi Meng. The two of them watched the tearful Su Mengyao together. The grieving Su Mengyao was speaking incoherently, and Song Jiaqi frowned with a hint of annoyance.

Chi Meng took out a tissue from her pocket to wipe Su Mengyao’s tears and gently said, “If you’re short on money, I have some here to lend you as an emergency. You can pay me back after you debut and become a big star and earn money.”

Unexpectedly, when Su Mengyao heard Chi Meng say this, she cried even harder.

“Thank you, but… I need a lot, a lot of money,” Su Mengyao cried until her face was red and said sadly, “I have to buy back my grandpa’s kindergarten, and I have to pay back the money.”

Chi Meng and Song Jiaqi tilted their heads simultaneously, question marks floating above them.

“Did your grandpa have a health issue?” Chi Meng asked softly.

Su Mengyao shook her head and whispered, “It’s my grandma.”

Song Jiaqi felt frustrated by the unclear explanation. She reached out, grabbed Su Mengyao by the clothes, and dragged her forward impatiently, “Get on the bus first.”

“Ah!”

Su Mengyao’s eyes widened, and her hands flailed in the air, pleading with Chi Meng for help. Chi Meng quickly caught up to support Su Mengyao. It was then that she saw the rabbit plushie clutched in Song Jiaqi’s other hand.

Hmm? Chi Meng looked down at the fox in her own hand.

The three of them boarded the bus and took the last row of seats. Su Mengyao sat on the innermost seat, and Chi Meng was in the middle. After the “joy” of being dragged, Su Mengyao’s tears had turned into sweat from her struggle, and she couldn’t cry anymore, only whimpering in distress.

But she finally managed to explain the situation clearly.

Su Mengyao’s parents divorced when she was little, and she was assigned to her mother. After her mother remarried, she lived with her grandparents. The two elders started running a kindergarten when Su Mengyao was little, and it had been sixteen years now. However, not long ago, Su Mengyao’s grandmother was diagnosed with a serious illness that drained all the elders’ savings. The illness wasn’t fatal but required medication to maintain, making it a bottomless pit. Just as the family, consisting of an elderly couple and a young girl, was desperate and about to sell the kindergarten, Su Mengyao’s father suddenly appeared. He suggested Su Mengyao’s grandfather use the kindergarten as collateral to borrow 200,000 yuan, telling them they just had to repay it in a year with no interest.

Her grandfather was planning to sell an old house in his hometown to treat her grandmother, so he accepted the kindness. However, when Su Mengyao went back during this break, her father suddenly brought a few people, claiming to be from Xunming Entertainment Agency, and demanded to sign a contract with Su Mengyao. If Su Mengyao didn’t sign, they would demand immediate repayment. Su Mengyao’s grandfather took out the IOU and found that the one-year term had somehow been changed to one month. If the money wasn’t repaid in a month, the kindergarten would be transferred to him. It was all a deliberate scheme! Su Mengyao’s grandfather immediately wanted to call the police, but her father had only transferred them 50,000 yuan, citing that he wasn’t financially flexible at the time. Now, her grandmother was still lying in a hospital bed, and these people were now at the kindergarten creating a scene, yelling at Su Mengyao’s grandfather to pay back the money…

Chi Meng looked at the crestfallen Su Mengyao and couldn’t help but gently pat her head.

What kind of situation is this!

019 quietly came online and said, “In many storylines, the protagonists have a difficult life experience.”

Chi Meng thought that this wasn’t a difficult life experience; this was malicious intent!

Song Jiaqi asked suspiciously, “Are they doing all this just to get you to sign a contract?”

“And to take my grandpa’s kindergarten,” Su Mengyao whispered. “I heard from a neighbor that the area might be scheduled for demolition soon. My grandpa actually wanted to sell the kindergarten, but they intentionally came to cause trouble and even went to the hospital to make a scene…”

Su Mengyao clenched her fists, her eyes tearing up with anger. She had only realized on this trip back that the promotional page for Star Ascent was brought back by that father of hers; her grandfather hadn’t wanted her to participate in the show at all. She had originally wanted to join the show, debut, and earn money to treat her grandmother. Now, if she signed the contract, all the money she earned would go to them. Everything had been calculated by her father!

Chi Meng frowned.

“The contract—you haven’t signed it, have you?” Song Jiaqi asked again.

Su Mengyao whispered, “Not yet. Grandpa wouldn’t let me sign, and he let me run out when they weren’t paying attention.”

“At least you have some sense,” Song Jiaqi muttered. A flash of insight struck her. She recalled a piece of news about Su Mengyao before her rebirth: not long after she became famous, an agency suddenly sued her, claiming that Su Mengyao had already signed with their company and that they were entitled to her profit share.

Later, it was revealed that the contract was for thirty years, and the profit split meant Su Mengyao would practically be working for free, but she really had signed it. The lawsuit dragged on for a long time.

Could it be… that contract is the one now? Song Jiaqi thought, resting her chin in her hand.

“So, they’re pressuring you to sign by chance, but they truly want your grandpa’s kindergarten?” Chi Meng said. “What about your mother?”

Mentioning her mother, Su Mengyao’s expression dimmed. She whispered, “Mom stopped caring about us a long time ago. I remember Mom used to be a small-time singer, and that father of mine was a manager.”

Chi Meng understood. This father wanted to gain her grandfather’s kindergarten for 50,000 yuan and also take the opportunity to control Su Mengyao’s life. Su Mengyao was pretty, and the money she earned from debuting on the show would be his. If she didn’t earn money, he didn’t care anyway, since he hadn’t spent a single penny. All things considered, he wasn’t losing anything.

“Biological father,” Chi Meng sighed.

Song Jiaqi sneered, “Biological father.”

Su Mengyao lowered her head, wiping her tears.

The sky outside the window was already bright. The trainees on the bus were all asleep in the gently swaying vehicle. Only the three people in the corner were speaking softly.

“He only lent you fifty thousand. When we get back to the camp, tell the production team, and I’ll go back home with you to give the money back to your father,” Chi Meng said, patting Su Mengyao’s shoulder. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll call the police. I have some money here for your grandma’s medical expenses for the time being. Your grandpa should just stay at the hospital during this period.”

Su Mengyao suddenly looked up, her eyes wide as if seeing a divine being descend. She stared blankly at Chi Meng, her lips trembling. But then she suddenly remembered what she had heard about Chi Meng from others and stammered, “But, but you earn your money so hard

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