I Became the Top Competitor in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 57.1

“Aah! Aah!!”

“Meng Meng!!!”

Chi Meng, in her ending pose, couldn’t hold back her laughter again, and it was all captured on camera. While Xie Tongyue was getting on stage, Chi Meng and the other trainees happily waved to the audience, thanking them for their support.

Xie Tongyue stood firm and announced clearly: “Let’s once again give a round of applause to our trainees, thank them for their wonderful performance!”

After the enthusiastic applause, Xie Tongyue took her time and said: “Next, we come to the most crucial segment of this performance evaluation. This evaluation adheres to the principle of in-group PK. For each stage, please select the trainee whose performance you were most satisfied with, and cast your valuable vote for her to make her the winner of this stage.”

A one-minute countdown appeared on the large screen. Next to the large numbers, the avatars and numbers of the five girls were displayed. The audience, who had already taken out their voting devices, looked up, waiting for Xie Tongyue to speak.

Xie Tongyue smiled slightly, facing the camera: “Timer — start!”

The numbers on the large screen immediately began to count down. The trainees on stage quickly began to appeal for votes. Chi Meng held the microphone, raising both hands above her head, striking the pose everyone was most familiar with.

Meng Zai gives a heart.jpg

Off stage, An Xue and Lü Shifei excitedly waved the bouquets in their hands. They arrived early, in the center of the third row. Chi Meng noticed them and waved back with a smile. The boys and girls in the first row holding long-lens cameras immediately raised their equipment.

“The live audience is currently voting. ‘Star Makers’ watching the live broadcast can also type the name of the trainee you believe will win the highest number of votes for this stage on the public screen, or participate in the official event to vote and participate in the quiz. Little partners who guess correctly might receive souvenirs from the second performance and autographed posters of the trainees. The event time is limited, so participate quickly!”

During the one minute of voting, Xie Tongyue hosted non-stop: “Also, during the performance period, the Dongjiang TV app will issue two voting coupons to all accounts. The votes are valid during the performance period, so quickly vote for your picked trainees!”

Xie Tongyue appeared on the large screen. She raised her left hand, pointing her index finger upwards. The backstage immediately set up the voting and quiz channels in the direction she was pointing.

As the countdown was about to end, Xie Tongyue called out the last three numbers and turned to look at the five nervous trainees.

Chi Meng clasped her hands around the microphone, slightly turned to the side. The camera turned to the five trainees. Her beautiful profile was “click” printed onto the Polaroid photo paper. The stage lights and the faint lights from the audience light sticks were slightly blurred. The cameras in the front row of the audience were focused on the girl on stage. Her black hair tilted, gentler than usual. The star crown in her hair refracted diamond-like light. A blooming mermaid’s colorful petal flower was tucked beside her ear, kissing the black strands. The gentleness in the photo almost materialized and flowed out.

“Aah aah!” An Xue stamped her foot, “Got it! This one is super beautiful!”

Lü Shifei leaned over, clutching her chest and nodding vigorously.

Super beautiful!

Chi Meng’s fans around immediately took out their phones to snap pictures. An Xue, afraid of losing it, carefully put the photo away after taking the picture.

When the enthusiastic cheers sounded, An Xue immediately looked up. Different numbers appeared behind the avatars of the five trainees on the large screen. The second performance evaluation still had three thousand audience members. Chi Meng won the first place on this stage with one thousand six hundred votes, a voting result exceeding half of the live audience. The second place was Ning Yuze, who clapped her hands in admiration, not looking surprised.

In the mentor seating area not far away, everyone wasn’t surprised by Chi Meng’s win, but they didn’t expect the vote difference to be so large. As the guiding mentor for Chapter, Teng Jia happily stood up and applauded.

Chi Meng happily walked off stage, not forgetting to turn around and bow in thanks to the bullet comments on the screen.

However, the camera only captured her back, causing fans to laugh out loud, yet feeling that this was very much in line with Chi Meng’s persona—after all, she was the “study god” who only recently switched phones and used a “big genius kid’s watch” before!

Backstage Buzz

In the specially prepared rest room for the representatives of various agencies backstage, Meng Limin heard someone deliberately snort. When she turned, everyone’s face was smiling, making it impossible to tell who was intentionally showing disdain. She curved her lips.

Having worked hard in the entertainment industry for so many years to reach this status, she wasn’t there to guess people’s moods. So, she looked at the woman sitting next to her: “Surely not, surely no company would truly make things difficult for a minor who is not yet eighteen?”

In the training camp, everyone started from the same point, but in the rest room, there were status differences among the companies. At the table with Meng Limin were managers and assistants from large companies. The woman Meng Limin asked was the manager of a Spark trainee.

This lady looked somewhat young. Hearing the question, she smiled and said: “That’s right, I also wonder who would do something so tacky. Perhaps it’s a small company whose own strength prevents them from signing others, so they can only resort to slander.”

She was mocking that the company behind suppressing Chi Meng’s popularity was a small, unworthy company, even though she knew that wasn’t the case. Doesn’t removing trending topics cost money? Doesn’t suppressing popularity cost money?

Either multiple companies joined forces to do this, or the company doing this was a major player with deep pockets, willing to spend heavily because they believed their trainee would definitely debut and bring extraordinary profits.

Managers like them, who brought trainees, didn’t have much fame in the industry, and their position in the company was neither high nor low. This matter required support from the company’s backing. Take Meng Limin, for example: she was Song Jiaqi’s manager. Who was Song Jiaqi? Renxing’s little princess. Renxing trainee Chen Zhu, who shone brightly in Star’s Journey, and others were still signed trainees under another manager.

At this time, this manager sat beside Meng Limin, casting a look of agreement at the Spark manager. Some people at the table changed their expression, some remained unmoved, and some had subtle expressions. Meng Limin’s eyes swept across, taking in everyone’s emotions, withdrawing her gaze, and smiling faintly.

If you can’t even manage your own trainees, it’s not surprising to do something like this.

The “Mermaid” Effect

Backstage, Chi Meng returned to the rest room. Everyone drank water, rested, and placed the fruit they had brought beforehand on the table. Finally, they could eat!

“There’s a good side to losing the game too,” Du Yunfei said while peeling a banana. “The sooner you die, the sooner you reincarnate, right?”

They lost terribly in the game that determined the stage order, so now they could eat without any burden.

Chi Meng wanted to say that it’s still best not to lose, but considering she might be teamed up with anyone later, she just sat and maintained a smile. 019 happily appeared after Chi Meng left the stage, first setting off beautiful fireworks to congratulate Chi Meng on the successful completion of her stage, and then shouted wildly.

“The host is first!”

“The host is so great!”

“The host is the most amazing host in the world!”

Chi Meng asked with a smile: “Did you record this stage too?”

“Of course!” 019 proudly puffed out its chest. “So many people like the host! They even want to send flowers to the host!”

The simple 019 didn’t know what was happening outside the training camp, nor did it know what Chi Meng had encountered. Chi Meng actually didn’t know much either—it was nothing more than blocking someone else’s path and being targeted.

It was just that she didn’t know much about the methods of the entertainment industry, so she didn’t know the current situation.

However, judging from the stage feedback, people who liked her still liked her very much.

“Forget it, guessing is useless, I’ll check tonight,” Chi Meng thought to herself, focusing on enjoying the other performances.

With the introduction, performance, and voting time, each stage took about seven or eight minutes. It was fast. The cameraman was in the room filming their live reactions. When the Tiny team came on stage, Chi Meng in the camera’s view clearly widened her eyes.

“Hmm?” Chi Meng moved forward, concentrating on the stage. Xiangxiang had a wreath on her wrist. The flower looked a little too familiar, exactly the same as the one she wore by her ear.

A question mark slowly floated above Chi Meng’s head.

Chen Zhu undoubtedly won the highest vote. After the voting ended, she smiled and waved both hands at the audience. The colorful flower on her right wrist was particularly eye-catching.

If the mermaid flower wreath on Chen Zhu’s wrist was an accident, then there were too many accidents in this performance. Tiny was the sixth stage, and the seventh was Growing Up. Su Mengyao, with two space buns, was as beautiful as a lotus emerging from the water. She bounced and jumped on the stage. Each of the left and right buns was adorned with a mermaid flower. The flower was beautiful, and the person was even more beautiful. Su Mengyao’s fans held up cameras and phones to take pictures.

Backstage, Chi Meng paused, suddenly realizing this was Song Jiaqi’s intention.

Chen Zhu was an artist from Renxing and was familiar with Song Jiaqi. Su Mengyao was now not only an artist from Renxing but also her good friend. After the stage ended today, as long as there were stage photos of the three of them—no, the four of them—circulating, Chi Meng guaranteed that there would definitely be a mermaid’s shadow. The origin of the mermaid flower would be brought up, which would naturally lead the focus back to Chi Meng.

Why would Song Jiaqi do this?

Why focus the attention on her?

Chi Meng closed her eyes, and her lips slowly curled up. Perhaps someone didn’t want her to be frequently mentioned, so they did something. Now, with Song Jiaqi’s “God’s move,” unless the images of her, Chen Zhu, Su Mengyao, and Song Jiaqi’s second performance (which hadn’t been shown yet) were all deleted, she wouldn’t stop being mentioned.

“…Qiqi is really smart,” Chi Meng murmured. The four of them, every single one, were top-ranking trainees, and the other three were trainees from Renxing. Anyone who wanted to suppress their popularity would have to contend with the companies behind them.

Ning Yuze, who heard her voice, looked over with confusion, but didn’t hear what Chi Meng said, and smiled: “Mengyao is also wearing the same flower as you.”

“Mhm,” Chi Meng chuckled softly.

Song Jiaqi’s team won the final victory in the game. They were the last to perform. Before them were the rap group’s To Do, To Err and the dance group’s Willing.

When the scene turned dark blue, a girl’s figure suddenly appeared in Chi Meng’s mind. The audience below the stage did too; they shouted the name “Qi Yan.”

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