I Became the Top Competitor in a Talent Show Novel - Chapter 60.2

This made everyone even more eager for the next episode.

One fan compiled the professional-grade stage photos and posted a set of pictures titled: Mermaid Princess of Summer.

The first picture showed Yuan Sike of Xinghuo (Spark) leaning back on the wide armrest of a sofa, her black ponytail in place. Her long legs were encased in black fabric, and her brown boots rested steadily on the transparent floor reflecting multicolored light. A slight smile played on her lips. Her black leather jacket was slightly open, and a mermaid princess flower was pinched between her raised fingers.

The second photo, bathed in deep blue light, showed a cold-looking girl whose hair looked as if it were steeped in the light and shadow of the blue sea. She was turned sideways, like an android experiencing the world for the first time, her eyelashes fluttering open uncertainly. In the deep blue, a dazzling, soft color bloomed lightly.

A gentle flower blossomed among the android’s strands of hair.

The third photo showed a beautiful girl in a white skirt, with twin buns in her hair, posed sideways. Her hands were clenched into fists and placed beside her cheeks, making a spoiled expression. Her pretty, delicate face was innocent and refined, and two brilliantly blooming mermaid princess flowers were fixed on her two buns, like decorative cream flowers.

The fourth photo showed a girl seated on the sofa, her eyes lowered, her palms cradling layers of petals, as if holding the softest thing in the world. The dreamlike color of the flower was smudged on the edges of her long, straight eyelashes, and fragmented light was hidden in her lightly smiling eyes.

The fifth: On the stage, a mermaid-style dress hugged the girl’s slender body. Silver sequins looked like a mermaid’s scales, trailing all the way to the end. She stood on the stage, like a silver mermaid who had emerged from the water and rested on a reef. Her scales reflected a kaleidoscope of colors. Her long black hair was softly draped, and the mermaid was bending her eyes, lowering her head to kiss a stalk of mermaid princess flowers.

Points of light, like scattered diamonds, seemed to be the sun and moon’s favor, surrounding her from head to toe, creating a soft, halo-like effect. Standing there, she was like the center of the world, and everyone’s eyes should be drawn to her.

Many people paused here, looking left and right at the photo for a long time before slowly flipping to the next one. The sixth photo was still Xue Weirán. She had changed her pose, still seated on the sofa. Colored petals were blowing and fluttering in the air. Through the gaps between the petals, her smiling eyebrows and eyes could be seen.

The seventh photo showed a girl with a serene expression, holding a microphone in one hand and reaching out with the other. The outstretched hand seemed to be catching the petals blown by the person in front of her. A point of light landed on the fingertip of the beautiful, slender hand that seemed to be melting into the stage lights. A mermaid princess floral wristlet bloomed on her delicate wrist.

The style abruptly changed for the eighth photo. Like the Queen of the Night emerging from the darkness, she held a scepter, standing proudly and reservedly in the center of the stage. Her hands were clasped over the gem of the scepter, commanding the scepter of desire. Despite her arrogance, the pitch-black eyes beneath the brim of her hat hid a hint of seduction, subtly drawing people into the web of corruption she wove, letting her manipulate them.

Those who succumbed would lose the desire to struggle under her long boots, gradually being consumed by desire and becoming slaves beneath her throne. But when they looked up, they would only see her eternally seductive eyes and, beneath the gem of the scepter, the blooming mermaid princess flower.

In the final photo, the protagonists became two people.

Black and silver were separated yet stood side-by-side. The silver-tailed mermaid, leaping from the sea, looked back over her shoulder, a mermaid princess flower blooming near her ear, like the call of the sky and the ocean to the earth. The dark-haired woman, whose top hat was nowhere to be seen, turned her head. The scepter in her hand was slightly raised, and the mermaid princess flower beneath the gem looked longingly in the mermaid’s direction.

Less than ten hours after this post was made, the number of reposts exceeded 100,000, likes surpassed 300,000, and the comment section had nearly 30,000 replies and was still growing. The blogger, who had originally just shared beautiful sister photos with friends, trembled slightly.

First floor comment: “Is this my three thousand-strong harem!!!”

Second floor: “Hahaha, instantly recognized the blogger’s bias: a Xue Weirán fan and a Jiaqi Ru Meng (Beautiful Dream/Dreamlike Jiaqi) CP fan!”

The blogger secretly liked this comment.

The third-floor comment, which was upvoted to the top, was from someone named “Jiaqi Ru Meng is

The fellow fans who rushed to join the CP-shipping party saluted.

Can’t do it without you! Can’t do it without you!!

Even if the person’s expression was unclear, the raised hand making a heart sign was clearly their Mengzai. Even people who weren’t big on CP-shipping were a little moved. They had to admit, the scene was truly beautiful!

Naturally, with the Mermaid Princess photos and the “science popularization” of the “Mermaid Princess” on stage, Chi Meng’s name reappeared on the trending topics, rising and falling like a bumpy little car.

Chi Meng’s fans were overjoyed and teary-eyed. Their persistence during this time was finally seeing the light! Go, Mengzai, go!

Meanwhile, the people behind the scenes who wanted to suppress Chi Meng’s trending status had faces that were dark and purple, with a glowing green tinge. A few phone calls later, they realized the price to suppress the current hot search was no longer normal; they had to pay extra—a lot extra.

Calculating the sunk costs and the additional costs, these people’s faces darkened. They thought perhaps they wouldn’t need to act, and other companies would take care of it, just like how everyone had cooperated the previous week.

Coincidentally, the other companies were thinking the same thing.

Then they watched helplessly as the trending topics related to Chi Meng soared. Marketing accounts that hadn’t been paid were frantically reposting topics related to Star Journey, Chi Meng, and Mermaid Princess for the sake of clicks.

By the time they realized what was happening and tried to act, the price had quintupled!

The reason was that too many terms were linked to Chi Meng. If they wanted to suppress Chi Meng, they had to suppress other trainees as well. Take the Mermaid Princess topic, for example: Chen Zhu, Xue Weirán, Song Jiaqi, Yuan Sike, and Su Mengyao all had individual related terms. Should they delete them or not?

They could, of course, offer the original price service to only delete Chi Meng’s, but then they couldn’t control the others.

These people’s faces got even darker. What was the difference between doing that and cutting the chives on the balcony only for them to grow back? Did they look stupid?

“Enough! Stop this matter here. Without Cen Hongjie giving the go-ahead, what we’re doing now is useless!” a person who saw the situation clearly said in a deep voice. “Change the plan.”

The marketing director who was reporting to him said with difficulty, “Then the previous investment…”

“When our company’s trainees debut, all that money will be earned back! With the current hype, the girl group debuting from Star Journey won’t have to worry about not being popular!” the person said. “Notify the management department to hold a meeting. It’s time to bring in external help.”

“Yes.”

The outside commotion had nothing to do with the training camp trainees who didn’t have phones. After eating, the trainees enjoyed their day off. In the training room, several girls with popsicles sat in a row, watching three girls train in front of the mirror.

The three girls, wearing sports bras and long pants, had their hair tied up. They moved rhythmically to the music, performing basic street dance moves. These three were, naturally, Chi Meng, Song Jiaqi, and Su Mengyao.

The main coach, Qi Yan, sat in the middle, her slightly baby-fat cheeks serious and stern. She said coolly, “Su Mengyao, you eat so much and still have no strength. Just stop eating in the future.”

“Su Mengyao, the rhythm.”

“Su Mengyao, hip sway.”

“Su Mengyao!” Qi Yan narrowed her eyes. “You’re a pig.”

“Waaah!!” Su Mengyao, feeling personally attacked, burst into loud, tearful sobs. “This is revenge! Malicious revenge!”

Lin Tingxia, who was holding two different flavored popsicles in her hands and looking down at a novel, suddenly looked up and said sincerely, “Is it revenge because you tortured her during the second stage performance?”

Su Mengyao was half-lying on the floor, her arms weakly propping her up. She said feebly, “I didn’t…”

“You did,” Qi Yan immediately said, frowning at the unbearable memory.

To allow them to argue better, Chi Meng snapped her fingers and said cheerfully, “Ten-minute break.”

Song Jiaqi went to the insulated cup to get a popsicle and handed half of it to Chi Meng. To maintain respect for their teachers, the two students sat cross-legged on the other side, smiling as they watched Teacher Qi Yan and student Su Mengyao debate.

“Did Su Mengyao change species?” Song Jiaqi offered a point. “Not bad, quite suitable.”

At least in terms of appetite, it was a good fit.

Qi Yan nodded in agreement.

“Don’t be like that. Yaoyao is still growing tall; she needs to eat more,” Chi Meng said.

Su Mengyao’s eyes widened. She pointed at Chi Meng and glared at Qi Yan: See! My mom said I can eat more!

Su Mengyao had only found an ally for two seconds when she suddenly heard her recently “upgraded” mother say gently, “However, during the period of teaching Yaoyao to sing, Xiao Yan’s temper index has risen exponentially.”

Everyone in the training room: …

Ning Yuze and her company-mate Tong Siyu sat to the side. They exchanged glances. Tong Siyu hesitated, “Xiao Yan’s temper flare-ups shouldn’t have anything to do with Su Mengyao, right…”

Su Mengyao’s eyes widened further. She pointed her chin at Qi Yan: See! A witness!

Qi Yan stared at Su Mengyao. “It’s you.”

Su Mengyao groaned and fell onto the floor, acting as if she would lie there until she was old if Qi Yan didn’t take back her words! I’m not getting up!

The onlookers burst into laughter. Tong Siyu thought for a moment and couldn’t help but vouch for Su Mengyao’s innocence, saying, “Xiao Yan was in the same team as Meng Xiaofei for the second public performance, right?”

At the mention of that name, Qi Yan clearly drooped her eyelids and grunted reluctantly.

When Meng Xiaofei was mentioned, the few people in the training room first thought of her challenging Chi Meng to a showdown during the initial stage. Later, during the theme song training, there were periodic interviews about the trainees’ moods. Meng Xiaofei had expressed her desire for a high ranking in the interview, which was fine since everyone was there to debut. However, Meng Xiaofei had also mysteriously stated that she had a competitor in the training camp she had always wanted to challenge head-on.

“Is that person Qi Yan?” Yuan Sike was shocked because Qi Yan’s dancing was genuinely strong, the kind of person with maxed-out talent points. Since she dared to sing out loud, her weaknesses were also patched up.

Qi Yan didn’t seem to want to talk about that person and reached for food. Ning Yuze, however, offered an explanation.

“Before Xiao Yan joined the company, she was a student at a dance studio. She was originally going to sign with Xiangjiao Lan (Banana Blue), but they went back on their word just before the signing. So she signed with Shijie Wenhua (Vision Culture) with my batch,” Ning Yuze said. “It was a happy accident, but I think it turned out well.”

The others, thinking of the differently treated trainees at Xiangjiao Lan, nodded in deep agreement. As fellow trainees, they all wanted to be treated equally by their company. It was truly frustrating when a contemporary trainee had a background and they weren’t allowed to appear on camera together.

Qi Yan chewed on a strawberry-flavored popsicle, her crisp, sweet voice coolly stating, “Whatever. If she wants to compete with me, let her come.”

She didn’t care why Xiangjiao Lan had wanted to sign her and then reneged, nor did she care that Meng Xiaofei took her as an imaginary rival. Before coming to the show, she hadn’t expected to achieve her current ranking, so she now had a much further and bigger goal. To her, Meng Xiaofei was just a stranger she had once studied dance with in the same studio.

Everyone’s expressions in the training room were calm, as the gap between them was too obvious for them to have any real feelings about the matter.

Lin Tingxia, after finishing her novel and placing it under her bottom to sit on, blinked her eyes and clapped her hands. “Wait! Isn’t this the script for Big Boss Xue and Big Boss Chen?”

Xue Weirán and Chen Zhu, innocently brought up, looked over in confusion.

“It’s a love-hate relationship!”

Xue Weirán / Chen Zhu: ???

Qi Yan: ????

Chi Meng lowered her head, squeezing the crushed ice at the bottom of her popsicle stick upwards. Hearing the comment, she laughed and said, “What everyone is seeing now is the exponential eruption of Teacher Qi Yan’s temper!”

Song Jiaqi, sitting next to Chi Meng, chuckled, propped her cheek up, and watched them mess around. Her gaze shifted to the camera in the corner. She raised an eyebrow.

It’s a holiday, and the camera is still rolling?

To enrich the spiritual and cultural lives of modern youth without phones or the internet, the production team provided movies for relaxation, unlimited snacks, and physical activities during the camp holiday, such as ping-pong, badminton, hacky sacks, jump rope, basketball, soccer, board games, magazines, and fiction novels. If they really didn’t want to move, they could just sleep.

Throughout the day, not just the people in the training room, but trainees wandering around the campus found that the photographers were filming everywhere.

Questions arose in everyone’s minds. They said it was a holiday?

It’s hard to stay relaxed when you guys do this!

At eight o’clock in the evening, the fourth episode was broadcast. Trainees, who had put on exquisite makeup and beautiful clothes, hurried to the small auditorium with their food and drinks to watch the show. Just as the trainees in front opened the door, a familiar voice came from inside.

“Come quickly; we’ve been waiting for you.”

The woman nestled in the front row, Mentor Teng Jia, waved. Mentor Xu Shenglíng was also next to her.

The trainee who opened the door almost closed it, shouting, “I knew something was wrong!”

Teng Jia laughed heartily, “What’s wrong! Your Sister Tongyue is busy this week. Can’t your Sister Shenglíng and I come to substitute?”

“You don’t welcome us?” Xu Shenglíng also said.

The trainees immediately said, “Welcome! A warm welcome!”

Everyone laughed and took their seats. Teng Jia called names, “Come on, come sit with us. Where is Mengzai? Mengzai, come sit.”

Teng Jia’s appreciation for Chi Meng was clear to everyone. She naturally left two empty seats. When Chi Meng and Song Jiaqi sat down together, even the mentors looked used to it, not finding anything strange about the two of them being constantly together.

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