CH 39.2

Thank you to Lynx for the ko-fi donations! We have a bonus chapter today~

Next goal to bonus chapter (1/2)

At 11 o’clock in the night, when Weibo was in chaos, the official blog of the “Starlight”, which received more than 100,000 comments, was finally updated.

[Hello everyone, because of the technical problems of the live broadcast platform, we have no choice but to suspend it first. Our technicians are currently fixing the problems. In view of everyone’s concern, the following is the breakdown of the votes of the top ten contestants. We uphold a fair and just attitude towards each contestant. We hope that all of them will have a bright future.]

The number of votes was open and transparent, so everyone could see it.

First place Shen Xingchen: 9.80 million votes

Second place Li Xu’an: 7.62 million votes

Third place Jian Anran: 6.3 million votes

Fourth place…

…

Sixth place Ning Ze: 4.62 million votes

Seventh place Jian Xingsui: 4.41 million votes. 

This vote count was supposed to calm the discourse happening, so people would stop accusing the program about voting manipulation. But it became counterattack weapon of Anran’s fans, and there were a lot of snide under the comment section:

[If you don’t have enough votes , you shouldn’t be debuting.]

[You don’t have enough money to buy votes? Then don’t lash out at innocent parties, poor bastards.]

[Bunch of incompetent fans are being furious for no reason.]

[You shouldn’t blame the crew for not having enough popularity.] 

Although not all of them said these things, a bunch of Anran’s fans wrote that as a venting method – they wanted to celebrate their winning, but were suppressed. As for Shen Xingchen’s fans, they were frantically looking for a sense of presence here. With these many diverging opinions, they were looking for another round of fight. In the end, the fandom war continued on. 

Another ten minutes passed, and the live broadcast platform urgently repaired the network problem. Finally, the live broadcast worked again. 

The contestants on the podium have gone down, only the instructor and the host are left.

Now it has basically come to the end of the show. Originally, the instructors would watch the students graduate, and they should all be smiling while sending them off. But the instructors standing on the stage basically did not have a smile on their faces, and they were all serious.

Instructor Li just got a new list, and the director’s voice came from his in-ear, saying that this list must not be read for now. The public must not know, lest another controversy about the show would start again. 

Truthfully, he was a little hesitant. If this list wasn’t read, he felt it would be unfair – this would be equal to fooling the public, especially since they need to pay to get extra votes. In his hesitation, he slowly glanced at Fu Jinxiao. For the time being, he didn’t have the strength to fight against the program group, but there was one person who could ignore the rules, it just depended on whether he was willing or not.

Fu Jinxiao raised his eyebrows: “What’s the matter?”

Instructor Li didn’t dare to be too obvious, but just hinted by shaking the list in his hand.

Fu Jinxiao was smart enough to understand this cryptic gesture. This new list must be withdrawn and the director would not allow it to be read publicly. If this was the past, Actor Fu would be too lazy to meddle in such nosy matters, but today he was in a bad mood. Without thinking too much about it, the man stretched out his hand, “Give it to me.”

A triumphant smile flashed across Instructor Li’s eyes, and he handed the list to Fu Jinxiao.

Fu Jinxiao took a glance, raised his head to face the cameramen and the audience. Without a hint of doubt, he casually spoke, “Now we announce the voting results of the Octopus Live app and the Little Sun Live app special voting channel. From 7:00 to 10:30 tonight, the online audience’s top three most popular contestants have come out. Third place winner is Shen Xingchen, second place winner is Anran, and the first place winner is…” 

The scene fell into a brief silence.

Under the spotlight, Fu Jinxiao’s eyes met the audience. He opened his lips lightly, and read out the name after a dramatic silence, “Jian Xingsui.” 

The audience was in an uproar.

The trainee who failed to debut actually was the most popular contestant in two different voting channels. With such high popularity, he must’ve gained a lot of votes, right…? 

Jian Xingsui, who was named, froze in place, and even he couldn’t believe what he heard.

Fu Jinxiao’s voice was deep and magnetic, and his eyes were dark with unfathomable emotions. He looked at the young man with unspoken meaning, “Congratulations to you, Jian Xingsui, you will become the first spokesperson of the Octopus Live app and the Little Sun Live app.”

For the actor, this was just giving Jian Xingsui the glory he deserved. 

Once again, the live broadcast room exploded:

[He received more than 7 million votes from the live broadcast platform tonight.]

[He is popular.]

[How the fuck is the calculation made? His final ranking said he had 4 million, but on the app he had 7 million??] 

At the same time, Anran’s fans were still going at it to spread their version of truth. The more they talk, the more audacious they become. Many of the Weibo posts they made began to have some strange connotations. They said that Jian Xingsui’s popularity wasn’t as good as Anran’s. Or that his fans were too toxic or evil.

But with this shocking revelation. They soon became silent. 

In fact, this matter didn’t have anything to do with them – they were Anran’s fans, after all. Theoretically, whether or not he debuted shouldn’t clash with Jian Xingsui’s total number of votes. But since they got carried on lashing out, they aroused public outrage. 

Thanks to this vote count, it solidified Jian Xingsui’s massive popularity. It revitalized his fans’ vigor, and now they have more confidence to fight back. 

After being ridiculed for having no money, being incompetent, and furious, the original Buddhist support club became explosive. 

At midnight, Jian Xingsui’s official fanclub was still full of excitement. No one can sleep tonight. After counting, the total money spent for buying the voting ticket was around 3.8 million yuan. With this amount of money, they could buy around 4 million votes. When this data came out, everyone was shocked: 

[“Starlight”, are you happy with this?]

[Just how much money is lost? How do you explain this?]

[We just want justice. We didn’t block anyone’s way. Is that wrong?]

[I remembered that live broadcast during the mountain climbing segment. Didn’t Suisui tell us to stop buying votes for him? Knowing this would happen to us made me cry until I collapsed…]

[Did he already know what will happen today, but he has to endure it alone for so long?]

Originally, everyone was looking for things about the program group. But after seeing the number of actual votes, they started to count other participants’ votes too – and remembering their previous grievance with Anran’s fans, they zeroed in to his votes. They saw that his fanclub counted the total of voting tickets they bought, which was more than 3 million votes. This number was similar to Jian Xingsui’s, but his final total was 6 million votes. Seeing this discrepancy, they went mad. If this logic was applied to Jian Xingsui’s votes, wouldn’t Suisui’s votes crushed Anran’s to death? 

In the end, the wronged person couldn’t even settle their anger. While the supposed “victor” gloated despite this perceived injustice. 

If their previous anger could be described as an erupting volcano, their anger now was akin to a supernova explosion.

[So why is Anran he third?]

[Actually, not many of my friends like him.]

[I always think he is a very two-faced person. Nobody in this industry could be that innocent.] 

[I have long wanted to say this outloud: doesn’t anyone think he loves to play with his money and connection? Does he think of himself as the emperor or something?]

[Essence of green tea1(two-faced bitch basically.), indeed.] 

If Anran’s fans didn’t make that incident, maybe no one would notice, but it was precisely because of their ugly behavior that suddenly pushed Anran to the spotlight. At first, other trainees’ fans didn’t want to join in the discourse, but seeing this kind of blatant voting manipulation, they couldn’t help but think that other trainees’ votes might also be manipulated. 

Normally, this was a good day for Anran, as the netizens would celebrate his successful debut in the group. There shouldn’t be much negative news about him. But thanks to his fans, the netizens who were disgusted by the fans also became wary of the idol. The accusation of him being a “royal family” also began to spread. They said that he used his back-door capital to get his position. Beneath his fairy persona, he was playing dirty.

When Anran got his phone back, he wanted to get blessings from passersby and his fans. However, as soon as he opened his Weibo, he was instead greeted by many scoldings. Various accusations of him playing unfair were thrown to his face. Many netizens said that he used his family connections to win a high ranking. Truthfully, Anran was very confused.

Careful netizens discovered that the trainees who debuted have begun to change their display names and avatars, and the format is unified: star—Li Xu’an, star—Ning Ze, star—Jian Anran… However, Shen Xingchen’s avatar – the first ranked member – hasn’t changed. On top of that, Li Xu’an and Anran have already started to interact with each other, only Shen Xingchen and Ning Ze did not pay attention to other people.     

Although this was against some-kind of unspoken rules, Shen Xingchen’s fans supported this attitude:

[We are unique!]

[It’s good that he changed nothing. It’s easier when the group disbanded.] 

The official “Starlight” Weibo also released a graduation photo of the six debutants together. However, the center-position Shen Xingchen didn’t smile alongside everyone. Instead, he was expressionless, as if he was kidnapped and forced to be here. Those who didn’t know about this probably would’ve thought that he was one of the eliminated trainees instead. Again, other debutants unifiedly commented and reposted this Weibo, but Shen Xingchen and Ning Ze didn’t follow suit. 

For gossip-mongers, tonight was a sleepless night with much excitement. They dare not sleep, as they were afraid they would miss a fresh new tea if they fell asleep. Someone even brave enough to say that this group photo was of a funeral scene, especially since the center position had a very clear position – he was against the debut lineup, or at least against the program team. This melon2gossip was enough to fuel the netizens to jump up and down all night, their feet didn’t touch the ground at all. 

The following hour, Shen Xingchen posted on Weibo. Many people was excited by this news. 

[Shen Xingchen v]: We have graduated, Goodbye Starlight. @JianXingsui @NingZe 

The post also included no group photos at all. He posted other photos, which was a photo of the three dormitory groups. There were suitcases beside them. Jian Xingsui was sitting in the middle of the suitcase, while Shen Xingchen stood beside him leaning on his shoulder, looking like a big brother. As for Ning Ze, he stood next to him, bent down and made a peace sign while pressing the shutter.

Both the caption and the photos make people want to laugh:

[Bye bye, the next one will be better.]

[As expected of you, Xingchen-ge.]

[Seeing this, I thought it was just the three of you lol.] 

[Let Suisui stand in the center, the elder brothers dote on the younger brother.]

Before this, only Shen Xingchen and Ning Ze had Weibo, and Jian Xingsui had never opened Weibo. After finding this post, the netizen found Jian Xingsui along the way. Not surprisingly, this was indeed a brand-new account, and there were only a few initial fans following him. He followed Shen Xingchen and Ning Ze, and several instructors of “starlight”. As for his post, he also only has one post – it was of this same photo, but the caption was slightly different from Shen Xingchen’s.

[Jian Xingsui]: I officially graduated today. I would like to thank the fans who met and supported me along the way, and I also thank the instructors who gave me help and guidance. This show has given me many unforgettable memories, and I have become a much better person because of it. I met many good brothers and friends. These short three months have passed in a blink, but all good things must come to an end. Goodbye, “Starlight”. 

In the comment section, many fans posted comforting words: 

[Come again next year! We’ll support you!]

[Even if you are discouraged, we will still walk alongside you.]

[If you don’t debut in a group, you will still have a bright future!]

As for his anti-fans, they left sarcastic comments: 

[It may not be good even if he debuted. With that kind of skill, he still won’t get any resources~]

[For an amateur like you, failing to debut spells the end of your career.]

[You might be popular now, but I bet by next month, nobody will remember you.] 

[Besides, he was popular because he was tied to a CP with Fu-ge. Besides that, what else could he be popular for?]

This kind of comment stemmed from the fact Jian Xingsui also @ Fu Jinxiao alongside Shen Xingchen and Ning Ze. 

But the thing was, most of the trainees would thank the instructor when writing this kind of thank-you post. This was normal operations. Li Xu’an and Anran also did this. Generally, more capable trainees would get a reply from the instructors. For example, Li Xu’an got a thumbs up from Instructor Li, and Tuya has also interacted with many other contestants. Many of the instructors were polite enough to respond with affection.

That is, excluding Fu Jinxiao. 

Many trainees, including the popular one, also mentioned Movie Emperor Fu. But they didn’t get a peep. 

Many fans speculated:

[Fu-ge didn’t go on Weibo tonight.]

[Well, it’s to be expected.] 

[He doesn’t seem to be particularly close to any player?]

In fact, everyone was used to it. As a figure on the the peak of stardom, he was usually too busy to follow this kind of operation. But many of the trainees still tried it anyway. It was no loss if they got ignored, but… if they somehow got noticed, it would be a huge hit. 

Unfortunately, everyone flopped. Just when everyone thought that tonight might pass peacefully and there would be no more waves–

2:10 in the morning. 

People were drowsy, but this piece of news instantly woke them up, like an ice-cold bath. 

Out of nowhere, Fu Jinxiao paid attention to Jian Xingsui’s Weibo post.