Huayu: Traffic is king

Chapter 51: One Man (Part )
Gu Jingyi and the other trainees were led backstage by the staff. One hundred trainees sat down on chairs according to their groups. It wasn't long before the backstage room was packed.

Gu Jingyi randomly chose a seat on the side. With his current popularity, he didn't need to rely on a front position to attract the camera.

Wherever he sits, that place becomes the focus.

After the program crew noticed Gu Jingyi's seat, they temporarily added a set of sliding lenses to shoot him.

Cai Xukun, who was sitting in the front row, looked at Gu Jingyi with some envy. He didn't know when the gap between the two began to grow bigger and bigger.

In order to get more exposure, Kun Kun and Wang Ziyi chose seats in the front row as soon as they entered the venue.

Noticing Cai Xukun's gaze, Gu Jingyi also looked up at him.

Cai Xukun wore a more mature makeup look today. He combed his hair back with a middle part, showing his facial features fully to the audience. Paired with a black suit, he looked a lot more stable.

But, this look doesn't really suit him...

It's like a child wearing an adult's suit. It looks okay at first glance, but the more you look at it, the more weird it is.

Gu Jingyi took a look and looked away.

The camera connected to the large screen in the waiting room occasionally scanned the auditorium, and he saw that people were gradually filling up. There were girls everywhere, carefully examining the buttons on the voting devices issued by the program team, and wearing cheering cards and signs.

As time went by, more and more people came.

Gu Jingyi, who was in the backstage, could faintly hear the noise in front of the stage.

Finally, after the thousand-person audience had taken their seats, Zhang Yixing, holding a cue card, stood at the front of the stage and spoke concisely about today's theme:
"Today's assessment task is a group showdown."

"The trainees will be divided into Group A and Group B to compete separately. In the end, the winning group will be selected by voting by all the producers present. Each member of the winning group will receive an additional vote bonus of 10,000 votes in the final voting ranking."

"At the same time, all the Citizen Producers are also requested to vote for the contestants you want to support within the group. The trainee with the most votes will receive an additional 10 votes. Your vote is very important to them. If there is no contestant you particularly like, you can abstain. Now, are you ready to enjoy their performance?"

The audience was very excited, waving their glow sticks and light boards and cheering, "Ready!"

"Next, the two groups of trainees competing in the 'Orcs' showdown, please come on stage."

The first performance of the show began.

The two groups were relatively close in terms of strength, with Wang Linkai and Li Junyi both performing well. However, Dong Yanlei, the trainee who forgot the lyrics to the theme song and sang "Lucky Tentacles" at the very beginning, performed much worse on stage.

Group A was stronger, while Group B was obviously more popular. So much so that Group A was a little nervous, and after the performance they looked at the audience with anticipation.

The overall process is divided into self-introduction + performance + final result announcement.

The result announcement was quite tedious, as the production team deliberately arranged the two groups together. The votes of the two people in the same position were announced together, and then the final score was added up.

This time, Group B leads by a wide margin, but both sides retain the highest votes.
The suspense was finally revealed and Group B won.

Soon, songs such as "Dance to the music" and "Great Artist" were performed one after another.

When the trainees on stage were performing, the trainees in the room also got excited, especially when their friends or people from the same company were there, they all started cheering.

Gu Jingyi barely moved throughout the performance, and honestly, the performances were pretty average. Perhaps he has high expectations, and none of them met his expectations.

However, he noticed that even though someone else was the center of "The Great Artist," Chen Linong received a lot of screen time. The part he was given was also quite eye-catching, and although he wasn't the center, he was better than the center.

Especially when the show was halfway through, even the prop ribbons appeared.

This is something that is not found in Group B. The program team is just short of showing obvious preference to Chen Linong, the "royal family" under Idol Century who manages the debut group.

Chen Linong was deliberately downgraded from A to C during the grade assessment, probably to torture his fans.

There is no doubt that Group A won again. In this kind of draft, if you don't build enough advantages in the early stages, it will be difficult to beat the stronger Group A.

The performances continued one after another, with no breaks in between. Each group's performance, followed by the mentors' critiques and the audience vote, took about half an hour. Before and after the performances, the trainees went all out to canvass for votes.

Not long after, Gu Jingyi saw Cai Xukun stand up.

Zhang Yixing said, "Please ask the two groups to introduce themselves to the national producers, starting with Group A."

"Hello everyone, we are - your apple, ah~" The members of Group A all made the action of biting an apple.

"Hello everyone, I'm BOOGIE, Wang Ziyi. I'm the rapper from Group A. What's up?"

It can be seen that Wang Ziyi is indeed very confident in his rap ability. He even said a few words when introducing himself.
Gu Jingyi noticed Wang Linkai in the audience and smiled with a bit of disdain.

"Hello everyone, I'm Cai Xukun, the center of the group. If you vote for me, I will personally feed the apple to your mouth~"

After he finished speaking, Cai Xukun, who had a slicked-back hair, suddenly raised his right hand and made a fist, tilted his head and pretended to bite an apple, and even added an "ang" sound effect.

Gu Jingyi suddenly felt a little overwhelmed. This kind of interaction with the audience could indeed help him win votes. However, one can't just ignore everything for the sake of winning votes!
"Justin, our group's canvassing session will be handed over to you to act cute."

"it is good"

"Chengcheng, don't be nervous for a moment. For the rap part, just pay attention to Zheng Ruibin's rhythm. When he finishes singing, follow the rhythm and enter."

Gu Jingyi reminded Fan Chengcheng again that he was the only one in the entire group whose foundation was not that solid.

"Finally, believe me, even if any of you falter, I can pick it up. I've memorized all of your parts. Don't panic, just keep performing."

"it is good!"

Gu Jingyi's words quickly boosted everyone's morale.

Fan Chengcheng was infected by Gu Jingyi's strong self-confidence and was no longer so nervous.

He doesn't actually sing that many parts, it's mostly just rap. What's there to be afraid of? Isn't there Brother Jingyi to back him up?
On the stage, the voting for "PPAP" also ended.

The final number of votes for Cai Xukun was announced: eighty-five votes!

It seems that no matter how you attract fans, it is not as effective as the stage effect.

Cai Xukun's face turned a little ugly after seeing the number of votes.

Although their group beat Group B, his votes were mediocre. This was a big blow to Cai Xukun, who had always been confident in his own strength.

"Brother Jingyi, do you still remember how many votes Chen Linong got?"

Fan Chengcheng lowered his head and asked in a low voice.

210 votes

It would be strange if this score was not exaggerated.

Kiwi is just about to reveal its cards and bring the "biggest royal family" to the table.

His backer, Wanwan Capital, is the second-largest shareholder in Idol Century, the group's operating company after its formation. Even Justin, the youngest member, wouldn't believe there's no connection.

There was a hint of coldness in Gu Jingyi's eyes. If the production team really dared to touch his votes, they would be retaliated against.

Finally, Zhang Yixing took the stage: "Next, please invite the two groups of trainees who will compete with "Can't Stop" to the stage."

"Ahhhh!"

Gu Jingyi led the team out of the passage, and his stage was about to begin.

(End of this chapter)