Villain? No, I'll catch up with the protagonist after passing the civil service exam.

"royal?"

Lu Jingyan looked at the "Kun Kun" on the tablet, who was wearing smoky makeup and making a heart shape with his hands in front of the camera, and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

He didn't know much about talent shows, but he was unusually sensitive to the word "fraud".

"Captain Lu, is this any of our business?"

Zhao Tiezhu leaned closer, scratched his head, and said, "Fans voting is a matter of mutual consent. If the production team pulls some shady tactics, it seems... it's just a moral issue, right? It doesn't constitute a crime."

"It might not have been possible before."

Lu Jingyan stood up, walked to the whiteboard, and picked up a red marker.

"But now, times have changed."

With a "smack," he wrote several large characters on the whiteboard: "[Commercial Fraud]."

"Xiaoxiao, project that whistleblower email onto the big screen."

Su Xiaoxiao immediately did as instructed.

The email was very long, containing not only a screenshot of the abnormal data but also a lot of technical jargon and code analysis, clearly written by a programmer.

"The whistleblower is named Li Xiang, a programmer and a loyal fan of Cai Kun."

Su Xiaoxiao pointed to the contents of the email and explained, "In order to vote for his brother, he not only spent over 100,000 yuan of his own money, but also organized a 'technical support' team to monitor the voting backend 24 hours a day."

On stage, the lights were dazzling and the music was deafening.

The final ten trainees are giving their all in their last performance.

In an inconspicuous corner at the very front of the audience.

Wearing a mask and a baseball cap, Lu Jingyan calmly watched the crazy scene before him, his eyes appearing particularly deep in the dim light.

Zhao Tiezhu, standing beside him, was like a gorilla who had mistakenly entered a land of women, fidgeting restlessly.

"Captain Lu, this...this is too noisy."

Zhao Tiezhu rubbed his ears, which were numb from the loud music. "These young people are all as skinny as monkeys. How can they have the energy to sing? I think we should go listen to Lei sing 'Farewell My Concubine' instead."

"Shhh."

Lu Jingyan made a shushing gesture. "Watch carefully and learn carefully. This is also a social phenomenon."

"Look at that person in the center."

He pointed to Kun Kun, the "royal" contestant who was surrounded by fans and enjoying the loudest screams from the audience in the center of the stage.

"He can't keep up with the beat when dancing, and he sings off-key the whole time, but he still gets more screen time than others."

Why?

"Because his dad is rich," Zhao Tiezhu said, pursing his lips.

"That's right."

Lu Jingyan nodded. "That's the power of capital. It can distort the truth and call a deer a horse."

"But tonight, I'll let them know."

He glanced at his phone; it was a message from Su Xiaoxiao: "[All evidence has been secured; we can close the net at any time.]"

"Before the law, even capital... has to kneel down."

On stage, the final performance came to an end.

The host, holding cue cards, walked onto the stage with an excited expression.

"The exciting moment has finally arrived! Now, I will announce the final center of 'Idol Producer 101':"

The entire room fell silent.

All the fans held their breath, staring intently at the scrolling vote count on the big screen.

Lu Jingyan also raised his head, looking at the result that was about to be revealed, and a cold smile appeared on his lips.

He spoke softly into the miniature microphone on his collar:

"Attention all units"

"Prepare for action."