My agency went bankrupt before I even got on stage.

On the stage of the second public performance, Luo Yu made another appearance, serving as a guest host.

"Hello everyone, fellow guardians of the stars here! I'm Luo Yu. Time flies! In the blink of an eye, the second performance is about to begin. Are you all looking forward to the upcoming performances?"

The audience members responded enthusiastically, shouting, "Looking forward to it!"

"I'm really looking forward to it! This time, the trainees will be doing a position assessment. Based on their strengths, they've been divided into three categories: Rap, Vocal, and Dance. They will be bringing you 12 amazing performances today, and how well they perform will be decided by the 400 guardian stars here today."

In this performance, Team A and Team B will compete against each other for each song to determine the winners and losers. There will be no rewards for second and third place, and all the votes will go to the first place team.

This rule is incredibly harsh. The winner takes all, the loser gets nothing.

The performance order this time was determined directly by the production team based on the rehearsal results. The advantage of this is that it presents the audience with a more complete and better-looking stage, but the disadvantage is that the competition is more intense for the trainees.

The first group to perform was the rap group. After encouraging each other, the first team of performers took to the stage and began their performance amidst cheers.

Lin Fan sat in the waiting room watching the broadcast on the big screen. The first team of performers were all quite talented, and their overall performance was very exciting, quickly stirring up the enthusiasm of the audience and creating a small wave of excitement.

That makes sense; if the stage performance wasn't good, the production team wouldn't have let them start.

The performance of Team A was well-received, but Team B, who performed the same piece, was in a bit of a predicament. Since they were performing the same song, after seeing Team A's performance, the audience was likely to experience aesthetic fatigue from seeing Team B's almost identical performance.

Unless the gap between the two teams is so large that the audience's fan filter cannot cover up the truth or deceive themselves, the team that plays later will always be at a disadvantage than the team that plays earlier.

Of course, the reverse is also true. Team B consists of popular contestants, and fans vote with their feet, not caring how well their idols perform; they just vote for their idols.

The rap group is a little better because each member writes their own lyrics, so there's no repetition. Although Lin Fan is very skeptical, he wonders if the audience can hear what the trainees are singing without subtitles.

After both teams finished performing, when the votes were announced, as Lin Fan had predicted, Team A's score was much better than Team B's. Although the suspense of the first place vote count for each team remained, based on the combined votes of the others, unless Team B's first place vote count was 150 more than Team A's first place vote count, Team B would have already lost.

Not only Lin Fan, but many trainees backstage also noticed this, but what could they say? They could only blame themselves for not being popular enough. If they were popular enough, it wouldn't be impossible for one person to get several hundred votes, let alone 100.

Li Xiaodong suddenly leaned close to Lin Fan's ear and whispered, "Brother Fan, we're Team A, which gives us an advantage. But Tu Jingyi from Team B is a hidden powerhouse, so you absolutely have to suppress him! Whether we make it to the third round depends entirely on you, Brother Fan!"

Lin Fan shook his head repeatedly: "No! I can't hold it down! Don't rely on me!"

Li Xiaodong said with exasperation, "Brother Fan, you need to be more proactive!"

"It's impossible to be proactive..."

"I'll add more money!" Li Xiaodong unleashed his financial power. "As long as you're a little more proactive, Brother Fan, I'll increase your new song's downloads by 5—no, 10! I'll get you a whopping 10 downloads!"

Lin Fan's eyes instantly flashed with a laser-like light: "For our team, I definitely won't let everyone down!"

It's definitely not for those 10 downloads!

Chen Xianwu secretly gave Li Xiaodong a thumbs up, and Li Xiaodong proudly raised her chin: Hmph! Brother Fan, I've seen through you!

……

The performance continued, and soon it was Lin Fan's team's turn.

As Lin Fan and his teammates stepped onto the stage, they were greeted by enthusiastic screams and a dense array of light boards, posters, and glow sticks from the audience. Lin Fan even saw his own name displayed on a light board held atop the heads of fans.

"Lin Fan!!!"

"Dongdong! Li Xiaodong! I love you! Your sister loves you!"

"Chen Xianwu, don't cry!!!"

……

Before Lin Fan and the others could react, the people below had already lit up their light boards in unison. Red, yellow, blue, green, and purple—it seemed to be their support colors—especially Lin Fan and Li Xiaodong's light boards, where a large expanse of yellow and green lights lit up in perfect unison.

The program team of "Morning Star" announced the support colors for each trainee. Li Xiaodong's support color is winter melon green, Lin Fan's support color is lazy yellow, and Chen Xianwu's support color is melancholy blue. The word "melancholy" comes from his suppressed crying in dormitory 404 last time.

Chen Xianwu gets angry with anyone who brings this up.

"They're our fans!" Chen Xianwu exclaimed excitedly, his voice trembling.

These are real fans! They're truly their fans! The very kind of fans who are alive and well!

Zhang Yi and Wen Yang were both stunned, finding it hard to believe that they actually had fans coming to support them. Tickets for the performance were very difficult to obtain, and since the performance was held on Huahai Island, fans who weren't from the area not only had to fight for tickets but also had to make a special trip to get there.

Therefore, unless you're a very dedicated and enthusiastic fan, you generally won't make a special trip to the performance. Anyone who does come is a true fan.

Lin Fan and Li Xiaodong are alright; one doesn't have many demands on fans, and the other is already used to such support scenes.

But Chen Xianwu and his two companions were quite excited, not just excited, but almost moved to tears! They had never experienced such fan support before! This was the first time they had ever witnessed their fans traveling thousands of miles to cheer them on!

How could I not be moved!

……

After taking the stage, the five-person group began introducing themselves. Chen Xianwu and the others were fine during their introductions, as not many of their fans were present. However, Li Xiaodong and Lin Fan had a lot of fans!

Li Xiaodong had barely begun speaking when she said, "Hello everyone, I'm Li Xiaodong..."

A chorus of screams erupted from the audience, and a particularly high-pitched voice cut through the screams to the stage: "Li Xiaodong, Lin Fan! Just merge up right here!"

This is solid proof from CP fans!

When it was Lin Fan's turn: "Hello everyone, I'm Lin Fan..."

"I came all this way just to vote for you! Don't even think about slacking off! Even if you lie down on the stage, I'm still voting for you today!"

The audience couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"That's right, we came here specifically to vote for you!"

"Whether you're open for business or not! My ticket belongs only to you!"

"If you dare to slack off, I'll dare to flood the chat with water!"

Lin Fan: ...

Miss, you don't need to take it so seriously.

Really, there's no need!

……