Esports world champion, debuted as the center of a talent show

Her movements slowed down in a few of the photos as she muttered to herself, "Huh? Why is there that faint black dot under his eyes in every single photo? It's not some kind of insect or lens smudge? Could it be stage makeup? No, I didn't see it in my initial performance photos later. Oh well, never mind..."

After pondering for a long time without finding an answer, she could only shake her head and give up, continuing to happily look through the photos.

The holiday passed in the blink of an eye, and the day to return to work soon arrived.

When Jiang Zhiyu returned from his holiday, Lin Shi drove him back to the recording studio. During the holiday, he was too busy to pick Jiang Zhiyu up and take him home, so this time Lin Shi insisted on personally taking him.

Lin Shi's car was given special permission by the production team to drive all the way to the parking lot inside the recording base before stopping.

Jiang Zhiyu got out of the car carrying his bag. Just as he gently closed the car door, he saw Lin Shi sitting inside slowly opening the car window.

"By the way, Zhiyu, I just remembered that your birthday this year happens to fall during the recording period of the show."

"The production team will most likely be doing a birthday celebration, a public birthday party, and it'll probably be a big one since it's a coming-of-age ceremony. If you don't want to participate, I can talk to Director Hong in advance and cancel it for you, okay?"

Jiang Zhiyu's ID card shows that his birthday is August 16th, but since they met, Jiang Zhiyu has never celebrated his birthday. Every year, as his birthday approaches, he becomes particularly depressed and introverted, doesn't like to talk, and deliberately avoids crowds.

Lin Shineng could vaguely guess the reason, but he never asked for more details. He simply helped him cancel all the birthday celebrations and shielded him from all unnecessary disturbances.

Faced with Lin Shi's question, Jiang Zhiyu nodded without hesitation: "Let's do it your way... Thanks, brother."

Lin Shi grinned and waved his hand dismissively: "Go!"

Jiang Zhiyu nodded and turned to walk into the dormitory building.

The first thing we did on the second day after returning to camp was to promptly announce the final results of the fan song selection vote for the third public performance, which closed at midnight the previous night.

[Here I am! I'm finally back from vacation!!!]

Do you know what I've been through these past few days?! I've never felt this empty since the show started!!

[But actually, thanks to the production team, I've been quite busy these past few days, haha.]

[Jiang Jiang Jiang Jiang, it's been so long! I've missed you so much I'm practically tearing my hair out, sob sob sob.]

[Can we finally announce the song selection results? Even though it wasn't a big surprise, I still wanted to see!]

The six custom-made songs announced by the program team will be contested by fans for seven days. The trainee with the most votes for each song will directly secure the captain and center position for that song.

The large screen in the classroom lit up on time, and all the trainees who had advanced gathered in the classroom, standing neatly. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the screen, and the atmosphere was tense yet expectant.

After a round of voting during the holiday, the final result of the song "Wild Star" taking the center position was no longer in doubt, but the voting results still shocked the audience.

Of the six songs, "Wildfire" has consistently been the most popular, simply because it was chosen by Jiang Zhiyu's fans as the song for the third public performance.

Although everyone already knew who would be the center of the song, the entire audience fell silent the moment the final vote count was announced.

[Jiang Zhiyu is ranked first in votes for "Against the Blaze"]

The vote count was overwhelmingly large, with the second-place candidate receiving less than half of his votes. The gap was so large that it was obvious, and he was in an absolutely dominant lead.

The trainees all turned their heads in amazement at the result.

No one was surprised, but they were still shocked by this terrifying popularity.

No matter the track or the competitive landscape, it seems that as long as Jiang Zhiyu is involved, it will always be a one-of-a-kind, overwhelming victory.

The host, Yu Lan, stood at the front of the stage, looking at the data on the big screen, and announced the results with a smile, her tone full of approval.

"Congratulations to Jiang Zhiyu for securing the center position and team captain's seat for the third public performance of 'Wildfire' with a landslide victory in votes!"

Immediately afterwards, the large screen continued to scroll, displaying the complete team member list for "Reverse Wildfire".

The five members whose rankings were determined by fan vote are: Yao Wei, Lu Renjia, Yu Jin, Shen Fengyu, and Dong Fa.

Shen Fengyu, Yu Jin, and Yao Wei had already collaborated in the first and second performances, respectively. Lu Renjia was a fellow trainee in Class A during the theme song period. Only Dong Fa had little interaction with them and was relatively unfamiliar to them.

I dare say Jiang Si rigged the votes, but I have no proof.

[This group is good; there are more familiar faces, so Jiang Jiang is more likely to open up.]

[Although there's no need to see who will be the center of Jiang Zhiyu's group, I was still shocked when the votes came out. I've never seen anyone in a talent show have such a complete and overwhelming lead no matter what the result is!]

[This song, "Wild Spark," is completely different from all of Jiang Jiang's previous styles. I'm really looking forward to his performance!]

The center position and members for the other six songs were also announced one by one.

"Confession in the Evening Breeze" - Deng Sushui

The Weightless Quadrant – Lin Sen

"Dawn Breaks" - Mi Lan

Limited Edition: Blazing Hot - by Wei Shuang

"Flowers Bloom from Cracks" - Ahn Joon-young

The top six team captains are the top six ranked in the second public performance, which perfectly matches the current popularity of the show.

After announcing all the song selections and team formations for the third public performance, Yu Lan changed the subject and announced another important event.

"In addition, we would like to inform everyone here that the top nine trainees in the second public performance ranking will be eligible to participate in the pre-competition fan meeting for the third public performance."

"The fan meeting is scheduled to be held in five days and will be broadcast live. We hope everyone will make the most of the remaining time to familiarize themselves with the theme song and meet the fans in the best possible way."

After saying that, she turned to face the live stream camera and continued, "The tickets for the fan meeting will be selected through a lottery, and all tickets will be linked to real names. There are no other purchase channels. Please be wary of being scammed and refuse to buy tickets from scalpers."

[Go to hell, Hongliu! They only notified us five days later? Why didn't they wait until after the Lunar New Year?!]

[Pick me! Pick me! Pick me! Heavenly spirits! Earthly spirits! All the gods in the world, please show your power!]

[They actually resorted to using underhanded tactics to stop scalpers? Hong Liu, are you still yourself? If you're being possessed, just blink, but don't let go, please stay put.]

[Aaaaaaah! It's a fan meeting!! Is it one of those fan meetings where you can line up and go on stage for one-on-one autographs?!]

I'm going to get my whole family involved in the lottery; this time, I'm going to take back everything I've lost!

[Assistant: Fans have failed to get concert tickets twice already. Hong Liu: Did she give in? Assistant: No, she stayed up all night figuring out how to increase her chances of winning in the raffle!]