I turned reality into a romantic comedy.

And so, after Shen Nianqiu made a mistake and left the stage, only three contestants remained on the field for a time.

"The production team must have cut this part out; actually, the three of them were arguing for at least seven rounds."

After glancing at the current time and the words the host was reading on screen, Shen Nianqiu asserted the same thing again, but still had some doubts:

"But there's no need to cut so much, there shouldn't be that much time to spare."

As she said, the production team boldly moved the time directly to the final decisive round after Shen Nianqiu's elimination. The last member of the Guizhou team was stuck in the "brothers fighting each other" situation, and the last member of the Henan team wrote "zha she" as "ze".

According to the competition rules, if Liu Yichen, the last member of the Zhejiang team, writes the correct word for this round, the Zhejiang team will be able to advance to the semifinals. If he also writes it incorrectly, the three of them will start another round of competition until a winner is determined.

As the camera switched back and forth between the venue and the surrounding area, amidst the prayers and blessings of the families and friends of the three teams and the students on stage, the chief examiner finally uttered the word that would determine the outcome of this round of the semi-finals:

【影戤 (yǐng gài)】

This refers to counterfeiting other companies' brands or trademarks to pass them off as genuine and profit from them.

Liu Yichen, who had been full of confidence since his appearance, submitted his work at an extraordinary speed and with an unparalleled accuracy rate. For the first time, he showed a surprised expression, even though he was also enjoying the special VCR treatment. The Zhejiang team, who were cheering for him from the sidelines, were also stunned.

"To be honest, it was the first time I had ever heard this word, and I was completely stunned. Actually, when I think about it later, I realize that I had practiced this word before, but at that time, probably because it was the final round, I couldn't remember it for a moment, which is a bit of a pity."

During the reshoot of Liu Yichen's interview, he hesitated for a long time on stage and finally failed to write the second character correctly. As the other two contestants breathed a sigh of relief, the competition was postponed for another round.

Then, just as everyone in front of the TV breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to watch the results of the next round, they heard the announcement that "the accuracy rate of the 100-person panel in this round is one percent."

The camera then shifted from the stage to the audience in surprise, focusing on the group of 100 people. It scanned the faces of the students, who were curious, confused, or surprised, before finally focusing on student number 001 at the very front, as if it had finally found the right person.

After a formal three-second pause on Chen Junqian's face and the answer board with the correct answer written on it, all the audience members suddenly stood up and, together with the three contestants still answering the question, gave the only boy in the audience who answered the question correctly the warmest applause. You could even hear the younger students in the audience shouting "Awesome!"

Then, on the other side of Guoning, another mother, woken up by a phone call from her family to watch TV, saw her baby on TV and was so shocked she almost bit her tongue.

"Mu...Mu Mu?"

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

PS2: Last night, my teacher dragged me to an offline matchmaking event. Since it was in Hefei, Anhui, it was related to Huangmei Opera. Putting aside the content, the name was "Mei Ni Bu Guo" (Mei You Can't Do It), which really makes people think of the wrong thing, it's just like "Ai You Bu Guo" (a vulgar term for a wart) or "Mei Shi" (a vulgar term for a thing related to Huangmei Opera)...

Chapter 46: Guo Ning, the Top Star, Has Arrived (Part 2)

"Qianqian (Chen Junqian) has been the top student in our grade since the beginning of this year. He also won the first prize in the essay competition and founded the first club in our middle school, the literature club. Anyway, he's really amazing! So when I heard that he was going to Beijing to participate in the Chinese Character Dictation Competition, I thought he would definitely achieve good results. Go go go!"

Lin Mu seemed somewhat dissatisfied or even resentful about his debut on a CCTV program:

"I recorded a really long speech at school, how did it get edited down to such a short clip, and what's more—"

As she spoke, she stood up again and pointed to the label "Chen Junqian's classmate" in the lower right corner of the TV screen, which the program had labeled, and pouted in dissatisfaction.

"I specifically told Teacher Wang back then to label me here as Qianqian's childhood sweetheart... but in the end, I just have this dry, lifeless classmate."

Faced with Lin Mu's unconsciously self-deprecating behavior, the other three girls on Guo Ning's side reacted in different ways. Chen Xi was wondering if she would have the chance to go to Beijing as a genuine supporter to cheer on Chen Junqian. Gu Lingguo maintained her usual smile and calm expression. Xu Youwei, on the other hand, was the most direct and straightforward, rolling her eyes at her best friend.

"Come on, this is a CCTV program. But I also think they should at least mention a friend or something. I guess it was filmed at a school. Look, your homeroom teacher is out."

After Mu Mu's footage, there are several shots and comments from Teacher Wang, followed by two video materials submitted by Xu Youwei herself and materials provided by Hefei No. 50 Middle School. The narration then introduces other things about Chen Junqian and the reasons for participating in the competition.

"In the selection competition for the provincial representative high school, Hefei No. 50 Middle School, he won all the way to the end and stood out to become one of the contestants in the 100-person team. Could it be that he is the ultimate ace of the Anhui team in this 'Chinese Character Dictation Competition'?"

Although it sounds a bit awkward, given Chen Junqian's overwhelming performance at the moment, it doesn't seem to make any mistakes. After all, he is from a school in Anhui. If he wins the championship, the achievement can certainly be attributed to the Anhui team. At worst, everyone can change the subject and say that the regular players were just his sparring partners. Either way, there's something to say.

However, the match on the field was not over yet, so the camera could not keep focusing on Chen Junqian. After playing the VCR and briefly introducing Chen Junqian to the audience, the camera quickly returned to the three people on the stage who were still fighting hard for the only semi-final spot. In the end, Liu Yichen successfully led his team to revive and break through with the help of [Luoluo Daduan].

After writing down the equally challenging word with a sigh of relief, he immediately turned his gaze to the panel of 100. Upon hearing the announcement that "the panel of 100 had a 1% accuracy rate in this round," he smiled, crossed his arms, and bowed to thank all the judges and audience members. Meanwhile, the other members and teachers from the Zhejiang team rushed from the backstage audience to the stage, hugging each other to celebrate their team's advancement, thus bringing this episode to a close.

Although 【荦荦大端】 is also considered a rather difficult and obscure word, there was the prior word 【影戤】, which even the contestants on stage couldn't answer. So even after the first episode of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" ended, online discussions about this episode still focused on 【影戤】 and Chen Junqian, the only one who wrote it correctly.

Even the fastest-moving media outlets were local Guoning. Within an hour of the program ending, the local Guoning forum featured a prominent article on its homepage titled "Guoning Middle School Students Shine on CCTV's 'Chinese Character Dictation Competition'," praising Chen Junqian to the skies. This prompted many Guoning residents who hadn't seen the program to click on the attached video link, which showed the scene of the quiz on the word "影戤" that had sparked heated discussions across Weibo after the first episode aired.

To be honest, for most parents of Guoning, the name Chen Junqian is not unfamiliar. After all, he has always been the most perfect "other people's child". Apart from the dark history of being suspected of getting lost when he was a child (thanks to a childhood sweetheart), he is almost flawless in every way. But now, seeing him win the championship on such a big stage as CCTV, they can't help but take another look at their own child and sigh that the difference between people is indeed boundless.

However, aside from most of the official press releases with their strong official tone, such as "The crisis of Chinese characters: nearly 70% of adults can't write the three characters for 'toad'", "How Chinese character heroes are made", and "Will the level of Chinese character cognition deteriorate sharply with the development of the Internet", a considerable number of casual viewers who were attracted by a few clips, besides exclaiming "What kind of characters are these?", began to pay attention to another aspect, or rather, the stage of idol worship that they prefer and are more comfortable with.

It can only be said that this matter is quite ordinary. In Chen Junqian's previous life, the first batch of popular contestants in the "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" all had their own support groups. For example, Liu Yichen, who led the Zhejiang team to advance today, not only had a fan support group, but even came up with a support slogan. I remember it was called "Weicheng Morning Rain Yiqingchen".

This was mainly a result created by the show's producers themselves. After each member of the Zhejiang team was eliminated, they would confidently say, "Liu Yichen will lead us to the next round." The show's producers broadcast all of this without any cuts, which, combined with the hype, created the other team's high popularity. As a result, their ability to turn the tide again in the semi-finals was questioned by some netizens as being scripted. After all, not all viewers buy into this kind of thing.

But this time it was Chen Junqian's turn to enjoy this treatment.

Just a few hours ago, he was teasing Shen Nianqiu about her fan club. But now, a few hours later, he saw a fan club with his name as a prefix on the internet. Chen Junqian felt a bit complicated. After all, he had no intention of developing in this direction in his life. So, after returning a few calls and messages from family and friends, he went to bed.

However, after a night of public opinion, when he opened his eyes again, the trend not only did not stop, but seemed to be getting worse. Fortunately, Chen Junqian had already completed most of the official interviews before the show aired, so there was no need to meet with the reporters who swarmed in after the show aired. The production team's intention was also for him to not be affected by the outside world during this period and to focus on preparing for the semi-finals and even the finals in his hotel room.

Frankly speaking, the production team is more concerned about whether Chen Junqian can make it to the finals than Chen Junqian himself. After all, the response after the first episode aired was better than they expected, especially the three contestants Chen Junqian, Liu Yichen, and Shen Nianqiu, who received a lot of attention. And the thought that they can be paired with Zhu Wenyun for promotion starting from the next episode makes the editing even more motivating.

From the show's perspective, contestants like Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun, who are part of the 100-person team, are actually more beneficial for publicity than the official members of the various representative teams. This is because even the best contestants can only play in the three rounds of the semi-finals and finals. For example, Liu Yichen and Shen Nianqiu, members of the Zhejiang team, will not be able to appear again until the semi-finals, which is more than a month away. However, Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun are different. As members of the 100-person team, they will appear in every match, and there is no shortage of material and highlights, which can be edited into every episode.

Therefore, it is foreseeable that during the next month or two of the broadcast of the semi-finals, the discussion surrounding Chen Junqian will continue to rise. After that, we will have to see how he performs in the semi-finals.

After discussing the sudden surge in popularity with the production team for a while, Chen Junqian decisively chose to stay indoors. He even stopped going down to the restaurant to eat, instead having his roommate bring him food. At most, he would meet with Zhu Wenyun and Shen Nianqiu who came to visit.

"Actually, it's not just the audience, all the girls in our team are attracted to you, little brother. They even thought I'd ask you for your contact information. Humph, you're dreaming."

Chen Junqian wasn't surprised by Shen Nianqiu's rambling. Because of Liu Yichen in his previous life, the Zhejiang team received an astonishing amount of attention at this year's dictation competition. Every time Liu Yichen took the stage, the camera would cut to the backstage area. In addition, he was the one carrying the team in the semi-finals and the semi-finals. So, he would often be writing in front of the stage while several girls cheered him on from behind. He had seen plenty of fangirl comments like, "I knew Liu Yichen would never have trouble finding a girlfriend!" and "Liu Yichen, you're so handsome!"

To put it bluntly, everyone is just a junior high school student. It's just that the girls are more outgoing offline than the boys, otherwise they wouldn't have all come after Shen Nianqiu.

"That's right. I've had a lot of strangers adding me on QQ lately, and I'm thinking about switching to a new one."

"That won't do. You still have our chat history saved in this account. It should only be for this period of time. It will be fine once the show's popularity dies down. Little brother, please turn on Do Not Disturb mode for now."

“My grandma saw Junqian too, and she even called me.”

Zhu Wenyun was also present; in fact, she simply couldn't allow a situation where only Chen Junqian and Shen Nianqiu were present.

In fact, what older people care about more than whether they can understand the program is their own child appearing on TV, especially on CCTV-1, which is the channel they usually watch for the news and weather forecast.

"As for Wenyun, I feel like we'll see her in the next episode, so there's no need to rush."

Upon hearing this, Chen Junqian spoke up again to comfort the other party, after all, Zhu Wenyun in the first episode did not get any screen time, not even as much as Lin Mu who appeared for several seconds in his VCR.

"Hmm... I do think there's something wrong with it, after all, I didn't do well in the first round of the semi-finals."

Zhu Wenjun didn't care too much about this. She didn't participate in this dictation competition to become famous on TV. Besides her love for literature, she wanted to take this opportunity to compete with Shen Nianqiu. However, they both lost in the first semi-final, and the winner has not yet been decided.

As she spoke, she was still looking at news reports related to Chen Junqian on her phone. Seemingly finding something interesting, she chuckled softly and handed the phone over. Shen Nianqiu, who was beside her, also leaned in and began reading the text aloud:

Two "male gods" suddenly appeared on Weibo during the "Variety Show Fun Night" the night before last. If Ni Peng, the "Train Brother" (from "The Voice of China Season 2"), became popular because of the hottest "voice" of the summer, then Chen Junqian, also from Anhui, a boy who officially entered the second year of junior high school after this summer vacation, challenged "The Voice of China" by writing Chinese characters.

The fact is, the CCTV variety show that made him famous, "Chinese Character Dictation Competition," premiered the night before last and immediately climbed into the top three of the TV program Weibo topic list. After an hour and a half of "dictation," many viewers, while marveling that "Chinese characters" could rival "The Voice of China," secretly changed their phone's input method to handwriting.

Friday's first match featured teams from Zhejiang, Henan, Guizhou, and Xinjiang. Liu Yichen, who fought his way to the end, led the Zhejiang team, selected by Hangzhou Foreign Languages ​​School, into the semifinals. However, after the match, the most discussed figure on Weibo was not him, who led his team to victory, but Chen Junqian, who was among the hundred-person audience at the venue.

Revered as a "genius student," he not only writes difficult or obscure words like "恽代英" (Yun Daiying), "尥蹶子" (Liaojuezi), "神庵" (shrine), "nucleotides," and "罗荦大端" (Luoluo Daduan) with perfect accuracy, but more importantly, compared to the other main team members who struggled and revised their answers repeatedly, Chen's writing and answering of questions were almost always completed in one go. This boy, with a handsome face like a Korean trainee and a calm and relaxed expression, stole the show during the competition. The director gave him far more close-up shots than others, and the slight smile on his lips after each answer caused the girls around him to swoon.

Especially on the word "影戤" that stumped the entire audience, Chen Junqian demonstrated his strong knowledge and Chinese character writing skills. After writing it correctly, he won a standing ovation and applause from the audience, including the judges, which also made his junior high school, Guoning Middle School, stand out.

According to our reporter, the person in question is also a well-known figure in Guo Ning's hometown, a small county in southern Anhui. He is not only a top student who consistently ranks first in his grade and a test-taking genius, but also someone who, in elementary school, used his wisdom and courage to prevent a serious stampede from happening and was commended for it. He is truly a model student of the new era, excelling in both character and academics. Many viewers who learned about his deeds called him a male god, and overnight, related online forums and fan clubs were established.

Next, Chen Junqian will continue to compete in the Chinese Character Dictation Competition as a member of the 100-person team. If he achieves a top-three finish, he will advance to the final round to compete against other strong contenders for the annual Chinese Character Dictation Championship. We wish them continued success in their competition, and hope that viewers will prepare paper and pens and "dictate" along with them!

Shen Nianqiu also enjoyed the process of Chen Junqian being praised by everyone. After all, an older sister always hopes that her younger brother can be recognized and praised. However, Zhu Wenyun's feelings about this were more complicated, just like the confident answer she gave to her grandmother in the face of her grandmother's worries during their phone call:

"It's alright. Next week, Grandma will see my name and his name written on the same line by those reporters. And if any reporters from our area interview you... just say what I told you."

P.S.: Thank you for reading and subscribing.

Chapter 47: Guess which childhood sweetheart didn't appear in the scene (Part 2)

Chen Junqian wasn't surprised that Zhu Wenyun would become the second person the show's producers were keen on after him. He even thought that if he hadn't performed so brilliantly in the first round of the semi-finals, Zhu Wenyun would have been the show's first favorite.

Without a doubt, 2013 was a big year for Chinese variety shows to officially set sail.

In October, the same month that the first season of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" officially ended, Hunan TV brought "Where Are We Going, Dad?", imported from South Korea, which became a huge success. This prompted Zhejiang TV, its long-time competitor, to quickly follow suit the following year, 2014, by importing the popular South Korean variety show "Running Man" and localizing it as "Running Man Brothers." This ushered in a golden age for variety shows in the Chinese entertainment industry. It even gave rise to a large number of "variety show stars" who gained fans and popularity solely based on their performances on various variety shows, without any audience having any representative works.

In essence, the production process and editing approach of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" are no different from the aforementioned variety shows. It's just that because it is led by CCTV and is marketed as a cultural program, it takes a slightly more serious approach. However, the core program creation logic is the same, and they know what kind of storylines will attract viewers and generate more discussion.

However, compared to those variety shows that shamelessly use malicious editing to deliberately create dramatic conflicts and contradictions, the main theme of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" is undoubtedly more profound. Or rather, the main theme of this program is the main theme itself. Chen Junqian himself was taught a series of lines by the program team before the competition, such as "I hope everyone can rediscover and write Chinese characters through this program" or "No matter who wins or loses in the end, Chinese characters will ultimately win."

That is precisely why, unlike his situation where digging deeper would reveal three villains and that the capitalist was actually himself, Zhu Wenyun's background and experience are clearly more suitable for related publicity work.

The answer to this question can actually be found in the web series "Unexpectedly," which will also be broadcast this summer and has a far-reaching influence on the internet.

The tenth episode of the first season of "Unexpectedly" is called "The Strongest Talent Show King," but in reality, all the contestants who came on stage were "The Strongest Misery Queens." From a blind man to the last resident of a primitive tribe to a paraplegic, everyone had a story to tell and their own tragic tale to sell. In the end, a corpse was brought up to demonstrate what it means to respect the dead. They won the championship of "The Strongest Talent Show King" and achieved great success, making the protagonist, Wang Dachui, exclaim "Unexpectedly!" once again.

In terms of 'comparing misery', Zhu Wenyun is naturally far more suitable than Chen Junqian.

To reiterate, the combination of "left-behind child," "living with her grandmother," "love of life and literature," "excellent academic performance," and "earning money from writing to supplement the family income" creates a poignant atmosphere. Even if this wasn't Zhu Wenyun's original intention, few things in this world unfold exactly as the person in question wishes. The technique of "shooting the arrow first and then drawing the target" can indeed be applied flexibly in every field.

However, even setting aside the main themes and the sob stories, Zhu Wenyun also has aspects that interest the show's producers.

Returning to the topic of variety shows, the audience's interest in these shows essentially revolves around interpersonal relationships, whether it's competition or cooperation. Even Jiangsu Satellite TV's flagship variety show "The Brain," which will be produced next year, only has a few episodes featuring the competition between Chinese and foreign contestants that garnered the highest viewership.

Therefore, in this respect, Zhu Wenyun is the one who best meets the expectations of the production team.

It can either revolve around the main theme or delve deeper into the relationship between the person and the story.

As for the relationship with whom exactly...

----------------------------------

"Yes, Junqian is my godson. He and my granddaughter grew up together since they were little. They went to school together, studied together, played together, and even cooked together. Their relationship is definitely top-notch. They even went to Beijing together for the competition this time."

Generally speaking, contestants don't actively feature their families in their video clips, because on the stage of "Chinese Character Dictation Competition," contestants are primarily portrayed as 'students,' and they want to showcase their campus life. Therefore, interviewing teachers and classmates is the most common approach, and Chen Junqian did the same.

However, such examples are not very applicable to Zhu Wenyun, because her identity as a left-behind child is a given, and it would be a waste not to make a big deal out of this established persona. Moreover, even if you went to interview Zhu Wenyun at Jinhe Middle School, where she actually attends, you would only be surprised to find that she doesn't actually have any friends at school. So in the end, the camera was turned to her family, namely Zhu Wenyun's grandmother, which led to the above passage.

Actually, this is the result that the cameraman and editor have streamlined, because in reality the elderly person's rambling with a strong accent would have been much longer. However, compared to these spoken contents, what they preferred more were the scenes of the other person's home that were filmed.

A bookshelf crammed full, a wall covered with certificates of merit on a mottled, yellowish old wall—these few images are enough to easily conjure up in one's mind the image of a young girl who, despite being in a cramped room, still lets her vast literary ideals take flight. This is the best material.

However, the only thing that the production team regrets is that, as contestants in the same group of 100, Chen Junqian and Zhu Wenyun are actually participating in the competition as individuals. Therefore, they cannot extend the recording of their interactions as they would with other students in the same team. After all, there is always a barrier between them, and they cannot even give each other a high-five to encourage and celebrate after successfully answering a question, at least not until the final.

With this editing approach in mind, the second semi-final episode of the "Chinese Character Dictation Competition" was quickly edited out and officially broadcast.

The four teams in the second episode are from Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Yunnan and Hunan. What's particularly unique is that the members of the Inner Mongolia and Yunnan teams all wore ethnic costumes to participate in the recording, which was quite a sight to behold.

"Speaking of which, it seems that the male-to-female ratio in each team of this year's dictation competition is quite skewed, with more women than men."

It was the familiar seven-person live stream segment. Lin Mu, who was munching on potato chips at Chen Junqian's house, was the first to notice this detail and pointed it out with some curiosity.

However, what she said is indeed correct. For example, in the second round, the four teams from Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, and Yunnan all had a configuration of four women and one man, while Hunan had a configuration of three women and two men. In total, out of the twenty contestants on the field, there were only five men.

"Because this competition is more humanities-oriented, there are indeed more girls than boys in humanities. If you watch science-related robotics competitions or math Olympiad modeling competitions, it should be the other way around, with more boys than girls. However, this ratio is quite exaggerated, and it's not just one or two teams; basically all the teams have only one or two boys."

Shen Nianqiu picked up the conversation, explaining something to Lin Mu, and then turned to Chen Junqian, feigning nonchalance, and asked:

"Does my younger brother want to study humanities or sciences in the future?"

"It should be humanities."