CHAPTER 47: CHAPTER 47: THEME SONG

This fan war between Song Xi fans and Xie Qingci fans has gotten quite lively, with the program’s official Weibo page in chaos, full of noise and confusion.

The officials haven’t stepped in yet. Song Xi’s fans are making a fuss, like fierce women trying to snatch first place for their son.

They’re criticizing the program team, criticizing Xie Qingci, criticizing Xie Qingci’s fans, making sarcastic comments like royal protectors, indiscriminately firing shots.

And some fans have reasonable arguments.

[Funny, Song Xi fans are over two million, most attendees are our fans. How can the voting not be the highest?]

[This program is about picking singing and dancing talents, not a beauty pageant! Just having a face is incredible? Going up there to perform with their face?]

[Program team, provide an explanation! Why isn’t Song Xi’s vote count the highest?! Strongest in singing and dancing, yet losing to someone completely inexperienced!]

[The favoritism is so obvious, even Shu Ran is playing along, afraid others might not notice the script you’ve cooked up?]

[What has Xie Qingci got over Song Xi?! Song Xi even has Pei Lu dragging the team down and still got the highest votes, this alone shows how high Song Xi’s personal vote count is. Yet you still give the votes to Xie Qingci, is the program team out of their mind?]

The program’s latest Weibo post reveals the results of the first public show, now filled with complaints from Song Xi’s fans below.

The trending comments follow a unified template, with bright red exclamation point icons, showing they’re more organized than other contestants’ fans.

Yet seeing it too often becomes tiresome.

Inside these trending comments, there’s a thread from Xie Qingci fans offering explanations.

[What if your fans couldn’t help but vote for Xie Qingci? After all, wouldn’t a talent show choose someone who looks good to whet your appetite?]

[Funny, he may have no foundation, but does no foundation mean being unable to sing or dance well? So the whole world thinks your Song Xi is the best?]

[The live audience loves handsome guys who sing and dance well. Why, isn’t it allowed? Can only vote for Song Xi?]

[Good performance means the program team is pushing them. High votes mean there’s a script. Then I’d say Song Xi is an undercover prince. If his votes are high later, we’ll say he has a script too! You’re the only one with a mouth, keep talking nonsense.]

[Just became a fan, Xie Qingci really was the most impressive this time, straight to trending, his solo focus video got the highest views, doesn’t that say enough?]

[People need someone to shove a 20,000-word dissertation into their mouths saying "Xie Qingci is great" for their brains to absorb it / Openly sarcastic.jpg]

They’re a spontaneously assembled fan group, not as organized as Song Xi’s fans, even their responses are scattered.

This incident has pushed the program into the limelight once.

Yu Xia, after listening to Mei’s enthusiastic recap, was thinking about when the program team would respond before bedtime.

As for what they’d respond with, it’ll certainly be something like "Our program is fair and just, with everything witnessed by a notary." It’s predictable even with toes.

Lost in thought, she dozed off, only to be awakened by Mei’s urging the next day, changing clothes, doing hair, and sleeping again on the car ride, fully waking upon arriving at the program set.

The filming content for today is the release of the theme song.

The time won’t be long, leaving more time for sponsors to choose people to shoot commercials.

Unlike the first public show, next week’s theme song assessment involves reshuffling classes.

And after the theme song assessment, the elimination rank announcement will follow.

You can sense the tension slowly building, so everyone seems to take it seriously.

A hundred trainees sat in assigned classes in a tiered classroom meeting for the first time, with some not paying much attention to their appearance, hair all messy, few having makeup...

Oh, some do.

Pei Lu has light makeup on.

For girls who often wear makeup, it’s easy to spot, Yu Xia noticed it and mentally rated this substitution makeup 38 points.

Host Shu Ran didn’t say much nonsense, and after a few brief words, began playing the demo of the theme song.

The camera from the big screen directly focused on the brothers sitting on the steps, capturing their reactions, allowing Yu Xia to use this time to observe them closely.

The three main topics online now showed no visible expressions, Pei Lu and Song Xi continued chatting and laughing with others, while Xie Qingci also went along with Wei Yaoyao’s antics.

The others seemed even more normal, all marveling at the difficulty of the theme song.

True.

When trainees enter the base, their phones are confiscated, so most shouldn’t know about this.

Even if someone snuck in a phone and heard the rumors, they wouldn’t dare show it, or else that would be self-exposure.

She raised an eyebrow to herself, thinking she’ll go online later to check how things are progressing.

After the theme song finished playing, Yu Kuang and He Mingjie demonstrated a full performance for them, and Yu Xia found it a bit challenging.

Anyway, with her limbs, she definitely couldn’t smoothly get through the dance, let alone do it while singing, that’d be life-threatening.

Shu Ran even asked her, "Not sure if we’ll need to learn it, do you think it’s difficult?"

Yu Xia hastily blocked the possibility: "Difficult, an impossible task! Please don’t make us learn it, performing it will lower the program’s quality!"

Shu Ran: "I can tell how reluctant you are, almost couldn’t hold the microphone steady."

She insisted righteously, "Mainly because it is difficult, and I’m also considering the program team. By the way, the program team has new play styles this time, right, Shu Ran sis?"

Shu Ran chuckled and let her off.

"Boys, listen up. After this theme song assessment, there’s a special scenario theme song interpretation segment."

"There are five major categories for special scenarios: Retro Disco, Electronic Square Dance, Strongman Mongolian Dance, Shaanxi Folk Song Festival, Sichuan Dialect Dubbing Version. The division isn’t related to assessments, just for entertainment, aiming to promote our theme song."

Yu Xia continued, "Different small groups under the five major categories, number of team members unlimited, costume unlimited, instruments unlimited, as long as the program team approves, you can use them."

"However, there won’t be extra practice time provided, in the next week, you must complete both the assessment version and the entertainment version of the theme song sing and dance."

"Each person can only join one group under one major category, no repeated grouping."

Within major categories, any unclear song styles or dance performances can always be asked to teachers. This time the program team brought in a Shaanxi folk song professor, students studying Mongolian dance, a Sichuan dialect dubbing teacher, and a square dance lead instructor for everyone to learn from."

There was a noisy stir below.

Chi Qiao loudly asked, "Is it okay to wear flowered jackets while dancing?"

Yu Xia: "As long as you don’t mind the heat."

Wei Yaoyao excitedly raised his hand, "Can 20 people do the square dance? It doesn’t feel like a square dance without a lot of people!"

Yu Xia: "Sure, and we’ll record it for you as learning material for aunties."

This show has become incredibly popular, to the heart of aunties nationwide, clever move by the program team.

She glanced around one more time and made sure to add one more point: "Everyone must participate."

Song Xi and Xie Qingci both sighed in unison.