Chapter Sixty-Nine: Victory and Defeat
Even though it was only the first performance, the non-stop roar of the crowd and the luxuriously renovated stage made Meng Fanxi feel like she was in a concert dream.
He glanced at his teammates, whose faces were filled with excitement and barely contained emotion. Meng Fanxi didn't want to pay attention to the expressions of his mentors or the invited judges at that moment.
The performance satisfied the audiences who came from all directions, and that's enough.
As the heated atmosphere in the venue gradually subsided, Yun Mengtao guided everyone to begin voting.
During the voting period, team members can run to different locations on the stage to interact with the audience and continuously campaign for votes.
The moment Yun Mengtao announced the start of the voting, the six people on the stage all darted out, vying for every second.
The screams from the audience rose and fell once again.
The six of them had discussed their campaign strategy in advance, and each of them stood in a designated area.
Overly cutesy or pleading tactics might be effective in getting votes, but they don't fit their overall image, so they're not within the scope of this discussion.
When WONE campaigned for votes, they sang a pre-prepared song together on stage, with the eight of them arm in arm, which really showed their team spirit.
Meng Fanxi and his team chose a very straightforward and clear approach that wouldn't ruin their public personas.
After the six people took their positions, they simultaneously adjusted their headsets. Their swift and decisive movements, along with their unspoken understanding that required no slogans, garnered them considerable support even before they began campaigning.
"The six eternal stars debut together!"
"I'm voting for you!"
"Quickly vote for Eternity with six stars!"
"Let's vote! Let's vote!"
Zhu Lou whispered to Tan Yi beside him, "Do we even need to campaign for votes?"
Tan Yi said, "I'm quite curious about how they campaign for votes."
Zhu Lou became interested upon hearing this and focused intently on watching the six members of the Eternal Six Stars team stand in different areas, seemingly preoccupied with something.
Almost everyone in the audience directly opposite Meng Fanxi raised their voting devices to show him, and they all cast their votes.
He looked at them sincerely and said, "Thank you."
Then they took a deep breath; their campaign was about to begin.
The six boys unleashed their most powerful voices, emanating from their dantian.
Lin Ruohe: "Throw!"
Zhang Yang: "Forever!"
Gu Huailang: "Heng!"
Meng Fanxi: "Six!"
Xu You: "Knock!"
Ren Yuchen: "Star!"
"Throw! To! The! Eternal! Six! Stars!"
Each person is responsible for one word, repeating the cycle, one word at a time, each word distinct and resonant.
They clenched their fists, waved their arms at precise moments, spoke faster and faster, their voices grew louder and louder, and their persuasiveness continued to increase.
The audience below the stage was infected by their enthusiasm and joined them in shouting.
"Throw! To! The! Eternal! Six! Stars!"
"Throw! To! The! Eternal! Six! Stars!"
This phrase became a widely sung slogan, spreading rapidly throughout every corner of the studio.
Those who voted and those who didn't all took their voting devices and began rhythmically pressing the buttons. The voting devices were no longer just voting devices; they had become musical instruments in the hands of the audience, playing music for them with the clicking sounds of the buttons.
Tan Yi subtly slapped Zhu Lou from an angle unnoticed by the cameras: "Are you still shaking your head?"
Mentors must not show obvious personal bias during the voting process.
"..." The rapper mentor Zhu Lou, who had just started to get excited, was extinguished and was still a little unsatisfied. "They really have a knack for it."
The campaign for the six eternal stars ended with Yun Mengtao's announcement that "voting is over," and the audience's enthusiasm was repeated several times before gradually dissipating.
As Meng Fanxi lowered his arm and turned to return to the center of the stage, he saw the WONE group sitting in the viewing area diagonally opposite him and made direct eye contact with Jin Ziran.
A venomous gaze flashed across his eyes—a look he had never seen in Jin Ziran in his previous life.
That's not important.
Without a ripple of emotion, Meng Fanxi turned sharply and headed straight for his teammates.
Both teams quickly took their places in the center of the stage. Yun Mengtao kept building up the tension, switching back and forth between announcing the results and keeping the audience in suspense, which created quite a bit of entertainment.
"The final result for the last two teams is..."
"Please look at the big screen!"
On the screen, the voting ratios of the invited judges and the audience kept changing, and the audience below the stage were chanting the names of the two teams, with the volume of chants for "Eternal Six Stars" being almost overwhelming.
I don't know how long I waited.
The screen suddenly froze.
"Congratulations to Eternal Six Stars for winning."
Cheers erupted from the audience, and the six people on stage immediately formed a tight circle and hugged each other. Meng Fanxi stood with his back to the stage, peering at the screen through the gaps between the members, momentarily lost in thought.
The final vote results showed that the gap between the two teams was not large.
Their audience vote share was significantly higher than the other side's, but the votes from the invited judges managed to close some of the gap.
Yun Mengtao gestured for both teams to return to the waiting room and begin the next round of matches.
On the way back to the waiting room, the production team said we could go to the Dream Chasing Hut to see the special guest judges' real-time evaluations of our individual performances.
The comments Gu Huailang received at the Dream Chasing Hut, such as "stiff expression," became a psychological trauma for him for a period of time, greatly affecting his mindset.
This time, he chose not to go see it.
Lin Ruohe, Zhang Yang, and Xu You didn't plan to go over to watch either. They wanted to change their clothes first and then go straight back to the waiting room to watch the next group's performance.
After discussing it, Meng Fanxi and Ren Yuchen decided to go to Dream Chaser's Hut to check the reviews.
Among the WONE group members on the same route, three people directly said they wanted to check the reviews, including Han Jia and Zhong Chu.
The remaining few people remained silent, seemingly waiting for Jin Ziran to make a decision.
All we heard Jin Ziran say was, "I'll go change my clothes first, then I'll check the reviews."
“Then I’ll go with you,” Zhongli Fu said.
Just as the others were about to agree, Jin Ziran suddenly remembered something and looked apologetic: "I suddenly remembered that I left my hair clip in the dormitory. I have to go back to the dormitory after I change my clothes."
His words were full of implication that he did not want to travel with them.
"Okay." The others didn't insist either.
Meng Fanxi was used to wearing this ancient costume, and he was still somewhat immersed in the state of "Swimming Fish" and had not yet come out.
He was involved in almost every aspect of the song "Swimming Fish," including its reshaping, stage arrangement, and emotional expression. This sense of satisfaction made him value the evaluation after the performance.
Moreover, he also saw Qiu Lü, and he was curious whether he had left any information behind this time.
He went in first, and just like last time, Meng Fanxi quickly flipped through the comments left by the invited judges. Almost all of them were positive, and almost everyone felt happy when they saw the positive comments.
The number of reviews this time has more than doubled compared to last time.
As he scrolled through the pages, he indeed came across Qiu Lü's message.
"It can be even better."
Meng Fanxi's hand lingered on the page for more than ten seconds before naturally scrolling through the reviews.
Ren Yuchen didn't stay in the Dream Chasing Hut for long. After he came out, Meng Fanxi greeted the WONE members who were planning to go in next, indicating that he would go first.
The production team seemed to know a lot about his past training at Baihe Company, mentioning WONE-related topics more than once in post-interviews.
That period in Bai He's life was indeed an experience.
Whether it was to deal with the unknown arrangements made by the production team or out of rational consideration, he has been able to treat most of the members of WONE with a calm attitude and maintain an appropriate distance from them.
Zhong Chu went in first. As Meng Fanxi passed by Han Jia, he heard him suddenly mutter to himself, "I wonder if Ziran has arrived at the dormitory yet."
Why is Han Jia, who usually keeps a distance of ten meters from Jin Ziran, suddenly so concerned about Jin Ziran?
The thought suddenly flashed through my mind.
Meng Fanxi didn't take it to heart and planned to walk towards the locker room with Ren Yuchen.
The live video feed was also playing in the corridor, but the progress was very slow. There were several other teams behind them, so it would take at least two hours.
As they passed an exit, Meng Fanxi, for some reason, looked at Ren Yuchen and asked the question that had suddenly flashed through his mind: "Do you know exactly where the dormitories for the A-level teams are located?"
Ren Yuchen paused, stopping in place. "I know the general direction."
"How about we go take a look over there?" Their villa area is too far away from the other teams, and they haven't actually visited the other teams' dormitories yet.
On the contrary, many people from other teams usually visit their villa area.
Ren Yuchen readily agreed, "Anyway, there's still plenty of time."
The two of them, dressed in dark and dashing ancient costumes, walked out of the building and strolled leisurely towards the dormitory area of most of the teams, their hands behind their backs.
It was much cooler outdoors, and the hems of their clothes swayed gently with their steps and the breeze. The two of them were increasingly enjoying a leisurely stroll.
It was already dark, and the dim streetlights guided the way.
Although there were cameras in the distance, at least there was no close-up filming, and no staff members were accompanying them. Looking at the road beneath his feet, Meng Fanxi sighed, "It reminds me of when I was practicing at the company."
Back then, they would walk back to their dormitory under the moonlight and streetlights every day, laughing and joking along the way, making it anything but boring.
"Yes." A nostalgic look appeared on Ren Yuchen's face.
Before they knew it, they had reached a relatively remote part of the recording camp, where a large, dense forest looked particularly deep and dark at night.
The two were about to bypass this section of road when they suddenly heard excited voices.
The voice sounded somewhat familiar.
They stopped in their tracks and listened for a while, and it seemed that there was only one person.
Approaching quietly for a short distance, there is an ancient-style pavilion, whose stone pillars can just cover a person's figure.
Looking towards the direction of the sound from behind the stone pillar, I saw a person dressed in black holding something that was glowing and fiddling with it.
Then it was placed against the ear.
As the light approached the person's face, Meng Fanxi confirmed that the person was Jin Ziran.
He was holding a cell phone in his hand, talking to someone.
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