Chapter 11 Tea Ceremony
Chapter Summary: You are absolutely right about one thing.
Ning Yao looked up and recognized the person in front of him: Lü E.
They are both artists under Shengyu Media.
Speaking of which, Lü E joined Shengyu Media a year earlier than him and was also a year older than him. She had previously acted like a senior colleague.
I secretly changed my age last year.
She even started calling him "senior brother" instead.
With good manners, he replied, "Hello, junior sister."
"Senior brother, is this your first time here and you're not familiar with the area? Where do you need to go? I'll lead the way."
Ning Yao recalled that as soon as he received the invitation to "Chasing the Light Girl", his company approached him hoping that he could collaborate with Lü E on stage, create some CP rumors, and mentor his junior. Lü E's team also expressed their intention to collaborate, saying that they would immediately break up the CP after the group debuted.
He's neither a fool nor a philanthropist, so of course he wouldn't let himself be exploited.
I politely declined.
Ning Yao's agent also looked down on Lü E.
They readily agreed to the show's plan to form teams by opening blind boxes.
Now that he had "coincidentally" run into Lü E, Ning Yao naturally made a hasty retreat, saying, "No need, I'll go to the men's restroom."
Lü E: "..." She gritted her teeth inwardly. Was she some kind of monster?
She had hoped to take this opportunity to get closer to Ning Yao and sow discord between her senior brother and Mu Zhi, hoping to create a rift within their team. However, she didn't expect Ning Yao to disregard even the slightest bit of camaraderie and act as if he was afraid of being entangled with her.
Lü E's initiative in coming over was also because she was provoked by Mu Zhi to the point of jumping up and down.
Last night, the fifth and sixth episodes of "Chasing the Light" were released. The fifth episode featured the trainees' journey from 101 to 48, team formation, rehearsals, and the performances of the first two groups in the second public performance. The sixth episode featured the remaining six groups' performances in the second public performance, outdoor activities, and a tea party!
The title of the sixth episode is "Mu Zhi's Gorgeous Comeback, Carrying the Whole Show".
Does Mu Zhi even deserve to be used as a gimmick by the program team to attract viewers? Lü E was extremely indignant!
On Weibo, Mu Zhi is trending again.
From the very first episode of the show, Mu Zhi has been a hot topic, with her controversial yet popular image.
The trending topic #Muzhi's Bare Face# captured several close-up shots of Muzhi without makeup, prompting netizens to exclaim, "Muzhi's skin looks amazing without makeup, as white and tender as a peeled egg."
The hashtag #MuzhiInspirational# is trending high, and clicking on it leads to videos of Muzhi rehearsing hard for the second public performance.
The show's cameras captured Mu Zhi's journey from the very first day she joined the #BeautifulSkin# team. She arrived at the practice room alone at 5 AM to practice, battled against Zhou Jingzhu and Lü E to win the center position, and was the first to arrive and the last to leave every day. In just one week, she worked tirelessly to catch up, achieving a stunning comeback on the second performance stage, and her popularity soared...
Furthermore, in the main episode of the fifth season, Mu Zhi took the initiative to teach Zhao Duoduo to dance, showing great patience and approachability, which dispelled the negative trending topic of #MuZhiAccusedOfColdBlood# that surfaced yesterday morning.
Mu Zhi's #InstantTear#, the camera zoomed in on the beautiful woman's tears, that single tear struck the hearts of countless netizens, who exclaimed #MuZhi'sOneTearIsAStarInTheSky#, and enthusiastically started a photo relay to #WipeMuZhi'sTearsWithTissues#...
Most importantly, after the third performance and the main episodes of the fifth and sixth episodes, the group fans of "Chasing the Light" and some netizens changed their opinion of Mu Zhi a lot. The joint attack of "#MuZhiQuitTheCompetition#" that used to frequently leave comments on the official Weibo account of the program has also stopped.
Because of Zhou Jingzhu and Mu Zhi's dance practice interactions, Liu Cai's praise for Mu Zhi, mentor Xie Chaoyun's comments on Mu Zhi, and the eye-catching scenes of the two watching the rehearsal replay... netizens have a good eye for cuteness, and the three couples #Zhou Jingzhu X Mu Zhi#, #Liu Cai X Mu Zhi#, and #Xie Chaoyun X Mu Zhi# are so cute that they are shipping them with their own fandoms.
Humans are inherently drawn to strength, and with just one successful performance on stage, Mu Zhi's reputation and public image improved dramatically...
However, Lü E's inappropriate remarks backfired.
The production team, seemingly eager to stir up trouble, aired the scene where Lü E asked Mu Zhi, "Choose one of two, me or Zhou Jingzhu?" This angered Mu Zhi's fans, who flooded her Weibo with insults.
"No wonder you always play the villainous second female lead in your movies, you're just playing yourself!"
"It's really disgusting that they're deliberately targeting Mu Zhi and trying to reap the benefits!"
"Arrogant and conceited, resulting in him being completely outclassed by Michie on the second stage, and nobody cared, lol."
......
Lu E was so angry that she almost got into a heated argument with netizens!
I calmed down when I thought about the upcoming third performance. The third performance is a competition where 5 groups compete against each other.
The team with the most votes will be exempt from elimination in the next ranking announcement. Lü E teamed up with Xia Xinyan this time, thus getting on the coattails of the most popular contestant.
I firmly believe that our ranking will improve this time.
They will have the opportunity to surpass Muzhi!
Lü E told herself to be patient and not to rush things; the last debut spot would definitely be hers!
Having handed in her phone, Mu Zhi is now focused solely on rehearsing for the show.
The song "Beautiful Woman" is 3 minutes and 30 seconds long. After dividing the lyrics, Mu Zhi focused on practicing her own lyrics part. After practicing the formation and dance with everyone, the prototype of a stage began to take shape, and Mu Zhi felt much less pressure.
After finishing team rehearsals at 8 PM, we started practicing our solo Huo Yuanjia dance.
The program team arranged for a dance teacher to give lessons.
Recently, this classical dance has become a hit on Douyin (TikTok) with the hashtag #ChallengeHuoYuanjiaDance#. When Mu Zhi first watched it, all she could think about were those difficult moves, which really test a person's flexibility.
The first move was standing on one leg, and the last move was supporting on one leg, with the body bent so much that it almost formed a circle in the air.
Mu Zhi plays a dancer in a stage play who dances the tango, a traditional Chinese dance style that is a first for her. The original owner of this body had studied folk dance for a few years as a child, so her flexibility is quite good.
But the foundation has been lost for too long.
Now I can barely stand on one leg and I'm wobbling.
But there are no shortcuts in dance; you can only practice over and over again, sometimes until 1 a.m. before returning to your dorm...
The next afternoon, mentors Xie Chaoyun and William routinely checked on the rehearsal progress of each group. Mu Zhi's group's performance of "The Beauty" underwent a full dress rehearsal based on the actual stage performance.
Mentor William provided feedback on each person's performance, pointing out areas for improvement.
After watching it, Xie Chaoyun bluntly commented: "Unskilled, no good, the performance didn't even create the right atmosphere..."
"Of the five groups performing, your progress is a little behind. You only have four days left, so you need to hurry up and practice."
However, as soon as the mentors left, Ning Yao scratched his head sheepishly and said that he had other plans for the next two days and would rush back the morning before the performance.
"Keep it up, everyone! I'll practice every day. Our goal is to get first place!"
Mu Zhi and the others: "..." If you want to get first place, stay and practice together!
However, I understand.
In fact, it wasn't just Ning Yao; the other celebrity seniors in the same group had to leave on morning flights. The celebrity seniors invited by the production team are all popular artists with tight schedules, and they wouldn't spend a whole week here for a single appearance.
With Ning Yao gone, Mu Zhi, Liu Cai, and three other teammates continued practicing.
Although her teammates didn't say anything to her face when they practiced singing and dancing together, Mu Zhi once overheard them half-jokingly complaining and sighing in front of the live stream camera after returning from the restroom:
"Two of our popular players are busy with their solo performances. So, it's just the three of us at night. We have significantly less time to practice together compared to other teams, and I'm worried we'll fall behind..."
It sounds like they're playing the victim, trying to gain sympathy.
Just as Mu Zhi was about to go inside, she noticed that Liu Cai, who had gone out for an interview, had returned at some point and was standing behind her, presumably having overheard her conversation.
"We can't control what others like to eat or drink, we can't control what others drink, we'll just do our best and show our true colors on stage, and shut up all the critics and be amazed."
Mu Zhi nodded, noticing that Liu Cai's choice of words was quite profound.
If she and Liu Cai were dragging the team down because of their solo performances, it would be understandable for their three teammates to be so sarcastic in front of them; but they haven't fallen behind either, and they still openly made veiled criticisms knowing there were live cameras in the practice room, which shows a lack of emotional intelligence.
After Mu Zhi and Liu Cai came in, the three teammates immediately shut up and warmly invited them to practice together, as if nothing had happened. Mu Zhi and Liu Cai also acted as if nothing had happened.
Mu Zhi plans to practice even harder tonight until 2 a.m., not wanting to give anyone a chance to criticize her.
At 8 p.m., the production team suddenly notified all trainees to gather in Hall 1 immediately.
Upon hearing this news, the three trainees' faces immediately fell.
"Will it be like last time, with teams battling it out?"
"Then aren't we doomed to lose?"
"Sigh, we can never get everyone together. If this continues, we might be eliminated."
The three of them formed a small group to express their dissatisfaction with Mu Zhi and Liu Cai. They felt that the two popular contestants valued their solo performances more, and even if they lost the third performance, Mu Zhi and Liu Cai, being popular, would not be eliminated anyway.
But they are very likely to be eliminated, so it's inevitable that they will feel resentful.
Mu Zhi looked at the three of them and said coldly, "Liu Cai and I only go to practice our own dances at 8 pm every night, and we have never missed any rehearsals with the team. You guys go back to the dormitory to sleep at 9 pm, so if you are eliminated, it's not our fault, is it?"
After saying that, he walked out of the practice room first.
“What Meizhi said is exactly what I wanted to say.” Liu Cai also walked out.
Soon, the 25 trainees gathered in Hall 1, and this time the host was their mentor, William.
Seeing everyone's tense expressions, I said, "Relax, I called you all here for the third performance, to discuss the order of appearance..."
William grew up abroad and his Chinese wasn't very good; he spoke very slowly.
After building up everyone's curiosity, he finally revealed the rest of the story:
"Draw lots."
Upon hearing that it was just a lottery, most of the trainees breathed a sigh of relief; thankfully, it wasn't a battle.
Each team sent one member to participate in the draw. When it was Mu Zhi's group's turn, Liu Cai pushed Mu Zhi forward.
The draw results showed that Zhou Jingzhu's group came in first and started; Zhang Mengyu's group came in second; Xia Xinyan's group came in third... Mu Zhi drew number 5 and was the last to perform.
Liu Cai praised Mu Zhi for her good luck: "Great draw! Most of them are energetic dance songs or love songs, but our ancient style song will be performed last, which will give the audience a refreshing experience."
After the draw, the show's director also announced some news on the spot about the solo performances of Xia Xinyan, Liu Cai, and Mu Zhi.
The competition process: After the performance of the popular trainees' teams, the national producers will vote, followed by the individual solo performance of the popular trainees. "You three were voted on by the national producers, so I hope you will prepare well for your individual stage performances."
"After the individual solo stage, the four mentors will vote to select the trainee with the best performance. One vote is equivalent to 50 votes. Combined with the votes from the live audience and online, the trainee with the most votes will become the most popular trainee in the third performance! They will receive 10,000 likes, and their group will receive an additional 10 votes."
These 10,000 likes mainly triggered more intense competition among the top 3 trainees to vie for the first place, but had little impact on the rankings of other contestants.
The team received 10 votes. These 10 votes are neither a lot nor a little. Sometimes, a missing vote can be a crucial 10 votes, or even just 1 vote.
The other trainees looked on with envy and said, "Wow, the people in the same group as Mu Zhi and Liu Cai are so lucky! With two top players, their chances of winning are the highest! They're practically carrying us to victory! And they're the final performers, so their votes are sure to be high!"
The three trainees were speechless. The plot twist came too fast, and they were so embarrassed that they wanted to go back 10 minutes to shut themselves up.
Back in the practice room, the three trainees apologized to Mu Zhi and Liu Cai with embarrassed expressions, saying that they were just too worried about being eliminated and cherished every opportunity to step onto the stage. They talked about how difficult it was for them to become one of the top 25, and hoped that Mu Zhi and Liu Cai would not be angry.
Liu Cai: "Are you done talking?"
"How Meizhi and I see you is not important, and how you see us is not important either. You are right about one thing: even if the stage we collaborated on fails, Muzhi and I will most likely not be eliminated, but for you, the third performance may be your last stage."
"So if you don't want to be eliminated, practice hard and stop messing around."
The producers in the live stream and the chat were all criticizing Liu Cai's words:
"Liu Jingcai is right, and I won't accept any rebuttal!"
"Their desire to become famous is so obvious that it's practically overflowing from the screen."
"Just team up with two popular trainees and get carried, why bother with all this tea-talking! I'm speechless!"
Most of the viewers who came to this live stream were there for Liu Cai and Mu Zhi; they were fans of the two. The three trainees' blatant acting had run into Mu Qiang.
If you focus on performing well on the show and building good relationships with popular trainees, fans might even vote for you using their alternate accounts.
As the competition progressed, every trainee tried to make their presence felt, but they inadvertently made things worse and backfired.
Mu Zhi didn't take the matter to heart. What bothered her was that the production team would take at least half an hour every time they gathered people together. She thought to herself, "I hope they don't schedule any more interactive activities tomorrow."
When they arrived at the training room where they practiced alone, the director in charge of their group caught up with them breathlessly, saying there was something he almost forgot to tell them.
Mu Zhi had a bad feeling: "What is it?"
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