Chapter 28: Trailer, Change
Just as the contestants were busy preparing for the first round of performances, "Youth Project", which fans had been eagerly awaiting for half a year, finally released the latest audition preview.
Under the constipated hunger marketing of the program team, the fans of the show have long been impatient. Fans thought that they would have to continue to be lonely for a while after the Pineapple Music Festival, but they never expected happiness to come so suddenly.
After seeing the Weibo post released by the program team, some fans didn't even bother to control the comments and rushed to the program's official website to wait.
The trailer was online for only 5 minutes, but the number of online viewers soared to 8,000+ and this number is still rising.
[I’ll wash my hair upside down while watching the talent show: It’s finally here!]
[Beauty dog woof woof woof: The beauty of the world, Baili (heart), the fairy on earth, Baili (heart), Baili ah ah ah!]
[Jiang Monan’s girlfriend fans: Jiang Monan Jiang Monan Jiang Monan Jiang Monan…]
Shengshi Yanyu: The all-around ACE, Sheng Yanyu, born to be the lead dancer, this investment is worth it! Give Sheng Yanyu a shout out!!!
[Dilidili: Lei Lie! My husband!]
[Tao Xiaotie’s mom fans: Baby, mom is here~]
For a moment, the screen was filled with colorful comments, with all kinds of girlfriend fans, mother fans, and wife fans gathered together. Although there were occasionally a few discordant comments in the comments, they were quickly drowned out by more controlled comments.
Looking at the three words "Jiang Mo Nan" floating across the barrage from time to time, Lu Yu suddenly felt as if he was in another world.
Brother Mo Nan has really become a star...
Nearly half a month had passed since the other party had recorded the program. Because he could not contact him, he could only learn about his situation through the program director Zhuo Yanbin's circle of friends and sporadic news on the Internet.
During this period, he witnessed Jiang Mo Nan's various changes, including his rise to fame on the Internet, being scolded, and gaining fans.
There were several times when he wanted to stand up and speak for the other party, but he finally restrained himself.
Firstly, he was worried that if he spoke rashly, it would backfire and give people something to talk about. Secondly, he had only known Brother Mo Nan for a short time and didn't know him very well, so he often had no position to speak up for him.
Fortunately, he was not affected by the bad reviews.
In the past two days, as the video of the performance under the theme curve began to spread wildly on the Internet, the name Jiang Mo Nan began to be known by more and more people.
Because his appearance is very similar to the singing and dancing superstar Mo Beiji from twenty years ago, he caused quite a stir online and became one of the few contestants who became popular before the show even aired.
Thinking of this, Lu Yu couldn't help but feel a secret sense of pride in his heart.
This is his friend.
Before participating in the show, he knew that Brother Mo Nan would definitely become popular, and it turned out that his eyes were indeed sharp.
After closing the dense barrage of comments and watching several commercials and a long, lengthy opening segment inserted by the program team, he finally saw the content of the pilot film.
The screen was filled with a sea of people, a scene straight out of the show's auditions. Seeing this, Lu Yu couldn't help but wonder: I wonder if the production team had edited his footage in. After all, he and Mo Nan were auditioning together. What if he could get a shot?
Perhaps it was because God heard his wish, and the next second three heads with three primary colors with a strong presence flashed across the camera.
Seeing this, Lu Yu quickly went back to take a screenshot.
Unfortunately, the image flashed too quickly and he had to try several times before he succeeded.
Looking at his silhouette, which only occupied a small corner of the screen, Lu Yu's face showed a satisfied smile. Although it was only a one-second shot, it was already a huge improvement for him. After all, the talent shows he participated in before didn't even give him a single second of screen time.
After finding himself in the background, Lu Yu began to look for Jiang Mo Nan's figure in the picture.
After speeding up the video by 3 times for a while, he finally saw Jiang Mo Nan standing in the center of the stage wearing a rustic dark blue polo shirt.
After adjusting the video playback speed back to normal, he began to watch it attentively.
The familiar song "Fearless" still played through the headphones. It felt different from what I'd heard live, with the instrumental and vocals somewhat mixed. Perhaps the audio quality wasn't great in the video due to the poor quality of the audition venue. Even so, one could still sense the other person's exceptional vocal skills.
Unfortunately, due to the show's length, the production team didn't show the entire song, only capturing half of it. Fortunately, the production team gave Jiang Mo Nan quite a bit of screen time. Compared to most contestants' 20-plus seconds of screen time, the production team gave him a full minute and a half of screen time.
But this minute or so was still too short for fans like Lu Yu. After dragging the progress bar back and forth and watching it three times, he found that there were indeed no other shots of Brother Mo Nan. He couldn't help but secretly complain: The production team is really stingy.
Lu Yu was not interested in other contestants, so he decisively exited the video.
Of course, before that, he did not forget to click on the voting page and cast ten votes for his brother Mo Nan.
Looking at the real-time ranking of contestant votes that popped up on the page, Lu Yu, who was about to exit the APP, couldn't help but pause.
Wait, why is Brother Mo Nan only ranked second?
On the page, the person at the top of the list was a guy named Sheng Yanyu.
This made Lu Yu a little unhappy.
Most teenagers of this age have a pure passion and a sense of justice. No matter what others do, they will always support their good brothers unconditionally.
Even though he didn't know Sheng Yanyu and didn't know his specific strength, he still felt that his brother Mo Nan should get first place.
Suppressing his inner unhappiness, he checked the votes of the two again.
It was shocking to see the top two votes had soared to over 900,000. The difference between first and second place was only 20,000 votes. Furthermore, the numbers on both sides continued to rise.
Seeing this, Lu Yu was stunned
The show hasn't even officially aired yet! Are these fans just sending money to nothing?
Shocked, he narrowed his eyes thoughtfully.
Although he failed to pursue his dream of entering the entertainment industry, he has some understanding of fan culture because there are many girls in his class who are fans of celebrities.
He knew that talent shows like these usually had a contestant's big fans organizing and mobilizing the small fans to vote. Each of these people controlled a dozen or so small accounts, and they would also spend extra money to vote.
The situation was clearly a battle between the fans of both teams. The first-place team wanted to widen the gap with the second-place team, aiming for a significant lead, rather than a lingering second-place finish. Meanwhile, Mo Nan's fans also wanted to overtake and take first place, leading to this stalemate.
"Is this the competition that Mo Nan participated in?"
Grandma Lu, who had just returned home from a walk with Xiao Hei, passed by and took a look. She asked, "Has the show already aired?"
"Not yet. This is just a teaser."
Worried that his grandmother didn't understand what a pilot was, Lu Yu quickly explained, "It's a short preview clip played before the show officially airs. I just took a look, and it's mainly about the auditions."
Grandma Lu nodded half-comprehendingly and asked, "Did Mo Nan show up?"
"certainly."
Lu Yu hurriedly opened the video and showed the other person singing to his grandmother.
“You sing so well…”
Grandma Lu sighed sincerely, then asked, "How do we vote for this show? Let's vote for Mo Nan too."
Lu Yu laughed when he heard this: "Grandma, one vote is not enough? I just voted ten times for Brother Mo Nan."
As he spoke, he began to teach Grandma Lu how to register an account to vote.
Seeing the voting page, the old man was shocked. "Mo Nan is now ranked second? That's pretty impressive."
Hearing his grandmother praising Jiang Mo Nan, Lu Yu was not jealous at all. Instead, he straightened his back and looked proud.
"Of course. He's only 20,000 votes behind the first place. Each account can only cast a maximum of ten votes a day. If he recruits more people and creates a few more accounts, he can catch up."
Upon hearing this, Grandma Lu quickly said, "Then I'll go find other elderly ladies in the community for help. They all have grandchildren, and if they mobilize their entire families, it won't be a problem to vote hundreds of times a day."
"By the way, you have so many classmates in school, let them help you."
The speaker may not intend it, but the listener may take it seriously.
Hearing this, Lu Yu did not show strong resistance when he heard the word "school" as he did in the past, but fell into silence, which was uncharacteristic of him.
Perhaps it was because of Grandma Lu's words, or maybe it was just to help a friend, or maybe it was because he witnessed Jiang Mo Nan's success and thus faced the reality and placed his dream of becoming a star on him. In short, Lu Yu, who had been staying at home for a while, finally returned to school.
Of course, before going back, he did not forget to dye his flamboyant red hair back to black.
Lu Shiqiang was originally prepared to continue the battle of wits and courage with his youngest son, but he never expected that Lu Yu would suddenly undergo a 180-degree change and turn back into his original model student.
Not only did he dye his unsightly hair back, he even put on the school uniform that he used to despise so much.
Lu's father and mother were very surprised by his sudden change.
Although they always wanted to get his life back on track, when Lu Yu really did it, they couldn't help but start to worry whether he had suffered a serious blow.
However, before they could ask, the other party had already left the house.
The teachers and classmates were very surprised to see someone who had not been in school for a long time suddenly appear on campus.
After all, in their impression, Lu Yu had always wanted to be a singer and enter the entertainment industry, and no matter how his teachers and parents tried to persuade him, he wouldn't change his mind.
Now he suddenly returned to school and attended classes obediently. Anyone would be curious about what he had experienced.
Lu Yu didn't care about the occasional glances from those around him.
People are sometimes like this. Things that you have been stubbornly refusing to let go of in the past often suddenly change your mind due to an extremely accidental factor at some point.
And that is exactly what is happening right now.
Once upon a time, Lu Yu thought it was difficult for him to make such a decision. But in fact, when he actually put it into action, he did not find it unbearable.
Although I don't want to admit it, people do have different levels of talent.
Just as some people are born to study, some people are born to practice sports or learn art.
He'd participated in dozens of talent shows and failed over and over again. But Brother Mo Nan, simply for joining him once, was picked by the production team. Even now, the show hasn't even officially aired, but it's already become quite a buzzword.
Although I am unwilling to accept it, I have to admit that some people are born with fire in their destiny.
Perhaps as some people on the Internet have said, the path that most people like and the path that is suitable for them are often not the same.
Now Brother Mo Nan has embarked on a new journey of his own, and he should return to the path that suits him and continue moving forward.
The classmates around him didn't know what Lu Yu was thinking. When the class finally ended, those classmates who were close to Lu Yu gathered around him.
"Brother, what's wrong with you? Didn't you say you wouldn't go back to school until you succeed?"
Physical education committee member Zhou Qi looked at Lu Yu's overly well-behaved black hair in surprise. "And your hair...wasn't it so precious before? Why did you dye it again?"
Zhang Mingrui, the chemistry class representative sitting in the row in front of Lu Yu, pushed his glasses up when he heard this. "Is there any need to ask? It must be his dad who forced him to do it. The college entrance exam is in a month, so he has to go back to school and finish the exam first."
"What a mess."
Lu Yu impatiently interrupted his classmates' unreliable speculations, "It has nothing to do with my dad. I wanted to come back on my own, and I wanted to dye my hair back on my own."
However, his classmates did not really believe such a statement. They just thought that he was embarrassed and said so to save face.
Lu Yu didn't care what the people around him thought. He just coughed and said, "Well, I have something I want to ask you for a favor."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Mingrui immediately pulled out several notebooks from his desk. "These are the exam points compiled by the teachers of each subject recently. You're welcome."
Lu Yu took it hesitantly, but soon realized that the other party had misunderstood his intention, and quickly said, "That's not what I meant. I wanted to ask you to help me vote."
Hearing this, Zhang Mingrui was stunned. "You haven't given up on the draft yet?"
It's no wonder he reacted this way. After all, Lu Yu always canvassed for votes when he participated in previous competitions. This time, when he heard about voting, he subconsciously had this thought.
"Not for me. For my friend."
Afraid that they wouldn't believe him, he quickly took out his cell phone.
After seeing the infuriatingly handsome face on the voting page, the students were stunned.
"Oh my god, your friend is so handsome!"
"Wait, when did you meet such a handsome friend? Why didn't you introduce him to us?"
After hearing the discussion among several people, the other girls in the class immediately became interested.
"What? Where are the handsome guys?"
Upon hearing this, the quick-talking sports committee member Zhou Qi immediately spilled the beans: "Lu Yu asked us to vote for his friend. It seems his friend is participating in a talent show."
As soon as they heard the word "talent show", the girls' gossip spirits were immediately ignited and they all gathered around Lu Yu's desk.
"Who is it?"
"Let me see it quickly? Maybe I know him."
Having said that, the girls had already concluded in their minds that Lu Yu's friend was most likely a nobody, otherwise there would be no need for Lu Yu to come to the class to canvass for votes.
They were stunned until they saw the photo of the contestant ranked second on the voting page.
"Fuck! Isn't this Jiang Mo Nan? He's your friend???"
"Yes." Lu Yu nodded, "He stayed at my house for a few days before participating in the competition."
Upon hearing this, the girls were immediately excited.
As a longtime fan of the show, Lu Tingting has been following "Youth Project" for six months now. She's been following every single episode since the official release. As a result, she's very familiar with several of the current popular contestants.
Now, hearing that a male classmate of mine is canvassing for votes for his good friend who is participating in this program, and that this good friend is not some unknown contestant but Jiang Monan who is currently sitting in the top three, this feeling is as shocking as running into a ghost!
After a moment of shock, Lu Tingting calmed down and began to question: "You have no evidence, are you bragging?"
"I knew you would say that."
Lu Yu opened his phone album and clicked on the photo of himself and Jiang Mo Nan. "This is the evidence."
Girls are more familiar with photo editing software than boys, but this photo doesn't even have any traces of editing, not even a filter. You can even clearly see the new stubble and acne on Lu Yu's face in the photo.
But even so, Jiang Mo Nan, standing next to Lu Yu, was still incredibly handsome. Not to mention his pores, stubble, and acne, he was even too pale to look human!
All the girls in the class, whether they paid attention to "Youth Project" or not, were shocked at once.
"Brother Yu, please sign my name! Please take a photo with me!"
"Brother Yu, do you have his WeChat? Quick! Send it to me!"
"Don't mess around, idols can't have private contact! My female fans are watching here!"
Although he had already anticipated this situation, Lu Yu still couldn't help feeling elated when he saw the girls in the class react like this.
"Well, he's still recording a show. He can't contact the outside world. And he lost his phone."
The girls couldn't help but look disappointed when they didn't get the results they wanted.
Seeing this, Lu Yu changed the subject: "But I have his signature."
With just one sentence, the girls' eyes lit up.
However, before they could speak, they heard a disillusioning voice beside their ears:
"The starting bid is 100 yuan, the highest bidder wins, there is no upper limit!"
“…………”
You are so mean to target your classmates to make money!
Despite some internal complaints, many people still wanted his autograph. After all, Lu Yu attended a private high school in Yuehai City, a prestigious and expensive one. Most of the students who could afford it came from well-off families. While high school students couldn't afford a lot of money, they still had the small change to buy an autograph.
Eventually, the signature was bought by a wealthy woman in the class for 1,000 yuan, and the news quickly spread to other classes.
After learning that Lu Yu from Class 3 (2) actually knew Jiang Monan, the recently famous Internet celebrity, all the star-chasing girls from various classes came running over to inquire about him.
Lu Yu didn't miss such a good opportunity. He would ask every student who came to him to vote for Jiang Mo Nan. Although he would occasionally run into fans who were promoting other contestants and asking for information, it didn't affect the overall situation.
Word spread from one person to ten, and from ten to a hundred. Within two days, all the star-chasing girls in the school knew about it, and later even the teachers heard about it.
After class that day, the head teacher called Lu Yu to the office and mentioned the matter.
Upon hearing this, Lu Yu immediately said, "Don't worry, I'm just using my spare time to ask for help from my classmates. It won't affect their studies."
Although he hadn't been back to school for a while, Lu Yu's grades hadn't been affected much. After taking several exams in various subjects over the past two days, his grades were still among the best.
After being blocked by such remarks, the head teacher didn't know what to say.
Feeling tired, the head teacher waved his hand to signal him to go back, but saw Lu Yu showing a flattering smile -
"Um...Mr. Zhang, could you help me vote?"
head teacher:"……"
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