Chapter 76: Pure Strength is Being Pitted Against Each Other
Not only were there undercurrents among the contestants.
The battles between fan groups had been ongoing.
From the end of last week’s competition until today, the resourceful fans displayed their unique abilities; some bought 10,000 SIM cards to stuff the ballot box, while others went to factories to hand out money and ask workers to vote…
Some even became human billboards on the streets.
Although these actions were disliked by many older people, Shen Qing felt that this way of supporting their idols was more acceptable~
It’s better than some fans pouring out milk they bought…
Starting this morning.
The SMS services of Changsha’s three major mobile operators experienced a sharp increase. Right after midnight, a large volume of text messages flooded in, temporarily blocking the channels for ordinary users.
Some boys who were in online relationships with girls, after logging off from internet cafes, still lingered, wanting to send an ambiguous text message to their ‘sweetheart’ miles away, but couldn’t send it no matter what.
…
Mobile.
SMS Business Department.
At 8:30 AM, staff member Li Lei arrived at his post and eagerly opened the backend to check the latest data for the day.
The data that popped up startled him.
“Holy crap, is there a bug?”
“1.52 million votes in one night?”
“No, the data is correct!!!”
“Oh my god, these fans are too rich. 1.52 million for one yuan per message? They’re really willing to spend.”
“Haha, this year’s year-end bonus is secured…”
“Let me calculate everyone’s vote count first…”
“I hope Liangying crushes them!!!”
That’s right, Li Lei was a ‘Liangfen’.
His 17-year-old sister, who was in her third year of high school, was a Corn fan, his newlywed wife was a Biqin fan, and his parents were fans of Ji Minjia.
The whole family were loyal viewers of Super Girl.
Last night, Li Lei’s family had an extremely heated debate, but they couldn’t reach a consensus on the competition results.
Li Lei felt a knot in his stomach.
He wanted to tell his wife and sister that Zhang Liangying was the strongest.
After calculating the vote counts for the three contestants, Li Lei was ecstatic: “Great! Liangying got 700,000 votes today, Li Yuchun got 600,000 votes, and Zhou Bichang only got 220,000 votes. I’ll send it to my wife right now to see…”
Just then, Li Lei’s direct superior pushed open the door.
“Little Li, what’s all the fuss about?”
“Good morning, Director Wu. I was just calculating the Super Girl SMS votes, I got too excited.”
“Oh? Is Zhang Liangying leading by a lot?”
Director Wu, 40 years old, was also a Liangfen.
He really liked Zhang Liangying’s singing; his MP3 player was filled with all the original songs sung by Zhang Liangying.
“She’s already leading Li Yuchun by 100,000 today.”
“Excellent, excellent! Li Lei, you’ll stay late tonight to monitor the data. Make sure to provide the most accurate data for Zhang Liangying to the production team…”
“Director Wu, I want to…”
“Alright, that’s settled. Call me if anything comes up.”
Director Wu left.
He also wanted to go home and watch the live broadcast tonight.
Therefore, Li Lei was the one who had to stay.
Li Lei felt incredibly upset.
After thinking for a long time, he finally called the newly hired contract worker, Xiao Wang. Soon after, Xiao Wang came running and pushed open Li Lei’s office door:
“Director Li, you were looking for me?”
…
Meanwhile.
Staff members responsible for SMS services at China Unicom and China PHS were also closely monitoring the data.
And.
they had already arranged for staff to be on duty tonight.
During the final segment of the live broadcast, they would send the real-time data to the Super Girl production team and the notary, and finally, the notary would announce the results.
Shen Qing was on his way to the Sichuan Conservatory of Music by taxi.
For tonight’s performance, he had found two masters of operatic harmony from the Sichuan Conservatory of Music, and he had also brought the daughter of their bel canto teacher.
They would be participating in the song Liangying was singing tonight.
…
Time flew by.
It was 7 PM.
The rate at which SMS votes were increasing slowed down.
This was because many fans had already cast their votes early.
Next.
the most crucial part was to win over the votes from passersby.
This type of competition program was like that.
It’s like how people will watch live broadcasts 20 years from now; if they encounter a performance they like or a flashy female streamer, many passersby will make impulse purchases.
In past Super Girl competitions, when passersby fans heard a good song, they would also cast their votes.
Tonight.
the key to deciding the winner lay with the passersby.
At this moment, the three contestants were no longer communicating.
With one hour left until the competition, Li Yuchun’s heart was in her throat; it could be said that she was the most nervous tonight.
Zhou Bichang’s vote count was far behind the top two, and she had almost no chance of a comeback, so her mindset was the best.
The champion and runner-up!
Would be decided between Zhang Liangying and Li Yuchun.
And Zhang Liangying, after a week of intense training from Shen Qing, had mastered the three songs by heart and was not afraid of Li Yuchun at all.
…
By this stage of the competition.
It was no longer about luck, but about raw strength.
Did Li Yuchun and Zhou Bichang have strength?
While their singing skills were not as strong as Zhang Liangying’s, it would be an overestimation to say they had no strength at all.
The fact that they managed to break through from a pool of over 100,000 applicants, overcome all obstacles, and stand before Zhang Liangying, already spoke volumes.
Singing, dancing, and the neutral style that catered to the current youth market were perfectly mastered by the two of them…
This was also a form of strength.
But that was all.
Tonight’s competition was a mirror to distinguish true geniuses from fakes; who was real and who was fake would be clear to the audience.
As for those contestants who were eliminated…
It’s said that some of them became depressed upon returning home, constantly lamenting their fate and saying things like they were unrecognized geniuses or just unlucky.
In reality, there’s no such thing as unrecognized genius; in the end, they were just not good enough.
…
“Liangying, Liangying, beautiful voice, Liangying!”
“Bichang, Bichang, powerful singer.”
“Queen of the stage, only Chun Chun!”
“Corn fans are not afraid of getting tired, Xiao Yu is the most precious!”
“…”
Mango TV’s largest studio.
Ten minutes before the live broadcast began, when Li Xiang and Wang Han took the stage to warm up the crowd, the fans’ cheers reached a crescendo.
Nearly a thousand audience members calling out was truly spectacular.
The atmosphere of the finals was different.
Everyone was excited.
In the bustling May Day Square, the large screens in the shopping malls were also broadcasting Mango TV programs, with dense crowds sitting on the ground, waiting for the live broadcast to begin.
From all corners of the country, in countless households, people were waiting in front of their televisions. Some were drinking beer with friends, while others were watching TV while having dinner with their families.
Every scene was dominated by the topic of the champion.
Everyone had their favorite!
Of course.
The majority supported Zhang Liangying and Li Yuchun.
It was almost a fifty-fifty split.
The styles of these two were very distinct: one followed the typical route of gentle yet strong Eastern femininity, while the other adopted a novel and unique neutral style, attracting two completely different fan bases.
“I bet Li Yuchun will win!”
“Go Yuchun!”
“Li Yuchun is so cool and handsome, this is the kind of star young people like. Yuchun is no less than Korean idols.”
“Singing skills? Hmph, we don’t care.”
“All my friends around me have voted for Li Yuchun, she will definitely defeat Zhang Liangying, don’t believe me, just wait and see.”
“Yuchun is Tianyu’s favored child. Zhang already broke ties with Tianyu and defected to Taihe Rye Music. Can Taihe, no matter how powerful, interfere with Mango TV? I don’t believe Tianyu won’t protect Yuchun!!”
“Heh, so what if there’s cheating? That’s part of the strength. If you have the ability, you cheat too!”
“…”
Facing the relentless taunts from the Corn fans, the Liangfen felt a surge of suppressed anger. Those Liangfen who wanted to post a rebuttal held back.
They were all waiting!
Waiting for Liangying and Shen Qing to deliver a powerful counterattack, and then, they, the Liangfen, could stand tall and retort!
…
Backstage dressing room.
Shen Qing finished styling Liangying. Her favorability rating had stopped refreshing, indicating that Liangying had placed her complete trust in him.
Shen Qing placed his hands on her soft shoulders and said, looking in the mirror, “Second Class Private, Ying! Are you ready to go to the battlefield?”
Zhang Liangying giggled and said, “Reporting, Officer, wasn’t I First Class Private? Why have I become Second Class Private tonight?”
Shen Qing smiled, “I’ll promote you to First Class Private when you win the championship. Alright, Second Class Private, Ying, hurry up and get ready, depart immediately.”
Sitting next door, Li Yuchun swallowed hard, “Wait, what kind of perverted role-playing game are you two playing? So exciting…”
Thank you Ning Yan for the 1000-point reward, Book Friend 9062 for the 500-point reward, Old Alley Swallow for the 450-point reward, Two and a Half Jin is a Meme for the 100-point reward, and Dungeon Swordsman for the 100-point reward.
Also, thank you all for your monthly votes, thank you very much!!
