The Sunday evening program recording was an unchangeable fixture, and Ye Qiusuo adapted quickly. In her view, recording the show was essentially clocking in on time to answer questions. Moreover, a friend had mentioned that the overall top scorer would receive a five-million-yuan prize.
Professor Ye now... her spirit would waver a little whenever money was mentioned.
However, she still underestimated the female lead's influence.
As soon as she arrived this evening, everyone was suddenly notified that the program would be delayed by an hour because Wan Yurou had been invited to participate in "Tomorrow's Star" as a guest performance partner. It was unclear how Wan Yurou's team and the program crew negotiated it, but they actually managed to get the director to agree to delay the recording by an hour.
This plot development was not unfamiliar to Ye Qiusuo; the original book had written about it. However, the book stated that Wan Yurou would be a guest performance partner during the finals, whereas now it was several episodes earlier.
The finals would invite three guest performance partners, who should be formidable figures from the music industry. Coincidentally, Wan Yurou had shot to fame through "Knowledge Q&A." As a female lead who could both sing and act, she was naturally invited, even though she didn't have any representative musical works, yet the audience raised no objections. Simultaneously, the song she sang with the male lead, Lu Mingzhe, was beautifully dubbed by fans as their "love anthem."
As for now... since Professor Ye was still on the program, the discussion heat around Wan Yurou was calm and peaceful, perfectly fitting a lower-tier B-list celebrity, with no signs of having shot to fame.
But after all, she was the female lead from the book. Even under these circumstances, she could still become a guest performance partner for "Tomorrow's Star."
"Are we supposed to just wait here for an hour?"
"Wouldn't it be better to postpone recording this episode altogether?"
"Why didn't anyone inform us about this beforehand?"
"Exactly, the program crew should have at least given us a heads-up."
...
The guests on and off stage didn't look too pleased. Several guests from within the entertainment industry still cared about saving face and wouldn't speak bluntly, but the civilian contestants had no such reservations and openly complained.
"Our Yurou was also called to help at the last minute; it was a sudden situation. Please understand." Wan Yurou's two assistants brought in a pile of snacks and drinks, apologizing to each guest inside. "Everyone, have something to eat first, replenish your energy, just consider it a break."
Wan Yurou's team had actually contacted the program crew about this matter several days prior and reached an agreement. However, the program crew felt that delaying by an hour didn't warrant specifically notifying these guests. Furthermore... if they were unhappy, they would blame Wan Yurou.
There was a hint of deliberately stirring trouble in this.
"Director, since we have nothing to do anyway, why don't we all go visit the set next door?" Xia Zhoubing suddenly called out.
"Xia Zhoubing is right. Sitting here is just idle waiting," Jiang Fei nodded. "We can watch for a bit and then come back."
Once these words were spoken, the civilian contestants were somewhat tempted. Coupled with the constant encouragement from the two celebrity guests, the director finally had to concede. Those who wanted to go could go, and those who didn't could wait here.
Ye Qiusuo sat in her seat, thought for a few seconds, then stood up and followed the group. She wanted to see if the female lead was still collaborating with the male lead.
"Tomorrow's Star" was recording its revival round tonight. There were three hundred audience members present and a large stage, so they had temporarily moved to the first floor, where there was more space for setup.
With the program crew's coordination, Ye Qiusuo and the others easily entered to watch, except they didn't have voting devices like the three hundred audience members.
The stage occupied two-thirds of the entire space. Pushing the door open, one could immediately feel a wave of musical heat, but only the three seated mentors were on stage; the contestants were probably all backstage preparing. Female audience members made up the majority. Ye Qiusuo was tall, so squeezed in the middle she could still see the stage fairly well.
She saw Xie Xi sitting in the mentor's chair. The audience below was screaming his name hysterically, while the two mentors beside him seemed almost anonymous.
On stage, Xie Xi lowered his head, bored, flipping through the notebook on the table—more precisely, his own homework notebook. That afternoon, he had deliberately dragged his feet. He still had a few lines left on a one-page assignment, and he hadn't finished last week's tasks either, lying that he hadn't brought them. At the time, Ye Qiusuo had said to have his assistant bring them to her during the evening recording.
Thinking of that young professor, Xie Xi couldn't help but pout: Didn't a PhD know that his kind of dyslexia was incurable?
Just as these thoughts crossed his mind, Xie Xi caught sight of a familiar figure from the corner of his eye.
His hand paused. He turned to look—it really was her.
The area below was filled with audience members who screamed from time to time and others who excitedly swayed to the music. Ye Qiusuo stood motionless in the middle, exceptionally conspicuous.
Xie Xi's first reaction: Had Professor Ye become so dedicated to her job that she chased him to the venue to check his homework?!
At that moment, Xie Xi did exactly what many students do when caught by their teacher while trying to finish homework: he straightened his back and slowly, bit by bit, moved that homework notebook on the table downward, trying to hide it.
In fact, after glancing at Xie Xi initially, Ye Qiusuo hadn't looked at him again. Instead, her gaze fell on the mentor sitting next to him.
In the original book, this person should have had a plot point... She couldn't recall.
This was extremely unusual for Ye Qiusuo. Her memory was excellent, let alone the fact that less than a month had passed since she read the book.
Professor Ye had to make a hypothesis: would her memory of this book become increasingly blurry in the future?
On stage, seeing Ye Qiusuo frown, Xie Xi felt a chill on the back of his neck and a sudden surge of guilt.
Would she rush up later and drag him out, like those homeroom teachers grabbing students from internet cafes?
He had never had such an experience in public before. It seemed a bit... thrilling.
The music in the venue suddenly stopped. The host came on to speak, and the competition officially began. The audience below quieted for a moment, then erupted in screams again, this time shouting the names of various contestants.
The revival round, also called the challenge round. Among those previously eliminated, four would reappear on the stage tonight. They could freely challenge the bottom four of the nine contestants who advanced from the previous episode. If no challenger succeeded, the revival round would end. If multiple challengers advanced, they would continue to compete against each other until only one remained to enter the top nine.
There were two ways for an individual to advance. First, successfully challenge a contestant to revive, taking the eliminated contestant's ranking. Second, the competition would give the contestant a choice to continue challenging a higher-ranked contestant, but if they failed, both the challenge result and their revival would be voided.
Simultaneously, four guest performance partners would also take the stage, appearing with the challengers. The challenged top-nine contestants would also collaborate with guest performance partners. The key lay in who adapted better and whose synergy with the guest performance partner appealed more to the audience's votes.
Clearly, the challenge round wasn't easy. The first three challengers all failed, leaving the stage regretfully once more. When it was the fourth challenger's turn to come on stage, another wave of screams surged from the audience below.
Ye Qiusuo looked up. The fourth challenger was Lu Mingzhe. His appearance was indeed handsome and upright, fitting the novel's description of the male lead. However, ever since overhearing that phone call he made in the stairwell, Professor Ye had doubts about this male lead's character.
Since Lu Mingzhe was the fourth to appear, he had no choice left and directly faced the contestant ranked sixth.
The challenger was to perform first. Lu Mingzhe, dressed in a sapphire blue suit, took the stage, gave a brief speech about his return, and prepared to begin the competition.
"The song we will perform is 'Colorful Grid.'"
All the stage lights went out. A deep, magnetic voice came through the microphone, reaching the audience's ears and eliciting waves of screams.
At that moment, a single spotlight lit up in the center of the stage, shining on two people. One of them was Wan Yurou. She wore a light purple gown, with one hand resting on Lu Mingzhe's shoulder and the other holding a microphone, her index finger raised to her lips in a 'shush' gesture, while she sent a wink towards the camera.
It was a perfect blend of playfulness and gentleness.
The two looked like a perfect match as they performed the song.
When they finished, the audience erupted into the loudest cheers of the night so far.
"Alright, let's ask our two performers to take a short rest while the other contestant prepares," the host said, ushering them to the side.
Next was the collaboration between Wan Yurou and the contestant in sixth place.
People are visual creatures. With such a hard act to follow, no matter how Wan Yurou and the sixth-place contestant tried to pair up, it just didn't seem right. This contestant was only wearing casual clothes and had an average build and appearance.
Wan Yurou also didn't include the little gestures and the intimacy during the duet that she had shown before.
The supporting role of the guest singer was greatly diminished, even to the point of becoming a hindrance.
As expected, when the two contestants were invited back on stage, the judges' evaluations all leaned in favor of Lu Mingzhe.
"What do you think, Xie Xi?" the female judge next to him asked.
"Lu Mingzhe and his guest singer performed better overall. They could drive the atmosphere. However..." Xie Xi, leaning on the table with one hand and holding the microphone, continued, "There was a problem with the music arrangement team. The backing track for the later contestant was faster."
'Colorful Grid' is a sentimental love song. With a faster backing track, that lingering, melancholic atmosphere naturally diminished.
The stage and audience fell silent instantly.
"I don't think so. I just listened, and it sounded the same to me," male judge Wu Xuezheng was the first to speak up.
"Yes, I didn't hear any difference either. Maybe there's an issue with your in-ear monitor?" the female judge also chimed in.
"My in-ears are fine. The problem was with the arranged backing track," Xie Xi stated with absolute certainty.
Lu Mingzhe's heart skipped a beat. What kind of ears did Xie Xi have? He could tell even though they had only sped it up by less than a second. Even the other contestant himself hadn't noticed.
Everyone said there was no mistake. Xie Xi still wanted to argue his point, but the sixth-place contestant himself gave up first, saying his performance in this round really wasn't satisfactory and it wasn't the fault of the music arrangers.
Xie Xi frowned, put down his microphone directly, crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and couldn't be bothered to argue further.
"Alright, let's ask the audience judges to begin voting," the host quickly interjected.
For this comeback round, the judges had no voting power; only the 300 votes from the audience counted.
The result was predictable. Lu Mingzhe succeeded in his challenge with an absolute advantage.
The sixth-place contestant, as is the obligatory segment of such competitions, was on stage, tears streaming down his face, expressing his feelings about leaving the competition.
Normally, each judge would say a few words of comfort and encouragement at this point. Today, Xie Xi only had one sentence: "Nothing to say."
What is there to say to someone who doesn't even believe in themselves?
"How can he be like that? The contestant is crying. He could at least say something."
"Sigh, if he weren't arrogant, he wouldn't be Xie Xi."
...
Ye Qiusuo stood quietly offstage, listening to the girls around her chattering similar remarks.
Before leaving, she turned for one last look at Xie Xi on the stage. He was looking down at the contestant information cards on the table, utterly detached from everyone else in the venue.
