Rebirth from the Ashes

A holographic projection on the stage showed live updates of vote counts for the trainees cast by the live audience and viewers in front of the TV. The contestants and the audience could see the votes increase as every second went by.

No sooner than Su Ruowan’s performance ended when she could already see her real-time ranking and her still rising vote counts. She was pleased by the result.

She was now in seventh place, merely five thousand-odd votes away from Ji Jingyan who was placed six. Moreover, Su Ruowan deduced by the rate her votes were surging, she was gaining more support than Ji Jingyan. It was only a matter of time before she surpassed Ji Jingyan.

Han Yan, who was imprudent to think she could replace her, was left behind Su Ruowan’s trail of dust. With Han Yan’s polls lesser than thirty thousand and increasing rather slowly, it was delusional for Han Yan to catch up to Su Ruowan.

Su Ruowan’s glare flew to the panel of mentors and was locked on Mr. Xixi, with a poker face.

Since the d*mn Mr. Xixi wanted to make a fool of her and see her fail, Su Ruowan was going to make him watch as she rose in ranks and debut. This was the best payback on him and Shen Xi for getting on her *ss, exposing her, and scheming against her!

The few mentors spoke highly of the performance. Since this was the last dance before the trainees were to make their debut, the comments given were rather light-hearted and cheery.

Fang Yao may say she did not give a f*ck and try to convince herself so, but this was a student she spent three-long months with and vested a lot of expectations on. The sight of Su Ruowan still got on her nerves and made her angry. While she lamented for Su Ruowan, Fang Yao was embarrassed by her actions to get back under the limelight.

Apart from Ye Weiyang who stole the show, Su Ruowan was considered the second best on stage while Ji Jingyan fell behind by a tad.

The remaining four trainees who ranked eighth and below put their hearts and minds into the dance, but their talents were still lacking.

Had it not for the plagiarism scandal, it would be cast in stone that Su Ruowan would be the winner.

Sure, Ye Weiyang improved by leaps and bounds, and the sky was the limit for her, but Su Ruowan still came in neck-to-neck. Moreover, Su Ruowan’s fan base was far larger than Ye Weiyang’s. Su Ruowan had no one to blame as she was the one who destroyed her own career.

Su Muyan was at ease to see the surging vote count and Su Ruowan’s ranking on the screen.

By the looks of the votes and Wanwan’s placing, she was certain to get the opportunity to debut and soon surpass that of No. 6’s Ji Jingyan. He roughly estimated the vote acceleration and counted on another surge that would push Guan Rou out of fifth place.

Gu Yang and Xia Mi sighed as they watched the increase of vote counts. This was the sad truth behind the era of fans.

Tianheng Entertainment was the most proficient in making the most out of the fans. Su Muyan was the first example of a phenomenon – he was able to debut as an idol singer with a large following thanks to his fans.

Shen Xi was the most laid-back amid all of this, not bothered at all to look at the vote counts. The votes were in the hands of the fans and the last wave of votes had yet to happen. The top six were all of Cosmos Entertainment.

Su Ruowan believed she made it to the top seven. She was under the impression she was still making the climb. She thought she was going to debut in the girl group. Well, Shen Xi was going to let her live in that fantasy for now.

The stage was set for two groups and two performances.

With the first group done with their performance, the second group was up next.

The second group consisted of Tong Kejun in the lead role with Song Wenye, Guan Rou, Liu Qianyu, and Han Yan.

Although their performance did not have the wow factor like the previous group, it was still spectacular. The top-ranked trainees who knew they were going to make it gave the performance their all, but those in the bottom who had no hope to debut did not want to hold back either in their last stage.

They were all at the end of the journey on a hit show. While they were still fresh in the public’s minds, they could still develop a career in showbiz owing to their present popularity even if they did not secure an opportunity to debut in the show.

The real-time voting displayed on the big screen played to every trainee’s emotion, especially Han Yan’s. The hope she held in her fingertips was about to slip away.

Su Ruowan’s fame sank to the bottom of the barrel due to the recent scandal, but to Han Yan’s dismay, Su Ruowan managed to slowly get back up on the ranking after her press conference. Now at seventh place, Su Ruowan pushed her off the winners’ list.

Han Yan was not that hung up about making a debut, but now that she was so close, she had to seize the opportunity. Han Yan felt disgruntled that a character like Su Ruowan had the support of fans who were so blind to still shell out votes for Su Ruowan, edging Han Yan away from the opportunity to debut.

The fifteen trainees from two groups stood on stage. It was still early as the cut-off for the votes was at nine o’clock, during which the grand finale would reach its climax. Before that happened, it was some bonus time for the fans.

Fans and their idols would have an engagement by playing a game on stage. This was one of the stunts that drew many fans to dig deep into their pockets to buy the tickets. Every fan dreamed of having close contact with their idols.

The host began by explaining the rules of the games. There were simple games such as the three-legged race, relay race, charades, guess the lyrics, etc.

The lucky fans were picked randomly using a roll-and-stop system. Fans of the trainees had registered their ticket number, personal information, and favorite idol beforehand. The production crew organized the data to display on the big screen for piles of individual information to swiftly roll through while the trainees yelled stop to pick a fan.

Truth be told, the games were pretty cliché and lame, but this was the greatest thing ever to happen to fans as they were able to get up on the stage to play a game with their idol. The fans in the audience stand fancied themselves in the shoes of the lucky ones, imagining they were enjoying some one-on-one time with their idols. They watched on with great gusto.

Shen Xi was bored to the point of falling asleep, and yet she could not toy with her phone. She hung on for a long time until finally, the show was at its last game segment. It was guessing the lyrics.

This segment was a battle between the fan and idol. Unlike the previous games where they were on the same team, this game would have a water balloon that would fall on the person who answered wrongly.

Every participant had a water balloon suspended above their head. Set differently from their fans’ balloons, those for the trainees were marked with numbers in the order of their real-live ranking. Su Ruowan happened to be in seventh place.

Shen Xi looked at the water balloon, marked seven, suspended above Su Ruowan’s head. The latter was cheerfully holding her fist up at her fans in a show of encouragement. This stirred the fans on-site to scream louder and louder, chanting her name.