Rebirth from the Ashes

Su Ruowan stood in front of two fanboys and one fangirl. The female fans made up a small chunk of her fanbase while the otaku fanboys were a majority of her fans. The latter mostly fancied themselves to be her boyfriends and husbands while some simply loved her personality and good looks.

In this game, the fans could work together and come up with a question to stump their idols. Of course, the fans would not be put in a difficult situation as they would be rewarded with their idol’s signed poster, signed photo of them with their idol, and a cash prize of twenty-thousand-yuan courtesy of the production team if their idol failed to give the correct answer.

The fans were racking their brains to think of a lyric. Although they did not want their idols to be drenched in water, the production team was offering them a mouth-watering cash tip of twenty-thousand.

Every group of fans had one chance to seek help offstage and the help was limited to the mentors. This was a childish mini-game even the mentors were forced to participate in.

Gu Yang looked helpless. The production team really had nothing better to do than to ease the tension surrounding the grand finale. Nevertheless, it set the stage for high gear.

Xia Mi pushed her earpiece to the back of her ear before moaning to He Sumo and Fang Yao how lame and childish the game was. It would be classier if guests were invited to perform with the trainees for the grand finale.

What was going on? They had highly suspected the production team resorted to these little gimmicks just to save on the production cost and hiring stars.

Still, they had no say about the games. The fans were pumped up, acting as though they were also in the game as their screams of support echoed in the stadium. The scene had never been livelier.

Soon.

The game had begun.

Each group had three attempts and one lifeline to seek help offstage.

The order of the participants was decided by the trainees’ current ranking, starting from Ye Weiyang who was in first place.

The fans had three sets of questions ready, each containing three lines of lyrics. If they chose to seek help from the mentors, they would only be using two of their prepared lyrics. Otherwise, they could use all their materials.

It was soon plain to see that the fans’ knowledge and prowess on lyrics were far lesser than their idols. Their idols were quick to name the song as lyrics were read out to them. The assistance from mentors did not prove much help either.

From the first place to Ji Jingyan who was in the sixth place, none of the trainees had water balloons dropped on them while the fans were drenched. It did not take long before Su Ruowan’s turn.

For the first two questions, Su Ruowan, like the other trainees, answered accurately. She did not want to embarrass herself in front of the fans and viewers by getting drenched and ending up a drowned rat in a national broadcast.

She bitterly wondered who was the b*stard to have come up with the game. Whoever it was, they were trying to make the girls look like a clown.

“Do you want help from the mentors offstage?” asked the host to Su Ruowan’s fans.

Out of the three fans, the girl nodded and turned to the panel of mentors. Her eyes reflected provocation. “We’d like to ask for help from Mr. Xixi.”

Mr. Xixi was the culprit who exposed Wanwan in public and made a fool of her. Everyone praised him, saying he was knowledgeable and had high attainment in music and dance. Well, she wanted to see if he was good enough to stump Wanwan.

The two fanboys looked at Mr. Xixi with hostile eyes, as though he had killed their mother. The fans of the first few groups had sought all the other mentors’ help except Mr. Xixi, but none of them were able to stop the trainees from giving the correct answers.

The last mentor standing was Mr. Xixi. Su Ruowan’s fans wanted him to stump their idol and get the twenty-thousand-yuan bonus, yet at the time did not want to put Su Ruowan in a spot to answer incorrectly.

Su Ruowan was dumbstruck, unable to tell if the fangirl was an actual fan or a troll. Despite her rising blood pressure, she kept a gentle smile on her face.

The fangirl had turned around and cheered Su Ruowan on. “You can do it, Wanwan. We believe in you!”

Su Ruowan was tempted to tear her into pieces and kicked her off the stage. A fan, her *ss. It was more like stirring sh*t for her. With Mr. Xixi an enemy of hers, the fangirl was pushing her onto the road of no return.

For the first time since the opening, the broadcast director finally zoomed in on Mr. Xixi as everyone awaited the question.

The fans, trainees, and mentors were fixated on Mr. Xixi, curious by the question he would bring to the stage.

The production team applied conditions to the game, such as the song could not be too obscure with at least one-third of the audience to have heard of it, the song had to be in Chinese and not in a foreign language, and a complete line of the lyrics must be provided.

The restrictive conditions made it difficult to stump the trainees as it had to be a hit song for one-third of the audience to have heard of it before.

“When your desire is out of reach, what more can you do in life?” Shen Xi named a classic song that many tended to overlook the lyrics. This was also what she wanted to say to Su Ruowan right now.

The mentors reflected for a moment before the title of the song dawned on them.

The trainees were lost in thought. The lyrics were on the tip of their tongues, and they could hum the song, but somehow, they found it hard to name the song.

Some of the fans were quick to figure it out while others were unable to recall despite being overwhelmed with a sense of familiarity. Everyone stared intently at Su Ruowan on stage, rooting for her to answer.

There was a time limit of ten seconds for the contestants to answer. The host started counting down loudly and looked expectantly at Su Ruowan.

Wins and losses made up the fun games. It was boring for the first few groups to win without a cinch. The game is interesting now courtesy of Mr. Xixi.

The first few fans should have sought Mr. Xixi for help. Not only would the show gain high viewership, but they would also win a cash prize of twenty thousand yuan. It was a win-win situation.

Following the rhythm of the host, the audience joined in the countdown. Only Su Ruowan’s fans looked at her nervously while supporting and rooting for her. Wanwan must know the answer!

As much as Su Ruowan’s fans may pray for a quick answer, time was not on their side. It was over when the count reached 1.

The audience and host counted to 1 no sooner than Su Ruowan suddenly remembered the answer. Before she could open her mouth, the water balloon above smashed her on the head without warning.

Following a pop, the water balloon exploded and splashed all over her head. The cold water left her shuddering in chills.