0713: You who shine in the parallel world

Returning to the training room from the venue, changing clothes, and removing stage makeup already takes a lot of time, but the brothers actually had to wait for more than half an hour before the production team announced the results. It seems that the vote counting this time was really complicated.

While secretly chuckling to herself, Yu Yu returned to the training room with her teammates, ready to see what kind of shady tactics the production team would pull, and sat together to wait for the results.

Compared to the other groups, Chen Chusheng's tribe was basically guaranteed to win this round. Even Su Xiaoding, who was a little anxious about whether he would be eliminated in this round before the second round, seemed to be under no pressure at this moment. On the way back, he even sighed in a cheeky tone, saying that if he couldn't leave this time, he still had so many shows to perform, what would he do?

Yu Yu then said with a smile, "Xiao Ding, you really have a lot of acting skills. The more acting skills you have, the more practice you need to improve."

Then Su Xiaoding didn't dare to show off anymore.

While they were having a great time, Zhang Yuan was quite uneasy. When Yu Yu ran into him in the dressing room, Captain Zhang still had a hint of unease in his eyes. Given his personality, he wouldn't be confident until the final result was announced, unless it was a sure win.

Now the production team has suddenly announced that three people will be eliminated this time. In addition to the tribe that won first place, the three members with the lowest popularity will be eliminated from the other three tribes. He must be feeling even worse right now.

In fact, the selection of eliminated contestants is partly related to audience popularity, but also to the practical factor of artist contracts. For music reality shows like Pi Ge, apart from the initially selected participants who sign contracts for the entire season, most others cannot sign contracts all at once. Even these re-employment targets only signed contracts until the fifth performance, with the final competition after the fifth performance being a separate matter.

Many artists are signed on a per-episode basis, like Su Xiaoding. To put it bluntly, they are people the production team can eliminate at any time.

In all four tribes currently, there are artists who have only signed contracts for the first two performances.

Qi Sijun took the host's card and quickly memorized the lines. When he saw the eliminated contestants on the card and the distribution of stage scores, he couldn't help but frown slightly, then relaxed his brows helplessly.

As the host of the show, at least on the surface, he had to be a neutral third party without his own stance. Having been a host for so long, he was well aware that behind-the-scenes manipulation in these variety shows was practically standard practice. Therefore, he simply picked up the card and, following the script, began to advance the final reveal process.

To maintain suspense, the winning team won't be revealed at the beginning. The production team first sent the four team captains to a scalding hot room to collect their team's ranking range. Lao Jiu, Li Jiuzhe, Huang Pinguan, and Su Xiaoding told Chen Chusheng to go and come back as soon as possible, while Yu Yu, Yu Haoming, and Wang Yuexin, who were very confident in their team's ranking, didn't even bother to greet their older brother.

What else could he do? How could Chen Chusheng, as the eldest brother, not know what kind of person his own brother was? He just smiled knowingly and left the room.

He returned shortly afterward, holding an envelope representing the top two. Of course, the three younger brothers still didn't react much. Wang Yuexin was still on her phone discussing with the other two what to eat later. Ke Zong had previously recommended a yakitori restaurant that was quite delicious, and he was urging the two of them to eat there.

Victor Wong did ask, "Who are the last two?"

Chen Chusheng paused for a moment: "Brother Yaoqing and Yuanyuan."

The others were slightly taken aback, and Wang Yuexin and Yu Haoming also looked up instantly.

"Yuan Yuan? No way?" Wang Yuexin shoved the phone into Yu Yu's hand, saying incredulously, "Both of his stages are good, especially 'The Performer'..."

“Didn’t he and Yaoqing’s tribe have a 1-1 record? How come the two of them…” Yu Haoming didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone understood what he meant.

How come their combined firepower is lower than that of Hu Yanbin's tribe, which lost both battles?

"That's because the stage firepower wasn't revealed at the beginning," Yu Yu said calmly, showing no surprise.

Don't you even know who's in Hu Yanbin's tribe?

Zhang Yuan became the team leader simply because he wanted to create the stage he loved. However, these team leaders who were not on the show's official roster were merely sacrifices in the eyes of the production team.

When the production team spent so much time behind the scenes before announcing the results, Yu Yu vaguely realized that the following developments might not go as planned. Sure enough, their first target was Zhang Yuan.

Because Zhang Yuan, who occupied the captain's seat, was easier to control than the others in 0705.

The next round is the third round, and the competition is almost halfway through. This time, the production team must bring everyone back to the "right path". Chen Chusheng's team performed too well in the second round, leaving them with no way to start. Guoguo can only set her sights on Zhang Yuan.

Hu Yanbin was unlucky enough to run into Chen Chusheng, a tough opponent. If it weren't for Lin Zhiying in his team, he would have swapped places with Wang Yaoqing, and the production team wouldn't have had to worry about their rankings.

Hu Yanbin must rank second because the most popular member from the top two tribes needs to win the individual MVP award—Lin Zhiying needs to win the individual MVP. The more awards the better, as this will give them an advantage in the final annual awards.

That's why Guoguo said Hu Yanbin was a smart man, knowing to bring Lin Zhiying into the team first.

If Chen Chusheng's tribe hadn't won both of their battles against Hu Yanbin's tribe, and the score difference between the two hadn't been quite considerable, the production team might have had to pick on Chen Chusheng's tribe when adjusting the scores, which would have been even more awkward.

After all, this was the first time the program team had ever controlled the score of Chen Chusheng's tribe, whether by lowering it or raising it.

Guoguo sighed, and could only say that fortunately, the Chen Chusheng tribe of the Second Duke was good enough.

As for who is actually at the bottom between Zhang Yuan's and Wang Yaoqing's tribes, it wouldn't really matter under normal circumstances. Unfortunately, the person they want hasn't become the captain yet, and among the 0705 group, one captain position would be enough. Guoguo hasn't forgotten who they really want to push for.

If conditions allowed, she even wanted to break up the entire 0705 team, leaving Chen Chusheng as the sole member, and the other four to be placed in other teams as support members. In particular, Yu Yu should have been placed in Lin Zhiying's team from the beginning; otherwise, Lin Zhiying's position as X-Leader might have been secured long ago.

Damn, this guy has real talent and he's really good at hiding it. He's even more unassuming now than he was back in the 07 competition. If he were to unleash the musical dominance he displayed during those two kilometers in his normal routine, the production team wouldn't have been so careless at the beginning...

No, it should be said that they knew Yu Yu was talented; anyone who had participated in the competition back then couldn't possibly be unaware of it. However, they didn't expect that he, who seemed to have been away from the music scene for many years and was not doing his job properly, would be even more formidable now.

In the scalding hot room, Zhang Yuan and Wang Yaoqing were the last two to remain, but the elimination list has not yet been revealed because Wang Yaoqing's team still has a red-card player, Ma Boqian.

The production team won't eliminate Ma Boqian, but the necessary procedures still need to be followed. Therefore, there is an envelope in front of Wang Yaoqing showing Ma Boqian's personal popularity rating.

Unsurprisingly, he was not eliminated despite being in the top ten in terms of popularity.

Now, it's finally time to announce the eliminations. The first round will announce two eliminated members, chosen from the two bottom-ranked clans. The third eliminated member will be announced in the second round. And apart from the clan that comes in first place, the other three clans all have a chance of eliminating members.

Zhang Yuan returned to the practice room with a frown and a blank expression, holding the envelope. His teammates surrounded him, and seeing his worried and distressed appearance, they couldn't help but comfort him, saying it was okay, everyone was there, and they would face whatever the outcome was together.

He took several deep breaths, but dared not open the envelope directly.

Xu Liang considerately extended his hand: "How about I do it?"

“No,” Zhang Yuan shook his head, “I can do it.”

He took a deep breath, intending to give a quick and easy answer, and quickly opened the envelope. However, he stopped when he pulled out the letter, looking as if he dared not look at it, and slowly took out the letter.

Xu Liang's name was almost jarringly obvious in the first row.

Zhang Yuan's mind went blank for a moment, and he stood there stunned, at a loss for what to do.

"It's alright, it's alright." Xu Liang seemed to have known the answer all along, since he had only signed for two public performances. He smiled reassuringly, hugged Zhang Yuan, and patted the back of his head. "I can say I came here for a vacation. I'm already very satisfied to have left such a perfect stage like 'The Performer'. After I go back, I have a lot of work waiting for me. That's when I'll truly be overcoming obstacles."

Xu Liang comforted Zhang Yuan in this way, and of course he wasn't lying to him. As the behind-the-scenes boss who controlled the copyright library, President Xu was indeed quite busy.

Zhang Yuan couldn't help but think that their stage performance was so good; if they had given Xu Liang more screen time and boosted his popularity, would he have stayed? It was he, as the team leader, who hadn't considered the members' popularity; it was his poor planning…

“We’ve done enough.” Ma Xiaolong reached out and hugged the two of them. “This stage has reached the perfect balance. It wouldn’t be right to adjust anyone’s performance. Not only ‘The Performer,’ but ‘The Love You Left Behind’ was also perfect. Everyone was outstanding. Yuanyuan, you are a fantastic captain.”

"I really wanted to hold back my tears, but you suddenly said that." Zhang Yuan, who had been holding back his tears, couldn't hold them back any longer and burst into tears after hearing Ma Shi's words.

Cai Guoqin reached out and patted Zhang Yuan on the back: "Oh, our Captain Yuan, you're so genuine. You don't need to blame yourself. There will always be eliminations in competitive variety shows. All of us team members know how excellent you are, including your 0713 brothers. Xiao Yu is in the Chusheng team, and he has always supported you, right? We've always supported you."

“That’s right. If it weren’t for you running around looking after both stages, we wouldn’t even know what to do here.” Shell nodded.

The seven people huddled together in the practice room, but let go of each other after a moment. The car that was supposed to take Xu Liang away was already parked outside the building. This was also an old tradition of Brother Pi: ​​those who were eliminated had to leave on the spot.

After bidding a reluctant farewell to Zhang Yuan, Xu Liang ran into Lan Zhenglong as he left, clearly indicating that he was the one eliminated by Wang Yaoqing's tribe.

Afterwards, Zhang Yuan, having composed himself, returned to the practice room lobby with the remaining five teammates to await the crowning of the winner of the second round and the announcement of the third eliminated contestant.