She became a heartthrob among internet celebrities.

The variety show uses a live broadcast plus editing format, and there are special selection managers to guide the participants. I don't know if it's because Jiang Lai is an alumnus of Lin Chaoyin's school, but she was directly assigned to Lin Chaoyin's team.

Because she had already communicated with the other party beforehand, Jiang Lai acted quickly. When she arrived at the Broadcasting Building, Jiang Lai called Lin Chaoyin, who told her to wait in the lounge and that she would come to pick her up soon.

Jiang Lai passed through the gate with her identity card and then entered the lounge. There were already quite a few people inside. When they saw the newcomer, everyone couldn't help but turn their attention to her. Jiang Lai was startled at first and didn't react immediately, but then she calmed down and greeted the other contestants.

“Jiang Lai, over here!!” A voice suddenly rang out.

Jiang Lai looked over and saw Qu Su sitting on a sofa in the corner, with two boys beside him.

"Qu Su?"

"Come on!"

Jiang Lai smiled and greeted the others as she walked towards Qu Su.

Qu Su watched her walk towards him, and couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. The boy next to him teased, "Hey, you were so excited just now, but you're chickening out now?"

Jiang Lai approached Qu Su and looked him over. The young man in front of her looked a little nervous, with his black hair on his forehead a bit messy, but he also had a youthful spirit that was unique to him.

"Why are you here?" Jiang Lai sat down next to him, leaned closer, and asked in a low voice, "What's going on here?"

Qu Su quietly replied, "This is the first time the contestants have met. This is an alumnus of my school." Qu Su introduced the people around her.

The two were standing quite close; Qu Su could see the fine hairs on the other's face and his own reflection in her eyes.

"The production team contacted a teacher at my school, and the teacher recommended me, so I came." Actually, there was another reason: he saw the news that she would also be participating, and he thought it would be more fun to play with her, so he signed up, and he didn't expect to actually be selected.

However, Qu Su would never say these things. Instead, he complained to her, "After you finished your school anniversary celebration, why didn't you ever ask me to hang out? We're both streamers on the same platform, aren't we? You only talk to me when we chat."

Qu Su wanted to play with Jiang Lai, and fans in the live stream would occasionally ask if they could play games together again, but unfortunately, he was a very busy person.

"What have you been busy with all this time?!" Qu Su asked curiously, with a hint of complaint, "I can't find you no matter how hard I try.

Jiang Lai paused for a moment and said, "Good question. It's like when you're busy all day and lying in bed, you scroll through your phone for a while and it's already midnight. I don't know where all my time goes. Speaking of which, what's wrong with your hair?"

"Hmm? Ran's back, isn't he handsome?" Qu Su raised an eyebrow.

Jiang Lai nodded seriously: "It's much better than the green hair it had before."

Qu Su's face fell. "Can you please forget about that green hair I gave you before?"

Jiang Lai chuckled, "Okay, but why did you dye it back?"

“My teacher said I’m not allowed to go on TV with green hair and embarrass the school.”

Jiang Lai thought for a moment, then patted his shoulder: "Your teacher is right."

Qu Su looked at her with a mournful expression: "You think green is ugly? Why didn't you say so before?"

"Would you dye it if I told you?" "Of course!"

The two hadn't met since the previous gathering, so they didn't feel awkward at all. Qu Su was incredibly outgoing and talkative, and he deliberately tried to chat with Jiang Lai as much as possible, so there was never a dull moment. The other students, including Qu Su, looked on with disbelief and wisely moved away from the two.

The other contestants also noticed how familiar the two seemed and assumed they were a couple, which made them all a little disappointed.

Both of them are good-looking, so they naturally attract attention. Who among them isn't a chosen one? There are plenty of people who look down on each other, but when you see Qu Su and Jiang Lai, it's different. One is handsome and the other is beautiful, they are really eye-catching. Everyone wanted to go up and talk to them, but they were too shy to do so. Unexpectedly, the two of them actually knew each other and must be from the same school.

That's a bit of a shame. Everyone, male or female, has their own thoughts, right? What if participating in the show even leads to finding a partner? But right now, it seems unlikely. The two of them are chatting happily, not even glancing at anyone else. Oh well, I'll just have to work harder during the competition! I absolutely have to shut those couples up!

After a while, the person in charge of the program came over.

Jiang Lai saw Lin Chaoyin walk in with a shrewd and capable woman.

"My surname is Zhou, and I'm the person in charge of all of you contestants. You can call me Sister Zhou. This is my assistant..."

Sister Zhou explained everything fluently and clearly, then went over all the precautions, giving each contestant a document stating, "It contains various things you need to pay attention to during the program..."

There wasn't much to do on the first day. After getting a general understanding of the program's flow and recognizing the contestants, the production team arranged for everyone to stay at the same hotel.

Jiang Lai then noticed that many of the contestants were carrying suitcases, presumably from universities in other provinces.

She stood there for a while, thinking about whether she should go back to school to get her things first, or go to the hotel to familiarize herself with the way.

"Junior Jiang, aren't you leaving?" "Jiang Lai, what are you standing there for?"

Two inquiries were made simultaneously.

Jiang Lai looked over and saw Qu Su and another girl.

"You are—" Jiang Lai looked at the pretty girl and tried hard to remember, "You're a senior in the architecture department, I remember you!"

Zhou Yunyun smiled and pushed up her glasses. "Yes, we met during math tutoring."

Qu Su chimed in, "I've seen you before too."

“Yes. We were rivals in the math competition.” Zhou Yunyun said to Qu Su, then looked at Jiang Lai: “Junior, want to team up with me? We’re both from Beijing University, we’re on the same team.”

Qu Su: "I also want to be with Jiang—"

Another boy walked over and said, "Qu Su, don't be a traitor. When we go on the show, we'll be their opponents!"

"But--"

Jiang Lai laughed: "Your fellow alumnus is right, my senior and I will go together, you guys should go too!"

"Then wait for me to come find you!" Qu Su said with a look of reluctance.

Zhou Yunyun was laughing so hard she could die, "This guy is so funny, I've never seen him like this during the competition!"

She gossiped, "Are the junior and he a couple?"

"No, no, no, we're just acquaintances, friends, I guess!" Jiang Lai asked, "Senior, should we go to the hotel to check out the rooms first, or what should we say?"

"Let's go to the hotel first!" Zhou Yunyun said. "There are four of us from our school, including you and me. The other two are boys, they are seniors and are too busy to come today."

"I was wondering why I hadn't heard anything about it before. And why didn't I see my senior just now?"

Zhou Yunyun said, "I arrived later than you. When I got there, I saw you chatting with Qu Su, so I didn't come up to find you."

Jiang Lai nodded: "I see. Before I came, the teacher told me that there were seniors from the same school, but she didn't tell me who they were."

“Although there are alumni here, this show seems to be mostly individual competitions,” Zhou Yunyun said. “We’ll definitely be sharing a room. I see you haven’t brought anything, so let’s go check out the room first, and then go back to school together to get our things?”

"I'm fine with anything, I'll listen to what you say, senior." Jiang Lai gave the decision-making power to Zhou Yunyun.

"Then it's settled!" Zhou Yunyun clapped her hands and said.

Jiang Lai and Zhou Yunyun went to the hotel with the rest of the production crew. As expected, the production crew arranged for people from the same school to be together, and she and Zhou Yunyun shared a room.

The two of them went back to the school together to pick up some personal belongings and then returned to the hotel. Dinner was also arranged by the production team; the staff provided boxed lunches, and to be fair, the food was pretty good.

Lin Chaoyin also took this opportunity to visit Jiang Lai and Zhou Yunyun's room.

Because she had previously been the student council president, Zhou Yunyun recognized her. "Senior Lin!"

Lin Chaoyin was very kind to them all, saying, "You can come to me with any questions you have while participating in the show."

"Thank you in advance, senior!" Jiang Lai said.

"No need, I'm counting on you guys to bring honor to the school!" Lin Chaoyin ate her boxed lunch with them. "Speaking of which, what about you and that Qu Su?"

Here we go again. Jiang Lai explained once more, "They're friends."

Lin Chaoyin and Zhou Yunyun exchanged a glance and gave each other an ambiguous smile: "Senior understands!"

Jiang Lai: "Do you guys really understand?"

“He’s good-looking and has an interesting personality. If you’re interested, you can go for it!” Zhou Yunyun winked at Jiang Lai. “But maybe you won’t even need to make a move; he’ll come to you on his own.”

Lin Chaoyin also said, "You know what, there is a reason why Qu Su will participate in this program. Oh right, we have a love-hate relationship with Huada University. The program team will definitely steer some topics towards you. You should be careful."

Jiang Lai's lips twitched: "Let's not!"

Lin Chaoyin said regretfully, "There's nothing we can do. Our director has gone all in. Don't worry, he won't do anything reckless."

The three girls chatted in the room for a while until Lin Chaoyin had to leave.

Tonight, all the contestants are staying at the hotel. Some went to bed early, planning to face the show and challenges in their best form tomorrow, while others were too excited to sleep and were still chattering away in the middle of the night.

Qu Su and his classmates were the kind of people who were still chattering away in the middle of the night.

"Qu Su, was that girl from Imperial University today?"

"Well, you know?"

"I've seen her on social media before, she's a fairly well-known internet celebrity!" The guy was also quite gossipy: "What's your relationship with her now?"

Qu Su rolled over: "It's okay. It's just that I have feelings for her on my own."

"Then just go for it! You have to be shameless when pursuing a girl." "How do I go for it? Do you have a girlfriend?" "Uh, no." "Then what are you saying here?"

"Three cobblers are equal to one Zhuge Liang? That's why I'm trying to help you!" The boy became interested: "Let me tell you, I saw something online—"

Qu Su initially dismissed it, but unexpectedly, he actually listened to some of it later.

"To showcase your charm, you must demonstrate all your strengths."

"You need to make a lasting impression on the other person!"

Qu Su secretly noted down a few points that he thought made sense, and decided to put them into practice later.

Meanwhile, the production team also posted updates on Weibo and Douyin to promote tomorrow's live broadcast.

The official post quickly sparked a heated discussion.

--First!!!

—A front-row photo to cheer on our alma mater!

—No, this show isn't dead yet? I've been watching it since I was a kid?

—They won't die, they've even come up with a new trick this year! Didn't you see?

—A battle of top university students, featuring both individual and team competitions—looking forward to it!

—The production team is really good at keeping things under wraps. There was no news before, and they only released the information now?

Where can I watch it? When will it be released? This is very important to me!

—Live broadcast tomorrow

—I've always thought these kinds of shows are fake. Do top students really have time to participate in these shows?

—It can't be fake, right? It's a live stream tomorrow! It's hard to fake a live stream, right?

—A senior from our school participated in this program, and I will watch it for her!

Regardless of whether it's true or not, the program will provide a detailed introduction to various schools, so families with high school seniors who need to fill out college applications can take a look.

—I'll watch it like a prenatal education program, hoping my baby will absorb some of its intelligence.

—Hilarious, that makes sense.

There are plenty of shows like this, what's so interesting about them?

—If you don't like it, don't watch it. Is someone forcing you? If you don't think it's interesting, just swipe away. Why do you have to jump around?

—Stop arguing! The show hasn't even started yet, what's the point of all this arguing? Listen to me, let's fight!

—Upstairs, you really love making a scene!

—I just discovered that Douyin has an exclusive partnership with this show? And they have even more behind-the-scenes footage?

—Among the contestants circled by the show's producers are some Douyin (TikTok) streamers!

—A streamer? Isn't that low-class?

—And there are a few contestants who are quite good-looking.

—Wow, some of them are really amazing, like geniuses, right?

Anyway, I think this show is going to flop.

Although there are many similar programs, "Brain Battle" is an old program and still attracted a lot of attention. In addition, the program team bought trending searches, and it quickly gained considerable discussion online.

Some people find it boring, some are curious, and there are all sorts of opinions about the show. Some people are looking forward to it, while others are pessimistic. The situation has actually attracted some attention from casual viewers.

After all, people have always admired and respected scholars and intelligent people throughout history. Regardless of their thoughts, since they have nothing to do during the summer vacation, quite a few people still plan to watch this variety show.

People who care about Jiang Lai are also watching the show, including her friends and fans.

The next day, as soon as the show started airing, the popularity of the live broadcast room continued to rise, but it wasn't considered very popular. Director Xing wasn't discouraged, though, as it was only the first day and there was still much to see how things would develop!