Chapter 77: CHAPTER 77

Cheng Zhen’s pupils dilated in shock: “Wait, why?!”

She immediately raised her hand, "I object! I demand a battle! I think we should have a battle to fairly, justly, and openly decide who should get the C position in our group!  Not just listen to Jiang Ye’s word! Otherwise, I’ll report Jiang Ye for favoritism!"

Other teammates: "?"

Why is she fighting for the C position?

"Objection overruled."

Jiang Ye said calmly, "I’m using my veto power as the number one."

Cheng Zhen: "???"

"But it’s true."

Ouyang Chen turned to look at Jiang Ye, "It’s okay if you choose Cheng Zhen, but you have to give us a reason."

If we’re talking about skills, in our group, it’s Tan Meng after you, how could it be Cheng Zhen?

"Oh, because I took a look, Cheng Zhen has the fewest parts out of all of us."

Jiang Ye’s expression was very serious, even with a touch of gentle sincerity, "I was thinking, this is our last group stage on "Chasing Light Girls." So, I hope that we can all end this journey without regrets."

Cheng Zhen immediately said, "I won’t have any reg——ouch, ouch, ouch, Teacher Tan, I’m not stretching yet, wait until I finish—"

"After this stage, we might not have the chance to collaborate again."

Before Cheng Zhen could object, Jiang Ye continued, "But it doesn’t matter, at least for now, we still have the chance to make this stage perfect. Let everyone who participates in the stage have their own shining moment."

"Cheng Zhen is getting more than just the C position, right?"

"She’s getting the chance to shine just as brightly as the rest of us."

Jiang Ye used her most powerful persuasion skill.

Lu Xiaowan was immediately moved to tears, her emotions were instantly calmed, "Wuwuwu, wow—! Jiang Ye, you’re so good, wuwuwu, I support you!"

Ouyang Chen, a girl from northeast China, was immediately won over by Jiang Ye’s righteousness, "Okay, Jiang Ye!!"

She patted Jiang Ye’s shoulder hard, "I’ve only heard people say that you’re so good! I didn’t expect you to be this good! I have no problem! The C position is Cheng Zhen’s!"

"Jiang Ye, you’re so noble!"

Jiang Ye was almost coughing up blood from being patted, "… Cough, cough, no, it’s what I should do."

Cheng Zhen was still trying to struggle, "I don’t—"

Tan Meng, who was holding Cheng Zhen down, tried hard to hold back her laughter, and then said, "I agree too."

Sun Lu nodded, "Yeah, if everyone else agrees, then I agree too."

Everyone in the group, except for Cheng Zhen, voted unanimously for this proposal.

Jiang Ye smiled and waved to her, "Come to the C position, let’s talk about the stage formations."

Cheng Zhen: "..."

Damn.

Why is Jiang Ye even participating in a talent show?

She should just go into MLM!

Jiang Ye gave Cheng Zhen the C position, not because she wanted her to continue to avoid the live stage.

After all, avoidance is useless, it’s better to face it bravely.

And even though it was the C position, because Cheng Zhen’s original part was actually very small, adding the extra part from the C position made it feel like everyone had roughly the same amount of parts.

Perfect.

After Jiang Ye went through the formations with her teammates twice, she let them rest.

—Of course, except for Cheng Zhen, she had to practice separately.

She went to the next practice room to visit.

This group’s C position was Liang Yu.

The reason was simple, because everyone else was tall, she was short, and she would look strange standing in any other position, so it was better for her to stand in the C position, it would be more symmetrical.

So, even though she had the C position, Liang Yu was very unhappy.

Lin Zui saw Jiang Ye at the door, walked over, and asked her, "What, are you here to scout out the enemy?"

"More or less, I just wanted to see how far you’ve practiced."

Jiang Ye glanced inside and said, "Hey, why is Shen Zhiyi in this group?"

She had not paid attention during the part selection, she was too busy looking at the parts of the two songs, so when everyone finished choosing, she realized that she had gotten the lead vocalist one position by chance.

She hadn’t thought much about it when the group divided the parts, she didn’t realize that there were only two groups, and Shen Zhiyi wasn’t in their group, she must be with Lin Zui.

But now that she looked at it.

Shen Zhiyi’s style didn’t seem quite right for singing the song with more rap parts.

Lin Zui said, "She was swapped, she originally chose your song."

Jiang Ye said regretfully, "What a pity."

"What’s a pity?"

"This group has me and Liang Yu, we can definitely lead her."

Lin Zui raised her chin, "Just watch, our group’s stage will definitely be more amazing at the finals."

"We’ll see about that."

Jiang Ye leaned against the door, raised her eyebrows, "Let’s see who has the more amazing stage at the finals."

The trainees were busy preparing for the finals, and the fan circle atmosphere was even more suffocating.

There were different fake rumors on the forum every day, saying that the debut positions were already decided.

Each fandom would pick the fake rumors that were beneficial to their own idol and use them to torture their fans.

Top fans said that if they didn’t work harder, they wouldn’t be able to create a gap and would be overtaken, mid-tier fans said that if they didn’t work harder, they would be suppressed, and the bottom fans said that if they didn’t work harder, they wouldn’t be able to debut.

In short, the conclusion was one sentence, hurry up and donate money.

Jiang Ye glanced over.

This was not urging donations.

This was practically urging people to donate their kidneys.

In this kind of atmosphere, it was no wonder that a little girl would donate her breakfast money to her.

But Jiang Ye could not get involved.

If idols actively participated in this kind of thing, they would be mocked for being low-class.

This kind of thing had to be handled by the company’s PR team, otherwise, it would definitely cause problems in the long run.

Jiang Ye considered it and sent a message to her manager, roughly talking about her observations.

But it wasn’t her responsibility to decide what the company would do next.

Jiang Ye sighed and turned to look at the forum.

The direction of the forum was no longer the same as before.

At this crucial point, every fandom was basically targeting each other, as if they could get one person eliminated and have one more spot open for their idol, it was a complete free-for-all.

During this time, even old fabricated scandals could be dug up and used to criticize someone.

Jiang Ye, who had basically locked in the C position, was not in this bloody battle, but the trainees below her were basically all in danger.

Cheng Zhen relied on her parents, not her skills, and her car crash on the live stream had to be mentioned.

Shen Zhiyi was brought in as a temporary replacement after Xue Zhihan’s car crash, and that had to be mentioned.

Liang Yu had been in the underground scene since she was a minor, and that had to be mentioned.

When it came to Tan Meng, they couldn’t find any black material on her.

But she had one fatal flaw, a problem that was easier to target than any black material.

She was from the same company as Jiang Ye.

On the dedicated forum, there were already several high-rise buildings dedicated to the question of whether two trainees from the same company could debut.

【Will Shengrui Entertainment really debut two of them?】

【Although, their popularity is so high, how can they both debut?】

【But it’s so ridiculous if they both debut!】

【There are only five spots, Shengrui sends two, and they debut two, then will Shengrui send five and they debut five?】

【It might be possible if Chasing Light Girls explodes, but how big is the heat of Chasing Light Girls now?  So many companies are watching, even if Shengrui wants to, will the program team let them debut two?】

【Besides, Shengrui isn’t a big company, Jiang Ye’s popularity is really high, she’s definitely going to debut, but what about Tan Meng?】

•••

In another dorm.

Tan Meng locked her phone screen and hid her phone.

She had always known that she faced a different kind of competitive pressure compared to Jiang Ye.

So, she worked harder than anyone else.

She knew that her popularity was only higher than the others, high enough that she could get a chance to debut even if she was suppressed.

When she entered the debut position in the last round of rankings, she thought she had seen hope.

But that hope was fleeting.

Tan Meng returned to the practice room to train.

The group stage rehearsal for today was over, only she and Jiang Ye could basically get through the entire stage smoothly.

But it wasn’t enough.

She had to work harder to keep up with Jiang Ye.

For a moment, Tan Meng suddenly felt very wronged.

She had worked so hard, was she still going to be abandoned?

Would she still not be able to debut because of the unspoken rules of the talent show industry?

The door to the practice room suddenly opened.

Jiang Ye’s voice came from behind her, "Hey, Tan Meng, are you going back?"

Tan Meng quickly wiped away her tears and softly hummed.

Jiang Ye had come back to get her tablet and planned to look at it later, but when she heard her voice, she immediately turned around.

Tan Meng quickly turned her face away.

Jiang Ye grabbed her sleeve and blurted out, "Did you cry?"

Tan Meng immediately said, "No."

But the crying in her voice was very obvious, and the moment it came out, both she and Jiang Ye realized it.

Jiang Ye let go of her sleeve.

She was silent for a moment, then suddenly said, "I’m sorry."

Tan Meng didn’t know why she said sorry.

As if she was apologizing for the offense of suddenly asking that question.

Or maybe she was apologizing for her existence, for taking away the debut opportunity that she might have had.

Tan Meng didn’t respond.

"Which part are you coming back to practice?"

Jiang Ye continued, "I can practice with you."

Tan Meng paused and said, "Just this part of the chorus."

Jiang Ye nodded in agreement, "I also think there’s something wrong with the choreography here, it’s not smooth enough."

The two of them turned on the music and danced a silent duet in front of the mirror.

Tan Meng looked at the two of them in the mirror.

They were actually dancing very in sync.

So in sync that every move and every beat overlapped.

This was the level she had reached after working hard towards Jiang Ye’s direction.

But why wasn’t it enough?

"… Thank you."

Tan Meng suddenly stopped, "I’m a little tired."

She hugged her knees and slowly sat down by the edge of the mirror.

She sniffed and breathed softly, as if she was resting.

"I’m tired too."

Jiang Ye sat next to her, "I’ll sit with you for a while."

The two of them were silent for a long time.

Tan Meng suddenly spoke, "Jiang Ye."

"Will I be abandoned?"

Jiang Ye was slightly stunned.

She knew Tan Meng was worried about this.

But she didn’t expect Tan Meng to ask directly.

This was completely out of character for Tan Meng.

She was always a little insincere, so she always had this air of not wanting to admit defeat.

But it was this spirit that had allowed her to climb from the initial evaluation all the way to where she was now, becoming a representative figure of the show’s underdog story.

But the tone of her voice now was very low and sad.

Like someone who had worked hard for a long time, but still hadn’t succeeded, and was ready to completely give up on fate.

Jiang Ye thought for a moment and said, "No."

"Why?"

"Why are you so sure?"

"Don’t forget."

Jiang Ye suddenly smiled and said, "I can read the stars."

Tan Meng was stunned for a moment, her memory instantly flashed back.

To when they had just met, not long ago, before they went to participate in the talent show.

Jiang Ye had said to her mysteriously.

—"Because I observed the celestial bodies and calculated with my fingers, and I calculated that I was destined to have a teammate like Tan Meng."