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Last update for today! It seems that a lot of you all cried after reading previous chapters? Hey, you and me both, partner.
The scene of the live broadcast could be said to be an absolute mess.
In fact, before this, there have been similar idol survival shows. But there has never been a precedent like this one – where the final debut night was so absurd and off-script. The little crown, the sign of the highest prestige of the show – was also given to a trainee who failed to debut, Jian Xingsui. It was a blatant show of face-slapping the crew.
When the ranking was announced, some Jian Xingsui fans at the scene were even more unreconciled. Some of them even came with flowers in their hands. The trainees were training in a closed-off venue. They never had the opportunity to meet them personally. As this was the first time they ever saw him in person, they had so many things they wanted to say.
They wanted to tell him, ‘You’ve worked really hard. Your songs are very good, we love it so much. We’ve seen your grit and endless sleepless nights, your countless days of practice, your blood, your sweat–’
‘You are worthy of the debut position.’
‘These are the flowers we gave you. Congratulations, you debuted today, Suisui.’
They wanted to see that the youth with low self-esteem on his first stage, who said he dared not pursue his dreams, could leave this hall as a debutant after sunrise. They wanted to see him walk on a bright, flowery path into his future. As his fans, they wanted to escort him along the way, through thick and thin, through every achievement and album release.
But he didn’t debut.
He somehow failed.
Maybe… they would never see each other again. That lonely and unknown boy would return to being an unknown entity in this cruel, callous industry. The program crew seems to have slapped them hard, leaving everyone speechless for a long time.
The camera cuts to the fans in the first row. The young lady holding the flowers was crying, fat droplets of tears rolled down freely. She covered her lips and tried her best not to make a sound. The tears fell on the flowers, heartbroken.
The barrage in the live broadcast room also exploded:
[Why?]
[Ahhhh, why!]
Jian Xingsui was wearing two small crowns, standing still beside the podium. He opened his arms, gave Ning Ze a hug as he patted the older man’s back in a comforting gesture. In a chalky, low voice, he said, “Congratulations, Ze-ge.”
Ning Ze hugged Jian Xingsui tightly, his eyes flushed red.
This man was always taciturn. When he woke up early in the morning, he would fetch water for his roommates in advance. When he came back at night, he would also take care of his friends who have cramps from dancing and help them stretch. He had never been very eloquent with his words. But at this moment, in front of Jian Xingsui, his eyes were red, and his voice was trembling, “You… you have to keep performing on the stage. You belong on the stage. Don’t give up your music. I want to hear it again.”
Jian Xingsui froze.
Ning Ze didn’t like to talk, preferring actions over words. But he understood everyone very well. He knew that some failures are difficult for a person to overcome. He was afraid that Jian Xingsui would give up the stage from now on.
“Please, don’t give up.” Ning Ze repeated this sentence clumsily. With a tall stature and solid muscle, this bronze-skinned boy usually looked very stable. Tonight, with tears rolling down his cheeks, he no longer gave that impression. Unable to let go of his younger brother, he patted Jian Xingsui on the back, a little choked up, “You are very good, you have done a good job, you have worked very hard, I know this very, very well.”
At this moment, Jian Xingsui couldn’t bear it anymore. The emotions he bottled up deep inside had burst out. His lips trembled slightly, the last bastion before the dam breaks. One sob, one choked breath, and then, it followed with a loud cry.
The youth who has been enduring grievances… would probably be fine without any external comfort. But the moment he felt this warmth enveloping his body, it felt safe. It’s safe enough for him to air out his grievances. And once it’s out, it’s out of his control.
Too many people in the audience were emotionally infected, and finally couldn’t stand it anymore.
A girl stood up in the crowd, and used all of her power to shout, “Suisui, don’t cry.”
After someone took the lead, the others also stood up:
“Don’t cry, you are the best!”
“We will continue to support you!”
“You performed really well today!!”
More and more people followed suit. Their combined voice was getting louder, and their restlessness made the security guards of the program group unable to sit still. They came to control the situation, but they still couldn’t stop the girls’ words. Even the audience in the live broadcast followed soon. The barrage was filled with too many words, covering the entire screen until it felt like it could burst.
At the same time, the Weibo hot search list was updated.
#StarlightDebutNight#
#StarlightDebutListExposed#
#JianXingsuiShouldDebut#
The third hot search surpassed the other two in just ten minutes, and it reached the top of today’s hot search list in no time. A large number of netizens were attracted by the hot search out of pure curiosity. Then, they followed the news to the live broadcast room, where they saw noisy and chaotic images at the scene.
With the list of debuted trainees, the official Weibo of “Starlight” was also updated. This was a Weibo post celebrating the formation of the boy group: “‘Starlight’ came to a successful conclusion tonight, the boy group is officially established. Let’s celebrate the success of the following trainees who made their debut…”
Under that post, he number one hot comment got 100,000 likes in a few minutes–
[Director of the Brain Disease Association1clarity: the display name was mocking the show for being brainless basically.]: “Hello.”
Below the that comment, there were angry fans and viewers who feel aggrieved:
[He was still fifth when the final ranking had two hours left!]
[How did this happen?]
[We have worked hard for two or three months, is this the end?]
[Suisui must be so confused now…]
And amidst these comments, of course, there would be some fans of the debut trainee’s fans celebrating their bias’ debut. Among them, Shen Xingchen debuted as the center, and no-one had anything bad to say about him. In contrast, the most eye-catching group of people was of course Anran’s fans.
As a popular participant, Anran had a huge fanbase. In celebration, their display name were filled with happy emojis, and their post were also decorated by various reaction images and flower emoticons.
[Congratulations to Anran for making his debut in third place. Anran’s path to stardom is magnanimous, and his future will be flowery~~]
Of course, this type of comments were to be expected. No one can certainly blame the fans for such comments celebrating their bias’ success.
But the problem was that the front row of hot comments were all questioning and insulting the program group. Some fans were sick of the unharmonious insults, so one of them decided to directly type under the comment questioning why Jian Xingsui didn’t debut: [Excuse me, but congratulations to Anran for his debut at the third place! Anran has a promising star path and a promising future~~]
After someone took the lead, more and more people dared to copy this behavior.
Jian Xingsui’s fans were usually Buddhist all year around. But they were really stimulated tonight. They were originally asking the program group to seek justice, or else they would be angry. When they opened the reply, they saw blessings for Anran’s debut. The words floated under their harsh comments invited a strong sense of tonal whiplash. It’s very easy to stoke an ember, and the seemingly-innocent comment felt so glaring, so provocative… so hateful. [peaceful, non-confrontational.]
No matter how good-tempered people normally were, they were only humans. They could be offended and pissed off. In the end, many people are so stimulated they reply directly to Anran’s rude fans:
[Do you think it’s appropriate for you to be in our comments?]
[Why can you just make your own building2comment thread?]
[Your behavior is so ugly.]
[Let’s not bother each other. You do you, I’ll do anything I want. If you want to celebrate, please go and celebrate by yourself!]
Anran’s fans felt aggrieved by the sudden firepower, some people also started to fight back and replied:
[I’m just borrowing a building to celebrate, why are you being so hostile? Did you pay for this? No?]
[If you’re angry, apologize to my sister. It’s understandable that your bias didn’t make a debut. Being so fierce really scared me (wiping sweat)]
[There are still many trainees who haven’t made their debut. If they don’t have the strength and votes, they won’t make their debut. Why is it up to you to decide who’s worthy or not?]
[I’m really speechless with this behavior, So you won’t let others celebrate when you bias didn’t make his debut?]
Some people purposely aimed their replies like knives to poke people’s sore spots.
Many Jian Xingsui fans saw these words, their furious hair was on fire, and they were wronged and angry. To their surprise, the addition of another fanclub changed the situation. Shen Xingchen’s fans have always been relatively fierce in firepower, both in fighting ability and solidarity. They felt compelled to help Jian Xingsui’s fans fight back because they saw their bias cry on stage because his brother was bullied by the program group. However, they chose to be sarcastic instead:
[Hey, hey, hey let me check, such a happy celebration, is Anran the first trainee who debuted as the center?]
[He just got third place and you dared to have this size of an ego?]
[Hahaha , Haven’t you won a ranking in this life, Xiao San3this is a pun, as Xiao San / little three is also a slang term for a “mistress” aka a woman that a married man cheated with.?]
[Like idol, like fans, I guess~]
[This is so hilarious, I’m dying of laughter. Yeah yeah yeah, his future sure is promising~]
As the fans of the first ranked trainee, they are tough when they speak, and they also handle Anran’s fans’ weaknesses easily. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth – seeing Anran’s fans stabbing Jian Xingsui’s fans in their Achilles’ Heel, Shen Xingchen’s fans decided to return the favor. In the end, the Weibo comment area suddenly became a battlefield.
The director’s team backstage was also flustered, and the assistant director’s head was sweating, “Director, what should we do? Weibo and various media seem to have a lot of negative news.”
The director himself also panicked. He didn’t expect the audience’s reaction to be so intense, he hesitated and said, “Don’t worry, these people should just make trouble for a while. Nothing will happen if we let it simmer for a while. Our live broadcast is still going on. Now the most important thing is to end this final night first.”
The assistant director felt that he had an ominous premonition, but he couldn’t say anything.
However, just when everyone in the program group wanted things to settle down, at 10:59 that night, the live broadcast of “Starlight” was accompanied by the barrage and influx of a large number of users. The huge flow of people was paralyzed the network!
#StarlightShowBroadcastCrash#
This hot search hit the top of the hot topic list in less than 10 minutes. Because a contestant didn’t make his debut, the platform was forced to suspend the live broadcast. Tonight “Starlight” debut night directly became the butt of the joke in the industry.
The assistant director became even more anxious after learning about the situation: “Director, what should we do now?”
After realizing the suspension of the live broadcast, the director cursed a few times inwardly, and immediately said: “The live broadcast was forced to stop. Let the cameramen prepare. We will record first then broadcast later. No matter what, we must finish the final debut night. As for Weibo, we will publicly express our position and make the votes of the contestants open and transparent. Just tell them about our fairness and impartiality.”
They did manipulate the votes.
But as long as the overwhelming vote numbers were announced, and fans believe that Jian Xingsui’s votes are indeed low, it’s enough. Anyway, they need to restore the image first. So long the true number will never surface, they are safe.
These directors thought they planned well. However, they didn’t expect things would just get uglier. In the end, this decision became the thing they regretted the most.
If I was JXS’ fans and I saw those AR’s fans comments… One bloodbath won’t be enough, just saying :)))
If you can, please support me by donating on my ko-fi~ For every 2 ko-fis, I’ll release an additional chapter ^^
1clarity: the display name was mocking the show for being brainless basically.2comment thread3this is a pun, as Xiao San / little three is also a slang term for a “mistress” aka a woman that a married man cheated with.