Chapter 11

       For the next round of the challenge, what the TV station publicised was: to choose an opponent, choose a judge, challenge the opponent, and defeat them by yourself.

       The director explained the rules in detail to ten contestants, that was, one player would choose an opponent from the remaining players in the order, and then the player would also choose a judge to be the judge for this two-person match.

       One of these two people would be eliminated, and the elimination decision was made entirely by the judges chosen by the players.

       Because there were a total of ten players, it means that only five people had the right to choose, and the other five could only accept the challenge if they were selected. Therefore, the player who chose first had the advantage, the key to this game was the order of challenge.

       How was the order of the challenges determined? It was very simple. They just have to look at the popularity of the contestants among the audience. After they announced the challenge rules, the TV station would open the SMS voting channel and count the popularity of contestants through paid SMS. One phone number could only vote once, and they would refuse to count more than one vote from the same number. The one with the highest popularity would get the first turn to choose in the challenge round.

       Judging from the current popularity of this program in the country, it would cost them so much money to buy votes for themselves, so this rule was relatively fair.

       After he heard the announcement of the contest rules, Wen Jianing subconsciously took a look at Yi Nan, who happened to be looking at him.

       Although Wen Jianing had never registered a Weibo account for Ke Xinhang, he also searched the internet for related news about him from time to time. He knew that Ke Xinhang’s popularity was also quite high now, perhaps only slightly less than Yi Nan.

       If Yi Nan came first in the voting, he didn’t know if Yi Nan will challenge himself immediately. It would be troublesome if that happened because he knew Yi Nan won’t be eliminated.

       Yi Nan didn’t know that he would be reprimanded by the top management of Lei Xing after the last ballot drawing incident was broadcasted. Now he had begun to learn to control his expression in front of the camera. He just looked at Wen Jianing and turned his head without expressing any thoughts.

       In addition to Wen Jianing and Yi Nan, there were two other popular contestants, Wen Lin and a girl named Lin Qingyu. That was to say, these people would probably occupy the top four in the voting rankings.

       But Wen Jianing didn’t expect that on the day after the rules were announced, the people of Lei Xing company talked to him in private and proposed not to challenge Yi Nan, Wen Lin and Lin Qingyu in this challenge.

       Wen Jianing immediately understood what they meant. The TV station wanted to fight for ratings and create conflicts in the program to attract viewers, but he was reluctant to really eliminate popular players because there were still two games in the future. If several popular players were eliminated and Yi Nan was left alone, the program will have little to watch.

       However, this free challenge model was doomed to have risks. In order to avoid risks, the program group and the talent agent company had to take this approach. The other party’s negotiation skills were very exceptional. What they told Wen Jianing was that they didn’t want him to challenge Yi Nan and several of their popular players. The reason was that Lei Xing valued ​​Wen Jianing very much, and hoped that he would be able to advance until the end, so the company could invest more in him in the future. Although they believed that he had the strength to compete with other players, they still hope that he could choose a more secure way.

       Wen Jianing had worked hard in the entertainment industry for so many years and he fully understands Lei Xing’s plan. He was not surprised, fighting Yi Nan was the same as fighting to his own death. To tell the truth, he was more worried that Yi Nan deliberately came to him for trouble.

       So Wen Jianing agreed to the company’s request without hesitation.

       But even so, when facing the other six players, Wen Jianing felt that he had no confidence at all, because if he talked about singing skills alone, probably no one would lose to him.

       He could only look forward to God’s blessing.

       In the conversation with the talent agent company today, Wen Jianing believed that the same would happen to Yi Nan and the others. But it was not clear whether everyone was as obedient as he was.

       During the period before the official competition, the program group repeatedly broadcasted the voting status on the Internet and TV every day, with the purpose of urging fans who had not yet voted to vote as soon as possible.

       Wen Jianing also paid close attention to it every day and found that he always stays in second place. The first place was Yi Nan, the third place was Lin Qingyu, and the fourth place was Wen Lin.

       Although his votes were getting closer to Yi Nan’s the later he got, he was unable to make a comeback in the end.

       On the day of the official competition, Wen Jianing sat in front of the makeup mirror and the makeup artist of the TV station was applying makeup to him. Yi Nan suddenly walked behind him and sized him up with his arms crossed.

       There were fewer and fewer players left in the dressing room. Compared with the liveliness in the early period, it looked a bit deserted. Almost everyone else would notice when someone walks around or talks.

       Just like now, while Yi Nan was staring at Wen Jianing, others were secretly staring at Yi Nan.

       Wen Jianing glanced at Yi Nan. The makeup artist that was drawing his eyeliner said unhappily, “Don’t move.” So Wen Jianing obeyed and stopped moving.

       Yi Nan looked at him for a moment, came forward, put a hand on his shoulder and said, “Be prepared later.”

       The whole dressing room was quiet for a moment, and the only sound that could be heard was the buzzing sound of the hairdryer in the hands of a stylist who was blowing the contestants’ hair.

       Wen Jianing, of course, ignored him.

       Sitting next to Wen Jianing was a male player named You Hao. He usually walked very close to Yi Nan. At this time, he smiled and raised his thumb to Yi Nan.

      Yi Nan smiled and hi-fived him.

       Wen Jianing looked at Yi Nan’s childish behaviour and suddenly felt that if Yi Nan went on the stage and challenged him, he didn’t know if he would probably admire him or not.

       Today’s competition was broadcasted live, and so were the next few rounds. Two hours before the start of the competition, the SMS voting channel was closed.

       After the opening performance was over, the first thing the host did was announce the result of the vote.

       In fact, there was actually nothing suspenseful, because one hour before the end of the voting, Yi Nan was still the first and Ke Xinhang was the second.

       Yi Nan was the first to be invited to the stage. The host asked him to say the name of the opponent he wanted to challenge.

       The atmosphere was very tense for a while. This tension mainly comes from the contestants on the stage, because no one wanted to be Yi Nan’s opponent.

       Wen Jianing felt that Wen Lin who was next to him was looking at him.

       He turned his head and smiled at Wen Lin.

       Then Yi Nan announced his opponent for the challenge. Instead of choosing Ke Xinhang, he chose You Hao.

       The camera zoomed onto You Hao’s face. He was smiling before, but at this moment, he couldn’t even maintain a forced smile, and his expression turned desolated all of a sudden.

       The expression was so wonderful that it was even replayed on the big screen.

       The host invited You Hao to the middle of the stage and asked him what he had to say.

       You Hao felt a little emotional, he said, “A brothers, there’s nothing I can say.”

       The host smiled and started the round.

       Actually, the reason Yi Nan chose You Hao was for the simplest reason that You Hao was relatively weak among the remaining people. He was a friend when they laugh and joke together. Once the key interests were involved, a friend means nothing.

       Wen Jianing suddenly sighed, he had worked hard in the entertainment industry for so many years and had many friends, but there were not many of them who are real friends.

       Then Yi Nan chose Wang Mei, who had always liked him, as the judge of the match, and so the two-person match officially began. However, the results of the game would not be announced immediately. The program team must keep the suspense until the end of the game, and it was said that even several rounds of advertisements would be inserted in between.

       The game between Yi Nan and You Hao ended, and it was Wen Jianing’s turn to choose.

       Wen Jianing’s choice was very ordinary, he chose a male player named Shen Youzong as his opponent. The selected Shen Youzong took a deep breath and even showed some relaxed expressions for a moment. Perhaps compared to Yi Nan and Wen Lin, he felt that he had a better chance of winning against Wen Jianing.

       He thought that as long as you do your best, nothing is impossible!

       Shen Youzong clenched his fist and stepped onto the stage.

       After a brief interview with the host, Wen Jianing was asked to choose his judges.

       Wen Jianing chose Lu Jinlang to live up to everyone’s expectations.

       Of course, at this time, there would be some viewers who didn’t like him and booing in front of the TV.

       The host thought it was a topic worthy to speculate on. He asked Wen Jianing, “Xinhang, can you ask why you chose Mr. Lu Jinlang as your referee?”

       Wen Jianing replied, “Should I not choose a judge who knows how to appreciate me?”

       The host smiled and said, “So it’s to guarantee your success?”

       Wen Jianing said, “There is no sure guarantee, but only to give my best.”

       The host again asked them to express their determination, and then the official competition began.

       The lights of the judges went out, only a beam of light shone at Lu Jinlang’s spot, and at the same time, a beam of light shone on Wen Jianing’s body on the stage.

       This was a game that was completely determined by the judges, so the only purpose was to impress the judge you choose.

       Wen Jianing chose a lyrical slow song. As the music played, his body swayed gently, but his eyes were firmly locked on Lu Jinlang.

       That song was for lovers to tell their hearts. The melody was a little monotonous, that was, to express their love over and over again, telling it over and over again, which made the people who listen drunk in the words.

       Wen Jianing also had no choice. He couldn’t fight other people with his singing skills, so he simply returned to the basics and impressed the judges with the most primitive emotions.

       Lu Jinlang propped his face with one hand. His posture seemed a little idle, but his eyes didn’t move away from Wen Jianing’s face.

       The director looked at the expressions of the two people looking at each other, and simply let the two scenes be broadcasted at the same time, showing close-ups of the two people respectively.

       The last line of Wen Jianing’s song was “I still love you, do you love me?” He finished singing in a very soft tone, and slowly moved the microphone away from his lips, while still watching Lu Jinlang.

       Lu Jinlang turned away at this time, picked up his pen and wrote something in the notebook in front of him.

       Xu Rujing glanced sideways and saw that Lu Jinlang had just drawn a circle on a blank notebook and then blacked out the middle of the circle.

---

The author has something to say:

I’m here to explain again! The “insult” I spoke before means that one is shamelessly playing around, and the other is blushing and eager to refuse but welcoming the act!*

---

*I guess some debate happened about xiaogong going to “insult” when author means that xiaogong will only teasing the xiaoshou
P.S:

Please support the author if possible~

http://www.jjwxc.net/onebook.php?novelid=2198091

https://www.gongzicp.com/novel-253290.html

Here’s a very awesome guide on how to support the author using jjwxc!
Here’s another guide to support the author using gongzicp!

P.P.S:
Join our discord server to receive notifications on Perfection updates and other novels by my friends! ♡
I will try to update it at least twice a day so I can catch up to the previously TL-ed chapter which is chapter 55 as soon as possible (ง’̀-‘́)ง