Ch54 - Please Give Five Stars for Satisfaction

The performance competition had just ended when Lan Gaojie fainted backstage.

The staff members hurriedly called over a doctor and sent him to the hospital after making sure his vitals were stable.

“He was fine, how come he suddenly fainted? It can’t be that something happened.”

“He’s young and shouldn’t have any problems. I bet he was too tired from the recent practises and that the pressure on stage earlier was too great.”

Having personally seen Lan Gaojie faint, both his teammates and the other trainees had all received a fright.

It was a good thing that the staff members quickly comforted them and said Lan Gaojie’s checkup didn’t reveal any issues. It was probably because he had been too exhausted from the recent events.

“Good thing there weren’t any issues.” After the performance, Xu Lele, Lu Xu, and a few of their teammates sat together backstage to watch the performances, waiting for the last performance of tonight to finish. “There was already Lai Chengshan before. If we add on a Lan Gaojie, wouldn’t our show be unable to be broadcasted?”

Xu Lele tutted after saying this, obviously only mentioning this as a casual remark. He didn’t actually want anything to happen to Lan Gaojie.

Lu Xu pursed his lips and smiled, only looking at his Grim Reaper app’s client information on the home page in order to calculate the time.

According to the death metre displayed on his screen, Lan Gaojie still had six hours left.

In six hours, the lamp would burn out, and he would become his new client.

To tell the truth, Lu Xu wanted to go and wait for Lan Gaojie now, but he was still at the performance and could only wait at ease.

Lan Gaojie fainted rather suddenly; it caught others off guard.

It was a good thing that after dealing with this chaotic event, the program staff quickly calmed down. The studio was made up of more than a thousand people just by counting the audience. In order to avoid more chaos on the scene, Fan Zeng decided to continue on with the original plans and continue recording.

Relying on the performance of the ‘Little Effort Team’, the effort team won a round at the beginning.

As the heads of the ability team, Gu Wenan and Qin Kewei placed special importance upon the second group to be chosen. The two of them discussed for quite a while and finally made their decision. “Our second group is the ‘Knights Group’.”

“No way…” Xu Haoming had been worried for Lu Xu and hadn’t thought it would be his turn so soon. He didn’t have time to think much and got up with his teammates to walk towards the stage.

However, Shen Chengyu glanced at the lineup of the opposing team and sent out Yao Yulong’s effort team without any reservations.

“Hahaha, I really want to see ‘Queen High Heels’. I don’t know what kind of method they’ll use to present it.” Xu Lele was evidently happy after saying this, clearly wanting to see Xu Haoming and his group perform a girl group’s song.

Although they knew that six boys couldn’t just flash their womanly charms on stage in miniskirts and high heels, what if?

As Xu Lele thought about this, he couldn’t resist poking at Lu Xu. “Xu ge, who do you think will win out of these two groups?”

At this moment, Lu Xu’s mind was completely full of his order that was about to come into effect. He merely smiled slyly when he heard this. “We can’t decide that right now. We have to watch the performance first.”

Xu Lele nodded. “You’re right.”

As the leader of his group, the Xu Haoming on stage had already begun introductions. “Hello everyone, we are the Knights Group from the ability team. The song we are going to perform is ‘Queen High Heels’…”

As a boy group, Xu Haoming and the others naturally couldn’t look as sexy in the same outfits as a girls group. In order to display the masculinity of a boy group, they had specifically chosen the name of ‘Knights Group’, and transformed the music into one in the rock genre, filling it with heavy metal elements the moment they opened their mouths.

The dazzling stage lights and heart-strengthening drumming stimulated the audience’s visions and eardrums.

“You can do it like this too?”

“Knights Group is so strong, this new remix is too good!”

“I feel like the ability team will win this time. Yao Yulong’s group must have so much pressure, having met such a group.”

…

The trainees sitting backstage and watching the performance weren’t stingy with their praise and shared their views with each other.

“Xu Haoming is really strong ai!” Xu Lele turned around, wanting to talk with Lu Xu, but discovered that Lu Xu wasn’t in his seat.

“Huh, where’s Lu Xu?”

The other group members’ attentions had all been focused on the competition. They only realised that Lu Xu was gone after hearing Xu Lele’s question. “Don’t know, he was here just now.”

“Maybe he went to the bathroom.”

Seeing Yao Yulong’s team walk onstage, everyone only talked a bit before hurriedly turning back to watch the performance. None of them thought much about this discovery.

On the other side, Lu Xu went from the rest area to the corridor. When no one was watching, he took out his phone and confirmed his order, then copied the order number to send to Xie An—

[SS-Lu Xu: Xiongdi, this is the new order I told you about before. I’m at the competition, so you keep it in mind first. If I’m busy and can’t deal with it, I’ll need you to make a trip]

On the other end, Xie An replied to the message quickly, a whole myriad of expressions to fart out rainbows for Lu Xu––

[SS-Xie An: As expected of my Xu ge, still being able to collect orders while on an undercover mission! Let me tell you, I’ve also gained a lot recently. On smaller days I still have ten or so orders. In addition to that stowaway on your end, our department’s results this month will be number one again!]

[SS-Lu Xu: Amazing, xiongdi! Once I’m finished with this mission, I’ll return and we’ll achieve a new record together for our district’s mortality rate.]

[SS-Xie An: Mn mn, Xu ge, I’ll wait for your return! Wait a moment, I have two new orders again. Xu ge, talk to you later, I’m going to go collect orders first!]

[SS-Lu Xu: Go go, charge charge charge!]

Who would have thought that when he wasn’t around, Xie An was doing so much. As Lu Xu thought about this, he subconsciously felt gratified. There was even a hint of a smile on the corners of his lips. He glanced at the time again. There were less than six hours to Lan Gaojie’s ascension, it would be soon.

His mood was very good as he prepared to head back and continue watching the performance. Just as he walked up to the break room door, he heard the staff members of the coordination team talking to the director. “They called, and said Lan Gaojie requested to withdraw from the competition…”

“Withdraw from the competition?” Lu Xu felt a little confused and couldn’t help but ask, “Did he say that himself?”

The assistant only then noticed that Lu Xu was there, and hurriedly lifted a finger to their lips in a “shush” motion, glancing around and afraid that others would hear.

Things like trainees withdrawing shouldn’t be shared with trainees in the first place, but Lu Xu had happened to pass by. The assistant’s face was hot, but they still told him softly, “Yes, he wasn’t at the hospital for long before saying he wanted to withdraw, I also don’t know the reason why. Fan ge hasn’t gotten the chance to talk about this matter either, so just listen and please don’t tell anyone else.”

Lu Xu wasn’t that kind of person, so he merely nodded his head to show his understanding.

When he had opened the door to the break room, he had still been thinking that Lan Gaojie might not know that his days were few in number.

When Lu Xu returned to his team, most of the performances were done. Currently, the effort team was still leading, and it was rather inspirational.

Once Xu Lele saw Lu Xu come in, he couldn’t resist asking, “Xu ge, where did you go just now? A few teams’ performances were especially good, but you missed all of them.’

When Xu Lele asked this, he wasn’t actually expecting Lu Xu to respond, he was just anxious to share the records of those few groups. Then he cupped a hand around his mouth and spoke softly into Lu Xu’s ear, “Don’t mind that the effort team is leading, it will definitely be a draw in the end. The four instructors are all big characters, whichever team loses in the first performance definitely won’t look good…”

Lu Xu was just listening to him speak and didn’t express any kind of opinion.

Not to mention, after the performance was over, it really did play out like Xu Lele’s prediction. The two teams had four wins and four losses. In the end, it really was a draw.

Once the public performance was over, the sixteen teams once again stood on top of the stage and waited for Liang Da to announce the number of votes and who the most charismatic trainee this time was.

“The group that the Charisma King is in will receive today’s outstanding team award. You guys guess first, who will be the Charisma King on this stage?”

After Liang Da read out the rules, many trainees subconsciously looked towards Lu Xu.

Lu Xu’s self-charisma was already very evident. Along with tonight’s extremely strong performance of ‘Monster’, the title of Charisma King would go to him without a doubt.

Everyone was looking at Lu Xu, but Lu Xu’s gaze couldn’t help but drift towards the ‘Ability Assault Force’ team. There were only five left out of the original six-member group. In order to not make this empty space too obvious, the program staff had placed them in a corner.

When the camera flashed by, with so many youthful faces gathered together, it was difficult to discover that one was missing if one wasn’t searching deliberately.

Thinking about the news he had just heard of Lan Gaojie withdrawing from the competition, he guessed that Lan Gaojie wouldn’t be going back to the dormitory. If it was like this, then he would have to go out for a trip tomorrow.

“…Based on the results of the thousand votes from the audience, our performance’s Charisma King is Lu Xu! Let’s congratulate Lu Xu!”

Liang Da’s voice rang out suddenly. Lu Xu returned to his senses and smiled at the camera as a gesture of gratitude for everyone’s acknowledgement of him.

Just like that, the filming for the public performance was over.

“So tired!”

“I can finally rest!”

“Aaa, I really want to go back, take a bath and sleep!”

…

Before the performance, everyone had been excited and pumped. Even though their bodies were exhausted, they didn’t feel it because they were mentally nervous, but after the performance was over, everyone couldn’t help but relax. Only then did they realise that their bodies were already extremely tired.

The four members of dorm room 201 were each captains, and had led each of their own teams to victory. On some level, this could be considered a super lineup.

Xu Haoming had won the competition, but while walking he seemed to be weighed down by something, as though he were worried.

Coincidentally, Lu Xu happened to be beside him, so he asked Lu Xu quietly, “Xu ge, did you hear? Lan Gaojie wants to withdraw from the competition. Do you think this piece of news is real or fake?”

Lu Xu didn’t have the time to answer when Han Tianyu, who was beside him, couldn’t resist speaking up after hearing those words. “It’s definitely fake. Look at Lan Gaojie’s current popularity and ability, he can obviously debut, how could he willingly withdraw?”

“But that’s what I heard from the staff…”

Han Tianyu pursed his lips. “It’s probably for hype. These past few years, a lot of people rely on hype to become famous. Let’s wait and see, maybe that person is already on his way back.”

When Xu Haoming heard his teammate put it that way, he couldn’t help but nod his head, inexplicably hoping that that was the case.

Lan Gaojie’s fainting had been too sudden. Even though their relationship wasn’t good, he also hoped that nothing wrong was going on for him.

The whole time, Lu Xu was just listening to them, occasionally glancing at his phone to check the time––

Only three hours left.

Nearly everyone thought that the news of Lan Gaojie withdrawing after he fainted was just for clout, but not long after the competition ended, they heard a piece of news when they returned to the dorm–– Because of personal reasons, Lan Gaojie had withdrawn from the competition.

As for the reason, no one knew.

“No way, he really withdrew?”

“It was news from the director’s team, so it’s probably true.”

“This person is really ridiculous, it wasn’t easy for him to reach this point, what is he withdrawing for? That’s really incredible.” Xu Haoming was a little angry, and even had the urge to phone Lan Gaojie and make him compete properly. It was just that he wasn’t close to Lan Gaojie, and when he remembered that he didn’t even have the person’s phone number, he had to get rid of the thought.

Song Zhe also lamented, really not knowing why Lan Gaojie did what he did. “His ability is really there, it’s a shame he withdrew.”

But they weren’t Lan Gaojie, so after lamenting with those couple of sentences, they had moved on.

The other trainees were similar. A few trainees would also be happy over this because there was one less competitor. Everyone was a trainee and knew how difficult it was to be here today. Seeing Lan Gaojie withdraw, they thought about it quietly but were too embarrassed to say anything.

At night, Lu Xu lay in bed, listening to his roommates’ breathing become soft and rhythmic.

At 2 A.M., there were less than ten minutes to Lan Gaojie’s ascent to heaven.

Lu Xu, who had been pretending to sleep as he lay in bed, suddenly opened his eyes. He pulled the quilt over his head and disappeared. It looked as though there was someone lying in the bed, but if someone came over and patted it lightly they would realise that it was totally empty, that Lu Xu’s shadow wasn’t even there.