CH 31

Chapter 31: Come to the rescue

“Jiang Fengchi!”

“Jiang Fengchi!”

The dazzling lights, the enthusiastic cheers of the audience, the gradually rising temperature inside the venue… drops of sweat dripped from Lin Xiaoxiao’s forehead to the floor. Jiang Fengchi’s appearance had ignited the spectators’ fire and they shouted his name like crazy, no one realizing this was a promotion stage that was supposed to belong to the girls.

The loud cheers seemed to tear Lin Xiaoxiao’s eardrums. Generally, the majority of the players would choose to wear only one earpiece to be able to adjust themselves live if needed. But right now, Lin Xiaoxiao hated the fact she could still hear the audience and not be able to dance the entire song without listening to them. Right now, she just felt like a soulless puppet, dancing when needed and eagerly awaiting the end of this nightmare-like performance. She didn’t resent Jiang Fengchi for stealing the spotlight, but this stage was supposed to be theirs and she wanted to stand on it.

At this moment, an ethereal voice suddenly resounded at the scene, as if coming from the sky itself, reaching the stage through layers of cheers.

“Xiaoxiao!!”

Audience: ?!

Suddenly, the crowd jolted and instinctively turned their heads to look at where the voice came from. At the top of the steps, a young girl was raising a loudspeaker and shouting Lin Xiaoxiao’s name. A staff member rushed over and shouted in panic: “Where did you get this?”

Qiao Dai’s shout was so loud everyone was looking at them, including Lin Xiaoxiao who was standing on the stage. After attracting her attention, Qiao Dai stuffed the loudspeaker into the hands of the staff member and said with some embarrassment: “Help me return it to Teacher Jiang!”

Teacher Jiang? Jiang Fengchi?

The staff member was stunned for a moment. He lowered his head to look at the item in his hand, unable to connect it to Jiang Fengchi. Qiao Dai and Lu Ying took advantage of this moment to run to the front row of the audience. They held light signs to show their support and shouted the four girls’ names.

“Come on!”

Qiao Dai was afraid Lin Xiaoxiao and the others would not be able to see them. She shook her sign, jumping on the spot, while the girls’ original fans finally cheered for them in unison.

“I love you guys!”

“You are the best!”

With a cry, the four girls were pulled back from the edge of collapse. They looked at Qiao Dai and Lu Ying who were cheering frantically in the crowded auditorium, then at their scattered fans, and tears blurred their eyes. At once, the rest of the audience realized this was not just Jiang Fengchi’s stage but also the girls’. They not only were facing their own assessment but also had to deal with the unexpected blow of missing their C position. Right now, this was the time they needed encouragement the most.

“This performance may not be perfect, but it really touched me.”

Even the always harsh Lu Cong couldn’t help but say so. After a few more thoughts, he added: “I guess this is the charm of the stage.”

The more emotional Song Anni had red eyes and said: “I really want to hug them all.”

But before she could get up to do so, everybody’s eyes were attracted elsewhere; the four girls who had just finished their performance rushed off the stage and ran towards the audience and embraced Qiao Dai and Lu Ying. The camera followed them closely and recorded this touching scene.

“Xiao Ying, Daidai, thank you.”

Lin Xiaoxiao was crying. She knew that if she hadn’t heard both girls, their stage would have turned into a disaster. Even if Lu Cong had just said their performance wasn’t perfect, Lu Xiaoxiao felt she would always remember instead of desperately trying to forget this day.

At this moment, someone noticed that the person who had used the loudspeaker to attract attention had been Qiao Dai.

[Isn’t that Qiao Dai?]

[Oh my god I’m going to cry again! My eyes got all teary when I heard her shout Xiaoxiao’s name!]

[It was so difficult for Xiaoxiao but fortunately, the little sisters were here to support her! I’m going to cry for a while more too.]

Lin Xiaoxiao’s team and their fans had already been distressed after Ruan Tao’s accident and when the whole audience had only yelled Jiang Fengchi’s name, some of them had not been able to stop themselves from crying. No matter what others may think, they were their little sisters and watching their priceless treasures crumble during their performance was like their hearts were being stepped on. Who didn’t want to see their idols shine on the stage? They knew Jiang Fengchi’s rescue was an hopeless act but they couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable when they saw the girls’ tears.

But at this time, Qiao Dai appeared.

Lin Xiaoxiao cried, then wiped her tears and looked at Qiao Dai. No wonder Lu Ying had left them during the last grouping session; at that time, she had been worried it would destroy their team because of that but she finally understood now… Qiao Dai was really warm.

The other players watched this scene with emotion. After a while, someone asked: “Did Qiao Dai and Lin Xiaoxiao know each other before?”

After hearing the question, the other contestants tried hard to recall, all confirming that these two girls had not crossed paths. They were even more surprised: why would Qiao Dai help a player she did not know? It was too incredible.

Outside of Ruan Tao, this team was made of three Bs and one C. No matter how they looked at it, Class A players needed to be wary of them. Today’s incident and stage may have been able to remove them from the competition; Qiao Dai’s first shout could be said to have brought them back from the brink of elimination. Even for the sake of shaping herself a selfless image in the public eyes, it did not seem to be worth it.

“Is it really that hard to believe Daidai may really be kind?”

Seeing that some players still wanted to sow discord, Song Yiqi chuckled and interrupted the conversation between these girls. She glanced at them and they all became quiet at once. The others couldn’t help but think that if Qiao Dai wasn’t genuine, how would Song Yiqi not see it? How would she make so many friends in such a short period of time? One person could fake it in front of a few people, but it was impossible to cheat everybody. It only showed Qiao Dai was truly kind and likeable.

[Speaking of. Qiao Dai came to cheer but where is Lai You? Isn’t she Lin Xiaoxiao’s teammate?”

[Haven’t you heard that in L’s internal clique, Double L is excluded?]

Double L referred to Lu Ying and Lin Xiaxiao, whose initials were both L and Lai You was the individual L. (TL note: i almost got rid of this part because my head exploded)

The next groups’ performances were similar and the only thing the audience was really looking forward to now was Lai You’s stage, who had drawn the last slot. Lai You had encountered many drawbacks since the beginning of the draft and her fans were anxious; they hoped she could show her real talent during this first public performance, have a nice turnaround, and come back from Class F.

Finally, the host announced that the last group was ready to perform.

[Ah, I’m almost falling asleep, Lai You is rushing!]

[Don’t be too happy, I think Galaxy is going bad in general today, it’s unlikely they can pull it off!]

[What nonsense!]

The netizens were still bickering when Lai You’s team took their place on the stage. Accompanied by the background music, twelve girls began to sing and dance but very soon, it was obvious to everyone that they were dancing wrong.

[???]

[Baffling. Didn’t they rehearse?]

The fans, who had been hoping Lai You would make her comeback just now, suddenly panicked when they saw how messed up their choreography was. Reluctance was clearly visible on every girl’s face and Lai You collapsed after watching her teammates’ mistakes and an angry expression took place.

[No, are they enemies?]

[What kind of positioning is that? The back row is entirely blocked!]

Spin, trip on a teammate’s foot; turn, hit a shoulder; chorus, someone was entirely out of tune… The fans who had been shouting Lai You’s name became speechless; this was by far the most tragic performance they had ever seen and mistakes were so frequent they couldn’t bear to watch anymore.

Some people wanted to save Lai You’s honor and tried to defend her: [She can’t help it, her teammates are all from Class F!]

But the next second, they were slapped in the face: [Ah, let me tell you something then. Wanna know why their performance is so bad? Because they only started training as a team the day before yesterday!]

[Ah, it’s hard to explain in a few words.]

[I don’t know what to say… Can anyone be promoted in their team?]

[What are you talking about? Lai You is captain, have you seen any captain be eliminated so far?]

As long as they paid attention to each mentor’s rating, they could notice the pattern. The mentors would issue promotion cards to players who performed particularly well or to the one they believe had made great progress.

While Lai You’s performance was definitely not outstanding, she was a member of Galaxy and her strength was obvious to all. Unfortunately, she had ended up with eleven Class F this time and her stage had become so bad. Her current team pulled her down but the program would definitely keep her and look forward to her future development.

[Ah, I still have to see how many cute little sisters will Lai You dislike on the show.]

[But seriously, can this kind of performance be promoted?]

[Lai You’s popular and got first place during the captain quiz. Doesn’t that mean she is capable and the program group will give her a chance?]

While the viewers were still talking, the performance was over and the twelve contestants stood on the stage, waiting for their mentors’ evaluation. It looked as if they didn’t know what to say and the four instructors were waiting for someone to speak first. They stayed silent for a while and the audience became awkwardly quiet. Lai You glanced at the teammates beside her, complaining in her heart they were pulling her legs.

Finally, Jiang Fengchi said: “I didn’t want to say such heavy words but after seeing your performance, I can only say that I am disappointed.”

The girls on the stage held their breaths, not expecting to hear the word “disappointed” from Jiang Fengchi in front of such a large audience. His voice was not loud nor different than usual, but Lai You’s heart started to beat faster.

Jiang Fengchi looked down at the promotion card in his hand. All combined, the four mentors had a total of forty promotion cards in their hands at the beginning and now that the first public performance was coming to an end, they still had a few ones left. However, he didn’t want to give any away; respect for the stage was his only requirement and Lai You couldn’t even fulfill it. He couldn’t go against his own principles and give a promotion card to Lai You just because of the program group’s consideration; otherwise, he would feel bad for all the players who had actually worked hard. Even for Lin Xiaoxiao’s team, while facing such a huge drawback, he couldn’t just promote all of them out of sympathy.

Then right now, he would stick to his decision.

“Do you think the mentors will definitely promote the captain? That in every team, someone will definitely get a promotion card? Then let me tell you that, in my opinion, it is not the case.”

Jiang Fengchi took a deep breath and looked at the players on the stage before giving his answer slowly: “I am sorry, I have no promotion card for you.”