>Topic: [Inside News! A Top Two-Character Popular Contestant from a Popular Variety Show Might Withdraw!!!]
1L: [???]
2L: [“Popular Variety Show”, “Popular Contestant”, OP who are you hinting at?]
3L: [What era is it to pull this kind of trick again, pretending to be an insider employee leaking stuff is so outdated [picks nose][disdain]]
4L: [The final debut day is in two weeks, after enduring all the way to this point, how can’t someone bear it to withdraw…]
5L: [No way, no one actually believes this, right? You can’t beat others in votes so you start spreading rumors about withdrawal? Even black fans would find this ridiculous]
……
38L: [This is the fifth post like this that I’ve seen today. Oh god, why do I have a bad feeling about this [shivering]]
39L: [Emm…… Could it really be that someone is about to withdraw, and the production team and capital are leaking it early to test the audience’s reaction?]
40L: [Damn it, is that someone you’re talking about who I think it is??? Is this a joke???]
41L: [Pfft hahahaha if it really is him withdrawing, that would be so exciting, the final C position would actually become uncertain!]
42L: [Don’t laugh so fast upstairs. If he really withdraws, the first to cry will be his fans, and the second will be you fellow group member fans. Losing such a golden thigh means your group’s future is dark ahead… with no future in sight. [Crying]]
……
123L: [? How did such an obviously fake leak get discussed for over a hundred floors? The production team would have to have a brain problem to allow their own child they raised from scratch to withdraw. I’ll say this today, even if both Qi Yang and Yan Qiao, these two two-character contestants, withdraw, QT will not withdraw!]
124L: [There are indeed quite a number of people posting this kind of thing today, and all the IPs are in Yanhai. I seriously suspect something big is happening. Maybe the withdrawal is real, just not the person we guessed.]
125L: [A two-character top popular contestant? Given how unreliable such leaks usually are, we can expand the candidate pool to the remaining two-character trainees. After all, in the eyes of some leakers, anyone who hasn’t been eliminated yet counts as a popular contestant.]
126L: [That makes sense. Maybe this person is the bottom of the 40, using the gimmick of voluntarily withdrawing to get some hype. I’ll bet on Tang Heng.]
127L: [Then I’ll bet on Liao Fei.]
128L: [I’ll bet on Shen Zhao.]
129L: [Are you guys doing the King of Hell’s roll call here, just reading the rankings backwards, huh? I’ll go bold and bet directly on Qi Yang. My brother Yang, though ranked below Quentin, still deserves the title of top popular contestant [confident hands on hips]]
130L: [As long as it’s not QT withdrawing, I’m fine wuuuu, you scared me. As soon as I went online, I saw people saying Quentin might withdraw. I only started watching this show because of QT. What will I watch if he withdraws?!!]
131L: [I agree with the person above. If Quentin is there, I can still be a Quentin-biased group fan in the future. If Quentin isn’t there… I’ll just be a casual fan of the group [shrug]]
132L: [Think carefully. If Quentin really withdraws, the one losing the most is definitely not Quentin himself. On the contrary, he might be the one profiting the most.]
133L: [After absorbing all that traffic, he makes a beautiful exit, turns around with tens of millions of fans and walks the path of a solo idol or singer. That’s even more efficient than selling a CP to purify solo fans. Gaining over ten million fans in two months, who else?]
134L: [If handled well, he can even create a beautiful, strong and tragic persona. The top contestant with a huge lead in votes suddenly withdraws on the eve of the finals. Is it a distortion of morality or a fall of humanity? Alas, capital!]
135L: [Stop talking, I’m starting to anticipate the possibility of QT withdrawing.]
136L: [Please no… Although singer Quentin is also good, I prefer watching idol Quentin… Such a young handsome blond guy, please continue being a singing and dancing idol, okay? You can wait until you’re older to become a pure singer, being an idol is the real fleeting youth.]
137L: [Everyone’s just joking around. Unless some stupid capital really forces him to withdraw, QT will still debut properly in the group. Going solo would be eating bitter hardship for no reason. As the popular absolute C, Galaxy Entertainment and Youth TV will definitely not treat him unfairly in the future. For their own cash cow, they’ll definitely feed him lots of resources! With a company and platform backing him, isn’t that better than fighting alone?]
138L: [By the way, isn’t that ad QT shot in Nancheng supposed to be released soon? So mysterious, we don’t even know what the brand is.]
139L: [It makes sense to keep it confidential before the official announcement. No matter what it is, I’ll buy it all out. My wallet is already starving [smirk]]
140L: [Sigh, I don’t know if it’s that the brand has bad eyesight or if my QT is really offline and hard to reach. After being popular for a full two months, my QT’s forum homepage is still a wasteland! Apart from the first post registering the account, there’s nothing. A normal person would seize this wave of traffic from the show and aggressively take a few commercial promotions, right?]
141L: [Actually, QT signed with a company. It happened at the end of last month, I think. It’s a newly established small company, clearly created just for him. It’s probably another family business. There isn’t even an official company account. I wonder if the staff team is fully prepared. Sigh, it’s probably another makeshift team. Why does every handsome guy I’m a fan of have such a disappointing team? [Sighing with chin in hand]]
……
356L: [Huh, why did it take such a big detour? Once everyone starts talking about Quentin, they can’t stop. Does anyone still remember OP’s title? We might as well not have it.]
357L: [If you ask me, I’ve been around the entertainment industry too long. I’ve been led around by unscrupulous paparazzi too many times. Until there’s official confirmation, I can’t be bothered with it.]
358L: [Don’t worry. At most…wait a week. If someone really is withdrawing, it’ll happen by then at the latest.]
……
After the third public performance, Wanming Media officially began negotiations with the production team regarding Qi Yang’s withdrawal.
The withdrawal of a trainee ranked in the top three in votes is no small matter. Qi Yang’s newly appointed manager had already prepared multiple strategies for this. The “inside leaks” spreading online in the following days were also his doing.
For a big company like Wanming Media, reaching a consensus with the production team isn’t the hard part. The hard part is controlling public opinion and stabilizing the audience of NS and Qi Yang’s fans.
Therefore, it became very necessary to build up momentum for the “withdrawal” on forums beforehand. Unfortunately, the real reason for Qi Yang’s withdrawal can not be explained in detail, otherwise it would inevitably lead people to question Wanming Media’s development plans for their signed artists.
The newly appointed manager had many years of experience in the industry, although not particularly famous. His work style was relatively conservative, and he was not good at generating hype. Having him use the withdrawal to evoke public sympathy or something like that was 100% impossible. All he could think about was how to help his artist smoothly weather the withdrawal incident.
But being conservative had its benefits too. Qi Yang’s personality wasn’t suited for a manager with too many ideas. The previous one was too radical, only thinking about combining Qi Yang’s popularity as a popular second male lead in a hit drama with the buzz of the first boy group survival show on the platform and quickly cultivating a rising star. He never considered the artist’s own thoughts.
On the other hand, the current manager’s strength lay in his strong sense of responsibility and wide connections in the film and television industry. With his help, Qi Yang wouldn’t have to worry about scripts for the next few years.
After learning about the change in Qi Yang’s manager and investigating the new manager’s work style, Quentin felt slightly relieved.
However, he was still a bit puzzled. Since that manager was so reliable and Wanming Media was very cooperative with the manager’s work, why had Qi Yang’s BE progress bar not moved at all? Could it be that Qi Yang’s bad ending in the original novel had nothing to do with his career?
After careful thought, Quentin believed his guess was likely correct. Whether it was the decision for Qi Yang to withdraw or the change of managers, giving up on his idol career and returning to acting, none of those changes had caused the progress bar to increase. This could only mean one thing: whether Qi Yang was an actor or an idol, whether his future career developed well or not, had nothing to do with his bad ending.
So Quentin couldn’t help but think back to what had happened when Qi Yang’s progress bar was first activated.
Could it be that the 0.01% progress was merely to remind him of the appearance of a “key character” and the unknown relationship between that strange obsessive fan and the bad ending?
Quentin silently noted this matter. His arrival had caused too many necessary and unnecessary butterfly effects, and the lack of the original plot made it hard for him to judge which events hadn’t occurred in the original novel.
Take Qi Yang’s withdrawal for example. According to Qi Yang, his success was all because Wanming Media suddenly started paying more attention to NS.
So, had Wanming Media in the original novel not cared about NS? Then why were they paying attention now? Could the focus of a top-tier film and television company shift because of the appearance of one person? Wasn’t that a bit rash… Forget it. If he couldn’t figure it out, he wouldn’t think about it. What needed to be known would eventually be known.
Quentin naturally ignored that slightly suspicious point. That fleeting thought passed like wind without a trace, as if something was hindering his quest for the truth, silently pulling his attention away from Wanming Media.
The system, which was focused on its fan club work, suddenly froze, its data becoming disordered. A second later, it slowly rebooted and recovered, touching its non-existent head in confusion.
Strange, what just happened… Could it be a virus?!
While the system was frantically scanning itself for viruses, the recording of NS’s final elimination was about to begin.
According to the production team’s arrangement, the 40 trainees gathered on the first floor of the cafeteria. The tables were rearranged into a buffet style layout, with fresh ingredients neatly displayed on the tables. On the other side, the dining area had ten bubbling hotpots set up horizontally, with four people per pot. The tables were all connected, so it didn’t hinder them from chatting with their companions.
Although most of the ingredients were vegetables, for the young men who had been dieting for over two months, the temptation of this scene was unparalleled. The aroma wafting from the hotpots brought out the food cravings they had suppressed for so many days.
The director didn’t give them a hard time. He waved his hand from behind the camera, signaling for them to start eating freely.
The trainees cheered and scattered like little chicks, happily rushing towards the food area with plates in hand. Their chattering immediately made the spacious cafeteria lively.
“Wow…this is too much. I feel like I’ve never seen so many kinds of vegetables in my life. I’m so happy I could cry!!”
“It’s a split pot… Long live Director Wang!! I thought they would only give us plain broth. Thankfully, we finally get to eat spicy food!”
“It’s so abundant. It’s so abundant it’s surreal. It feels like a last meal…”
“Path path pah Don’t say such unlucky things! Shut up!”
“It doesn’t matter. Even if it is a last meal, I’ll accept it. We get to eat and drink well at noon, and there are no classes in the afternoon so we’ll rest. They said we could go to the big practice room to watch a movie together at night. I never thought I could enjoy a day like this with everyone before elimination. I have no regrets in this life.”
As Quentin listened to everyone’s chatter, he focused on the boiling tripe in the hotpot, his chopsticks extended as he diligently counted down the seconds in his head.
He had a kind of sincere reverence for the foods he loved. Seeing him like that, the other three at his table unconsciously lowered their voices and focused on their food just like him.
But he could still hear the sounds from the next table, where they were talking about the movie they were to watch at night.
The production team hadn’t revealed which movie, only telling them the theme was related to the growth of youth, and mysteriously promised they had definitely never seen it before.
Thinking about it, they had been offline for over two months, and entertainment was quite rare. Even a movie is quite intriguing.
