Chapter 158: Who Is He?
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“Welcome, everyone, to this episode of Star of Tomorrow! I’m your favorite host, Liu Shao!”
Standing onstage, Liu Shao joked with the audience, “It’s been two days since we last met. Did you miss me?”
“No!!!”
“Get over yourself! The one we missed was Su Chen!”
“Liu Shao, hurry up! Don’t keep us from watching Su Chen!”
...
Hearing the uproar from the audience, Liu Shao rubbed his nose and said awkwardly, “Ahahaha, I can already feel everyone’s enthusiasm and affection for me. Thank you all!”
Seeing how shameless Liu Shao was being, the audience immediately broke into a chorus of boos.
“Boo!!!”
Liu Shao pretended to remain calm, coughing twice without so much as blushing, then continued, “Ahem... Well, without further ado, let’s officially begin this episode of Star of Tomorrow!”
“This is the final elimination round before the finals! Our four mentors will choose the last four contestants from the eight remaining competitors to take part in Star of Tomorrow’s Championship Night!”
“These eight contestants have made it all the way through the elimination rounds, which began with one hundred contestants. They have endured hardships and earned applause. Having come this far, every one of them is stronger than when we first met them!”
“And I’m sure everyone here has a contestant they’re rooting for... But what I want to say is that no matter what the result is tonight, all eight of these contestants are exceptional and worthy of your support!”
“Now, let me introduce the eight contestants to everyone. They are Meng Xiaotian, Lou Bingbing, He Zhengyan... and our final contestant, Su Chen!”
As soon as Liu Shao finished speaking, the audience erupted into its loudest applause and cheers.
In theory, viewers of a music talent show would each have their own favorite contestant. Such feelings were difficult to reconcile, selfish, and possessive.
Sometimes, fans of different contestants would even start bitter quarrels because their idols were given unequal amounts of screen time.
Yet such a scene was unlikely to occur on Star of Tomorrow, because nearly everyone who watched the show was a fan of Su Chen!
They might also have high hopes for the other contestants, but when it came to Su Chen, everyone’s affection was perfectly unanimous!
And it was hardly surprising that they liked him. Among the eight contestants, Su Chen was simply in a class of his own. Even his abilities surpassed those of the other seven by a considerable margin!
As a result, whenever everyone cheered and applauded, they shouted only Su Chen’s name. Not a single syllable of the other contestants’ names could be heard!
“Ahhh! Su Chen!!!”
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“Su Chen, you’re the best!!!”
“Su Chen, Su Chen—the one true god!!!”
...
The cheers and praise surged forward like a landslide, and standing onstage, Liu Shao faced the wave of sound head-on. He felt its impact more directly than anyone else.
Su Chen was far too popular!
If the competition continued like this, the other contestants would have no chance at all!
What was the point of competing? They might as well hand the championship trophy straight to Su Chen and let everyone else fight for second place!
It felt as though eight people were playing Teamfight Tactics together, only for one of them to hit a three-star five-cost unit.
At this point, all the other contestants could do was hope that second place would be decided quickly, then surrender without hesitation. None of them had the slightest desire to let Su Chen enjoy himself.
Of course, that all depended on the rules remaining unchanged.
Unfortunately...
Liu Shao recalled the hurried instructions he had received from the director before the broadcast and still found them puzzling.
Why change the rules at the penultimate episode? And the new format so blatantly weakened Su Chen’s advantage!
Then again, Liu Shao was only the host. It was not his place to say anything. Whatever instructions came from above, he would simply carry them out.
So, after the cheers gradually died down, Liu Shao continued, “All right. Now that we’ve introduced the contestants, it’s time to welcome our four mentors!”
“We’ve just received word that, for personal reasons, Mentor Zheng Huayu will be withdrawing from the program ahead of schedule. So we’ve invited a new mentor to take over Zheng Huayu’s team!”
At this announcement, every member of the audience perked up.
They had already seen the news on Weibo the previous day that Zheng Huayu had been arrested, so they knew perfectly well that the shameless bastard was bound to be replaced.
But they had not received the slightest hint about who would replace him. The production crew of Star of Tomorrow had kept the secret so tightly that no one had found out in advance.
Naturally, everyone was intensely curious about the newcomer’s identity!
Liu Shao understood exactly what they were thinking. Smiling, he deliberately teased them, “Why don’t you try guessing who this surprise mentor is? I’ll give you one clue to start with: he’s a man.”
Upon hearing this clue, the audience nearly cursed aloud.
What kind of clue was that supposed to be? There were so many male singers—who could possibly guess?
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“Boo!!!”
The boos continued without end. After waiting for a while, Liu Shao mischievously offered a second clue.
“Haha, that was a rather broad hint... Let me narrow it down. He’s a singer who can both sing and dance, and he also got his start on a talent show!”
That immediately brought countless possibilities to mind.
Entertainment was hugely popular in this world, so there were at least a dozen talent shows every year, and the number of singers who had debuted through such programs was beyond counting!
With that direction to guide them, the audience began secretly guessing whether Liu Shao’s mystery guest was the person they had in mind.
“Debuted through a talent show... and he sings and dances... Then he probably isn’t very old.”
“If he’s young, could it be Justin?”
“No way. Justin is too young, and he only debuted recently. He may be popular, but he wouldn’t have enough credibility to serve as a mentor!”
“Then... could it be Wu Difan?”
“Impossible. My Difan has been attending ceremonies overseas lately. He doesn’t even have time to come back home.”
“Then who could it be...”
...
Listening to the increasingly noisy discussion in the audience, Liu Shao stopped stringing them along and said directly, “Actually, I already heard the correct answer in everyone’s discussion just now!”
“That’s right! The mentor we’ve invited is Cai Xukun!!!”
At Liu Shao’s excited announcement, the audience fell abruptly silent, then exploded into even more thunderous cheers!
There was only one reason: last year, Cai Xukun had been named the Most Promising Male Singer at the Asian New Song Chart Annual Gala, as well as the Annual Idol of the Headline Annual Gala.
He had also been awarded the title of “China–Ya Friendship Ambassador and Outstanding Young Leader of China–Ya.”
That same year, the solo EP he released, YOU, became the best-selling digital EP across the entire internet!
Among all the singing-and-dancing artists who had risen to fame through talent shows in recent years, he was practically the most successful example of them all.
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