Huayu: Starting from the top talent show

Chapter 443: No ambition, but core.

On March 12, "Youth With You 2," which had been postponed for two months due to the outbreak of the epidemic, finally premiered.

Many netizens are eagerly anticipating the show's release and plan to select their favorite contestant to debut!

no way.

I'm so bored at home!
So all I can do is try to find some fun in various ways to relieve the boredom and anxiety in my heart.

Liu Xiening, who is increasingly anxious as the recording time for "Produce Camp 2020" approaches, is one such example.

After finishing her daily training and having dinner with her teammates in the cafeteria, she returned to her dormitory early.

I'm currently lying on my bed, browsing my phone.

I checked the time; it's only a little past 7:30.

There's still about half an hour to wait.

So I simply started by watching trailers and other materials to get a general idea of ​​the contestants this season.

The trailer is only three minutes and forty-five seconds long.

The first half of the video mainly features the contestants' inner monologues and clips of their hard training; the second half is given to Xu Kun, the center of Idol Producer (the predecessor of Youth With You) and the main guest of this show, who introduces the methods to cheer on the contestants.

Interestingly, Liu Xiening saw many familiar faces in this nearly four-minute final trailer.

For example, there's Jin Zihan, who openly identifies herself as a dual supporter of Shen Juan and Taylor; Liu Yuxin, who takes a neutral and differentiated approach; Kong Xueer, who has experience as a trainee in South Korea and also debuted in the Chinese entertainment industry; Liu Lingzi, who is cold on the outside but warm on the inside; and Xiao Hu, with whom she has a fairly good relationship despite not having known each other for long.

Everyone received a different share of screen time.

It can only be said that Kiwifruit really gave Shen Juan face.

As a result, everyone in Starlink gets screen time.

They could all be considered half royalty!

Liu Xiening couldn't help but feel happy.

I'm happy for her friends, and I'm happy for her too.

Because TaoFactory and Tencent are the same.

She didn't think that only the Peach Factory would give Shen Juan face.

So once she enters the Produce Camp at the end of the month, as long as she doesn't cause any problems, she'll probably enjoy the same treatment.

She then opened the comments section to see what netizens thought of the trailer, which contained a lot of hidden information.

The results showed that the most frequent comments were about Cai Xukun, followed by cheers and support for the other contestants.

Among them, Yu Shuxin, SNH48, and the trainees sent by Shen Juan's Starlink team are the main ones.

Yu Shuxin gained a considerable fan base after playing the second female lead, Cai Minmin, in the popular Hunan TV drama "Find Yourself" some time ago, and then creating a CP with Zhang Yujian (the guy who pretended to be afraid of women but secretly got married and had children) from the same company.

The popularity of Starlink contestants mainly stems from Shen Juan and the recently popular drama "Sister-in-Law 202".

As for the idols from SNH48, they have always had a lot of fans, but they were not well-known before because they were not popular.

After all, while Siba may seem to be aligning with the Chinese entertainment industry, that's not actually the case.

They follow the Japanese idol style.

They played in a very closed environment.

If it weren't for Ju Jingyi becoming a pioneer and leading everyone to success, very few casual observers would know about this group.

However, now that they've gone overseas, it's uncertain how much of their popularity Kiwifruit will suppress, or how effective their anti-explosion measures will be.

The time arrived precisely at eight o'clock.

Liu Xiening quickly opened "Youth With You 2" and found that iQiyi had indeed updated the first two episodes on time.

So there's no need for further explanation, just click play!
After the three-minute trailer and sponsor placements at the beginning of the show finished playing, the program officially entered its first segment, which was the first appearance and meeting of the four mentors and the trainees' welcome party. This immediately piqued Liu Xiening's interest, who had been waiting for a long time.

Youth Producer Representative Cai Xukun, Vocal Mentor Ella, Rap Mentor Jony J, Dance Mentor Lisa
The four resident mentors made their appearances in turn.

It's worth mentioning that when Lisa appeared, the live chat experienced another small surge of excitement, following the appearance of Kun Kun.

Wow! I can't believe they managed to get an idol like Lisa to come. This is truly going international!

Why don't you mention that Taoyuan (the streaming platform) can even cultivate a contemporary top pop superstar like Alex?

[What do you mean they even managed to get Lisa on board? Does that mean the other three mentors are far inferior to her? K-pop fans, stop being so sycophantic!]

You can Google how popular BP is right now. Idols who can only scrape by in the Chinese entertainment industry shouldn't try to piggyback on that trend.

How popular is he? Can he beat Shen Juan? Or rather, can all of K-pop combined beat Shen Juan? And I seem to remember someone attending a press conference recently and specifically dancing to "Senorita" to ride on Shen Juan's popularity? The way he fawned over Shen Juan was truly laughable.

[Damn it! Always bringing up Shen Juan, is he your dad? Or is he the dad of your Cai Xukun? Are all fans of Chinese entertainment this shameless?]

I'm getting anxious! ^^

【Why would I be in such a hurry, hahaha! I just can't stand people who bully others. Surely no one actually takes someone else's achievements as their own? Surely no one actually resorts to blaming someone else just because they can't win? I can only say that these kinds of people have no shame whatsoever! They probably won't amount to much in their lives.】

Liu Xiening was speechless, yet also wanted to laugh.

It can only be said that wherever there are people, there is a world of its own.

Where there are fans, there will be infighting and comparisons.

Fortunately, as time went by, the conflict eventually subsided.

When the first episode was about halfway through, the highly anticipated Starlink trainees finally had their moment to shine.

Five young, beautiful girls with different styles walked in through the door. Their outstanding looks and figures, coupled with their expensive outfits, immediately drew gasps and exclamations of surprise from the audience.

The comments section erupted in excitement once again.

[They're all so good-looking! No wonder it's Wajuan's Choice!]

[Why does Hu Lianxin look a bit like Zheng Shuang from a few years ago? So, is Wajuan also in love with Zheng Shuang but unable to have her?]

[Liu Yuxin and Kong Xueer seem to have debuted before, right? Why are they participating in another talent show? Are there so many "recycled" contestants?]

[Personally, I like Jin Zihan and Hu Lianxin's looks the most.]

Does nobody appreciate Liu Lingzi? She has such a great presence!

The difference in the mentors' attitudes towards Xinglian and the others was obvious. When the others appeared, they just smiled politely, but when Xinglian came out, they were all incredibly enthusiastic, haha! I don't know if Shen Juan had given them a heads-up beforehand, or if they were all trying to curry favor with Shen Juan.

[It's normal for Wajuan to fawn over him; he's currently racking up titles non-stop, and he'll win with anyone he's paired with! Although we haven't seen him help any other unknown newcomers besides Li Na yet, what if he suddenly decides to mentor some younger players? If you can latch onto a big shot like that, wouldn't you take off instantly?]

(Liu Lingzi on the right and Jiang Peiyao have similar roles; they also often play the second female lead, having acted alongside Tian Xiwei and Wang Churan.)

The main content of the first episode of "Youth With You 2" is a welcome party where trainees from various companies take turns to appear.

The previous round lasted 80 minutes, and the next round will last 42 minutes.

It was already 10 p.m. when Liu Xiening finished reading it all.

Open Weibo.

I've noticed that trending topics related to "Youth With You" have dominated the charts.

All brokerage firms are making efforts.

Starlink has also bought its own people a lot of trending topics.

#StarlinkTrainee#, #HuLianxinZhengYuxun#, #JinZihanLooks#, #LisaAttitude#, #StarlinkRoyalFamily#
Although the show has just started airing, many contestants haven't had a chance to showcase their stage skills yet, so it's not convenient to jump in right away.

But it does give a good impression.

At least in terms of looks, they are much better than those from Produce 101.

From 2018, when talent shows were just emerging and not valued, filled with a lot of mediocre talent, to 2020, when talent shows were at their peak and all companies were fully prepared.

The talented young people that the entire Chinese entertainment industry has been nurturing for two years will finally shine in these two talent shows this year. Meanwhile, on the other hand...
Shen Juan was also very concerned about this matter.

As a boss who also debuted through a talent show and can empathize with them, it's hard for him not to care about his artists' variety show debut.

Moreover, considering that he will resume work tomorrow to start shooting the MV, he probably won't have many opportunities to be as relaxed and comfortable as he is now. So he simply started the last joint live broadcast on both internal and external networks during this period, intending to promote his trainees and say goodbye to his fans.

Of course, considering that he was live streaming on Douyin, it wouldn't be good for him to openly watch iQiyi programs and drive traffic to other platforms. Douyin allowed him to watch Bilibili because he only watches short videos that are a few minutes long on Bilibili, which he can't accept because of the long videos that are several hours long on iQiyi.

So just watch the clips of the Starlink trainees.

He has no obligation to drive traffic to kiwifruit.

They are not obligated to promote players from other companies.

"Liu Yuxin is probably the most hardworking trainee I've ever seen. Of course, I'm talking about Starlink. She is definitely the most hardworking one because she debuted before, but her career didn't go very well afterward. She understands how difficult it is to debut, so she knows very well that every opportunity is hard-won."

Shen Juan was introducing the five trainees sent by Starlink to participate in the competition to the viewers in the live broadcast room, in order to make them more eye-catching.

"Kong Xueer was teammates with Liu Yuxin before, and she is usually quite serious. Liu Lingzi is very talented and hardworking. Jin Zihan actually has quite a lot of skills, some of which are really impressive. I won't go into details, but if there is an opportunity, she will probably show them on the show."

"As for Hu Lianxin, everyone should know that she is my fan. We first met on the set of 'Go Go Squid!' when she was a lucky fan who came to visit the set. Later, she even got into the Beijing Film Academy and became my junior. At least she deserves praise for her initiative."

"Actually, I initially planned to form my own girl group, but I just happened to come across such a great opportunity, so I felt it was best not to miss it. Also, Starlink's South Korean branch has been recruiting trainees recently. If any South Korean friends watching the live stream are interested, you can check it out."

Although several of them had been rumored to be dating Shen Juan and were suspected to be contestants of "Sister-in-Law 202", such as Hu Lianxin, a junior from Beijing Film Academy who had participated in a fan visit event, and Jin Zihan, who was found by netizens to have frequently shared her daily life of chasing stars (Shen Juan and Taylor) on Instagram during her non-celebrity days.

However, Shen Juan is a celebrity whose fans are mostly career-oriented, so they are still willing to maintain at least a basic level of respect for her.

Even if they don't support it, they won't hurl insults.

They are worlds apart from those fans who are easily angered and shout battle cries, seemingly driven to madness.

The show starts at 9 PM and ends at 11 PM.

After bidding a reluctant farewell to the more than one million fans in the live stream, this side hustle of live streaming, which I started due to being unable to go out while staying at home for the pandemic, came to an end.

I leaned back in my chair and stretched.

Shen Juan then opened WeChat and found the shared agent of those actresses in the acting department in his friend list.

Now that the situation is under initial control and the entertainment industry is gradually resuming work, it's time to determine the film and television resources allocated to individuals.

The role of the second female lead in "The Long Ballad" was given to Xiao Shen.

This drama is primarily controlled by Huace Media and Tencent Video.

Shen Juan happens to have some cooperative relationship with both of them.

Tencent needs no introduction.

In order to counter Tao Factory, they must maintain a good relationship with Shen Juan and avoid pushing him completely towards Tao Factory.

Shen Juan only needs to stand firmly among them and selectively remain neutral to make a fortune.

As for Huace
Their "new leading lady," Yu Shuxin, whom they are currently grooming, received training at Star Link some time ago.

While it wouldn't be accurate to say they used the top female star to control Huace, they did establish some initial contact through this opportunity.

Moreover, since D8's look in "The Long Ballad" is not very attractive, and even many fans are not satisfied, Starlink should be able to find an opportunity to buy articles to outshine others, just like Zhao Lusi in the original timeline, and accumulate the first wave of original traffic for Xiao Shen, who is nicknamed "Cousin".

Then, after filming "Little Red Flower," we have "Love Like a Bouquet," which is scheduled to start filming in Shanghai in June.

Regarding the casting of the female lead, Shen Juan had been hesitant for some time, unsure of who to assign the role to.

Because there are just too many choices!
There are candidates even from within Starlink alone.
Zhou Ye, Tian Xiwei, Wang Churan, and others.

(Cheng Xiao doesn't like acting, so she can just be a pure singer and dancer. There's no need to force her to do things she doesn't like.)
Each of the above options could trigger a series of chain reactions, thereby changing the future trajectory and the structure of the fishpond.

For example, if you give it to Xiao Ye, Hajida will get angry and hiss.

If you give it to Xiaotian, she'll be so jealous she'll lose her mind.

Give the Wang Chuan to her, and she will face the Wild Rose women's doubles team, which boasts the most exaggerated fighting power and the most terrifying momentum in the Wajuan Fish Pond.

So after much hesitation, Shen Juan decided to hand over the leading role, which almost everyone was watching, to Xiao Hu.

The reason is also very simple.

It's not because she's watery and resilient.

Rather, it's because if we consider his development and rise in the entertainment industry as a rebellion or uprising that overthrew the existing dynasty's rule, then Xiao Hu, who had been following Shen Juan's side for a long time and silently supporting and accompanying him, was undoubtedly the second most important minister to Shen Juan, only after Ran Dong BIG3!
Therefore, once the country is at peace, it is time to reward those meritorious officials who have worked hard, even if they have not made any significant contributions.

Another very important reason is Xiao Hu's absolutely loyal emotional psychology and his special role.

She was not only an important member of the dormitory, but also the absolute core of the WeChat group of Xiao Shen, Bao Bao, and Li Wanda.

She also got to know all the trainees of Starlink during the training process after participating in "Youth With You 2".

In addition, she is a regular member of the 101 group variety show "Women's Deduction Club" and has the most authentic Beijing Film Academy junior status!
It's really hard for a player like this not to be entrusted with important responsibilities.

Although she may not have had the same ambition as the young and impetuous Sister Tian to carve out her own territory and dominate a region, as a core member of several influential small groups, she did get to know many contestants of "Sister-in-Law 202" and was able to connect many people together.

She is harmless and makes no enemies.

Apart from Sister Tian, ​​almost no one considered her a threat.

So, to put it simply...
She doesn't belong to any camp.

But she is a very crucial key.

A key to launching the "Sister-in-law 202" performance and driving continuous competition among several small groups in the fishpond.

August 3, morning.

After many days, Shen Juan finally walked out of the community gate.

First day of work away from home, so happy!
Seeing my agent, whom I hadn't seen in a long time, made me twice as happy!
"Long time no see, did you miss me?" Shen Juan quickly went to greet him and gave him a big hug.

"When did you become so greasy?" Yangyang Jin was a little unaccustomed to Shen Juan's overly enthusiastic manner. Although she was indeed very happy and enjoyed Shen Juan's embrace, she was fortunate to be wearing a mask today, which allowed her to smile freely and release her inner emotions without any restraint.

She's so good-looking and has such a great personality.

She can be so cute sometimes.
How could I not want to?

"Greasy? I even deliberately lowered my voice and used a relatively youthful tone when I said that. If this is greasy, then I have nothing to say." Shen Juan rolled his eyes, then deliberately put on a dramatic look of being a little hurt and uncomfortable, so that his manager sister could laugh for a while longer.

"Don't you think that the same sentence sounds different when spoken in a clear, youthful voice and in a deep, bubbly voice?" Yangyang Jin was used to contradicting Shen Juan when he was smug, because it helped him to pull himself out of his smugness and prevent him from indulging in it for too long.

"Is not it?"

Looking into Shen Juan's eyes, which had remained clear and innocent despite having been with countless girls, Yangyang Jin found it difficult to tell him a lie. So she coughed lightly twice, trying to appear serious and composed, and to get back into her usual calm and rational work mode.

"Have you seen the recent news in the Western music scene? Dualipa's new album is about to be released, but the entire album was leaked. I feel like she's about to have a breakdown. But I've contacted the Republic, and they've assured us that something like this will never happen to us."

The expected response has been delayed.

Shen Juan, sitting opposite her, acted as if he hadn't heard her question, looking at her with concern and asking, "Are you feeling unwell?"

The word "no" was barely on her lips when she swallowed it back, because Shen Juan had already reached out and placed his hand on her forehead.

"I was wondering why you seemed a bit off today." The warmth of his fingertips traveled through her forehead to her heart. Shen Juan's serious and focused expression made Yangyang Jin's breath catch in her throat. She nervously swallowed, and what came out of her mouth was, "Aren't you afraid I'll infect you with the disease?"

“Then infect me!” Shen Juan answered decisively. His eyes, exposed outside the mask, curved into an arc that made Yangyang Jin feel happy and at ease. After a pause, he chuckled softly and continued, “We’ve been through so much together, one more won’t make a difference.”

Pupils constrict, heart rate increases, and breathing stops.

Yangyang Jin's brain has stopped thinking.

Today was another day when he made me blush.
How could I, as the older sister, be so shameful?

　Tomorrow I'll be back in work mode, fully recharged, and make up for the few hundred words I missed today.
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(End of this chapter)