This director lacks vision.

Chapter 333 The highly controversial second season
At 6 a.m. on August 18, Chen Duling woke up in her hotel room on time.

Six months have passed since the “supernatural event” of learning in a dream occurred.

Guided by the mission, Chen Duling has now developed the habit of getting up early every day to run.

Her physical condition has improved a lot. She is full of energy and her little face is rosy and full of collagen.

But now, she no longer has the initial excitement.

At first, Chen Duling thought that she had a super cheat code, that she was bound to be awesome, and that she would definitely become a great scientist in the future.

However, after six months, she could still only attend classes in her dreams, repeatedly learning the basics of artificial intelligence.

Although the dream class was very effective, Chen Duling still found it difficult to learn this knowledge.

Especially in the last two months, I have made almost no progress in my studies. I have to memorize a lot of knowledge points by rote and I can't understand them at all.

Chen Duling was getting a little annoyed and almost wanted to give up.

Fortunately, Jiang Yifeng in the dream issued a new task - to participate in the second season of Produce 101 and win the popularity vote, in which case he could obtain the two talents of "photographic memory" and "strong logic".

After studying for a while, Chen Duling felt that she lacked talent and that the gap between her and the top students was too big.

Seeing her photographic memory and strong logical reasoning skills, she was very impressed and chose to participate in Produce 101 without hesitation.

Things went smoothly; she passed the audition and entered the training camp.

On July 1st, the second season of Produce 101 training camp officially opened, and the program also began recording and airing.

With her pure image, academic excellence, and elegant temperament, Chen Duling quickly gained popularity and became the number one vote in the first episode.

Chen Duling could feel that the production team took great care of her, giving her a lot of screen time and consistently promoting her.

However, becoming famous is somewhat of a mystery.

The show's popularity fluctuated rapidly after it continued to air.

Yang Chaoyue, who knows nothing, keeps complaining that it's too difficult; Bai Mengyan keeps laughing out loud; and Cheng Xiao keeps doing the bob dance...

They quickly attracted a lot of attention and their popularity soared.

In contrast, Chen Duling was too indifferent, had average speaking skills, and wasn't good at creating entertainment value for the show. Many viewers felt she was a bit pretentious.

Now, 48 days have passed since the start of the Produce 101 training camp, and there are only 10 days left until the end of the camp. However, Chen Duling's popularity is only ranked fifth, surpassed by the "ungrateful" Wang Churan.

Wang Churan likes to roll her eyes. At first, everyone disliked her, but after watching her for a long time, the audience got used to her eye-rolling, and some people even developed feelings for her.

In addition, Wang Churan is a good dancer and has some advantages in appearance, which has also helped her accumulate a group of fans.

It can only be said that audiences' tastes have changed; they now prefer celebrities who are authentic and have strong personalities.

The "good girl" image is no longer popular, and the "academic goddess" image makes people feel distant.

Moreover, Chen Duling has a science and engineering background and is not good at creating entertainment value for the show.

Even with the show's producers pushing her too hard, her popularity is still more than 100 million votes behind the first place winner.

With such a gap, it's extremely difficult to take first place.

Chen Duling adjusted her mindset, went for a morning run, took a shower, and continued reading.

Studying hard is now the only thing she can do.

In Chen Duling's mind, she was already prepared for the mission to fail. Her photographic memory and strong logic seemed tempting, but she could only give up on them.

This is the reality for most ordinary people: they lack the ability, and even if they obtain a system, they still cannot complete tasks that are too difficult.

Because she had no hope of winning the championship, Chen Duling was in a bad mood and spoke even less.

Her roommate, Bai Mengyan, was completely different.

She always has a happy look on her face, laughs heartily anytime and anywhere, and is full of energy that can infect others.

Bai Mengyan became a sensation on Produce 101 because fans created hilarious video clips of her, along with various laughing GIFs and memes, which caused her popularity to skyrocket.

While eating breakfast, Bai Mengyan held up her phone and said, "Dudu, did you see yesterday's trending topics?"

Chen Duling nodded and said softly, "I saw it. President Jiang is going to be the director of the Spring Festival Gala. The audience is very much looking forward to it, and many people are giving suggestions on his Weibo."

"That's not it!" Bai Mengyan took out her phone, handed it to Chen Duling, and said with a smile, "There's too much news about President Jiang. I'm talking about Hai Qing kneeling down and shouting to Ou Hao, 'You are my god.'"

Holy crap, this is giving me a serious case of embarrassment!

Bai Mengyan tapped the phone screen and played a video.

When Chen Duling saw Hai Qing kneeling in front of Ou Hao shouting "You are my god," her face was full of disgust. She pushed her phone away, not wanting to pollute her eyes.

"Hahahaha!" Bai Mengyan laughed heartily, then said, "Although it's awkward, it's something we can learn from. That's what makes a show interesting!"
See, it's trending now! Our show needs drama too, I need to think of more ways to create it!

Seeing Chen Duling remain silent, Bai Mengyan said mysteriously, "I'll tell you a secret!"

"What a secret."

"No, I have a very important secret to tell you, can you give me some reaction?" Bai Mengyan complained, "Your mood is too low, we need to make it a good show!"

Chen Duling forced a smile, putting on a very stiff performance, and said, "What secret, Da Bai, tell me quickly!"

Bai Mengyan: "..."

"Forget it, you should just stay a goddess. You're not suited for this kind of thing."

Bai Mengyan gave up. She leaned close to Chen Duling's ear and whispered, "I heard that Jiang Yifeng will be coming to the training camp today!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Duling lost her grip on her chopsticks and they fell to the ground.

Bai Mengyan burst into laughter again, saying, "It's rare to see you so out of control. President Jiang's charm is truly amazing!"

Chen Duling was indeed quite excited. After all, she dreamed about Jiang Yifeng every night.

For Chen Duling at this moment, Jiang Yifeng was the kind of stranger who was most familiar.

Her feelings for Jiang Yifeng were very complicated. She really wanted to see him, but she was also afraid that when she actually saw him, he was not as handsome and gentle as the teacher in her dreams. Her idealized image of him was shattered.

Now that she had suddenly heard that Jiang Yifeng was coming, Chen Duling's emotions were in turmoil, and she felt her heart beating very fast.

She took a deep breath, bent down to pick up the chopsticks, and the restaurant suddenly became very quiet.

Sitting up straight, I saw Jiang Yifeng, accompanied by his assistant, walk into the restaurant.

He was wearing sunglasses and looked aloof.

Chen Duling hates it when men wear sunglasses, especially indoors; she thinks it's too pretentious.

But seeing Jiang Yifeng wearing sunglasses at this moment, she only felt that he was incredibly handsome, and suddenly felt the charm of sunglasses.

Bai Mengyan exclaimed loudly, "So handsome!"

The restaurant was quiet, but Bai Mengyan's voice came out abruptly, immediately attracting everyone's attention.

Jiang Yifeng walked up to Bai Mengyan, took off his sunglasses, and said with a smile, "Take it easy, you're overacting, it looks fake."

As soon as he said that, a lot of laughter broke out in the restaurant.

Bai Mengyan laughed at herself.

She asked, "Is the scene over? If you were me, how would you act?"

Jiang Yifeng looked at Chen Duling and said, "When Chen Duling drops her chopsticks, it's just right."

Words are always pale; actions speak louder than words.

You still have a lot to learn in this area.

"Hehe, thank you for your guidance, Mr. Jiang!"

This is what makes Bai Mengyan so special.

She doesn't have any special skills and isn't formally trained, but she's bold, quick-witted, and can take a joke, so she's likely to become famous in the future.

When Bai Mengyan met Jiang Yifeng this time, she was not intimidated. Instead, she tried her best to create a good show effect and seize the opportunity to perform.

Jiang Yifeng quite admired Bai Mengyan.

The main reason is that in the future public opinion environment, she made a lot of remarks, such as thinking that she was a boy, and saying things like "female domineering CEO and little puppy, male domineering CEO and little female dog".

She was therefore accused of pandering to men by female fans and was subjected to a barrage of attacks.

Coincidentally, Chen Duling also mentioned that she has a "straight man" side to her personality, which also drew criticism.

Bai Mengyan may not be suitable for a girl group, but she would be very good as a variety show comedian.

Jiang Yifeng originally wanted to chat with Chen Duling for a bit, but he found that she was very nervous, her whole body was flushed, and her ears and neck were red.

Seeing Chen Duling's pitiful appearance, as if she were about to break at any moment, Jiang Yifeng didn't say anything more.

He continued walking inside and found a seat.

Jiang Yifeng ate his breakfast while observing the surroundings. His assistant brought him a breakfast.

The overall quality of this season's training camp is actually similar to that of the previous season; there are quite a few beautiful women and many talented individuals.

The show's five judges are Tengger, Phoenix Legend, Liu Huan, Li Wen, and Ayumi Hamasaki.

Elva Hsiao was replaced by Ayumi Hamasaki, so theoretically the judges were stronger.

The mentor for the group is Hot & Hot Love, and they are stronger than the Crown Group from the same season last year.

However, the overall effect of the show inevitably leaned towards a dramatic, confrontational, and abstract comedic style.

The overall quality of the stage performances in the show is not as good as the previous season.

This has caused quite a bit of controversy online.

This is partly because the contestants are generally young and their stage presence is not yet strong enough.
On the other hand, Mu Di introduced Netflix's data analytics to monitor and analyze the program, constantly collecting audience preferences and feedback.

She noticed that when the show played the stage performance segments, the number of online viewers remained relatively stable or even declined, and there were fewer viewers clicking the "like" button.

On the contrary, the shows featuring humorous scenes from daily life or dramatic moments during training tend to have a higher online audience share and receive many likes.

This shows that viewers prefer to watch the interactions between the girls in the training camp.

Therefore, the production team added many abstract, humorous, and dramatic scenes of conflict to the subsequent production and post-production editing.

The requirements for stage performances have become less stringent, and even the stage scoring has incorporated dramatic and contentious elements.

This led to a significant drop in the reputation of Produce 101 Season 2, but its viewership continued to break records, creating a situation where the greater the controversy, the more popular the show became.

It is precisely because of this that Yang Chaoyue, whose skills are quite average, has become the most popular contestant due to his various funny and even abstract behaviors.

Wang Churan, who keeps rolling her eyes, is becoming increasingly popular.

Cheng Xiao often has a cold face and looks down on other contestants, yet she still receives a lot of attention.

These two often have the upper hand in the arguments, and viewers can feel the satisfaction of winning by empathizing with them.

Jiang Yifeng came to the show today to see how these young actresses compete and fight, and also to help Chen Duling out.

After all, if they don't come to help Chen Duling soon, their adopted child will soon disappear.

(End of this chapter)