Huayu: From the Era of Ringtones to Becoming a Legend

Li Zaixiu's words were domineering, and Zhu Zhixiu didn't dare to refute them at all.

After hanging up the phone, before he could come up with a solution, representatives from the other two investors walked over one after the other.

The two men remained calm, but Zhu Zhixiu was on edge.

Previously, even with one person coordinating and directing, no solution could be found; now that decisions cannot be made directly, the difficulty is even greater.

Their gazes fell on Zhu Zhixiu, whose face was ashen. The bespectacled man, around forty years old, remained expressionless, his tone devoid of any smile:

"President Zhu, you look so pale. Is it because things are going badly with Lu Jiuge's team?"

The other person chimed in:

"Don't worry, Mr. Zhu, President Li has already informed us about this matter!"

"No matter how amazing Lu Jiuge's stage performance is or how popular he is, we can't let him rise to fame."

Zhu Zhixiu felt a sense of relief, but then a surge of ruthlessness welled up inside her.

With the tacit approval of the other two investors, he was essentially given a royal decree, allowing him to act without any scruples.

Zhu Zhixiu's tense nerves relaxed, and her eyes turned sinister:

"With these two people saying that, I feel relieved."

"The show is still being filmed, and there are still many groups scheduled to perform later. We'll proceed after this episode is finished filming!"

The bespectacled man raised an eyebrow:

"What are you planning to do?"

Zhu Zhixiu sneered and tapped her fingertips heavily on the table twice:

"This round of competition is essentially for post-match score tallying."

"I'll give the order right now to freeze the backend voting channels and lock all real-time data."

"We'll release the results after everyone has finished performing."

"At that time, no matter how popular BIGBANG is, they will only be at the bottom of my ranking."

The two investor representatives exchanged a glance, both showing expressions of satisfaction.

"Do it cleanly, don't leave any reason for anyone to criticize you."

"rest assured."

Zhu Zhixiu gritted her teeth:

"I will make sure Lu Jiuge loses in a 'reasonable' way!"

At this moment, the underhanded manipulation of capital quietly unfolded.

No one noticed, no one spoke out, yet it was like an invisible hand that tightly gripped BIGBANG's fate.

The studio scene.

BIGBANG's performance had already ended. The five members bowed and left the stage, returning to the backstage waiting area amidst deafening cheers from the audience.

But as soon as they sat down, the atmosphere around them became extremely strange.

The other contestants looked at them with shock, fear, and a hint of undisguised sympathy.

The hearts of Jiang Dasheng and the other three sank lower and lower.

"Brother Lu, something's wrong!"

Cui Mingze lowered his voice:

"The stage was so amazing just now, the audience went crazy, but the production team didn't even give a normal response."

Li Tai frowned, his gaze sweeping over the tense-looking assistant director not far away:

"I just overheard them on the phone talking about 'vote control' and 'score suppression,' they're definitely targeting us."

Zheng Hao's face turned pale; the passion he had shown on stage was gradually cooling down.

"This round's scores won't be announced until all the performances are finished. Are they going to wait until the very end to settle all the scores?"

Jiang Dasheng took a deep breath, but couldn't suppress the panic in his heart:

"If the production team is really determined to sabotage us, no matter how well we perform, our score will still be changed to the lowest possible!"

The four of them became increasingly flustered as they spoke, their eyes filled with resentment and helplessness.

They practiced relentlessly, defying pressure and blasting the stage, only to be defeated by the most unfair behind-the-scenes manipulation.

Lu Jiuge leaned back in her chair, her expression calm and without the slightest hint of panic.

He raised his eyes, giving a brief, sweeping glance to the four people, his voice steady:

Panic is useless, and fear is even more useless.

"Did the production team try to suppress the score, manipulate the ratings, or pull a surprise move at the last minute?"

His voice turned cold:

"None of that matters! The real deciding factor in this competition is the 500 audience members present, and everyone watching this video online!"

"Brother Lu, do you have a plan?"

After listening to Lu Jiuge's analysis, Jiang Dasheng and the other three had a bright idea in their eyes.

Lu Jiuge nodded:

"If they want to play dirty tricks, I'll play along to the end. This is a vote by the live audience; if things really come to a head, we won't be the ones who lose."

Hearing the certainty in Lu Jiuge's words, the four people's panicked hearts gradually calmed down.

The program continued to be recorded.

One group of contestants after another took to the stage, but no matter who performed, the atmosphere could never be as explosive as when BIGBANG took the stage.

The audience was uninterested, the judges looked perfunctory, and the media reporters had no interest in taking pictures, all looking down at their phones and checking the trending topic #BIGBANGExplodes# online.

The subsequent performances were all lackluster.

Everyone knows that the true peak was already set in the opening minutes.

In the back-end monitoring room, Zhu Zhixiu's face grew increasingly grim.

As he watched the series of unremarkable performances and the ever-increasing number of video views online, his resentment grew stronger.

"Useless! All of you are useless!"

He slammed his hand on the table, startling the staff around him.

The investor representative sat to the side, calmly offering a reminder:

"Don't be impulsive, continue controlling the vote, and don't make any mistakes."

Zhu Zhixiu gritted her teeth and nodded.

He has already given the order:

The audience voting channel was permanently frozen, real-time data was no longer updated, judges uniformly lowered BIGBANG's score, and the back-end technical team manually modified the final vote range.

Everything is proceeding according to his plan.

As long as he can hold out until all the group performances are over, he can easily eliminate BIGBANG.

Time passes little by little.

After the last group of contestants finished performing, the host returned to the center of the stage.

The recording is nearing its end, and the final scores and rankings will be announced soon.

The audience instantly perked up, and everyone was chanting the same name:

"BIGBANG! BIGBANG! BIGBANG!"

The shouts were so unified that they almost lifted the roof off.

However, the rankings did not appear on the big screen for a long time.

The host held the cue cards, his face stiff, and cold sweat dripping from his forehead.

The director gave him a strict order to stall for time, and the host dared not disobey.

The host, holding the microphone, rambled on and on, thanking the sponsors one minute and reminding the audience to vote the next, clearly trying to stall for time.

The murmurs from the audience grew louder, and the audience also realized that something was wrong.

"What's going on? Why aren't the rankings being released?"

"Where's the vote? Where did our votes go?"

"Is the production team up with this?!"

The disturbance grew increasingly intense, and the atmosphere at the scene was on the verge of spiraling out of control.

Backstage, Jiang Dasheng and the other three could no longer sit still and suddenly stood up.

"Brother Lu, they really dare to delay!"

"The score has definitely been changed!"

"If we wait any longer, we'll really get hacked!"

The four of them were so anxious that their eyes turned red, filled with grievance and anger.

They fought with all their might, only to lose to the dirtiest methods.

Lu Jiuge slowly stood up.

He patted the corner of his clothes, his expression calm, but his eyes were sharp as knives.

"The time has come."

With that, Lu Jiuge lifted her foot and walked towards the stage.

Backstage staff rushed forward to stop him, but he violently pushed them away.

In the monitoring room, Zhu Zhixiu slammed her hand on the table and stood up:

"Stop him! Don't let him go on stage!"

But it was all too late.

Lu Jiuge stepped onto the stage and, under the spotlight, snatched the microphone from the host's hand.

This action instantly silenced the scene.

Everyone was waiting for him to speak.

Do you like the song "BANG BANG BANG"?

Lu Jiuge's first words were not confrontational, which relieved the production team.

Upon hearing Lu Jiuge's words, the audience members below the stage shouted out in response:

"like!"

Lu Jiuge glanced in the direction of the backstage area and continued to ask:

"Would you like to hear Big Bang sing for you in the upcoming competitions?"

"think!"

Lu Jiuge's gaze suddenly sharpened, and her voice, transmitted through the speakers, struck the hearts of everyone present:

"But the production team is manipulating things behind the scenes and trying to force us out. Do you agree to that?"

"disagree!"

The audience's roars echoed in the studio, and the sound control staff frantically tried to turn off the microphone tracks.

But it was too late. Lu Jiuge had already shoved the microphone back into the hands of the host, who was frozen in place, turned around, and walked off the stage without looking back.