She debuted after having a child with a celestial being.

After the recording ended, the trainees walked in twos and threes along the corridor toward their dormitories, some still immersed in the excitement of winning first place in the group competition.

Some people lowered their heads and remained silent, the pressure of being eliminated weighing on everyone's shoulders.

Chen Linong walked in the middle of the crowd, still wearing his black suit.

Several trainees next to him gave him a push: "Nong Nong, you're amazing! You got the second highest number of votes among all the trainees."

He chuckled twice, feeling particularly happy.

Xiao He came out of booth number six, with Xiao Gui walking beside him, still muttering about a certain movement on stage, saying that it could be made even more explosive next time.

Li Quanzhe followed behind, clutching his coat, so sleepy he could barely keep his eyes open.

When they were almost at the dormitory building, Xiao He stopped.

A figure was crouching in the corner of the side wall of the dormitory building.

The hood of his pink hoodie was pulled down, covering most of his face, and his shoulders were trembling slightly.

Cai Kunkun.

The little devil saw it too. He opened his mouth, wanting to go over, but Xiao He reached out and stopped him.

"Let him be alone for a while."

"But……"

"Go over there, what did you say?" Xiao He's voice was very low.

"Try it next time! You were great!"

The little devil fell silent.

Li Quanzhe, holding the coat behind him, was no longer sleepy.

Xiao He roughly knew what Cai Kunkun was thinking.

It wasn't that the performance was lost.

The stage itself wasn't bad; to be precise, it was excellent within the overall group competition.

Being excellent is useless.

Ultimately, the votes for the group stage matches are cast by the live audience.

The audience's tickets are actually determined by the capital behind them.

How could Cai Kunkun, an individual trainee, possibly gain the favor of the program team and the capital behind him?

But Xiao He knew more than that.

He knew that Cai Kunkun was not an ordinary individual trainee.

She signed with Yihai Culture in 2015 and debuted as part of the SWIN group in 2016, but left the group after only five months.

Because the contract the company gave us was an unfair one.

He was under 18 years old when he signed the contract, which was for seven years. For the first three years, the company and the artist split the profits 30/70, with the company taking 70%.

In the following three years, the company accounted for 60% of the shares.

It wasn't until the seventh year that the odds were even.

In February 2017, Cai Kunkun formally issued a termination notice to Yihai Culture and filed a lawsuit.

Yihai Culture countered by demanding 30 million yuan in termination compensation and 15 million yuan in breach of contract penalties, totaling 45 million yuan.

And the more terrifying figures are yet to come: According to the contract terms, the early termination compensation is 30 million yuan per year, and the damages are 80 million yuan per year. Based on the case of early termination eight years in advance, the personal breach of contract damages may reach as high as 320 million yuan.

Three hundred and twenty million.

He walked into the factory alone, burdened with a debt of 320 million yuan, hoping to turn his life around on this stage.

They finished ninth in the group stage and last in the overall vote.

They were just one step away from being eliminated.

If he fails to get a vote in the next round of online voting, he'll have to pack his bags and leave.

They returned to the quagmire of that exorbitant lawsuit, continuing to search for a chance to turn things around.

Why was Xiao He able to get first place when they were both individual trainees?

This was an explosive and stunning performance on stage, far surpassing the second place.

Although capital may control voting, it is not stupid. If it is obvious to anyone with eyes, how can the winner be voted out?

A week later, the first rankings were released and recorded.

The lights in the pyramid's main hall were turned back on.

More than half of the 100 seats will be empty, leaving only 60 seats.

Zhang Yixing stood in the center of the stage, wearing a black suit, his script gripped tightly in his hand.

"The first round of voting has ended. This round combined the votes from the on-site team battles and the online public vote."

His voice wasn't loud, but the whole hall fell silent.

"The rankings will now be announced, starting from number sixty."

One by one, the names were read out.

Someone quickly ran onto the stage, bowed, and sat down in their assigned seat.

Some people were stunned in their seats and only came to their senses after being nudged by the trainees next to them.

Some people's legs were shaking when they stood up, and they were still shaking when they walked to the center of the stage.

The names of the sixty people, from back to front, become increasingly tense as you go forward.

The announcement of the top nine was left until the very end.

Ninth place. Eighth place. Seventh place. Sixth place. Fifth place.

Chen Linong's name ultimately appeared in fifth place.

When he stood up, he paused for a moment, then lowered his head and walked towards the center of the stage.

She received an A grade for her initial performance, but was downgraded to a C grade for the theme song. In the group battle, she received the second-highest number of individual votes.

Everyone thought his online votes would surge along with the highest number of votes.

But reality didn't unfold that way.

After the second performance aired, some people online started saying that he was "just cute" and that his "skills don't match A," while others dug up old photos of him in Taiwan and said that he "lied about his dance experience."

The hashtag "Chen Linong's ranking has dropped" once trended on social media.

He walked to the center of the stage, bowed, and then sat down in the fifth seat.

Fourth place.

Zhang Yixing read out Xiao He's name.

Inside the pyramid, someone turned to look in the direction of Class A.

Xiao He stood up, his steps slow and his face calm.

He walked to the center of the stage and bowed.

When Zhang Yixing straightened up, the corner of his mouth twitched slightly, but it was barely noticeable.

Keep it up!

He only said those four words.

Xiao He nodded and turned to walk towards the pyramid.

When he sat down in the fourth seat, he leaned back in his chair with no expression.

It's not that I'm dissatisfied; it's that I expected it all along.

The team that comes in first place in the group stage can only guarantee a ticket to the venue.

Online voting is all about exposure, fan base, and company backing.

He had none of these three things.

His Weibo followers are negligible, and no company is doing any data manipulation for him. He only gained a few casual fans online purely through his performance of "Wild Wolf Disco" in the first episode and the label of "Mainland Aaron Kwok".

Reaching fourth place is already a result of the stage being so spectacular that investors dare not push too hard.

But this is not enough.

The fact that it ranked fourth indicates that the number of online votes is several orders of magnitude lower than that of the top two.

Third place – Zhu Zhengting. Second place – Fan Chenchen.

Zhang Yixing glanced down at the script, then looked up.

His gaze swept across the pyramid, over all the empty seats, and finally settled on the middle seat in the first row.

"First place."

He paused for a moment, and the only sound in the pyramid's hall was the hum of the lights and electricity.

"Individual trainee, Cai Kunkun. Votes: 11,254,646. Leading the second place by more than 4 million votes."

The entire venue was silent for a full three seconds, and then it erupted.

Cai Kunkun sat on a bench backstage, ready to pack his bags and leave.

When he heard his name called, he didn't stand up immediately; he thought he had misheard.

Wang Ziyi, who was next to him, gave him a push: "It's you, come up on stage."

He stood up.

Walk through the passageway, past everyone's gaze, and to the center of the stage.

Her center-parted bangs hung down her forehead, and she changed her pink sweatshirt back to her black undershirt.

Tsai Kun-kun expressed his gratitude: "To every one of the national producers who voted for me, and to my IKUNs."

"Thank you, you've worked hard."

He bowed.

Ninety degrees, very deep.

As he straightened up, tears finally slid down his cheeks. He didn't wipe them away; he just let them hang there.

Then he turned around and walked step by step to the top of the pyramid, where he sat in the first seat.

The throne of Idol Producer finally belongs to him.

And that trainee named Xiao He was finally kicked off as well.

Wang Ziyi started clapping in the second row, as did Zhu Zhengting and Fan Chenchen.

The king has returned.

Rather than watching an unknown Xiao He sit on the throne and keep them in check.

These trainees would rather replace Cai Kunkun and win first place.

With 11.25 million votes, it leads the second place by more than 4 million votes.

Xiao He knew that this number had been suppressed.

In the first round of voting for "Idol Producer" in his previous life, Cai Kunkun's actual number of votes was far more than these. The production team suppressed some of the data because the gap was too large, and they were afraid it would affect the enthusiasm for subsequent voting.

The difference of over four million has completely stunned the investors behind the show.

The first round of voting for "Idol Producer" exceeded 90 million votes, one-tenth of which came from Cai Kunkun alone.

They weren't surprised that Cai Kunkun had won first place.

They just don't understand how individual trainees, without any company background or data team, can have such strong fan loyalty.

After the initial stage performance aired, Cai Kunkun's fans began to spontaneously organize voting and support activities from the very first episode.

In the super topic, some people stayed up all night to work on data, some took screenshots one by one to analyze the number of seconds of footage, and some posted voting links all over all social media.

They organized themselves.

Yi Kun and his fans used the most rudimentary method, casting their votes one by one, and managed to get Cai Kunkun into first place.

Capital can control the on-site voting, but it cannot control the hands of people like Ikun.

After the recording ended, the trainees walked out of the corridor in small groups.

Some people packed their bags and left.

The victors remain.