Esports world champion, debuted as the center of a talent show

"He just suddenly disappeared. We couldn't find him at the scheduled time, so the production team had no choice but to postpone his appearance and let the next person go first."

Jiang Zhiyu's heart skipped a beat: "When did he leave?"

"Hmm... it was when Bian Ziang and I went to wait in line to go on stage." Yao Wei thought carefully for a moment, his tone certain, "I even turned around to look for you, but you weren't there, and Wei Shuang was gone too."

Upon hearing this, Jiang Zhiyu subconsciously frowned, a hint of confusion flashing through his mind. They had clearly left one after the other, so how come it took so long for them to meet in the restroom?

Kui Shuang had already stepped onto the stage.

The entire audience held their breath, eager to see what kind of stage presence Kui Shuang, who confidently headed straight for the top of the tower in her first seat selection, would have.

Kui Shuang's expression was somewhat cold. His previously messy hair had been neatly combed. He stood under the stage lights like a model, with a perfect figure, broad shoulders, narrow waist, and superior physique.

As the song's intro began, under the watchful eyes of the entire audience, he casually rolled up the cuffs of his black shirt, raised the microphone, and joined the rhythm.

To everyone's surprise, this man, whom many considered a formidable rival, did not deliver any particularly impressive performance.

Kui Shuang's singing skills are at best among amateurs. Her voice is clean and pleasant to listen to in daily life, but it sounds too mediocre on a professional talent show stage.

The only slightly better part was the rap section in the later audition. The rhythm was fairly steady, but it was only slightly better, without any particularly outstanding skills or memorable moments.

After discussion, the mentors ultimately gave a mediocre C grade.

Jiang Zhiyu watched as Wei Shuang finished her initial stage evaluation.

The other person kept their lips pursed until they stepped off the stage, at which point they finally let out a long breath and slightly relaxed their tense back.

"So Kui Shuang is here to experience life too. She's quite leisurely and refined," Yao Wei muttered to himself, trying to make his assessment sound tactful.

Bian Ziang, who was standing to the side, couldn't help but chuckle, then immediately became serious and lowered his voice: "Say less, or you'll get scolded by your manager again."

Yao blinked innocently, shut his mouth, and raised his hand to his mouth as if making a zipping motion.

After all the trainees finished their performances, the initial stage assessment finally came to a complete end.

Yu Lan once again stood on the main stage, her voice clear and steady:

"Dear trainees, this concludes the initial stage evaluation process for this year's talent show."

Rank defines the present moment, but not the future.

What truly determines how far you can go is the sweat, perseverance, and never giving up on yourself that follow.

Get a good rest tonight, see you tomorrow.

Today's live broadcast has also ended. The dormitory assignment segment will be broadcast during the recording of the relaxation segment.

Staff members used megaphones to call all trainees to the dormitory area to choose their rooms.

The trainees, who had been tense all day, breathed a sigh of relief and walked back to their dormitories in twos and threes, chattering about the stage performance.

From the studio to the dormitory building, one has to go through a long open-air passage. Jiang Zhiyu had not gone far when he saw a group of people carrying long guns and cannons standing outside the fence not far away.

This is an unspoken rule in the talent show industry—fan site administrators and paparazzi stake out the locations of people commuting to and from get off work to maintain the show's initial buzz. Right after the show started airing, the area outside the studios was teeming with professional paparazzi.

As the trainees emerged from the studio building, the fans who had been waiting outside the camp for a long time suddenly erupted into a small commotion, with camera flashes going off one after another.

Lu Shanshan is a professional photographer. She has accepted a client's commission and is diligently squatting on the high ground outside the camp to photograph Deng Sushui's initial evaluation and departure.

She glanced around at the sea of ​​trainees not far away, and with her sharp eyes, spotted Deng Sushui, who looked exhausted.

Before losing sight of her in the darkness, she quickly raised her telephoto lens and took a series of photos of Deng Sushui.

Deng Sushui walked very quickly, and was out of the camera's view in a short while.

Lu Shanshan casually pointed the camera at the other trainees, intending to take a few pictures and upload them to her account.

Just then, a striking face suddenly burst into the frame, causing her to instinctively hold her breath.

His superior bone structure is exceptionally clear in the telephoto lens, his facial features are exquisite and full of youthful charm, and every curve is just right.

A pair of slightly upturned peach blossom eyes stared straight at the camera, their gaze cool yet possessing an inexplicable tension that was captivating.

He had his back to the studio entrance, and warm light shone behind him, giving him a soft yet divine golden edge.

Seduction and aloofness blended perfectly in him, vividly illustrating what it means to have a face that lasts a lifetime.

Lu Shanshan almost reflexively pressed the shutter button, capturing a picture that was already a masterpiece without needing any editing.

She took two deep breaths, her fingers trembling as she locked the camera lens onto the boy, and only after he slowly disappeared into the darkness did she dazedly look down to check the film.

Every unedited photo in the camera looked as perfect as a retouched one. As Lu Shanshan flipped through the photos, she couldn't help but swear. She thought she had long since become a heartless shill for proxy photographers, but at this moment, she was certain that she had to take responsibility.

Lu Shanshan opened a chat interface in her friend list with someone named "Jiang Tanyue," and with trembling hands, selected a few photos and sent them directly to her best friend in their original form.

【Yiyi, do you know who he is? I think I'm doomed [crying]】

Tan Yi was crying her eyes out while looking at the River character profile edited by fans. When she saw a message pop up from a friend, she wiped her tears and clicked on it to browse through it casually.

She knew that Lu Shanshan was filming "Shining Project" today, and the message she received must be from one of the trainees.

So she exited the large image without looking closely and typed in the chat box: 【Shanshan, I don't know her. I didn't watch the live stream today because I was busy crying my eyes out over R Bao's highlights... You can post a question here.】

Lu Shanshan reluctantly flipped through the negatives, and suddenly noticed a faint black dot under the eye of the character she didn't yet know the name of, but it wasn't very clear in the darkness.

Is it a lens defect or a small flying insect?

Lu Shanshan, who originally planned to post the raw photos straight from the camera, hesitated for a moment but decided to remove the unexplained black spots anyway.

A few minutes later, the close-up photo of her looking directly at the camera was edited and uploaded to Lu Shanshan's personal homepage.

She captioned the photo: "[Shot my first real photo, any sisters who recognize me?]"

The owner of the photo, Jiang Zhiyu, was completely unaware of this.

He merely glanced casually at the crowd outside the fence, which was captured by the camera.

Jiang Zhiyu, who was walking step by step toward the dormitory building, had no idea that this photo, which would later be called "Jiangmen's first divine photo" by fans, was quietly going viral on the internet, like a spark that would ignite the entire network.

That evening, the hashtag #JiangZhiyuLifePhotos# topped the trending searches, becoming the first viral photo of Jiang Zhiyu leaving work from "Shining Project".