Xu Zifan got hold of the phone and learned about the recent uproar online. All three mentors on the show had gotten into trouble at the same time, and it just so happened that the incident occurred on the day Pan Yu had taken leave. Xu Zifan couldn't help but suspect that Pan Yu was involved. He calmly returned the phone to the production team and, the next day when the mentors came to give their lessons, spoke privately with Bai Xingchen.
"Professor Bai, I think the recent scandals you've exposed might be related to Pan Yu. Could you lend me your phone so I can check it out?"
Bai Xingchen exclaimed in surprise, "Pan Yu? How could he possibly be related to you? Besides, what are you looking up on your phone?"
Xu Zifan casually replied, "I know some hacking techniques, so I can find out the whistleblower's IP address and thus find out who he is. I suspect Pan Yu's reasons, so I want to see if it is Pan Yu."
Bai Xingchen looked at his calm expression, not understanding how someone could so casually say they were a hacker. She handed her phone to Xu Zifan and leaned closer to look. Actually, she had always been curious about what hackers were like and wanted to see if Xu Zifan was just talking nonsense.
The two locked the door in a relatively secluded practice room. Xu Zifan quickly tapped a few times on his phone, bringing up a code page. A moment later, he found the account that had leaked the information, and then retrieved Pan Yu's emails from that person's inbox. He compared the IP address with various email IPs belonging to Pan's father, confirming the Pan family's IP. He took a screenshot of the IP evidence and archived it, then looked up at Bai Xingchen, "It's Pan Yu. He's the one who exposed the information about you, Bai Qi, and Instructor Yu. He took leave that day to go home and leaked it from there."
Bai Xingchen stared at his series of actions, her eyes wide with disbelief. She shook her head and frowned, asking, "Why? We have no grudge against him, so how did he find out all this?"
"He's petty and might be holding a grudge against you for demoting him from A to B." Xu Zifan handed the phone back to Bai Xingchen and said, "Professor Bai, I thought of this and wanted to let you know. Now that I've figured it out, I'll head back now."
"Hmm." Bai Xingchen nodded, then suddenly remembered the filming. "By the way, do you like acting? My new film is directed by Shao, a commercial film. I can help you get a fourth male lead role. Would you like to act in it?"
Xu Zifan was a little surprised and said with a smile, "Of course I want to. I prefer acting to singing and dancing. Thank you, Mentor Bai, for giving me this opportunity. I will definitely cherish it."
"No need to thank me. I just saw that you have a lot of acting talent. Go back and practice hard. If you don't understand anything, ask your mentor. Any mentor will be happy to help you. The higher the quality of your final group, the more proud we will be."
"Okay, I'll ask you for advice more often."
Xu Zifan did need to learn a lot. He learned guitar, keyboard, and some basic singing skills from familiar contestants, which was considered the beginning. He then went to mentor Zhou Peng to ask about songwriting and rapping, and also went to Yu Hai to learn dance steps. These kinds of stage performances were basically what he needed to learn. On the other hand, his outward appearance and how to be a good star were things he was already familiar with and didn't need to learn.
The most important aspect of the show is knowing how to be a good celebrity. What to say and what not to say, how to engage the audience in different situations, and what expressions to use directly determine the audience's favor and who they ultimately vote for. Many contestants fail to be good celebrities, unable to manage their expressions, or deliberately crying to play the victim and claiming to work incredibly hard. This all feels fake and is easily seen through. Therefore, most contestants leave no impression on the audience, resulting in very few votes.
The third episode garnered a huge following for Xu Zifan, Li Keyang, Xiao Cheng, and Liang Sijie, who were praised for their fantastic performances. Pan Yu, on the other hand, lost all his goodwill, leaving only his die-hard fans. In the fourth episode, Xu Zifan ultimately won first place with an additional 80,000 votes. The editors immediately cut to a shot of Pan Yu looking upset after Xu Zifan's joyful moment. This time, without any captions, viewers could clearly see their fake friendship!
In particular, Pan Yu's fans had been hurling insults at Xu Zifan for a whole month from the beginning, and many viewers online could see their abusive comments, which was extremely offensive. Upon seeing Pan Yu's behavior, they immediately mocked him, saying, "Like attracts like! Xu Zifan is so good to Pan Yu, yet Pan Yu can't stand to see Xu Zifan doing well. What kind of person is he!"
Some of Xu Zifan's fans went back to the first episode to look for evidence that Pan Yu disliked Xu Zifan, and they actually found a few very subtle screenshots. Releasing them now felt like solid evidence. Bai Xingchen saw that many people online were dissatisfied with Pan Yu, and after discussing it with the production team, she directly had someone release the emails and IP screenshots sent by Pan Yu.
Pan Yu isn't very famous, but the revelations he made involved Bai Xingchen, Bai Yuchen, and Yu Hai—all by himself, and they were his mentors. This revelation immediately became a trending topic. The previous uproar has passed; fans who liked the three still do, and those who disliked them have moved on and are no longer angry. After all, there are so many idols out there; they can just like any other young, popular star.
However, once Pan Yu's incident was exposed, it angered the fans of all three of them, as well as their former fans who had already left the fandom, feeling as if they had been manipulated by him. Bai Yuchen's fans extracted the video of the mentors demoting Pan Yu, and then extracted all the shots of Pan Yu's strange expressions on the show, making it clear that Pan Yu was petty, resentful, and deliberately seeking revenge against the mentors! The key point is that he actually succeeded in his revenge. Some uninformed passersby genuinely thought that Bai Xingchen and Lin Haodong were equally bad, some fans genuinely thought that Yu Hai was fake and they no longer liked him, and some of Bai Yuchen's fans did indeed leave and turn against him, causing a huge uproar.
The fans who unfollowed Bai Yuchen said that it was their business to leave and criticize him, but Pan...
Using Yu as a pawn won't work. These people are also extremely capable, immediately engaging in a fight with Pan Yu's fans. Yu Hai and Pan Yu are in the same company, and upon learning of this, he immediately reported it. The company's higher-ups were extremely dissatisfied with Pan Yu for privately harming his senior colleague. Pan Yu was originally a trainee with a three-year contract. The company directly terminated Pan Yu's contract and issued a statement saying they didn't want an artist with such poor character.
Bai Xingchen's fans and Bai Yuchen's fans are very powerful. They compiled all of Pan Yu's dirty secrets, educated the public, and directly nailed Pan Yu to the pillar of shame.
Xu Zifan noticed that the production team had spoken to Pan Yu three times, and Pan Yu became increasingly agitated each time. He realized that Pan Yu's alleged wrongdoing had been exposed. The time was right, so he approached the director and asked, "Director, has something happened to Pan Yu?"
The director frowned. "Just focus on recording. Don't worry about these things."
Xu Zifan shook his head and said, "Director, you know my relationship with Pan Yu, so I can't help but worry. If there's a lot of public attention on Pan Yu, they might discover the identities of his family members. These days, netizens are so resourceful; if they find out about my relationship with Pan Yu, it will definitely cause a stir. So I think the production team and I need to prepare early."
After spending this time together, the director had come to understand that Xu Zifan was a very decisive and sensible person, so he asked, "So what are your thoughts?"
Xu Zifan sat down opposite the director, poured him a cup of tea, and said with a smile, "Director, I think it's most advantageous for us to expose his illegitimate child status when Pan Yu is at his lowest point. That way, he can withdraw from the competition in the fifth episode, which won't affect our future programs. And if the news that I gained weight due to hormones comes out someday, having the background of Pan Yu being an illegitimate child won't be too confusing; instead, it will provide a clear cause and effect. What do you think?"
What hasn't this director seen in the entertainment industry? Judging from Xu Zifan's words, he clearly wants to completely destroy Pan Yu's career, making it impossible for him to continue. Moreover, Xu Zifan will definitely reveal in the future that Pan Yu drugged him. Knowing what will happen in the future, the director thinks cooperating with Xu Zifan now is the best decision.
Soon, someone online revealed that Pan Yu, as the son of a mistress, deliberately approached Xu Zifan. This provided the perfect reason why Pan Yu was hostile towards Xu Zifan, and the best explanation for his viciousness: who told him to be raised by a scumbag and a mistress? What good could a scumbag and a mistress be?!
Even Pan Yu's staunchest fans couldn't take it anymore. They could excuse themselves after one mistake, but with repeated revelations of Pan Yu's character flaws, including allegations that he was the child of a mistress, his fans had no shame. How embarrassing would it be to publicly acknowledge Pan Yu as their idol? Pan Yu finally faced a massive exodus of fans, losing two-thirds of his supporters. This was supposed to be a crucial period for fan voting, but now not only were they not voting for Pan Yu, many were even going to the official Weibo account to inquire about withdrawing their previous votes for him.
Fans of other contestants left messages on Weibo, requesting that Pan Yu be disqualified. They argued that a contestant who harmed his mentor, was unfriendly to his teammates, and was hypocritical towards his brothers didn't deserve to be an idol. Didn't the show claim to create the idols the public wanted? Since they don't want Pan Yu and are firmly against him staying, shouldn't the production team consider their opinions?
Indeed, since the idol groups are chosen by the public, their requirements must be taken seriously. The production team wanted to show the mentors a clear stance on a contestant who framed them, so instead of forcing Pan Yu to withdraw, they opened an online poll to eliminate him. They stated that if the number of elimination votes exceeded Pan Yu's previous votes, he would be eliminated, which aligns with the definition of a public producer.
Once this channel was opened, the number of elimination votes rose rapidly. By the time the fifth episode was recorded, Pan Yu's elimination votes had completely exceeded the original number of votes!
Bai Yuchen arrived at the recording hall with the contestant vote list. The 100 chairs on the steps had been reduced to 56. The contestants were all sitting on the opposite side of the steps, waiting for the results. Bai Yuchen started reading from the 56th place, announcing the names of the remaining contestants one by one, and asking each of them to share their thoughts.
With only seven spots remaining, most people already knew they would make it into the top seven or had already been eliminated, and the tension had subsided. Only Pan Yu remained. He had checked his vote count last time and found himself second; this time, he assumed he would be second if not first. But as Bai Yuchen read out the names one by one, and the final seat went to Xu Zifan, his name was still missing. He suddenly stood up, "Wait! This vote count is wrong! Why isn't my name on it?!"