Pan Yu was startled and stared intently at Xu Zifan. "What do you mean?!"
Xu Zifan looked at him disdainfully, "You know what's going on, he's an illegitimate child."
Xu Zifan turned and left, his usual calm smile on his face, but Pan Yu's heart was pounding, his mind filled with "He knows!"
What alarmed Pan Yu wasn't that Xu Zifan knew his identity, but rather what else Xu Zifan knew. Before, he was Xu Zifan's friend, and Xu Zifan wouldn't suspect him. Now that Xu Zifan knew they were half-brothers, would he suspect him about the hormones? Would he call the police? Would he recklessly tell everyone? If it were revealed now that he was the child of a mistress, could he still debut smoothly?
While Pan Yu was lost in thought, Bai Yuchen had already finished his opening remarks on stage and invited both teams to come up. His teammate frowned and asked, "Pan Yu, are you alright? Why do you look so pale?"
"It's nothing." Pan Yu shook his head, not in the mood to pay attention.
A teammate who disliked him warned, "Whether you're in trouble or not, this PK is against Xu Zifan and Li Keyang because of you. Don't drag us down!"
Pan Yu gave him a sharp look. "It won't be me who drags everyone down."
The two teams took turns going on stage, smiling and waving to the fans below. The fans waved light sticks and banners with their names and images, and some even held up light boards. Surprisingly, Xu Zifan and Pan Yu had the most fans. Pan Yu's heart sank when he saw so many of Xu Zifan's fans. Only two episodes had aired; where did Xu Zifan get so many fans? With his chubby appearance, even if his performance was good, it wouldn't compare to Xu Zifan's. How could he have fans? He glanced at Bai Yuchen; it must be the mentors' praise of Xu Zifan that misled the audience. These mentors were really out of their minds. Did they really want a chubby guy to debut? They were sick!
Just then, Bai Yuchen called on Xu Zifan by name, "Xu Zifan, how do you feel seeing so many of your fans in the audience?"
Xu Zifan made a heart shape with his hands towards the audience, saying, "I'm really touched. Thank you all. I hope you enjoy our team's performance today."
His fans have a peculiar way of expressing themselves; they couldn't stop laughing when he said he was "especially moved." Bai Yuchen also laughed and said, "Do you know why they're laughing? They think you're too calm, you don't have any extra expressions, and you don't look particularly moved at all. Do you want to make a particularly moved expression?"
Xu Zifan laughed and said, "Won't that become a meme?"
Fans immediately shouted, "We want emojis! Emojis!"
Xu Zifan shrugged, "Since you like it, I'll give you a nine-shot sequence."
Li Keyang chimed in from the side, "Touched! Surprised! Disappointed! Collapsed! Acting cute! Terrified! Furious! Dumbfounded! Terrified and angry!"
With each shout, Xu Zifan would make a matching expression, perfectly capturing the essence of the nine words with his quick and precise transitions, eliciting screams from the entire audience.
"You're making a fool of yourself!" Xu Zifan rubbed his face and punched Li Keyang on the shoulder. "You little brat, are you trying to make my face cramp up?"
Li Keyang said with a grin, "Your acting skills wouldn't be highlighted otherwise!"
Bai Yuchen couldn't help but sigh, "You really are an actor whose talent was wasted on singing and dancing!"
Many fans started chanting "Yang Fan CP" (a term used to describe a couple pairing of Yang Fan and Li Keyang). Xu Zifan didn't react at first, but then he saw a fan hold up a comic book—a chibi-style comic of him and Li Keyang. He was immediately shocked and pushed Li Keyang away. Is the idol circle this crazy? Two best friends forming a CP?! Pan Yu's fans, not wanting Xu Zifan to steal the spotlight, loudly chanted Pan Yu's name. Bai Yuchen turned around and said, "Pan Yu, you have quite a few fans too. Do you have anything to say?"
Pan Yu smiled and said, "We hope everyone will support us!"
His mind was in turmoil, his thoughts blank, and he only managed to utter one sentence before falling silent. Such a good opportunity hadn't been given a chance to shine, nor had it been given to the other team members; the team was somewhat disappointed. Bai Yuchen smiled and said, "Then now we'll hand the stage over to Pan Yu's team. It's show time!"
As the lights changed, Xu Zifan gave Pan Yu a meaningful look as he turned around, then calmly stepped off the stage. Pan Yu was flustered and tried to calm himself down, focusing on his performance. But a flustered mind is a flustered mind; singing, dancing, and choreography—so many memorable moments, one mistake and it would be a disaster. Yet, the more he told himself not to make a mistake, the more nervous he became. Since his rebirth, he had imagined this talent show countless times, always putting himself first. He knew what the songs were, and had already chosen his favorite, practicing it extensively until he was extremely familiar with it.
As a result, Xu Zifan chose him to compete this time, but the song he had prepared wasn't the one he was supposed to sing, so he had to rehearse everything from scratch. Now, in his nervousness, he mixed up the dance steps for the two songs, moved in the wrong direction, and almost bumped into another contestant. Luckily, he reacted in time and continued singing, but everyone could see that he had made a mistake.
Pan Yu was even more flustered after making a mistake. He forced himself to sing and dance until the end, but because he was afraid of making a mistake, his expression was not natural enough, and he completely lost the charm of the center position. Only his fans continued to cheer for him as always, and told others that he must have been too tired from training.
As soon as Pan Yu and his team left the stage after their performance, several of his teammates questioned them: "What happened? Before the performance, they asked you if you were alright, and you said no. Now you've made a mistake? What are we going to do now? If we lose to Xu Zifan and his team, we'll fall behind the top half!"
"I'm the one who feels the worst when I make a mistake!" Pan Yu said irritably, tugged at his collar, and sat down to the side, watching Xu Zifan and the others take the field through the screen, his mind filled with prayers.
Prayer: Something must go wrong, something must go wrong!
Pan Yu's attitude displeased the others, but with cameras rolling, they couldn't really start a fight, so they all sat down to watch the performance. However, they clearly maintained a clear separation from him, showing they were still angry.
Xu Zifan and his group made a perfect entrance from the start, exuding a powerful aura. Dressed in white shirts, black striped suit jackets, black trousers, black leather shoes, and ties, their energetic dance moves were incredibly manly! The biggest surprise was how well the lead singer sang, and the others' performances were also excellent. Fans couldn't quite pinpoint why, but compared to the team that had just left the stage, they were simply far superior!
The mentors watched the screen backstage. Zhou Peng nodded approvingly, "Their lead singer did his best, patiently teaching everyone how to hold each note, how to lengthen it, and how to stop it. He sang very well."
Yu Hai and Cheng Man said, "The lead dancer also did his best, teaching them each dance step many times, and even making adjustments based on each person's weaknesses. The collaboration was excellent."
Bai Xingchen clapped his hands and said with a smile, "This round is in the bag. The center and the captain play the biggest roles in the team. They are so cohesive. It would be hard for us not to win."
Bai Yuchen sighed, "It's just a pity about Pan Yu. I wonder what he was thinking."
Others also felt it was a pity, saying, "No matter what you think, this is a place that only cares about the result and not the process."
The performance on stage had reached its final stage. Li Keyang and Liang Sijie simultaneously performed somersaults from the middle to the sides, while Xu Zifan suddenly jumped from behind Xiao Zhan, who was kneeling on one knee, to the front, giving the performance a super cool ending!
Even after it was over, the seven of them didn't sway, didn't show any obvious panting, and didn't let their eyes wander. Only after the lights came on for ten seconds did they stand up together, smile, and take their bow. Just that final pose alone surpassed many other teams.
After the two teams finished performing, the voting began immediately. All the fans in the audience had a digital device, and the big screen displayed the headshots and numbers of each person in both groups. Fans could vote for whoever they liked by selecting that number. Each fan could only vote for one person, or they could abstain.
The two teams sat nervously in a room, watching a five-second countdown on a small screen, followed by the vote counts displayed in pairs. There were a total of one thousand votes, evenly distributed among the 14 contestants, roughly 70 votes each. At the start, Li Keyang received 106 votes to the other team's 55, followed by Xiao Cheng with 89 votes to the other team's 33. Later, another team received more votes, as they consisted of A and B-level players and had fan support. Finally, Xu Zifan faced Pan Yu. Pan Yu stared intently at the screen, only to see a result of 166 votes to 53!
Xu Zifan's team won an overwhelming victory with several high scores! The team members cheered, stood up, and hugged each other. Knowing that each of them would receive an extra 10,000 votes, they felt a huge weight lifted from their shoulders. The members of Class C and Class D were especially grateful to Xu Zifan for choosing them and giving them this boost in votes. For those ranked lower, an extra 10,000 votes could mean they wouldn't be eliminated!
In contrast, Pan Yu's teammates were dissatisfied with him. If he hadn't chosen them, they might have formed their own team and become the center. As a result, Pan Yu not only competed for the center position but also made mistakes on the spot, without any intention of apologizing, causing them to lose the opportunity to get more votes. They all felt alienated from Pan Yu.
Next, Xu Zifan and his team returned to the live broadcast room to watch the other teams' performances. Some were fantastic, showcasing their skills; some performed exceptionally well, surprising the mentors; and some were disappointing and not favored by the judges. By the time each team finished performing and the vote counts were announced, a considerable amount of time had passed. Finally, the fans left, and all the contestants were gathered together. The mentors stood on the stage, and Bai Yuchen said with a smile, "Now that all the votes are in, let's take a look at the rankings before the votes were added."
The large screen began to display the results in stages, from the second half to the first half. Pan Yu's 53 votes were neither high nor low, placing him only 38th, while Xu Zifan's 166 votes were far ahead, securing first place. Li Keyang was second with 106 votes.
Bai Yuchen said, "Now, let's announce the results after the vote increase. Each member of the winning team will receive an additional 10,000 votes, and the first-place team will receive an additional 70,000 votes."
With the votes added, the rankings changed dramatically. One member of Pan Yu's team, who originally ranked sixth with 88 votes, was now ranked 51st! Pan Yu felt extremely resentful towards him, feeling that he had dragged her down with him.
After Bai Yuchen and the others finished looking at the rankings, he said, "This is just the number of votes from today's live audience. In the next episode, the total number of votes from both the live audience and the public vote will be announced for the first time. At that time, those ranked 57th to 98th will be eliminated."
Upon hearing this, everyone's expression changed. Pan Yu stared at his 59th place ranking on the screen and felt it was particularly glaring. Could he, who had been reborn, still not be able to beat Xu Zifan?