Chapter 46.1: Fairness
At 2 PM, Xie Xiao logged into her Weibo account on time.
Beside her, her colleagues were busy with their own tasks.
Someone walked past and jokingly teased, “Xiao Xiao, casting bait again?”
Xie Xiao smiled as well.
But it was a smile accompanied by a sigh.
“Yeah,” she replied.
As soon as she finished speaking, the page on her computer refreshed, and in an instant, thousands of private messages flooded the screen. She took a deep breath, browsed through them one by one, and couldn’t help but click her tongue in her mind.
Xie Xiao was a temporary intern for Super Rookie.
Interns in such shows rarely had any important tasks to do.
On regular days, aside from helping her mentor with miscellaneous tasks and learning in the process, she usually had little to do.
Since the team saw that she was diligent and genuinely interested in the industry, they decided to assign her a task that wasn’t too big but not too small either:
Leaking controlled information on behalf of the production team.
Otherwise known among fans as being part of the show’s marketing army.
Of course, compared to those low-quality paid accounts that operated by the hour or per post, what Xie Xiao did was relatively clean and effortless.
Her account was publicly known as an official staff account of the show. Her daily task was simply to answer some harmless, trivial questions—most of the information she provided was true.
It was just enough to keep the audience hooked.
Xie Xiao was naturally cautious. From the moment she started using the account, she had never made a mistake.
By now, her account had accumulated several thousand followers, a small but respectable achievement.
The moment she went online, dozens of new private messages popped up immediately.
“Sister, you’re here!!! We’ve been waiting for you!”
“Sister, can you give us a hint about the second public performance groupings? Please, we’re dying of curiosity!”
“Sister, can you tell us which members are actually close in private? Is the show’s editing reliable at all? My CP looks like they don’t even know each other T.T.”
Messages like this…
Xie Xiao had long grown accustomed to seeing them.
From her initial nervousness to her current calm demeanor, she had already mastered the routine. After typing for a moment, all her followers saw a new post appear on their homepage.
[Working Hard]:
Done with work! Q&A for 30 minutes =3= Won’t reveal anything I’m not allowed to~
Almost instantly, a flood of comments rushed in.
— Aaaah Sister, notice me! Second performance groupings! Tell us, tell us!
Xie Xiao calmly typed her response.
— That’s something I can’t reveal TT, but the groupings are pretty exciting! Look forward to it~
— QAQ Then can I ask if our Zhaozhao got into the group he wanted? Mom is really worried.
As soon as this question appeared, replies started stacking up underneath it.
“I don’t think there’s anything to worry about, he ranked fifth after all!”
“What if the show changes the rules? I won’t relax until the last second! Damn this program team!”
“Is it the creative team? Please tell me it’s the creative team! I want to hear his original song!”
One comment after another, pushing the thread up to the top. Xie Xiao had no choice but to reply under it again:
— Haven’t heard anything about rule changes. Xizhao probably picked the group he liked—he seemed really happy when choosing o.o
In an instant, the replies exploded into a sea of excited screams.
Xie Xiao continued answering a few questions about other members before hesitating briefly.
For one simple reason—
There were a lot of comments, but almost all of them were about the same person.
But of all people, this was the one person the team leader had specifically instructed not to give too much attention or information about.
Xie Xiao felt a headache coming on.
Holding her phone, she decided to take a walk over to the practice room to clear her mind.
—
This was actually quite normal.
In general, the popularity of survival shows snowballed over time.
For someone like Ai Qingyuan, who had been popular from the start, his fan base was already stable. Many people asked about him, but since he was widely known as Shenghong’s crown prince, his fans didn’t worry too much.
But Xie Xizhao was different.
Out of all three seasons of the show, he had benefited the most from stage performances. Whether judging by the usual comments or the atmosphere in his fan forums, it was clear that most of his supporters were highly engaged career fans—fans more focused on his success than personal drama.
New fans + career fans, and on top of that…
Uh, Xie Xiao thought, plus the production team’s deliberate suppression, it was no surprise that the buzz around his performances was exploding.
She didn’t dislike Xie Xizhao.
On the contrary, she actually quite liked him as a contestant.
From what she knew, whenever her colleagues mentioned him, it was usually with admiration and a hint of regret.
Admiration for his talent.
Regret for his less-than-ideal family background.
In the entertainment industry, having highly respected academic parents who dedicated their lives to teaching sounded nice, but it was nowhere near as useful as coming from a wealthy and powerful family.
Xie Xiao herself came from an ordinary family.
She disliked this shallow, flashy reality, but she also understood that this was just how things worked.
Thinking of this, she softened a little. She reopened her phone and checked the comments from Xie Xizhao’s fans.
As she scrolled, she made her way toward the practice room.
Speaking of Xie Xizhao, she suddenly remembered overhearing someone mention that his team was supposed to be having a meeting in the practice room today.
Driven by curiosity, Xie Xiao walked toward the familiar practice room.
There were several staff members standing at the doorway.
Their expressions all carried a similar look of…
Stunned disbelief?
Xie Xiao: ?
She couldn’t hold back and stepped closer. Just then, a sudden burst of rapid drumbeats filled the air.
In that instant, her feet froze in place.
—
Compared to the staff outside the door, the trainees closest to the speakers inside the room were hit with an even greater impact.
The demo provided by the production team was short, but Xie Xizhao’s so-called “demo” lasted a full 30 seconds, covering almost the entire climax from the end of the verse to the chorus.
Because of that, it felt even more powerful.
The first to recover was Xi Kai.
He had always trusted Xie Xizhao, and right now, he was practically overwhelmed with excitement.
“This sounds amazing, Xizhao!” he blurted out.
As soon as he spoke, the others snapped out of their daze as well.
“This is so good!”
“Seriously, it sounds incredible…”
“I just got chills all over, holy shi—”
Zou Yi was the last to react.
He looked at Xie Xizhao deeply, his expression carrying a hint of emotion he himself hadn’t noticed.
“…It’s really good,” he murmured.
“It’s too good.”
Xie Xizhao had just been bombarded with a round of nonstop praise, but his face remained calm, as if he was already used to it.
At that moment, a noise came from the doorway. He looked up just in time to see one of the staff—who had apparently lost their balance—accidentally push the half-closed door wide open.
Their eyes met, and for once, the person at the door seemed caught off guard.
Xie Xizhao tilted his head slightly.
“Wanna come in?”
The cameras in the room had been rolling the whole time, but with only a single camera angle, they had only been able to capture the scene in full view.
“…Just getting some behind-the-scenes footage.” The staff member finally managed to ease the awkwardness. “You guys go ahead.”
Xie Xizhao nodded.
Then, he turned back to his team members. “This is just an informal demo. When the time comes, we’ll rearrange it into a version that better suits our performance. If everyone’s okay with it, we’ll finalize this as our song choice.”
Most of them immediately expressed agreement.
Are you kidding?
With a song like this—
Just the atmosphere alone would let them dominate the stage!
Xi Kai noticed that even Yang Yinping, who had expressed concerns last night, looked visibly excited now. Of course, he was more reserved about it, holding back from showing his full enthusiasm—probably trying to maintain a bit of composure.
Only one person hesitated before speaking up.
“…Isn’t it a bit difficult?”
Xie Xizhao looked over.
Last night, aside from preparing the song, he had also taken some time to familiarize himself with his team members.
It had paid off.
Now, he recognized the one who had spoken and even matched the name to the face.
Xia Xize.
The weakest performer in the group.
Xie Xizhao paused for a moment before responding in a calm and reassuring tone. “We chose this song because it doesn’t require dancing. Some of the vocal parts might be challenging, but compared to having to practice both singing and choreography, I think this is actually the least difficult option.”
Xia Xize hesitated for a couple of seconds.
Of course, he understood that logic…
Then, he heard Xie Xizhao continue, “But since we agreed to discuss things, and someone has raised concerns, why don’t we take a vote?”
—
As usual, the one fetching things was Yun Pan.
Compared to arguing, he clearly preferred this method—it didn’t require thinking, and it still helped Xie Xizhao.
Xi Kai and Yang Yinping stood around idly. The latter looked completely unbothered, as if last night’s deliberate act of leaving messages on read had never happened. Xi Kai, being tactful, didn’t bring it up either. He simply remarked, “The weather’s nice today.”
“It is,” Yang Yinping agreed, his mood seemingly good.
He paused for a moment, then muttered, “But why are we voting again? I was planning to hit the convenience store this afternoon.”
He found it troublesome.
Ever since hearing the demo, he had nothing but appreciation for Xie Xizhao. In fact, he even felt a bit indignant on his behalf. Lowering his voice, he grumbled, “Honestly, Xia Xize is kinda pushing it. He doesn’t even have to dance—what more does he want? If I were Xie Xizhao, I’d just say it straight: people without talent should go to kindergarten and sing nursery rhymes. Why even join a survival show?”
Xi Kai’s mouth twitched slightly.
Before long, Yun Pan had finished preparing the voting slips.
They voted again.
The results were obvious—5 to 1.
Xia Xize didn’t look too pleased, but in the end, he said nothing more.
Next came the part assignments.
Since the demo had only just been released, everyone naturally assumed that Xie Xizhao hadn’t had time to divide up the lyrics yet.
To be fair, even at this stage, their progress was ridiculously fast.
This was the composition group, after all.
In previous seasons, composition groups would spend days just selecting a song.
Thanks to Xie Xizhao, they had saved an immeasurable amount of time.
Thinking about this, Xi Kai couldn’t help but look at him with admiration.
He waited for Xie Xizhao to dismiss them, but instead, he heard him say—
“Next, let’s discuss the part assignments.”
The room fell silent.
After a brief pause, Zou Yi hesitantly asked, “Xizhao… you’ve already sorted them out?”
“Yeah.” Xie Xizhao replied, “The lyrics are basically set. If there are any details that need adjusting later, we can tweak them. Since someone mentioned it might be a bit difficult, it’s better to start practicing early.”
He pulled up the document.
And just like that, everyone saw the complete lyrics distribution.
Next to each line, there was a name.
Xie Xizhao had already assigned all the parts.
In just one night.
