Chapter 60: Zhaozhao, Be Fierce to Me Every Day
That day, Ming Ling started her livestream as usual.
Now that she had an official fan ID, she hardly did reaction videos anymore, except for Xie Xizhao’s stage performances and direct fancams. This time, she figured the stage video wouldn’t be released so early, so she was busy tidying up her room.
Her phone buzzed nonstop. She paused what she was doing and checked it, only to see a mention in the fan club’s internal group chat.
[@LingdangLingdang Sister, ahhh, hurry up and get online to watch the performance! Zhaozhao’s stage is out!]
Her mind went blank for a second, but her hands moved faster than her brain, quickly opening her computer. Sure enough, in the sidebar next to the main episode, she saw the title “Boundless Sea.”
Platform view counts were always inflated, but even so, the main episode had only been out for fifteen minutes and had already accumulated over five million views.
The algorithm treated everyone equally—at least in the beginning, before the platform had a chance to manipulate anything. This meant that if no one was given special promotion, then effectively, everyone was. The result?
Over five million views on the main episode.
Meanwhile, “Boundless Sea” had already surpassed fifteen million.
Ming Ling: “……”
Honestly, if she were running the platform and saw this level of popularity, she would start worshipping Xie Xizhao from now on.
Unfortunately, capital was always arrogant.
She had a whole list of sarcastic remarks running through her mind, but outwardly, she remained calm and opened the livestream platform.
The moment she went live, a flood of comments rushed in.
[Here we go, here we go!]
[Aaaah, finally! I held back from watching the performance just so I could watch it with Sister Lingdang, hehe.]
[Same here, same here! Sister Lingdang always reacts exactly like I do, and discussing with everyone in the chat is so much fun!]
[I can’t even be happy. Ma Hongping and Lu Yan are such idiots, they’re making me so mad. And those 80-rank fans… I’m seriously shocked that this idiot even has supporters. I’ve been channeling my frustration into speed-typing these past two days, arguing like crazy.]
[Arguing like crazy +1. But hey, Xiao Zhao’s ranking seems to have gone up again this week, hehe. Some people rise in the rankings, some people lose their ranking altogether—I’m not naming names.]
[Oof, that one hurt, hahaha.]
Seeing the chat messages, Ming Ling cleared her throat.
She thought for a moment, then dragged the progress bar of the main episode to the end.
This week, Xie Xizhao’s ranking was third.
Her mouse hovered for a second before she spoke, her tone filled with satisfaction. “Up two spots.”
With no special promotional content this week, such a rapid rise could only be credited to the show ruthlessly toying with the fans.
Then she paused for a few seconds, lost in thought.
The current second place was Qiao Ye.
…It was hard to say if this actually meant an increase in votes. After all, the previous second-place contestant, Xia Ruiyan, had already withdrawn from the competition. A simple rank shift was entirely possible. However, Ming Ling figured it was most likely just a rank shift.
As part of the support team, they also paid close attention to other contestants’ data.
Qiao Ye’s numbers hadn’t gone up this week—in fact, they had even dropped slightly.
Looking at it this way, there was a high chance that second place would change again next week.
The chat quickly caught on.
[At this rate… when next week’s rankings come out, is Brother Zhao going to be fighting for center?]
[! Take it!!]
Since voting strategies were confidential, Ming Ling said nothing about it. Instead, she simply responded, “Alright then, let’s get straight to Xizhao’s performance.”
She dragged the progress bar to the timestamp marked by the production team and hit play.
The experience of a live performance stage was different from a recorded broadcast.
At the live event, the audience usually followed the sequence of self-introduction → stage performance → vote appeal. However, in the official broadcast, a storyline segment was inserted before the self-introduction, showcasing the behind-the-scenes process of the contestants preparing for their performance.
The notorious evil editing scandal that had caused an uproar earlier was mainly targeting this segment.
Generally speaking, this backstage portion followed a narrative. The tricky part was that the focus of the narrative could either be on the contestants the production team wanted to promote—or the ones they wanted to sideline.
For the former, the storyline would highlight their talent and best qualities—
Take Xia Ruiyan, who had now withdrawn from the competition.
In the first public performance, his storyline portrayed him as a warm-hearted leader, guiding his team to a dramatic turnaround. Since his performance part was particularly prominent on stage, he had already been criticized as a “royal favorite” back then.
For the latter, the production team would magnify any issues the contestant had.
And if there weren’t any problems? They might splice scenes together, rearrange sentences, and forcibly create one.
Like they did with Xie Xizhao’s teaser.
The moment Ming Ling pressed play, the chat was already on edge.
The screen showed the song selection segment.
In a spacious practice room, Xie Xizhao pushed the door open, stepped inside, and closed the door behind him. Then, he walked to the center of the room and sat down on a floor cushion.
Even with the lingering anxiety in their hearts, the chat couldn’t help but explode with excitement.
[Aaaah, Zhaozhao looks so good!]
[Is this his casual outfit? He dresses so well, so effortlessly pure-looking T.T]
Even Ming Ling, who was trying to stay composed, muttered softly, “So good-looking.”
On screen, the boy was dressed in a simple white pullover hoodie and jeans. The style itself wasn’t anything special, but with Xie Xizhao’s fair skin, slim waist, and long legs, he looked exceptionally stunning—the kind of beauty that made people do a double take.
The progress bar continued moving forward.
When Fu Wenze pushed the door open and walked in, everyone was startled for a moment.
Then, the chat burst into laughter at the conversation between him and Xie Xizhao about getting food together.
[Brother Fu has this unique charm of telling deadpan jokes with a serious face.]
[The roommate duo seems to have such a great relationship! I watched the earlier parts—Zhaozhao and Brother Heng bickering was hilarious too.]
[Yes, yes! And that “choosing a consort” moment with Brother Zhao—he’s really so popular, I’m dying laughing.]
[Aaaah, so many scenes with him! I need to go back and watch everything later!]
This part originally involved Yun Pan, but since his situation was still a sensitive topic, the segment where he specifically chose Xie Xizhao’s group was cut out by the production team. By sheer coincidence, this ended up avoiding unnecessary drama.
Soon, all the teammates from Creative Group A had gathered. A group of them sat together and began discussing.
In reality, this discussion lasted a long time.
But in the broadcast, the production team selected two key moments.
The first was a lighthearted scene about choosing the team leader—in which the chat was absolutely delighted by Xie Xizhao’s casually serious remark: “I’ll be very fierce.”
The chat erupted into a flurry of messages, all centered around variations of:
[Aaaah, pretending to be fierce—so cute I’m dying!]
[Zhaozhao, be fierce to me!]
However, as the segment moved into its latter half, the chat gradually fell silent.
Ming Ling took a deep breath. “This should be the first part of the teaser.”
And she was right.
This was the controversial scene from Xie Xizhao’s teaser.
Except this time, the production team didn’t cut or manipulate it—they left it completely unedited, allowing everyone to see the full context.
In the teaser, Xie Xizhao appeared controlling and authoritarian.
He said, “Just use my song directly, it’ll save me the trouble.”
He said, “The minority should obey the majority.”
And Zou Yi added, “An unreleased song is very valuable.”
When these lines were strung together, at first glance, it seemed like Xie Xizhao had used his position as team leader to forcefully decide the song selection.
And Zou Yi appeared to be the accomplice enabling him.
But now, the audience could see the truth.
It was the team members who first suggested using a completed song.
It was the team members who said, “We don’t mind, it’s up to you.”
And even after Xie Xizhao offered to teach them songwriting, they still voted to use his finished song.
The chat fell into stunned silence.
[I don’t know why, but the way they’re airing this now gives me the feeling of a supermarket clearance sale.]
[+1, it’s like the production team is saying, ‘Oh, you wanted to see it? Fine, take everything! Just please stop cursing us under the official Weibo comments.’]
[…That’s actually a very vivid way to put it.]
[Wait, but isn’t it kinda shameless to just use the team leader’s song like that? Shouldn’t they at least pay some royalties? My brother really came here for charity, huh. And they even banded together to vote for it—ahhh, my temper can’t take this.]
[So that last ‘the minority should obey the majority’ line was about the voting process?? I’m speechless. Editor, if you’re this good at splicing things together, maybe consider switching fields and shining elsewhere. This level of manipulation is insane.]
However, the most shocking part was still yet to come.
In the teaser, Group A’s atmosphere was portrayed as tense and awkward, especially during the part distribution.
At first, when the segment aired, the chat remained cautious.
After all, the fact that Xie Xizhao had pre-assigned the parts beforehand was something that could easily be criticized.
But then, it became clear—
Xie Xizhao had used a voting system.
Ultimately, he had handed the final decision back to his team members.
The chat breathed a small sigh of relief.
[He’s really smart. Even though voting every time is a hassle, it does make things fair.]
[Feels like he was trying to guard against the production team, but he underestimated just how shameless they could be. Oh, voting? Haha, let’s just cut that out completely.]
But soon, everyone’s focus completely shifted.
Because…
Xie Xizhao’s dedication was undeniable.
He had been a team leader during the first public performance as well, but most of his leadership process had been heavily edited out. The narrative had focused on Ai Qingyuan instead.
Now, for the first time, everyone could truly see how he led his team.
Was he strict? Yes.
But was he harsh? Actually, no.
Even when giving corrections, he never used degrading words.
He was just demanding.
It might have seemed like he was nitpicking, but his high expectations came with tailored guidance. That is to say, he never set unrealistic goals—he only pushed his teammates toward results that were within their reach.
The show never aired the turning point—the moment when his teammates changed their attitudes toward him.
But even without that footage, there was no public doubt.
Because the difference in quality was obvious:
The parts assigned through voting alone had been a mess.
The final result, after Xie Xizhao’s adjustments, was undeniably superior.
And by the end, Group A had transformed from a fragmented mess into a unified group.
And throughout this entire transformation, the only consistent leader had been Xie Xizhao.
As the storyline approached its final moments, the chat finally grew bold enough to voice their opinions.
[Honestly, I think Brother Zhao’s part distribution was actually really reasonable. Yeah, some members got fewer lines, but in return, the stage as a whole was way better. They won first place in the end—wasn’t that extra 200k votes worth more than a couple of extra lines?]
[To be honest, Brother Zhao was just making a rational decision based on pros and cons.]
[Even though I feel the same way, we should be careful about what we say without solid proof. People are already calling him manipulative because of the Yun Pan situation. We know the results were good, and his teammates were happy—that’s enough.]
[Yeah… Watching the later parts, their relationships seem genuinely good. They joke around naturally. I remember multiple reports saying that every single member of Group A personally thanked Zhaozhao during the voting segment. They all said he put in so much effort for the group. Back then, people dismissed it as just formalities, but honestly—who would waste those precious few seconds thanking the leader instead of promoting themselves if it wasn’t sincere?]
[Didn’t Xia Xize say outright that the team atmosphere was great? And he had the fewest lines out of everyone. His statement was probably the reason things didn’t get completely one-sided against Brother Zhao. Alright, Xiao Xia, I’ll forgive you for your nonsense earlier.]
[I honestly want to cry T.T. He’s just a contestant with a high ranking. The production team has been suppressing him this whole time, yet he was still forced into the role of leader. He gave up his own song for the stage, spent all that effort rearranging it, took on the roles of both vocal and dance mentor. Does anyone even remember that Zhaozhao was in a coma for four years because of that car accident? That his health still isn’t great? There were so many moments where he looked absolutely exhausted. And despite all this, antis are still accusing him of trying to steal the spotlight.]
[And to think—if it weren’t for the livestream, we never would have known the truth. I just—ahhhh.]
[Not only would we never know, but they would’ve flipped the narrative completely. Even though he led the team to first place, even though he secured them an extra 200,000 votes, even though every single one of his teammates has vouched for his character, even though he even helped a b*llied kid who had nothing to do with him—the production team still tried to bury him. They have no conscience.]
These comments suddenly snapped everyone back to reality.
In an instant, the once cheerful and lively atmosphere of the livestream completely vanished.
Even Ming Ling, sitting behind the screen, unconsciously tightened her grip on her mouse.
