Superstar Ch.62

Chapter 62: Tacit Understanding

This time, the elimination was from 50 down to 25. This meant that half of them would have to leave the show.

Compared to last time, the contestants being eliminated now were mostly faces that the audience had already grown familiar with.

The lingering excitement from “Boundless Sea” had been so intense that it wasn’t until the day before elimination filming that many casual viewers suddenly realized they would have to face yet another round of goodbyes.

Meanwhile, in the ranking cutoff zone, a life-or-death voting race had already begun.

They were giving it their all, leaving no regrets.

That was the shared determination of every cutoff-zone fan.

Unfortunately, regret made up nine out of ten things in life.

The moment voting closed, many already had a sense of the outcome.

That morning, when Xie Xizhao got up, the hallway was noticeably quieter than usual.

By the water dispenser near the door, there was a large box sitting on a stool.

He opened it—inside were chocolates and bottles of vitamin water.

Fu Wenze had just finished washing up when he happened to see it. He said, “The neighbor across the hall left this here earlier. They asked me to bring it in and share it when I got back. They specifically mentioned that the chocolate was for you and told you to remember to eat properly in the future.”

Xie Xizhao was momentarily stunned.

Although they lived across the hall from each other, their schedules didn’t align, so he had only seen the trainee next door a few times.

From what he remembered, they were two trainees from the same company. Their only significant interaction was probably the three days Xie Xizhao had guided them during the initial stage performance.

Xie Xizhao took the box inside.

The monotonous passage of time, dulled by day after day of training, suddenly felt sharp and distinct at that moment.

He straightened up. “The makeup room?”

“Let’s go,” Fu Wenze replied concisely.

The two of them locked the dormitory door and headed out together.

The weather was great today. After days of overcast skies and rain, the sun had finally come out. The warm sunlight fell on the asphalt road, almost feeling a bit too hot. As they passed the iron gate, they saw fans and site sisters holding umbrellas.

Probably because it was an elimination day, there were more people than usual.

As usual, the two of them greeted the crowd. Xie Xizhao spotted Ai Qingyuan’s banner among them and casually asked,

“Where’s Ai Qingyuan?”

“No idea,” Fu Wenze replied.

Xie Xizhao was briefly stunned again.

He had been spending more time with Fu Wenze this past week, mostly to take advantage of his fitness expertise for free. Because the fans had seen them walking to and from work together so often, some had even started anxiously shouting at him, “Stop lifting weights!”

Of course, that was only a small number of people. Most fans knew about his physical condition and didn’t expect anything from him.

But Xie Xizhao himself was well aware of his limits.

Regardless of whether he built muscle or not, exercise still needed to be done in moderation.

Because of this, when Xie Xizhao thought back, he realized that he hadn’t seen much of his two roommates over the past week.

He found it a bit strange, but when he arrived at the makeup room, he saw Ai Qingyuan already sitting there, impatiently playing on his phone. The moment he saw Xie Xizhao and Fu Wenze walk in, he looked relieved.

Lazily, he greeted them, “Morning.”

“It’s nine-thirty,” the makeup artist commented leisurely from the side.

Ai Qingyuan: “…”

“Sister, do you have a crush on me?” He finally couldn’t hold back. “Aren’t you teasing me a little too much?”

“It’s fun messing with you,” the makeup artist replied with a shrug. “I don’t like guys younger than me.”

Ai Qingyuan twitched the corner of his mouth.

He was speechless.

“Put your phone away,” the makeup artist called Xie Xizhao over, then glanced at the slightly defeated Ai Qingyuan. “If someone snaps a picture of you looking like that, you’ll end up trending again.”

“That person is crazy, okay?!” Ai Qingyuan shouted.

Noticing Xie Xizhao’s questioning look, he pressed his lips together and fell silent.

—

Xie Xizhao genuinely had no idea Ai Qingyuan had been trending.

He meant, in a bad way.

But Ai Qingyuan clearly didn’t intend to share the details with him.

That old habit of his was acting up again. He didn’t say anything, but Xie Xizhao could tell.

After the second public performance, Ai Qingyuan had been down for a while, likely because their vote gap had widened. He never admitted it, but Xie Xizhao knew Ai Qingyuan had never given up on competing with him.

And Ai Qingyuan wasn’t the type to get lost in the false praise and inflated numbers from fans.

If he was feeling this frustrated, it was probably because of the stage performance itself.

He had never been so acutely aware that the gap between him and Xie Xizhao wasn’t just a small difference—it might as well have been a chasm.

Xie Xizhao could help with many things.

For example, when it came to his teammates, he could help them improve their skills and resolve their inner struggles. When it came to Yun Pan, he could help gather evidence and free him from bad people.

But this—this was the one thing Xie Xizhao couldn’t help with.

Sometimes, it wasn’t that he was being cruel; it was simply that reality itself was cruel.

Fu Wenze spoke on his behalf. “People have to learn to face cruelty.”

Ai Qingyuan shouted, “Get lost!!!”

Then, he shut himself off from the world.

Of course, even when he was sulking, it was only about the competition. In daily life, he and Xie Xizhao were still friends. Xie Xizhao didn’t want to be the one to make him spiral again—someone else would tell him sooner or later anyway.

Sure enough, the moment they entered the activity room, Ji Yan eagerly shared the latest gossip.

“A gossip account dropped some major dirt on a bunch of trainees,” he said. “There were a lot of names in there.”

He thought for a moment. “Let me see… basically, it said that this crappy show had more than just Xia Ruiyan being a weirdo. Some trainees were dating, some were hooking up, and there was even a mention of b*llying.”

“Ai Qingyuan’s been in a bad mood lately, hasn’t he?” Ji Yan smirked. “You know why? Because one of the posts said, ‘Some top-ranking trainees on the show aren’t just hot-tempered—they have terrible character too.’ It was probably referring to Xia Ruiyan, but Ai Qingyuan’s fans must’ve felt guilty or something. Since he’s always acting like that, they took it personally and went off on the gossip account. And now? They’ve all gone quiet.”

“Then, after the Xia Ruiyan drama blew up,” Ji Yan continued, “some people dug up old posts. The gossip account came back and specifically roasted Ai Qingyuan’s fans, like, ‘Do I even need to expose his bad temper? It’s common knowledge.’ And that’s how he ended up trending.”

Xie Xizhao choked on his water.

Now he understood why Ai Qingyuan was so bitter.

It sounded like he had been caught in the crossfire for no reason.

“But,” Ji Yan paused, “his momentum really hasn’t been great lately. The Xia Ruiyan situation has affected him, and his rivals have probably seized the opportunity to strike.”

Xie Xizhao fell silent.

—

This was just the usual routine in the later stages of a survival show.

At the end of the day, who got to debut depended on fan votes.

Why did fans vote?

Stage performances, personality, audience appeal—these were all factors.

With that in mind, the companies had two main strategies: one, to get their own fans to vote more; and two, to make sure other fans voted less.

The first was always tricky.

After all, there was a fine line between motivating fans and exhausting them, and at the end of the day, whether a trainee had star potential was the most crucial factor.

The second, however, was much easier to execute.

Xie Xizhao had been through countless survival shows.

His only comment on this whole mess?

Utterly disgraceful.

It was like haggling at a marketplace—starting with verbal spats, escalating to shoving, and finally ending in an all-out brawl in the middle of the market, where everything was thrown aside in a desperate fight.

The corporate battles played out in much the same way.

It started with deploying paid trolls to manipulate public opinion, moved on to strategically planted smear articles, and ended in mutual destruction as both sides exposed each other’s dirt.

Xie Xizhao had even seen a world where a popular CP had gone from fake to real, only to break up right before the final ranking announcement. The two leads completely avoided each other afterward, while their agencies scrambled to release scandalous statements about the other being a scumbag, racing to milk their CP fanbase for all it was worth.

On the surface, survival shows looked beautiful.

Youth, passion, dreams.

But in the end, this world was no fairy tale.

Compared to all that, using Ai Qingyuan’s bad temper to stir up some drama was just child’s play.

Still…

“What about the other leaks?” Xie Xizhao asked.

He was genuinely curious.

They were all here for a survival show, so why did it feel like everyone else’s lives were so much more eventful than his?

Ji Yan gave him a meaningful look. “Who knows? Anyway, as far as fans are concerned, if there’s no solid evidence, then it never happened.”

That was all that needed to be said.

Xie Xizhao paused for a moment.

The next second, he felt an arm drape over his shoulders. Zou Yi slung an arm around him and grinned. “What are you guys talking about?”

Naturally, it was something they couldn’t talk about.

Ji Yan smoothly switched topics. “We were discussing the rankings.”

He chuckled. “Congrats, Teacher Zou. Your ranking should be shooting up this time, right?”

Zou Yi only smiled, but the tips of his ears turned a little red.

After Boundless Sea went viral, it didn’t just bring in an extra 200,000 votes—the entire team skyrocketed in popularity.

Of course, Xie Xizhao was the biggest breakout star by far, but everyone else received a boost to some degree.

And among them, the ones who benefited the most were the truly skilled contestants.

Besides Yun Pan, the biggest gainer was Zou Yi.

Yun Pan’s rise was due to the contrast between his delicate looks and powerful stage presence, while Zou Yi’s boost came from his solid vocal skills.

With the right parts in the song, audiences finally noticed that there was actually a strong main vocalist in the lineup. And since his ranking had been teetering on the edge of elimination, people scrambled to save him.

Combined with the additional votes from the show, his ranking was bound to soar this time.

Zou Yi was clearly happy about it.

At the very least, Xie Xizhao had never seen Zou Yi look this visibly embarrassed before. But even in his happiness, he hesitated for a moment and glanced at Ji Yan. Ji Yan, however, acted as if he hadn’t noticed anything, casually sitting down next to Xie Xizhao.

The mentors had already entered, and the staff was adjusting the cameras.

Once everything was set up, Dou Yu stepped onto the stage.

In his hand was the ranking card. The rankings would be announced from 24th place onward, with 25th place being the final reveal.

Xie Xizhao lowered his eyes, lost in thought.

Then, he suddenly heard Ji Yan call out, “Hey, Xizhao.”

“Mm?”

“The first time I met you,” Ji Yan said, “I just knew you were going to be a huge star one day. Now that I think about it, I was right all along. It’s just a shame…”

He trailed off before finishing his sentence.

After a brief pause, he smiled. “Never mind.”

Xie Xizhao’s fingers stilled for a moment.

Ji Yan didn’t say anything more, and Xie Xizhao didn’t respond to his words.

He simply found himself thinking of the box that had been left outside their dorm that morning.

Some farewells came without warning.

Others were never spoken out loud—just a silent understanding, a quiet act of leaving each other one last bit of dignity.

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