Outside the concert venue, fans holding light boards and flags blocked the way completely. It was already crowded, and with fans waving flags around, everyone was packed together so tightly that even those trying to enter the venue could barely move a step.
Today was the finale of a girl group competition show, the most popular talent show of the past six months. Though another show would conclude next week, its popularity couldn't compare to this one.
Xia Simiao had been the most popular contestant since the beginning of the show, and remained so until the end. Her debut tonight was practically guaranteed - if her name wasn't announced, the show would likely face intense backlash.
It was for this reason that Jiang Juyou agreed to attend, helping to boost the show's publicity.
Xia Simiao was undoubtedly the top contestant, but the other trainees were also quite popular. The show had deliberately selected attractive contestants during casting, making it far more entertaining to watch than the competing show by several levels.
The sea of people outside the venue was testament to the show's immense popularity.
With so many vehicles and people along the way, Jiang Juyou's group had to stop and start repeatedly, taking quite some time before safely reaching the venue's backstage area.
Being the finale, besides her, over twenty other high-level executives from the trainees' companies had been invited.
Upon arrival, Jiang Juyou inevitably had to engage in another round of socializing.
"Hello Ms. Jiang, I'm Peng Cheng from Jelly Entertainment."
"Hello."
"Hello hello, Ms. Jiang, I'm..."
"Hello."
There were representatives from other companies coming to network, as well as trainees coming to pay their respects.
Jiang Juyou's treatment backstage was no different from that of celebrities - calling her a hot commodity wouldn't be an exaggeration. Those people seemed to have been eyeing her for a long time, their eyes lighting up at her appearance.
This feeling was quite novel for Jiang Juyou. Although Random Entertainment had its own talent shows, those were internal company affairs. While competition was fierce, the trainees knew that if they didn't debut this time, there would be future opportunities.
This was different - if they didn't successfully debut now, they might not even last until the next opportunity.
The backstage was full of busy staff members, and Jiang Juyou could hear them running back and forth outside her waiting room.
She had a waiting room to herself, accompanied by her assistant, makeup artist, and bodyguard.
The team responsible for managing the future girl group was also present today, and Jiang Juyou had seen them outside.
The assistant checked their phone, replied to something, then looked up to tell Jiang Juyou, "Ms. Jiang, the girls are heading this way."
Jiang Juyou glanced over, acknowledging the information.
Random Entertainment had sent seven trainees to this show. Out of the twenty-one contestants remaining in the finale, seven were from Random Entertainment.
The seven ranked across a wide range - they had both the highest and lowest-ranked contestants.
With Random Entertainment handling operations and sending so many trainees, they were more worried than the audience about the show potentially rigging votes, fearing that accusations of vote manipulation would become associated with Random Entertainment and damage the company's reputation.
The limited girl group's management team arrived before the trainees, with the team leader and several members coming to discuss the show's developments over the past six months with Jiang Juyou.
Since Jiang Juyou hadn't watched much of the show, only catching occasional clips online, she listened attentively as the team leader spoke.
"Regarding the trainees' situations, apart from our girls, the others' skills aren't quite up to par."
"We're thinking of having three months of intensive training first, before moving on to official activities like album releases and performances."
Only Random Entertainment's trainees had undergone systematic training. The other trainees claimed to be trained, but it seemed more like they had only taken hobby classes, resulting in them being consistently outperformed by Random Entertainment's trainees.
Of course, there were some exceptionally talented trainees, but they were specialists, only excelling in one particular area.
Jiang Juyou listened, and after they finished speaking, asked, "What was the contract length we settled on again?"
"Five years."
"Then proceed with your plan, but three months is a bit long - try to shorten it appropriately."
Just as they were discussing the girl group's future direction, there was a knock at the door.
The assistant went to check first, and upon seeing it was Xia Simiao and the others, opened the door to let them in.
The seven Random Entertainment trainees entered.
"Hello, Ms. Jiang-" they wore the show's uniform and politely bowed to Jiang Juyou before greeting her.
Jiang Juyou's expression softened as she smiled at them, "Well done, you've really made the company proud. Seven entered, and all made it to the finale."
"Hehe, it's because of the good foundation the company gave us."
"We're all benefiting from the company's support."
"Then give it your all and try to all debut tonight," Jiang Juyou smiled.
The girls giggled, everyone knowing it wasn't very likely.
Jiang Juyou offered some words of encouragement, telling them not to focus too much on their final rankings now that they'd come this far.
She didn't mention what arrangements would be made for those who didn't make it, but the girls all knew that if they didn't make it into the top nine tonight, they would never have another chance to debut with Random Entertainment.
They already knew the company wouldn't be producing any new groups in the near future, so tonight was their last chance. If eliminated, they would have to find their own paths forward.
The backstage area was most chaotic before the show began. The seven girls only stayed for a short while before returning to their respective waiting rooms.
As the finale was about to start, the audience had mostly taken their seats, and previously eliminated trainees had been invited back by the show to sit in the audience section.
Company representatives were being led to their seats by staff members. Jiang Juyou was heading there too, but was delayed by a conversation with the show's director along the way.
The venue had already dimmed, with even the slightest movement causing a stir among the crowd.
The big screen was playing advertisements on loop, while staff members with flashlights led the way through the backstage passage, with security personnel protecting those behind them and numerous staff members accompanying them.
Soon, the audience's attention was drawn to this procession.
"Who is that?"
"...Holy crap, it's Jiang Juyou!"
"Ahhhhhhh--"
While people were initially chattering about who had appeared, Jiang Juyou's figure became fully visible when the screen brightened.
She wore a uniquely tailored gray short blazer paired with a black long dress with a slit, completed with knee-high black patent leather boots.
Her appearances were always marked by serious attire, giving off an unapproachable aura.
But the more stern she appeared, the more these young girls adored her.
Throughout her walk, Jiang Juyou could hear the excited screams of young girls behind the barriers.
They were shouting all sorts of things, a complete chaos.
The people in the front rows of the inner section spotted her first, while those in the stands took a moment to realize that the person walking past was Jiang Juyou.
"Ahhhhh! My husband! My destined husband!"
"Damn, running into my bias while bias-wreaking!"
"It's really Jiang Juyou! I thought it was just a rumor!"
As Jiang Juyou was led to the seating area by staff members, fans in the front rows of the inner section turned around like dominoes, and even the fansites who were originally planning to photograph their own idols turned their cameras toward Jiang Juyou.
Soon, news of Jiang Juyou's attendance at the finale spread online, complete with candid photos that marketing accounts posted on Weibo.
The show's production team, already planning to capitalize on Jiang Juyou's popularity, seized this opportunity. Seeing the topic trending, they immediately invested money to fuel its rise up the trending list.
Random Entertainment was famous, but Jiang Juyou was even more so. She even had numerous fans of her own, to the extent that idol fans had to carefully consider whether they could take on Jiang Juyou's fanbase before criticizing her.
The nicknames for Jiang Juyou were created by idol fans specifically to criticize her without being detected in searches. They had to be careful not to make the nicknames too obvious, fearing retaliation from Jiang Juyou's loyal fanbase.
The female trainees on the show primarily attracted female fans, and Jiang Juyou's fanbase was also predominantly female, with some overlap between the two groups.
Sitting in the audience, Jiang Juyou wished she had something to plug her ears with, as the crowd's cheering made her want to dig a hole and hide.
Even after all this time, she still found it difficult to handle the fans' playful teasing.
On stage, Jiang Juyou maintained a composed appearance, though her body was growing warm. Fortunately, the audience's attention didn't linger on her for long, and after the commercials, the performance segment officially began.
Before starting, the director took the microphone and reminded everyone, asking the live audience to quiet down as they waited for the show to begin.
When the finale actually started, everyone's attention was drawn back to the stage.
Online activity was also bustling, with the finale's curtain-raising marked by Jiang Juyou's appearance. After their warm-up, entertainment media accounts began their official coverage.
They would post about each stage performance as it happened, and as viewership increased, so did the trending topics and the number of media accounts joining in.
For the sake of views, more and more entertainment bloggers and media accounts jumped into the coverage.
The show's hashtags continuously trended, with popular contestants' names frequently mentioned.
Tonight, every platform was filled with news about the show, as if there were no other topics worth discussing.
Whether intentionally or not, the production team had installed cameras in the representatives' seating area. The official account posted not only stage videos but also reaction videos of the representatives in their seats.
Everyone knew whose reactions they really wanted to capture.
While Jiang Juyou watched the performances without much visible emotion, viewers still found her reactions entertaining.
This was partly because next to Jiang Juyou sat an attention-grabbing representative who held up banners and could barely contain his excitement when his trainees performed, nearly rushing onto the stage. His enthusiastic support amused everyone.
Jiang Juyou's expressions beside him were equally amusing, with her hesitant looks and apparent desire to intervene but not daring to do so, making netizens laugh heartily.
The reaction videos mainly relied on these two for engagement. The male representative would occasionally say something to Jiang Juyou, but due to the distance, their lip movements were unclear and no one could tell what they were saying.
Show followers were watching the live broadcast on the platform, while casual viewers browsed Weibo, clicking on posts that caught their interest.
The platform had invested heavily in promotion across multiple social media platforms tonight, even paying comedy bloggers to livestream their reactions to the finale.
The show ran for several hours, during which trending topics never ceased, and even opening Douyin would bring up various clips from the show.
It felt like the entire nation was caught up in idol worship.
This overwhelming promotion and marketing successfully created an atmosphere for tonight's finale.
It seemed even more popular than the girl group survival show that Random Entertainment had previously produced.
As the future operator, Random Entertainment was pleased to see this scene, and they tacitly approved when the show used Jiang Juyou for various marketing and promotional purposes.
After sitting through several hours, watching multiple performances and VCRs, they finally reached the moment to announce the debut lineup.
The intense music heightened the emotions of fans in the venue, while some were simply tired of sitting and wanted the program to quickly announce the results and end.
Out of twenty-one trainees, nine would debut. When the eighth place was announced, the war horn finally sounded.
Refreshing Weibo showed entertainment accounts flooding the feed with posts about the eighth-place winner.
Pei Zhiping and her group were also following tonight's finale, with four of them sitting on the practice room floor, heads huddled together, watching the ranking announcement.
"Why can't we fast-forward? I'm so anxious!" Han Lemi was impatient for the results.
Si Yanyu, holding the phone, sighed, "This brings me back to when our names were announced. My heart was pounding like a drum then."
Pei Zhiping, staring at the screen, suddenly remarked, "Our company's representative is the most attractive."
The ranking announcement took a long time, with the camera occasionally scanning the audience and sometimes focusing on Jiang Juyou's face, prompting courteous screams from fans in the venue.
Yu Dan suddenly knelt down in gratitude, "Thank goodness Jiang didn't debut as an artist, otherwise I wouldn't have made it."
The other three: "Thank you!"
Perhaps influenced by the intense battle on Weibo, many who wanted to know the results immediately switched to watching the live broadcast.
"Following survival shows turns me into a dog."
"This is so annoying, can't they hurry up instead of dragging it out?"
"Which rank are they announcing now? Just came from Weibo."
"Please, no surprises, or I'll look like a joke."
When the camera focused on Xia Simiao and Zhao Yuna's faces, the night reached its climax. Xia Simiao, who had consistently ranked first, and Zhao Yuna, whose ranking had been steadily rising, were considered rivals.
Xia Simiao maintained her first place position through her accumulated fanbase, while Zhao Yuna was the people's choice, rising from forty-sixth place to second.
She was the independent trainee from the beginning of the show, the one brought in to contrast with Random Entertainment's trainees.
Xia Simiao's first place seemed secure, but anything could happen tonight.
Even Jiang Juyou, who hadn't been particularly nervous before, found herself taking several deep breaths at this point.
Of NiGHT's nine members, six had been announced, with only two from Random Entertainment. Including Xia Simiao would make it three, and Jiang Juyou didn't want to think about the ninth place position, as Random Entertainment's trainee ranked relatively low among the four candidates and was unlikely to make it.
The audience wanted to see the plot twist of Zhao Yuna defeating Xia Simiao for first place. Jiang Juyou couldn't predict the production team's intentions or tonight's voting results, making her somewhat anxious.
Previously, she had been the one announcing the selected members, but now, viewing it from a different perspective, she better understood the fans' feelings.
"I now realize how frustrating it was when I dragged out the time before," Jiang Juyou criticized herself.
Due to nervousness, her stomach began to ache.
Just as she was about to lose composure, the C-position winner was finally announced―
"With one million six hundred and eighty thousand... Xia Simiao!"
Jiang Juyou hadn't clearly heard the first part, but she caught those last three words.
Upon hearing Xia Simiao's name, Jiang Juyou finally smiled.
The production team understood their audience well, immediately cutting to Jiang Juyou after announcing the C-position winner.
"Congratulations to Jiang for securing another great talent!"
"Hahaha Random Entertainment has claimed the C-position again!"
"It's the same with the other show, always Random Entertainment trainees competing against each other."
"Hahaha being a Random Entertainment family fan feels so good."
"Looking at Xia Simiao's expression, another ambitious one."
Random Entertainment, dubbed the protagonist of entertainment industry success stories, trended again on social media.
When Xia Simiao heard her name, she first sighed in relief, then smiled. When the camera cut to Jiang Juyou, she was also smiling.
"Getting mother-daughter vibes from a wealthy family."
"'I'm not surprised at all about getting first place, because I'm confident in my abilities, confident in my fans' capabilities, confident in the audience's judgment. I was destined to get first place and take the C-position.' Ahhhhhh such ambition!"
"Why are Random Entertainment's women so captivating?"
"Perfect, I got hooked on someone because of one GIF, now I need to watch the whole show."
"I can't even imagine how exciting this summer will be!"
"This is amazing, three out of NiGHT's nine members are from Random Entertainment."
The show's expensive promotion and marketing paid off tonight, with related topics dominating the trending lists for hours.
Casual viewers joining the topic discussions brought the show back into the public eye, with many deciding to watch the entire series after seeing clips from the finale.
Behind the entire show, the biggest winner was Random Entertainment.
Taking over such a high-profile group without spending a penny was a win for Random Entertainment, even if they had to share some of the girls' future earnings with the platform.
After the show ended, the trainees waved to their fans from the stage, while Jiang Juyou joined them with bouquets to comfort those who had been eliminated.
Photos of the young girls hugging Jiang Juyou were soon posted online.
"Damn! If I had known I could hug Jiang Juyou, I would have signed up!"
"They all look so sweet and fragrant."
"The wealthy madam and her ambitious heiress, along with their pampered little princesses~"
"If Xia Simiao had debuted with AIcho back then, I can't even imagine how obsessed I would have been. Pei Zhiping and Xia Simiao are just--"
"Then wouldn't AIcho be their rivals?"
"The average skill level of these nine girls isn't quite there yet. Only the three from Random Entertainment are decent, the others are barely passable. How can they compete against those four ambitious girls from AIcho? Xia Simiao would need to carry the whole team."
"Looking forward to this summer, it's going to be exciting."
Drama lovers: Please, please let them fight, I love watching this!
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