CEO's Sweetheart is a Super Idol-Chapter 319 - 312 Fangxin’s Performance
"Next, let’s welcome Lv Fangxin and her team."
With Long Zitao’s words, the nerves of Lv Fangxin and her team, who had been waiting backstage, immediately tensed up.
Lv Fangxin felt like she was about to suffocate.
Even though she had gone through countless rounds of practice, she still couldn’t hit a single correct note.
Her teammates were equally worried, as there wasn’t a single strong singer in their group.
However, Long Zitao didn’t immediately call them onto the stage.
Instead, he introduced their guest performer: Mao Mao.
Mao Mao also had his own background; he was a key figure being groomed for debut in a new 11-member group by his company, which gave him the opportunity for a solo performance.
The original song he performed was excellent; Mao Mao’s gentle voice conveyed a carefree sense of youthful spirit.
After the performance, Long Zitao stepped forward to follow protocol: "Your new song is about to be released, right?"
Long Zitao’s eyes were filled with envy as he looked at Mao Mao.
He had also wanted to produce a breakout single but had repeatedly failed.
The shy young man standing before him had managed it, despite only having been in the industry for just over a year. 𝑓𝘳𝘦𝑒𝑤𝑒𝘣𝘯ℴ𝘷𝘦𝓁.𝑐𝑜𝑚
"Please, I don’t dare promote it," Mao Mao said, aware of the situation.
It was a Tian’ou program, and promoting his album under such circumstances would be considered an inappropriate use of resources.
"It’s fine, go ahead!" Long Zitao laughed.
In fact, he had gotten permission from the program team to say so.
Otherwise, even if he said it, it would just get edited out later.
Apparently, Mao Mao wasn’t aware of this, which puzzled Long Zitao.
"Let’s just treat the earlier performance as a warm-up act!"
"I hope everyone doesn’t take it too seriously. It was nothing formal, just a little show."
"There are even more spectacular performances ahead."
His humility drew laughter from many people on stage.
Just then, Yang Xiaoyue’s voice came through the earpiece: "Time to proceed with the schedule."
At that moment, Long Zitao began to realize that Mao Mao’s company seemed to have clashed with the program team. This scheduling detail was deliberately kept from him.
It turned out that Mao Mao’s company had pressured the program team through Tencent, but Yang Xiaoyue was furious. She didn’t want such overt promotions on her show, as it would make the audience feel the program lacked integrity.
So, as Long Zitao suspected, Mao Mao wasn’t told about this part of the plan.
However, Yang Xiaoyue also couldn’t outright oppose Tencent’s higher-ups, leaving her no choice but to let Long Zitao make the announcement. Whether Mao Mao responded was out of her hands.
As she anticipated, Mao Mao was smart enough to directly refuse the promotion.
"Then please give this team a loud introduction."
This left Mao Mao stunned, his mouth opening and closing unsure of what to say.
He wasn’t sure whether to call them by their names or by their group name, as the only name he knew was Lv Fangxin’s.
Yang Xiaoyue was already urging them on from her station.
Long Zitao had no choice but to shout on his behalf: "Let’s welcome Team Lv Fangxin!"
The golden doors swung open, and the venue instantly erupted in excitement.
"Fangxin! Fangxin!"
The wild cheering was so intense it almost shook the stage.
Li Ke was trembling with exhilaration, his adrenaline surging so high he nearly broke down in tears.
The girls in the waiting room all clung to Lv Fangxin.
"She’s so gorgeous!"
"Fangxin is a true princess!"
"Absolutely stunning!"
Fu Xiaoyu gazed enviously at the screen; she genuinely admired Lv Fangxin from the bottom of her heart.
Chen Yinghan clapped vigorously, cheering on her close friend.
Meanwhile, Lu Bingbing, who had also taken to the stage, was overcome with emotion as she spotted her name on glowing signs carried by a few loyal fans cheering for her.
Tears nearly welled up in her eyes.
At the same time, she realized she had no chance of debuting; with so few fans present, it had to be the program team holding them back.
But Lu Bingbing was mistaken.
The program team was furious at Galaxy for not completely sidelining Ye Yuwei, which led to significant trouble. Out of anger, they resorted to suppressing Lu Bingbing instead.
As Wu Meiying stepped forward, she playfully stuck out her tongue, feeling slightly embarrassed about her outfit being too bold.
Being quite young, she usually dressed casually, like a high schooler.
But today, they were all wearing black chiffon spaghetti strap gowns.
"Hello, everyone, we are... "
"Youth Fearless Team."
Lv Fangxin led her team to shout together.
Across the stage, Luo Junxiang leaned on his armrest, his eyes fixed on Lv Fangxin.
He felt a fiery passion burning in his chest.
"And our motto is... "
"Fear nothing; Mao Mao will lead us to conquer the world."
The line brought laughter from the crowd, as Mao Mao blushed crimson.
"Today, we’re performing the song ’Not Letting Your Youth Down.’"
Long Zitao smiled again: "Are you ready?"
"Ready!" Lv Fangxin answered confidently.
Deep down, she still felt unsure, but Chen Yinghan had assured her that exuding confidence was the key to inspiring her fans.
With dreamy stage lighting and sublimating dry ice mist enveloping the set, it felt like the entire world was caught in a dream-like haze.
Leaning near a Mediterranean-style gate, Wu Meiying began with three measures of eight beats.
It was unavoidable; for the overall performance to work, Lv Fangxin, the actual center, had to be skipped over.
Had she started singing the first line, the performance might have collapsed entirely.
She didn’t even know how to enter the beat correctly; even if she wanted to sing, she couldn’t manage.
Next up was Lv Xiaoxue.
Standing on an abstractly conceptual staircase built by the program team, she performed her section.
Her braided hairstyle today made her look utterly charming.
Bathed in the light of a dawn seaside color palette, she sang her portion of the song.
Although singing wasn’t her strength, she managed to keep time, and her tone and pitch depended entirely on the song’s difficulty.
Her performance was passable, with only mild mishaps.
Jiao Jinglan then took on the last part of the main verse. Her voice wasn’t great, but she could hit the correct notes.
The song had been lowered in key and rearranged to make it simpler; otherwise, she wouldn’t have been able to handle the chorus either.
The first part of the chorus was assigned to Lv Fangxin, a rather puzzling decision.
This section of the chorus was the hardest, requiring shifts in pitch and a rise in tone.
Lv Fangxin, however, sang with such dedication that she managed to complete it without going noticeably off-key.
Seeing Lv Fangxin’s performance, Ye Yuwei finally exhaled in relief.
By stage standards, the performance was an undeniable failure, but at least it wasn’t catastrophic; it couldn’t lead to immediate elimination.
For someone like Lv Fangxin, who relied on charm rather than skill, reaching this point was enough.
The mentors on stage also felt a silent sense of relief, though Long Zitao’s expression remained complicated.
The second part of the chorus was sung by Qi Ziyue, whose pitch-perfect delivery made her the only one thus far to hit all the right notes.
Lu Bingbing’s segment was a repeat of Wu Meiyin’s earlier part.
Standing beside a three-pane dressing mirror, she began her portion.
Perhaps out of despair for her future or touched by the song’s melancholy depiction of fleeting youth, Lu Bingbing sang with moving sorrow and emotion.
Her voice, though not particularly outstanding, was imbued with such deep sentiment that it resonated with many in the audience. Some were amazed to discover that she had such talent.
Seated in the waiting room, Wang Qingyu was almost moved to tears. Her bitterness towards Ye and Lv burned even fiercer.
The performers descended the staircase and started moving into formation, striking several poses.
In truth, the choreography for this song was quite stunning.
But since Lv Fangxin couldn’t even master the song, dancing was out of the question. Hence, the choreography had been greatly simplified into basic positioning and posing.
