Meng Xiaoguang, who had a shaved head and wore oil-stained twist clothes, went home carrying two lunch boxes.
Last summer, the Meng brothers and sisters took the college entrance examination. Meng Xiaomang lived up to expectations and was admitted to Beijing Normal University. Meng Xiaoguang failed as expected, not even getting into a junior college.
The Meng family had long been prepared for this. The summer vacation had just begun, and Lao Meng gave his son two choices.
Be a soldier & learn a trade
After much consideration, Meng Xiaoguang chose the latter, and Lao Meng took him to his brother's restaurant and became an apprentice in the back kitchen.
Although he has no academic talent, Meng Xiaoguang has a good personality, is sweet-tongued, has a thick skin, and can withstand beatings.
Even though he is still a little fussy at a young age, he can still endure the hardships of being a cook, so he is considered a diligent youngster.
Coupled with the care of Lao Meng, nearly a year has passed. Although Meng Xiaoguang is still a handyman apprentice, he has been able to do some professional work of loading or cutting. If he performs well next year, he may have a chance to get a job.
Meng Xiaoguang is quite satisfied with his life. Although his salary is not high, he eats well. Although his work is not easy, he is happy every day.
"Mom, is my dad back?"
"I'm watching TV in the back room."
Meng Xiaoguang handed over the lunch box in his hand: "We made a banquet in the store today, and there were some dishes left that were not served on the table. The master divided them among us, fish-flavored shredded pork and vegetarian assorted dishes."
This is not the first time a similar situation has happened, and Meng's mother Xiao Hua doesn't care: "I'll go and heat it up, and you can take a bath. You smell like oil smoke."
"Where's my sister?"
"It's said that my roommate went to play at the Great Wall."
"If you don't come back over the weekend, aren't you the right partner?"
Xiao Hua was stunned when she heard this: "I'm off from work in two days. I'll go to the school to see if this girl is fooled."
"I'll go too. If I catch that man then, I'll beat him up."
"Just give me a slap in the face and you will know how to fool around. If you are capable, you can also trick me into getting a wife back. I am almost 20 and I have never even held a girl's hand."
"Hey, isn't that what you and my sister said? Didn't you say you need to love yourself?"
"Go away, can girls and boys be the same?"
"Okay, I can't help you, I'm going to take a shower."
As June approached, the weather had turned warm. Meng Xiaoguang took a bath with half-cold water, changed clothes and ran to the living room.
Lao Meng was drinking tea and watching TV, and Meng Xiaoguang sat down on the sofa next to him.
"'Rising Star' again?"
"Well, today is the live broadcast of the Beijing Division Finals. The top five in the division compete for the Beijing Division Championship."
"If the top five don't advance, what's the point of being a division champion?"
"What do you know? After the top 100 in the country are promoted, they will compete for the top 50. The 20 regional champions can directly advance to the top 50 without having to compete in this round. The bonus will be doubled and they will get 20,000 yuan. Do you want to compete?"
"This is a matter of competition. Winning the championship is a big advantage."
Meng Xiaoguang is also an old viewer of "Tomorrow's Star". Although he is not as hardcore as his father, he can still understand some competition systems.
In the national top 100 finals, the first level is to compete for the top 50.
If the 20 season champions advance directly, it means that the remaining top 80 will have only 30 remaining spots, and the competition will be extremely fierce.
This is actually a deliberate move by the program team of "Tomorrow's Star".
On the one hand, it increases the cruelty of the finals. After all, the chance of 80 going into 30 is much smaller than 100 going into 50.
On the other hand, it is also to add attractions to the sub-regions. Just competing for the top five in the division is not enough to make a splash. Adding a division champion will not only increase the attractions, but also stimulate the enthusiasm of the local audience in the division.
For example, Meng Xiaoguang became interested: "Dad, I didn't watch it yesterday. Who are they in the Beijing Division?"
"The Phoenix Legend of "I Love to Remember Lyrics" also has a teacher named Hao Yun from the Beijing Dance Middle School, Sohu host Dapeng, a girl named Yao Beina, and the funny-looking Huang Bo."
Meng Xiaoguang quickly went through the names in his mind. He only remembered Phoenix Legend and didn't recognize the others.
Lao Meng was still sighing next to him: "In other competition regions, the top five are basically made up of locals. Only in our Beijing competition region, they are all foreigners."
"What's the point of this? Do you know Beijing Piao? People with literary and artistic talents are all running to our capital. It's called a hidden dragon and a crouching tiger."
Although Meng Xiaoguang doesn't watch as much TV as Lao Meng, he goes out to surf the Internet and browse blogs from time to time, and he is better informed than his father about some gossip about "Stars of Tomorrow".
"I read on the Internet that the Beijing Division has the largest number of applicants for auditions and the largest number of people who have passed the re-examination. It is known as the group of death. The competition is the most difficult among the 20 divisions.
That's why many people went to Jinmen and Dao City in Shandong Province next door, otherwise the beating would be even worse."
"Good guy, let me tell you why Gu Miaomiao from "Tomorrow's Star" ran to the Jinmen Division. His relationship is to avoid fighting."
"Miaomiao, I saw on the news that she won the Tianjin Division Championship."
"It was just broadcast the day before yesterday. I won by a big advantage."
Thanks to "I Love to Remember Lyrics", the pretty Gu Miaomiao is quite popular and was one of the most popular contestants during the auditions.
At the beginning of the retest, Penguin Blog and the "Stars of Tomorrow" program team officially launched the "Stars of Tomorrow" player popularity rankings, encouraging viewers and netizens to vote online for their favorite players.
All Penguin Blog users receive one basic ticket per account per day.
If you want to vote more, you have to spend q coins to buy additional tickets. Each ticket costs 1 yuan q coins. Each account is limited to ten votes per day.
This is what Cao Xuan requested. He was afraid that the fans would be too crazy and cause deterioration, so he set a limit. Otherwise, with Xiao Ma's character, there would be no upper limit at all.
This online voting was not very obvious during the retest.
After the retest, when the competition for the top five in the competition area began, many players had accumulated some popularity. At the same time, the competition system also provided certain preferential treatment and benefits for popular players.
As a result, a small-scale battle began on the "Star of Tomorrow" popularity list.
Although most people cannot support ten tickets per person per day, two or three tickets are generally not a big problem.
It is no exaggeration to say that just the profit of Q coins from each competition area competing for the top five and voting for the rankings is enough to pay for the bonuses of all the players in the entire program.
That's it, it's still the profit after the program team and Penguin share it...
Also because of the power of online voting, TV SMS voting was officially introduced during the competition for the championship among the top five in each division.
Going back to the online popularity list, Gu Miaomiao basically ranks in the top five or even the top three of the popularity list because she is good-looking and not an amateur.
After winning the Tianjin Division Championship and officially advancing to the top 50 in the country, Gu Miaomiao's blog followers have exceeded 500,000, which is comparable to ordinary second-tier stars.
Gu Miaomiao is even the first player among many players to have an official fan group.
At the end of last year, the homophone "fan" from the English "fans" became an Internet buzzword, replacing the outdated term "fans".
At first, it was mainly circulated on the Internet, but since "Tomorrow's Star" began to fully ferment.
Nowadays, some popular players in "Rising Stars" have their own fan groups and even have special unified nicknames.
For example, Gu Miaomiao's fans call themselves "Water Babies", Phoenix Legend's fans are nicknamed "Feng Mi", Yao Beina's fans are called "Sheike" and so on.
This trend has even spread to the entertainment industry, and even fans of many celebrities are preparing to name their own fan groups.
However, since it is difficult to form a unified opinion at the moment, there are not many official names yet.
Because he likes Gu Miaomiao's face, Meng Xiaoguang is a "water baby". Whenever he goes online, he will vote for Gu Miaomiao. On the day of salary payment, he even voted ten in one go.
For him, who only earns an apprenticeship salary of only 200 yuan a month, it is not worth the money, but he definitely supports it sincerely.
That was the money he squeezed out of Internet fees and cigarette money...
The two of them were arguing, and the TV also started to broadcast the live broadcast of the finals of the Beijing Division. Before the official live broadcast of the game, there were also a few VR videos.
"Hello everyone, I am Gangzi, the field host of "Tomorrow's Star"."
A fat little black man appeared in front of the camera with a playful smile: "The finals of the Beijing Division will begin soon. The five players are preparing intensively. Let's go check on their status."
"Why did the person change today? Where's Liu Yan?"
Because the competition for the top five in each division is officially recorded and broadcast, the hosts are all professional TV hosts, and several hosts from Fanxing are also among them, taking over multiple divisions.
Among them, Liu Yan is in charge of both the Beijing and Tianjin competition areas, which has added a lot of chips to the ratings of the two competition areas.
As a loyal fan of Liu Yan, Lao Meng was waiting for her to appear in the Beijing competition, but who knew that she would now turn into a little black fat girl.
"Didn't they say he was the off-field host? Why are you so anxious?"
Meng Xiaoguang is calm. At his age, most people care about appearance and don't pay special attention to other aspects.
Compared with Liu Yan, he prefers Gu Miaomiao.
The father and son were fighting each other, and the little black fat man who called himself Gangzi walked to a dormitory.
Huang Bo, who was wearing a T-shirt, was playing guitar in the dormitory. The fat little black man greeted him cheerfully and asked.
"Huang Bo, how are you? Are you nervous about the regional finals?"
"It's okay. Since we've reached the finals, let's give it a try."
As mentioned before, the Beijing Division is the most competitive. The top five players cannot be said to be the strongest among the 20 divisions, but their overall strength is definitely among the top three in each division.
Among them, Phoenix Legend has the greatest advantage. The two-year accumulation of popularity of "I Love to Remember Lyrics" and its considerable strength have made Phoenix Legend the favorite to win the championship in the Beijing competition area and even in the entire "Stars of Tomorrow".
There has been quite a lot of objections to this on the Internet, feeling that Fanxing is essentially unfair to other contestants by pushing out professional singers who have been contracted and trained.
They even simply questioned the fairness of "Stars of Tomorrow" and suspected that the program team would favor Gu Miaomiao, Phoenix Legend and others.
In response to this, Fanxing and the "Stars of Tomorrow" program team also issued a public statement. The general content is:
First, Fanxing will definitely not cheat, so please supervise it.
Second, "Tomorrow's Stars" selects future stars in the music industry, which is essentially the selection of young professional singers to create a new generation of singers.
The scope of the audition does not restrict artists from participating. In principle, even if artists from other companies come to participate, the program team will allow it.
Phoenix Legend and Gu Miaomiao are not the only professional singers. They have not released albums yet. Even professional singers who have released albums are also participating.
Yang Chengang, the champion of the Wu City Division in Hubei Province, is a professional singer and has even signed a contract with a record company. This competition is for the purpose of promoting his single in the second half of the year.
Gao Jin, the champion of the Northeast Shen City competition area, is also a professional singer who has participated in many programs. Tang Chao, a top five contestant in the same competition area, released a new album last year.
Murong Xiaoxiao, one of the top five in the Jinling Division of Jiangsu Province, also released an album in 2002.
Chen Chusheng, the champion of the Guangzhou competition area in Guangdong Province, participated in a nationwide singing competition last year and won the championship.
Let's put it this way, among the top 100 players in the country that have been born so far, more than 80% of the contestants have been engaged in music work, and 30% to 50% are simply professional singers.
This is also understandable. There are tens of thousands of people who applied for the audition for "Tomorrow's Star". After three rounds of audition, re-examination, and competition for the top 100, there are many layers of selection.
Ordinary vegans can never reach the top 100 in the country. Those who can advance basically have the following three characteristics.
1 Outstanding strength and hard work.
2 is extremely popular and has various off-site blessings.
3. The contestants are unique and interesting, and the program team is interested in taking care of them.
Therefore, Phoenix Legend's resume among the top 100 contestants of "Tomorrow's Star" cannot be said to be very outstanding. After all, they are just residents of one program.
The aforementioned Gao Jin, Yang Chengang and several other players all had similar experiences.
If Fanxing deliberately concealed the identity of Phoenix Legend and others, he might not be able to convince the public, but if he disclosed it openly and directly, he would say that it was not poisonous and would not cause much turmoil.
Of course, this is also due to the fact that the three singers themselves are strong and extremely popular.
Phoenix Legend is the biggest favorite in the Beijing Division, but the other four players are no joke.
Especially Yao Beina and Huang Bo.
The former has a serious academic background, has participated in youth singing competitions, and even participated in national-level exchange performances, and is extremely capable.
Among the re-examination contestants from the Beijing Division who entered the top 100 competition, Zhang Huimei's "Listening to the Sea" shocked everyone with her performance.
Not only did it successfully enter the top 100 nationwide, the performance of the song was also included in the "Star of Tomorrow" premium program, and was repeatedly replayed by Beijing TV and related stations, giving Yao Beina a total of 100,000 blog fans.
As for Huang Bo, it was mainly due to the movie "When Men Are in Love".
As the second-highest box office hit last year, "When Men Fall in Love" became a hit in Asia.
Apart from the male and female protagonists, the most impressive thing about the movie is the younger brother played by Huang Bo who speaks an authentic Dao City dialect. After the movie was released, he also followed the trend of Xiaohong.
This time in "Star of Tomorrow", Huang Bo rekindled his music dream and came to compete.
There are many professional singers in the "Rising Stars" list who are among the top 100 in the country, and they also have other professions, but Huang Bo is really the only famous actor.
Now there is something to watch, and the program team is willing to take care of it.
In addition, Huang Bo's own musical ability is not bad, and he has a distinctive appearance, a lovable personality and a good talker. He has made it to the top five in the Beijing competition area where there are many strong players, and has become a dark horse.
The little black fat man conducted a round of interviews. Except for Hao Yun, who was more reserved, the other four groups of contestants were still very lively, and all of them made bold statements, adding to the atmosphere of the finals.
It was quite exciting for Lao Meng and his son to watch. Not only did they see the players making harsh remarks, but they also got a glimpse of the daily environment of the players.
Huang Bo was in the Nortel dormitory, Dapeng was at the Sohu headquarters, and even Sohu boss Zhang Huxu showed up to cheer him on.
Hao Yun did not forget to continue taking classes when preparing for the competition, Yao Beina practiced musicals, Phoenix Legend was in the dressing room backstage of "I Love to Remember Lyrics", and Dao Lang also made a guest appearance.
Compared with pure stage competition, this kind of VR brings out the more real-life side of the players and gives the audience a sense of intimacy and recognition.
Lao Meng really likes these off-field tidbits and finds them humane, while Meng Xiaoguang pays more attention to the official competition.
Fortunately, he didn't have to wait long,
After the VR ended, the screen went directly to the live broadcast of "Star of Tomorrow".
Host Liu Yan appeared on the stage, greeted the audience and the camera, read a series of slogans, and then introduced the judges.
"Today our three final judges include the famous movie star Miss Hu Jing, the famous singer Miss Tan Jing, and the famous music producer Mr. Zhang Yadong. Welcome with applause."
The three names of Hu Jing and Hu Jing stood up from the judges' table to pay tribute one after another. The scene was filled with applause and cheers, especially for Hu Jing. The applause and cheers lasted for a few dozen seconds.
After introducing the judges, Liu Yan invited five more contestants, and then began to introduce the rules of today's finals.
The rules are not complicated and there are two rounds of competition in total.
In the first round, the five contestants sang in sequence, and 300 spectators and three judges were present to give scores. The top three with the most scores were promoted, and the last two were eliminated. If the scores were the same, there would be an extra game.
The three contestants who advance in the second round will sing another song one after another. The judges and the audience will not vote in this round. Starting from the performance of the first contestant, the audience outside the venue can vote through text messages and a special zone specially opened by Penguin Blog.
Until all three singers have finished singing, the judges have finished commenting and canvassing for votes, and the data is announced. Whoever has the most votes will be the champion.
Seeing this scene, Lao Meng was a little geared up.
"Stars of Tomorrow" is too large to support daily live broadcasts. Only a few key competition areas with high attention among the 20 competition areas have off-site voting rules.
In other competition areas, the competition is recorded, and then the live audience and judges select the winner.
Compared with the two, there is no doubt that the former has higher audience participation and more gold content.
Lao Meng watched the live broadcasts of the Chengdu Division and the Shenshi Division before, but did not vote. However, watching the competition at home today, he couldn't help but take out his mobile phone.
"Dad, who are you going to vote for?"
"Of course it's the Phoenix Legend."
Lao Meng has watched "I Love to Remember Lyrics" for two years. He is considered to be the majority of fans of Phoenix Legend and will definitely support his family.
"A text message costs 1 yuan, please take it easy."
"It's okay, just do your best and don't tell your mother."
The father and son were talking quietly, and Xiao Hua ignored them when he called them to eat and continued to watch the live TV broadcast.
After introducing the competition system, the five contestants directly drew lots in order, and then began to perform. Since each contestant was directly scored after singing, the order did not actually matter, it still depends on the specific performance.
Da Peng was the first to appear and sang "The Earth" by Beyond.
His selling point is actually rock. From the audition to now, the songs he sings are almost all rock. He is known as the little prince of rock and roll, attracting many rock fans to support him.
Except for a few who can reach the top 100 in the country, they are basically all of good quality. They are not professional singers but also top amateurs.
The three judges also gave good reviews. The only flaw is that the Cantonese language is not very good.
The judges finished their comments and started voting. The 300 spectators at the scene had remote controls in their hands. The five buttons on them corresponded to 1 to 5 points respectively. The same was true for the remote controls in the hands of the three judges, but the scores were 10 to 50.
The full score is 1650, and the Dapeng score is just over 1000. Based on the experience of other competition areas, if you want to be in the top three, you need to have a minimum score of 1200 or more.
Although his score will not lead to direct elimination, it is indeed very dangerous.
Dapeng himself knew that he had no advantage in terms of strength or popularity, so he didn't think about competing for the regional championship.
If you can make it to the top three in the competition, it will be better to show your face one more time. It doesn't matter if you can't make it. Anyway, you have already entered the top 100 in the country.
Compared with Dapeng, Hao Yun was more ambitious and came up with an original song.
"Tomorrow's Star" encourages originality. According to the rules of the competition, contestants' personal original songs can be awarded extra points.
For example, now, Hao Yun can directly add 100 points, and the judges and the audience will also give some encouragement points as appropriate.
However, original songs also have the risks of original songs. If they are good, it is fine, but if they are not good, it is actually safer than singing old songs.
Moreover, the rules are personal creations by the contestants, requiring the contestants themselves to be responsible for at least one of the lyrics or compositions, or to account for more than 70% of the creation of the entire song.
Not all singers can write songs. The censorship related to "Tomorrow's Star" is very strict, and the copyright will even be checked.
Once cheating is discovered, the player will be immediately disqualified from the competition.
Under such harsh conditions, although original songs are given extra points, not many appear.
Hao Yun's original song is called "Hello". It is a folk ballad with simple lyrics and melody, but the singing is quite tasteful.
Zhang Yadong liked it very much and gave it the highest score of 50 points. Hu Jing gave it 40 points. Tan Jing had an average impression and only gave it 30 points.
The audience voted one after another. Because of the original song, everyone obviously gave a higher score. The final result was 1344 points. Adding the 100 points of the original song, it was 1444 points.
I dare not say that it is guaranteed to be in the top three, but as long as one of the remaining three people makes a mistake, Hao Yun will definitely be in the top three.
As expected, Huang Bo later sang a song "Platform" and scored as high as 1300+.
It can be seen from this that Huang Bo is slightly more popular than Hao Yun. If Hao Yun does not have originality bonus, he has a high chance of winning.
However, Hao Yun was superior in skills, so Huang Bo could only lose.
But he is not completely despairing yet, after all, Yao Beina and Phoenix Legend have not appeared yet.
But unfortunately, these two groups of players did not give him any chance at all. He performed steadily and relied on his already high popularity and strength to score 1491 points and 1502 points respectively, successfully advancing.
Huang Bo and Dapeng are steadily preparing for the top 100 promotion to the top 50, and the remaining three are competing for a ticket to directly advance to the top 50.
Soon the second round of the competition will begin, and the voting channels will be opened. Liu Yan keeps encouraging.
"Viewers in front of the TV can go to the Penguin Blog...or directly edit the text message and enter the name of the player you support and send it to 100xxxx404. Act quickly."
The number logo also appeared on the TV station's live screen, and there were scrolling subtitles below.
Glancing at Xiao Hua who was on the phone in the kitchen, Lao Meng took out his cell phone, edited the Phoenix Legend text messages, and sent 10 of them in one breath.
Then I relaxed happily and continued to watch TV.
Hao Yun chose another original song, but it was not as popular as the previous one. I don’t know if it was intentional or if it was really a wrong choice.
Yao Beina sang Cao Xuan's "Light Chaser", which was very emotional and moving. She received countless applause and received huge praise from Hu Jing and Tan Jing.
The pressure is on Phoenix Legend's side.
In the on-site scoring just now, the scores of both sides were very close, and there was almost no difference. As a result, Phoenix Legend did not dare to neglect this powerful opponent at all.
Fortunately, they didn't have other preparations beforehand. Compared with advancing to the top 50 in advance, Phoenix Legend actually valued the title of Beijing Division Champion more, which was a seniority bonus for them.
So in this competition, they came up with their killer new album title song "Above the Moon".
"I'm looking up, above the moon
How many dreams are flying freely
Yesterday was forgotten, the sadness dried up
I want to meet you again on that vast road
…”
Ling Hua's fire was at full blast, and the heroic, resonant, and desolate singing directly penetrated the entire audience, especially those two shouts, which directly exploded the scene.
Although Zeng Yi doesn't have many words, he always harmonizes and controls the rhythm in the gaps.
"The sound of horse's hooves rises and the sound of horse's hooves falls.
Oye, Oye~"
As soon as "Above the Moon" was sung, the audience applauded and cheered more than before.
Lao Meng, who had already put away his cell phone, chanted this song so hard that he sent 10 text messages in one breath.
After the judges finished their comments, Liu Yan invited the three contestants to the middle of the stage, and the big screen behind them showed the combined votes of the three.
Hao Yun only has tens of thousands, and basically has no hope of winning the championship.
Yao Beina's votes are around 470,000, and Phoenix Legend has slightly more votes than her, which has exceeded 500,000, and their votes are still rising crazily.
According to the competition format, there will be a final 5 minutes of voting time at this time.
The contestants speak one by one to canvass votes, and the judges can also help speak. The number of votes behind them is displayed in real time, adding a bit of tension.
In the canvassing process, Hao Yun had almost no sense of presence. It all depended on Yao Beina and Phoenix Legend. The latter had a slight advantage, but the former held a tight grip.
The host and several judges kept setting the pace, making everyone very nervous in front of the TV and at the scene. Lao Meng, who was relieved, took out his mobile phone again and voted frantically for the Phoenix Legend.
After swiping and swiping, he turned around and asked his son for a mobile phone. Meng Xiaoguang was puzzled: "What are you doing? You can vote on your own mobile phone."
"The phone bill is gone, don't talk nonsense, I will reimburse you later."
"Don't lie to me, I must reimburse you."
Meng Xiaoguang handed over the phone, but Lao Meng fiddled with it for a minute and then threw it away: "You don't even have 10 yuan, how did you get away with it?"
"How much is my monthly salary? How can I have money to recharge my phone bill? If you hadn't given me your old phone, I wouldn't have wanted to use it."
Lao Meng ignored him, ran to his wife's house, coaxed and coaxed her to get her cell phone, and continued to send text messages.
At the end of 5 minutes, Phoenix Legend won the championship of the "Star of Tomorrow" Beijing Division with a super high vote count of 610,000+.
Amidst the sound of salutes and ribbons, the Phoenix legends hugged each other happily, and Lao Meng jumped up with joy. It was a rare moment when the old man went crazy with his talk.
"Hahaha, we are the champions."
All three mobile phones at home were in arrears, and the total cost was hundreds of dollars. If he didn't win, he would have to go to Fanxing Company to smash the glass...
