827 All for Show

"Actually, this is something very obvious. Principal Liu mentioned it just now too: the five us of could enter the program because the 23 schools worked together and made a deal with Xing Ke Station. These are placings they got after much effort. From the start, the five of us are already at a disadvantage. Our relationship with Xing Ke Station is such that they are above us. From the start, we are unequal."

"From the contract, you can tell that we won't have much say. We are only students right now, we don't have a high status in the entertainment industry, and we are just small fries. Compared to other students, perhaps we are already pretty good and have a decent number of fans, but compared to the other guests in the program, we definitely have much fewer. So, when the time comes to generate buzz-worthy topics and create reasons for watching, they will increase the conflict between guests. There will definitely be one side who will have a negative image. And when that time comes, who will be the ones who have to take on that image? Those A-list and B-list guests with a lot of fans, or us?"

"It will be us," Li Zeyu said solemnly.

"That's right, it's us. Because we are the side who is disadvantaged. The contract the production group gave us will definitely be different from those given to other guests. They wouldn't dare to offend those guests and make them dissatisfied. Those people could directly speak out on various media outlets and blame the production crew. But our words won't mean much. Even if we publicly speak out about our dissatisfaction, the production crew just have to slightly change the topic and mislead others and push the blame on us. And we have difficulties that we couldn't speak of, and so we can only passively accept the netizens' scoldings and unhappiness. We'd even have some of our fans leave us, thinking that we have lied to them, that how we've behaved all along was all for show and now we have shown our true colors," Lu Man said coldly.

"We have just started out, so we have to be careful with everything. What's most important is to take each and every step steadily and solidly, not be impulsive and rush into things, just charging straight ahead without thinking it through properly. We can't simply throw away the popularity that we've just accumulated. If our image is gone, what's the point of having any popularity?"

By the side, Li Zeyu kept nodding his head. Lu Man's words made a lot of sense.

He didn't care about winning or losing. Right now, this was the one thing he was most concerned about.

He had always been very mindful of his reputation and image. He didn't want everything to crumble to nothing just for the sake of this little bit of popularity.

"This is just one of the reasons. Another is that according to what Xu Yaojie said, we will definitely lose with just one round. With so many other seniors around, even if we lost, if it was because my skills couldn't amount to others', I will accept it willingly. But after painstakingly preparing for it, the outcome would still be fixed beforehand. No matter how we prepare for it, it would still be the same outcome. No matter how much hard work we put into it, even if the other party is terrible, we will still lose. How could we even improve on our acting? Could we even trust the judges' feedback? Would we even know if the seniors have put in their actual ability into the performance? Who would tell us exactly where we did wrong?"

Li Zeyu became silent.

Previously, he always thought that winning or losing didn't matter at all.

This was just a variety show, after all. Winning or losing didn't mean anything.

Ultimately, the main goal was to get more people to know about him, to earn more money, and to become more successful.

His goal was very materialistic, at least up until now.

But after listening to what Lu Man said, Li Zeyu suddenly realized that he couldn't accept such rules either.

"Once all of this is exposed, we students from the National Film Academy, and even those from the National Film Academy, will be affected," Lu Man said at the end.

Even if Lu Man didn't say it out loud, Principal Liu naturally realized it too.