Chapter 38: Mengmeng’s Pricey Rates Part 1

[Rebuilt Public Opinion Observation Room | Night Heart Seven’s Claws Are Out]

————

It’s finally reached this point. Late, but here nonetheless.

Didn’t previous seasons also have back-to-back Summoning Match + Raid + 4th Public Performance theme competition? Yet in Season 7, the guests start acting up.

What Qu Lang’s fans have gathered regarding their idol’s stance is simply to finish the competition smoothly.

As for Old Mo, everyone knows what he is—a new yet old Resource Star.

1L: Got a preview in Connection Bro’s mystery group. The production team will release a statement soon. The Ascension Decider will be changed into a Summoning Match special episode, supposedly to give Feng Mo his due screen time and traffic.

5L: I can’t understand. Is someone who’s never released an official single or album even considered a singer?

8L: Haha, Feng Mo has sung two OSTs, for dramas he acted in himself.

14L: He won’t actually succeed in ascending, will he?

19L: Where’s Cui Lin, his natural nemesis? Can he flash over here and sanction him?

26L: You’ve made your Shark Sister laugh. When there’s nothing, it’s Vinegar. When there’s trouble, it’s Cui Lin. Don’t learn a few nicknames from Band guy fans and start using them as stage names. Hoping Cui Lin can counter Feng Mo? Better for Qu Lang to fight for himself and win.

…

89L: What happened on the last two pages? Suddenly so many folded comments?

94L: Crispy Shark attempting to eliminate the remnants of Music Village forces in our group.

99L: Wait, hasn’t Shark Sister gotten over it yet? It was Vinegar who flew to Heartbreak to check in himself, how does it loop back to being Band guy’s fault? The only thing Band guy did wrong was being universally appealing—girlfriends love him, and guys like hanging out with him. How I hate that I’ve never captured a wild Band guy…

102L: Hot knowledge: In our group, Band guy now specifically refers to Mengmeng.

110L: Dewy-like derailing of the thread. Old Mo, don’t bring his bad luck into our group too.

142L: The production team’s official blog released the announcement. Just as our group’s insider said, three groups on each side to assist. Old Mo is really getting propped up. One Guest Singer isn’t enough; he needs three Premier groups to balance the strength.

149L: Where people care, Mengmeng is assigned to Qu Lang’s group.

151L: Congratulations in advance to Qu Lang for a successful defense!

155L: Qu Lang, you absolutely have to pull through!

169L: Alright, the production team posted behind-the-scenes photos. They really are training together already. Feng Mo just had to drag all the Premiers into fighting his raid battle. He felt the time wasn’t enough, so now no one’s rushing their own progress. Let’s all come practice together.

171L: Mengmeng’s eye bags have appeared again. Old Mo, you’ve committed a sin (smoking emoji)

180L: Is Old Mo that impressive? Is his background stronger than Mengmeng’s?

184L: Both are rumored to be platform higher-ups’ relatives. How do you even distinguish between close and distant connections?

189L: Then Mengmeng is still more impressive. That smiling, squinty-eyed chubby guy often in frame with Mengmeng and First Sister’s group—know who he is? The Associate Director of Night Heart Seven. Do other groups get that treatment? I’m now really convinced he’s from the Hundred Blossoms side. At least the three major platforms are openly about healthy competition and integration.

“What are you thinking now?” Liu Lusi asked after arriving and immediately assessing the situation.

Li Tingzhou got a long, thin, bland ladies’ cigarette from her, lit it. “What else can I think? He’s here now, so be it.”

There was no turning back at this point. This episode’s recording would 100% be extended.

Impressive, Feng Mo, single-handedly dragging everyone into overtime.

He himself was happy, sharing the responsibility out to everyone else, forcing the guests to urgently change their own schedules. To do something so morally bankrupt without any psychological burden, he was bound to face rejection and dislike from everyone.

They were all adults. Who wanted to clean up his mess?

With this comparison, Li Tingzhou didn’t find Cui Lin’s self-directed actions particularly annoying anymore.

As Cui Lin had shown, his intention was genuinely “for Mengmeng’s own good.” Although every move was self-centered, the intent had indeed worked:

The night before, Feng Mo had leveraged his connections to stir up trouble within the Night Heart Seven team, keeping everyone working until 1 or 2 a.m. The very next day, President Duan of Hundred Blossoms urgently followed Mengmeng’s social media account, seemingly showing support for a junior relative.

A small action, a massive conclusion.

The rumor that “Mengmeng has backing” had now officially been greenlit.

What couldn’t be explained away before was now perfectly logical, successfully obscuring all the paths leading to the truth. Any more suspicious news that might emerge in the future, people would only believe what they preferred to believe.

All in all, aside from Cui Lin’s “What’s mine can also be considered yours” being slightly puzzling, Li Tingzhou was indeed grateful for his sudden inspiration.

After the group assignments were announced, Feng Mo’s team still wouldn’t give up. Twice they negotiated with the director, insisting that Mengmeng must be switched to his side. However, the director team was well aware of Mengmeng’s two layers of protective armor. Using the second layer stacked on by Cui Lin as an excuse, they managed to make even someone as forceful as Feng Mo’s agent retreat empty-handed…

Making something up on the spot and finding it so useful—now even if it wasn’t true, it had become true.

Pan Jun even joked, “A real older brother can’t be easily brought out, but Cui Lin can be used as your fake older brother for a bit.”

Li Tingzhou gritted his teeth. “Could you please just go buy some iced Americanos?”

The fat fox immediately slipped away. When he returned, he was indeed carrying two large bags of takeout.

Back on topic, Qu Lang’s side was actually progressing quite quickly.

A slow and gentle temperament had its merits. When most people in the team supported the same opinion, even if his heart was deeply conflicted and his resolve weak, he would go with the flow—especially with Mengmeng there.

In Qu Lang’s eyes, Mengmeng was the only one on the show who could truly stand up to Feng Mo.

But his attitude was just frustrating for the others.

It wasn’t that having Mengmeng lead was bad; everyone genuinely deferred to him. What angered them was someone else: Qu Lang didn’t genuinely accept the goodwill of the other three groups helping him.

Call him gentle, but he still knew he had to fight for his pride.

But say he was fighting for pride, Qu Lang genuinely couldn’t distinguish people’s kindness…

Even someone as good-natured as Ren Shiyu was defeated.

“After the competition’s over, let’s keep our distance from him. It feels like he just drains your energy.”

Li Tingzhou, who had contributed a great deal, was already too exhausted to speak. He numbly followed the team to wrap up. A day of frantic work, back at the hotel. Mao Maoyu finally unlocked his mouth and spoke freely. “To put it harshly, there’s a reason some people don’t become popular.”

Dai Jier ordered late-night snacks for everyone. Li Tingzhou had no appetite for it.

So Mao Maoyu slurped up two portions, then continued complaining about Qu Lang. “What a waste of such good conditions. Wasn’t he quite outstanding during his talent show days? And now, those who ranked lower than him back then are all doing better than him now.”

“Mengmeng, what do you say? I saw him choking you up today too.”

“His execution is too poor. Even scarier is that his mental strength is severely lacking.”

Li Tingzhou would never say a single bad word about any guest during his solo interviews. He’d force out a couple of compliments even if he had to. Of course, speaking with his own teammates, there was no need to pretend.

His assessment of Qu Lang wasn’t harsh, but it definitely wasn’t kind either.

The next day, Li Tingzhou communicated Qu Lang’s work progress to the production team’s music department, officially completing the handover.

Helping to this extent was already beyond what duty required. What would it look like if they helped more?

You can’t shear the same sheep who’s easy to talk to forever, can you?

First Sister deeply felt his hardship. Coincidentally feeling unwell due to her menstrual cycle, she simply pretended to be a bit ill and naturally kept Mengmeng by her side to oversee all the work. The two of them finally no longer had to face the suffocating working atmosphere of Qu Lang’s side…

Under normal circumstances, Wednesdays were when rehearsals began.

This Wednesday, however, they were still filming the Summoning Match Raid special episode.

The most infuriating part was that the other Premier groups couldn’t be idle either. They still had to record solo interviews and reaction shots, otherwise the special episode would truly have nothing worth watching. So everyone’s work progress was interrupted yet again.

“The only thing I care about right now is: the Raid special won’t be put into the main episode, right?”

“It won’t, it won’t! A special is a special!”

The director team wasn’t afraid of triggering public outrage because there were always remedial measures to satisfy the guests. If worst came to worst, what couldn’t be compensated on this show could be on the next one. However, no matter how many green lights they gave Feng Mo, they didn’t dare gamble with actual performance results.

Night Heart Seven was built on a foundation of three consecutive years ranking first in TV broadcasting, online streaming, and investment.

During a filming break, Ren Shiyu complained to Li Tingzhou, “Last week, that raid battle was filmed until the early morning hours and they still persisted until it was done. How come when it’s Feng Mo’s turn, suddenly it’s a problem? Do you think he wasn’t prepared at all, or was he stalling for time to maneuver?”

Li Tingzhou sighed. “And the result of all that maneuvering is just a special episode?”

Ren Shiyu added, “Actually, Qu Lang was in terrible shape last week. He’s been very tense all along. It feels like the slightest push and he’d collapse. So I think Feng Mo’s stalling also has that angle. Facing death, just don’t die yet. Force another round of negotiations. Isn’t that just making things worse for people?”

They just hadn’t expected the production team to muddle through by dragging all the guests into the water.

With the help and suggestions from other groups, and the encouragement (barely counting as such) from the melon-eating spectators after the show’s announcement, Qu Lang seemed to have regained a bit of spirit.