CHAPTER 122: CHAPTER 119: VARIOUS DORM PARTIES

The other accounts—Chen Afang, Xu Qianhua, and Wu Meixiang—also saw a significant surge in their Weibo followers.

But the most astonishing figure was Lv Fangxin.

Her Weibo followers were growing at a geometric rate, while others’ numbers mostly plateaued about an hour after the show aired.

However, her follower count just kept increasing. By 1 a.m., her "Village Flower Speaks" shot straight to the top of the trending list.

"Fangxin, you’re trending!" Chen Yinghan looked at Lv Fangxin with disbelief.

She knew there was no way Lv Fangxin’s company could afford to buy her way onto a trending topic.

Which meant this was entirely driven by the internet users themselves.

"Trending? Why am I trending?" Lv Fangxin was dumbfounded. Her first thought wasn’t about fame but rather the dread of her parents discovering she was part of a girl group—no doubt they’d beat her for it.

In her small hometown, being in a girl group was equated with being an improper woman.

"You’re so slow. It’s because you’re popular! Look, Zhihu, Douban, Weibo—everywhere is full of essays about you." Chen Yinghan brought out her secretly stashed phone to show Lv Fangxin.

Lv Fangxin cautiously took it and looked. Sure enough, many people were writing about her, and almost every piece was filled with praise, painting her as the epitome of a motivational young girl.

"Ha-ha! Ha-ha!"

"Fangxin, could you please tone it down a bit? Right now, you look ridiculously silly when you laugh."

"I just think the way they write is hilarious. I’m not this perfect girl they’re making me out to be!"

Lv Fangxin was dumbstruck by the endless stream of compliments online, but her heart couldn’t help but blossom with joy.

Then as if recalling something, her face suddenly changed. "This isn’t our boss buying me trending topics, right? And these articles—could they be written by bots?"

"Is your boss even rich enough for that?" Chen Yinghan’s intention was to shoot down Lv Fangxin’s suspicion.

But then she watched as Fangxin nodded seriously and said, "Our boss is super rich. He even took us out for Gallic steak and Japanese salmon."

Chen Yinghan nearly admitted defeat to Fangxin’s line of reasoning. But on second thought, she understood. To Lv Fangxin, those meals did indeed mean "super rich."

"Your boss can’t afford this and doesn’t have the right connections. A bought trending topic would require time to arrange, and this is clearly authentic."

"Oh!"

Lv Fangxin still wasn’t fully convinced by Chen Yinghan’s explanation. A tone-deaf dancer like her couldn’t possibly have the popularity of her more talented teammates. Maybe her boss mortgaged his house just to support her.

"Boss, you’re not living in our old dorm now, are you? Don’t you dare snoop through my wardrobe!" Lv Fangxin suddenly thought of this serious issue.

At that moment, Shou Shou—who had gone to a wedding, drank too much, and was sleeping shirtless in the residential area’s greenery—suddenly had a nightmare.

Meanwhile, Yang Ni was in the dormitory celebrating with Meng Meixuan and Wu Zixuan.

They hadn’t expected to gain so many fans.

"Yang Ni, looks like you’ve attracted a lot of women fans," Wu Zixuan teased, sipping on rose tea.

"Men fans, obviously. I’m irresistible." Yang Ni laughed heartily.

"You are irresistible—just to women, though," Meng Meixuan said, her smile rich with meaning, and then glanced at Wu Zixuan.

"You’ve probably attracted the most fangirls, Brother Xuanfeng," Yang Ni chuckled.

"Ha-ha, looks like we’ve all made quite an impression this time. I never imagined there’d be so much attention on this show," Qiang Yueting beamed, feeling like her time to shine might finally be here.

However, as she smiled, she couldn’t help but glance at her teammate Fu Xiaoyu, who had drawn just as much attention as she had.

What cheered her up was the praise-filled comments on her own Weibo, all highlighting her exceptional skills. This made her puff up with pride.

In her opinion, only the genuinely skilled could win a debut position in the end.

"I heard Lv Fangxin’s Weibo followers are still growing. She’s already surpassed 600,000," Gao Yingxi said, clutching her sleeping toy.

The room fell silent instantly. Lv Fangxin was virtually a "monster."

They couldn’t understand—did men nowadays prefer "incompetent girls"?

"She’s just really interesting, so she gains fans easily," Wu Zixuan said with a laugh.

"True! She’s so pure, the really innocent type." Li Shihan added with a chuckle.

"Actually, I kind of like her too; she’s straightforward, no ulterior motives." Fu Xiaoyu chimed in, smiling.

"This time, she ended up in Jiang Xijie’s group. Except for Sister Jiang, the lineup there is just too weak." Gao Yingxi vigorously rubbed her toy bear’s head.

"Yeah! If their stage presence is weak, the audience might not like them." Meng Meixuan commented.

The others nodded in agreement.

At this point, some might question whether talent really mattered, or if beautiful looks alone were enough.

If that were true, no company would ever fail at forming a girl group.

Just recruit attractive women with good figures to debut, and that would be it—but clearly, it wasn’t so simple.

In fact, if you look at all the successful girl groups, they each have their own signature works.

The audience’s fondness for the group is built on the foundation of liking their content first.

Sure, a member’s behavior might temporarily make them go viral, attracting audience attention—but once the novelty wears off, they often fade away.

Only by having solid skills and consistently producing quality works can a group keep old fans engaged and attract new ones.

Their concerns about Lv Fangxin weren’t too serious, though.

Most believed that when the learning-the-theme-song footage aired in episode two, her popularity would plummet, and her "Village Flower Speaks" would become outdated.

"Where’s Yuwei gone? She disappeared all of a sudden." Meng Meixuan frowned.

"How would we know? She’s your person—you couldn’t even keep an eye on her?" Yang Ni smiled mischievously, and the others chuckled knowingly.

Lowering her head, Wu Zixuan smirked coldly. She knew Ye Yuwei wasn’t interested in Meng Meixuan, yet oddly, Yuwei hadn’t directly rejected her, instead stringing her along like a heartless flirt.

Meng Meixuan didn’t like Yang Ni’s comment, but she kept her displeasure off her face.

Truthfully, she didn’t think much of Yang Ni since their personas clashed.

Wu Zixuan’s observation was correct: both Meng Meixuan and Yang Ni’s primary fanbases were female.

And not just any females—they were particularly inclined toward LS sentiments, creating a real clash of interests between the two. Because the show had only just begun, the tension wasn’t too overt yet.

Jiang Mengqi’s dorm

Lai Ruoxuan, Han Qiuhua, Duan Yuxin, Yang Yiyi, Zhang Xiaohan, Jiang Meixing, Meilan, Mei Zhu, and Luo Tiantian were all gathered, eating fried rice.

Thanks to online shopping, Jiang Mengqi had bought an electric frying pan and rice cooker, along with rice and cooking oil.

Then she began her feeding frenzy mode, and every day girls would come by to mooch meals.

"Mengqi, this fried rice you made tastes amazing—the flavor of the green onion is really strong!" Yang Yiyi said, holding her bowl and eating enthusiastically.

"Have more then; there’s plenty left." Jiang Mengqi said, placing a big plate of fried skewers on the table.

"If we keep eating like this, won’t we all turn into ’piggies’?" Han Qiuhua warned herself not to overeat, but still reached out to grab a handful.

"So tasty! I love spicy fried skewers like these!" Duan Yuxin said, picking one up to eat.

"Be careful with your voice, Yuxin. You’re literally our camp’s ’Big Voice’—Rain of Melody!" Zhang Xiaohan’s eyes flickered as she teased with a smile.

"I’m not that great; the teachers say I lack technique and need more training." Duan Yuxin said modestly, but inwardly felt delighted.

Here, everyone praised her voice as clear and pure, without the slightest flaw. She possessed undeniable talent.

Even during initial evaluations, Instructor Hu Binbin had complimented her voice. She’d dismissed it as politeness at first, but when she saw the comment section full of raves about her vocal talent, she finally believed it.

As a result, she had become one of the five universally acknowledged vocal prodigies on the show.