Initial Evaluation (continued)

[You're too honest, babe.]

[Can someone give him a little of the confidence those painfully awful trainees had just now?]

[+1. At least he's good-looking.]

[You Shu's tone is so soft and cute hhhh.]

Perhaps recalling a funny scene, the staff member smiled kindly. "Next question: who do you think gave the best First Stage performance?"

"Mo Li," Lai Yudong answered without hesitation.

Quite a few trainees had performed exceptionally well, such as Jin Xiheng, the dance top, and Xu An, the vocal top. But they shared the same problem: they were lopsided. The moment Jin Xiheng opened his mouth, he sang in a textbook untrained voice, while Xu An claimed he had only studied dance for three months before coming.

So, judging by overall ability, there was only one answer when choosing the best of the best.

[There's too much Mo Li in this part.]

[Someone count how many times Mo Li has been nominated hahahaha.]

The staff member followed up on the previous question. "What's your impression of Mo Li?"

Lai Yudong blurted out, "Impressive."

Staff member: "What's your impression of Zhao Yifeng?"

Lai Yudong: "Impressive."

Staff member: "What about your impression of Jiang Yangfan?"

Lai Yudong: "Impressive."

"...Then what's your impression of Xu An?" After three "impressives" in a row, the staff member had learned to be wary and made a point of adding, "Do you have any thoughts besides 'impressive'?"

Lai Yudong ventured cautiously, "Better than me?"

Staff member: "..."

[One move to conquer the world hahahahaha.]

[His entire lifetime vocabulary.]

[What education does this kid have? I'm so scared I'll accidentally pick someone who slipped through the nine-year compulsory education net.]

The corner of Lai Yudong's mouth twitched almost imperceptibly.

He might not be a top student who had returned from overseas with two master's degrees from a world top-50 university, but he had at least been admitted to an accredited university—the kind listed on the Ministry of Education's official list of higher education institutions!

What did they mean, he'd slipped through the nine-year compulsory education net?! They were bullying him because he didn't dare speak!

System: [Host, you're already aware of what it means to be a public figure.]

Lai Yudong: [Can I block you too?]

After routinely asking about all the popular and controversial contestants, the staff member finally stopped asking for his impressions of specific people.

Lai Yudong secretly breathed a sigh of relief. His skin wasn't thick enough to keep playing dumb.

"Who do you think is the best-looking trainee?"

"Uh... Qu, Qu Xincheng...?"

"Which First Stage do you think was the best?"

"They were all great."

"Which trainee do you have the most confidence in?"

"Everyone who works hard."

"Predict your own ranking in the first round."

Lai Yudong thought seriously for a moment. This was the only question so far that he hadn't answered instantly. Dozens of faces and their First Stages quickly flashed through his mind; the trainees who were worse than him could be counted on one hand.

After some careful deduction, he arrived at a conservative answer:

"Eightieth."

[80? Seriously?]

[Come on, at least guess 55.]

[Why 55?]

[The top 55 advance to the second round.]

[Has voting opened? What's You Shu's ranking?]

[It has, but it hasn't been updated yet.]

The staff member pressed for an answer. "Why do you think you'll rank eightieth?"

Judging by the bullet comments and the staff member's reaction, Lai Yudong thought he'd said the wrong thing again and given himself too high a ranking. He instinctively wanted to explain, but he didn't dare speak in long sentences and expose his identity.

All he could do was force out a mumbled sentence: "Maybe... I'm too confident."

Come to think of it, after seeing so many impressive trainees, he'd somehow still lost his head and gotten carried away. Even if some people had performed poorly on the First Stage, that was probably because they were too nervous. Whatever else could be said, they had trained for some time. There was no comparing them to a freeloader like him, who had no training and was hopeless at both singing and dancing.

It had to be because the bullet comments in green mode were too kind to him, giving him the illusion that he could achieve a good ranking like eightieth. Otherwise, they'd have cursed him back to his senses in minutes.

Help, the more he thought about it, the more wrong it seemed. He was about to break out in a cold sweat!

Was it too late to take it back and answer again?

[What did the handsome guy say? I can't make it out without subtitles.]

[He said he was too confident.]

[? Your confidence and my confidence don't seem to be the same thing.]

[I almost thought he said eighth place.]

[I don't think Miura Yuki's popularity will be low.]

[Definitely. You can tell from the bullet comments that plenty of people are talking about him.]

Lai Yudong: ?

Why was this different from what he'd imagined?

Clearly, the viewers were far more confident in Lai Yudong's ranking than he was himself.

If green mode hadn't been on, Lai Yudong would almost have suspected the company had bought him a water army—he didn't suspect the system because that wicked thing had sworn up and down that it was a "fair talent show with no rigging."

He soon found a reasonable explanation: many people had missed the livestream or hadn't watched his part, so these were all points for the impression he'd made.

As an outstanding broadcasting student, he did have some confidence in his appearance.

After a string of headache-inducing questions, Lai Yudong was finally let out by the staff member. His legs were weak as he walked out of the interview room, and he breathed a sigh of relief where there were no cameras.

Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to catch a brown-haired young man making the same movement, and the other man's name quickly flashed through his mind.

It was Liang Zhisheng.

Liang Zhisheng was standing outside another interview room. He looked as though he'd just finished his post-performance interview too, and he might as well have had "exhausted" written on his face. Noticing the gaze directed at him from the side, he turned to look over. The moment their eyes met, he gave a gentle smile. "Finished?"

Lai Yudong nodded.

"Did they ask you any particularly tricky questions?" Liang Zhisheng struck up a conversation naturally. His tone was as pleasant as a warm spring breeze, as though they were old friends who had known each other for years.